S E 1 E-C T
i3 R  T I S   E L O Q U E N C E
by
Chauncey Allen Goocdrich
N Ei VWI   Y 0 R K
Harper & Brotheors
1856








C 0 i T   N T S.
Sir John Eliot                               Page   1
Ear"l o:f Strafford                                  7
Lord Digby                                          15
Lord Bellhaven                                      19
Sir Robert lWalrole                                 27
Mr::&  Pult ^en'ey                                  4
Lord Chest erfieti                                 45
Lord. OhCat ham                                     5
Lord Mansfield                                     143
Juniu s                                            163
Ed.-rmund,Bturke                                  2 06
THenrr  Grat tan                                   3 82
Richard Bri nsley Sheridan                         399
Charles James Pox                                  437
7Wi  l ial P i t t                                 551
Lo'rd Ers ine 6i29
JoLhn Philpot; Cuxrran                             785
Si;r JamOes i/Mackintoshl                          821
George Canning                                     851
Lord Brouglhaml                                    886








SELECT BRITISH ELOQUENCE.
SIR  JOIN  ELIO'i.
JOHN ELIOT was descended from a family of great respectability in Cornwall, and'
was born on the 20th of April, 1590.  After enjoying the best advantages for education which England could afford, and spending some years in foreign travel, he was
elected to Parliament at the age of thirty-three, and became one of the most prominent members in the House of Commons under Charles I. 
The House embraced at this time, some of the ablest and most learned men ode
age, such as Sir Edward Coke, John Hampden, Selden, St. John, Pym, &e.  Among
these, Sir John Eliot stood pre-eminent for the force and fervor of his eloquence.
The general style of speaking at that day was weighty, grave, and sententious, but
tinctured with the pedantry of the preceding reign, and destitute of that warmth of
feeling which is essential to the character of a great orator.  Eliot, Wentworth, and
a few others were exceptions; and Eliot especially spoke at times with all the enthusiasm and vehemence of the early days of Greece and Rome.
Hence he was appointed one of the managers of the Iouse when the Duke of
Buckingham was impeached in 1626, and had the part assigned him of making the
closing argument against the Duke before the House of Lords. This he did with such
energy and effect as to awaken the keenest resentment of the Court; so that two days
after he was called out of the House, as if to receive a message from the King, and
was instantly seized and hurried off by water to the Tower.  The Commons, on
hearing of this breach of privilege, were thrown into violent commotion.  The cry
" Rise!"' — Rise!" was heard from every part of the hall.  They did immediately
adjourn, and met again only to record their resolution, "Not to do any more business until they were righted in their privileges."  This decisive measure brought the
government to a stand, and reduced them to the humiliating necessity of releasing
Sir John Eliot, and also Sir Dudley Diggs, another of the managers who had been
arrested on the same occasion. Eliot and his companion returned in triumph to the 
-louse, which voted that " they had not exceeded the commission intrusted to them."
In consequence of this defeat, and the backwardness of the Commons to grant
the supplies demanded, Charles soon after dissolved Parliament, and determined to
raise money by "forced loans."  Great numbers resisted this imposition, and among
them Eliot and Hampden, who, with seventy-six others of the gentry, were thrown
into prison for refusing to surrender their property to the Crown; while hundreds of
inferior rank were impressed into the army or navy by way of punishment.  Thc
King found, however, that with all this violence he could not raise the necessary supplies, and was compelled to call another Parliament within eight months. Eliot,
Hampden, and many others who had been lying under arrest, were elected members
of the new House of Commons while thus confined in prison, and were released only
a few days before the meeting of Parliament.
A




Al                              SIR JOHN ELIOT
These violent invasions of the rights of property and person, naturally came up
for consideration at an early period of the session.  The Commons, as the result of
their discussions, framed, on the 27th of May, 1628, that second Great Charter of
the liberties of England, the PETITION OF RIGI-IT; SO called because drawn up, in
the humble spirit of the day, in the form of a petition to the King, but having, when
ratified by his concurrence, all the authority of a fundamental law of the kingdom.
This document was prepared by Sir Edward Coke at the age of eighty-three, and
was one of the last public acts of that distinguished lawyer.  It provided, that no
Jan or tax might be levied but by consent of Parliament; that no man might be
imprisoned but by legal process  that soldiers might not be quartered on people contrary to their wills; and t  - -  commissions be granted for executing martial law.
On the 2d of June, Charlt    irned an evasive answer, in which he endeavored to
satisfy the Commons with.   iving a legal and binding assent to the petition.  The
next day, Sir John Eliot maue the following speech.  It breathes throughout, that
spirit of affection and reverence for the King's person which was still felt by both
houses of Parliament.  It does not dwell, therefore, on those recent acts of arbitrary
power in which the King might be supposed to have reluctantly concurred; and the
fact is a striking one, that Eliot does not even allude to his late cruel imprisonment,
aLecisive proof that he was not actuated by a spirit of personal resentment. The
eFt'e speech was directed against the royal Favorite, the Duke of Buclingham.  Its
object was, to expose his flagrant misconduct during the preceding ten years, under
ti!iTgn of James as well as Charles; and to show that through his duplicity, incompetency, and rash counsels, the honor of the kingdom had been betrayed, its allies
sacrificed, its treasures wasted, and those necessities of the King created which gave
rise to the arbitrary acts referred to in the Petition of Right.  The facts which Eliot
adduces in proof, are very briefly mentioned, or barely alluded to, because they were
fresh in the minds of all, and had created a burning sense of wrong and dishonor
throughout the whole kingdom.  They will be explained in brief notes appended to
the speech; but, to feel their full force, the reader must go back to the history of the
times, and place himself in the midst of the scene.
There is in this speech, a union of dignity and fervor which is highly characteristic of the man.  " His mind," says Lord Nugent, " was deeply imbued with a love
of philosophy and a confidence in religion which gave a lofty tone to his eloquence."
His fervor, acting on a clear and powerful understanding, gives him a simplicity,
directness, and continuity of thought, a rapidity of progress, and a vehemence of appeal, which will remind the reader of the style of Demosthenes.  His whole soul is
occupied with the subject.  He seizes upon the strong points of his case with such.absorbing interest, that all those secondary and collateral trains of thought with
which a speaker like Burke, amplifies and adorns the discussion, are rejected as un-.worthy of the stern severity of the occasion.  The eloquence lies wholly in the
thought; and the entire bareness of the expression, the absence of all ornament,
adds to the effect, because there is nothing interposed to re'ial-'the force of the
blow.  The antique air of the style heightens the interest of the speech; and wil)
recommend it particularly to those who have learned to relish the varied construe
tion and racy English of our early writers.




OF SIR JOHN ELIOT ON THE PETITION OF RIGHT, DELIVERED IN _TSTJI,   Q USE OF.COMMIONS,
JUNE 3, 1628.
MR. SPEArKER, — We sit here as the great authority of books?  Look on the collections of
Council of the King, and in that capacity, it is the Consimittee for Religion; there is too clear an
our duty to take into consideration the state and  evidenc'  See there the commission procured
at-lirs of the kingdom, and when there is occa- for corn, u with the papists of the North!
sion, to give a true representation of them  by  Mark th' edings thereupon, and you- will
way of counsel and.aice, with what we con- find them             le less amounting than a toleraceive necessary or expedient to be done.           tion in effect:''the slight payments, and the easiIn this consideration, I confess many a sad  ness of them, will likewise show the favor that
thought hath affrighted me, and that not only in  is intended. Will you have proofs of?len? Witrespect of our dangers from abroad (which yet I ness the hopes, witness the presumptions, witknow are great, as they have been often prest ness the reports of all the papists generally. Oband dilated to us), but in respect of our disor-  serve the dispositions of commanders, the trust
ders here at home, which do enforce tIhose cdan- of officers, the confidence in secretaries to emgers, and by which they are occasioned.  For I ployments in this kingdom, in Ireland, and elsebelieve i shall make it clear to you, that both at where.  These will all show  that it hath too
first, the cause of these dangers were our disor- great a certainty.  And to this add but the
ders, and our disorders now are yet our greatest incontrovertible evidence of that All-powerful
danrgers-that not so much the potency of our Hand, which we have felt so sorely, that gave
enremies as the weakness of ourselves, doth threat- it full assurance; for as the heavens oppose
en us: so that the saying of one of the Fathers  themselves to our impiety, so it is we that first
nmayv be assumed by us, " non tarn potentia sea  opposed the heavens.'
qeuam negligentia nostre," "' not. so much by their.,II For the second, our want of councils, that
powuer as by our neglect."   Our want of true  great disorder in a state' under which there can
devotion to heaven-our insincerity and doub- notbe stability.  If effects may show their causes
ling" in religion-our want of councils-our pre-  (as they are often a perfect demonstration of
cipitate actions-the insufficiency or unfaithful- them), our misfortunes, our disasters, serve to
ness of our generals abroad-the ignorance or prove our deficiencies in council, and the consecorruption of our ministers at home-the impov- quences they draw with them.  If reason be alerishing of the sovereign-the oppression and  lowed in this dark age, the judgment of dependdepression of the subject-the exhausting of our encies and foresight of contingencies in affairs,
treasures —the waste of our provisions-  con- do confirm my position.  For, if we view oursulmption of our ships-destruction of our men  selves at home, are we in strength, are we in
-these make the advantage to our enemies, not reputation, equal to our ancestors?  If we view
the reputation of their arms; and if in these  ourselves abroad, are our friends as many? are
there be not reformation, we need no foes abroad:  our enemies no more?  Do our friends retain
Tine itself will rZin us. e.                      their safety and possessions?  Do not our ene-. To show this more fully, I believe you will mies enlarge themselves, and gain from  them
all hold it necessary that what I say, should not and us?  To what council owe we the loss of
seem an aspersion on the state or imputation on  the Palatinate, where we sacrificed both our honthe government, as I have known such motions or and our men sent thither, stopping those greatmisinterpreted.  But far is this from me to pro- er powers appointed for the service, by which it:
pose, who have none but clear thoughts of the  might have been defended?2  What council gave
excellency of the King; nor can I have other 
dnds but the advancement of his Majesty's glory.   1 The gun-powder plot for blowing up both hou
shl dsire a litl of yr            i-.es of Parliament, and extirpating the Protestant re
I shall desire a little of your patience extraoctdi- ligion at   sinle stoe,  as sti es  in te  in
ligion at a single stroke, was still fieslh in time minli
nary, as I lay open the particulars, which I shall of all. It is not therefore, surprising, at a perioe
lo with what brevity I may, answerable to the  when correct views of religious liberty were as ve
importance of the cause and the necessity now  unknown in England, that any remissness in ex
apon us; yet with such respect and observation  ecuting the laws against Catholics, was regarded'
to the time, as I hope it shall not be thought with great jealousy by Eliot and his friends, espe
troublesome.                                      cially as the mother of Buclkinglm was of that cdiir;:I'. For the first, then, our insincerity and doub- mo.
L~.:-;;i. oi i legc...'n.)  7 -n r.            2 Frederick V., the Elector Palatine, who married
flig in religion, is the greatest and most danger-the    utif  Eiabeth, sister of Charles I., had
" the beautiful Elizabeth," sister of Charles I., had
Dns disorder of all others.  This hath never been  been attacked on religious grounds by a union of
unpunished; and of this we have many strong  Catholic states in Germany, with Austria at their
examples of all states and in all times to awe us. head, stripped of the Palatinate, and driven as an
What testimony doth it want?  Will you have  exile int o Hollmad. with his wife and child.  Al'




4                                SIR JOHN  ELIOT  ON  THE                                     [1628.
direction to the late action, whose wounds are yet entable experience."  It hath made an absolute
bleeding, I mean the expedition to Rhe, of which  breach between that state and us, and so enterthere is yet so sad a memory in all men?  What tains us against France, and France in preparadesign for us, or advantage to our state, could  tion against us, that we have nothing to promise
that impart?                                      to our neighbors, nay, hardly to ourselves.  Next,
You know the wisdom of your ancestors, and  observe the time in which it was attempted, and
the practice of their times, how they preserved  you shall find it not only varying fiom those printheir safeties.  We all know, and have as much  ciples, but directly contrary and opposite to those
cause to doubt [i. e., distrust or guard against]  ends; and such, as from the issue and success.
as they had, the greatness and ambition of that rather might be thought a conception of Spain
kingdom, which the Old WZorld could not satisfy.3  than begotten here with us.
Aga.inst this greatness and ambition. we like-    [Here there was an interruption made by Sir
wise know the proceedings of that Ir,cess, that Humphrey May, Chancellor of the Duchy and
never - to - be- forgotten, excellent Queen Eliza- of the Privy Council, expressing a dislike; but the
beth, whose name, without admiration, falls not House ordered Sir John Eliot to go on, whereinto mention even with her enemies.  You know  upon he proceeded thus:]
how she advanced herself, and how she advanced        Mr. Speaker, I am sorry for this interruption,
the nation in glory and in state; how she de- but much more sorry if there hath been occasion
pressed her enemies, and how  she upheld her  on my part.  And, as I shall submit myself wholfriends; how she enjoyed a full security, and made  ly to your judgment, to receive what censure you
those our scorn who now are made our terror.   may give me, if I have offended, so, in the inte'Some of the principles she built on were these;  rity of my intentions and the clearness of my
and if I mistake, let reason and our statesmen  thoughts, I must still retain this confidence, that
contradict me.                                     eo gretatntess shall deter me fronm the duties I owr:
First, to maintain, in what she might, a uni- to the service of my king and country; but that,
ty in France, that the kingdom, being at peace  with a true English heart, I shall discharge mywithin itself, might be a bulwark to keep back  self as faithfully ansd as really, to the extent of 
thle power of Spain by land.                       my  oo00 poZwer, as any man wue hose onors or whose',
Next, to preserve an amity and league be- offices most strictly oblige him.
tween that state and us, that so we might come in    You know the dangers of Denmarkl. and how
aid of the Low Countries [Holland], and by that much they concern us; what in respect of our
means receive their ships, and help them by sea. alliance and the country; what in the importThis triple cord, so working between France, ance of the Sound; what an advantage to our
the States [Holland], and England, might enable  enemies the gain thereof would be! What loss
us, as occasion should require, to give assistance  what prejudice to us by this disunion; we breakunto others.  And by this means, as the experi- ing in upon France, France enraged by us, and
ence of that time doth tell us, we were not only  the Netherlands at amazelment between both!
fie.e from those fears that now possess and trouble  Neither could we intend to aid that luckless kinous, but then our names were fearful to our ene-  [Christian IV., of Denmark], whose loss is our
mies.  See now what correspondency our action  disaster.
had with this.  Try our conduct by these rules.    Can those [the King's ministers] that express
It did induce, as a necessary consequence, a di- their trouble at the hearing of these things, and
vision in France between the Protestants and  have so often told us in this place of their knowltheir king, of which there is too woful and lam-  edge in the conjunctures and disjunctures of afreotestant Christendom  was indiiinant at thee  fairs-can they say they advised in this?  Was
lwongs; and the King                                      act of  cougland  Mr.as epeaker? I have more
sustain the injured Elector on the double ground of    4 This refers to the expedition against the Isle of
family alliance and a community of religion. These  Rh6, respecting which see note 8.
expectations had all been disappointed by the weak,   5 Christian IV., King of Denmark, as a leading
indecisive, and fluctuating counsels of Buckingham. Protestant prince, and uncle to Elizabeth, wife of
Twelve thousand English troops were indeed sent Frederick, the Elector Palatine, had entered warmto assist Frederick, under Count Mansfeldt, but near- ly into their cause, and marched with a large army
ly all of them perished on the way, from mere want to reinstate them in the Palatinate. After some
of foresight and preparation on the part of the En- partial successes, however, he was repulsed by the
glish government. This wanton sacrifice of life is  Austrians, driven back into his own dominions, and
alluded to at the close of the speech in a single word  reduced to imminent danger of being stripped of all
"M1Ianssfeldt!"-a name which at that time smote  his possessions. The English trade through the
on the heart of the whole English nation. The ex- Sound into the Baltic, which was of great value, was
pedition to the Isle of Rh6, mentioned in the next thus on the point of being entirely cut off by the essentence, will be explained hereafter.             tablishment of a hostile power on the ruins of DenTo understand the force and beauty of this allu- mark. Yet England had done nothing to sustain her
sion to Spain, we must go back to the time when  ally, or to protect her rights and interests in that
all Europe was filled with dismay at the power of  quarter; and the English people were justly inthe Spanish arms on both continents. Few things  censed against Buckingham for this neglect.
in English eloquence, as Forster remarks, are finer    6 Here, as above, allusion is made to the disgracein expression or purpose, than this allusion and the  ful expedition against the Isle of Rhe, by which
subsequent tain of thought, as addressed to English- France was enraged, and no diversion in favor of
men of that day.                                  Denmark either made or intended.




1628.]                               PETITION  OF RIGHT.                                           5
charity than to think it; and unless they make  trouble you much; only this, in short.  Was not
confession of it themselves, I can not believe it.  that whole action carried aoainst the judgment
fIi   For the next, the insufficiency anndn-  and opinion of those officers that were of the
aithfuilness of our generals (that great disorder:ouncil?  Was not the first, was not the last,
a.broad), what shall I say?  I wish there were  was not all in the landin —in the intrenchin —
not cause to mention it; and, but for the appre- in the continuance there-in the assault-in the
hension of the danger that is to come, if the like  retreat-without their assent?  Did any advice
choice hereafter be not prevented, I could will- take place of such as were of the council?  If
ingly be silent.  But my duty to my sovereign, there should be made a particular inquisition
my service to this House, and the safety and hon- thereof, these things will be manifest and more.
or of my country, are above all respects; and  I will not instance the manifesto that was made:
what so nearly trenches to the prejudice of these, giving the reason of these arms; nor by whom,
must not, shall not be forborne.                  nor in what manner, nor on what grounds it
At Cadiz,7 then,'in that first expedition we  was published, nor what efifets it hath wroug'ht,
made, when we arrived and found a conquest drawing. as it were, almost the whole world
ready-the Spanish ships, I mean, fit for the sat- into league against us.  Nor will I mention the
isfaction of a voyage, and of which some of the  leaving of the wines, the leaving of the salt,
chiefest then there, themselves have since as- which were in our possession, and of a value, as
sured me, that the satisfaction would have been  it is said, to answer much of our expense.  No,
sufficient, either in point of honor or in point of  will I dwell on that great wonder (which no Alprofit-why ewas it neglected?  Why was it not exander or Cassal9 ever did), the enriching of the
achieved, it being granted on all hands how feas- enemy by courtesies when our soldiers wanted
ible it was?                                     help; nor the private intercourse and parleys
Afterward, when, with the destruction of some  with the fort, which were continually held. What
of our men and the exposure of others, who  they intended may be read in the success; and
(though their fortune since has not been such), upon due examination thereof, they would not
by chance, came off safe-when, I say, with the  want their proofs.
loss of our serviceable men, that unserviceable    For the last voyage to Rochelle, there need
fort was gained, and the whole army landed, why  no observations, it is so fresh in memory; nor
was there nothing done?  Why was there noth-  will I make an inference or corollary on all.
ing attempted? If nothing was intended, where-  Your own knowledge shall judge what truth or
fore did they land? If there was a service, where- whatt sufficiency they express.
fore were they shipped again?  Mr. Speaker, it  I IV. For the next, the ignorance and corrupsatisfies me too much [i. e., I am over-satisfied]  tibn, f our ministers, where can you miss of inin this case-when I think of their dry and hun- stances?  If you survey the court, if you survey
gry march into that drunken quarter (for so the  the country; if the church, if the city be examsoldiers termed it), which was the period [term- open ams. B            Rochells,av        no     viopen arms. But the Rochellers, having no previination] of their journey-that divers of our men  ous arangement with him on the subject, and probbeing left as a sacrifice to the enemy, that labor  ably distrusting his intentions, refused to admit him
was at an end.                                     into the town, and advised him to take possession
For the next undertaking, at Rh6se  I will not of the Isle of Rhe, in the neighborhood. This he
~~n  v.~ ~did, and immediately issued a manifesto, inciting the
7 Buckingham, at the close of 1625, had fitted out Protestants throughout France to rebel against their
a fleet of eighty sail, to intercept the Spanish treas- government. Great indignation was awakened in
ure-ships from America, to scour the coasts of Spain, Europe by this attempt to rekindle the flames of
and destroy the shipping in her ports. Owing to the  civil war in that country. His appeal was, unforutter incompetency of the commander, there was no  tunately, successful. The Protestants in the south
concert or subordination in the fleet. The treasure- of France rose almost to a man. A bloody corflict
ships were not intercepted; but seven other large  ensued, in which they were completely crushed, and
and rich Spanish ships, which would have repaid all their condition rendered far more wretched than bethe expenses of the expedition, were suffered to es- fore. Buckingham, in the mean time, conducted evcape, when they might easily have been taken. At ery thing wildly and at random. In October, a relength a landing was effected in the neighborhood  enforcement of fifteen hundred men was sent out,
of Cadiz, and the paltry fort of Puntal was taken. mentioned in the speech as " the last voyage to RoThe English soldiers broke open the wine-cellars  chelle;" but the Duke was still repulsed, with loss
of the country around, and became drunk and un- at every point, till he was compelled to return in
maliageable; so that the Spanish troops, if they had  disgrace, with the loss of one third of his troops, in
known their condition, might easily have cut the  the month of November, 1627. This speech was dewhole army to pieces. Their commander, as the  livered in June of the next year, while the nation
only course left him, retreated to the ships, leaving  was still smarting under the sense of the disasters
some hundreds of his men to perish under the knives  and disgraces of this mad expedition.
of the enraged peasantry.                            9 This sneer at the generalship of Buckingham
8Buckingham, fiom motives of personal resent- was keenly felt, and derived its peculiar force from
ment against the French king, undertook, in June, the lofty pretensions and high-sounding titles he as1627, to aid the Huguenots at Rochelle, who were  sumed. He had also made himself ridiculous, and
in a state of open rebellion. He therefore sailed  even suspected of treachery, by his affectation of
with a fleet of one hundred ships and seven thou- courtesy in the interchange of civilities with the
sand land forces, taking the command of the expe- Frenc: commanders. To this Eliot alludes with
dition himself, and expecting to be received with  stinging effect in the remaining part of the sentence.




6                                  SIR JOHN  ELIOT, ETC.                                    [1628.
ined; if you observe the bar, if the bench, if the  in the people, repletion in treasure, plenty of proports, if the shipping, if the land, if the seas-all visions, reparation of ships, preservation of men
these will render you variety of proofs; and that -our ancient English virtue, I say, thus rectified,
in such measure and proportion as shows the  will secure us; and unless there be a speedy regreatness of our disease to be such that, if there  formation in these, I know not what hopes or exbe not some speedy application for remedy, our pectations we can have.
c    is almost desperate.                            These are the things, sir, I shall desire to
I. Mr. Speaker, I fear I have been too long in  have taken into consideration; that as we are
thse particulars that are past, and am unwilling  the great council of the kingdom, and have the
to offend you: therefore in the rest I shall be  apprehension of these dangers, we may truly
shorter; and as to that which concerns the im- represent them unto the King; which I conceive
poverishing of the King, no other arguments will we are bound to do by a triple obligation-of
I use than such as all men grant.                 duty to God, of duty to his Majesty, and of duty
The exchequer, you know, is empty, and the  to our country.
reputation thereof gone; the ancient lands are    And therefore I wish it may so stand with the
sold; the jewels pawned; the plate engaged;0 wisdom  and judgment of the House, that these
the debts still great; almost all charges, both or- things may be drawn into the body of a REMONdinary and extraordinary, borne up by projects!  STrANCE, and in all humility expressed, with a
What poverty can be greater?  What necessity  prayer to his Majesty that, for the safety of himso great?  What perfect English heart is not self, for the safety of the kingdom, and for the
almoQst dissolved into sorrow for this truth?    safety of religion, he will be pleased to give us.VI For the oppression of the subject, which, time to make perfect inquisition thereof, or to
as I remember, is the next particular I proposed, take them into his own wisdom, and there give
it needs no demonstration.  The whole kingdom  them  such timely reformation as the necessity
is a proof; and for the exhausting of our treas- and justice of the case doth import.
Ures, that very oppression speaks it.  What waste    And thus, sir, with a large affection and loyof our provisions, what consumption of our ships, alty to his Majesty, and with a firm  duty and
what destruction of our men there hath been; service to my country, I have suddenly (and it
witness that expedition to Algiers — witness may be with some disorder) expressed the weak
that with Mansfeldt-witness that to Cadiz-   apprehensions I have; wherein if I have erred, I
witness the next-witness that to Rh6 —witness  humbly crave your pardon, and so submit mythe last (I pray God we may never have more  self to the censure of the House.
such witnesses)-witness, likewise, the Palati- 
nate-witness Denmark-witness the Turks-    The King, finding, after the delivery of this'vitness the Dunkirkers — aITNESS ALL!  What speech, that he could no longer resist the delosses we have sustained!  How  we are im- mands of the Commons, gave his public assent
)paired in munitions, in ships, in men!           to the Petition of Right, on the 7th of June, 1628.
It is beyond contradiction that we were nev- But he never forgave Sir John Eliot for his freeper so much weakened, nor ever had less hope  dom of speech.  At the expiration of nine months
how to be restored.                               he dissolved Parliament, determining to rule from
These, Mr. Speaker, are our dangers, these  that time without their aid or interference; and,
ire they who do threaten us; and these are, like  two days after, committed Sir John Eliot and
the Trojan horse, brought in cunningly to sur- other members to the Tower for words spoken
prise us.  In these do lurk the strongest of our during the sitting of Parliament.  In this flagrant
enemies, ready to issue on us; and if we do not breach of privilege, and violation of the Petition
speedily expel them, these are the signs, these  of Right, he was sustained by servile courts; and
the invitations to others!  These will so prepare  Eliot, as "the greatest offender and ringleader,!
their entrance, that we shall have no means left was sentenced to pay a fine of X2000, and be 
of refuge or defense; for if we have these ene- imprisoned in the Tower of London.
mies at home, how can we strive with those that    After two years his health gave way under the
are abroad?  If we be free from these, no oth- rigor of his confinement. He then petitioned the
er can impeach us.  Our ancient English virtue  King for a temporary release, that he might re(like the old Spartan valor), cleared from these  cover strength; but this was denied him. unless
disorders-our being in sincerity of religion and  he made the most humbling concessions. He reonce made friends with heaven; having matu- fused              sn, at last, under the weight of his
rity of councils, sufficiency of generals, incor- sufferings, at the end of three years, in Novenlruption of officers, opulency in the King, liberty  ber, 1632, " the most illustrious confessor in the
cause of liberty," says Hallam, " whom the timem
10 Buckinghaml had taken the crown jewels and  produced."   One of his sons petitioned for libe',
plate to Holland, and pawned them for ~300,000.   ty to remove his body to Cornwall for burial i
Bauckiaghaml, some years before, had sent out his native soil, and received for answer these inan expedition for the capture of Algiers. It result-,   i                    a               i 
ed in a total failure, and so incensed the Algerines, sultng        -
that the commerce of England suffered ten-fold loss  tion:   Let him be buried in the parish where
in consequence; thirty-five ships, engaged in the  he died;" that is, in the Tower, the.place of his
Mediterranean trade, having been captured within  imprisonment.  No wonder that such a spirit
a few months, and their crews sold for slaves.    brought Charles to the block!




THE EARL OF STRAFFORD.
TH )MAS WENTWORTH, first Earl of Strafford, was descended from an ancient family in Yorkshire, and was born at the house of his maternal grandfather, in London,
on the 13th of April, 1593.  At St. John's College, Cambridge, where he received
his education, he was distinguished not only for the strength and versatility of his
genius, but for his unwearied efforts to improve his mind by the severest discipline,
and especially to prepare himself for the duties of public life, as an orator and a
statesman.  The leading features of his character were strongly marked.  He had
an ardor of temperament, a fixedness of will, a native impetuosity of feeling, and a
correspondent energy of action, which united to make him one of the most daring
and determined men of the age.  To those who rendered him the deference he expected, who were ready to co-operate in his plans or become subservient to his purposes, he was kind and liberal. But he was quick and resentful when his will was
crossed; and even Clarendon admits that "he manifested a nature excessively
imperious."
He was trained from childhood, to a belief in those extravagant doctrines respecting the royal prerogative, which were so generally prevalent at that day. It was
therefore natural that Wentworth, in entering on public life, should seek employment at Court.  The King seems, from the first, to have regarded him with favor;
but Buckingham, who was then in power, was secretly jealous and hostile. Hence
he was treated at times with great confidence, and raised to important offices, and
again stripped suddenly of his employments, and subjected to the most mortifying
rebuffs.  Under these circumstances, he came out for a time as a "patriot," and
joined the popular party. That he did so, however, only in opposition to Buckingham, as the most effectual means of putting down a rival-that there was no
change in his principles, no real sympathy between him and the illustrious men
who were resisting the tyranny of Charles, is obvious from his subsequent conduct,
and from the whole tenor of his private correspondence, as afterward given to the
world.l But such was the strength of his passions, and the force of imagination
(so characteristic of the highest class of orators) with which he could lay hold of, and
for the time being, appropriate to himself, all the principles and feelings which became his new character, that he appeared to the world, and perhaps even to himself, to have become a genuine convert to the cause of popular liberty. In the Parliament of 1627-8, during the great discussion on the public grievances, he came
forth in all his strength, " amid the delighted cheers of the House, and with a startling effect on the Court." After entering upon the subject with a calm and solemn
tone befitting the greatness of the occasion, he rose in power as he advanced, until,
when he came to speak of forced loans, and the billeting of soldiers upon families,
he broke forth suddenly, with that kind of dramatic effect which he always studied,
in a rapid and keen invective, which may be quoted as a specimen of his early elo —
quence.  "They have rent from us the light of our eyes! enforced companies of
guests, worse than the ordinances of France! vitiated our wives and children before our eyes! brought the Crown to greater want than ever it was in, by anticipa1 This is shown at large by Mr. Forster in his Life of Strafford, which forms part of Lardner's
Cabinet Cyclopedia.




8                        THE EARL OF STRAFFORD.
ting the revenue! and can the shepherd be thus smitten, and the sheep not scattered? They have introduced a Privy Council, ravishing at once the spheres of all
ancient government! imprisoning without bail or bond! They have taken from us
-what shall I say?  Indeed, what have they left us?  They have taken from us
all means of supplying the King, and ingratiating ourselves with him, by tearing
up the roots of all property; which if they be not seasonably set again into the
ground by his Majesty's hand, we shall have, instead of beauty, baldness!"
He next, in the boldest language, proposes his remedy.  " By one and the same
thing hath the King and the people been hurt, and by the same must they be cured:
to vindicate-What?  New things?  No! Our ancient, lawful, and vital liberties, by re-enforcing the ancient laws, made by our ancestors; by setting such a
stamp upon them, that no licentious spirit shall dare'hereafter to enter upon them.
And shall we think this a way to break a Parliament?" No! our desires are modest and just.  I speak truly for the interests of the King and the people.  If we enjoy not these, it will be impossible to relieve him."  "Let no man," said he, in conclusion, "judge this way'a break-neck' of Parliaments; but a way of honor to the
King, nay, of profit; for, besides the supply we shall readily give him, suitable to his
occasions, we give him our hearts-our hearts, Mr. Speaker; a gift that GOD calls
for, and fit for a King."
In the same spirit, he united with Eliot in urging forward the PETITION OF RIGHT;
and when the Lords proposed an additional clause, that it was designed " to leave
entire that sovereign power with which his Majesty is intrusted," he resisted its
insertion, declaring, " If we admit of the addition, we leave the subject worse than
we found him.  These laws are not acquainted with'Sovereign Power!'"
The Court were now thoroughly alarmed.  But they knew the man.  There is
evidence from his own papers, that within ten days from this time, he was in negotiation with the speaker, Finch; and " almost before the burning words which have
just been transcribed, had cooled from off the lips of the speaker, a transfer of his
services to the Court was decided on." In a few days Parliament was prorogued;
and shortly after, Sir Thomas Wentworth was created Baron Wentworth, and appointed a member of that same Privy Council which he had just before denounced,
as " ravishing at once the spheres of all ancient government!"  The death of Buckingham about a month after, placed him, in effect, at the head of affairs.  He was
made a Viscount, and Lord President of the North; and at a subsequent period, Lord
Deputy, and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and Earl of Strafford.
The twelve years that followed, during which Charles undertook to reign without the aid of Parliaments, were filled up with arbitrary exactions, destructive monopolies, illegal imprisonments, and inhuman corporal punishments, which Strafford
was known to have recommended or approved; while his presidency in the North
was marked by numerous acts of high-handed injustice, and his government of Ireland carried on with such violence and oppression as "gave men warning," in the
words of Clarendon, " how they trusted themselves in the territories where he commanded."
In 1640 Charles was compelled by his necessities to convene another Parliament.'The day of retribution had at length arrived. The voice of three kingdoms called!for vengeance on the author of their calamities; and not a man was found, except
Charles and Laud, to justify or excuse his conduct.  Even Digby, who sought only
to save his life, speaks of Strafford, as " a name of hatred in the present age by his
practices, and fit to be made a name of terror to future ages by his punishment."
At the moment when, governed by his accustomed policy, he was preparing to
2 Alluding to the threats of the Parliament being dissolved for their freedom of speech.




THE EARL OF STRAFFORD.                               t
strike the first blow, and to impeach the leaders of the popular party, as the surest
means to avert the coming storm, he was himself impeached by the House of Commons, stripped of all his dignities, and thrown into the Tower. The 22d of March,
1641, was fixed upon for his trial. The great object of his accusers was to establish against him the charge of " attempting to subvert the fundamental laws of the
realm."  In doing so, they brought forward many offenses of inferior magnitude, as
an index of his intentions; and they never pretended that more than two or three
of the articles contained charges which amounted strictly to high treason.
In conducting the impeachment, they had great difficulties to encounter. They
could find precedents in abundance to justify the doctrine of constructive treason.
Still, it was a doctrine which came with an ill grace from the friends of civil liberty; and it gave wide scope to the eloquence of Strafford, in some of the most powerful and touching appeals of his masterly defense.  In addition to this, the time
had not yet arrived when treason against the state, as distinguished from an assault
upon the life or personal authority of the king, was distinctly recognized in England.
Straflord had undoubtedly, as a sworn counselor of Charles, given him unconstitutional advice; had told him that he was absolved from the established rules of government; that he might use his simple prerogative for the purpose of raising money,
above or against the decisions of Parliament. Such an attempt to subvert the fundamental laws of the kingdom, if connected with any overt act, would now be treason.  But the doctrine was a new one.  The idea of considering the sovereign as
only the representative of the state; of treating an encroachment on the established
rights of the people as a crime of equal magnitude with a violation of the King's
person and authority, had not yet become familiar to the English mind. We owe
it to the men who commenced this impeachment; and it is not wonderful that
Strafibrd, with his views, and those of most men at that day, could declare with
perfect sincerity that he was utterly unconscious of the crime of treason.
The trial lasted from the 22d of March to the 13th of April, 1641, during which
time the Earl appeared daily before the court, clothed in black, and wearing no
badge or ornament but his George.  " The stern and simple character of his features accorded with the occasion; his countenance'manly black,' as Whitlocke describes it, and his thick hair cut short from his ample forehead."  He was tall in
person, but through early disease had contracted a stoop of the shoulders, which
would have detracted from his appearance on any other occasion; but being now
ascribed to intense suffering from the stone and the gout, which he was known to
have endured during the progress of the trial, it operated in his favor, and excited
much sympathy in his behalf.  During eighteen days he thus stood alone against
his numerous accusers, answering in succession the twenty-eight articles of the impeachment, which of themselves filled two hundred sheets of paper, examining the
witnesses, commenting on their evidence, explaining, defending, palliating his conduct on every point with an adroitness and force, a dignity and self-possession,
which awakened the admiration even of his enemies. On the last day of the trial,
he summed up his various defenses in a speech of which the report, given below is
only an imperfect outline.  It enables us, however, to form some conception of the
eloquence and pathos of this extraordinary man.  There is in it a union of dignity,
simplicity, and force-a felicity in the selection of topics-a dexterity of appeal to
the interests and feelings of his judges-a justness and elevation in every sentiment
he utters-a vividness of illustration, a freshness of imagery, an elasticity and airiness of diction-an appearance of perfect sincerity, and a pervading depth of passion
breaking forth at times in passages of startling power or tenderness, which belongs
only to the highest class of oratory. The pathos of the conclusion has been much
admired; and if we go back in imagination to the scene as presented in Westmin



10                         THE EARL OF STRAFFORD.
ster Hall-the once proud Earl standing amid the wreck of his fortunes, with that
splendid court around him which so lately bowed submissive to his will; with his
humbled monarch looking on from behind the screen that concealed his person, unable to interpose or arrest the proceedings; with that burst of tenderness at the
thought of earlier days and of his wife, the Lady Arabella Hollis, "that saint in
heaven," to whose memory he had always clung amid the power and splendor of
later life; with his body bowed down nunder the pressure of intense physical suffering, and his strong spirit utterly subdued and poured out like water in that startling cry, " My Lords, my Lords, my LOPDS, something more I had intended to say,
but my voice and my spirit fail me"-we can not but feel that there are few passages of equal tenderness and power in the whole range of English eloquence.  We
are strongly reminded of Shakspeare's delineation of Wolsey under similar circumstances, in some of the most pathetic scenes which poetry has ever depicted.  We
feel that Strafford, too, with his " heart new opened," might have added his testimony to the folly of ambition, and the bitter fruits of seeking the favor of a king,
at the expense of the people's rights, and the claims of justice and truth.: Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition!
By that sin fell the angels; how can man, then,
The image of his Maker hope to win by't?
Love thyself last! Cherish those hearts that hate thee!
Corruption wins not more than honesty!
Still in thy right hand carry gentle peace,
To silence envious tongues! Be just and fear not!
Let all the ends thou aim'st at be thy country's,
Thy God's, and Truth's! Then if thou fallest, 0 Cromwell,
Thou fallest a blessed martyr."




SPEECH
OF THE EARL OF STRAFFORD WHEN IMPEACHED FOR HIGH TREASON BEFORE THE HOUSE
OF LORDS, APRIL 13, 1641.1
MY LORDS, -This day I stand before you    I shall now proceed in repeating my defenses
charged with high treason.  The burden of the  as they are reducible to the two main points of
charge is heavy, yet far the more so because it treason.  And,
hath borrowed the authority of the House of    I. For treason against the statute, which is
Commons.  If they were not interested, I might the only treason in effect, there is nothing alexpect a no less easy, than I do a safe, issue. leged for that but the fifteenth, twenty-second,
But let neither my weakness plead my inno- and twenty-seventh articles.
cence, nor their power my guilt.  If your Lord-    [Here the Earl brought forward the replies
ships will conceive of my defenses, as they are  which he had previously made to these articles,
in themselves, without reference to either party  which contained all the charges of individual acts
-and I shall endeavor so to present them-I of treason.  The fifteenth article affirmed that
hope to go hence as clearly justified by you, as he had " inverted the ordinary course of justice
I now am in the testimony of a good conscience  in Ireland, and given immediate sentence upon
by myself.                                       the lands and goods of the King's subjects, unMy Lords, I have all along, during this charge, der pretense of disobedience; had used a miliwatched to see that poisoned arrow of Treason, tary way for redressing the contempt, and laid
which some men would fain have feathered in  soldiers upon the lands and goods of the King's
my heart; but, in truth, it hath not been my  subjects, to their utter ruin."  There was a dequickness to discover any such evil yet within  ficiency of proofs as to the facts alleged.  The
my breast, though now, perhaps, by sinister in- Earl declared that " the customs of England difformation, sticking to my clothes.              fered exceedingly from  those of Ireland; and
They tell me of a two-fold treason, one against therefore, though cessing of men might seem
the statute, another by the common law; this strange here, it was not so there;" and that
direct, that consecutive; this individual, that ac- "nothing was more common there than for the
cumulative; this in itself, that by way of con- governors to appoint soldiers to put all manner
struction.                                       of sentences into execution," as he proved by the
As to this charge of treason, I must and do testimony of Lord Dillon, Sir Adam Loftus, and
acknowledge, that if I had the least suspicion of Sir Arthur Teringham.
my own guilt, I would save your Lordships the    The twenty-seventh article charged him with
pains.  I would cast the first stone.  I would  having, as lieutenant general, charged on the
pass the first sentence of condemnation against county of York eight pence a day for supporting
myself.  And whether it be so or not, I now re- the train-bands of said county during one month,
fer to your Lordships' judgment and deliberation. when called out; and having issued his warrants
You, and you only, under the care and protec- without legal authority for the collection of the
tion of my gracious master, are my judges.  Un- same.  The Earl replied that " this money was
der favor, none of the Commons are my peers, freely and voluntarily offered by them of Yorknor can they be my judges.  I shall ever cele- shire, in a petition; and that he had done nothing
brate the providence and wisdom of your noble but on the petition of the county, the King's speancestors, who have put the keys of life and  cial command, and the connivance, at least, of
death, so far as concerns you and your posterity, the Great Council, and upon a present necessity
into your own hands.  None but your own selves, for the defense and safety of the county, when
my Lords, know the rate of your noble blood: about to be invaded from Scotland."
none but yourselves must hold the balance in dis-    The twenty-second and twenty-third articles
posing of the same.2                             were the most pressing.  Under these he was
L There are in the Parliamentary History two re- charged with saying in te Privy Council that
ports of this speech, one by Whitlocke, and the   the Parliament had forsaken the King; that
other by some unknown friend of Strafford.  As the King ought not to suffer himself to be overeach has important passages which are not contain- mastered by the stubbornness of the people; and
ed in the other, they are here combined by a slight that, if his Majesty pleased to employ forces, he
modification of language, in order to give more con- had some in Ireland that might serve to reduce
pleteness to this masterly defense.
2Strafford had no chance of acquittal except by  dium has admirable dexterity and force. He reinducing the Lords, from a regard to their dignity  verts to the same topic in his peroration, assuring
and safety, to rise above the influence of the Coln- them, with the deepest earnestness and. solemnity
mdhs as his prosecutors, and of the populace who  (and, as the event showed, with perfect truth), that
surrounded Westminster Hall by thousands, de- if they gave him up, they must expect to perish
manding his condemnation. In this view, his exor- with him in the general ruin of the peerage.




12                             THE EARL OF STRAFFORD                                     [1641.
this kingdom," thus counseling to his Majesty to    2. As for my designs against the state, I dare
put down Parliament, and subvert the funda- plead as much innocency as in the matter of remental laws of the kingdom by force and arms. ligion.  I have ever admired the wisdom of our
To this the Earl replied, (1.) That there was ancestors, who have so fixed the pillars of this
only one witness adduced to prove these words, monarchy that each of them keeps a due proporviz., Sir Henry Vane, secretary of the Council, tion and measure with the others-have so ad,
but that two or more witnesses are necessary by  mirably bound together the nerves and sinews
statute to prove a charge of treason.  (2.) That of the state, that the straining of any one may
the others who were present, viz., the Duke of bring danger and sorrow to the whole economy.
Northumberland, the Marquess of Hamilton, The Prerogative of the Crown and the Propriety
Lord Cottington, and Sir Thomas Lucas, did not, of the Subject have such natural relations, that
as they deposed under oath, remember these  this takes nourishment from that, and that founwords.  (3.) That Sir Henry Vane had given  dation and nourishment from this.  And so, as in
his testimony as if he was in doubt on the sub- the lute, if any one string be wound up too high
ject, saying "as I do remember," and "such  or too low, you have lost the whole harmony:
or such like words," which admitted the words so here the excess of prerogative is oppression,
might be "that kingdom," meaning Scotland.]  of pretended liberty in the subject is disorder
II. As to the other kind, viz., constructive  and anarchy.  The prerogative must be used as
treason, or treason by way of accumulation; to  God doth his omnipotence, upon extraordinary
make this out, many articles have been brought occasions; the laws must have place at all other
against me, as if in a heap of mere felonies or times.  As there must be prerogative because
misdemeanors (for they reach no higher) there  there must be extraordinary occasions, so the
could lurk some prolific seed to produce what is propriety of the subject is ever to be maintained,
treasonable!  But, my Lords, when a thousand  if it go in equal pace with the other.  They are
misdemeanors will not make one felony, shall fellows and companions that are, and ever must
twenty-eight misdemeanors be heightened into  be, inseparable in a well-ordered kingdom; and
treason?                                        no way is so fitting, so natural to nourish and
I pass, however, to consider these charges, entertain both, as the frequent use of Parliawhich affirm that I have designed the overthrow  ments, by which a commerce and acquaintance
both of religion and of the state.              is kept up between the King and his subjects.3
1. The first charge seemeth to be used rath-    These thoughts have gone along with me these
er to make me odious than guilty; for there is fourteen years of my public employments, and
not the least proof alleged-nor could there be shall, God willing, go with me to the grave!
any —concerning my confederacy with the pop- God, his Majesty, and my own conscience, yen,
ish faction.  Never was a servant in authority  and all of those who have been most accessary
under my lord and master more hated and ma- to my inward thoughts, can bear me witness
ligned by these men than myself, and that for an  that I ever did inculcate this, that the happiness
impartial and strict execution of the laws against of a kingdom doth consist in a just poise of the
them; for observe, my Lords, that the greater King's prerogative and the subject's liberty, and
number of the witnesses against me, whether that things could never go well till these went
from Ireland or from Yorkshire, were of that re- hand in hand together.  I thank God for it, by
ligion.  But for my own resolution, I thank God  my master's favor, and the providence of my anI am ready every hour of the day to seal my dis- cestors, I have an estate which so interests me
satisfaction to the Church of Rome with my dear- in the commonwealth, that I have no great mind
est blood.                                      to be a slave, but a subject.  Nor could I wish
Give me leave, my Lords, here to pour forth  the cards to be shuffled over again, in hopes to
the grief of my soul before you.  These pro- fall upon a better set; nor did I ever nourish
ceedings against me seem to be exceeding rig- such base and mercenary thoughts as to become
orous, and to have more of prejudice than equity  a pander to the tyranny and ambition of the
-that upon a supposed charge of hypocrisy or greatest man living.  No!  I have, and ever
errors in religion, I should be made so odious to  shall, aim at a fair but bounded liberty; rememthree kingdoms.  A great many thousand eyes bering always that I am a freeman, yet a subhave seen my accusations, whose ears will never ject-that I have rights, but under a monarch.
hear that when it came to the upshot, those very  It hath been my misfortune, now when I am
things were not alleged against me!  Is this fair gray-headed, to be charged by the mistakers of
dealing among Christians?  But I have lost the times, who are so highly bent that all apnothing by that.  Popular applause was ever pears to them to be in the extreme for monarchy
nothing in my conceit.  The uprightness and  which is not for themselves.  Hence it is that
integrity of a good conscience ever was, and  designs, words, yea, intentions, are brought out
ever shall be, my continual feast; and if I can  as demonstrations of my misdemeanors.  Such
be justified in your Lordships' judgments from  a multiplying-glass is a prejudicate opinion!
this great imputation-as I hope I am, eeing    3 Strafford was generally regarded as the secret
these gentlemen have thrown down the bucklers author of the King's aversion to Parliaments, which
— I shall account myself justified by the whole  had led him to dispense with their use for many
kingdom, because absolved by you, who are the  years. Hence the above declaration, designed to
better part, the very soul and life of the kingdom. relieve him from the effects of this prejudice.




1641.]                WHEN IMPEACHED FOR HIGH TREASON.                                      13
The articles against me refer to expressions on me, that my misfortune may not bring an
and actions-my expressions either in Ireland  inconvenience to yourselves.  And though my
or in England, my actions either before or after words were not so advised and discreet, or so
these late stirs.                               well weighed as they ought to have been, yet I
(1.) Some of the expressions referred to were  trust your Lordships are too honorable and just
uttered in private, and I do protest against their to lay them  to my charge as High Treason.
being drawn to my injury in this place.  If, my  Opinions may make a heretic, but that they make
Lords, words spoken to friends in familiar dis- a traitor I have never heard till now.
course, spoken at one's table, spoken in one's   (2.) I am come next to speak of the actions
chamber, spoken in one's sick-bed, spoken, per- which have been charged upon me.
haps, to gain better reason, to gain one's self   [Here the Earl went through with the varimore clear light and judgment by reasoning-if ous overt acts alleged, and repeated the sum and
these things shall be brought against a man as heads of what had been spoken by him before.
treason, this (under favor) takes away the corn- In respect to the twenty-eighth article, which
fort of all human society.  By this means we  charged him with " a malicious design to enshall be debarred from speaking —the principal gage the kingdoms of England and Scotland in
joy and comfort of life-with wise and good  a national and bloody war," but which the manmen, to become wiser and better ourselves.  If  agers had not urged in the trial, he added more
these things be strained to take away life, and  at large, as follows:]
honor, and all that is desirable, this will be a si-   If that one article had been proved against
lent world!  A city will become a hermitage, me, it contained more weighty matter than all
and sheep will be found among a crowd and  the charges besides.  It would not only have
press of people!  No man will dare to impart been treason, but villainy, to have betrayed the
his solitary thoughts or opinions to his friend and  trust of his Majesty's army.  But as the mananeighbor!                                       gers have been sparing, by reason of the times,
Other expressions have been urged against as to insisting on that article, I have resolved to
me, which were used in giving counsel to the keep the same method, and not utter the least
King. My Lords, these words were not wanton- expression which might disturb the happy agreelv or unnecessarily spoken, or whispered in a ment intended between the two kingdoms.  I
corner; they were spoken in full council, when, only admire how I, being an incendiary against
by the duty of my oath, I was obliged to speak  the Scots in the twenty-third article, am become
according to my heart and conscience in all a confederate with them in the twenty-eighth arthings concerning the King's service.  If I had  tide! how  I could be charged for betraying
forborne to speak what I conceived to be for the  Newcastle, and also for fighting with the Scots
benefit of the King and the people, I had been  at Newburne, since fighting against them was
perjured toward Almighty God.  And for deliv- no possible means of betraying the town into
ering my mind openly and freely, shall I be in  their hands, but rather to hinder their passage
danger of my life as a traitor?  If that necessity  thither!  I never advised war any further than,
be put upon me, I thank God, by his blessing, I in my poor judgment, it concerned the very life
have learned not to stand in fear of him who can  of the King's authority, and the safety and hononly kill the body.  If the question be whether or of his kingdom.  Nor did I ever see that any
I must be traitor to man or perjured to God, I advantage could be made by a war in Scotland,
will be faithful to my Creator.  And whatsoever where nothing could be gained but hard blows.
shall befall me from popular rage or my own  For my part, I honor that nation, but I wish they
weakness, I must leave it to that almighty Be- may ever be under their own climate. I have no
ing, and to the justice and honor of my judges.  desire that they should be too well acquainted
My Lords, I conjure you not to make your- with the better soil of England.
selves so unhappy as to disable your Lordships    My Lords, you see what has been alleged for
and your children, from undertaking the great this constructive, or, rather, destructive treason.
charge and trust of this Commonwealth.  You  For my part, I have not the judgment to coninherit that trust from your fathers.  You are  ceive, that such treason is agreeable to the funborn to great thoughts.  You are nursed for the  damental grounds either of reason or of law.
weighty employments of the kingdom.  But if it Not of reason, for how can that be treason in
be once admitted that a counselor, for delivering  the lump or mass, which is not so in any of its
his opinion with others at the council board, can- parts? or how can that make a thing treasonadide et caste, with candor and purity of motive, ble which is not so in itself?  Not of law, since
under an oath of secrecy and faithfulness, shall neither statute, common law, nor practice hath
be brought into question, upon some misappre- from the beginning of the government ever menhension or ignorance of law-if every word that tioned such a thing.
he shall speak from sincere and noble intentions    It is hard, my Lords, to be questioned upon a
shall be drawn against him for the attainting of law which can not be shown!  Where hath this
him, his children and posterity —I know not (un- fire lain hid for so many hundred years, without
der favor I speak it) any wise or noble person of  smoke to discover it, till it thus bursts forth to
fortune who will, upon such perilous and unsafe  consume me and my children?  My Lords, do
terms, adventure to be counselor to the King. we not live under laws? and must we be punTherefore I beseech your Lordships so to look  ished by laws before they are made?  Far bet



14                          THE EARL OF STRAFFORD, ETC.                                  [1641
ter were it to live by no laws at all; but to be  had given a testimony of my integrity to my
governed by those characters of virtue and dis- God, my King, and my country.  I thank God,
cretion, which Nature hath stamped upon us, I count not the afflictions of the present life to
than to put this necessity of divination upon a  be compared to that glory which is to be revealman, and to accuse him of a breach of law be- ed in the time to come!
fore it is a law at all!  If a waterman upon    My Lords! my Lords! my Lords! something
the Thames split his boat by grating upon an  more I had intended to say, but my voice and
anchor, and the same have no buoy appended to  my spirit fail me.  Only I do in all humility and
it, the owner of the anchor is to pay the loss; submission cast myself down at your Lordships'
but if a buoy be set there, every man passeth  feet, and desire that I may be a beacon to keep
upon his own peril.  Now where is the mark, you from shipwreck.  Do not put such rocks in
where is the token set upon the crime, to de- your own way, which no prudence, no circumclare it to be high treason?                   spection can eschew or satisfy, but by your utter
My Lords, be pleased to give that regard to  ruin!
the peerage of England as never to expose your-    And so, my Lords, even so, with all tranquilselves to such moot points, such constructive in- lity of mind, I submit myself to your decision.
terpretations of law.  If there must be a trial And whether your judgment in my case-I wish
of wits, let the subject matter be something else  it were not the case of you all-be for life or for
than the lives and honor of peers!  It will be death, it shall be righteous in my eyes, and shall
wisdom for yourselves and your posterity to cast be received with a Te Deum laudamus, we give
into the fire these bloody and mysterious vol- God the praise.
umes of constructive and arbitrary treason, as
the primitive Christians did their books of curi-    The House of Lords, after due deliberation,
ous arts; and betake yourselves to the plain let- voted that the main facts alleged in the impeachter of the law and statute, which telleth what is ment had been proved in evidence; and referred
and what is not treason, without being ambitious the question whether they involved the crime of
to be more learned in the art of killing than our treason, to the decision of the judges of the Court
forefathers.  These gentlemen tell us that they  of the King's Bench.  Previous to this, howevspeak in defense of the Commonwealth against er, and even before the Earl had made his closmy arbitrary laws.  Give me leave to say it, I ing argument, a new course of proceedings was
speak in defense of the Commonwealth against adopted in the House of Commons.  When the
their arbitrary treason!                        managers had finished their evidence and arguIt is now full two hundred and forty years ments as to thefacts alleged, a bill of attainder
since any man was touched for this alleged crime against the Earl was brought into the House by
to this height before myself.  Let us not awa- Sir Arthur Haselrig.  The reason for this proken those sleeping lions to our destruction, by  cedure can not now be ascertained with any detaking up a few musty records that have lain  gree of certainty.  The friends of Strafford have
by the walls for so many ages, forgotten or neg- always maintained, that such an impression had
lected.                                         been made on the minds of the judges and audiMy Lords, what is my present misfortune  ence during the progress of the trial, as to turn
may be forever yours!  It is not the smallest the tide in his favor; and that his accusers, fearpart of my grief that not the crime of treason, ing he might be acquitted, resorted to this ncasbut my other sins, which are exceeding many, ure for the purpose of securing his condemnahave brought me to this bar; and, except your tion.  Such may have been the fact; but the
Lordships' wisdom provide against it, the shed- Commons, in their conference with the Lords,
ding of my blood may make way for the tracing  April 15, declared that this was the course they
out of yours.  You, YOUR ESTATES, YOUR POS- had originally intended to pursue, " that the evTERITY, LIE AT THE STAKE!                      idences of the fact being given, it was proposed
For my poor self, if it were not for your Lord- from the begininag to go by way of bill, and
ships' interest, and the interest of a saint in  that they had accordingly brought in a bill for
heaven, who hath left me here two pledges on  his attainder."  St. John, their legal manager,
earth —at this his breath stopped, and he shed  positively denied that they were seeking to avoid
tears abundantly in mentioning his wife]-I the judicial mode of proceeding; and, "what is
should never take the pains to keep up this ru- stronger," as Hallam remarks, "the Lords voted
inous cottage of mine.  It is loaded with such  on the articles judicially, and not as if they were
infirmities, that in truth I have no great pleas- enacting a legislative measure."  Still the bill
ure to carry it about with me any longer.  Nor of attainder was strenuously opposed by a few
could I ever leave it at a fitter time than this, individuals in the House, and especially by Lord
when I hope that the better part of the world  Digby, in his celebrated speech on the subject,
would perhaps think that by my misfortunes I which will next be given.




LORD DIGBY.
GEORGE DIGBY, oldest son of the Earl of Bristol, was born at Madrid in 1612,
during the residence of his father in that city as English embassador to the Court
of Spain.  He was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford; and entered into public
life at the age of twenty-eight, being returned member of Parliament for the county
of Dorset, in April, 1640. In common with his father, who had incurred the displeasure of the King by his impeachment of Buckingham  in 1626, Lord Digby
came forward at an early period of the session, as an open and determined enemy
of the Court.  Among the " Speeches relative to Grievances," his, as representative
of Dorsetshire, was one of the most bold and impassioned.  His argument shortly
after in favor of triennial Parliaments, was characterized by a still higher order of
eloquence; and in the course of it he made a bitter attack upon Strafford, in showing the necessity of frequent Parliaments as a control upon ministers, declaring " he
must not expect to be pardoned in this world till he is dispatched to the other."
From the ardor with which he expressed these sentiments, and the leading part
he took in every measure for the defense of the people's rights, Lord Digby was appointed one of the managers for the impeachment of Strafford.  Into this he entered, for a time, with the utmost zeal.  He is described by Clarendon as a man of
uncommon activity of mind and fertility of invention; bold and impetuous in whatever designs he undertook; but deficient in judgment, inordinately vain and ambitious, of a volatile and unquiet spirit, disposed to separate councils, and governed
more by impulse than by fixed principles. Whether the course he took in respect
to the attainder of Strafford ought to be referred in any degree to the last-mentioned
traits of character, or solely to a sense of justice, a conviction forced upon him in the
progress of the trial that the testimony had failed to sustain the charge of treason,
can not, perhaps, be decided at the present day. The internal evidence afforded by
the speech, is strongly in favor of his honesty and rectitude of intention.  He appears
throughout like one who was conscious of having gone too far; and who was determined to retrieve his error, at whatever expense of popular odium it might cost
him.  Had he stopped here, there would have been no ground for imputations on
his character.  But he almost instantly changed the whole tenor of his political
life.  He abandoned his former principles; he joined the Court party; and did
more, as we learn from Clarendon, to ruin Charles by his rashness and pertinacity,
than any other man.  But, whatever may be thought of Digby, the speech is one
of great manliness and force. It is plausible in its statements, just in its distinctions, and weighty in its reasonings. Without exhibiting any great superiority of
genius, and especially any richness of imagination, it presents us with a rapid succession of striking and appropriate thoughts, clearly arranged and vividly expressed
In one respect, the diction is worthy of being studied. (It abounds in those direct
and pointed forms of speech, which sink at once into the heart; and by their very
plainness give an air of perfect sincerity to the speaker, which of all things is the
most important to one who is contending (as he was) against the force of popular
prejudice3.  Much of the celebrity attached to this speech is owing, no doubt, to the
circumstances under which it was delivered.  The House of Commons must have
presented a scene of the most exciting nature when, at the moment of taking the
final vote on the bill, one of the managers of the impeachment came forward to
abandon his ground; to disclose the proceedings of the committee in secret session;
and to denounce the condemnation of Strafbfrd by a bill of attainder, as, an act of
murder.




SPEECH
OF LORD DIGBY ON THE BILL OF ATTAINDER AGAINST THE EARI, OF STRAFFORD, DELIVERED
IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, APRIL 21, 1641.
WE are now upon the point of giving, as much  was formerly, by putting you in mind of the difas in us lies, the final sentence unto death or life, ference between prosecutors and judges-how
on a great minister of state and peer of this king- misbecoming that fervor would be in a judge
dom, Thomas, Earl of Strafford, a name of ha- which, perhaps, was commendable in a prosetred in the present age for his practices, and fit cutor.  Judges we are now, and must, therefore,
to be made a terror to future ages by his punish- put on another personage.  It is honest and noment.                                         ble to be earnest in order to the discovery of
I have had the honor to be employed by the  truth; but when that hath been brought so far as
House in this great business, from the first hour it can be to light, our judgment thereupon ought
that it was taken into consideration.  It was a  to be calm and cautious.  In prosecution upon
matter of great trust; and I will say with con- probable grounds, we are accountable only for
fidence that I have served the House in it, not our industry or remissness; but in judgment, we
only with industry, according to my ability, but are deeply responsible to Almighty God for its,
with most exact faithfulness and justice.      rectitude or obliquity. In cases of life, the judge
And as I have hitherto discharged my duty  is God's steward of the party's blood, and must
to this House and to my country in the progress give a strict account for every drop.
of this great cause, so I trust I shall do now, in    But, as I told you, Mr. Speaker, I will not inthe last period of it, to God and to a good con- sist long upon this ground of difference in me
science.  I do wish the peace of that to myself, now from what I was formerly.  The truth of
and the blessing of Almighty God to me and  it is, sir, the same ground whereupon I with the
my posterity, according as my judgment on the  rest of the few to whom you first committed the
life of this man shall be consonant with my heart, consideration of my Lord Strafford, brought down
and the best of my understanding in all integrity. our opinion that it was fit he should be accused
I know well that by some things I have said  of treason-upon the same ground, I was enof late, while this bill was in agitation, I have  gaged with earnestness in his prosecution;,nd
raised some prejudices against me in the cause. had the same ground remained in that force of
Yea, some (I thank them for their plain dealing)  belief in me, which till very lately it did, I should
have been so free as to tell me, that I have suf- not have been tender in his condemnation.  But
fered much by the backwardness I have shown  truly, sir, to deal plainly with you, that ground
in the bill of attainder of the Earl of Strafford, of our accusation-that which should be the haagainst whom I have formerly been so keen, so  sis of our judgment of the Earl of Strafford as to
active.                                       treason-is, to my understanding, quite vanished
I beg of you, Mr. Speaker, and the rest, but away.
a suspension of judgment concerning me, till I    This it was, Mr. Speaker-his advising the
have opened my heart to you, clearly and freely, King to employ the army in Ireland to reduce
im this business.  Truly, sir, I am still the same  England.  This I was assured would be proved.
in my opinion and affections as to the Earl of before I gave my consent to his accusation.  I
Strafford.  I confidently believe him to be the  was confirmed in the same belief during the prosmost dangerous minister, the most insupportable  ecution, and fortified most of all in it, after Sir
to free subjects, that can be charactered.  I be- Henry Vane's preparatory examination, by aslieve his practices in themselves to have been as  surances which that worthy member Mr. Pym
high and tyrannical as any subject ever ventured  gave me, that his testimony would be made conon; and the malignity of them greatly aggrava- vincing by some notes of what passed at the
ted by those rare abilities of his, whereof God  Junto [Privy Council] concurrent with it.  This
hath given him the use, but the devil the appli- I ever understood would be of some other councation.  In a word, I believe him to be still that selor; but you see now, it proves only to be a
grand apostate to the Commonwealth, who must copy of the same secretary's notes, discovered
not expect to be pardoned in this world till he  and produced in the manner you have heard;
be dispatched to the other.                   and those such disjointed fragments of the venAnd yet let me tell you, Mr. Speaker, my hand  omous part of discourses-no results, no conclumust not be to that dispatch.  I protest, as my  sions of councils, which are the only things that
conscience stands informed, I had rather it were  secretaries should register, there being no use
off.                                          of the other but to accuse and bring men into
Let me unfold to you the mystery, Mr. Speak- danger.'
er: I will not dwell much upon justifying to you
my seeming variance at this time from what I; See Strafford's reply on this subject, p. 12.




)41.], $LORD DIGBY AGAINST THE ATTAINDER OF STRAFFORD.                                   1i
But, sir, this is not that which overthrows the  high with me.  I can find a more easy and natevidence with me concerning the army in Ireland, ural spring from whence to derive all his other
nor yet that all the rest of the Junto remember crimes, than from an intent to bring in tyranny,
nothing of it; but this, sir, which I shall tell you, and make his own posterity, as well as us, slaves;
is that which works with me, under favor, to  viz., from revenge, from pride, from passion, and
an utter overthrow of his evidence as touching  from insolence of nature.  But had this of the
the army of Ireland.  Before, while I was pros- Irish army been proved, it would have diffused
ecutor, and under tie of secrecy, I might not dis- a complexion of treason over all.  It would have
cover [disclose] any weakness of the cause, which  been a withe indeed, to bind all those other scatnow, as judge, I must.                          tered and lesser branches, as it were, into a fagMr. Secretary Vane was examined thrice upon  ot of treason.
(ath at the preparatory committee.  The first    I do not say but the rest of the things charged
iime he was questioned as to all the interrogato- may represent him a man as worthy to die, and
ries; and to that part of the seventh which con- perhaps worthier than many a traitor.  I do not
corns the army in Ireland, he said positively these  say but they may justly direct us to enact that
words: "I can not charge him with that;" but they shall be treason for the future.  But God
ibr the rest, he desired time to recollect himself, keep me from giving judgment of death on any
which was granted him.  Some days after, he  man, and of ruin to his innocent posterity, upon
was examined a second time, and then deposed  a law made a posteriori.  Let the mark be set
these words concerning the King's being absolv- on the door where the plague is, and then let
ed from rules of government, and so forth, very  him that will enter, die.2
clearly.  But being pressed as to that part con-    I know, Mr. Speaker, there is in Parliament,erning the Irish army, again he said he could  a double power of life and death by bill; a jusay "nothing to that."  Here we thought we  dicial power, and a legislative.  The measure
had done with him, till divers weeks after, my  of the one is, what is legally just; of the other,
Lord of Northumberland, and all others of the  what is prudentially and politically fit for the
Junto, denying to have heard any thing concern- good and preservation of the whole.  But these
ing those words of reducing England by the Irish  two, under favor, are not to be confounded in
army, it was thought fit to examine the secretary  judgment.  We must not piece out want of leonce more; and then he deposed these words to  gality with matter of convenience, nor the dehave been spoken by the Earl of Strafford to his failance of prudential fitness with a pretense of
Majesty: " You have an army in Ireland, which  legal justice.
you may employ here to reduce (or some word    To condemn my Lord of Strafford judicially,
to that sense) this kingdom."  Mr. Speaker, as for treason, my conscience is not assured that
these are the circumstances which I confess with  the matter will bear it; and to do it by the legmy conscience, thrust quite out of doors that islative power, my reason consultively can not
grand article of our charge concerning his des- agree to that, since I am persuaded that neither
perate advice to the King of employing the Irish  the Lords nor the King will pass this bill; and,
army here.                                       consequently, that our passing it will be a cause
Let not this: I beseech you, be driven to an  of great divisions, and contentions in the state.
aspersion upon Mr. Secretary, as if he should    Therefore my humble advice is, that, laying
have sworn otherwise than he knew or believed. aside this bill of attainder, we may think of anHe is too worthy to do that.  Only let this much  other, saving only life; such as may secure the
be inferred from it, that he, who twice upon oath, state from my Lord of Strafford, without endanwith time of recollection, could not remember any  gering it as much by division concerning his
thing of such a business, might well, a third time, punishment, as he hath endangered it by his
misremember somewhat; and in this business  practices.
the difference of one word " here" for "there,"    If this may not be hearkened unto, let me
or "that" for "this," quite alters the case; the  conclude in saying that to you all, which I have
latter also being the more probable, since it is thoroughly  inculcated upon  mine  own  conconfessed on all hands that the debate then was  science, on this occasion.  Let every man lay
concerning a war with Scotland.  And you may  his hand upon his own heart, and seriously conremember, that at the bar he once said "employ  sider what we are going to do with a breath:
there."  And thus, Mr. Speaker, have I faithfully  either justice or mulrder-justice on the one side,
given you an account what it is that hath blunt- or murder, heightened and aggravated to its sued the edge of the hatchet, or bill, with me, to- premest extent, on the other!  For, as the casward my Lord Strafford.                          uists say, He who lies with his sister commits inThis was that whereupon I accused him with  cest; but he that marries his sister, sins higher, by
a free heart; prosecuted him with earnestness; applying God's ordinance to his crime; so, doubtand had it to my understanding been proved, less, he that commits murder with the sword of
should have condemned him  with innocence;  justice, heightens that crime to the utmost.
whereas now I can not satisfy my conscience to    2 This image was peculiarly appropriate a  fr
do it. I profess I can have no notion of any body's cible at that time, when the plague had recently
intent to subvert the laws treasonably, but by  prevailed in London, and a mark was placed. by the
force; and this design of force not appearing, all magistrates on infected dwellings as a warninga-L not
his other wicked practices can not amount so  to enter.
B




18          LORD DIGBY AGAINST THE ATTAINDER OF STRAFFORD.                              [1641.
The danger being so great, and the case so  that weakness, amounting to fatuity, which so
doubtful, that I see the best lawyers in diamet- often marked his conduct, he nullified his own
rical opposition concerning it; let every man  request by that celebrated postscript, "If he
wipe his heart as he does his eyes, when he  must die, it were charity to reprieve him  till
would judge of a nice and subtle object.  The  Saturday!"  As might have been expected, the
eye, if it be pre-tinctured with any color, is vi- Earl was executed the next day, May 12th,
tiated in its discerning.  Let us take heed of a  1641.  The House of Commons, however, with
blood-shotten eye in judgment.  Let every man  a generosity never manifested before or since in
purge his heart clear of all passions.  I know  such a case, immediately passed a bill to relieve
this great and wise body politic can have none; his descendants from the penalties of forfeiture
but I speak to individuals from  the weakness  and corruption of blood.
which I find in myself.  Away with personal    It is now generally admitted that, in a moral
animosities!  Away with all flatteries to the  point of view, Strafford richly merited the punpeople, in being the sharper against him because  ishment he received.  On the question of legal
he is odious to them!  Away with all fears, lest right, it may be proper to say, that while the
by sparing his blood they may be incensed! doctrine of constructive treason under an imAway with all such considerations, as that it is peachment can not be too strongly condemned,
not fit for a Parliament that one accused by it of the proceedings under a bill of attainder were
treason, should escape with life!  Let not for- of a different nature.  " Acts of Parliament,"
mer vehemence of any against him, nor fear from  says Blackstone, "to attaint particular persons
thence that he can not be safe while that man  of treason, are to all intents and purposes new
lives, be an ingredient in the sentence of any  laws made pro re nata, and by no means an exone of us.                                      ecution of such as are already in being."  They
Of all.these corruptives of judgment, Mr. are, from their very nature, ex post facto laws.
Speaker, I, do, before God, discharge myself to  They proceed on the principle that while judicial
the utmost.of my power; and do now, with a  courts are to be governed by the strict letter of
clear conscience, wash my hands of this man's  the law, as previously known and established,
blood by this solemn protestation, that my vote  Parliament, in exercising the high sovereignty
goes not to.the taking of the Earl of Strcfford's of the state, may, " on great and crying occalife.                                           sions," arrest some enormous offender in the
midst of his crimes, and inflict upon him  the
punishment he so richly deserves, even in cases
Notwithstanding this eloquent appeal, the bill where, owing to a defect in the law, or to the
of,attainder was carried the same day in the  arts of successful evasion, it is impossible to
House, by a vote of two hundred and four to fifty- reach him by means of impeachment, or through
nine.                                           the ordinary tribunals of justice.  Such a power
The Lords had already decided in their ju- is obviously liable to great abuses; and it is,.eial capacity that the mainfacts alleged in the  therefore, expressly interdicted to Congress in
indictment were proved, and referred the points the Constitution of the United States.  But it
of.law to the decision of the judges of the Court has always belonged, and still belongs, to the
of the King's Bench.  On the seventh of May, Parliament of Great Britain, though for many
"the Lord Chief Justice. of the King's Bench de- years it has ceased to be exercised in this form.
livered in tothe:Lords the unanimous decision of  The principle of retrospective punishment (the
all the judges present,'That they are of opin- only thing really objectionable in this case) has,
ion upon all which their Lordships had voted to  indeed, come down in a milder form  to a very
be proved, that.the Earl of Strafford doth deserve  late period of English history.  We find it in
to undergo the pains and forfeitures of high  those bills of "pains and penalties," which, as
treason by law.' "-Parl. Hist., vol. ii., p. 757. Hallam  observes, " have, in times of comparaThe Lords now yielded the point of form to the  tive moderation and tranquillity, been sometimes
Commons; and as the penal consequences were thought necessary to visit some unforeseen and
the same, instead of giving sentence under the  anomalous transgression, beyond the reach of
impeachment, they passed the bill of attainder our penal code."  Mr. Macaulay maintains that
the next day, May 8th, by a vote of twenty-six  the Earl's death, under existing circumstances,
to nineteen.                                    was absolutely necessary; " that, during the civil
It was still in the power of Charles to save  wars, the Parliament had reason to rejoice that
Strafford by refusing his assent to the bill; and  an irreversible law  and an impassable barrier
he had made a solemn and written promise to de- protected them from the valor and rapacity of
liver him from his enemies in the last extremity, Strafford.;'  Those who think differently on this
by the exercise of the royal prerogative.  But, point must at least agree with Hallam, that "he
with his constitutional fickleness, he yielded; died justly before God and man; though we may. and then, to pacify his conscience, he sent a let- deem  the precedent dangerous, and the better
ter to the Lords asking the consent of Parlia- course of a magnanimous lenity rejected; and
ment, that he might "moderate the severity of in condemning the bill of attainder, we can not
-the'law in so important a case."  Still, with  look upon it as a crime."




LORD BELHAVEN.
THE author of this speech belonged to the Hamilton family.  He was one of the
old Presbyterian lords, of high education, especially in classical literature; lofty in
his demeanor; dauntless in spirit; and wholly devoted to the peculiar interests of his
country.  The speech owes much of its celebrity to the circumstances under which
it was delivered. It embodies the feelings of a proud and jealous people, when
called upon to surrender their national independence, and submit to the authority
of the British Parliament.
A century had now elapsed since the union of the English and Scottish crowns
in the person of James I., and Scotland still remained a distinct kingdom, with its
own Parliament, its own judicial system, its own immemorial usages which had all
the force of law. This state of things, though gratifying to the pride of the Scottish people, was the source of endless jealousies and contentions between the two
countries; and, as commonly happens in such cases, the weaker party suffered most.
Scotland was governed by alternate corruption and force. Her nobility and gentry
were drawn to England in great numbers by the attractions of the Court, as the
seat of fashion, honor, and power. The nation was thus drained of her wealth;
and the drain became greater, as her merchants and tradesmen were led to transfer
their capital to the sister kingdom, in consequence of the superior facilities for trade
which were there enjoyed.
It was now apparent that Scotland could never flourish until she was permitted
to share in those commercial advantages, from which she was debarred as a distinct
country, by the Navigation Act of England. The Scotch were, therefore, clamorous in their demands for some arrangement to this effect. But the English had
always looked with jealousy upon any intermeddling with trade, on the part of Scotland. They had crushed her African and India Company by their selfish opposition,
and had left her Darien settlement of twelve hundred souls to perish for want of
support and protection; so that few families in the Lowlands had escaped the loss
of a relative or friend. Exasperated by these injuries, and by the evident determination of the English to cut them off from all participation in the benefits of trade,
the Scotch were hurried into a measure of alarming aspect for the safety of the empire. Noble and burgher, Jacobite and Presbyterian, were for once united. There
was one point where England was vulnerable.  It was the succession to the crown.
This had been settled by the English Parliament on the Protestant line in the house
of Hanover, and the fullest expectations were entertained that the Parliament of
Scotland would readily unite in the same measure. Instead of this, the Scotch, in
1704, passed their famous Act of Security, in which they threw down the gauntlet
to England, and enacted, that " the same person should be incapable of succeeding
in both kingdoms, unless a free communication of trade, the benefits of the Navigation Act, and liberty of the Plantations [i..e., of trading with the British West Indies and North America] was first obtained." They also provided conditionally for
a separate successor, and passed laws for arming the whole kingdom in his defense.
It was now obvious that concessions must be made on both sides, or the contest
be decided by the sword.  The ministry of Queen Anne, therefore, proposed that
commissioners from the two kingdoms should meet at London, to devise a plan of




20                            ILORD BELHAVEN.
Union, which should be mutually advantageous to the two countries.  This wa,
accordingly done, in the month of April, 1706; and, after long negotiations, it was
agreed, that the two kingdoms should be united into one under the British Parliament, with the addition of sixteen Scottish peers to the House of Lords, and of
forty-five Scottish members to the House of Commons; that the Scotch should be
entitled to all the privileges of the English in respect to trade,'and be subject to
the same excise and duties; that Scotland should receive ~398,000 as a compensation or " equivalent" for the share of liability she assumed in the'English debt of
~20,000,000; and that the churches of England and Scotland respectively should
be confirmed in all their rights and privileges, as a fundamental condition of the
Union.
These arrangements were kept secret until October, 1706, when the Scottish
Parliament met to consider and decide on the plan proposed.  The moment the
Articles were read in that body, and given to the public in print, they were met
with a burst of indignant reprobation from every quarter.  A federal union which
should confer equal advantages for trade, was all that the Scotch in general had
ever contemplated: an incorporating union, which should abolish their Parliament
and extinguish their national existence, was what most Scotchmen had never
dreamed of. Nor is it surprising, aside from  all considerations of national honor,
that such a union should have been regarded with jealousy and dread.  " No past
experience of history," says Hallam, "was favorable to the absorption of a lesser
state (at least where the government partook so much of a republican form) in one
of superior power and ancient rivalry. The representation of Scotland in the united
Legislature, was too feeble to give any thing like security against the English prejudices and animosities, if they should continue or revive.  The Church of Scotland
was exposed to the most apparent perils, brought thus within the power of a Legislature so frequently influenced by one which held her, not as a sister, but rather as
a bastard usurper of a sister's inheritance; and though her permanence was guaranteed by the treaty, yet it was hard to say how far the legal competence of Parliament might hereafter be deemed to extend, or, at least, how far she might be
abridged of her privileges and impaired in her dignity."
It was with sentiments like these that, when the first article of the treaty was
read, Lord Belhaven arose, and addressed the Parliament of Scotland in the following speech. It is obviously reported in a very imperfect manner, and was designed
merely to open the discussion which was expected to follow, and not to enter at large
into the argument.  It was a simple burst of feeling, in which the great leader of
the country party, who was equally distinguished for "the mighty sway of his talents and the resoluteness of his temper," poured out his emotions in view of that
act of parricide, as he considered it, to which the Parliament was now called. He
felt that no regard to consequences, no loss or advancement of trade, manufactures,
or national wealth, ought to have the weight of a feather, when the honor and existence of his country were at stake. He felt that Scotland, if only united, was
abundantly able to work out her own salvation. These two thoughts, thereforeNATIONAL HONOR and NATIONAL UNION-constitute the burden of his speech.




SPEECH
OF LORD BELHAVEN AGAINST THE LEGISLATIVE UNION OF ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND, DELIVERED IN THE PARLIAMENT OF SCOTLAND, NOV. 2, 1706.
MY LORD CHANCELLOR,-When I consider  and secured by prescriptions, that they despair
tle affair of a union betwixt the two nations,  of any success therein.
as expressed in the several articles thereof, and  I think I see our learned judges laying aside
now the subject of our deliberation at this time,  their pratiques and decisions, studying the comI find my mind crowded with a variety of mel-  mon law of England, graveled with certioraris,
ancholy thoughts; and I think it my duty to dis-  nisi priuses, writs of error, verdicts, injunctions,
btrden myself of some of them  by laying them   demurs, &c., and frightened with appeals and
before, and exposing them to the serious con-  avocations, because of the new regulations and
sideration of this honorable House.              rectifications they may meet with.
I think I see a free and independent kingdom     I think I see the valiant and gallant soldiery
delivering up that which all the world hath been  either sent to learn the plantation trade abroad,
fighting for since the days of Nimrod; yea, that  or at home petitioning for a small subsistence;
for which most of all the empires, kingdoms,  as a reward of their honorable exploits; while
states, principalities, and dukedoms of Europe,  their old corps are broken, the common soldiers
are at this time engaged in the most bloody and  left to beg, and the youngest English corps kept
cruel wars; to wit, a power to manage their own  standing.
affairs by themselves, without the assistance and  I think I see the honest industrious tradesman
counsel of any other.                           loaded with new taxes and impositions, disapI think I see a national church, founded upon  pointed of the equivalents,l drinking water in
a rock, secured by a claim of right, hedged and  place of ale, eating his saltless pottage, petitionfenced about by the strictest and most pointed  ing for encouragement to his manufactures, and
legal sanctions that sovereignty could contrive,  answered by counter petitions.
voluntarily descending  into a plain, upon an      In short, I think I see the laborious plowequal level with Jews, Papists, Socinians, Ar-  man, with his corn spoiling upon his hands for
minians, Anabaptists, and other sectaries.      want of sale, cursing the day of his birth, dreadI think I see the noble and honorable peerage  ing the expense of his burial, and uncertain
of Scotland, whose valiant predecessors led ar-  whether to marry or do worse.
mies against their enemies upon their own prop-    I think I see the incurable difficulties of the
er charges and expense, now devested of their  landed men, fettered under the golden chain of
followers and vassalages; and put upon such an  " equivalents," their pretty daughters petitionequal foot with their vassals, that I think I see  ing for want of husbands, and their sons for want
a petty English exciseman receive more horn-  of employment.
age and respect than what was paid formerly to     I think I see our mariners delivering up their
their quondam Mackalamores.                     ships to their Dutch partners; and what through
I think I see the present peers of Scotland,  presses and necessity, earning their bread as unwhose noble ancestors conquered  provinces,  derlings in the royal English navy!
overran countries, reduced and subjected towns     But above all, my Lord, I think I see our anand fortified places, exacted tribute through the  cient mother, Caledonia, like Cesar, sitting in
greatest part of England, now walking in the  the midst of our Senate, ruefully looking round
Court of Requests, like so many English attor-  about her, covering herself with her royal garneys; laying aside their walking swords when  ment, attending the fatal blow, and breathing
in company with the English peers, lest their  out her last with an et tu quoque mi fili!P
self-defense should be found murder.
The " equivalent," or compensation, of ~398,000,
I think I see the honorable estate of barons,  spoken of above, was to be distributed, a great porthe bold assertors of the nation's rights and lib-  tion of it, to the shareholders of the African and Inerties in the worst of times, now setting a watch  dia Company, who had suffered so severely by the
upon their lips, and a guard upon their tongues,  breaking up of the Darien settlement. As the shares
lest they may be found guilty of scandalum mag-  must, in many instances, have changed hands, great
nlatnum, a speaking evil of dignities.  -       inequality and disappointment was to be expected
I think I see the royal state of burghers walk-  in the distribution of this moey;  hih was like
n  their desolate stres h g dn tr  ly, in most cases, to go into the hands of the friends
ing their desolate streets, hanging down their       eent, as a bibe or ecompense for sevices
X n  1.7      of government, as a bribe or recompense for services
heads under disappointments, wormed out of all  on this occasion.
the branches of their old trade, uncertain what    2 The actual exclamation of Cesar, as stated by
hand to turn to, necessitated to become pren-  Suetonius, was in Greek, Kai arv rlcvo v; and thou
tices to their unkind neighbors; and yet, after  also, my child?  The Latin version was undoubtall, finding their trade so fortified by companies,  edly made at the time, by those who reported the




22                          LORD BELHAVEN AGAINST THE                                      [1706.
Are not these, my  Lord, very  afflicting  was riding in his triumphal chariot, crowned
thoughts?  And yet they are but the least part with laurels: adorned with trophies, and apsuggested to me by these dishonorable articles. plauded with huzzas, there was a monitor apShould not the consideration of these things viv- pointed to stand behind him, to warn him not to
ify these dry bones of ours?  Should not the  be high-minded, nor puffed up with overweenmemory of our noble predecessors' valor and  ing thoughts of himself; and to his chariot were
constancy rouse up our drooping spirits?  Are  tied a whip and a bell, to remind him that, notour noble predecessors' souls got so far into the  withstanding all his glory and grandeur, he was
English cabbage stalk and cauliflowers, that we  accountable to the people for his administration,
should show  the least inclination that way?  and would be punished as other men, if found
Are our eyes so blinded, are our ears so deafen- guilty.
ed, are our hearts so hardened, are our tongues    The greatest honor among us, my Lord, is to
so faltered, are our hands so fettered, that in  represent the sovereign's sacred person [as High
this our day-I say, my Lord, in this our day-   Commissioner] in Parliament; and in one parwe should not mind the things that concern the  ticular it appears to be greater than that of a
very being, and well-being of our ancient king- triumph, because the whole legislative power
dom, before the day be hid from our eyes?       seems to be intrusted with him.  If he give the
No, my Lord, God forbid! Man's extremity  royal assent to an act of the estates, it becomes
is God's opportunity: he is a present help in  a law obligatory upon the subject, though contime of need-a deliverer,and that right early  trary to or without any instructions from  the
Some unforeseen providence will fall out, that sovereign.  If he refuse the royal assent to a
may cast the balance; some Joseph or other vote in Parliament, it can not be a law, though
will say, "Why do ye strive together, since ye  he has the sovereign's particular and positive
are brethren?" None can destroy Scotland save  instructions for it.
Scotland's self.  Hold your hands from the pen,    His Grace the Duke of Queensbury, who now
and you are secure! There will be a Jehovah- represents her Majesty in this session of ParliaJireh; and some ram  will be caught in the  ment, hath had the honor of that great trust as
thicket, when the bloody knife is at our mother's  often, if not more, than any Scotchman ever had.
throat.  Let us, then, my Lord, and let our no- He hath been the favorite of two successive
ble patriots behave themselves like men, and we  sovereigns; and I can not but commend his conknow not how soon a blessing may come.           stancy and perseverance, that, notwithstanding
I design not at this time to enter into the  his former difficulties and unsuccessful attempts,
merits of any one particular article.  I intend  and maugre some other specialities not yet dethis discourse as an introduction to what I may  termined, his Grace has yet had the resolution
afterward say upon the whole debate, as it falls to undertake the most unpopular measure last.
in before this honorable House; and therefore, If his Grace succeed in this affair of a union, and
in the further prosecution of what I have to say, that it prove for the happiness and welfare of the
I shall insist upon a few particulars, very neces- nation, then he justly merits to have a statue of
sary to be understood before we enter into the  gold erected for himself; but if it shall tend to
detail of so important a matter.                 the entire destruction and abolition of our naI shall therefore, in the first place, endeavor tion, and that we, the nation's trustees, shall go
to encourage a free and full deliberation, with- into it, then I must say, that a whip and a bell,
out animosities and heats.  In the next place, I a cock, a viper, and an ape, are but too small
shall endeavor to make an inquiry into the na- punishments for any such bold, unnatural underture and source of the unnatural and dangerous taking and complaisance.3
divisions that are now on foot within this isle,    I. That I may pave the way, my Lord, to a
with some motives showing that it is our inter- full, calm, andfree reasoning upon this affair,
est to lay them aside at this time.  And all this  which is of the last consequence unto this nawith all deference, and under the correction of tion, I shall mind this honorable House, that we
this honorable House.                            are the successors of those noble ancestors who
My Lord Chancellor, the greatest honor that founded our monarchy, framed our laws, amendwas done unto a Roman, was to allow him the  ed, altered, and corrected them  from  time to
glory of a triumph; the greatest and most dis-Comissione ueensury, thouh by
3 The High-Commissioner Queensbury, though by
honorable punishment was that of parricide. He  birth a Scotchman, had by ong employment in the
that was guilty of parricide was beaten with  service of the Court, lost all regard for the distinctive
rods upon his naked body, till the blood gushed  interests and honor of his native country. He was
out of all the veins of his body; then he was conciliating in his manners, cool, enterprising, and
sewed up in a leathern sack called a culeus, resolute, expert in all the arts and intrigues of poliwith a cock, a viper, and an ape, and thrown  tics, and lavish of the public money for the accomheadlolng into the sea.                          plishment of his purposes. He had been the agent
My Lord,  patricide is a greater crime than  of the Court for attempting many unpopular meas-.parriide, all the world ever,              ures in the Scottish Parliament; and he had now
parrzcide, all the worlnd over.
In artriump," my L, c"the resolution to undertake the most unpopular
In a triumph, my Lord, when the conqueror measure last."  He was generally hated and suswords. By many at the present day, "Et t, BruL- pected as a renegade; and hence the bitterness
te," has been given as the expression; but for this, with which he is here assailed, as seeking " the enit is believed, there is no classical authority,  tire destruction and abolition of the nation."




1706.]         LEGISLATIVE UNION  OF ENGLAND  AND SCOTLAND.                                  23
time, as the affairs and circumstances of the na-    II. My Lord, I come now to consider our dition did require, without the assistance or ad- visions.  We are under the happy reign, blessed
vice of any foreign power or potentate; and  be God, of the best of queens, who has no evil
who, during the time of two thousand years, design against the meanest of her subjects; who
have handed them down to us, a free, independ- loves all her people, and is equally beloved by
ent nation, with the hazard of their lives and  them  again; and yet, that under the happy
fortunes. Shall not we, then, argue for that which  influence of our most excellent Queen, there
our progenitors have purchased for us at so dear should be such divisions and factions, more dana rate, and with so much immortal honor and  gerous and threatening to her dominions than it'
glory?  God forbid.  Shall the hazard of a we were under an arbitrary government, is most
father unbind the ligaments of a dumb son's strange and unaccountable.  Under an arbitrary
tongue, and shall we hold our peace when our prince all are willing to serve, because all are
patria, our country, is in danger?4  I say this, under a necessity to obey, whether they will or
my Lord, that I may encourage every individ- not. He chooses, therefore, whom he will, withual member of this House to speak his mind  out respect to either parties or factions; and if
freely.  There are many wise and prudent men  he think fit to take the advice of his councils or
among us, who think it not worth their while  Parliaments, every man speaks his mind freely.
to open their mouths; there are others, who can  and the prince receives the faithful advice of his
speak very well, and to good purpose, who shel- people, without the mixture of self-designs.  If
ter themselves under the shameful cloak of si- he prove a good prince, the government is easy;
lence from a fear of the frowns of great men and  if bad, either death or a revolution brings a delivparties.  I have observed, my Lord, by my ex- erance: whereas here, my Lord, there appears
perience, the greatest number of speakers in  no end of our misery, if not prevented in time.
the most trivial affairs; and it will always prove  Factions are now become independent, and have
so, while we come not to the right understand- got footing in councils, in Parliaments, in treaties,
ing of the oath de fideli, whereby we are bound  in armies, in incorporations, in families, among
not only to give our vote, but our faithful ad- kindred; yea, man and wife are not free from
vice in Parliament, as we should answer to God. their political jars.
And in our ancient laws, the representatives of    It remains, therefore, my Lord, that I inquire
the honorable barons and the royal boroughs are  into the nature of these things; and since the
termed " spokesmen."  It lies upon your Lord- names give us not the right idea of the thing, I
ships, therefore, particularly to take notice of am afraid I shall have difficulty to make myself
such, whose modesty makes them  bashful to  well understood.
speak.  Therefore I shall leave it upon you, and    The names generally used to denote the facconclude this point with a very memorable say- tions are Whig and Tory; as obscure as that of
ing of an honest private gentleman to a great Guelfs and Ghibellines; yea, my Lord, they have
Queen, upon occasion of a state project, con- different significations, as they are applied to factrived by an able statesman, and the favorite to  tions in each kingdom.  A Whig in England is
a great King, against a peaceful, obedient peo- a heterogeneous creature: in Scotland he is all
ple, because of the diversity of their laws and  of a piece.  A Tory in England is all of a piece,
constitutions:  " If at this time thou hold thy  and a statesman: in Scotland he is quite otherpeace, salvation shall come to the people from  wise; an anti-courtier and anti-statesman.
another place; but thou and thy house shall per-    A Whig in England appears to be somewhat,
ish."  I leave the application to each particu- like Nebuchadnezzar's image, of different metlar member of this House.5                      als, different classes, different principles, and dif4 Allusion is here made to the story of Cresusferent designs; yet, take them altogether, the
and his dumb child, as related by Herodotus. At are like a piece of some mixed drugget of difthe storming of Sardis, a Persian soldier, through  ferent threads; some finer, some coarser, which,
ignorance of the King's person, was about to kill after all, make a comely appearance and an
Crcesus; when his dumb son, under the impulse of agreeable suit.  Tory is like a piece of loyal
astonishment and terror, broke silence, and exclaim- home-made English cloth, the true staple of the
ed, "Oh man, do not kill my father Croesus i" Thee     renation allof ad   yetif we loo   narrowly
was evidently in the mind of the speaker, and per-                   eie  a dierity of ol
into it, we shall perceive a diversity of colors,
haps in the language actually employed, a play on                p     iv  a             
the words pater, father, and patria, country, which which, according to the various situations and
gave still greater force to the allusion.       positions, make various appearances.  Some5 An appeal is here made, not merely to those  times Tory is like the moon in its full; as apmembers of Parliament who were at first awed into  peared in the affair of the Bill of Occasional Consilence by the authority of the Court, but to the  formity.  Upon other occasions, it appears to be
Squadroue Volante, or Flying Squadron, a party  under a cloud, and as if it were eclipsed by a,
headed by the Marquess of Tweddale, who held the  greater body   as it did in the design of calling
balance of power, and were accustomed to throw  oer te iustrious Princess Sophia.  However..
themselves, during the progress of a debate, on that     this   e      see teir   s are to o
side where they could gain most. This party had        ts  w         a  s   t   s   a   t 
thus far maintained a cautious silence; and the ob-so Whig in his own bow.
ject of Lord Belhaven was to urge them, under the
pressure of a general and indignant public senti- side, before the influence of the Court had time to
ment, to declare themselves at once on the popular operate through patronage or bribery.




24                           LORD BELHAVEN AGAINST THE                                        [1706.
Whig, in Scotland, is a true blue Presbyterian, that man put in, and then they will make her the
who, without considering time or power, will most glorious queen in Europe.
venture his all for the Kirk, but something less    Where will this end, my Lord?  Is not her
for the State.  The greatest difficulty is how to  Majesty in danger by such a method?  Is not
describe a Scots Tory.  Of old, when I knew  the monarchy in danger?  Is not the nation's
them  first, Tory was an honest-hearted, corn- peace andtranquillity in danger?  Will a change
radish fellow, who, provided he was maintained  of parties make the nation more happy?  No,
and protected in his benefices, titles, and dig- my Lord.  The seed is sown that is like to afnities by the State, was the less anxious who  ford us a perpetual increase.  It is not an annual
had the government of the Church.  But now, herb, it takes deep root; it seeds and breeds;
what he is since juredivino came in fashion, and  and if not timely prevented by her Majesty's
that Christianity, and by consequence salvation,  royal endeavors, will split the whole island in
comes to depend upon episcopal ordination, I  two.
profess I know not what to make of him; only    III. My Lord, I think, considering our pres
this I must say for him, that he endeavors to do  ent circumstances at this time, the Almighty
by opposition that which his brother in England  God has reserved this great work for us.  We
endeavors by a more prudent and less scrupulous  may bruise this hydra of division, and crush this
method.6                                           cockatrice's egg.  Our neighbors in England
Now, my Lord, from  these divisions there  are not yet fitted for any such thing; they are
has got up a kind of aristocracy, something like  not under the afflicting hand of Providencee as
the famous triumvirate at Rome.  They are a  we are.  Their circumstances are great and
kind of undertakers and pragmatic statesmen,  glorious; their treaties are prudently managed,
who, finding their power and strength great, both at home and abroad; their generals brave
and answerable to their designs, will make bar- and valorous, their armies successful and victogains with our gracious sovereign; they will rious; their trophies and laurels memorable and
serve her faithfully, but upon their own terms; surprising; their enemies subdued and routed,
they must have their own instruments, their own  their strongholds besieged and taken.  Sieges
measures.  This man must be turned out, and  relieved, marshals killed and taken prisoners,
provinces and kingdoms are the results of their
6 A few words of explanation will make this de- victories.  Their royal navy is the terror of
scription clearer. The English Whigs effected the  Europe; their trade and commerce extended
Revolution of 1688 by combining various interests  through the universe, encircling the whole habagainst James II., and in favor of King William. itable world, and  enderin  their own capital
Hence the party was composed of discordant ma-city the emporium  for the whole inhabitants of
terials; and Belhaven therefore describes it as a.7                              y               
mixed drugget of different threads," although,'as                                            th
a Scotch Presbyterian, he would naturally consider t                     ects freely besto     hei
it as adapted to make "a comely appearance and  treasure upon their sovereign; and above all,
an agreeable suit," from its Low-Church character, these vast riches, the sinews of war, and withand its support of the Protestant succession. The  out which all the glorious success had proved
English Tories were "the true staple of the nation,"  abortive, these treasures are managed with such
being chiefly the old and wealthy families of the Es- faithfulness and nicety, that they answer seasontablishment, holding to High-Church principles and  ably all their demands, thouh at eve so grat
the divine right of kings. They gained the ascend-      ance. Upon these considerations my Lord
0.. a distance. Upon these considerations, my Lord.
ency on the accession of Queen Anne to the throne,t   ove 
and were thus "like the moon in its full."  They  how hard and difficult a thing will it prove to
showed their sense of this ascendency, and their de  persuade our neighbors to a self-denying bill.
termination to maintain it, by the Bill of Occasional'Tis quite otherwise with us, my Lord, as we
Conformity, which excluded from office all persons  are an obscure poor people, though formerly of
who had attended a dissenting place of worship. better account, removed to a distant corner of
Afterward they changed their policy, and sought the world, without name, and without alliances
favor with the Hanover family, by a proposal foor posts mean and precarious; so that I plo"calling over the Princess Sophia," who was the  fss I don't thin  any one  post in the kingdom
next successor to the crown. This gave great of- fs.     r    ie ki g
worth the brigulna [seeking] after, save that of'
fense to Queen Anne, so that now they were under                            ing]  afer, sae tat of
a cloud, and as it were eclipsed. This courting           comlissioner to a long session of a facof the Hanover family (which had hitherto been sup- tious Scots Parliament, with an antedated conported by the Whigs alone) showed the English  mission, and that yet renders the rest of the minTory to be "a statesman," or statemonger, bent on  isters more miserable.8   What hinders us then,
having power from supporting the state. A Scotch                                          -
Tory, on the contrary, was a Jacobite, an "anti-    7 The battle of Blenheim  and other victories of
courtier and anti-statesman," opposed to the very  Marlborough had recently taken place, and had
existence of the new government; while a Scotch  raised England to the height of her military reWhig was a true blue Presbyterian, resolving his  nown, while her naval superiority had been recententire politics into the advancement of his Kirk and  ly established by equally decisive victories at sea.
his country.  The object of this satire on parties    8 By an act passed near the close of King WVill.
was to create a national spirit among the Scotch, iam's reign, the duration of the existing Scottish
which should put an end to their factions, and unite  Parliament was to be prolonged for the period of
them all in maintaining their country's independ- six months after his death. But it did not actually
ence.                                              meet, on the accession of Queen Anne, until the end




1706.]          LEGISLATIVE UNION  OF ENGLAND  AND  SCOTLAND.                                   25
my Lord, to lay aside our divisions, to unite cor- design; and I am content to beg the favor upon
dially and heartily together in our present cir- my bended knees.'~
cumstances, when our all is at stake.  Hanni-                       No answer.
bal, my Lord, is at our gates-Hannibal is come    My Lord Chancellor, I am sorry that I must
within our gates-Hannibal is come the length  pursue the thread of my sad and melancholy
of this table-he is at the foot of the throne. story.  What remains is more afflictive than
IHe will demolish the throne, if we take not no- what I have already said.  Allow me, then, to
tice.  He will seize upon these regalia.  He  make this meditation-that if our posterity, after
will take them as our spolia opimaa,9 and whip  we are all dead and gone, shall find themselves
us out of this house, never to return again.     under an ill-made bargain, and shall have reFor the love of God, then, my Lord, for the  course to our records for the names of the man-.safety and welfare of our ancient kingdom, whose  agers who made that treaty by which they have
sad circumstances I hope we shall yet convert suffered so much, they will certainly exclaim,
into prosperity and happiness!  We want no  " Our nation must have been reduced to the last
means if we unite.  God blessed the peace- extremity at the time of this treaty!  All our
makers.  We want neither men, nor sufficiency  great chieftains, all our noble peers, who once
of all manner of things necessary to make a na- defended the rights and liberties of the nation,
tion happy.  All depends upon management. must have been killed, and lying dead on the bed
Concordia res parva crescunt-small means in- of honor, before the nation could ever condescend
crease by concord.  I fear not these Articles, to such mean and contemptible terms!  Where
though they were ten times worse than they are, were the great men of the noble families-the
if we once cordially forgive one another, and that Stewarts, Hamiltons, Grahams, Campbells, Johnaccording to our proverb, Bygones be bygones, stons, Murrays, Homes, Kers?  Where were
and fair play for time to come.  For my part,  the two great officers of the Crown, the Constain the sight of God, and in the presence of this  ble and the Marischal of Scotland?  Certainly
honorable House, I heartily forgive every man, all were extinguished, and now we are slaves forand beg that they may do the same to me.  And  ever /'
I do most humbly propose that his Grace my    But the English records-how will they make
Lord Commissioner may appoint an Agape, may  their posterity reverence the names of those illusorder a Love-feast for this honorable House, that trious men who made that treaty, and forever
we may lay aside all self-designs, and after our brought under those fierce, warlike, and troublefasts and humiliations, may have a day of re- some neighbors who had struggled so long for
joicing and thankfulness; may eat our meat with  independency, shed the best blood of their nation,
gladness, and our bread with a merry heart. and reduced a considerable part of their counThen shall we sit each man under his own fig-  try to become waste and desolate!
tree, and the voice of the turtle shall be heard    I see the English Constitution remaining firm
in olu land, a bird famous for constancy and  — the same two houses of Parliament;  the same
fidelity.                                        taxes, customs, and excise; the same trade in
My Lord, I shall pause here, and proceed no  companies; the same municipal laws; while all
further in my discourse, till I see if his Grace my  ours are either subjected to new regulations, or
Lord Commissioner [Queensbury] will receive  annihilated forever! And for what?  Only that
any humble proposals for removing misunder- we may have the honor to pay their old debts;
standings among us, and putting an end to our  and may have some few persons present [in Parfatal divisions. Upon my honor, I have no other  liament] as witnesses to the validity of the deed,.. —.~_.___-___ __- ~when they are pleased to contract more!
of nine months. Hence the legality of its assen-      ood God!  What?  Is this an entire surbling was denied by the Duke of Hamilton the mo- render?
ment it convened; and he, with eighty other merm-    My Lord, I find my heart so full of grief and
bers, withdrew before it was constituted. Queens- indignation, that I must beg pardon not to finish
bury, however, proceeded, as High Commissioner, to  the last part of my discourse; but pause that I
open Parliament. This, undoubtedly, is the trans- may drop a tear as the prelude to so sad a story!
action here alluded to. The commission under whichl
he acted was dated back, probably, within the six     his fevent appeal had no effect.  The
months prescribed; and hence the sneer about "an             r         e        a   n. a 
antedated commission."  Violent animosities were  Tieaty of Tnion was ratified by a majority of
created by this procedure.                        thirty-three out of two hundred and one mem9 The spolia opinma, or "richest spoils" of war  bers.  That it was carried by bribery is now
among the Romans, consisted, according to Livy,  matter of history. Documents have beor brought
of the armor and trappings which a supreme con- to light, showing that the sum of X20). )00 was
mander had stripped, on the field of battle, friom the  sent to Queensbury for this purpose by the Enleader of the foe. Plutarch says that, down to his glish ministers  and the names of those to whom
time, only three examples of this kind had occurred  chiefly to t
in Romaiistory  The inage is. therefore, a veythe money was paid, belongiig chiefly to the
in Roman history. The image is. thereforle, a very'
history.,   emy  Squadron6, are given in full.
striking one, representing Scotland as prostrate, and  _Sqlrone, are given in full.
stripped of her regalia (objects of almost supersti-'0 Lord Brouglham, it seems fiomi this passage,
tious veneration to the people), which would be  was not wltlout precedent, wheln he sunk on his
borne off by Enlgland as her spolica opircm, to grace  knees before the House of Lords, in urging the
her triumph.                                      adoption of the Reform Bill.




26                 LORD BELHAVEN AGAINST THE UNION, ETC.                              [1706.
The fate of Belhaven was a melancholy one. took place in behalf of the Stuart family, one ini
He submitted quietly to what he considered the  1715, and the other in 1745. It became at
ruin and dishonor of his country.  Two years  length apparent that the worst evils of Scotland
after, a French fleet, with the Pretender on  arose from her system of clanship; which dividboard, appeared off the coast of Scotland, and  ed most of the country, especially the Highlands,
menaced an invasion of the country.  The gov- into numerous small sovereignties, with the right
ernment was thrown into the utmost disorder; of "pit and gallows," or imprisonment and
and though the fleet withdrew without venturing  death, under the name of " heritable jurisdicon the proposed descent, numerous arrests were  tions."  The course of justice was thus effectumade of suspected persons. Among these were  ally impeded; and a large part of Scotland was
Belhaven and others who had opposed the Union. kept in a state of perpetual disorder by the jealWithout a particle of proof against him, he was ousies and contentions of rival clans.  Immedragged to London. At the end of some weeks, diately after the rebellion of 1745, the right of
however, he was released; but expired almost "heritable jurisdiction" was abolished by an act
immediately after, of grief and indignation at this of Parliament, and the whole kingdom brought
unworthy treatment.'                          under the control of the same courts.  " From
The evils anticipated by Lord Belhaven, and  the time that this act came into full operation,"
depicted in such glowing colors, never actually  says Lord Campbell, " and not from the Union,
occurred.  Nor were the benefits of the Union  commences the prosperity of Scotland; which
so immediate or great as were anticipated by its having been the idlest, poorest, and most turbufriends. The nation remained for a long time in  lent country in Europe, has become one of the
an angry and mutinous state.  Two rebellions most industrious, the most improving, and most
La ~~g iv.375_ —.orderly."
t Laing, iv., 375.




SIR ROBERT WALPOLE.
THE administration of Walpole was the longest which has occurred since the days
of Queen Elizabeth.  He was probably the most dexterous party leader which England ever had; " equally skilled to win popular favor, to govern the House of Commons, and to influence and be influenced by public opinion."
Descended from an ancient and respectable family, he was born at Houghton, in
Norfolkshire, on the 26th day of August, 1676. Part of his boyhood was spent at
Eton, and he was for two years a member of the University of Cambridge; but
in neither of these places did he give any indications of superior talents.  In early
life he was remarkable for nothing but his high spirits and dislike of study.  The
only benefit he seems to have obtained from his early education, was a facility which
he acquired at Eton of conversing in Latin.  This became to him  afterward an
important instrument of power.  George I. could speak no English, and Walpole
no German: so they compromised the matter when he was made Prime Minister;
and all the communications between him and his master, involving the highest interests of the kingdom, were carried on in "very bad Latin."
The first impulse given to the mind of Walpole arose from his being elected a
member of Parliament at the age of twenty-four.  A vein was now struck which
laid open the master principle of his character.  It was a spirit of intense ambition.
From this moment he laid aside all his sluggishness and love of ease; he threw
himself at once into the arena of political strife; and the whole cast of his mind and
feelings, as well as the character of the times, went to secure his early ascendency.
He had naturally great force and penetration of intellect; a clear judgment; a
dauntless spirit; a thorough knowledge of human nature, especially on its weak side;
infinite dexterity in carrying on or counteracting political intrigues; a self-possession
which never forsook him in. the most trying circumstances; and a perfectly unscrupulous freedom in the adoption of every means that seemed necessary to the accomplishment of his designs.  The only acquired knowledge which he brought with him into
public life, was a thorough acquaintance with finance.  It was precisely the knowledge that was needed at that juncture; and it laid the foundation, at no distant period, of the long and almost despotic sway which he exercised over English affairs.
On taking his seat in Parliament, in 1710, he joined himself to the Whig party,
and was almost immediately brought into office as Secretary at War.  Thrown out
soon after by a change of ministry, which arose from the silly prosecution of Sacheverell, he was restored to office in 1714, when the Whigs came into power under
George I.  From this time, for nearly thirty years, he was an active member of the
government, during twenty of which he was Prime Minister.  To this office he was
called, by general consent, in 1721, on the explosion of the South Sea project, which
filled the whole island with consternation and ruin. He had opposed the scheme
and predicted its failure from the outset, though he had the sagacity to profit largely
by speculating in the stock; and now that his predictions were fulfilled, every eye
was turned to Walpole, as the only one fitted, by his financial skill, to repair the shattered credit of the country. He was made First Lord of the Treasury, and Chancellor of the Exchequer, on the second of April, 1721.
Walpole had now reached the summit of his ambition; and if he had only been




28                         SII. ROBERT WALPOLE.
just and liberal to his political associates, he might, pernaps, even in that faithless
and intriguing age, have gone on to enjoy an undisputed supremacy.  But his ambition was domineering and exclusive.  He was jealous of every man in his own
party, whose growing influence or force of character seemed likely to raise him above
the station of a humble dependant.  In about two years he quarreled with Carteret, one of the most gifted men of the age, who came in with him as Secretary
of State, simply because he would allow of no colleague, but was resolved to rule
at the council board as sole master.  Within two years more, he endeavored to put
Pulteney out of the way by a specious offer of the peerage; and thus made the most
eloquent speaker in the House, before the time of Chatham, his enemy for life.
Chesterfield was turned out from his station as Lord Steward of the Household, with
circumstances of personal insult, because he voted against the Excise Bill, which
Walpole himself soon after abandoned.  Others of the nobility, with a number of
military officers, among whom was Lord Chatham, were treated with the same indignity.  Thus he alienated from him, by degrees, nearly all the talent of the Whig
party.
The Opposition which he had to encounter was, therefore, composed of singularly
discordant materials.  To lis'niatural opponents, the Jacobites and Tories, was added
a large body of disaffected Whigs, who took the name of " Patridts."  Bolingbroke,
after the pardon of his treasons by George I., and his return to England in 1724,
though not restored to his seat in the House of Lords, and therefore unable to share
in public debate, was the acknowledged leader of the Tories and Jacobites; and, by
a coalition which he soon after made with Pulteney, became for nearly ten years the
real head of the Opposition. He was qualified for this station by extraordinary abilities and matured experience.  He was a veteran in the arts of popular delusion;
Such was the ascendency of his genius over the strongest minds, that he could unite
Wyndham  and Pulteney in the same measures; and from his station behind the
scenes, could move the machinery of Opposition with the greater coolness because
he had no share in public measures.  Men were thus brought into one body, under
the strictest party discipline, who could never have acted together for a moment on
any other subject.  They comprised a large part of the talent of the kingdom; and
were engaged for years in the struggle to put Walpole down, animated, in most instances, not only by an intense desire for office, but by personal resentment and a
spirit of revenge.
It was certainly a proof of consummate ability in Walpole, that he was able to
stand for a single year against such an Opposition. That he sustained himself, to a
considerable extent, by the systematic bribery of the leading members of Parliament,
there can be no doubt.  Nor is he to be tried by the standard of the present day on
that subject.  Charles II. commenced the system   it was continued under his successor; and when William III. was placed on the throne by the Revolution of
1688, he found it impossible to carry on the government without resorting to the
same means.  " It was not, therefore," as remarked by Cooke in his History of Party, " the minister who corrupted the age; his crime was that he pandered to the
prevailing depravity." But bribery alone could never have given Walpole so cornplete an ascendency. A ministerial majority, even when part of its members are
bribed, demand of their leader at least plausible reasons for the vote they give.
Against such an Opposition as he had to encounter, nothing but extraordinary talents, and a thorough knowledge of affairs, could have maintained him for a single
month at the head of the government.  And it is a remarkable fact, as to the leading measures for which he was so vehemently assailed, his Excise Bill, Wood's Patent, a Standing Army, Septennial Parliaments, the Hanover Treaty, and the Spanish Convention, that the verdict of posterity has been decidedly in his favor. Even




SIR ROBERT WALPOLE                               29
Lord Chatham, who in early life was drawn under the influence of the Opposition
leaders by their extraordinary talents and specious pretensions to patriotism, publicly declared, at a later period, that he had changed his views of the principal
measures of Walpole.
But while posterity have thus decided for Walpole, on the main questions in debate between him and the Opposition, they have been far from awarding to him the
honors of a great statesman.  He undoubtedly rendered a most important service to
his country, by the skill and firmness with which he defeated the machinations of
the Jacobites, and held the house of Brunswick on the throne.  It was not without reason that Queen Caroline, on her dying bed, commended, not Walpole to the
favor of the King, but the King to the protection and support of Walpole.  Still, it
is apparent, from the whole tenor of his conduct, that in this, as in every other case,
he was governed by the absorbing passion of his life, the love of office.  "He understood," says Lord Campbell, " the material interests of the country, and, so far
as was consistent with the retention of power, he was desirous of pursuing them."
We have here the key to every measure of his administration-" the retention of
power /"  It was this that dictated his favorite maxim, ne quieta moveas, because
he felt that change, however useful, might weaken his hold on office.  Hence his
scandalous treatment of the Dissenters, whom he deluded for years with solemn
promises of deliverance from the galling yoke of the Test Act, and thus held them
as firm supporters of his ministry in the most trying seasons; but when driven at
last to say, " 4then will the time come?" he answered, as he always meant, " Never!"  He was afraid of the High Church party; and he chose rather to break his
word, than to venture on what he acknowledged to be a simple aot of justice.  It
was so in every thing.  He would run no personal risk to secure the most certain
and valuable improvements.  He would do nothing to provide against remote dangers, if it cost any great and immediate sacrifice.  He therefore did nothing for the
advancement of English institutions.  He was the minister of the Present, not of
the Future.  His conduct in respect to the Spanish war furnishes a complete exhibition of his character, and has covered his memory with indelible disgrace.  He
knew it to be unnecessary and unjust-" the most unprovoked and unjustifiable
war," as a great writer has observed, " in the English annals."  Any other minister, rather than be forced into it by the popular clamor, would have instantly resigned.  But in the words of Lord Mahon, who was disposed, in general, to judge
favorably of Walpole, " He still clung unworthily to his darling office; thus proving
that a love of power, and. not a love of peace (as has been pretended), was his ruling' principle.  It was a sin against light.  No man had a clearer view of the impending mischief and misery of the Spanish war.  On the very day of the Declaration, when joyful peals were heard from every steeple of the city, the minister muttered,'They may ring the bells now; before long they will be wringing their
hands.' Yet of this mischief and misery he could stoop to be the instrument!"
The selfish and temporizing policy of Walpole, on this occasion, proved his ruin.
The war, which he never intended should take place, and for which he had, therefore, made no preparation, proved disastrous to the English; and the Opposition had
the art to turn the popular odium with double violence upon the minister, for the
failure of a measure which they had themselves forced upon him.  The circumstances attending his fall from power will be detailed hereafter, in connection with
his speech on a motion for his removal from office. He resigned all his employments on the 11th of February, 1742, and died about three years after, just as he
was entering his sixty-ninth year.
The age of Walpole was an age rather of keen debate than impassioned eloquence  If we except Lord Chatham, whose greatest efforts belong to a later pe



30                         SIR ROBERT WALPOLE.
riod, we shall find but little in the leading orators of the day that was lofty or im
posing. They were emphatically business speakers, eagerly intent upon their object,
but destitute of any principles or feelings, which could raise them above the level of
the most selfish minds, engaged in a desperate struggle for office and power.  We
find, therefore, in their speeches, no large views, no generous and elevated sentiments, none of those appeals to the higher instincts of our nature, which are the
crowning excellence of our English oratory.  Any thing of this kind would have
been laughed down by Walpole, as sheer affectation.  Even patriotism, which is too
often a limited and selfish virtue, he regarded as mere pretense.  "Patriots," says
he, " spring up like mushrooms! I could raise fifty of them within the. twenty-four
hours.  I have raised many of them in a single night.  It is but refusing to gratify
an unreasonable or an insolent demand, and up starts a patriot."  The reasonings
of that day were brief and pointed; with no attempts at philosophy; with but little
breadth of illustration; with scarcely any disposition to discuss a subject in its principles.  Parliamentary speaking was literally "a keen encounter of the wits," in
which the ball of debate was tossed to and fro between men of high talent, who
perfectly understood each other's motives, and showed infinite dexterity in twisting
facts and arguments to serve a purpose. It was the maxim of the day, that every
thing was fair in politics.-The best speeches abounded in wit and sarcasm, in sly
insinuations or cutting invective, all thrown off with a light, bold, confident air, in
racy English, and without any apparent effort. The language of debate approached
as near to that of actual conversation, as the nature of the topics, and the flow of
continuous discourse, would permit. It was direct and idiomatic; the language of
men who had lived in the society of Addison and Swift; and who endeavored to
unite the ease and simplicity of the one with the pungency and force of the other.
It is a style of speaking which has always been a favorite one in the British Senate;
and notwithstanding the examples of a loftier strain of eloquence in that body since
the days of Chatham, it is still (though connected with more thorough discussion)
the style which is cultivated by a majority of speakers down to the present day in
both houses of Parliament.




WYNDHAM AND WALPOLE ON THE SEPTENNIAL ACT.
INTRODUCTION.
THE Septennial Act was passed in 1716, extending the duration of Parliaments from three to seven
Fears. By an extraordinary stretch of power, the Act was made applicable to the Parliament that passed
tt, whose members, by their own vote, thus added four years to their tenure of office. This they did on
the ground that the nation had just emerged from a dangerous rebellion, and that the public mind was
still in so agitated a state, as to render the exciting scenes of a general election hazardous to the public
safety. Whatever may be thought of this plea (and perhaps most men at the present day would unite
with Mr. Hallam in justifying the measure), no one can doubt that the provisions ofthe Septennial Act,
in respect to subsequent Parliaments, were strictly legal.
This Act has now been in operation eighteen years; and Bolingbroke, who planned the leading. measrues of the Opposition, saw that a motion to repeal it would embarrass the ministry, and gratify at once
the landholders and the mob. The landholders, who were almost to a man Jacobites or Tories, would be
zealous for the repeal, since they were not only indignant at the Act, as originally directed against themselves, but had found by experience, that it was greatly for their interest to have frequent elections. The
influence they possessed over their tenantry, could be exerted at any moment, and cost them little or
nothing. This influence the Whigs in power could overcome only at an enormous expense. Every general election was, therefore, a scene of general licentiousness and bribery, to which the common people
looked forward as their harvest season; and so vast was the pecuniary sacrifice to which the Whigs were
thus subjected, that they could never endure it if the elections were of frequent occurrence. Thus, according to Bolingbroke's calculations, if the Act was repealed, the Whigs would be driven from power;
if it was not repealed, they would be loaded with the resentment of all classes, from the highest to the
lowest.
There was a part of the Opposition, however, who were delicately situated in respect to this Act. It
was a measure of their own. They had argued and voted for it as essential to the public security. Such
was the case with Pulteneyand most of the disaffected Whigs; and it was a long time before Bolingbroke
succeeded in wheedling or driving them into his plan. At last, however, party discipline and the desire
of office prevailed. The motion was made on the 13th of March, 1734, and gave rise to one of the most
celebrated debates in English history.
It was on this occasion that Sir William Wyndham, the leader of the Tories in the House, delivered
what was undoubtedly his master-piece of eloquence. This speech, however, is remembered with interest at the present day, only on account of the altercation to which it gave rise between him and Walpole.
He closed with a bitter personal attack on the minister, and thus drew forth a reply of equal bitterness,
which concluded the debate. In this reply, however, Walpole, instead of retaliating upon Wyndham,
turned adroitly upon Bolingbroke as the real author of all the maneuvers against him; and while he thus
threw contempt on Wyndham, by treating him as the mere mouth-piece of another, he inflicted a castigation upon Bolingbroke which, for stinging effect and perfect adherence to truth, has rarely been surpassed
in the British Parliament. This, in connection with the attack of Wyndham, will now be given; and
the reader will observe how dexterously Walpole, in going on, as he does, briefly to defend the Septennial Act, argues with the Tories on their own ground; showing that frequent Parliaments serve to extend
and perpetuate the democratic principle in the English Constitution-a thing against which every true
Tory must feel himself bound to contend.
SIR WILLIAM WYNDHAM'S' ATTACK
ON SIR ROBERT WALPOLE, DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS ON A MOTION FOR THE
REPEAL OF THE SEPTENNIAL ACT, MARCH 13, 1734.
[Mr. Wyndham, after dwelling on a variety  tie interest at the present day, concluded in the
of arguments (chiefly in reply to others), which, following manner:]
from a change of circumstances, are of but lit-    We have been told, sir, in this House, that no
I Wyndham was born in 1687, of an ancient fam-        is to be given to prophecies, therefore I
ily, and was heir to one of the richest baronetcies  shll not pretend to prophesy; but I my spin England. He entered Parliament at the age of  pose a case, which, though it has not yet haptwenty-one, and immediately attached himself to  pened, may possibly happen.  Let us then supBolingbroke, under whose instruction he soon be- pose, sir, a man abandoned to all notions of vir-ame expert in all the arts of oratory and intrigue.  tue or honor, of no great family, and of but a




32                         SIR ROBERT WALPOLE ON THE                                   [1734.
mean fortune, raised to be chief minister of state  to be given to any but for the good of the pubby the concurrence of many whimsical events; lie.  Upon this scandalous victory, let us supafraid or unwilling to trust any but creatures of pose this chief minister plumling himself in defi.
his own making, and most of them equally aban- ances, because he finds he has got a Parliament,
doned to all notions of virtue or honor; ignorant like a packed jury, ready to acquit him at all
of the true interest of his country, and consult- adventures. Let us further suppose him arrived
ing nothing but that of enriching and aggrand- to that degree of insolence and arrogance, as to
izing himself and his favorites; in foreign affairs, domineer over all the men of ancient families.
trusting none but those whose education makes all the men of sense, figure, or fortune in the
it impossible for them to have such knowledge  nation, and as he has no virtue of his own, ridior such qualifications, as can either be of serv- i culing it in others, and endeavoring to destroy
ice to their country, or give any weight or credit  or corrupt it in all.
to their negotiations.  Let us suppose the true    I am still not prophesying, sir; I am only
interest of the nation, by such means, neglected  supposing; and the case I am going to suppose
or misunderstood; her honor and credit lost; I hope never will happen.  But with such a
her trade insulted; her merchants plundered;  minister and such a Parliament, let us suppose a
and her sailors murdered; and all these things prince upon the throne, either for want of true
overlooked, only for fear his administration should  information, or for some other reason, ignorant
be endangered.  Suppose him, next, possessed  and unacquainted with the inclinations and the
of great wealth, the plunder of the nation, with  interest of his people; weak, and hurried away
a Parliament of his own choosing, most of their by unbounded ambition and insatiable avarice.
seats purchased, and their votes bought at the This case, sir, has never yet happened in this
expense of the public treasure.  In such a Par- nation.  I hope, I say, it will never exist. But
liament, let us suppose attempts made to inquire  as it is possible it may, could there any greater
into his conduct, or to relieve the nation from the curse happen to a nation, than such a prince on
distress he has brought upon it; and when lights the throne, advised, and solely advised, by such
proper for attaining those ends are called for, a minister, and that minister supported by such
not perhaps for the information of the particular a Parliament?  The nature of mankind can not
gentlemen who call for them, but because noth- be altered by human laws; the existence of such
ing can be done in a parliamentary way, till a prince or such a minister we can not prevent
these things be in a proper way laid before Par- by act of Parliament; but the existence of such
liament; suppose these lights refused, these rea- a Parliament I think we may.  And as such a
sonable requests rejected by a corrupt majority  Parliament is much more likely to exist, and may
of his creatures, whom he retains in daily pay, do more mischief while the septennial law re.
or engages in his particular interest, by granting  mains in force, than if it were repealed, therefore
them those posts and places which ought never I am most heartily for the repeal of it.
SPEECH
OF SIR ROBERT WALPOLE ON A MOTION TO REPEAL THE SEPTENNIAL BILL, DELIVERED IN
THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, 1734, IN REPLY TO SIR WILLIAM WYNDHAM.
SIR -I do assure you, I did not intend to have  actuated only by motives of envy, and of resenttroubled you on this occasion.  But such inci- ment against those who have disappointed them
dents now generally happen toward the end of  in their views, or may not perhaps hate comour debates, nothing at all relating to the sub- plied with all their desires.
ject; and gentlemen make such suppositions    But now, sir, let me too suppose, and the
(meaning some person, or perhaps, as they say, House being cleared, I am sure no one that hears
no person now in being), and talk so much of  me can come within the description of the perwicked ministers, domineering ministers, minis- son I am to suppose.  Let us suppose in this,
ters pluming themselves in defiances-which  or in some other unfortunate country, an antiterms, and such like, have been of late so much  minister, who thinks himself a person of so great
made use of in this House-that if they really  and extensive parts, and of so many eminent
mean nobody either in the House or out' of it, qualifications, that he looks upon himself as the
yet it must be supposed they at least mean to call only person in the kingdom capable to conduct
upon some gentleman in this House to make the public affairs of the nation; and therefore
them a reply. I hope, therefore, I may be allow- christening every other gentleman who has the
ed to draw  a picture in my turn; and I may  honor to be employed in the administration by
likewise say, that I do not mean to give a de- the name of Blunderer.  Suppose this fine genscription of any particular person now in being. tleman lucky enough to have gained over to his
When gentlemen talk of ministers abandoned to  party some persons really of fine parts, of anall sense of virtue or honor, other gentlemen  cient families, and of great fortunes, and others
may, I am sure, with equal justice, and, I think, of desperate views, arising from disappointed and
more justly, speak of anti-ministers and mock- malicious hearts; all these gentlemen, with repatriots, who never had either virtue or honor; spect to their political behavior, moved by him.
but in the whole course of their opposition are  and by him solely; all they say, either in private




1734.]             MOrTON TO REPEAL THE SEPTENNIAL BILL.                                  33
or public, being only a repetition of the words he    Now, to be serious, and to talk really to the
has put into their mouths, and a spitting out of subject in hand.  Though the question has been
that venom which he has infused into them; and  already so fully and so handsomely opposed
yet we may suppose this leader not really liked  by my worthy friend under the gallery, by the
by any, even of those who so blindly follow him, learned gentleman near me, and by several othand hated by all the rest of mankind.  We will ers, that there is no great occasion to say any
suppose this anti-minister to be in a country  thing further against it; yet, as some new matwhere he really ought not to be, and where he ter has been stated by some of the gentlemen
could not have been but by an effect of too much  who have since that time spoke upon the other
goodness and mercy; yet endeavoring, with all side of the question, I hope the House will in.his might and with all his art, to destroy the dulge me the liberty of giving some of those rea —
fountain from whence that mercy flowed.  In  sons which induce me to be against the motion..
that country suppose him continually contract-   In general, I must take notice, that the nature
ing friendships and familiarities with the em- of our constitution seems to be very much misbassadors of those princes who at the time hap- taken by the gentlemen who have spoken in fa —
pen to be most at enmity with his own; and  vor of this motion.  It is certain that ours is a
if at any time it should happen to be for the in- mixed government; and the perfection of our
terest of any of those foreign ministers to have a constitution consists in this, that the monarchic —
secret divulged to them, which might be highly  al, aristocratical, and democratical forms of gov-.
prejudicial to his native country, as well as to all ernment are mixed and interwoven in ours, so,
its friends; suppose this foreign minister apply- as to give us all the advantages of each, without
ing to him, and he answering, "I will get it subjecting us to the dangers and inconveniences
you; tell me but what you want, I will endeav- of either. The democratical form of government,
or to procure it for you."  Upon this he puts a which is the only one I have now occasion to.
speech or two in the mouths of some of his creat- take notice of, is liable to these inconveniences;.
ures, or some of his new converts.  What he that they are generally too tedious in their conmwants is moved for in Parliament, and when so  ing to any resolution, and seldom brisk and exvery reasonable a request as this is refused, sup- peditious enough in carrying their resolutions.
pose him and his creatures and tools, by his ad- into execution.  That they are always wavering
vice, spreading the alarm over the whole:nation, in their resolutions, and never steady in any of
and crying out, " Gentlemen, our country is at the measures they resolve to pursue; and that
present involved in many dangerous difficulties, they are often involved in factions, seditions, and'
all which we would have extricated you from, insurrections, which expose them  to be made
but a wicked minister and a corrupt majority  the tools, if not the prey of their neighbors.
refused us the proper materials!"  And upon  Therefore, in all the regulations we make with
"this scandalous victory," this minister became  respect to our constitution, we are to guard
so insolent as " to plume himself in defiances!"  against running too much into that form of govLet us further suppose this anti-minister to have  ernment which is properly called democratical.
traveled, and at every court where he was, think- This was, in my opinion, the effect of the triening himself the greatest minister, and making it nial law, and will again be the effect, if it should
his trade to betray the secrets of every court ever be restored.
where he had before been; void of all faith or    That triennial elections would make our govhonor, and betraying every master he ever serv- ernment too tedious in all their resolves is evied.  I could carry my suppositions a great deal dent; because, in such case, no prudent adminfurther, and I may say I mean no person now in  istration would ever resolve upon any measure
being; but if we can suppose such a one, can  of consequence till they had felt, not only the
there be imagined a greater disgrace to human  pulse of the Parliament, but the pulse of the peonature than such a wretch as this?1           pie.  The ministers of state would always labor
under this disadvantage, that as secrets of state
" i~ How must Wyndham and Pulteney," says must not be immediately divulged, their enemies
Lord Mahon, "have quailed before this terrible in- (and enemies they will always have) would have
vective! How must it have wrung the haughty, ad r     -
soul of Bolingbroke!"  Every word of it was true.    handle for exposing their measures, an rende
While Secretary of State under Queen Anne, he ing them disagreeable to the people, and theremaintained a treasonable correspondence with the by carrying perhaps a new election against them,
Pretender, though he contrived, at the time, to con- before they could have an opportunity ofjustifyceal the evidence, which has since been made pub- ing their measures, by divulging those facts and
lie. On the accession of George I. he fled to France, circumstances from whence the justice and the
and was made the Pretender's Secretary of State. wisdom of their measures would clearly appear.
Having quarreled with his new master, after some Then it is by experience well known, that what
years, such were his powers of insinuation, that he is called the populace of every country are apt to
obtained a pardon from George I., and was thus restored to a country " where he could not have been, understood that this speech of Walpole drove him
but by the effect of too much goodness and mercy." from the country. Lord Mahon has indeed shown
Here he did the very things described by Walpole; that he had other reasons for going; but this does
his friends did not deny it, or attempt his defense. not prove that Walpole's invective was not one imAs he soon after gave up the contest, and announced portant cause, by destroying all his hopes of future
his intention to quit England forever, it has been success.
C




34                          SIR ROBERT WALPOLE ON THE                                    [1734.
be too much elated with success, and too much    As to bribery and corruption, if it were posdejected with every misfortune.  This makes sible to influence, by such base means, the mathem wavering in their opinions about affairs of  jority of the electors of Great Britain, to choose
state, and never long of the same mind.  And  such men as would probably give up their libas this House is chosen by the free and unbiased  erties-if it were possible to influence, by such
voice of the people in general, if this choice were  means, a majority of the members of this House
so often renewed, we might expect that this  to consent'to the establishment of arbitrary powHouse would be as wavering and as unsteady  er-I should readily allow, that the calculations
as the people usually are.  And it being impos- made by the gentlemen of the other side were
sible to carry on the public affairs of the nation  just, and their inference true.  But I am  perwithout the concurrence of this House, the min- suaded that neither of these is possible.  As the
isters would always be obliged to comply, and  members of this House generally are, and must
consequently would be obliged to change their always be, gentlemen of fortune and figure in
measures as often as the people changed their their country, is it possible to suppose that any
minds.                                          of them could, by a pension or a post, be influWith septennial Parliaments we are not ex- enced to consent to the overthrow of our constiposed to either of these misfortunes, because, if tution, by which the enjoyment, not only of what
the ministers, after having felt the pulse of the  he got, but of what he before had, would be renParliament (which they can always soon do), re- dered altogether precarious?  I will allow, that
solve upon any measures, they have generally  with respect to bribery, the price must be hightime enough, before the new election comes on, er or lower, generally in proportion to the virtue
to give the people proper information, in order of the man who is to be bribed; but it must liketo show them the justice and the wisdom of the  wise be granted that the humor he happens to
measures they have pursued.  And if the people  be in at the time, and the spirit he happens to
should at any time be too much elated or too  be endowed with, adds a great deal to his virtue.
much dejected, or should, without a cause, change  When no encroachments are made upon the
their minds, those at the helm of affairs have time  rights of the people, when the people do not
to set them right before a new election comes on. think themselves in any danger, there may be
As to faction and sedition, I will grant, that many of the electors who, by a bribe of ten guinin monarchical and aristocratical governments, eas, might be induced to vote for one candidate
it generally arises from violence and oppression; rather than another. But if the court were makbut in popular or mixed governments, it always ing any encroachments upon the rights of the
arises from the people's having too great a share  people, a proper spirit would, without doubt,
in the government.  For in all countries, and in  arise in the nation; and in such a case I am perall governments, there always will be many fac- suaded that none, or very few, even of such electrious and unquiet spirits, who can never be at ors, could be induced to vote for a court candi-rest, either in power or out of power.  When in  date-no, not for ten times the sum.
power they are never easy, unless every man    There may be some bribery and corruption
submits entirely to their directions; and when  in the nation; I am afraid there will always be
out of power, they are always working and in- some.  But it is no proof of it that strangers
triguing against those that are in, without any  [i. e., non-residents] are sometimes chosen; for
-regard to justice, or to the interest of their coun- a man may have so much natural influence over
try.  Il  popular governments such men have  a borough in his neighborhood, as to be able to
too much game.  They have too many oppor- prevail with them to choose any person he pleastunities for working upon and corrupting the  es to recommend.  And if upon such recomminds of the people, in order to give them a bad  mendation they choose one or two of his friends,
impression of, and to raise discontents against who are perhaps strangers to them, it is not from
those that have the management of the public  thence to be inferred that the two strangers were
affairs for the time; and these discontents often  chosen their representatives by the means of bribbreak out into seditions and insurrections.  This cry and corruption.
would, in my opinion, be our misfortune, if our    To insinuate that money may be issued from
Parliaments were either annual or triennial. By  the public treasury for bribing elections, is really
-such frequent elections, there would be so much  something very extraordinary, especially in those.power thrown into the hands of the people, as gentlemen who know how many checks areupon
-vould destroy that equal mixture, which is the  every shilling that can be issued from  thence;
beauty of our constitution.  In short, our gov- and how regularly the money granted in one
ernment would really become a democratical year for the service of the nation must always
government, and might from thence very prob- be accounted for the very next session in this
ably diverge into a tyrannical.  Therefore, in  House, and likewise in the other, if they have a
order to preserve our constitution, in order to  mind to call for any such account.2  And as to
prevent our falling under tyranny and arbitrary  gentlemen in office, if they have any advantage
power, we ought to preserve this law, which I over country gentlemen, in having something
really think has brought our constitution to a  else to depend on besides their own private formore equal mixture, and consequently to a greater perfectia, than it was ever in before that law    3 Walpole's notorious system of bribery was certook place                                      tainly not conducted in so bungling a manner.




1734.]              MOTION TO REPEAL THE SEPTENNIAL BILL.                                   35
tunes, they have likewise many disadvantages. far from having entirely ceased. Can gentlemen
They are obliged to live here at London with  imagine, that in the spirit raised in the nation
their families, by which they are put to a much  [against the Excise Bill] not above a twelvegreater expense, than gentlemen of equal fortune  month since, Jacobitism and disaffection to the
who live in the country.  This lays them under  present government had no share?  Perhaps
a very great disadvantage in supporting their in- some who might wish well to the present estabterest in the country.  The country gentleman, lishment, did co-operate; nay, I do not know but
by living among the electors, and purchasing the  they were the first movers of that spirit; but it
necessaries for his family from them, keeps up  can not be supposed that the spirit then raised
an acquaintance and correspondence with them, should have grown up to such a ferment, merely
without putting himself to any extraordinary  from a proposition which was honestly and faircharge.  Whereas a gentleman who lives in  ly laid before the Parliament, and left entirely to
London has no other way of keeping up an ac- their determination!  No; the spirit was perquaintance and correspondence among his friends  haps begun by those who are truly friends to the
in the country, but by going down once or twice  illustrious family we have now upon the throne.
a year, at a very extraordinary expense, and oft-  But it was raised to a much greater height than,
en without any other business; so that we may  I believe, even they designed, by Jacobites, and
conclude, a gentleman in office can not, even in  such as are enemies to our present establishment;
seven years, save much for distributing in ready  who thought they never had a fairer opportunity
money at the time of an election.  And I really  of bringing about what they had so long and so
believe, if the fact were narrowly inquired into,  unsuccessfully wished for, than that which had
it would appear, that the gentlemen in office are  been furnished them by those who first raised
as little guilty of bribing their electors with ready  that spirit.  I hope the people have now in a
money, as any other set of gentlemen in the king-  great measure come to themselves; and therefore
dom.                                            I doubt not but the next elections will show, that
That there are ferments often raised among  when they are left to judge coolly, they can disthe people without any just cause, is what I am  tinguish between the real and the pretended
surprised to hear controverted, since very late  friends to the government.  But I must say, if
experience may convince us of the contrary.  the ferment then raised in the nation had not alDo not we know what a ferment was raised  ready greatly subsided, I should have thought
in the nation toward the latter end of the late  a new election a very dangerous experiment.
Queen's reign?  And it is well known what a  And as such ferments may hereafter often hapfatal change in the affairs of this nation was in- pen, I must think that frequent elections will altroduced, or at least confirmed, by an election  ways be dangerous; for which reason, in so far
coming on while the nation was in that ferment.  as I can see at present, I shall, I believe, at all
Do not we know what a ferment was raised in  times think it a very dangerous experiment to
the nation soon after his late Majesty's acces- repeal the Septennial Bill.
sion? And if an election had then been allowed
to come on while the nation was in that ferment,
it might perhaps have had as fatal effects as the    The motion for repeal was rejected by a large
former.  But, thank God, this was wisely pro- majority, and the bill has remained untouched
vided against by the very law  which is now  down to the present time.  Most reflecting men
sought to be repealed.                          will agree with Mr. Macaulay, that " the repeal
It has, indeed, been said, that the chief mo- of the Septennial Act, unaccompanied by a comtive for enacting that law now no longer exists. plete reform of the constitution of the elective
I can not admit that the motive they mean, was  body, would have been an unmixed curse to the
the chief motive; but even that motive is very  country."
SPEECH
OF SIR ROBERT WALPOLE ON A MOTION FOR ADDRESSING THE KING FOR HIS REMOVAL, DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, FEBRUARY, 1.741.
INTRODUCTION.
THE unpopularity of Walpole was greatly increased by the disasters of the Spanish war, all of which
were ascribed to his bad management or want of preparation. The Opposition, therefore, decided, early
in 1741, on the extreme measure'of proposing an address to the King for his removal. Accordingly, Mr.
Sandys, who was designated to take the lead, gave notice of a motion to that effect on the 11th of February, 1741. Walpole rose immediately and thanked him for the information. He went on with great
calmness and dignity, to assure the House that he was ready to meet every charge that could be brought
3 Allusion is here made to the ferment created  Peace of Utrecht, by which the English gained far
by the trial of Sacheverell, and the fall of the Whig less, and their opponents more, than had been
administration of Godolphin, Somers, &c., conse- generally expected under the Whig administra.
quent thereon. This change of ministry led to the  tion.




36                              SIR ROBERT WALPOLE  ON                                     [1741.
against him; that he desired no favor, but simply a fair hearing; and concluded by laying his hand on his
breast, and declaring, in the words of his favorite Horace, that he was "conscious of no crime, and dreaded
no accusation."' At the end of two days the motion was made; and such was the eagerness of public
expectation, that the galleries were filled before daybreak, and many of tie members took their places
in the House at six o'clock in the morning to secure themselves a seat. At one o'clock, when the debate
opened, nearly five hundred members of Parliament were present.
On bringing forward his motion, Sandys, in a speech of great length and considerable ability, went over
all the charges which from time to time had been urged against the minister. As to none of them did he
attempt any new proofs; and nearly all were of that general nature which would certainly justify inquiry,
lut hardly authorize aly decisive action. His main argument, after all, was, that Walpole had been at
the head of affairs for twenty years, and that the people were tired of him as a minister, and hated him
as a man. He ended by saying, " I have not, at present, any occasion for showing that the Favorite I am
now complaining of has been guilty of heinous crimes, yet I will say that there is a very general suspicion
against him; that this suspicion is justified by the present situation of our affairs both at home and
abroad; and that it is ridiculous to expect that any proper discovery should be made as long as he is in
possession of all the proofs, and has the distribution of all the penalties the crown can inflict, as well as
of all the favors the crown can bestow. Remove him from the King's councils and presence; remove
him from those high offices and power he is now possessed of. If he has been guilty of any crimes, the
proofs may then be come at, and the witnesses against him will not be afraid to appear. Till you do this,
it is impossible to determine whether he is guilty or innocent; and, considering the universal clamor
against him, it is high time to reduce him to such a condition that he may be brought to a fair, an impartial, and a strict account. If he were conscious of his being entirely innocent, and had a due regard to
the security and glory of his master and sovereign, he would have chosen to have put himself into this
condition long before this time. Since he has not thought fit to do so, it is our duty to endeavor to do it
for him; and, therefore, I shall conclude with moving,'That an humble address be presented to his Majesty, that he would be graciously pleased to remove the right honorable Sir Robert Walpole, knight of
the most noble order of the garter, first commissioner for executing the office of treasurer of the exchequer, chancellor and under-treasurer of the exchequer, and one of his Majesty's most honorable privy council, from his Majesty's presence and councils forever.'"
A few days after, Walpole made a speech of four hours, in reply to Sandys and others, by whom he had
been attacked. We have only an imperfect outline of his argument in the speech given below, but there
is reason to believe that the introductory part and the conclusion are very nearly in his own words.
SPEECH, &c.
IT has been observed by several gentlemen, in  terity with disgrace and infamy?  I will not
vindication of this motion, that if it should be  conceal my sentiments, that to be named in Parcarried, neither my life, liberty, nor estate will liament as a subject of inquiry, is to me a matter
be affected.  But do the honorable gentlemen  of great concern.  But I have the satisfaction,
consider my character and reputation as of no  at the same time, to reflect, that the impression
moment?  Is it no imputation to be arraigned  to be made depends upon the consistency of the
before this House, in which I have sat forty  charge and the motives of the prosecutors.
years, and to have my name transmitted to pos-    Had the charge been reduced to specific allegations, I should have felt myself called upon for
In quoting the words of Horace (Epistle I., 61), a specific defense.  Had I served a weak or'Walpole gave them thus:                         wicked master, and implicitly obeyed his dicNil conscire sibi, nulli pallescere culpr.  tates, obedience to his commands must have been
Pulteney, who sat by, cried out, "Your Latin is as my only justification.  But as it has been my
bad as your logic"  " Nulld pallescere culpad!"  
bad as your logic!"  1.1 Nulld pallescere culpd!  good fortune to serve a master who wants no
Walpole defended his quotation, and offered to bet                       a m     r w    w     
a guinea on its correctness. The question was ac-      ministers, and would have hearkened to
cordingly referred to Sir Nicholas Hardinge, clerk  ""  m  defense must rest on my own conduct.
of the House, whose extraordinary erudition was ac- The consciousness of innocence is also a suffiknowledged by all, and he at once decided in favor cient support against my present prosecutors.
of Pulteney. Walpole tossed him the guinea, and  A further justification is derived from a considPulteney, as he caught it, held it up before the  eration of the views and abilities of the prosecuHouse, exclaiming, "It is the only money I have re- tors.  Had I been guilty of great enormities,
ceived from the treasury for many years, and it shall they   ant neither zeal and inclination to brin
be the last."  He kept the guinea to the end of his the      r    
them forward, nor ability to place them in the
life, as a memento of this occurrence, and left it to           n   a        t              in 
most prominent point of view. But as I am conhis children, with a paper stating how it was won, m    prominent point of view.  But as I am conand adding, "This guinea I desire may be kept as ScioUS of no crime, my own experience convinces
an heir-loom. It will prove to my posterity the use me that none can be justly imputed.
of knowing Latin, and will encourage them in their    I must therefore ask the gentlemen, From
learning."  It is now deposited in the medal-room  whence does this attack proceed?  From the
of the British Museum.                           passions and prejudices of the parties combined




1741.]              ADDRESSING  THE KING FOR HIS REMOVAL.                                   37
against me, who may be divided into three class- be asked on this point, Are the people on the
es, the Boys, the riper Patriots, and the Tories.' court side more united than on the other?  Are
The Tories I can easily forgive. They have un- not the Tories, Jacobites, and Patriots equally
willingly come into the measure; and they do  determined?  What makes this strict union?
me honor in thinking it necessary to remove me, What cements this heterogeneous mass?  Party
as their only obstacle. What, then, is the infer- engagements and personal attachments.  Howence to be drawn from these premises?  That ever different their views and principles, they all
demerit with my opponents ought to be consid- agree in opposition.  The Jacobites distress the
ered as merit with others.  But my great and  government they would subvert; the Tories conprincipal crime is my long continuance in office; tend for party prevalence and power.  The Paor, in other words, the long exclusion of those  triots, from discontent and disappointment, would
who now complain against me. This is the hei- change the ministry, that themselves may exnous offense which exceeds all others.  I keep  clusively succeed. They have labored this point
from them  the possession of that power, those  twenty years unsuccessfully.  They are impahonors, and those emoluments, to which they so  tient of longer delay.  They clamor for change
ardently and pertinaciously aspire.  I will not of measures, but mean only change of ministers.
attempt to deny the reasonableness and necessity    In party contests, why should not both sides
of a party war; but in carrying on that war, all be equally steady?  Does not a Whig adminisprinciples and rules of justice should not be de- tration as well deserve the support of the Whigs
parted from. The Tories must confess that the  as the contrary?  Why is not principle the cemost obnoxious persons have felt few instances ment in one as well as the other; especially
of extra-judicial power.  Wherever they have when my opponents confess that all is leveled
been arraigned, a plain charge has been exhib- against one man?  Why this one man?  Beited against them. They have had an impartial cause they think, vainly, nobody else could withtrial, and have been permitted to make their de- stand them. All others are treated as tools and
fense.  And will they, who have experienced  vassals.  The one is the corrupter; the numthis fair and equitable mode of proceeding, act bers corrupted. But whence this cry of corrupin direct opposition to every principle of justice, tion, and exclusive claim  of honorable distincand establish this fatal precedent of parliament- tion?  Compare the estates, characters, and forary inquisition?  Whom would they conciliate  tunes of the Commons on one side with those on
by a conduct so contrary to principle and pre- the other. Let the matter be fairly investigated
cedent?                                        Survey and examine the individuals who usually
Can it be fitting in them  [the Tories], who  support the measures of government, and those
have divided the public opinion of the nation, to  who are in opposition. Let us see to whose side
share it with those who now appear as their the balance preponderates.  Look round both
competitors?  With the men of yesterday, the  Houses, and see to which side the balance of virboys in politics, who would be absolutely con- tue and talents preponderates!  Are all these
temptible did not their audacity render them de- on one side, and not on the other?  Or are all
testable?  With the mock patriots, whose prac- these to be counterbalanced by an affected claim
tice and professions prove their selfishness and  to the exclusive title of patriotism?  Gentlemen
malignity; who threatened to pursue me to de- have talked a great deal of patriotism. A venstruction, and who have never for a moment lost erable word, when duly practiced.  But I am
sight of their object?  These men, under the  sorry to say that of late it has been so much
name of Separatists, presume to call themselves hackneyed about, that it is in danger of falling
exclusively the nation and the people, and under into disgrace. The very idea of true patriotism
that character assume all power.  In their es- is lost, and the term has been prostituted to the
timation, the King, Lords, and Commons are a  very worst of purposes.  A patriot, sir! Why,
faction, and they are the government.  Upon  patriots spring up like mushrooms!  I could
these principles they threaten the destruction of raise fifty of them  within the four-and-twenty
all authority, and think they have a right to  hours. I have raised many of them in one night.
judge, direct, and resist all legal magistrates. It is but refusing to gratify an unreasonable or
They withdraw from  Parliament because they  an insolent demand, and up starts a patriot.  I
succeed in nothing; and then attribute their want have never been afraid of making patriots; but
of success, not to its true cause, their own want I disdain and despise all their efforts. This preof integrity and importance, but to the effect of tended virtue proceeds from personal malice and
places, pensions, and corruption.2  May it not disappointed ambition.  There is not a man
among them whose particular aim I am not able
1 By the Boys he means Pitt, Lyttleton, &c., who  to ascertain, and from what motive they have
were recently from college, with an ardent love of  entered into the lists of opposition.
liberty, and much under the influence of Pulteney. I shall now consider the articles of accusation
and others of more mature age, who were the "riper which they have brought against me, and which
Patriots."
2This refes to a secession from the House head  they have not thought fit to reduce to specific
h                                                       This refers to a secession from the House headl,s
ed by Wyndham, after the debate on the Spanish  charges; and I shall consider these in th  same
convention in 1739. It placed those who withdrew
in a very awkward and even ridiculous position, ency some months after, when war was declared
from which they were glad to escape with consist- against Spain.




38                             SIR ROBERT WALPOLE ON                                      [1741.
order as that in which they were placed by the    I hope it will not be said we had any reason
honorable member who made the motion. First, to quarrel with France upon that account; and
in regard to foreign affairs; secondly, to domestic  therefore, if our accepting of that mediation
affairs; and, thirdly, to the conduct of the war. might have produced a rupture with France, it
I. As to foreign affairs, I must take notice of  was not our duty to interfere unless we had
the uncandid manner in which the gentlemen on  something very beneficial to expect from the acthe other side have managed the question, by  ceptance.  A reconciliation between the courts
blending numerous treaties and complicated ne- of Vienna and Madrid, it is true, was desirable
gotiations into one general mass.               to all Europe as well as to us, provided it had
To form a fair and candid judgment of the  been brought about without any design to dissubject, it becomes necessary not to consider the  turb our tranquillity or the tranquillity of Europe.
treaties merely insulated; but to advert to the  But both parties were then so high in their detime in which they were made, to the circum- mands that we could hope for no success; and
stances and situation of Europe when they were  if the negotiation had ended without effect, we
made, to the peculiar situation in which I stand, might have expected the common fate of arbiand to the power which I possessed.  I am call- trators, the disobliging of both.  Therefore, as
ed repeatedly and insidiously prime and sole min- it was our interest to keep well with both, I
ister.  Admitting, however, for the sake of ar- must still think it was the most prudent part we
gument, that I am  prime and sole minister in  could act to refuse the offered mediation.
this country, am  I, therefore, prime and sole    The next step of our foreign conduct, exposed
minister of all Europe?  Am I answerable for to reprehension, is the treaty of Hanover.4  Sir
the conduct of other countries as well as for that if I were to give the true history of that treaty.
of my own?  Many words are not wanting to  which no gentleman can desire I should, I am
show, that the particular view of each court oc- sure I could fully justify my own conduct.  But
casioned the dangers which affected the public  as I do not desire to justify my own without justranquillity; yet the whole is charged to my ac- tifying his late Majesty's conduct, I must obcount.  Nor is this sufficient.  Whatever was serve that his late Majesty had such information
the conduct of England, I am equally arraigned. as convinced not only him, but those of his counIf we maintained ourselves in peace, and took  cil, both at home and abroad, that some dangerno share in foreign transactions, we are reproach- ous designs had been formed between the Emed for tameness and pusillanimity.  If, on the  peror and Spain at the time of their concluding
contrary, we interfered in these disputes, we are  the treaty at Vienna, in May, 1725; designs,
called Don Quixotes, and dupes to all the world. sir, which were'dangerous not only to the liberif we contracted guarantees, it was asked why  ties of this nation, but to the liberties of Europe.
is the nation wantonly burdened?  If guarantees  They were not only to wrest Gibraltar and Port
were declined, we were reproached with having  Mahon from this nation, and force the Pretender
no allies.                                      upon us; but they were to have Don Carlos marI have, however, sir, this advantage, that all ried to the Emperor's eldest daughter, who
the objections now alleged against the conduct would thereby have had a probability of uniting
of the administration to which I have the honor in his person, or in the person of some of his sucto belong, have already been answered to the  cessors, the crowns of France and Spain, with
satisfaction of a majority of both houses of Par- the imperial dignity and the Austrian dominions.
liament, and I believe to the satisfaction of a  It was therefore highly reasonable, both in France
majority of the better sort of people in the na- and us, to take the alarm at such designs, and
tion. I need, therefore, only repeat a few of these  to think betimes of preventing their being caranswers that have been made already, which I ried into execution.  But with regard to us, it
shall do in the order of time in which the sev- was more particularly our business to take the
eral transactions happened; and consequently  alarm, because we were to have been immedimust begin with our refusing to accept of the  ately attacked.  I shall grant, sir, it would have
sole mediation offered us by Spain, on the breach  been very difficult, if not impossible, for Spain
between that court and the court of France, occasioned by the dismission of the Infanta of    4 Spain now turned her resentment against EnSpain.3                                         gland, and settled her differences with the Emperor
of Germany on terms so favorable to the latter, as
3 The Infanta of Spain was betrothed to Louis to awaken suspicions (which were confirmed by seXV., king of France, when four years old, and was cret intelligence) that some hidden compact had
sent to Paris to be educated there. At the end of been made, for conjointly attacking the dominions of
two years, Louis broke off the engagement and sent England.  To counteract this, England, in 1725,
her back to Madrid. This indignity awakened the  united with France, Prussia, Denmark, and Holland,
keenest resentment at the Spanish court, which  in an opposing league, by a compact called the
sought to involve England in the quarrel by offering  treaty of Hanover, from the place where it was
to make her sole mediator in respect to existing  made. The evidence of these facts could not then
differences between Spain and the Emperor of Ger- be brought forward to defend the ministry; and
many, thus throwing Spain entirely into the hands hence the treaty of Hanover, and the consequent
of England. The English government, for the rea- expenditures on the Continent, were extremely unsons here assigned by Walpole, wisely rejected the  popular in England. But subsequent disclosures
mediation, and this was now imputed to him as a have made it nearly or quite certain, that every
crime.                                          thing here alleged by Walpole was strictly true.




1741.]               ADDRESSING THE KING FOR HIS REMOVAL.                                     39
and the Emperor joined together, to have invaded  of the cabinet to assist the house of Austria, in
or made themselves masters of any of the Brit- conformity with the articles of that guarantee.
ish dominions.  But will it be said they might    As to the guarantee of the Pragmatic Sancnot have invaded the King's dominions in Ger- tion, I am really surprised to find that measure
many, in order to force him to a compliance with  objected to.  It was so universally approved of.
what they desired of him as King of Great Brit- both within doors and without, that till this very
ain?  And if those dominions had been invaded  day I think no fault was ever found with it, unon account of a quarrel with this nation, should  less it was that of being too long delayed.  If
we not have been obliged, both in honor and in- it was so necessary for supporting the balance
terest, to defend them?  When we were thus of power in Europe, as has been insisted on in
threatened, it was therefore absolutely necessary  this debate, to preserve entire the dominions of
for us to make an alliance with France; and  the house of Austria, surely it was not our busithat we might not trust too much to their assist- ness to insist upon a partition of them in favor
ance, it was likewise necessary to form  allian- of any of the princes of the empire.  But if we
ces with the northern powers, and with some of had, could we have expected that the house of
the princes in Germany, which we never did, Austria would have agreed to any such partition.
nor ever could do, without granting them imme- even for the acquisition of our guarantee?  The
diate subsidies.  These measures were, there- King of Prussia had, it is true, a claim upon
fore, I still think, not only prudent, but necessa- some lordships in Silesia; but that claim was
ry; and by these measures we made it much  absolutely denied by the court of Vienna, and
more dangerous for the Emperor and Spain to  was not at that time so much insisted on by the
attack us, than it would otherwise have been.   late King of Prussia.  Nay, if he had lived till
But still, sir, though by these alliances we put this time, I believe it would not now have been
ourselves upon anequal footing with our ene- insisted on; for he acceded to that guarantee
mies in case of an attack, yet, in order to pre- without any reservation of that claim; therefore
serve the tranquillity of Europe as well as our I must look upon this as an objection which has
own, there was something else to be done.  We  since arisen from an accident that could not then
knew that war could not be begun and carried  be foreseen or provided against.
on without money; we knew that the Emperor    I must therefore think, sir, that our guarantee
had no money for that purpose without receiving  of the Pragmatic Sanction, or our manner of dolarge remittances from Spain; and we knew that ing it, can not now be objected to, nor any perSpain could make no such remittances without son censured by Parliament for advising that
receiving large returns of treasure from the West measure.  In regard to the refusal of the cabIndies.  The only way, therefore, to render these  inet to assist the house of Austria, though it was
two powers incapable of disturbing the tranquil- prudent and right in us to enter into that guarlity of Europe, was by sending a squadron to the  antee, we were not therefore obliged to enter
West Indies to stop the return of the Spanish  into every broil the house of Austria might aftergalleons; and this made it necessary, at the  ward lead themselves into.  And therefore, we
same time, to send a squadron to the Mediter- were not in honor obliged to take any share in
ranean for the security of our valuable posses- the war which the Emperor brought upon himsions in that part of the world.  By these meas- self in the year 1733; nor were we in interest
ures the Emperor saw the impossibility of at- obliged to take a share in that war as long as
tacking us in any part of the world, because  neither side attempted to push their conquests
Spain could give him  no assistance either in  farther than was consistent with the balance of
money or troops; and the attack made by the  power in Europe, which was a case that did not
Spaniards upon Gibraltar was so feeble, that we  happen.  For the power of the house of Aushad no occasion to call upon our allies for assist- tria was not diminished by the event of that war,
ance.  A small squadron of our own prevented  because they got Tuscany, Parma, and Placentheir attacking it by sea, and from their attack  tia in lieu of Naples and Sicily; nor was the
by land we had nothing to fear.  They might power of France much increased, because Lorhave knocked their brains out against inaccessible rocks to this very day, without bringing that   Charles VI., emperor of Germany, having no
fortress into any danger.                      male issue, made an instrument called a Pragmatic
lortress into any dirtaogber.   aSanction, by which all his hereditary estates were
I do not pretend, sir, to be a great master of to devolve on his female descendants. To give this
foreign affairs.  In that post in which I have the  instrument greater force, he induced nearly all the
honor to serve his Majesty, it is not my business powers of Europe (and England among the rest, for
to interfere; and as one of his Majesty's council, reasons assigned by Walpole) to unite in a guarI have but one voice.  But if I had been the  antee for carrying it into effect. But this, although
sole adviser of the treaty of Hanover, and of all designed to secure Austria against a partition bethe measures which were taken in pursuance of tween various claimants, in case of his death, was
it, from what I have said I hope it will appear certainly not intended to pledge England or any
X'~.~~.,,       i'i ~~other power tointerfere in all the quarrels.in which
that I do not deserve to be censured either as a   he perointeee i            he q rein which
the Emperor might engage. When he became in.
weak or a wicked minister on that account.      volved in war with France, therefore, in 1733, by
The next measures which incurred censure  supporting Augustus for the vacant throne of Powere the guarantee of the Pragmatic Sanction  land, against the remonstrances of Walpole, the lat —
by the second treaty of Vienna, and the refusal ter was under no obligation to afford him aid.




40                            SIR ROBERT WALPOLE ON                                  [1741.
raine was a province she had taken and kept English counsels?7  And if to English counsels,
possession of during every war in which she had  why are they to be attributed to one man?
been engaged.                                    II. I now come, sir, to the second head, the
As to the disputes with Spain, they had not conduct of domestic affairs.  And here a most
then reached such a height as to make it neces- heinous charge is made, that the nation has been
sary for us to come to an open rupture.  We had  burdened with unnecessary expenses, for the sole
then reason to hope, that all differences would purpose of preventing the discharge of our debts
be accommodated in an amicable manner; and  and the abolition of taxes.  But this attack is
while we have any such hopes, it can never be more to the dishonor of the whole cabinet counprudent for us to engage ourselves in war, espe- cil than to me.  If there is any ground for this
cially with Spain, where we have always had a imputation, it is a charge upon King, Lords,
very beneficial commerce.  These hopes, it is and Commons; as corrupted, or imposed upon.
true, sir, at last proved abortive; but I never And they have no proof of these allegations, but
heard it was a crime to hope for the best. This affect to substantiate them by common fame and
sort of hope was the cause of the late Conven- public notoriety!
tion.  If Spain had performed her part of that    No expense has been incurred but what has
preliminary treaty, I am sure it would not have  been approved of, and provided for, by Parliabeen wrong in us to have hoped for a friendly  ment.  The public treasure has been duly apaccommodation; and for that end to have waited  plied to the uses to which it was appropriated
nine or ten months longer, in which time the by Parliament, and regular accounts have been
plenipotentiaries were, by the treaty, to have  annually laid before Parliament, of every article
adjusted all the differences subsisting between  of expense.  If by foreign accidents, by the disthe two nations.  But the failure of Spain in putes of foreign states among themselves, or by
performing what had been agreed to by this their designs against us, the nation has often
preliminary, put an end to all our hopes, and been put to an extraordinary expense, that exthen, and not till then, it became prudent to en- pense can not be said to have been unnecessary;
ter into hostilities, which were commenced as because, if by saving it we had exposed the balsoon as possible after the expiration of the term  ance of power to danger, or ourselves to an atlimited for the payment of the -C95,000.6     tack, it would have cost, perhaps, a hundred
Strong and virulent censures have been cast times that sum before we could recover from
on me for having commenced the war without a that danger, or repel that attack.
single ally; and this deficiency has been ascrib-    In all such cases there will be a variety of
ed to the multifarious treaties in which I have  opinions.  I happened to be one of those who
bewildered myself.  But although the authors thought all these expenses necessary, and I had
of this imputation are well apprised, that all the good fortune to have the majority of both
these treaties have been submitted to and ap- houses of Parliament on my side.  But this, it
proved by Parliament, yet they are now brought seems, proceeded from bribery and corruption.
forward as crimes, without appealing to thejudg- Sir, if any one instance had been mentioned, if
ment of Parliament, and without proving or de- it had been shown that I ever offered a reward
daring that all or any of "hem were advised by  to any member of either House, or ever threatme. A supposed sole minister is to be condemn- ened to deprive any member of his office or emed and punished as the author of all; and what ployment, in order to influence his vote in Paradds to the enormity is, that an attempt was liament, there might have been some ground for
made to convict him  uncharged and unheard, this charge.  But when it is so generally laid,
without taking into consideration the most ar- I do not know what I can say to it, unless it be
duous crisis which ever occurred in the annals to deny it as generally and as positively as it has
of Europe. Sweden corrupted by France; Den-   7 This " critical juncture" was occasioned by the
mark tempted and wavering; the Landgrave of recent death of the Emperor Charles VI. Under the
Hesse Cassel almost gained; the King of Prus- Pragmatic Sanction, his Austrian possessions fell to
sia, the Emperor, and the Czarina, with whom  his daughter Maria Theresa, queen of Hungary;
alliances had been negotiating, dead; the Aus- but were claimed in part by Spain, though chiefly
trian dominions claimed by Spain and Bavaria; by the Elector of Bavaria, supported by France.
the Elector of Saxony hesitating whether he Frederick of Prussia, afterward called the Great,
shud  ced  oh ge   cfewho had just succeeded his father, was fluctuating
should accede to the general confederacy plan- 
Dl1 between France and the Queen; but offered to sup-,ned by France; the court of Vienna irresolut        e latter if she would cede to him Silesia
port the latter if she would cede to him Silesia.
and indecisive. In this critical juncture, if France  Walpole, who wished to defeat the plans of France,
enters into engagements with Prussia, and if the  advised her to yield to this demand, though unjust,
Queen of Hungary hesitates and listens to France, and thus prevent a general war. Her ministers were
are all or any of those events to be imputed to  weak and irresolute, and the affairs of Europe were
in utter confusion. The proud spirit of the Queen
6 This is the only point on which Walpole is tame soon decided the question. She refused the surren
and weak. It is exactly: the point where, if he had der of Silesia, was attacked by Frederick and the
acted a manly part eighteen months before, his de- French, and was on the brink of ruin; when she
fense would have been most triumphant. He knew  made, seven months after this speech was deliverthere was no ground for a war with Spain; and he  ed, her celebrated appeal for support to the Diet of
ought to have held to the truth on that point, even  Hungary, by which, in the words of Johnson, "The
~at the sacrifice of his office.               Queen, the Beauty, set the world in arms."




1741.]             ADDRESSING THE KING FOR HIS REMOVAL.                                  41
been asserted.  And, thank God! till some proof less than c8,000,000 of our debt has been actbe offered, I have the laws of the land, as well ually discharged, by the due application of the
as the laws of charity, in my favor.          sinking fund; and at least X7,000,000 has been
Some members of both Houses have, it is true, taken from that fund, and applied to the ease of
been removed from their employments under the the land tax.  For if it had not been applied to
Crown; but were they ever told, either by me, the current service, we must have supplied that
or by any other of his Majesty's servants, that it service by increasing the land tax; and as the
was for opposing the measures of the adminis- sinking fund was originally designed for paying
tration in Parliament?  They were removed  off our debts, and easing us of our taxes, the apbecause his Majesty did not think fit to continue  plication of it in ease of the land tax, was certhemn longer in his service.  His Majesty had a  tainly as proper and necessary a use as could be
right so to do; and I know no one that has a made.  And I little thought that giving relief
right to ask him, " What doest thou?"  If his to landed gentlemen, would have been brought
Majesty had a mind that the favors of the Crown  against me as a crime.9
should circulate, would not this of itself be a    III. I shall now advert to the third topic of
good reason for removing any of his servants? accusation: the conduct of the war. I have alWould not this reason be approved of by the ready stated in what manner, and under what
whole nation, except those who happen to be circumstances, hostilities commenced; and as I
the present possessors?  I can not, therefore, am neither general nor admiral-as I have nothsee how this can be imputed as a crime, or how  ing to do either with our navy or army —I am
any of the King's ministers can be blamed for sure I am not answerable for the prosecution of
his doing what the public has no concern in; for it.  But were I to answer for every thing, no
if the public be well and faithfully served, it has fault could, I think, be found with my conduct in
no business to ask by whom.                   the prosecution of the war. It has from the beAs to the particular charge urged against me, ginning been carried on with as much vigor, and
I mean that of the army debentures, I am sur- as great care of our trade, as was consistent
prised, sir, to hear any thing relating to this affair with our safety at home, and with the circumcharged upon me. Whatever blame may at- stances we were in at the beginning of the war.
tach to this affair, it must be placed to the ac- If our attacks upon the enemy were too long decount of those that were in power when I was, layed, or if they have not been so vigorous or so
as they call it, the country gentleman.8  It was frequent as they ought to have been, those only
by them this affair was introduced and conduct- are to blame who have for many years been haed, and I came in only to pay off those public  ranguing against standing armies; for, without
securities, which their management had reduced  a sufficient number of regular troops in proporto a great discount; and consequently to redeem  tion to the numbers kept up by our neighbors, I
our public credit from that reproach which they  am sure we can neither defend ourselves nor
had brought upon it.  The discount at which  offend our enemies.  On the supposed miscarthese army debentures were negotiated, was a riages of the war, so unfairly stated, and so unstrong and prevalent reason with Parliament justly imputed to me, I could, with great ease,
to apply the sinking fund first to the payment frame an incontrovertible defense.  But as I
of those debentures; but the sinking fund could  have trespassed so long on the time of the House,
not be applied to that purpose till it began to  I shall not weaken the effect of that forcible exproduce something considerable, which was not culpation, so generously and disinterestedly adtill the year 1727.  That the sinking fund was vanced by the right honorable gentleman who
then to receive a great addition, was a fact pub- so meritoriously presides at the Admiralty.
licly known in 1726; and if some people were    If my whole administration is to be scrutinized
sufficiently quick-sighted to foresee that the Par- and arraigned, why are the most favorable parts
liament would probably make this use of it, and  to be omitted?  If facts are to be accumulated
cunning enough to make the most of their own  on one side, why not on the other?  And why
foresight, could I help it, or could they be blamed  -
for doing so?  But I defy my most inveterate   9 Here Walpole dexterously avoids the main point
enemy to prove that I had any hand in brigng  of the difficulty. In 1717, it was provided by law
these debentures to a dis, or tt I hd an  that all the surplus income of the government should
these debentures to a discount, or that I had any  converted ntowhat was called the Sinki
sharev ihbe converted into what was called the Sinking
share in the profits by buying them up.       Fund, which was to be used for paying off the pubIn reply to those who confidently assert that lie debt. This principle was strictly adhered to
the national debt is not decreased since 1727, down to 1729, when more than a million of this fund
and that the sinking fund has not been applied  was used for current expenses, instead of laying
to the discharge of the public burdens, I can  taxes to meet them. The same thing was done in
with truth declare, that a part of the debt has six other instances, under Walpole's administrabeen paid off; and the landed interest has been  tion. Now it is true, as Walpole says, that by thus
very much eased with respect to that most un- applying the fund, he lessened the land tax. Still,
uand grievous burden, the land tax. I say  it was a perversion of the fund from its original deequal rand grievous uren, tne lane tax. I say  sign; and if the taxes had been uniformly laid for
so, sir, because upon examination it will appear, all current expenses, and the fund been faithfully
that within these sixteen or seventeen years, no  applied to its original purpose, the debt (small as it
~~-~ ------- - --     ~ — ~_-  then was) might perhaps have wholly been extin8 One who held himself bound to neither party.  guished.




42          SIR ROBERT WALPOLE ON ADDRESSING THE KING, ETC.
may not I be permitted to speak in my own fa- to see those honors which their ancestors have
vor? Was I not called by the voice of the King  worn, restored again to the Commons.
and the nation to remedy the fatal effects of the    Have I given any symptoms of an avaricious
South Sea project, and to support declining cred- disposition?  Have I obtained any grants from
it?  Was I not placed at the head of the treas- the Crown, since I have been placed at the head
ury when the revenues were in the greatest con- of the treasury?  Has my conduct been differfusion?  Is credit revived, and does it now flour- ent from that which others in the same station
ish? Is it not at an incredible height, and if so, would have followed?  Have I acted wrong in
to whom must that circumstance be attributed? giving the place of auditor to my son, and iJ
Has not tranquillity been preserved both at providing for my own family?  I trust that their
home and abroad, notwithstanding a most un- advancement will not be imputed to me as a
reasonable andviolent opposition?  Has the true  crime, unless it shall be proved that I placed
interest of the nation been pursued, or has trade  them  in offices of trust and responsibility for
flourished?  Have gentlemen produced one in- which they were unfit.
stance of this exorbitant power; of the influence    But while I unequivocally deny that I am sole
which I extend to all parts of the nation  of the  and prime minister, and that to my influence and
tyranny with which I oppress those who oppose, direction all the measures of the government
and the liberality with which I reward those  must be attributed, yet I will not shrink from
who support me?  But having first invested me  the responsibility which attaches to the post I
with a kind of mock dignity, and styled me a  have the honor to hold; and should, during the
prime minister, they impute to me an unpardon- long period in which I have sat upon this bench,
able abuse of that chimerical authority which  any one step taken by government be proved to
they only have created and conferred.  If they  be either disgraceful or disadvantageous to the
are really persuaded that the army is annually  nation, I am ready to hold myself accountable.
established by me, that I have the sole disposal    To conclude, sir, though I shall always be
of posts and honors, that I employ this power in  proud of the honor of any trust or confidence
the destruction of liberty and the diminution of  from his Majesty, yet I shall always be ready to
commerce, let me awaken them from their de- remove from his councils and presence when he
lusion.  Let me expose to their view the real thinks fit; and therefore I should think myself
condition of the public weal. Let me show them  very little concerned in the event of the present
that the Crown has made no encroachments, that  question, if it were not for the encroachment that
all supplies have been granted by Parliament, will thereby be made upon the prerogatives of
that all questions have been debated with the  the Crown.  But I must think that an address to
same freedom as before the fatal period in which  his Majesty to remove one of his servants, withmy counsels are said to have gained the ascend- out so much as alleging any particular crime
ency; an ascendency from  which they deduce  against him, is one of the greatest encroachments
the loss of trade, the approach of slavery, the  that was ever made upon the prerogatives of the
preponderance of prerogative, and the extension  Crown. And therefore, for the sake of my masof influence.  But I am far from believing that ter, without any regard for my own, I hope all
they feel those apprehensions which they so earn- those that have a due regard for our constitution,
estly labor to communicate to others; and I and for the rights and prerogatives of the Crown,
have too high an opinion of their sagacity not to  without which our constitution can not be preconclude that, even in their own judgment, they  served, will be against this motion.
are complaining of grievances that they do not
suffer, and promoting rather their private inter-    This speech had a great effect.  The motion
est than that of the public.                 for an address was negatived by a large majority.
What is this unbounded sole power which is    But the advantage thus gained was only temimputed to me?  How has it discovered itself, porary.  A  spirit of disaffection had spread
or how has it been proved?                   throughout the kingdom; and the next elecWhat have been the effects of the corruption, tions, which took place a few  months after,
ambition, and avarice with which I am so abund- showed that the power and influence of Walpole
antly charged?                                were on the decline.  Still he clung to office
Have I ever been suspected of being corrupt- with a more desperate grasp than ever.  He
ed?  A strange phenomenon, a corrupter him- used some of the most extraordinary expedients
self not corrupt! Is ambition imputed to me? ever adopted by a minister, to divide the OppoWhy then do I still continue a commoner?  I, sition and retain his power.  He even opened a
who refused a white staff and a peerage.  I had, negotiation with the Pretender at Rome, to obindeed, like to have forgotten the little ornament tain the support of the Jacobites.  But his ef.
about my shoulders [the garter], which gentle- forts were in vain.  He lost his majority in the
men have so repeatedly mentioned in terms of House; he was compelled to inform the King
sarcastic obloquy.  But surely, though this may  that he could no longer administer the governbe regarded with envy or indignation in another ment; he was created Earl of Orford with a
place, it can not be supposed to raise any resent- pension of c4000 a year, and resigned all his
ment in this House, where many may be pleased  offices on the 11th of February, 1742.




MR. PULTENEY.
WILLIAM PULTENEY, first Earl of Bath, was born in 1682.  He was elected a
member of Parliament in early life, and applied himself to the diligent study of
the temper of the House, and the best mode of speaking in so mixed and discordant
an assembly.  He made no attempts to dazzle by any elaborate display of eloquence; for it was his maxim, that "there are few real orators who commence
with set speeches."  His powers were slowly developed.  He took part in almost
every important debate, more (at first) for his own improvement than with any
expectation of materially changing the vote. He thus gradually rose into one of
the most dexterous and effective speakers of the British Senate.
His speeches, unfortunately, have been worse reported, in respect to the peculiar
characteristics of his eloquence, than those of any of his contemporaries. The following one, however, though shorter than might be wished, is undoubtedly a fail
specimen of the bold, direct, and confident, though not overbearing manner, in which
he ordinarily addressed himself to the judgment and feelings of the House. The
language is uncommonly easy, pointed, and vigorous. The sentences flow lightly
off in a clear and varied sequence, without the slightest appearance of stateliness
or mannerism.  It is the exact style for that conversational mode of discussion
which is best adapted to the purposes of debate.
Walpole, when displaced by the exertions of Pulteney in 1742, had the satisfaction
of dragging down his adversary along with him. He saw that the Opposition must
go to pieces the moment they were left to themselves; that a new administration
could never be framed out of such discordant materials; and that whoever should
undertake it would be ruined in the attempt.  He therefore induced the King to lay
that duty upon Pulteney. The result was just what he expected. The King insisted
on retaining a large proportion of Walpole's friends.  Comparatively few offices remained for others, and both Whigs and Tories were disappointed and enraged.  Pulteney shrunk from taking office himself, under these circumstances. He professed great
disinterestedness; he had no desire for power; he would merely accept a peerage,
which all parties regarded as the reward of his perfidy. He was created Earl of Bath;
and the name of Patriot, as Horace Walpole tells us, became a term of derision and
contempt throughout all the kingdom.  When the newly-created earls met for the
first time in the House of Lords, Walpole walked up to Pulteney, and said to him,
with a mixture of pleasantly and bitterness, for which he was always distinguished,
" Here we are, my Lord, the two most insignificant fellows in England."  Pulteney
died on the 8th of June, 1764.
SPEECH
OF MR. PULTENEY ON A MOTION FOR REDUCING THE ARMY, DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF
COMMONS.
SIR,-We have heard a great deal about Par- tion. A standing army is still a standing army,
liamentary armies, and about an army continued whatever name it be called by. They are a body
from year to year. I have always been, sir, and of men distinct from the body of the people; they
always shall be, against a standing army of any are governed by different laws; and blind obekind. To me it is a terrible thing, whether un- dience, and an entire submission to the orders of
der that of Parliamentary or any other designa- their commanding officer, is their only principle.




44                   MR. PULTENEY ON REDUCING THE ARMY.                               [1731
The nations around us, sir, are already enslaved, that case happens, I am afraid that, in place of
and have been enslaved by these very means: Parliament's dismissing the army, the army will
by means of their standing armies they have ev- dismiss the Parliament, as they have done hereery one lost their liberties.  It is indeed impos- tofore. Nor does the legality or illegality of that
sible that the liberties of the people can be pre- Parliament, or of that army, alter the case. For
served in any country where a numerous stand- with respect to that army, and according to their
ing army is kept up.  Shall we, then, take any  way of thinking, the Parliament dismissed by
of our measures from the examples of our neigh- them  was a legal Parliament; they were, an
bors?  No, sir, on the contrary, from their mis- army raised and maintained according to law;
fortunes we ought to learn to avoid those rocks and at first they were raised, as they imagined,
upon which they have split.                   for the preservation of those liberties which they
It signifies nothing to tell me, that our army  afterward destroyed.
is commanded by such gentlemen as can not be    It has been urged, sir, that whoever is for the
supposed to join in any measures for enslaving  Protestant succession must be for continuing the
their country.  It may be so.  I hope it is so! army: for that very reason, sir, I am against
I have a very good opinion of many gentlemen  continuing the army.  I know that neither the
now in the army.  I believe they would not join  Protestant succession in his Majesty's most illusin any such measures.  But their lives are un- trious house, nor any succession, can ever be safe
certain, nor can we be sure how long they may  so long as there is a standing army in the counbe continued in command; they may be all dis- try.  Armies, sir, have no regard to hereditary
missed in a moment, and proper tools of power successions.  The first two Cesars at Rome did
put in their room.  Besides, sir, we know the pretty well, and found means to keep their armies
passions of men; we know how dangerous it is in tolerable subjection, because the generals and
to trust the best of men with too much power. officers were all their own creatures.  But how
Where was there a braver army than that under did it fare with their successors?  Was not evJulius Cesar?  Where was there ever an army  cry one of them  named by the army, without
that had served their country more faithfully? any regard to hereditary right, or to any right?
That army was commanded generally by the A cobbler, a gardener, or any man who hapbest citizens of Rome-by men of great fortune pened to raise himself in the army, and could
and figure in their country; yet that army en- gain their affections, was made Emperor of the
slaved their country.  The affections of the sol- world.  Was not every succeeding Emperor
diers toward their country, the honor and integ- raised to the throne, or tumbled headlong into
rity of the under officers, are not to be depended  the dust, according to the mere whim or mad
on.  By the military law, the administration of phrensy of the soldiers?
justice is so quick, and the punishments so se-    We are told this army is desired to be continvere, that neither officer nor soldier dares offer ued but for one year longer, or for a limited term
to dispute the orders of his supreme commander; of years.  How absurd is this distinction! Is
he must not consult his own inclinations.  If an there any army in the world continued for any
officer were commanded to pull his own father term  of years?  Does the most absolute monout of this House, he must do it; he dares not arch tell his army, that he is to continue them
disobey; immediate death would be the sure  any number of years, or any number ofmonths?
consequence of the least grumbling.  And if an  How long have we already continued our army
officer were sent into the Court of Requests, ac- from year to year?  And if it thus continues,
companied by a body of musketeers with screw- wherein will it differ from the standing armies
ed bayonets, and with orders to tell us what we  of those countries which have already submitted
ought to do, and how we were to vote, I know  their necks to the yoke?  We are now come to
what would be the duty of this House; I know  the Rubicon.  Our army is now to be reduced,
it would be our duty to order the officer to be or never will.  From his Majesty's own mouth
taken and hanged up at the door of the lobby. we are assured of a profound tranquillity abroad,
But, sir, I doubt much if such a spirit could be and we know there is one at home.  If this is
found in the House, or in any House of Com- not a proper time, if these circumstances do not
mons that will ever be in England.            afford us a safe opportunity for reducing at least
Sir, I talk not of imaginary things.  I talk of a part of our regular forces, we never can exwhat has happened to an English House of Corn- pect to see any reduction.  This nation, already
mons, and from an English army.; and not only  overburdened with debts and taxes, must be loadfrom an English army, but an army that was ed with the heavy charge of perpetually supportraised by that very House of Commons, an army  ing a numerous standing army; and remain forthat was paid by them, and an army that was ever exposed to the danger of having its liberties
commanded by generals appointed by them. and privileges trampled upon by any future king
Therefore do not let us vainly imagine that an  or ministry, who shall take in their head to do
army raised and maintained"by~authority of Par- so, and shall take a proper care to model the
liament will always be submissive to them.  If  army for that purpose.
an army be so numerous as to have it in their
power to overawe the Parliament, they will be
submissive as long as the Parliament does noth-    The bill for continuing the army on the same
ing to disoblige their favorite general; but when  footing was passed by a large majority.




LORD CHESTERFIELD.
PHILIP DORMER STANHOPE, fourth Earl of Chesterfield, was born in 1694.  He
was equally distinguished for his love of polite literature, the grace of his manners,
the pungency of his wit, and the elegance of his literary productions.  In later
times he has been most known by his Letters to his Son. These, though admirable
models of the epistolary style, are disfigured by a profligacy of sentiment which has
cast a just odium on his character; while the stress they lay upon mere accomplishments has created a very natural suspicion, among those who have seen him only in
that correspondence, as to the strength and soundness of his judgment. He was unquestionably, however, a man of great acuteness and force of intellect. As an orator, Horace Walpole gave him the preference over all the speakers of his day. This
may have arisen, in part, from the peculiar dexterity with which he could play with
a subject that he did not choose to discuss-a kind of talent which Walpole would
be very apt to appreciate. It often happens that weak and foolish measures can be
exposed more effectually by wit than by reasoning. In this kind of attack Lord
Chesterfield had uncommon power.  His fancy supplied him with a wide range of
materials, which he brought forward with great ingenuity, presenting a succession
of unexpected combinations, that flashed upon the mind with all the liveliness and
force of the keenest wit or the most poignant satire. The speech which follows is a
specimen of his talent for this kind of speaking.  "It will be read with avidity by
those who relish the sprightly sallies of genius, or who are emulous of a style of eloquence which, though it may not always convince, will never fail to delight."
The speech relates to a bill for granting licenses to gin-shops, by which the ministry hoped to realize a very large annual income. This income they proposed to
employ in carrying on the German war of George II., which arose out of his exclusive care for his Electorate of Hanover, and was generally odious throughout Great
Britain.  Lord Chesterfield made two speeches on this subject, which are here
given together, with the omission of a few unimportant paragraphs. It has been
hastily inferred, from a conversation reported by Boswell, that these speeches, as
here given, were written by Johnson. Subsequent inquiry, however, seems to prove
that this was not the fact; but, on the contrary, that Lord Chesterfield prepared
them for publication himself.
Lord Chesterfield filled many offices of the highest importance under the reign of
George II.  In 1728 he was appointed embassador to Holland; and, by his adroitness and diplomatic skill, succeeded in delivering Hanover from the calamities of
war which hung over it. As a reward for his services, he was made Knight of the
Garter and Lord Steward of the Royal Household. At a later period he was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.  This difficult office he discharged with great
dexterity and self-command, holding in check the various factions of that country
with consummate skill. On his return to England in 1746, he was called to the
office of Secretary of State; but, having become wearied of public employments, he
soon resigned, and devoted the remainder of his life to the pursuits of literature and
the society of his friends. He now carried on the publication of a series of papers in
imitation of the Spectator, entitled the World, in which some of the best specimens
may be found of his light, animated, and easy style of writing.  Toward the close
of his life he became deaf, and suffered from numerous bodily infirmities, which filled
his latter days with gloom and despondency. He bore the most emphatic testimony
to the folly and disappointment of the course he had led, and died in 1773, at the
age of seventy-nine.




SPEECH
OF LORD CHESTERFIELD ON THE GIN ACT, DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS, FEBRUARY
21, 1743.
THE bill now under our consideration appears not be in a very great degree promoted by it.
to me to deserve a much closer regard than  For what produces all kind of wickedness but
seems to have been paid to it in the other House, the prospect of impunity on one part, or the sothrough which it was hurried with the utmost licitation of opportunity on the other?  Either
precipitation, and where it passed almost with- of these have too frequently been sufficient to
out the formality of a debate.  Nor can I think  overpower the sense of morality, and even of
that earnestness with which some lords seem in- religion; and what is not to be feared from them,
dined to press it forward here, consistent with  when they shall unite their force, and operate
the importance of the consequences which may  together, when temptations shall be increased,
with great reason be expected from it.           and terror taken away?
To desire, my Lords, that this bill may be con-    It is allowed, by those who have hitherto dissidered in a committee, is only to desire that it puted on either side of this question, that the
may gain one step without opposition; that it people appear obstinately enamored of this new
may proceed through the forms of the House by  liquor.  It is allowed on both parts that this
stealth, and that the consideration of it may be liquor corrupts the mind and enervates the body,
delayed, till the exigences of the government and destroys vigor and virtue, at the same time
shall be so great as not to allow time for raising  that it makes those who drink it too idle and feethe supplies by any other method.                ble for work; and, while it impoverishes them
By this artifice, gross as it is, the patrons of by the present expense, disables them from rethis wonderful bill hope to obstruct a plain and trieving its ill consequences by subsequent indusopen detection of its tendency.  They hope, my  try.
Lords, that the bill shall operate in the same    It might be imagined, my Lords, that those
manner with the liquor which it is intended to who had thus far agreed would not easily find
bring into more general use; and that, as those any occasions of dispute.  Nor would any man,
who drink spirits are drunk before they are well unacquainted with the motives by which parliaaware that they are drinking, the effects of this mentary debates are too often influenced, suslaw shall be perceived before we know that we pect that after the pernicious qualities of this
have made it.  Their intent is, to give us a liquor, and the general inclination among the
dram of policy, which is to be swallowed before people to the immoderate use of it, had been
it is tasted, and which, when once it is swallow- thus fully admitted, it could be afterward ined, will turn our heads.                        quired whether it ought to be made more comBut, my Lords, I hope we shall be so cautious mon; whether this universal thirst for poison
as to examine the draught which these state em- ought to be encouraged by the Legislature, and
pirics have thought proper to offer us; and I am  whether a new statute ought to be made, to seconfident that a very little examination will con- cure drunkards in the gratification of their appevince us of the pernicious qualities of their new  tites.
preparation, and show that it can have no other    To pretend, my Lords, that the design of this
effect than that of poisoning the public.       bill is to prevent or diminish the use of spirits, is
The law before us, my Lords, seems to be to trample upon common sense, and to violate
the effect of that practice of which it is intended  the rules of decency as well as of reason.  For
likewise to be the cause, and to be dictated by when did any man hear that a commodity was
the liquor of which it so effectually promotes prohibited by licensing its sale, or that to offer
the use; for surely it never before was conceiv- and refuse is the same action?
ed, by any man intrusted with the administra-    It is indeed pleaded that it will be made
tion of public affairs, to raise taxes by the de- dearer by the tax which is proposed, and that
struction of the people.                        the increase of the price will diminish the numNothing, my Lords, but the destruction of all ber of the purchasers; but it is at the same time
the most laborious and useful part of the nation  expected that this tax shall supply the expense
can be expected from the license which is now  of a war on the Continent.  It is asserted, thereproposed to be given, not only to drunkenness, fore, that the consumption of spirits will be hinbut to drunkenness of the most detestable and  dered; and yet that it will be such as may be exdangerous kind; to the abuse not only of intox- pected to furnish, from a very small tax, a revicating, but of poisonous liquors.              enue sufficient for the support of armies, for the
Nothing, my Lords, is more absurd than to re-establishment of the Austrian family, and the
assert that the use of spirits will be hindered  repressing of the attempts of France.
by the bill now before us, or indeed that it will    Surely, my Lords, these expectations are not




1743.]       LORD CHESTERFIELD  AGAINST LICENSING GIN-SHOPS.                             47
very consistent; nor can itbe imagined that they  can purchase nothing else; and then the best
are both formed in the same head, though they  thing he can do is to drink on till he dies.
may be expressed by the same mouth.  It is,    Surely, my Lords, men of such unbounded behowever, some recommendation of a statesman, nevolence as our present ministers deserve such
when, of his assertions, one can be found reason- honors as were never paid before: they deserve
able or true; and in this, praise can not be de- to bestride a butt upon every sign-post in the
nied to our present ministers.  For though it is city, or to have their figures exhibited as tokens
undoubtedly false that this tax will lessen the  where this liquor is to be sold by the license
consumption of spirits, it is certainly true that which they have procured.  They must be at
it will produce a very large revenue-a revenue least remembered to future ages as the " happy
that will not fail but with the people from whose politicians" who, after all expedients for raising
debaucheries it arises.                       taxes had been employed, discovered a new methOur ministers will therefore have the same  od of draining the last relics of the public wealth,
honor with their predecessors, of having given  and added a new revenue to the government.
rise to a new fund; not indeed for the payment Nor will those who shall hereafter enumerate
of our debts, but for much more valuable pur- the several funds now established among us, forposes; for the cheering of our hearts under op- get, among the benefactors to their country, the
pression, and for the ready support of those debts illustrious authors of the Drinking Fund.
which we have lost all hopes of paying.  They    May I be allowed, my Lords, to congratulate
are resolved, my Lords, that the nation which no my countrymen and fellow-subjects upon the
endeavors can make wise, shall, while they are at happy times which are now  approaching, in
its head, at least be very merry; and, since pub- which no man will be disqualified from the privlie happiness is the end of government, they seem  ilege of being drunk; when all discontent and
to imagine that they shall deserve applause by  disloyalty shall be forgotten, and the people,
an expedient which will enable every man to lay  though now considered by the ministry as enehis cares asleep, to drown sorrow, and lose in  mies, shall acknowledge the leniency of that
the delights of drunkenness both the public mis- government under which all restraints are taken
eries and his own.                            away?
Luxury, my Lords, is to be taxed, but vice    But, to a bill for such desirable purposes, it
prohibited, let the difficulties in executing the would be proper, my Lords, to prefix a preamlaw be what they will. Would you lay a tax on ble, in which the kindness of our intentions
the breach of the ten commandments?  Would  should be more fully explained, that the nation
not such a tax be wicked and scandalous; be- may not mistake our indulgence for cruelty, nor
cause it would imply an indulgence to all those  consider their benefactors as their persecutors.
who could pay the tax?  Is not this a reproach  If, therefore, this bill be considered and amendmostjustly thrown by Protestants upon the Church  ed (for why else should it be considered?) in a
of Rome? Was it not the chief cause of the Ref- committee, I shall humbly propose that it shall
ormation?  And will you follow a precedent be introduced in this manner: "Whereas, the
which brought reproach and ruin upon those that designs of the present ministry, whatever they
introduced it?  This is the very case now before  are, can not be executed without a great numus.  You are going to lay a tax, and consequent- ber of mercenaries, which mercenaries can not
ly to indulge a sort of drunkenness, which almost be hired without money; and whereas the presnecessarily produces a breach of every one of the  ent disposition of this nation to drunkenness inten commandments?  Can you expect the rev- dines us to believe that they will pay more
erend bench will approve of this?  I am con- cheerfully for the undisturbed enjoyment of disvinced they will not; and therefore I wish I had tilled liquors than for any other concession that
seen it full upon this occasion.  I am sure I have can be made by the government; be it enacted,
seen it much fuller upon other occasions, in which  by the King's most excellent Majesty, that no
religion had no such deep concern.            man shall hereafter be denied the right of being
We have already, my Lords, several sorts of drunk on the following conditions."
funds in this nation, so many that a man must    This, my Lords, to trifle no longer, is the
have a good deal of learning to be master of them. proper preamble to this bill, which contains only
Thanks to his Majesty, we have now among us the conditions on which the people of this kingthe most learned man of the nation in this way. dom are to be allowed henceforward to riot in
I wish he would rise up and tell us what name debauchery, in debauchery licensed by law and
we are to give this new fund.  We have already  countenanced by the magistrates.  For there is
the Civil List Fund, the Sinking Fund, the Aggre- no doubt but those on whom the inventors of
gate. Fund, the South Sea Fund, and God knows this tax shall confer authority, will be directed
how many others.  What name we are to give to assist their masters in their design to encourthis new fund I know not, unless we are to call age the consumption of that liquor from which
it the Drinking Fund.  It may perhaps enable  such large revenues are expected, and to multithe people of a certain foreign territory [Hano- ply without end those licenses which are to pay
ver] to drink claret, but it will disable the peo- a yearly tribute to the Crown.
pie of this kingdom from drinking any thing else    By this unbounded license, my Lords, that
but gin; for when a man has, by gin drinking, price will be lessened, from  the increase of
rendered himself unfit for labor or business, he which the expectations of the efficacy of this




48                         LORD CHESTERFIELD AGAINST                                  [1743.
law are pretended; for the number of retailers your Lordships upon having heard from the new
will. lessen the value, as in all other cases, and  ministry one assertion not to be contradicted.
lessen it more than this tax will increase it.   It is evident, my Lords, from daily observaBesides, it is to be considered, that at present tion, and demonstrable from the papers upon the
the retailer expects to be paid for the danger table, that every year, since the enacting of the
which he incurs by an unlawful trade, and will last law, that vice has increased which it was
not trust his reputation or his purse to the mer- intended to repress, and that no time has been
cy of his customer without a profit proportioned  so favorable to the retailers of spirits as that
to the hazard; but, when once the restraint shall which has passed since they were prohibited.
be taken away, he will sell for common gain,    It may therefore be expected, my Lords, that
and it can hardly be imagined that, at present, having agreed with the ministers in their fundahe subjects himself to informations and penalties mental proposition, I shall concur with them in
for less than sixpence a gallon.              the consequence which they draw from it; and
The specious pretense on which this bill is having allowed that the present law is ineffectfounded, and, indeed, the only pretense that de- ual, should admit that another is necessary.
serves to be termed specious, is the propriety of    But, my Lords, in order to discover whether
taxing vice; but this maxim of government has, this consequence be necessary, it must first be
on this occasion, been either mistaken or per- inquired why the present law is of no force.
verted.  Vice, my Lords, is not properly to be For, my Lords, it will be found, upon reflection,
taxed, but suppressed; and heavy taxes are that there are certain degrees of corruption that
sometimes the only means by which that sup- may hinder the effect of the best laws.  The
pression can be attained.  Luxury, my Lords, magistrates may be vicious, and forbear to enor the excess of that which is pernicious only by  force that law by which themselves are conits excess, may very properly be taxed, that such  demned; they may be indolent, and inclined rathexcess, though not strictly unlawful, may be er to connive at wickedness, by which they are
made more difficult. But the use of those things not injured themselves, than to repress it by a
which are simply hurtful, hurtful in their own  laborious exertion of their authority; or they
nature, and in every degree, is to be prohibited. may be timorous, and, instead of awing the viNone, my Lords, ever heard, in any nation, of a cious, may be awed by them.
tax upon theft or adultery, because a tax im-    In any of these cases, my Lords, the law is nob
plies a license granted for the use of that which  to be condemned for its inefficacy, since it only
is taxed to all who shall be willing to pay it. fails by the defect of those who are to direct its
*-  *             * -* ~  operations.  The best and most important laws
During the course of this long debate, I have will contribute very little to the security or hapendeavored to recapitulate and digest the argu- piness of a people, if no judges of integrity and
ments which have been advanced, and have con- spirit can be found among them. Even the most
sidered them  both separately and conjointly; beneficial and useful bill that ministers can posbut find myself at the same distance from con- sibly imagine, a bill for laying on our estates a
viction as when I first entered the House.    tax of the fifth part of their yearly value, would
In vindication of this bill, my Lords, we have be wholly without effect if collectors could not
been told that the present law is ineffectual; be obtained.
that our manufacture is not to be destroyed, or    I am therefore, my Lords, yet doubtful whethnot this year; that the security offered by the er the inefficacy of the law now subsisting necpresent bill has induced great numbers to sub- essarily obliges us to provide another; for those
scribe to the new fund; that it has been ap- that declared it to be useless, owned, at the
proved by the Commons; and that, if it be same time, that no man endeavored to enforce
found ineffectual, it may be amended another it, so that perhaps its only defect may be that
session.                                      it will not execute itself.
All these arguments, my Lords, I shall en-    Nor, though I should allow that the law is at
deavor to examine, because I am always desir- present impeded by difficulties which can not be
ous of gratifying those great men to whom the broken through, but by men of more spirit and
administration of affairs is intrusted, and have dignity than the ministers may be inclined to
always very cautiously avoided the odium of dis- trust with commissions of the peace, yet it can
affection, which they will undoubtedly throw, in only be collected that another law is necessary,
imitation of their predecessors, upon all those not that the law now proposed will be of any
whose wayward consciences shall oblige them  advantage.
to hinder the execution of their schemes.       Great use has been made of the inefficacy of
With a very strong desire, therefore, though  the present law to decry the proposal made by
with no great hopes, of finding them in the right, the. noble Lord [a member of the Opposition] for
I venture to begin my inquiry, and engage in laying a high duty upon these pernicious liquors.
the examination of their first assertion, that the  High duties have already, as we are informed,
present law against the abuse of strong liquors been tried without advantage. High duties are
is without effect.                            at this hour imposed upon.those spirits which
I hope, my Lords, it portends well to my in- are retailed, yet we see them every day sold in
quiry that the first position which I have to ex- the streets without the payment of the tax reamine is true; nor can I forbear to congratulate  quired, and therefore it will be folly to make a




1743.]                            LICENSING  GIN-SHOPS.                                       49
second essay of. means, which have been found, destroy, or very much impair, the trade of disby the essay of many years, unsuccessful,        tilling, is certainly supposed by those who deIt has been granted on all sides in this debate, fend it, for they proposed it only for that end:
nor was it ever denied on any other occasion, and what better method can they propose, when
that the consumption of any commodity is most they are called to deliberate upon a bill for the
easily hindered by raising its price, and its price  prevention of the excessive use of distilled liqis to be raised by the imposition of a duty. This, uors?
my Lords, which is, I suppose, the opinion of    The noble Lord has been pleased kindly to inevery man, of whatever degree of experience or form us that the trade of distilling is very extenunderstanding, appears likewise to have been  sive; that it employs great numbers; and that
thought of by the authors of the present law; they have arrived at an exquisite skill, and thereand therefore they imagined that they had effect- fore-note well the consequence-the trade of
ually provided against the increase of drunken- distilling is not to be discouraged.
ness, by laying upon that liquor which should be    Once more, my Lords, allow me to wonder at
retailed in small quantities, a duty which none  the different conceptions of different understandof the inferior classes of drunkards would be able  ings.  It appears to me that since the spirits'
to pay.,                        which the distillers produce are allowed to enThus, my Lords, they conceived that they had  feeble the limbs and vitiate the blood, to pervert 
reformed the common people without infringing  the heart and obscure the intellects, that the
the pleasures of others; and applauded the hap- number of distillers should be no argument in
py contrivance by which spirits were to be made  their favor; for I never heard that a law against
dear only to the poor, while every man who  theft was repealed or delayed because thieves
could afford to purchase two gallons was at lib- were numerous.  It appears to me, my Lords,
erty to riot at his ease, and, over a full flowing  that if so formidable a body are confederated
bumper, look down with contempt upon his for- against the virtue or the lives of their fellow-citmer companions, now ruthlessly condemned to  izens, it is time to put an end to the havoc, and
disconsolate sobriety.                          to interpose, while it is yet in our power to stop
But, my Lords, this intention was frustrated, the destruction.
and the project, ingenious as it was, fell to the    So little, my lords, am  I affected with the
ground; for, though they had laid a tax, they  merit of the wonderful skill which the distillers
unhappily-forgot this tax would make no addi- are said to have attained, that it is, in my opintion to the price unless it was paid, and that it ion, no faculty of great use to mankind to prewould not be paid unless some were empowered  pare palatable poison; nor shall I ever contribto collect it.                                  ute my interest for the reprieve of a murderer.
Here, my Lords, was-the difficulty: those who  because he has, by long practice, obtained great
made the law were inclined to lay a tax from  dexterity in his trade.
which themselves should be exempt, and there-    If their liquors are so delicious that the peo-.
fore would not charge the liquor as it issued  ple are tempted to their own destruction, let us
from the still; and when once it was dispersed  at length, my Lords, secure them  from  these
in the hands of petty dealers, it was no longer fatal draughts, by bursting the vials that conto be found without the assistance of informers, tain them.  Let us crush at once these artists
and informers could not carry on the business of in slaughter, who have reconciled their countryprosecution without the consent of the people.   men to sickness and to ruin, and spread over the
It is not necessary to dwell any longer upon  pitfalls of debauchery such baits as can not be
the law, the repeal of which is proposed, since  resisted.
it appears already that it failed only from a par-    The noble Lord has, indeed, admitted that this
tiality not easily defended, and from  the omis- bill may not be found sufficiently coercive, but
sion of what we now propose-the collecting  gives us hopes that it may be improved and enthe duty from the still-head.                   forced another year, and persuades us to endeav-.
If this method be followed, there will be no  or a reformation of drunkenness by degrees, and,
longer any need of informations or of any rig- above all, to beware at present of hurting the
orous or new measures; the same officers that man.ufacture.
collect a smaller duty may levy a greater; nor    I am very far, my Lords, from thinking that
can they be easily deceived with regard to the there are, this year, any peculiar reasons for tolquantities that are made; the deceits, at least, erating murder; nor can I conceive why the
that can be used, are in use already; they are  manufacture should be held sacred now, if it be
frequently detected and suppressed; nor will a to be destroyed hereafter.  We are, indeed, delarger duty enable the distillers to elude the vig- sired to try how far this law will operate, that
ilance of the officers with more success.       we may be more able to proceed with due reAgainst this proposal, therefore, the inefficacy  gard to this valuable manufacture.
of the present law can be no objection.  But it    With regard to the operation of the law, it apis urged that such duties would destroy the trade  pears to me that it will only enrich the governof distilling; and a noble Lord has been pleased  ment without reforming the people; and I beto express great tenderness for a manufacture  lieve there are not many of a different opinion.
so beneficial and extensive.                    If any diminution of the sale of spirits be expectThat a large duty, levied at the still, would  ed from it, it is to be considered that.this dimi
D




50                          LORD CHESTERFIELD  AGAINST                                [1743.
nution will, or will not, be such as is desired for this fund is mortgaged to the public creditors,
the reformation of the people. If it be sufficient, they can prevail upon the Commons to change
the manufacture is at an end, and all the reasons the security. They may continue the bill in force
against a higher duty are of equal force against for the reasons, whatever they are, for which
this; but if it is not sufficient, we have, at least, they have passed it; and the good intentions of
omitted part of our duty, and have neglected the  our ministers, however sincere, may be defeathealth and virtue of the people.              ed, and drunkenness, legal drunkenness, estabI can not, my Lords, yet discover why a re- lished in the nation.
prieve is desired for this manufacture-why the    This, my Lords, is very reasonable, and therepresent year is not equally propitious to the ref- fore we ought to exert ourselves for the safety of
ormation of mankind as any will be that may suc- the nation while the power is yet in our own
ceed it.  It is true we are at war with two na- hands, and, without regard to the opinion or protions, and perhaps with more; but war may be ceedings of the other House, show that we are
better prosecuted without money than without yet the chief guardians of the people.
men.  And we but little consult the military    The ready compliance of the Commons with
glory of our country if we raise supplies for the measures proposed in this bill has been menpaying our armies by the destruction of those  tioned here, with a view, I suppose, of influencarmies that we are contriving to pay.         ing us, but surely by those who had forgotten
We have heard the necessity of reforming the  our independence, or resigned their own.  It is
nation by degrees urged as an argument for im- not only the right, but the duty of either House,
posing first a lighter duty, and afterward a heav- to deliberate, without regard to the determinaier. This complaisance for wickedness, my Lords, tions of the other; for how should the nation reis not so defensible as that it should be battered  ceive any benefit from the distinct powers that
by arguments in form, and therefore I shall only  compose the Legislature, unless the determinarelate a reply made by Webb, the noted walker, tions are without influence upon each other? If
upon a parallel occasion.                     either the example or authority of the Commons
This man, who must be remembered by many  can divert us from following our own convicof your Lordships, was remarkable for vigor, tions, we are no longer part of the Legislature;
both of mind and body, and lived wholly upon  we have given up our honors and our privileges,
water for his drink, and chiefly upon vegetables and what then is our concurrence but slavery,
for his other sustenance.  He was one day rec- or our suffrage but an echo?
ommending his regimen to one of his friends who    The only argument, therefore, that now reloved wine, and who perhaps might somewhat mains, is the expediency of gratifying those, by
contribute to the prosperity of this spirituous whose ready subscription the exigencies our new
manufacture, and urged him, with great earn- statesmen have brought upon us have been sup-:estness, to quit a course of luxury by which  ported, and of continuing the security by which
his health and his intellects would equally be de- they have been encouraged to such liberal constroyed.  The gentleman appeared convinced, tributions.,and told him  "that he would conform to his    Public credit, my Lords, is indeed of very
counsel, and thought he could not change his great importance; but public credit can never
course of life at once, but would leave off strong  be long supported without public virtue; nor in-,!iquorg by degrees."  "By degrees!" says the  deed, if the government could mortgage the
other, with indignation.  " If you should unhap- morals and health of the people, would it be just
pily fall  nto the fire, would you caution your and rational to confirm the bargain.  If the minservints.not to pull you out but by degrees?"   istry can raise money only by the destruction
This answer, my Lords, is applicable to the  of their fellow-subjects, they ought to abandon
present case.  The nation is sunk into the low- those schemes for which the money is necessary;
est state of corruption; the people are not only  for what calamity can be equal to unbounded
vicious, but insolent beyond example.  They not wickedness?
only. break the laws, but defy them; and yet some    But, my Lords, there is no necessity for a
of your Lordship are for reforming them by de- choice which may cost our ministers so much regrees!                                       gret; for the same subscriptions may be proI am not, so easily persuaded, my Lords, that cured by an offer of the same advantages to a
our ministers really intend to supply the defects fund of any other kind, and the sinking fund will,that lay,,hereafterbe discovered in this bill. It easily supply any deficiency that might be suswill doubtless produce money, perhaps much  pected in another scheme.
more than,they appear to expect from it.  I    To confess the truth, I should feel very little,doubt not. but the licensed retailers will be more pain from an account that the nation was for
than fifty thousand,.nd the quantity retailed  some time determined to be less liberal of their
must increase with hqe number of retailers. As contributions; and that money was withheld till
ithe bill will, therefore answer all the ends in- it was known in what expeditions it was to be
tended by it, I do not;.epect to see it altered; employed, to what princes subsidies were to be
for I. have never observed, ministers desirous of paid, and what advantages were to be purchased
amending their own errors, unless they are such  by it for our country. I should rejoice, my Lords,
as have caused adeficiency-in the revenue.    to hear that the lottery by which the deficiencies
Besides. my LorTd,  i t is.qotcertain that, when  of this duty are to be supplied was not filled,




1743.]                           LICENSING  GIN-SHOPS.                                      51
and that the people were grown at last wise  only to thin the ranks of mankind, and to disburenough to discern the fraud and to prefer hon- den the world of the multitudes that inhabit it;
est commerce, by which all may be gainers, to  and is perhaps the strongest proof of political
a game by which the greatest number must cer- sagacity that our new ministers have yet exhibtainly be losers.                               ited.  They well know, my lords, that they are
The lotteries, my Lords, which former minis- universally detested, and that, whenever a Briton
ters have proposed, have always been censured  is destroyed, they are freed from an enemy; they
by those who saw their nature and their tend- have therefore opened the flood-gates of gin upon
ency.  They  have been considered as legal the nation, that, when it is less numerous, it may
cheats, by which the ignorant and the rash are  be more easily governed.
defrauded, and the subtle and avaricious often    Other ministers, my Lords, who had not atenriched; they have been allowed to divert the  tained to so great a knowledge in the art of makpeople from trade, and to alienate them  from  ing war upon their country, when they found
useful industry.  A man who is uneasy in his their enemies clamorous and bold, used to awe
circumstances and idle in his disposition, collects  them with prosecutions and penalties, or destroy
the remains of his fortune and buys tickets in a  them like burglars, with prisons and with gibbets.
lottery, retires from business, indulges himself in  But every age, my Lords, produces some imlaziness, and waits, in some obscure place, the  provement; and every nation, however degenevent of his adventure.  Another, instead of em- crate, gives birth, at some happy period of time,
ploying his stock in trade, rents a garret, and  to men of great and enterprising genius.  It is
makes it his business, by false intelligence and  our fortune to be witnesses of. a new discovery
chimerical alarms, to raise and sink the price of  in politics.  We may congratulate ourselves
tickets alternately, and takes advantage of the  upon being contemporaries with those men, who
lies which he has himself invented.             have shown that hangmen and halters'are unnecSuch, my Lords, is the traffic that is produced  essary in a state; and that ministers may escape
by this scheme of getting money; nor were  the reproach of destroying their enemies by inthese inconveniences unknown to the present citing them to destroy themselves.
ministers in the time of their predecessors, whom  This new method may, indeed, have upon difthey never ceased to pursue with the loudest ferent constitutions a different operation; it may
clamors whenever the exigencies of the govern- destroy the lives of some and the senses of othment reduced them to a lottery.                ers; but either of these effects will answer the
If I, my Lords, might presume to recommend  purposes of the ministry, to whom it is indifferto our ministers the most probable method of ent, provided the nation becomes insensible,
raising a large sum for the payment of the troops  whether pestilence or lunacy prevails among
of the Electorate, I should, instead of the tax and  them. Either mad or dead the greatest part of
lottery now proposed, advise them  to establish  the people must quickly be, or there is no hope
a certain number of licensed wheel-barrows, on  of the continuance of the present ministry.
which the laudable trade of thimble and button    For this purpose, my Lords, what could have
might be carried on for the support of the war, been invented more efficacious than an establishand shoe-boys might contribute to the defense of  ment of a certain number of shops at which poithe house of Austria by raffling for apples.    son may be vended-poison so prepared as to
Having now, my Lords, examined, with the please the palate, while it wastes the strength,
utmost candor, all the reasons which have been  and only kills by intoxication?  From the first
offered in defense of the bill, I can not conceal instant that any of the enemies of the ministry
the result of my inquiry.  The arguments have  shall grow clamorous and turbulent, a crafty
had so little effect upon my understanding, that, hireling may lead him to the ministerial slaughas every man judges of others by himself, I can  ter-house, and ply him with their wonder-worknot believe that they have any influence even  ing liquor till he is no longer able to speak or
upon those that offer them, and therefore I am  think; and, my Lords, no man can be more
convinced that this bill must be the result of agreeable to our ministers than he that can neiconsiderations which have been hitherto conceal- ther speak nor think, except those who speak
ed, and is intended to promote designs which are  without thinkiqzg.
never to be discovered by the authors before    But, my Lords, the ministers ought to reflect,
their execution.                                that though all the people of the present age are
With regard to these motives and designs, their enemies, yet they have made no trial of the
however artfully concealed, every Lord in this temper and inclinations of posterity.  Our sucHouse is at liberty to offer his conjectures.  cessors may be of opinions very different from
When I consider, my lords, the tendency of ours.  They may perhaps approve of wars on
this bill, I find it calculated only for the propa- the Continent, while our plantations are insulted
gation of diseases, the suppression of industry, and our trade obstructed; they may think the
and the destruction of mankind.  I find it the  support of the house of Austria of more importmost fatal engine that ever was pointed at a peo- ance to us than our own defense; and may perple; an engine by which those who are not kill- haps so far differ from their fathers, as to imaged will be disabled, and those who preserve their ine the treasures of Britain very properly emlimbs will be deprived of their senses.        ployed in supporting the troops, and increasing
This bill therefore, appears to be designed  the splendor, of a foreign Electorate.




LORD CHATHAM.
THE name of CHATHAM is the representative, in our language, of whatever is bold
and commanding in eloquence.  Yet his speeches are so imperfectly reported, that it
is not so much from them as from the testimony of his contemporaries, that we have
gained our conceptions of his transcendent powers as an orator. We measure his
greatness, as we do the height of some inaccessible cliff, by the shadow it casts behind.  Hence it will be proper to dwell more at large on the events of his political
life; and especially to collect the evidence which has come down to us by tradition,
of his astonishing sway over the British Senate.
WILLIAM PITT, first Earl of Chatham  was descended from a family of high respectability in Cornwall, and was born at London, on the 15th of November, 1708.
At Eton, where he was placed from boyhood, he was distinguished for the quickness of his parts and for his habits of unwearied' application, though liable, much of
his time, to severe suffering from a hereditary gout. Here he acquired that love of
the classics which he carried with him throughout life, and which operated so powerfully in forming his character as an orator.  He also formed at Eton those habits
of easy and animated conversation for which he was celebrated in after life,  Cut
off by disease from the active sports of the school, he and Lord Lyttleton, who wvas
a greater invalid than himself, found their chief enjoyment during the intervals of
study, in the lively interchange of thought.  By the keenness of their wit and the
brilliancy of their imaginations, they drew off their companions, Fox, Hanbury Williams, Fielding, and others, from the exercises of the play-ground, to gather around
them as eager listeners; and gained that quickness of thought, that dexterity of reply,
that ready self-possession under a sudden turn of argument or the sharpness of retort,
which are indispensable to success in public debate. Almost every great orator has
been distinguished for his conversational powers.
At the age of eighteen, Mr. Pitt was removed to the University of Oxford.  Here,
in connection with his other studies, he entered on that severe course of rhetorical
training which he often referred to in after life, as forming so large a part of his early
discipline. He took up the practice of writing out translations from the ancient orators and historians, on the broadest scale.  Demosthenes was his mode]; and we
are told that he rendered a large part of his orations again and again into English,
as the best means of acquiring a forcible and expressive style.  The practice was
highly recommended by Cicero, from his own experience. It aids the young orator
far more effectually in catching the spirit of his model, than any course of mere reading, however fervent or repeated. It is, likewise, the severest test of his command
of language.  To clothe the thoughts of another in a dress which is at once " close
and easy" (an excellent, though quaint description of a good translation) is a task
of extreme difficulty. As a means of acquiring copiousness of diction and an exact
choice of words, Mr. Pitt also read and re-read the sermons of Dr. Barrow, till he
knew many of them by heart.  With the same view, he performed a task to which,
perhaps, no other student in oratory has ever submitted.  He went twice through
the folio Dictionary of Bailey (the best before that of Johnson), examining each word
attentively, dwelling on its peculiar import and modes of construction, and thus endeavoring to bring the whole range of our language completely under his control,




LORD CHATHAM.                                 53
At this time, also, he began those exercises in elocution by which he is known to
have obtained his extraordinary powers of delivery. Though gifted by nature with
a commanding voice and person, he spared no effort to add every thing that art
could confer for his improvement as an orator.  His success was commensurate with
his zeal.  Garrick himself was not a greater actor, in that higher sense of the term
in which Demosthenes declared action to be the first, and second, and third thing
in oratory.  The labor which he bestowed on these exercises was surprisingly great.
Probably no man of genius since the days of Cicero, has ever submitted to an equal
amount of drudgery.
Leaving the University a little before the regular time of graduation, Mr. Pitt
traveled on the Continent, particularly in France and Italy. During this tour, he
enriched his mind with a great variety of historical and literary information, making every thing subservient, however, to the one great object of preparing for public
life.  "He thus acquired," says Lord Chesterfield, " a vast amount of premature
and useful knowledge."  On his return to England, he applied a large part of his
slender patrimony to the purchase of a commission in the army, and became a Cornet
of the Blues.  This made him  dependent on Sir Robert Walpole, who was then
Prime Minister; but, with his characteristic boldness and disregard of consequences,
he took his stand, about this time, in the ranks of Opposition.  Walpole, by his jealousy, had made almost every man of talents in the Whig party his personal enemy.
His long continuance in office, against the wishes of the people, was considered a
kind of tyranny; and young men like Pitt, Lyttleton, &c., who came fresh from
college, with an ardent love of liberty inspired by the study of the classics, were
naturally drawn to the standard of Pulteney, Carteret, and the other leading " Patriots," who declaimed so vehemently against a corrupt and oppressive government.
The Prince of Wales, in consequence of a quarrel with his father, had now come out
as head of the Opposition.  A rival court was established at Leicester House, within
the very precincts of St. James's Palace, which drew together such an assemblage
of wits, scholars, and orators, as had never before met in the British empire. Jacobites, Tories, and Patriots were here united. The insidious, intriguing, but highlygifted Carteret; the courtly Chesterfield; the impetuous Argyle; Pulteney, with a
keenness of wit, and a familiarity with the classics which made him as brilliant in
conversation as he was powerful in debate; Sir John Barnard, with his strong sense
and penetrating judgment; Sir William Wyndham, with his dignified sentiments
and lofty bearing; and "the all-accomplished Bolingbroke, who conversed in language as elegant as that he wrote, and whose lightest table-talk, if transferred to
paper, would, in its style and matter, have borne the test of the severest criticism"
-these, together with the most distinguished literary men of the age, formed the
court of Frederick, and became the intimate associates of Mr. Pitt.  On a mind so
ardent and aspiring, so well prepared to profit by mingling in such society, so gifted
with the talent of transferring to itself the kindred excellence of other minds, the
company of such men must have acted with extraordinary power; and it is probable
that all his rhetorical studies had less effect in making him the orator that he was,
than his intimacy with the great leaders of the Opposition at the court of the Prince
of Wales.
Mr. Pitt became a member of Parliament in 1735, at the age of twenty-six.  For
nearly a year he remained silent, studying the temper of the House, and waiting for
a favorable opportunity to come forward.  Such an opportunity was presented by
the marriage of the Prince of Wales, in April, 1736. It was an event of the highest
interest and joy to the nation; but such was the King's animosity against his son,
that he would not suffer the address of congratulation to be moved, as usual, by the
ministers of the Crown. The motion was brought forward by Mr. Pulteney; and it




54                            LLORD CHATHAM.
shows the high estimate put upon Mr. Pitt, that, when he had not as yet opened
his lips in Parliament, he should be selected to second the motion, in preference to
some of the most able and experienced members of the House.  His speech was
received with the highest applause, and shows that Mr. Pitt's imposing manner
and fine command of language gave him from the first that sort of fascination for
his audience, which he seemed always to exert over a popular assembly.  The
speech, which will be found below, if understood literally, is only a series of elegant
and high-sounding compliments.  If, however, as seems plainly the case, there runs
throughout it a deeper meaning; if the glowing panegyric on " the filial virture" of
the Prince, and " the tender paternal delight" of the King, was intended to reflect on
George II. for his harsh treatment of his son-and it can hardly be otherwise-we
can not enough admire the dexterity of Mr. Pitt in so managing his subject, as to
give his compliments all the effect of the keenest irony, while yet he left no pretense
for taking notice of their application as improper or disrespectful.  Certain it is that
the whole speech was wormwood and gall to the King.  It awakened in his mind
a personal hatred of Mr. Pitt, which, aggravated as it was by subsequent attacks
of a more direct nature, excluded him for years from the service of the Crown, until
he was forced upon a reluctant monarch by the demands of the people.
Sir Robert Walpole, as might be supposed, listened to the eloquence of his youthful
opponent with anxiety and alarm; and is said to have exclaimed, after hearing the
speech, "We must, at all events, muzzle that terrible Cornet of Horse."  Whether
he attempted to bribe him by offers of promotion in the army (as was reported at
the time), it is impossible now to say; but finding him unalterably attached to the
Prince and the Opposition, he struck the blow without giving him time to make another speech, and deprived him of his commission within less than eighteen days.
Such a mode of punishing a political opponent has rarely been resorted to, under free
governments, in the case of military and naval officers. It only rendered the Court
more odious, while it created a general sympathy in favor of Mr. Pitt, and turned
the attention of the public with new zest and interest to his speeches in Parliament.
Lord Lyttleton, at the same time, addressed him in the following lines, which were
eagerly circulated throughout the country, and set him forth as already leader of
the Opposition.
Long had thy virtues marked thee out for fame,
Far, far superior to a Cornet's name;
This generous Walpole saw, and grieved to find
So mean a post disgrace the human mind,
The servile standard from the free-born hand
He took, and bade thee lead the Patriot Band.
As a compensation to Mr. Pitt for the loss of his commission, the Prince appointed him Groom of the Bed-chamber at Leicester House.
Thus, at the age of twenty-seven, Mr. Pitt was made, by the force of his genius
and the influence of concurrent circumstances, one of the most prominent members
of Parliament, and an object of the liveliest interest to the great body, especially the
middling classes, of the English nation.  These classes were now rising into an importance never before known. They regarded Sir Robert Walpole, sustained as he
was in power by the will of the sovereign and the bribery of Parliament, as their
natural enemy.  Mr. Pitt shared in all their feelings.  He was the exponent of their
principles.  He was, in truqth, " the Great Commoner."  As to many of the measures for which Walpole was hated by the people and opposed by Mr. Pitt, time has
shown that he was in the right and they in the wrong.  It has also shown, that
nearly all the great leaders of the Opposition, the Pulteneys and the Carterets, were
unprincipled men, who played on the generous sympathies of Pitt and Lyttleton, and
lashed the prejudices of the nation into rage against the minister, simply to obtain




LORD CHATHAM.                                  65
his place.  Still the struggle of the people, though in many respects a blind one,
was prompted by a genuine instinct of their nature, and was prophetic of an onward
movement in English society.  It was the Commons of England demanding their
place in the Constitution; and happy it was that they had a leader like Mr. Pitt,
to represent their principles and animate their exertions. To face at once the Crown
and the Peerage demanded not only undaunted resolution, but something of that
imperious spirit, that haughty self-assertion, which was so often complained of in the
greatest of English orators. In him, however, it was not merely a sense of personal
superiority, but a consciousness of the cause in which he was engaged.  He was set
for the defense of the popular part of the Constitution.
In proceeding to trace briefly the course of Mr. Pitt as a statesman, we shall divide his public life into distinct periods, and consider them  separately with reference to his measures in Parliament.
The first period consists of nearly ten years, down to the close of 1744. During
the whole of this time, he was an active member of the Opposition, being engaged
for nearly seven years in unwearied efforts to put down Sir Robert Walpole, and
when this was accomplished, in equally strenuous exertions for three years longer,
to resist the headlong measures of his successor, Lord Carteret. This minister had
rendered himself odious to the nation by encouraging the narrow views and sordid
policy of the King, in respect to his Continental possessions.  George II. was born
in Hanover, and he always consulted its interests at the expense of Great Britain;
seeking to throw upon the national treasury the support of the Hanoverian troops
during his wars on the Continent, and giving the Electorate, in various other ways,
a marked preference over the rest of the empire. To these measures, and the minister' who abetted them, Mr. Pitt opposed himself with all the energy of his fervid
argumentation, and the force of his terrible invective. It was on this subject that
he first came into collision, December 10th, 1742, with his great antagonist Murray,
afterward Lord Mansfield.  Mr. Oswald, a distinguished literary man who was present, thus describes the two combatants: " Murray spoke like a pleader, who could not
divest himself of the appearance of having been employed by others. Pitt spoke like
a gentleman-like a statesman who felt what he said, and possessed the strongest
desire of conveying that feeling to others, for their own interest and that of their
country.  Murray gains your attention by the perspicuity of his statement and the
elegance of his diction; Pitt commands your attention and respect by the nobleness
and greatness of his sentiments, the strength and energy of his expressions, and the
certainty of his always rising to a greater elevation both of thought and sentiment.
For, this talent he possesses, beyond any speaker I ever heard, of never falling from
the beginning to the end of his speech, either in thought or expression.  And as in
this session he has begun to speak like a man of business as well as an orator, he
will in all probability be, or rather is, allowed to make as great an appearance as
ever man did in that House."
Mr. Pitt incessantly carried on the attack upon Carteret, who, strong in the King's
favor, was acting against the wishes of his associates in office. He exclaimed
against him as " a sole minister, who had renounced the British nation, and seemed
to have drunk of that potion described in poetic fictions, which made men forget
their country."  He described the King as " hemmed in by German officers, and
one English minister without an English heart." It was probably about this time
that he made his celebrated retort on Sir William Yonge, a man of great abilities
but flagitious life, who had interrupted him while speaking by crying out " Question!
Question!"  Turning to the insolent intruder with a look of inexpressible disgust,
he exclaimed, " Pardon me, Mr. Speaker, my agitation! When that gentleman calls
for the question, I think I hear the knell of my country's ruin."  Mr. Pitt soon




56                            LORD CHATHAM.
gained a complete ascendency over the House.  No man could cope with him;
few —verituaed-'evn to oppose him; and Carteret was given up by all as an object
of merited reprobation.  Under these circumstances, Mr. Pelham, who had now become head of the government, opened a negotiation for a union with Mr. Pitt and the,
dismissal of Carteret. *The terms were easily arranged, and a memorial was at once
presented to the King by Lord Hardwicke, supported by the rest of the ministry, demanding the removal of the obnoxious favorite. The King refused, wavered, temporized, and at last yielded.  Mr. Pelham formed a new ministry in November,
1744, with the understanding that Mr. Pitt should be brought into office at the earliest moment that the King's prejudices would permit.  During the same year, the
Duchess of Marlborough died, leaving Mr. Pitt a legacy of ~10,000, " on account
of his merit in the noble defense of the laws of England, and to prevent the ruin of
the country." This was a seasonable relief to one who never made any account
of money, and whose circumstances, down to this time, were extremely limited. It
may as well here be mentioned, that about twenty years after, he received a still
more ample testimony of the same kind from Sir William Pynsent, who bequeathed
him an estate of ~2500 a year, together with ~30,000 in ready money.
We now come to the second period of Mr. Pitt's political life, embracing the ten
years of Mr. Pelham's ministry down to the year 1754.  So strong was the hostility
of the King to his old opponent, that no persuasions could induce him to receive Mr.
Pitt into his service. On the contrary, when pressed upon the subject, he took decided measures for getting rid of his new ministers. This led Mr. Pelham and his associates, who knew their strength, instantly to resign. The King was now powerless.
The Earl of Bath (Pulteney), to whom he had committed the formation of a ministry,
could get nobody to serve under him; the retired ministers looked with derision on
his fruitless efforts; and some one remarked sarcastically, " that it was unsafe to
walk the streets at night, for fear of being pressed for a cabinet counselor." The
Losng Administration came to an end in just forty-eight hours! The King was compelled to go back to Mr. Pelham, and to take Mr. Pitt along with him; he stipulated, however, that the man who was thus forced upon him  should not, at least
for a time, be brought into immediate contact with his person. He could not endure the mortification of meeting with him in private. Mr. Pitt, therefore, received
provisionally the situation of Joint Treasurer of Ireland.  He now resigned the office of Groom of the Chamber to the Prince of Wales, and entered heartily into the
interests of the Pelham  ministry.  A contemporary represents him as "swaying
the House of Commons, and uniting in himself the dignity of Wyndham, the wit
of Pulteney, and the knowledge and judgment of Walpole."  He was " right [conciliatory] toward the King, kind and respectful to the old corps, and resolute and
contemptuous to the Tory Opposition."  About a year after (May, 1746), on the
death of Mr. Winnington, he was made Paymaster of the Forces, as originally
agreed on.
In entering upon his new office, Mr. Pitt gave a striking exhibition of disirfitestedness, which raised him in the public estimation to a still higher level as a man,
than he had ever attained by his loftiest efforts as an orator.  It was then the custom, that ~100,000 should constantly lie as an advance in the hands of the Paymaster, who invested the money in public securities, and thus realized about ~4000
a year for his private benefit.  This was obviously a very dangerous practice; for if
the funds were suddenly depressed, through a general panic or any great public calamity, the Paymaster might be unable to realize his investments, and would thus
become a public defaulter. This actually happened during the rebellion of 1745,
when the army, on whose fidelity depended the very existence of the government,
was for a time left without pay. Mr. Pitt, therefore, on assuming the duties of Pay



LORD CHATHAM.                                 57
master, placed all the funds at his control in the Bank of England, satisfied with
the moderate compensation attached to his office.
He also gave another proof of his elevation above pecuniary motives, by refusing
a certain per centage, which had always been attached to his office, on the enormous
subsidies then paid to the Queen of Austria and the King of Sardinia.  The latter,
when he heard of this refusal, requested Mr. Pitt to accept, as a token of royal favor,
what he had rejected as a perquisite of office.  Mr. Pitt still refused.  It was this
total disregard of the ordinary means of becoming rich, that made Mr. Grattan say,
"his character astonished a corrupt age."  Politicians were indeed puzzled to understand his motives; for bribery in Parliament and corruption in office had become
so universal, and the spirit of public men so sordid, that the cry of the horse-leech
was heard in every quarter, Give! give! Ambition itself had degenerated into a
thirst for gold. Power and preferment were sought chiefly as the means of amassing wealth.  Well might George II. say, when he heard of Mr.-Pitt's noble disinterestedness, "His conduct does honor to human nature!"
In joining the Pelham ministry, Mr. Pitt yielded more than might have been expected, to the King's wishes in regard to German subsidies and Continental alliances.
For this he has been charged with inconsistency.  He thought, however, that the
case was materially changed.  The war had advanced so far, that nothing remained
but to fight it through, and this could be done only by German troops. In addition
to this, the Electorate was now in danger; and though he had resisted Carteret's
measures for aggrandizing Hanover at the expense of Great Britain, he could, without any change of principles, unite with Pelham to prevent her being wrested from
the empire by the ambition of France.  He saw, too, that the King grew more obstinate as he grew older; and that if the government was to be administered at all,
it must be by those who were willing to make some concessions to the prejudices,
and even to the weakness, of an aged monarch.  That he was influenced in ail this
by no ambitious motives, that his desire to stand well with the King had no connection with a desire to stand highest in the state, it would certainly be unsafe to
affirm. But his love of power-had nothing in it that was mercenary or selfish. He
did not seek it, like Newcastle, for patronage, or, like Pulteney and Fox, for money.
He had lofty conceptions of the dignity to which England might be raised as the
head of European politics; he felt himself equal to the achievement; and he panted
for an opportunity to enter on a career of service which should realize his brightest
visions of his country's glory.  With these views, he supported Pelham and endeavored to conciliate the King, waiting with a prophetic spirit for the occasion which
was soon to arrive.
Mr. Pelham died suddenly in March, 1754; and this leads us to the third period
of Mr. Pitt's public life, embracing about three years, down to 1757.  The death
of Pelham threw every thing into confusion.  "Now I shall have no more peace,"
said the old King, when he heard the news.  The event verified his predictions.
The Duke of Newcastle, brother of Mr. Pelham, demanded the office of Prime Minister, and was enabled, by his borough interest and family connections, to enforce
his claim.  The " lead" of the House of Commons was now to be disposed of; and
there were only three men who had the slightest pretensions to the prize, viz., Pitt,
Fox, and Murray, afterward Lord Mansfield.  And yet Newcastle, out of a mean
jealousy of their superior abilities, gave it to Sir Thomas Robinson, who was so poor
a speaker, that " when he played the orator," says Lord Waldegrave, "which he
frequently attempted, it was so exceedingly ridiculous, that even those who loved
him could not always preserve a friendly composure of countenance." " Sir Thomas
Robinson lead us?" said Pitt to Fox; " the Duke might as well send his jack-boot to
lead us!" He was accordingly baited on every side, falling perpetually into blun



58                                LORD CHATHAM.
ders which provoked the stern animadversions of Pitt, or the more painful irony of
Fox.  Robinson was soon silenced, and Murray was next brought forward.  Mr. Pitt
did not resign; but after this second rejection he felt absolved from all obligations to
Newcastle, and determined to make both him  and Murray feel his power.  An opportunity was soon presented, and he carried out his design with a dexterity and
effect which awakened universal admiration. At the trial of a contested election
[that of the Dalavals], when the debate had degenerated into mere buffoonery, which
kept the members in a continual roar, Mr. Pitt came down from the gallery where
he was sitting, says Fox, who was present, and took the House to task for their conduct "in his highest tone."  He inquired whether the dignity of the House stood
on such sure foundations, that they might venture to shake it thus. He intimated,
that the tendency of things was to degrade the House into a mere French Parliament; and exhorted the Whigs of all conditions to defend their attacked and expiring liberties, " unless," said he, " you are to degenerate into a little assembly,
serving no other purpose than to register the arbitrary edicts of one too powerful
subject" (laying, says Fox, a most remarkable emphasis on the words one and subject). The application to Newcastle was seen and felt by all. " It was the finest
speech," adds Fox, " that was ever made; and it was observed that by his first two
sentences, he brought the House to a silence and attention that you might have
heard a pin drop.  I just now learn that the Duke of Newcastle was in the utmost
fidget, and that it spoiled his stomach yesterday."' According to another who was
present, " this thunderbolt, thrown in a sky so long clear, confounded the audience.
Murray crouched silent and terrified."  Nor without reason, for his turn came next.
On the following day, November 27, 1754, Mr. Pitt made two other speeches, ostensibly against Jacobitism, but intended for Murray, who had just been raised from the office of Solicitor to that of Attorney General.  "In both speeches," says Fox, "every
word was MURRAY, yet so managed that neither he nor any body else could take
public notice of it, or in any way reprehend him. I sat near Murray, who seufered
for an hour." It was, perhaps, on this occasion, says Charles Butler, in his Reminiscences, that Pitt used an expression which was once in every mouth.  After Murray had "suffered" for a time, Pitt stopped, threw his eyes around, then fixing their
whole power on Murray, exclaimed, "I must now address a few words to Mr. Attorney; they shall be few, but shall be daggers."  Murray was agitated; the look
was continued; the agitation increased.  "Felix trembles!" exclaimed Pitt, in a
tone of thunder; "he shall hear me some other day!"  He sat down.  Murray
made no reply; and a languid debate showed the paralysis of the House.2
1 It is surprising that Charles Butler should insist, in his Reminiscences, that " it was the manner,
and not the words, that did the wonder" in this allusion to Newcastle's overbearing influence with
the King. Had he forgotten the jealousy of the English people as to their monarch's being ruled
by a favorite? What changed the attachment of the nation for George III., a few years after, into
anger and distrust, but the apprehension that he was governed by Lord Bute? And what was
better calculated to startle the House of Commons than the idea of sinking, like the once free Parliaments of France, "into a little assembly, serving no other purpose than to register the arbitrary
edicts of one too powerful subject?
2 It is not difficult to conjecture what were the  daggers" referred to by Mr. Pitt. The Stormont family, to which Murray belonged, was devotedly attached to the cause of James II. His
brother was confidential secretary to the Pretender during the rebellion of 1745; and when the
rebel lords were brought to London for trial in 1746, Lord Lovat, who was one of them, addressed
Murray, to his great dismay, in the midst of the trial, "Your mother was very kind to my clan as we
marched through Perth to join the Pretender!"  Murray had been intimate, while a student in the
Temple, with Mr. Vernon, a rich Jacobite citizen; and it was affirmed that when Vernon and his
friends drank the Pretender's health on their knees (as they often did), Murray was present and
joined in the act. When he entered life, however, he saw that the cause of James was hopeless,
and espoused the interests of the reigning family. There was no reason to doubt his sincerity; but




LORD CHATHAM.                                     59
Newcastle found it impossible to go on without adding to his strength in debate.
He therefore bought off Fox in April, 1755, by bringing him into the Cabinet, while
Pitt was again rejected with insult.  To this incongruous union Mr. Pitt alluded, a
few months after, in terms which were much admired for the felicity of the image under which the allusion was conveyed.  Newcastle, it is well known, was feeble and
tame, while Fox was headlong and impetuous.  An address, prepared by the ministry, was complained of as obscure and incongruous.  Mr. Pitt took it up, saying,
" There are parts of this address which do not seem to come from the same quarter
with the rest. I can not unravel the mystery." Then, as if suddenly recollecting
the two men thus brought together at the head of affairs, he exclaimed, clapping his
hand to his forehead, " Now it strikes me! I remember at Lyons to have been carried
to see the conflux of the Rhone and the Saone-the one a feeble, languid stream,
and, though languid, of no great depth; the other a boisterous and impetuous torrent.
But, different as they are, they meet at last; and long," he added, with the bitterest
irony, " long may they continue united, to the comfort of each other, and to the glory,
honor, and security of this nation!"  In less than a week Mr. Pitt was dismissed
from his office as Paymaster.
This was the signal for open war-Pitt against the entire ministry. Ample occasion for attack was furnished by the disasters which were continually occurring in the
public service, and the dangers resulting therefrom-the loss of Minorca, the defeat of
General Braddock, the capture of Calcutta by Sujah Dowlah, and the threatened invasion by the French. These topics afforded just ground for the terrible onset of Mr.
Pitt. " During the whole session of 1755-6," says an eye-witness, " Mr. Pitt found
occasion, in every debate, to confound the ministerial orators. His vehement invectives were awful to Murray, terrible to Hugh Campbell; and no malefactor under
the stripes of the executioner, was ever more helpless and forlorn than Fox, shrewd
and able in -Parliament as he confessedly is. Doddington sheltered himself in silence."  With all this vehemence, however, he was never betrayed into any thing
coarse or unbecoming the dignity of his character. Horace Walpole, writing to Gerard Hamilton, says of his appearance on one of these occasions, "There was more
humor, wit, vivacity, fine language, more boldness, in short more astonishing perfection than even you, who are used to him, can conceive." And again, " He surpassed
himself, as I need not tell you he surpassed Cicero and Demosthenes. What a figure
would they make, with their formal, labored, cabinet orations, by the side of his manly
vivacity and dashing eloquence at one o'clock in the morning, after a sitting of eleven
hours!"  The effect on the ministerial ranks was soon apparent.  Murray was the
first to shrink. The ablest by far among the supporters of the ministry-much abler,
indeed, as a reasoner, than his great opponent, and incomparably more learned in every thing pertaining to the science of government, he could stand up no longer before
the devouring eloquence of Pitt. On the death of Chief-justice Ryder, which took
place May 25th, 1756, he instantly demanded the place.  Newcastle resisted, entreated, offered, in addition to the profits of the Attorney Generalship, a pension of
~2000, and, at last, of ~6000 a year. It was all in vain. Nothing could induce
Murray to remain longer in the House.  He was accordingly made Chief Justice,
these early events of his life gave Mr. Pitt immense advantage over him in such attacks. Junius
cast them into his teeth sixteen years after. " Your zeal in the cause of an unhappy prince was
expressed with the sincerity of wine and some of the solemnities of religion."
In quoting from Butler, I have modified his statement in two or three instances. By a slip of the
pen he wrote Festus for Felix, and Solicitor for Attorney. He also makes Pitt say " Judge Festus,"
when Murray was not made judge until a year later. It is easy to see how the title judge might
have slipped into the story after Murray was raised to the bench; but Mr. Pitt could never have
addressed. the same person as judge, and yet as prosecuting officer of the Crown.




60                             LORD CHATHAM.
in November with the title of Lord Mansfield; and on the day he took his seat upon
the bench, Newcastle resigned as minister.
Nothing now remained for the King but to transfer the government to Mr. Pitt.
It was a humiliating necessity, but the condition of public affairs was dark and threat\ening, and no one else could be found of sufficient courage or capacity to undertake
the task.  Pitt had said to the Duke of Devonshire, " My Lord, I am sure that I can
save this country, and that nobody else can."  The people~belifvedi   im. " The eyes
tff an aflicted and despairing nation," says Glover, who was far from partaking in'their enthusiasm, "were now lifted up to a private gentleman of slender fortune,
jwanting the parade of birth or title, with no influence except marriage with Lord
Temple's sister, and even confined to a narrow circle of friends and acquaintances.
Yet, under these circumstances, Mr. Pitt was considered the savior of England."  His
triumph was the triumph of the popular part of the Constitution.  It was the first instance in which the middling classes, the true Commons of Great Britain, were able
to break down in Parliament that power which the great families of the aristocracy
had so long possessed, of setting aside or sustaining the decisions of the Throne.
Mr. Pitt's entrance on the duties of Prime Minister in December, 1756, brings us
to the fourth period of his political life, which embraces nearly five years, down to
October, 1761.  For about four months, however, during his first ministry, his hands
were in a great measure tied.  Though supported by the unanimous voice of the
people, the King regarded him with personal dislike; Newcastle and his other opponents were able to defeat him in Parliament; and in April, 1757, he received the
royal mandate to retire.  This raised a storm throughout the whole of England.
The stocks fell.  The Common Council of London met and passed resolutions of the
strongest kind.  The principal towns of the kingdom, Bath, Chester, Norwich, Salisbury, Worcester, Yarmouth, Newcastle, and many others, sent Mr. Pitt the freedom
of their respective cities, as a token of their confidence and as a warning to the King.
"For some weeks," says Horace Walpole, " it rained gold boxes!"  The King, in the
mean time, spent nearly three months in the vain attempt to form another administration. It was now perfectly apparent, that nothing could be done without concessions on both sides.  Mr. Pitt therefore consented, June 29th, 1757, to resume his
office as Principal Secretary of State and Prime Minister, in conjunction with Newcastle as head of the Treasury, satisfied that he could more easily overrule and direct
the Duke as a member of the Cabinet than as leader of the Opposition.  The result
verified his expectations.  His second ministry now commenced, that splendid era
which raised England at once, as if by magic, from the brink of ruin and degradation. The genius of one man completely penetrated and informed the mind of a whole
people.  "From the instant he took the reins, the panic, which had paralyzed every
effort, disappeared. Instead of mourning over former disgrace and dreading future
defeats, the nation assumed in a moment the air of confidence, and awaited with impatience the tidings of victory."  In every thing he undertook,
" He put so much of his soul into his act
That his example had a magnet's force,
And all were prompt to follow whom all loved."
To this wonderful power of throwing his spirit into other minds, Colonel Barre
referred at a later period, in one of his speeches in Parliament: " He was possessed
of the happy talent of transfusing his own zeal into the souls of all those who were
to have a share in carrying his projects into execution; and it is a matter well
known to many officers now in the House, that no man ever entered his. closet who
did not feel himself, if possible, braver at his return than when he went in."  He
knew, also, how to use fear, as well as affection, for the accomplishment of his designs  "It will be impossible to have so many ships prepared so soon," said Lord




LORD CHATHAM.                                        61
Anson, when a certain expedition was ordered.  "If the ships are not ready," said
Mr. Pitt, "I will impeach your Lordship in presence of the House.'   They were
ready as directed.  Newcastle, in the mean time, yielded with quiet submission to
the supremacy of his genius.  All the Duke wanted was the patronage, and this Mr.
Pitt cheerfully gave up for the salvation of the country.  Horace Walpole says, in his
lively manner, " Mr. Pitt does every thing, and the Duke of Newcastle gives every
thing.  As long as they can agree in this partition, they may do what they will."3
One of the first steps taken by Mr. Pitt was to grant a large subsidy to Frederick
the Great, of Prussia, for carrying on the war against the Empress of Austria.
This was connected with a total change which had already taken place in the Continental policy of George II., and was intended to rescue Hanover from  the hands
of the French. Still, there were many who had a traditional regard for the Empress of Austria, in whose defense England had expended more than ten millions
of pounds sterling. The grant was, therefore, strenuously opposed in the House,
and Mr. Pitt was taunted with a desertion of his principles. In reply, he defended
himself, and maintained the necessity of the grant with infinite dexterity.  "It
was," says Horace Walpole, "the most artful speech he ever made.  He provoked,
called for, defied objections-promised enormous expense-demanded never to be
tried by events." By degrees he completely subdued the House, until a murmur
of applause broke forth from  every quarter.  Seizing the favorable moment, he
drew back with the utmost dignity, and placing himself in an attitude of defiance,
exclaimed, in his loudest tone, " Is there an Austrian among you?  Let him  come
forward and reveal himself!"  The effect was irresistible.  "Universal silence,"
says Walpole, " left him arbiter of his own terms." Another striking instance of
Mr. Pitt's mastery over the House is said also to have occurred about this time.
Having finished a speech, he walked out with a slow  step, being severely afflicted
with the gout.  A silence ensued until the door was opened to let him  pass into
the lobby, when a member started up, saying, " Mr. Speaker, I rise to reply to the
right honorable gentleman."   Pitt, who had caught the words, turned back and
fixed his eye on the orator, who instantly sat down.  He then returned toward his
seat, repeating, as he hobbled along, the lines of Virgil, in which the poet, conducting JEneas through the shades below, describes the terror which his presence inspired among the ghosts of the Greeks who had fought at Troy:
Ast Danaum proceres, Agamemnoniaqule phalanges,
Ut videre VIRUM, fulgentiaque arma per umbras,
Ingenti trepidare meta; pars vertere terga,.
Cen quondam petiere rates; pars tollere vocemn
Exiguam: inceptus clamor frustratur hiantes.4
VIRGIL, VEn., vi., 489.
3 A curious anecdote illustrates the ascendency of Pitt over Newcastle. The latter was a great
valetudinarian, and was so fearful of taking cold, especially, that he often ordered the windows
of the House of Lords to be shut in the hottest weather, while the rest of the Peers were suffering
for want of breath. On one occasion he called upon Pitt, who was confined to his bed by the
gout. Newcastle, on being led into the bed-chamber, found the room, to his dismay, without fire
in a cold, wintery afternoon. He begged to have one kindled, but Pitt refused: it might be injurious to his gout. Newcastle drew his cloak around him, and submitted with the worst possible
orace. The conference was a long one. Pitt was determined on a naval expedition, under Admiral Hawke, for the annihilation of the French fleet. Newcastle opposed it on account of the
lateness of the season. The debate continued until the Duke was absolutely shivering with cold;
when, at last, seeing another bed in the opposite corner, he slipped in, and covered himself with
the bed-clothes! A secretary, coming in soon after, found the two ministers in this curious predicament, with their faces only visible, bandying the argument with great eagerness from one bedBide to the other.
4 The Grecian chiefs, and Agamemnon's host,
When they beheld the MAN with shining arms




62                             LORD CHATHAM.
Reaching his seat, he exclaimed, " Now let me hear what the honorable gentleman has to say to me!"  One who was present, being asked whether the House
was not convulsed with laughter at the ludicrous situation of the poor orator and
the aptness of the lines, replied, " No, sir; we were all too much awed to laugh."
There was, however, very little debate after his administration had fairly com[menced. All parties united in supporting his measures. It is, indeed, a remarka.
ble fact, that the Parliamentary History, which professes to give a detailed report
of all the debates in Parliament, contains not a single speech of Mr. Pitt, and only
two or three by any other person, during the whole period of his ministry. The
supplies which he demanded were, for that day, enormous-twelve millions and a
half in one year, and nearly twenty millions the next-" a most incredible sum,"
says Walpole, respecting the former, " and yet already all subscribed for, and even
more offered! Our unanimity is prodigious.  You would as soon hear' No' from
an old maid as from  the House of Commons."  " Though Parliament has met,"
says Walpole again, in 1759, "no politics are come to town.  One may describe
the House of Commons like the stocks: Debates, nothing done; Votes, under par;
Patriots, no price; Oratory, books shut!"
England now entered into the war with all the energy of a new  existence.
Spread out in her colonies to the remotest parts of the globe, she resembled a strong
man who had long been lying with palsied limbs, and the blood collected at the
heart; when the stream of life, suddenly set free, rushes to the extremities, and he
springs to his feet with an elastic bound to repel injury or punish aggression. In
the year 1758, the contest was carried on at once in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America-wherever France had possessions to be attacked, or England to be defended.
Notwithstanding some disasters at first, victory followed upon victory in rapid succession. Within little more than two years, all was' changed. In Africa, France
was stripped of every settlement she had on that continent. In India, defeated in
two engagements at sea, and driven from every post on land, she gave up her long
contest for the mastery of the East, and left the British to establish their government over a hundred and fifty millions of people. In America, all her rich possessions in the West Indies passed into the hands of Great Britain.  Louisburg, Quebec,
Ticonderoga, Crown Point, Oswego, Niagara, Fort Duquesne [now PITTSBURGH],
were taken; and the entire chain of posts with which France had hemmed in and
threatened our early settlements, fell before the united arms of the colonists and the
English, and not an inch of territory was left her in the Western World. In Europe, Hanover was rescued; the French were defeated at Creveldt, and again at
Minden with still greater injury and disgrace; the coasts of France were four times
invaded with severe loss to the English, but still with a desperate determination to
strike terror into the hearts of the enemy; Havre was bombarded; the port and
fortifications of Cherbourg were demolished; Brest and the other principal sea-ports
were blockaded; the Toulon fleet was captured or destroyed; and the brilliant victory of Admiral Hawke off Quiberon, annihilated the French navy for the remainder
of the war.5 At home, the only part of the empire which continued hostile to thf
Amid those shades, trembled with sudden fear.
Part turned their backs in flight, as when they sought
Their ships.     *         Part raised
A feeble outcry; but the sound commenced,
Died on their gasping lips.
s One of those brilliant sallies for which Mr. Pitt was distinguished, occurred at this time, anl
related to Sir Edward Hawke. In proposing a monument for General Wolfe, Mr. Pitt paid a high
compliment to Admiral Saunders: " a man," said he, " equaling those who have beaten Armadasmay I anticipate? those who will beat Armadas!" The words were prophetic. It was the very
day of Hawke's victory, November 20th, 1759.




LORD CHATHAM.                                 63
government, the Highlanders of Scotland, who had been disarmed for their rebell
ions, and insulted by a law forbidding them to wear their national costume, were
forever detached from the Stuarts, and drawn in grateful affection around the
Throne, by Mr. Pitt's happy act of confidence in putting arms into their hands, and
sending them to fight the battles of their country in every quarter of the globe.
Finally, the commercial interests of the kingdom, always the most important to a
great manufacturing people, prospered as never before; and " COMMERCE," in the
words inscribed by the city of London on the statue which they erected to Mr. Pitt,
" COMMERCE, for the first time, was united with, and made to flourish by, WA  "
rance was now'effectually humbled.  In 1761 she sought for peace; and Mr.
Pitt declared to his friends, when entering on the negotiation, that " no Peace of
Utrecht should again stain the annals of England." He therefore resisted every
attempt of France to obtain a restoration of conquests, and was on the point of concluding a treaty upon terms commensurate with the triumphs of the English arms,
when the French succeeded in drawing Spain into the contest.  After a season of
long alienation, an understanding once more took place between the two branches
of the house of Bourbon.  The French minister instantly changed his tone.  He
came forward with a proposal that Spain should be invited to take part in the
treaty, specifying certain claims of that country upon England which required adjustment.  Mr. Pitt was indignant at this attempt of a prostrate enemy to draw a
third party into the negotiation.  He spurned the proposal.  He declared, that "he
would not relax one syllable from his terms, until the Tower of London was taken
by storm."  He demanded of Spain a disavowal of the French minister's claims.
This offended the Spanish court, and France accomplished her object. The celebrated Family Compact was entered into, which once more identified the two nations in all their interests; and Spain, by a subsequent stipulation, engaged to unite
in the war with France, unless England should make peace on satisfactory terms
before May, 1762.  Mr. Pitt, whose means of secret intelligence were hardly inferior
to those of Oliver Cromwell, was apprised of these arrangements (though studiously
concealed) almost as soon as they were made.  He saw that.a war was inevitable,
that he had just ground of war; and he resolved to strike the first blow-to seize
the Spanish treasure-ships which were then on their way from America; to surprise
Havana, which was wholly unprepared for defense; to wrest the Isthmus of Panama from Spain, and thus put the keys of her commerce between the two oceans
forever into the hands of the English. But when he proposed these measures to
the Cabinet, he was met, to his surprise, with an open and determined resistance.
George II. was dead.  Lord Bute, the favorite of George III., was jealous of Mr.
Pitt's ascendency.  The King probably shared in the same feelings; and in the language of Grattan, " conspired to remove him, in order to be relieved from his superiority."  An obsequious cabinet voted down Mr. Pitt's proposal.  He instantly resigned; and Spain, as if to prove his sagacity, and justify the measure he had urged,
drove Bute into a war within three months!
The King, however, in thus ending the most glorious ministry which England had
ever seen, manifested a strong desire to conciliate Mr. Pitt.  The very next day he
sent a message to him through Lord Bute, declaring that he was "impatient" to
bestow upon him some mark of the royal favor.  Mr. Pitt was melted by these unexpected tokens of kindness.  He replied -in terms which have often been censured
as unbecoming a man of spirit under a sense of injury-terms which would certainly
be thought obsequious at the present day, but which were probably dictated by the
sudden revulsion of his feelings, and the courtly style which he always maintained
in his intercourse with the sovereign.6,On the day after his resignation, he accepted
6 Tn his long and frequent interviews with George II., Mr. Pitt, though often commanded to sit




64                             LORD CHATHAM.
a pension of ~3000 (being much less than was offered him), together with a peerage for his wife. Some, indeed, complained that, acting as he did for the people, he
should have allowed the King to place him under any pecuniary obligations.  "If
he had gone into the city," said Walpole, " and told them he had a poor wife and
children unprovided for, and opened a subscription, he would have got ~500,000
instead of ~3000 a year." He could never have done so, until he had ceased to be
William Pitt.  Mr. Burke has truly said, " With regard to the pension and the title,
it is a. shame that any defense should be necessary. What eye can not distinguish,
at the first glance, between this and the exceptionable case of titles and pensions?
What Briton, with the smallest sense of honor or gratitude, but must blush for his
country, if such a man had retired unrewarded from the public service, let the motives of that retirement be what they would? It was not possible that his sovereign should let his. eminent services pass unrequited; and the quantum was rather
regulated by the moderation of the great mind that received, than by the liberality
of that which bestowed it."7  It is hardly necessary to add, that the tide of public
favor, which had ebbed for a moment, soon returned to its ordinary channels. The
city of London sent him  an address in the warmest terms of commendation.  On
Lord Mayor's day, when he joined the young King and Queen in their procession to
dine at Guildhall, the eyes of the multitude were turned from the royal equipage to
the modest vehicle which contained Mr. Pitt and his brother-in-law, Lord Temple.
The loudest acclamations were reserved for the Great Commoner.  The crowd, says
an eye-witness, clustered around his carriage at every step, " hung upon the wheels,
hugged his footmen, and even kissed his horses." Such were the circumstances under
which le retired from office, having resigned on the 5th of October, 1761.
We now come to the fifth and last period of Mr. Pitt's life, embracing about sixteen years, down to hie decease in 1778.  During the whole of this period, except for
a brief season when h.was called to form a new ministry, he acted with the Opposition.  When a treaty of peace was concluded by Lord Bute, in 1762, he was confined
to his bed by the gout; but his feelings were so excited by the concessions made to
France, that he caused himself to be conveyed to the House in the midst of his acutest
sufferings, and poured out his indignation for three hours and a half, exposing in the
keenest terms the loss and dishonor brought upon the country by the conditions of
peace.  This was called his "Sitting Speech;" because, after having stood for a
time supported by two friends, " he was so excessively ill," says the Parliamentary
History, " and his pain became so exceedingly acute, that the House unanimously
desired he might be permitted to deliver his sentiments sitting-a circumstance
that was unprecedented."8  But whether the peace was disgraceful or not, the
ministry had no alternative.  Lord Bute could not raise money to carry on the war.
The merchants, who had urged upon Mr. Pitt double the amount he needed whenever he asked a loan, refused their assistance to a minister whom they could not trust.
Under these circumstances, Lord Bute was soon driven to extremities; and as a
means of increasing the revenues, introduced a bill subjecting cider to an excise.
An Excise Bill has always been odious to the English. It brings with it the right
of search.  It lays open the private dwelling, which every Englishman has been
taught to regard as his " castle."  " You give to the dipping-rod," said one, arguing
against such a law, "what you deny to the scepter!"  Mr. Pitt laid hold of this
feeling, and opposed the bill with his utmost strength. There is no report of his
while suffering severe pain from the gout, never obeyed. When unable any longer to stand, he
always kneeled on a cushion before the King.
7 Annual Register for 1761.
a Parliamentary History, xv., 1262. The report of this speech is too meager and unsatisfactory
to merit insertion in this work.




LORD CHATHAM.                                  65
speech, but a single passage has come down to us, containing one of the finest bursts
of his eloquence.  "The poorest man in his cottage may bid defiance to all the forces
of the Crown.  It may be frail; its roof may shake; the wind may blow through
it; the storm may enter it; but the King of England can not enter it!  All his
power dares not cross the threshold of that ruined tenement!" It was on this
occasion, as stated in the Parliamentary History, that Mr. Pitt uttered a bon mot
which was long remembered for the mirth it occasioned.  Mr. George Grenville
replied to Mr. Pitt, and, though he admitted that an excise was odious, contended
that the tax was unavoidable.  "The right honorable gentleman," said he, " complains of the hardship of the tax-why does he not tell us where we can lay another
in its stead?"  " Tell me," said he, repeating it with strong emphasis, "tell me where
you can lay another tax! Tell me where!"  Mr. Pitt, from his seat, broke out in
a musical tone, quoting from a popular song of the day, " Gentle shepherd, tell me
where /"  The House burst into a fit of laughter, which continied for some minutes,
and Mr. Grenville barely escaped the sobriquet of Gentle Shepherd for the rest of
his life.  After six divisions, the bill was passed, but it drove Lord Bute from power.
He resigned a few weeks after, and in May, 1763, was succeeded by Mr. Grenville,
whose mistakes as minister, in connection with the peculiar temperament of the
King, opened a new era in the history of Great Britain.
It was the misfortune of George III., in the early part of his life, to be governed
first by favorites and then by his own passions.  He was naturally of a quick and
obstinate temper.  During the first twenty years of his reign (for he afterward corrected this error), he allowed his feelings as a man to mingle far too much with his
duties as a sovereign.  This led him into two steps, one of which agitated, and the
other dismembered his empire-the persecution of John Wilkes, and the attempt to
force taxation on the American colonies. It is now known, that he sent a personal
order to have Wilkes arrested under a general warrant, against the advice of Lord
Mansfield, and insisted on all the subsequent violations of law which gave such notoriety and influence to that restless demagogue. And although he did not originate
the plan of taxing America, the moment the right was questioned, he resolved to
maintain the principle to the utmost extremity.  This it was that forced the " Declaratory Act" on Lord Rockinghar, and held Lord North so long to the war, as it
now appears, against his own judgment and feelings.  In respect to both these
subjects, Mr. Pitt took, from the first, an open and decided stand against the wishes
of the King. He did it on the principle which governed his whole political life;
which led him, nearly thirty years before, to oppose so violently the issue of searchwarrants for seamen —the principle of resisting arbitrary power in every form;
of defending, at all hazards, the rights and liberties of the subject, " however mean,
however remote."  During the. remainder of his life, all his speeches of any importance, with a single exception, related to one or the other of these topics.  It was
his constant aim, in his own emphatic language, " to restore, to save, to confirm
the CONSTITUTION."
This attachment of Mr. Pitt to the popular part of the government gave rise to
an attack (it is not known on what occasion), which called forth one of those keen.
and contemptuous retorts with which he so often put down his opponents.  Mr.
Moreton, Chief Justice of Chester, having occasion to mention "the King, Lords,
and Commons," paused, and, turning toward Mr. Pitt, added, " or, as the right hon-.
orable member would call them, Commons, Lords, and King."  Mr. Pitt, says
Charles Butler, in relating the story, rose (as he always did) with great deliberation, and called to order.. "I have," he said," heard frequently in this House
doctrines which surprised me; but now my blood runs cold! I desire the words
9 See page 80.
E




66                            LORD CHATHAM.
of the honorable member may be taken down."  The clerk wrote down the
words.  "Bring them to me!" said Mr. Pitt, in his loudest voice.  By this time
Mr. Moreton was frightened out of his senses.  "Sir," said he, addressing the
Speaker, "I meant nothing! King, Lords, and Commons; Lords, King, and Commons; Commons, Lords, and. King-tria juncta in uno.  I meant nothing! Indeed, -I meant nothing!"  "I don't wish to push the matter further," said Mr.
Pitt, in a tone but little above a whisper.  Then, in a higher note, " The moment
a man acknowledges his error, he ceases to be guilty.  I have a great regard for the
honorable gentleman, and, as an instance of that regard, I give him this advicea pause of some moments; then, assuming a look of unspeakable derision, he added,
in a colloquial tone, "Whenever that gentleman means nothing, I recommend to
him to say nothing!"
It has already been intimated that, during the period now under review, Mr. Pitt
was called, for a brief season, into the service of the Crown.  George Grenville,
who succeeded Lord Bute, after acting as minister about two years, and inflicting
on his country the evils of the American Stamp Act, became personally obnoxious
to the King, and was dismissed from office about the middle of 1765. The eyes
of the whole country were now turned toward Mr. Pitt, and the King asked the
terms upon which he would accept office. Mr. Pitt replied that he was ready to
go to St. James's, if he could " carry the Constitution along with him."  But upon
entering into details, it was found impossible to reconcile his views with that court
influence which still overruled the King.  Lord Rockingham was then called upon
to form a ministry; and Mr. Pitt has been censored by many, and especially by his
biographer, Mr. Thackeray, for not joining heartily in the design, and lending the
whole weight of his influence to establish, under his Lordship, another great Whig
administration.  This might, perhaps, have been an act of magnanimity.  But, considering his recent splendid services, the known wishes of the people, and his acknowledged superiority over every other man in the empire, it could hardly be expected of Mr. Pitt that he should make himself a stepping-stone for the ambition,of another.  Lord Rockingham, though a man of high integrity and generous sentiments, had not that force of character, that eloquence in debate, that controlling
influence over the minds of others which could alone reanimate the Whig party, and
restore their principles and their policy under a Tory King.  Mr. Pitt did not oppose the new ministers; but he declared, at the opening of Parliament, that he
could not give them his confidence.  "Pardon me, gentlemen," said he, bowing to
the ministry, "confidence is a plant of slow growth in an aged bosom!"1o  The
event justified his delay and hesitation.  "The Cabinet," says Cooke, in his History
of Party, " was formed from the rear-guard of the Whigs-men who were timorous
and suspicious of their own principles; who were bound in the chains of aristocratic.expediency and personal interest, and who dared not to loose them, because they
knew not the power of their principles or their ultimate tendency."  The Rockingham administration performed one important service-they repealed the Stamp Act.
But they held together only a year, and were dissolved on the 30th of July, 1766.
Mr. Pitt was now called upon to frame a ministry.  It was plainly impossible for
him to succeed; and no one but a man of his sanguine temperament would have
thought of making the attempt.  The Rockingham Whigs, forming the wealthy
and aristocratic section of the party, might of course be expected to oppose.  Lord
Temple, who had hitherto adhered to Mr. Pitt in every emergency, now deserted
him, and joined his brother, George Grenville, in justifying American taxation.
10 See page 103 for the speech containing this passage, and a description of Mr. Pitt's impressive
manner in thus declaring off from Lord Rockingham. This single sentence decided the fate of
that ministry..




LORD CHATHAM.                                67
Lord Camden and a few others, the pioneers of Whiggism as it now exists, supported Mr. Pitt, and carried with them the suffrages of the people.  But the Tories
were favorites at Court. They filled all the important stations of the household;
they had the readiest access to the royal presence; and, though Mr. Pitt might, at
first, undoubtedly rely on the King for support, he could hardly expect to enjoy it
long without gratifying his wishes in the selection of the great officers of state.
Under these circumstances, the moment Mr. Pitt discovered his real situation, he
ought to have relinquished the attempt to form a ministry. But he was led on
step by step.  His proud spirit had never been accustomed to draw back.  He at
last formed one on coalition principles. He drew around him as many of his own
friends as possible, and filled up the remaining places with Tories, hoping to keep
the peace at the council-board by his personal influence and authority. He had
put down Newcastle by uniting with him, and he was confident of doing the same
with his new competitors.  But he made one mistake at the outset, which, in connection with his subsequent illness, proved the ruin of his ministry. It related to
the " lead" of the House of Commons.  His voice was the only one that could rule
the stormy discussions of that body, and compose the elements of strife which were
thickening around him.  And yet he withdrew from the House, and gave the lead
to Charles Townsend.  Never was a choice more unfortunate.  Townsend was, indeed, brilliant, but he was rash and unstable; eaten up with the desire to please
every body; utterly devoid of firmness and self-command; and, therefore, the last
man in the world for giving a lead and direction to the measures of the House.
But Mr. Pitt's health was gone. He felt wholly inadequate, under his frequent attacks of the gout, to take the burden of debate; he therefore named himself Lord
Privy Seal, and passed into the Upper House with the title of Lord Chatham. As
might be expected, his motives in thus accepting the peerage were, for a time, misunderstood. He was supposed to have renounced his principles, and become a creature of the Court. The city of London, where he had ruled with absolute sway as
the Great Commoner, refused him their support or congratulations as Lord Chatham.  The press teemed with invectives; and the people, who considered him as
having betrayed their cause, loaded him with maledictions. Such treatment, in
connection with his sufferings from disease, naturally tended to agitate his feelings
and sour his temper. He was sometimes betrayed into rash conduct and passionate
language.  His biographer has, indeed, truly said, that, " highly as Lord Chatham
was loved and respected by his own family, and great as were his talents and virtues, he possessed not the art of cementing political friendships.  A consciousness
of his superior abilities, strengthened by the brilliant successes of his former administration, and the unbounded popularity he enjoyed, imparted an austerity to his
manners which distressed and offended his colleagues."
Such were the circumstances under which Lord Chatham formed his third ministry.  It would long since have passed into oblivion, had not Mr. Burke handed it
down to posterity in one of the most striking pictures (though abounding in grotesque imagery) which we have in our literature.  "He made an administration,"
says Mr. Burke, in hi~ speech on American Taxation, "so checkered and speckled;
he put together a piece of joinery so crossly indented and whimsically dovetailed;
a cabinet so variously inlaid; such a piece of diversified mosaic; such a tesselated
pavement without cement, here a bit of black stone, and there a bit of white; patriots and courtiers, King's friends and Republicans, that it was indeed a very curious show, but utterly unsafe to touch and unsure to stand on. The colleagues
whom he assorted at the same boards stared at each other, and were obliged to
ask,' Sir, your name?'' Sir, you have the advantage of me.'' Mr. Such-a-one, I
beg a thousand pardons.' I venture to say it did so happen, that persons had a




68                                LORD CHATHAM.
single office divided between them who had never spoke to each other in their lives
until they found themselves (they knew not how) pigging together, heads and points,
in the same truckle-bed."'' *   * " If ever he fell into a fit of the gout, or if any other
cause withdrew him from public cares, principles directly the contrary were sure to
predominate.  When he had executed his plan, he had not an inch of ground to
stand on.  When he had accomplished his scheme of administration, he was no
longer a minister."
Such was literally the fact. Only a few weeks after his final arrangements were
made, he was seized with a paroxysm of the gout at Bath, which threatened his
immediate dissolution. Having partially recovered, he set out on his return for London, in February, 1767. But he was violently attacked on the road, and was compelled to retire to his country seat at Hayes, where he lay in extreme suffering, with
a mind so agitated and diseased that all access to him was denied for many months.
It was during this period that Charles Townsend, in one of his rash and boastful
moods, committed himself to Mr. Grenville in favor of taxing the colonies; and was
induced to lay those duties on tea, glass, &c., which revived the contest, and led to
the American Revolution.  It is, indeed, a singular circumstance, that such a bill
should have passed under an administration bearing the name of Chatham. But he
had ceased to be minister except in name. Some months before, he had sent a verbal message to the King (for he was unable to write), that " such was the ill state
of his health, that his majesty must not expect from him any further advice or assistance in any arrangement whatever."  When Grafton became minister, he sent
in his formal resignation by the hands of Lord Camden. It is striking to observe
how soon great men are forgotten when they fall from power, and withdraw, in the
decay of their faculties, from the notice of the public. Lord Chatham's former resignation was an era in Europe.  The news of it awakened the liveliest emotions
throughout the civilized world. The time of his second resignation was hardly known
in London.  His sun appeared to have sunk at mid-day amid clouds and gloom
Little did any one imagine, that it was again to break forth with a purer splendor,
and to fill the whole horizon around with the radiance of its setting beams.l
11 Supposed to refer to Lord North and Mr. George Cooke, who were made joint paymasters.:1 There was a mystery connected with Lord Chatham's long confinement which has created
many surmises. A writer in the London Quarterly Review for 1840 has endeavored to show that
it was, to a great extent, a thing of pretense and affectation; that he was shocked at the sudden
loss of his popularity after accepting the peerage; disconcerted by the opposition which sprung
up; mortified at the failure of his attempts to strengthen his government; and that, under these
circumstances, " he felt some reluctance to come forward in his new character, and perhaps clung
to office only that he might ind some striking and popular occasion for resignation."  To an enemy
of Lord Chatham's fame and principles this may seem probable; but it is a mere hypothesis, without the least evidence to support it. It is probably true that Lord Chatham's withdrawal from
public business was not owing to direct sufferings fiom the gout during the whole space of two
years. Lord Chesterfield, who was no friend of Chatham, and not the least inclined to shelter
him, attributed "his inactivity to the effects of the injudicious treatment of his physician, who had
prevented a threatened attack of the gout by dispersing the humor throughout the whole system.
The experiment caused a severe fit of illness, which chiefly affected his nerves." Whether this
was the cause or not, it is certain that his nervous system was in a very alarming state, and that
his mind became greatly diseased. He was gloomy in the extreme, and perhaps yielded to unreasonable jealousies and suspicions. Such seems to have been at one time the opinion of Lord
Camden, who says, in a confidential letter, "Lord Chatham is at Hayes, brooding over his own
suspicions and discontents-his return to business almost desperate-inaccessible to every body;
but under a persuasion that he is given up and abandoned."  But Lord Camden soon after received information which probably changed his views. "On his return to London," says his
biographer, " he heard such an account of Lord Chatham as to convince him that the country was
forever deprived of the services of that illustrious man." This refers, undoubtedly, to a report of
his being deranged, which was then prevalent. It now appears that this was not literally the fact,
though his mind was certainly in such a state that Lady Chatham did not allow him to be master




LORD CHATHAM.                                   69
After an entire seclusion from the world for nearly three years, Lord Chatham, to
the surprise of all, made his appearance in Parliament with his health greatly improved, and in full possession of his gigantic powers. He was still so infirm, however, that he went on crutches, and was swathed in flannels, when he entered the
House of Lords at the opening of the session, January 9, 1770. In commenting
on the address, he came out at once in a loftier strain of eloquence than ever in
reply to Lord Mansfield on the case of John Wilkes.'3 This speech gave a decisive
turn to political affairs. A leader had now appeared to array the Whigs against
the Duke of Grafton.  Lord Camden, who as Chancellor had continued in the Cabinet, though hostile to the measures which prevailed, came down from the wool-sack
at the close of Lord Chatham's speech, and declared against the minister. " I have,"
said he, " hung down my head in council, and disapproved by my looks those steps
which I knew my avowed opposition could not prevent.  I will do so no longer.  I
now proclaim. to the world that I entirely coincide in the opinion expressed by my
noble friend-whose presence again reanimates us-respecting this unconstitutional vote of the House of Commons."  He was of course dismissed; and united with
Lord Chatham, Lord Rockingham, and the rest of the Whigs, to oppose the Grafton
ministry. They succeeded in nineteen days: the Duke resigned on the twenty-eighth
of the same month.  But the Whigs did not profit by their victory.  The hostility
of the King excluded them from power, and Lord North was placed at the head
of affairs.  An attempt was now made to put down Lord Chatham by personal insult.  He was taunted before the House, March 14, 1770, with having received a
pension from the Crown, and having unjustifiably recommended pensions for others.
He rose upon his antagonist, as he always did on such occasions, and turned his defense into an attack.  He at once took up the case of Lord Camden, whom he had
brought in as Chancellor three years before, with a pension of fifteen hundred pounds.
" I could not," said he, " expect such a man to quit the Chief-justiceship of the Common Pleas, which he held for life, and put himself in the power of those who were
not to be trusted, to be dismissed from the Chancery at any moment, without making some slight provision for such an event.  The public has not been deceived by
his conduct.  My suspicions have been justified.  His integrity has made him once
more a poor and a private man; he was dismissed for the vote he gave in favor of
the right of election in the people."  Here an attempt was made to overwhelm him
with clamor.  Some Lords called out, " To the bar! to the bar!" and Lord Marchmont moved that his words be taken down.  Lord Chatham seconded the motion;
and went on to say, "I neither deny, retract, nor explain these words.  I do reaffirm the fact, and I desire to meet the sense of the House. I appeal to the honor
of every Lord in this House whether he has not the same conviction." Lord Rockingham, Lord Temple, and many others, rose, and, upon their honor, affirmed the
same.  The ministry were now desirous to drop the subject; but Lord Marchmont,
encouraged by Lord Mansfield, persisted, and moved that nothing had appeared to
justify the assertion.  Lord Chatham again declared, "My words remain unretractof his own actions. It is, therefore, uncandid in the extreme to represent Lord Chatham as feigning illness in order to escape from the responsibilities of his station.
13 Though Lord Chatham had a high sense of Mansfield's learning and abilities, he continued to
regard him with aversion and distrust on account of his extreme Tory sentiments. In reply to
Mansfield, when the case of Wilkes again came up at a late evening session, he quoted Lord Somers
and Chief-justice Holt on the points of law, and drew their characters in his own masterly style.
He pronounced them " honest men who knew and loved the Constitution." Then turning to Mansfield, he said, "I vow to God, I think the noble Lord equals them both-in abilities!" He complained bitterly, in conclusion, of the motion being pressed by Lord Marchmont and Lord Mansfield at so unreasonable an hour, and called for an adjournment. " If the Constitution must be
wounded," said he, " let it not receive its mortal stab at this dark and midnight hour, when honest
men are asleep in their beds, and when only felons and assassins are seeking for prey!"




70                            LORD CHATHAM.
ed, unexplained, and reaffirmed.  I desire to know whether I am condemned or
acquitted; and whether I may still presume to hold my head as high as the noble
Lord who moved to have my words taken down."  To this no answer was given.
It was easy for the ministry to pass what vote they pleased; but they found that
every attempt to disgrace such a man only recoiled on themselves. His glowing
defense of the people's rights regained him the popularity he had lost by his accession to the peerage.  The city of London addressed him in terms of grateful acknowledgment, thanking him for " the zeal he had shown in support of those most
valuable privileges, the right of election and the right of petition." The people
looked up to him again as their best and truest friend; and though promoted to an
earldom, they felt, in the language of his grandson, Lord Mahon, "that his elevation over them was like that of Rochester Castle over his own shores of Chatham
-that he was raised above them only for their protection and defense."
After this session, Lord Chatham was unable to attend upon Parliament except
occasionally and at distant intervals.  He spent his time chiefly on his estate at
Burton Pynsent, superintending the education of his children, and mingling in their
amusements with the liveliest pleasure, notwithstanding his many infirmities. He
sought to interest them not only in their books, but in rural employments and rural
scenery.  He delighted in landscape gardening; and, in speaking of its fine arrangements for future effect, called it, with his usual felicity of expression, " the prophetic
eye of Taste."  "When his health would permit," says the tutor of his son, "he
never suffered a day to pass without giving instruction of some sort to his children,
and seldom without reading the Bible with them."  He seems, indeed, to have
studied the Scriptures with great care and attention from early life. He read them
not only for the guidance of his faith, but for improvement in oratory.  "Not content," says Lord Lyttleton, "to correct and instruct his imagination by the works
of men, he borrowed his noblest images from the language of inspiration."  His
practice, in this respect, was imitated by Burke, Junius, and other distinguished
writers of the day.  At no period in later times, has secular eloquence gathered so
many of her images and allusions from the pages of the Bible.
Thus withdrawn from the cares and labors of public life, there was only one subject that could ever induce him to appear in Parliament. It was the contest with
America.  He knew more of this country than any man in England except Burke.
During the war in which he wrested Canada from the French, he was brought into
the most intimate communication with the leading men of the colonies.  He knew
their spirit and the resources of the country. Two of the smallest states (Massachusetts and Connecticut) had, in answer to his call, raised twelve thousand men
for that war in a single year. Feelings of personal attachment united, therefore,
with a sense of justice, to make him the champion of America.  Feeble and decrepit as he was, he forgot his age and sufferings. He stood forth, in presence of
the whole empire, to arraign, as a breach of the Constitution, every attempt to tax a
people who had no representatives in Parliament. It was the era of his sublimest
efforts in oratory. With no private ends or party purposes to accomplish, with a
consciousness of the exalted services he had rendered to his country, he spoke " as
one having authority," and denounced the war with a prophetic sense of the shame
and disaster attending such a conflict.  His voice of warning was lost, indeed, upon
the ministry and on the great body of the nation, who welcomed a relief from their
burdens at the expense of America. But it rang throughout every town and hamlet
of the colonies; and when he proclaimed in the ears of Parliament, " I rejoice that
America has resisted," millions of hearts on the other side of the Atlantic swelled
with a prouder determination to resist even to the end.'4
14 Lord Chatham received numerous tokens of respect and gratitude from the colonies. At




LORD CHATHAM.                                     71
But while he thus acted as the champion of America, he never for a moment
yielded to the thought of her separation from the mother country. When the Duke
of Richmond, therefore, brought forward his motion, in April, 1778, advising the
King to withdraw his fleets and armies, and to effect a conciliation with America
involving her independence, Lord Chatham heard of his design " with unspeakable
concern," and resolved to go once more to the House of Lords for the purpose of resisting the motion.  The effort cost him  his life.  A detailed account of the scene
presented on that occasion will be given hereafter, in connection with his speech.
At the close, he sunk into the arms of his attendants, apparently in a dying state.
He revived a little when conveyed to his dwelling; and, after lingering for a few
days, died on the 11th of May, 1778, in the seventieth year of his age.
Lord Chatham has been generally regarded as the most powerful orator of modern times.  He certainly ruled the British Senate as no other man has ever ruled
over a great deliberative assembly. There have been stronger minds in that body,
abler reasoners, profounder statesmen, but no man has ever controlled it with such
absolute sway by the force of his eloquence.  He did things which no human being
but himself would ever have. attempted. He carried through triumphantly, what
would have covered any other man with ridicule and disgrace.
His success, no doubt, was owing, in part, to his extraordinary personal advantages.  Few men have ever received from the hand of Nature so many of the outward
qualifications of an orator.  In his best days, before he was crippled by the gout, his
figure was tall and erect; his attitude imposing; his gestures energetic even to vehemence, yet tempered with dignity and grace.'5  Such was the power of his eye,
that he very often cowed down an antagonist in the midst of his speech, and threw
him into utter confusion, by a single glance of scorn or contempt. Whenever he rose
to speak, his countenance glowed with animation, and was lighted up with all the
varied emotions of his soul, so that Cowper describes him, in one of his bursts of patriotic feeling,
"With all his country beaming in his face."
"His voice," says a contemporary, "was both full and clear.  His lowest whisper was distinctly heard; his middle notes were sweet and beautifully varied; and,
when he elevated his voice to its highest pitch, the House was completely filled with
the volume of sound.  The effect was awful, except when he wished to cheer or
animate; then he had spirit-stirring notes which were perfectly irresistible."  The
prevailing character of his delivery was majesty and force.  "The crutch in his hand
became a weapon of oratory."6
Much, however, as he owed to these personal advantages, it was his character as
Charleston, S. C., a colossal statue of him, in white marble, was erected by order of the Commons,
who say, in their inscription upon the pedestal,
TIME
SHALL SOONER DESTROY
THIS MARK OF THEIR ESTEEM,
THAN
ERASE FROM THEIR MINDS
THE JUST SENSE
OF HIS PATRIOTIC VIRTUE.
16 Lord Brougham speaks of him as having " a peculiarly defective and even awkward action."
This is directly opposed to the testimony of all his contemporaries. Hugh Boyd speaks of " the
persuasive gracefulness of his action;" and Lord Orford says, that his action, on many occasions,
was worthy of Garrick. The younger Pitt had an awkwardness of the kind referred to; and Lord
Brougham, who was often hasty and incorrect, probably confounded the father and the son.
16 Telum Oratoris.-Cicero. " You talk, my Lords, of conquering America; of your numerous
friends there to annihilate the Congress; of your powerful forces to disperse her armies; I might
as well talk of driving them before me with this crutch."




72                             LORD CHATHAM.
a man which gave him his surprising ascendency over the minds of his countrymen.
There was a fascination'for all hearts in his lofty bearing; his generous sentiments;
his comprehensive policy; his grand conceptions of the height to which England
might be raised as arbiter of Europe; his preference of her honor over all inferior
material interests. There was a fascination, too, for the hearts of all who loved freedom, in that intense spirit of liberty which was the animating principle of his life.
From  the day when he opposed Sir Charles Wager's bill for breaking open private
houses to press seamen, declaring that he would shoot any man, even an officer of
justice, who should thus enter his dwelling, he stood forth, to the end of his days,
the Defender of the People's Rights. It was no vain ostentation of liberal principles,
no idle pretense to gain influence or office. The nation saw it; and while Pulteney's
defection brought disgrace on the name of " Patriot," the character of Pitt stood higher
than ever in the public estimation. His political integrity, no less than his eloquence,
formed " an era in the Senate;" and that comparative elevation of principle which
we now find among English politicians, dates back for its commencement to his noble
example.  It was his glory as a statesman, not that he was always in the right, or
even consistent with himself upon minor points; but that, in an age of shameless profligacy, when political principle was universally laughed at, and every one, in the
words of Walpole, " had his price," he stood forth to " stem the torrent of a downward age."  He could truly say to an opponent, as the great Athenian orator did to
AEschines,'Ey  6j od AL T7yo, it Tiv rnoATevoMtveov rrapa Trolf "E2rQaL d6iaBOapevT)wV aVTrdaV, ai) vr uva, aprapevv aro 0a, rpOrepov Ev vio tI, l7, vvv 6' Irr''AXeiav5pd,
[s  8TE  icatpbq, 8-e 8TtavOproaia a6ywov, T7e iavrraypyTetv iiyeOou,    1e7' iearry,  rT
66og, TE  Xad ptL, 8'  aiXo 6'ev errqpev, 6e rrporyaycero, Jv repltva dlcaiov  ai a avLqep6vrT) v r,rarpid, 6dEv npod6va: "When all our statesmen, beginning with yourself, were corrupted by bribes or office, no convenience of opportunity, or insinuation
of address, or magnificence of promises-or hope, or fear, or favor-could induce me
to give up for a moment what I considered the rights and interests of my country."
Even his enemies were forced to pay homage to his noble assertion of his principles
-his courage, his frankness, his perfect sincerity. Eloquent as he was, he impressed
every hearer with the conviction, that there was in him something higher than all
eloquence.  "Every one felt," says a contemporary, "that the man was infinitely
greater than the orator." Even Franklin lost his coolness when speaking. of Lord
Chatham.  "I have sometimes," said he, "seen eloquence without wisdom, and
often wisdom without eloquence; but in him I have seen them united in the highest possible degree."
The range of his powers as a speaker was uncommonly wide.  He was equally
qualified to conciliate and subdue.  When he saw fit, no man could be more plausible and ingratiating; no one had ever a more winning address, or was more adroit
in obviating objections and allaying prejudice. When he changed his tone, and chose
rather to subdue, he had the sharpest and most massy weapons at command-wit,
humor, irony, overwhelning ridicule and contempt. His forte was the terrible; and
he employed with equal ease the indirect mode of attack with which he so often tortured Lord Mansfield, and the open, withering invective with which he trampled
down Lord Suffolk.  His burst of astonishment and horror at the proposal of the
latter to let loose the Indians on the settlers of America, is without a parallel in our
language for severity and force. In all such conflicts, the energy of his will and his
boundless self-confidence secured him the victory. Never did that " erect countenance" sink before the eye of an antagonist.  Never was he known to hesitate or
falter. He had a feeling of superiority over every one around him, which acted on
his mind with the force of an inspiration.  He knew he was right! He knew he
could save England, and that no one else could do it!' Such a spirit, in great crises,




LORD CHATHAM.                                  73
is the unfailing instrument of command both to the general and the orator. We may
call it arrogance; but even arrogance here operates upon most minds with the potency of a charm; and when united to a vigor of genius and a firmness of purpose
like his, men of the strongest intellect fall down before it, and admire-perhaps hate
-what they can not resist.
The leading characteristic of eloquence is force; and force in the orator depends
mainly on the action of strongly-excited feeling on a powerful intellect. The intellect of Chatham was of the highest order, and was peculiarly fitted for the broad
and rapid combinations of oratory.  It was at once comprehensive, acute, and vigorous; enabling him to embrace the largest range of thought; to see at a glance
what most men labor out by slow degrees; and to grasp his subject with a vigor;
and hold on to it with a firmness, which have rarely, if ever, been equaled. But his
intellect never acted alone. It was impossible for him to speak on any subject in a
dry or abstract manner; all the operations of his mind were pervaded and governed
by intense feeling.  This gave rise to certain characteristics of his eloquence which
may here be mentioned.
First, he did not, like many in modern times, divide a speech into distinct copartments, one designed to convince the understanding, and another to move the passions and the will.  They were too closely united in his own mind to allow of such
a separation. All went together, conviction and persuasion, intellect and feeling,
like chain-shot.
Secondly, the rapidity and abruptness with which he often flashed his thoughts
upon the mind arose from the same source.  Deep emotion strikes directly at its
object. It struggles to get free from all secondary ideas-all mere accessories.
Hence the simplicity, and even bareness of thought, which we usually find in the
great passages of Chatham and Demosthenes.  The whole turns often on a single
phrase, a word, an allusion.  They put forward a few great objects, sharply defined,
and standing boldly out in the glowing atmosphere of emotion.  They pour their
burning'thoughts instantaneously upon the mind, as a person might catch the rays
of the sun in a concave mirror, and turn them on their object with a sudden and
consuming power.
Thirdly, his mode of reasoning, or, rather, of dispensing with the forms of argument, resulted from the same cause.  It is not the fact, though sometimes said, that
Lord Chatham  never reasoned.  In most of his early speeches, and in some of his
later ones, especially those on the right of taxing America, we find many examples
of argument; brief, indeed, but remarkably clear and stringent. It is true, however,
that he endeavored, as far as possible, to escape from the trammels of formal reasoning.  When the' mind is all a-glow with a subject, and sees its conclusions with the
vividness and certainty of intuitive truths, it is impatient of the slow process of logical
deduction. It seeks rather to reach the point by a bold and rapid progress, throwing
away the intermediate steps, and putting the subject at once under such aspects and
relations, as to carry its own evidence along with it.  Demosthenes was remarkable
for thus crushing together proof and statement in a single mass.  When, for example,
he calls on his judges, 1r To-bv aiv-risduov aoVi6ovhov rotioaoOat 76pt 7 of n'rf a/tovEtV vbLad etOV d6e,' not to make his enemy their counselor as to the manner in which
they should hear his reply,' there is an argument involved in the very ideas brought
together-in the juxtaposition of the words avrdtiLov and o-v6ovXov-an argument
the more forcible because not drawn out in a regular form. It was so with Lord
Chatham.  The strength of his feelings bore him directly forward to the results of
argument.  He affirmed them earnestly, positively; not as mere assertions, but on the
ground of their intrinsic evidence and certainty.  John Foster has finely remarked,
that " Lord Chatham struck on the results of reasoning as a cannon-shot strikes the




r74                            LORD CHATHAM.
mark, without your seeing its course through the air."  Perhaps a bomb-shell would
have furnished even a better illustration.  It explodes when it strikes, and thus becomes the most powerful of arguments.
Fourthly, this ardor of feeling, in connection with his keen penetration of mind,
made him often indulge in political prophecy.  His predictions were, in many instances, surprisingly verified.  We have already seen it in the case of Admiral
Hawke's victory, and in his quick foresight of a war with Spain in 1762.  Eight
years after, in the midst of a profound peace, he declared to the House of Lords that
the inveterate enemies of England were, at the moment he spoke, striking " a blow
of hostility" at her possessions in some quarter of the globe.  News arrived at the
end of four months that the Spanish governor of Buenos Ayres was, at that very
time, in the act of seizing the Falkland Islands, and expelling the English. When
this prediction was afterward referred to in Parliament, he remarked,' I will tell
these young ministers the true secret of intelligence.  It is sagacity-sagacity to
compare causes and effects; to judge of the present state of things, and discern the
future by a careful review of the past. Oliver Cromwell, who astonished mankind
by his intelligence, did not derive it from spies in the cabinet of every prince in Europe; he drew it from the cabinet of his own sagacious mind." As he advanced in
years, his tone of admonition, especially on American affairs, became more and more
lofty and oracular. He spoke as no other man ever spoke in a great deliberative
assembly-as one who felt that the time of his departure was at hand; who, withdrawn from the ordinary concerns of life, in the words of his great eulogist, " came
occasionally into our system to counsel and decide,"
Fifthly, his great preponderance of feeling made him, in the strictest sense of the
term, an extemporaneous speaker.  His mind was, indeed, richly furnished with
thought upon every subject which came up for debate, and the matter he brought
forward was always thoroughly matured and strikingly appropriate; but he seems
never to have studied its arrangement, much less to have bestowed any care on the
language, imagery, or illustrations.  Every thing fell into its place at the moment
He poured out his thoughts and feelings just as they arose in his mind; and hence,
on one occasion, when dispatches had been received which could not safely be made
public, he said to one of his colleagues, " I must not speak to day; I shall let out
the secret." It is also worthy of remark, that nearly all these great passages, which
came with such startling power upon the House, arose out of some unexpected turn
of the debate, some incident or expression which called forth, at the moment, these
sudden bursts of eloquence.  In his attack on Lord Suffolk, he caught a single glance
at " the tapestry which adorned the walls" around him, and one flash of his genius
gave us the most magnificent'passage in our eloquence. His highest power lay in
these sudden bursts of passion.  To call them hits, with Lord Brougham, is beneath
their dignity and force.  " They form," as his Lordship justly observes, " the grand
charm  of Lord Chatham's oratory; they were the distinguishing excellence of his
great predecessor, and gave him at will to wield the fierce democratie of Athens and
to fulmine over Greece."
To this intense emotion, thus actuating all his powers, Lord Chatham  united a
vigorous and lofty imagination, which formed his crowning excellence as an orator.
It is this faculty which exalts force into the truest and most sublime eloquence.  In
this respect he approached more nearly than any speaker of modern times, to the
great master of Athenian art.  It was here, chiefly, that he surpassed Mr. Fox, who
was not at all his inferior in ardor of feeling or robust vigor of intellect.  Mr. Burke
had even more imagination, but it was wild and irregular. It was too often on the
wing, circling around the subject, as if to display the grace of its movements or the
beauty of its plumage.  The imagination of Lord Chatham  struck directly at its




LORD CHATHAM.                                71b
object.  It" flew an eagle flight, forth and right on."  It never became his master.
Nor do we ever find it degenerating into fancy, in the limited sense of that term:
it was never fanciful.  It was, in fact, so perfectly blended with the other powers
of his mind-so simple, so true to nature even in its loftiest flights-that we rarely
think of it as imagination at all.
The style and language of Lord Chatham are not to be judged of by the early
speeches in this volume, down to 1743.   Reporters at that day made little or no
attempt to give the exact words of a speaker.  They sought only to convey his sentiments, though they might occasionally be led, in writing out his speeches, to catch
some of his marked peculiarities of thought or expression. In 1766, his speech
against the American Stamp Act was reported, with a considerable degree of verbal
accuracy, by Sir Robert Dean, aided by Lord Charlemont.  Much, however, was
obviously omitted; and passages having an admirable felicity of expression were
strangely intermingled with tame and broken sentences, showing how imperfectly
they had succeeded in giving the precise language of the speaker. Five speeches
(to be mentioned hereafter) were written out, from notes taken on the spot by Sir
Philip Francis and Mr. Hugh Boyd.  One of them is said to have been revised by
Lord Chatham himself.  These are the best specimens we possess of his style and
diction; and it would be difficult, in the whole range of our literature, to find more
perfect models for the study and imitation of the young orator. The words are admirably chosen.  The sentences are not rounded or balanced periods, but are made
up of short clauses, which flash themselves upon the mind with all the vividness of
distinct ideas, and yet are closely connected together as tending to the same point, and
uniting to form larger masses of thought. Nothing can be more easy, varied, and
natural than the style of these speeches.  There is no mannerism about them.  They
contain some of the most vehement passages in English oratory; and yet there is
no appearance of effort, no straining after effect.  They have this infallible mark
of genius-they make every one feel, that if placed in like circumstances, he would
have said exactly the same things in the same manner.  "Upon the whole," in the
words of Mr. Grattan, " there was in this man something that could create, subvert,
or reform; an understanding, a spirit, and an eloquence to summon mankind to society, or to break the bonds of slavery asunder, and rule the wildness of free minds
with unbounded authority; something that could establish or overwhelm empire,
and strike a blow in the world that should resound through its history."




SPEECH
OF LORD CHATHAM ON A MOTION FOR AN ADDRESS ON THE MARRIAGE OF THE PRINCE OF
WALES, DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, APRIL, 29, 1736.
INTRODUCTION.
THIS was Mr. Pitt's maiden speech; and, literally understood, it is a mere string of courtly compliments, expressed in elegant diction. But it seems plainly to have had a deeper meaning. The King,
who was extremely irritable, had quarreled with the Prince of Wales, and treated him with great severity. There was an open breach between them. They could not even speak to each other; and although
the King desired the marriage, he would not allow the usual Address of Congratulation to be brought in
by his ministers. In view of this extraordinary departure from established usage, and the feelings which
it indicated on the King's part, Mr. Pitt's emphatic commendations of the young prince have a peculiar
significance; while the manner in which he speaks of " the tender, paternal delight" which the King
must feel in yielding to " the most dutiful application" of his son, has an air of the keenest irony. Viewed
in this light, the speech shows great tact and talent in asserting the cause of the Prince, and goading the
feelings of the King, in language of. the highest respect-the very language which could alone be appropriate to such an occasion.
SPEECH, &c.
I am unable, sir, to offer any thing suitable to  personage through his hours of retirement, to
the dignity and importance of the subject, which  view him in the milder light of domestic life, we
has not already been said by my honorable friend  should find him engaged in the noblest exercise
who made the motion.  But I am so affected  of humanity, benevolence, and every social virwith the prospect of the blessings to be derived  tue.  But; sir, however pleasing, however captiby my country from this most desirable, this long- vating such a scene may be, yet, as it is a pridesired measure-the marriage of his Royal vate one, I fear I should offend the delicacy of
Highness the Prince of Wales-that I can not that virtue to which I so ardently desire to do
forbear troubling the House with a few words justice, were I to offer it to the consideration of
expressive of my joy.  I can not help mingling  this House.  But, sir, filial duty to his royal pamy offering, inconsiderable as it is, with this ob- rents, a generous love of liberty, and a just revlation of thanks and congratulation to His Maj- erence for the British Constitution-these are
esty.                                            public virtues, and can not escape the applause
However great, sir, the joy of the public may  and benedictions of the public.  These are virbe-and great undoubtedly it is-in receiving  tues, sir, which render his Royal Highness not
this benefit from his Majesty, it must yet be in- only a noble ornament, but a firm support, if any
ferior to that high satisfaction which he himself could possibly be wanting, of that throne so greatenjoys in bestowing it.  If I may be allowed to  ly filled by his royal father.
suppose that any thing in a royal mind can trans-    I have been led to say thus much of his Royal
cend the pleasure of gratifying the earnest wishes Highness's character, because it is the considerof a loyal people, it can only be the tender, pa- ation of that character which, above all things,
ternal delight of indulging the most dutiful ap- enforces the justice and goodness of his Majesplication, the most humble request, of a submis- ty in the measure now before us-a measure
sive and obedient son. I mention, sir, his Royal which the nation thought could never be taken
Highness's having asked a marriage, because  too soon, because it brings with it the promise
something is in justice due to him  for having  of an additional strength to the Protestant sucasked what we are so stronglybound, by all the cession in his Majesty's illustrious and royal
ties of duty and gratitude, to return his Majesty  house.  The spirit of liberty dictated that sucour humble acknowledgments for having grant- cession; the same spirit now  rejoices in the
ed.                                             prospect of its being perpetuated to the latest
The marriage of a Prince of Wales, sir, has posterity.  It rejoices in the wise and happy
at all times been a matter of the highest import- choice which his Majesty has been pleased to
ance to the public welfare, to present and to fu- make of a princess so amiably distinguished in
ture generations.  But at no time (if a charac- herself, so illustrious in the merit of her family,
ter at once amiable and respectable can embel- the glory of whose great ancestor it is to have
lish, and even dignify, the elevated rank of a sacrificed himself in the noblest cause for which
Prince of Wales) has it been a more important, a prince can draw a sword-the cause of liberty
a dearer consideration than at this day.  Were  and the Protestant religion.
it not a sort of presumption to follow so great a    Such, sir, is the marriage for which our most




1739.]            LORD CHATHAM ON THE SPANISH CONVENTION.                                     77
humble acknowledgments are due to his Maj-  hope may be as immortal as those liberties and
esty.  May it afford the comfort of seeing the  that constitution which they came to maintain.
royal family, numerous as, I thank God, it is,  Sir, I am heartily for the motion.
still growing and rising up into a third generation!  A  family, sir, which I most earnestly       The motion was unanimously agreed to.
SPEECH
OF LORD CHATHAM ON THE SPANISH CONVENTION, DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS
MARCH 8, 1739.
INTRODUCTION.
DIFFICULTIES had arisen between England and Spain, from the measures adopted by the latter to suppress an illicit trade carried on by English adventurers with the coast of South America. The Spanish
cruisers searched British merchantmen found in that quarter, and in so doing, either through mistake or
design, committed outrages to a considerable extent upon lawful traders. Exaggerated accounts of
these outrages were circulated throughout England. The public mind became greatly inflamed on the
subject, and many went so far as to contend that the British flag covered her merchant ships and protected them from search under all circumstances.
Walpole opened a negotiation with the Court of Madrid for the redress and removal of these grievances. After due examination, the just claims of the English merchants upon Spain were set down at
~200,000. On the other hand, the sum of ~60,000 was now adjudged, under the stipulations of a former
treaty, to be paid by England to Spain, for captures made in 1718 by Admiral Byng. The balance due
to England was thus settled at ~140,000; and Walpole, to avoid the usual delay of the Spaniards in
money matters, offered to make an abatement of ~45,000 for prompt payment, thus reducing the entire
amount to ~95,000. To this the Spanish government gave their assent, but on the express condition
that this arrangement should be considered as in no way affecting certain claims of Spain on the English
South Sea Company.
As the result of this negotiation, a Convention was drawn up on the 14th of January, 1739, stipulating
for the payment of ~95,000 within four months from the exchange of ratifications. It also provided for the
removal of all remaining difficulties, by agreeing that commissioners from England and Spain should meet
within six weeks, to adjust all questions respecting trade between Europe and the colonies in America;
and also to establish the boundary lines between Florida and the English settlements in Carolina, then
embracing Georgia. It further stipulated that, during the sitting of this commission, the erection of fortifications should be suspended, both in Carolina and Florida. At the moment when this Convention was
to be signed, the Spanish government gave notice, that as the South Sea Company was not embraced in
this arrangement, the King of Spainheld them to be his debtors to the amount of ~68,000, for his share
of the profits they had realized under previous engagements; and that, unless payment was made within
a specified time, he would deprive them of the Assiento, or contract, which he had granted them for
supplying South America with slaves. Such were the provisions of the famous Spanish Convention, and
the circumstances under which it was signed.
The House of Commons appointed March 6th, 1739, for considering this Convention. The public mind
was greatly agitated on the subject. There was a general outcry against it, as betraying at once the
interests of the merchants and the honor of the country. Such was the excitement and expectation when
the day arrived, that four hundred members took their seats in the House at 8 o'clock A.M., five hours
before the time appointed for entering upon business. Two days were spent in examining witnesses
and hearing numerous written documents relating to the subject. On the 8th of March, Mr. Horace Walpole, brother to the minister, after a long and able speech, moved in substance that "the House return
thanks to his Majesty for communicating the Convention; for having taken measures to obtain speedy
payment for the losses sustained by the merchants; and also for removing similar abuses in future, and
preserving a lasting peace." After a number of members had expressed their views, Mr. Pitt rose and
delivered the following speech, which gave him at once, and at the age of thirty, that ascendency as a
speaker in the House of Commons which he afterward maintained.
SPEECH, &c.
SI, —There certainly has never been in Par-  by the complicated question that is now before
liament a matter of more high national concern  you.
than the Convention referred to the considera-    We have here the soft name of an humble adtion of this committee; and, give me leave to  dress to the Throne proposed, and for no other
say, there can not be a more indirect manner of end than to lead gentlemen into an approbation
taking the sense of the committee upon it than  of the Convention.  Is this that full, deliberate




78               LORD CHATHAM-ON THE SPANISH  CONVENTION.                             [1739.
examination, which we were with defiance called  was called, is not, indeed, omitted in the preamupon to give to this Convention? Is this cursory, ble to the Convention, but it stands there as the
blended disquisition of matters of such variety  reproach of the whole, as the strongest evidence
and extent, all that we owe to ourselves and to  of the fatal submission that follows. On the part of
our country?  When trade is at stake, it is your Spain, a usurpation, an inhuman tyranny, claimlast intrenchment; you must defend it or perish; ed and exercised over the American seas; on the
and whatever is to decide that, deserves the most part of England, an undoubted right by treaties,
distinct consideration, and the most direct, undis- and from God and nature declared and asserted
guised sense of Parliament.  But how are we in the resolutions of Parliament, are referred to
now proceeding? Upon an artificial, ministerial the discussion of plenipotentiaries upon one and
question.  Here is all the confidence, here is the the same equal footing! Sir, I say this undoubtconscious sense of the greatest service that ever ed right is to be discussed and to be regulated!
was done to this country!' to be complicating  And if to regulate be to prescribe rules (as in
questions, to be lumping sanction and approba- all construction it is), this right is, by the extion, like a commissary's account! to be cover- press words of this Convention, to be given up and
ing and taking sanctuary in the royal name, in- sacrificed; for it must cease to be any thing from
stead of meeting openly, and standing fairly, the the moment it is submitted to limits.
direct judgment and sentence of Parliament upon    The court of Spain has plainly told you (as
the several articles of this Convention.      appears by papers upon the table), that you shall
You have been moved to vote an humble ad- steer a due course, that you shall navigate by a
dress of thanks to his Majesty for a measure  line to and from your plantations in Americawhich (I will appeal to gentlemen's conversation  if you draw near to her coast (though, from tho
in the world) is odious throughout the kingdom. circumstances of the navigation, you are under
Such thanks are only due to the fatal influence an unavoidable necessity of doing so), you shall
that framed it, as are due for that low, unallied  be seized and confiscated.  If, then, upon these
condition abroad which is now made a plea for terms only she has consented to refer, what bethis Convention.                              comes at once of all the security we are flattered
To what are gentlemen reduced in support of with in consequence of this reference?  Pleniit?  They first try a little to defend it upon its potentiaries are to regulate finally the respective
own merits; if that is not tenable, they throw out pretensions of the two crowns with regard to
general terrors-the House of Bourbon is united, trade and navigation in America; but does a
who knows the consequence of a war?  Sir, man in Spain reason that these pretensions must
Spain knows the consequence of a war in Amer- be regulated to the satisfaction and honor of Enica.  Whoever gains, it must prove fatal to her. gland? No, sir, they conclude, and with reason,
She knows it, and must therefore avoid it; but from the high spirit of their administration, from
she knows that England does not dare to make the superiority with which they have so long
it.  And what is a delay, which is all this mag- treated you, that this reference must end, as it
nified Convention is sometimes called, to pro- has begun, to their honor and advantage.
duce?  Can it produce such conjunctures as    But, gentlemen say, the treaties subsisting are
those which you lost while you were giving  to be the measure of this regulation.  Sir, as to
kingdoms to Spain, and all to bring her back  treaties, I will take part of the words of Sir Willagain to that great branch of the house of Bourbon  iam  Temple, quoted by the honorable gentlewhich is now held out to you as an object of so man near me; it is vain to negotiate and to make
much terror?  If this union be formidable, are  treaties, if there is not dignity and vigor sufficient
we to delay only till it becomes more formidable, to enforce their observance. Under the misconby being carried farther into execution, and by  struction and misrepresentation of these very
being more strongly cemented?  But be it what treaties subsisting, this intolerable grievance has
it will, is this any longer a nation?  Is this any  arisen.  It has been growing upon you, treaty
longer an English Parliament, if, with more ships after treaty, through twenty years of negotiation,
in your harbors than in all the navies of Europe; and even under the discussion of commissaries,
with above two millions of people in your Amer- to whom it was referred.  You have heard from
ican colonies, you will bear to hear of the expe- Captain Vaughan, at your bar, at what time
diency of receiving from Spain an insecure, un- these injuries and indignities were continued.
satisfactory, dishonorable Convention?   Sir, I As a kind of explanatory comment upon this
call it no more than it has been proved in this Convention which Spain has thought fit to grant
debate; it carries fallacy or downright subjec- you, as another insolent protest, under the validtion in almost every line.  It has been laid open  ity and force of which she has suffered this Conand exposed in so many strong and glaring lights, vention to be proceeded upon, she seems to say,
that I can not pretend to add any' thing to the  " We will treat with you, but we will search and
conviction and indignation which it has raised.  take your ships; we will sign a Convention, but
Sir, as to the great national objection, the we will keep your subjects prisoners in Old
searching of your ships, that favorite word, as it Spain; the West Indies are remote; Europe
shall witness in what manner we use you."'Alluding to the extravagant terms of praise in    Sir, as to the inference of an admission of
which Mr. H. Walpole had spoken of the Conven- our right not to be searched, drawn from a rep.
tion, and of those who framed it.              aration made for ships unduly seized and confis



.1741.]           LORD CHATHAM  AGAINST SEARCH-WARRANTS.                                  79
cated, I think that argument very inconclusive.  lute, imperious manner, and most tamely and
The right claimed by Spain to search our ships  abjectly received by the ministers of England.
is one thing, and the excesses admitted to have  Can any verbal distinctions, any evasions whatbeen committed in consequence of this pretend-  ever, possibly explain away this public infamy?
ed right is another.  But surely, sir, to reason  To whom would we disguise it?  To ourselves
from inference and implication only, is below the  and to the nation   I wish we could hide it from
dignity of your proceedings upon a right of this  the eyes of every court in Europe.  They see
vast importance.  What this reparation is, what that Spain has talked to you like your master.
sort of composition for your losses forced upon  They see this arbitrary fundamental condition
you by Spain, in an instance that has come to  standing forth with a pre-eminence of shame, as
light, where your own commissaries could not in  a part of this very Convention.
conscience decide against your claim, has fully    This Convention, sir, I think from my soul, is
appeared upon examination; and as for the pay- nothing but a stipulation for national ignominy;
ment of the sum stipulated (all but seven-and- an illusory expedient to baffle the resentment of
twenty thousand pounds, and that, too, subject to  the nation; a truce, without a suspension of hosa drawback), it is evidently a fallacious nominal tilities, on the part of Spain; on the part of Enpayment only. I will not attempt to enter into  gland, a suspension, as to Georgia, of the first
the detail bf a dark, confused, and scarcely in- law of nature, self-preservation and self-defense;
telligible account; I will only beg leave to con- a surrender of the rights and trade of England
elude with one word upon it, in the light of a  to the mercy of plenipotentiaries, and, in this insubmission as well as of an adequate reparation. finitely highest and most sacred point-future
Spain stipulates to pay to the Crown of England  security-not only inadequate, but directly reninety-five thousand pounds; by a preliminary  pugnant to the resolutions of Parliament and the
protest of the King of Spain, the South Sea Corn- gracious promise from the Throne.'The company is at once to pay sixty-eight thousand of plaints of your despairing merchants, and the
it: if they refuse, Spain, I admit, is still to pay  voice of England, have condemned it.  Be the
the ninety-five thousand pounds; -but how does  guilt of it upon the head of the adviser: God
it stand then?  The Assiento Contract is to be  forbid that this committee should share the guilt
suspended. You are to purchase this sum at by approving it!
the price of an exclusive trade, pursuant to a
national treaty, and of an immense debt of God    The motion was carried by a very small ma.
knows how many hundred thousand pounds, due jority, the vote being 260 to 232. Mr. Burke's
from Spain to the South Sea Company.  Here, statement respecting the merits of this question,
sir, is the submission of Spain by the payment of as it afterward appeared, even to those who took
a stipulated sum; a tax laid upon subjects of the most active part against the Convention, may
England, under the severest penalties, with the  be found in his Regicide Peace. Whether Lord
reciprocal accord of an English minister as a  Chatham was one of the persons referred to by
preliminary that the Convention may be signed;  Mr. Burke as having changed their views, does
a condition imposed by Spain in the most abso- not appear, but it is rather presumed not.
SPEECH
OF LORD CHATHAM AGAINST SEARCH-WARRANTS FOR SEAMEN, DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF
COMMONS, MARCH 6,1741.
INTRODUCTION.
WAR was declared against Spain in October, 1739, and it soon became extremely difficult to man the
British fleets. Hence a bill was brought forward by Sir Charles Wager, in January, 1741, conferring authority on Justices of the Peace to issue search-warrants, under which constables might enter private
dwellings either by day or by night-and, if need be, might force the doors-for the purpose of discovering
seamen, and impressing them into the public service. So gross an act of injustice awakened the indignation of Mr. Pitt, who poured out the following invective against the measure, and those who were endeavoring to force it on the House.
SPEECH, &c.
SIR,-The two honorable and learned gentle-  make them wholly so. Will this increase your'
meni who spoke in favor of this clause, were  number of seamen? or will it make those you
pleased to show that our seamen are half slaves  have more willing to serve you? Can you expect
already, and now they modestly desire you should  that any man will make himself a slave if he can
1 The Attorney and Solicitor General, Sir Dudley  avoid it?  Can you expect that any man will
REyder and SirJohn Strange. The former was sub-  breed his child up to be a slave?  Can you exsequently Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench,  pect that seamen will venture their lives or their
and the latter Master of the Rolls.           limbs for a country that has made them slaves?




80                LORD CHATHAM AGAINST SEARCH-WARRANTS.                              [1741.
or can you expect that any seaman will stay in  of you, gentlemen, allow this law to be executed
the country, if he can by any means make his in its full extent?  If, at midnight, a petty conescape?  Sir, if you pass this law, you must, in stable, with a press-gang, should come thundermy opinion, do with your seamen as they do ing at the gates of your house in the country,
with their galley-slaves in France-you must and should tell you he had a search-warrant,
chain them  to their ships, or chain them  in and must search your house for seamen, would
couples when they are ashore.  But suppose you at that time of night allow your gates to be
this should both increase the number of your opened?  I protest I would not.  What, then,
seamen, and render them more willing to serve would be the consequence? He has by this law
you, it will render them  incapable.  It is a a power to break them  open.  Would any of
common observation, that when a man becomes you patiently submit to such an indignity?
a slave, he loses half his virtue.  What will it Would not you fire upon him, if he attempted to
signify to have your ships all manned to their break open your gates?  I declare I would, let
full complement?  Your men will have neither the consequence be never so fatal; and if you
the courage nor the temptation to fight; they  happened to be in the bad graces of a minister,
will strike to the first enemy that attacks them, the consequence would be your being either killbecause their condition can not be made worse ed in the fray, or hanged for killing the constaby a surrender. Our seamen have always been  ble or some of his gang.  This, sir, may be the
famous for a matchless alacrity and intrepidity  case of even some of us here; and, upon my
in time of danger; this has saved many a Brit- honor, I do not think it an exaggeration to supish ship, when other seamen would have run be- pose it may.
low deck, and left the ship to the mercy of the    The honorable gentlemen say no other remedy
waves, or, perhaps, of a more cruel enemy, a pi- has been proposed. Sir, there have been several
rate.  For God's sake, sir, let us not, by our other remedies proposed. Let us go into a connew projects, put our seamen into such a condi- mittee to consider of what has been, or may be
tion as must soon make them worse than the proposed.  Suppose no other remedy should be
cowardly slaves of France or Spain.           offered: to tell us we must take this, because no
The learned gentlemen were next pleased to  other remedy can be thought of, is the same
show us that the government were already pos- with a physician's telling his patient, " Sir, there
sessed of such a power as is now desired. And is no known remedy for your distemper, therehow did they show it?  Why, sir, by showing  fore you shall take poison-I'll cram it down
that this was the practice in the case of felony, your throat."  I do not know how the nation
and in the case of those who are as bad as felons, may treat its physicians; but, I am sure, if my
I mean those who rob the public, or dissipate physician told me so, I should order my servants
the public money.  Shall we, sir, put our brave to turn him out of doors.
sailors upon the same footing with felons and    Such desperate remedies, sir, are never to be
public robbers?  Shall a brave, honest sailor be applied but in cases of the utmost extremity,
treated as a felon, for no other reason but be- and how we come at present to be in such excause, after a long voyage, he has a mind to sol- tremity I can not comprehend.  In the time of
ace himself among his friends in the country, and  Queen Elizabeth we were not thought to be in
for that purpose absconds for a few weeks, in any such extremity, though we were then threatorder to prevent his being pressed upon a Spit- ened with the most formidable invasion that was
head, or some such pacific expedition?  For I ever prepared against this nation.  In our wars
dare answer for it, there is not a sailor in Brit- with the Dutch, a more formidable maritime
ain but would immediately offer his services, if power than France and Spain now would be, if
he thought his country in any real danger, or they were united against us, we were not supexpected to be sent upon an expedition where posed to be in any such extremity, either in the
he might have a chance of gaining riches to time of the Commonwealth or of King Charles
himself and glory to his country.  I am really  the Second.  In King William's war agaihst
ashamed, sir, to hear such arguments made use France, when her naval power was vastly supeof in any case where our seamen are concerned. rior to what it is at present, and when we had
Can we expect that brave men will not resent more reason to be afraid of an invasion than we
such treatment?  Could we expect they would  can have at present, we were thought to be in
stay with us, if we should make a law for treat- no such extremity. In Queen Anne's time, when
ing them in such a contemptible manner?      we were engaged in a war both against France
But suppose, sir, we had no regard for our and Spain, and were obliged to make great levseamen, I hope we shall have some regard for ies yearly for the land service, no such remedy
the rest of the people, and for ourselves in par- was ever thought of, except for one year only,
ticular; for I think I do not in the least exag- and then it was found to be far from being efgerate when I say, we are laying a trap for the fectual.
lives of all the men of spirit in the nation.    This, sir, I am convinced, would be the case
Whether the law, when made, is to be carried  now, as well as it was then.  It was at that
into execution, I do not know; but if it is, we time computed that, by means of such a law as
are laying a snare for our own lives.  Every  this, there were not above fourteen hundred seagentleman of this House must be supposed, I men brought into the service of the government;
hope justly, to be a man of spirit.  Would any  and, considering the methods that have been al



1741.]           LORD CHATHAM'S REPLY TO HORATIO WALPOLE.                                    81
ready taken, and the reward proposed by this  I shall be for leaving this clause out of the bill,
bill to be offered to volunteers, I am convinced  and every other clause relating to it.  The bill
that the most strict and general search would  will be of some service without them; and when
not bring in half the number.  Shall we, then,  we have passed it, we may then go into a comfor the sake of adding six or seven hundred, or  mittee to consider of some lasting methods for
even fourteen hundred seamen to his Majesty's  increasing our stock of seamen, and for encournavy, expose our Constitution to so much dan-  aging them upon all occasions to enter into his
ger, and every housekeeper in the kingdom  to  Majesty's service.
the danger of being disturbed at all hours in the
night?                                            In consequence of these remarks, all the clausBut suppose this law were to have a great  es relating to search-warrants were ultimately
effect, it can be called nothing but a temporary  struck out of the bill.
expedient, because it can in no way contribute    It was during this debate that the famous altoward increasing the number of our seamen, or  tercation took place between Mr. Pitt and Hotoward rendering them  more willing to enter  ratio Walpole, in which the latter endeavored to
into his Majesty's service.  It is an observation  put down the young orator by representing him
made by Bacon upon the laws passed in Henry  as having too little experience to justify his disthe Seventh's reign, that all of them were cal-  cussing such subjects, and charging him  with
culated for futurity as well as the present time.2  "petulancy of invective," "'pompous diction,"
This showed the wisdom of his councils; I wish  and "theatrical emotion."  The substance of
I could say so of our present.  We have for  Mr. Pitt's reply was reported to Johnson, who
some years thought of nothing but expedients  wrote it out in his own language, forming one
for getting rid of some present inconvenience by  of the most bitter retorts in English oratory.
running ourselves into a greater.  The ease or  It has been so long connected with the name of
convenience of posterity was never less thought  Mr. Pitt, that the reader would regret its omisof, I believe, than it has been of late years.  I  sion in this work.  It is therefore given below,
wish I could see an end of these temporary ex-  not as a specimen of his style, which was exactpedients; for we have been pursuing them  so  ly the reverse of the sententious manner and ballong, that we have almost undone our country  anced periods of Johnson, but as a general ex —
and overturned our Constitution. Therefore, sir,  hibition of the sentiments which he expressed.
REPLY
OF LORD CHATHAM WHEN ATTACKED BY HORATIO WALPOLE, DELIVERED MARCH 6,1741..
SIR,-The atrocious crime of being a young  deserves not that his gray hairs should secure
man, which the honorable gentleman has, with  him  from  insult.  Much more, sir, is he to be
such spirit and decency, charged upon me, I abhorred, who, as he has advanced in age, has
shall neither attempt to palliate nor deny, but receded fiom virtue, and becomes more wicked
content myself with wishing that I may be one  with less temptation; who prostitutes himself
of those whose follies may cease with their youth, for money which he can not enjoy, and spends
and not of that number who are ignorant in spite  the remains of his life in the ruin of his country.
of experience.  Whether youth can be imputed  But youth, sir, is not my only crime; I have
to any man as a reproach, I will not, sir, assume  been accused of acting a theatrical part.  A
the province of determining; but surely age may  theatrical part may either imply some peculiarbecome justly contemptible, if the opportunities  ities of gesture, or a dissimulation of my real
which it brings have passed away without im- sentiments, and an adoption of the opinions and
provement, and vice appears to prevail when the  language of another man.
passions have subsided.  The wretch who, after    In the first sense, sir, the charge is too trifling
having seen the consequences of a thousand er- to be confuted, and deserves only to be mentionrors, continues still to blunder, and whose age  ed to be despised.  I am at liberty, like every
has only added obstinacy to stupidity, is surely  other man, to use my own language; and
the object of either abhorrence or contempt, and  though, perhaps, I may have some ambition to
please this gentleman, I shall not lay myself un2 "Certainly his (Henry the Seventh's) times for der any restraint, nor very solicitously copy his
good commonwealth's laws did excel, so as he may  diction or his mien, however matured by age, or
justly be celebrated for the best lawgiver to this modeled by experience.  If any man shall, by
nation after King Edward the First; for his laws, charging me with theatrical behavior, imply that
whoso marks them well, are deep, and not vulgar; I
I utter any sentiments but my own, I shall treat
not made upon the spur of a particular occasion for                                     shall
the present, but out of providence for the future, to  him  as a calumniator and a villain; nor shall
make the estate of his people still more and more  any protection shelter him  from the treatment
happy, after the manner of the legislators in ancient he deserves. I shall, on such an occasion, withand heioical times."-Bacon's Works, vol. iii., p. out scruple, trample upon all those forms with
233, edition 1834.                              which wealth and dignity intrench themselves
F




82                              LORD CHATHAM  AGAINST                                    [1742.
nor shall any thing but age restrain my resent- thus:] Sir, if this be to preserve order, there is
ment-age, which always brings one privilege, no danger of indecency from the most licentious
that of being insolent and supercilious without tongues. For what calumny can be more atropunishment.  But with regard, sir, to those  cious, what reproach more severe, than that of
whom I have offended, I am of opinion, that if I speaking with regard to any thing but truth.
had acted a borrowed part, I should have avoid- Order may sometimes be broken by passion or
ed their censure.  The heat that offended them  inadvertency, but will hardly be re-established
is the ardor of conviction, and that zeal for the  by a monitor like this, who can not govern his
service of my country which neither hope nor own passions while he is restraining the impetufear shall influence me to suppress.  I will not osity of others.
sit unconcerned while my liberty is invaded, nor    Happy would it be for mankind if every one
look in silence upon public robbery.  I will ex-  knew his own province.  We should not then
ert my endeavors, at whatever hazard, to repel  see the same man at once a criminal and a judge;
the aggressor, and drag the thief to justice, who- I nor would this gentleman assume the right of
ever may protect them  in their villainy, and  dictating to others what he has not learned himwhoever may partake of their plunder.  And if  self.
the honorable gentleman-                          That I may return in some degree the favor
[At this point Mr. Pitt was called to order by  he intends me, I will advise him never hereafter
Mr. Wynnington, who went on to say, "No di-  to exert himself on the subject of order; but
versity of opinion can justify the violation of de-  whenever he feels inclined to speak on such occency, and the use of rude and virulent expres- casions, to remember how he has now succeedsions, dictated only by resentment, and uttered  ed, and condemn in silence what his censures
without regard to-"                             will never amend.
Here Mr. Pitt called to order, and proceeded
SPEECH 
OF LORD CHATHAM ON A MOTION FOR INQUIRING INTO THE CONDUCT OF SIR ROBERT WALPOLE, DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, MARCH 9, 1742.
INTRODUCTION.
SIR ROBEBT WALPOLE was driven from power on the 11th of February, 1742. So greatly were the
public excited against him, that the cry of "blood" was heard from every quarter; and a motion was
made by Lord Limerick, on the 9th of March, 1742, for a committee " to inquire into the conduct of affairs
at home and abroad during the last twenty years."  This, of course, gave the widest scope for arraigning the conduct of the ex-minister; while, at the sanme time, no specific charges were requisite, because:the question was simply on an inqiry, which was expected to develop the evidence of his guilt.'This motion was strongly opposed by Walpole's friends, and especially by Mr. Henry Pelham, who re-:marked, in allusion to one of the preceding speakers, that "it would very much shorten the debate if gentlemen would keep close to the argument, and not run into long harangues or flowers of rhetoric, which
might be introduced upon any other subject as well as the present." Mr. Pitt followed, and took his exordium from this sarcasm of Mr. Pelham. He then went fully, and with great severity of remark, into a
review of the most important measures ofWalpole's administration. This led him over the same ground
which -had been previously traversed by Walpole, in his defense against the attack of Mr. Sandys and
others about a year before. The reader will therefore find it interesting to compare this speech on the
several points, as they come up, with that of Walpole, which is given on a preceding page. He will there
see some points explained in the notes, by means of evidence which was not accessible to the public at
the time of this discussion.
SPEECH, &o.
WHAT the gentlemen on the other side mean  pid sergeant-at-law that ever spoke for a halfby long harangues or flowers of rhetoric, I shall guinea fee.  For my part, I have heard nothing
not pretend-to determine.  But if they make use  in favor of the question but what I think very
of nothing of the kind, it is no very good argu-  proper, and very much to the purpose.  What
ment of their sincerity, because a man who  has been said, indeed, on the other side of the
speaks from his heart, and is sincerely affected  question, especially the long justification that
with the subject upon which he speaks (as every  has been made of our late measures, I can not
honest man must be when he speaks in the cause  think so proper; because this motion is founded
of his country), such a man, I say, falls natu-  upon the present melancholy situation of affairs,
rally into expressions which may be called flow-  and upon the general clamor without doors,
ers of rhetoric; and, therefore, deserves as little  against the conduct of our late public servants.
to be charged,with affectation, as the most stu-  Either of these, with me, shall always be a suffi.




1742.]                          SIR ROBERT WALPOLE.                                      83
cient reason for agreeing to a parliamentary in- der to detect those practices, if any such existquiry; because, without such inquiry, I can not, ed, and to find proper evidence for convicting
even in my own mind, enter into the disquisition  the offenders.  The same argument holds with
whether our public measures have been right or regard to the inquiry into the management of
not; without such inquiry, I can not be furnished  the South Sea Company in the year 1721.3
with the necessary information.               When that affair was first moved in the House
But the honorable gentlemen who oppose this by Mr. Neville, he did not, he could not, charge
motion seem to mistake, I do not say willfully, the directors of that company, or any of them,
the difference between a motion for an impeach- with any particular delinquencies; nor did he
ment and a motion for an inquiry. If any mem- attempt to offer, or say that he was ready to offer,
her of this House were to stand up in his place, any particular proofs.  His motion was, " That
and move to impeach a minister, he would be the directors of the South Sea Company should
obliged to charge him  with some particular forthwith lay before the House an account of
crimes or misdemeanors, and produce some their proceedings," and it was founded upon the
proof, or declare that he was ready to prove the general circumstances of things, the distress
facts.  But any gentleman may move for an in- brought upon the public credit of the nation, and
quiry, without any particular allegation, and  the general and loud complaints without doors.
without offering any proof, or declaring what he  This motion, indeed, reasonable as it was, we
is ready to prove; because the very design of know was opposed by the Court party at the
an inquiry is to find out particular facts and par- time, and, in particular, by two doughty brothticular proofs.  The general circumstances of ers,4 who have been attached to the Court ever
things, or general rumors without doors, are a since; but their opposition raised such a warmth
sufficient foundation for such a motion, and for in the House, that they were glad to give it up,
the House agreeing to it when it is made. This, and. never after.durst directly oppose that insir, has always been the practice, and has been  quiry. I wish I could now see the same zeal
the foundation of almost all the inquiries that for public justice.  The circumstances of affairs
have ever been set on foot in this House, espe- I am sure deserve it.  Our public credit was
cially those that have been carried on by secret then, indeed, brought into distress; but now the
and select committees.  What other foundation  nation itself, nay, not only this nation, but all
was there for the secret committee appointed in our friends upon the Continent, are brought into
the year 1694 (to go no further back), to inquire  the most imminent danger.
into, and inspect the books and accounts of the    This, sir, is admitted even by those who opEast India Company, and of the Chamberlain of pose this motion; and if they have ever lately
London?   Nothing but a general rumor that conversed with those that dare speak their minds;
some corrupt practices had been made use of. they must admit, that the murmurs of the peoWhat was the foundation of the inquiry in the ple against the conduct of the administration are
year 1715?2  Did the honorable gentleman who now as general and as loud as ever they were
moved the appointment of the secret committee  upon any occasion.  But the misfortune is, that
upon the latter occasion, charge the previous gentlemen who are in office seldom converse with
administration with any particular crimes'? Did  any but such as either are, or want to be, in office;
he offer any proofs, or declare that he was ready  and such men, let them think as they will, will alto prove any thing?  It is said, the measures waysapplaud their superiors; consequently, genpursued by that administration were condemned  tlemen who are in the administration, or in any
by a great majority of the House of Commons. office under it, can rarely know the voice of the
What, sir! were those ministers condemned be- people.  The voice of this House was formerly,
fore they were heard?  Could any gentleman  I grant, and always ought to be, the voice of the
be so unjust as to pass sentence, even in his own people.  If new  Parliaments were more fremind, upon a measure before he had inquired  quent, and few placemen, and no pensioners, adinto it?  He might, perhaps, dislike the Treaty  mitted, it would be so still; but if long Parliaof Utrecht, but, upon inquiry, it might appear ments be continued, and a corrupt influence
to be the best that could be obtained; and it should prevail, not only at elections, but in this
has since been so far justified, that it appears House, the voice of this House will generally be
at least as good, if not better, than any treaty  very different from, nay, often directly contrary
we have subsequently made.                    to, the voice of the people.  However, as this
Sir, it was not the Treaty of Utrecht, nor any  is not, I believe, the case at present, I hope
measure openly pursued by the administration  there is a majority of us who know what is the
which negotiated it, that was the foundation or voice of the people.  And if it be admitted by
the cause of an inquiry into their conduct.  It all that the nation is at present in the utmost
was the loud complaints of a great party against distress and danger, if it be admitted by a mathem; and the general suspicion of their having jority that the voice of the people is loud against
carried on treasonable negotiations in favor of the conduct of our late administration, this mothe Pretender, and for defeating the Protestant tion must be agreed to, because I have shown
succession.  The inquiry was set on foot in or- that these two circumstances, without any par1 See Parl. Hist., vol. v., p. 896 and 900.   3 Ibid., p. 685.
2 Ibid., vol. vii.. p. 53.                    4 Sir Robert and Mr. Horatio Walpole.




84                              LORD CHATHAM  AGAINST                                     [1742.
ticular charge, have been the foundation of al- false in fact, and contrary to experience.  We
most every parliamentary inquiry.                have had many parliamentary inquiries into the
I readily admit, sir, that we have very little  conduct of ministers of state; and yet I defy any
to do with the character or reputation of a min- one to show that any state affair which ought to
ister, but as it always does, and must affect our have been concealed was thereby discovered, or
sovereign.  But the people may become disaf- that our affairs, either abroad or at home, ever
fected as well as discontented, when they find  suffered  by any such' discovery.  There are
the King continues obstinately to employ a min- methods, sir, of preventing papers of a very seister who, they think, oppresses them  at home  cret nature from  coming into the hands of the
and betrays them  abroad.  We are, therefore, servants attending, or even of all the members
in duty to our sovereign, obliged to inquire into  of a secret committee.  If his Majesty should,
the conduct of a minister when it becomes gen- by message, inform us, that some of the papers
erally suspected by the people, in order that we  sealed up and laid before us required the utmost
may vindicate his character if he be innocent of  secrecy, we might refer them to our committee,
the charges brought against him, or, if he be  instructing them to order only two or three of
guilty, that we may obtain his removal from the  their number to inspect such papers, and to recouncils of our sovereign, and also condign pun- port from them nothing but what they thought
ishment on his crimes.                           might safely be communicated to the whole.
After having said thus much, sir, I need scarce-  By this method; I presume, the danger of disly answer what has been asserted, that no par-  covery would be effectually removed; this danliamentary inquiry ought ever to be instituted,  ger, therefore, is no good argument against a
unless we are convinced that something has  parliamentary inquiry.
been done amiss.  Sir, the very name given to    The other objection, sir, is really surprising,
this House of Parliament proves the contrary. because it is founded upon a circumstance which,
We are called The Grand Inquest of the Nation; in all former times, has been admitted as a
and, as such, it is our duty to inquire into every  strong argument in favor of an immediate instep of public management, both abroad and at quiry.  The honorable gentlemen are so ingenhome, in order to see that nothing has been done  uous as to confess that our affairs, both abroad
amiss. It is not necessary, upon every occasion, and at home, are at present in the utmost emto establish a secret committee.  This is never barrassment; but, say they, you ought to free
necessary but when the affairs to be brought be- yourselves from this embarrassment before you
fore it, or some of those affairs, are supposed to  inquire into the cause of it.  Sir, according to
be of such a nature as to require secrecy. But, this way of arguing, a minister who has plun-.as experience has shown that nothing but a su- dered and betrayed his country, and fears being
perficial inquiry is ever made by a general com- called to an account in Parliament, has nothing
mittee, or a committee of the whole House, I to do but to involve his country in a dangerous
wish that all estimates and accounts, and many  war, or some other great distress, in order to
other affairs, were respectively referred to select prevent an inquiry into his conduct; because he
committees. Their inquiries would be more ex- may be dead before that war is at an end, or
act, and the receiving of their reports would not that distress is surmounted. Thus, like the most
occupy so much of our time as is represented. detestable of all thieves, after plundering the
But, if it did, our duty being to make strict in-  house, he has only to set it on fire, that he may
quiries into every thing relative to the public,  escape in the confusion. It is really astonishing
our assembling here being for that purpose, we  to hear such an argument seriously urged in this
must perform our duty before we break up; and  House.  But, say these gentlemen, if you found
his present Majesty, I am sure, will never put yourself upon a precipice, would you stand to
an end to any session till that duty has been fully  inquire how you were led there, before you conperformed.                                       sidered how to get off?  No, sir; but if a guide
It is said by some gentlemen, that by this in-  had led me there, I should very probably be proquiry we shall be in danger of discovering the  voked to throw him over, before I thought of any
secrets of our government to our enemies.  This  thing else.  At least I am  sure I should not
argument, sir, by proving too much, proves noth- trust to the same guide for bringing me off; and
ing.  If it were admitted, it would always have  this, sir, is the strongest argument that can be
been, and its admission forever will be, an argu- used for an inquiry.
ment against our inquiring into any affair in    We have been, for these twenty years, under
which our government can be supposed to be  the guidance, I may truly say, of one man-of
concerned.  Our inquiries would then be con-  one single minister.  We now, at last, find ourfined to the conduct of our little companies, or selves upon a dangerous precipice.  Ought we
of inferior custom-house officers and excisemen;  not, then, immediately to inquire, whether we
for, if we should presume to inquire into the con-  have been led upon this precipice by his ignoduct of commissioners or of great companies, it rance or wickedness; and if by either, to take
would be said the government had a concern in  care not to trust to his guidance for our safety?
their conduct, and the secrets of government This is an additional and a stronger argument
must not be divulged.  Every gentleman must for this inquiry than ever was urged for any forsee that this would be the consequence of ad-  mer one, for, if we do not inquire, we shall probmitting such an argument.  But, besides, it is  ably remain under his guidance; because, though




1742.]                           SIR ROBERT WALPOLE.                                         85
he be removed from the Treasury Board, he is  ions had been distributed among the poor sort of
not removed from the King's Court, nor will he  annuitants, it would have been both generous
be, probably, unless it be by our advice, or un- and charitable; but to give it among the propriless we lodge him in a place at the other end of etors in general was neither generous nor just,
the town [i. e., the Tower], where he can not so  because most of them  deserved no favor from
well injure his country.  Sir, our distress at the public. As the proceedings of the directors
home evidently proceeds from want of economy, were authorized by general courts, those who
and from our having incurred many unnecessary  were then the proprietors were in some measure
expenses.  Our distress and danger abroad are  accessary to the frauds of the directors, and
evidently owing to the misconduct of the war therefore deserved to be punished rather than
with Spain, and to the little confidence which our rewarded, as they really were; because every
natural and ancient allies have reposed in our one of them who continued to hold stock in that
councils.  This is so evident, that I should not company received nearly fifty per cent., added
think it necessary to enter into any particular to his capital, most part of which arose from the
explanation, if an honorable gentleman on the  high price annuitants were, by act of Parliament,
other side had not attempted to justify most of obliged to take stock at, and was therefore a
our late measures both abroad and at home. most flagrant piece of injustice done to the anBut as he has done so, though not, in my opin- nuitants.  But we need not be at a loss for the
ion, quite to the purpose of the present debate, true cause of this act of injustice, when we conI hope I shall be allowed to make some remarks sider that a certain gentleman had a great many
upon what he has said on the subject; begin- friends among the old stockholders, and few or
ning, as he did, with the measures taken for pun- none among the annuitants.
ishing the South Sea directors, and restoring    Another act of injustice, which I believe we
public credit after the terrible shock it received  may ascribe to the same cause, relates to those
in the year 1720.                               who were engaged in heavy contracts for stock
As those measures, sir, were among the first or subscription, many of whom groan under the
exploits of our late (I fear I must call him our load to this very day. For after we had, by act
present) prime minister, and as the committee  of Parliament, quite altered the nature, though
proposed, if agreed to, will probably consist of not the name, of the stock they had bought, and
one-and-twenty members, I wish the motion  made it much less valuable than it was when
had extended one year further back, that the  they engaged to pay a high price for it, it was
number of years might have corresponded with  an act of public injustice to leave them liable to
the number of inquirers, and that it might have  be prosecuted at law for the whole money which
comprehended the first of those measures to  they had engaged to pay.  I am sure this was
which I have before alluded. As it now stands, not the method to restore that private credit upon
it will not comprehend the methods taken for which our trade and navigation so much depend.
punishing the directors [of the South Sea Corn- Had the same regulation been here adopted
pany], nor the first regulation made for restor- which was observed toward those who had boring public credit; and with regard to both, some  rowed money of the company, or had a sort of
practices might be discovered that would de- utipossidetis been enacted, by declaring all such
serve a much severer punishment than any of  contracts void so far as related to any future
those directors experienced.  Considering the  payments, this would not have been unjust; on
many frauds made use of by the directors and  the contrary, such a regulation, sir, was extheir agents for luring people to their ruin, I am  tremely necessary for quieting the minds of the
not a little surprised to hear it now said that people, for preventing their ruining one another
their punishment was considered too severe. at law, and for restoring credit between man
Justice by the lump was an epithet given to it, and man.  But there is reason to suppose that
not because it was thought too severe, but be- a certain gentleman [Walpole] had many friends
cause it was an artifice to screen the most hei- among the sellers in those contracts, and very
nous offenders, who, if they did not deserve  few  among the buyers, which was the reason
death, deserved, at least, to partake of that total that the latter could obtain little or no relief or
ruin which they had brought upon many un- mercy by any public law or regulation.
thinking men. They very ill deserved, sir, those    Then, sir, with regard to the extraordinary
allowances which were made them  by Parlia-  grants made to the civil list, the very reason
ment.                                            given by the honorable gentleman for justifying
Then, sir, as to public credit, its speedy res- those grants is a strong reason for an immediate
toration was founded upon the conduct of the  inquiry.  If considerable charges have arisen
nation, and not upon the wisdom or justice of the  upon that revenue, let us see what they are; let
measures adopted. Was it a wise method to re- us examine whether they were necessary. We
mit to the South Sea Company the whole seven  have the more reason to do this, because the
millions, or thereabouts, which they had solemn- revenue settled upon his late Majesty's civil list
ly engaged to pay to the public?  It might as was at least as great as that which was settled
well be said, that a private man's giving away  upon King William  or Queen Anne.  Besides,
a great part of his estate to those who no way  there is a general rumor without doors, that the
deserved it, would be a wise method of reviving  civil list is now greatly in arrear, which, if true,
or establishing his credit.  If those seven mill- renders an inquiry absolutely necessary. For it




86                              LORD  CHATHAM  AGAINST                                    [1742.
is inconsistent with the honor and dignity of the  ready heard one reason assigned why no other
Crown of these kingdoms to be in arrear to its  measures have been particularly mentioned and
tradesmen and servants; and it is the duty of  condemned in this debate.  If it were necessary,
this House to take care that the revenue which  many others might be mentioned and condemnwe have settled for supporting the honor and  ed.  Is not the maintaining so numerous an army
dignity of the Crown, shall not be squandered or in time of peace to be condemned?  Is not the
misapplied.  If former Parliaments have failed  fitting out so many expensive and useless squadin this respect, they must be censured, though  rons to be condemned?  Are not the encroachthey can not be punished; but we ought now to  ments made upon the Sinking Fund;7 the revivatone for their neglect.                         ing the salt duty; the rejecting many useful bills
I come now, in course, to the Excise Scheme, and motions in Parliament, and many other dowhich the honorable gentleman says ought to  mestic measures, to be condemned? The weakbe forgiven, because it was easily'given up."  ness or the wickedness of these measures has
Sir, it was not easily given up.   The promoter  often been demonstrated. Their ill consequences
of that scheme did not easily give it up; he  were at the respective times foretold, and those
gave it up with sorrow, with tears in his eyes, consequences are now  become visible by our
when he saw, and not until he saw, it was im- distress.
possible to carry it through the House.  Did not    Now, sir, with regard to the foreign meashis majority decrease upon every divisioni?  It ures which the honorable gentleman has attemptwas almost certain that if he had pushed it far- ed to justify.  The Treaty of Hanover deserves
ther, his majority would have turned against to  be first mentioned, because from  thence
him.  His sorrow showed his disappointment;  springs the danger to which Europe is now exand his disappointment showed that his design  posed; and it is impossible to assign a reason
was deeper than simply to prevent frauds in the  for our entering into that treaty, without supcustoms.  He was, at that time, sensible of the  posing that we then resolved to be revenged on
influence of the excise laws and excise men with  the Emperor for refusing to grant us some favor
regard to elections, and of the great occasion  in Germany.  It is in vain now to insist upon
he should have for that sort of influence at the  the secret engagements entered into  by the
approaching general election.  His attempt, sir, courts of Vienna and Madrid as the cause of
was most flagrant against the Constitution; and  that treaty.  Time has fully shown that there
he deserved the treatment he met with from the  never were any such engagements,8 and his late
people.  It has been said that there were none         
but what gentlemen aye pleased to call the mob    7 In the year 1717, the surplus of the public inbut what gentlemen are pleased to call the mob
come over the public expenditm'e, was converted
concerned in burning him in effigy; but, as the     what was called The SickiLn  Fi ld, for the
mob consists chiefly of children, journeymen, and purpose of liquidating the national debt. During
servants, who speak the sentiments of their par- the whole reign of George I., this fund was invarients and masters, we may thence judge of the  ably appropriated to the object for which it had
sentiments of the higher classes of the people.   been created; and, rather than encroach upon it,
The honorable gentleman has said, these were  money was borrowed upon new taxes, when the
all the measures of a domestic nature that could  supplies in general might have been raised by dedibe found fault with, because none other have  eating the surplus of the old taxes to the current
been mentioned in this debate.       services of the year. The first direct encroachment
uSir, he hs a-   pon the Sinking Fund took place in the year 1729,
when the interest of a sum of ~1,250,000, required
5 The Excise Scheme of Sir Robert Walpole was  for the current service of the year, was charged on
simply a warehousing system, under which the du- that fund, instead of any new taxes being imposed
ties on tobacco and wine were payable, not when  upon the people to meet it. The second encroachthe articles were imported, but when they were  ment took place in the year 1731, when the income
taken out to be consumed. It was computed, that, arising from certain duties which had been imposed
in consequence of the check which this change in  in the reign of William III., for paying the interest
the mode of collecting the duties on these articles  due to the East India Company, and which were
would give to smuggling, the revenue would derive  now no longer required for that purpose, in conse
an increase which, with the continuance of the salt quence of their interest being reduced, was made
tax (revived the preceding year), would be amply  use of in order to raise a sum of ~1,200,000, instead
sufficient to compensate for the total abolition of of throwing such income into the Sinking Fund, as
the land tax. The political opponents of Sir Rob- ought properly to have been done. A third perverert Walpole, by representing his proposition as a  sion of this fund took place in the year 1733, before
scheme for a general excise, succeeded in raising so  the introduction of the Excise Scheme. In the previolent a clamor against it, and in rendering it so  vious year the land tax had been reduced to one
unpopular, that, much againsthis own inclination, he  shilling in the pound; and, in order to maintain it
was obliged to abandon it. It was subsequently  at the same rate, the sum of ~500,000 was taken
approved of by Adam Smith; and Lord Chatham, at from the Sinking Fund and applied to the services of
a later period of his life, candidly acknowledged, that the year. In 1734 the sum of ~1,200,000, the whole
his opposition to it was founded in misconception. produce of the Sinking Fund, was taken from it; and
For an interesting account of the proceedings rela- in 1735 and 1736, it was anticipated and alienated.tive to the Excise Scheme, see Lord Hervey's Mem- Sinclair's Hist. of the Revenue, vol. i., p. 484, et seq.
oirs of the Court of George II., chaps. viii. and ix.   Coxe's Walpole, chap. xl.
6 See Lord Hervey's Memoirs of the Court of   8 Here Lord Chatham was mistaken. It is now
George II., vol. i., p. 203.                     certainly known that secret engagements did exist,




1742.]                            SIR ROBERT WALPOLE.                                          87
Majesty's speech from the throne can not here  afterward did in the most absolute manner, and
be admitted as any evidence of the fact. Every  without any conditions.l1   We wanted nothing
one knows that in Parliament the King's speech  from Spain but a relinquishment of the pretense
is considered as the speech of the minister; and  she had just begun, or, I believe, hardly begun,
surely a minister is not to be allowed to bring  to set up, in an express manner, with regard to
his own speech as an evidence of a fact in his searching and seizing our ships in the American
own justification.  If it be pretended that his seas; and this we did not obtain, perhaps did
late Majesty had some sort of information, that not desire to obtain, by the Treaty of Seville."
such engagements had been entered into, that By that treaty we obtained nothing; but we advery pretense furnishes an unanswerable argu- vanced another step toward that danger in which
ment for an inquiry.  For, as the information  Europe is now involved, by uniting the courts of
now appears to have been groundless, we ought France and Spain, and by laying a foundation
to inquire into it; because, if it appears to be  for a new breach between the courts of Spain
such information as ought not to have been be- and Vienna.
lieved, that minister ought to be punished who    I grant, sir, that our ministers appear to have
advised his late Majesty to give credit to it, and  been forward and diligent enough in negotiating,
who, in consequence, has precipitated the nation  and writing letters and memorials to the court
into the most pernicious measures.                of Spain; but, from all my inquiries, it appears
At the time this treaty was entered into, we  that they never rightly understood (perhaps they
wanted nothing from the Emperor upon our own  would not understand) the point respecting which
account.  The abolition of the Ostend Company  they were negotiating.  They suffered themwas a demand we had no right to make, nor was selves to be amused with fair promises for ten
it essentially our interest to insist upon it, be- long years; and. our merchants plundered, our
cause that Company would have been more hos- trade interrupted, now  call aloud for inquiry.
tile to the interests both of the French and Dutch  If it should appear that ministers allowed themEast India trades than to our own; and if it had  selves to be amused with answers which no man
been a point that concerned us much, we might of honor, no man of common sense, in such cirprobably have gained it by acceding to the Vien- cumstances, would take, surely, sir, they must
na treaty between the Emperor and Spain, or by  have had some secret motive for being thus
guaranteeing the Pragmatic Sanction,9 which we  grossly imposed on. This secret motive we may
perhaps discover by an inquiry; and as it must
and there is no reason to doubt that the most im-be a wicked one, if it can be discovered, the
portant of them were correctly stated by Walpole. parties ought to be severely punished.
They were said to have been to the effect, that the
Emperor should give in marriage his daughters, the    But, in excuse for their conduct, it is said that
Emperor should aiven marriage his daughters, the                                               i
two arch-duchesses, to Don Carlos and Don Philip, ou ministers had a laudable repugnance to inthe two Infants of Spain; that he should assist the  volving their country in a war.  Sir, this repugKing of Spain in obtaining by force the restitution  nance could not proceed from  any regard to
of Gibraltar, if good offices would not avail; and  their country.  It was involved in a war.  Spain
that the two courts should adopt measures to place  was carrying on a war against our trade, and
the Pretender on the throne of Great Britain. The  that in the most insulting manner, during the
fact of there having been a secret treaty, was placed  whole time of their negotiations.  It was this
beyond doubt by the Austrian embassador at the        r
court of London having shown the article relating       repugnance, at least it was the knowledge
to Gibraltar in that treaty, in order to clear the Em- of it which Spain possessed, that at length made
peror of having promised any more than his good   xo By the second Treaty of Vienna, concluded on
offices and mediation upon that head. (Coxe's His- the 16th of March, 1731, England guaranteed the
tory of the House of Austria, chap. xxxvii.)  With  Pragmatic Sanction on the condition of the supreference to the. stipulation for placing the Pretend- pression of the Ostend Company, and that the archer on the throne of Great Britain, Mr. J. W. Croker, duchess who succeeded to the Austrian dominions
in a note to Lord Hervey's Memoirs of the Court of should not be married to a prince of the house of
George II., vol. i., p. 78, says that its existence "is Bourbon, or to a prince so powerful as to endanger
very probable;" but that it is observable that Lord  the balance of Europe.-Coxe's House of Austria
Hervey, who revised his Memoirs some years after chap. lxxxviii.
the 29th of March, 1734, when Sir RobertWalpole as-   11 By the Treaty of Seville, concluded between
serted in the House of Commons that there was such  Great Britain, France, and Spain, on the 9th of Sepa document, and who was so long in the full confi- tember, 1729, and shortly after acceded to by Holdence of Walpole, speaks very doubtfully of it.   land, all former treaties were confirmed, and the
9 On the 2d of August, 1718, the Emperor Charles  several contracting parties agreed to assist each
VI. promulgated a new law of succession for the in- other in case of attack. The King of Spain revoked
heritance of the house of Austria, under the iname  the privileges of trade which he had granted to the
of the Pragmatic Sanction. In this he ordained that, subjects of Austria by the Treaty of Vienna, and
in the event of his having no male issue, his own  commissioners were to be appointed for the final
daughters should succeed to the Austrian throne, in  adjustment of all commercial difficulties between
preference to the daughters of his elder brother, as Spain and Great Britain. In order to secure the
previously provided; and that such succession should  succession of Parnia and Tuscany to the Infant Don
be regulated according to the order of primogeni-  Carlos, it was agreed that 6000 Spanish troops
ture, so that the elder should be preferred to the  should be allowed to garrison Leghorn, Porto Feryounger, and that she should inherit his entire do- rajo, Parma, and Placentia. This treaty passed over
minions.                                         in total silence the claim of Spain to Gibraltar.




88                            LORD CHATHAM  AGAINST                                   [1742.
it absolutely necessary for us to commence the  event declare against them, otherwise they would
war.  If ministers had at first insisted properly  not then have dared to attack the Emperor; for
and peremptorily upon an explicit answer, Spain  Muscovy, Poland, Germany, and Britain would
would have expressly abandoned her new and  have been by much an over-match for them. It
insolent claims and pretensions.  But by the  was not our preparations that set bounds to the
long experience we allowed her, she found the  ambition of France, but her getting all she wantfruits of those pretensions so plentiful and so ed at that time for herself, and all she desired for
gratifying, that she thought them worth the haz- her allies.  Her own prudence suggested that
ard of a war. Sir, the damage we had sustained  it was not then a proper time to push her views
became so considerable, that it really was worth  further; because she did not know but that the
that hazard.  Besides, the court of Spain was spirit of this nation might overcome (as it since
convinced, while we were under such an admin- has with regard to Spain) the spirit of our adistration, that either nothing could provoke us to  ministration; and should this have happened, the
commence the war, or, that if we did, it would  house of Austria was then in such a condition,
be conducted in a weak and miserable manner. that our assistance, even though late, would have
Have we not, sir, since found that their opinion  been of effectual service.
was correct?  Nothing, sir, ever more demand-    I am surprised, sir, to hear the honorable gened a parliamentary inquiry than our conduct in  tleman now say, that we gave up nothing, or
the war.  The only branch into which we have that we acquired any thing, by the infamous Coninquired we have already censured and con- vention with Spain.  Did we not give up the
demned. Is not this a good reason for inquiring  freedom of our trade and navigation, by submitinto every other branch?  Disappointment and  ting it to be regulated by plenipotentiaries?
ill success have always, till now, occasioned a  Can freedom be regulated without being conparliamentary inquiry.  Inactivity, of itself, is a fined, and consequently in some part destroyed?
sufficient cause for inquiry.  We have now all Did we not give up Georgia, or some part of it,
these reasons combined.  Our admirals abroad by submitting to have new limits settled by plendesire nothing more; because they are conscious ipotentiaries?  Did we not give up all the repthat our inactivity and ill success will appear to  aration of the damage we had suffered, amountproceed, not from  their own misconduct, but ing to five or six hundred thousand pounds, for
from the misconduct of those by whom they were the paltry sum of twenty-seven thousand pounds?
employed.                                     This was all that Spain promised to pay, after
I can not conclude, sir, without taking notice deducting the sixty-eight thousand pounds which
of the two other foreign measures mentioned by  we, by the declaration annexed to that treaty,
the honorable gentleman.  Our conduct in the allowed her to insist on having from our South
year 1734, with regard to the war between the  Sea Company, under the penalty of stripping
Emperor and France, may be easily accounted  them of the Assiento Contract, and all the privifor, though not easily excused.  Ever since the  leges to which they were thereby entitled. Even
last accession of our late minister to power, we this sum of twenty-seven thousand pounds, or
seem to have had an enmity to the house of Aus- more, they had before acknowledged to be due
tria.  Our guarantee of the Pragmatic Sanction  on account of ships they allowed to have been
was an effect of that enmity, because we enter- unjustly taken, and for the restitution of which
ed into it when, as hath since appeared, we had  they had actually sent orders: so that by this
no intention to perform our engagement; and by  infamous treaty we acquired nothing, while we
that false guarantee we induced the Emperor to  gave up every thing. Therefore, in my opinion,
admit the introduction of the Spanish troops into the honor of this nation can never be retrieved,
Italy, which he would not otherwise have done.l2 unless the advisers and authors of it be censured
The preparations we made in that year, the ar- and punished.  This, sir, can not regularly be
mies we raised, and the fleet we fitted out, were  done without a parliamentary inquiry.
not to guard against the event of the war abroad,   By these, and similar weak, pusillanimous,
but against the event of the ensuing elections at and wicked measures, we are become the ridihome.  The new commissions, the promotions, cule of every court in Europe, and have lost the
and the money laid out in these preparations, confidence of all our ancient allies.  By these
were of admirable use at the time of a general measures we have encouraged France to extend
election, and in some measure atoned for the her ambitious views, and now at last to attempt
loss of the excise scheme. But France and her carrying them into execution.  By bad econoallies were well convinced, that we would in no my, by extravagance in our domestic measures,
we have involved ourselves in such distress at
12 See Walpole's explanation of his reason for re- home, that we are almost wholly incapable of enmaining neutral, in his speech, page 39. Although tering into a war; while by weakness or wickEngland remained neutral during the progress of edness in our foreign measures, we have brought
these hostilities, she augmented her naval and mil-,n
these hostilities, she augmented her naval and  il-  the affairs of Europe into such distress that it is
itary forces, "in order," said Mr. Pelham, in the      i   i                 i i
course of the debate, " to be ready to put a stop to almost im ibe fol  us to avoid it.  Sir, we
the arms of the victorious side, in case their ambi- have been brought upon a dangerous precipice.
tion should lead them to push their conquests further Here we now find ourselves; and shall we trust
than was consonant with the balance of power in to be led safely off by the same guide who has
Europe."-Parl. Hist., vol. xii., p. 479.      led us on?  Sir, it is impossible for him to lead




1742.]                            SIR  ROBERT WALPOLE.                                        89
us off.  Sir, it is impossible for us to get off, eries to Europe, as well as to his country.  Let
without first recovering that confidence with our us be as merciful as we will, as merciful as any
ancient allies which formerly we possessed. This  man can reasonably desire, when we come to
we can not do, so long as they suppose that our  pronounce sentence; but sentence we must procouncils are influenced by our late minister; nounce.  For this purpose, unless we are reand this they will suppose so long as he has ac-  solved to sacrifice our own liberties, and the libcess to the King's closet-so long as his conduct  erties of Europe, to the preservation of one guilty
remains uninquired into and uncensured.  It is man, we must make the inquiry.
not, therefore, in revenge for our past disasters, 
but from a desire to prevent them in future, that    The motion was rejected by a majority of two.
I am now so zealous for this inquiry. The pun-  A second motion was made a fortnight after, for
ishment of the minister, be it ever so severe, will  an inquiry into the last ten years of Walpole's
be but a small atonement for the past.  But his i administration, which gave rise to another speech
impunity will be the source of many future mis-  of Mr. Pitt.  This will next be given.
SECOND SPEECH
OF LORD CHATHAM ON A MOTION TO INQUIRE INTO THE CONDUCT OF SIR ROBERT WALPOLE, DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, MARCH 23, 1742.
INTRODUCTION.
LORD LIMERICK'S first motion for an inquiry into the conduct of Walpole was lost chiefly through the
absence of Mr. Pulteney from the House during the illness of a favorite daughter. On the return of Palteney at the end of a fortnight, the motion was renewed, with a variation in one respect, viz., that the inquiry be extended only to the last ten years of Walpole's continuance in office.
On that occasion, Mr. Pitt made the following speech in answer to Mr. Cook Harefield, who had recently taken his seat in the House. In it he shows his remarkable power of reply; and argues with
great force the propriety of inquiry, as leading to a decision whether an impeachment should be commenced.
SPEECH, &c.
As the honorable gentleman who spoke last    This, sir, would be a most convenient doctrine
against the motion has not been long in the  for ministers, because it would put an end to all
House, it is but charitable to believe him  sin-  parliamentary inquiries into the conduct of our
cere in professing that he is ready to agree to a  public affairs; and, therefore, when I hear it
parliamentary inquiry when he thinks the occa-  urged, and so much insisted on, by a certain set
sion requires it.  But if he knew how often such  of gentlemen in this House, I must suppose their
professions are made by those who upon all oc-  hopes to be very extensive.  I must suppose
casions oppose inquiry, he would now  avoid  them to expect that they and their posterity will
them, because they are generally believed to be  forever continue in office.  Sir, this doctrine
insincere.  He may, it is true, have nothing to  has been so often contradicted by experience,
dread, on his own account, from inquiry.  But  that I am surprised to hear it advanced by genwhen a gentleman has contracted, or any of his  tiemen now.  This very session has afforded us
near relations have contracted, a friendship with  a convincing proof that very little foundation exone who may be brought into danger, it is very  ists for asserting, that a parliamentary inquiry
natural to suppose that such a gentleman's op-  must necessarily reveal the secrets of the govposition to an inquiry does not entirely proceed  ernment.  Surely, in a war with Spain, which
from public motives; and if that gentleman fol-  must be carried on principally by sea, if the
lows the advice of some of his friends, I very  government have secrets, the Lords of the Admuch question whether he will ever think the  miralty must be intrusted with the most importoccasion requires an inquiry into the conduct of  ant of them.  Yet, sir, in this very session, we
our public affairs.                              have, without any secret committees, made inAs a parliamentary inquiry must always be  quiry into the conduct of the Lords Commisfounded upon suspicions, as well as upon facts  sioners of the Admiralty.  We have not only
or manifest crimes, reasons may always be found  inquired into their conduct, but we have cenfor alleging those suspicions to be without foun-  sured it in such a manner as to put an end to
dation; and upon the principle that a parlia-  the trust which was before reposed in them.
mentary inquiry must necessarily lay open the  Has that inquiry discovered any of the secrets
secrets of government, no time can ever be  of our government?  On the contrary, the conproper or convenient for such inquiry, because  mittee found that there was no occasion to probe
it is impossible to suppose a time when the gov-  into such secrets.  They found cause enough for
ernment has no secrets to disclose.              censure without it; and none of the Commission.




90                              LORD CHATHAM  AGAINST                                      [1742.
ers pretended to justify their conduct by the as- perpetrated with so much caution and secrecy,
sertion that the papers contained secrets which  that it will be difficult to bring them to light
ought not to be disclosed.                       even by a parliamentary inquiry; but the very
This, sir, is so recent, so strong a proof that suspicion is ground enough for establishing such
there is no necessary connection between a par- inquiry, and for carrying it on with the utmost
liamentary inquiry and a discovery of secrets strictness and vigor.
which it behooves the nation to conceal, that I    Whatever my opinion of past measures may
trust gentlemen will no longer insist upon this be, I shall never be so vain, or bigoted to that
danger as an argument against the inquiry. opinidn, as to determine, without any inquiry,
Sir: the First Commissioner of the Treasury has  against the majority of my countrymen.  If I
nothing to do with the application of secret serv- found the public measures generally condemned,
ice money.  He is only to take care that it be  let my private opinions of them  be ever so faregularly issued from his office, and that no more  vorable, I should be for inquiry in order to conbe issued than the conjuncture of affairs appears  vince the people of their error, or at least to furto demand.  As to the particular application, it nish myself with the most authentic arguments
properly belongs to the Secretary of State, or in favor of the opinion I had embraced.  The
o such other persons as his Majesty employs, desire of bringing others into the same sentiHence we can not suppose the proposed inquiry  ments with ourselves is so natural, that I shall
will discover any secrets relative to the applica- always suspect the candor of those whom in polition of that money, unless the noble lord has tics or religion, are opposed to free inquiry. Beicted as Secretary of State, as well as First sides, sir, when the complaints of the people are
Commissioner of the Treasury; or unless a great general against an administration, or against
part of the money drawn out for secret service  any particular minister, an inquiry is a duty
has been delivered to himself or persons em- which we owe both to our sovereign and the
ployed by him, and applied toward gaining a  people.  We meet here to communicate to our
corrupt influence in Parliament or at elections. sovereign the sentiments of his people.  We
Of both these practices he is most grievously  meet here to redress the grievances of the peosuspected, and both are secrets which it very  pie.  By performing our duty in both respects,
much behooves him  to conceal.  But, sir, it we shall always be enabled to establish the
equally behooves the nation to discover them. throne of our sovereign in the hearts of his peoHis country and he are, in this cause, equally, pie, and to hinder the people from  being led
although oppositely concerned.  The safety or into insurrection and rebellion by misrepresentaruin of one or the other depends upon the fate  tions or false surmises.  When the people comof the question; and the violent opposition which  plain, they must either be right or in error.  If
this question has experienced adds great strength  they be right, we are in duty bound to inquire
to the suspicion.                               into the conduct of the ministers, and to punish
I admit, sir, that the noble lord [Walpole], those who appear to have been most guilty. If
whose conduct is now proposed to be inquired  they be in error, we ought still to inquire into
into, was one of his Majesty's most honorable  the conduct of our ministers, in order to convince
Privy Council, and consequently that he must the people that they have been misled.  We
have had a share at least in advising all the  ought not, therefore, in any question relating to
measures which have been pursued both abroad  inquiry, to be governed by our own sentiments.
and at home.  But I can not from  this admit, We must be governed by the sentiments of our
that an inquiry into his conduct must necessa- constituents, if we are resolved to perform our
rily occasion a discovery of any secrets of vital duty, both as true representatives of the people,
importance to the nation, because we are not to  and as faithful subjects of our King.
inquire into the measures themselves.              I perfectly agree with the honorable gentleBut, sir, suspicions have gone abroad relative  man, that if we are convinced that the public
to his conduct as a Privy Counselor, which, if measures are wrong, or that if we suspect them
true, are of the utmost consequence to be in- to be so, we ought to make inquiry, although
quired into.  It has been strongly asserted that there is not much complaint among the people.
he was not only a Privy Counselor, but that he  But I wholly differ from  him  in thinking that
usurped the whole and sole direction of his Maj- notwithstanding the administration and the minesty's Privy Council.  It has been asserted that ister are the subjects of complaint among the
he gave the Spanish court the first hint of the  people, we ought not to make inquiry into his
unjust claim  they afterward advanced against conduct unless we are ourselves convinced that
our South Sea Company, which was one chief his measures have been wrong.  Sir, we can
cause of the war between the two nations. And  no more determine this question without init has been asserted that this very minister has  quiry, than a judge without a trial can declare
advised the French in what manner to proceed  any man innocent of a crime laid to his charge.
in order to bring our Court into their measures; Common fame is a sufficient ground for an inparticularly, that he advised them as to the nu- quisition at common law; and for the same roamerous army they have this last summer sent son, the general voice of the people of England
into Westphalia.  What truth there is in these  ought always to be regarded as a sufficient
assertions, I pretend not to decide.  The facts  ground for a parliamentary inquiry.
are of such a nature, and they must have been    But, say gentlemen, of what is this minister




1742.]                           SIR ROBERT WALPOLE.                                          9.
accused?  What crime is laid to his charge?  suppose our minister, either personally or by othFor, unless some misfortune is said to have hap- ers, has ever corrupted an election, because no
pened, or some crime to have been committed, information has been brought against him.  Sir,
no inquiry ought to be set on foot.  Sir, the ill nothing but a pardon, upon the conviction of the
posture of our affairs both abroad and at home; offender, has ever yet been offered in this case;
the melancholy situation we are in; the distress- and how could any informer expect a pardon,
es to which we are now reduced, are sufficient and much less a reward, when he knew that the
causes for an inquiry, even supposing the minis- very man against whom he was to inform had
ter accused of no particular crime or misconduct. not only the distribution of all public rewards.
The nation lies bleeding, perhaps expiring. The  but the packing of a jury or a Parliament against
balance of power has been fatally disturbed. him?  While such a minister preserves the faShall we acknowledge this to be the case, and  vor of the Crown, and thereby the exercise of its
shall we not inquire whether it has happened by  power, this information can never be expected.
mischance, or by the misconduct, perhaps by the    This shows, sir, the impotence of the act,
malice prepense, of the minister?  Before the  mentioned by the honorable gentleman, respectTreaty of Utrecht, it was the general opinion that ing that sort of corruption which is called bribin a few years of peace we should be able to pay  ery.  With regard to the other sort of corrupoff most of our debts. We have now been very  tion, which consists in giving or taking away
nearly thirty years in profound peace, at least those posts, pensions, or preferments which dewe have never been engaged in any war but pend upon the arbitrary will of the Crown, the
what we unnecessarily brought upon ourselves, act is still more inefficient.  Although it would
and yet our debts are almost as great as they  be considered most indecent in a minister to tell
were when that treaty was concluded.l  Is not any man that he gave or withheld a post, penthis a misfortune, and shall we not make inquiry  sion, or preferment, on account of his voting for
into its cause?                                or against any ministerial measure in Parliament,
I am surprised to hear it said that no inquiry  or any ministerial candidate at an election; yet,
ought to be set on foot unless it is known that if he makes it his constant rule never to give a
some public crime has been committed.  Sir, post, pension, or preferment, but to those who
the suspicion that a crime has been committed  vote for his measures and his candidates; if he
has always been deemed a sufficient reason for makes a few examples of dismissing those who
instituting an inquiry.  And is there not now a  vote otherwise, it will have the same effect as
suspicion that the public money has been applied  when he openly declares it.3  Will any gentletoward gaining a corrupt influence at elections? man say that this has not been the practice of
Is it not become a common expression, "The  the minister?  Has lie not declared, in the face
flood-gates of the Treasury are opened against a  of this House, that he will continue the pracgeneral election?"  I desire no more than that tice?  And will not this have the same effect
every gentleman who is conscious that such  as if he went separately to every particular man,
practices have been resorted to, either for or and told him in express terms, " Sir, if you vote
against him, should give his vote in favor of the  for such a measure or such a candidate, you
motion. Will any gentleman say that this is no  shall have the first preferment in the gift of the
crime, when even private corruption has such  Crown; if you vote otherwise, you must not exhigh penalties inflicted by express statute against pect to keep what you have?"  Gentlemen may
it?  Sir, a minister who commits this crime-  deny that the sun shines at noon-day; but if they
who thus abuses the public money, adds breach  have eyes, and do not willfully shut them, or
of trust to the crime of corruption; and as the  turn their backs, no man will believe them to be
crime, when committed by him, is of much more  ingenuous in what they say. I think, therefore,
dangerous consequence than when committed by  that the honorable gentleman was in the right
a private man, it becomes more properly the ob- who endeavored to justify the practice.  It was
ject of a parliamentary inquiry, and merits the  more candid than to deny it.  But as his arguseverest punishment. The honorable gentleman  ments have already been fully answered, I shall
may with much more reason tell us that Porte- not farther discuss them.
ous was never murdered by the mob at Edin-    Gentlemen exclaim, "What! will you take
burgh, because, notwithstanding the high reward  from the Crown the power of preferring or cashas well as pardon proffered, his murderers were  iering the officers of the army?"  No, sir, this
never discovered,2 than tell us that we can not is neither the design, nor will it be the effect of
-~ ~~..__ -~.-   _our agreeing to the motion. The King at presDebt on the accession of George
the First, in 1714......... ~541145,363  few nights after, broke open his prison, and hangDebt at the colm173.encemet of the   4   3 ed him on the spot where he had fired. A reward
Spanish war, iln 1739.......... ~~46,954,623   of ~200 was offered, but the perpetrators could not
Decrease during the peace...... ~7,190,740  be discovered.
2 The case of Porteous, here referred to, was the    3 It will be recollected that, in consequence of his
one on which Sir Walter Scott founded his "Heart parliamentary opposition to Sir Robert Walpole, Mr.
of Midlothian."  Porteous had been condemned to  Pitt had been himself dismissed from the army. The
death for firing on the people of Edinburgh, but was Duke of Bolton and Lord Cobham had also, for a
reprieved at the moment when the execution was  similar reason, been deprived of the command o
to have taken place. Exasperated at this, the mob, their regiments.




92              LORD CHATHAM AGAINST SIR ROBERT WALPOLE.                                 [1742.
ent possesses the absolute power to prefer or and the reason is plain, because we ought first
cashier the officers of our army. It is a prerog- to inquire into the management of that revenue,
ative which he may employ for the benefit or and punish those who have occasioned the defisafety of the public; but, like other prerogatives, ciency. They will certainly choose to leave the
it may be abused, and when it is so abused, the  creditors of the Crown and the honor of the naminister is responsible to Parliament. When an  tion in a state of suffering, rather than advise
officer is preferred or cashiered for voting in fa- the King to make an application which may
vor of or against any court measure or candidate, bring censure upon their conduct, and condign
it is an abuse of this prerogative, for which the  punishment upon themselves.  Besides this, sir,
minister is answerable.  We may judge from  another and a stronger reason exists for promotcircumstances or outward appearances-from  ing an inquiry.  There is a strong suspicion
these we may condemn, and I hope we have  that the public money has been applied toward
still a power to punish a minister who dares to  corrupting voters at elections, and members
advise the King to prefer or cashier from such  when elected; and if the civil list be in debt, it
motives!  Sir, whether this prerogative ought affords reason to presume that some part of this
to remain as it is, without any limitation, is a  revenue has, under the pretense of secret service
question foreign to this debate. But I must ob- money, been applied to this infamous purpose.
serve, that the argument employed for it might,    I shall conclude, sir, by making a few remarks
with equal justice, be employed for giving our upon the last argument advanced against the
King an absolute power over every man's prop- proposed inquiry. It has been said that the minerty; because a large property will always give  ister delivered in his accounts annually; that
the possessor a command over a great body of these accounts were annually passed and apmen, whom  he may arm  and discipline if he proved by Parliament; and that therefore it
pleases.  I know of no law to restrain him-I would be unjust to call him now to a general
hope none will ever exist-I wish our gentlemen  account, because the vouchers may be lost, or
of estates would make more use of this power many expensive transactions have escaped his
than they do, because it would tend to keep our memory.  It is true, sir, estimates and accounts
domestic as well as our foreign enemies in awe. were annually delivered in.  The forms of proFor my part, I think that a gentleman who has ceeding made that necessary. But were any of
earned his commission by his services (in his these estimates and accounts properly inquired
military capacity, I mean), or bought it with his into?  Were not all questions of that descripmoney, has as much a property in it as any man  tion rejected by the minister's friends in Parliahas in his estate, and ought to have it as well ment?  Did not Parliament always take them
secured by the laws of his country.  While it upon trust, and pass them without examination?
remains at the absolute will of the Crown, he  Can such a superficial passing, to call it no
must, unless he has some other estate to depend  worse, be deemed a reason for not calling him
on, be a slave to the minister; and if the officers to a new and general account?  If the steward
of our army long continue in that state of slavery  to an infant's estate should annually, for twenty
in which they are at present, I am afraid it will years together, deliver in his accounts to the
make slaves of us all.                          guardians; and the guardians, through negliThe only method to prevent this fatal conse- gence, or for a share of the plunder, should anquence, as the law now stands, is to make the  nually pass his accounts without examination, or
best and most constant use of the power we pos- at least without objection; would that be a reasess as members of this House, to prevent any  son for saying that it would be unjust in the inminister from daring to advise the King to make  fant, when he came of age, to call his steward
a bad use of his prerogative.  As there is such  to account?  Especially if that steward had
a strong suspicion that this minister has done so, built and furnished sumptuous palaces, living,
we ought certainly to inquire into it, not only for during the whole time, at a much greater exthe sake of punishing him if guilty, but as a ter- pense than his visible income warranted, and yet
ror to all future ministers.                    amassing great riches?  The public, sir, is alThis, sir, may therefore be justly reckoned  ways in a state of infancy; therefore no preamong the many other sufficient causes for the  scription can be pleaded against it-not even a
inquiry proposed.  The suspicion that the civil general release, if there is the least cause for
list is greatly in debt is another; for if it is, it supposing that it was surreptitiously obtained.
must either have been misapplied, or profusely  Public vouchers ought always to remain on recthrown away, which abuse it is our duty both to  ord; nor ought any public expense to be incurprevent and to punish.  It is inconsistent with  red without a voucher-therefore the case' of the
the honor of this nation that the King should  public is still stronger than that of an infant.
stand indebted to his servants or tradesmen, Thus, sir, the honorable gentleman who made
who may be ruined by delay of payment.  The  use of this objection, must see how little it avails
Parliament has provided sufficiently to prevent in the case before us; and therefore I trust we
this dishonor from being brought upon the na- shall have his concurrence in the question.
tion, and, if the provision we have made should
be lavished or misapplied, we must supply the    The motion prevailed by a majority of seven.
deficiency. We ought to do it, whether the King  A committee of twenty-one was appointed, commakes any application for that purpose or not; posed of Walpole's political and personal oppo



1742.]            LORD CHATHAM ON THE HANOVERIAN TROOPS.                                     93
nents.  They entered on the inquiry with great  tion from peculators and others, who might wish
zeal and expectation.  But no documentary  to cover their crimes by making the minister a
proofs of importance could be found.  Witnesses  partaker in their guilt.  " The result of all their
were called up for examination as to their trans-  inquiries,' says Cooke, " was charges so few and
actions with the treasury; but they refused to  so ridiculous, when compared with those put fortestify, unless previously indemnified against the  ward at the commencement of the investigation,
consequences of the evidence they might be re-  that the promoters of the prosecution were themquired to give.  The House passed a bill of in- selves ashamed of their work.  Success was
demnity, but the Lords rejected it, as dangerous  found impracticable, and Lord Orford enjoyed his
in its tendency, and calculated to invite accusa- honors unmolested."-Hist. of Party, ii., 316.
SPEECH
OF LORD CHATHAM ON TAKING THE HANOVERIAN TROOPS INTO THE PAY OF GREAT BRITAIN,
DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, DEC. 10, 1742.
INTRODUCTION.
GEORGE II., when freed from the trammels of Walpole's pacific policy, had a silly ambition of appearing on the Continent, like William III., at the head of a confederate army against France, while he sought,
at the same time, to defend and aggrandize his Electorate of Hanover at the expense of Great Britain.
In this he was encouraged by Lord Carteret, who succeeded Walpole as actual minister. The King
therefore took sixteen thousand Hanoverian troops into British pay, and sent them with a large English
force into Flanders. His object was to create a diversion in favor of Maria Theresa, queen of Hungary,
to whom the English were now affording aid, in accordance with their guarantee of the Pragmatic Sanction.l Two subsidies, one of ~300,000 and another of ~500,000, had already been transmitted for her relief; and so popular was her cause in England, that almost any sum would have been freely given. But
there was a general and strong opposition to the King's plan of shifting the burdens of Hanover on to the
British treasury. Mr. Pitt, who concurred in these views, availed himself of this opportunity to come
out as the opponent of Carteret. He had been neglected and set aside in the arrangements which were
made after the fall of Walpole; and he was not of a spirit tamely to bear the arrogance of the new minister. Accordingly, when a motion was made to provide for the payment of the Hanoverian troops, he
delivered the following speech, in reply to Henry Fox, who had said that he should "continue to vote
for these measures till better could be proposed."
SPEE CH, &c.
Sir, if the honorable gentleman determines to  the place most distant from the enemy, least in
abandon his present sentiments as soon as any  danger of an attack, and most strongly fortified,
better measures are proposed, the ministry will had an attack been designed.  They have, therequickly be deprived of one of their ablest defend- fore, no other claim to be paid, than that they
ers; for I consider the measures hitherto pur- left their own country for a place of greater sesued so weak and so pernicious, that scarcely  curity.  It is always reasonable to judge of the
any alteration can be proposed that will not be  future by the past; and therefore it is probable
for the advantage of the nation.                that next year the services of these troops will
The honorable gentleman has already been in- not be of equal importance with those for which
formed that no necessity existed for hiring auxil-  they are now to be paid.  I shall not, therefore,
iary troops. It does not appear that either justice  be surprised, if, after such another glorious camor policy required us to engage in the quarrels of paign, the opponents of the ministry be chalthe Continent; that there was any need of forming  lenged to propose better measures, and be told
an army in the Low Countries; or that, in order  that the money of this nation can not be more
to form an army, auxiliaries were necessary.    properly employed than in hiring Hanoverians to
But, not to dwell upon disputable points, I  eat and sleep.
think it may justly be concluded that the meas-    But to prove yet more particularly that better
ures of our ministry have been ill concerted, be- measures may be taken-th.:i more useful troops
cause it is undoubtedly wrong to squander the  may be retained-and that, therefore, the honpublic money without effect, and to pay armies, orable gentleman may be expected to quit those
only to be a show to our friends and a scorn to  to whom he now adheres, I shall show that, in
our enemies.                                    hiring the forces of Hanover, we have obstructThe troops of Hanover, whom we are now ex- ed our own designs; that, instead of assisting
pected to pay, marched into the Low Countries, the Queen of Hungary, we have withdrawn from
sir, where they still remain.  They marched to  her a part of the allies, and have burdened the
nation with troops from  which no service can
See note to Walpole's speech, p. 40.     reasonably be expected.




94                LORD CHATHAM ON THE HANOVERIAN TROOPS.                                 [1742.
The advocates of the ministry have, on this  those who have advised his Majesty to hire and
occasion, affected to speak of the balance of pow-  to send elsewhere those troops which should
er, the Pragmatic Sanction, and the preservation  have been employed for the Queen of Hungary's
of the Queen of Hungary, not only as if they  assistance.  It is not to be imagined, sir, that
were to be the chief care of Great Britain, which  his Majesty has more or less regard to justice
(although easily controvertible) might, in com- as King of Great Britain, than as Elector of
pliance with long prejudices, be possibly admit- Hanover; or that he would not have sent his
ted; but as if they were to be the care of Great proportion of troops to the Austrian army, had
Britain alone.  These advocates, sir, have spok- not the temptation of greater profit been laid inen as if the power of France were formidable to  dustriously before him.  But this is not all that
no other people than ourselves; as if no other may be urged against such conduct.  For, can
part of the world would be injured by becoming  we imagine that the power, that the designs of
a prey to a universal monarchy, and subject to  France, are less formidable to Hanover thai
the arbitrary government of a French deputy;  Great Britain?  Is it less necessary for the seby being drained of its inhabitants only to extend  curity of Hanover than of ourselves, that the
the conquests of its masters, and to make other house of Austria should be re-established it its
nations equally wretched; and by being oppressed  former splendor and influence, and enabled to
with exorbitant taxes, levied by military execu- support the liberties of Europe against the enortions, and employed only in supporting the state  mous attempts at universal monarchy by France?
of its oppressors.  They dwell upon the import-   If, therefore, our assistance to the Queen of
ance of public faith and the necessity of an exact Hungary be an act of honesty, and granted in
observation of treaties, as if the Pragmatic Sane- consequence of treaties, why may it not be
tion had been signed by no other potentate than  equally required of Hanover?  If it be an act
the King of Great Britain; as if the public faith  of generosity, why should this country alone be
were to be obligatory upon ourselves alone,     obliged to sacrifice her interests for those of othThat we should inviolably observe our treat- ers? or why should the Elector of Hanover exert
ies-observe them  although every other nation  his liberality at the expense of Great Britain?
should disregard them; that we should show an    It is now too apparent, sir, that this great,
example of fidelity to mankind, and stand firm  this powerful, this mighty nation, is considered
in the practice of virtue, though we should stand  only as a province to a despicable Electorate;
alone, I readily allow.  I am, therefore, far from  and that in consequence of a scheme formed
advising that we should recede from our stipu- long ago, and invariably pursued, these troops
lations, whatever we may suffer in their fulfill- are hired only to drain this unhappy country of
ment; or that we should neglect the support of its money.  That they have hitherto been of no
the Pragmatic Sanction, however we may be at use to Great Britain or to Austria, is evident
present embarrassed, or however disadvanta- beyond a doubt; and therefore it is plain that
geous may be its assertion.                     they are retained only for the purposes of HanoBut surely, sir, for the same reason that we  ver.
observe our stipulations, we ought to excite other    How much reason the transactions of almost
powers also to observe their own; at the least, every year have given for suspecting this absir, we ought not to assist in preventing them  surd, ungrateful, and perfidious partiality, it is
from doing so.  But how is our present conduct not necessary to declare.  I doubt not that most
agreeable to these principles?  The Pragmatic  of those who sit in this House can recollect a
Sanction was guaranteed, not only by the King  great number of instances in point, from  the
of Great Britain, but by the Elector of Hanover purchase of part of the Swedish dominions, to
also, who (if treaties constitute obligation) is the contract which we are now called upon to
thereby equally obliged to defend the house of ratify.  Few, I think, can have forgotten the
Austria against the attacks of any foreign pow- memorable stipulation for the Hessian troops:
er, and to send his proportion of troops for the  for the forces of the Duke of Wolfenbuttle, which
Queen of Hungary's support.                     we were scarcely to march beyond the verge
Whether these troops have been sent, those  of their own country: or the ever memorable
whose province obliges them  to possess some  treaty, the tendency of which is discovered in
knowledge of foreign affairs, are better able to  the name.  A treaty by which we disunited ourinform the House than myself.  But, since we selves from  Austria; destroyed that building
have not heard them mentioned in this debate, which we now endeavor, perhaps in vain, to raise
and since we know by experience that none of again; and weakened the only power to which
the merits of that Electorate are passed over in  it was our interest to give strength.
silence, it may, I think, be concluded that the    To dwell on all the instances of partiality
distresses of the Queen of Hungary have yet re- which have been shown, and the yearly visits
ieived no alleviation from  her alliance with  which have been paid to that delightful country;
Hanover; that her complaints have excited no  to reckon up all the sums that have been spent to
compassion at that court, and that the justice of aggrandize and enrich it, would be an irksome
her cause has obtained no attention.            and invidious task-invidious to those who are
To what can be attributed this negligence of  afraid to be told the truth, and irksome to those
treaties, this disregard of justice, this defect of who are unwilling to hear of the dishonor and
compassion, but to the pernicious counsels of injuries of their country.  I shall not dwell far



1743.]           LORD CHATHAM ON A MOTION FOR AN ADDRESS.                                     95
ther on this unpleasing subject than to express  Parliament pays no regard but to the interests
my hope, that we shall no longer suffer ourselves  of Great Britain.
to be deceived and oppressed: that we shall at
length perform  our duty as representatives of    The motion was carried by a considerable
the people: and, by refusing to ratify this con-  majority; but Mr. Pitt's popularity was greatly
tract, show, that however the interests of Han-  increased throughout the country by his resistover have been preferred by the ministers, the  ance of this obnoxious measure.
SPEECH
OF LORD CHATHAM ON A MOTION FOR AN ADDRESS OF THANKS AFTER THE BATTLE OF DETTINGEN, DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, DECEMBER 1, 1743.
INTRODUCTION.
THE battle of Dettingen was the last in which any English monarch has appeared personally in the
field. It was fought near a village of this name in Germany, on the banks of the Mayn, between Mayence
and Frankfort, on the 27th of June, 1743. The allied army, consisting of about thirty-seven thousand English and Hanoverian troops, was commanded, at the time of this engagement, by George II. Previous
to his taking the command, it had been brought by mismanagement into a perilous condition, being hemmed in between the River Mayn on the one side and a range of precipitous hills on the other, and there
reduced to great extremities for want of provisions. The French, who occupied the opposite side of the
Mayn in superior force, seized the opportunity, and threw a force of twenty-three thousand men across the
river to cut off the advance of the allies through the defile of Dettingen, and shortly after sent twelve
thousand more into their rear, to preclude the possibility of retreat. The position of the French in front
was impregnable, and, if they had only retained it, the capture of the entire allied army would have been
inevitable. But the eagerness of Grammont, who commanded the French in that quarter, drew him off
from his vantage ground, and induced him to give battle to the allies on more equal terms. When the
engagement commenced, George II., dismounting from his horse, put himself at the head of his infantry,
and led his troops on foot to the charge. " The conduct of the King in this conflict," says Lord Mahon,
"deserves the highest praise; and it was undoubtedly through him and through his son [the Duke of
Cumberland], far more than through any of his generals, that the day was won."  The British and Hanoverian infantry vied with each other under such guidance, and swept the French forces before them with
an impetuosity which soon decided the battle, and produced a complete rout of the French army. The
exhausted condition of the allies, however, and especially their want of provisions, rendered it impossible
for them to pursue the French, who left the field with the loss of six thousand men.
The King, on his return to England, opened the session of Parliament in person; and in reply to his
speech, an Address of Thanks was moved, "acknowledging the goodness of Divine Providence to this nation in protecting your Majesty's sacred person amid imminent dangers, in defense of the common cause
and liberties of Europe."  In opposition to this address, Mr. Pitt made the following speech. In the former part of it, either from erroneous information or prejudice, he seems unwilling to do justice to the King's
intrepidity on that occasion. But the main part of the speech is occupied with an examination,
I. Of Sir Robert Walpole's policy (which was that of the King) in respect to the Queen of Hungary
and the balance of power.
II. Of the conduct of the existing ministry (that of Lord Carteret) in relation to these subjects.
III. Of the manner in which the war in Germany had been carried on; and,
IV. Of the consequences to be anticipated from the character and conduct of the ministry.
The speech will be interesting to those who have sufficient acquaintance with the history of the times
to enter fully into the questions discussed. It is characterized by comprehensive views and profound reflection on the leading question of that day, the balance of power, and by a high sense of national honor.
It has a continuous line of argument running throughout it; and shows the error of those who imagine
that "Lord Chatham never reasoned.'
SPEECH, &c.
From  the proposition before the House, sir, ister [Walpole] betrayed the interests of his
we may perceive, that whatever alteration has  country by his pusillanimity; our present minbeen, or may be produced with respect to for- ister [Carteret] would sacrifice them  by his
eign measures, by the late change in administra- Quixotism.  Our former minister was for negotion, we can expect none with regard to our do- tiating with all the world; our present minister
mestic affairs.  In foreign measures, indeed, a  is for. fighting against all the world.  Our formost extraordinary change has taken place. mer minister was for agreeing to every treaty.
From one extreme, our administration have run  though never so dishonorable; our present minto the very verge of another.  Our former min- ister will give ear to none, though never so rea




96                              LORD CHATHAM  ON A                                    [1743.
sonable. Thus, while both appear to be extrav- an insult to the sovereign?  Suppose it should
agant, this difference results from their opposite  appear that our ministers have shown no regard
conduct: that the wild system of the one must to the advice of Parliament; that they have exsubject the nation to a much heavier expendi- erted their endeavors, not for the preservation of
ture than was ever incurred by the pusillanimity  the house of Austria, but to involve that house
of the other.                                 in dangers which otherwise it might have avoidThe honorable gentleman who spoke last [Mr. ed, and which it is scarcely possible for us now
Yorke] was correct in saying, that in the begin- to avert.  Suppose it should appear that a body
ning of the session we could know nothing, in a of Dutch troops, although they marched to the
parliamentary way, of the measures that had  Rhine, have never joined our army.  Suppose it
been pursued.  I believe, sir, we shall know as should appear that the treaty with Sardinia is
little, in that way, at the end of the session; for not yet ratified by all the parties concerned, or
our new minister, in this, as in every other step  that it is one with whose terms it is impossible
of his domestic conduct, will follow the example they should comply.  If these things should apof his predecessor, and put a negative upon ev- pear on inquiry, would not the address proposed
ery motion which may tend toward- our acquir- be most ridiculously absurd?  Now, what asing any parliamentary knowledge of our ]ate surance have we that all these facts will not turn
proceedings.  But if we possess no knowledge  out as I have imagined?
of these proceedings, it is, surely, as strong an    I. Upon the death of the late Emperor of Gerargument for our not approving, as it can be for many, it was the interest of this nation, I Walpo!e's
our not condemning them.  Sir, were nothing  grant, that the Queen of Hungary should policy
relating to our late measures proposed to be in- be established in her father's dominions, and that
serted in our address upon this occasion, those  her husband, the Duke of Lorraine, should be
measures would not have been noticed by me. chosen Emperor.  This was our interest, beBut when an approbation is proposed, I am com- cause it would have been the best security for
pelled to employ the knowledge I possess, wheth- the preservation of the balance of power; but
er parliamentary or otherwise, in order that I we had no other interest, and it was one which
may join or not in the vote of approbation. we had in common with all the powers of EuWhat though my knowledge of our late meas- rope, excepting France.  We were not, thereures were derived from  foreign and domestic  fore, to take upon us the sole support of this innewspapers alone, even of that knowledge I terest.  And, therefore, when the King of Prusmust avail myself, when obliged to express my  sia attacked Silesia-when the King of Spain,
opinion; and when from that knowledge I ap- the King of Poland, and the Duke of Bavaria
prehend them to be wrong, it is my duty, surely, laid claim to the late Emperor's succession, we
to withhold my approbation. I am bound to per- might have seen that the establishment of the
sist in thus withholding it, till the minister be  Queen of Hungary in all her father's dominions
pleased to furnish me with such parliamentary  was impracticable, especially as the Dutch reknowledge as may convince me that I have been  fused to interfere, excepting by good offices.
misinformed. This would be my proper line of What, then, ought we to have done?  Since we
conduct when, from the knowledge I possess, could not preserve the whole, is it not evident
instead of approving any late measures, I think  that, in order to bring over some of the claimit more reasonable to condemn them. But sup- ants to our side, we ought to have advised her
posing, sir, from the knowledge within my reach, to yield up part?  Upon this we ought to have
that I consider those measures to be sound, even  insisted, and the claimant whom first we should
then I ought not to approve, unless such knowl- have considered was the King of Prussia, both
edge can warrant approval.  Now, as no sort because he was one of the most neutral, and one
of knowledge but a parliamentary knowledge  of the most powerful allies with whom we could
can authorize a parliamentary approbation, for treat.  For this reason it was certainly incumthis reason alone I ought to refuse it. If, there- bent upon us to advise the Queen of Hungary to
fore, that which is now proposed contain any  accept the terms offered by the King of Prussia
sort of approbation, my refusing to agree to it when he first invaded Silesia.' Nay, not only
contains no censure, but is a simple declaration  should we have advised, we should have insisted
that we possess not such knowledge of past upon this as the condition upon which we would
measures as affords sufficient grounds for a par- assist her against the claims of others.  To this
liamentary approbation.  A parliamentary ap- the court of Vienna must have assented; and, in
probation, sir, extends not only to all that our this case, whatever protestations the other claimministers have advised, but to the acknowledg- ants might have made, I am persuaded that the
ment of the truth of several facts which inquiry  Queen of Hungary would to this day have remay show to be false; of facts which, at least,
have been asserted without authority and proof.     This, it is now known. was the course urged by
Suppose, sir, it should appear that his Majesty  Walpole onthe Queen of Hungary. He strongly
advised her to give up Silesia rather than involve
was exposed to few or no dangers abroad, but Europe in a generalwar. She replied tat she
those to which he is daily liable at home, such  "would sooner give up her under petticoat;" and,
as the overturning of his coach, or the stumbling  as this put an end to the argument, he could do nothof his horse, would not the address proposed, in- ing but give the aid which England had promised
stead of being a compliment, be an affront and  -See Coxe's Walpole iii.. 148.




1743.]                        MOTION FOR AN ADDRESS.                                     97
mained the undisturbed possessor of the rest of pose an equal resistance to the Queen of Hunher father's dominions, and that her husband, the  gary alone, much less so to that Queen when
Duke of Lorraine, would have been now seated  supported by Hanover and the whole power of
on the imperial throne.                        Great Britain.  During this posture of affairs, it
This salutary measure was not pursued. This was safe for us, I say, it was safe for Hanover,
appears, sir, notonly from the Gazettes, but from  to promise assistance and to concert schemes in
our parliamentary knowledge.  For, from  the support of the Queen of Hungary. But no soonpapers which have been either accidentally or er did France come forward than our schemes
necessarily laid before Parliament, it appears, were at an end, our promises forgotten.  The
that instead of insisting that the court of Vienna safety of Hanover was then involved; and Enshould agree to the terms offered by Prussia, we gland, it seems, is not to be bound by promises,
rather encouraged the obstinacy of that court in nor engaged in schemes, which, by possibility,
rejecting them.  We did this, sir, not by our may endanger or distress the Electorate! From
memorials alone, but by his Majesty's speech to  this time, sir, we thought no more of assisting
his Parliament, by the consequent addresses of the Queen of Hungary, excepting by grants
both houses, and by speeches directed by our which were made by Parliament.  These, incourtiers against the King of Prussia. I allude, deed, our ministers did not oppose, because they
sir, to his Majesty's speech on the 8th of April, contrive to make a job of every parliamentary
1741, to the celebrated addresses on that occa- grant.  But from  the miserable inactivity in
sion for guaranteeing the dominions of Hanover, which we allowed the Danish and Hessian troops,
and for granting e300,000 to enable his Maj- to remain, notwithstanding that they received
esty to support the Queen of Hungary.  The  our pay; and from the insult tamely submitted
speeches made on that occasion by several of our to by our squadron in the Mediterranean, wefavorites at court, and their reflections on the must conclude that our ministers, from the time
King of Prussia, must be fresh in the memory of the French interfered, resolved not to assist the
all. All must remember, too, that the Queen of Queen of Hungary by land or sea.  Thus, havHungary was not then, nor for some months aft- ing drawn that princess forward on the ice by
er, attacked by any one prince in Europe ex- our promises, we left her to retreat as she could.
cepting the King of Prussia.  She must, there- Thus it was, sir, that the Duke of Bavaria before, have supposed that both the court and na- came Emperor.2  Thus it was that the house
tion of Great Britain were resolved to support of Austria was stripped of great part of its do —
her, not only against the King of Prussia, but minions, and was in the utmost danger of being
against all the world.  We can not, therefore, stripped of all, had France been bent on its debe surprised that the court of Vienna evinced an  struction.  Sir, the house of Austria was saved
unwillingness to part with so plenteous a coun- by the policy of France, who wished to reduce,
try as that claimed by the King of Prussia-the  but not absolutely to destroy it.  Had Austria.
lordship of Silesia.                          been ruined, the power of the Duke of Bavaria,
But, sir, this was not all.  Not only had we who had been elected Emperor, would have rispromised our assistance to the Queen of Hun- en higher than was consistent with the interests
gary, but we had actually commenced a negoti- of France.  It was the object of France to foation for a powerful alliance against the King of ment divisions among the princes of Germany,
Prussia, and for dividing his dominions among  to reduce them by mutual strife, and then to renthe allies. We had solicited, not only the Queen der the houses of Bavaria, Austria, and Saxonyof Hungary, but also the Muscovites and the  nearly equal by partitions.
Dutch, to form parts of this alliance.  We had    It was this policy which restrained the French
taken both Danes and Hessians into our pay, in from sending so powerful an army into Germany
support of this alliance.  Nay, even Hanover as they might otherwise have sent.  And then,.
had subjected herself to heavy expenses on this through the bad conduct of their generals, and
occasion, by adding a force of nearly one third  through the skill and bravery of the officers and
to the army she had already on foot. This, sir, troops of the Queen of Hungary, a great improvewas, I believe, the first extraordinary expense  ment in her affairs was effected.  This occurred.
which Hanover had incurred since her fortunate  about the time of the late changes in our admin.
conjunction with England; the first, I say, not- istration; and this leads me to consider the oriwithstanding the great acquisitions she has made, gin of those measures which are now proceedand the many heavy expenses in which England  ing, and the situation of Europe at that particuhas been involved upon her sole account.      lar time, February, 1742.  But, before I enter
If, therefore, the Queen of Hungary was ob- upon that consideration, I must lay this down as
stinate in regard to the claims of Prussia, her a maxim to be ever observed by this nation, that,
obstinacy must be ascribed to ourselves. To us although it be our own interest to preserve a,
must be imputed those misfortunes which she balance of power in Europe, yet, as we are the
subsequently experienced. It was easy to prom- most remote from danger, we have the least reaise her our assistance while the French seemed  son to be jealous as to the adjustment of that baldetermined not to interfere with Germany.  It ance, and should be the last to take alarm on its,
was safe to engage in schemes for her support,..__._____        __
and for the enlargement of the Hanoverian do-   2 The Duke of Bavaria was elected Emperor on
minions, because Prussia could certainly not op- the 12th of February, 1742.
G




98                               LORD CHATHAM  ON A                                     [1743.
account.  Now the balance of power may be  the ambition of France.  For France, although
supported, either by the existence of one single  she had assisted in depressing the house of Auspotentate capable of opposing and defeating the  tria, had shown no design of increasing her own
ambitious designs of France, or by a well-con- dominions.  On the other hand, the haughty denected confederacy adequate to the same intent. meaner of the court of Vienna, and the height to
Of these two methods, the first, when practica- which that house had been raised, excited a spirit
ble, is the most eligible, because on that method  of disgust and jealousy in the princes of Gerwe may most safely rely; but when it can not many.  That spirit first manifested itself in the
be resorted to, the whole address of our ministers house of Hanover, and at this very time prevailed
and plenipotentiaries should tend to establish the  not only there, but in most of the German sovsecond.                                         ereignties.  Under such circumstances, however
The wisdom  of the maxim, sir, to which I weak and erroneous our ministers might be, they
have adverted, must be acknowledged by all who  could not possibly think of restoring the house of
consider, that when the powers upon the Conti- Austria to its former splendor and power. They
nent apply to us to join them in a war against could not possibly oppose that single house as a
France, we may take what share in the war we rival to France.  No power in Europe would
think fit.  When we, on the contrary, apply to  have cordially assisted them  in that scheme
them, they will prescribe to us.  However some  They would have had to cope, not only with
gentlemen may affect to alarm  themselves or France and Spain, but with all the princes of
others by alleging the dependency of all the Eu- Germany and Italy, to whom Austria had beropean powers upon France, of this we may rest come obnoxious.
assured,that when those powers are really threat-   In these circumstances, what was this nation
ened with such dependency, they will unite among  to do?  It was impossible to establish the balance
themselves, and call upon us also to prevent it. of power in Europe upon the single power of the
Nay, sir, should even that dependence imper- house of Austria.  Surely, then, sir, it was our
ceptibly ensue; so soon as they perceived it, business to think of restoring the peace of Gerthey would unite among themselves, and call us many as soon as possible by our good offices, in
to join the confederacy by which it might be  order to establish a confederacy sufficient to op-.shaken off. Thus we can never be reduced to  pose France, should she afterward discover any
1stand single in support of the balance of power; ambitious intentions.  It was now not so much
nor can we be compelled to call upon our con- our business to prevent the lessening the power
tirental neighbors for such purpose, unless when  of the house of Austria, as it was to bring about
our jministers have an interest in pretending and  a speedy reconciliation between the princes ot
ase.o:ting.imaginary dangers.                   Germany; to take care that France should get
The posture of Europe since the time of the  as little by the treaty of peace as she said she
Romans is wonderfully changed.  In those times expected by the war.  This, I say, should have
[each cunmtry was'divided into many sovereign- been our chief concern; because the preserva-;ties..It -was then impossible for the people of  tion of the balance of power was now no longer:any one country to unite among themselves, and  to depend upon the house of Austria, but upon
much more impossible for two or three large  the joint power of a confederacy then to be
countries -to combine in a general confederacy  formed; and till the princes of Germany were:against;the enormous power of Rome.  But such  reconciled among themselves, there was scarceconfederacy is very practicable now, and may  ly a possibility of forming such a confederacy.
always be effected whenever France, or any one If we had made this our scheme, the Dutch
of the powders of Europe, shall endeavor to en- would havejoined heartily in it.  The Germanslave the.r.est.  I have said, sir, that the balance  ic body would have joined in it; and the peace
of power in Europe may be maintained as se- of Germany might have been restored without
curelyby a.confederacy as it can be by opposing  putting this nation to any expense, or diverting
any one rival power to the power of France. us from  the prosecution of our just and necesNow, let us examine to which of these two  sary war against Spain, in case our differences
methods we.ought to have resorted in February, with that nation could not have been adjusted
1742.  The imperial diadem  was then fallen  by the treaty for restoring the peace of Gerfrom the house of Austria; and although the  many.
troops of the Queen of Hungary had met with    II. But our new minister, as I have said, ran,some success during the winter, that sovereign  into an extreme quite opposite to that of Carteret'
was still stripped of great part of the Austrian  the old.  Our former minister thought policy
dominions.'The power of that house was there- of nothing but negotiating when he ought to
fore greatly inferior to what it was at the time  have thought of nothing but war; the present
f the late emperor's death; and still more in- minister has thought of nothing but war, or at
ferior to what it had been in 1716, when we  least its resemblance, when he ought to have
considered it necessary to add Naples and Sar- thought of nothing but negotiation.
diria to its former acquisitions, in order to ren-    A resolution was taken, and preparations were
Aer it a match for France.  Besides this, there  made, for sending a body of troops to Flanders,
existed in 1742 a very powerful confederacy  even before we had any hopes of the King of
against the house of Austria, while no jealousy  Prussia's deserting his alliance with France,
was harbored by the powers of Europe against and without our being called on to do so by any




1743.]                        MOTION  FOR AN ADDRESS.                                       q9
one power in Europe.  I say, sir, by any one  pain of being entirely deserted by us.  A peace
power in Europe; for I defy our ministers to  was offered both by the Emperor and the French,
show that even the Queen of Hungary desired  upon the terms of uti possidetis, with respect to
any such thing before it was resolved on.  I  Germany; but, for what reason I can not combelieve some of her ministers were free enough  prehend, we were so far from advising the Queen
to declare that the money those troops cost of Hungary to accept, that I believe we advised
would have done her much more service; and I her to reject it.
am  sure we were so far from being called on    This, sir, was a conduct in our ministers so
by the Dutch to do so, that it was resolved on  very extraordinary, so directly opposite to the
without their participation, and the measures  interest of this nation, and the security of the
carried into execution, I believe, expressly con- balance of power, that I can suggest to myself
trary to their advice.                          no one reason for it, but that they were resolved
This resolution, sir, was so far from  having  to put this nation to the expense of maintaining
any influence on the King of Prussia, that he  sixteen thousand Hanoverians.  This I am afraid
continued firm to his alliance with France, and  was the true motive with our new ministers for
fought the battle of Czaslau after he knew such  all the warlike measures they resolved on. Notha resolution was taken.  If he had continued  ing would now satisfy us but a conquest of Alsace
firm in the same sentiments, I am very sure our and Lorraine in order to give them to the Queen
troops neither would nor could have been of the  of Hungary, as an equivalent for what she had
least service to the Queen of Hungary.  But the lost.  And this we resolved on, or at least prebattle of Czaslau fully convinced him that the  tended to resolve on, at a time when France and
French designed chiefly to play, on6 German  Prussia were in close conjunction; at a time
prince against another, in order to weaken both; when no one of the powers of Europe could asand perhaps he had before this discovered, that, sist us; at a time when none of them entertained
according to the French scheme, his share of a jealousy of the ambitious designs of France;
Silesia was not to be so considerable as he ex- and at a time when most of the princes of Gerpected.  These considerations, and not the elo- many were so jealous of the power of the house
quence or address of any of our ministers, in- of Austria, that we had great reason to appreclined him to come to an agreement with the  hend that the most considerable of these would
Queen of Hungary.  As she was now convinced join against us, in case we should meet with any
that she could not depend upon our promises, success.
she readily agreed to his terms, though his de-    Sir, if our ministers were really serious in this
mands were now much more extravagant than  scheme, it was one of the most romantic that
they were at first; and, what is worse, they  ever entered the head of an English Quixote.
were now unaccompanied with any one promise  But if they made it only a pretext for putting
or consideration, except that of a neutrality; this nation to the expense of maintaining sixwhereas his first demands were made palatable  teen thousand Hanoverians, or of acquiring some
by the tender of a large sum of money, and by  new territory for the Electorate of Hanover, I
the promise of his utmost assistance, not only in  am sure no British House of Commons can apsupporting the Pragmatic Sanction, but in rais- prove their conduct.  It is absurd, sir, to say
ing her husband, the Duke of Lorraine, to the  that we could not advise the Queen of Hungary
imperial throne.  Nay, originally, he even in- to accept of the terms offered by the Emperor
sinuated that he would embrace the first oppor- and France, at a time when their troops were
tunity to assist in procuring her house an equiv- cooped up in the city of Prague, and when the
alent for whatever part of Silesia she should re- terms were offered with a view only to get their
sign to him.                                    troops at liberty, and to take the first opportuThis accommodation between the Queen of nity to attack her with more vigor.  This, I say,
Hungary and the King of Prussia, and that which  is absurd, because, had she accepted the terms
soon after followed between her and the Duke of  proposed, she might have had them guaranteed
Saxony, produced a very great alteration in the  by the Dutch; by the German body, and by all
affairs of Europe.  But, as these last powers the powerful princes of Germany; which would
promised nothing but a neutrality, and as the  have brought all these powers into a confederacy
Dutch absolutely refused to join, either with the  with us against the Emperor and France, if they
Queen of Hungary or with ourselves, in any of- had afterward attacked her in Germany; and all
fensive measures against France, it was still im- of them, but especially the Dutch, and the King
possible for us to think of restoring the house of of Prussia, would have been ready to join us, had
Austria to such power as to render it a match  the French attacked her in Flanders.  It is
for the power of France.  We ought, therefore, equally absurd to say that she could not accept
still to have thought only of negotiation, in order of these terms, because they contained nothing
to restore the peace of Germany by an accom- for the security of her dominions in Italy.  For
modation between her and the Emperor.  The  suppose the war had continued in Italy, if the
distresses to which the Bavarian and French ar- Queen of Hungary had been safe upon the side
mies in Germany were driven furnished us with  of Germany, she could have poured such a numsuch an opportunity: this we ought by all means ber of troops into Italy as would have been suffito have embraced, and to have insisted on the  cient to oppose and defeat all the armies that
Queen of Hungary's doing the same, under the  both the French and Spaniards could send to and




100                             LORD CHATHAM  ON A                                   [1743
maintain in that country; since we could, by our got the better of their discretion, as well as of
superior fleets, have made it impossible for the their military discipline.  This made them  atFrench and Spaniards to maintain great armies tack, instead of waiting to be attacked; and then,
in that country.                              by the bravery of the English foot, and the cowNo other reason can therefore be assigned for ardice of their own, they met with a severe rethe Queen of Hungary's refusal of the terms pulse, which put their whole army into confuproposed to her for restoring the tranquillity of sion, and obliged them to retire with precipitaGermany than this alone, that we had promised  tion across the Mayn.  Our army thus escaped
to assist her so effectually as to enable her to  the snare into which they had been led, and was
conquer a part of France, by way of equivalent enabled to pursue its retreat to Hanau.
for what she had lost in Germany and Italy.    This, sir, was a signal advantage; but was it
Such assistance it was neither our interest nor followed up? Did we press upon the enemy in
in our power to give, considering the circum-  their precipitate retreat across a great river,
stances of Europe.  I am really surprised that where many of them  must have been lost had
the Queen of Hungary came to trust a second they been closely pursued?  Did we endeavor
time to our promises; for I may venture to  to take the least advantage of the confusion into
prophesy that she will find herself again deceiv- which their unexpected repulse had thrown
ed.  We shall put ourselves to a vast unneces- them?  No, sir; the ardor of the British troops
sary expense, as we did when she was first at- was restrained by the cowardice of the Hanotacked by Prussia; and without being able to  verians; and, instead of pursuing the enemy, we
raise a jealousy in the other powers of Europe, ourselves ran away in the night with such haste
we shall give France a pretense for conquering  that we left all our wounded to the mercy and
Flanders, which, otherwise, she would not have care of the enemy, who had the honor of burydone. We may bring the Queen of Hungary a ing our dead as well as their own. This action
second time to the verge of destruction, and  may, therefore, on our side, be called a fortunate
leave her there; for that we certainly shall do, escape; I shall never give my consent to honor
as soon as Hanover comes to be a second time it with the name of victory.
in danger  From  all which I must conclude,    After this escape, sir, our army was joined by
that cur present scheme of politics is fundament- a very large re-enforcement.  Did this revive
ally wrong, and that the longer we continue to  our courage, or urge us on to give battle? Not
build upon sach a foundation, the more danger- in the least, sir; though the French continued
ous it will be for us. The whole fabric will in- for some time upon the German side of the Rhine,
volve this unfortunate nation in its ruins.   we never offered to attack them, or to give them
III. But now, sir, let us see how we have the least disturbance.  At last, upon Prince
Conduct of prosecuted this scheme, bad as it is, dur- Charles's approach with the Austrian army, the
the war.  ing the last campaign. As this nation  French not only repassed the Rhine, but retired
must bear the chief part of the expense, it was quite out of Germany.  And as the Austrian
certainly our business to prosecute the war with  army and the allied army might then have joinall possible vigor; to come to action as soon as ed, and might both have passed the Rhine withpossible, and to push every advanta.ie to the ut- out opposition at Mentz, or almost any where
most.  Since we soon found that we could not in the Palatinate, it was expected that both arattack the French upon the side of Flanders, mies would have marched together into Lorwhy were our troops so long marching into raine, or in search of the French army, in order
Germany?  Or, indeed, I should ask, why our to force them to a battle.  Instead of this, sir,
armies were not first assembled in that country? Prince Charles marched up the German side of
Why did they continue so long inactive upon the  the Rhine-to do what?  To pass that great
Mayn?  If our army was not numerous enough  river, in the sight of a French army equal in
to attack the French, why were the Hessians number to his own, which, without some extraleft behind for some time in Flanders?  Why  ordinary neglect in the French, was impracticadid we not send over twenty thousand of those ble; and so it was found by experience. Thus
regular troops that were lying idle here at the whole campaign upon that side was conhome?  How to answer all those questions I sumed in often attempting what so often appearcan not tell; but it is certain we never thought ed to be impracticable.
of attacking the French army in our neighbor-    On the other side-I mean that of the allied
hood, and, I believe, expected very little to be army-was there any thing of consequence perattacked ourselves.  Nay, I doubt much if any  formed?  I know of nothing, sir, but that of
action would have happened during the whole sending a party of hussars into Lorraine with a
campaign, if the French had not, by the miscon- manifesto. The army, indeed, passed the Rhine
duct of some one or other of our generals, caught at Mentz, and marched up to the French lines
our army in a hose-net, from which it could not upon the frontier of Alsace, but never offered to
have escaped, had all the French generals ob- pass those lines until the French had abandoned
served the direction of their commander-in-chief; them, I believe with a design to draw our army
had they thought only of guarding and fortifying  into some snare; for, upon the return of the
themselves in the defile [Dettingen], and not of French toward those lines, we retired with much
marching up to attack our troops.  Thank God, greater haste than we had advanced, though the
sir, the courage of some of the French generals Dutch auxiliaries were then come up and pre



1743.]                          MOTION FOR AN ADDRESS.                                       101
tended, at least, to be ready to join our army. present happy establishment to consider what
I have heard, however, that they found a pre- might be the consequence of the Pretender's
text for never coming into the line; and I doubt landing among us at the head of a French army.
much if they would have marched with us to at- Would he not be looked upon by most men as a
tack the French army in their own territories, savior?  Would not the majority of the people
or to invest any of the fortified places; for I must join with him, in order to rescue the nation from
observe that the French lines upon the Queich  those that had brought it into such confusion?
were not all of them within the territories of  This danger, sir, is, I hope, imaginary, but I am
France.  But suppose this Dutch detachment sure it is far from being so imaginary as that
had been ready to march with us to attack the  which has been held out in this debate, the danFrench in their own territories, or to invest some  ger of all the powers of the continent of Europe
of their fortified places, I can not join in any  being brought under such a slavish dependence
congratulation upon that event; for a small de- upon France as to join with her in conquering
tachment of Dutch troops can never enable us this island, or in bringing it under the same
to execute the vast scheme we have undertaken. slavish dependence with themselves.
The whole force of that republic would not be    I had almost forgotten, sir (I wish future nasufficient for the purpose, because we should  tions may forget), to mention the Treaty of
have the majority of the Empire against us; and, Worms.   I wish that treaty could be erased
therefore, if the Dutch had joined totis viribus3  from our annals and our records, so as never to
in our scheme, instead of congratulating, I should  be mentioned hereafter: for that treaty, with its
have bemoaned their running mad by our exam- appendix, the convention that followed, is one of
ple and at our instigation.                      the most destructive, unjust, and absurd that was
IV. Having now briefly examined our past ever concluded.  By that treaty we have taken
Prospects for conduct, from the few remarks I have  upon ourselves a burden which I think it imposthe foture.  made, I believe, sir, it will appear that, sible for us to support; we have engaged in
supposing our scheme to be in itself possible and  such an act of injustice toward Genoa as must
practicable, we have no reason to hope for sue- alarm all Europe, and give to the French a most
cess if it be not prosecuted with more vigor and  signal advantage. From this, sir, all the princes
with better conduct than it was during the last of Europe will see what regard we have to juscampaign.  While we continue in the prosecu- tice when we think that the power is on our side;
tion of this scheme, whoever may lose, the Han- most of them, therefore, will probably join with
overians will be considerable gainers.  They  France in curtailing our power, or, at least, in
will draw four or five hundred thousand pounds preventing its increase.
yearly from  this nation over and above what
they have annually drawn, ever since they had    4 The Treaty of Worms was an offensive and detheyhaeanaldrweesi                     the.'  fensive alliance, concluded on the 2d of September,
the good fortune to be united under the same  1743, between England, Austria, and Sardinia. By
sovereign with ourselves. But we ought to con- it the Queen of Hungary agreed to transfer to the
sider-even the Hanoverians ought to consider King of Sardinia the city and part of the duchy of
-that this nation is not now in a condition to  Placentia, the Vigevanesco, part of the duchy of Pacarry on an expensive war for ten or twelve  via, and the county of Anghiera, as well as her
years, as it did in the reign of Queen Anne. claims to the marquisate of Finale, which had been
We may fund it out for one, two, or three years; ceded to the Genoese by the late Emperor Charles
but the public debt is now so large that, if we  V  fo the sm of00,000 golden crowns, for which
it had been previously mortgaged. The Queen of
go on adding millions to it every year, our credit tHungy also engaged to mortgagen The 3 ueen of
will at last (sooner I fHungary also engaged to maintain 30,000 men in
will at last (sooner, I fear, than some among us  Italy, to be commanded by the King of Sardinia.
may imagine) certainly be undone; and if this  Great Britain agreed to pay the sum of ~300,000 for
misfortune should occur, neither Hanover nor the cession of Finale, and to furnish an annual subany other foreign state would be able to draw  sidy of ~200,000, on the condition that the King of
another shilling from  the country.  A stop to  Sardinia should employ 45,000 men. In addition to
our public credit would put an end to our paper supplying these sums, Great Britain agreed to send
currency.  A universal bankruptcy would en- _a strong squadron into the Mediterranean, to act in
sue, and all the little readv money left among  concert with the allied forces. By a separate and
suI,.nd.ll th  ltleradsecret convention, agreed to at the same time and
us would be locked up in iron chests, or hid in  place as the treaty, but which was never ratified
by-corners by the happy possessors.  It would  nor publicly avowed, it was stipulated that Great
then be impossible to raise our taxes, and conse- Britain should pay to the Queen of Hungary an anquently impossible to maintain either fleets or nual subsidy of~300,000, not merely during the war,
armies.  Our troops abroad would be obliged to  but so long "as the necessity of her affairs should
enter into the service of any prince that could  require"  The terms of the Treaty of Worms relamaintain them, and our troops at home would be  tive to the cession of the marquisate of Finale to
obliged to live upon free quarter.  But this they  Sardinia  ere paiculaly    st to the Genoese
could not do long  for the farmer would neitr  since that territory had been guaranteed to them by
could not do long; for the farmer would neither the fourth article of the Quadruple Alliance, consow nor reap if he found his produce taken from  cluded on the 2d of August, 1718, between Great
him by the starving soldier.  In these circum- Britain, France, Austria, and Holland.-Coxe's Ausstances, I must desire the real friends of our tria, chap. civ. Lord Mahon's Hist. of England, vol.
iii., p. 231. Belsham's Hist. of England, vol. iv., p.
3 With all their forces.            82, et seq.




102                              LORD CHATHAM  ON THE                                    [1766
The alliance of Sardinia and its assistance  would any gentleman have refused to congratumay, I admit, be of great use to us in defeating  late his Majesty upon any fortunate event hapthe designs of the Spaniards in Italy.  But gold  pening to the royal family. The honorable genitself may be bought too dear; and I fear we  tleman would have desired no more than this,
shall find the purchase we have made to be but  had he intended that his motion should be unanprecarious, especially if Sardinia should be at-  imously agreed to.  But ministers are generally
tacked by France as well as by Spain, the almost  the authors and drawers up of the motion, and
certain consequence of our present scheme of  they always have a greater regard for thempolitics.  For these reasons, sir, I hope there is  selves than for the service of their sovereign;
not any gentleman, nor even any minister, who  that is the true reason why such motions seldom
expects that I should declare my satisfaction that  meet with unanimous approbation.
this treaty has been concluded.                    As to the danger, sir, of our returning or not
It is very surprising, sir, to hear gentlemen  returning to our national custom  upon this octalk of the great advantages of unanimity in our  casion, I think it lies wholly upon the side of our
proceedings, when, at the time, they are doing  not returning.  I have shown that the measures
all they can to prevent unanimity.  If the hon-  we are now pursuing are fundamentally wrong,
orable gentleman had intended that what he pro-  and that the longer we pursue them, the heavier
posed should be unanimously agreed to, he would  our misfortunes will prove.  Unless some signal
have returned to the ancient custom of Parlia-  providence interpose, experience, I am convinced,
ment which some of his new friends have, on  will confirm what I say.  By the immediate informer occasions, so often recommended.  It is  tervention of Providence, we may, it is true, suca new doctrine to pretend that we ought in our  ceed in the most improbable schemes; but Provaddress to return some sort of answer to every  idence seems to be against us.  The sooner,
thing mentioned in his Majesty's speech.  It is  therefore, we repent and amend, the better it
a doctrine that has prevailed only since our Par-  will be for us  and unless repentance begins in
liaments began to look more like French than  this House, I shall no where expect it until dire
English Parliaments; and now we pretend to be  experience has convinced us of our errors.
such enemies of France, I supposed we should       For these reasons, sir, I wish, I hope, that we
have laid aside a doctrine which the very meth-  may now begin to put a stop to the farther prosod of proceeding in Parliament must show to be  ecution of these disastrous measures, by refusing
false. His Majesty's speech is not now so much  them  our approbation. If we put a negative
as under our consideration, but upon a previous  upon this question, it may awaken our ministers
order for that purpose; therefore we can not now   from their deceitful dreams.  If we agree to it,
properly take notice of its contents, any farther  they will dream on till they have dreamed Euthan to determine whether we ought to return  rope their country, and themselves into utter
thanks for it or not.  Even this we may refuse,  perdition.  If they stop now, the nation may rewithout being guilty of any breach of duty to our  cover; but if by such a flattering address we
sovereign; but of this, I believe, no gentleman  encourage them to go on, it may soon become
would have thought, had the honorable gentle-  impossible for them to retreat.  For the sake of
man who made this motion not attached to it a  Europe, therefore, for the sake of my country,
long and fulsome panegyric upon the conduct of  I most heartily join in putting a negative upon
our ministers.  I am  convinced no gentleman  the question.
would have objected to our expressing our duty
to our sovereign, and our zeal for his service, in  After a protracted debate, the address was
the strongest and most affectionate terms: nor  carried by a vote of 279 to 149.
SPEECH
OF LORD CHATHAM  ON AN ADDRESS TO THE THRONE, IN WHICH THE RIGHT OF TAXING
AMERICA IS DISCUSSED, DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, JANUARY 14, 1766.
INTRODUCTION.
MB. GEO RGE GRENVILLE, during his brief administration from 1763 to 1765, adopted a plan for replenishing the exhausted treasury of Great Britain, which had been often proposed before, but rejected by
every preceding minister. It was that of levying direct taxes on the American colonies. His famous
Stamp Act was brought forward February 7th, 1765. It was strongly opposed by Colonel Barre, who
thus indignantly replied to the charge of ingratitude, brought by Charles Townsend against the Americans, as "children planted by our care, nourished by our indulgence, and protected by our arms," &c.
" They planted by your care?" said Colonel Barr6: "No! Your oppressions planted them in America.
They fled from your tyranny to a then uncultivated and inhospitable country, where they exposed themselves to almost all the hardships to which human nature is liable; and, among others, to the cruelties of
a savage foe, the most subtle, and, I will take it upon me to say, the most formidable of any people on
earth; and yet, actuated by principles of true English liberty, they met all hardships with pleasure, com



1766.]                        RIGHT OF TAXING  AMERICA.                                      103
pared with those they suffered in their native land from the hands of those who should have been their
friends.  They nourished by your indulgence? They grew by your neglect of them! As soon as you
began to care about them, that care was exercised in sending persons to rule them, who were, perhaps, the deputies of deputies to some members of this House-sent to spy out their liberties, to misrepresent their actions, and to prey upon them-men promoted to the highest seats of justice; some
of whom, to my knowledge, were glad, by going to a foreign country, to escape being brought to the
bar of a court of justice in their own. They protected by your arms? They have nobly taken up
arms in your defense; have exerted a valor, amid their constant and laborious industry, for the defense of a country whose frontier was drenched in blood, while its interior yielded all its little savings to
your emolument. And-believe me-remember I this day told you so-that same spirit of freedom which
actuated that people at first, will accompany them still. But prudence forbids me to say more. God
knows I do not, at this time, speak from motives of party heat. What I deliver are the genuine sentiments of my heart. However superior to me in general knowledge and experience the respectable body
of this House may be, I claim to know more of America than most of you, having seen and been conversant with that country. The people are, I believe, as truly loyal as any subjects the King has; but a
people jealous of their liberties, and who will vindicate them, if they should ever be violated."
This prophetic warning was in vain. The bill was passed on the 22d of March, 1765.
A few months after, the ministry of Mr. Grenville came abruptly to an end, and was followed by the
administration of Lord Rockinham. That able statesman was fully convinced that nothing but the repeal of the Stamp Act could restore tranquillity to the colonies, which, according to Colonel Barr6's predictions, were in a state of almost open resistance. The news of this resistance reached England at the
close of 1765, and Parliament was summoned on the 17th of December. The plan of the ministry was to
repeal the Stamp Act; but, in accordance with the King's wishes, to re-assert (in doing so) the right of Parliament to tax the colonies. Against this course Mr. Pitt determined to take his stand; and when the
ordinary address was made in answer to the King's speech, he entered at once on the subject of Amelican taxation, in a strain of the boldest eloquence. His speech was reported by Sir Robert Dean, assisted
by Lord Charlemont, and, though obviously broken and imperfect, gives us far more of the language actually used by Mr. Pitt than any of the preceding speeches.
SPEECH, &c.
MR. SPEAKER,-I came to town but to-day.  own, I advised them to do it-but, notwithstandI was a stranger to the tenor of his Majesty's  ing (for Ilove to be explicit), I can not give them
speech, and the proposed address, till I heard  my confidence.  Pardon me, gentlemen [bowing
them read in this House.  Unconnected and un-  to the ministry], confidence is a plant of slowconsulted, I have not the means of information.  growth in an aged bosom.  Youth is the season
I am fearful of offending through mistake, and  of credulity.  By comparing events with each
therefore beg to be indulged with a second read-  other, reasoning from effects to causes, methinks
ing of the proposed address. [The address being  I plainly discover the traces of an overruling inread, Mr. Pitt went on:] I commend the King's  fluence.1
speech, and approve of the address in answer,    There is a clause in the Act of Settlement
as it decides nothing, every gentleman being  obliging every minister to sign his name to the
left at perfect liberty to take such a part con-  advice which he gives to his sovereign. Would
cerning America as he may afterward see fit. it were observed! I have had the honor to serve
One word only I can not approve of: an " early,"  the Crown, and if I could have submitted to inis a word that does not belong to the notice the  fluence, I might have still continued to serve:
ministry have given to Parliament of the troubles  but I would not be responsible for others.  I
in America.  In a matter of such importance,  have no local attachments.  It is indifferent to
the communication ought to have been imme-  me whether a man was rocked in his cradle on
diate!                                           this side or that side of the Tweed.  I sought
I speak not now with respect to parties.  I  for merit wherever it was to be found.  It is my
stand up in this place single and independent.  boast, that I was the first minister who looked
As to the late ministry [turning himself to Mr.  for it, and found it, in the mountains of the North.
Grenville, who sat within one of him], every cap-  I called it forth, and drew into your service a
ital measure they have taken has been entirely  hardy and intrepid race of men-men, who,
wrong!  As to the present gentlemen, to those  when left by your jealousy, became a prey to
at least whom I have in my eye [looking at the  the artifices of your enemies, and had gone nigh
bench where General Conway sat with the lords
of the treasury], I have no objection.  I have'Chas. Butler says in his Reminiscences, "Those
never been made a sacrifice by any of them. who remember the air of condescending protection
Their characters are fair; and I am  always  with which the bow was made and the look given,
when eofair character         e  a... 1.  Mwill recollect how much they themselves, at the moglad when men of fair character engage in his  met, were both delighted and awed; and what the
Majesty's service.  Some of them  did me the  themselves conceived of the immeasurable superihonor to ask my opinion before they would en-  ority of the speaker over every other human being
gage.  These will now  do me the justice to  that surrounded him."




104                             LORD CHATHAM  ON THE                                      [1766.
to have overturned the state in the -Tr before  firmities), I will beg to say a few words at piesthe last.  These men, in the last war, were  ent, leaving the justice, the equity, the policy,
brought to combat on your side.  They served  the expediency of the act to another time.
with fidelity, as they fought with valor: and con-    I will only speak to one point, a point which
quered for you in every part of the world. De- seems not to have been generally understood.  I
tested be the national reflections against them! mean to the right.  Some gentlemen [alluding
They are unjust, groundless, illiberal, unmanly! to Mr. Nugent] seem  to have considered it as
When I ceased to serve his Majesty as a min- a point of honor.  If gentlemen consider it in
ister, it was not the country of the man by which  that light, they leave all measures of right and
I was moved-  but the man of that country  wrong, to follow a delusion that may lead to dewanted wisdom, and held principles incompati- struction.  It is my opinion, that this kingdom
ble with freedom.                                has no right to lay a tax upon the colonies. At
It is a long time, Mr. Speaker, since I have  the same time, I _assert the authority of this
attended in Parliament.  When the resolution  kingdom over the colonies to be sovereign and
was taken in this House to tax America, I was  supreme, in every circumstance of gdvernment
ill in bed.  If I could have endured to be car- and legislation whatsoever.  They are the subried in my bed-so great was the agitation of jects of this kingdom; equally entitled with yourmy mind for the consequences-I would have  selves to all the natural rights of mankind and
solicited some kind hand to have laid me down  the peculiar privileges of Englishmen; equally
on this floor, to'have borne my testimony against bound by its laws, and equally participating in
it!  It is now an act that has passed. I would  the constitution of this free country. The Amerspeak with decency of every act of this House; icans are the sons, not the bastards of England!
but I must beg the indulgence of the House to  Taxation is no part of the governing or legislaspeak of it with freedom.                        tive power.  The taxes are a voluntary gift
I hope a day may soon be appointed to con- and grant of the Commons alone.  In legislation
sider the state of the nation with respect to  the three estates of the realm are alike concernAmerica.  I hope gentlemen will come to this  ed; but the concurrence of the peers and the
debate with all the temper and impartiality that Crown to a tax is only necessary to clothe it
his Majesty recommends, and the importance of with the form of a law.  The gift and grant is
the subject requires; a subject of greater im- of the Commons alone.  In ancient days, the
portance than ever engaged the attention of this  Crown, the barons, and the clergy possessed the
House, that subject only excepted, when, near a  lands.  In those days, the barons and the clergy
century ago,3 it was the question, whether you  gave and granted to the Crown.  They gave
yourselves were to be bond or free.  In the  and granted what was their own!  At present,
mean time, as I can not depend upon my health  since the discovery of America, and other cirfor any future day (such is the nature of my in- cumstances permitting, the Commons are be-It need hardly be said tht Ld Be is a d  come the proprietors of the land.  The Church
2 It need hardly be said that Lord Bte is aimed  (God bless it!) has but a pittance.  The propat throughout the whole of these two paragraphs.
The passage illustrates a mode of attack which  erty of the lords, compared with that of the comLord Chatham often used, that of pointing at an in- mons, is as a drop of water in the ocean; and
dividual in a manner at once so significant as to ar- this House represents those commons, the prorest attention, and yet so remote as to involve no  prietors of the lands; and those proprietors virbreach of decorum-saying the severest things by  tually represent the rest of the inhabitants.
implication, and leaving the hearer to apply them; When, therefore, in this House, we give and
thus avoiding the coarseness of personal invective,   ant we give and g         i our own.
and giving a wide scope for ingenuity in the most                           do  e do?  
stinging allusions. In the present case, the allusion  i  an Amerian tax what do we do? 
to Bute as having " made a sacrifice" of Chatham, by  your Majesty's Commons for Great Britain, give
driving him from power through a secret ascendency  and grant to your Majesty"-what?  Our own
over the King; to " the traces of an overruling in- property?  No!  " We give and grant to your
fluence" from the same quarter as a reason for with- Majesty" the property of your Majesty's comholding confidence from the new ministry; and to  mons of America!  It is an absurdity in terms.
Bute's shrinking from that responsibility which the    The distinction between legislation and taxAct of Settlement imposed upon all advisers of ation is essentially necessary to liberty.  The
the King-these and other allusions to the favorite                                 leilte           -
of Gee II w d he i l  u     d a    Crown and the peers are equally legislative powof George III. would be instantly understood and  
keenly felt among a people who have always re-ers with the Commos.  If taxation  e a part
garded the character of a favorite with dread and  of simple legislation, the Crown and the peers
abhorrence. Lord Chatham, to avoid the imputa- have rights in taxation as well as yourselves;
tion of being influenced in what he said by the pre- rights which they will claim, which they will
vailing prejudices against Bute as a Scotchman, re- exercise, whenever the principle can be supportfers to himself, in glowing language, as the first ed by power.
minister who employed Highlanders in the army;    There is an idea in some that the colonies are
calling " from the mountains of the North" " a hardy  virtual  represented in the House.  I would
and intrepid race of men," who had been alienated 
fain know by whom an American is represented
by previous severity, but who, by that one act of  fn   now by whom                  represented.onfidence, were indissolubly attached to the house  here.  Is he represented by any knight of the
of Hanover.                                      shire, in any county in this kingdom?   Would
3 At the Revolution of 1688.                  to God that respectable representation was aug



1766.]                        RIGHT OF' TAXING  AMERICA.                                     105
mented to a greater number!  Or will you tell in the reign of Henry VIII., the other in that of
him that he is represented by any representative  Charles II.  [Mr. Grenville then quoted the acts,
of a borough? a borough which, perhaps, its  and desired that they might, be read; which beown representatives never saw!  This is what ing done, he said,] When I proposed to tax
is called the rotten part of the Constitution.  It America, I asked the House if any gentleman
can not continue a century. If it does not drop, would object to the right; I repeatedly asked it,
it must be amputated.4  The idea of a virtual and no man would attempt to deny it.  Protecrepresentation of America in this House is the  tion and obedience are reciprocal.  Great Brit-'
most contemptible idea that ever entered into  ain protects America; America is bound to yield
the head of a man.  It does not deserve a se- obedience.  If not, tell me when the Americans
rious refutation,                               were emancipated?  When they want the proThe Commons of America, represented in  tection of this kingdom, they are always very
their several assemblies, have ever been in pos- ready to ask it.  That protection has always
session of the exercise of this, their constitutional been afforded them in the most full and ample
right, of giving and granting their own money. manner.  The nation has run herself into an imThey would have been slaves if they had not mense debt to uive them  their protection; and
enjoyed it!  At the same time, this kingdom, now, when they are called upon to contribute a
as the supreme governing and legislative power, small share toward the public expense-an exhas always bound the colonies by her laws, by  pense arising from themselves-they renounce
her regulations, and restrictions in trade, in nav- your authority, insult your officers, and break
igation, in manufactures, in every thing, except out, I might almost say, into open rebellion.
that of taking their money out of their pockets  The seditious spirit of the colonies owes its
without their consent.                           birth to the factions in this House.' Gentlemen
Here I would draw the line,                   are careless of the consequences of what they
Quam ultra citraque neque consistere rectum.5   say, provided it answers the purposes of opposi[As soon as Lord Chatham  concluded, Gen- tion.  We were told we trod on tender ground.
eral Conway arose, and succinctly avowed his We were bid to expect disobedience.  What is
entire approbation of that part of his Lordship's  this but telling th  Americans to stand out
speech which related to American affairs, but against the law, to encourage their obstinacy
disclaimed altogether that "secret overrulino  with the expectation of support from  hence?
influence which had been  hinted  at."  Mr. "Let us.only hold out a l;ttle," they would say,
George Grenville, who followed in the debate,  "our friends will soon be in power."  Ungrateexpatiated at large on the tumults and riots  ful people of America! Bounties have been exwhich had taken place in the colonies, and de- tended to them. When I had the honor of servclared that they bordered on rebellion.  He con- ing the Crown, while you yourselves were loaddemned the language and sentiments which he  ed with an enormous debt, you gave bounties on
had heard as encouraging a revolution. A por-        lumber, on their iron, their hemp, and many
tion of his speech is here inserted, as explanatory    articles.  You have relaxed in their favor
of the replication of Lord Chatham.6]           the Act of Navigation, that palladium  of the
I can not, said Mr. Grenville, understand the  British commerce; and yet I have been abused
difference between external and internal taxes. in all tie public papers as an enemy to the trade
They are the same in effect, and differ only in  of America.  I have been particularly charged
name.  That this kingdom has the sovereign,   ith g g orders and instructions to prevent
the supreme legislative power over America, is the Spanish trade, and thereby stopping the changranted; it can not be denied; and taxation is a  nel by which alone North America used to be
part of that sovereign power.  It is one branch  supplied with cash for remittances to this counof the legislation.  It is, it has been, exercised  ty   I defy any   an to poduce any such orover those who are not, who were never repre- ders or instructions. I discouraged no trade but
sented. It is exercised over the India Company, what was illicit, what was prohibited by an act
the merchants of London, the proprietors of the  of Parliament.  I desire a West India merchnt
stocks,  and over many  great manufacturing  (Mr. Long), well known in the city, a gentletowns.  It was exercised over the county pala- man of character, may be examined.  He will
tine of Chester, and the bishopric of Durham, tell you that I offered to do every thing in my
before they sent any representatives to Parlia- power to advance the trade of America. I was
ment.  I appeal for proof to the preambles of above giving an answer to anonymous calumthe acts which gave them representatives; one  nies; but in this place it becomes one to wipe
off the aspersion.
4 We have here the first mention made by any    [Here Mr. Grenville ceased.  Several memEnglish statesman of a reform in the borough sys- bers got up to speak, but Mr. Pitt seeming to
tem. A great truth once uttered never dies. The rise, the House was so clamorous for Mr. Pitt 
Reform Bill of Earl Grey had its origin in the mind  Mr. Pitt  that the speaker was obliged to call
of Chatham.
5 On neither side of which we can rightly stand  to order.
6 Mr. Grenville, it will be remembered, had now  Mr. Pitt said, I do not apprehend I-am speakno connection with the ministry, but was attempting  ing twice. I did expressly reserve a part of my
to defend his Stamp Act against the attack of Mr. subject, in order to save the time of this House;
Pitt.                                            but I am compelled to proceed in it.  I do not




106                             LORD CHATHAM  ON THE                                      [1766.
speak twice; I only finish what I designedly left tutional rights.  That was reserved to mark the
imperfect.  But if the House is of a different era of the late administration.  Not that there
opinion, far be it from me to indulge a wish of  were wanting some, when I had the honor to
transgression against order.  I am content, if it serve his Majesty, to propose to me to burn my
be your pleasure, to be silent.  [Here he paused. fingers with an American stamp act. With thee
The House resounding with Go on! go on! he  enemy at their back, with our bayonets at their
proceeded:]                                      breasts, in the day of their distress, perhaps the
Gentlemen, sir, have been charged with giv- Americans would have submitted to the imposiing birth to sedition in America.  They have  tion; but it would have been taking an ungenspoken their sentiments with freedom  against erous, an unjust advantage.  The gentleman
this unhappy act, and that freedom has become  boasts of his bounties to America!  Are not
their crime.  Sorry I am to hear the liberty of  these bounties intended finally for the benefit of
speech in this House imputed as a crime.  But this kingdom?  If they are not, he has misapthe imputation shall not discourage me.  It is plied the national treasures!
a liberty I mean to exercise.  No gentleman    I am no courtier of America. I stand up for
ought to be afraid to exercise it. It is a liberty  this kingdom.  I maintain that the Parliament
by which the gentleman who calumniates it has a right to bind, to restrain America.  Our
might have profited.  He ought to have desist- legislative power over the colonies is sovereign
ed from  his project.  The gentleman tells us, and supreme.  When it ceases to be sovereign
America is obstinate; America is almost in open  and supreme, I would advise every gentleman
rebellion.  I rejoice that America has resisted. to sell his lands, if he can, and embark for that
Three millions of people, so dead to all the feel- country. When two countries are connected toings of liberty as voluntarily to submit to be  gether like England and her colonies, without
slaves, would have been fit instruments to make being incorporated, the one must necessarily
slaves of the rest.  I come not here armed at govern.  The greater must rule the less.  But
all points, with law  cases and acts of Parlia- she must so rule it as not to contradict thefinment, with the statute book doubled down in  damental principles that are common to both.
dog's ears, to defend the cause of liberty.  If I    If the gentleman does not understand the difhad, I myself would have cited the two cases of  ference between external and internal taxes, I
Chester and Durham. I would have cited them  can not help it. There is a plain distinction beto show that, even under former arbitrary reigns, tween taxes levied for the purposes of raising a
Parliaments were ashamed of taxing a people  revenue, and duties imposed for the regulation
without their consent, and allowed them repre- of trade, for the accommodation of the subject;
sentatives. Why did the gentleman confine him- although, in the consequences, some revenue
self to Chester and Durham?  He might have  may incidentally arise from the latter.
taken a higher example in Wales-Wales, that    The gentleman asks, When were the colonies
never was taxed by Parliament till it was incor- emancipated?  I desire to know, when were
porated.  I would not debate a particular point they made slaves?  But I dwell not upon words.
of law with the gentleman.  I know his abili- When I had the honor of serving his Majesty, I
ties.  I have been obliged to his diligent re- availed myself of the means of information which
searches.  But, for the defense of liberty, upon  I derived from  my office.  I speak; therefore,
a general principle, upon a constitutional prin- from knowledge.  My materials were good. I
ciple, it is a ground on which I stand firm-on  was at pains to collect, to digest, to consider
which I dare meet any man.  The gentleman  them; and I will be bold to affirm, that the proftells us of many who are taxed, and are not rep- its to Great Britain from the trade of the coloresented-the India Company, merchants, stock- nies, through all its branches, is two millions a
holders, manufacturers.  Surely many of these  year. This is the fund that carried you triumphare represented in other capacities, as owners of  antly through the last war.  The estates that
land, or as freemen of boroughs.  It is a mis- were rented at two thousand pounds a year,
fortune that more are not equally represented. threescore years ago, are at three thousand at
But they are all inhabitants, and, as such, are  present. Those estates sold then from fifteen to
they not virtually represented?  Many have it eighteen years purchase; the same may now be
in their option to be actually represented.  They  sold for thirty.  You owe this to America. This
have connections with those that elect, and they  is the price America pays you for her protechave influence over them. The gentleman men- tion. And shall a miserable financier come with
tioned the stockholders.  I hope he does not a boast, that he can bring " a pepper-corn" into
reckon the debts of the nation as a part of the  the exchequer by the loss of millions to the nanational estate.                                tion?7  I dare not say how much higher these
-Since the accession of King William, many  profits may be augmented.  Omitting [i. e., not
ministers, some of great, others of more moder- taking into account] the immense increase of
ate abilities, have taken the lead of government. people, by natural population, in the northern
[Here Mr. Pitt went through the list of them, colonies, and the emigration from every part of
bringing it down till he came to himself, giving    7 Alluding to Mr. Nugent, who had said that " a
a short sketch of the characters of each, and  pepper-corn in acknowledgment of the right to tax
then proceeded:] None of these thought, or even  America, was of more value than millions without
dreamed, of robbing the colonies of their consti- it."




1766.]                        RIGHT OF TAXING  AMERICA.                                      107
Europe, I am convinced [on other grounds] that gentleman only excepted, since removed to the
the commercial system of America may be al- Upper House by succession to an ancient bartered to advantage.  You have prohibited where  ony [Lord Le Despencer, formerly Sir Francis
you ought to have encouraged.  You have en- Dashwood].  He told me he did not like a Gercouraged where you ought to have prohibited. man war.  I honored the man for it, and was
Improper restraints have been laid on the conti- sorry when he was turned out of his post.
nent in favor of the islands.  You have but two    A great deal has been said without doors of
nations to trade with in America.  Would you  the power, of the strength of America.  It is a
had twenty!  Let acts of Parliament in conse- topic that ought to be cautiously meddled with.
quence of treaties remain;' but let not an En- In a good cause, on a sound bottom, the force
glish minister become a custom-house officer of this country can crush America to atoms.  I
for Spain, or for any foreign power.  Much is know the valor of your troops. I know the skill
wrong!  Much may be amended for the gen- of your officers. There is not a company of foot
eral good of the whole!                          that has served in America, out of which you
Does the gentleman complain he has been  may not pick a man of sufficient knowledge and
misrepresented in the public prints?  It is a  experience to make a governor of a colony there.
common misfortune.  In the Spanish affair of But on this ground, on the Stamp Act, which so
the last war, I was abused in all the newspapers  many here will think a crying injustice, I am
for having advised his Majesty to violate the laws  one who will lift up my hands against it.
of nations with regard to Spain. The abuse was    In such a cause, your success would be hazindustriously circulated even in handbills.  If  ardous.  America, if she fell, would fall like the
administration did not propagate the abuse, ad- strong man; she would embrace the pillars of
ministration never contradicted it.  I will not the state, and pull down the Constitution along
say what advice I did give the King.  My ad- with her.  Is this your boasted peace-not to
vice is in writing, signed by myself, in the pos- sheathe the sword in its scabbard, but to sheathe
session of the Crown.  But I will say what ad- it in the bowels of your countrymen?  Will you
vice I did not give to the King.  I did not ad- quarrel with yourselves, now the whole house of
vise him to violate any of the laws of nations.    Bourbon is united against you; while France
As to the report of the gentleman's prevent- disturbs your fisheries in Newfoundland, embaring in some way the trade for bullion with the  rasses your slave trade to Africa, and withholds
Spaniards, it was spoken of so confidently that I from  your subjects in Canada their property
own I am one of those who did believe it to be  stipulated by treaty; while the ransom  for the
true.                                            Manillas is denied by Spain, and its gallant conThe gentleman must not wonder he was not queror basely traduced into a mean plunderer!
contradicted when, as minister, he asserted the  a gentleman (Colonel Draper) whose noble and
right of Parliament to tax America.  I know  generous spirit would do honor to the proudest
not how it is, but there is a modesty in this  grandee of the country?  The Americans have
House which does not choose to contradict a  not acted in all things with prudence and temminister.  Even your chair, sir, looks too often  per: they have been wronged;  they have been
toward St. James's.  I wish gentlemen would  driven to madness by injustice.  Will you punget the better of this modesty.  If they do not, ish them for the madness you have occasioned?
perhaps the collective body may begin to abate  Rather let prudence and temper come first from
of its respect for the representative.  Lord Ba- this side.  I will undertake for America that
con has told me, that a great question would not she will follow the example.  There are two
fail of being agitated at one time or another. I lines in a ballad of Prior's, of a man's behavior
was willing to agitate such a question at the  to his wife, so applicable to you and your coloproper season, viz., that of the German war-   nies, that I can not help repeating them:
my German war, they called it!  Every session         "Be to her faults a little blind;
I called out, Has any body any objection to the         Be to her virtues very kind."
German war?8  Nobody would object to it, one    Upon the whole, I will beg leave to tell the
8 This speech is so much condensed by the report- House what is my opinion.  It is, that the Stamp
er as sometimes to make the connection obscure. Act be repealed absolutely, totally, and immediMr. Pitt is answering Mr. Grenville's complaints by
a reference to his own experience when minister.  resisted the disposition of George II. to engage in
Had Mr. Grenville been misrepresented in the pub- wars on the Continent. But when things had whollic prints? So was Mr. Pitt in respect to " the Span- ly changed, when England had united with Prussia
ish affair of the last war." Had the Stamp Act been  to repress the ambition of Austria sustained by
drawn into discussion, though originally passedwith- France and Russia, he did carry on "a German
out contradiction?  Mr. Grenville might easily un- var," though not one of his own commencing. And
derstand that there was a reluctance to contradict he was always ready to meet the question. He
the minister; and he might learn from Lord Bacon  challenged discussion. He called out, "Has any
that a great question like this could not be avoided; body objections to the German war?"  Probably
it would be " agitated at one time or another." Mr. Mr. Pitt here alludes to an incident already referPitt, when minister, had a great question of this red to, page 61, when, putting himself in an attitude
kind, viz., the "German war," and he did not shrink  of defiance, he exclaimed, " Is there an Aust/rian
from meeting it, or complain of the misrepresenta- among you? Let him come forward and. reveal
tion to which he was subjected. He had originally  himself!"




108                              LORD  CHATHAM  ON  THE                                     [1770.
ately.  That the reason for the repeal be assign-  whatsoever!"  Lord Camden, when the Declared, viz., because it was founded on an erroneous  atory Act came into the House of Lords, took
principle.  At the same time, let the sovereign  the same ground with Mr. Pitt in the House of
authority of this country over the colonies be as-  Commons.  " My position," said he, " is thisserted in as strong terms as can be devised, and  I repeat it-I will maintain it to the last hour:
be made to extend to every point of legislation   Taxation  and representation  are inseparable.
whatsoever; that we may bind their trade, con-  This position is founded on the laws of nature.
fine their manufactures, and exercise every power  It is more; it is in itself an eternal law of nawhatsoever, except that of taking their money  ture.  For whatever is a man's own is absoout of their pockets without their consent.       lutely his own.  No man has a right to take it
from him without his consent, either expressed
by himself or his representative. Whoever atThe motion for the address received the ap-  tempts to do this, attempts an injury.  Whoever
probation of all. About a month after, February  does it, commits a robbery.  He throws down
26th, 1766, a bill was introduced repealing the  and destroys the distinction between liberty and
Stamp Act; but, instead of following Mr. Pitt's  slavery."  Other counsels, however, prevailed.
advice, and abandoning all claim to the right of  The Stamp Act was repealed, but the Declarataxing the colonies a Declaratory Act was in-  tory Act was passed; its principles were carried
troduced, asserting the authority of the King and  out by Charles Townsend the very next year, by
Parliament to make laws which should "bind  imposing new taxes; and the consequences are
the colonies and people of America in all cases  before the world.
SPEECH
OF LORD CHATHAM IN REPLY TO LORD MANSFIELD, IN RELATION TO THE CASE OF JOHN
WILKES, DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS, JANUARY 9, 1770.
INTRODUCTION.
THIS was the first appearance of Lord Chatham in the House of Lords after his illness in 1767. The
Duke of Grafton, his former friend and ally, was now minister, and had come out a virtual Tory. The
case of John Wilkes agitated the whole kingdom. He had been expelled fiom the House of Commons
for a'seditious libel," in February, 1769, and a new writ was issued for the election of a member from
Middlesex. Wilkes was almost unanimously re-elected, and the House of Commons resolved, on the day
after his election, that he was incapable of being chosen to that Parliament. Another election was therefore held; he was again chosen, and his election again declared void. A third was ordered, and the ministry now determined to contest it to the utmost. They prevailed upon Colonel Luttrell, son of Lord Irnham, to vacate his seat in the House, and become their candidate; but, with all their influence and bribery,
they could obtain only 296 votes, while Wilkes numbered 1143. The latter, of course, was again returned
as a member; but the House passed a resolution directing the clerk of the Crown to amend the return,
by erasing the name of Mr. Wilkes and inserting that of Colonel Luttrell, who accordingly took his seat,
in April, 1769.
There is, at the present day, no difference of opinion as to these proceedings. "All mankind are agreed,"
says Lord Campbell, in his Lives of the Chancellors, " that the House of Commons acted illegally and unconstitutionally in expelling Mr. Wilkes for a supposed offense, committed before his re-election, and in
seating Mr. Luttrell as representative for Middlesex."  With Mr. Wilkes as an individual, Lord Chatham
had no connection, either personal or political. He had, on the contrary, expressed his detestation of his
character and principles, some years before, in the presence of Parliament. But he felt that one of the
greatest questions had now arisen which was ever agitated in England, and that the House of Lords
ought to enter their protest against this flagrant breach of the Constitution. He, perhaps, considered himself the more bound to come forward, because in his late ministry he had given the Duke of Grafton the
place which he now/held of First Lord of the Treasury, and had thus opened the way for the advancement of his grace to the station of Prime Minister. At all events, he determined, on the first day of his
appearance in Parliament after his late ministry, to express his disapprobation of two measures which had
been adopted by his former colleagues, viz., the taxation of America, and the expulsion of Mr. Wilkes.
When, therefore, an address to the Throne was moved, January 9th, 1770, he came forward on both these
subjects in one of his most celebrated speeches, but which, unfortunately, is very imperfectly preserved.
He commenced with great impressiveness of manner: " At my advanced period of life, my Lords, bowing under the weight of my infirmities, I might, perhaps, have stood excused if I had continued in my retirement, and never taken part again in public affairs. But the alarming state of the country calls upon
me to execute the duty which I owe to my God, my sovereign, and my country."  He then took a rapid
view of the external and internal state of the country. He lamented the measures which had alienated
the colonies, and driven them to such excesses. But he still insisted that they should be treated with ten



177U.]                            CASE OF JOHN  WILKES.                                        109
derness. " These excesses," he said, " are the mere eruptions of liberty, which break out upon the skin,
and are a sign, if not of perfect health, at least of a vigorous constitution, and must not be repelled too
suddenly, lest they should strike to the heart."
He then passed to the case of Mr. Wilkes, and the prevailing discontent throughout the kingdom, in
consequence of his expulsion from the House of Commons. The privileges of the House of Peers, he said,
however transcendent, stood on the same broad bottom as the rights of the people. It was, therefore, their
highest interest, as well as their duty, to watch over and protect the people; for when the people had
lost their rights, the peerage would soon become insignificant. He referred, as an illustration, to the case
of Spain, where the grandees, from neglecting and slighting the rights of the people, had been enslaved
themselves. He concluded with the following remarkable passage: "My Lords, let this example be a
lesson to us all. Let us be cautious how we admit an idea, that our rights stand on a footing different from
those of the people. Let us be cautious how we invade the liberties of our fellow-subjects, however mean,
however remote. For be assured, my Lords, in whatever part of the empire you suffer slavery to be established, whether it be in America, or in Ireland, or here at home, you will find it a disease which spreads
by contact, and soon reaches from the extremities to the heart. The man who has lost his own freedom,
becomes, from that ihoment, an instrument in the hands of an ambitious prince to destroy the freedom of
others. These reflections, my Lords, are but too applicable to our present situation. The liberty of the
subject is invaded, not only in the provinces, but here at home! The English people are loud in their complaints; they demand redress; and, depend upon it, my Lords, that, one way or another, they will have
redress. They will never return to a state of tranquillity till they are redressed. Nor ought they. For
in my judgment, my Lords, and I speak it boldly, it were better for them to perish in a glorious contention
for their rights, than to purchase a slavish tranquillity at the expense of a single iota of the Constitution.
Let me entreat your Lordships, then, by all the duties which you owe to your sovereign, to the country,
and to yourselves, to perform the office to which you are called by the Constitution, by informing his Majesty truly of the condition of his subjects, and the real cause of their dissatisfaction."
With this view, Lord Chatham concluded his speech by moving an amendment to the address, "That
we will, with all convenient speed, take into our most serious consideration the causes of the discontents
which prevail in so many parts of your Majesty's dominions, and particularly the late proceedings of the
House of Commons touching the incapacity of John Wilkes, Esq., expelled by that House, to be re-elected
a member to serve in the present Parliament, thereby refusing, by a resolution of one branch of the Legislature only, to the subject his common right, and depriving the electors of Middlesex of their free choice
of a representative."
This amendment was powerfully resisted by Lord Mansfield. Nothing remains, however, of his speech,
except a meager account of the general course of his argument. He contended " that the amendment violated every form and usage of Parliament, and was a gross attack on the privileges of the House of Commons. That there never was an instance of the Lords inquiring into the proceedings of that House with
respect to their own members, much less of their taking upon themselves to censure such proceedings, or
of their advising the Crown to take notice of them.'If, indeed, it be the purpose of the amendment to
provoke a quarrel with the House of Commons, I confess,' said his Lordship,' it will have that effect certainly and immediately. The Lower House will undoubtedly assert their privileges, and give you vote
for vote. I leave it, therefore, to your Lordships, to consider the fatal effects which, in such a conjuncture
as the present, may arise from an open breach between the two houses of Parliament."
Lord Chatham immediately arose and delivered the following speech in reply.
SPEECH, &c.'
MY LORDST-There is one plain maxim, to  so small a number of men, were sufficient to diwhich I have invariably adhered through life:  rect our judgment and our conduct.  But Provthat in every question in which my liberty or my  idence has taken better care of our happiness,
property were concerned, I should consult and  and given us, in the simplicity of common sense,
be determined by the dictates of common sense.  a rule for our direction, by which we can never
I confess, my Lords, that I am  apt to distrust be misled.  I confess, my Lords, I had no other
the refinements of learning, because I have seen  guide in drawing up the amendment which I
the ablest and the most learned men equally lia- submitted to your consideration; and, before I
ble to deceive themselves and to mislead others. heard the opinion of the noble Lord who spoke
The condition of human nature would be lam- last, I did not conceive that it was even within
entable indeed, if nothing less than the greatest  the limits of possibility for the greatest human
learning and talents, which fall to the share of  genius, the most subtle understanding, or the
acutest wit, so strangely to misrepresent my
This is the best reported and most eloquent meaning, and to give it an interpretation so enspeech of Lord Chatham, except that of November.   a                       intee          so en
18th, 1777. It was published at the time from man- trely foreign from what I intended to express,
uscript notes taken by an unknown individual, who  and from that sense which the very terms of the
is now ascertained with almost absolute certainty  amendment plainly and distinctly carry with
to have been the celebrated Sir Philip Francis, con- them.  If there be the smallest foundation for
sidered by so many as the author of Junius's Letters. the censure thrown upon me by that noble Lord;




110                           LORD CHATHAM  ON THE                                   [1770.
if, either expressly, or by the most distant im- ing in that Parliament? And is it not their resplication, I have said or insinuated any part of olution alone which refuses to the subject his
what the noble Lord has charged me with, dis- common right?  The amendment says farther,
card my opinions forever, discard the motion  that the electors of Middlesex are deprived of
with contempt.                                their free choice of a representative.  Is this a
My Lords, I must beg the indulgence of the  false fact, my Lords?  Or have I given an unHoise.  Neither will my health permit me, nor fair representation of it?  Will any man predo I pretend to be qualified to follow that learn- sume to affirm that Colonel Luttrell is the free
ed Lord minutely through the whole of his argu- choice of the electors of Middlesex?  We all
ment.  No man is better acquainted with his know  the contrary.  We all know that Mr.
abilities and learning, nor has a greater respect Wilkes (whom I mention without either praise
for them than I have.  I  have had the pleasure  or censure) was the favorite of the county, and
of sitting with him in the other House, and al- chosen by a very great and acknowledged maways listened to him with attention. I have not jority to represent them in Parliament.  If the
now lost a word of what he said, nor did I ever. noble Lord dislikes the manner in which these
Upon the present question I meet him without facts are stated, I shall think myself happy in
fear.  The evidence which truth carries with it being advised by him how to alter it. I am very
is superior to all argument; it neither wants the little anxious about terms, provided the subsupport, nor dreads the opposition of the great- stance be preserved; and these are facts, my
est abilities.  If there be a single word in the  Lords, which I am sure will always retain their
amendment to justify the interpretation which  weight and importance, in whatever form of lanthe noble Lord has been pleased to give it, I am  guage they are described.
ready to renounce the whole.  Let it be read,    Now, my Lords, since I have been forced to
my Lords; let it speak for itself. [It was read.] enter into the explanation of an amendment, in
In what instance does it interfere with the priv- which nothing less than the genius of penetraileges of the House of Commons?  In what re- tion could have discovered an obscurity, and havspect does it question their jurisdiction, or sup- ing, as I hope, redeemed myself in the opinion
pose an authority in this House to arraign the  of the House, having redeemed my motion from
justice of their sentence?  I am sure that every  the severe representation given of it by the noble
Lord who hears me will bear me witness, that Lord, I must a little longer entreat your LordI said not one word touching the merits of the  ships' indulgence. The Constitution of this counMiddlesex election.  So far from conveying any  try has been openly invaded in fact; and I have
opinion upon that matter in the amendment, I heard, with horror and astonishment, that very
did not even in discourse deliver my own senti- invasion defended upon principle.  What is this
ments upon it.  I did not say that the House of mysterious power, undefined by law, unknown
Commons had done either right or wrong; but, to the subject, which we must not approach
when his Majesty was pleased to recommend it without awe, nor speak of without reverenceto us to cultivate unanimity among ourselves, I which no man may question, and to which all
thought it the duty of this House, as the great men must submit?  My Lords, I thought the
hereditary council of the Crown, to state to his slavish doctrine of passive obedience had long
Majesty the distracted condition of his dominions, since been exploded; and, when our Kings were
together with the events which had destroyed  obliged to confess that their title to the Crown,
unanimity among his subjects.  But, my Lords, and the rule of their government, had no other
I stated events merely as facts, without the  foundation than the known laws of the land, I
smallest addition either of censure or of opinion. never expected to hear a divine right, or a diThey are facts, my Lords, which I am not only  vine infallibility, attributed to any other branch
convinced are true, but which I know are indis- of the Legislature.  My Lords, I beg to be unputably true. For example, my Lords: will any  derstood. No man respects the House of Comnman deny that discontents prevail in many parts mons more than I do, or would contend more
of his Majesty's dominions? or that those dis- strenuously than I would to preserve to them
contents arise from the proceedings of the House their just and legal authority. Within the bounds
of Commons touching the declared incapacity of prescribed by the Constitution, that authority is
Mr. Wilkes?  It is impossible.  No man can  necessary to the well-being of the people.  Bedeny a truth so notorious.  Or will any man yond that line, every exertion of power is arbideny that those proceedings refused, by a reso- trary, is illegal; it threatens tyranny to the peolution of one branch of the Legislature only, to  ple, and destruction to the state.  Power withthe subject his common right?  Is it not indis- out right is the most odious and detestable object
putably true, my Lords, that Mr. Wilkes had a that can be offered to the human imagination.
common right, and that he lost it no other way  It is not only pernicious to those who are subbut by a resolution of the House of Commons? ject to it, but tends to its own destruction.  It
My Lords, I have been tender of misrepresent- is what my noble friend [Lord Lyttleton] has
ing the House of Commons. I have consulted  truly described it, " Res detestabilis et caduca."2
their journals, and have taken the very words of My Lords, I acknowledge the just power, and
their own resolution.  Do they not tell us in so reverence the constitution of the House of Commanny words, that Mr. Wilkes having been expelled, was thereby rendered incapable of serv-    2 A thing hateful, and destined to destruction.




1770.]                          CASE OF JOHN WILKES..                  111
lmons.  It is for their own sakes that I would  Parliament. We have a code in which every honprevent their assuming a power which'the Con- est man may find it.  We have Magna Charta.
stitution has denied them, lest, by grasping at We have the Statute Book, and the Bill of Rights.
an authority they have no right to, they should    If a case should arise unknown to these great
torfeit that which they legally possess.  My  authorities, we have still that plain English reaLords, I affirm that they have betrayed their son left, which is the foundation of all our Enconstituents, and violated the Constitution. Un- glish jurisprudence.  That reason tells us, that
der pretense of declaring the law, they have  every judicial court, and every political society,
made a law, and united in the same persons the  must be vested with those powers and privileges
office of legislator and of judge!             which are necessary for performing the office to
I shall endeavor to adhere strictly to the no- which they are appointed.  It tells us, also, that
ble Lord's doctrine, which is, indeed, impossible  no court of justice can have a power inconsistent
to mistake, so far as my memory will permit me with, or paramount to the known laws of the
to preserve his expressions.  He seems fond of land; that the people, when they choose their
the word jurisdiction; and I confess, with the representatives, never mean to convey to them
force and effect which he has given it, it is a a power of invading the rights, or trampling on
word of copious meaning and wonderful extent. the liberties of those whom  they represent.
If his Lordship's doctrine be well founded, we What security would they have for their rights,
must renounce all those political maxims by  if once they admitted that a court of judicature
which our understandings have hitherto been  might determine every question that came bedirected, and even the first elements of learning  fore it, not by any known positive law, but by
taught in our schools when we were schoolboys. the vague, indeterminate, arbitrary rule of what
My Lords, we knew that jurisdiction was noth- the noble Lord is pleased to call the wisdom of
ing more than" jus dicere."  We knew that "le- the court?  With respect to the decision of the
gem facere" and " legem dicere" [to make law  courts of justice, I am far from denying them
and to declare it] were powers clearly distin- their due weight and authority; yet, placing them
guished from each other in the nature of things, in the most respectable view, I still consider
and wisely separated by the wisdom of the En- them, not as law, but as an evidence of the law.
glish Constitution.  But now, it seems, we must And before they can arrive even at that degree
adopt a new system of thinking! The House of authority, it must appear that they are foundof Commons, we are told, have a supreme juris- ed in and confirmed by reason; that they are
diction, and there is no appeal from their sen- supported by precedents taken from  good and
tence; and that wherever they are competent moderate times; that they do not contradict any
judges, their decision must be received and sub- positive law; that they are submitted to withmitted to, as ipso facto, the law of the land. My  out reluctance by the people; that they are unLords, I am a plain man, and have been brought questioned by the Legislature (which is equivaup in a religious reverence for the original sim- lent to a tacit confirmation); and what, in my
plicity of the laws of England.  By what soph- judgment, is by far the most important, that they
istry they have been perverted, by what artifices do not violate the spirit of the Constitution.  My
they have been involved in obscurity, is not for Lords, this is not a vague or loose expression.
me to explain.  The principles, however, of the We all know what the Constitution is.  We all
English laws are still sufficiently clear; they  know that the first principle of it is, that the
are founded in reason, and are the masterpiece  subject shall not be governed by the arbitrium
of the human understanding; but it is in the text of any one man or body of men (less than the
that I would look for a direction to my judgment, whole Legislature), but by certain laws, to which
not in the commentaries of modern professors. he has virtually given his consent, which are
The noble Lord assures us that he knows not in  open to him to examine, and not beyond his abilwhat code the law of Parliament is to be found; ity to understand. Now, my Lords, I affirm, and
that the House of Commons, when they act as am ready to maintain, that the late decision of
judges, have no law to direct them but their own  the House of Commons upon the Middlesex elecwisdom; that their decision is law; and if they  tion is destitute of every one of those properties
determine wrong, the subject has no appeal but and conditions which I hold to be essential to
to Heaven.  What then, my Lords?  Are all the legality of such a decision.  (1.) It is not
the generous efforts of our ancestors, are all founded in reason; for it carries with it a conthose glorious contentions, by which they meant tradiction, that the representative should perto secure to themselves, and to transmit to their form the office of the constituent body.  (2.) It
posterity, a known law, a certain rule of living, is not supported by a single precedent; for the
reduced to this conclusion, that instead of the case of Sir Robert Walpole is but a half precearbitrary power of a King, we must submit to  dent, and even that half is imperfect.  Incapacthe arbitrary power of a House of Commons? ity was indeed declared, but his crimes are stated
If this be true, what benefit do we derive from  as the ground of the resolution, and his opponent
the exchange.?  Tyranny, my Lords, is detest- was declared to be not duly elected, even after
able in every shape, but in none so formidable as his incapacity was established.  (3.) It contra.
when it is assumed and exercised by a number diets Magna Charta and the Bill of Rights, by
of tyrants.  But, my Lords, this is not the fact; which it is provided, that no subject shall be dethis is not the Constitution.  We have a law of prived of his freehold, unless by the judgment of




112                             LORD  CHATHAM  ON THE                                     [1770.
his peers, or the law of the land; and that elec- give us for attempting to save the state.  My
tions of members to serve in Parliament shall be  Lords, I am sensible of the importance and diffifree.  (4.) So far is this decision from  being  culty of this great crisis: at a moment such as
submitted to by the people, that they have taken  this, we are called upon to do our duty, without
the strongest measures, and adopted the most dreading the resentment of any man.  But if appositive language, to express their discontent. prehensions of this kind are to affect us, let us
Whether it will be questioned by the Legisla- consider which we ought to respect most, the
ture, will depend upon your Lordships' resolu- representative or the collective body of the peotion; but that it violates the spirit of the Con- pie. My Lords, five hundred gentlemen are not
stitution, will, I think, be disputed by no man  ten millions; and if we must have a contention,
who has heard this day's debate, and who wishes  let us take care to have the English nation on
well to the freedom of his country.  Yet, if we  our side. If this question be given up, the freeare to believe the noble Lord, this great griev- holders of England are reduced to a condition
ance, this manifest violation of the first princi- baser than the peasantry of Poland. If they deples of the Constitution, will not admit of a rem- sert their own cause, they deserve to be slaves!
edy.  It is not even capable of redress, unless  My Lords, this is not merely the cold opinion of
we appeal at once to Heaven!  My Lords, I my understanding, but the glowing expression
have better hopes of the Constitution, and a  of what I feel.  It is my heart that speaks.  I
firmer confidence in the wisdom  and constitu- know  I speak warmly, my Lords; but this
tional authority of this House.  It is to your an- warmth shall neither betray my argument nor
cestors, my Lords, it is to the English barons, my temper.  The kingdom is in a flame.  As
that we are indebted for the laws and Constitu- mediators between the King and people, it is our
tion we possess.  Their virtues were rude and  duty to represent to him the true condition and
uncultivated, but they were great and sincere. temper of his subjects.  It is a duty which no
Their understandings were as little polished as particular respects should hinder us from pertheir manners, but they had hearts to distinguish  forming; and whenever his Majesty shall deright from wrong; they had heads to distinguish  mand our advice, it will then be our duty to intruth from falsehood; they understood the rights  quire more minutely into the causes of the presof humanity, and they had spirit to maintain them. ent discontents.  Whenever that inquiry shall
My Lords, I think that history has not done  come on, I pledge myself to the House to prove
justice to their conduct, when they obtained from  that, since the first institution of the House of
their sovereign that great acknowledgment of na- Commons, not a single precedent can be protional rights contained in Magna Charta: they  duced to justify their late proceedings.  My nodid not confine it to themselves alone, but deliv- ble and learned friend (the Lord Chancellor
ered it as a common blessing to the whole people. Camden) has pledged himself to the House that
They did not say, these are the rights of the  he will support that assertion.
great barons, or these are the rights of the great    My Lords, the character and circumstances
prelates.  No, my Lords, they said, in the simple  of Mr. Wilkes have been very improperly introLatin of the times, " nullus liber homo" [no free  duced into this question, not only here, but in
man], and provided as carefully for the meanest that court of judicature where his cause was
subject as for the greatest.  These are uncouth  tried-I mean the House of Commons.  With
words, and sound but poorly in the ears of schol- one party he was a patriot of the first magniars; neither are they addressed to the criticism  tude; with the other, the vilest incendiary. For
of scholars, but to the hearts of free men.  These  my own part, I consider him merely and indifthree words, " nullus liber homo," have a mean- ferently as an English subject, possessed of cering which interests us all.  They deserve to be  tain rights which the laws have given him, and
remembered-they deserve to be inculcated in  which the laws alone can take from him.  I am
our minds-they are worth all the classics.  Let neither moved by his private vices nor by his
us not, then, degenerate from the glorious exam- public merits.  In his person, though he were
ple of our ancestors.  Those iron barons (for so  the worst of men, I contend for the safety and seI may call them when compared with the silken  curity of the best.  God forbid, my Lords, that
barons of modern days) were the guardians of  there should be a power in this country of measthe people; yet their virtues, my Lords, were  uring the civil rights of the subject by his mora
never engaged in a question of such importance  character, or by any other rule but the fixed
as the present.  A breach has been made in the  laws of the land!  I believe, my Lords, I shall
Constitution-the battlements are dismantled-   not be suspected of any personal partiality to
the citadel is open to the first invader-the walls  this unhappy man.  I am  not very conversant
totter-the Constitution is not tenable.  What in pamphlets or newspapers; but, from what I
remains, then, but for us to stand foremost in the  have heard, and from  the little I have read, I
breach, and repair it, or perish in it?         may venture to affirm, that I have had my share
Great pains have been taken to alarm us with  in the compliments which have come from that
the consequences of a difference between the  quarter.3  As for motives of ambition (for I must
two houses of Parliament; that the House of 
Commons will resent our presuming to take no-   3 Lord Chatham here refers, among others, to Jutice of their proceedings; that they will resent nius, who had attacked him about a year before in
our daring to advise the Crown, and never for- his first letter. At a later period Junius changed




1770.]                           CASE OF JOHN  WILKES.                                       113
take to myself a part of the noble Duke's insin- beg pardon, by his ministers-but I have sufuation), I believe, my Lords, there have been  fered myself to be so too long.  For some time
times in which I have had the honor of standing  I have beheld with silent indignation the arbiin such favor in the closet, that there must have  trary measures of the minister.  I have often
been something extravagantly unreasonable in  drooped and hung down my head in council, and
my wishes if they might not all have been grat- disapproved by my looks those steps which I
ified.  After neglecting those opportunities, I am  knew my avowed opposition could not prevent.
now suspected of coming forward, in the decline  I will do so no longer, but openly and boldly
Jf life, in the anxious pursuit of wealth and pow- speak my sentiments.  I now proclaim  to the
er which it is impossible for me to enjoy. Be it world that I entirely coincide in the opinion exsoo!  There is one ambition, at least, which I ever pressed by my noble friend-whose presence
will acknowledge, which I will not renounce but again reanimates us-respecting this unconstiwith my life. It is the ambition of delivering to  tutional vote of the House of Commons.  If. in
my posterity those rights of freedom  which I giving my opinion as a judge, I were to pay any
have received from my ancestors. I am not now  respect to that vote, I should look upon myself
pleading the cause of an individual, but of every  as a traitor to my trust, and an enemy to my
fireeholder in England.  In what manner this country.  By their violent and tyrannical con-.
House may constitutionally interpose in their de- duct, ministers have alienated the minds of the
fense, and what kind of redress this case will re- people from  his Majesty's government-I had:
quire and admit of, is not at present the subject almost said from  his Majesty's person-insoof our consideration. The amendment, if agreed  much, that if some measures are not devised to
to, will naturally lead us to such an inquiry. appease the clamors so universally prevalent, I
That inquiry may, perhaps, point out the neces- know not, my Lords, whether the people, in desity of an act of the Legislature, or it may lead  spair, may not become their own avengers, and
us, perhaps, to desire a conference with the other take the redress of grievances into their own
House; which one noble Lord affirms is the only  hands."  After such a speech, Lord Camden
parliamentary way of proceeding, and which an- could not, of course, expect to hold office.  He
other noble Lord assures us the House of Corn- was instantly dismissed.  It was a moment of
mons would either not come to, or would break  extreme excitement.  Lord Shelburne went so,
off with indignation.  Leaving their Lordships far as to say in the House, "After the dismisto reconcile that matter between themselves, I sion of the present worthy Lord Chancellor, the'
shall only say, that before we have inquired, we  seals will go begging; but I hope there will not
can not be provided with materials; consequent- be found in this kingdom a wretch so base and.
ly, we are not at present prepared for a confer- mean-spirited as to accept them  on the condience.                                           tions on which they must be offered."  This.
It is not impossible, my Lords, that the in- speech of Lord Chatham decided the fate of the
quiry I speak of may lead us to advise his Maj- Duke of Grafton.  The moment a leader was
esty to dissolve the present Parliament; nor have  found to unite the different sections of the OppoI any doubt of our right to give that advice, if sition, the attack was too severe for him to re —
we should think it necessary. His Majesty will sist. The next speech will show the manner in
then determine whether he will yield to the unit- which he was driven from power.
ed petitions of the people of England, or main-    Lord Mansfield had a difficult part to act on!
tain the House of Commons in the exercise of a  this occasion.  He could not but have known.
legislative power, which heretofore abolished the  that the expulsion of Wilkes was illegal; and;
House of Lords, and overturned the monarchy. this is obvious from the fact that he did not atI willingly acquit the present House of Comn- tempt to defend it.  He declared that, on this
mons of having actually formed so detestable a  point, " he had never given his opinion, he would
design; but they can not themselves foresee to  not now give it, and he did not know but he
what excesses they may be carried hereafter; might carry it to the grave with him."  All he
and, for my own part, I should be sorry to trust contended was, that " if the Commons had passto their future moderation. Unlimited power is ed an unjustifiable vote, it was a matter between.
apt to corrupt the minds of those who possess it;  God and their own consciences, and that nobody
and this I know, my Lords, that where law ends, else had any thing to do with it."  Lord Chattyranny begins!                                 ham rose a second time, and replied, "It plainly appears, from what the noble Lord has said,.
Lord Chatham's motion was rejected; but he  that he concurs in sentiment with the Opposiwas sustained in his views by Lord Camden, tion; for, if he had concurred with the ministry,.
who was still Lord Chancellor, and of course a  he would no doubt have avowed his opinionleading member of the Grafton ministry.  He  that it now equally behooves him to avow it in
came down from the woolsack, and broke forth  behalf of the people.  He ought to do so as an
in the following indignant terms: "I accepted  honest man, an independent man, as a man of
the great seal without conditions; I meant not,                                         ated the
therefore, tbetabeen more fully known, that the King dictated the
therefore, to be trammeled by his Majesty4-I measures against Wilkes. He entered with all the
his ground, and published his celebrated eulogium  feelings of a personal enemy into the plan of expelon Lord Chatham.                                ling him from the House, and was at last beaten by
4 This hasty expression shows, what has since  the determination of his own subjects.
H




114                             LORD CHATHAM  ON THE                                      [1770.
courage and resolution.  To say, that if the  it!  I should have to do with it!  Every man
House of Commons has passed an unjustifiable  in the kingdom would have to do with it! Every
vote, it is a matter between God and their own  man would have a right to insist on the repeal
consciences, and that nobody else has any thing  of such a treasonable vote, and to bring the auto do with it, is such a strange assertion as I  thors of it to condign punishment.  I would,
have never before heard, and involves a doc-  therefore, call on the noble Lord to declare his
trine subversive of the Constitution.  What! opinion, unless he would lie under the imputation
If the House of Commons should pass a vote  of being conscious of the illegality of the vote, and
abolishing this House, and surrendering to the  yet of being restrained by some unworthy moCrown all the rights and interests of the people,  tive from avowing it to the world."  Lord Manswould it be only a matter between them  and  field replied not."-Gentleman's Magazine for
their conscience, and would nobody have any  January, 1770.
thing to do with it?  You would have to do with
SPEECH
OF LORD CHATHAM ON A MOTION OF LORD ROCKINGHAM TO INQUIRE INTO THE STATE OF THE
NATION, DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS, JANUARY 22, 1770.
INTRODUCTION.
THE preceding speech of Lord Chatham, in connection with the decisive step taken by Lord Camden,
threw the Duke of Grafton and his ministry into the utmost confusion; and an adjournment of a week was
resorted to, for the purpose of making new arrangements. During this time, the Marquess of Granby deserted the administration, apologizing for the vote he had given for seating Colonel Luttrell in the House,
and deploring it as the greatest misfortune of his life. He resigned all his places, except his commission
as Colonel. Mr. Grenville, Mr. Dunning, the Dukes of Beaufort and Manchester, the Earls of Coventry
and Huntington, and a number of others, followed his example. A reconciliation took place between Lord
Chatham and Lord Rockingham, and the Opposition was completely organized under their guidance. It
was decided to follow up the blow at once, by a motion from Lord Rockingham for an "inquiry into the
state of the nation," which allows the utmost latitude for examining into the conduct of a minister. Accordingly, Lord Rockingham moved such an inquiry, almost immediately after the Lords again met. In
supporting this motion, he maintained, that the existing discontents did not spring from any immediate
temporary cause, but from a maxim which had grown up by degrees from the accession of George III.,
viz., " that the royal prerogative was sufficient to support the government, whatever might be the hands
to which the administration was committed."' He exposed this Tory principle as fatal to the liberties of
the people. The Duke of Grafton followed in a few explanatory remarks; and Lord Chatham then deJivered the following speech, which contains some passages of remarkable boldness and even vehemence.
SPEECH, &c.2
MIY LoRDS,-I meant to have arisen imme- which ought to have been an era of happiness
diately to second the motion made by the noble  and prosperity to this country.3
Lord [Rockingham].  The charge which the    My Lords, I shall give you my reasons for
noble Duke [Grafton] seemed to think affected  concurring with the motion, not methodically,
himself particularly, did undoubtedly demand an  but as they occur to my mind.  I may wander,
early answer..  It was proper he should speak  perhaps, from  the exact parliamentary debate,
before me, and I am as ready as any man to ap- but I hope I shall say nothing but what may deplaud the decency and propriety with which he  serve your attention, and what, if not strictly
has expressed himself.  proper at present, would be fit to be said when
I entirely agree with the noble Lord, both in  the state of the nation shall come to be considthe necessity of your Lordships' concurring with  ered.  My uncertain state of health must plead
the motion, and in the principles and arguments  my excuse.  I am now in some pain, and very
by which he has very judiciously supported it. probably may not be able to attend to my duty
I see clearly that the complexion of our govern- when I desire it most, in this House.  I thank
ment has been materially altered; and I can  _
trace the origin of the alteration up to a period    3 When George III. came to the throne, England
was in the midst of that splendid career of victories
This is the topic so powerfully discussed in Mr. by which Lord Chatham humbled the enemies of
Burke's pamphlet, entitled, "Thoughts on the Cause  his country, and established her power in every
of the Present Discontents," one of the most inge- quarter of the globe. The peace which was made
nious and able productions of that great writer,    two years after, under the influence of Lord Bute,
2 This speech, like the last, was reported at the  was generally considered a disgrace to the nation,
time by a gentleman, who is now ascertained to have  and from that time dissatisfaction began to prevail
been Sir Philip Francis.                        in all classes of society.




1770.]                           STATE OF THE NATION.                                        115
God, my Lords, for having thus long preserved       My Lords, I can not agree with the noble
so inconsiderable a being as I am, to take a part Duke, that nothing less than an immediate attack
upon this great occasion, and to contribute my  upon the honor or interest of this nation can auendeavors, such as they are, to restore, to save, thorize us to interpose in defense of weaker states,
to confirm the Constitution.                     and in stopping the enterprises of an ambitious
My Lords, I need not look abroad for griev- neighbor.4  Whenever that narrow, selfish polances.  The grand capital mischief is fixed at icy has prevailed in our councils, we have conhome.  It corrupts the very foundation of our stantly experienced the fatal effects of it.  By
political existence, and preys upon the vitals of  suffering our natural enemies to oppress the
the state.  The Constitution has been grossly  powers less able than we are to make resistviolated.  The Constitution at this moment stands  ance, we have permitted them to increase their
violated.  Until that wound be healed, until the  strength, we have lost the most favorable opporgrievance be redressed, it is in vain to recom- tunities of opposing them with success, and found
mend union to Parliament, in vain to promote  ourselves at last obliged to run every hazard in
concord among the people.  If we mean seri- making that cause our own, in which we were
ously to unite the nation within itself, we must not wise enough to take part while the expense
convince them that their complaints are regard- and danger might have been supported by othed, that their injuries shall be redressed.  On  ers.  With respect to Corsica, I shall only say,
that foundation I would take the lead in recom- that France has obtained a more useful and immending peace and harmony to the people.  On  portant acquisition in one pacific campaign than
any other, I would never wish to see them united  in any of her belligerent campaigns-at least
again. If the breach in the Constitutionbe effect- while I had the honor of administering war
ually repaired, the people will of themselves re- against her. The word may, perhaps, be thought
turn to a state of tranquillity; if not, may dis- singular.  I mean only while I was the miniscord prevail forever.  I know to what point this ter chiefly intrusted with the conduct of the war.
doctrine and this language will appear directed. I remember, my Lords, the time when Lorraine
But I feel the principles of an Englishman, and  was united to the crown of France.  That, too,
I utter them  without apprehension or reserve. was in some measure a pacific conquest; and
The crisis is indeed alarming.  So much the  there were people who talked of it as the noble
more does it require a prudent relaxation on the  Duke now speaks of Corsica.  France was perpart of government.  If the King's servants will mitted to take and keep possession of a noble
not permit a constitutional question to be decided  province; and, according to his grace's ideas,
on according to the forms and on the principles we did right in not opposing it.  The effect of
of the Constitution, it must then be decided in  these acquisitions is, I confess, not immediate;
some other manner; and, rather than it should  but they unite with the main body by degrees,
be given up, rather than the nation should sur- and, in time, make a part of the national strength.
render their birthright to a despotic minister, I I fear, my Lords, it is too much the temper of
hope, my Lords, old as I am, I shall see the  this country to be insensible of the approach of
question brought to issue, and fairly tried be- danger, until it comes with accumulated terror
tween the people and the government.  My  upon us.
Lord, this is not the language of faction.  Let    My Lords, the condition of his Majesty's afit be tried by that criterion by which alone we  fairs in Ireland, and the state of that kingdom
can distinguish what is factious from what is within itself, will undoubtedly make a very manot-by the principles of the English Constitu- terial part of your Lordship's inquiry.  I am not
tion.  I have been bred up in these principles, sufficiently informed to enter into the subject so
and know, that when the liberty of the subject is fully as I could wish; but by what appears to
invaded, and all redress denied him, resistance  the public, and from my own observation, I conis justified.  If I had a doubt upon the matter, I fess I can not give the ministry much credit for
should follow the example set us by the most the spirit or prudence of their conduct.  I see
reverend bench, with whom  I believe it is a  that even where their measures are well chosen,
maxim, when any doubt in point of faith arises, they are incapable of carrying them  through
or any question of controversy is started, to ap- without some unhappy mixture of weakness or
peal at once to the greatest source and evidence  imprudence.  They are incapable of doing enof our religion-I mean the Holy Bible.  The  tirely right.  My Lords, I do, from  my conConstitution has its Political Bible, by which, if  science, and from  the best weighed principles
it be fairly consulted, every political question  of my understanding, applaud the augmentation
may, and ought to be determined.  Magna  of the army.  As a military plan, I believe it
Charta, the Petition of Rights, and the Bill of  has been judiciously arranged.  In a political
Rights, form that code which I call the Bible of
the English Constitution.  Had some of his Maj-    4 In the year 1768, France, under pretense of a
esty's unhappy predecessors trusted less to the  transfer from the Genoese (who claimed the island),
et' una^.... prdeesor.t e  ls         had seized upon Corsica. General Paoli made a
comments of their ministers; had they been bet- had seized  upon Crsica. ovGeered, and fled to
brave resistance, but was overpowered, and fled to
ter read in the text itself, the glorious revolution England, where his presence excited a lively interwould have remained only possible in theory, and  est in the oppressed Corsicans. Lord Chatham
would not now have existed upon record a for- maintained that France ought to have been resistmidable example to their successors.             ed in this shameful act of aggression.




116                             LORD  CHATHAM  ON THE                                     [1770.
view, I am convinced it was for the welfare, for sand men locked up in Ireland, let the situation
the safety of the whole empire.  But, my Lords, of his affairs abroad, or the approach of danger
with all these advantages, with all these recom- to this country, be ever so alarming, unless there
mendations, if I had the honor of advising his  be an actual rebellion or invasion in Great Brit.
Majesty, I never would have consented to his ain.  Even in the two cases excepted by the
accepting the augmentation, with that absurd, King's promise, the mischief must have already
dishonorable condition which the ministry have  begun to operate, must have already taken effect
submitted to annex to it.'  My Lords, I revere  before his Majesty can be authorized to send for
the just prerogative of the Crown, and would  the assistance of his Irish army.  He has not
contend for it as warmly as for the rights of the  left himself the power of taking any preventive
people.  They are linked together, and natu- measures, let his intelligence be ever so certain
rally support each other.  I would not touch a  his apprehensions of invasion or rebellion be
feather of the prerogative.  The expression, per- ever so well founded.  Unless the traitor be
haps, is too light; but, since I have made use of  actually in arms, unless the enemy be in the
it, let me add, that the entire command and  heart of your country, he can not move a single
power of directing the local disposition of the  man from Ireland.
army is to the royal prerogative, as the master    I feel myself compelled, my Lords, to return
feather in the eagle's wing; and, if I were per- to that subject which occupies and interests me
mitted to carry the allusion a little farther, I most.  I mean the internal disorder of the Conwould say, they have disarmed the imperial stitution, and the remedy it demands.  But first
bird, the "Ministrum Fulminis Alitem."6  The  I would observe, there is one point upon which
army is the thunder of the Crown.  The minis- I think the noble Duke has not explained himtry have tied up the hand which should direct self.  I do not mean to catch at words, but, if
the bolt.                                        possible, to possess the sense of what I hear. I
My Lords, I remember that Minorca was lost would treat every man with candor, and should
for want of four battalions.   They could not be  expect the same candor in return.  For the nospared from  hence, and there was a delicacy  ble Duke, in particular, I have every personal
about taking them from Ireland.  I was one of  respect and regard.  I never desire to underthose who promoted an inquiry into that matter stand him but as he wishes to be understood.
in the other House; and I was convinced we had  His Grace, I think, has laid much stress upon
not regular troops sufficient for the necessary  the diligence of the several public offices, and
service of the nation.  Since the moment the  the assistance given them by the administration
plan of augmentation was first talked of, I have  in preparing a state of the expenses of his Maiconstantly and warmly supported it among my  esty's civil government, for the information of
friends.  I have recommended it to several mem- Parliament and for the satisfaction of the public.
hers of the Irish House of Commons, and exhort- He has given us a number of plausible reasons
ed them to support it with their utmost interest for their not having yet been able to finish the
in Parliament.  I did not foresee, nor could I account; but, as far as I am  able to recollect,
conceive it possible, the ministry would accept he has not yet given us the smallest reason to
of it, with a condition that makes the plan itself  hope that it ever will be finished, or that it ever
ineffectual, and, as far as it operates, defeats  will be laid before Parliament.
every useful purpose of maintaining a standing    My Lords, I am not unpracticed in business;
military force.  His Majesty is now so confined  and if, with all that apparent diligence, and all
by his promise, that he must leave twelve thou- that assistance which the noble Duke speaks of,
the accounts in question have not yet been made
5 This refers to an engagement on the part of the  up, I am  convinced there must be a defect in
King, that a number of effective troops, not less than  some of the public offices, which ought to be
12,000 men, should at all times, except in cases of strictly inquired into, and severely punished.
invasion or rebellion in Great Britain, be kept in  But, my Lords, the waste of the public money
Ireland for its better defense.                  is not, of itself, so important as the pernicious
6 " The winged minister of thunder."  This is one purpose to which we have reason to suspect that
of the most beautiful instances in our literature of
money has been applied.  For some years past,
rising at once from a casual and familiar expression,    h     
there has been an influx of wealth into this counwhich seemed below the dignity of the occasion,          has bn             w th  nt          n
into a magnificent image, sustained and enforced by try, which has been attended with many fatal
a quotation from Horace, which has always been  consequences, because it has not been the reguadmired for its sublimity and strength.          lar, natural produce of labor and industry.8  The
The image of afeather here applied to the King  riches of Asia have been poured in upon us, and
may have suggested to Junius (who was obviously  have brought with them not only Asiatic luxury,
an attentive hearer of Lord Chatham) a similar ap- but, I fear, Asiatic principles of government.
plication of it to the same personage a few months  Without connections without any natural interafter, in what has generally been considered te he         s        i     s of f        o 
finest of his images. "The King's honor is that of
his people. Their real honor and interest are the  forced their way into Parliament by such a torsame. * *  * X The feather that adorns the royal   8 Much of the wealth which was brought from Inbird supports its flight. Strip him of his plumage, dia about this time, was used for the purchase of
and you fix him to the earth."                  seats in Parliament by men who went out mere ad7 In January, 1756.                           venturers.




1770.]                          STATE OF THE NATION.                                       117
rent of private corruption, as no private heredit- pendence.  The infusion of health which I now
ary fortune could resist.  My Lords, not saying  allude to would be to permit every county to
but what is within the knowledge of us all, the  elect one member more, in addition to their prescorruption of the people is the great original ent representation.  The knights of the shires
cause of the discontents of the people themselves, approach nearest to the constitutional represenof the enterprise of the Crown, and the notorious  tation of the county, because they represent the
decay of the internal vigor of the Constitution. soil.  It is not in the little dependent boroughs,
For this great evil some immediate remedy must it is in the great cities and counties that the
be provided; and I confess, my Lords, I did hope  strength and vigor of the Constitution resides;
that his Majesty's servants would not have suf- and by them alone, if an unhappy question should
fered so many years of peace to relapse without ever arise, will the Constitution be honestly and
paying some attention to an object which ought firmly defended. It would increase that strength,
to engage and interest us all.  I flattered my- because I think it is the only security we have
self I should see some barriers thrown up in  against the profligacy of the times, the corrupdefense of the Constitution; some impediment tion of the people, and the ambition of the
formed to stop the rapid progress of corruption. Crown.9
[ doubt not we all agree that something must be    I think I have weighed every possible objecdone.  I shall offer my thoughts, such as they  tion that can be raised against a plan of this naare, to the consideration of the House; and I ture; and I confess I see but one which, to me,
wish that every noble Lord that hears me would  carries any appearance of solidity.  It may be
be as ready as I am to contribute his opinion to  said, perhaps, that when the act passed for unitthis important service.  I will not call my own  ing the two kingdoms, the number of persons
sentiments crude and undigested.  It would be who were to represent the whole nation in Parunfit for me to offer any thing to your Lordships  liament was proportioned and fixed on forever.
which I had not well considered; and this sub- That this limitation is a fundamental article, and
ject, I own, has not long occupied my thoughts. can not be altered without hazarding a dissoluI will now give them to your Lordships without tion of the Union.
reserve.                                          My Lords, no man who hears me can have a
Whoever understands the theory of the En- greater reverence for that wise and important
glish Constitution, and will compare it with the  act.than I have.  I revere the memory of that
fact, must see at once how widely they differ. great prince [King William III.] who first formWe must reconcile them  to each other, if we  ed the plan, and of those illustrious patriots who
wish to save the liberties of this country; we  carried it into execution.  As a contract, every
must reduce our political practice, as nearly as article of it should be inviolable; as the common
possible, to our principles. The Constitution in- basis of the strength and happiness of two na
tended that there should be a permanent relation  tions, every article of it should be sacred.  I
between the constituent and representative body  hope I can not be suspected of conceiving a
of the people. Will any man affirm that, as the  thought so detestable as to propose an advantHouse of Commons is now formed, that relation  age to one of the contracting parties at the exis in any degree preserved?  My Lords, it is pense of the other.  No, my Lords, I mean that
not preserved; it is destroyed.  Let us be cau- the benefit should be universal, and the consent
tious, however, how we have recourse to violent to receive it unanimous.  Nothing less than a
expedients.                                     most urgent and important occasion should perThe boroughs of this country have properly  suade me to vary even from the letter of the act;
enough been called "the rotten parts" of the  but there is no occasion, however urgent, howConstitution.  I have lived in Cornwall, and, ever important, that should ever induce me to
without entering into any invidious particularity, depart from the spirit of it.  Let that spirit be
have seen enough to justify the appellation. But religiously preserved.  Let us follow the prinin my judgment, my Lords, these boroughs, cor- ciple upon which the representation of the two
rupt as they are, must be considered as the nat- countries was proportioned at the Union; and
ural infirmity of the Constitution.  Like the in- when we increase the number of representatives
firmities of the body, we must bear them with  for the English counties, let the shires of Scotpatience, and submit to carry them about with  land be allowed an equal privilege.  On these
us.  The limb is mortified, but the amputation  terms, and while the proportion limited by the
might be death.                                 Union is preserved by the two nations, I appreLet us try, my Lords, whether some gentler hend that no man who is a friend to either will
remedies may not be discovered. Since we can
not cure the disorder, let us endeavor to infuse    9 This is the first distinct proposal that was ever
such a portion of new health into the Constitu- made for a reform of Parliament. It left the bortion as may enable it to support its most invet- ouh system as it was, in all its rottenness and
erate diseases.                                 aimed to " infuse a portion of new health into the
The''. rp i   o.  Constitution," sufficient to counteract the evil, by inThe representation of the counties is, I think,rea    the representation from the counties. The
creasing the representation from the counties. The
still preserved pure and uncorrupted. That of plan was never taken up by later reformers The
the greatest cities is upon a footing equally re- rotten part was amputated in 1832, as Lord Chatspectable; arid there are many of the larger ham himself predicted it would be before the expi
trading towns which still preserve their inde- ration of a century.




118                             LORD CHATHAM ON THE                                       [1770
object to an alteration so necessary for the secu-  this ground we met; upon this ground we stand,
rity of both.  I do not speak of the authority of  firm and inseparable.  No ministerial artifices,
the Legislature to carry such a measure into ef-  no private offers, no secret seduction, can divide
feet, because I imagine no man will dispute it.  us.  United as we are, we can set the profoundBut I would not wish the Legislature to inter-  est policy of the present ministry, their grand
pose by an exertion of its power alone, without  their only arcanum of government, their " divid,
the cheerful concurrence of all parties. My ob-  et impera,"'~ at defiance.
ject is the happiness and security of the two na-    II hope an early day will be agreed to for
tions, and I would not wish to obtain it without  considering the state of the nation.  My infirmtheir mutual consent.                           ities must fall heavily upon me, indeed, if I do
My Lords, besides my warm  approbation of  not attend to my duty that day.  When I conthe motion made by the noble Lord, I have a  sider my age and unhappy state of health, I feel
natural and personal pleasure in rising up to  how little I am personally interested in the event
second it.  I consider my seconding his Lord-  of any political question.  But I look forward to
ship's motion (and I would wish it to be consid-  others, and am  determined, as far as my poor
ered by others) as a public demonstration of that  ability extends, to convey to them who come
cordial union which I am happy to affirm sub-  after me the blessings which I can not hope to
sists between us, of my attachment to those prin-  enjoy myself.
ciples which he has so well defended, and of my
respect for his person.  There has been a time,
my Lords, when those who wished well to nei-    It was impossible to resist the motion, and
ther of us, who wished to see us separated for- therefore the Duke of Grafton yielded to it with
ever, found a sufficient gratification for their  the best grace possible, naming two days from
malignity against us both.  But that time is  that time, January 24th, as the day for the enhappily at an end.  The friends of this country  quiry.  He afterward deferred it until February
will, I doubt not, hear with pleasure that the  2d; but, finding it impossible to resist the pressnoble Lord and his friends are now united with  ure, he resigned on the 28th of January, 1770.
me and mine upon a principle which, I trust,  Lord North took his place.  The administrawill make our union indissoluble.  It is not to  tion now became more decidedly Tory than bepossess, or divide the emoluments of govern-  fore.  Lord North continued at the head of the
ment, but, if possible, to save the state.  Upon  government for about twelve years.
SPEECH
OF LORD CHATHAM ON A MOTION CALLING FOR PAPERS IN RELATION TO THE SEIZURE OF THE
FALKLAND ISLANDS BY SPAIN, DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS, NOVEMBER 2, 1770.
INTRODUCTION.
THE Falkland Islands, lying about three hundred miles east of the Straits of Magellan, were discovered
by the English in the days of Queen Elizabeth, but so dreary and deterring was their appearance, that
no.steps were taken for their settlement during the next two hundred years. At length, in 1765, they
were occupied in form by the British government, who soon after erected a small block-house, named Fort
Egmont, on one of the islands, and there stationed a few troops. This gave much offense to the court of
Spain, which claimed all the Magellanic regions; and, after sundry protests, Buccarelli, the governor of
Buenos Ayres, sent an expedition which drove the English from the islands in the early part of 1770. It
is a remarkable fact, as already mentioned, that Lord Chatham predicted this event at the close of the
preceding Parliament, during the very month in which the Spanish fleet arrived at the Falkland Islands.
"I do now pledge myself," said he, "to this honorable House for the truth of what I am going to assert,
that, at this very hour that we are sitting together, a blow of hostility has been struck against us by our
old inveterate enemies in some quarter of the world."
When the intelligence of this seizure reached England, the whole nation was fired at the indignity offered to the British flag, and in every quarter the utmost eagerness was manifested to vindicate the national honor. Lord Chatham, who had always cherished a strong antipathy and contempt for the Spaniards, shared largely in these feelings. Accordingly, when the Duke of Richmond moved for papers on
this subject, he made the following speech, in which he first considers the outrage committed by Spain,
and then expatiates on the want of spirit exhibited by the ministry, their neglect of naval and military
preparations, the depressed condition of the country, and some of the causes which had led to this result.
SPEECH, &o.'
MY LoRDS,-I rise to give my hearty assent to the motion made by the noble Duke.  By his.
lo Divide and rule.                           Grace's favor I have been permitted to see it,' This speech is understood to have been report- before it was offered to the House.  I have fully
ed by Sir Philip Francis.                       considered the necessity of obtaining from  the




1770.]                          RELATIONS TO SPAIN.                                      119
King's servants a communication of the papers has denied, I still affirm that it was the word he
described in the motion, and I am  persuaded  made use of; but if he had used any other, I am
that the alarming state of facts, as well as the  sure every noble Lord will agree with me, that
strength of reasoning with which the noble Duke his meaning was exactly what I have expressed
has urged and enforced that necessity, must have it.  Whether he said course or train is indifferbeen powerfully felt by your Lordships.  What ent.  He told your Lordships that the negotiaI mean to say upon this occasion may seem, per- tion was in a way that promised a happy and
haps, to extend beyond the limits of the motion  honorable conclusion. His distinctions are mean,
before us.  But I flatter myself, my Lords, that frivolous, and puerile.  My Lords, I do not unif I am honored with your attention, it will ap- derstand the exalted tone assumed by that noble
pear that the meaning and object of this question  Lord. In the distress and weakness of this counare naturally connected with considerations of try, my Lords, and conscious as the ministry
the most extensive national importance.  For ought to be how much they have contributed to
entering into such considerations, no season is that distress and weakness, I think a tone of
improper, no occasion should be neglected. modesty, of submission, of humility, would beSomething must be done, my Lords, and imme- come them better; " quedam cause modestiam
diately, to save an injured, insulted, undone desiderant."2  Before this country they stand as
country; if not to save the state, my Lords, at the greatest criminals.  Such I shall prove them
least to mark out and drag to public justice those to be; for I do not doubt of proving, to your
servants of the Crown, by whose ignorance, neg- Lordships' satisfaction, that since they have been
lect, or treachery this once great, flourishing  intrusted with the King's affairs, they have done
people are reduced to a condition as deplorable  every thing that they ought not to have done, and
at home as it is despicable abroad.  Examples hardly any thing that they ought to have done.
are wanted, my Lords, and should be given to    The noble Lord talks of Spanish punctilios in
the world, for the instruction of future times, the lofty style and idiom of a Spaniard.  We are
even though they be useless to ourselves.  I do to be wonderfully tender of the Spanish point of
not mean, my Lords, nor is it intended by the honor, as if they had been the complainants, as
motion, to impede or embarrass a negotiation  if they had received the injury.  I think he
which we have been told is now in a prosperous would have done better to have told us what
train, and promises a happy conclusion.       care had been taken of the English honor. My
[Lord Weymouth.-I beg pardon for inter- Lords, I am well acquainted with the character
rupting the noble Lord; but I think it necessary  of that nation-at least as far as it is representto remark to your Lordships that I have not said  ed by their court and ministry, and should think
a single word tending to convey to your Lord- this country dishonored by a comparison-of the
ships any information or opinion with regard to  English good faith with the punctilios of a Spanthe state or progress of the negotiation.  I did, iard.  My Lords, the English are a candid, an
with the utmost caution, avoid giving to your ingenuous people.  The Spaniards are as mean
Lordships the least intimation upon that matter.] and crafty as they are proud and insolent. The
I perfectly agree with the noble Lord. I did integrity of the English merchant, the generous
nrot mean to refer to any thing said by his Lord- spirit of our naval and military officers, would
ship. He expressed himself, as he always does, be degraded by a comparison with their merwith moderation and reserve, and with the great- chants or officers.  With their ministers I have
est propriety.  It was another noble Lord, very  often been obliged to negotiate, and never met
high in office, who told us he understood that with an instance of candor or dignity in their
the negotiation was in a favorable train.     proceedings; nothing but low  cunning, trick,
[Earl of Hillsborough.-I did not make use and artifice.  After a long experience of their
of the word train.  I know the meaning of the want of candor and good faith, I found myself
word too well.  In the language from which it compelled to talk to them in a peremptory, dewas derived, it signifies protraction and delay, cisive language.  On this principle I submitted
which I could never mean to apply to the pres- my advice to a trembling council for an immeent negotiation.]                             diate declaration of a war with Spain.3  Your
This is the second time that I have been in- Lordships well know what were the consequenterrupted.  I submit to your Lordships whether ces of not following that advice.  Since, howthis be fair and candid treatment.  I am sure it ever, for reasons unknown to me, it has been
is contrary to the orders of the House, and a thought advisable to negotiate with the court of
gross violation of decency and politeness.  I Spain, I should have conceived that the great
listen to every noble Lord in this House with  and single object of such a negotiation would
attention and respect.  The noble Lord's design  have been, to obtain complete satisfaction for
in interiupting me is as mean and unworthy as the injury done to the crown and people of Enthe manneu in which he has done it is irregular gland.  But, if I understand the noble Lord, the
and disorderly. He flatters himselfthatbybreak- only object of the present negotiation is to find
ing the thread of my discourse, he shall confuse  a salvo for the punctilious honor of the Spanme in my argument.  But, my Lords, I will not iards.  The absurdity of such an idea is of itsubmit to this treatment.  I will not be inter-    -    .
rupted.  When I have concluded, let him an-            2 Some causes call for modesty.
swer me, if he can.  As to the word which he            3 In 1761. See p. 63.




120                             LORD CHATHAM  ON THE                                     [1770.
self insupportable.  But, my Lords, I object to  country ever produced (it is hardly necessary to
our negotiating at all, in our present circum- mention the name of Sir Walter Raleigh), sacristances.  We are not in that situation in which  ficed by the meanest prince that ever sat upon the
a great and powerful nation is permitted to ne- throne, to the vindictive jealousy of that haughtj
gotiate.  A foreign power has forcibly robbed  court.  James the First was base enough, at
his Majesty of a part of his dominions.  Is the  the instance of Gondomar, to suffer a sentence
island restored?  Are you replaced in statu quo? against Sir Walter Raleigh, for another supposed
If' that had been done, it might then, perhaps, offense, to be carried into execution almost twelve
have been justifiable to treat with the aggressor years after it had been passed.  This was the
ilpon the satisfaction he ought to make for the  pretense.  His real crime was, that he had morinsult offered to the Crown of England.  But tally offended the Spaniards, while he acted by
will you descend so low?  Will you so shame- the King's express orders, and under his comfully betray the King's honor, as to make it mat- mission.
ter of negotiation whether his Majesty's posses-    My Lords, the pretended disavowal by the
sions shall be restored to him or not?          court of Spain is as ridiculous as it is false.  If
I doubt not, my Lords, that there are some  your Lordships want any other proof, call for
important mysteries in the conduct of this affair, your own officers who were stationed at Falkwhich, whenever they are explained, will ac- land Island.  Ask the officer who commanded
count for the profound silence now observed by  the garrison, whether, when he was summoned
the King's servants.  The time will come, my  to surrender, the demand was made in the name
Lords, when they shall be dragged from their of the Governor of Buenos Ayres or of his Cathconcealments. There are some questions which, olic Majesty?  Was the island said to belong
sooner or later, must be answered.  The minis- to Don Francisco Buccarelli or to the King of
try, I find, without declaring themselves explic- Spain?  If I am not mistaken, we have been in
itly, have taken pains to possess the public with  possession of these islands since the year 1764
an opinion, that the Spanish court have con- or 1765.  Will the ministry assert, that, in all
stantly disavowed the proceedings of their gov- that time, the Spanish court have never once
ernor; and some persons, I see, have been shame- claimed them?  That their right to them  has
less and daring enough to advise his Majesty to  never been urged, or mentioned to our ministry?
support and countenance this opinion in his speech  If it has, the act of the Governor of Buenos
from  the throne.  Certainly, my Lords, there  Ayres is plainly the consequence of our refusal
never was a more odious, a more infamous false- to acknowledge and submit to the Spanish claims.
hood imposed on a great nation.  It degrades For five years they negotiate; when that fails,
the King's honor.  It is an insult to Parliament.  they take the island by force.  If that measure
His Majesty has been advised to confirm  and  had arisen out of the general instructions congive currency to an absolute falsehood.  I beg  stantly given to the Governor of Buenos Ayres,
your Lordship's attention, and I hope I shall be  why should the execution of it have been deferunderstood, when I repeat, that the court of red so long?
Spain's having disavowed the act of their gov-    My Lords, if the falsehood of this pretended
ernor is an absolute, apalpable falsehood.4  Let disavowal had been confined to the court of
me ask, my Lords, when the first communica- Spain, I should have admitted it without contion was made by the court of Madrid of their cern.  I should have been content that they
being apprised of the taking of Falkland's Isl- themselves had left a door open for excuse and
and, was it accompanied with an offer of instant accommodation.  The King of England's honor
restitution, of immediate satisfaction, and the  is not touched till he adopts the falsehood, delivpunishment of the Spanish governor?  If it was  ers it to his Parliament, and adopts it as his own.
not, they have adopted the act as their own, and    I can not quit this subject without comparing
the very mention of a disavowal is an impudent the conduct of the present ministry with that of
insult offered to the King's dignity.  The King  a gentleman [Mr. George Grenville] who is now
of Spain disowns the thief, while he leaves him  no more.  The occasions were similar.  The
unpunished, and profits by the theft.  In vulgar  French had taken a little island from us [in 1764]
English, he is the receiver of stolen goods, and  called Turk's Island.  The minister then at the
ought to be treated accordingly.                head of the treasury [Mr. Grenville] took the
If your Lordships will look back to a period  business upon himself.  But he did not negoof the English history in which the circumstan-  tiate.  He sent for the French embassador and
ces are reversed, in which the Spaniards were  made a peremptory demand.  A courier was
the complainants, you will see how  differently  dispatched to Paris, and returned in a few days,
they succeeded.  You will see one of the ablest with orders for instant restitution, not only of
men, one of the bravest officers this or any other the island, but of every thing that the English
subjects had lost.5
4 History confirms this statement. Adolphus says                    ds ae the
that when Lord Weymouth inquired "whether Gri-    Such, thds, are the c
maldi had instructions to disavow the conduct of    5 A similar measure of spirit was adopted by the
Buccarelli, he received an answer in the negative."  same minister with the Spaniards, who had driven
-Vol. i., p. 431. It was not until January 22d, 1771, our settlers from Honduras, to whom fourteen days
nearly three months after, that the disavowal was had been allowed; upon which, all was instantly
made. See Adolphus, i.. 435.                    and amicably adjusted.




1770.]                           RELATIONS TO  SPAIN.                                      121
of our difference with Spain; and in this situa- Spain. My Lords, I disclaim such counsels, and
tion, we are told that a negotiation has been  I beg that this declaration may be remembered.
entered into; that this negotiation, which must Let us have peace, my Lords, but let it be honhave commenced near three months ago, is still orable, let it be secure.  A patched-up peace
depending, and that any insight into the actual will not do.  It will not satisfy the nation,
state of it will impede the conclusion. My Lords, though it may be approved of by Parliament.
I am not, for my own part, very anxious to draw  I distinguish widely between a solid peace, and
from  the ministry the information which they  the disgraceful expedients by which a war may
take so much care to conceal from us.  I very  be deferred, but can not be avoided.  I am as
well know where this honorable negotiation will tender of the effusion of human blood as the noend-where it must end.  We may, perhaps, be ble Lord who dwelt so long upon the miseries of
able to patch up an accommodation for the pres- war. If the bloody politics of some noble Loids
ent, but we shall have a Spanish war in six  had been followed, England, and every quarter
months.  Some of your Lordships may, perhaps, of his Majesty's dominions would have been glutremember the Convention. For several success- ted with blood-the blood of our own countryive years our merchants had been plundered; lio  men.
protection given them; no redress obtained for    My Lords, I have better reasons, perhaps, than
them.  During all that time we were contented  many of your Lordships for desiring peace upon
to complain and to negotiate.  The court of  the terms I have described. I know thestrength
Madrid were then as ready to disown their offi- and preparation of the house of Bourbon; I know
cers, and as unwilling to punish them, as they  the defenseless, unprepared condition of this
are at present.  Whatever violence happened  country.  I know not by what mismanagement
was always laid to the charge of one or other we are reduced to this situation; but when 1
of their West India governors. To-day it was consider who are the men by whom a war, in
the Governor of Cuba, to-morrow of Porto Rico, the outset at least, must be conducted, can I but
Carthagena, or Porto Bello.  If in a particular wish for peace?  Let them  not screen theminstance redress was promised, how was that selves behind the want of intelligence.  They
promise kept?  The merchant who had been  had intelligence: I know they had.  If they had
robbed of his property was sent to the West In- not, they are criminal, and their excuse is their
dies, to get it, if he could, out of an empty chest. crime. But I will tell these young ministers the
At last, the Convention was made; but, though  true source of intelligence. It is sagacity. Saapproved by a majority of both houses, it was gacity to compare causes and effects; to judge
received by the nation with universal discontent. of the present state of things, and discern the
I myself heard that wise man [Sir Robert Wal- future by a careful review of the past.  Oliver
pole] say in the House of Commons, "'Tis true  Cromwell, who astonished mankind by his intelwe have got a Convention and a vote of Parlia- ligence, did not derive it from spies in the cabiment; but what signifies it?  We shall have a  net of every prince in Europe: he drew it from
Spanish war upon the back of our Convention."  the cabinet of his own sagacious mind. He obHere, my Lords, I can not help mentioning a  served facts, and traced them  forward to their
very striking observation made to me by a noble  consequences.  From what was, he concluded
Lord [Granville], since dead.  His abilities did  what must be, and he never was deceived.  In
honor to this House and to this nation.  In the  the present situation of affairs, I think it would
upper departments of government he had not his be treachery to the nation to conceal from them
equal; and I feel a pride in declaring, that to his their real circumstances, and, with respect to a
patronage, his friendship, and instruction, I owe  foreign enemy, I know that all concealments are
whatever I am. This great man has often observ- vain and useless.  They are as well acquainted
ed to me, that, in all the negotiations which pre- with the actual force and weakness of this counceded the Convention, our ministers never found  try as any of the King's servants.  This is no
out that there was no ground or subject for any  time for silence or reserve.  I charge the minnegotiation.  That the Spaniards had not a right isters with the highest crimes that men in their
to search our ships, and when they attempted to  stations can be guilty of.  I charge them with
regulate that right by treaty, they were  egu- having destroyed all content and unanimity at
lating a thing which did not exist.  This I take  home by a series of oppressive, unconstitutional
to be something like the case of the ministry. measures; and with having betrayed and delivThe Spaniards have seized an island they have  ered up the nation defenseless to a foreign ena
no right to; and his Majesty's servants make it emy.
a matter of negotiation, whether his dominions    Their utmost vigor has reached no farther
shall be restored to him or not.               than to a fruitless, protracted negotiation. When
From what I have said, my Lords, I do not they should have acted, they have contented
doubt but it will be understood by many Lords, themselves with talking " about it, goddess, and
and given out to the public, t' t:>-an for hurry- about it."  If we do not stand forth, and do our
ing the nation, at all events, iih;-c 2war with  duty in the present crisis, the nation is irretriev~ ~ ~~~-  ~ ~ _______ ably undone.  I despise the little policy of con6 The Convention here referred to was the one  cealments.  You ought to know the whole of
made by Sir Robert Walpole in 1739, which Lord  your situation. If the information be new to the
Chatham at the time so strenuously resisted.    ministry, let them take care to profit by it.  I




122                             LORD CHATHAM  ON'THE                                  [1770
mean to rouse, to alarm the whole nation; to  teen thousand men.  Add to these the number
rouse the ministry, if possible, who seem  to  newly raised, and you have about twenty-five
awake to nothing but the preservation of their thousand men to man your fleet.  I shall come
places-to awaken the King.                    presently to the application of this force, such
Early in the last spring, a motion was made  as it is, and compare it with the services which
in Parliament for inquiring into the state of the I know are indispensable.  But first, my Lords,
navy, and an augmentation of six thousand sea- let us have done with the boasted vigor of the
men was offered to the ministry.  They refused  ministry. Let us hear no more of their activity.
to give us any insight into the condition of the  If your Lordships will recall to your minds the
navy, and rejected the augmentation.  Early in  state of this country when Mahon was taken,
June they received advice of a commencement and compare what was done by government at
of hostilities by a Spanish armament, which had  that time with the efforts now made in very
warned the King's garrison to quit an island be- similar circumstances, you will be able to delonging to his Majesty.  From that to the 12th  termine what praise is due to the vigorous operof September, as if nothing had happened, they  ations of the present ministry.  Upon the first
lay dormant. Not a man was raised, not a sin- intelligence of the invasion of Minorca, a great
gle ship was put into commission.  From the fleet was equipped and sent out, and near double
12th of September, when they heard of the first the number of seamen collected in half the time
blow being actually struck, we are to date the taken to fit out the present force, which, pitiful
beginning of their preparations for defense. Let as it is, is not yet, if the occasion was ever so
us now inquire, my Lords, what expedition they  pressing, in a condition to go to sea.  Consult
have used, what vigor they have exerted.  We the returns which were laid before Parliament
have heard wonders of the diligence employed  in the year 1756. I was one of those who urged
in impressing, of the large bounties offered, and  a parliamentary inquiry into the conduct of the
the number of ships put into commission. These  ministry. That ministry, my Lords, in the midst
have been, for some time past, the constant top- of universal censure and reproach, had honor and
ics of ministerial boast and triumph.  Without virtue enough to promote the inquiry themselves.
regarding the description, let us look to the sub- They scorned to evade it by the mean expedient
stance. I tell your Lordships that, with all this of putting a previous question. Upon the strictvigor and expedition, they have not, in a period  est inquiry, it appeared that the diligence they
of considerably more than two months, raised  had used in sending a squadron to the Mediterten thousand seamen.  I mention that number, ranean, and in their other naval preparations,
meaning to speak largely, though in my own  was beyond all example.
breast I am convinced that the number does not    My Lords, the subject on which I am speakexceed eight thousand. But it is said they have  ing seems to call upon me, and I willingly take
ordered forty ships of the line into commission. this occasion, to declare my opinion upon a quesMy Lords, upon this subject I can speak with  tion on which much wicked pains have been
knowledge.  I have been conversant in these  employed to disturb the minds of the people and
matters, and draw my information from the great- to distress government. My opinion may not be
est and most respectable naval authority that very popular; neither am I running the race of
ever existed in this country-I mean the late popularity. I am myself clearly convinced, and
Lord Anson. The merits of that great man are  I believe every man who knows any thing of the
not so universally known, nor his memory so  English navy will acknowledge, that without
warmly respected as he deserved. To his wis- impressing, it is impossible to equip a respectdom, to his experience and care (and I speak it able fleet within the time in which such armawith pleasure), the nation owes the glorious na- ments are usually wanted.  If this fact be adval successes of the last war. The state of facts mitted, and if the necessity of arming upon a
laid before Parliament in the year 1756, so en- sudden emergency should appear incontrovertitirely convinced me of the injustice done to his ble, what shall we think of those men who, in
character, that in spite of the popular clamors the moment of danger, would stop the great deraised against him, in direct opposition to the  fense of their country?  Upon whatever princicomplaints of the merchants, and of the whole  pie they may act, the act itself is more than faccity (whose favor I am supposed to court upon  tion-it is laboring to cut off the right hand of
all occasions), I replaced him at the head of the  the community.  I wholly condemn their conAdmiralty, and I thank God that I had resolution  duct, and am ready to support any motion that
enough to do so. Instructed by this great sea- may be made for bringing those aldermen, who
man, I do affirm, that forty ships of the line, with  have endeavored to stop the execution of the Adtheir necessary attendant frigates, to be properly  miralty warrants, to the bar of this House. My
manned, require forty thousand seamen. If your Lords, I do not rest my opinion merely upon neLordships are surprised at this assertion, you  cessity.  I am satisfied that the power of im.
will be more so when I assure you, that in the pressing is founiled upon uninterrupted usage.
last war, this country maintained eighty-five It is the ".,.-ieudo regni" [the custom of the
thousand seamen, and employed them all.       realm], and part of the common law prerogative
Now, my Lords, the peace establishment of of the Crown.  When I condemn the proceedyour navy, supposing it complete and effective  ings of some persons upon this occasion, let me
(which, by-the-by, ought to be known), is six- do justice to a man whose character and conduct




1770.]                            RELATIONS TO  SPAIN.                                       123
have been most infamously traduced; I mean  ice shall accept of the command and stake his
the late Lord Mayor, Mr. Treacothick.  In the  reputation upon it.  We have one ship of the
midst of reproach and clamor, he had firmness line at Jamaica, one at the Leeward Islands, and
enough to persevere in doing his duty. I do not one at Gibraltar!  Yet at this very moment, for
know in office a more upright magistrate, nor, aught that the ministry know, both Jamaica and
in private life, a worthier man.                 Gibraltar may be attacked; and if they are atPermit me now, my Lords, to state to your tacked (which God forbid), they must fall. NothLordships the extent and variety of the service  ing can prevent it but the appearance of a supewhich must be provided for, and to compare  rior squadron.  It is true that, some two months
them with our apparent resources.  A due at- ago, four ships of the line were ordered from
tention to, and provision for these services, is Portsmouth and one from Plymouth, to carry a
prudence in time of peace; in war it is necessity. relief from Ireland to Gibraltar.  These ships,
Preventive policy, my Lords, which obviates or my Lords, a week ago were still in port.  If,
avoids the injury, is far preferable to that vin- upon their arrival at Gibraltar, they should find
dictive policy which aims at reparation, or has the bay possessed by a superior squadron, the
no object but revenge.  The precaution that relief can not be landed; and if it could be landmeets the disorder is cheap and easy; the rem- ed, of what force do your Lordships think it conedy which follows it, bloody and expensive. The sists?   Two regiments, of four hundred men
first great and acknowledged object of national each, at a time like this, are sent to secure a
defense in this country is to maintain such a su- place of such importance as Gibraltar! a place
perior naval force at home, that even the united  which it is universally agreed can not hold out
fleets of France and Spain may never be masters  against a vigorous attack from the sea, if once
of the Channel.  If that should ever happen, the enemy should be so far masters of the bay
what is there to hinder their landing in Ireland, as to make a good landing even with a moderate
or even upon our own coast?  They have often  force.  The indispensable service of the lines
made the attempt.  In King William's time it requires at least four thousand men.  The pressucceeded.  King James embarked on board a  ent garrison consists of about two thousand three
French fleet, and landed with a French army in  hundred; so that if the relief should be fortuIreland.  In the mean time the French were  nate enough to get on shore, they will want eight
masters of the Channel, and continued so until hundred men of their necessary complement.
their fleet was destroyed by Admiral Russel.    Let us now, my Lords, turn our eyes homeAs to the probable consequences of a foreign  ward.  When the defense of Great Britain or
army landing in Great Britain or Ireland, I shall Ireland is in question, it is no longer a point of
offer your Lordships my opinion when I speak  honor; it is not the security of foreign comof the actual condition of our standing army.    merce or foreign possessions; we are to conThe second naval object with an English min- tend for the being of the state.  I have good
ister should be to maintain at all times a power- authority to assure your Lordships that the
ful Western squadron.  In the profoundest peace  Spaniards have now a fleet at Ferrol, completeit should be respectable; in war it should be  ly manned and ready to sail, which we are in
formidable.  Without it, the colonies, the com- no condition to meet.  We could not this day
merce, the navigation of Great Britain, lie at send out eleven ships of the line properly equipthe mercy of the house of Bourbon.  While I ped, and to-morrow the enemy may be masters
had the honor of acting with Lord Anson, that of the Channel.  It is unnecessary to press the
able officer never ceased to inculcate upon the  consequences of these facts upon your Lordminds of his Majesty's servants, the necessity of  ships' minds.  If the enemy were to land in full
constantly maintaining a strong Western squad- force, either upon this coast or in Ireland, where
ron; and I must vouch for him, that while he  is your army?  Where is your defense?  My
was at the head of the marine, it was never neg- Lords, if the house of Bourbon make a wise and
lected.                                         vigorous use of the actual advantages they have
The third object indispensable, as I conceive, over us, it is more than probable that on this day
in the distribution of our navy, is to maintain  month we may not be a nation.  What military
such a force in the Bay of Gibraltar as may be  force can the ministry show to answer any sudsufficient to cover that garrison, to watch the  den demand?  I do not speak of foreign expemotions of the Spaniards, and to keep open the  ditions or offensive operations; I speak of the
communication with Minorca.  The ministry  interior defense of Ireland and of this country.
will not betray such a want of information as to  You have a nominal army of seventy battalions,
dispute the truth of any of these propositions. besides guards and cavalry.  But what is the
But how will your Lordships be astonished when  establishment of these battalions?  Supposing
I inform you in what manner they have provided  they were complete in the numbers allowed,
for these great, these essential objects?  As to  which  I know  they are not, each regiment
the first-I mean the defense of the Channel-   would consist of something less than four hunI take upon myself to affirm to your Lordships, dred men, rank and file.  Are these battalions
that, at this hour (and I beg that the date may  complete?  Have any orders been given for an
be taken down and observed), we can not send  augmentation, or do the ministry mean to conout eleven ships of the line so manned and equip- tinue them upon their present low establishment?
ped, that any officer of rank and credit in the serv- When America, the West Indies, Gibraltar, and




124                             LORD CHATHAM  ON THE                                      [1770.
Minorca, are taken care of, consider, my Lords, ment, we have an internal strength sufficient to
what part of this army will remain to defend  repel any foreign invasion.  With respect to IreIreland and Great Britain?  This subject, my  land, my Lords, I am  not of the same opinion.
Lords, leads me to considerations of foreign  If a powerful foreign army were landed in that
policy and foreign alliance.  It is more connect- kingdom, with arms ready to be put into the
ed with them than your Lordships may at first hands of the Roman Catholics, I declare freely
imagine.  When I compare the numbers of our to your Lordships that I should heartily wish it
people, estimated highly at seven millions, with  were possible to collect twenty thousand German
the population of France and Spain, usually con- Protestants, whether from Hesse, or Brunswick,
puted at twenty-five millions, I see a clear, self- or Wolfenbuttle, or even the unpopular Hanoevident impossibility for this country to contend  verians, and land them in Ireland.  I wish it, my
with the united power of the house of Bourbon  Lords, because I am  convinced that, whenever
merely upon the strength of its own resources. the case happens, we shall have no English army
They who talk of confining a great war to naval to spare.
operations only, speak without knowledge or ex-    I have taken a wide circuit, my Lords, and
perience.  We can no more command the dis- trespassed, I fear, too long upon your Lordships:
position than the events of a war.  Wherever patience.  Yet I can not conclude without enwe are attacked, there we must defend.           deavoring to bring home your thoughts to an
I have been much abused, my Lords, for sup- object more immediately interesting to us than
porting a war which it has been the fashion to  any I have yet considered; I mean the internal
call mny German war.  But I can affirm with a  condition of this country.  We may look abroad
clear conscience, that that abuse has been thrown  for wealth, or triumphs, or luxury; but England,
on me by men who were either unacquainted with  my Lords, is the main stay, the last resort of the
facts, or had an interest in misrepresenting them. whole empire.  To this point every scheme of
I shall speak plainly and frankly to your Lord- policy, whether foreign or domestic, should ultiships upon this, as I do upon every occasion. mately refer.  Have any measures been taken
That I did in Parliament oppose, to the utmost to satisfy or to unite the people?  Are the grievof my power, our engaging in a German war: is ances they have so long complained of removed?
most true; and if the same circumstance were  or do they stand not only unredressed, but agto recur, I would act the same part, and oppose  gravated?  Is the right of free election restored
it again.  But when I was called upon to take a  to the elective body?  My Lords, I myself am
share in the administration, that measure was one of the people.  I esteem that security and
already decided.  Before I was appointed Sec- independence, which is the original birthright of
retary of State, the first treaty with the King of  an Englishman, far beyond the privileges, howPrussia was signed, and not only ratified by the  ever splendid, which are annexed to the peerCrown, but approved of and confirmed by a reso- age. I myself am by birth an English elector,
lution of both houses of Parliament.' It was a  and join with the fieeholders of England as in a
weight fastened upon my neck.  By that treaty  common cause.  Believe me, my Lords, we misthe honor of the Crown and the honor of the na- take our real interest as much as our duty when
tion were equally engaged.  How  I could re- we separate ourselves from the mass of the peocede from  such an engagement-how I could  ple.  Can it be expected that Englishmen will
advise the Crown to desert a great prince in  unite heartily in the defense of a government by
the midst of those difficulties in which a reliance  which they feel themselves insulted and oppressupon the good faith of this country had contrib- ed?  Restore them to their rights; that is the
uted to involve him, are questions I willingly  true way to make them unanimous.  It is not a
submit to your Lordships' candor.  That won- ceremonious recommendation from the Throne
derful man might, perhaps, have extricated him- that can bring back peace and harmony to a
self from his difficulties without our assistance. discontented people.  That insipid annual opiate
He has talents which, in every thing that touches  has been administered so long that it has lost its
the human capacity, do honor to the human mind. effect.  Something substantial, something effectBut how would England have supported that rep- ual must be done.
utation of credit and good faith by which we have    The public credit of the nation stands next in
been distinguished in Europe?  What other for- degree to the rights of the Constitution; it calls
eign power would have sought our friendship? loudly for the interposition of Parliament. There
What other foreign power would have accepted  is a set of men, my Lords, in the city of London,
of an' alliance with us?                        who are known to live in riot and luxury upon
But, my Lords, though I wholly condemn our the plunder of the ignorant, the innocent, the
entering into any engagements which tend to in- helpless-upon that part of the community which
volve us in a continental war, I do not admit that stands most in need of, and best deserves the care
alliances with some of the German princes are  and protection of the Legislature.  To me, my
either detrimental or useless.  They may be, my  Lords, whether they be miserable jobbers of
Lords, not only useful, but necessary.  I hope,'Change Alley, or the lofty Asiatic plunderers of
indeed, I never shall see an army of foreign aux- Leadenhall Street, they are all equally detestailiaries in Great Britain; we do not want it.  If  ble.  I care but little whether a man walks on
our people are united-if they are attached to  foot, or is drawn by eight horses or six horses;
the King, and place confidence in his govern- if his luxury is supported by the plunder of his




1770.]                           RELATIONS TO SPAIN.                                       12?,
country, I despise and detest him.  My Lords,    When I speak of an administration, such as
while I had the honor of serving his Majesty, I the necessity of the season calls for, my views
never ventured to look at the treasury but at a  are large and comprehensive.  It must be popu.
distance; it is a business I am unfit for, and to  lar, that it may begin with reputation.  It must
which I never could have submitted.  The little  be strong within itself, that it may proceed with
I know of it has not served to raise my opinion  vigor and decision.  An administration, formed
of what is vulgarly called the moneyed interest; upon an exclusive system of family connections
I mean that blood-sucker, that muck-worm, which  or private friendships, can not, I am convinced,
calls itself the friend of government-that pre- be long supported in this country.  Yet, m3
tends to serve this or that administration, and  Lords, no man respects or values more than I do
may be purchased, on the same terms, by any  that honorable connection,. which arises from a
administration-that advances money to govern- disinterested concurrence in opinion upon public
ment, and takes special care of its own emolu- measures, or from  the sacred bond of private
ments. Under this description I include the whole  friendship and esteem.  What I mean is, that no
race of commissaries, jobbers, contractors, cloth- single man's private friendships or connections,
iers, and remitters.  Yet I do not deny that, however extensive, are sufficient of themselves
even with these creatures, some management either to form  or overturn an administration.
may be necessary.  I hope, my Lords, that noth- With respect to the ministry, I believe they have
ing that I have said will be understood to extend  fewer rivals than they imagine.  No prudent
to the honest and industrious tradesman, who man will covet a situation so beset with diffi.
holds the middle rank, and has given repeated  culty and danger.
proofs'that he prefers law and liberty to gold.  I    I shall trouble your Lordships with but a few'
love that class of men.  Much less would I be words more.  His Majesty tells us in his speech
thought to reflect upon the fair merchant, whose  that he will call upon us for our.advice, if il
liberal commerce is the prime source of national should be necessary in the farther progress of
wealth.  I esteem  his occupation and respect this affair.  It is not easy to say whether or no
his character.                                 the ministry are serious in this declaration, nor
My Lords, if the general representation, which  what is meant by the progress of an affair which
I have had the honor to lay before you, of the  rests upon one fixed point.  Hitherto we havw
situation of public affairs, has in any measure  not been called upon.  But, though we are no'
engaged your attention, your Lordships, I am  consulted, it is our right and duty, as the King'
sure, will agree with me, that the season calls great hereditary council, to offer him our advice
for more than common prudence and vigor in the  The papers mentioned in the noble Duke's mo
direction of our councils.  The difficulty of the  tion will enable us to form a just and accurate
crisis demands a wise, a firm, and a popular ad- opinion of the conduct of his Majesty's servants,
ministration.  The dishonorable traffic of places though not of the actual state of their honorable
has engaged us too long.  Upon this subject, my  negotiations.  The ministry, too, seem to want
Lords, I speak without interest or enmity.  I advice upon some points in which their own safehave no personal objection to any of the King's ty is immediately concerned.  They are now
servants.  I shall never be minister; certainly  balancing between a war which they ought to
not without full power to cut away all the rotten  have foreseen, but for which they have made no
branches of government.  Yet, unconcerned as I provision, and an ignominious compromise.  Let
truly am for myself, I can not avoid seeing some  me warn them  of their danger.  If they are
capital errors in the distribution of the royal fa- forced into a war, they stand it at the hazard of
vor.  There are men, my Lords, who, if their their heads.  If by an ignominious compromise
own services were forgotten, ought to have an  they should stain the honor of the Crown, or sachereditary merit with the house of Hanover; rifice the rights of the people, let them look to
whose ancestors stood forth in the day of trouble, the consequences, and consider whether they will
opposed their persons and fortunes to treachery  be able to walk'the streets in safety.
and rebellion, and secured to his Majesty's family this splendid power of rewarding.  There    The Duke of Richmond's motion was negaare other men, my Lords [looking sternly at Lord  tived by a vote of 65 to 21.  The ministry, howMansfield], who, to speak tenderly of them, were  ever, took from this time more decided ground,
not quite so forward in the demonstrations of  and demanded a restoration of the islands, and a
their zeal to the reigning family. There was an- disavowal of their seizure, as the only course on
other cause, my Lords, and a partiality to it, the part of Spain which could prevent immediate
which some persons had not at all times discre- war.  It is now known that the Spanish court,
tion enough to conceal.  I know I shall be ac- in adopting these measures, had acted in concert
cused of attempting to revive distinctions.  My  with the court of France, and had reason to exLords, if it were possible, I would abolish all dis- pect her support, whatever might be the consetinctions.  I would not wish the favors of the  quences.  Had this support been afforded, the
Crown to flow invariably in one channel.  But war predicted by Lord Chatham would inevitathere are some distinctions which are inherent bly have taken place.  But the King of France
in the nature of things.  There is a distinction  found himself involved in great pecuniary diffibetween right and wrong —between WHIu  and  culties, and could not be induced to enter into
TORY.                                           the war.  The Spaniards were therefore com



126                             LORD  CHATHAM  ON THE                                     [1774.
pelled to yield.  They disavowed the seizure  were abandoned by the English; and it is now
and restored the islands, on condition that this  understood that Lord North secretly agreed to
restoration should not affect any claim of right  do this, when the arrangement was made for the
an the part of Spain.  Three years after, they  restoration of the islands by the Spanish.
SPEECH
OF LORD CHATHAM ON THE BILL AUTHORIZING THE QUARTERING OF BRITISH SOLDIERS ON
THE INHABITANTS OF BOSTON, DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS, MAY 27, 1774.
INTRODUCTION.
THE health of Lord Chatham had for some time prevented him from taking any active part in public
affairs. During two years he had rarely made his appearance in the House of Lords, and nothing but the
rash and headlong measures of Lord North in regard to America, could have drawn him again from his
retirement.
In speaking of those measures, it may be proper briefly to remind the reader of some of the preceding
events. When Charles Townsend was left at the head of affairs, by Lord Chatham's unfortunate illness
during the winter of 1766-7, he was continually goaded by Mr. Grenville on the subject of American taxation.1  " You are cowards! You are afraid of the Americans. You dare not tax America!"  The rash
spirit of Townsend was roused by these attacks. "Fear?" said he. "Cowards? Dare not tax America? I dare tax America "  Grenville stood silent for a moment, and then said, "Dare you tax America? I wish to God you would do it."  Townsend replied, "I will, I will."  This hasty declaration could
not be evaded or withdrawn, and in June, 1767, Townsend brought in a bill imposing duties on glass, paper, pasteboard, white and red lead, painters' colors, and tea, imported into the colonies. The preamble
declared that it was " expedient to raise a revenue in America." A spirit of decided resistance to these
taxes was at once manifested throughout all the colonies, and Lord North, on coming into power about
two years after, introduced a bill repealing all the duties imposed by the act of 1767, except that on tea.
But this was unsatisfactory, for it put the repeal on "commercial grounds" alone, and expressly reserved
the right of taxation. At the close of 1773, the East India Company, encouraged by the ministry, sent
large quantities of tea to Boston and some other American ports. The people resolved that the tea should
not be landed, but should be sent back to England in the ships that brought it. As this was forbidden by
the Custom-house, all the tea on board the ships lying in Boston harbor was thrown into the water by men
disguised as Indians, on the evening of December 18th, 1773. This daring act awakened the keenest resentment of the British ministry. In March, 1774, laws were passed depriving Massachusetts of her charter, closing the port of Boston, and allowing persons charged with capital offenses to be carried to England for trial. As a means of farther enforcement, a bill was introduced in the month of May, 1774, for
quartering troops on the inhabitants of the town of Boston, and other parts of the American colonies.
This state of things gave rise to a number of Lord Chatham's most celebrated speeches, of which the following was the first in order.
SPEECH, &c.
MY LoRDs,-The unfavorable state of health  my Lords, if the descendants of such illustrious
under which I have long labored, could not pre- characters spurn with contempt the hand of unvent me from laying before your Lordships my  constitutional power, that would snatch from
thoughts on the bill now upon the table, and on  them  such dear-bought privileges as they now
the American affairs in general.                 contend for?  Had the British colonies been
If we take a transient view of those motives  planted by any other kingdom than our own, the
which induced the ancestors of our fellow-sub-  inhabitants would have carried with them  the
jects in America to leave their native country, chains of slavery and spirit of despotism; but
to encounter the innumerable difficulties of the  as they are, they ought to be remembered as
unexplored regions of the Western World, our great instances to instruct the world what great
astonishment at the present conduct of their de- exertions mankind will naturally make, when
scendants will naturally subside.  There was no  they are left to the free exercise of their own
corner of the world into which men of their free  powers.  And, my Lords, notwithstanding my
and enterprising spirit would not fly.with alac- intention to give my hearty negative to the quesrity, rather than submit to the slavish and tyran- tion now before you, I can not help condemning
nical principles which prevailed at that period  in the severest manner the late turbulent and unin their native country.  And shall we wonder, warrantable conduct of the Americans in some
instances, particularly in the late riots of Boston.
i See Burke's admirable sketches of Grenville, But, my Lords, the mode which has been purTownsend, and Lord Chatham's third ministry, in  sued to bring them back to a sense of their duty
nis Speech.on American Taxation.                to their parent state, has been so diametrically




1774]                 QUARTERING  SOLDIERS  IN  BOSTON.                                     127
opposite to the fundamental principles of sound  ble Lords who are now in office; and, consepolicy, that individuals possessed of common un- quently, they will have a watchful eye over their
derstanding must be astonished at such proceed- liberties, to prevent the least encroachment on
ings. By blocking up the harbor of Boston, you  their hereditary rights.
have involved the innocent trader in the same    This observation is so recently exemplified in
punishment with the guilty profligates who de- an excellent pamphlet, which comes from  the
stroyed your merchandise; and instead of mak- pen of an American gentleman, that I shall take
ing a well-concerted effort to secure the real the liberty of reading to your Lordships his
offenders, you clap a naval and military extin- thoughts on the competency of the British Parguisher over their harbor, and visit the crime of  liament to tax America, which, in my opinion.
a few lawless depredators and their abettors upon  puts this interesting matter in the clearest view.
the whole body of the inhabitants." The high court of Parliament," says he,' is
My Lords, this country is little obliged to the  the supreme legislative power over the whole
framers and promoters of this tea tax.  The  empire; in all free states the Constitution is
Americans had almost forgot, in their excess of fixed; and as the supreme Legislature derives
gratitude for the repeal of the Stamp Act, any  its power and authority from the Constitution, it
interest but that of the mother country; there  can not overleap the bounds of it without de.
seemed an emulation among the different prov- stroying its own foundation.  The Constitution
inces who should be most dutiful and forward in  ascertains and limits both sovereignty and alletheir expressions of loyalty to their real bene- glance; and therefore his Majesty's American
factor, as you will readily perceive by the fol- subjects, who acknowledged themselves bound
lowing letter from Governor Bernard to a noble  by the ties of allegiance, have an equitable claim
Lord then in office.                            to the full enjoyment of the fundamental rules of
"The House of Representatives," says he,  the English Constitution; and that it is an es"from the time of opening the session to this sential, unalterable right in nature, ingrafted into
day, has shown a disposition to avoid all dispute  the British Constitution as a fundamental law,
with me, every thing having passed with as and ever held sacred and irrevocable by the submuch good humor as I could desire. They have  jects within this realm, that what a man has
acted in all things with temper and moderation; honestly acquired is absolutely his own; which
they have avoided some subjects of dispute, and  he may freely give, but which can not be taken
have laid a foundation for removing some causes from him without his consent."
of former altercation."                           This, my Lords, though no new doctrine, has
This, my Lords, was the temper of the Amer- always been my received and unalterable opinicans, and would have continued so, had it not ion, and I will carry it to my grave, that this
been interrupted by your fruitless endeavors to  country had no right under heaven to tax Jmertax them without their consent.  But the mo- ica.  It is contrary to all the principles of jusment they perceived your intention was renewed  tice and civil polity, which neither the exigento tax them, under a pretense of serving the  cies of the state, nor even an acquiescence in the
East India Company, their resentment got the  taxes, could justify upon any occasion whatever.
ascendant of their moderation, and hurried them   Such proceedings will never meet their wishedinto actions contrary to law, which, in their cool- for success. Instead of adding to their miseries,
er hours, they would have thought on with hor- as the bill now before you most undoubtedly
ror; for I sincerely believe the destroying of the  does, adopt some lenient measures, which may
tea was the effect of despair.                  lure them to their duty. Proceed like a kind and
But, my Lords, from  the complexion of the  affectionate parent over a child whom he tenwhole of the proceedings, I think that adminis- derly loves, and, instead of those harsh and setration has purposely irritated them  into those  vere proceedings, pass an amnesty on all their
late violent acts, for which they now so severely  youthful errors, clasp them  once more in your
smart, purposely to be revenged on them for the  fond and affectionate arms, and I will venture to
victory they gained by the repeal of the Stamp  affirm  you will find them  children worthy of
Act; a measure in which they seemingly acqui- their sire.  But, should their turbulence exist
esced, but at the bottom they were its real ene- after your proffered terms of forgiveness, which
mies. For what other motive could induce them  I hope and expect this House will immediately
to dress taxation, that father of American sedi- adopt, I will be among the foremost of your
tion, in the robes of an East India director, but Lordships to move for such measures as will efto break in upon that mutual peace and harmony  fectually prevent a future relapse, and make
which then so happily subsisted between them  them feel what it is to provoke a fond and forand the mother country?                        giving parent! a parent, my Lords, whose welMy Lords, I am an old man, and would advise  fare has ever been my greatest and most pleasthe noble Lords in office to adopt a more gentle  ing consolation. This declaration may seem unmode of governing America; for the day is not necessary; but I will venture to declare, the pefar distant when America may vie with these  riod is not far distant when she will want the
kingdoms, not only in arms, but in arts also.  It assistance of her most distant friends; but should
is an established fact that the principal towns in  the all-disposing hand of Providence prevent me
America are learned and polite, and understand  from affording her my poor assistance, my praythe Constitution of the empire as well as the no- ers shall be ever for her welfare-Length of




128                                LORD CHATHAM  ON                                     [1775.
days be in her right hand, and in her left riches    Notwithstanding these warnings and remonand honor; may her ways be the ways of pleas- strances, the bill was passed by a majority of
antness, and all her paths be peace!           57 to 16.
SPEECH
OF LORD CHATHAM ON A MOTION FOR AN ADDRESS TO HIS MAJESTY, TO GIVE IMMEDIATE
ORDERS FOR REMOVING HIS TROOPS FROM BOSTON, DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS,
JANUARY 20, 1775.
INTRODUCTION.
ON the 20th of January, 1775, Lord Dartmouth, Secretary of State, laid before the House of Lords various papers relating to American affairs. Upon this occasion Lord Chatham moved an " address to his
Majesty for the immediate removal of his troops from Boston," and supported it by the following speech.
When he arose to speak, says one who witnessed the scene, "all was silence and profound attention.
Animated, and almost inspired by his subject, he seemed to feel his own unrivaled superiority. His venerable figure, dignified and graceful in decay, his language, his voice, his gesture, were such as might, at
this momentous crisis, big with the fate of Britain seem to characterize him as the guardian genius of his
country."
SPEECH, &c.'
MY LoRDS,-After more than six weeks' pos-  dishonored army, trusting solely to the pickax
session of the papers now before you, on a sub-  and the spade for security against the just indigject so momentous, at a time when the fate of  nation of an injured and insulted people.
this nation hangs on every hour, the ministry      My Lords, I am happy that a relaxation of my
have at length condescended to submit to the  infirmities permits me to seize this earliest opconsideration of this House, intelligence from   portunity of offering my poor advice to save this
America with'which your Lordships and the  unhappy country, at this moment tottering to its
public have been long and fully acquainted.     ruin.  But, as I have not the honor of access to
The measures of last year, my Lords, which  his Majesty, I will endeavor to transmit to him,
have produced the present alarming state of  through the constitutional channel of this House,
America, were founded upon misrepresentation.  my ideas on American business, to rescue him
They were violent, precipitate, and vindictive.  from the misadvice of his present ministers.  I
The nation was told that it was only a faction in  congratulate your Lordships that the business is
Boston which opposed all lawful government;  at last entered upon by the noble Lord's [Lord
that an unwarrantable injury had been done to  Dartmouth] laying the papers before you.  As
private property, for which the justice of Parlia-  I suppose your Lordships are too well apprised
ment was called upon to order reparation; that  of their contents, I hope I am not premature in
the least appearance of firmness would awe the  submitting to you my present motion.  [The
Americans into submission, and upon only pass-  motion was read.]
ing the Rubicon we should be " sine clade vie-    I wish, my Lords, not to lose a day in this urtor."2                                          gent, pressing crisis.  An hour now lost in allayThat the people might choose their repre-  ing ferments in America may produce years of
sentatives under the influence of those misrep-  calamity.  For my own part, I will not desert,
resentations, the Parliament was precipitately  for a moment, the conduct of this weighty busidissolved.  Thus the nation was to be rendered  ness, from the first to the last.  Unless nailed to
instrumental in executing the vengeance of ad-  my bed by the extremity of sickness, I will give
ministration on that injured, unhappy, traduced  it unremitted attention.  I will knock at the door
people.                                         of this sleeping and confounded ministry, and will
But now, my Lords, we find that, instead of  rouse them to a sense of their danger.
suppressing the opposition of the faction at Bos-    When I state the importance of the colonies to
ton, these measures have spread it over the  this country, and the magnitude of danger hangwhole continent.  They have united that whole  ing over this country from the present plan of
people by the most indissoluble of all bands-in-  misadministration practiced against them, I detolerable wrongs.  The just retribution is an in-  sire not to be understood to argue for a reciprocdiscriminate, unmerciful proscription of the inno-  ity of indulgence between England and America.
cent with the guilty, unheard and untried.  The  I contend not for indulgence, but justice to Amerbloodless victory is an impotent general with his  ica; and i shall ever contend that the Americans
I This speech was reported by Mr. Hugh Boyd, justly owe obedience to us in a limited degreea man of high literary attainments, and bears very  they owe obedience to our ordinances of trade
strong marks of accuracy.                       and navigation; but let the line be skillfully
2 Victorious without slaughter.               drawn between the objects of those ordinances




1775.]                    REMOVING TROOPS FROM  BOSTON.                                    129
and their private internal property.  Let the sa- onciliation, you delay forever.  But, admitting
credness of their property remain inviolate. Let that this hope (which in truth is desperate)
it be taxable only by their own consent,; given  should be accomplished, what do you gain by the
in their provincial assemblies, else it will cease  imposition of your victorious amity?  You will
to be property.  As to the metaphysical refine- be untrusted and unthanked.  Adopt, then, the
ments, attempting to show that the Americans grace, while you have the opportunity, of reconare equally free from obedience and commercial cilement-or at least prepare the way.  Allay
restraints, as from taxation for revenue, as being  the ferment prevailing in America, by removing
unrepresented here, I pronounce them futile, friv- the obnoxious hostile cause-obnoxious and unolous, and groundless.                          serviceable; for their merit can be only inaction:
When I urge this measure of recalling the  "Non dimicare est vincere,"4 their victory can
troops from Boston, I urge it on this pressing  never be by exertions.  Their force would be
principle, that it is necessarily preparatory to  most disproportionately exerted against a brave,
the restoration of your peace and the establish- generous, and united people, with arms in their 
ment of your prosperity.  It will then appear hands, and courage in their hearts: three millthat you are disposed to treat amicably and eq- ions of people, the genuine descendants of a 
uitably; and to consider, revise, and repeal, if it valiant and pious ancestry, driven to those deserts
should be found necessary (as I affirm it will), by the narrow maxims of a superstitious tyranny..
those violent acts and declarations which have  And is the spirit of persecution never to be apdisseminated confusion throughout your empire. peased?  Are the brave sons of those brave
Resistance to your acts was necessary as it forefathers to inherit their sufferings, as they
was just; and your vain declarations of the om- have inherited their virtues?  Are they to susnipotence of Parliament, and your imperious doc- tain the infliction of the most oppressive and untrines of the necessity of submission, will be found  exampled severity, beyond the accounts of hisequally impotent to convince or to enslave your tory or description of poetry: " Rhadamanthus
fellow-subjects in America, who feel that tyranny, habet durissima regna, castigatque auditque."5
whether ambitioned by an individual part of the  So says the wisest poet, and perhaps the wisest
Legislature, or the bodies who compose it, is statesman and politician.  But our ministers say
equally intolerable to British subjects.       the Americans must not be heard.  They have
The means of enforcing this thraldom  are  been condemned unheard.  The indiscriminate
found to be as ridiculous and weak in practice  hand of vengeance has lumped together innocent
as they are unjust in principle.  Indeed, I can  and guilty; with all the formalities of hostility,
not but feel the most anxious sensibility for the  has blocked up the town [Boston], and reduced
situation of General Gage, and the troops under to beggary and famine thirty thousand inhabithis command; thinking him, as I do, a man of  ants.
humanity and understanding; and entertaining,    But his Majesty is advised that the union in
as I ever will, the highest respect, the warmest America can not last.  Ministers have more
love for the British troops.  Their situation is eyes than I, and should have more ears; but
truly unworthy; penned up-pining in inglorious with all the information I have been able t. proinactivity.  They are an army of impotence. cure, I can pronounce it a union solid, permaYou may call them  an army of safety and of  nent, and effectual. Ministers m'ay satisfy themguard; but they are, in truth, an army of impo- selves, and delude the public,with the report of
tence and contempt; and, to make the folly equal what they call commercial bodies in America.
to the disgrace, they are an army of irritation and  They are not commercial.  They are your packvexation.                                       ers and factors.  They live upon nothing, for I
But I find a report creeping abroad that min- call commission nothing.  I speak of the minisisters censure General Gage's inactivity.  Let terial authority for this American intelligencethem  censure him —it becomes them —it be- the runners for government, who are paid for
comes their justice and their honor.  I mean not their intelligence.  But these are not the men,
to censure his inactivity.  It is a prudent and  nor this the influence, to be considered in Amernecessary inaction; but it is a miserable condi- ica, whenwe estimate the firmness of their union.
tion, where disgrace is prudence, and where it is Even to extend the question, and to take in the
necessary to be contemptible.  This tameness, 
however contemptible, can not be censured; for       t t fiht is to conquer
the first drop of blood shed in civil and unnatu- vi.  e passage is from the Eneid of Virgil, hook.
ral war might be  "immedicabile vulnus.".~~~~~~~~ral war might be "         Gmsius lihme Ithadamanthus habet durissima regna,.
I therefore urge and conjure your Lordships                            habet durissima regCas
~.i~       C:..  C-stigatque auditque dolos.
immediately to adopt this conciliating measure.
I will pledge myself for its immediately produc-    h                 O'er these dire realms. PI ^..The Cretan Rhadamanthus holds his sway,
Iing conciliatory effects, by its being thus well  And lashes guilty souls, whose wiles and crimes
itimed; but if you delay till your vain hope shall  He hears..be accomplished of triumphantly dictating rec-   Lord Chatham, from the order of the words, gives:
them an ingenious turn, as if the punishment came
3 Nil prosunt artes; erat immedicabile vulnus.   before the hlearing; which was certainly true of jus.
All arts are vain: incurable the wound.     tice as then administered in America, though not in
Ovid's Metamorphoses, book x., 189.  the infernal regions of Virgil.
I




130                                LORD CHATHAM  ON                                       [1775.
really mercantile circle, will be totally inade-  Rights vindicated the English Constitution; the
quate to the consideration.  Trade, indeed, in-  same spirit which established the great fundacreases the wealth and glory of a country; but mental, essential maxim  of your liberties, that
its real strength and stamina are to be looked for no subject of England shall be taxed but by his
among the cultivators of the land. In their sim- own consent.
plicity of life is found the simpleness of virtue-  This glorious spirit of Whiggism  animates
the integrity and courage of freedom.  These  three millions in America, who prefer poverty
true, genuine sons of the earth are invincible; with liberty, to gilded chains and sordid affluand they surround and hem  in the mercantile  ence; and who will die in defense of their rights
bodies, even if these bodies (which supposition  as men, as freemen.  What shall oppose this
I totally disclaim) could be supposed disaffected  spirit, aided by the congenial flame glowing in
to the cause of liberty.  Of this general spirit the breast of every Whig in England, to the
existing in the British nation (for so I wish to  amount, I hope, of double the American numdistinguish the real and genuine Americans from  bers?  Ireland they have to a man.  In that
the pseudo-traders I have described)-of this  country, joined as it is with the cause of the colospirit of independence, animating the nation of nies, and placed at their head, the distinction I
America, I have the most authentic information. contend for is and must be observed. This counIt is not new among them.  It is, and has ever try superintends and controls their trade and navbeen, their established principle, their confirmed  igation; but they tax themselves.  And this dispersuasion.  It is their nature and their doctrine. tinction between external and internal control is
I remember, some years ago, when the repeal sacred and insurmountable; it is involved in the
of the Stamp Act was in agitation, conversing in  abstract nature of things.  Property is private,
a friendly confidence with a person of undoubted  individual, absolute.  Trade is an extended and
respect and authenticity, on that subject, and he  complicated consideration: it reaches as far as
assured me with a certainty which his judgment ships can sail or winds can blow: it is a great
and opportunity gave him, that these were the  and various machine.  To regulate the numberprevalent and steady principles of America —that less movements of its several parts, and combine
you might destroy their towns, and cut them off  them into effect for the good of the whole, refrom the superfluities, perhaps the conveniences  quires the superintending wisdom and energy of
of life, but that they were prepared to despise  the supreme power in the empire.  But this suyour power, and would not lament their loss, preme power has no effect toward internal taxawhile they have-what, my Lords?-their woods tion; for it does not exist in that relation; there
and their liberty.  The name of my authority, is no such thing, no such idea in this Constitu.
if I am called upon, will authenticate the opinion  tion, as a supreme power operating upon properjrrefragably.6                                   ty.  Let this distinction then remain forever asJf illegal violences have been, as it is said, certained; taxation is theirs, commercial reguac emitted in America, prepare the way, open  lation is ours.  As an American, I would recogthedoor of possibility for acknowledgment and  nize to England her supreme right of regulating
g atiszg.tion; but proceed not to such coercion, commerce and navigation; as an Englishman by
such. prscription; cease your indiscriminate in- birth and principle, I recognize to the Americans
flictions.  amerce not thirty thousand-oppress  their supreme, unalienable right in their propernot three millions for the fault of forty or fifty  ty: a right which they are justified in the deindividuals.  Such severity of injustice must for- fense of to the last extremity.  To maintain this
ever render.incurable the wounds you have al- principle is the common cause of the Whigs on
ready given your colonies; you irritate them to  the other side of the Atlantic and on this.
unappeasable rancor.  What though you march  "'Tis liberty to liberty engaged," that they will
from town to tqwn, and from province to prov- defend themselves, their families, and their counince; thaugh yo.should he able to enforce a  try.  In this great cause they are immovably
temporary and lopal submission (which I only  allied: it is the alliance of God and naturesuppose, not admit),:how shall you be able to se- immutable, eternal-fixed as the firmament of
cure the obedience pf the country you leave be- heaven.
hind you in your progress, to grasp the dominion    To such united force, what force shall be opof eighteen hundredmiles of continent, pupulous  posed?  What, my Lords?  A few regiments
in numbers, possessing Yalor, liberty, and resist- in America, and seventeen or eighteen thousand
ance?                                          men at home!  The idea is too ridiculous to
This resistance to.your arbitrary systenm of take up a moment of your Lordships' time.  Nor
taxation might.have'been foreseen.  It was vb- can such a national and principled union be revious from the nature of things, and of mankini; sisted by the tricks of office, or ministerial maand, above all from theWhiggish spirit flourisi- neuver.  Laying of papers on your table, or
ing in that country.  The spititwhich now recounting numbers on a division, will not avert
sists your taxation in America i1 the same whicl or postpone the.hour of danger. It must arrive,
formerly opposed loans, benevolences, and ship- my Lords, unless these fatal acts are done away;
money in England,; the same spirit which called it must arrive in all its horrors, and then these
all England "'on its, legs," and by the Bill of boastful ministers, spite of all their confidence
-_______ ___ ~~-                    ~    and all their maneuvers, shall be forced to hide
* Itws.Dr. Franklino             their heads. They shall be forced to a disgrace



1775.]                    REMOVING TROOPS FROM  BOSTON.                                      131
ful abandonment of their present measures and  happiness; for that is your true dignity, to act
principles, which they avow, but can not defend; with prudence and justice.  That you should
measures which they presume to attempt, but first concede is obvious, from sound and rational
can not hope to effectuate.  They can not, my  policy. Concession comes with better grace and
Lords, they can not stir a step; they have not a  more salutary effect from  superior power.  It
move left; they are check-mated!                 reconciles superiority of power with the feelings
But it is not repealing this act of Parliament, of men, and establishes solid confidence on the
it is not repealing a piece of parchment, that foundations of affection and gratitude.
can restore America to our bosom.  You must    So thought a wise poet and a wise man in
repeal her fears and her resentments, and you  political sagacity-the friend of Mecmnas, and
may then hope for her love and gratitude. But the eulogist of Augustus.  To him, the adopted
now, insulted with an armed force posted at son and successor of the first Cesar-to him, the
Boston, irritated with a hostile array before her master of the world, he wisely urged this coneyes, her concessions, if you could force them, duct of prudence and dignity: "Tuque prior, tu
would be suspicious and insecure; they will be  parce; projice tela manu."9
" irato animo" [with an angry spirit]; they will    Every motive, therefore, of justice and of pol.
not be the sound, honorable passions of freemen; icy, of dignity and of prudence, urges you to althey will be the dictates of fear and extortions  lay the ferment in America by a removal of
of force.  But it is more than evident that you  your troops from  Boston, by a repeal of your
can not force them, united as they are, to your acts of Parliament, and by demonstration of amunworthy terms of submission. It is impossible. icable dispositions toward your colonies.  On
And when I hear General Gage censured for in- the other hand, every danger and every hazard
activity, I must retort with indignation on those  impend to deter you from perseverance in your
whose intemperate measures and improvident        If Lord Chatham's memory had not failed him
counsels have betrayed him into his present situ- in respect to these words, his taste and genius
ation.. His situation reminds me, my Lords, of would have suggested a still finer turn. They were
the answer of a French general in the civil wars  addressed, not by Virgil to Augustus Cesar, but to
of France —Monsieur Conde opposed to Mon- a parent advancing in arms against a child; and
sieur Turenne. He was asked how it happened  would, therefore, have been applied with double
that he did not take his adversary prisoner, as force and beauty to the contest of England against
he was often very near him.  " J'ai peur," re- America. The words are taken from thatsplendid
plied Cond, very hetly, "j'ai peur qu'il ne  passage at the close of the sixth book of Virgil's
plied Conde, very honestly,  aj'i peur qu'il ne   ^^   ^^   ^ ^   ^  ^^   ~   ^^  ^
mev pmafai h'lt._ iEeneid, where Anchises is showing to Eneas, in
me prenne i"  Inf  afraid he'll take nme.       the world of spirits, the souls of those who were
When your Lordships look at the papers  destined to pass within "the gates of life," and to
transmitted us from America-when you con- swell, as his descendants, the long line of Roman
Isider their decency, firmness, and wisdom, you  greatness. After pointing out the Decii and Drusii,
can not but respect their cause, and wish to make  Torquatus with his bloody ax, and Camillus with
it your own.  For myself, I must declare and  his standards of glory, he comes at last to Julius Ceavow, that in all my reading and observation-sar, and Pompey, his son-in-law. preparing for the
and it has been my favorite study-I have read  battle of Pharsalia. As if the conflict might yet be
and it has been my favorite study —I havis future children, and enaverted, he addresses his future children, and enThucydides, and have studied and admired the.         ^
Thucydides, and have studied  nd  admied the  treats them  not to turn their arms against their
master-states of the world-that for solidity of country's vitals. He appeals especially to Cesar
reasoning, force of sagacity, and wisdom of con- as "descended from Olympian Jove," and exhorts
elusion, under such a complication of difficult him "Tuque prior, tu parce; projice tela manu."
circumstances, no nation or body of men can  Illae autem, paribus quas fulgere cernis in armis,
stand in preference to the general Congress at Concordes anime nunc et dum nocte prementur,
Philadelphia.  I trust it is obvious to your Lord- Heu! quantum inter se bellum, si limina vita
ships that all attempts to impose servitude upon  Attingerint, quantas acies stragemque ciebunt,
such men, to establish despotism  over such a  Aggeribus socer Alpinis atque arce Monwci
mighty continental nation, must be vain, must be  Descendens, gener adversis instructus Eois 
Ne, pueri, ne tanta animis assuescite bella;
fatal. We shall be forced ultimately to retract;   e, pueri, se tata animis assuescite bella;
not when we mustNeu patrie validas in viscera vertite vires!
let us retract while we canr  not when we mlst.    Tque prior, tu parce, genus qui ducis Olympo;
I say we must necessarily undo these violent, projice tela manu, sanguis meus!-826-835.
oppressive actsJ  They must be repealed. You
oppressive acts.7  They must be repealed. You  Those forms which now thou seest in equal arms
will repeal them.  I pledge myself for it, that Shining afar-united souls while here
you will, in the end, repeal them.  I stake my  Beneath the realm of night —what fields of blood
reputation on it.  I will consent to be taken for And mutual slaughter shall mark out their course,
an idiot if they are not finally repealed.8  Avoid, If once they pass within the Gates of Life!
then, this humiliating, disgraceful necessity. See, from the Alpine heights the father comes
With a dignity becoming your exalted situation, Down by Molaco's tower, to meet the son
/, ^   " i    ~ "      3            ^ Equipped with hostile legions from the East.
make the first advances to concord, to peace, and         withhostile legions        the East.
Nay! nay, my children! Train not thus your minds
7 The Boston Port Bill, and the act taking away  To scenes of blood! Turn not those arms of strength
the charter of Massachusetts.                   Against your country's vitals!
8 This prediction was verified. After a war of  Thou! thou, descended fiom Olympian Jove!
three years, a repeal of these acts was sent out to  Befirst to spare! Son of my blood! cast down
propitiate the Americans, but it was too late.   Those weapons from thy hand!




132                               LORD CHATHAM  ON                                       [1777.
present ruinous measures.  Foreign war hang-  King, I will not say that they can alienate the
ing over your heads by a slight and brittle  affections of his subjects from his crown, but I
thread; France and Spain watching your con- will affirm that they will make the crown not
duct, and waiting for the maturity of your er- worth his wearing. I will not say that the King
rors, with a vigilant eye to America and the  is betrayed, but I will pronounce that the kingtemper of your colonies, more than to their own  dom is undone.
concerns, be they what' they may.
To conclude, my Lords, if the ministers thus    The motion, after a long debate, was lost by
persevere in misadvising and misleading the  a vote of 68 to 18.
SPEECH
OF LORD CHATHAM ON A MOTION FOR AN ADDRESS TO THE CROWN, TO PUT A ST9P TO HOS.
TILITIES IN AMERICA, DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS, MAY 30,177Tr.
INTRODUCTION.
\ LORD CHATHAM had now been prevented by his infirmities from taking his place in the House of Lords
for more than two years. Anxious to make one effort more for ending the contest with America, he made
his appearance in the House on the 30th of May, 1777, wrapped in flannels, and supported on crutches,
and moved an address to the King, recommending that speedy and effectual measures be taken to put an
end to the war between the colonies and the mother country. He spoke as follows:
SPEECH, &c.
MY Lords, this is a flying moment; perhaps among them to annihilate the Congress, and of
but six weeks left to arrest the dangers that sur- your powerful forces to disperse their army.  I
round us.  The gathering storm may break; it might as well talk of driving them before me with
has already opened, and in part burst.  It is this crutch!  But what would you conquer —
difficult for government, after all that has pass- the map of America?  I am ready to meet any
ed, to shake hands with defiers of the King, de- general officer on the subject [looking at Lord
fiers of the Parliament, defiers of the people. I Amherst.]  What will you do out of the proam a defier of nobody; but if an end is not put tection of your fleet?  In the winter, if togeth
to this war, there is an end to this country.  I er, they are starved; and if dispersed, they are
do not trust my judgment in my present state of taken off in detail.  I am experienced in spring
health; this is the judgment of my better days hopes and vernal promises; I know what minis-the result of forty years' attention to America. ters throw out; but at last will come your equiThey are rebels; but for what?  Surely not for noctial disappointment.  You have got nothing
defending their unquestionable rights!  What in America but stations.  You have been three
have these rebels done heretofore?  I remem- years teaching them the art of war; they are
her when they raised four regiments on their apt scholars  and I will venture to tell your
own bottom, and took Louisbourg from the vet- Lordships that the American gentry will make
eran troops of France. But their excesses have  officers enough, fit to command the troops of all
been great: I do not mean their panegyric; but the European powers.  What you have sent
must observe, in extenuation, the erroneous and  there are too many to make peace-too few to
infatuated counsels which have prevailed; the  make war.  If you conquer them, what then?
door to mercy and justice has been shut against You can not make them respect you; you can
them; but they may still be taken up upon the  not make them wear your cloth; you will plant
grounds of their former submission.  [Referring  an invincible hatred in their breasts against you.
to their petition.]                             Coming from the stock they do, they can never
I state to you the importance of America: it respect you. If ministers are founded in saying
is a double market-the market of consumption, there is no sort of treaty with France, there is
and the market of supply. This double market still a moment left; the point of honor is still
for millions, with naval stores, you are giving to  safe. France must be as self-destroying as Enyour hereditary rival. America has carried you  gland, to make a treaty while you are giving her
through four wars, and will now carry you to  America, at the expense of twelve millions a
your death, if you don't take things in time. In  year. The intercourse has produced every thing
the sportsman's phrase, when you have found  to France; and England, Old England, must
yourselves at fault, you must try back.  You  pay for all. I have, at different times, made difhave ransacked every corner of Lower Saxony; ferent propositions, adapted to the circumstances
but forty thousand German boors never can con- in which they were offered.  The plan containquer ten times the number of British freemen. ed in the former bill is now impracticable; the
You may ravage-you can not conquer; it is  present motion will tell you where you are, and
impossible; you can not conquer the Americans. what you have now to depend upon. It may
You talk, my Lords, of your numerous friends produce a respectable division in.Ameria, and




1777.]                      HOSTILITIES WITH  AMERICA.                                  133
unanimity at home; it will give America an op- This was the only moment left before the fate
tion; she has yet had no option.  You have  of this country was decided.  The French court,
said, Lay down your arms; and she has given  he observed, was too wise to lose the opportunity
you the Spartan answer, " Come, take."  [Here  of effectually separating America from the dohe read his motion.]  " That an humble address minions of this kingdom.  War between France
be presented to his Majesty, most dutifully rep- and Great Britain, he said, was not less probable
resenting to his royal wisdom that this House is because it had not yet beei declared.  It would
deeply penetrated with the view of impending  be folly in France to declare it now, while Amerruin to the kingdom, from the continuation of an ica gave full employment to our arms, and was
unnatural war against the British. colonies in  pouring into her lap her wealth and produce,
America; and most humbly to advise his Maj- the benefit of which she was enjoying in peace.
esty to take the most speedy and effectual meas- He enlarged much on the importance of Amerares for putting a stop to such fatal hostilities, ica to this country, which, in peace and in war,
upon the only just and solid foundation, namely, he observed, he ever considered as the great
the removal of accumulated grievances; and to  source of all our wealth and power.  He then
assure his Majesty that this House will enter added (raising his voice), Your trade languishes,
upon this great and necessary work with cheer- your taxes increase, your revenues diminish.!ulness and dispatch, in order to open to his Maj- France at this moment is securing and drawing
esty the only means of regaining the affections to herself that commerce which created your
of the British colonies, and of securing to Great seamen, fed your islands, &c.  He reprobated
Britain the commercial advantages of these val- the measures which produced, and which had
uable possessions; fully persuaded that to heal been pursued in the conduct of the civil war, in
and to redress will be more congenial to the  the severest language; infatuated measures givgoodness and magnanimity of his Majesty, and  ing rise to, and still continuing a cruel, unnatural,
more prevalent over the hearts of generous and  self-destroying war.  Success, it is said, is hoped
free-born subjects, than the rigors of chastisement for in this campaign. Why? Because our army
and the horrors of a civil war, which hitherto  will be as strong this year as it was last, when
have served only to sharpen resentments and  it was not strong enough.  The notion of conconsolidate union, and, if continued, must end in  quering America he treated with the greatest
finally dissolving all ties between Great Britain  contempt.
and the colonies."                              After an animated debate, in which the mo[His Lordship rose again.]  The proposal, he  tion was opposed by Lords Gower, Lyttelton,
said, is specific.  I thought this so clear, that I Mansfield, and Weymouth, and the Archbishop
did not enlarge upon it.  I mean the redress of  of York, and supported by the Dukes of Grafton
all their grievances, and the right of disposing  and Manchester, Lord Camden and Shelburne,
of their own money.  This is to be done instan- and the Bishop of Peterborough,
taneously.  I' will get out of my bed to move it    The Earl of Chatham again rose, and in reply
on Mondayti tThis will be the herald of ipeace; to what had fallen from Lord Weymouth, said:]
this will open the way for treaty; this will show  My Lords, I perceive the noble Lord neither apParliament sincerely disposed.  Yet still much  prehends my meaning, nor the explanation given
must be left to treaty.  Should you conquer this by me to the noble Earl [Earl Gower] in the blue
people, you conquer under the cannon of France ribbon, who spoke early in the debate.  I will,
-under a masked battery then ready to open. therefore, with your Lordships' permission, state
The moment a treaty with France appears, you  shortly what I meant.  My Lords, my motion
must declare war, though you had only five ships was stated generally, that I might leave the quesof the line in England; but France will defer a tion at large to be amended by your Lordships.
treaty as long as possible.  You are now at the  I did not dare to point out the specific means.
mercy of every little German chancery; and the  I drew the motion up to the best of my poor
pretensions of France will increase daily, so as abilities; but I intended it only as the herald of
to become an avowed party in either peace or conciliation, as the harbinger of peace to our afwar.  We have tried for unconditional submis- flicted colonies.  But as the noble Lord seems
sion; try what can be gained by unconditional to wish for something more specific on the subredress.  Less dignity will be lost in the repeal, ject, and through that medium seeks my particthan in submitting to the demands of German  ular sentiments, I will tell your Lordships very
chanceries.  We are the aggressors.  We have  fairly what I wish for.  I wish for a repeal of
invaded them.  We have invaded them as much  every oppressive act which your Lordships have
as the Spanish Armada invaded England. Mer- passed since 1763. I would put our brethren
cy can not do harm; it will seat the King where  in America precisely on the same footing they
he ought to be, throned on the hearts of his peo- stood at that period. I would expect, that, being
pie; and millions at home and abroad, now em- left at liberty to tax themselves, and dispose of
ployed in obloquy or revolt, would pray for him. their own property, they would, in return, contrib[In making his motion for addressing the King, ute to the common burdens according to their
Lord Chatham  insisted frequently and strongly  means and abilities. I will move your Lordships
on the absolute necessity of immediately making  for a bill of repeal, as the only means left to arpeace with America.  Now, he said, was the  rest that approaching destruction which threatcrisis, before France was a party to the treaty. ens to overwhelm  us.  My Lords, I shall no




134                             LORD  CHATHAM  ON AN                                    [1777.
doubt hear it objected, "Why should we submit dress.  We have injured them,; we have enor concede?  Has America done any thing on  deavored to enslave and oppress them.  Upon
her part to induce us to agree to so large a this ground, my Lords, instead of chastisement,
ground of concession?"  I will tell you, my  they are entitled to redress.  A repeal of those
Lords, why I think you should.  You have been  laws, of which they complain, will be the first
the aggressors from the beginning.  I shall not step to that redress.  The people of America
trouble your Lordships with the particulars; look upon Parliament as the authors of their misthey have been stated and enforced by the noble eries; their affections are estranged from their
and learned Lord who spoke last but one (Lord  sovereign.  Let, then, reparation come from the
Camden), in a much more able and distinct man- hands that inflicted the injuries; let conciliation
ner than I could pretend to state them.  If, then, succeed chastisement;* and I do maintain, that
we are the aggressors, it is your Lordships' bu- Parliament will again recover its authority; that
siness to make the first overture.  I say again, his Majesty will be once more enthroned in the
this country has been the aggressor.  You have hearts of his American subjects; and that your
made descents upon their coasts; you have burn- Lordships, as contributing to so great, glorious,
ed their towns, plundered their country, made salutary, and benignant a work, will receive the
war upon the inhabitants, confiscated their prop- prayers and benedictions of every part of the
erty, proscribed and imprisoned their persons. British empire.
I do therefore affirm, my Lords, that instead of
exacting unconditional submission from the colonies, we should grant them  unconditional re-    The motion was lost by a vote of 99 to 28.
SPEECH
OF LORD CHATHAM ON A MOTION FOR AN ADDRESS TO THE THRONE, AT THE OPENING OP
PARLIAMENT, DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS, NOVEMBER 18, 1777.
INTRODUCTION.
THIS was Lord Chatham's greatest effort. Though sinking under the weight of years and disease, he
seems animated by all the fire of youth. It would, indeed, be difficult to find in the whole range of parliamentary history a more splendid blaze of genius, at once rapid, vigorous, and sublime.
SPEECH, &c.'
I RISE, my Lords, to declare my sentiments on  envelop it, and display, in its full danger and ti ue
this most solemn and serious subject.  It has colors, the ruin that is brought to our doors.
imposed a load upon my mind, which, I fear,    This, my Lords, is our duty. It is the proper
nothing can remove, but which impels me to en- function of this noble assembly, sitting, as we do,
deavor its alleviation, by a free and unreserved  upon our honors in this House, the hereditary
communication of my sentiments.                 council of the Crown.  Who is the ministerIn the first part of the address, I have the  where is the minister, that has dared to suggest
honor of heartily concurring with the noble Earl to the Throne the contrary, unconstitutional janwho moved it.  No man feels sincerer joy than  guage this day delivered from it?  The accusI do; none can offer more genuine congratula- tomed language from the Throne has been aptions on every accession of strength to the Prot- plication to Parliament for advice, and a reliance
estant succession. I therefore join in every con- on its constitutional advice and assistance.  As
gratulation on the birth of another princess, and  it is the right of Parliament to give, so it is the
the happy recovery of her Majesty.              duty of the Crown to ask it.  But on this day,
But I must stop here.  My courtly complai- and in this extreme momentous exigency, no resance will carry me no farther.  I will not join  liance is reposed on our constitutional counsels!
in congratulation on misfortune and disgrace. no advice is asked from the sober and enlightenI can not concur in a blind and servile address, ed care of Parliament! but the Crown, from itwhich approves, and endeavors to sanctify the  self and by itself, declares an unalterable demonstrous measures which have heaped disgrace  termination to pursue measures -  and what
and misfortune upon us.  This, my Lords, is a measures, my Lords?  The measures that have
perilous and tremendous moment!  It is not a Iproduced the imminent perils that threaten us;
time for adulation.  The smoothness of flattery  the measures that have brought ruin to our doors.
can not now avail —-can not save us in this rug- l": Can the minister of the day now presume to
ged and awful crisis.  It is now necessary to in- expect a continuance of support in this ruinous
struct the Throne in the language of truth. We  infatuation?  Can Parliament be so dead to its
must dispel the illusion and the darkness which  dignity and its duty as to be thus deluded into
the loss of the one and the violation of the other?
1 This was reported by Hugh Boyd, and is said  To give an unlimited credit and support for the
to have been corrected by Lord Chatham himself. I steady perseverance in measures not proposed




1777.]                        ADDRESS TO THE THRONE.                                       135
for our parliamentary advice, but dictated and  to rescue the ear of majesty from the delusions
forced upon us-in measures, I say, my Lords, which surround it.  The desperate state of our
which have reduced this late flourishing empire  arms abroad is in part known.  No man thinks
to ruin and contempt!  " But yesterday, and  more highly of them than I do.  I love and honor
England might have stood against the world: the English troops.  I know their virtues and
now none so poor to do her reverence."2  I use their valor.  I know they can achieve any thing
the words of a poet; but, though it be poetry, it except impossibilities; and I know that the con.
is no fiction.  It is a shameful truth, that not quest of English America is an impossibility.
only the power and strength of this country are You can not, I venture to say it, you can slot conwasting away and expiring, but her well-earned  quer America.  Your armies last war effected
glories, her true honor, and substantial dignity  every thing that could be effected; and what
are sacrificed.                                 was it?  It cost a numerous army, under the
France, my Lords, has insulted you; she has command of a most able general [Lord Amherst],
encouraged and sustained America; and, wheth- now a noble Lord in this House, a long and laer America be wrong or right, the dignity of this borious campaign, to expel five thousand Frenchcountry ought to spurn at the officious insult of men from French America.  My Lords, you can
French interference.  The ministers and embas- not conquer Amnerica.  What is your present
sadors of those who are called rebels and enemies situation there?  We do not know the worst;
are in Paris; in Paris they transact the recip- but we know that in three campaigns we have
rocal interests of America and France.  Can  done nothing and suffered much.  Besides the
there be a more mortifying insult?  Can even  sufferings, perhaps total loss of the Northern
our ministers sustain a more humiliating dis- force,3 the best appointed army that ever took
grace?  Do they dare to resent it?  Do they  the field, commanded by Sir William Howe, has
presume even to hint a vindication of their hon- retired from the American lines. He was obliged
or, and the dignity of the state, by requiring the  to relinquish his attempt, and with great delay
dismission of the plenipotentiaries of America? and danger to adopt a new and distant plan of
Such is the degradation to which they have re- operations.  We shall soon know, and in any
duced the glories of England!  The people  event have reason to lament, what may have
whom they affect to call contemptible rebels, happened since.  As to conquest, therefore, my
but WVhose growing power has at last obtained  Lords, I repeat, it is impossible.  You may swell
the name of enemies; the people with whom  every expense and every effort still more exthey have engaged this country in war, and  travagantly; pile and accumulate every assistagainst whom they now command our implicit ance you can buy or borrow; traffic and barter
support in every measure of desperate hostility-  with every little pitiful German prince that sells
this people, despised as rebels, or acknowledged  and sends his subjects to the shambles of a foras enemies, are abetted against you, supplied  eign prince; your efforts are forever vain and
with every military store, their interests consult- impotent-doubly so from this mercenary aid on
ed, and their embassadors entertained, by your which you rely; for it irritates, to an incurainveterate enemy! and our ministers dare not ble resentment, the minds of your enemies, to
interpose with dignity or effect.  Is this the  overrun them with the mercenary sons of rapine
honor of a great kingdom?  Is this the indig- and plunder, devoting them and their possessions
nant spirit of England, who " but yesterday"  to the rapacity of hireling cruelty!  If I were
gave law to the house of Bourbon?  My Lords, an American, as I am  an Englishman, while a
the dignity of nations demands a decisive con- foreign troop was landed in my country, I never
duct in a situation like this.  Even when the  would lay down my arms-never-never-never.
greatest prince that perhaps this country ever    Your own army is infected with the contagion
saw, filled our throne, the requisition of a Span- of these illiberal allies.  The spirit of plunder
ish general, on a similar subject, was attended to, and of rapine is gone forth among them.  I
and complied with; for, on the spirited remon- know it; and, notwithstanding what the noble
strance of the Duke of Alva, Elizabeth found  Earl [Lord Percy] who moved the address has
herself obliged to deny the Flemish exiles all given as his opinion of the American army, I
countenance, support, or even entrance into her know from  authentic information, and the most
dominions; and the Count Le Marque, with his experienced officers, that our discipline is deeply
few desperate followers, were expelled the king- wounded.  While this is notoriously our sinking
dom.  Happening to arrive at the Brille, and  situation, America grows and flourishes; while
finding it weak in defense, they made themselves  our strength and discipline are lowered, hers are
masters of the place  and this was the founda- rising and improving.
tion of the United Provinces.                     But, my Lords, who is the man that, in addiMy Lords, this ruinous and ignominious situ- tion to these disgraces and mischiefs of our army,
ation, where we can not act with success, nor has dared to authorize and associate to our arms
suffer with honor, calls upon us to remonstrate  the' tomahawk and scalping-knife of the savage?
in the strongest and loudest language of truth, to call into civilized alliance the wild and inhu2 " t yesterday the word of Ces    ht           man savage of the woods; to delegate to the
But yesterday the word of Cesar migh t,
Have stood against the world; neow liless Indian the defense of disputed rights,
And none so poor to do him reverence."      and to wage the horrors of his barbarous war
Julius Cesar, Act III., Sc. 6.        3 General Burgoyne's army.




136                              LORD  CHATHAM  ON  AN                                    [1777.
against our brethren?  My Lords, these enor- and mutual interest that united both countries.
mities cry aloud for redress and punishment. This was the established sentiment of all the
Unless thoroughly done away, it will be a stain  Continent; and still, my Lords, in the great and
on the national character.  It is a violation of  principal part, the sound part of America, this
the Constitution.  I believe it is against law. wise and affectionate disposition prevails.  And
It is not the least of our national misfortunes  there is a very considerable part of America yet
that the strength and character of our army are  sound-the middle and the southern provinces.
thus impaired.  Infected with the mercenary  Some parts may be factious and blind to their
spirit of robbery and rapine; familiarized to the  true interests; but if we express a wise and
horrid scenes of savage cruelty, it can no longer benevolent disposition to communicate with them
boast of the noble and generous principles which  those immutable rights of nature and those condignify asoldier; no longer sympathize with the  stitutional liberties to which they are equally
dignity of the royal banner, nor feel the pride, entitled with ourselves, by a conduct so just and
pomp, and circumstance of glorious war, " that humane we shall confirm the favorable and conmake ambition virtue'"  What makes ambition  ciliate the adverse.  I say, my Lords, the rights
virtue?-the sense of honor.  But is the sense  and liberties to which they are equally entitled
of honor consistent with a spirit of plunder, or with ourselves, but no more.  I would particithe practice of murder?  Can it flow from mer- pate to them every enjoyment and freedom which
cenary motives, or can it prompt to cruel deeds? the colonizing subjects of a free state can posBesides these murderers and plunderers, let me  sess, or wish to possess; and I do not see why
ask our ministers, What other allies have they  they should not enjoy every fundamental right
acquired?  What other powers have they asso- in their property, and every original substantial
ciated to their cause?  Have they entered into  liberty, which Devonshire, or Surrey, or the counalliance with the king of the gipsies?  Nothing, ty I live in, or any other county in England, can
my Lords, is too low or too ludicrous to be con- claim; reserving always, as the sacred right of
sistent with their counsels.                     the mother country, the due constitutional deThe independent views of America have been  pendency of the colonies.  The inherent supremstated and asserted as the foundation of this ad- acy of the state in regulating and protecting the
dress.  My Lords, no man wishes for the due  navigation and commerce of all her subjects, is
dependence of America on this country more  necessary for the mutual benefit and preservathan I do.  To preserve it, and not confirm that tion of every part, to constitute and preserve the
state of independence into which your measures prosperous arrangement of the whole empire.
hitherto have driven them, is the object which    The sound parts of America, of which I have
we ought to unite in attaining.  The Americans, spoken, must be sensible of these great truths
contending for their rights against arbitrary ex- and of their real interests.  America is not in
actions, I love and admire.  It is the struggle of  that state of desperate and contemptible rebellfree and virtuous patriots.  But, contending for ion which this country has been deluded to beindependency and total disconnection from En- lieve.  It is not a wild and lawless banditti, who,
gland, as an Englishman, I can not wish them  having nothing to lose, might hope to snatch
success; for in a due constitutional depend- something from  public convulsions.  Many of
ency, including the ancient supremacy of this their leaders and great men have a great stake
country in regulating their commerce and navi- in this great contest.  The gentleman who congation, consists the mutual happiness and pros- ducts their armies, I am told, has an estate of
perity both of England and America.  She de- four or five thousand pounds a year; and when
rived assistance and protection from us; and we  I consider these things, I can not but lament the
reaped from her the most important advantages, inconsiderate violence of our penal acts, our decShe was, indeed, the fountain of our wealth, the  larations of treason and rebellion, with all the
nerve of our strength, the nursery and basis of  fatal effects of attainder and confiscation.
our naval power.  It is our duty, therefore, my    As to the disposition of foreign powers which
Lords, if we wish to save our country, most se- is asserted [in the King's speech] to be pacific
riously to endeavor the recovery of these most and friendly, let us judge, my Lords, rather by
beneficial subjects; and in this perilous crisis, their actions and the nature of things than by
perhaps the present moment may be the only  interested assertions.  The uniform  assistance
one in which we can hope for success.  For in  supplied to America by France, suggests a diftheir negotiations with  France, they have, or ferent conclusion. The most important interests
think they have, reason to complain; though it of France in aggrandizing and enriching herself
be notorious that they have received from that with what she most wants, supplies of every
power important supplies and assistance of va- naval store from America, must inspire her with
rious kinds, yet it is certain they expected it in  different sentiments.  The extraordinary prepa more decisive and immediate degree. Amer- arations of the house of Bourbon, by land and by
ica is in ill humor with France; on some points sea, from Dunkirk to the Straits, equally ready
they have not entirely answered her expecta- and willing to overwhelm these defenseless isltions.  Let us wisely take advantage of every  ands, should rouse us to a sense of their real dispossible moment of reconciliation.  Besides, the  position and our own danger.  Not five thounatural disposition of America herself still leans  sand troops in England! hardly three thousand
toward England; to the old habits of connection  in Ireland!  What can we oppose to the com



1777i                           ADDRESS TO  THE THRONE.                                      137
bined force of our enemies?  Scarcely twenty  final ruin.  We madly rush into multiplied misships of the line so fully or sufficiently manned, eries, and "confusion worse confounded."
that any admiral's reputation would permit him    Is it possible, can it be believed, that ministo take the command of.  The river of Lisbon in  ters are yet blind to this impending destruction?
the possession of our enemies!  The seas swept I did hope, that instead of this false and empty
by American privateers! Our Channel trade torn  vanity, this overweening pride, engendering high
to pieces by them!  In this complicated crisis  conceits and presumptuous imaginations, minisof danger, weakness at home, and calamity  ters would have humbled themselves in their
abroad, terrified and insulted by the neighboring  errors, would have confessed and retracted them,
powers, unable to act in America, or acting only  and by an active, though a late repentance, have
to be destroyed, where is the man with the fore- endeavored to redeem  them.  But, my Lords,
head to promise or hope for success in such a  since they had neither sagacity to foresee, nor
situation, or from perseverance in the measures  justice nor humanity to shun these oppressive
that have driven us to it?  Who has the fore- calamities   since not even severe experience
head to do so?  Where is that man?  I should  can make them feel, nor the imminent ruin of
be glad to see his face.                        their country awaken them from their stupefacYou can not conciliate America by your pres- tion, the guardian care of Parliament must interent measures.  You can not subdue her by your pose.  I shall therefore, my Lords, propose to
present or by any measures.  What, then, can  you an amendment of the address to his Majesty,
you do?  You can not conquer; you can not to be inserted immediately after the two first
gain; but you can address; you can lull the  paragraphs of congratulation on the birth of a
fears and anxieties of the moment into an igno- princess, to recommend an immediate cessation
rance of the danger that should produce them. of hostilities, and the commencement of a treaty
But, my Lords, the time demands the language  to restore peace and liberty to America, strength
of truth.  We must not now apply the flattering  and happiness to England, security and permaunction of servile compliance or blind complais- nent prosperity to both countries.  This, my
ance.  In a just and necessary war, to maintain  Lords, is yet in our power; and let not the wisthe rights or honor of my country, I would strip  dom and justice of your Lordships neglect the
the shirt from my back to support it.  But in  happy, and, perhaps the only opportunity.  By
such a war as this, unjust in its principle, im- the establishment of irrevocable law, founded on
practicable in its means, and ruinous in its con- mutual rights, and ascertained by treaty, these
sequences, I would not contribute a single effort glorious enjoyments may be firmly perpetuated.
nor a single shilling.  I do not call for venge- And let me repeat to your Lordships, that the
ance on the heads of those who have been guilty; strong bias of America, at least of the wise and
I only recommend to them to make their retreat. sounder parts of it, naturally inclines to this hapLet them walk off; and let them make haste, or py and constitutional reconnection with you.
they may be assured that speedy and condign  Notwithstanding the temporary intrigues with
punishment will overtake them.                   France, we may still be assured of their ancient
My Lords, I have submitted to you, with the  and confirmed partiality to us.  America and
freedom  and truth which I think my duty, my  France can not be congenial.  There is somesentiments on your present awful situation.  I thing decisive and confirmed in the honest Amerhave laid before you the ruin of your power, the  ican, that will not assimilate to the futility and
disgrace of your reputation, the pollution of your levity of Frenchmen.
discipline, the contamination of your morals, the    My Lords, to encourage and confirm that incomplication of calamities, foreign and domestic, nate inclination to this country, founded on every
that overwhelm  your sinking country.  Your principle of affection, as well as consideration of
dearest interests, your own liberties, the Consti- interest; to restore that favorable disposition
tution itself, totters to the foundation.  All this  into a permanent and powerful reunion with this
disgraceful danger, this multitude of misery, is  country; to revive the mutual strength of the
the monstrous offspring of this unnatural war. empire; again to awe the house of Bourbon, inWe have been deceived and deluded too long. stead of meanly truckling, as our present calamLet us now stop short.  This is the crisis-the  ities compel us, to every insult of French caprice
only crisis4 of time and situation, to give us a  and Spanish punctilio; to re-establish our compossibility of escape from the fatal effects of our merce; to reassert our rights and our honor; to
delusions.  But if, in an obstinate and infatuated  confirm our interests, and renew our glories forperseverance in folly, we slavishly echo the per- ever-a consummation most devoutly to be enemptory words this day presented to us, nothing  deavored! and which, I trust, may yet arise from
can save this devoted country from complete and  reconciliation with America-I have the honor
of submitting to you the following amendment,
4 It can not have escaped observation, says Chap- which I move to be inserted after the two first
man, with what urgent anxiety the noble speaker paragraphs of the address:
has pressed this point throughout his speech; the    An ha th          se does mst h       y ad
critical necessity of instantly treating with America.                House does most humbly adBut the warning voice was heard in vain; the ad- vise and supplicate his Majesty to be pleased to
dress triumphed; Parliament adjourned; ministers  cause the most speedy and effectual measures to
enjoyed the festive recess of a long Christmas; and  be taken for restoring peace in America; and
America ratified her alliance with France.       that no time may be lost in proposing an imme



138             LORD CHATHAM ON AN ADDRESS TO THE THRONE.                                 [1777.
diate cessation of hostilities there, in order to the  of their lawn; upon the learned Judges, to inopening of a treaty for the final settlement of  terpose the purity of their ermine, to save us
the tranquillity of these invaluable provinces, by  from  this pollution.  I call upon the honor of
a removal of the unhappy causes of this ruinous  your Lordships, to reverence the dignity of your
civil war, and by a just and adequate security  ancestors, and to maintain your own.  I call
against the return of the like calamities in times  upon the spirit and humanity of my country, to
to come.  And this House desire to offer the  vindicate the national character.  I invoke the
most dutiful assurances to his Majesty, that they  genius of the Constitution.  From the tapestry
will, in due time, cheerfully co-operate with the  that adorns these walls, the immortal ancestor
magnanimity and tender goodness of his Majes- of this noble Lord frowns with indignation at the
ty for the preservation of his people, by such  disgrace of his country.5  In vain he led your
explicit and most solemn declarations, and pro- victorious fleets against the boasted Armada of
visions of fundamental and irrevocable laws, as  Spain; in vain he defended and established the
may be judged necessary for the ascertaining  honor, the liberties, the religion-the Protestant
and fixing forever the respective rights of Great religion-of this country, against the arbitrary
Britain and her colonies."                       cruelties of popery and the Inquisition, if these
[In the course of this debate, Lord Suffolk, more than popish cruelties and inquisitorial pracsecretary for the northern department, under- tices are let loose among us-to turn forth into
took to defend the employment of the Indians in  our settlements, among our ancient connections,
the war.  His Lordship contended that, besides friends, and relations, the merciless cannibal,
its policy and necessity, the measure was also al- thirsting for the blood of man, woman, and child!
lowable on principle; for that " it was perfectly  to send forth the infidel savage-against whom?
justifiable to use all the means that God and na- against your Protestant brethren; to lay waste
ture puet into our hands!"]                     their country, to desolate their dwellings, and
I am  astonished! (exclaimed Lord Chatham, extirpate their race and name with these horrias he rose), shocked! to hear such principles ble hell-hounds of savage war-hell-hounds, 1
confessed-to hear them avowed in this House, say, of savage war!  Spain armed herself with
or in this country; principles equally unconsti- blood-hounds to extirpate the wretched natives
tutional, inhuman, and unchristian!             of America, and we improve on the inhuman exMy Lords, I did not intend to have encroach- ample even of Spanish cruelty; we turn loose
ed again upon your attention, but I can not re- these savage hell-hounds against our brethren
press my indignation. I feel myself impelled by  and countrymen in America, of the same lanevery duty.  My Lords, we are called upon as  guage, laws, liberties, and religion, endeared to
members of this House, as men, as Christian  us by every tie that should sanctify humanity.
men, to protest against such notions standing    My Lords, this awful subject, so important to
near the Throne, polluting the ear of Majesty. our honor, our Constitution, and our religion,
" That God and nature put into our hands!"  I demands the most solemn and effectual inquiry.
know not what ideas that Lord may entertain of  And I again call upon your Lordships, and the
God and nature, but I know  that such abom- united powers of the state, to examine it thorinable principles are equally abhorrent to relig- oughly and decisively, and to stamp upon it an
ion and humanity.  What! to attribute the sa- indelible stigma of the public abhorrence. And
cred sanction of God and nature to the massa- I again implore those holy prelates of our religcres of the Indian scalping-knife-to the canni- ion to do away these iniquities from among us.
bal savage torturing, murdering, roasting, and  Let them perform a lustration; let them purify
eating-literally, my Lords, eating the mangled  this House, and this country, from this sin.
victims of his barbarous battles! Such horrible    My Lords, I am old and weak, and at present
notions shock every precept of religion, divine or unable to say more; but my feelings and indignatural, and every generous feeling of humanity. nation were too strong to have said less.  I
And, my Lords, they shock every sentiment of could not have slept this night in my bed, nor
honor; they shock me as a lover of honorable  reposed my head on my pillow, without giving
war, and a detester of murderous barbarity.     this vent to my eternal abhorrence of such preThese abominable principles, and this more  posterous and enormous principles.
abominable avowal of them, demand the most
decisive indignation. I call upon that right reverend bench, those holy ministers of the Gospel,    This speech had no effect.  The amendment
and pious pastors of our Church-I conjure them   was rejected by a vote of 97 to 24.
to join in the holy work, and vindicate the religion of their God.  I appeal to the wisdom and    5 The tapestry of the House of Lords represented
the law of this learned bench, to defend and sup- the English fleet led by the ship of the lord admiport the justice of their country.  I call upon  ral, Effingham Howard (ancestor of Suffolk), to enthe Bishops, to interpose the unsullied sanctity  gage the Spanish Armada.




1777.1        LORD CHATHAM AGAINST ADJOURNING PARLIAMENT.                                  139
SPEEC H
OF LORD CHATHAM AGAINST A MOTION FOR ADJOURNING PARLIAMENT, DELIVERED IN THE
HOUSE OF LORDS, DECEMBER 11, 1777.
INTRODUCTION.
ONE of the ministry having moved that the Parliament do adjourn for the space of six weeks, Lord
Chatham opposed the motion in the following speech, in which he dwelt on the dangerous condition of the
country, as demanding the immediate attention of Parliament.
SPEECH, &c.
IT is not with less grief than astonishment I may, by this time, be no more.  This very nation
hear the motion now made by the noble Earl, at remains no longer safe than its enemies think
a time when the affairs of this country present proper to permit.  I do not augur ill.  Events
on every side prospects full of awe, terror, and of a most critical nature may take place before
impending danger; when, I will be bold to say, our next meeting.  Will your Lordships, then,
events of a most alarming tendency, little ex- in such a state of things, trust to the guidance
pected or foreseen, will shortly happen; when  of men who in every step of this cruel, wicked
a cloud that may crush this nation, and bury it *war, from the very beginning, have proved themin destruction forever, is ready to burst and over- selves weak, ignorant, and mistaken?  I will not
whelm us in ruin.  At so tremendous a season, say, my Lords, nor do I mean any thing personit does not become your Lordships, the great al, or that they have brought premeditated ruin
hereditary council of the nation, to neglect your on this country.  I will not suppose that they
duty, to retire to your country seats for six  foresaw what has since happened, but I do conweeks, in quest of joy and merriment, while the tend, my Lords, that their want of wisdom, their
real state of public affairs calls for grief, mourn- incapacity, their temerity in depending on their
ing, and lamentation-at least, for the fullest ex- own judgment, or their base compliances with
ertions of your wisdom.  It is your duty, my the orders and dictates of others, perhaps caused
Lords, as the grand hereditary council of the na- by the influence of one or two individuals, have
tion, to advise your sovereign, to be the protect- rendered them  totally unworthy of your Lordors of your country, to feel your own weight and ships' confidence, of the confidence of Parliaauthority.  As hereditary counselors, as mem- ment, and those whose rights they are the conbers of this House, you stand between the Crown  stitutional guardians of, the people at large.  A
and the people.  You are nearer the Throne remonstrance, my Lords, should be carried tothe
than the other branch of the Legislature; it is Throne. The King has been deluded by his minyour duty to surround and protect, to counsel isters.  They have been imposed on by false inand supplicate it.  You hold the balance.  Your formation, or have, from motives best known to
duty is to see that the weights are properly  themselves, given apparent credit to what they
poised, that the balance remains even, that nei- have been convinced in their hearts was untrue.
ther may encroach on the other, and that the The nation has been betrayed into the ruinous
executive power may be prevented, by an un- measure of an American war by the arts of imconstitutional exertion of even constitutional au- position, by their own credulity, through the
thority, from bringing the nation to destruction.  means of false hopes, false pride, and promised
My Lords, I fear we are arrived at the very  advantages, of the most romantic and improbabrink of that state, and I am  persuaded that ble nature.
nothing short of a spirited interposition on your    My Lords, I do not wish to call your attention
part, in giving speedy and wholesome advice to  entirely to that point.  I would fairly appeal to
your sovereign, can prevent the people from feel- your own sentiments whether I can be justly
ing beyond remedy the full effects of that ruin  charged with arrogance or presumption if I say,
which ministers have brought upon us.  These  great and able as ministers think themselves, that
calamitous circumstances ministers have been  all the wisdom of the nation is not confined to the
the cause of; and shall we, in such a state of narrow circle of their petty cabinet.  I might, I
things, when every moment teems with events think, without presumption, say, that your Lordproductive of the most fatal narratives, shall we ships, as one of the branches of the Legislature,
trust, during an adjournment of six weeks, to may be supposed as capable of advising your sovthose men who have brought those calamities ereign, in the moment of difficulty and danger,
upon us, when, perhaps, our utter overthrow is as any lesser council, composed of a fewer num.
plotting, nay, ripe for execution, without almost ber, and who, being already so fatally trusted.
a possibility of prevention?  Ten thousand brave have betrayed a want of honesty or a want of
men have fallen victims to ignorance and rash- talents.  Is it, my Lords, within the utmost
ness.'  The only army you have in America stretch of the most sanguine expectation, that the
1 This refers to the surrender of Burgoyne's army, same men who have plunged you into your preswhich. took place October 17th, 1777.           ent perilous and calamitous situation are the prop



140           LORD CHATHAM AGAINST ADJOURNING PARLIAMENT.                               [1777.
er persons to rescue you from it? No, my Lords, the last war, it was thought advisable to levy insuch an expectation would be preposterous and  dependent companies.  They were, when cornabsurd.  I say, my Lords, you are now specially  pleted, formed into two battalions, and proved
called upon to interpose.  It is your duty to fore- of great service.  I love the army.  I know its
go every call of business and pleasure, to give up  use.  But I must nevertheless own that I was a
your whole time to inquire into past misconduct; great friend to the measure of establishing a nato provide remedies for the present; to prevent tional militia.  I remember, the last war, that
future evils; to rest on your arms, if I may use  there were three camps farmed of that corps at
the expression, to watch for the public safety; once in this kingdom.  I saw them myself-one
to defend and support the Throne, and, if Fate  at Winchester, another in the west, at Plymouth,
should so ordain it, to fall with becoming forti- and a third, if I recollect right, at Chatham.
tude, with the rest of your fellow-subjects, in the  Whether the militia is at present in such a state
general ruin.  I fear this last must be the event as to answer the valuable purposes it did then,
of this mad, unjust, and cruel war.  It is your or is capable of being rendered so, I will not
Lordships' duty to do every thing in your power pretend to say; but I see no reason why, in such
that it shall not; but, if it must be so, I trust your a critical state of affairs, the experiment should
Lordships and the nation will fall gloriously.    not be made, and why it may not be put again
My Lords, as the first and most immediate  on the former respectable footing.3  I rememobject of your inquiry, I would recommend to you  ber, all circumstances considered, when appearto consider the true state of our home defense. ances were not near so melancholy and alarmWe have heard much from a noble Lord in this ing as they are, that there were more troops in
House of the state of our navy.  I can not give  the county of Kent alone, for the defense of the
an implicit belief to all I have heard on that im- kingdom, than there are now in the whole island.
portant subject.  I still retain my former opinion    My Lords, I contend that we have not, nor
relative to the number of line of battle ships; but can procure any force sufficient to subdue Ameras an inquiry into the real state of the navy is ica.  It is monstrous to think of it.  There are
destined to be the subject of future considera- several noble Lords present, well acquainted
tion, I do not wish to hear any more about it till with military affairs.  I call upon any one of
that period arrives.  I allow, in argument, that them to rise and pledge himself that the militawe have thirty-five ships of the line fit for actual ry force now within the kingdom is adequate to
service.  I doubt much whether such a force  its defense, or that any possible force to be prowould give us full command of the Channel.  I cured from Germany, Switzerland, or elsewhere,
am certain, if it did, every other part of our pos- will be equal to the conquest of America.  I am
sessions must lie naked and defenseless, in every  too perfectly persuaded of their abilities and inquarter of the globe.,tegrity to expect any such assistance from them.
I fear our utter destruction is at hand.   What, Oh! but if America is not to be conquered, she
my Lords, is the state of our military defense? may be treated with.  Conciliation is at length
I would not wish to expose our present weak- thought of.  Terms are to be offered.  Who are
ness; but, weak as we are, if this war should be the persons that are to treat on the part of this
continued, as the public declaration of persons  afflicted and deluded country?  The very men
in high confidence with their sovereign would  who have been the authors of our misfortunes.
induce us to suppose, is this nation to be entirely  The very men who have endeavored, by the most
stripped?  And if it should, would every soldier pernicious policy, the highest injustice and opnow in Britain be sufficient to give us an equal- pression, the most cruel and devastating war, to
ity to the force of America?  I will maintain  enslave those people they would conciliate, to
they would not.  Where, then, will men be pro- gain the confidence and affection of those who
cured?  Recruits are not to be had in this have survived the Indian tomahawk and German
country.  Germany will give no more.  I have  bayonet.  Can your Lordships entertain the
read in the newspapers of this day, and I have  most distant prospect of success from  such a
reason to believe it true, that the head of the  treaty and such negotiations?  No, my Lords,
Germanic body has remonstrated against it, and  the Americans have virtue, and they must detest
has taken measures accordingly to prevent it. the principles of such men.  They have underMinisters have, I hear, applied to the Swiss Can- standing, and too much wisdom to trust to the
tons.  The idea is preposterous.  The Swiss cunning and narrow politics which must cause
never permit their troops to go beyond sea. such overtures on the part of their merciless perBut, my Lords, even if men were to be procured  secutors. My Lords, I maintain that they would
in Germany, how will you march them to the  shun, with a mixture of prudence and detestawater side?  Have not our ministers applied  tion, any proposition coming from that quarter.
for the port of Embden, and has it not been re- They would receive terms from  such men as
fused?  I say, you will not be able to procure  snares to allure and betray.  They would dread
men even for your home defense, if some imme- them as ropes meant to be put about their legs,
diate steps be not taken.  I remember, during  in order to entangle and overthrow them in certain ruin.  My Lords, supposing that our do2 Here, and in many other parts of his speech, his   ti   an r,   is is  that our. 
Lordship broadly hinted that the house of Bourbon  mestc daner, f at all,   far distant; that our
was meditating some important and decisive blow enemies will leave us at liberty to prosecute this
near home.                                                 3 This was afterward done.




1778.]             LORD  CHATHAM'S LAST SPEECH  ON AMERICA.                                  141
war to the utmost of our ability; suppose your sacre and devastation to their true authors, supLordships should grant a fleet one day, an army  posed that, as soldiers and Englishmen, those
another; all these, I do affirm, will avail nothing, cruel excesses could not have originated with
unless you accompany it with advice.  Minis- the general, nor were consonant to the brave
ters have been in error; experience has proved  and humane spirit of a British soldier, if not comit; and, what is worse, they continue it.  They  pelled to it as an act of duty.  They traced the
told you, in the beginning, that 15,000 men would  first cause of those diabolic orders to their true
traverse all America, without scarcely an ap- source; and, by that wise and generous interpretpearance of interruption.  Two campaigns have  ation, granted their professed destroyers terms
passed since they gave us this assurance.  Tre- of capitulation which they could be only entitled
ble that number have been employed; and one to as the makers of fair and honorable war.
of your armies, which composed two thirds of    My Lords, I should not have presumed to
the force by which America was to be subdued, trouble you, if the tremendous state of this nation
has been totally destroyed, and is now led cap- did not, in my opinion, make it necessary.  Such
tive through those provinces you call rebellious. as I have this day described it to be, I do mainThose men whom you called cowards, poltroons, tain it is.  The same measures are still persistrunaways, and knaves, are become victorious ed in; and ministers, because your Lordships
over your veteran troops; and, in the midst of  have been deluded, deceived, and misled, previctory, and the flush of conquest, have set min- sume that, whenever the worst comes, they will
isters an example of moderation and magnanim- be enabled to shelter themselves behind Parliaity well worthy of imitation.                    ment.  This, my Lords, can not be the case.
My Lords, no time should be lost which may  They have committed  themselves and their
promise to improve this disposition in America, measures to the fate of war, and they must abide
unless, by an obstinacy founded in madness, we  the issue.  I tremble for this country.  I am alwish to stifle those embers of affection which, most led to despair that we shall ever be able to
after all our savage treatment, do not seem, as extricate ourselves.  At any rate, the day of retyet, to have been entirely extinguished.  While  ribution is at hand, when the vengeance of a
on one side we must lament the unhappy fate of  much-injured and afflicted people will, I trust,
that spirited officer, Mr. Burgoyne, and the gal- fall heavily on the authors of their ruin; and I
lant troops under his command, who were sacri- am strongly inclined to believe, that before the
ficed to the wanton temerity and ignorance of  day to which the proposed adjournment shall arministers, we are as strongly compelled, on the rive, the noble earl who moved it will have just
other, to admire and applaud the generous, mag- cause to repent of his motion.
nanimous conduct, the noble friendship, brotherly
affection, and humanity of the victors, who, con-    This appeal was unavailing.  The motion to
descending to impute the horrid orders of mas- adjourn was carried by a vote of 47 to 18.
LAST SPEECH
OF LORD CHATHAM, DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS, APRIL 7, 1778.
INTRODUCTION.
AFTER the delivery of the preceding speech, Lord Chatham continued to decline in health, and would
probably never have appeared again in the House of Lords, had not a measure been proposed, against
which he felt bound to enter a public remonstrance, even at the hazard of his life. Ignorant of the real
state of feeling in America, he thought the colonies might be still brought back to their former allegiance
and affection, if their wrongs were redressed. He learned, therefore, "with unspeakable concern," that
his fiiend the Duke of Richmond was about to move an address to the King, advising his Majesty to
make a peace involving American independence, which Lord Chatham thought would be the ruin of his
country. On the 7th of April, 1778, therefore, the day appointed for the Duke of Richmond's motion, he
came to Westminster, and refreshed himself for a time in the room of the Lord Chancellor, until he learned that business was about to commence. " He was then led into the House of Peers," says his biographer, " by his son, the Honorable William Pitt, and his son-in-law, Lord Mahon. He was dressed in a rich
suit of black velvet, and covered up to the knees in flannel. Within his large wig, little more of his countenance was seen than his aquiline nose, and his penetrating eye, which retained all its native fire. He
looked like a dying man, yet never was seen a figure of more dignity. He appeared like a being of a
superior species. The Lords stood up and made a lane for him to pass to his seat, while, with a gracefulness of deportment for which he was so eminently distinguished, he bowed to them as he proceeded.
Having taken his seat, he listened with profound attention to the Duke of Richmond's speech."
After Lord Weymouth had replied in behalf of the ministry, Lord Chatham rose with slowness and difficulty from his seat, and delivered the following speech. It is very imperfectly reported, and is interesting chiefly as showing " the master spirit strong in death;" for he sunk under the effort, and survived only
a few days. Supported by his two relations, he lifted his hand from the crutch on which he leaned, raised
it up, and, casting his eyes toward heaven, commenced as follows:




142               LORD CHATHAM'S LAST SPEECH ON AMERICA.                                [1778.
SPEECH, &c.
I THANK God that I have been enabled to  ish Armada, now fall prostrate before the house
come here to-day-to perform  my duty, and  of Bourbon?  Surely, my Lords, this nation is
speak on a subject which is so deeply impressed  no longer what it was!  Shall a people that
on my mind.  I am old and infirm.  I have one  seventeen years ago was the terror of the world,
foot-more than one foot-in the grave.  I have  now stoop so low as to tell its ancient inveterate
risen from my bed to stand up in the cause of  enemy, Take all we have, only give us peace?
my country-perhaps never again to speak in  It is impossible!
this House.                                       I wage war with no man or set of men.  I
[" The reverence, the attention, the stillness wish for none of their employments; nor would
of the House," said an eye-witness, " were here  I co-operate with men who still persist in unremost affecting: had any one dropped a handker- tracted error, or who, instead of acting on a firm,
chief, the noise would have been heard."        decisive line of conduct, halt between two opinAs he proceeded, Lord Chatham spoke at first ions, where there is no middle path.  In God's
in a low tone, with all the weakness of one who  name, if it is absolutely necessary to declare eiis laboring under severe indisposition.  Gradu- ther for peace or war, and the former can not be
ally, however, as he warmed with the subject, preserved with honor, why is not the latter comhis voice became louder and more distinct, his menced without delay? I am not, I confess, well
intonations grew  more commanding, and his informed as to the resources of this kingdom, but
whole manner was solemn and impressive in  I trust it has still sufficient to maintain its just
the highest degree.  He went over the events rights, though I know them not.  But, my Lords,
of the American war with that luminous and  any state is better than despair.  Let us at least
comprehensive survey for which he was so much  make one effort, and, if we must fall, let us fall
distinguished in his best days.  He pointed out like men!
the measures he had condemned, and the results he had predicted, adding at each stage,    When Lord Chatham had taken his seat, Lord
as he advanced, " And so it proved!  And so it Temple remarked to him, " You have forgotten
proved!"  Adverting, in one part of his speech, to mention what we have been talking about.
to the fears entertained of a foreign invasion, he  Shall I get up?"  " No," replied Lord Chatham,
recurred to the history of the past: " A Spanish  " I will do it by-and-by."
invasion, a French invasion, a Dutch invasion,   Lord Richmond replied to Lord Chatham,
many noble Lords must have read of in history; telling him that the country was in no condition
and some Lords" (looking keenly at one who sat to continue the war; and that, even if he himnear him, with a last reviving flash of his sar- self were now (as formerly) at the head of afcastic spirit), "some Lords may remember a fairs, his name, great as it was, could not repair
Scotch invasion!"  He could not forget Lord  the shattered fortunes of the country. Lord ChatMansfield's defense of American taxation, and  ham listened with attention, but gave indications,
the measures of Lord Bute, which had brought at times, both by his countenance and his gesdown the country to its present degraded state, tures, that he felt agitated or displeased.
from the exalted position to which he had raised    When the Duke of Richmond had ended his
it during his brief but splendid administration. speech, Lord Chatham made a sudden and strenHe then proceeded in the following terms:] My  uous attempt to rise, as if laboring under the
Lords, I rejoice that the grave has not closed  pressure of painful emotions..He seemed eager
upon me; that I am  still alive, to lift up my  to speak; but, after repeated efforts, he suddenly
voice against the dismemberment of this ancient pressed his hand on his heart, and sunk down in
and most noble monarchy!  Pressed down as I convulsions.  Those who sat near him caught
am by the hand of infirmity, I am little able to  him in their arms.  His son William Pitt, then
assist my country in this most perilous conjunc- a youth of seventeen, who was standing without
ture; but, my Lords, while I have sense and  the bar, sprang forward to support him.  It is
memory, I will never consent to deprive the off- this moment which Copley has chosen for his
spring of the royal house of Brunswick, the heirs picture of the death of Lord Chatham.  " Hisof the Princess Sophia, of their fairest inherit- tory," says an able writer, "has no nobler scene
ance.  I will first see the Prince of Wales, the  to show than that which now occupied the House
Bishop of Osnaburgh, and the other rising hopes of Lords.  The unswerving patriot, whose long
of the royal family, brought down to this con- life had been devoted to his country, had striven
mittee, and assent to such an alienation.  Where  to the last.  The aristocracy of the land stood
is the man who will dare to advise it? My Lords, around, and even the brother of the sovereign
his Majesty succeeded to an empire as great in  thought himself honored in being one of his supextent as its reputation was unsullied.  Shall porters; party enmities were remembered no
we tarnish the luster of this nation by an igno- more; every other feeling was lost in admiraminious surrender of its rights and fairest pos- tion of the great spirit which seemed to be passsessions?  Shall this great nation, that has sur- ing away from among them."  He was removed
vived, whole and entire, the Danish depredations, in a state of insensibility from the House, and carthe Scottish inroads, the Norman conquest-that ried to Hayes, where he lingered a few days, and
has stood the threatened invasion of the Span- died on the 11th of May, 1778, aged seventy.




LORD MANSFIELD.
WILLIAM MURRAY, first Earl of Mansfield, was born at Scone Castle, near Perth, in
Scotland, on the 2d of March, 1705. He was the fourth son of Lord Stormont, head
of an ancient but decayed family, which had been reduced to comparative poverty by a
long course of extravagance. The title having been conferred by James I., Lord Stormont, like his predecessors, remained true to the cause of the Stuarts. His second son,
Lord- Dunbar, was private secretary to the Pretender.
William was sent to London for his education at a very early age; and hence Johnson used sportively to maintain, that his success in after life ought not to be put to the
credit of his country, since it was well known that " much might be made of a Scotchman if he was caught young."  Not a little, however, had been done for William be
fore he left the grammar-school of Perth. Though but fourteen years old, he could read
quite freely in the Latin classics; he knew a large part of Sallust and Horace by heart;
and was able not only to write Latin correctly, but to speak it with accuracy and ease.
It is not surprising, therefore, considering his native quickness of mind, that within a
year after he joined Westminster school, he gained its highest distinction, that of being
chosen one of the King's scholars.  He soon stood as " dux," or leader of the school;
and, at the end of four years, after a rigorous examination, was put first on the list of
those who were to be sent to Oxford, on the foundation at Christ Church.  His choice
had for some time been firmly fixed upon the law as a profession; and nothing could so
gratify his feelings or advance his interests as to enter the University.  But the straitened circumstances of his father seemed to forbid the thought; and he was on the point
of giving up his most ardent wishes in despair, when a casual conversation with a young
friend opened the way for his being placed at Oxford, with an honorable provision for
his support. Lord Foley, father of the friend referred to, having heard of his superior
abilities, and his strong attachment to the law, generously offered to assist him with
the requisite means, to be repaid only in the event of his succeeding in after life.
During his residence at Oxford, he gave himself to study with that fervor and diligence for which he was always distinguished, quickened by a sense of the responsibilities
he had incurred, and by a fixed resolve to place himself at the head of his profession.
He made every thing subservient to a preparation for the bar; and while, in the spirit of
that university, he studied Aristotle with delight as the great master of reasoning and
thought, he devoted his most earnest efforts to improvement in oratory. He read every
thing that had been written on the principles of the art; he made himself familiar with
all the great masters of eloquence in Greece and Rome, and spent much of his time in
translating their finest productions as the best means of improving his style. ICicero
was his favorite author; and he declared, in after life, that there was not one of his..
orations which he had not, while at Oxford, translated into English, and, after an interval, according to the best of his ability, re-translated into Latin.
Having taken his degree at the age of twenty-two, he entered on the study of the
law at Lincoln's Inn in 1727.  His labors were now conducted on the broadest scale.
While law had the precedence, he carried on the practice of oratory with the utmost
zeal. To aid him in extemporaneous speaking, he joined a debating society, where the
most abstruse legal points were fully discussed. For these exercises, he prepared himself beforehand with such copiousness and accuracy, that the notes he used proved
highly valuable in after life, both at the bar and on the bench.  He found time, also,
to pursue his historical studies to such an extent, that Lord Gampbell speaks of his fa



144                             LORD MANSFIELD.
miliarity with modern history as " astounding and even appalliSng, for it produces a
painful consciousness of inferiority, and creates remorse for time misspent." When
called to the bar in 1730, "he had made himself acquainted not only with international law, but with the codes of all the most civilized nations, ancient and modern;
he was an elegant classical scholar; he was thoroughly imbued with the literature of
his own country; he had profoundly studied our mixed constitution; he had a sincere
desire to be of service to his country; and he was animated by a noble aspiration after
honorable fame."
When he first came to London as a boy in Westminster school, he was introduced
by his countryman, Lord Marchmont, to Mr. Pope, then at the height of his unrivaled
popularity. The poet took a lively interest in the young Scotchman, attracted not only
by the quickness of his parts and the fineness of his maimers and person, but by " the
silvery tones of his voice," for which he continued to be distinguished to the end of
life. Mr. Pope entered with the warmest concern into all his employments, and as
sisted especially in his rhetorical studies during his preparation for the bar. One day.
says his biographer, he was surprised by a friend, who suddenly entered the room, in
"the act of practicing before a glass, while Pope sat by to aid him in the character of an
instructor!"  Their friendship continued throughout life; and in a new edition of the
Dunciad Mr. Pope introduced his name, with that of other distinguished men, complaining that law and politics should have drawn them off from the more congenial pursuits
of literature.
"Whate'er the talents and howe'er designed,
We hang one jingling padlock on the mind.
A poet the first day he dips his quill;
And what the last? a very poet still.
Pity the charm works only in our wall,
Lost-too soon lost-in yonder House or Hall:
There truant Wyndham ev'ry muse gave o'er;
There Talbot sank, and was a wit no more;
How sweet an Ovid, MURRAY, was our boast!
How many Martials were in Pulteney lost!"
Some years elapsed after Mr. Murray's call to the bar before he had any business of
importance; and then, after a few successful cases, it poured in upon him to absolute
repletion.  " From a few hundred pounds a year," said he, " I found myself in the receipt of thousands." Retainers came in from every quarter; and one of a thousand
guineas was sent by Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, with that ostentatious munificence
which she sometimes affected. Nine hundred and ninety-five guineas were returned
by Mr. Murray, with the significant remark that "a retaining fee was never more nor
less than five guineas."  He found her a very troublesome client.  Not unfrequently
she made her appearance at his chambers after midnight, crowding the street with her
splendid equipage and her attendants with torches; and on one occasion when he was
absent, his clerk, giving an account of her visit the next morning, said, " I could not
make out, sir, who she was, for she would not tell me her name; but she swore so
dreadfully that she must have been a lady of quality!"
Soon after the fall of Sir Robert Walpole in 1742, Mr. Murray was appointed Solicitor General, and elected a member of Parliament through the influence of the Duke of
Newcastle. His powerful talents were needed for the support of the new administration, which was suffering under the vehement attacks of Mr. Pitt. Here commenced
that long series of conflicts which divided for life the two most accomplished orators of
the age. It could not be otherwise, for never were two men more completely the antipodes of each other.  Pitt was a Whig; Murray was a High Tory.  Pitt was ardent, open, and impetuous; Murray was cool, reserved, and circumspect. The intellect of Pitt was bold and commanding; that of Murray was subtle, penetrating, and




LORD MANSFIELD.                                 145
refined.  Pitt sought power; Murray, office and emolument.  Two such men could
not but diffir; and differing as they did for life, it was natural that the one should distrust or despise, and the other fear, perhaps hate. In native talent, it would be difficult to say which had the advantage; but the mind of Murray was more perfectly
trained, and his memory enriched with larger stores of knowledge.  "In closeness of
argument," says an able writer, " in happiness of illustration, in copiousness and grace
of diction, the oratory of Murray was unsurpassed: and, indeed, in all the qualities
which conspire to form an able debater, he is allowed to have been Pitt's superior.
When measures were attacked, no one was better capable of defending them; when
reasoning was the weapon employed, none handled it with such effect; but against
declamatory invective, his very temperament incapacitated him for contending with so
much advantage.  He was like an accomplished fencer, invulnerable to the thrusts of
a small sword, but not equally able to ward off the downright stroke of a bludgeon."
In 1754 Mr. Murray was appointed Attorney General, and soon after made leader
of the House of Commons under the Duke of Newcastle.  "At the beginning of the
session," says Horace Walpole, " Murray was awed by Pitt; but, finding himself supported by Fox, he surmounted his fears, and convinced the House, and Pitt too, of his
superior abilities. Pitt could only attack, Murray only defend. Fox, the boldest
and ablest champion, was still more forward'o worry-bt  tekleenness of his saber
was blunted by the difficulty with which he drew it from the scabbard-I mean, the
hesitation and ungracefulness of his delivery took off from the force of his arguments.
Murray, the brightest genius of the three, had too much and too little of the lawyer 
he refined too much and could wrangle too little for a popular assembly."  We have
seen already, in the life of Lord Chatham, what difficulties Murray had to encounter
that session in sustaining the ministry of Newcastle, and the crushing force with
which he was overwhelmed by his opponent.  In 1756 he resolved to endure it no
longer, and on the death of Sir Dudley Ryder he demanded the office of Chief Justice of the King's Bench. Newcastle refused, remonstrated, supplicated. " The writ
for creating Murray," he declared, "would be the death-warrant of his own administration."  He resisted for several months, offering the most tempting bribes, including
a pension of ~6000 a year, if he would only remain in the House until the new session was opened, and the address voted in reply to the King's speech.  Murray declared, in the most peremptory terms, that he would not remain " a month or a day
even to support the address;" that "he never again would enter that assembly."
Turning with indignation to Newcastle, he exclaimed, "What merit have I, that you
should lay on this country, for which so little is done with spirit, the additional burden of ~6000 a year;" and concluded with declaring his unalterable determination,
if he was not made Chief Justice, to serve no longer as Attorney General.  This
brought Newcastle to a decision. On the 8th of November, 1756, Murray was sworn
in as Chief Justice, and created a peer with the title of Baron Mansfield.  At a later
period he was raised to the earldom.
In entering on his new career, he was called upon to take public leave of his associates of Lincoln's Inn. On that occasion he was addressed in an elegant speech by
the Honorable Charles Yorke.  The reader will be interested in Mr. Murray's reply,
as showing with what admirable dignity and grace he could receive the compliments
bestowed upon him, and turn them aside in favor of another.
"I am too sensible, sir, of my being undeserving of the praises which you have so elegantly
bestowed upon me, to suffer commendations so delicate as yours to insinuate themselves into my
mind; but I have pleasure in that kind of partiality which is the occasion of them. To deserve
such praises is a worthy object of ambition, and from such a tongue flattery itself is pleasing.
" If I have had, in any measure, success in my profession, it is owing to the great man who
has presided in our highest courts of judicature the whole time I attended the bar.1 It was imi Lord Hardwicke, father of Mr. Yorke.
K




146                               LORD MANSFIELD.
possible to attend to him, to sit under him every day, without catching some beams from his light.
The disciples of Socrates, whom I will take the liberty to call the great lawyer of antiquity, since
the first principles of all law are derived from his philosophy, owe their reputation to their having
been the reporters of the sayings of their master.  If we can arrogate nothing to ourselves, we
can boast the school we were brought up in; the scholar may glory in his master, and we mav
challenge past agesto show us his equal.  My Lord Bacon had the same extent of thought, and
the same strength of language and expression, but his life had a stain. My Lord Clarendon had
the same ability, and the same zeal for the Constitution of his country, but the civil war prevented
his laying deep the foundations of law, and the avocations of politics interrupted the business of the
chancellor.  My Lord Somers came the nearest to his character, but his time was short, and
envy and faction sullied the luster of his glory.  It is the peculiar felicity of the great man I am
speaking of to have presided very near twenty years, and to have shone with a splendor that has
risen superior to faction and that has subdued envy.
" I did not intend to have said, I should not have said so much on this occasion, but that in this
situation, with all that hear me, what I say must carry the weight of testimony rather than appear the voice of panegyric.
"For you, sir, you have given great pledges to your country; and large as the expectations
of the public are concerning you, I dare say you will answer them.
" For the society, I shall always think myself honored by every mark of their esteem, affection,
and friendship; and shall desire the continuance of it no longer than while I remain zealous foi
the Constitution of this country and a friend to the interests of virtue."
Lord Mansfield now entered on that high career of usefulness which has made his
name known and honored throughout the civilized world.  Few men have ever been
so well qualified for that exalted station. He had pre-eminently a legal intellect,
great clearness of thought, accuracy of discrimination, soundness of judgment, and
strength of reasoning, united to a scientific knowledge of jurisprudence, a large experience in all the intricacies of practice, unusual courtesy and ease in the dispatch of
business, and extraordinary powers of application.   He came ~o the bench, not like
most lawyers, trusting to his previous knowledge and the aid afforded by counsel in
forming his decisions, but as one who had just entered on the real employment of his.life. " On the day of his inauguration as Chief Justice, instead of thinking that he.had won the prize, he considered himself as only starting in the race."
How he discharged the duties of his high station, it belongs especially to men of his
own profession to determine. One fact, however, may stand in the place of many
authorities. Out of the thousands of cases which he decided in the Court of King's
Bench, there were only two in which his associates of that court did not unanimously
agree with him in opinion.  Yet they were, as all the world knows, men of the highest ability and the most perfect independence of mind., Junius, indeed, assailed him
with malignant bitterness, but it is the universal decision of the bar that his charges
were false as they were malignant. Against this attack we may set off the opinion
of Chief Justice Story.  " England and America, and the civilized world, lie under the
deepest obligations to him. Wherever commerce shall extend its social influences;
wherever justice shall be administered by enlightened and liberal rules; wherever
contracts shall be expounded upon the eternal principles of right and wrong; wherever moral delicacy and judicial refinement shall be infused into the municipal code,
at once to persuade men to be honest and to keep them so; wherever the intercourse
of mankind shall aim at something more elevated than that groveling spirit of barter,
in which meanness, and avarice, and fraud strive for the mastery over ignorance,
credulity, and folly, the name of Lord Mansfield will be held in reverence by the
good and the wise, by the honest merchant, the enlightened lawyer, the just statesman,
and the conscientious judge.  The proudest monument of his fame is in the volumes
of Burrow, and Cowper, and Douglas, which we may fondly hope will endure as long
as the language in which they are written shall continue to instruct mankind.  His
judgments should not be merely referred to and read on the spur of particular occasions, but should be studied as models of juridical reasoning and eloquence."
As a speaker in the House of Lords, the success of Lord Mansfield was greater than




LORD MANSFIELD.                               147
in the House of Commons.  The calmness and dignity of the assembly were better
suited to his habits of thought. Here, after a few years, he had again to encounter
his great antagonist, who was raised to the same dignity in 1766.  As Chatham
was the advocate.of the..people's. rights, Mansfield was the champion of the King's
prerogative.  He defended the Stamp Act, and maintained the right of Parliament
to tax the Americans as being virtually represented in the House of Commons.  A
speech on that subject, corrected by himself, is given below.  Lord Campbell, notwithstanding his strong predilections as a Whig, does not hesitate to pronounce it
unanswerable.  His speech in favor of taking away thie protection extended to the
servants of peers is the most finished of his productions, and will also be found in
this volume.  To these will be added his argument in the case of the Chamberlain of London vs. Allan Evans, which has often been spoken of as the most perfect
specimen of juridical reasoning in our language. His address from the bench, when
surrounded by a mob, during the trial of the outlawry of Wilkes, will also form part
of the extracts.
After discharging his duties as Chief Justice nearly thirty-two years, he resigned
his office on the 4th of June, 1788. His faculties were still unimpaired, though his
strength was gone; and he continued in their unclouded exercise nearly five years
longer, when he died, after an illness of ten days, on the 20th of March, 1793, in
the eighty-ninth year of his age.
" The countenance of Lord Mansfield," says a friend and contemporary, " was uncommonly beautiful, and none could ever behold it, even in advanced years, without
reverence.  Nature had given him an eye of fire; and his voice, till it was affected
by the years which passed over him, was perhaps unrivaled in the sweetness and
variety of its tones.  There was a similitude between his' action and that of Mr.'Garriek. -In speaking from the bench, there was sometimes a confusion in his periods, and a tendency to involve his sentences in parentheses,; yet, such was the
charm of his voice and action, and such the general beauty, propriety, and force of
his expressions, that, while he spoke, allthese defects passed unnoticed."
The eloquence of Lord Mansfield, especially in his best speeches in the House of
Lords, was that of a judge rather than an advocate or a party leader. He had the
air of addressing the House of Lords, according to the theory of that body, as one
who spoke uyon honor.  He sought not to drive, but to lead; not to overwhelm the
mind by appeals to the passions, but to aid and direct its inquiries; so that his
hearers had the satisfaction of seeming, at least, to form their own conclusions. He
was peculiarly happy in his statement of a case.  " It was worth more," said Mr.
Burke, "than any other man's argument."  Omitting all that was unnecessary, he
seized, with surprising tact, on the strong points of a subject; he held them steadily before the mind; and, as new views opened, he led forward his hearers, step by
step, toward the desired result, with almost the certainty of intuitive evidence. "It
was extremely difficult," said Lord Ashburton, "to answer him when he was wrong,
and impossible when he was in the right." His manner was persuasive, with enough
of force and animation to secure the closest attention.' His illustrations were always
apposite, and sometimes striking and beautiful. His language, in his best speeches,
was select and graceful; and his whole style of speaking approached as near as possible to that dignified conversation which has always been considered appropriate to
the House of Lords.




SPEECH
OF LORD MANSFIELD ON THE RIGHT OF TAXING AMERICA, DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS,
FEBRUARY 3,1766.
INTRODUCTION.
IN January, 1776, a bill was brought into the House of Commons, under Lord Rockingham's ministry,
for the repeal of the American Stamp Act; and in order to mollify the King, who was opposed to that
measure, it was accompanied by a Declaratory Act, affirming that "Parliament had full power and right
to make laws of sufficient force to bind the colonies."  Lord Chatham, then Mr. Pitt, remarked with severity on this Declaratory Act when before the Commons. Lord Camden did the same when it came before
the House of Lords, February 3d, 1766. He said, "In my opinion, my Lords, the Legislature have no
right to make this law. The sovereign authority, the omnipotence of the Legislature, is a favorite doctrine; but there are some things which you can not do. You can not take away a man's property without
making him a compensation. You have no right to condemn any man by bill of attainder without hearing him. But, though Parliament can not take any man's private property, yet every subject must make
contribution; and this he consents to do by his representative. Notwithstanding the King, Lords, and
Commons could in ancient times tax other persons, they could not tax the clergy." He then went on to
consider the case of the counties palatine of Wales and of Berwick, showing that they were never taxed
till they sent representatives to the House of Commons, observing that the Irish tax themselves, and that
the English Parliament could not tax them. " But," said he, "even supposing the Americans have no
exclusive right to tax themselves, it would be good policy to give it to them, instead of offensively exerting a power which you ought never to have exercised. America feels that she can do better without us
than we can do without her."
Lord Northington, the Chancellor, made some coarse and bitter remarks in reply; and Lord Mansfield
then rose to defend his favorite doctrine of the right of Great Britain to tax the colonies. His speech is
by far the most plausible and argumentative one ever delivered on that side of the question; and Lord
Campbell, in referring to the subject, says, "Lord Mansfield goes on with great calmness, and with argumuents to which I have never been able to find an answer, to deny, as far as the pooer is concerned, the
distinction between a law to tax and a law for any other purpose."' -The speech was corrected for the
press by Lord Mansfield, and may therefore be relied on as authentic.
SPEECH, &c.
MY  LORDS,-I shall speak to the question  but I never was biased by any consideration of
The question strictly as a matter of right' for it is  applause from without, in the discharge of my
et expedi-' a proposition in its nature so perfectly  public duty; and, in giving my sentiments acoecy..;.. distinct from  the expediency of the  cording to what I thought law, I have relied
tax, that it must necessarily be taken separate,  upon my own consciousness.  It is with great
if there is any true logic in the world; but of  pleasure I have heard the noble Lord who moved
the expediency or inexpediency I will say noth-  the resolution express himself in so manly and
ing. It will be time enough to speak upon that  sensible a way, when he recommended a dissubject when it comes to be a question,         passionate debate, while, at the same time, he
I shall also speak to the distinctions which  urged the necessity of the House coming to such
have been taken, without any real difference, as  a resolution, with great dignity and propriety of
to the nature of the tax.; and I shall point out, argument.
lastly, the necessity there will be of exerting the    I shall endeavor to clear away from the quesforce of the superior authority of government, if tion, all that mass of dissertation and Refutation of
opposed by the subordinate part of it.          learning displayed in arguments which argLome.t.
I am extremely sorry that the question has  have been fetched from  speculative records and
ever become necessary to be agitated, and that men who have written upon the sub- practices.
there should be a decision upon it.  No one in  ject of government, or from ancient records, as
this House will live long enough to see an end  being little to the purpose.  I slhll insist that
put to the mischief which will be the result of  these records are no proofs of our present Con-U
the doctrine which has been inculcated; but the  stitution.  A noble Lord has taken up his ararrow is shot, and the wound already given.  I  gument from the settlement of the Constitution
shall certainly avoid personal reflections.  No  at the Revolution; I shall take up my argument
(me has had more cast upon him than myself;  from the Constitution as it now is. The Consti_. _ - ~ —~~ —~~-~-~__        tution of this country has been always in a movLives of the Chancellors. v., 206.    ing state, either gaining or losing something,




1766.]                LORD MANSFIELD  ON TAXING  AMERICA.                                    149
and with respect to the modes of taxation, when  of Spain; they were states dependent upon the
we get beyond the reign of Edward the First, house of Austria in a feudal dependence. Nothor of King John, we are all in doubt and obscu- ing could be more different from  our colonies
rity. The history of those times is full of uncer- than that flock of men, as they have been called,
tainties.  In regard to the writs upon record, who came from the North, and poured into Eu.
they were issued some of them according to law, rope.  Those emigrants renounced all laws, all
and some not according to law; and such [i. e., protection, all connection with their mother counof the latter kind] were those concerning ship- tries.  They chose their leaders, and marched
money, to call assemblies to tax themselves, or under their banners to seek their fortunes and
to compel benevolences. Other taxes were rais- establish new kingdoms upon the ruins of the
ed from escuage, fees for knights' service, and  Roman empire.
by other means arising out of the feudal system.    But our colonies, on the contrary, emigrated
Benevolences are contrary to law; and it is well under the sanction of the Crown and Direct Argu
known how people resisted the demands of the  Parliament.   They were  modeled melt.l-  Tlhe
Crown in the case of ship-money, and were per- gradually into their present forms, ted by charter,
and therefore
secuted by the Court; and if any set of men  respectively, by charters, grants, and dependent on
were to meet now to lend the King money, it statutes; but they were never sep- Great Britain.
would be contrary to law, and a breach of the  arated from the mother country, or so emancirights of Parliament.                            pated as to become sui juris.  There are sevI shall now answer the noble Lord particular- eral sorts of colonies in British America.  The
ly upon the cases he has quoted.  With respect charter colonies, the proprietary governments,
to the Marches of Wales, who were the border- and the King's colonies. The first colonies were
ers, privileged for assisting the King in his war the charter colonies, such as the Virginia Cornagainst the Welsh in the mountains, their enjoy- pany) and these companies had among their diing this privilege of taxing themselves was but rectors members of the privy council and of both
of a short duration, and during the life of Ed- houses of Parliament; they were under the auward the First, till the Prince of Wales came to  thority of the privy council, and had agents resibe the King; and then they were annexed to  dent here, responsible for their proceedings.  So
the Crown, and became subject to taxes like the  much were they considered as belonging to the
rest of the dominions of England; and from  Crown, and not to the King personally (for there
thence came the custom, though unnecessary, is a great difference, though few people attend
of naming Wales and the town of Monmouth in  to it), that when the two Houses; in the time of
all proclamations and in acts of Parliament.  Charles the First, were going to pass a bill conHenry the Eighth was the first who issued writs cerning the colonies, a message was sent to them
for it to return two members to Parliament.  by the King that they were the King's colonies,
The Crown exercised this right ad libitum. from   and that the bill was unnecessary, for that the
whence arises the inequality of representation in  privy council would take order about them; and
our Constitution at this day. Henry VIII. issued  the bill never had the royal assent.  The Coma writ to Calais to send one burgess to Parlia- monwealth Parliament, as soon as it was settled,
ment.  One of the counties palatine (I think he  were very early jealous of the colonies separating
said Durham) was taxed fifty years to subsidies, themselves from them; and passed a resolution
before it sent members to Parliament. The cler- or act (and it is a question whether it is not in
gy were at no time unrepresented in Parliament. force now) to declare and establish the authority
When they taxed themselves, it was done with  of England over its colonies.
the concurrence and consent of Parliament, who    But if there was no express law, or reason
permitted them to. tax themselves upon their pe- founded upon any necessary infer- a. They lhve
tition, the Convocation sitting at the same time  ence from  an express law. yet the nsbmitted to
with the Parliament.  They had, too, their rep- usage alone would be sufficient to and tlis acresentatives always sitting in this House, bish- support that authority; for, have not heir depndops and abbots; and, in the other House, they  the colonies submitted  ever since ece.
were at no time without a right of voting singly  their first establishment to the jurisdiction of the
for the election of members; so that the argu- mother country?  In all questions of property,
ment fetched from the case of the clergy is not the appeals from the colonies have been to the
an argument of any force, because they were at privy council here; and such causes have been
no time unrepresented here.                      determined. not by the law of the colonies, but by
The reasoning about the colonies of Great the law of England.  A very little while ago,
Thecolonies Britain, drawn from  the colonies of there was an appeal on a question of limitation
of antiqa   antiquity, is a mere useless display  in a devise of land with remainders; and, notpoint,-    of learning; for the colonies of the  withstanding the intention of the testator appearTyrians in Africa, and of the Greeks in Asia, ed very clear, yet the case was determined conwere totally different from our system.  No na- trary to it, and that the land should pass accordtion before ourselves formed any regular system  ing to the law of England.  The colonies have
of colonization, but the Romans; and their sys- been obliged to recur very frequently to the jutem was a military one, and of garrisons placed  risdiction here, to settle the disputes among their
in the principal towns of the conquered provin- own governments.  I well remember several
ces.  The states of Holland were not colonies references on this head, when the late Lord




150                               LORD MANSFIELD ON                                    [1766
Hardwicke was attorney general, and Sir Clem- has been ultimately to fix the trade of the coloent Wearg solicitor general.  New Hampshire  nies, so as to center in the bosom of that country
and Connecticut were in blood about their differ- from whence they took their original. The Navences; Virginia and Maryland were in arms igation Act shut up their intercourse with foragainst each other.  This shows the necessity  eign countries.  Their ports have been made
of one superior decisive jurisdiction, to which all subject to customs and regulations which have
subordinate jurisdictions may recur.  Nothing, cramped and diminished their trade.,And dumy Lords, could be more fatal to the peace of  ties have been laid, affecting the very inmost
the colonies at any time, than the Parliament parts of their commerce, and, among others, that
giving up its authority over them; for in such a  of the post; yet all these have been submitted
case, there must be an entire dissolution of gov- to peaceably, and no one ever thought till now
ernment.  Considering how  the colonies are  of this doctrine, that the colonies are not to be
composed, it is easy to foresee there would be taxed, regulated, or bound by Parliament.  A
no end of feuds and factions among the several few particular merchants were then, as now, disseparate governments, when once there shall be pleased at restrictions which did not permit themno one government here or there of sufficient to make the greatest possible advantages of their
force or authority to decide their mutual differ- commerce in their own private and peculiar
ences; and, government being dissolved, nothing  branches.  But, though these few  merchants
remains but that the colonies must either change  might think themselves losers in articles which
their Constitution, and take some new form of  they had no right to gain, as being prejudicial to
government, or fall under some foreign power. the general and national system, yet I must obAt present the several forms of their Constitution  serve, that the colonies, upon the whole, were
are very various, having been produced, as all benefited by these laws.  For these restrictive
governments have been originally, by accident laws, founded upon principles of the most solid
and circumstances.  The forms of government policy, flung a great weight of naval force into
in every colony were adopted, from time to time, the hands of the mother country, which was
according to the size of the colony; and so have  to protect its colonies.  Without a union with
been extended again, from time to time, as the  her, the colonies must have been entirely weak
numbers of their inhabitants and their commer- and defenseless, but they thus became relatively
cial connections outgrew the first model.  In  great, subordinately, and in proportion as the
some colonies, at first there was only a governor mother country advanced in superiority over the
assisted by two or three counsel; then more  rest of the maritime powers in Europe; to which
were added; afterward courts of justice were  both mutually contributed, and of which both
erected; then assemblies were created.  Some  have reaped a benefit, equal to the natural and
things were done by instructions from the secre- just relation in which they both stand reciprotaries of state; other things were done by order cally, of dependency on one side, and protection
of the King and council; and other things by  on the other.
commissions under the great seal.  It is observ-    There can be no doubt, my Lords, but that
able, that in consequence of these establishments the inhabitants of the colonies are as 4. The colonies
are virtually
from  time to time, and of the dependency of  much represented in Parliament, as rep.reseent in
these governments upon the supreme Legislature  the greatest part of the people of En- Parliament.
at home, the lenity of each government in the  gland are represented; among nine millions of
colonies has been extreme toward the subject; whom there are eight which have no votes in
and a great inducement has been created for electing members of Parliament.  Every objecpeople to come and settle in them.  But, if all tion, therefore; to the dependency of the colonies
those governments which are now independent upon Parliament, which arises to it upon the
of each other, should become independent of the  ground of representation, goes to the whole presmother country, I am afraid that the inhabitants ent Constitution of Great Britain; and I suppose
of the colonies are very little aware of the con- it is not meant to new model that too.  People
sequences.  They would feel in that case very  may form speculative ideas of perfection, and insoon the hand of power more heavy upon them  dulge their own fancies or those of other men.
in their own governments, than they have yet Every man in this country has his particular no..
done, or have ever imagined.                   tion of liberty; but perfection never did, and
The Constitutions of the different colonies are never can exist in any human institution.  To
3. The laws to thus made up of different principles. what purpose, then, are arguments drawn from a
which they sub- They must remain dependent, from  distinction, in which there is no real differencewitted affected   
their pecuniary the necessity of things, and their re- of a virtual and actual representation?  A memint   lations to the jurisdiction of the moth- ber of Parliament, chosen for any borough, reper country; or they must be totally dismembered  resents not only the constituents and inhabitants
fiom it, and form a league of union among them- of that particular place, but he represents the
selves against it, which could not be effected inhabitants of every other borough in Great
without great violences.  No one ever thought Britain.  He represents the city of London, and
the contrary till the trumpet of sedition was all other the commons of this land, and the inblown. Acts of Parliament have been made,.not habitants of all the colonies and dominions of
only without a doubt of their legality, but with  Great Britain; and is, in duty and conscience,
universal applause, the great object of which  bound to take care of their interests.




1766.]                              TAXING  AMERICA.                                       151
I have mentioned the customs and the post tax. Masaniello was mad.  Nobody doubts it; yet.
5h      This leads me to answer another dis- for all that, he overturned the government of
tion of external tinction, as false as the above; the  Naples.  Madness is catching in all popular
and internal                               ti
taxation is a   distinction of internal and external assemblies and upon all popular matters.  The
f.lae one.
e o  taxes.  The noble Lord who quoted  book is full of wildness.  I never read it till a
so much law, and denied upon those grounds the  few days ago, for I seldom look into such things.
right of the Parliament of Great Britain to lay  I never was actually acquainted with the coninternal taxes upon the colonies, allowed at the  tents of the Stamp Act, till I sent for it on pursame time that restrictions upon trade, and du- pose to read it before the debate was expected.
ties upon the ports, were legal.  But I can not With respect to authorities in another House, I
see a real difference in this distinction; for I know nothing of them.  I believe that I have
hold it to be true, that a tax laid in any place is not been in that House more than once since I
like a pebble falling into and making a circle in  had the honor to be called up to this; and, if I
a lake,'till one circle produces and gives motion  did know  any thing that passed in the other
to another, and the whole circumference is agi- House, I could not, and would not, mention it as
tated from the center.  For nothing can be more  an authority here.  I ought not to mention any
clear than that a tax of ten or twenty per cent. such authority.  I should think it beneath my
laid upon tobacco, either in the ports of Virginia  own and your Lordships' dignity to speak of it.
or London, is a duty laid upon the inland plant-    I am far from bearing any ill will to the Amerations of Virginia, a hundred miles from the sea, icans;, they are a very good people, and I have
wheresoever the tobacco grows.                  long known them.  I began life with them, and
I do not deny but that a tax may be laid in- owe much to them, having been much concerned
judiciously and injuriously, and that people in  in the plantation causes before the privy counsuch a case may have a right to complain.  But cil; and so I became a good deal acquainted
the nature of the tax is not now the question; with American affairs and people.  I dare say.
whenever it comes to be one, I am for lenity. their heat will soon be over, when they come to
I would have no blood drawn.  There is, I am  feel a little the consequences of their opposition
satisfied, no occasion for any to be drawn.  A  to the Legislature.  Anarchy always cures itlittle time and experience of the inconveniences  self; but the ferment will continue so miluch the
and miseries of anarchy, may bring people to  longer, while hot-headed men there find that
their senses.                                  there are persons of weight and character to
With respect to what has been said or written  support and justify them here.
Mr.Otisbook. upon this subject, I differ from  the    Indeed, if the disturbances should continue for
noble Lord, who spoke of Mr. Otis a great length of time, force must be Force must 1,
and his book with contempt, though he maintain- the consequence, an application ad-   an cfts ei^
ed the same doctrine in some points, while in  equate to the mischief, and arising tine.
others he carried it farther than Otis himself, out of the necessity of the case; for force is only
who allows every where the supremacy of the  the difference between a superior and subordinCrown over the colonies."  No man, on such a  ate jurisdiction.  In the former, the whole force
subject, is contemptible.  Otis is a man of con- of the Legislature resides collectively, and when
sequence among the people there.  They have  it ceases to reside, the whole connection is dischosen him for one of their deputies at the Con- solved.  It will, indeed, be to very little purpose
gress and general meeting from the respective  that we sit here enacting laws, and making resgovernments.  It was said, the man is mad. olutions, if the inferior will not obey them, or if'
What then?  One madman often makes many. we neither can nor dare enforce them; for then,
and then, I say, of necessity, the matter comes
2 The celebrated James Otis is here referred to, to the sword.  If the offspring are grown too
who in 1764 published a pamphlet, which was re- big and too resolute to obey the parent, you must
printed in England, entitled The Rights of the Brit- try which is the strongest, and exert all the powish Colonies. In this pamphlet, while he admitted  ers of the mother country to decide the contest.
the supremacy of the Crown over the colonies, he    I am satisfied, notwithstanding, that time and
strenuously maintained, with Lord Chatham, that  
alnaA raest.     a wise and steady conduct may pre- Examples of
as long as America remained unrepresented in the   opuar disHouse of Commons, Parliament had no right to tax  vent those extremities    ch would      n
the colonies.                                   be fatal to both.  I remember well ersubjects.
Mr. Otis, who was a manof fervid eloquence, ex- when it was the violent humor of the times to
pressed himself so strongly respecting the rights of decry standing armies and garrisons as dangerAmerica, that some persons (as Lord Mansfield men- ous, and incompatible with the liberty of the subtions) treated him as a madman. There is a speech ject.  Nothing would do but a regular militia.
(to be found in most of our collections of eloquence) The militia are embodied  they march; and no
which bears his name, and begins, " England may sooner was the militia law thus put into execuas well dam up the waters of the Nile with bulrush-                                   i   ab
&c  It fr  ap-]  2  tlon, but it was then said to be an intolerable
es, as fetter the step of freedom," &c. It first appeared in a work entitled The Rebels, written by                 subject, and that t would fall
Mrs. Child, and was designed as a fancy sketch, like sooner or later, into the hands of the Crown.
the speeches put by Mr. Webster into the mouth of That was the language, and many counties peAdams and Hancock, in his oration on the death of titioned against it.  This may be the case with
John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.                the colonies.  In many places they begin already




152                              LORD MANSFIELD ON                                    [1766.
to feel the effects of their resistance to govern- writer refers never passed, and Lord Hale. only
ment.  Interest very soon divides mercantile  said, that, if it had passed, the Parliament might
people; and, although there may be some mad, have abdicated their right.
enthusiastic, or ill-designing people in the colo-    But, my Lords, I shall make this application
nies, yet I am convinced that the greatest bulk, of it.  You may abdicate your right over the
who have understanding and property, are still colonies.:.Take' care, my Lords, how you do so;
well affected to the mother country.  You have, for such'an act will be irrevocable.  Proceed,
my Lords, many friends still in the colonies; then, my Lords, with spirit and firmness; and,
and take care that you do not, by abdicating  when you shall have established your authority,
your own authority, desert them and yourselves, it will then be a time to show your lenity. The
and lose them forever.                         Americans, as I said before, are a very good peoIn all popular tumults, the worst men bear the  pie, and I wish them exceedingly well; but they
sway at first.  Moderate and good men are often  are heated and inflamed.  The noble Lord who
silent for fear or modesty, who, in good time, spoke before ended with a prayer.  I can not
may declare themselves.  Those who have any  end better than by saying to it, Amen; and in
property to lose are sufficiently alarmed already  the words of Maurice, prince of Orange, conat the progress of these public violences and viola- cerning the Hollanders, "God bless this industions, to which every man's dwelling, person, and  trious, frugal, and well-meaning, but easily-deproperty are hourly exposed.  Numbers of such  luded people."
valuable men and good subjects are ready and
willing to declare themselves for the support of
government in due time, if government does not    The Stamp Act was repealed, and the Defling away its own authority.                  claratory Act, thus advocated by Lord Mans-' My Lords, the Parliament of Great Britain  field, was also passed by a large majority.
has its rights over the colonies; but it may abdicate its rights.                                As Lord Campbell has pronounced the above
There was a thing which I forgot to mention. argument unanswerable, it may interest the young
Notice ofa   I mean, the manuscript quoted by  reader to know how it was actually answered by
ord HlPtes,  the noble Lord.  He tells you that the Americans, and why they denied the right
tchddbeod it is there said, that, if the act con- of Parliament to lay internal taxes upon them.
amden.    cerning Ireland had passed, the Par-    1. They owed their existence not to Parlialiament might have abidicated its rights as to  ment, but to the Crown.  The King, in the exIreland.  In the first place, I heartily wish, my  ercise of the high sovereignty then conceded to
Lords, that Ireland had not been named, at a time  him, had made them  by charter complete civil
when that country is of a temper and in a situ- communities, with Legislatures of their own havation so difficult to be governed; and when we  ing power to lay taxes and do all other acts which
have already here so much weight upon our were necessary to their subsistence as distinct
hands, encumbered with the extensiveness, va- governments.  Hence,
riety, and importance of so many objects in a    2. They stood substantially on the same footvast and too busy empire, and the national sys- ing as Scotland previous to the Union.  Like her
tem shattered and exhausted by a long, bloody, they were subject to the Navigation Act, and
and expensive war, but more so by our divisions similar regulations touching the external relaat home, and a fluctuation of counsels.  I wish  tions of the empire; and like her the ordinary
Ireland, therefore, had never been named.      legislation of England did not reach them, nor
I pay as much respect as any man to the  did the common law any farther than they chose
memory of Lord Chief Justice Hale; but I did  to adopt it.  Hence, 
not know that he had ever written upon the sub-    3. They held themselves amenable in their
ject; and I differ very much from thinking with  internal concerns, not to Parliament, but to the
the noble Lord, that this manuscript ought to be Crown alone. It was to the King in council or to
published.  So far am I from it, that I wish the his courts, that they made those occasional refermanuscript had never been named; for Ireland  ences and appeals, which Lord Mansfield endeavis too tender a subject to be touched.  The case  ors to draw into precedents.  So " the post tax"
of Ireland is as different as possible from that of spoken of above, did not originate in Parliament,
-our colonies.  Ireland was a conquered country; but in a charter to an individual which afterward:it had its pacta conventa and its regalia.  But reverted to the Crown, and it was in this way'to what purpose is it to mention the manuscript? alone that the post-office in America became conIt is but the opinion of one man.  When it was nected with that of England.  It was thus that
written, or for what, particular object it was thb Americans answered the first three of Lord
written, does not appear. It might possibly be  Mansfield's direct arguments (p. 149-50). Their
only a work of youth, or an exercise of the un- charters made them dependent not on Parliament,
derstanding, in sounding and trying a question  but on the Crown; and their submission to Enproblematically.  All people, when they first glish authority, much as it involved their pecunienter professions, make' their collections pretty  ary interests, was rendered only to the latter.
early in life; and the manuscript may be of that Weak as they were, the colonists had sometimes
sort.  However, be it what it may, the opinion  to temporize, and endure an occasional overis but problematical; for the act to which the  reaching by Parliament. It was not always easy




1766.]                             TAXING  AMERICA.                                        153
to draw the line between the laws of trade, to  this Lord Mansfield could only reply, as he does
which they held themselves subject, and the  in his fourth direct argument (p. 150).  " Amergeneral legislation of Parliament.  But they  ica is virtually represented in the House of Conconsidered it clear that their charters exempted  mons."  But this, as Lord Campbell admits, is
them from the latter, giving it to their own Leg- idle and false.  A virtual representation there
islatures. -See Massachusetts State Papers, p. may be of particular classes (as of minors and
351. On this ground, then, they denied the right females), who live interningled in the same conof Parliament to tax them.  It is a striking fact munity with those who vote; but a virtual repin confirmation of these views, as mentioned by  resentation of a whole people three thousand
Mr. Daniel Webster, that the American Decla- miles off, with no intermingling of society or inration of Independence does not once refer to the terests, is beyond all doubt "an absurdity in
British Parliament. They owed it no allegiance, terms."  The idea is contrary to all English
their only obligations were to the King; and  usage in such cases.  When the Scotch were
hence the causes which they assigned for break- incorporated with the English in 1705, they were
ing off from the British empire consisted in his not considered as " virtually represented" in the
conduct alone, and in his confederating with oth- English Parliament, but were allowed to send
-ers in "pretended acts of legislation."         representatives of their own.  It was so, also,
They had, however, a second argument, that with Wales, Chester, and Durham, at an earlier
from long-continued usage.  Commencing their period.  Nothing, in fact, could be more adverse
existence as stated above, the British Parliament to the principles of the English Constitution than
had never subjected them  to internal taxation. the idea of the " virtual representation" of three
When this was attempted, at the end of one hund- millions of people l'ivig" a the distance of three
red and fifty years, they used the argument of thousand miles from the body of English electors.
Mr. Burke, "You were not WONT to do these things But if not virtually represented, the Americans
from  the beginning;" and while his inference  were not represented at all.  A bill giving away
was, " Your taxes are inexpedient and unwise,"  their property was, therefore, null and void-as
theirs was, "' You have no right to lay them."  much so as a bill would be if passed by the House
Long-continued usage forms part of the English  of Lords, levying taxes on the Commons of EnConstitution.  Many of the rights and privileges gland.  Under the English Constitution, repreof the people rest on no other foundation; and a sentation of some kind is essential to taxation.
usage of this kind, commencing with the very    Lord Mansfield's last argument (p. 151) is,
existence of the colonies, had given them the ex- that " the distinction between external and inclusive right of internal taxation through their ternal taxation is a false one."  According to
own Legislatures, since they maintained their in- him, as Parliament, in carrying out the Navigastitutions at their own expense without aid from  tion Act, laid external taxes affecting the colonies,
the mother country.  To give still greater force  Parliament was likewise authorized to lay internto this argument, the Americans appealed to the  al taxes upon them.  The answer is given by
monstrous consequences of the contrary supposi- Mr. Burke.  The duties referred to were simply
tion.  If, as colonies, after supporting their own  incidental to the Navigation Act.  They were
governments, they were liable to give England  used solely as instruments of carrying it out, of
what part she chose of their earnings to support checking trade and directing its channels. They
her government-one twentieth, one tenth, one had never from the first been regarded as a means
half each year, at her bidding —they were no  of revenue.  They stood, therefore, on a footing
longer Englishmen, they were vassals and slaves. entirely different from that of internal taxes, which
When George the Third, therefore, undertook to  were " the gift and grant of the Commons alone."
lay taxes in America and collect them  at the  The distinction between them was absolute and
point of the bayonet, he invaded their privileges, entire; and any attempt to confound them, and
he dissolved the connection of the colonies with  to take money on this ground from those who are
the mother country, and they were of right fiee. not represented in Parliament, was subversive of
A third argument was that of Lord Chathamn. the English Constitution.]
" Taxation," said his Lordship, " is no part of the    Such were the arguments of the Americans;
governing or legislative power."  A tax bill, and the world has generally considered them as
from the very words in which it is framed, is "a  forming a complete answer to the reasonings of
gift and grant of the Commons alone," and the Lord Mansfield.
concurrence of the Peers and Crown is only necessary to give it the form  of law.  " When,   1 The reader will find this distinction fully drawn
therefore, in this House," said his Lordship, "we  out in Mr. Burke's S-eech on American Taxation,
give and grant, we give and grant what is our         49, 5. He there shows, that during the
own.  But in an American tax what do we do? whole operation of the Navation Laws, dow  to
We, youl- Majesty's Conimons for Great Britain. 1764, " a parliamentary revenue thence was never
giv  an  gran. tor ynMaet-?' once in contemplation; that'the words which disgive and grant to your Majesty-What?  Our ting uish revenue laws. specifically as such, were
own property?  No. We give and grant to your premeditatedly avoided;" and that all duties of this
Majesty the property of your Majesty's subjects kind previous to that period, stood on the ground of
in America!  It is an absurdity in terms!' To  mere " commercial regdulation and restraint."




194             LORD MANSFIELD WHEN SURROUNDED BY A MOB.                                  [1768.
SPEECH
OF LORD MANSFIELD WHEN SURROUNDED BY A MOB IN THE COURT OF THE KING'S BENCH, ON
A TRIAL RESPECTING THE OUTLAWRY OF JOHN WILKES, ESQ., DELIVERED JANUARY 8, 1768.
INTRODUCTION.
IN 1764, Mr. Wilkes was prosecuted for a seditious libel upon the King, and for an obscene and impious
publication entitled an Essay on Women. Verdicts were obtained against him under both these prosecutions, and, as he had fled the country, and did not appear to receive sentence, he was outlawed in the
sheriffs court for the county of Middlesex on the 12th of July, 1764. In 1768 he returned to England, and
applied to the Court of the King's Bench for a reversal of the outlawry; alleging, among other things, that
the sheriff's writ ofexegent was not technically correct in its wording, since he merely described the court
as "my county court," whereas he ought to have added a description of the place, viz., "of Middlesex."
Mr. Wilkes was now the favorite of the populace. Tumultuous meetings were held in his behalf in various parts of the metropolis; riots prevailed to an alarming extent; the Mansion House of the Lord
Mayor was frequently assailed by mobs; members of Parliament were attacked or threatened in the
streets; and great fears were entertained for the safety of Lord Mansfield and the other judges of the
Court of the King's Bench during the trial. On the 8th of June, 1768, the decision was given, the court
being surrounded by an immense mob, waiting the result in a highly excited state. Under these circumstances, Lord Mansfield, after reading his decision for a time, broke off suddenly, and, turning from the case
before him, addressed to all within the reach of his voice a few words of admonition, in which we can not
admire too much the dignity and firmness with which he opposed himself to the popular rage, and the perfect willingness he showed to become a victim, if necessary, for the support of law.
SPEECH, &c.
BUT here let me pause.                        for that prosecution.  We did not advise or asIt is fit to take some notice of various terrors  sist the defendant to fly from justice; it was his
being out-the numerous crowds which have at-  own act, and he must take the consequences.
tended and now attend in and about the hall, out None of us have been consulted or had any thing
of all reach of hearing what passes in court, and  to do with the present prosecution.  It is not in
the tumults which, in other places, have shame- our power to stop it; it was not in our power
fully insulted all order and government. Auda- to bring it on. We can not pardon. We are to
cious addresses in print dictate to us, from those  say what we take the law to be.  If we do not
they call the people, the judgment to be given  speak our real opinions, we prevaricate with
now, and afterward upon the conviction.  Rea-  God and our own consciences.
sons of policy are urged, from  danger in the    I pass over many anonymous letters I have
kingdom by commotions and general confusion.  received.  Those in print are public, and some
Give me leave to take the opportunity of this  of them have been brought judicially before the
great and respectable audience to let the whole  court.  Whoever the writers are, they take the
world know all such -attempts are vain.  Unless  wrong way!  I will do my duty unawed. What
we have been able to find an error which bears  am I to fear?  That "mendax infamia" [lying
us out to reverse the outlawry, it must be affirm-  scandal] from the press, which daily coins false
ed. The Constitution does not allow reasons of  facts and false motives?  The lies of calumny
state to influence our judgments: God forbid it carry no terror to me.  I trust that the temper
should!  We must not regard political conse- of my mind, and the color and conduct of my
quences, how formidable soever they might be. life, have given me a suit of armor against these
If rebellion was the certain consequence, we are  arrows. If during this King's reign I have ever
bound to say, "Fiat justitia, ruat celum."2  The  supported his government, and assisted his nmeasConstitution trusts the King with reasons of state  ures, I have done it without any other reward
and policy. He may stop prosecutions; he may  than the consciousness of doing what I thought
pardon offenses; it is his to judge whether the  right.  If I have ever opposed, I have done it
law or the criminal shall yield.  We have no  upon the points themselves, without mixing in
election.  None of us encouraged or approved  party or faction, and without any collateral
the commission of either of the crimes of which  views.  I honor the King and respect the peothe defendant is convicted. None of us had any  pie; but many things acquired by the favor of
hand in his being prosecuted.  As to myself, I  either are, in my account, objects not worthy of
took no part (in another place) in the addresses  ambition. I wish popularity, but it is that popularity which follows, not that which is run aftFrom Burrow's Reports, iv., 2561.            er.  It is that popularity which, sooner or later,
2 Be justice done, though heaven in ruirs fall.  never fails to do justice to the pursuit of noble




i169.]            LORD MANSFIELD  IN THE CASE OF EVANS.                                      165
ends by noble means.  I will not do that which  nothing that can happen, will weigh a feather
my conscience tells me is wrong upon this occa-  against allowing the defendant, upon this and
sion, to gain the huzzas of thousands, or the  every other question, not only the whole advantdaily praise of all the papers which come from   age he is entitled to from  substantial law and
the press.  I will not avoid doing what I think  justice, but every benefit from the most critical
is right, though it should draw on me the whole  nicety of form which any other defendant could
artillery of libels-all that falsehood and malice  claim under the like objection. The only effect
can invent, or the credulity of a deluded popu- I feel is an anxiety to be able to explain the
lace can swallow. I can say with a great mag- grounds on which we proceed, so as to satisfy
istrate, upon an occasion and under circumstan-  all mankind " that a flaw of form given way to
ces not unlike, " Ego hoc animo semper fui, ut in this case, could not have been got over in any
invidiam virtute partam, gloriam  non invidiamn, other."
putarem."3
The threats go farther than abuse-personal
violence is denounced.  I do not believe it.  It    Lord Mansfield now resumed the discussion
is not the genius of the worst of men of this  of the case, and stated in respect to the insercountry, in the worst of times.  But I have set tion of the qualifying phrase "of Middlesex,"
my mind at rest. The last end that can happen  mentioned above, that " a series of authorities,
to any man never comes too soon, if he falls in  unimpeached and uncontradicted, have said such
support of the law and liberty of his country (for  words are formally necessary; and such authorliberty is synonymous with law and government). ity, though begun without law, reason, or comSuch a shock, too, might be productive of pub- mon sense, ought to avail the defendant."  He
lie good. It might awake the better part of the  therefore (with the concurrence of the other
kingdom  out of that lethargy which seems to  judges) declared a reversal; adding, "I beg to
have benumbed them, and bring the mad part be understood, that I ground my opinion singly
back to their senses, as men intoxicated are  on the authority of the cases adjudged; which,
sometimes stunned into sobriety.                as they are on the favorable side, in a criminal
Once for all, let it be understood, that no en- case highly penal, I think ought not to be dedeavors of this kind will influence any man who  parted from."
at present sits here.  If they had any effect,    This reversal, however, did not relieve Mr.
it would be contrary to their intent; leaning  Wilkes from the operations of the verdicts alagainst their impression might give a bias the  ready mentioned.  Ten days after, Mr. Justice
other way.  But I hope and I know that I have  Yates pronounced the judgment of the court, senfortitude enough to resist even that weakness. tencing him  to be imprisoned for twenty-two
No libels, no threats, nothing that has happened, months, and to pay a fine of one thousand pounds.
SPEECH
OF LORD MANSFIELD IN THE CASE OF THE CHAMBERLAIN OF LONDON AGAINST ALLAN EVANS,
ESQ., DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS, FEBRUARY 4, 1769.
INTRODUCTION.
THIS case affords a striking example of the abuses which spring up under a religious establishment.
The city of London was in want of a new mansion house for the Lord Mayor, and resolved to build one
on a scale of becoming magnificence. But, as the expense would be great, some ingenious churchmen
devised a plan for extorting a large part of the money out of the Dissenters, who had for a number of years
been growing in business and property, under the protection of the Toleration Act. The mode was this.
A by-law of the city was passed, imposing a fine of ~600 on any person who should be elected as sheriff
and decline to serve. Some wealthy individual was then taken from the dissenting body, and, by a concert among the initiated, was chosen to the office of sheriff. Of course he was not expected to serve, for
the Test and Corporation Acts rendered him incapable. He was, therefore, compelled to decline; and
was then fined ~600, under a by-law framed for the very purpose of extorting this money!i Numerous
appointments were thus made, and ~15,000 were actually paid in; until it came to be a matter of mere
sport to "roast a Dissenter," and bring another ~600 into the treasury toward the expenses of the mansion house.
At length Allan Evans, Esq., a man of spirit, who had been selected as a victim, resolved to try the
question. He refused to pay the fine, and was sued in the Sheriff's Court. Here he pleaded his rights
3 This is one of those sentences of Cicero, in his  who are not familiar with the original, the following
first oration against Catiline, which it is impossible  may give a conception of the meaning: Such have
to translate. Striking as the sentiment is, it owes  always been my feelings, that I look upon odium inmuch of its force and beauty to the fine antithesis  curred by the practice of virtue, not as odium, but as
with which it flashes upon the mind, and even to  the highest glory.
the paronomasia on the word invidiam, while its no-    l See Parliamentary History.
ble rhythmus adds greatly to the effect. To those




156                            LORD MANSFIELD  IN THE                                     [1767.
under the Toleration Act, but lost his cause. He appealed to the Court of Hustings, where the decision
was affirmed. He then appealed to the Court of Common Pleas, where judgment went in his favor; the
decisions of the courts below being unanimously reversed. The city now brought a writ of error through
their Chamberlain, and carried the case before the House of Lords. Here the subject was taken up by
Lord Mansfield, who, in common with all the judges but one, of the Court of the King's Bench, was of
opinion that Evans was protected by the Toleration Act, and exempted from the obligation to act as
sheriff. These views he maintained in the following speech, which had great celebrity at the time, and
is spoken of by Lord Campbell as "one of the finest specimens of forensic eloquence to be found in our
books.'2  It was published from notes taken by Dr. Philip Furneaux, "with his Lordship's consent and
approbation."  Though it has not, in every part, that perfection of style for whicf Lord Mansfield was
distinguished, it is certainly an admirable model of juridical eloquence, being equally remarkable for the
clearness of its statements, the force of its reasonings, and the liberal and enlightened sentiments with
which it abounds. It rises toward the close into a strain of indignant reprobation, and administers a terrible rebuke to the city of London for suffering its name to be connected with so despicable a system of
extortion.
SPEEC H, &c.
MY LORDS, —As I made the motion for taking  ant, therefore, a Dissenter, and in the eye of
the opinion of the learned judges, and proposed  this law a person dangerous and ill affected, is
the question your Lordships have been pleased  excluded from office, and disabled from serving.
to put to them, it may be expected that I should  Here they fail.
make some farther motion, in consequence of the    If they ground the action on their own byopinions they have delivered.                    law; that by-law was professedly made to proIn moving for the opinion of the judges, I had  cure fit and able persons to serve the office, and
two views.  The first was, that the House might the defendant is not fit and able, being expressly
have the benefit of their assistance in forming a  disabled by statute law.  Here, too, they fail.
right judgment in this cause now before us, upon    If they ground it on his disability's being owing
this writ of error.. The next was, that, the ques- to a neglect of taking the sacrament at church,
tion being fully discussed, the grounds of our when he ought to have done it, the Toleration
judgment, together with their exceptions, limita- Act having freed the Dissenters from all obligations, and restrictions, might be clearly and cer- tion to take the sacrament at church, the defendtainly known, as a rule to be followed hereafter  ant is guilty of no neglect-no criminal negin all future cases of the like nature; and this  lect.  Here, therefore, they fail.
determined me as to the manner of wording the    These points, my Lords, will appear clear and
question, " How far the defendant might, in the  plain.
present case, be allowed to plead his disability    II. The Corporation Act, pleaded by the dein bar of the action brought against him?"      fendant as rendering him ineligible to Intent and
The question, thus worded, shows the point this office, and incapable of taking it corp:trt,,f
upon which your Lordships thought this case  upon him, was most certainly intended Act.
turned; and the answer necessarily fixes, a cri- by the Legislature to prohibit the persons thereterion, under what circumstances, and by what In described being elected to any corporation
persons, such a disability may be pleaded as an  offices, and to disable them  fiom  taking such
exemption from the penalty inflicted by this by- offices upon them.. The act had two parts:
law, upon those who decline taking upon them   first, it appointed a commission for turning out
the office of sheriff..               all that were at that time in office, who would
In every view in which I have been able to  not comply with what was required as the conconsider this matter, I think this action can not dition of their continuance therein, and even
be supported.'              gave a power to turn them  out though they
I. If they rely on the Corporation Act; by the  should comply; and then it farther enacted,
Prelininary literal and express provision of that act, that, from  the termination of that commission,
view  rif the
grOunt1n rf no person can beelected who hath not no person    eafter, who had rot taken the sacargument. within a year taken the sacrament in  rament according to the rites of the Church of'
the Church of England.  The defendant hath  England within one year preceding the time of
not taken the sacrament within a year; he is such election, should be placed, chosen, or electnot, therefore, elected.  Here they fail.        ed into any office of, or belonging to, the governIf they ground it on the general design of the  ment of any corporation; and this was done, as
Legislature in passing the Corporation Act; the  it was expressly declared in the preamble to the
design was to exclude Dissenters from  office; act, in order to perpetuate the succession in cerand disable them  from serving.  For, in those  porations in the hands of persons well affected
times, when a spirit of intolerance prevailed: and  to government in church and state.
severe measures were pursued, the Dissenters    It was not their design (as hath been said) " to
were reputed and treated as persons ill affected  bring such persons into corporations by inducing
and dangerous to the government.  The defend- them  to take the sacrament in the Church of
England;" the Legislature did not mean to
2 Lives of the Chancellors, v., 287.     tempt persons who were ill affected to the gov



1767.]                              CASE OF EVANS.                                         157
ernment occasionally to conforms  It was not, I    Persecution for a sincere though erroneous
say, their design to bring them in.  They could  conscience is not to be deduced from reason or
not trust them, lest they should use the power the fitness of things.  It can only stand upon
of their offices to distress and annoy the state. positive law.
And the reason is alleged in the act itself.  It    IV. It has been said (1.) That " the Toleration
was because there were "evil spirits" among  Act only amounts to an exemption Refutation of
them; and they were afraid of evil spirits, and  of the Protestant Dissenters from the plaintiff's ardetermined to keep them out.  They therefore penaltis' of certain laws therein parput it out of the power of electors to choose  ticularly mentioned, and to nothing more; that,
such persons, and out of their power to serve; if it had been intended to bear, and to have any
and accordingly prescribed a mark or character, operation upon the Corporation Act, the Corpolaid down a description whereby they should be  ration Act ought to have been mentioned thereknown and distinguished by their conduct pre- in; and there ought to have been some enacting
vious to such an election.  Instead of appointing  clause, exempting Dissenters from prosecution
a condition of their serving the office, resulting  in consequence of this act, and enabling them to
from their future conduct, or some consequent plead their not having received the sacrament
action to be performed by them, they declared  according to the rites of the Church of England
such persons incapable of being chosen as had  in bar of such action."  But this is much too
not taken the sacrament in the Church within a  limited and narrow a conception of the Tolerayear before such election;. and, without this tion Act, which amounts consequentially to a
mark of their affection to the Church, they could  great deal more than this; and it hath consenot be in office, and there could be no election. quentially an inference and operation upon the
But as the law then stood, no man could have  Corporation Act in particular.  The Toleration
pleaded this disability, resulting from the Corpo- Act renders that which was illegal before, now
ration Act, in bar of such an action as is' now  legal.  The Dissenters' way of worship is perbrought against the defendant, because this dis- mitted and allowed by this act.  It is not only
ability was owing to what was then, in the eye  exempted from punishment, but rendered innoof the law, a crime; every man being required  cent and lawful.  It is established; it is put
by the canon law (received and confirmed by the  under the protection, and is not merely under
statute law) to take the sacrament in the Church  the connivarce of the law.  In case'those who
at least once a year.  The law would not then  are appointed by law to register dissenting places
permit a man to say that he had not taken the  of worship refuse on any pretense to do it, we
sacrament in the Church of England; and-he  must, upon application, send a mandamus to
could not be allowed to plead it in bar of any ac- compel them.
tion brought against him'. Now there can not be a plainer position than
III. But the case is quite altered since the Act that the law protects nothing in that very reEffect of the  Of Toleration.  It is now no crime  spect in which it is (in the eye of the law) at
oleration Act for a man, who is within the descrip- the same time a crime.   Dissenters, within the
tion of that act, to say he is a Dissenter; nor is description of the Toleration Act, are restored
it any crime for him not to take the sacrament to a legal consideration and capacity; and a
according to the rites of the Church of England; hundred consequences will from thence follow,
nay, the crime is, if he does it contrary to the  which are not mentioned in the act.  For indictates of his conscience.                     stance, previous to the Toleration Act, it was
If it is a crime not to take the sacrament at unlawful to devise any legacy for the support of
church, it must be a crime by some law; which  dissenting congregations, or for the benefit of
must be either common or statute law, the canon  dissenting ministers; for the law knew no such
law enforcing it being dependent wholly upon  assemblies, and no such persons; and such a de-'
the statute law.  Now the statute law is re- vise was absolutely void, being left to what the
pealed as to persons capable of pleading [tinder law called superstitious purposes. -But will it
the Toleration Act] that they are so and so  be said in any court in England that such a dequalified; and therefore the canon law is re- vise is not a good and valid one now?  And
pealed with regard to those persons.            yet. there is nothing' said oT this in the ToleraIf it is a crime by common law, it must be so  tion Act.  By thisact t'he Dissenters are freed,
either by usage.or principle.  But there is no  not only from the pains and penalties of the laws
usage or custom, independent of positive'law, therein particularly specified, but from all ecclewhich makes nonconformity a crime.  The eter- siastical censures, and from all penalty and punnal principles of natural religion are part of the  ishmnent whatsoever, on account of their noncommon law.  The essential principles of re- conformity, which is allowed and protected by
sealed religion are part of the common law; this act, and is therefore, in the eye of the law,
so that any person reviling, subverting, or ridi- no longer a crime.  No'w, if the defendant may
culing them, may be prosecuted at common law. say he is a Dissenter; if the law doth not stop
But it can not be shown, from the principles of  his mouth'; if he may declare that he hath not
natural or revealed religion, that, independent taken the sacrament according to the rites of the
of positive' law, temporal punishments ought to  Church of England, without being considered as
be inflicted for mere opinions with respect to  criminal; if, I say, his mouth is not stopped by
particular modes of worship.        -           the law, he may then plead his not having taken




158                          LORD MANSFIELD  IN THE                                    [1767.
the sacrament according to the rites of the Church  the shadow of an objection to his pleading vwhat
of England, in bar of this action.  It is such a  is an excuse-pleading a legal disqualification.
disability as doth not leave him liable to any ac- If he is nominated to be a justice of the peace,
tion, or to any penalty whatsoever.            he may say, I can not be a justice of the peace,
(2.) It is indeed said to be " a maxim in law, for I have not a hundred pounds a year.  In like
that a man shalldnotebeallowed^to disable.him- manner, a Dissenter may plead, " I have not qualself."  But, when this maxim is applied to the  ified, and I can not qualify, and am not obliged to
present case, it is laid down in too large a sense. qualify; and you have no right to fine me for
When it. is extended to comprehend a legal dis- not serving."''
ability, it is taken in too great a latitude. What!    (3.) It hati been said that " the King hath a
Shall not a man be allowed to plead that he is right to the service of all his subjects."  And
not fit and able?  These words are inserted in  this assertion is very true, provided it be propthe by-law, as the ground of making it; and in  erly qualified.  But surely, against the operation
the plaintiff's declaration, as the ground of his ac- of this general right in particular cases, a man
tion against the defendant.  It is alleged that the  may plead a natural or civil disability.  May
defendant was fit and able, and that he refused  not a man plead that he was" uipoi' the high seas?
to serve, not having a reasonable excuse.  It is  May not idiocy or lunacy be pleaded, which are
certain, and it is hereby in effect admitted, that if  natural disabilities; or a judgment of a court of
he is not fit and able, and that if he hath a rea- law, and much more a judgment of Parliament,
sonable excuse, he may plead it in bar of this ac- which are civil disabilities?.
tion.  Surely he might plead that he was not    (4.) It hath been said to be a maxim " that no
worth ec15,000, provided that was really the  man can plead his being a lunatic to avoid a
case, as a circumstance that would render him  deed executed, or excuse an act done, at that
not fit and able.  And if the law allows him to  time, because," it is said, " if he was a lunatic,
say that he hath not taken the sacrament accord- he could not remember any action he did during
ing to the rites of the Church of England, being  the period of his insanity;" and this was doctrine
within the description of the Toleration Act, he  formerly laid down by some judges.  But I am
may plead. that likewise to show that he is not fit glad to find that of late it hath been generally
and able. It is a reasonable, it is a lawful excuse. exploded.  For the reason assigned for it is, in
My Lords, the meaning of this maxim,." that my'opinion, wholly insufficient to support it; bea man shall not disable himself," is solely this: cause, though he could not remember what passthat a man shall not disable himself by his own  ed during his insanity, yet he might justly say,
willful crime; and such a disability the law will if he ever executed such a deed, or did such an
not allow him to plead.  If a man contracts to  action, it must have been during his confinement
sell an estate to any person upon certain terms at or lunacy, for he did not do it either before or
such a time, and in the mean time he sells it to  since that time.
another, he shall not be allowed to say, " Sir, I    As to the case in which a man's plea of incan not fulfill my contract; it is out of my power; sanity was actually set aside, it was nothing
I have sold my estate to another."  Such a plea  more than this: it was when they pleaded ore
would be no bar to-an action, because the act tenus [or verbally]; the man pleaded that he was
of his selling it to another is the very breach of  at the time out of his senses.  It was replied,
contract.  So, likewise, a man who hath prom- How do you know that you were out of your
ised marriage to one lady, and afterward marries senses?  No man that is so, knows himself to
another, can not plead in bar of a prosecution  be so.  And accordingly his plea was, upon this
from the first lady that he is already married, quibble, set aside; not because it was not a valid
because his marrying the second lady is the very  one, if he was out of his senses, but because
breach of promise to the first.  A man shall not they concluded he was not out of his senses.  If
be allowed to plead that he was drunk in'bar of  he had alleged that he was at that time cona criminal prosecution, though perhaps he was  fined, being apprehended to be out of his senses,
at the time as incapable of the exercise of reason  no advantage could have been taken of his manas if he had been insane, because his drunken- ner of expressing himself, and his plea must
ness was itself a crime.  He shall not be allow- have been allowed to be good.
ed to excuse one crime by another. The Roman    (5.) As to Larwood's case, he was not allowsoldier, who cut off his thumbs, was not suffered  ed the benefit of the Toleration Act, because he
to plead his disability for the service to procure  did not plead it.  If he had insisted on his right
his'dismission with impunity, because his inca- to the benefit of it in his plea, the judgment must
pacity was designedly brought on him by his have been different.  His inserting it in his repown willful fault.  And I am glad to observe so  lication was not allowed, not because it was not
good an agreement among the judges upon this  an allegation that would have excused him if it
point, who have stated it with great precision  had been originally taken notice of in his plea,
and clearness.  but because its being not mentioned till afterWhen it was said, therefore, that "a man can  ward was a departure from his plea.
not plead his crime in excuse for not doing what    In the case of the Mayor of Guilford, the Tolhe is by law required to do," it only amounts to  eration Act was pleaded.  The plea was allowthis, that he can not plead in excuse what, when  ed good, the disability being esteemed a lawful
pleaded, is no excuse; but there is not in this  one; and the judgment was right.;




17r67.]                             CASE OF EVANS.                                        159
And here the defendant hath likewise insisted  in their verdict.  If a man then alleges he is a
on his right to the benefit of the Toleration Act. Dissenter, and claims the protection and the adIn his plea he saith he is bona fide a Dissenter, vantages of the Toleration Act, a jury may
within the description of the Toleration Act; justly find that he is not a Dissenter within the
that he hath taken the oaths, and subscribed the  description of the Toleration Act, so far as to
declaration required by that act, to show that he render his disability a lawful one.  If he takes
is not a popish recusant; that he hath never re-  ie sacrament  for his interest, the jury may
ceived the sacrament according to the rites of  fairly conclude that this scruple of conscience is
the Church of England, and that he can not in *a false pretense when set up to avoid a burden.
conscience do it; and that for more than fifty    The defendant in the present case pleads that 
years past he hath not been present at church  he is a Dissenter within the description of the
at the celebration of the established worship, but Toleration Act; that he hath not taken the sachath constantly received the sacrament and at- rament in the Church of England within one
tended divine service among the Protestant Dis- year preceding the time of his supposed elecsenters.  These facts are not denied by the tion, nor ever in his whole life; and that he can
plaintiff, though they might easily have been  not in conscience do it.?
traversed;. and it was incumbent upon. them to    Conscience is not controllable by human laws,
have done it, if they had not known they should  nor amenable to human tribunals.  Persecution,
certainly fail in it.  There can be no doubt, or attempts to force conscience, will neverprotherefore that the defendant is a Dissenter-an  duce conviction, and are only calculated to make
honest, conscientious Dissenter; and no oonscien- hypocrites or martyrs.
tious Dissenter can take the sacrament at church.    V. My Lords, there never was a single inThe defendant saith he can not do it, and he is stance, from the Saxon times down to Concluding
not obliged to do it.  And as this is the case, as our own, in which a man was ever observations.
the law allows him to say this, as it hath not punished for erroneous opinions concerning rites
stopped his mouth, the plea which he makes is or modes of worship, but upon some positive
a lawful plea, his disability being through no law.  The common law of England, which is
crime or fault of his own. (I say, he is disabled  only common reason or usage, knows of no prosby act of Parliament, without the concurrence or ecution for mere opinions.  For atheism, blasintervention of any fault or crime of his own; phemy, and reviling the Christian religion, there
and therefore he may plead this disability in bar have been instances of persons prosecuted and
of the present action.)                        punished upon the common law. But bare non-'
(6.) The case of "atheists and infidels" is out conformity is no yin by the common law; and
of the present question; they come not within  all positive laws inflicting any pains or penalties
the description of the Toleration Act.  And this for nonconformity to the established rites and
is the sole point to be inquired into in all cases modes, are repealed by the Act of Toleration,
of the like natuie with that of the defendant, who  and Dissenters are thereby exempted from all
here pleads the Toleration Act.  Is the man  ecclesiastical censuresl
bona fide a Dissenter within the description of    What bloodshed and confusion have been octhat act?  If not, he can not plead his disability  casioned, from  the reign of Henry the Fourth,
in consequence of his not having taken the sac- when the first penal statutes were enacted, down
rament in the Church of England.  If he is, he tq the revolution in this.kingdom, by laws made
may lawfully and with effect plead it in bar of to force conscience! There is nothing, certainly,
such an action; and the question on which this more unreasonable, more inconsistent with the
distinction is grounded must be tried by a jury.  rights of human nature, more contrary to the
(7.) It hath been said that " this being a mat- spirit and precepts of the Christian religion, more
ter between God and a man's own conscience, it iniquitous and unjust, more impolitic, than percan not come under the cognizance of a jury."  secution.  It is against natural religion, revealed
But certainly it may; and, though God alone is religion, and sound policy. 
the absolute judge of a man's religious profes-    Sad experience and a large mind taught that
sion and of his conscience, yet there are some  great man, the President De Thou, this doctrine.
marks even of sincerity, among which there is Let any man read the many admirable things
none more certain than consistency.  Surely a  which, though a Papist, he hath dared to adman's sincerity may be judged of by overt acts. vance upon the subject, in. the dedication of his
It is a just and excellent maxim, which will hold  History to Harry the Fourth of France, which I
good in this, as in all other cases, "by their never read without rapture, and he will be fully
fruits ye shall know them;"  Do they, I do not convinced, not only how cruel, but how impolisay go to meeting now and then, but do they  tic it is to prosecute for religious opinions.  I
frequent the meeting-house?  Do they join gen- am sorry that of late his countrymen have begun
erally and statedly in divine worship with dis- to open their eyes, see their error, and adopt his
senting congregations?  Whether they do or sentiments.  I should not have broken my heart
not, may be ascertained by their neighbors, and  (I hope I may say it without breach of Christian
by those who frequent the same places of wor- charity) if France had continued to cherish the
ship.  In case a man hath occasionally con- Jesuits and to persecute the Huguenots.3
formed for the sake of places of trust and profit;
in that case, I imagine, a jury would not hesitate   3 This is a most dexterous preparation for the cut



160                               LORD  MANSFIELD ON                                      [1770.
There was no occasion to revoke the Edict of.The professed design of making this by-law
Nantes.  The Jesuits needed only to have ad-  was to get fit and able persons to serve the
vised a plan similar to what is contended for office; and the plaintiff sets forth in his declarain the present case, Make a law to render them  tion, that, if the Dissenters are excluded, they
incapable of office, make another to punish them  shall want fit and able persons to serve the
for not serving.  If they accept, punish them  office.  But, were I to deliver my own suspi-:
(for it is admitted on all hands that the defend- cion, it would be, that they did not so much wish
ant, in the cause before your Lordships, is pros- for their services as their fines.  Dissenters have
ecutable for taking the office upon him)-'-if they  been appointed to this office, one who was blind,
accept, punish them; if they refuse, punish them. another who was bed-ridden; not, I suppose, on
If they say yes, punish them; if they say no, account of their being fit and able to serve the
punish themn    My Lords, this is a most exqui- office.  No: they were disabled both by nature
site dilemma, from which there is no escaping. and by law.
It is a trap a man can not get out of; it is as    We had a case lately in the courts below, of
bad persecution as that of Procrustes.'Of they  a person chosen mayor of a corporation while
are too short, stretch them; if they are too long, he was beyond seas with his Majesty's troops in
lop them> Small would have been their consola-  America, and they knew  him  to be so.  Did
tion to have been gravely told, "The Edict of  they wanthim to serve the office?  No; it was
Nantes is kept inviolable.  You have the full impossible.  But they had a mind to continue
benefit of that act of toleration; you may take  the former mayor a year longer, and to have a
the sacrament in your own way with impunity;  pretense for setting aside him  who was now
you are not compelled to go to mass."  Were  chosen, on all future occasions, as having been
this case but told in the city of London, as of a  elected before.
proceeding in France, how would they exclaim    iIn the case before your Lordships, the defendagainst the Jesuitical distinction?  And yet, in  ant was by law incapable at the time of his pretruth, it comes from themselves.  The Jesuits  tended election; and it is my firm  persuasion
never thought of it.  When they meant to per- that he was chosen because he was incapable.
secute by their act of toleration, the Edict of  If he had been capable, he had not been chosen,
Nantes was repealed.                             for they did not want him to serve the office.
This by-law, by which the Dissenters are to  They chose him because, without a breach of
be reduced to this wretched dilemma, is a by-law  the law, and a usurpation on the Crown, he could
of the city, a local corporation, contrary to an  not serve the office.  They chose him, that he
act of Parliament, which is the law of the land; might fall under the penalty of their by-law,
i modern by-law of a very modern date, made  made to serve a particular purpose; in opposilong since the Corporation Act, long since the  tion to which, and to avoid the fine thereby imToleration Act, in the face of them, for they  posed, he hath pleaded a legal disability, groundknew these laws were in being.  It was made  ed on two acts of Parliament.  As I am ofopinin some year in the reign of the late King-I  ion that his plea is good, 1 conclude with moving
forget which; but it was made about the time  your Lordships,
of building the mansion house!!  Now, if it    "That the judgment be affirmed."
"could be supposed the city have a power of making such a by-law, it would entirely subvert the
Toleration Act, the design of which was to ex-    The judgment was accordingly affirmed, and
empt the Dissenters from all penalties; for by  an end put to a system of extortion so mean and
such a by-law  they have it in their power to  scandalous, that it seems difficult to understand,
make every Dissenter pay a fine of six hundred  at the present day, how an English community
pounds, or any sum they please, for it amounts  could have endured, or English courts have upto that.                                         held, it for a single hour.
S PEECH
OF LORD MANSFIELD ON A BILL TO DEPRIVE PEERS OF THE REALM OF CERTAIN PRIVILEGES,
DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS, MAY 8, 1770.
INTRODUCTION.
THIS speech is the best specimen extant of Lord Mansfield's parliamentary eloquence. It has that
felicity of statement and clearness of reasoning for which he was so much distinguished, connected with
an ardor and elevation of sentiment, that give-double force to every argument he uses. The style is uncommonly chaste and polished. It has a conversational ease, and yet entire dignity throughout, which
have made it the favorite of all who love pure and simple English.
ting rebuke which follows. Nothing could be more of Popish cruelty, than to be thus held out to the
mortifying to the citizens of London, among whom  world as more cruel and Jesuitical than the detested
the fires of Smithfield had left a traditional horror persecutors of the French Huguenots.




770.]              DEPRIVING  PEERS OF CERTAIN  PRIVILEGES.                                 161
SPEECH, &c.
MY LORDS,-When I consider the importance  der it self-evident.  It is a proposition of that
of this bill to your Lordships, I am not surprised  nature that can neither be weakened by arguit has taken so much of your consideration.  It ment, nor entangled with sophistry.  Much, inis a bill, indeed, of no common magnitude.  It is deed, has been said by some noble Lords on the
no less than to take away from two thirds of the  wisdom of our ancestors, and how differently they
Legislative body of this great kingdom, certain  thought from.us.  They not only decreed thai
privileges and immunities of which they have  privilege should prevent all civil suits from probeen long possessed.  Perhaps there is no situ- ceeding during the sitting of Parliament, but likeation the human mind can be placed in, that is  wise granted protection to the very servants of
so difficult, and so trying, as where it is made a  members.  I shall say nothing on the wisdom of
judge in its own cause. There is something im- our ancestors.  It might perhaps appear invidplanted in the breast of man so attached to itself, ious, and is not necessary in the present case.
so tenacious of privileges once obtained, that, in  I shall only say, that the noble Lords that flatter
such a situation, either to discuss with impartial- themselves with the weight of that reflection,
ity, or decide with justice, has ever been held as should remember, that, as circumstances alter,
the summit of all human virtue.  The bill now  things themselves should alter. Formerly it was
in question puts your Lordships in this very pre- not so fashionable either for masters or servants
dicament; and I doubt not but the wisdom  of  to run in debt as it is at present; nor formerly
your decision will convince the world, that, where  were merchants or manufacturers members of
self-interest and justice are in opposite scales, the  Parliament, as at present. The case now is very
latter will ever preponderate with your Lord- different.  Both merchants and manufacturers
ships.                                           are, with great propriety, elected members of the
Privileges have been granted to legislators in  Lower House.  Commerce having thus got into
all ages and in all countries.  The practice is the legislative body of the kingdom, privilege
founded in wisdom; and, indeed, it is peculiarly  must be done away.  We all know that the very
essential to the Constitution of this country, that soul and essence of trade are regular payments;
the members of both Houses should be free in  and sad experience teaches us that there are
their persons in cases of civil suits; for there  men who will not make their regular payments
may come a time when the safety and welfare  without the compulsive power of the laws. The
of this whole empire may depend upon their at- law, then, ought to be equally open to all.  Any
tendance in Parliament.  God forbid that I exemption to particular men, or particular ranks
should advise any measure that would in future  of men, is, in a free commercial country, a soleendanger the state.  But the bill before your cism of the grossest nature.
Lordships has, I am confident, no such tendency,    But I will not trouble your Lordships with arfor it expressly secures the persons of members  guments for that which is sufficiently evident
of either House in all civil suits.  This being the  without any.  I shall only say a few words to
case, I confess, when I see many noble Lords, some noble Lords, who foresee much inconvenfor whose judgment I have the greatest respect, ience from  the persons of their servants being
standing up to oppose a bill which is calculated  liable to be arrested.  One noble Lord observes.
merely to facilitate the recovery of just and legal that the coachman of a peer may be arrested
debts, I am  astonished and amazed.  They, I while he is driving his master to the House, and
doubt not, oppose the bill upon public principles. consequently he will not be able to attend his
I would not wish to insinuate that private interest duty in Parliament.  If this was actually to haphas the least weight in their determination.     pen, there are so many methods by which the
This bill has been frequently proposed, and as member might still get to the House, I can hardly
frequently miscarried; but it was always lost in think the noble Lord to be serious in his objecthe Lower House.  Little did I think, when it tion.  Another noble Lord said, that by this bill
had passed the Commons, that it possibly could  one might lose his most valuable and honest servhave met with such opposition here.  Shall it be  ants.  This I hold to be a contradiction in terms;
said that you, my Lords, the grand council of the for he neither can be a valuable servant, nor an
nation, the highest judicial and legislative body  honest man, who gets into debt, which he neither
of the realm, endeavor to evade by privilege  is able nor willing to pay till compelled by law.
those very laws which you enforce on your fellow- If my servant, by unforeseen accidents, has got
subjects?  Forbid it, justice.  I am sure, were  in debt, and I still wish to retain him, I certainly
the noble Lords as well acquainted as I am with  would pay the debt.  But upon no principle of
but half the difficulties and delays that are every  liberal legislation whatever can my servant have
day occasioned in the courts of justice, under pre- a title to set his creditors at defiance, while, for
tense of privilege, they would not, nay, they could  forty shillings only, the honest tradesman may be
not, oppose this bill.                          torn from his family and locked up in jail.  It is
I have waited with patience to hear what ar- monstrous injustice! I flatter myself, however,.
guments might be urged against the bill; but I the determination of this day will entirely put an
have waited in vain.  The truth is, there is no  end to all such partial proceedings for the future,
argument that can weigh against it.  The jus- by passing into a law the bill now under your
tice and expediency of this bill are such as ren- Lordships' consideration.
L




62                 LORD MANSFIELD  ON DEPRIVING  PEERS, &c.                             [1770.
I now  come to speak upon what, indeed, I very decisions of some of the courts were tincwould have gladly avoided, had I not been par- tured with that doctrine.1  It was undoubtedly
ticularly pointed at for the part I have taken in  an abominable doctrine.  I thought so then, and
this bill.  It has been said by a noble Lord on  think so still. But, nevertheless, it was a popular
my left hand that I likewise am running the race  doctrine, and came immediately from those who
of popularity.  If the noble Lord means by pop- were called the friends of liberty, how deservedly
ularity that applause bestowed by after ages on  time will show.  True liberty, in my opinion.
good and virtuous actions, I have long been strug- can only exist when justice is equally adminisgling in that race, to what purpose all-trying  tered to all-to the King and to the beggar.
time can alone determine.  But if the noble  Where is the justice, then, or where is the law,
Lord means that mushroom popularity which is that protects a member of Parliament more than
raised without merit, and lost without a crime, any other man from the punishment due to his
he is much mistaken in his opinion.  I defy the  crimes?  The laws of this country allow no
noble Lord to point out a single action in my  place nor employment to be a sanctuary for
life where the popularity of the times ever had  crimes; and, where I have the honor to sit as
the smallest influence on my determinations;  I  judge, neither royal favor nor popular applause
thank God I have a more permanent and steady  shall ever protect the guilty.
rule for my conduct — the dictates of my own    I have now only to beg pardon for having embreast.  Those that have foregone that pleasing  ployed so much of your Lordships' time; and I
adviser, and given up their mind to be the slave  am very sorry a bill, fraught with so good conof every popular impulse, I sincerely pity.  I sequences, has not met with an abler advocate;
pity them still more if their vanity leads them to  but I doubt not your Lordships' determination
mistake the shouts of a mob for the trumpet of  will convince the world that a bill, calculated to
their fame. Experience might inform them that contribute so much to the equal distribution of
many who have been saluted with the huzzas of  justice as the present, requires, with your Lorda crowd one day, have received their execrations  ships, but very little support.
the next; and many who, by the popularity of
their times, have been held up as spotless patriots, have nevertheless appeared upon the histori-    The act was finally passed.
an's page, when truth has triumphed over delusion, the assassins of liberty.                   1 This refers to the case of Mr. Wilkes, who was
Why, then, the noble Lord can think I am am- arrested under a general warrant for a seditious
bitious of present popularity, that echo of folly  libel on the King. He was taken before the Court
of Common Pleas by a writ of Habeas Corpus, and
and shadow of renown, I am at a loss to determ- of Common Pleas by a writ of Habeas Corpus, and
ice.  Besides, I do not know that the bill now  there pleaded his privilege against arrest as a mem-.me.  Besides, I do not know that the bill now       o paian    The
ber of Parliament. The court, with Lord Camden
-before your Lordships will be popular.  It de- at their head, unanimously decided, that members
pexnds much upon the caprice of the day.  It were free from arrest in all cases except treason,.may not be popular to compel people to pay their felony, and actual breach of the peace. Whatever
debts; and in that case the present must be an  may have been the merits of this case, it was ununpopular bill.  It may not be popular, neither, worthy of Lord Mansfield to sneer at Lord Camden
to take away any of the privileges of Parliament;  and his associates as "weak minds."  "As authorfor I very swell remermber, and many of your ities then stood," says Lord Campbell, "I think a
Lordships may remember, that not long  ago the  court of law was bound to decide in favor of priviILordships may remember, that not long ago the    elieved, has been
pLopul  cryw r te e n of p e.  lege in such a case."  This, it is believed, has been,popular cry was for the extension of privilege. the general sentiment of the English bar; while all.And so far did they carry it at that time, that it agree that this extension of privilege to criminal
was said that privilege protected members from  cases was wrong in principle, and was very propcriminal actions; nay, stch was the power of  erly set aside a short time after, by a joint resolu-:popular prejudices over weak minds, that the  tionofthe two houses of Parliament.




JUN IU S.
STAT NOMINIS UMBRA.'
THE LETTERS OF JUNIUS have taken a permanent place in the eloquence of om
language.  Though often false in statement and malignant in spirit, they will never
cease to be read as specimens of powerful composition: For the union of brilliancy
and force, there is nothing superior to them in our literature. Nor is it for his style
alone that Junius deserves to be studied. He shows great rhetorical skill in his mode
of developing a subject.  There is an arrangement of a given mass of thought, which
serves to throw it upon the mind with the greatest possible effect.  There is another
arrangement which defeats its object, and renders the impression feeble or indistinct.
Demosthenes was, of all men, most perfectly master of the one; the majority of extemporaneous speakers are equally good examples of the other.
IJunius had evidently studied this subject with great care; and it is for the sake
of urging it upon the young orator that some of the ablest of his productions will
now be given.  Happily, the selection is easy.  There are ten or twelve of his letters
which stand far above the rest for strength of thought and elegance of diction.  These
will be found below, with the exception of his Letters to Lord Mansfield, which,
though highly finished in respect to style, are now universally condemned for their
errors, both in law and fact, and their unmerited abuse of the greatest of English
jurists. In regard to his treatment of others, it is hardly necessary to say that the
statements of Junius are to be taken with great allowance.  He was an unscrupulous political partisan; and though much that he said of the Duke of Grafton and
the other objects of his vengeance was strictly true, they were by no means so weak
or profligate as he here represents them.  We might as well take Pope's Satires for
a faithful exhibition of men and manners in the days of George II. 
[it is, therefore, only as an orator-for such he undoubtedly was in public life, and
such he truly is in these letters-that we are now to consider him.  In this character his writings are worthy of the closest study, especially in respect to the quality
alluded to above.  Each of these letters was the result of severe and protracted
labor.  We should have known it, if he had not himself avowed the fact, for we
see every where the marks of elaborate forecast and revision; and we learn, from
his private correspondence with Woodfall, that he expended on their composition an
amount of anxiety and effort which hardly any other writer, especially one so proud,
would have been willing to acknowledge. I Yet it is certain that by far the greater
part of all this toil was bestowed, not upon the language, but on the selection and arrangement of his ideas.  His mind, in early life, had clearly been subjected to the
severest logical training.  Composition, with him, was the creation of a system of
thought in which every thing is made subordinate to a just order and sequence of
ideas.   ne  thought grows out of another in regular succession.  His reasonings
1 This celebrated motto was taken from the first book of Lucan's Pharsalia, ine 135. The poet
there speaks of Pompey, when he entered into the war with Cesar, as having his name, or reputation, chiefly in the past; and adds, in reference to this idea,  Stat magni nominis umbra" -  He
stands the shadow of a mighty name.  When the author of these letters collected them into a
volume, he beautifully appropriated these words to himself, with the omission of the word mnagni,
and a change of application. He placed them on the title-page, in connection with the word JUNIUS,
vwhich " stands the shadow of a name," whose secret was intrusted to no one, and was never to bo
i't\('caled.




IG4                                  JUNIUS.
often take the form of a syllogism, though usually with the omission of one of the
terms; and we never find him betrayed into that careless diffusion of style so common with those who are ignorant of the principles of logic.  In this respect, the
writings of Junius will amply repay the closest study and analysis.  Let the young
orator enter completely into the scope and design of the author. Let him watch the
under-current of his thoughts and feelings. Let him observe how perfectly every
thing coincides to produce the desired impression-the statement of principles and
the reference to facts, the shadings of thought and the colorings of imagery. "Let
him take one of the more striking passages, and remark the dexterous preparation
by which each of its several parts is so shaped that the leading thoughts come forward to the best advantage; clear in all their relations, standing boldly out, unencumbered by secondary ideas, and thus fitted to strike the mind with full and undivided force.  Such a study of Junius will prepare the young reader to enter into the
Logic of Thought  It will lead to the formation of a severe intellectual taste, which
is the best guard against the dangers of hasty composition, and the still greater dangers of extemporaneous speaking.  Such speaking can not be dispensed with.  On
the contrary, it is becoming more and more essential to the success of public men in
every department of life.  It is, therefore, of the highest importance for the student
in oratory to be familiar with models which shall preserve the purity of his style, and
aid him in the formation of those intellectual habits without which there can be
neither clearness, nor force, nor continuity of thought in extemporaneous speaking.
One of our most eloquent advocates, the late William Wirt, whose early training
was of a different kind, remarked, in an address delivered not long before his death,
that here lay the chief deficiency of our public speakers-that the want of severe
intellectual discipline was the great want of American orators.
There is also another lesson to be learned from Junius, viz., the arct of thrzowing
away unnecessary ideas.  A large proportion of the thoughts which rise to the mind
in first considering a subject, are not really essential to its clear and full development. iNo one ever felt this more strongly than Junius.  He had studied in the
school of the classics; he had caught the spirit of the Grecian oratory; and he knew
-Ihat the first element of its power was a rigid scrutiny of the ideas to be brought
ltrward, and a stern rejection of every form of thought, however plausible or attractive, which was not clearly indispensable to the attainment of his object.  He learned,
too, in the same school, another lesson of equal importance, in relation to the ideas
selected for use.   He saw how much could be done to abridge their statement, and
set aside the necessity of qualifying terms and clauses, by such an arrangement of
the leading thoughts that each should throw light upon the other, and all unite in
one full, determinate impression.  Our language is, indeed, poorly fitted for such purposes. It is a weak and imperfect instrument compared with others, whose varied
inflections and numerous illative particles afford the readiest means of graceful transition, and of binding ideas together in close-compacted masses.  Such as it is, however, Junius has used it to the utmost advantage. In his best passages, there is
a fine compression of thought, arising from the skillful disposition of his materials,
which it is far more easy to admire than to imitate.  Not an idea is excluded which
could promote his object.  It is all there, but in the narrowest compass.  The stroke
is a single one, because nothing more is needed; and it takes its full effect, because
there is nothing in the way to weaken the force of the blow.  He has thus given us
some of the best specimens in our language of that " rich economy of expression,"
which was so much studied by the great writers of antiquity.
There is only one more characteristic of Junius which will here be noticed. It
is the wonderful power he possessed of insinuating ideas into the mind without
giving them a formal or direct expression. Voltaire is the only writer who ever en



JUNIUS.                                 165
joyed this power in an equal degree, and he used it chiefly in his hours of gayety
and sport. Junius used it for the most serious purposes of his life. He made it the
instrument of torturing his victims.  It is a curious inquiry why this species of indirect attack is so peculiarly painful to persons of education and refinement.  The
question is not why they suffer more than others from contempt and ridicule, but why
sarcasm, irony, and the other forms of attack by insinuation, have such extraordinary power to distress their feelings. j Perhaps the reason is, that such persons are peculiarly qualified to understand anfd appreciate these forms of ingenious derision. The
ignorant and vulgar have no power to comprehend them, and are therefore beyond
their reach.  But it is otherwise with men of cultivated minds.  It is impossible for
such men not to admire the efforts of genius; and when they find these efforts turned
against themselves, and see all the force of a subtle intellect employed in thus dexterously insinuating suspicion or covering them with ridicule, whatever may be their
consciousness of innocence, they can not but feel deeply. Coarse invective and reproachful language would be a relief to the mind.  Any one can cry " fool," " liar,"
or " scoundrel." But to sketch a picture in which real traits of character are so ingeniously distorted that every one will recognize the likeness and apply the name,
requires no ordinary force of genius; and it is not wonderful that men of the firmest
spirit shrink from such an assailant.  We have seen how Lord Mansfield " suffered"
under inflictions of this kind from Lord Chatham, till he could endure them no longer,
and abruptly fled the contest. In addition to this, he who is thus assailed knows
that the talent which he feels so keenly will be perfectly understood by others, and
that attacks of this kind diffuse their influence, like a subtle poison, throughout the
whole republic of letters. They will be read, he is aware, not only by that large
class who dwell with malicious delight on the pages of detraction, but by multitudes
whose good opinion he prizes most highly-in whose minds all that is dear to him in
reputation will be mingled with images of ridicule and contempt, which can not fail
to be remembered for their ingenuity, how much soever they may be condemned for
their spirit.  For these and perhaps other reasons, this covert mode of attack has always been the most potent engine of wounding the feelings and destroying character. Junius had not only the requisite talent and bitterness to wield this engine
with terrible effect, but he stood on a vantage ground in using it, such as no other
writer ever enjoyed.  lHe had means of secret information, which men have labored
in vain to trace out or conceive of. His searching eye penetrated equally into the
retired circles of domestic life, the cabinets of ministers, and the closet of the King.2
Persons of the highest rank and most callous feelings were filled with alarm when
they found their darkest intrigues laid open, their most hidden motives detected, their
duplicity and tergiversation exposed to view, and even their private vices blazoned
before the eyes of the public. Nor did Junius, on these points, very scrupulously
confine himself to the truth. He gave currency to some of the basest slanders of
the day, which he could not but know were unfounded, in order to blacken the char2 The following is a curious instance. About two years after these Letters were commenced,
Garrick learned confidentially from Woodfall that it was doubtful whether Junius would continue
to write much longer. He flew instantly with the news to Mr. Ramus, one of the royal pages,
who hastened with it to the King, then residing at Richmond. Within two days, Garrick received,
through Woodfall, the following note from Junius:
" I am very exactly informed of your impertinent inquiries, and of the information you so busily
sent to Richmond, and with what triumph and exultation it was received. I knew every particular of it the next day. Now, mark me, vagabond! keep to your pantomimes, or be assured you
shall hear of it. Meddle no more, thou busy informer! It is in my power to make you curse the
hour in which you dared to interfere with                                JUNIUS."
Miss Seward states, in her Letters, that on the evening after the receipt of this note, Garrick, for
or,? in his life, played badly.




166                                   JUNIUS.
acter of his opponents.  He stood, in the mean time, unassailable himself, wrapped,
like 2Eneas at the court of Dido, in the cloud around him, affording no opportunity
for others to retort his accusations, to examine his past conduct, or to scan his present motives.  With all these advantages, he toiled as few men ever toiled, to gain
that exquisite finish of style, that perfect union of elegance and strength, which could
alone express the refined bitterness of his feelings.  He seemed to exult in gathering up the blunted weapons of attack thrown aside by others, and giving them a
keener edge and a finer polish.  "Ample justice," says he to one whom he assailed,
"has been done by abler pens than mine to the separate merits of your life and character.  Let it be my humble office to collect the scattered sweets, till their united virtue tortures the sense."   In the success of these labors he felt the proud consciousness
that he was speaking to other generations besides his own, and declared concerning
one of his victims, " I would pursue him through life, and try the last exertion of my
abilities to preserve the perishable infamy of his namze, and make it immortal.")
This reliance of Junius on his extraordinary powers of composition, naturally leads
us to consider his style.  We might pronounce it perfect, if it were only free from a
slight appearance of labor, and were as easy and idiomatic as it is strong, pointed,
and brilliant. But it seems hardly possible to unite all these qualities in the highest degree. Where strength and compactness are carried to their utmost limit, there
will almost of necessity be something rigid and unbending.  A man in plate armor
can not move with the freedom  and lightness of an athlete.  But Jinius, on the
whole, has been wonderfully successful in overcoming these difficulties.. His sentences
have generally an easy flow, with a dignified and varied rhythmus, and a harmonious cadence.  Clear in their construction, they grow in strength as they advance,
and come off at the close always with liveliness, and often with a sudden, stinging
force.  He is peculiarly happy in the choice of words.? It has been said of Shakspeare, that one might as well attempt to push a brick out of its place in a well-constructed wall, as to alter a single expression. In his finest passages, the same is true
of Junius. He gives you the exact word, he brings out the most delicate shadings of
thought, he throws it upon the mind with elastic force, and you say, "What is written
is written!" There are, indeed, instances of bad grammar and inaccurate expression,
but these may be ascribed, in most cases, to the difficulty and danger of his correcting
the press. Still, there is reason to believe that he was not an author by profession.
Certain words and forms of construction seem  plainly to show, that he had never
been trained to the minuter points of authorship. And, perhaps, for this very reason,
he was a better writer.  He could think of nothing but how to express his ideas
with the utmost vividness and force. Hence he gave them a frank and fearless utterance, which, modified by a taste like his, has imparted to his best passages a perfection of style which is never reached by mere mechanical labor. /Among other
things, Junius understood better than most writers where the true strength of language lies, viz., in the nouns and verbs.  He is, therefore, sparing in the use of qualifying expressions.4   He relies mainly for effect on the frame-work of thought.  In
the filling out of his ideas, where qualifying terms must of course be employed, he
3 How much Junius relied for success on the perfection of his statement, may be learned fiom
the following fact. When he had hastily thrown off a letter containing a number of coarse and unguarded expressions, of which he was afterward ashamed, he coolly requested Woodfall to say in
a subsequent number, "We have some reason to suspect, that the last letter signed Junius in this
paper was not written by the real Junius, though the observation escaped us at the time!"  There
is nothing equal to this in all the annals of literature, unless it be Cicero's famous letter to Lucceius,
in which he asks the historian to lie a little in his favor in recording the events of his consulship,
for the sake of making him a greater man!
4 Voltaire somewhere remarks, that the adjective is the greatest enemy of the substantive, though
they agree together in gender, number, and case.




JUNIUS.                                 167
rarely uses intensives. His adverbs and adjectives are nearly all descriptive, and
are designed to shade or to color the leading thoughts with increased exactness, and
thus set them before the mind in bolder relief or with more graphic effect.  He employs contrast also, with much success, to heighten the impression. No one has
shown greater skill in crushing discordant thoughts together in a single mass, and
giving them, by their juxtaposition, a new and startling force. Hardly any one but
Demosthenes has made so happy a use of antithesis.  His only fault is, that he now
and then allows it to run away with his judgment, and to sink into epigram. The
imagery of Junius is uncommonly brilliant.  It was the source of much of his power.
He showed admirable dexterity in working his bold and burning metaphors into the
very texture of his style.  He was also equally happy in the use of plainer images,
drawn from the ordinary concerns of life, and intended not so much to adorn, as to
illustrate and enforce. A few instances of each will show his wide and easy command of figurative language.  In warning his countrymen against a readiness to be
satisfied with some temporary gain, at the expense of great and permanent interests,
he says, " In the shipwreck of the state, trifles float and are preserved, while every
thing solid and valuable sinks to the bottom and is lost forever."  Speaking of the
numerous writers in favor of the ministry, he says, " They pile up reluctant quarto
upon solid folio, as if their labors, because they are gigantic, could contend with truth
and heaven."5  Again,," The very sunshine you live in is a prelude to your dissolution: when you are ripe, you shall be plucked."  Exhorting the King no longer to
give importance to Wilkes by making him the object of royal persecution, he says,
" The gentle breath of peace would leave him on the surface neglected and unremoved. It is only the tempest that lifts him from his place."  And again, in a
higher strain, " The rays of royal indignation collected upon him, served only to illuminate and could not consume."  The last instance of this kind which will now
be cited, has been already referred to on a preceding page, as perhaps suggested by
a classical allusion of Lord Chatham. If so, it is a beautiful example of the way in
which one man of genius often improves upon another. Mlnyhavepronor iiuLit
the finest metaphor in our language. (Speaking of the King's sacrifice of honor in
not instantly resenting the seizure of the Falkland Islands, he says, " A clear, unblemished character comprehends not only the integrity that will not offer, but the
spirit that will not submit to an injury; and whether it belongs to an individual or
to a community, it is the foundation of peace, of independence, and of safety. Private
credit is wealth; public honor is security.  The feather that adorns the royal bird
supports his flight.  Strip him of his plumage, and you fix him to the earth."
Such are some of the characteristics of the style of Junius, which made Mr. Mathias,
author of the Pursuits of Literature, rank him  among the English classics, in thti
place assigned to Livy and Tacitus among the ancients.
Reference has already been made to the violent passions of Junius, and his want.
of candor toward most of his opponents. Still it will be seen, from the following sentiments contained in a private letter, that in his cooler moments he had just and
elevated views concerning the design of political discussions. He is speaking of an
argument he had just stated in favor of rotten boroughs, and goes on to say, " The
man who fairly and completely answers this argument, shall have my thanks and
my applause.  My heart is already with him.  I am ready to be converted. I admire his morality, and would gladly subscribe to the articles of his faith. Grateful
as I am to the GOOD BEING, whose bounty has imparted to me this reasoning intellect,
whatever it is, I hold myself proportionably indebted to him, whose enlightened understanding communicates another ray of knowledge to mine.  But neither should
5 Referring to the story of the giants' tearing up mountains, and piling Pelion upon Ossa, in their
contest with the gods.




68                                 JUNIUS.
i think the most exalted faculties of the human mind a gift worthy of the divinity,
nor any assistance in the improvement of them a subject of gratitude to my fellowcreatures, if I were not satisfied that really to inform the understanding, corrects
and enlarges the heart."  "Si sic omnia!"  Would that all were thus  Happy
were it for the character of Junius as a man, if he had always been guided as a
writer by such views and feelings!
i  Who was Junius?  Volumes have been written to answer this question, and it
remains still undecided. At the end of eighty years of inquiry and discussion, after
the claims of nearly twenty persons have been examined and set aside, only two
names remain before the public as candidates for this distinction.6  They are Sir
Philip Francis, and Lord George Sackville, afterward Lord George Germain.  In
favor and against each of these, there is circumstantial evidence of considerable
weight.  Neither of them  has left any specimens of style which are equal in elegance and force to the more finished productions of Junius.  Lord George Sackville,
however, is far inferior in this respect. He was never a practical writer; and it
seems impossible to believe, that the mind which expressed itself in the compositions
he has left us, could ever have been raised by any excitement of emotion or fervor
of effort, into a capacity to produce the Letters of Junius. Sir Philip Francis was
confessedly a far more able writer. He had studied composition from early life.
He was diligent in his attendance on Parliament; and he reported some of Lord
Chatham's speeches with uncommon elegance and force.  If we must choose between the two-if there is no other name to be brought forward, and this seems
hardly possible-the weight of evidence is certainly in his favor.  Mr. Macaulay has
summed: it up with his usual ability in the following terms:
" Was he the author of the Letters of Junius?  Our own firm belief is, that he
was.  The external evidence is, we think, such as would support a verdict in a
civil, nay, in a criminal proceeding. The handwriting of Junius is the very pecu
liar handwriting of Francis, slightly disguised.  As to the position, pursuits, and
connections of Junius, the following are the most important facts which can be considered as clearly proved: First, that he was acquainted with the technical forms
of the Secretary of State's office; secondly, that he was intimately acquainted with
the business of the War office; thirdly, that he, during the year 1770, attended debates in the House of Lords, and took notes of speeches; particularly of the speeches
of Lord Chatham; fourthly, that he bitterly resented the appointment of Mr. Chamier to the place of deputy Secretary at War; fifthly, that he was bound by some
strong tie to the first Lord Holland. Now Francis passed some years in the Secretary of State's office. He was subsequently chief clerk of the War office. He repeatedly mentioned that he had himself, in 1770, heard speeches of Lord Chatham;
and some of those speeches were actually printed from his notes. He resigned his
clerkship at the War office from resentment at the appointment of Mr. Chamier. It
was by Lord Holland that he was first introduced into the public service. Now,
here are five marks, all of which ought to be found in Junius.  They are all five
found in Francis.  We do not believe that more than two of them can be found in
any other person whatever. If this argument does not settle the question, there is
an end of all reasoning on circumstantial evidence.
" The internal evidence seems to us to point the same way. The style of Francis
bears a strong resemblance to that of Junius; nor are we disposed to admit, what
is generally taken for granted, that the acknowledged compositions of Francis are
very decidedly inferior to the anonymous letters. The argument from inferiority, at
all events, is one which may be urged with at least equal force against every claim6 It has been shown in the London Athenmum, that the recent attempts to make the younger Lyttleton Junius, and also a Scottish surgeon named Maclain, are entire failures.




JTNIUS.                                       169
ant that has ever been mentioned, with the single exception of Burke, who certainly
was not Junius.  And what conclusion, after all, can be drawn from mere inferiority?  Every writer must produce his best work; and the interval between his best
work and his second best work may be very wide indeed.  Nobody will say that
the best letters of Junius are more decidedly superior to the acknowledged works of
Francis, than three or four of Corneille's tragedies to the rest; than three or four of
Ben Jonson's comedies to the rest; than the Pilgrim's Progress to the other works
of Bunyan; than Don Quixote to the other works of Cervantes.  Nay, it is certain
that the Man in the Mask, whoever he may have been, was a'most unequal writer.
To go no farther than the Letters which bear the signature of Junius-the Letter
to the King, and the Letters to Home Tooke, have little in common except the asperity; and asperity was an ingredient seldom wanting either in the writings or in
the speeches of Francis.
"Indeed, one of the strongest reasons for believing that Francis was Junius, is the
moral resemblance between the two men.  It is not difficult, fiom the letters which,
under various signatures, are known to have been written by Junius, and from his
dealings with Woodfall and others, to form a tolerably correct notion of his character.  He was clearly a man not destitute of real patriotism  and magnanimity-a
man whose vices were not of a sordid kind.  But he must also have been a man in
the highest degree arrogant and insolent-a man prone to malevolence, and prone to
the error of mistaking his-malevolence for public virtue.'Doest thou well to be
angry?' was the question asked in old time of the Hebrew prophet. And he answered,'I do well.' This was evidently the temper of Junius; and to this cause
we attribute the savage cruelty which disgraces several of his Letters. No man is
so merciless as he who, under a strong self-delusion, confounds his antipathies with
his duties. It may be added, that Junius, though allied with the democratic party
by common enmities, was the very opposite of a democratic politician.  While attacking individuals with a ferocity which perpetually violated all the laws of literary
warfare, he regarded the most defective parts of old constitutions with a respect
amounting to pedantry-pleaded the cause of Old Sarum with fervor, and contemptuously told the capitalists of Manchester and Leeds that, if they wanted votes, they
might buy land and become freeholders of Lancashire and Yorkshire.  All this, we
believe, might stand, with scarcely any change, for a character of Philip Francis."7
7 Charles Butler, in his Reminiscences, suggests a mixed hypothesis on this subject. He thinks
that Sir Philip Francis was too young to have produced these Letters, which indicate very thorough
and extensive reading, and especially a profound knowledge of human character.  He mentions,
likewise, that Junius shows himself in the most unaffected manner, throughout his private correspondence with Woodfall, to have been not only a man of high rank, but of ample fortune-promising to indemnify him against any loss he might suffer from being prosecuted, a thing which Francis, with a mere clerkship in the War office, was unable to do. He therefore thinks that Sir Philip
may have been the organ of some older man of the highest rank and wealth, who has chosen to
remain in proud obscurity. It'is certain that some one acted in conjunction with Junius, for he says
in his fifty-first note to Woodfall, " The gentleman who transacts the conveyancing part of this correspondence, tells me there was much difficulty last night."  This person was once seen by a
clerk of Woodfall, as he withdrew from the door, after having thrown in a Letter of Junins. He
was a person who " wore a bag and a sword," showing that he was not a mere servant, but, as Junius described him, a " gentleman."  It seems probable, also, that the hand of another was used
in transcribing these Letters, for Junius says concerning one of them, "You shall have the Letter
some time to-morrow; it can not be corrected and copied before;" and again, of another, " The inclosed, though begun within these few days, has been greatly labored. It is very correctly copied."
This, though not decisive, has the air of one who is speaking of what another person had been doing, not himself. If this be admitted, Mr. Butler suggests that these Letters may actually have
been sent to Woodfall in the handwriting of Francis, without his being the original author. Still.
he by no means considers him a mere copyist. Francis may have collected valuable information;
may have given very important hints; may even have shared, to some extent, in the composition,




170                                   JUNIUS.
But, whatever may be thought of the origin of these Letters, it is not difficult to
understand the political relations of the writer, and the feelings by which he was
actuated.  A few remarks on this subject will close the present sketch.
The author of these Letters, as we learn from Woodfall, had been for some years
an active political partisan. He had written largely for the public prints under various signatures, and with great ability. A crisis now arrived which induced him
to come forward under a new name, and urged him by still higher motives to the
utmost exertion of his powers. Lord Chatham's " checkered and dovetailed" cabinet
had fallen to pieces, and the Duke of Grafton, as Junius expressed it, became " minister by accident," at the close of 1767. He immediately endeavored to strengthen
himself on every side.  He yielded to the wishes of the King by making Lord North
Chancellor of the Exchequer, and by raising Mr. Jenkinson, the organ of Lord Bute,
to higher office and influence. Thus he gave a decided ascendency to the Tories.
On the other hand, he endeavored to conciliate Lord Rockingham  and the Duke of
Bedford by very liberal proposals. But these gentlemen differing as to the lead of
the House, the Bedford interest prevailed; Lord Weymouth, a member of that family, was made Secretary of the Home Department; while Lord Rockingham was sent
back to the ranks of Opposition under a sense of wrong and insult. Six months, down
almost to the middle of 1768, were spent in these negotiations and arrangements.
These things wrought powerfully on the mind of Junius, who was a Grenville or
Rockingham Whig.  But in addition to this, he had strong private animosities.  He
not only saw with alarm and abhorrence the triumph of Tory principles, but he cherished the keenest personal resentment toward the King and most of his ministers.
Those, especially, who had deserted their former Whig associates, he regarded as
traitors to the cause of liberty.  He therefore now determined to give full scope to
his feelings, and to take up a system of attack far more galling to his opponents than
had ever yet been adopted. One thing was favorable to such a design. Parliament
was to expire within a few months; and every blow now struck would give double
alarm and distress to the government, while it served also to inflame the minds of
the people, and rouse them to a more determined resistance in the approaching elections. Accordingly, at the close of the Christmas holidays, when the business of the
session really commences, he addressed his first Letter to the printer of the Public
Advertiser, under date of January 21, 1769. It was elaborated with great care;
but its most striking peculiarity was the daring spirit of personal attack by which it
was characterized. Junius, for the first time, broke through the barriers thrown
around the monarch by the maxim, " the King can do no wrong."  He assailed him
like any other man, though in more courtly and guarded language. Assuming an air
of great respect for his motives, he threw out the most subtle insinuations, mingled
with the keenest irony, as to his " love of low intrigue," and " the treacherous amusement of double and triple negotiations." It was plainly his intention not only to
distress, but to terrify. He represented the people as driven to the verge of desperation. He hinted at the possible consequences. He spoke of the crisis as one " from
which a reasonable man can expect no remedy but poison, no relief but death."  He
attacked the ministry in more direct terms, commenting with great severity on the
or, at least, the revision of the Letters; for the writer was plainly not an author by profession. In
short, Francis may have been to him, in respect to these Letters, what Burke was more fully to
Lord Rockingham, and what Alexander Hamilton was at times to Washington. On this theory
the government would have the same motives to buy off Sir Philip Francis, a thing they seem
plainly to have done when these Letters stopped so suddenly in 1772. It may have been a condi.
tion made by Junius in favor of his friend. To have made it for himself seems inconsistent with
his whole character and bearing, both in his Letters to the public and his confidential communications to Woodfall. The theory is, at least, an ingenious one, and has therefore been here stated.
It has, however, very serious difficulties, as the reader will easily perceive.




JUNIUS.                                  171
character of those who filled the principal departments of state, and declaring, "We
xeed look no farther for the cause of every mischief which befalls us."  " It is not a
casual concurrence of calamitous circumstances-it is the pernicious hand of government alone, that can make a whole people desperate."  All this was done with a
dignity, force, and elegance entirely without parallel in the columns of a newspaper.
The attention of the public was strongly arrested. The poet Gray, in his corre.spondence, speaks of the absorbing power of this Letter over his mind, when he took it
up casually for the first time at a country inn, where he had stopped for refreshment
on a journey. He was unable to lay it down, or even to think of the food before him, until he had read it over and over again with the most painful interest.  The same profound sensation was awakened in the higher political circles throughout the kingdom.
Still it may be doubted whether the writer, at this time, had formed any definite
plan of continuing these Letters. Very possibly, except for a circumstance now to
be mentioned, he might have stopped here; and the name of Junius have been known
only in our literature by this single specimen of eloquent vituperation.  But he was
instantly attacked. As if for the very purpose of compelling him to go on, and of
giving notoriety to his efforts, Sir William Draper, Knight of the Bath, came out under his own signature, charging him with " maliciously traducing the best characters of the kingdom," and going on particularly to defend the Commander in Chief,
the Marquess of Granby, against the severe imputations of this Letter.  Junius himself could not have asked, or conceived of, any thing more perfectly suited to make
him conspicuous in the eyes of the public.  Sir William had the character of being
an elegant scholar, and had gained high distinction as an officer in the army by the
capture of Manilla, the capital of the Philippine Islands, in 1762. It was no light
thing for such a man to throw himself into the lists without any personal provocation, and challenge a combat with this unknown champion.  It was the highest
possible testimony to his powers. Junius saw his advantage. He perfectly understood his antagonist-an open-hearted and incautious man, vain of his literary attainments, and uncommonly sensitive to ridicule and contempt. He seized at once on
the weak points of Sir William's letter. He turned the argument against him. He
overwhelmed him with derision. He showed infinite dexterity in wresting every weapon from his hands, and in turning all his praises of the Marquess, and apologies for his
failings, into new instruments of attack.  "It is you, Sir William, who make your
friend appear awkward and ridiculous, by giving him a laced suit of tawdry qualifications which Nature never intended him to wear!"  " It is you who have taken
pains to represent your friend in the character of a drunken landlord, who deals
out his promises as liberally as his liquor, and will suffer no man to leave his table
either sorrowful or sober!" He then turned upon Sir William himself. He glanced
at some of the leading transactions of his life. He goaded him with the most humiliating insinuations and interrogatories. He hinted at the motives which the public would impute to him, in thus coming out from his retirement at Clifton; and concluded by asking in a tone of lofty contempt, " And do you now, after a retreat not
very like that of Scipio, presume to intrude yourself, unthought of, uncalled for, upon
the patience of the public?"  Never was an assailant so instantaneously put on the
defensive.  Instead of silencing the " traducer," and making him the object of public
indignation, he was himself dragged to the confessional, or rather placed as a culprit
at the bar of the public.  His feelings at this sudden change seem  much to have
resembled those of a traveler in the forests of Africa, when he finds himself, without
a moment's warning, wrapped in the folds of a boa constrictor, darting from above,
and crushed beneath its weight.  He exclaimed piteously against this "uncandid
Junius," his " abominable scandals," his delight in putting men to "the rack," and
"mangling their carcasses with a hatchet."  He quoted Virgil, and made a feeling




172                                JUNIUS.
allusion to 2Esop's Fables: "You bite against a file; cease, viper!"  Junius replied
in three Letters, two of which will be found below.  He tells Sir William that an
"academical education had given him an unlimited command over the most beautiful figures of speech."  " Masks, hatchets, racks, and vipers dance through your letters in all the mazes of metaphorical confusion.  These are the gloomy companions
of a disturbed imagination; the melancholy madness of poetry, without the inspiration." As the correspondence went on, Sir William did, indeed, clear himself of the
imputations thrown out by Junius affecting his personal honesty, but he was so shocked and confounded by the overmastering power of his antagonist, that he soon gave
up the contest.  Some months after, when he saw these Letters collected and republished in a volume, he again came forward to complain of their injustice.  "Hceret
lateri lethalis arundo,"s was the savage exclamation of Junius, when he saw the
writhings of his prostrate foe.  Such was the first encounter of Junius before the public.  The whole nation looked on with astonishment; and from this hour his name was
known as familiarly in every part of the kingdom as that of Chatham or Johnson.  It
was a name of terror to the King and his ministers; and of pride and exultation to
thousands throughout the empire, not only of those who sympathized in his malignant
feelings, but those who, like Burke, condemned his spirit, and yet considered him engaged in a just cause, and hailed him as a defender of the invaded rights of the people.
Junius now resumed his attack on the ministry with still greater boldness and virulence.  After assailing the Duke of Grafton repeatedly on individual points, he
came out in two Letters, under date of May 30th and July 8th, 1769, with a general review of his Grace's life and conduct.  These are among his most finished productions, and will be given below.  On the 19th of September, he attacked the Duke
of Bedford, whose interests had been preferred to those of Lord Rockingham in the
ministerial arrangements mentioned above.  This Letter has even more force than
the two preceding ones, and will also be found in this collection. Three months after,
December 19th, 1769, appeared his celebrated Letter to the King, the longest and
most elaborate of all his performances.  The reader will agree with Mr. Burke in
saying, " it contains many bold truths by which a wise prince might profit."  Lord
Chatham now made his appearance on the stage, after an illness of three years; and
at the opening of Parliament, January 9th, 1770, took up the cause with more than
his accustomed boldness and eloquence.  Without partaking of the bitter spirit of
Junius, he maintained his principles on all the great questions of the day, in their
fullest extent.  He at once declared in the face of the country, " A breach has been
made in the Constitution-the battlements are dismantled-the citadel is open to
the first invader-the walls totter-the Constitution is not tenable.  What remains,
then, but for us to stand foremost in the breach, to repair it, or perish in it?"  The
result has already been stated in connection with that and his other speech on this
subject, p. 114-18.  At the end of nineteen days, January 28th, 1770, the Duke of
Grafton was driven from power! About a fortnight after, Junius addressed his fallen adversary in a Letter of great force, which closes the extracts from his writings
in this volume.  Lord North's ministry now commenced.  Junius continued his labors with various ability, but with little success, nearly two years longer, until, in
the month of January, 1772, the King remarked to a friend in confidence, " Junius
is known, and will write no more." Such proved to be the fact. His last performance was dated January 21st, 1772, three years to a day from his first great Letter
to the printer of the Public Advertiser. Within a few months Sir PHILIP FRANCIS
was appointed to one of the highest stations of profit and trust in India, at a distance
of fifteen thousand miles from the seat of English politics!
8 Still rankles in his side the fatal dart.




LETTERS OF JUNIUS.
LETTER
TO THE PRINTER OF THE PUBLIC ADVERTISER.I
SIR,-The submission of a free people to the  the history of a free people, whose rights have
executive authority of government is no more  been invaded, we are interested in their cause.
than a compliance with laws which they them-  Our own feelings tell us how long they ought to
selves have enacted.  While the national honor  have submitted, and at what moment it would
is firmly maintained abroad, and while justice is have been treachery to themselves not to have
impartially administered at home, the obedience  resisted.  How  much warmer will be our reof the subject will be voluntary, cheerful, and, I  sentment, if experience should bring the fatal
might say, almost unlimited.  A generous na- example home to ourselves 
tion is grateful even for the preservation of its    The situation of this country is alarming
rights, and willingly extends the respect due to  enough to rouse the attention of every man who
the office of a good prince into an affection for pretends to a concern for the public welfare.
his person.  Loyalty, in the heart and under-  Appearances justify suspicion; and, when the
standing of an Englishman, is a rational attach-  safety of a nation is at stake, suspicion is a just
ment to the guardian of the laws.  Prejudices  ground of inquiry.  Let us enter into it with
and passion have sometimes carried it to a crim-  candor and decency.  Respect is due to the stainal length; and, whatever foreigners may im- tion of ministers; and if a resolution must at
agine, we know that Englishmen have erred as  last be taken, there is none so likely to be supmuch in a mistaken zeal for particular persons  ported with firmness as that which has been
and families, as they ever did in defense of what adopted with moderation.
they thought most dear and interesting to them-    The ruin or prosperity of a state depends so
selves.
It naturally fills us with resentment to see  affection (as shown in their history) had often been
such a temper insulted and abused.2  In reading  excessive among the English, who were, in fact,
peculiarly liable to a "mistaken zeal for particular
t Dated January 21, 1769. There is great regn- persons and families."  Hence they were equally
larity in the structure of this letter. The first two  liable (this is not said, but implied) to have their
paragraphs contain the exordium. The transition  loyalty imposed upon; and therefore the feeling
follows in the third paragraph, leading to the main  then so prevalent was well founded, that the King,
proposition, which is contained in the fourth, viz., in his rash counsels and reckless choice of minis"that the existing discontent and disasters of the  ters, must have been taking advantage of the gennation were justly chargeable on the King and min- erous confidence of his people, and playing on the
istry."  The next eight paragraphs are intended to  easiness of their temper. If so, they were indeed
give the proof of this proposition, by reviewing the  insulted and abused.  The exordium, then, is a
chief departments of government, and endeavoring  complete chain of logical deduction, and the case
to show the incompetency or maladministration of  is fully made out, provided the popular feeling rethe men to whom they were intrusted. A recapit- ferred to was correct. And here we see where the
ulation follows in the last paragraph but one, lead- fallacy of Junius lies, whenever he is in the wrong.
ing to a restatement of the proposition in still broad- It is in takingfor granted one of the steps of his
er terms. This is strengthened in the conclusion by  reasoning. He does not, in this case, even mention
the remark, that if the nation should escape from its  the feeling alluded to in direct terms. He knew it
desperate condition through some signal interposi- was beating in the hearts of the people; his whole
tion of Divine Providence, posterity would not be- preceding train of thought was calculated to justify
lieve the history of the times, or consider it possible  and inflame it; and he therefore leaps at once to
that England should have survived a crisis "so full the conclusion it involves, and addresses them as
of terror and despair."                           actually filled with resentment " to see such a tem2 We have here the starting point of the exordi- per insulted and abused."  The feeling, in this inurn, as it lay originally in the mind of Junius, viz., stance, was to a great extent well founded, and so
that the English nation was "insulted and abused"  far his logic is complete. In other cases his assumpby the King and ministers. But this was too strong  tion is a false one. He lays hold of some slander of
a statement to be brought out abruptly. Junius the day, some distorted statement of facts, some
therefore went back, and prepared the way by show. maxim which is only half true, some prevailing pasing in successive sentences, (1.) Why a free people  sion or prejudice, and, dexterously intermingling
obey the laws-" because they have themselves en- them with a train of thought which in every other
acted them."  (2.) That this obedience is ordinarily  respect is logical and just, he hurries the mind to a
cheerful, and almost unlimited. (3.) That such obe- conclusion which seems necessarily involved in the
dience to the guardian of the laws naturally leads  premises. Hardly any writer has so much art and
to a strong affection for his' person. (4.) That this  plausibility in thus misleading the mind.




174                                          JUNIUS
much upon the administration of its government, event has not been answerable to the design.
that, to be acquainted with the merit of a min- After a rapid succession of changes, we are reistry, we need only observe the condition of the  duced to that change which hardly any change
people.  If we see them  obedient to the laws, can mend.  Yet there is no extremity of disprosperous in their industry, united at home, and  tress which of itself ought to reduce a great narespected abroad, we may reasonably presume  tion to despair.  It is not the disorder, but the
that their affairs are conducted by men of expe- physician; it is not a casual concurrence of ca
rience, abilities, and virtue.  If, on the contrary, lamitous circumstances, it is the pernicious hand
we see a universal spirit of distrust and dissat- of government, which alone can make a whole
isfaction, a rapid decay of trade, dissensions in all people desperate.
parts of the empire, and a total loss of respect    Without much political sagacity, or any. exin the eyes of foreign powers, we may pronounce, traordinary depth of observation, we need only
without hesitation, that the government of that mark how  the principal departments of the
country is weak, distracted, and corrupt.  The  state are bestowed [distributed], and look no
multitude, in all countries, are patient to a cer- farther for the true cause of every mischief that
tain point.  Ill usage may rouse their indigna- befalls us.
tion, and hurry them into excesses, but the orig-    The finances of a nation, sinking under its
inal fault is in government.3   Perhaps there  debts and expenses, are committed to a young
never was an instance of a change in the cir- nobleman already ruined by play.5  Introduced
cumstances and temper of a whole nation, so 
sudden and extraordinary as that which the mis- of absolute fatuity. The way being thus prepared,
conduct of ministers has, within these very few  what was first insinuated is now openly expressed
years, produced in Great Britain.  When our in the next sentence. The word "folly" is applied
gracious sovereign ascended the throne, we were  to the conduct of the King of England in the face of
raflous                  sone rninns c entdedtprln e   Ifthee were his subjects, and the application rendered doubly
a flourishing and a contented pyple.  If the per-  severe by te grast ir           ony. Still, the re is onesonal virtues of a king could have insured the  lie    Allusion is made to his "unbounded goodness
liefi  Allusion is made to his " unbounded goodness
happiness of his subjects, the scene could not of heart," from which, in the preceding chain of inhave altered so entirely as it has done.  The  sinuations, these errors of judgment had been deidea of uniting all parties, of trying all charac- duced. The next sentence takes this away. It
ters, and distributing the offices of state by ro- directly ascribes to the King, with an increased setation, was gracious and benevolent to an ex- verity of ironical denial, some of the meanest pastreme, though it has not yet produced the many  sions of royalty,    capricios  artiality for new
salutary effects which were intended by it.  To  faces," a" natural love of low intrigue," "the treachsalutary effects which were intended by it.  To'
nti.gfhe iso fuc l it un-.  p    erous amusement of double and triple negotiations!"
say nothing of the wisdom  of such plan, it unIt is unnecessary to remark on the admirable pre.
doubtedly arose from an unbounded goodness of  cision and force of the language in these expresheart, in which folly had no share.  It was not sions, and, indeed, throughout the whole passage.
a capricious partiality to new faces; it was not There had been just enough in the King's conduct
a natural turn for low intrigue, nor was it the  for the last seven years to make the people suspect
treacherous amusement of double and triple ne- all this, and to weaken or destroy their affection for
gotiations.  No, sir, it arose from  a continued  the Crown. It was all connected with that systenl
anxiety in the purest of all possible hearts for of favoritism introduced by Lord Bute, which the
ah gnxety    wefr.4  U  t    e  fo us, th 4.nation so much abhorred. Nothing but this would
the general welfare.   Unfortunately for us,the  have made them endure for a moment such an at3 Here is the central idea of the letter-the prop. tack on their monarch, and especially the absolute
osition to be proved in respect to the King and his mockery with which Junius concludes the whole, by
ministers. The former part of this paragraph con- speaking of " the anxiety of the purest of all possible
tains the major premise, the remainder the minor hearts for the general welfare!"  His entire Letter
down to the last sentence, which brings out the con- to the King, with all the rancor ascribed to it by
elusion in emphatic terms. In order to strengthen  Burke, does not contain so much bitterness and inthe minor, which was the most important premise, sult as are concentrated in this single passage.
he rapidly contrasts the condition of England before  While we can not but condemn its spirit, we are
and after the King ascended the throne. In doing  forced to acknowledge that there is in this and many
this, he dilates on those errors of the King which led  other passages of Junius, a rhetorical skill in the
to, and which account for, so remarkable a change. evolution of thought which was never surpassed by
Thus the conclusion is made doubly strong. This  Demosthenes.
union of severe logic with the finest rhetorical skill     The Duke of Grafton, first Lord of the Treasury.
in filling out the premises and giving them their ut- It is unnecessary to remark on the dexterity of conmost effect, furnishes an excellent model for the stu- necting with this mention of a treasury, "sinking
dent in oratory.                                  under its debts and expenses," the idea of its head
4 In this attack on the King, there is a refined  being a gambler loaded with his own debts, and liartifice, rarely if ever equaled, in leading the mind  able continually to new distresses and temptations
gradually forward from the slightest possible insin- from his love of play. The thought is wisely left
uation to the bitterest irony. First we have the  here. The argument which it implies would be
"uniting of all parties," which is proper and desira- weakened by any attempt to expand it. Junins
ble; next, "trying all characters," which suggests  often reminds us of the great Athenian orator, in
decidedly a want of judgment; then "distributing  thus striking a single blow, and then passing on to
the offices of state by rotation," a charge rendered  some other subject, as he does here to the apostasy
plausible, at least, by the frequent changes of min- of the Duke of Grafton, his inconsistency, caprice,
isters, and involving (if true) a weakness little short and irresolution.




TO THE PRINTER OF THE PUBLIC ADVERTISER.                                   175
o act under the auspices of Lord Chatham, and  ment of the King's affairs in the House of Cornleft at the head of affairs by that nobleman's re- mons can not be more disgraced than it has been.
treat, he became a minister by accident; but, de- A leading minister repeatedly called down for abserting the principles and professions which gave  solute ignorance-ridiculous motions ridiculously
him  a moment's popularity, we see him, from  withdrawn-deliberate plans disconcerted, and
every honorable engagement to the public, an  a week's preparation of graceful oratory lost in a
apostate by design.  As for business, the world  moment, give us some, though not an adequate
yet knows nothing of his talents or resolution, idea of Lord North's parliamentary abilities and
unless a wavering, wayward inconsistency be a  influence.7  Yet. before he had the misfortune of
mark of genius, and caprice a demonstration of  being Chancellor of the Exchequer, he was neispirit.  It may be said, perhaps, that it is his ther an object of derision to his enemies, nor of
Grace's province, as surely it is his passion, rath- melancholy pity to his friends.
er to distribute than to save the public money,    A series of inconsistent measures had alienand that while Lord North is Chancellor of the  ated the colonies from their duty as subjects and
Exchequer, the first Lord of the Treasury may  from  their natural affection to their conimon
be as thoughtless and extravagant as he pleases. country.  When Mr. Grenville was placed at
I hope, however, he will not rely too much on  the head of the treasury, he felt the impossibility
the fertility of Lord North's genius for finance. of Great Britain's supporting such an establishHis Lordship is yet to give us the first proof of  ment as her former successes had made indishis abilities.  It may be candid to suppose that pensable, and, at the same time, of giving any
he has hitherto voluntarily concealed his tal- sensible relief to foreign trade and to the weight
ents; intending, perhaps, to astonish the world, of the public debt.. He thought it equitable that
when we least expect it, with a knowledge of  those parts of the empire which had benefited
trade, a choice of expedients, and a depth of re- most by the expenses of the war, should contribsources equal to the necessities, and far beyond  ute something to the expenses of the peace, and
the hopes of his country.  He must now exert he had no doubt of the constitutional right vestthe whole power of his capacity, if he would  ed in Parliament to raise the contribution.  But,
wish us to forget that, since he has been in office, unfortunately for this country, Mr. Grenville was
no plan has been formed, no system adhered to, at any rate to be distressed because he was minnor any one important measure adopted for the  ister, and Mr. Pitt and Lord Camden were to be
relief of public credit.  If his plan for the serv- patrons of America, because they were in oppoice of the current year be not irrevocably fixed  sition.  Their declaration gave spirit and arguon, let me warn him to think seriously of conse- ment to the colonies; and while, perhaps, they
quences before he ventures to increase the pub- meant no more than the ruin of a minister, they
lie debt.  Outraged and oppressed as we are, in effect divided one half of the empire from the
this nation will not bear, after a six years' peace, other.s
to see new millions borrowed, without any eventual diminution of debt or reduction of interest.   7 Notwithstanding these early difficulties, Lord
The attempt might rouse a spirit of resentment, North became at last a very dexterous and effective
which might reach beyond the sacrifice of a mil- debater.
ister.  As to the debt upon the civil list, the    8 This attack on Lord Chatham  and his friend
people of England expect that it will not be paid  shows the political affinities ofJnius  He believed
without a strict inquiry how it was incurred.6 with Mr. Grenville and Lord Rockingham in the.If it must be paid by Parliament, let me advise  rzight of Great Britain to tax America; and in referIf it must be paid by Parliament, let me advise ring to Mr. Grenville's attempt to enforce that right
the Chancellor of the Exchequer to think of some  by the Stamp Act, he adopts his usual course of inbetter expedient than a lottery.  To support an  terweaving an argument in its favor into the lanexpensive war, or in circumstances of absolute  guage used. He thus prepares the way for his cennecessity, a lottery may perhaps be allowable; sures on Lord Chatham and Lord Camden, affirming
but, besides that it is at all times the very worst that they acted on the principle that " Mr. Grenville
way of raising money upon the people, I think it was at any rate to be distressed because he was
ill becomes the royal dignity to have the debts of  minister and they were in opposition," thus implya price provided for like the repairs of a co   ing that they were actuated by factious and selfish
a prince provided for, like the repairs of a counviews in their defense of America. About a year
try bridge or a decayed hospital.  The manage- after this letter was written, Lord Rockingham was
G Within about seven years, the King had run up  reconciled to Lord Chatham and Lord Camden, and
a debt of ~513,000 beyond the ample allowance  all united to break down the Grafton ministry. Jumade for his expenses on the civil list, and had just nius now turned round and wrote his celebrated
applied, at the opening of Parliament, for a grant to  eulogium on Lord Chatham, contained in his fiftypay it off. The nation were indignant at such over- fourth letter, in which he says, " Recorded honors
reaching. The debt, however, was paid this ses- shall gather round his monument, and thicken over
sion, and in a few years there was another contract- him. It is a solid fabric, and will support the laurels
ed. Thus it went on, fiom time to time, until 1782, that adorn it. I am not conversant in the language
when ~300,000 more were paid, in addition to a  of panegyric. These praises are extorted from me;
large sum during the interval. At this time a par-  but they will wear well, for they have been dearly
tial provision was made, in connection with Mr. earned."  The last of his letters was addressed to
Burke's plan of economical reform, for preventing  Lord Camden, in which he says, " I turn with pleasall future encroachments of this kind on the public  ure from that barren waste, in which no solitary
revenues.                                        plant takes root, no verdure quickens, to a charac



176                                          JUNIUS
Under one administration the Stamp Act is  partment.  By what unaccountable caprice has
made; under the second it is repealed, under the  it happened, that the latter, who pretends to no
third, in spite of all experience, a new mode of  experience whatsoever, is removed to the most
taxing the colonies is invented, and a question  important of the two departments, and the forrevived, which ought to have been buried in oh- mer, by preference, placed in an office where his
livion.  In these circumstances, a new office is  experience can be of no use to him?l~  Lord
established for the business of the Plantations,  Weymouth had distinguished himself in his first
and the Earl of Hillsborough called forth, at a  employment by a spirited, if not judicious conmost critical season, to govern America.  The  duct.  He had animated the civil magistrate
choice at least announced to us a man of supe- beyond the tone of civil authority, and had dirior capacity and knowledge.  Whether he be so  rected the operations of the army to more than
or not, let his dispatches as far as they have ap- military execution.  Recovered from the errors
peared, let his measures as far as they have oper- of his youth, from  the distraction of play, and
ated, determine for him.  In the former we have  the bewitching smiles of Burgundy, behold him
seeh strong assertions without proof, declamation  exerting the whole strength of his clear, unwithout argument, and violent censures without clouded faculties in the service of the Crown.
dignity or moderation, but neither correctness in  It was not the heat of midnight excesses, nor
the composition, nor judgment in the design.  As  ignorance of the laws, nor the furious spirit of
for his measures, let it be remembered that he  the house of Bedford; no, sir; when this respectwas called upon to conciliate and unite, and that, able minister interposed his authority between
when he entered into office, the most refractory  the magistrate and the people, and signed the
of the colonies were still disposed to proceed by  mandate on which, for aught he knew, the lives
the constitutional methods of petition and remon- of thousands depended, he did it from the deliberstrance.  Since that period they have been driv- ate motion of his heart, supported by the best of
en into excesses little short of rebellion.  Pe- his judgment."
titions have been hindered from  reaching the          The changes here censured had taken place
rr^        q         *        >      >   n,        1 The chaulges here censured had taken place
Throne, and the continuance of one of the prin- about thee months before. The office of Foreign
cipal assemblies put upon an arbitrary condition, Secretary for the Southern Department was made
which, considering the temper they were in, it vacant by the resignation of Lord Shelburne. Lord
was impossible they should comply with, and  Rochford, who had been minister to France, and
which would have availed nothing as to the gen- thus made " acquainted with the temper of the
eral question if it had been complied with.9  So  Southern courts," ought naturally to have been apviolent, and I believe I may call it so unconstitu- pointed (if at all) to this department. Instead of
tional an exertion of the prerogative, to say noth- this  he was made Secretary of the Northern Deofr     i.the weak,.injudiciou term  in which itwa partment, for which he had been prepared by no preing of the weak, injudicious terms in which it was vious klowledge; while Lord Weymouth was talk
conveyed, gives us as humble an opinion of his  en from the Home Department, and placed in the
Lordship's capacity as it does of his temper and  Southern, being "equally qualified" [that is, wholly
moderation.  While we are at peace with other unqualified by any "experience whatsoever"] for
nations, our military force may perhaps be spared  either department in the Foreign office, whether
to support the Earl of Hillsborough's measures  Southern or Northerl.
in America.  Whenever that force shall be nec-    l As Secretary of the Home Department, Lord
essarily withdrawn or diminished, the dismission  Weymouth had addressed a letter to the magistrates
of such a minister will neither console us for his  of London, eally in 1768, advisin  temn to call in the
*ir,, remove testldre military, provided certain disturbances in the streets
imprudence, nor remove the settled resentment should continue. The idea of setting the soldiery
of a people, who, complaining of an act of the  to fire on masses of unarmed men has always been
Legislature, are outraged by an unwarranta-  abhorrent to the English nation. It was, therefore,
ble stretch of prerogative, and, supporting their  a case admirably suited to the purposes of this Letclaims by argument, are insulted with declama- ter. In using it to inflame the people against Lord
tion.                                             Weymouth, Junius charitably supposes that he was
Drawing lots would be a prudent and reason- not repeating the errors of his youth-that he was
neither drunk, nor ignorant of what.he did, nor imable method of appointing the officers of state, n, n                   rat of whatle did, nor imcoparled to a late disposition of the  secretary's  pelled by " the furious spirit" of one of the proudest
compared to a late disposition of the secretary's families of the realm-all of which Lord Weymoth
^~.   T-  TT, i^   ~.   1.," families of the realm-all of which Lord Weymouth
office. Lord Rochford was acquainted with the  would certainly say-and therefore (which his Lord
affairs and temper of the Southern courts; Lord  ship must also admit) that he did, from "the delib
Weymouth was equally qualified for either de- erate motion of his heart, supported by the best of
his judgment," sign a paper which the great body
ter fertile, as I willingly believe, in every great and  of the people considered as authorizing promiscuous
good qualification."  Political men have certainly a murder, and which actually resulted in the death of
peculiar faculty of viewing the characters of others fourteen persons three weeks after. The whole is
under very different lights, as they happen to affect so wrought up as to create the feeling, that Lord
their own interests and feelings.                 Weymouth was in both of these states of mind" The " arbitrary condition" was that the General that he acted with deliberation in carrying out the
Court of Massachusetts should rescind one of their dictates of headlong or drunken passion.
own resolutions and expunge it from their records.   All this, of course, is greatly exaggerated. Se
The whole of this passage in relation to Hillsborough  vere measures did seem indispensable to suppress
is as correct in point of fact, as it is well reasoned the mobs of that day, and, whoever stood forth to diand finely expressed.                            rect them, must of necessity incur the popular in



TO THE PRINTER  OF THE PUBLIC  ADVElTISEIR.                                   177
It has lately been a fashion to pay a oompl-  vileness of pecuniary corruption. Jefferies himment to the bravery and generosity of the Com-  self, when the court had no interest, was an upmander-in-chief [the Marquess of Granby] at the  right judge.  A court of justice may be subject
expense of his understanding.  They who love  to another sort of bias, more important and perhim least make no question of his courage, while  nicious, as it reaches beyond the interest of indihis friends dwell chiefly on the facility of his dis-  viduals, and affects the whole community.  A
position.  Admitting him to be as brave as a  judge, under the influence of government, may
total absence of all feeling and reflection can  be honest enough in the decision of private cansmake him, let us see what sort of merit he de- es, yet a traitor to the public.  When a victim
rives from the remainder of his character.  If it is marked out by the ministry, this judge will
be generosity to accumulate in his own person  offer himself to perform  the sacrifice.  He will
and family a number of lucrative employments; not scruple to prostitute his dignity, and betray
to provide, at the public expense, for every crea-  the sanctity of his office, whenever an arbitrary
ture that bears the name of Manners, and, neg-  point is to be carried for government, or the relecting the merit and services of the rest of the  sentment of a Court to be gratified.
army, to heap promotions upon his favorites and      These principles and proceedings, odious and'
dependents, the present Commander-in-chief is contemptible as they are, in effect are no less inthe most generous man alive. Nature has been  judicious.  A  wise and generous people are:
sparing of her gifts to this noble Lord; but roused by every appearance of oppressive, unconwhere birth and fortune are united, we expect stitutional measures, whether those measures are
the noble pride and independence of a man of  supported openly by the power of government,
spirit, not the servile, humiliating complaisance  or masked under the forms of a court of justice..
of a courtier.  As to the goodness of his heart, Prudence and self-preservation will oblige the
if a proof of it be taken from the facility of never most moderate dispositions to make common
refusing, what conclusion shall we draw from   cause, even with a man whose conduct they
the indecency of never performing?  And if the  censure, if they see him  persecuted in a way
discipline of the army be in any degree preserv- which the real spirit of the laws will not justify.
ed, what thanks are due to a man, whose cares,  The facts on which these remarks are founded,.
notoriously confined to filling up vacancies, have  are too notorious to require an application.'3
degraded the office of Commander-in-chief into       This, sir, is the detail.  In one view, behold
[that of] a broker of commissions.'               a nation overwhelmed with debt; her revenues
With respect to the navy, I shall only say, wasted; her trade declining; the affections of
that this country is so highly indebted to Sir Ed-  her colonies alienated; the duty of the magis —
ward Hawke, that no expense should be spared  trate transferred to the soldiery; a gallant army,
to secure him an honorable and affluent retreat.  which never fought unwillingly but against their
The pure and impartial administration of jus-  fellow-subjects, moldering away for want of thetice is perhaps the firmest bond to secure a cheer-  direction of a man of common abilities and spirit;
ful submission of the people, and to engage their  and, in the last instance, the administration of
affections to government.  It is not sufficient justice become odious and suspected to the whole*
that questions of private right or wrong are just- body of the people.  This deplorable scene adly decided, nor that judges are superior to the  mits but of one addition-that we are governed'
dignation. Still, it was a question among the most by councils, from whi   a reasonable man can
candid msen, whether milder means -might not have  expect no remedy but poison, no relief but death.
been effectual.                                      If by the -immediate interposition of Provi —
12 The Marquess of Granby, personally considered, dence, it were [be] possible for us to escape a
was perhaps the most popular member of the cabinet, with the exception of Sir Edward Hawke. He'3 It is unnecessary to say that Lord Mansfield is.
was a warm-hearted man, of highly social qualities  here pointed at. No one now believes that this
and generous feelings. As it was the object of Ju- great jurist ever did the things here ascribed to him.
nius to break down the ministry, it was peculiarly  by Junius. All that is true is, that he was a very
necessary for him to blast and destroy his popular- high Tory, and was, therefore, naturally led to exalt
ity.: This he attempts to do by discrediting the  the prerogatives of the Crown; and that he was a
character of the Marquess, as a man of firmness, very politic man (and this was the great failing in,
strength of mind, and disinterestedness in mana- his character), and therefore unwilling to oppose theging the concerns of the army. This attack is dis- King or his ministers, when he knew in heart they
tinguished for its plausibility and bitterness. It is  were wrong. This was undoubtedly the case in re.
clear that Junius was in some way connected with  spect to the issuing of a general warrant for ap,
the army or with the War Department, and that in  prehending Wilkes, which he ought publicly to have.
this situation he had not only the means of very ex- condemned; but, as he remained silent, men natu,
act information, but some private grudge against the  rally considered him, in his character of Chief Jusn
Commander in-chief. His charges and insinuations tice, as having approved of the course directed by
are greatly overstrained; but it is certain that the  the King. Hence Mansfield was held responsible,
army was moldering away at this time in a manner for the treatment of Wilkes, of whom Junius herewhich left the country in a very defenseless condi- speaks in very nearly the terms used by Lord Chat.
tion. Lord Chatham showed this by incontestible  ham, as a man whose "conduct" he censured, but
evidence, in his speech on the Falkland Islands, with whom every moderate man must "make corndelivered about a year after.this Letter was writ- mon cause," when he was " persecuted in a way
ten.                                              which the real spirit of the laws will not justify."
M




178                                         JUNIUS
crisis so full of terror and despair, posterity will ior recovered from so desperate a condition, while
not believe the history of the present times. a Duke of Grafton was Prime Minister, a Lord
They will either conclude that our distresses  North Chancellor of the Exchequer, a Weywere imaginary, or that we had the good for- mouth and a Hillsborough Secretaries of State,
tune to be governed by men of acknowledged in- a Granby Commander-in-chief, and a Mansfield
tegrity and wisdom.  They will not believe it chief criminal judge of the kingdom.
possible that their ancestors could have survived,                                      JUNIUS.
LETTER
TO SIR WILLIAM DRAPER, KNIGHT OF THE BATH.i
SIR,-The defense of Lord Granby does honor    You begin with a general assertion, that writto the goodness of your heart.  You feel, as you  ers, such as I am, are the real cause of all the
ought to do, for the reputation of your friend,  public evils we complain of.  And do you really
and you express yourself in the warmest lan-  think, Sir William, that the licentious pen of a
guage of the passions.  In any other cause, I  political writer is able to produce such importdoubt not, you would have cautiously weighed  ant effects?  A little calm reflection might have
the consequences of committing your name to  shown you that national calamities do not arise
the licentious discourses and malignant opinions  from the description, but from the real character
of the world.  But here, I presume, you thought  and conduct of ministers.  To have supported
it would be a breach of friendship to lose one  your assertion, you should have proved that the
moment in consulting your understanding; as if  present ministry are unquestionably the best and
an appeal to the public were no more than a mil-  brightest characters of the kingdom; and that, if
itary coup de main, where a brave man has no  the affections of the colonies have been alienated,
rules to follow but the dictates of his courage.  if Corsica has been shamefully abandoned, if
Touched with your generosity, I freely forgive  commerce languishes, if public credit is threatthe excesses into which it has led you; and, far  ened with a: new debt, and your own Manilla
from resenting those terms of reproach, which,  ransom  most dishonorably given up, it has all
considering that you are an advocate for deco-  been owing to the malice of political writers,
rum, you have heaped upon me rather too liber-  who will not suffer the best and brightest of
ally, I place them to the account of an honest,  characters (meaning still the present ministry)
unreflecting indignation, in which your cooler  to take a single right step for the honor or injudgment and natural politeness had no concern.  terest of the nation.3  But it seems you were a
I approve of the spirit with which you have given
sour name to the public, and, if it were a proof  action furnished Junius with many a sarcasm. Sir
iof any thing but spirit, I should have thought my-  William had scarcely closed his contest with that
self bound to follow your example. I should have  formidable opponent, when he had the misfortune to
lose his wife, who died on the 1st of September,'hoped that even my name might carry some an-  1769. As he was foiled, he was no doubt mortified;
thority with it, if I had not seen how very little  and he set out, in October of that year, to make the
weight or consideration a printed paper receives  tour of the American colonies, which had now beeven from the respectable signature of Sir Will-  come objects of notice and scenes of travel. He ariam Draper."                                      rived at Charleston, South Carolina, in January, 1770;
and, traveling northward, he arrived, during the sumDated February 7, 1769. It is unnecessary to  mer of that year, in Maryland, where he was received
give the letters of Sir William Draper, since their  with thathospitality which she always paid to strancontents will be sufficiently understood from the re-  gers, and with the attentions that were due to the
plies, and our present concern is not with the merits  merit of such a visitor. From Maryland Sir Will-.of the controversy, but the peculiarities of Junius as  iam passed on to New York, where he married Miss:a writer.                                        De Lancey, a lady of great connections there, and
2 The reader will be interested in the following  agreeable endowments, who died in 1778, leaving
brief sketch of Sir William Draper's life by a con-  him a daughter. In 1779 he was appointed Lieutemporary::                                      tenant Governor of Minorca-a trust which, however
"Sir William, as a scholar, had been bred at Eton  discharged, ended unhappily. He died at Bath, on
and King's College, Cambridge, but he chose the  the 8th of January, 1787."
sword for his profession. In India he ranked with    3 A few words of explanation may be necessary
those famous warriors, Clive and Lawrence. In  on two of the points here mentioned.
1761 he acted at Belleisle as a brigadier. In 1762    The Corsicans had risen against their former mashe commanded the troops who conquered Manilla,  ters and oppressors, the Genoese, and, through the
-which place was saved from plunder by the prom-  bravery and conduct of their leader, General Paoli,
ise of a ransom of ~1,000,000, that was never paid.  had nearly recovered their liberties. Genoa now
His first appearance as an able writer was in his  called in the aid of France, and finally sold her the
clear refutation of the objections of the Spanish court  island. Public sentiment in England was strongly
to the payment oftthat ransom. His services were  in favor of the Corsicans; and the general feeling
rewarded with the command of the sixteenth regi-  was that of Lord Chatham, that England ought to
hent:of foot, which he resigned to Colonel Gisborne  interfere, and prevent France from being aggrandfor his half.pay of ~200 Irish. This common trans.  ized at the expense of the Corsicans. Instead of




TO  SIR WILLIAM  DRAPER.                                      179
l.ttle tender of coming to particulars.  Your con- tray the just interest of the army in permitting
science insinuated to you that it would be pru- Lord Percy to have a regiment? and does he
dent to leave the characters of Grafton, North, not at this moment give up all character-and
Hillsborough, Weymouth, and Mansfield to shift dignity as a gentleman, in receding from his own
for themselves; and truly, Sir William, the part repeated declarations in favor of Mr.Wilkes?
you have undertaken is at least as much as you    In the two next articles I think we are agreed.
are equal to.                                     You candidly admit that he often makes such
Without disputing Lord Granby's courage, promises as it is a virtue in him to violate, and
we are yet to learn in what articles of military  that no man is more assiduous to provide for his
knowledge Nature has been so very liberal to his relations at the public expense.  I did not urge
mind.  If you have served with him, you ought the last as an absolute vice in his disposition, but
to have pointed out some instances of able dis- to prove that a careless, disinterested spirit is no
position  and well-concerted  enterprise, which  part of his character; and as to the other, I demight fairly be attributed to his capacity as a  sire it may be remembered that I never descendgeneral.  It is you, Sir William, who make your ed to the indecency of inquiring into his convivial
friend appear awkward and ridiculous, by giving  hours.  It is you, Sir William Draper, who have
him  a laced suit of tawdry qualifications which  taken pains to represent your friend in the characNature never intended him to wear.               ter of a drunken landlord, who deals out his promYou say, he has acquired nothing but honor ises as liberally as his liquor, and will suffer no
in the field.  Is the ordnance nothing?  Are  man to leave his table either sorrowful or sober.
the Blues nothing?  Is the command of the  None but an intimate friend, who must frequentarmy, with all the patronage annexed to it, noth- ly have seen him in these unhappy, disgraceful
ing?  Where he got these nothings I know not; moments, could have described him so well.
but you, at least, ought to have told us where    The last charge, of the neglect of the army.
he deserved them.                                is indeed the most material of all.  I am sorry
As to his bounty, compassion, &c., it would  to tell you, Sir William, that in this article your
have been but little to the purpose, though you  first fact is false; and as there is nothing more
had proved all that you have asserted. I meddle  painful to me than to give a direct contradiction
with nothing but his character as Commander- to a gentleman of your appearance, I could wish
in-chief; and though I acquit him  of the base- that, in your future publications, you would pay
ness of selling commissions, I still assert that his a greater attention to the truth of your premises,
military cares. have hever extended beyond the  before you suffer your genius to hurry you to a
disposal. of vacancies; and I am justified by the  conclusion.  Lord Ligonier did not deliver the
complaints of the whole army, when I say that, army  (which you, in classical language, are
in this distribution, he consults nothing but par- pleased to call a Palladium) into Lord Granby's
liamentary interests, or the gratification of his hands.  It was taken from  him, much against
immediate dependents.  As to his servile sub- his inclination, some two or three years before
mission to the reigning ministry, let me ask, Lord Granby was Commander-in-chief.  As to
whether he did not desert the cause of the whole  the state of the army, I should be glad to know
army when he suffered Sir Jeffery Amherst to  where you have received your intelligence. Was
be sacrificed? and what share he had in recall- it in the rooms at Bath, or at your retreat at
ing that officer to the service?4  Did he not be- Clifton?  The reports of reviewing generals
this, the Grafton ministry had decided three months                                  in England
before to give her up, and the great body of the na- which, as they are immediately under the royal
tion were indignant at this decision.            inspection, are perhaps in some tolerable order.
In respect to the Manilla ransom, it has already  But do you know any thing of the troops in the
been stated, that the Spanish court, in their usual West Indies, the Mediterranean, and North Amerspirit, had endeavored to evade the debt. Year af- ica, to say nothing of a whole army absolutely
ter year had been spent in fruitless negotiations, ruined in Ireland?  Inquire a little into facts.
when the decided tone recommended by Lord Chat- Sir William, before you publish your next pane
ham would have at once secured payment. The na-                                                
tion felt disgraced by this tame endurance. Sir Will- gyic upon Lord Granby, and believe me you will
iam Draper was indeed rewarded with the order of  find there is a fault at head-quarters, which even
the Bath, whose "blushing ribbon" is so stingingly  the acknowledged care and abilities of the Adjualluded to at the close of this letter. He also re- tant General [General Harvey] can not correct.
ceived the pecuniary emoluments here mentioned.
But all this was considered by many as mere favor- er station in the army, through the determined initism, and the reward of his silence; for Admiral terposition of his friends, but not (as Junius intiCornish, who commanded the fleet in that expedi- mates) through that of Lord Granby.
tion, together with the inferior officers and troops,   In respect to Lord Percy, it was bitterly comwas left to languish and die without redress.     plained of in the army that he should receive a regi4 Sir Jeffery Amherst was a favorite general of ment " plainly by way of pension to the noble, disLord Chatham, and conducted most of his great en- interested house of Percy," for their support of the
terprises in America. He was rewarded with the  ministry, while the most meritorious officers were
office of Governor of Virginia, but was abruptly dis- passed over in neglect. and suffered, after years of
placed in 1768, through the interposition of Hillsbor- arduous service, to languish in want.
9ugh, chiefly on account of his friendship for Chat-   5 It is hardly correct to say that afact is false, but
Ram. He was, however, speedily raised to a high- rather the statement which affirms it.




180                                        JUNIUS
Permit me now, Sir William, to address my- tary skill and capacity."  As to the Manilla
self personally to you, by way of thanks for the ransom, he says that he had complained, and
honor of your correspondence.  You are by no  even appealed to the public, but his efforts with
means undeserving of notice; and it may be of the ministry were in vain. " Some were ingenconsequence even to Lord Granby to have it de- uous enough to own that they could not think
termined, whether or no the man, who has praised  of involving this distressed nation into another
him so lavishly, be himself deserving of praise. war for our private concerns.  In short, our
When you returned to Europe, you zealously  rights, for the present, are sacrificed to national
undertook the cause of that gallant army, by  convenience; and I must confess that, although
whose bravery at Manilla your own fortune had  I may lose five-and-twenty thousand pounds by
been established.  You complained, you threat- their acquiescence to this breach of faith in the
ened, you even appealed to the public in print. Spaniards, I think they are in the right to temBy what accident did it happen that, in the porize, considering the critical situation of this
midst of all this bustle, and all these clamors for country, convulsed in every part by poison injustice to your injured troops, the name of the fused by anonymous, wicked, and incendiary writManilla ransom was suddenly buried in a pro- ers."
found, and, since that time, an uninterrupted si-    His pecuniary transactions he explained in a
lence?  Did the ministry suggest any motives manner which ought to have satisfied any canto you strong enough to tempt a man of honor did mind, that there was nothing in them  either
to desert and betray the cause of his fellow-sol- dishonest or dishonorable.  As to his being rediers?  Was it that blushing ribbon, which is warded with office and preferment, while his
now the perpetual ornament of your person? Or companions in arms were neglected, this was
was it that regiment, which you afterward (a certainly not to be imputed to him as a crime,
thing unprecedented among soldiers) sold to  since his services merited all he received.  Still,
Colonel Gisborne?  Or was it that government he may, on this account, have been more will[of Yarmouth], the full pay of which you are  ing (as Junius insinuated) to remain quiet.  He
contented to hold, with the half-pay of an Irish  closed his second letter thus: "Junius makes
colonel?  And do you now, after a retreat not much and frequent use of interrogations: they
very like that of Scipio, presume to intrude your- are arms that may be easily turned against himself, unthought of, uncalled for, upon the pa- self. I could, by malicious interrogation, disturb
tience of the public?  Are your flatteries of the the peace of the most virtuous man in the kingCommander-in-chief directed to another regi- dom.  I could take the Decalogue, and say to
ment, which you may again dispose of on the one man,'Did you never steal?' to the next,
same honorable terms?  We know your pru-' Did you never commit murder?' and to Junius
dence, Sir William, and I should be sorry to stop  himself, who is putting my life and conduct to
your preferment.                     JUNIUS.   the rack,'Did you never bear false witness
against thy neighbor?' Junius must easily see,
that unless he affirms to the contrary in his real
Sir William Draper, in reply to this Letter, name, some people, who may be as ignorant of
said, concerning Lord Granby, "My friend's po- him as I am, will be apt to suspect him of havlitical engagements I know not, so can not pre- ing deviated a little from the truth; therefore let
tend to explain them, or assert their consist- Junius ask no more questions. You bite against
ency."  He does, however, reassert "his mili- a file; cease, viper!"
LETTER
TO SIR WILLIAM DRAPER, KNIGHT OF THE BATH.'
SIR,-An academical education has given you  your answers, you ought to have no objection.
an unlimited command over the most beautiful Even Mr. Bingley promises to answer, if put to
figures of speech.  Masks, hatchets, racks, and  the torture.
vipers dance through your letters in all the mazes    Do you then really think that, if I were to ask
of metaphorical confusion. These are the gloomy  a most virtuous man whether he ever committed
companions of a disturbed imagination-the eel- theft, or murder, it would disturb his peace of
ancholy madness of poetry without the inspira- mind?  Such a question might perhaps discomtion.  I will not contend with you in point of  pose the gravity of his muscles, but I believe it
composition.  You are a scholar, Sir William,
and, if I am truly informed, you write Latin with    2 This man was a bookseller, who had been subpoealmost as much purity as English.  Suffer me, naed by the government in the case of Wilkes. For
then, for I am a plain unlettered man, to continue  some reason, he refused to answer the questions put
that style of interrogation which suits my capac- by either party, and made himself the laughing-stock
ity, and to which, considering the readiness oof fboth, by declaring under oath that he would never
_______________________  answer untilput to the torture. He was imprisoned
1 Dated March 3, 1769. This was the lo Trium- a number of months for contempt of court, and at last
phe of Jntnins in closing the correspondence.    released.




TO SIR WILLIAM  DRAPER.                                     181
would little affect the tranquillity of his con-  you have some reason to hold yourself indebted
science.  Examine your own breast, Sir Will-  to me.  From the lessons I have given, you may
iam, and you will discover that reproaches and  collect a profitable instruction for your future
inquiries have no power to afflict either the man  life.  They will either teach you so to regulate
of unblemished integrity, or the abandoned prof-  your conduct as to be able to set the most maligate.  It is the middle, compound character  licious inquiries at defiance, or, if that be a lost
which alone is vulnerable: the man who, with-  hope, they will teach you prudence enough not
out firmness enough to avoid a dishonorable ac-  to attract the public attention to a character
tion, has feeling enough to be ashamed of it.   which will only pass without censure when it
I thank you for the hint of the Decalogue, and  passes without observation.       JUNIUS.
shall take an opportunity of applying it to some
of your most virtuous friends in both houses of    Junius added the following note when the letParliament.                                     ters were collected into a volume, after the death
You seem to have dropped the affair of your  of the Marquess of Granby:
regiment; so let it rest.  When you are appoint-    " It has been said, and I believe truly, that it
ed to another, I dare say you will not sell it,  was signified to Sir William Draper, at the reeither for a gross sum, or for any annuity upon  quest of Lord Granby, that he should desist from
lives.                                          writing in his Lordship's defense.  Sir William
I am truly glad (for really, Sir William, I am   Draper certainly drew  Junius forward to say
not your enemy, nor did I begin this contest with  more of Lord Granby's character than he origyou) that you have been able to clear yourself  inally intended.  He was reduced to the dilemof a crime, though at the expense of the highest  ma of either being totally silenced, or of supindiscretion.  You say that your half pay was  porting his first letter.  Whether Sir William
given you by way of pension.  I will not dwell  had a right to reduce him to this dilemma, or to'
upon the singularity of uniting in your own per-  call upon him for his name, after a voluntary atson two sorts of provision, which, in their own  tack on his side, are questions submitted to the
nature, and in all military and parliamentary  candor of the public.  The death of Lord Granviews, are incompatible; but I call upon you to.by was lamented by Junius.  He undoubtedly
justify that declaration, wherein you charge your  owed some compensations to the public, and
prince with having done an act in your favor no-  seemed determined to acquit himself of them.
toriously against law.  The half pay, both in  In private life, he was unquestionably that good
Ireland and in England, is appropriated by Par-  man, who, for the interest of his country, ought
liament; and if it be given to persons who, like  to have been a great one.'Bonum virum  fayou, are legally incapable of holding it, it is a  cile dixeris; magnum libenter.'3  I never spoke
breach of law.  It would have been more decent  of him with resentment.  His mistakes in public
in you to have called this dishonorable transac-  conduct did not arise either from want of sentition by its true name; a job to accommodate two  ment or want of judgment, but in general from
persons, by particular interest and management  the difficulty of saying No! to the bad people who
at the Castle.  What sense must government  surrounded him.  As for the rest, the friends of
have had of your services, when the rewards  Lord Granby should remember, that he himself
they have given you are only a disgrace to you! thought proper to condemn, retract, and disavow,
And now, Sir William, I shall take my leave  by a most solemn declaration in the House of
of you forever.  Motives, very different from any  Commons, that very system of political conduct
apprehension of your resentment, make it im-  which Junius had held forth to the disapprobapossible you should ever know me.  In truth,  tion of the public."4
LETTER
TO HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF GRAFTON.1
MY LORD,-If the measures in which you  have been most successful had been supported
3 " You would readily call him a good man, and be such audacity in vice, as made him treat with conglad to call him a great one."                  tempt all endeavors for his good, and left room only
4 This refers to the change of Lord Granby's for the writer "to consider his character and conviews and feelings after Lord Chatham's speech of duct as a subject of cuzrious speculation."  Junins
January 9th, 1770: see page 114. As already stated, then goes on to speak of, (I.) The stain which rested
page 114, he withdrew from the Duke of Grafton's on the Duke's descent, and his resemblance to his readministration, apologizing for the vote he had given puted ancestors. (2.) His education under Lord Chatfor seating Colonel Luttrell in the House, deploring ham, and his early desertion of his patron and of all
it as the greatest misfortune of his life.      others who had ever confided in him. (3.) His masl1 Dated May 30th, 1769. This, like the first letter, agement under the third ministry of Chatham, to enhas great regularity of structure. It begins with anl gross power and influence by a union with the Duke
artful apology for its bitterness, representing the of Bedford and a marriage into his family. (4.) His
Duke as utterly incorrigible; as having such a ieli- supposed design, by this union, to obtain the mastery
ance on his purchased majority in Parliament, and of the closet, and take the place of the Favorite. (5.)




182                                        JUNIUS
by any tolerable appearance of argument, I  some excuse to posterity, and to ourselves, lor
should have thought my time not ill employed  submitting to your administration.  If not the
in continuing to examine your conduct as a min- abilities of a great minister, if not the integrity
ister, and stating it fairly to the public.  But of a patriot, or the fidelity of a friend, show us,
when I see questions of the first national im- at least, the firmness of a man. For the sake of
portance carried as they have been, and the first your mistress, the lover shall be spared.  I will
principles of the Constitution openly violated  not lead her into public, as you have done, nor
without argument or decency, I confess I give up  will I insult the memory of departed beauty.
the cause in despair.  The meanest of your pred- Her sex, which alone made her amiable in your
ecessors had abilities sufficient to give a color to  eyes, makes her respectable in mine.3
their measures.  If they invaded the rights of    The character of the reputed ancestors of
the people, they did not dare to offer a direct in- some men has made it possible for their desult to their understanding; and, in former times, scendants to be vicious in the extreme, without
the most venal Parliaments made it a condition, being degenerate.  Those of your Grace, for
in their bargain with the minister, that he should  instance, left no distressing examples of virtue,
furnish them with some plausible pretenses for even to their legitimate posterity; and you may
selling their country and themselves.  You have  look back with pleasure to an illustrious pedihad the merit of introducing a more compendious gree, in which heraldry has not left a single good
system  of government and logic.  You neither quality upon record to insult or upbraid you.
address yourself to the passions nor to the un- You have better proofs of your descent, my Lord,
derstanding, but simply to the touch.  You ap- than the register of a marriage, or any troubleply yourself immediately to the feelings of your some inheritance of reputation. There are some
friends, who, contrary to the forms of Parliament, hereditary strokes of character, by which a famnever enter heartily into a debate until they have  ily may be as clearly distinguished as by the
divided.2                                       blackest features in the human face.  Charles
Relinquishing, therefore, all idle views of  the First lived and died a hypocrite.  Charles
amendment to your Grace, or of benefit to the  the Second was a hypocrite of another soit, and
public, let me be permitted to consider your should have died upon the same scaffold.  At
character and conduct merely as a subject of  the distance of a century, we see their different
curious speculation.  There is something in both  characters happily revived and blended in your
which distinguishes you not only from all other Grace. Sullen and severe without religion, profministers, but all other men.  It is not that you  ligate without gayety, you live like Charles the
do wrong by design, but that you should never Second, without being an amiable companion,
do right by mistake.  It is not that your indo- and, for aught I know, may die as his father did,
lence and your activity have been equally mis- without the reputation of a martyr.4
applied, but that the first uniform principle, or,    You had already taken your degrees with
if I may so call it, the genius of your life, should  credit in those schools in which the English nohave carried you through every possible change  bility are formed to virtue, when you were inand contradiction of conduct, without the mo- troduced to Lord Chatham's protection.  From
mentary imputation or color of a virtue; and  Newmarket, White's, and the Opposition, he
that the wildest spirit of inconsistency should  gave you to the world with an air of popularity,
never once have betrayed you into a wise or             
honorable action.  This, I own, gives an air of    3 The Duke of Graftoadoutragedpublic ecen-.  to X you.e acy a few months before, by appearing openly with
singularity to your fortune, as well as to your his  istress, Miss Parsons, in places of generaledisposition.  Let us look back together to a  sort and amusement. Junius attacked him on the
scene, in which a mind like yours will find noth- subject at that time (though not under his present
ing to repent of.  Let us try, my Lord, how well signature), remarking ironically, " You have exceedyou have supported the various relations in which  ed my warmest expectations. I did not think you
you stood, to your sovereign, your country, your capable of exhibiting the'lovely Thais' at the Opera
friends, and yourself.  Give us, if it be possible, House, of sitting a whole night by her side, of calling for her carriage yourself, and of leading her to it
His fluctuating policy in respect to America. (6.) His through a crowd of the first men and women in this
betrayal of the Corsicans into the hands of France, kingdom. To a mind like yours, such an outrage to
and his permitting the French to gain the ascend- your wife, such a triumph over decency, such an inency in the Turkish Divan. (7.) His alienating the  suit to the company, must have afforded the highest
affections of the people from the King by his home gratification. It was, I presume, your novissima voadministration, "sometimes allowing the laws to  luptas."  Junius very dexterously throws in this
be scandalously relaxed, and sometimes violently  mention of the Duke of Grafton's dissolute habits to
stretched beyond their tone."  He concludes by  introduce the next paragraph, which traces his oritelling the Duke, as the only hope of his being ren- gin from the most debauched of English monarchs.
dered useful to mankind, " I mean to make you a   4 The first Duke of Grafton was a natural son of
negative instructor to your successors forever."  Charles II., and the present Duke a great-grandchild
2 About this time, as appears from the Court Cal- of that debauched monarch. This reference to the
endar, one hundred, and ninety-two members of the  fact was of itself sufficiently mortifying; but it deHouse of Commons had places under government, rives double severity from the ingenious turn by
and were thus held in absolute subserviency to the  which the discordant qualities of his two royal anminister; to say nothing of the more direct use of  cestors are made to meet and mingle in the person
money alluded to above.                         of his Grace.




TO THE DUKE OF GRAFTON.                                        183
which young men usually set out with, and sel- you to yourself, and to withdraw his name from
dom preserve; grave and plausible enough to be  an administration which had been formed on the
thought fit for business; too young for treach- credit of it.7 You had then a prospect of friendery; and, in short, a patriot of no unpromising  ships better suited to your genius, and more
expectations.  Lord Chatham was the earliest likely to fix your disposition.  Marriage is the
object of your political wonder and attachment;  point on which every rake is stationary at last;
yet you deserted him, upon the first hopes that and truly, my Lord, you may well be weary of
offered of an equal share of power with Lord  the circuit you have taken, for you have now
Rockingham. When the Duke of Cumberland's  fairly traveled through every sign in the political
first negotiation failed, and when the Favorite  zodiac, from  the Scorpion in which you stung
was pushed to the last extremity, you saved him, Lord Chatham, to the hopes of a Virgin in the
by joining with an administration in which Lord  house of Bloomsbury.  One would think that
Chatiam  had refused to engage.5  Still, how- you had had sufficient experience of the frailty
ever, he was your friend, and you are yet to ex- of nuptial engagements, or, at least, that such a
plain to the world why you consented to act'friendship as the Duke of Bedford's might have
without him, or why, after uniting with Lord  been secured to you by the auspicious marriage
Rockingham, you deserted and betrayed him. of your late Duchess with his nephew. But ties
You complained that no measures were taken to  of this tender nature can not be drawn too close;
satisfy your patron, and that your friend, Mr. and it may possibly be a part of the Duke of
Wilkes, who had suffered so much for the party, Bedford's ambition, after making her an honest
had been abandoned to his fate.  They have  woman, to work a miracle of the same sort upon
since contributed, not a little, to your present your Grace.  This worthy nobleman has long
plenitude of power; yet, I think, Lord Chatham   dealt in virtue.  There has been a large conhas less reason than ever to be satisfied; and as  sumption of it in his own family; and in the way
for Mr.Wilkes, it is, perhaps, the greatest mis- of traffic, I dare say, he has bought and sold
fortune of his life that you should have so many  more than half the representative integrity of
compensations to make in the closet for your  the nation.s
former friendship with him. Your gracious mas-    In a political view this union is not imprudent.
ter understands your character, and makes you  The favor of princes is a perishable commodity.
a persecutor, because you have been a friend.6   You have now a strength sufficient to command
Lord Chatham formed his last administration  the closet; and if it be necessary to betray one
upon principles which you certainly concurred  friendship more, you may set even Lord Bute at
in, or you oould never have been placed at the  defiance.  Mr. Stuart Mackenzie may possibly
head of the treasury.  By deserting those prin- remember what use the Duke of Bedford usually
ciples, and by acting in direct contradiction to  makes of his power;   and our gracious soverthem, in which he found you were secretly supported in the closet, you soon forced him to leave    7 Lord Chatham did ultimately withdraw his name
for this reason, October, 1768; though his previous
5 See on this subject the sketch of Lord Chatham's  illness had prevented him from taking the lead of
life, p. 66. The Duke of Grafton had been the pro- the government, and had thus given the Duke of
tege and adherent of his Lordship; but he joined  Grafton an opportunity to gain the King's favor,
the administration of Lord Rockingham in 1765, as  which could be permanently secured only by abanSecretary of State, while Chatham declared to the  doning the principles and friendship of Lord ChatHouse that he could not give his confidence or sup- ham.
port to the new ministers. Still, he stated in the    s The facts here referred to betray a shameless
same speech that " some of them asked his opinion  profligacy in all the parties concerned. While the
before they accepted, and that he advised them to  Duke of Grafton was parading his mistress before
do it." The Duke of Grafton may have been one of  the public at the Opera House, his wife had an adulthe number, and in that case, the present is one of  terous connection with Lord Upper Ossory, nephew
the many instances in which Junius perverts facts  of the Duke of Bedford. For this she was divorced,
for the sake of wounding an adversary.            and was soon after married by her paramour, who
6 Cooke, speaking of this period in his History of  thus brought her into the Bedford circle. Incredible
Party, vol. iii., 105, says, "The Duke of Grafton, the  as it may seem, the Duke of Grafton became in a
present premier, although still a young man, had  short time affianced to a mlember of the same circle,
passed through several shades of politics. During  Miss Wrottesley, a niece of the Duchess of Bedford
the struggle upon the subject of general warrants, ("a virgin of the house of Bloomsbury"); so that Juhe had strenuously supported Wilkes; and he had, nius represents it as the ambition of the Duke ofBedsince that time, repeated his assurances of protec- ford, after making the adultress "an honest woman,
tion and friendship. When placed by Lord Chat- to work a miracle of the same sort" on her formel
ham at the head of the treasury, he had, through his husband, the Duke of Grafton! This exposure of
own brother, conveyed a similar message to the ii- their shame would have satisfied most persons; but
patient democrat, who, inflated with hope, returned  Junius, in the next paragraph, dexterously turns the
to England to receive his pardon. He found, how-' whole to a new purpose, viz., that of inflaming the
ever, upon his arrival, that nothing was intended in  public mind against the minister, as designing, by
his favor. He revenged himself by writing and pub- this connection, to "gain strength sufficient to comlishing a severe letter to the Duke of Grafton, tax- mand the closet;" imputing to him the unpopular
ing him with faithlessness and prevarication; and  friendship of Lord Bute, and a design to betray it!
he returned in bitter disappointment to his exile and    9 When the Duke of Bedford became minister in
his poverty."                                     1763, he forced the King, against his wishes (as it




184                                         JUNIUS
eign, I doubt not, rejoices at this first appear-  saw the weakness of a distracted ministry, and
ance of union among; his servants.  His late  were justified in treating you with contempt.
Majesty, under the happy influence of a family  They would probably have yielded in the first
connection between his ministers, was relieved  instance rather than hazard a rupture with this
from the cares of government.  A more active  country; but, being once engaged, they can not
prince may, perhaps, observe with suspicion, by  retreat without dishonor.  Common sense forewhat degrees an artful servant grows upon his  sees consequences which have  escaped your
master, fiom  the first unlimited professions of  Grace's penetration. Eitherwe suffer the French
duty and attachment to the painful representa- to make an acquisition, the importance of which
tion of the necessity of the royal service, and  you have probably no conception of, or we opsoon, in regular progression, to the humble inso- pose them by an underhand management, which
lence of dictating in all the obsequious forms of  only disgraces us in the eyes of Europe, without
peremptory submission.  The interval is care- answering any purpose of policy or prudence.
fully employed in forming connections, creating. From  secret, indiscreet assistance, a transition
interests, collecting a party, and laying the foun- to some more open, decisive measures becomes
dation of double marriages, until the deluded  unavoidable, till at last we find ourselves principrince, who thought he had found a creature pros- pals in the war, and are obliged to hazard every
tituted to his service, and insignificant enough to  thing for an object which might have originally
be always dependent upon his pleasure, finds  been obtained without expense or danger.  I am
him at last too strong to be commanded, and too  not versed in the politics of the North; but this
formidable to be removed.                         I believe is certain, that half the money you
Your Grace's public conduct, as a minister,  have distributed to carry the expulsion of Mr.
is but the counterpart of your private history-   Wilkes, or even your secretary's share in the last
the same inconsistency, the same contradictions. subscription, would have kept the Turks at your
In America we trace you, from the first opposi- devotion.l2  Was it economy, my Lord? or did
tion to the Stamp Act, on principles of conven- the coy resistance you have constantly met with
ience, to Mr. Pitt's surrender of the right; then  in the British Senate make you despair of corforward to Lord Rockingham's surrender of the  rupting the Divan?  Your friends, indeed, have
fact; then back again to Lord Rockingham's  the first claim upon your bounty; but if five hunddeclaration of the right; then forward to taxa-  red pounds a year can be spared in pension to Sir
tion with Mr. Townsend; and, in the last in- John Moore, it would not have disgraced you to
stance, from the gentle Conway's undetermined  have allowed something to the secret service of
discretion, to blood and compulsion with  the  the public.'3
Duke of Bedford.'~  Yet, if we may believe the    You will say, perhaps, that the situation of afsimplicity of Lord North's eloquence, at the open- fairs at home demanded and engrossed the whole
ing of next sessions you are once more to be pa- of your attention.  Here, I confess you have been
tron of America.  Is this the wisdom of a great active. An amiable, accomplished prince ascends
minister, or is it the vibration of a pendulum?  the throne under the happiest of all auspices, the
Had you no opinion of your own, my Lord?  acclamations and united affections of his subOr was it the gratification of betraying every  jects.  The first measures of his reign, and even
party with which you had been united, and of  the odium of a Favorite, were not able to shake
deserting every political principle in which you  their attachments. Your services, my Lord, have
had concurred?                                   been more successful.  Since you were permitYour enemies may turn their eyes without re- ted to take the lead, we have seen the natural
gret from this admirable system of provincial gov- effects of a system  of government at once both
ernment: they will find gratification enough in  odious and contemptible.  We have seen the
the survey of your domestic and foreign policy.  laws sometimes scandalously relaxed, sometimes
If, instead of disowning Lord Shelburne, the  violently stretched beyond their tone.  We have
British court had interposed with dignity and
firmness, you know, my  Lord, that Corsica  court of France to remonstrate in spirited terms
would never have been invaded.ll  The French  against the occupation of Corsica by the French.
wouldnv  ____ __ v   _en _ _.. Th_ r h_____    But Grafton and the rest of the ministry disavowed
was understood), to dismiss Mr. Stuart Mackenzie, the instructions of their own secretary, and Lord
brother of Lord Bute. Mr. Mackenzie was restored  Shelburne resigned on the 21st of October, 1768, unas soon as the Duke retired; and Junius here de- der a sense of injury.
scribes, in the most graphic manner, the way in   12 It was the policy of Great Britain, touching
which the same man and his associates might be ex- "the politics of the North," to prevent Russia fiom
pected to go on again, till he reached " the humble  being weakened by Turkey in the war then existinsolence of dictating in all the obsequious forms of  ing between them. French officers were aiding
peremptory submission," as was done to George II. the Turks and disciplining their troops. Junius in10 This is substantially true. " The Duke of Graf- timates that a small sum comparatively might have
ton," says a well-informed writer, " occasionally fa- prevented this, and served not only to curtail the
vored Mr. Pitt's opinion, occasionally the Marquess  growing power of the French in the Divan, but to
of Rockingham's, and at last sided with Charles  have transferred the ascendency to the English.
Townsend in a determined resolution to carry the    13 Sir John Moore was an old Newmarket acsystem of taxation into effect at all hazards."  quaintance of the Duke, who had squandered his
1 Lord Shelburne, then Secretary of Foreign Af- private fortune, and had recently obtained from his
fairs, had instructed the English embassador at the  Grace a pension of ~500 a year.




TO THE DUKE OF GRAFTON.                                      185
seen the sacred person of the sovereign insulted; would be immortal; and as for your personal charand, in profound peace, and with an undisputed  acter, I will not, for the honor of human nature,
title, the fidelity of his subjects brought by his suppose that you can wish to have it rememown servants into public question.4  Without bered.  The condition of the present times is
abilities, resolution, or interest, you have done desperate indeed; but there is a debt due to
more than Lord Bute could accomplish with all those who come after us, and it is the historian's
Scotland at his heels.                          office to punish, though he can not correct.  I
Your Grace, little anxious, perhaps, either for do not give you to posterity as a pattern to impresent or future reputation, will not desire to itate, but as an example to deter; and as your
be handed down in these colors to posterity. You conduct comprehends every thing that a wise or
have reason to flatter yourself that the memory  honest minister should avoid, I mean to make
of your administration will survive even the forms you a negative instruction to your successors
of a constitution which our ancestors vainly hoped forever.                         JUNIUs.
LETTER
TO HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF GRAFTON.I
MY LORD,-If nature had given you an un- measures, the virulent exaggeration of party must
derstanding qualified to keep pace with the wish- be employed to rouse and engage the passions
es and principles of your heart, she would have  of the people. You have now brought the mermade you, perhaps, the most formidable minister  its of your administration to an issue, on which
that ever was employed, under a limited mon- every Englishman, of the narrowest capacity,
arch, to accomplish the ruin of a free people. may determine for himself.  It is not an alarm
When neither the feelings of shame, the re- to the passions, but a calm appeal to the judgproaches of conscience, nor the dread of punish- ment of the people upon their own most essential
ment, form any bar to the designs of a minister, interests.  A more experienced minister would
the people would have too much reason to la- not have hazarded a direct invasion of the first
ment their condition, if they did not find some  principles of the Constitution, before he had made
resource in the weakness of his understanding.  some progress in subduing the spirit of the peoWe owe it to the bounty of Providence, that the  ple.  With such a cause as yours, my Lord, it
completest depravity of the heart is sometimes  is not sufficient that you have the court at your
strangely united with a confusion of the mind, devotion, unless you can find means to corrupt
which counteracts the most favorite principles, or intimidate the jury.  The collective body of
and makes the same man treacherous without the people form that jury, and from their decisart, and a hypocrite without deceiving.  The  ion there is but one appeal.
measures, for instance, in which your Grace's    Whether you have talents to support you at
activity has been chiefly exerted, as they were  a crisis of such difficulty and danger, should long
adopted without skill, should have been conduct- since have been considered.  Judging truly of
ed with more than common dexterity.  But your disposition, you have perhaps mistaken the
truly, my Lord, the execution has been as gross  extent of your capacity.  Good faith and folly
as the design.  By one decisive step you have  have so long been received as synonymous terms,
defeated all the arts of writing. You have fair- that the reverse of the proposition has grown
ly confounded the intrigues of Opposition, and si- into credit, and every villain fancies himself a
lenced the clamors of faction.  A dark, ambig- man of abilities.  It is the apprehension of your
uous system might require and furnish the ma- friends, my Lord, that you have drawn some
terials of ingenious illustration, and, in doubtful hasty conclusion of this sort, and that a partial
reliance upon your moral character has betrayed
14 As the Kingbecameunpopularthrough hisper-  you beyond the depth of your understanding.
secution of Willes and for other causes, the Duke  You have now carried things too far to retreat.
of Grafton had made exertions to procure addresses  You have plainly declared to the people what
from various parts of the kingdom, expressive of the
b  they are to expet fo tohe fon tih ance tof our
people's attachment to the Crown. In this br gt the 
nally failed, except in Scotland, aind thus brought the  administration. It is time for your Grace to confidelity of his Majesty's subjects into "public ques- sider what you also may expect in return from
tion."                                          their spirit and their resentment.
1 Dated July 8th, 1769. This Letter is directed  Since the accession of our most gracious sovchiefly to one point-the daring step just taken by  ereign to the throne, we have seen a system of
the ministry, of seating Mr. Luttrell in the House of  government which may well be called a reign of
Commons to the exclusion of Mr. Wilkes, when the   xperiments. Parties ofall denominations have
former had received only 296 votes, and the latter been eployed and dismissed.    he advice of
1143 votes, and had been returned by the sheriff of
Middlesex as the elected member. Junius does not  he  ablest men in this county has been repeatenter into the argument, for the case was too clear edly clled for and rejected; and  hen the royal
to admit of extended reasoning. His object was to  displeasure has been signified to a minister, the
convince the King and the ministry, that the people  marks of it have usually been proportioned to his
would not endure so flagrant an act of violence,  abilities and integrity.  The spirit of the FA



186                                          JUNIUS
VORITE had some apparent influence upon every  certain services to be performed for the Favoradministration; and every set of ministers pre-  ite's security, or to gratify his resentments,
served an appearance of duration as long as they  which your predecessors in office had the wissubmitted to that influence.2  But there were  dom or the virtue not to undertake.  The moment this refractory spirit was discovered, their
2 If the reader wishes to understand the true state disgrace was determined. Lord Chatham, Mr.
of parties at this time, and the real merits of the so                  Roingm    ve success
much agitated question offavoritism, he will be aid-                          n m  he s essed by a consideration of the following facts:     ively had the honor to be dismissed, for prefered by a consideration of the following facts:.ghru,  a              no         pubi' t
William III. was placed on the throne in the rev-in  their duty, as servants of the public, to those
olution of 1688, by a union of the great Whig fami- compliances which were expected from  their
lies; and his successors were held there against the  station.  A submissive administration was at last
efforts of the Jacobites by the same power. Hence  gradually collected from the deserters of all parthe government of the country "on Revolution prin- ties, interests, and connections; and nothing reciples," so often spoken of, was really, to a great maied but to find a leader for these gallant,
extent, the government of the King himself as well well-disciplined troops.  Stand, my Lord,
well-disciplined troops.  Stand forth,,my Lord,
as the country, by a union of these families power-te found no 
ful enough to control Parliament. Junius has very      
graphically described, in the preceding Letter, the  source of dependence or security in the pud,
process by which George II., "under the happy in- imposing superiority of Lord Chatham's abilities,
fluence of a connection between his ministers, was  the shrewd, inflexible judgment of Mr. Grenville,
relieved of the cares of government." When George  nor in the mild but determined integrity of Lord
III. came to the throne, he determined to break  Rockingham.  His views and situation required
away from these shackles, and to rule according to  a creature void of all these properties; and he
his own views and feelings, selecting such men from  was forced to go through every division, resoall parties as he considered best fitted to admiis-   tion composition, and refinement of political
ter the government. If he had thrown himself into
ter the goverJmeT. If ie fad tirown himself i<to  chemistry, before he happily arrived at the caput
the. hands of Lord Chatham for the accomplishment che           before he happily arrived at the caput
of this design, he would probably have succeeded. mortsum of vitriol in your Grace.  Flat and inThat great statesman, by the splendor of his abili  sipid in your retired state, but, brought into acties, and his unbounded influence with the body of  tion, you become vitriol again.  Such are the
the people, might have raised up a counterpoise  extremes of alternate indolence or fury which
against the weight of those great family combina- have governed your whole administration. Your
tions in the peerage. But George III. disliked the  circumstances with regard to the people soon
Great Commoner, and had no resource but his ear-             desperate like other honest servats
ly friend, Lord Bute. But this nobleman had nei-          n  deete  ieothe             est servs
ther the abilities nor the political influence which  you determined to nvolve the best of  asters in
were necessary for the accomplishment of such a  the same difficulties with yourself.  We owe it
scheme. As a Scotchman, particularly, he had to  to your Grace's well-directed labors, that your
encounter the bitterest jealousy of the English. sovereign has been persuaded to doubt of the afAfter a brief effort to administer the government, he  fections of his subjects, and the people to suspect
gave up the attempt in despair. Still, there was a  the virtues of their sovereign, at a time when
wide-spread suspicion that he maintained an undue  both were unquestionable.  You have degraded
influence over the King by secret advice and inter- the royal dignity into a base, dishonorable comcourse. It seems now to be settled, however, that petition with Mr.Wilkes, nor had you abilities to
such was not the fact. The complaint of his contiiuing to rule as Favorite, is 1now admitted to lave  carry even this last contemptible triumplh over a
tinuina to rule as Favorite, is now admitted to have
been chiefly or wholly unfounded. But the King,pvate    man, without the grossest violation of
if he persevered in his plan, must have some agents  the fundamental laws of the Constitution and
and advisers. Hence, it was maintained by Mr. King's resolute determination to free himself from
Burke, in his celebrated pamphlet entitled Thoughts  the thraldom in which'the great Revolution famion the Present Discontents, that there was a regu- lies' were prepared to bind him. They felt that the
lar organization, a "cabinet behind the throne,"  reign of a haughty oligarchy was not merely degradwhich overruled the measures of the ostensible min- ing to the sovereign, but ruinous to the claims of
istry. Such, substantially, were the views of Ju-'new men' endowed with genius and capacity for
nius, though he chose to give prominence to Lord  affairs."  The King, however, had not the requisite
Bute as most hated by the people. He represents  largeness or strength of understanding to carry out
one ministry after another to have been sacrificed  the design, and he had rejected the only man who
through the influence of his Lordship. He treats  could have enabled him  to do it. He therefore
the Duke of Grafton as the willing tool of this sys- threw himself into the hands of the Tories. But his
ter of favoritism. All this was greatly exagger- quarrel with Willes was the great misfortune of
ated. Private influence did probably exist to a lim- his life. He seems at first to have been ignorant of
ited extent; but the King's frequent changes of  the law on the points in question, and his ministers
ministers resulted partly from personal disgust, and  had not the honesty and firmness to set him right.
partly from his inability to carry on the government On the contrary, they went forward, at his bidding,
without calling in new strength. The great Whig  into the most flagrant violations of the Constitution.
families, in the mean time, felt indignant at these  The great body of the nation became alienated in
attempts of the King to free himself from their con- their affections. On these points the attacks of Jutrol. Junius represented the feelings of these men; nius were just, and his services important in defendand there was much less of real patriotism in his at- ing the rights of the people. The King was defeattack on the King than he pretends. It was a strug- ed; he was compelled to give up the contest; and
gle for power. "There were many," says an able  subsequentvotes of Parliament established the prin
writer-, "' aton the Whig party, who rejoiced at the  ciples for which Junius contended.




TO THE DUKE OF GRAFTON.                                      187
rights of the people.  But these are rights, my  House of Commons must declare themselves not
Lord, which you can no more annihilate than  only independent of their constituents, but the deyou can the soil to which they are annexed. termined enemies of the Constitution.  Consider,
The question no longer turns upon points of na- my Lord, whether this be an extremity to which
tional honor and security abroad, or on the de- their fears will permit them to advance; or, if
grees of expediency and propriety of measures  their protection should fail you, how far you are
at home. It was not inconsistent that you should  authorized to rely upon the sincerity of those
abandon the cause of liberty in another country  smiles, which a pious court lavishes without re[Corsica], which you had persecuted in your own; luctance upon a libertine by profession.  It is
and in the common arts of domestic corruption, not, indeed, the least of the thousand contradicwe miss no part of Sir Robert Walpole's system  tions which attend you, that a man, marked to
except his abilities.  In this humble, imitative  the world by the grossest violation of all cereline you might long have proceeded, safe and con- mony and decorum, should be the first servant
temptible. You might probably never have risen  of a court, in which prayers are morality, and
to the dignity of being hated, and you might even  kneeling is religion.3  Trust not too far to aphave been despised with moderation.  But, it pearances, bywhich your predecessors have been
seems, you meant to be distinguished; and to a  deceived, though they have not been injured.
mind like yours there was no other road to fame  Even the best of princes may at last discover
but by the destruction of a noble fabric, which  that this is a contention in which every thing
you thought had been too long the admiration  may be lost, but nothing can be gained; and, as
of mankind.  The use you have made of the  you became minister by accident, were adopted
military force, introduced an alarming change in  without choice, and continued without favor, be
the mode of executing the laws.  The arbitrary  assured that, whenever an occasion presses, you
appointment of Mr. Luttrell invades the founda- will be discarded without even the forms of retion of the laws themselves, as it manifestly  gret.  You will then have reason to be thanktransfers the right of legislation from those whom  ful if you are permitted to retire to that seat
the people have chosen to those whom they have  of learning, which, in contemplation of the sysrejected.  With a succession of such appoint- tern of your life, the comparative purity of your
ments, we may soon see a House of Commons manners with those of their high steward [Lord
collected, in the choice of which the other towns  Sandwich], and a thousand other recommending
and counties of England will have as little share  circumstances, has chosen you to encourage the
as the devoted county of Middlesex.             growing virtue of their youth, and to preside
Yet I trust your Grace will find that the peo- over their education.4  Whenever the spirit of
ple of this country are neither to be intimidated  distributing prebends and bishoprics shall have
by violent measures, nor deceived by refinement. departed from  you, you will find that learned
When they see Mr. Luttrell seated in the House  seminary perfectly recovered from the delirium
of Commons by mere dint of power, and in di- of an installation, and, what in truth it ought to
rect opposition to the choice of a whole county, be, once more a peaceful scene of slumber and
they will not listen to those subtleties by which  meditation.  The venerable tutors of the unievery arbitrary exertion of authority is explained  versity will no longer distress your modesty by
into the law and privilege of Parliament.  It re- proposing you for a pattern to their pupils. The
quires no persuasion of argument, but simply the  learned dullness of declamation will be silent:
evidence of the senses, to convince them, that to  and even the venal muse, though happiest in fictransfer the right of election from the collective  tion, will forget your virtues.  Yet, for the bento the representative body of the people, contra- efit of the succeeding age, I could wish that your
diets all those ideas of a House of Commons retreat might be deferred until your morals shall
which they have received from their forefathers. happily be ripened to that maturity of corruption
and which they had already, though vainly, per- at which, philosophers tell us, the worst examhaps, delivered to their children.  The princi- ples cease to be contagious.         JUNUIS.
piles on which this violent measure has been defended have added scorn to injury, and  forced us   This attack on the moral and religious character
to feel that we are not only oppressed, but in- of the  i   was    lly unmerited. A sovereign
sulted.           can not always find ministers able to carry ou the
mysuited,  Lod igovernment, whose private character he approves.
With what force, my Lord, with what protec-  George III. had no grimace in his religion; he was
tion, are you prepared to meet the united detest- sincere and conscientious; and he at last wroughlt a
ation of the people of England?  The city of  surprising change in the outward morals of the hi lher
London has given a generous example to the  classes, by the purity ofhisown househlold. All.Enkingdom, in what manner a King of this country  gland has borne testimony to the wide-spread and
ought to be addressed; and I fancy, my Lord, it powerful influence of his reign in this respect..              4-  ~  The Duke of Graftoi had recently been installed
is not yet in your courage to stand between your        The  of Gra U   niversity of Cambridge with let
Chancellor of the University of Canmbridge with great
sovereign and the addresses of his subjects. The
i..juies you. have donetpomp. The poet Gray, who owed his professorship
injuries you have done this country are such as to the unsolicited patronage of the Duke, had corn
demand not only redress, but vengeance.  In  posed his Ode for Music, to be performed on that ocvain shall you look for protection to that venal casion, commencing,
vote which you have already paid for: another         Hence  avaunt!'tis holy ground!
must be purchased; and, to save a minister, the       Comus and his nightly crew, &c.




188                                          JUNIUS
LETTER
TO HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF BEDFORD.1
MY LOR, —You are so little accustomed to  of your established character, and perhaps an
receive any marks of respect or esteem from the  insult to your understanding.  You have nice
public, that if, in the following lines, a compli- feelings, my Lord, if we may judge from your
ment or expression of applause should escape  resentments.  Cautious, therefore, of giving ofme, I fear you would consider it as a mockery  fense, where you have so little deserved it, I
Dated September 19th, 1769. The Bedford fam- shall leave the illustration of your virtues to
ily was at this time the richest in England, and,         hands.  Your friends have a  rivilege to
through its borough interest and wide-spread alli- play upon the easiness of your temper, or posances, stood foremost in political influence. The  sibly they are better acquainted with your good
present Duke was now sixty years old, and had  qualities than I am.  You have done good by
spent half his life in the conflicts of party. He first stealth.  The rest is upon record.  You have
held office under Lord Carteret, then under Mr. Pel- still left ample room  for speculation, when panham, and was made Viceroy ofIreland by Lord Chat-egyric is exhausted.
ham in his first administration.  Thus far he had acted as a Whig. Butwhen Lord Bute drove out Lord    You are indeed a very considerable man.  The
Chatham in 1761, he took the office of Privy Seal, highest rank, a splendid fortune, and a name, glomade vacant by the resignation of Chatham's broth- rious till it was yours, were sufficient to have super-in-law. Lord Temple, and was now considered as ported you with meaner abilities than I think you
uniting his interests to those of the Favorite. When  possess.  From the first, you derived a constituLord Bute resigned in 1763, the influence of the  tional claim to respect  from the second, a natuDuke became ascendant in the cabinet, and the ad- ral extensive authority; the last created a partial
rministation, though ostensibly that of Mr. Gren- expectation of hereditary virtues.  The use you
ville, has often been spoken of as the Duke of Bed  have made ofthese uncommon advantages miht
ford's. It was extremely unpopular, from the gen-^ 
ford's.  t was extremely unpopular, fo  the en- have been more honorable to yourself, but could
eral belief that Lord Bute still ruled as Favorite;    
and in 1765 it gave way to the administration of     t be more instructive to mankind.  We nay
Lord Rockingham, which threw the Duke of Bed- trace it in the veneration of your country, in the
ford wholly into the back-ground. TheDukeof Graf- choice of your friends, and in the accomplish-'
ton, when he became minister in 1767, through the  ment of every sanguine hope which the public
illness of Lord Chatham and the death of Charles might have conceived from the illustrious name
Townsend, found it necessaryto call in new strength, of Russell.
and opened negotiations, as already mentioned, with    The eminence ofyour station gave you a comLord Rockinghain on the one hand and the Duke of
ngham on the one hand and the Duke Of manding prospect of your duty.2  The road,
Bedford on the other. The Rockingham Whigs had  mnng   prospectofo               duty.   Te road,
the strongest hopes of prevailing in these new ar-                hono, was open to yo   view
rangements, and of being made virtual masters of  You could not lose it by mistake, and you had
the government. But the influence of the Duke of no temptation to depart from it by design.  CornBedford prevailed. Three of his dependents, Lords  pare the natural dignity and importance of the
Weymouth, Gower, and Sandwich, were received  richest peer of England; the noble independinto the ministry; and the Duke of Bedford drew  ence which he might have maintained in Parliaupon himself the bitterest resentment of the Rock- ment; and the real interest and respect which he
ingham Whigs for thus depriving them of power, and  miht have acquired not only in Parliament but
becoming, as they conceived, the savior of Lord Bute         t  w       i          c               -
and the Tories, and thus re-establishing the system   ou the whole  ingdom; compae these gloof secret influence in the closet.  These events,         distinctions with the ambition of holding a
as stated above, were the immediate cause which  share in government, the  emoluments of a place
led the writer of these Letters to come out under a the sale of a borough or the purchase of a cornew signature, and in a bolder style of attack. Aft- poration; and, though you may not regret the
er assailing the Duke of Grafton, as we have seen  virtues which create respect, you may see, with
in the preceding letters, he now turns upon the Duke  anguish, how much real importance and authorof Bedford in a spirit of still fiercer resentment. He  ity you have lost.  Consider the character of an
reviews the whole public and private conduct of his independent, virtuous Duke of Bedford   imagine
Grace, and endeavors to call up all the odium of past
transactions to enkindle new jealousies against him,   2 This and the next three paragraphs are among
as about to give increased effect to a system of fa- the finest specimens of composition to be found in
voritism in the closet; and seeks at the same time  Junius. Nowhere has he made so happy a use of
to overwhelm the Duke himself with a sense ofdis- contrast. Commencing with a natural and expresshonor, baseness, and folly, wJhich might make him  ive image, he first sketches with admirable discrimshrink from the public eye. LThere is nothing in all ination the character and conduct to be expected in
the writings of Junius that is more vehemently elo- the first peer of England, and then sets off against
quent than the close of this letter. It is proper to  it an artful and exaggerated representation of the
add, that this eloquence is, in far too many cases, un- political errors and private weaknesses of the Duke
supported by facts,                                of Bedford during the preceding thirty years.




TO THIE DUKE OF BEDFORD.                                         189
4hat he mighh  be in this country, then reflect long life, have invariably chosen his friends from
ne moment upon what you are. If it be possi-  among the most profligate of mankind. His own
le for me to withdraw my attention from  the  honor would have forbidden him from mixing his
let, I will tell you in theory what such a man  private pleasures or conversation with jockeys,
light be.                                         gamesters, blasphemers, gladiators, or buffoons.
Conscious of his own weight and importance,  He would then have never felt, much less would
iis conduct in Parliament would be directed by  he have submitted to the dishonest necessity of
iothing but the constitutional duty of a peer. engaging in the interests and intrigues of his dele would consider himself as a guardian of the  pendents-of supplying their vices, or relieving
aws.  Willing to support the just measures of their beggary at the expense of his country.
government, but determined to observe the con- tHe would not have betrayed such ignorance oil
luct of the minister with suspicion, he would op- such contempt of the Constitution as openly tot
)ose the violence of faction with as much firm-  avow, in a court of justice, the purchase and sale
less as the encroachments of prerogative.  He  of a borough.) He would not have thought it
would be as little capable of bargaining with the  consistent with his rank in the state, or even
ininister for places for himself or his dependents,  with his personal importance, to be the little tyis of descending to mix himself in the intrigues  rant of a little corporation.6   He would never
Af Opposition.  Whenever an important ques- have been insulted with virtues which he had
Lion called for his opinion in Parliament, he would  labored to extinguish, nor suffered the disgrace
be heard, by the most profligate minister, with  of a mortifying defeat, which has made him rideference and respect.  His authority would ei- diculous and contemptible, even to the few by
ther sanctify or disgrace the measures of govern-  whom  he was not detested.  I reverence the
ment.  The people would look up to him  as to  afflictions of a good man-his sorrows are satheir protector, and a virtuous prince would have  cred. { But how  can we take part in the disone honest man in his dominions, in whose in- tresses of a man whom we can neither love nor
tegrity and judgment he might safely confide. esteem, or feel for a calamity of which he himIf it should be the will of Providence to afflict self is insensible?l, Where was the father's
him with a domestic misfortune, he would sub- heart when he could look for, or find an immemit to the stroke with feeling, but not without diate consolation for the loss of an only son in
dignity.3  He would consider the people as his  consultations and bargains for a place at court,
children, and receive a generous, heart-felt con- and even, in the misery of balloting at the India
solation in the sympathizing tears and blessings  House?j
of his country.                                      Admitting, then, that you have mistaken or
Your Grace Alay probably discover something  deserted those honorable principles which ought
more intelligible in the negative part of this il- to have directed your conduct; admitting that
lustrious character.  The man I have described  you have as little claim to private affection as to
would never prostitute his dignity in Parliament public esteem, let us see with what abilities,
by an indecent violence either in opposing or de- with what degree of judgment you have carried
fending a minister. t He would not at one mo- your own system into execution.  A great man,
ment rancorously persecute, at another basely  in the success, and even in the magnitude of his
cringe to the Favorite of his sovereign.  After  crimes, finds a rescue from  contempt.  Your
outraging the royal dignity with peremptory  Grace is every way unfortunate. Yet I will not
conditions, little short of menace and hostility, look back to those ridiculous scenes, by which,
he would never descend to the humility of solicit-  in your earlier days, you thought it an honor to
ing an interview with the Favorite, and of offer-  be distinguished. the recorded stripes, the pubing to recover, at any price, the honor of his  lie infamy, your own sufferings, or Mr. Rigby's
friendship.4   Though deceived, perhaps, in his  fortitude.8  These events undoubtedly left an imyouth, he would not, through the course of a..........-......_ -... who had so basely betrayed him."  Horace Wal3 The Duke had lately lost his only son, Lord Tav-  pole confirms this statement.
istock, by a fall from his horse. There is great beau-   5 This he did in an answer in Chancery, when
ty in the turn of the next sentence, " he would con- sued for a large sum paid hin by a gentleman, whom
sider the people as his children," which miight well he had undertaken (but failed) to return as a melbe done by a descendant of Lord William Russell, ber of Parliament. He was obliged to refund the
whose memory was venerated by the people as a  money.
martyr in the cause of liberty. This thought gives    6 The town of Bedford had been greatly exasperdouble severity to the contrast that follows, in which  ated by the overbearing disposition of the Duke.
the character and conduct of the Duke are presented  To deliver themselves from the thraldom in which
in such a light, that, instead of being able to repose  he had held them, they admitted a great numlber of
his sorrows on the bosom of the people, he had mlade  strangers to the freedom of the corporation, and the
himself an object of their aversion or contempt. As  Duke was defeated.
to the justice of these insinuations respecting a want    7 As to the justice of this cruel attack, see the
of" feeling" and " dignity" under this calamity, see  remarks at the end of the present Letter.
the remarks at the end of this Letter.                Note by Junius. "Mr. Heston Humphrey, a coun* It is stated in a note by Junius. "At this inter-  try attorney, horsewhipped the Duke, with equal
view, which passed at the house of the late Lord Eg-  justice, severity, and perseverance, on the course at
lintoun, Lord Bute told the Duke that he was de- Litchfield. Rigby and Lord Trentham  were also
t-erl' ed never to have any connection with a man  cudgeled in a most exemplary manner. This gave




190                                         JUNIUS
pression, though not upon your mind. To such  character to think it possible that so many puba mind; it may perhaps be a pleasure to reflect, lie sacrifices should have been made without
that there is hardly a corner of any of his Maj- some private compensation.  Your conduct caresty's kingdoms, except France, in which, at one  ries with it an interior evidence, beyond all the
time or other, your valuable life has not been in  legal proof of a court of justice.  Even the caldanger.  Amiable man! we see and acknowl-  lous pride of Lord Egremont was alarmed.  He
edge the protection of Providence, by which you  saw and felt his own dishonor in corresponding
have so often escaped the personal detestation of  with you; and there certainly was a moment at
your fellow-subjects, and are still reserved for which he meant to have resisted, had not a fatal
the public justice of your country.               lethargy prevailed over his faculties, and carried
Your history begins to be important at that all sense and memory away with it.
auspicious period at which you were deputed to    I will not pretend to specify the secret terms
represent the Earl of Bute at the court of Ver- on which you were invited to support an adminsailles.9 It was an honorable office, and executed  istration which Lord Bute pretended to leave in
with the same spirit with which it was accepted. full possession of their ministerial authority, and
Your patrons wanted an embassador who would  perfectly masters of themselves.l1   He was not
submit to make concessions without daring to in- of a temper to relinquish power, though he resist upon any honorable condition for his sover- tired from employment.  Stipulations were cereign.  Their business required a man who had  tainly made between your Grace and him, and
as little feeling for his own dignity as for the  certainly violated.  After two years' submission,
welfare of his country; and they found him  in  you thought you had collected a strength suffithe first rank of the nobilitya  Belleisle, Goree, cient to control his influence, and that it was
Guadaloupe, St. Lucia, Martinique, the Fishery, your turn to be a tyrant, because you had been
and the Havana, are glorious monuments of your a slave.ll  When you found yourself mistaken
Grace's talents for negotiation.  My Lord, we  in your opinion of your gracious master's firmare too well acquainted with your pecuniary  ness, disappointment got the better of all your
rise to the following story: When the late King  humble discretion, and carried you to an excess
heard that Sir Edward Hawke had given the French  of outrage to his person, as distant from  true
a drubbing, his Majesty, who had never received  spirit, as from  all decency and respect.  After
that kind of chastisement, was pleased to ask Lord  robbing him of the rights of a King, you would
Chesterfield the meaning of the word.'Sir,' said  not permit him to preserve the honor of a gen
Lord Chesterfield,'the meaning of the word-But tleman.  It was then Lord Weymouth was nomhere comes the Duke of Bedford, who is better able   ated  to Ireland and dispatched (we well reto explain it to your Majesty than I am.'"        m          w      w   i         h        
9 Soon after Lord Chatham was driven from office member with what indecent hurry) to plunder
in the midst of his glorious ministry, Lord Bute sent the treasury of the first fruits of an employment
the Duke of Bedford to negotiate a treaty of peace  which you well knew he was never to execute.'2
with France, which was signed November 3d, 1762.    This sudden declaration of war against the FaThe concessions then made, which are here enumer- vorite might have given you a momentary merit
ated by Junius, were generally considered as highly  with the public, if it had been either adopted
dishonorable to the country. They were not, how- upon principle, or maintained with resolution.
ever, chargeable to the Duke of Bedford personally, Without looking back to all your former servilthough he may have been liable to censure for con- _
senting to negotiate such a treaty.                 i0 Junius here refers to the time when Lord Bute
The insinuation which follows, respecting the  resigned, April 8th, 1763, and the Duke of Bedford
Duke's having received "some private compensa- and his fiiends came into power in connection with
tion," refers to a report in circulation soon after the  Mr. George Grenville. It was at this period that
treaty was signed, that the Duke had been bribed  the Duke compelled the King, as mentioned in a
by the French, in common with the Princess Dow- former letter, to displace Mr. Stuart Mackenzie,
ager of Wales, Lord Bute, and Mr. Henry Fox. brother of Lord Bute, who had received the royal
The story was too ridiculous to be seriously noticed, promise of never being removed. This arose out of
but the matter was investigated by a committee of  the Duke's jealousy of Lord Bute at that time, and
the House of Commons, and found to rest solely on  a determination to show that he was not governed
the statement of a man named Musgrave, who had  by'him.
"no credible authority for the imputations of treach- l  Note by Junius. " The ministry having endeavery and corruption which he was willing to propa- ored to exclude the Dowager out of the Regency
gate."-See Heron's Junius, i., 269. Still, Junius re- Bill, the Earl of Bute determined to dismiss them.
vived the story at the end of six years, and, when  Upon this the Duke of Bedford demanded an audicalled upon for proof, had nothing to allege, except ence of the King-reproached him in plain terms
that the Duke was understood to love money. "I  with his duplicity, baseness, falsehood, treachery,
combined the known temper of the man with the ex- hypocrisy-repeatedly gave him  the lie, and left
tinavagant concessions of the embassador."  There  him in convulsions."  How far there is any truth in
was another and perfectly well-known reason for this statement, it is not easy now to say. Itis probthese "concessions."  Lord Bute could not raise  able there was a rumor of this kind at the time; but
funds to carry on the war. The moneyed men  no one will believe that the King would ever have
would not trust him. He was, therefore, compelled  invited the Duke of Bedford again into his service
to make peace on such terms as he could obtain. (as he afterward did), if a tenth part of these indigThe downright dishonesty of Junius in this case  nities had been offered him.
naturally leads us to receive all his statements with    1 He received three thousand pounds for plate
distrust, unless supported by other evidence.     and equipage money.




TO THE DUKE OF BEDFORD.                                        191
ity, we need only observe your subsequent con-  the present, you may safely resume that style of'
duct, to see upon what motives you acted.  Ap- insult and menace, which even a private gentleparently united with Mr. Grenville, you waited  man can not submit to hear without being conuntil Lord Rockingham's feeble administration  temptible.  Mr. Mackenzie's history is not yet
should dissolve in its own weakness.  The mo- forgotten, and you may find precedents enough
ment their dismission was suspected, the moment of the mode in which an imperious subject may
you perceived that another system was adopted  signify his pleasure to his sovereign.  Where
in the closet, you thought it no disgrace to re- will this gracious monarch look for assistance
turn to your former dependence, and solicit once  when the wretched Grafton could forget his obmore the friendship of Lord Bute.  You begged  ligations to his master, and desert him for a holan interview, at which he had spirit enough to  low alliance with such a man as the Duke of
treat you with contempt."3                       Bedford?
It would now be of little use to point out by    Let us consider you, then, as arrived at the
what a train of weak, injudicious measures it be- summit of worldly greatness.'5  Let us suppose
came necessary, or was thought so, to call you  that all your plans of avarice and ambition are
back to a share in the administration.4  The  accomplished, and your most sanguine wishes
friends, whom  you did not in the last instance  gratified, in the fear as well as the hatred of the
desert, were not of a character to add strength  people.  Can age itself forget that you are now
or credit to government; and at that time your in the last act of life?  Can gray hairs make
alliance with the Duke of Grafton was, I pre- folly venerable? and is there no period to be resume; hardly foreseen.  We must look for other served  for meditation and retirement?   For
stipulations, to account for that sudden resolu- shame, my Lord!  Let it not be recorded of
tion of the closet, by which three of your de- you, that the latest moments of your life were
pendents (whose characters, I think, can not be  dedicated to the same unworthy pursuits, the
less respected than they are) were advanced to  same busy agitations, in which your youth and
offices, through which you might again control manhood were exhausted.  Consider, that, althe minister, and probably engross the whole  though you can not disgrace your former life,
direction of affairs.                            you are violating the character of age, and exThe possession of absolute power is now once  posing the impotent imbecility, after you have
morewithin your reach. The measures youhave  lost the vigor of the passions.
taken to obtain and confirm it are too gross to es-    Your friends will ask, perhaps, Whither shall
cape the eyes of a discerning, judicious prince. this unhappy old man retire?  Can he remain
His palace is besieged; the lines of circumvalla-  in the metropolis, where his life has been so often
tion are drawing round him; and unless he finds  threatened, and his palace so often attacked?  If
a resource in his activity, or in the attachment he returns to Woburn [his country seat], scorn
of the real friends of his family, the best of  and mockery await him.  He must create a solprinces must submit to the confinement of a  itude round his estate, if he would avoid the face
state prisoner, until your Grace's death, or some  of reproach and derision.  At Plymouth, his deless fortunate event, shall raise the siege.  For struction would be more than probable; at Exeter, inevitable.  No honest Englishman will ever
13 A negotiation was opened between Lord Tem- forget his attachment, nor any honest Scotchman
ple and Mr. Grenville on the one hand, and Lord Bute  forgive his treachery, to Lord Bute.  At every
on the other. Mr. Grenville, however, refused to go  town he enters he must change his liveies and
forward without the Duke ofBedford, and Lord Bute,  hs    e.    iceve         he  ies, the He   d
as stated above, refused to have any connection with           W ch r   y h i
his Grace. Horace Walpole makes a similar state-      y of the country pursues him.
ment in his Memoirs of George III.                  In another kingdom, indeed, the blessings of
"' This refers to the call of the Duke of Bedford  his administration have been more sensibly felt;
into the administration about a year before, which  his virtues better understood; or, at worst, they
created so much disappointment to the Rockingham   will not, for him alone, forget their hospitality.6
Whigs, and was probably the occasion, as already  As well might Verres have returned to Sicily.
stated, of the firstletter of Junius. The King is un- You have twice escaped, my Lord; beware of
derstood to have recommended that measure; and     ii in of a 
Junius intimates that the close existing alliance  athirdexperiment.  Theindignationof a whole
with the Dukle of Grafton had not then been con- people, plundered, insulted, and oppressed as they
templated.  Three of the Duke ofBedford's depend- have been, will not always be disappointed. )
ents, viz., Lords Weymouth, Gower, and Sandwich, 
were now placed in very important stations. The l 5 This and the remaining paragraphs are the most
Duke of Bedford was also suspected of being again  eloquent parts of the Letter. It is hardly necessary
united in full confidence with Lord Bute. Thus Ju- to remark how much there is in them of art, of pasnius insinuates, a plan was formed for giving him the  sion, and of keen discernment into human character.
absolute control over the government in conjunction  There is a rapidity and glow of expression that is
with the Duke of Grafton, but with authority over truly admirable.  The several places are enumerhim. The whole paragraph was intended to alarm  ated where the Duke had formerly met with tokens
the people on the one hand, and those who were  of public aversion, and where he might expect again
considered "the King's friends" on the other. It to be received with reproach and derision.
need not be repeated that these suspicions of Lord   16 The Duke had been once in Ireland as Viceroy,
Bute's continued secret influence were, to a great and again when he was appointed to the principal
extent, unfounded.                                honorary office in the University of Dublin.




192                                        JUNIUS
It is in vain, therefore, to shift the scene. You  had made a splendid provision for the son whom
can no more fly from  your enemies than from  he lost, and afterward for his widow; and that he
yourself.  Persecuted abroad, you look into your was distinguished for his bounty to his dependown heart for consolation, and find nothing but ents and domestics."  The most cruel charge
reproaches and despair. But, my Lord, you may  in this Letter was that of insensibility to the
quit the field of business, though not the field of  loss of his son: a charge which Junius repeated
daner; and though you can not be safe, you  with great vehemence on a subsequent occasion.
may cease to be ridiculous.!. I fear you have  Upon this subject, it will be sufficient to give a
listened too long to the advice of those perni- note of Sir Dennis Le Marchant, editor of Walcious friends with whose interests you have sor- pole's Memoirs of George III., vol. ii., p. 443.
didly united your own, and for whom you have  "The Duke's memory has been repeatedly vinsacrificed every thing that ought to be dear to a  dicated from this cruel aspersion, and never with
man of honor.  They are still base enough to  more generous and indignant eloquence than by
encourage the follies of your age, as they once  Lord Brougham, in his Political Sketches, vol.
did the vices of your youth. jAs little acquaint- iii.  It has always been understood in the quared with the rules of decorum as with the laws ters likely to be best informed, that he felt his
of morality, they will not suffer you to profit by  son's loss deeply to the last hour of his life.7
experience, nor even to consult the propriety of  Instead, however, of yielding to his grief, he ena bad character. i Even now they tell you that deavored to employ his thoughts upon public
life is no more than a dramatic scene, in which  business, and the natural fervor of his disposition
the hero should preserve his consistency to the  insensibly engaged him in the scenes before him,
last, and that, as you lived without virtue, you  perhaps more deeply than he was aware.  The
should die without repentancel      JUNIUS.    meeting le attended at the India House must, as
______   )               appears fiom the Company's books, have been
that of April 8th, which determined the course
The Duke of Bedford died four months after to be taken by the Company on the government
the publication of this letter, and Junius has suc- propositions: a great question, in which he took
ceeded in handing down his character to poster- a lively interest.  The force of mind he tnus
ity, as a monstrous compound of baseness and  displayed is noticed with commendation in a
folly.  It has been shown, however, in the pre- letter written at the time by David Hume, who,
ceding notes, that some of his statements were  from his connection with Conway, is assuredly an
gross falsehoods, while others were equally gross  impartial witness.  The absurd charge brought
exaggerations.                                  by Junius [Letter xxix.] against the Duchess.
The Duke was certainly a very unpopular of making money by her son Lord Tavistock's
man.  He did experience the public indignities  wardrobe, originated in its having been sold for
mentioned in this Letter.  He was mobbed by  the benefit of his valet and Lady Tavistock's
the Spitalfield weavers; his life was more than  maid, according to the genera] practice of that
once put in danger; and his palace in Blooms- day."
bury Square was assaulted by congregated thou-    Horace Walpole, speaking of this subject, while
sands.  This was done because the price of silk  he censures the Duke for going to the balloting
goods fell greatly after the peace which he ne- at the India House, says he " was carried there
gotiated with France in 1762, and men like Ju- by his creatures, Lord Sandwich, Earl Gower,
nius taught those ignorant mechanics to believe  and Mr. Rigby, to vote."  He speaks also of
that the Duke of Bedford was the cause, when  these men and their associates, usually called
the fault, if there was any, lay with Lord Bute. " the Bloomsbury gang," as having been shunned
In like manner, his administration in Ireland was by Lord Tavistock, and says, " the indecent indifunfortunate.  His manners were shy and cold; ference with which such a catastrophe [his sudhis temper was quick and imperious; he had  den death] was felt by the faction of the family,
bad friends and advisers.  The Primate of Ire- spoke too plainly that Lord Tavistock had lived
land united the factions of the country against a reproach and terror to them."  We have here
him; and mobs were stirred up to break into the  the secret of a considerable portion of the Duke's
public buildings and set his authority at defiance. misfortunes for life-those " pernicious friends"
And yet Horace Walpole, who, from being his spoken of by Junius, who had "a privilege to
friend, had become his political eneimy, states, play on the easiness of his temper."  He was a
without hesitation, that the Duke went to Ire- very ardent politician; and was reduced to " the
land with the best intentions, and was really de- necessity of engaging in the interest and insirous to improve the condition of that miserable  trigues of his dependents; of supplying their
and distracted country.  He was charged with  vices and relieving their beggary at the expense
meanness in his pecuniary concerns, and Junius of his country."  His ardor in politics led him
sneers at his doing good "by stealth."  Walpole into the borough-mongering alluded to in this
adverts to this, and says, " his great economy was Letter.  It also made him " at one time rancorcalled avarice; if so, it was blended with more  ously persecute, and at another basely cringe to,
generosity and goodness than that passion will the Favorite of the Sovereign."  In connection
commonly unite with."  A writer in his favor
stated, without contradiction, that "he had paid   7 Walpole says that, "on hearing of his death, the
his brother's debts to the amount ofO100,000; Duke for a few days almost lost his senses."




TO THE KING.                                          193
with the impetuosity of his feelings and his sud- ing upon every subject, and imagining he underden bursts of passion, it betrayed him into "in- stood it, as he must have done, by inspiration.
decent violence in opposing or defending minis- He was always governed-generally by the
ters."   These were his real faults, and they were  Duchess; though immeasurably obstinate when
great ones; but they by no means imply that de- once he had formed or had an opinion instilled
pravity of heart imputed to him by Junius; and it into him.  His manner was impetuous, of which
will be observed, that this writer, in all the bit-  he was so little sensible, that, being told Lord
terness of his satire, does not charge the Duke  Halifax was to succeed him, he said,'He is too
with being personally an immoral man.  Wal- wqrm and overbearing: the King will never enpole says "he was a man of inflexible honesty  dure him.'  If the Duke of Bedford would have
and good will to his country."  " His parts were  thought less of himself, the world would probacertainly far from shining, and yet he spoke read- bly have thought better of him."-Memoirs of
ily, and upon trade, well.  His foible was speak-  George II., vol. i., p. 186.
LETTER
TO THE KING.l
WHEN the complaints of a brave and powerful  people are observed to increase in proportion to
the wrongs they have suffered-when, instead
Dated December 19th, 1769. The Whigs had  of sinking into submission, they are roused to renow  effected a union among themselves.  Lord  sistance-the time will soon arrive at which evChatham had so far recovered from his three years' ery inferior consideration must yield to the secuillness as to make it certain that he would soon be  rity of the sovereign and to the general safety of
able to appear in the House of Lords. A reconcili- the state.  There is a moment of difficulty and
ation had taken place between him and the Gren- daner, t which flattery and falsehoo  can no
ville and Rockingham Whigs; a new session of Par- lo r d           a       simplicity itself can  no long
liament was about to commence; and that voice             d, a   s       y i            
was again to be heard in its councils which had so  er be misled.  Let us suppose it arrived.  Let
often summoned the nation to the defense of its  us suppose a gracious, well-intentioned prince,
rights. Junius, though acting by himself, would of  made sensible at last of the great duty he owes
course be acquainted with these arrangements; and  to his people, and of his own disgraceful situa.
to prepare the way for the approaching struggle, he  tion; that he looks round him for assistance, and
now turns from the ministry to the Throne, and en- asks for no advice but how to gratify the wishes,
deavors at once to intimidate the King, and to rouse  and secure the happiness of his subjects.  In
the people to a determined resistance of the govern-     circumstances t my be matte  ourious
these circuTmstances it may be matter of curious
The leading object of this Letter is to show the  SPECULATON to consider if an honest man were
King, (1.) How great an error he had committed in  permitted to approach a King, in what terms he
making the Tories (the hereditary supporters of the  would address himself to his sovereign.  Let it
Stuarts) the depositories of.his power, and in choos- be imagined, no matter how improbable, that the
ing a Favorite from among them, while he rejected  first prejudice against his character is removed,
the Whigs, who had brought in the Hanover family, that the ceremonious difficulties of an audience
and thus far held them on the throne. (2.) How dis- are surmounted, that he feels himself animated
honorable was the contest he was then carrying on     the purst and most honorable affections to
against a man of corrupt principles and abandoned  hs       and co
life, whose cause good men were nevertheless com-           t,    ad tat the  geat pe son
pelled to take up against their sovereign, in defense hom he addresses has spirit enough to bid him
of the dearest rights of the subject. (3.) That the  speak freely, and understanding enough to listen
breach of the Constitution in seating Mr. Luttrell, to  to him with attention.  Unacquainted with the
the exclusion of Mr.Wilkes, in the House of Corn- vain impertinence of forms, he would deliver his
mons, was one which the nation could not long en- sentiments with dignity and firmness, but not
dure; that a contest was coming on between the  without respect.2
King and the English people, in which all his reliances throughout the empire would certainly fail early education, and his strong aversion to Wilkes
him; and that he ought in time to remember that as a licentious and profligate man. Still, they were
"as his title to the throne was acquired by one rev- errors which involved the safety of the empire; it
olution, it may be lost by another."  Junius there- was right to expose them; and while Junius does it
fore exhorts him to turn from his ministers to the  with the utmost plainness, he shows comparatively
nation; to dissolve Parliament (a measure which  little of that insulting and malignant spirit which
the Whigs had now determined to press as their characterized his attack upon the King in his first
main point), and thus leave the people to decide the  Letter.
question by the choice of a new House of Commons.   2 It will repay the student in oratory to review
There is bat little that is false in this Letter, except this introduction, and see how skillfully the reasons
the ridiculous charge that " England had been sold  which justified so remarkable an address to the sovto France" in making the peace of 1762, and the at- ereign, are summed up and presented. He will ob.
tempt to create a national animosity against the  serve, too, how adroitly Junius assumes the air of
Scotch. The King had fallen into great errors, al- one engaged in "a curious speculation" on a supthough there were palliating circumstances in his  posed case, giving what follows as. a mere fa7?c?N




194                                       JUNIUS
SIR,-It is the misfortune of your life, and  and political liberties depend. Had it been posoriginally the cause of every reproach and dis- sible for us to entertain a suspicion so dishonortress which has attended your government, that able to your character, we should long since
you should never have been acquainted with the have adopted a style of remonstrance very dislanguage of truth until you heard it in the com- tant from the humility of complaint.  The docplaints of your people.  It is not, however, too  trine inculcated by our laws, that the King can
late to correct the error of your education. We do no wrong, is admitted without reluctance.
are still inclined to make an indulgent allowance  We separate the amiable, good-natured prince
for the pernicious lessons you received in your from the folly and treachery of his servants, and
youth, and to form  the most sanguine hopes the private virtues of the man from the vices of
from the natural benevolence of your disposition.  his government.  Were it not for this just disWe are far from thinking you capable of a di- tinction, I know not whether your Majesty's conrect, deliberate purpose to invade those original dition, or that of the English nation, would derights of your subjects, on which all their civil serve most to be lamented.  I would prepare
your mind for a favorable reception of truth. by
sketch, in order to take off the appearance of intend- removing every painful, offensive idea of personal
ing any thing personally offensive to the King. He  reproach.  Your subjects, sir, wish for nothing
will be struck, also, with the dexterity shown in as- but that, as they are reasonable and affectionate
suming just the requisite appearance of playing with  enough to separate your person from your govthe subject, when he says, " if an honest man were  ernment, so you, in your turn, should distinguish
permitted to approach a King;" and the delicacy  between the   nduct which becomes t  permaand apparent respect with which he enters on the
task of administering to his sovereign unsought-for net dignity of a Kin, and that which serves
counsel and humiliating reproof.                only to promote the temporary interest and mis3 Note by Junius. The plan of tutelage and fu- erable ambition of a minister.
tare dominion over the heir-apparent, laid many    You ascended the throne with a declared, and,
years ago at Carlton House between the Princess  I doubt not, a sincere resolution of giving uniDowager and her favorite the Earl of Bute, was as versal satisfaction to your subjects.  You found
gross and palpable as that which was concerted be- them pleased with the novelty of a youn prince
tween Anne of Austria and Cardinal Mazarin to           countenance promised even mor than his
govern Louis the Fourteenth, and in effect to pro- w,                 ro                i
long his minority until the end of their lives. That words, ad loyal to you not only from prncple,
prince had strong natural parts, and used frequently  but passion.  It was not a cold profession of alto blush for his own ignorance and want of educa- legiance to the first magistrate, but a partial, anition, which had been willfully neglected by his moth- mated attachment to a favorite prince, the native
er and her minion. A little experience, however, of their country.  They did not wait to examine
soon showed him how shamefully he had been treat- your conduct, nor to be determined by experied, and for what infamous purposes he had been  ece, but gave you a generous credit for the. kept in ignorance. Our great Edward, too, at an  futre blessins of our eign and  aid  ou in
- early period, had sense enough to understand the.,        y
nature of the connection between his abandoned               dearest tribute of ther affections.
mother and the detested Mortimer. But, since that Such, sir, was once the disposition of a people,
time, human nature, we may observe, is greatly al  who now surround your throne with reproaches
tered for the better. Dowagers may be chaste, and  and complaints.  Do justice toyourself. Banish
minions may be honest. When it was proposed to  from your mind those unworthy opinions with
settle the present King's household as Prince of which some interested persons have labored to
Wales, it is well known that the Earl of Bute was possess you.  Distrust the men who tell you that
forced into it, in direct contradiction to the late King's   English are naturally light and inconstant
the English are naturally light and inconstant;
inclination. That was the salient point from which                                   Wit
all the mischiefs and disgraces of the present reign  that tey complain without a case.  Withdraw
took life and motion. From that moment, Lord Bute  yourconfidenceequallyfromallparties-from
never suffered the Prince of Wales to be an instant ministers, favorites, and relations; and let there
out of his sight. We need not look farther.     be one moment in your life in which you have
On this statement Mr. Heron makes the following  consulted your own understanding.
remarks in his edition of Junius, vol. ii., 43: "There    When you affectedly renounced the name of
was,  therefore, no dishonest plan for keeping the  Englishman, believe me, sir, you were persuad
King in perpetual pupilage formed between his ed to pay a very ill-judged compliment to one
mother and the Earl of Bute. Neither had George part oyour su ts at the expense of another.
~ the Second nor the Princess Dowager of Wales
the Second nor the Princess Dowager of Wales p          your subjects, at the laexpensd are not in another.ual
committed the education of the young Prince to the While the natives of Scotland are not in actual
Jacobites and Tories. His education was not neg- rebellion, they are undoubtedly entitled to prolected, but managed with admirable success and  tection; nor do I mean to condemn the policy
care. Not the young King, but their incapacity and
unpopularity, drove the Newcastle party from pow-   4 Junius here lays hold of and perverts the laner. Not the King, but his own arrogance, and the guage used by the King in his first speech after
opposition and dislike of the Newcastle party and  coming to the throne: "Born and educated in this
others, dismissed Mr. Pitt from the administration. country, I glory in the name of Briton," &c. The
The union of parties, and the breaking down of the prevailing hostility to the Scotch led many to comgreat Whig party, was originally the measure of  ment on this avoidance of the word Englishman, as
Pitt, and arose from the natural progress of things. probably dictated by Lord Bute, and as indicating
So unjust are the imputations with which this Let- too much anxiety to conciliate the people of Scotter commeness."  The terth lies betl-wce,  titvc:. land.




TO THE KING.                                      195
of giving some encouragement to the novelty of  the most irregular character may not be retheir affections for the house of Hanover. I am  deemed.  The mistakes of one sex find a reready to hope for every thing from their new- treat in patriotism; those of the other in devoborn zeal, and from the future steadiness of their tion.  Mr. Wilkes brought with him into politics
allegiance.  But hitherto they have no claim to  the same liberal sentiments by which his private
your favor.  To honor them with a determined  conduct had been directed, and seemed to think,
predilection and confidence, in exclusion of your that, as there are few excesses in which an EnEnglish subjects, who placed your family, and, glish gentleman may not be permitted to indulge,
in spite of treachery and rebellion, have support- the same latitude was allowed him in the choice
ed it upon the throne, is a mistake too gross of his political principles, and in the spirit of
even for the unsuspecting generosity of youth. maintaining them.  I mean to state, not entirely
In this error we see a capital violation of the to defend his conduct.  In the earnestness of
most obvious rules of policy and prudence. We his zeal, he suffered some unwarrantable insinutrace it, however, to an original bias in your ed- ations to escape him.  He said more than moderucation, and are ready to allow for your inexperi- ate men would justify, but not enough to entitle
ence.                                         him to the honor of your Majesty's personal reTo the same early influence we attribute it, sentment.  The rays of royal indignation, colthat you have descended to take a share not only  lected upon him, served only to illuminate, and
in the narrow views and interests of particular could not consume. Animated by the favor of the
persons, but in the fatal malignity of their pas- people on one side, and heated by persecution on
sions.  At your accession to the throne, the the other, his views and sentiments changed with
whole system  of government was altered, not his situation.  Hardly serious at first, he is now
from wisdom or deliberation, but because it had  an enthusiast. The coldest bodies warm with opbeen adopted by your predecessor.  A  little  position, the hardest sparkle in collision. There
personal motive of pique and resentment was is a wholly mistaken zeal in politics as well as resufficient to remove the ablest servants of the  ligion.: By persuading others, we convince ourCrown; but it is not in this country, sir, that selves.  The passions are engaged, and create
such men can be dishonored by the frowns of a a maternal affection in the mind, which forces us
King.5  They were dismissed, but could not be to love the cause for which we suffer.  Is this a
disgraced. Without entering into a minuter contention worthy of a King?  Are you not sendiscussion of the merits of the peace, we may  sible how much the meanness of the cause gives
observe, in the imprudent hurry with which the  an air of ridicule to the serious difficulties into
first overtures from France were accepted, in  which you have been betrayed?  The destructhe conduct of the negotiation, and terms of the  tion of one man has been now, for many years, the
treaty, the strongest marks of that precipitate  sole object of your government; and, if there can
spirit of concession with which a certain part of be any thing still more disgraceful, we have seen,
your subjects have been at all times ready to for such an object, the utmost influence of the expurchase a peace with the natural enemies of  ecutive power, and every ministerial artifice, exthis country.  On your part we are satisfied  erted without success.  Nor can you ever sucthat every thing was honorable and sincere, and  ceed, unless he should be imprudent enough to
if England was sold to France, we doubt not forfeit the protection of those laws to which you
that your Majesty was equally betrayed.  The  owe your crown, or unless your ministers should
conditions of the peace were rlatter of grief and persuade you to make it a question of force alone,
surprise to your subjects, but not the immediate  and try the whole strength of government in op.
cause of their present discontent.            position to the people.  The lessons he has reHitherto, sir, you had been sacrificed to the  ceived from experience will probably guard him
prejudices and passions of others.  With what from such excess of folly; and in your Majesty's
firmness will you bear the mention of your own? virtues we find an unquestionable assurance that
A man, not very honorably distinguished in no illegal violence will be attempted.
the world, commences a formal attack upon your    Far from suspecting you of so horrible' a deFavorite, considering nothing but how he might sign, we would attribute the continued violation
best expose his person and principles to detest- of the laws, and even this last enormous attack
ation, and the national character of his country- upon the vital principles of the Constitution, to
men to contempt.  The natives of that country, an ill-advised, unworthy personal resentment.
sir, are as much distinguished by a peculiar From one false step you have been betrayed into
character as by your Majesty's favor.  Like  another, and, as the cause was unworthy of you,
another chosen people, they have been conduct- your ministers were determined that the prued into the Land of Plenty, where they find dence of the execution should correspond with
themselves effectually marked, and divided from  the wisdom and dignity of the design.  They
mankind.  There is hardly a period at which  have reduced you to the necessity of choosing
~~- ~ ---  out of a variety of difficulties-to a situation so; Note by Junius. One of the first acts of the unhappy, that you can neither do wron without
present reign was to dismiss Mr. Legge, because..
lihadsomerad soe years before refsed to yield his inter   r ightwithoutaffliction.  These thy
est in Hampshire to a Scotchman recommended by  servants have undoubtedly given you many sinLord Bute. This was the reason publicly assigned  gular proofs of their abilities.  Not contented
bv his Lordship.                              with making Mr. Wilkes a man of importance,




36                                       JUNIUS
they have judiciously transferred the question  object as it would be an affront to you to name.
from the rights and interests of one man to the  Men of sense will examine your conduct with
most important rights and interests of the people, suspicion; while those who are incapable of
and forced your subjects, from wishing well to  comprehending to what extent they are injured,
the cause of an individual, to unite with him in  afflict you with clamors equally insolent and untheir own.  Let them proceed as they have be- meaning.  Supposing it possible that no fatal
gun, and your Majesty need not doubt that the  struggle should ensue, you determine at once to
catastrophe will do no dishonor to the conduct beunhappy, without the hope of a compensation
of the piece.                                   either from interest or ambition.  If an English
The circumstances to which you are reduced  king be hated or despised, he must be unhappy 
will not admit of a compromise with the English  and this, perhaps, is the only political truth which
nation.  Undecisive, qualifying measures will he ought to be convinced of without experiment.
disgrace your government still more than open  But if the English people should no longer con.
violence, and, without satisfying the people, will fine their resentment to a submissive representexcite their contempt.  They have too much  ation of their wrongs; if, following the glorious
understanding and spirit to accept of an indirect example of their ancestors, they should no longer
satisfaction for a direct injury.  Nothing less  appeal to the creature of the Constitution, but to
than a repeal, as formal as the resolution itself, that high Being who gave them the rights of
can heal the wound which has been given to  humanity, whose gifts it were sacrilege to surthe Constitution, nor will any thing less be ac- render, let me ask you, sir, upon what part of
cepted.  I can readily believe that there is an  your subjects would you rely for assistance?
influence sufficient to recall that pernicious vote.    The people of Ireland have been uniformly
The House of Commons undoubtedly consider plundered and oppressed.  In return, they give
their duty to the Crown as paramount to all you every day fresh marks of their resentment.
ether obligations.  To tus they are only indebt- They despise the miserable governor [Viscount
ed for an accidental existence, and have justly  Townsend] you have sent them, because he is
transferred their gratitude from their parents to  the creature of Lord Bute, nor is it from  any
their benefactors-from  those who gave them  natural confusion in their ideas that they are so
birth, to the minister from whose benevolence  ready to confound the original of a king with the
they derive the comforts and pleasures of their disgraceful representation of him.
political life; who has taken the tenderest care    The distance of the colonies would make it
cf their infancy, relieves their necessities with- impossible for them to take an active concern in
out offending their delicacy, and has given them, your affairs, if they were as well affected to your
what they value most, a virtuous education. government as they once pretended to be to your;ut, if it were possible for their integrity to be person.  They were ready enough to distinguish
iegraded to a condition so vile and abject, that, between you and your ministers.  They comcompared with it, the present estimation they  plained of an act of the Legislature, but traced
stand in is a state of honor and respect, con- the origin of it no higher than to the servants of
sider, sir, in what manner you will afterward  the Crown.  They pleased themselves with the
proceed?  Can you conceive that the people  hope that their Sovereign, if not favorable to
of this country will long submit to be governed  their cause, at least was impartial.  The deciby so flexible a House of Commons?  It is not sive, personal part you took against them, has
in the nature of human society that any form of  effectually banished that first distinction from
government, in such circumstances, can long be  their minds.6  They consider you as united
preserved.  In ours, the general contempt of the  with your servants against America, and know
people is as fatal as their detestation.  Such, I how to distinguish the sovereign and a venal
am persuaded, would be the necessary effect of  Parliament on one side, from the real sentiments
any base concession made by the present House  of the English people on the other.  Looking
of Commons; and, as a qualifying measure would  forward to independence, they might possibly
not be accepted, it remains for you to decide  receive you for their king; but, if ever you rewhether you will, at any hazard, support a set tire to America, be assured they will give you
of men, who have reduced you to this unhappy  such a Covenant to digest, as the presbytery of
dilemma, or whether you will gratify the united  Scotland would have been ashamed to offer to
wishes of the whole people of England by dis- Charles the Second.  They left their native
solving the Parliament.                        land in search of freedom, and found it in a desTaking it for granted, as I do very sincerely, ert.  Divided as they are into a thousand forms
that you have personally no design against the
Constitution, nor any views inconsistent with the   6 In the King's speech of 8th November, 1768, it
good of your subjects, I think you can not hesi- was declared "that the spirit of faction had broken
tate long upon the choice which it equally con- out afresh in some of the colonies, and, in one of
oerns your interest and your honor to adopt. On them, proceeded to acts of violence and resistance
one side, you hazard the affeations of a  your to the execution of the laws; that Boston was in a
English subjects; you relinquish every hope of state of disobedience to all law and government, and
English subjects; you relinquish every hope of had proceeded to measures subversive of the Con.
repose to yourself, and you endanger the estab- stitution, and attended with circumstances that manishment of your family. forever.  All this you  ifested a disposition to throw off their dependence
venture for no object whatsoever, or for such an  on Great Britain."




TO THE KING.                                        197
of policy and religion, there is one point in which  the vengeance of his enemies.  This, sir, was
they all agree: they equally detest the pageantry  not the act of a few traitors, but the deliberate
of a King, and the supercilious hypocrisy of a  treachery of a Scotch Parliament representing
bishop.                                         the nation.  A wise prince might draw from it
It is not, then, from the alienated affections of  two lessons of equal utility to himself.  On one
Ireland or America, that you can reasonably look  side he might learn to dread the undisguised refor assistance; still less from the people of En- sentment of a generous people, who dare openly
gland, who are actually contending for their assert their rights, and who, in a just cause, are
rights, and, in this great question, are parties ready to meet their sovereign in the field. On the
against you.  You are not, however, destitute  other side, he would be taught to apprehend someof every appearance of support.  You have all thing far more formidable-a fawning treachery,
the Jacobites, Nonjurors, Roman Catholics, and  against which no prudence can guard, no courage
Tories of this country, and all Scotland without can defend.  The insidious smiles upon the cheek
exception.  Considering from what family you  would warn him of the canker in the heart.
are descended, the choice of your friends has    From the uses to which one part of the army
been singularly directed; and truly, sir, if you  has been too frequently applied, you have some
had not lost the Whig interest of England, I reason to expect that there are no services they
should admire your dexterity in turning the  would refuse.  Here, too, we trace the partiality
hearts of your enemies.  Is it possible for you  of your understanding.  You take the sense of
to place any confidence in men, who, before they  the army from the conduct of the Guards, with
are faithful to you, must renounce every opinion, the same justice with which you collect the
and betray every principle, both in church and  sense of the people from the representations of
state, which they inherit from  their ancestors, the ministry.  Your marching regiments, sir,
and are confirmed in by their education? whose  will not make the Guards their example, either
numbers are so inconsiderable, that they have  as soldiers or subjects.  They feel and resent,
long since been obliged to give up the princi- as they ought to do, that invariable, undistinples and language which distinguished them as guishing favor with which the Guards are treata party, and to fight under the banners of their ed; while those gallant troops, by whom every
enemies?  Their zeal begins with hypocrisy, hazardous, every laborious service is performed,
and must conclude in treachery.  At first they  are left to perish in garrisons abroad, or pine in
deceive, at last they betray.                  quarters at home, neglected and forgotten.7  If
As to the Scotch, I must suppose your heart they had no sense of the great original duty they
and understanding so biased, from your earliest owe their country, their resentment would operinfancy, in their favor, that nothing less than your ate like patriotism, and leave your cause to be
own misfortunes can undeceive you.  You will defended by those to whom  you have lavished
not accept of the uniform experience of your an- the rewards and honors of their profession.  The
cestors; and when once a man is determined to  Pretorian bands, enervated and debauched as they
believe, the very absurdity of the doctrine con- were, had still strength enough to awe the Rofirms him in his faith.  A bigoted understanding  man populace; but when the distant legions
can draw a proof of attachment to the house of  took the alarm, they marched to Rome, and
Hanover from a notorious zeal for the house of  gave away the Empire.8
Stuart, and find an earnest of future loyalty in    On this side, then, whichever way you turn
former rebellions.  Appearances are, however, your eyes, you see nothing but perplexity and
in their favor; so strongly, indeed, that one  distress.  You may determine to support the
would think they had forgotten that you are very ministry who have reduced your affairs to
their lawful King, and had mistaken you for a  this deplorable situation; you may shelter yourPretender to the crown.  Let it be admitted, self under the forms of Parliament, and set your
then, that the Scotch are as sincere in their
present professions as if you were in reality not  Note by Junius. The number of commissioned
an Englishman, but a Briton of the North-you  officers in the Guards are to the marching regiments
would not be the first prince of their native  as one to eleven; the number of regiments given to
country against whom they have rebelled, nor the Guads, co red with those given to      lie,
- firtavb.Have. "  1 is about three to one, at a moderate computation;
the first whom theyg have basely betrayed. Have  consequently, the partiality in favor of the Guards
you forgotten, sir, or has your Favorite concealed  is as thirty-three to one. So much for the officers
from you that part of our history, when the un- The private men have fourpence a day to subsist
happy Charles (and he, too, had private virtues) on, and five hundred lashes if they desert. Under
fled from the open, avowed indignation of his En- this punishment they frequently expire. With these
glish subjects, and surrendered himself at discre- encouragements, it is supposed they may be detion to the good faith of his own countrymen? pended upon, whenever a certain person thinks it
Without looking for support in their affections necessary to butcher hisfellow-subjects.
he app liedn1 onlyupot   t h         8 This is one of the passages which show the faas subjects, he applied only to their honor as..
as subjects, he  pplied only to their honor as miliarity of Junius with Tacitus, when composing
gentlemen, for protection.  They received him         Letters.  The event referred to was the
as they would your Majesty, with bows, and  march of the German legions to Rome, under Vitelsmiles, and falsehood, and kept him until they  lius, and their defeat of the Pretorian Bands, who
had settled their bargain with the English Par- had previously given the imperial dignity to Otho,
liament; then basely sold their native king to  from whom it passed to Vitellius.




198                                        JUNIUS
people at defiance.  But, be assured, sir, that jected the majority of votes, the only criterion
such a resolution would be as imprudent as it by which our laws judge of the sense of the peowould be odious.  If it did not immediately  ple; they have transferred the right of election
shake your establishment, it would rob you of  from the collective to the representative body;
your peace of mind forever.                     and by these acts, taken separately or together,
On the other, how different is the prospect! they have essentially altered the original constiHow easy, how safe and honorable is the path  tution of the House of Commons.  Versed, as
before you!  The English nation declare they  your Majesty undoubtedly is, in the English hisare grossly injured by their representatives, and  tory, it can not easily escape you, how much it
solicit your Majesty to exert your lawful pre- is to your interest, as well as your duty, to prerogative, and give them an opportunity of recall- vent one of the three estates from encroaching
ing a trust, which, they find, has been so scan- upon the province of the other two, or assuming
dalously abused.  You are not to be told that the authority of them  all.  When once they
the power of the House of Commons is not orig- have departed from the great constitutional line
inal, but delegated to them for the welfare of the  by which all their proceedings should be directpeople, from whom they received it.  A ques- ed, who will answer for their future moderation?
tion of right arises between the constituent and  Or what assurance will they give you, that,
the representative body.  By what authority  when they have trampled upon their equais,
shall it be decided?  Will your Majesty inter- they will submit to a superior?  Your Majesty
fere in a question in which you have properly no  may learn hereafter how nearly the slave and
immediate concern?  It would be a step equal- tyrant are allied.
ly odious and unnecessary.  Shall the Lords be    Some of your council, more candid than the
called upon to determine the rights and privi- rest, admit the abandoned profligacy of the presleges of the Commons?  They can not do it ent House of Commons, but oppose their dissowithout a flagrant breach of the Constitution. lution upon an opinion, I confess not very unwarOr will you refer it to the judges?  They have  rantable, that their successors would be equally
often told your ancestors that the law of Parlia- at the disposal of the treasury.  I can not perment is above them. What party then remains, suade myself that the nation will have profited
but to leave it to the people to determine for so little by experience. But if that opinion were
themselves?  They alone are injured; and since  well founded, you might then gratify our wishes
there is no superior power to which the cause  at an easy rate, and appease the present clamor
can be referred, they alone ought to determine. against your government without offering any
I do not mean to perplex you with a tedious material injury to the favorite cause of corrupargument upon a subject already so discussed, tion.
that inspiration could hardly throw a new light    You have still an honorable part to act. The
upon it.  There are, however, two points of affections of your subjects may still be recoverview in which it particularly imports your Maj- ed.  But, before you subdue their hearts, you
esty to consider the late proceedings of the  must gain a noble victory over your own.  DisHouse of Commons. By depriving a subject of card those little personal resentments which have
his birthright, they have attributed to their own  too long directed your public conduct.  Pardon
vote an authority equal to an act of the whole  this man the remainder of his punishment, and, if
Legislature; and, though perhaps not with the  resentment still prevails, make it, what it should
same motives, have strictly followed the exam- have been long since, an act, not of mercy, but
pie of the Long Parliament, which first declared  contempt.10 He will soon fall back into his natthe regal office useless, and soon after, with as ural station-a silent senator, and hardly suplittle ceremony, dissolved the House of Lords. porting the weekly eloquence of a newspaper.
The same pretended power which robs an En- The gentle breath of peace would leave him on
glish subject of his birthright, may rob an English King of his crown.  In another view, the  But they received the votes, and returned him as
resolution of the House of Commons, apparently  member, and then the House of Commons punished
not so dangerous to your Majesty, is still more  the electors by setting aside their votes, without a
alarming to your people.  Not contented with  word of censure on the returning officers...alarming to your peop. Not contentd w       ith   10 He ewas pardoned and released from prison
divesting one man of his right, they have arbi-  ithin less thafourmonths. This Letter probably
trarily conveyed that right to another.  They  convinced the King that he could no longer mainhave set aside a return as illegal, without daring  tain the contest. A general illumination took place
to censure those officers who were particularly  throughout London on the night following his reapprised of Mr. Wilkes's incapacity, not only by  lease. His debts had been previously paid or comthe declaration of the House, but expressly by  promised by the Society of the People's Rights.
the writ directed to them, and who nevertheless Wilkes was soon after chosen an alderman of Loureturled himn as duly elected.9  They have re  don, and subsequently Lord Mayor. At the next
general election in 1774, he was returned again as
9 There is force in this remark. If there was any  member for Middlesex, and took his seat without
blame in the Middlesex election, it certainly rested  opposition. On the dismissal of Lord North's adwith the returning officers. They ought to have  ministration in 1782, the obnoxious resolutions which
known, better than the common people of Middlesex  gave Colonel Luttrell his seat were expunged, on
could be presumed to know, whether Mr. Wilkes his own motion, from the journals of the House of
was disqualified by his expulsion from the House. Commons.




TO THE KING.                                         199
the surface, neglected and unremoved.  It is nineteen days the Duke of Grafton was cornonly the tempest that lifts him from his place.   pelled to resign.  But Junius and his friends
Without consulting your minister, call togeth- were bitterly disappointed.  The King had, iner your whole council.  Let it appear to the  deed, the wisdom to remove the great source of
public that you can determine and act for your- contention by pardoning Wilkes; but he clung
self. Come forward to your people.  Lay aside  to his Tory advisers; he placed Lord North at
the wretched formalities of a King, and speak to  the head of affairs, and for twelve years persistyour subjects with the spirit of a man, and in  ed in his favorite measures, and especially his
the language of a gentleman.  Tell them you  resolution to force taxation on America, until he
have been fatally deceived.  The acknowledg- drove her out of the empire.
ment will be no disgrace, but rather an honor to    Before leaving this letter, it will be proper to
your understanding. Tell them you are determ- give a brief account of the celebrated trial to
ined to remove every cause of complaint against which it gave rise.  Woodfall, the publisher,
your government; that you will give your con- was prosecuted for a seditious libel, and brought
fidence to no man who does not possess the con- before the Court of King's Bench on the 13th
fidence of your subjects; and leave it to them- of June, 1770.  Lord Mansfield, in charging the
selves to determine, by their conduct at a future  jury, told them " that there were only two points
election, whether or no it be in reality the gen- for their consideration: the first, the printing and
eral sense of the nation, that their rights have  publishing of the paper in question; the second,
been arbitrarily invaded by the present House  the sense and meaning of it.  That as to the
of Commons, and the Constitution  betrayed. charges of its being malicious, seditious, &c.,
They will then do justice to their representa- these were inferences of law.  That, therefore,
tives and to themselves.                        the printing and sense of the paper were alone
These sentiments, sir, and the style they are  what the jury had to consider of; and that, if the
conveyed in, may be offensive, perhaps, because  paper should really contain no breach of law,
they are new to you.  Accustomed to the lan- that was a matter which might afterward be
guage of courtiers, you measure their affections  moved in arrest of judgment."  This put the
by the vehemence of their expressions; and when  prisoner completely in the power of the judges.
they only praise you indirectly, you admire their The jury had no right to inquire into his motives
sincerity.  But this is not a time to trifle with  or the real merits of the case.  As the fact of
your fortune.  They deceive you, sir, who tell publication was admitted, and the meaning of
you that you have many friends, whose affections  the words was clear, they must pronounce him
are founded upon a principle of personal attach- guilty, although perfectly satisfied that he had
ment.  The first foundation of friendship is not spoken the truth, and had been governed by upthe power of conferring benefits, but the equal- right intentions.  This, certainly, made the trial
ity with which they are received, and may be re- by jury in cases of libel a mere farce.  In the
turned.  The fortune which made you a King  present instance, the jury got round the difficulty
forbade you to have a friend.  It is a law of na- by bringing in a verdict, " Guilty of the printing
ture which can not be violated with impunity. and publishing only."  The question now arose.
The mistaken prince, who looks for friendship,  " What is the legal effect of this finding?"  The
will find a Favorite, and in that Favorite the  Attorney General claimed that it was to be taken
ruin of his affairs.                             as a conviction; the counsel of Woodfall, that it
The people of England are loyal to the house  amounted to an acquittal.  The case was argued
of Hanover, not from a vain preference of one  at length, and the court decided for neither party.
family to another, but from a conviction that the  They set the verdict aside, and ordered a new
establishment of that family was necessary to  trial.  This, however, was the same to Woodthe support of their civil and religious liberties. fall as an acquittal; for it was perfectly well
This, sir, is a principle of allegiance equally sol- known that no jury could ever be found in the
id and rational, fit for Englishmen to adopt, and  city of London to return a verdict against the
well worthy of your Majesty's encouragement.  publisher.  The matter was therefore dropped,
We can not long be deluded by national distinc-  and Junius came off victorious.
tions.  The name of Stuart, of itself, is only con-    Much blame was thrown upon Lord Manstemptible; armed with the sovereign authority,  field for this decision.  The subject was brought
their principles were formidable.  The Prince,  before the House of Lords by Lord Chatham, and
who imitates their conduct, should be warned  Lord Mansfield said in reply, "His Lordship tells
by their example; and while he plumes himself  the House that doctrines no less new than danupon the security of his title to the crown, should  gerous have been inculcated in this court, and
remember that, as it was acquired by one revo- that, particularly in a charge which I delivered
lution, it may be lost by another.              to the jury on Mr. Woodfall's trial, my direcJUNIUS.   tions were contrary to law, repugnant to practice, and injurious to the dearest liberties of the
This letter was published just before the  people.  This is an alarming picture, my Lords;
Christmas holidays, and immediately after their it is drawn with great parade, and colored to
close, Parliament commenced its session.  Lord  affect the passions amazingly. Unhappily, howChatham  came out at once as leader of the  ever, for the painter, it wants the essential cirWhigs, now united into one body, and within  cumstance of truth in the design, and must, like




200                                        JUNIUS
many other political pictures, be thrown, not-  field had laid down; and, in laying it down, he
withstanding the reputation of the artist, among  not only followed the example of his immediate
the miserable daubings of faction.  So far, my  predecessors, but he was supported by the unanLords, is the accusation without truth, that the  imous opinion of his brethren who sat by him.
directions now given to juries are the same that There was no pretense for representing him as
they have ever been.  There is no novelty intro- a daring innovator, who, slavishly wishing to
duced-no chicanery attempted; nor has there, please the government, tried to subvert trial by
till very lately, been any complaint of the integ- jury, and to extinguish the liberty of the press."
rity of the King's Bench."                         Junius, as might be expected, attacked Lord
The opinion of enlightened jurists at the pres- Mansfield soon after in the most vehement terms.
ent day, as to the merits of the case, is expressed  If he had confined himself to the legal question
by Lord Campbell in his Lives of the Chief Jus-  and the rights of juries, no one could have contices, vol. ii., p. 480.                        demned him for using strong language; but he
"Lord Mansfield, in the course of these tri- followed his ordinary method of assailing charals, had done nothing to incur moral blame.  I acter and motives.  He revived the exploded
think his doctrine-that the jury were only to  story of Mansfield's having drunk the Pretendfind the fact of publication and the innuendos-   er's health on his knees.  He tortured him by
contrary to law as well as liberty.  His grand  the most cruel insinuations.  But he overshot
argument for making the question of'libel or his mark, and fell into the grossest errors, espenot' exclusively one of law, that the defendant cially in his grand controversy about the right
may demur or move in arrest of judgment, and  of Lord Mansfield to bail a man named Eyre, in
so refer it to the court, admits of the easy an- which, as Lord Campbell remarks, " Junius was
swer, that, although there may be a writing set egregiously in the wrong, clearly showing that
out in the information as libelous which it could  he was not a lawyer, his mistakes not being deunder no circumstances be criminal to publish, signedly made for disguise, but palpably proceedyet that an information may set out a paper the  ing from an ignorant man affecting knowledge."
publication of which may or may not be crim- -Ibid., p. 402.
inal, according to the intention of the defendant    The trial of Woodfall was ultimately productand the circumstances under which it is pub- ive of good.  It roused the public mind to the
lished.  Therefore, supposing judges to be ever rights ofjuries. A similar case came up in 1784,
so pure, upright, and intelligent, justice could  when the Dean of St. Asaph was tried for a libel;
not be done by leaving to them the criminality  and at this time Mr. Erskine made his celebrated
or innocence of the paper alleged to be libelous, argument on the subject, which prepared the
as a mere abstract question of law, to be decided  way for an act of Parliament, declaring the right
by reading the record.  Nevertheless, there were  of juries to decide on the law as well as the facts
various authorities for the rule which Lor&dlans- in cases of libel.
LETTER
TO HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF GRAFTON.1
MY LRD, — If I were personally your enemy, no title to indulgence; and, if I had followed
I might pity and forgive you.  You have every  the dictates of my own opinion, I never should
claim to compassion that can arise from misery  have allowed you the respite of a moment.  In
and distress.  The condition you are reduced to  your public character, you have injured every
would disarm a private enemy of his resentment, subject of the empire; and, though an individual
and leave no consolation to the most vindictive  is not authorized to forgive the injuries done to
spirit, but that such an object as you are would  society, he is called upon to assert his separate
disgrace the dignity of revenge.  But, in the re- share in the public resentment.  I submitted,
lation you have borne to this country, you have  however, to the judgment of men, more. moderate, perhaps more candid than myself.  For my
1 Dated February 14th, 1770. This Letter must own part, I do not pretend to understand those
have been commenced within a week after the res-se gente 
ignation of the Duke of Grafton. It is Junius' first  t   ms          um, those gentle rules of
shout of triumph over the fall of his adversary. He  discretion, which some men endeavor to unite
evidently regarded Lord North's ministry as a mere  with the conduct of the greatest and most hazmodification of the Bedford party; and, as he always  ardous affairs.  Engaged in the defense of an
underrated his talents, he now treats him, at the close  honorable cause, I would take a decisive part.
of this Letter, with great contempt, expressing (what I should scorn to provide for a future retreat, or
he undoubtedly felt) a firm conviction that the whole  to keep terms with a man who preserves no
concern must soon fall to pieces, and the Whigs be  measures with the public.  Neither the abject
called into office.
ea.    T,     ^ ~submission of deserting  his post in the hour of
This is one of the most finished productions of Ju-  da nger, nor even the sa     s     r
nius. It has more eloquence than the Letter to the ang,     even the sacred
King, and would deserve our unqualified admiration,        Saclro tremuere timore. Every coward pretends
if it were as just as it is eloquent,          to be planet-struck.




TO THE DUKE OF GRAFTON.                                         201
should protect him.  I would pursue him through  the whining piety of a Methodist.  We had realife, and try the last exertion of my abilities to pre- son to expect that notice would have been taken
serve the perishable infamy of his name, and make  of the petitions which the King has received from
it immortal.                                       the English nation; and, although I can conceive'What then, my Lord, is this the event of all some personal motives for not yielding to them.
the sacrifices you have made to Lord Bute's pat- I can find none, in common prudence or decency,
ronage, and to your own unfortunate ambition?  for treating them  with contempt.  Be assured,
Was it for this you abandoned your earliest friend- my Lord, the English people will not tamely
ships-the warmest connections of your youth, submit to this unworthy treatment.  They had
and all those honorable engagements, by which  a right to be heard; and their petitions, if not
you once solicited, and might have acquired, the  granted, deserved to be considered.  Whatever
esteem of your country?  Have you secured no  be the real views and doctrine of a court, the
recompense for such a waste of honor?  Un- Sovereign should be taught to preserve some
happy man!  What party will receive the cor- forms of attention to his subjects, and, if he will
mon deserter of all parties?  Without a client not redress their grievances, not to make them
to flatter, without a friend to console you, and  a topic of jest and mockery among the lords and
with only one companion from the honest house  ladies of the bedchamber.  Injuries may be
of Bloomsbury, you must now retire into a dread-  atoned for and forgiven; but insults admit of no
ful solitude, [which you have created for your-  compensation.  They degrade the mind in its
self].3  At the most active period of life, you  own esteem, and force it to recover its level by
must quit the busy scene, and conceal yourself  revenge.  This neglect of the petitions was, howfrom  the world, if you would hope to save the  ever, a part of your original plan of government;
wretched remains of a ruined reputation.  The  nor will any consequences it has produced acvices never fail of their effect.  They operate  count for your deserting your Sovereign in the
like age-bring on dishonor before its time, and, midst of that distress in which you and your new
in the prime of youth, leave the character broken  friends [the Bedfords] had involved him.  One
and exhausted.                                    would think, my Lord, you might have taken
Yet your conduct has been mysterious as well this spirited resolution before you had dissolved
as contemptible.  Where is now that firmness, the last of those early connections which once,
or obstinacy, so long boasted of by your friends,  even in your own opinion, did honor to your
and acknowledged by your enemies?  We were  youth-before you had obliged Lord Granby to
taught to expect that you would not leave the  quit a service he was attached to —etfore you
ruin of this country to be completed by other  had discarded one Chancellor and killed another.'
hands, but were determined either to gain a decisive victory over the Constitution, or to perish,   rowing    in the teeth of the Due, especially as''!".it   1-1  the petitions and iemonstrances of London, Westbravely at least. in the last dike of the preroga- t  p                               L        
bravely at least, in, the lastndke  othe prerogat - h minster, Surrey, York, and other parts of the kingtive.  You knew the danger, and might have  dom, respecting the most urgent political concerns,
been provided for it.  You took sufficient time  were passed over in silence, and thus treated with
to prepare for a meeting with your Parliament, contempt.
to confirm  the mercenary fidelity of your de-    5 Lord Granby had resigned his office as Compendents, and to suggest to your Sovereign a  mander-in-chief about a month before, affirming that
language suited to his dignity, at least, if not to  he had been wholly misled under the administration
his rbenevolence and wisdom.  Yet, while the  of the Duke of Grafton as to the affair of Wilkes. and
declaring that he considered his vote on that subject
whole kingdom  was agitated with anxious ex-                     misort   of  s life.
n            n.as the greatest misfortune of his life.
pectation upon  pne great point, you  meanly    When Lord Camden was discarded and compelled
evaded the question, and, instead of the explicit to resign, for saying in Parliament that he had long
firmness and decision of a King, you gave us  disapproved the measures of the cabinet, but had
nothing but the misery of a ruined grazier,4 and  been unable to resist them, the King found it difficult to induce any one to accept the office of Lord
3 The words in brackets were contained in the  Chancellor. He applied to Mr. Charles Yorke, son
Letter as it originally appeared in the Public Ad- of the celebrated Lord Hardwicke. but could not
vertiser, but were struck out by Junius in his re- prevail with him, because an acceptance would
vised edition. As they add an important idea, and  have been a virtual abandonment of his principles.
give the period an easier cadence, it may be doubt- After trying in other quarters, the King again reed whether the author did wisely to omit them. It quested a private interview with Mr. Yorke, and
is unnecessary to remark on the animated flow and  made such appeals to him (it is believed) as no moncondensed energy of this paragraph. An able critic  arch ought ever to address to a subject, declaring
has said, in rather strong terms, "No language, an- that. if he would only accept the seals, "an admincient or modern, can afford a specimen of impressive  istration might soon be formed which the nation
eloquence superior to this."                       would entirely approve."  Mr. Yorke was at lengrth
* The King's speech, which was drawn up by the  overpowered; he sunk on his knees in token of
Duke of Grafton for the opening of this session, went submission; and thle King gave him his hand to
by the name of the "hsorned-cattle speech," because  kiss, saluting him as Lord Chancellor of England.
it commenced with referring to a prevalent distem- Mr. Yorke instantly repaired to tlie house of his
per among the horned cattle of the kingdom, as a  brother, Lord Hardwicke, to explain the step he
matter of great importance, requiring the attention  had taken, and, to his great surprise, found Lord
of Parliament. This created universal merriment; Rockingham,  and the other leaders of Opposition,
and Janius could not deny himself the pleasure of  there, concerting with his brother the best means




202                                         JUNIUS
To what an abject condition have you labored  to make it contemptible.  You will say, perhaps,
to reduce the best of princes, when the unhappy  that the faithful servants in whose hands you
man, who yields at last to such personal instance  have left him are able to retrieve his honor and
and solicitation as never can be fairly employed  to support his government.  You have publicly
against a subject, feels himself degraded by his declared, even since your resignation. that you
compliance, and is unable to survive the dis- approved of their measures and admired their
graceful honors which his gracious Sovereign  conduct, particularly that of the Earl of Sandhad compelled him to accept.  He was a man  wich.6  What a pity it is that, with all this apof spirit, for he had a quick sense of shame, and  pearance, you should think it necessary to sep.
death has redeemed his character.  I know your arate yourself from  such amiable companions!
Grace too well to appeal to your feelings upon  You forget, my Lord, that while you are lavish
this event; but there is another heart, not yet, I in the praise of men whom you desert, you are
hope, quite callous to the touch of humanity, to  publicly opposing your conduct to your opinions,
which it ought to be a dreadful lesson forever.   and depriving yourself of the only plausible preNow, my Lord, let us consider the situation  tense you had for leaving your sovereign overto which you have conducted, and in which you  whelmed with distress-I call it plausible, for,
have thought it advisable to abandon your royal in truth, there is no reason whatsoever, less than
master. Whenever the people have complained, the frowns of your master, that could justify a
and nothing better could be said in defense of the  man of spirit for abandoning his post at a momeasures of government, it has been the fashion  ment so critical and important!  It is in vain to
to answer us, though not very fairly, with an  evade the question.  If you will not speak out,
appeal to'the private virtues of your sovereign. the public have a right to judge from appearan-'Has he not, to relieve the people, surrendered  ces.  We are authorized to conclude that you
a considerable part of his revenue?  Has he not either differed from your colleagues, whose measmade the judges independent by fixing them in  ures you still affect to defend, or that you thought
their places for life?"  My Lord, we acknowl- the administration of the King's affairs no longer
edge the gracious principle which gave birth to  tenable.  You are at liberty to choose between
these concessions, and have nothing to regret but the hypocrite and the coward.  Your best friends
that it has never been adhered to.  At the end  are in doubt which way they shall incline.  Your
of seven years, we are loaded with a debt of country unites the characters, and gives you credabove five hundred thousand pounds upon the  it for them both.  For my own part, I see nothcivil list, and we now  see the Chancellor of ing inconsistent in your conduct.  You began
Great Britain tyrannically forced out of his of- with betraying the people-you conclude with
flee, not for want of abilities, not for want of in- betraying the King.
tegrity, or of attention to his duty, but for deliv-    In your treatment of particular persons, you
ering his honest opinion in Parliament upon the  have preserved the uniformity of your character.
greatest constitutional question that has arisen  Even Mr. Bradshaw declares that no man was
since the Revolution.  We care not to whose  ever so ill used as himself.  As to the provision
private virtues you appeal; the theory of such  you have made for his family, he was entitled to
a government is falsehood and mockery; the  it by the house he lives in.7  The successor of
practice is oppression.  You have labored, then  one chancellor might well pretend to be the rival
(though I confess to no purpose), to rob your of another.  It is the breach of private friendmaster of the only plausible answer that ever ship which touches Mr. Bradshaw; and, to say
was given in defense of his government-of the  the truth, when a man of his rank and abilities
opinion which the people have conceived of his had taken so active a part in your affairs, he
personal honor and integrity.  The Duke of Bed- ought not to have been let down at last with a
ford was more moderate than your Grace.  He  miserable pension of fifteen hundred pounds a
only forced his master to violate a solemn promise made to an individual [Mr. Stuart Mackenzie].  This nobleman was notoriously profligate in his
But you, my Lord, have successfully extended  life. Such was the case also, to a great extent, with
your advice to every political, every moral en- Gower, Rigby, and all the Bedford men in the Duke
gagement that could bind either the magistrate  of Grafton's ministry.
m   gagement  e                                   Mr. Bradshaw, a dependent of the Duke of Grafor the man.  The condition of a King is often         r.                                  
ton, received a pension of ~1500 a year for his own
miserable; but it required your Grace's abilities           lives of all his sons while Sir Edward
HIawke, who had saved the state, received what
of carrying on their attack upon the government. was actually worth a less sum. Junius, alluding to
When he told his story, they all turned upon him  Bradshaw's complaints, sportively says that he was
with a burst of indignation, and reproached him as certainly entitled to a large pension on account of
guilty of a flagrant breach of honor. He returned  "the house he lives in," referring to a fact which
to his house overwhelmed with grief, and within  occasioned considerable speculation, viz., that Brad.
two days his death was announced. There was a  shaw had just taken a very costly residence, pregeneral suspicion of suicide, and it has never yet viously occupied by Lord Chancellor Northington.
been made certain that he died a natural death. The whole passage is obviously a sneering one,
Well might Junius say, in reference to the King, though Heron takes it seriously, and then repre"There is another heart not yet, I hope, quite cal- sents Junius as inconsistent with himself, because
lous to the touch of humanity, to which it ought to  he alludes, in a note, to the largeness of Bradshaw's
be a dreadful lesson forever."                   pension as compared with Admiral Hawke's.




TO THE DUKE OF GRAFTON.                                         203
year.  Colonel Luttrell, Mr. Onslow, and Mr.  fold recrimination, and to set you at defiance.
Burgoyne were equally engaged with you, and  The injury you have done him affects his moral
have rather more reason to complain than Mr. character.  You knew that the offer to purchase
Bradshaw.  These are men, my Lord, whose  the reversion of a place which has hitherto been
friendship you should have adhered to on the  sold under a decree of the Court of Chancery,
same principle on which you deserted Lord  however imprudent in his situation, would no
Rockingham, Lord Chatham, Lord Camden, and  way tend to cover him  with that sort of guilt
the Duke of Portland.  We can easily account which you wished to fix upon him in the eyes
for your violating your engagements with men of of the world.  You labored then, by every spehonor, but why should you betray your natural cies of false suggestion, and even by publishing
connections?  Why separate yourself from Lord  counterfeit letters, to have it understood that he
Sandwich, Lord Gower, and Mr. Rigby, or leave  had proposed terms of accommodation to you,
the three worthy gentlemen above mentioned to  and had offered to abandon his principles, his
shift for themselves?  With all the fashionable  party, and his friends.  You consulted your own
indulgence of the times, this country does not breast for a character of consummate treachery,
abound in characters like theirs; and you may  and gave it to the public for that of Mr. Vaughan.
find it a difficult matter to recruit the black cat- I think myself obliged to do this justice to an inalogue of your friends.                           jured man, because I was deceived by the apThe recollection of the royal patent you sold  pearances thrown out by your Grace, and have
to Mr. I-line obliges me to say a word in defense  frequently spoken of his conduct with indignaof a man [Mr. Vaughan] whom you have taken  tion.  If he really be, what I think him, honest,
the most dishonorable means to injure.8  I do  though mistaken, he will be happy in recovering
not refer to the sham prosecution which you af- his reputation, though at the expense of his unfected to carry on against him.  On that ground, derstanding.  Here, I see, the matter is likely
I doubt not he is prepared to meet you with ten- to rest.  Your Grace is afraid to carry on the
prosecution.  Mr. Hine keeps quiet possession
8 This alludes to the patent of an office granted  o   s pr se; and Goenor  uone  e
for the benefit of Mr. Burgoyne, who, with the Duke  o h   p        a, 
of Grafton's permission, sold out the annual incomeieved fm  the apprehension of refunding the
for a gross sum to a person named Hine. The pros- money, sits down, for the remainder of his life,
ecution mentioned in the next sentence is thus spo- INFAMOUS and CONTENTED.
ken of by Woodfall, in his Junins, vol. i., 322: " Mr.    I believe, my Lord, I may now take my leave
Samuel Vaughan was a merchant in the city, ofhith- of you forever.  You are no longer that resolute
erto unblemished character, and strongly attached  minister who had spirit to support the most vioto the popular cause. The office he attempted to  lent measures  who compensated for the want
procure had at times been previously disposed of for o g     a                       detern
of good and great qualities by a brave determina pecuniary consideration, and had, on one particu-       i    o    p        a        a         
lar occasion, been sold by an order of a Court of           c s                                 on
Chancery, and consisted in the reversion of the  to maintain himsel without them.  The reputa
clerkship to the Supreme Court in the island of Ja- tion of obstinacy and perseverance might have
maica. A Mr. Howell was, in fact, at this very time  supplied the place of all the absent virtues. You
in treaty with the patentee for the purchase of his have now added the last negative to your charresignation, which clearly disproved any criminal in- acter, and meanly confessed that you are desti.
tention in Mr. Vaughan. He was, however, pros- tute of the common spirit of a man.  Retire
ecuted, obviously from  political motives, but the  then my Lord  and hide your blushes from the
prosecution was dropped after the affair of Hine's         
patent was brought before the public."  Mr. Heron  world  fo, with such  a          load of shame, eve
states, however, that "the office itself had never BLA   may change its color.  A mind such as
been directly or avowedly sold by the Crown, though  yours, in the solitary hours of domestic enjoythe life-interest had been, under a decree of Chance- ment, may still find topics of consolation.  You
ry."  It is not surprising (if this were so) that Mr. may find it in the memory of violated friendVaughan, not being a professional man, should have  ship, in the afflictions of an accomplished prince,
failed to discern the difference. His application, whom you have disgraced and deserted, and in
therefore, may have been made without any crim- the agitations of a gret country driven by  our
inal intention. To prosecute in such a case does  councils to the brink of destruction.
seem a very severe measure; and, as the prosecution was dropped from this time, it would seem that    The palm of ministerial firmness is now transthe Duke himself considered it a bad business.   ferred to Lord North.  He tells us so himself,
It may be added, that Sir Dennis Le Marchant, in  with the plenitude of the ore rotundo; and I am
his edition of Walpole's Memoirs of George III., ready enough to believe that, while he can keep
says, "Junius's account of the prosecution [of  his place, he will not easily be persuaded to reVaughan] is fair-making the usual deductions."  sign it.  Your Grace was the firm minister of
Walpole censures the prosecution as foolish. As yesterday: Lord North is the firn minister of
to Hine's patent, he says, "It was proved that he          To-morow, pehaps, his   jesty  i
[the Duke] had bestowed on Colonel Burgoyne a... h                          i
place, which the latter was to sell to reimburse him- is wisdom, may give us a rival for you both.
self for the expenses of his election at Preston."-    9 Note by Junius. " This eloquent person has got
Vol. iii., 400. This was the statement made by Ju- as far as the discipline of Demosthenes. He constantnius; and it is not, therefore, wonderful that, after ly speaks with pebbles in his mouth, to improve his
the exposure of such a transaction, the Duke thought articulation." —This refers to a peculiarity of Lord
best to say as little as possible about Mr. Vaughan. North, whose " tongue was too large for his mouth.'"




204                              ESTIMATES OF JUNIUS.
You are too well acquainted with the temper of  ment was immature, and his strength of purpose
your late allies to think it possible that Lord  unequal to the control of his passions.  He was
North should be permitted to govern this coun- only thirty-four years old when he was driven
try.  If we may believe common fame, they  from power.  During a long life which followed,
have shown him their superiority already.  His he retrieved his character.  He showed himself,
Majesty is indeed too gracious to insult his sub- as Sir Dennis Le Marchant states, to be " by no
jects by choosing his first minister from among  means the insignificant or worthless personage
the domestics of the Duke of Bedford.  That that he appears in the pages of Walpole and
would have been too gross an outrage to the  Junius.  A genuine love of peace, and hatred of
three kingdoms.  Their purpose, however, is oppression, either civil or religious, marked his
equally answered by pushing forward this un- whole political life; and great as were the erhappy figure, and forcing it to bear the odium  rors which Walpole and Junius have justly deof measures which they in reality direct. With- nounced in his private conduct, it is only just to
out immediately appearing to govern, they pos- say, that from the date of these Memoirs [1771]
sess the power, and distribute the emoluments  to his death, which comprises a period of near
of government as they think proper.  They still forty years, there were few individuals more
adhere to the spirit of that calculation which  highly and more generally esteemed.' —Note to
made Mr. Luttrell representative of Middlesex. Walpole's Memoirs of George III., vol. iv., p. 73.
Far from regretting your retreat, they assure us
very gravely that it increases the real strength    In leaving Junius, the reader will be gratified
of the ministry.  According to this way of rea- to see the following estimates of his character
soning, they will probably grow  stronger, and  and writings fiom  the two most distinguished
more flourishing, every hour they exist; for I literary men of that day, Mr. Burke, a Whig,
think there is hardly a day passes in which some  and Dr. Johnson, a Tory.
one or other of his Majesty's servants does not
leave them to improve by the loss of his assist-    ESTIMATE OF JUNIUS, BY MR. BURIE.'
ance.  But, alas! their countenances speak a    How comes this JUNIUS to have broke through
different language.  When the members drop  the cobwebs of the law, and to range uncontroloff, the main body can not be insensible of its led, unpunished through the land?  The myrapproaching dissolution.  Even the violence of midons of the Court have been long, and are
their proceedings is a signal of despair.  Like  still, pursuing him in vain. They will not spend
broken tenants, who have had warning to quit their time upon me, or you, or you.  No; they
the premises, they curse their landlord, destroy  disdain such vermin, when the mighty boar of
the fixtures, throw every thing into confusion, the forest, that has broken through all their toils,
and care not what mischief they do to the estate. is before them.  But what will all their efforts
JUNIUS.    avail?  No sooner has he wounded one than he
lays another dead at his feet.  For my part,
The character of the Duke of Grafton, as given  when I saw his attack upon the King, I own my
by Horace Walpole in his Memoirs of George  blood ran cold.  I thought that he had ventured
III., accords in most respects with the represent- too far, and there was an end of his triumphs.
ations of Junius.  " His fall from  power was Not that he had not asserted many truths. Yes,
universally ascribed to his pusillanimity; but sir, there are in that composition many bold
whether betrayed by his fears or his friends, he  truths, by which a wise prince might profit. It
had certainly been the chief author of his own  was the rancor and venom  with which I was
disgrace.  His haughtiness, indolence, reserve, struck.  In these respects the North Briton is
and improvidence, had conjured up the storm; as much inferior to him, as in strength, wit, and
but his obstinacy and fickleness always relaying  judgment.  But while I expected in this daring
each other, and always mal a propos, were the  flight his final ruin and fall, behold him rising
radical causes of the numerous absurdities that still higher, and coming down souse upon both
discolored his conduct and exposed him to de- houses of Parliament. Yes, he did make you his
served reproaches-nor had he a depth of un- quarry, and you still bleed from the wounds of
derstanding to counterbalance the defects of his his talons.  You crouched, and still crouch, betemper."-Vol. iv., 69.  His love of the turf  neath his rage. Nor has he dreaded the terrors
brought him into habits of intimacy with low  of your brow, sir; he has attacked even youand unprincipled men, whose wants he was comn- he has-and I believe you have no reason to
pelled to supply, and whose characters often re- triumph in the encounter. In short, after carryflected dishonor upon his own.  His immorali- ing away our Royal Eagle in his pounces, and
ties, though public, appeared less disgraceful at dashing him against a rock, he has laid you prosthat day, when the standard of sentiment on this trate.  Kings, Lords, and Commons are but the
subject was extremely low; and in this respect sport of his fury.  Were he a member of this
he was so far outdone by Lord Sandwich and  House, what might not be expected from  his
others of "the Bloomsbury gang," with whom               a s        iv     i              
i,." ~..                  l From a speech delivered in the House of Comhe was connected, that his vices were thrown  1ons.
comparatively into the shade.  It ought to be    2 Sir Fletcher Norton, Speaker of the House, was
stated, in justice to the Duke of Grafton, that he  distinguished for the largeness of his overhanging
entered very early into public life, when his judg- eyebrows.




ESTIMATES OF JUNIUS.                                       205
knowledge, his firmness, and integrity?  He  he has the art of persuading when he seconded
would be easily known by his contempt of all desire; as a reasoner, he has convinced those
danger, by his penetration, by his vigor. Noth- who had no doubt before; as a moralist, he has
ing would escape his vigilance and activity. Bad  taught that virtue may disgrace; and as a paministers could conceal nothing from his sagaci- triot, he has gratified the mean by insults on the
ty; nor could promises nor threats induce him  high.  Finding sedition ascendant, he has been
to conceal any thing from the public.            able to advance it; finding the nation combustible, he has been able to inflame it. Let us abESTIMATE OF JUNIUS, BY DR. JOHNSON.          stract from his wit the vivacity of insolence, and
This thirst of blood, however the visible pro- withdraw from his efficacy the sympathetic favor
moters of sedition may think it convenient to  of plebeian malignity; I do not say that we shall
shrink from the accusation, is loudly avowed by  leave him  nothing; the cause that I defend
JUNIUS, the writer to whom his party owes much  scorns the help of falsehood; but if we leave
of its pride, and some of its popularity.  Of J- him only his merit, what will be his praise?
NIUs  it can not be said, as of Ulysses, that he    It is not by his liveliness of imagery, his punscatters ambiguous expressions among the vul- gency of periods, or his fertility of allusion, that
gar;4 for he cries havoc without reserve, and en- he detains the cits of London and the boors of
deavors to let slip the dogs of foreign and of  Middlesex. Of style and sentiment they take no
civil war, ignorant whither they are going, and  cognizance.  They admire him for virtues like
careless what may be their prey.5  JUNIUS has their own, for contempt of order and violence
sometimes made his satire felt; but let not in- of outrage, for rage of defamation and audacity
judicious admiration mistake the venom of the  of falsehood.  The supporters of the Bill of
shaft for the vigor of the blow.  He has some- Rights feel no niceties of composition nor dextimes sported with lucky malice; but to him  terities of sophistry; their faculties are better
that knows his company, it is not hard to be sar- proportioned to the bawl of Bellas or barbarity
castic in a mask. While he walks like Jack the  of Beckford; but they are told that JUNIUS is on
Giant Killer in a coat of darkness, he may do  their side, and they are therefore sure that Jrmuch mischief with little strength.  Novelty  NIUS is infallible.  Those who know not whither
captivates the superficial and thoughtless; ve- he would lead them, resolve to follow him; and
hemence delights the discontented and turbulent. those who can not find his meaning, hope he
He that contradicts acknowledged truth will al- means rebellion.
ways have an audience; he that vilifies estab-    JUNUS is an unusual phenomena, on which
lished authority will always find abettors.     some have gazed with wonder, and some with
JUNIUS burst into notice with a blaze of im- terror; but wonder and terror are transitory paspudence which has rarely glared upon the world  sions.  He will soon be more closely viewed or
before, and drew the rabble after him as a mon- mo'e attentively examined, and what folly has
ster makes a show.  When he had once pro- taken for a comet, that from  its flaming hair
vided for his safety by impenetrable secrecy, he  shook pestilence and war, inquiry will find to be
had nothing to combat but truth and justice, en- only a meteor formed by the vapors of putrefyemies whom he knows to be feeble in the dark. ing democracy, and kindled into flame by the
Being then at liberty to indulge himself in all effervescence of interest struggling with convicthe immunities of invisibility-out of the reach  tion, which, after having plunged its followers in
of danger, he has been bold; out of the reach of  a bog, will leave us inquiring why we regardshame, he has been confident. As a rhetorician, ed it.
From a pamphlet on the seizure of the Falk-,  Yet, though I can not think the style of Ju3 From a pamphlet on the seizure of the tFalkland Islands, published in 1771.                 nius secure from criticism-though his expresi  semper Ulyss                             sions are often trite, and his periods feeble —I
4                 Hinc semper Ulysses               1
should never have stationed him where he has
Criminibus terrere novis; hinc spargere vocesationed him where he has
In vulgum ambiguas.- Virgil, Eneid, ii., 97.   placed himself, had I not rated him by his mor5 And Cesar's spirit, ranging for revenge,    als rather than his faculties.  " What," says
With At6 by his side, come hot firom hell,
With Ate by his side, comle hot firom hell,  Pope, "must be the priest, where the monkey is
Shall in these confines, with a monarch's voice,  a god?"  What must be the drudge of a party,
Cry HAVOC, and let slip the dogs of war.     of which the heads are Wilkes and Crosby, SawShakspeare's Jtlius Cesar, Act iii., Sc. ii.   bridge and Townsend?




EDMUND BURKE.
EDMUND BURKE was the son of a respectable barrister in Dublin, and was bprn in
that city on the first day of January, 1730. Being of a delicate and consumptive
habit, he was unable to share in the ordinary sports of childhood; and was thus led
to find his earliest enjoyment in reading and thought.
When eleven years old, he was sent to a school at Ballitore, about thirty miles
from. Dublin, under the care of a Quaker named Shackleton, who was distinguished,
not only for the accuracy of his scholarship, but for his extraordinary power of drawing forth the talents of his pupils, and giving a right direction to their moral principles.  Mr. Burke uniformly spoke of his instructor in after life with the warmest affection, and rarely failed, during forty years, whenever he went to Ireland, to pay him
a visit.  He once alluded to him in the House of Commons, in the following terms:
" I was educated," said he, " as a Protestant of the Church of England, by a Dissenter who was an honor to his sect, though that sect has ever been considered as one
of the purest.  Under his eye, I read the Bible, morning, noon, and night; and have
ever since been a happier and better man for such reading." Under these influences,
the development of his intellect and of his better feelings was steady and rapid.  He
formed those habits of industry and perseverance, which were the most striking traits
in his character, and which led him to say in after life, " Nitor in adversum, is thel
motto for a man like me."  He learned that simplicity and frankness, that bold assertion of moral principle, that reverence for the Word of God, and the habit of going
freely to its pages for imagery and illustration, by which he was equally distinguished
as a man and an orator.  At this period, too, he began to exhibit his extraordinary
powers of memory.  In every task or exercise dependent on this faculty, he easily outstripped all his competitors; and it is not improbable that he gained, under his early
Quaker discipline, those habits of systematic thought, and that admirable arrangement of all his acquired knowledge, which made his memory one vast storehouse of
facts, principles, and illustrations, ready for use at a moment's call. At this early period, too, the imaginative cast of his mind was strongly developed. He delighted
above all things in works of fancy. The old romances, such as Palmerin of England
and Don Belianis of Greece, were his favorite study; and we can hardly doubt, considering the peculiar susceptibility of his mind, that such reading had a powerful influence in producing that gorgeousness of style which characterized so many of his productions in after life.
Quitting school at the end of three years, he became a member of Trinity College,
Dublin, in 1744.  Here he remained six years, engaged chiefly in a course of study of
his own, though not t o-the. neglect of his regular college duties.  It was said by Goldsmith, perhaps to excuse his own indolence, that Burke's scholarship at college was
low.  This could not have been the case; for in his third year he was elected Scholar
of the House, which, his biographer assures us, "confers distinction in the classics
throughout life." Still, he gave no peculiar promise of his future eminence. Leland,
the translator of Demosthenes, who was then a fellow, used to say, that "he was
known as a young man of superior but unpretending talents, and more anxious to acquire knowledge than to display it." That his college life was one of severe study, is
evident from the extent and accuracy of his knowledge when he left the University.




EDMUND BURKE.                                     207
A few things have come down to us, as to his course of reading.  He had mastered
most of the great writers of antiquity.  Demosthenes was his favorite orator, though he
was led in after life, by the bent of his genius, to form himself on the model of Cicero,
whom he more resembled in magnificence and copiousness of thought.  He delighted in Plutarch. He read most of the great poets of antiquity; and was peculiarly
fond of Virgil, Horace, and Lucretius, a large part of whose writings he committed to
memory.'  In English he read the essays of Lord Bacon again and again with increasing admiration, and pronounced them  " the greatest works of that great man."
Shakspeare was his daily study. But his highest reverence was reserved for Milton,
"whose richness of language, boundless learning, and scriptural grandeur of conception," were the first and last themes of his applause. The philosophical tendency of
his mind began now to display itself with great distinctness, and became, from this
period, the master principle of his genius.  "Rerum cognoscere causas," seems ever
to have been his delight, and soon became the object of all his studies and reflections.
Re- had an exquisite sensibility to the beauties of nature, of art, and of elegant composition, but he could neverrest here.'Whence this   oyeno    t?"  "On what principle does it depend?"  "How mi'ght it be carried to a still higher point?"-these are
questions which seem almost from' bo'y dt'o have occurred-in's.tinctively to his mind.
His attempts at philosophical criticism commenced in college, and led to his producing one of the most beautiful works of this kind to be found in any language.  In like
manner, history to him, even at this early period, was not a mere chronicle of events,
a picture of battles and sieges, or of life and manners: to make it history, it must
bind events together by the causes which produced them.  The science of politics
and government was in his mind the science of man; not a system of arbitrary regulations, or a thing of policy and intrigue, but founded on a knowledge of those prin- 
ciples, feelings, and even prejudices, which unite a people together in one community-" ties," as he beautifully expresses it, "which, though light as air, ae strong as
links of iron." Such were the' habits of thought to which his mind was tending even
from  his college days, and they made him pre-eminently the great PHILOSOPHICAL
ORATOR of our language.2
Being intended by his father for the bar, Mr. Burke was sent to London at the age
of twenty, to pursue his studies at the Middle Temple. But he was never interested
in the law. He saw enough of it to convince him that it is " one of the first and noblest of human sciences-a science which does more to quicken and invigorate the
understanding, than all other kinds of learning put together."  Still, it was too dry
and technical for a mind like his; and he felt, that, " except in persons very happily
born, it was not apt to open and liberalize the mind in the same proportion." He
therefore soon gave himself up, with all the warmth of his early attachment, to the
pursuits of literature and philosophy. His diligence in study was now carried to its
1 Notwithstanding the extent of his reading in the classics, Mr. Burke (like many Irish scholars)
paid but little attention to the subject of quantity, and a blunder in this respect, which was charged
upon him in the House of Commons, gave rise to one of his happiest retorts. In attacking Lord
North for being in want of still larger supplies, in the midst of the most lavish expenditure, he
quoted the words of Cicero, " Magnum vectigal est parsimonia," accenting the word vectigal on the
first syllable. Lord North cried out in a contemptuous tone from the Treasury Bench, vectigal,
vectigal. Mr. Burke instantly replied, "I thank the right honorable gentleman for his correction;
and, that he may enjoy the benefit of it, I repeat the words, Magnum vectigal est parsimonia."
2 These early tendencies of Mr. Burke's genius explain a fact which has been spoken of with
surprise by all his biographers; namely, that he preferred the Eneid of Virgil to the Iliad of Homer, though he admitted, at the same time, the superiority of the latter in invention, force, and sublimity. To a mind like his, so full of sentiment and philosophy, there is something more delightful
in the description of the world of spirits, in the sixth book of the AEneid, and the almost Christian
anticipations of the Pollio, than in all the battle scenes of Homer. His extravagant attachment to
Young's Night Thoughts, in early life, may be accounted for in the same way.




208                           EDMUND BURKE.
highest point.  He devoted every moment to severe labor; spending his evenings,
however, in conversation with the ablest men engaged in the same employments,
and thus varying, perhaps increasing, the demand for mental exertion. Few men
ever studied to greater effect. He earlyacuir a power which belongs peculiarly
to superior minds-that of thinkizg at.alltimes, and,n every place, and not merely.
at stated seasons in the retirement of the closet. His mind seems never to have
floated on the current of passing events.  He was always working out trains of
thought.  His reading, though wide and multifarious, appears from the first to have
been perfectly digested.  His views on every subject were formed into a complete system; and his habits of daily discussing with others whatever he was revolving in
his own mind, not only quickened his powers, but made him guarded in statement,
and led him to contemplate every subject under a great variety of aspects. His exuberant fancy, which in most men would have been a fatal impediment to any attempt
at speculation, was in him the ready servant of the intellect, supplying boundless stores
of thought and illustration for every inquiry.  Such were his habits of study from this
period, during nearly fifty years, down to the time of his death. Once only, as he
stated to a friend, did his mind ever appear to flag. At the age of forty-five, he felt
weary of this incessant struggle of thought.  He resolved to pause and rest satisfied
with the knowledge he had gained. But a week's experience taught him the misery
of being idle; and he resumed his labors with the noble determination of the Greek
philosopher, y'rtpdafetv 6tl6aIKOclvo~, to grow old in learning.  Gifted as he was with
pre-eminent genius, it is not surprising that diligence like this, which would have
raised even moderate abilities into talents of a high order, should have made him.
from early life an object of admiration to his friends, and have laid the foundation
of that richness and amplitude of thought in which he far surpassed every modern
orator.
Being on a journey to Scotland in 1753, Mr. Burke learned that the office of Professor of Logic had become vacant in the University of Glasgow, and would be awarded to the successful competitor at a public disputation.  He at once offered himself
as a candidate. Farther inquiries, however, showed that private arrangements in
the city and University precluded all possibility of his being elected.  He therefore
withdrew from the contest; and the name of Mr. James Clow has come down to posterity as the man who succeeded when Edmund Burke failed.
Soon after his return from Scotland, the literary world was much excited by the
publication of Lord Bolingbroke's philosophical works. Unwilling to incur the odium
of so atrocious an attack on morals and religion, his Lordship had left his manuscripts,
with a small legacy, in the hands of Mallet, to be published iimediately after his
death.  This gave rise to Johnson's remark, that " Bolingbroke was a scoundrel and
a coward-a scoundrel, for charging a blunderbuss against religion and morality;
and a coward, because he had not resolution to fire it himself, but left half a crown
to a beggarly Scotchman to draw the trigger."  Mr. Burke took this occasion to
make his first appearance before the public.  He wrote a pamphlet of one hundred
and six pages, under the title of a Vindication of Natural Society, which came out in
the spring of 1756, and had all the appearance of being a posthumous work of Bo
lingbroke. His object was to expose his Lordship's mode of reasoning, by running it
out into its legitimate consequences.  He therefore applied it to civil society.  He
undertook. in the person of Bolingbroke, and with the closest imitation of his impetuous and overbearing eloquence, to expose the crimes and wretchedness which have
prevailed under every form of government, and thus to show that society is itself an
evil, and the savage state the only one favorable to virtue and happiness. In this
pamphlet he gave the most perfect specimen which the world has ever seen, of the
art of imitating the style and manner of another.  He went beyond the mere choice




EDMUND BURKE.                                  209
of words, the structure of sentences, and the cast of imagery, into the deepest recesses
of thought; and so completely had he imbued himself with the spirit of Bolingbroke,
that he brought out precisely what every one sees his Lordship ought to have said
on his own principles, and might be expected to say, if he dared to express his sentiments. The work, therefore, can hardly be called ironical, for irony takes care to make
its object known, by pressing things, at times, into open extravagance.  But such was
the closeness of the imitation, that Chesterfield and Warburton were for a while deceived, and even Mallet felt called upon to deny its authenticity. If he had made
it professedly ironical, it would undoubtedly have taken better with the public. Every
one would have enjoyed its keenness, had it come in the form of satire.  But, as it
was, some were vexed to find they had mistaken the author's meaning, and others regarded it only as " a clever imitation."  Thus it happened to Mr. Burke in his first
appearance before the public, as in some cases of greater importance in after life, that
the very ability with which he executed his task, was for a time the reason of its being less highly appreciated.  If his Vindication of Natural Society was at first a failure, his speech on the Nabob of Arcot's debts was so little understood at the time
of delivery, and heard with so much impatience by the House of Commons, that Mr.
Pitt and Lord Grenville considered it as needing no reply!
At the close of the same year, 1756, Mr. Burke published his celebrated treatise on
the Sublime and Beautiful.  This was the first attempt in our language to discuss
the subject with philosophical accuracy and precision. Addison had, indeed, written
a series of papers on the Pleasures of the Imagination; but his object was rather to
exemplify and illustrate, than to trace those pleasures to any specific source. Mr.
Burke boldly propounded a theory designed to account, upon a few simple principles,
for all the diversified enjoyments of taste.  His treatise shows great ingenuity, surprising accuracy of observation, and an exquisite sense of the sublime and beautiful,
both in the works of nature and art.  Like all his writings, it abounds in rich trains
of thought, and observations of great value in themselves, whatever we may think
of his theory.  It contains, also, many things which are purely fanciful, as when he
traces the pleasures of taste to states of the bodily system; and maintains that the
sublime is connected with " an unnatural tension and certain violent motions of the
nerves," while beauty acts " by relaxing the solids of the whole body!"  These are
some of the things which he learned to laugh at himself, in after life.  His theoy,.
as a whole, is rather defective than erroneous.  It is one of those hasty generalizations which we are always to expect in the first stages of a new science.  The wvork,
however, was an extraordinary production for a youth of twenty-six; and in style
and manner, was regarded by Johnson as "a model of philosophical criticism."
With some few blemishes, such as we always look for in the writings of Burke, it has
a clearness of statement, a purity of language, an ease and variety in the structure
of sentences, and an admirable richness of imagery, which place it in the foremost
rank of our elegant literature.
Such a work, from one who had been hitherto unknown to the public, excited a
general and lively interest.  Its author was every where greeted with applause.  His
acquaintance was sought by the most distinguished literary men and friends of learning, such as Pulteney, Earl of Bath; Markham, soon after Archbishop of York; Lord
Lyttleton, Soame Jenyns, Johnson, and many others.  In such society, his remarkable talents for conversation secured his success. Every one was struck with the
activity of his mind, the singular extent and variety of his knowledge, his glowing"
power of thought, and the force and beauty of his language.  Even Johnson, whose
acknowledged supremacy made him in most cases
"Bear, like the Turk, no brother near the throne,"
was soon conciliated or subdued by the conversational powers of Burke.  It was a
0




21u                             EDMUND BURKE.
striking spectacle to see one so proud and stubborn, who had for years been accustomed to give forth his dicta with the authority of an oracle, submit to contradiction
from a youth of twenty-seven.  But, though Johnson differed from Burke on politics,
and occasionally on other subjects, he always did him justice.  He spoke of him from
the first in terms of the highest respect. " Burke," said he, " is an extraordinary man.
His stream of talk is perpetual; and he does not talk from any desire of distinction,
but because his mind is full."  " He is the only man," said he, at a later period,
when Burke was at the zenith of his reputation, " whose common conversation corresponds with the general fame which he has in the world. Take him up where you
please, he is ready to meet you."  " No man of sense," he said, " could meet Burke
by accident under a gateway to avoid a shower, without being convinced that he was
the first man in England."  A striking confirmation of this remark occurred some
years after, when Mr. Burke was passing through Litchfield, the birth-place of Johnson.  Wishing to see the Cathedral during the change of horses, he stepped into the
building, and was met by one of the clergy of the place, who kindly offered to point
out the principal objects of curiosity. " A conversation ensued; but, in a few moments,
the clergyman's pride of local information was completely subdued by the copious
and minute knowledge displayed by the stranger.  Whatever topic the objects before
them  suggested, whether the theme was architecture or antiquities, some obscure
passage in ecclesiastical history, or some question respecting the life of a saint, he
touched it as with a sun-beam. His information appeared universal; his mind, clear
intellect, without one particle of ignorance.  A few minutes after their separation,
the clergyman was met hurrying through the street.'I have had,' said he,'quite
an adventure.  I have been conversing for this half hour past with a man of the most
extraordinary powers of mind and extent of information which it has ever been my
fortune to meet with; and I am now going to the inn, to ascertain, if possible, who
this stranger is.'"
In 1757, Mr. Burke married a daughter of Dr. Nugent, of Bath, and took up literature as a profession.  The colonies upon the American coast being now an object of
pablic interest, he prepared, during this year (perhaps in conjunction with his two
brothers), a work in two octavo volumes, entitled an Account of the European Settlerments of America. These labors, thus casually undertaken, had great influence in
shaping his subsequent course as a statesman. He became deeply interested in the
early history of the British colonies; and was led naturally, by his habits of thought,
to trace the character of their institutions to the spirit of their ancestors, and to follow:out that spirit in the enterprise, perseverance, and indomitable love of liberty,
which animated the whole body of the people.  He saw, too, the boundless resources
of the country, and the irrepressible strength to which it must soon attain. Thus was
he prepared, when the troubles came on, ten years after, and when there was hardly
a.man in England, except Lord Chatham, who had the least conception of the force; and resolution of the colonies, to come forward with those rich stores of knowledge,
and those fine trains of reasoning, conceived in the truest spirit of philosophy, which
astonished -and delighted, though they failed to convince, the Parliament of Great
Britain.
In the next year, 1758, Mr. Burke projected theAn.ul Register, a work of great
utility, which has been continued for nearly a century, down to the present time.
The plan was admirable, presenting for each year a succinct statement of the derates in Parliament; a historical sketch of the principal occurrences in every part
of the world connected with European politics; and a view of the progress of liter-i
ature and science, with brief notices of the most important works published during
the year.  Such an undertaking required all the resources and self-reliance of a man




EDMUND BURKE.                                    211
like Burke, and would never have been commenced except by one of his extraordinary
vigor and enterprise.  It was entirely successful.  So great was the demand, that
some of the early volumes were reprinted five or six times.  At first, Mr. Burke prepared the entire volume for the vear, containing five or six hundred pages, with hardly any assistance.   He finally  confined  himself to the debates and the historical
sketches, which for quite a number of years were written by himself, and afterward
by others under his direction and superintendence. No employment could have been
suited more perfectly to train him for his subsequent duties as a statesman. His attendance on the debates in Parliament made him familiar with the rules of business.
Questions were continually arising in respect to trade, finance, the relations of other
countries, or the past history of his own, which, to one of his ardent and inquisitive mind,
would furnish unnumbered topics for study and reflection. His views were enlarged
by the nature of his task, so as to embrace the entire range of European politics. His
disposition to philosophize was hemmed in and directed by the great facts in politics
and history, with which he had constantly to deal. The result was, that he became,
in the strictest sense of the term, a practical statesman, whose philosophy was that
of man in the concrete, and as he exists in society; so that no one had ever a greater
contempt of abstract principles, or was more completely governed in his reasonings
by the lessons of time and experience. Rarely has any work been of so much benefit, at once to its author and the public, as the Annual Register in its earlier volumes.
Mr. Burke's first entrance on political life was in 1761.  Lord Halifax, being appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, took with him William Gerard Hamilton (commonly called single-speech Hamilton) as Principal Secretary of State.3  Hamilton,
from the nature of his office, was the acting minister for Ireland, and needed the assistance of some able adviser who was well acquainted with the country. He therefore induced Mr. Burke to accompany him in this character, under the title of private
secretary.  Halifax was highly successful in his administration, showing great dexterity in disarming or neutralizing the various factions into which Ireland was divided.
How far he was indebted for this success to the counsels of Mr. Burke, it is impossible
to say, since the principal secretary would, of course, have the credit of every suggestion which came from that quarter.  One thing, however, is certain; Hamilton perfectly understood the value of Mr. Burke's services. He obtained for him a pension of
~300 on the Irish establishment; and after the secretaryship expired, and both had
returned to England, in 1763, he actually endeavored to make this pension the means
of attaching Mri. Burke to him  for life, as a coadjutor and humble dependent.  " It
was," said Mr. Burke, in a letter on the subject, " an insolent and intolerable demand,
amounting to no less than a claim of servitude during the whole course of my life,
without leaving me at any time a power either of getting forward with honor, or of
retiring with tranquillity." Such a demand was of course met with an indignant re3 Hamilton gained this title in the following manner. When Newcastle's administration was
suffering from Lord Chatham's tremendous attacks in 1755, Hamilton (who voted with the ministry), finding their cause in extreme dangerone evening, suddenly arose, though he had never spoken in the House before, and poured forth a speech of surprising cogency of argument and fervorof
emotion, with all the ease and self-command of a practiced orator. Every one expected that he
would take his place at once among the leading debaters of the day. But, excepting a few words
on the same subject soon after, he never made a speech of any length in the British Parliament,
though he was a member for thirty years; nor did he speak elsewhere, except twice or three times,
when compelled to do so, in the Irish Parliament. He was undoubtedly a man of talents; but, having gained so high a reputation by his maiden speech, he was afraid to make another-ever preparing, but never ready, for a second effort which should outdo the first. He left nothing as the result
of sitting thirty years in the British Parliament, except a meager treatise on parliamentary logic.
His example furnishes one lesson to young orators, worth more than all the precepts of his book,
viz., that he who would succeed as a speaker must be content sometimes to fail.




212                            EDMUND BURKE.
fasal.  Mr. Burke's nice sense of honor made him propose, without the least reason
or propriety, to surrender the pension which his services had richly merited. Hamilton had the meanness to accept it; and whether he pocketed the money himself, or
gave it to some miserable dependent, he deserves a title more stinging and contemptuous even than the one he bears.
About two years after, in the month of July, 1765, Mr. Burke entered permanently
on the duties of public life.  The administration of Lord Rockingham was now formed;
and the new minister, being desirous to avail himself of Mr. Burke's splendid abilities,
invited him  to become his confidential adviser, with a seat in Parliament, and the
office of private secretary. The arrangement was gratifying, in a high degree, to the
friends of Rockingham.  "The British dominions," says one who knew perfectly the
character of the political men of the time, " did not furnish a more able and fit person for that important and confidential situation; the only man since the days of Cicero, who united the graces of speaking and writing with irresistible force and elegance."  Mr. Burke, on his part, though pleased with this unlooked-for token of confidence, had no very sanguine expectations of the success or permanency of the new
ministry.  Highly as he estimated Lord Rockingham himself, he knew the discordant
materials of which the cabinet was composed.  But there was a question at issue with
which he was better acquainted than any man in the kingdom-AMERICAN TAXATION; and no opportunity of influencing the decision of such a question was to be lost
or neglected.  Accordingly, having taken his seat as member for Wendover, Mr. Burke
came forward, at the opening of the session, January, 1766, in a maiden speech of
great compass and power, on the absorbing topic of the day, the Stamp Act.  He was
followed by Mr. Pitt (Lord Chatham), who commenced by saying, that " the young
member had proved a very able advocate.  He had himself intended to enter at
length into the details, but he had been anticipated with such ingenuity and eloquence, that there was but little left for him to say. He congratulated him on his
success, and his friends on the value of the acquisition they had made."  Such an encomium, from the greatest of English orators, gave him at once a high reputation in
the House and in the country.  To a mind like Mr. Burke's, it afforded an ample recompense for all his labors.  "Laudari a laudato viro,"4 is perhaps the highest gratification of genius.
The ministry had determined to repeal the Stamp Act, but in doing so, to pass a
declaration affirming the right of Parliament to lay taxes on America.  This put
them between two fires. The courtiers and landed interest resisted the repeal; Lord
Chatham  and Lord Camden condemned the declaration.  " Every thing on every
side," to use the highly figurative language of Mr. Burke, " was full of traps and mines.
Earth below shook; heaven above menaced; all the elements of ministerial safety
were dissolved."  The motion for repeal was made by General Conway; and Mr.
Burke, who took a leading part in the debate, thus described the scene in one of his
speeches at a later period.  "I knew well enough the true state of things; but in my
life, I never came with such spirits into this House.  It wias a time for a mana  to act
in. We had a great battle to fight, but we had the means of fighting it. We did
fight, that day, and conquer. * * * In that crisis, the whole trading interest of this
empire, crammed in your lobbies, with a trembling and anxious expectation, waited
almost to a winter's return of light their fate from your resolution. When, at length,
you had determined in their favor, and your doors, thrown open, showed them the figure of their deliverer [General Conway] in the well-earned triumph of his important
victory, from the whole of that grave multitude there arose an involuntary burst of
gratitude and transport.  They jumped upon him like children on a long-absent father. All England, all America, joined in his applause. Nor did he seem insensible
4 Praise from the praised.




EDMUND BURKE.                                 213
to the best of all earthly rewards.' Hope elevated and joy brightened his crest.'5
I stood near him; and his face, to use the expression of the Scripture of the first martyr,' his face was as if it had been the face of an angel.' I do not know how others
feel; but if I had stood in that situation, I would never have exchanged it for all that
kings in their profusion could bestow."  Notwithstanding the generosity of Mr. Burke
in thus transferring to another the honor of that victory, every one knows that he was
himself the chief agent in providing "the means" of fighting the battle; and if
Charles Townsend had not soon after thrown every thing into confusion by his rashness, posterity might have looked back to Edmund Burke, in his connection with
Rockingham, as the great instrument of putting an end to the contest with America.
The King, much against his will, though pacified in some degree by the Declaration, signed the act for repeal, March 18th, 1766.  But the fate of the ministry was
sealed.  Four months after, Lord Rockingham was dismissed.
Lord Chatham now followed with his third administration.  Under this, Mr. Burke
was offered a very important and lucrative office, that of one of the Lords of Trade.
But, though "free to choose another connection as any man in the country," and even
advised by Lord Rockingham to accept the offer, he had that delicate sense of honor
which forbade him to share in the titles and emoluments of those who had united to
remove his patron. The death of Charles Townsend thirteen months after, September 2d, 1767, put an end to this ministry, and that of the Duke of Grafton succeeded.
Here commenced the ascendency of the Tories, which lasted about two years under
the Duke of Grafton, and more than twelve years under Lord North, down to the
close of the American war in 1782.  During this whole period, Mr. Burke was the
acknowledged leader of the Rockingham Whigs in the House, comprising the great
body of the Opposition.  He took part in every important debate, and, next to Chatham, who had now passed into the House of Lords, was universally regarded as the
most eloquent speaker in Parliament.
The political career of Mr. Burke may be divided into three periods, corresponding
to the three great subjects, AMERICA, INDIA, and FRANcE, which successively occupied
the anxieties and labors of hisTrfe. t-'-ltn -o6ticeaf each of these periods is all that
can be attempted in a sketch like this.
The first period, which is equal in length to both the others, consists of about sixteen years, extending from 1766, when he took his seat in Parliament, to the end of
the American war in 1782.  It was, on the whole, the happiest and most successful
part of his life. Though he had many difficulties to encounter, from his want of
wealth, rank, and family connections, in addition to the strong prejudice under which
he labored as an Irishman, he rose from year to year in the estimation of the House.
Every one admired his talents; every one was delighted with his eloquence. The
country cheered him on, as the great advocate of popular rights. His connection
with Lord Rockingham secured him the support of a large proportion of the Whigsa support which could not, indeed, have made him minister under a change of administration, but which enabled him to carry many important measures in their name
and through their influence. It rendered him formidable, also, as leader of the Opposition; for those who are eager to gain office will rally under almost any one who
has great powers of attack.  In this respect, Mr. Burke stood for many years without
a rival in the House of Commons.  And, though inferior to Lord Chatham in that fire
and condensed energy which are the highest characteristics of oratory, he far surpassed him in the patient examination of every subject in debate, the accuracy of his
knowledge, the variety and force of his reasonings, and his views of policy, at once
comprehensive and practical in the highest degree. Nor was his influence as a leader confined to the discussions of the House. No man, probably, in the whole history
5 Milton.




214                           EDMUND BURKE.
of English politics, ever did so much to instruct his friends in private on the questions in debate.  His exuberant stores of information were open to every one. Mr.
Fox declared toward the close of his life, that he had learned more in conversation
with Mr. Burke, than from all the books he had ever read, and all the other men with
whom he had ever associated.
In 1771, Mr. Burke received the appointment of agent for the colony of New York,
with a salary of about ~700 a year.  This office he held nearly four years, till the
commencement of the American war.  It gave him great advantages for obtaining
a minute knowledge of the spirit and resources of the colonies, while, at the same
time, it lessened the influence of his speeches on American affairs, by awakening the
prejudice which is always felt against the arguments of a paid advocate.
Mr. Burke's first published speech was that on American Taxation, delivered April
19th, 1774. Often as he had dwelt on this topic in preceding years, no attempt had
been made to give any regular report of his speeches. In the present instance, the
evening was far advanced before he rose to address the House.  The opening of the
debate was dull, and many of the members had withdrawn into the adjoining apartments or places of refreshment. But the first few sentences of his stinging exordium
awakened universal attention. The report of what was going on spread in every
quarter; and the members came crowding back, till the hall was filled to the utmost,
and resounded throughout the speech with the loudest expressions of applause. High-.y as they had estimated Mr. Burke's talents, the House were completely taken by surprise.  Lord John Townsend exclaimed aloud, at the close of one of those powerful
passages in which the speech abounds, " Heavens! what a man this is! Where
could he acquire such transcendent powers!"  The opening of his peroration, especially, came with great weight on the minds of all. -" Let us embrace," said he,
" some system or other before we end this session.  Do you mean to tax America, and
draw a productive revenue from thence? If you do, speak out; name, fix, ascertain
this revenue; settle its quantity; define its objects; provide for its collection; and
then fight, when you have something to fight for. If you murder, rob; if you kill,
take possession; and do not appear in the character of madmen as well as assassins,
violent, vindictive, bloody, and tyrannical, without an object."
The moment Mr. Burke closed, his friends crowded around his seat, and urged him
to commit his speech to writing, and give it immediately to the world, as a protest
against the headlong measures which threatened the dismemberment of the empire.
He did so, and on five other occasions he repeated the task; thus leaving us six
speeches as representatives of several hundreds, many of which are said to have been
equal, if not superior, in eloquence to those which were thus preserved. One especially, delivered about four years after, on the employment of the Indians in the war,
was spoken of by his friends as the most powerful appeal which he ever made.
Colonel Barre, in the fervor of his excitement, declared that, if it could be written
out, he would nail it on every church door in the kingdom. Sir George Savile said,
"He who did not hear that speech, has failed to witness the greatest triumph of
eloquence within my memory."  Governor Johnstone said on the floor of the House,
"It was fortunate for the noble Lords [North and Germaine] that spectators had
been excluded during that debate, for if any had been present, they would have excited the people to tear the noble Lords in pieces in their way home."
Parliament being dissolved in the.autumn of 1774, Mr. Burke was invited to offer,himself as a candidate for Bristol, in connection with Mr. Henry Cruger, a merchant
largely engaged in the American trade.  The contest was a sharp one, requiring Mr.
Burke and Mr. Cruger to appear daily on the hustings for nearly a month, ready to
answer questions of every sort, and to address the electors at a moment's call. Mr.
Burke, of course, took the lead; and a laughable incident occurred on one of these




EDMUND BURKE.                                  215
occasions, showing the power with which he so often absorbed and bore away the
minds of others in his glowing trains of thought.  Mr. Cruger, being called upon tc
follow him after one of these harangues, was so lost in admiration that he could only
cry out, with the genuine enthusiasm  of the counting-house, "I say ditto to Mr.
Burke, I say ditto to Mr. Burke!"  It was undoubtedly the best speech that any
man could have made under such circumstances.
The contest terminated in their favor, and Mr. Burke had the gratification of being
declared a member from the second commercial city of the kingdom, November 3d,
1774.  But at the moment of returning thanks, he offended a large part of his sup
porters by a manly assertion of his rights.  It was a doctrine much insisted upon
at Bristol, that a representative was bound to act and vote according to the instructions of his constituents.  To this doctrine Mr. Cruger gave a public assent at the
close of the poll.  Mr. Burke, in adverting to the subject, remarked, "My worthy
colleague says his will ought to be subject to yours. If that be all, the thing is innocent.  If government were a matter of will upon any side, yours, without question, ought to be superior. But government and legislation are matters of reason
and judgment, and not of inclination; and what sort of reason is that in which determination precedes discussion, in which one set of men deliberate and another
decide, and where those who form the conclusion are perhaps three hundred miles
distant from those who hear the arguments?"  These sentiments, as we shall see
hereafter, lost him the vote of Bristol at the next general election.
America was the all-absorbing topic during the first session of the new Parliament.
On the 20th of February, 1775, Lord North brought forward an artful scheme, professedly for the purpose of "'conciliating the differences with America," but really
intended to divide the colonies among themselves, by exempting from taxation those
who, through their General Assemblies, should "contribute their proportion to the
common defense."  Mr. Burke seized the opportunity thus presented, and endeavored
to turn the scheme into its true and proper shape-that of leaving all taxes levied
within the colonies, to be laid by their General Assemblies; and thus establishing
the great principle of English liberty, that taxation and representation are inseparably conjoined.  This gave rise to his celebrated speech on Conciliation with
America, delivered March 22d, 1775.  It would seem hardly possible that, in speaking so soon again on the same subject, he could avoid making this speech, to some
extent, an echo of his former one.  But never were two productions more entirely
different.  His " stand-point" in the first was England.  His topics were the inconsistency and folly of the ministry in their " miserable circle of occasional arguments and temporary expedients" for raising a revenue in America. His object was
to recall the House to the original principles of the English colonial system-that of
regulating the trade of the colonies, and making it subservient to the interests of the
mother country, while in other respects she left them " every characteristic mark of
a free people in all their internal concerns."  His " stand-point" in the second speech
was America.  His topics were her growing population, agriculture, conm mece., and
fisheries; the causeiGf hlerierce spriT-fiber'-t;he impossibility of eUpressing it
by force6,-   a t-he consequenti necessi T    some concession on the part of England.
His object was i wawving all abstract questions about the right of taxation) to show
that Parliament ought " to admit the people of the colonies into an interest in the
Constitution," by giving the(Iili-le Trl~i Waes, i~-heter,    and Durham) a share
in the- epresentation; and to do this, by leaving internal taxation to the colonial:
Assemblies, since no one could think of an actual representation of America in Parliament at the distance of three thousand miles. The two speeches were equally
diverse in their spirit.  The first was in a strain of incessant attack, full of the keenest sarcasm, and shaped from beginning to end for the purpose of putting down the




216                             EDMUND BURKE.
ministry.  The second, like the plan it proposed, was conciliatory; temperate and
respectful toward Lord North; designed to inform those who were ignorant oftfhe
reall~st&thfi-   an  feelings of America; insinct with the finest philosophy oi man
anidft socia institution7sii; inten i eid, iTpossible, to lead the House, through Lord
North's scheme, into a final adjustment of the dispute on the true principles of
English liberty. tit is the most finished of Mr. Burke's speeches; and though it
contains no passage of such vividness and force as the description of Hyder Ali in his
speech on the Nabob of Arcot's debts, it will be read probably more than any of his
other speeches, for the richness of its style and the lasting character of the instruction
it conveys. % Twenty years ater, Mr. Fox siid, in applying its principles to the subject of parliamentary reform, " Let gentlemen read this speech by day and meditate on
it by night; let them peruse it again and again, study it, imprint it on their minds,
impress it on their hearts-they will there learn that relpresentation is the sovereign
remedy for every evil." Both of Mr. Burke's speeches on America, indeed, are full
of materials for the orator and the statesman.  After all that has been written on the
origin of our Revolution, there is nowhere else to be found so admirable a summation
of the causes which produced it.  They both deserve to be studied with the utmost
diligence by every American scholar.
The next speech which Mr. Burke wrote out for publication was that on Economical Reform, delivered February 11th, 1780.  The subject is one which has no interest for the American reader, and the speech is therefore omitted in this collection.
Like all his great efforts, it is distinguished by comprehensiveness of design and a
minute knowledge of details.  It has an exuberance of fancy, and too much of that
coarse humor in which Mr. Burke sometimes indulged.  His proposal was to reduce
the expenses of the government by abolishing a large number of those sinecure offices
which gave such enormous patronage to the Crown. But he had the most formidable difficulties to encounter.  Lord Talbot had previously attempted to reform a
single class of expenses-those of the royal kitchen; but was foiled at the outset, as
Mr. Burke tells us in his speech, " because the King's turnspit was a member of
Parliament"'  Against the present scheme were arrayed, not only every turnspit
in the palace, but the keepers of the stag, buck, and fox hounds, in the shape of honorable members, or lords in waiting, together with scores of others among the nobility and gentry, who were living on offices now fallen into total disuse, which once
ministered to the pleasure or safety of the monarch.  As might be expected, the plan,
though highly approved of by the public, was voted down in the House; and Mr.
Burke was left to console himself under his defeat with the popularity of his proposals, and the praises bestowed on his eloquence.
Six years had now elapsed since Mr. Burke's election as member for Bristol; and
he was suddenly called upon, by the dissolution of Parliament, September 1st, 1780,
to appear again before his constituents, and solicit their favor. It was a difficult.
task. He had differed from them widely on several important subjects. Many had
taken offense at the course he pursued, not only in respect to America, but to the opening of the Irish trade, and other measures affecting the interests of Bristol. On some
of these points he had explained and justified his conduct, in three able pamphlets,
to be found in his works, addressed to the Sheriffs of Bristol, or to citizens of that
place.  Still, there was a violent hostility to his re-election.  He had disobeyed the
instructions of his constituents; he had, as they imagined, sacrificed some of their
most important interests; he had wounded their pride by neglecting to visit them
since the previous election.  Hence, when he arrived in town to commence his canvass, he found himself met by the most formidable opposition. It was on this occasion that he came forward, September 6th, 1780, with his celebrated speech previous to the election at Bristol; " the best ever uttered on such an occasion, and per



EDMUND BURKE.                               217
haps never excelled by any thing he ever delivered elsewhere."  Sir Samuel Romilly
speaks of it as " perhaps the best piece of oratory in our language."-Works, i., 213.
Being addressed to plain men, it has less fancy, less of studied ornament and classical
allusion, than his speeches in Parliament. It is more business-like, simple, and direct.  At the same time, it has all the higher qualities of Mr. Burke's mind; his
thorough knowledge of human nature; his deep insight into political and social institutions; his enlarged views; his generous sentiments; his keen sensibility to the
sufferings and wrongs of others; and his inflexible determination to do right, at all
hazards and under all circumstances.  Its manliness is, after all, its most striking
characteristic.  He had the strongest motives to shuffle, to evade, to conciliate
But he met every thing full in the face.  " I did not obey your instructions.  No 
I conformed to the instructions of truth and nature, and maintained your interests
against your opinions, with a constancy that became me. A representative worthy
of you, ought to be a person of stability. I am to look, indeed, to your opinions, but
to such opinions as you and I nust have five years hence.  I was not to look to the
flash of the day. I knew that you chose me, in my place, along with others, to be a
pillar of the state, and not a weathercock on the top of the edifice, exalted for my
levity and versatility, and of no use but to indicate the shiftings of every fashionable
gale."
It was apparent, at the close of his speech, that although the main body of the
Corporation and of the Dissenters were with him, together with much of the wealth
and respectability of the city, there was no chance of his being re-elected. He therefore determined at once to decline the contest, and did so, the next day, in a short
speech, containing one of those touching reflections, embalmed in the most beautiful
imagery, which occur so often in the writings of Mr. Burke.  One of his competitors,
Mr. Coombe, overcome by the excitement and agitation of the canvass, had died the
preceding night.  Such an event was indeed " an awful lesson against being too much
troubled about any of the objects of ordinary ambition."  Well might Mr. Burke say,
in taking leave, " The worthy gentleman who has been snatched from us at the moment of the election, and in the middle of the contest, while his desires were as warm,
and his hopes as eager as ours, has feelingly told us what shadows we are, and what
shadows we pursue /"
Through the influence of Lord Rockingham, Mr. Burke was returned at once as
member for Malton, and sat for this place during the remainder of his public life.
" That humble borough," as Mr. Adolphus has remarked in his History of England,
"gained by such a member an honor which the greatest commercial city might reasonably envy."
On the 27th of November, 1781, Mr. Burke, in animadverting on the King's speech,
delivered one of his most eloquent philippics against the continuance of the American
war.  It was not, however, reported with any degree of fullness or accuracy, and is
remembered only for the striking figure which it contained of " shearing the wolf."
" The noble Lord tells us that we went to war for the maintenance of rights: the
King's speech says, we will go on for the maintenance of our rights.  Oh, invaluable
rights, that have cost Great Britain thirteen provinces, four islands, a hundred thousand men, and seventy millions of money! Oh, inestimable rights, that have taken
from us our rank among nations, our importance abroad, and our happiness at home;
that have taken from us our trade, our manufactures, our commerce; that have reduced us from the most flourishing empire in the world, to be one of the most miserable and abject powers on the face of the globe! All this we did because we had
a right to tax America   Miserable and infatuated ministers! Wretched and undone country! not to know that right signifies nothing without might-that the
claim, without the power of enforcing it, is nugatory and idle! We had a right to




218                           EDMUND BURKE.
tax America! Such is the reasoning by which the noble Lord justifies his conduct.
Similar was the reasoning of him who was resolved to shear the wolf!  What!
shear a wolf? Have you considered the difficulty, the resistance, the danger? No!
says the madman, I have considered nothing but the right!  Man has a right of
dominion over the inferior animals.  A wolf has wool; animals that have wool
are to be shorn; therefore I will shear the wolf!"
Well might Mr. Burke employ such language; for'the news had reached London
only two days before, that Lord Cornwallis had capitulated at Yorktown, with the
loss of his entire army. When the intelligence was carried to Lord North, he received it, says an eye-witness, " as he would have taken a ball into his breast!"
He threw open his arms, exclaiming wildly, as he paced the room, " It is all over!
it is all over!"  And yet the war was to go on! Such was the inflexible determination of the King, who came forward the next day in his speech at the opening of
Parliament, with increased demands for " concurrence and assistance" to carry on
the contest.  Such obstinacy justified the remarks of Mr. Burke, and the still greater
severity with which Mr. Fox, in the same debate, pointed directly at the King himself. " We have heard a speech," said he, " breathing vengeance, blood, misery, and
rancor.  It speaks exactly this language:' Much has been lost; much blood, much
treasure has been squandered; the burdens of my people are almost intolerable;
but my passions are yet ungratified; my object of subjugation and revenge is yet
unfulfilled; and therefore I am determined to persevere.'"  And he did persevere.
He compelled his ministers to persevere three months longer, during which the attack in the House of Commons was carried on with increased vehemence by Mr.
Burke, Mr. Fox, and their associates, until, on the 27th of February, 1782, Lord North
was voted down by a majority of 234 to 215. When the result was declared, there
arose, says an eye-witness, a shout of triumph throughout the House, which seemed
to pierce the roof, and then rolled away into the remotest parts of Westminster Hall.
The King was conquered! At the close of March, a new ministry was formed, with
Lord Rockingham at its head, having a cabinet composed of five Rockingham and five
Shelburne Whigs.  As the two parties could not agree on the disposal of the great
seal, Lord Thurlow, with all his violent Tory feelings, was retained as Lord Chancellor, much to the satisfaction of the King.
We now come to the second period of Mr. Burke's political life.  It would naturally be supposed that he who had borne nearly all the labor of this protracted contest, and had for years been the acknowledged head of the Opposition, would now
be rewarded with a seat in the cabinet and the leadership of the House. Had Lord
North resigned three years before, such might perhaps have been the case; but the
pupil had risen above the master.  Mr. Fox was now actuated by the keenest desire
for popularity and power; and at this juncture he enjoyed peculiar advantages for
placing himself at the head of the Whig party. His manners were highly conciliating; he was universally popular among the middle classes; while, as the favorite
son of Lord Holland, he had unbounded influence with many of the most powerful
families of the kingdom among the nobility and gentry. Though far inferior to Mr.
Burke in richness of thought and copiousness of eloquence, he was a much more effective debater.  He had made himself, by long practice, a perfect master of the
science of attack and defense. When we add to this that he had a peculiar tact,
beyond any of his contemporaries, for training and directing a political party, it is not
surprising that he obtained the leadership of the House, and was made Secretary of
State, while Mr. Burke was appointed Paymaster-general of the Forces.  Whatever
pain it may have cost him, Burke submitted to this arrangement with that noble
generosity of feeling which was one of the brightest traits in his character. His biographer has truly said, " A vain man would have resented this treatment; a weak




EDMUND BURKE.                               219
man would have complained of it; an ambitious or selfish man would have taken
advantage of the first opportunity to quit the connection, and throw the weight of his
name and talents into the opposite scale;" but Mr. Burke quietly yielded the precedence.  He gave all the force of his transcendent abilities for the support and advancement of one who had crowded into his place.  The whole history of politics
affords hardly another instance of such a sacrifice, made in a spirit so truly noble
and magnanimous.  Nor did he ever separate himself, in action or feeling, from Mr.
Fox, until the French Revolution put an end at once to their political connection
and their private friendship.
Under the new ministry, measures of the highest importance were immediately
brought forward, and carried successfully through Parliament. In most of these
measures Mr. Burke took the lead and responsibility far more than Mr. Fox.  His
plan of Economical Reform, which had previously been defeated, was now revived.
Though narrowed in some of its provisions, it was strenuously resisted by the adherents of the Court, but ultimately passed by a large majority. Many useless offices
were abolished in the royal household, with a saving of nearly a hundred thousand
pounds a year. Provision was thus made for paying off the King's debts, which already amounted to ~300,000; and a check was put to the recurrence of such exorbitant demands in future. His bill for regulating the duties of the Paymaster's department, was considered an extraordinary specimen of tact and ingenuity in arrranging the details of a most complicated business. Any material reform here had been
regarded as hopeless. And so it would have proved, if he had not commenced with
himself; if he had not swept away at once enormous perquisites attached to his own
office, arising out of profits on contracts, &c., together with the use of nearly a million of the public money, which made the situation of Paymaster the most lucrative
one under the government.  Considering his straitened circumstances, this was an
extraordinary sacrifice. Lord Chatham alone had declined to use the public money,
and placed it on deposit in the bank.  Mr. Burke did more. He stripped himself
of all his perquisites.  He abolished them forever, and thus made a saving to the
public which a pension of ten thousand pounds a year would have poorly recompensed.
Lord Rockingham died suddenly on the first of July, 1782, at the end of thirteen
weeks from the commencement of his administration. Lord Shelburne, without a
word of consultation with his colleagues, instantly seized the reins. Mr. Fox and
Mr. Burke, together with the Rockingham Whigs, considered themselves ill treated,
and at once resigned. The Shelburne administration, which will be spoken of more
fully hereafter, lasted hardly eight months.  It was overthrown February the 21st,
1783, by the famous coalition between Mr. Fox and Lord North, which, giving the
nominal headship to the Duke of Portland, made Mr. Fox the real and responsible
minister.  To this ill-advised union with their former enemy, Mr. Burke acceded with
reluctance, overcome, as his biographer declares, by "the persuasions of Mr. Fox,
who was both eloquent and urgent with him on that occasion."  Under the coalition
ministry, he again became Paymaster of the Forces.
The great measure of this administration, on which its fate at last turned, was the
celebrated East India Bill of Mr. Fox. As this measure originated with Mr. Burke,
who was the animating spirit of every party to which he belonged, it will be proper
to speak briefly on the subject in this place.  More than ten years before, his attention was strongly drawn to the affairs of India. He studied the subject with his
accustomed assiduity, and showed so intimate an acquaintance with its minutest details, when the affairs of the East India Company came before the House in 1772,
that Lord North, with a view, no doubt, to get rid of a troublesome opponent, sound6 See page 56.




220                           EDMUND BURKE.
ed him on the question " whether he was willing to go out at the head of a commission for revising the whole interior administration of India." About four years after,
his brother William went to that country, where he became agent for the Rajah of
Tanjore, and afterward Deputy Paymaster-general of India.  Through him  Mr.
Burke obtained much minute information respecting the Company's concerns, which
could only have been collected by a person living on the spot. These studies were
pursued with still greater diligence after he was appointed a member of the Select
Committee to inquire into the concerns of the East India Company, and the result
has been thus graphically described by Mr. Macaulay, who was qualified, by a residence of some years on the banks of the Ganges, to speak decisively on the subject:
" Mr. Burke's knowledge of India was such as few, even of those Europeans who
have passed many years in that country, have attained, and such as certainly was
never attained by any public mal who had not quitted Europe. He had studied the
history, the laws, and the usages of the East with an industry such as is seldom
found united to so much genius and so much sensibility. In every part of those
huge bales of Indian information, which repelled almost all other readers, his mind,
at once philosophical and poetical, found something to instruct or to delight.  His
reason analyzed and digested those vast and shapeless masses; his imagination animated and colored them. He had in the highest degree that noble faculty whereby
man is able to live in the past and the future, in the distant and the unreal.  India
and its inhabitants were not to him, as to most Englishmen, mere names and abstractions, but a real country and a'real people.  The burning sun; the strange
vegetation of the palm and cocoa-nut tree; the rice-fields and the tank; the huge
trees, older than the Mogul empire, under which the village crowds assemble; the
thatched roof of the peasant's hut, and the rich tracery of the mosque, where the
imaum  prayed with his face toward Mecca; the drums, and banners, and gaudy
idols; the devotee swinging in the air; the graceful maiden, with the pitcher on
her head, descending the steps to the river side; the black faces, the long beards,
the yellow streaks of sect; the turbans and the flowing robes; the spears and the
silver maces; the elephants, with their canopies of state; the gorgeous palanquin
of the prince, and the close litter of the lady, all these things were to him as the objects amid which his own life had been passed, as the objects which lay on the
road between Beaconsfield and St. James's Street. All India was present to the eye
of his mind, from the halls where suitors laid gold and perfumes at the feet of sovereigns, to the wild moor where the gipsy-camp was pitched; from the bazars, humming like bee-hives with the crowd of buyers and sellers, to the jungle, where the
lonely courier shakes his bunch of iron rings to scare away the hyenas. He had j ust
as lively an idea of the insurrection at Benares as of Lord George Gordon's riots, and
of the execution of Nuncomar as of the execution of Dr. Dodd.  Oppression in Bengal was to him the same thing as oppression in the streets of London."7
And why should it not be?  Under the government of India, as now administered,
the crimes of Englishmen abroad are punished on the same principles as the crimea
of Englishmen at home. If a hundredth part of the cruelty and extortion of which
Burke complained, were now found to exist among the Company's servants in India,
all England would be moved with indignation, and nothing but the severest punishment could satisfy the demands of public justice.  This change has been wrought
mainly by the eloquence of Mr. Burke. The perpetrators of those crimes were indeed
suffered to escape, for the nation had shared too largely in the profit to be fit executioners of the guilty. But every one felt that such enormities must cease; and the
high ground taken by Mr. Burke was, perhaps, the only one which could have produced
so entire a change of public sentiment.  He was satisfied that the East India Com7 Miscellanies, WARREN HASTINGS.




EDMUND BURKE.                                 221
pany, from its very constitution, was unable to redress these evils; and he therefore
proposed at once to set aside their charter, and commit all their concerns, with the
entire government of India, to Commissioners to be appointed by the House of Commons.  Such, in substance, was the intent of Mr. Fox's East India Bill; and whatever ambitious designs that gentleman may have been charged with in bringing forward this measure, no one suspects Mr. Burke of having been actuated by any other
motives but those of justice and humanity. On the question of going into a committee on the bill, December 1st, 1783, he delivered a speech of more than three hours
in length, which completely exhausted the subject. As a piece of lucid and powerful
reasoning, entering into the minutest details, and yet bringing every position to the
test of general principles, it is incomparably superior to both of Mr. Fox's speeches in
explanation and defense of his bill.  This speech was committed to writing, and published by Mr. Burke soon after its delivery.  It will be found below, with the omission
of some of the numerous details which were necessary to make out the argument, but
which have no longer any interest for the general reader.  The bill, it is well known,
passed the House of Commons by a large majority, but was defeated in the House of
Lords by the direct interposition of the King. The details of this subject will be given
hereafter in the sketch of Mr. Fox's life.  Suffice it to say, that the coalition ministry
was dismissed on the 18th of December, 1783, and Mr. William Pitt placed at the
head of affairs.  Mr. Burke went into opposition with Mr. Fox, under a deep sense of'vrong as to the means employed for driving them from office; and from this time, for
nearly ten years, he was one of the most strenuous opponents of Mr. Pitt's administration.
On the 28th of February, 1785, Mr. Burke delivered the last of the six great speeches
which he wrote out for publication. It was that on the Nabob of Arcot's, debts. The
theme was unpromising, and he rose to speak under every possible disadvantage.  It
was late at night, or rather early in the morning, and the House was so exhausted by
the previous debate, and so weary of the whole subject, that they seemed almost to
a man determined not to hear him.  He proceeded, however, amid much noise and
interruption, and poured out his feelings, for nearly five hours, with an ardor and im
petuosity which he had never before equaled.  In this speech we have the most surprising exhibition to be found in any of Mr. Burke's productions, of the compass and
variety of thought which he was able to crowd into a single effort. In rhetorical address, vivid painting, lofty declamation, bitter sarcasm, and withering invective, it
surpasses all his former speeches.  It has also more of the peculiar faults which belonged to his extemporaneous speaking.  In some passages there is a violence of attack
which seems almost savage, and a coarseness of imagery, where he seeks to degrade,
which he never allowed himself to use in any other of his printed productions.
Warren Hastings, whom he regarded as the responsible author of nearly all the
calamities of India, landed in England about three months after, on the 16th of June,
1785.  Within four days, Mr. Burke gave notice that, if no one else came forward
as his accuser, he should himself move for an inquiry into his conduct as Governor
General of India, with a view to his impeachment before-the House of Lords.  In
thus challenging the ministry to take up the prosecution, he acted wisely; for it is
hardly possible for any one, except those in power, to command the necessary evidence
in such a case, or to use it with effect.  Until within a brief period, the leading members of the administration had been nearly or quite as hostile to Mr. Hastings as Mr.
Burke himself.  Mr. Dundas, when chairman of a committee on Indian affairs, had
moved a series of the severest resolutions against him, recommending, among other
things, his immediate recall.  But times were now changed.  Mr. Pitt's East India
Bill had virtually placed the government of India in the hands of Mr. Dundas, as
head of the Board of Control. It was now the interest of the ministry to keep things
quiet.  They could not decently refuse an inquiry, but they had no wish to promote




222                            EDMUND BURKE.
it.  Mr. Pitt's policy was to gain credit by assuming the character of an umpire, and
to defeat the impeachment, if he saw fit, during the course of the introductory proceedings in the House.
To go forward under such circumstances required a degree of courage il Mr. Burke
bordering upon rashness.  It seemed almost certain that he must fail.  Hastings was
a personal favorite of the King. He had gained the confidence of the Board of Control, who were willing to overlook his past delinquencies in view'of the stability he
had given to the British empire in India.  He had the warm support of the East
India Company, which was saved from ruin and enriched with the spoils of kingdoms by his unscrupulous devotion to its interests.  He was popular with the British
residents in India, many of whom had gained immense fortunes under his administration at the expense of the natives, and were therefore ready to testify in his favor.
He had friends of the highest rank in England, and among them Lord Thurlow, the
favorite Chancellor of George III., who had pledged all their influence for his elevation to the peerage, and even higher honors which it was supposed the King was ready
to bestow.  Intrenched as Mr. Hastings thus was on every side, what could seem more
hopeless than Mr. Burke's attempt to obtain the evidence of his crimes?  Accordingly, when he and Mr. Fox called for the requisite papers in February, 1786, they
were met by the ministry with impediments at every step, showing the strong reluctance of Mr. Pitt and Mr. Dundas to go on with the inquiry.  A stormy debate ensued,
which only increased the difficulty.  Mr. Burke next brought forward (June, 1786)
the Rohilla war as his first charge. Mr. Hastings' conduct in relation to this war
had been pointedly condemned by Mr. Dundas himself in the resolutions mentioned
above. It was a simple contract for blood, under which Mr. Hastings, in consideration
of ~400,000 received from Sujah Dowlah, gave him a Bri'tish arm'y with which to
subjugate, or rather destroy, the neighboring nation of the Rohillas, who had never
done the slightest injury to the British.  Such were the facts, as admitted by all par-'ties.  The only defense was "state necessity!"  The ~400,000 were wanted to
maintain the British conquests in India! It was, indeed, the price of blood.  Nearly
all the nation was exterminated.  "More than a hundred thousand people fled from
their homes to pestilential jungles, preferring famine, and fever, and the haunts of
tigers, to the tyranny of him to whom an English and a Christian government had
for shameful lucre sold their substance and their blood, and the honor of their wives
and children!" And yet Mr. Dundas, admitting that " the Rohilla war was an unjustifiable measure," talked of " state policy" as the grand rule by which the sovereigns of powerful nations generally governed their public conduct, dwelt on " the
essential services Mr. Hastings had rendered his country in the latter part of the war,"
and spoke of him as." THE SAVIOR OF INDIA!"  Mr. Pitt said nothing!  His friend,
Mr. Wilberforce, did indeed support Mr. Burke's motion, declaring Mr. Hastings' contract with Sujah Dowlah " indefensible, and for an end inhuman and scandalous;"
but the adherents of the minister understood how they were to vote, and absolved
Mr. Hastings by a majority of 119 to 67.8
It is surprising that Mr. Burke and his friends did not instantly drop the prosecution. Hastings felt sure of the victory; and when Mr. Fox, supported by Sir Philip
Francis, came forward, ten days after, with the charge of extortion in the case of
Cheyte Sing, Rajah of Benares, the public universally expected a second acquittal, especially as the supporters of government in the House had received a note requesting
them to be present, and to vote against Mr. Fox's motion.  But, to the astonishment
of all, the charge had hardly been made, when Mr. Pitt rose and declared that he
should vote in favor of the motion for inquiring into Mr. Hastings' conduct.  A few
independent men on the ministerial benches were so completely scandalized by this
8 Parliamentary History, vol. xxvi., 91.




EDMUND BURKE.                                223
sudden change, that they refused him their vote; but the great body remained true
to the principles of party discipline, and the minister carried with him precisely the
same number (119) for condemning Mr. Hastings, which he had used ten days before
to acquit him, when charged with an offense incomparably more atrocious! Such a
change must, of course, have been owing to some new light which had suddenly
broke in upon the minds of Mr. Pitt and Mr. Dundas, in the doubtful game of politics in which they were then engaged.  It is thus alluded to by Mr. Macaulay in his
elaborate sketch of the life and character of Hastings, first published in the Edinburgh
Review: " It was asserted," he says, "by Mr. Hastings, that, early on the morning
of that very day on which the debate took place, Dundas called on Pitt, woke him,
and was closeted with him many hours.  The result of this conference was a determination to give up the late Governor-general to the vengeance of the Opposition. * *
The friends of Mr. Hastings, most of whom, it is to be observed, generally supported
the administration, affirmed that the motive of Pitt and Dundas was jealousy. Hastings was personally a favorite with the King. He was the idol of the East India
Company.  If he were absolved by the Commons, seated among the Lords, admitted
to the Board of Control, closely allied with the strong-minded and imperious Thurlow, was it not almost certain that he would soon draw to himself the entire management of Indian affairs?  Was it not possible that he might become a formidable
rival in the cabinet?  If the Commons impeached Hastings, all.danger was at an
end.  The proceeding, however it might terminate, would probably last some years.
In the mean time, the accused person would be excluded from honors and public employments, and could scarcely venture even to pay his service at court.  Such were
the motives attributed by a great part of the public to the young minister, whose
ruling passion was generally believed to be avarice of power."  From this time forth
there was no more difficulty in the reception of charges. On the 7th of February,
1787, Mr. Sheridan delivered his brilliant speech on the cruelties practiced upon the
Begums, or Princesses of Oude, and a Committee of Impeachment was soon after
formed.  This committee consisted of Burke, Fox, Sheridan, Windham, and Charles
Grey, afterward Earl Grey, who acted as managers; together with fifteen others,
who took no active part in the prosecution.  The articles of impeachment were
drawn up by Mr. Burke, and delivered to the House on the 25th of April. After a
brief discussion, they were adopted; and on the 10th of May, 1787, Mr. Burke, attended by the members of the House of Commons, went to the bar of the House of
Lords, and there in form impeached Warren Hastings of high crimes and misdenmeanor.
The trial commenced in Westminster Hall on the 13th of February, 1788.  After
two days spent in the preliminary ceremonies, Mr. Burke opened the case in a speech
which lasted four days, and was designed to give the members of the court a view
of the character and condition of the people of India; the origin of the power exercised by the East India Company; the situation of the natives under the government of the English; the miseries they had endured through the agency of Mr.
Hastings; and the motives by which he was influenced in his multiplied acts of cruelty and oppression.  This speech has, perhaps, been truly characterized as the greatest intellectual effort ever made before the Parliament of Great Britain. A writer
adverse to the impeachment has remarked, that "Mr. Burke astonished even those
who were most intimately acquainted with him by the vast extent of his reading, the
variety of his resources, the minuteness of his information, and the lucid order in
which he arranged the whole for the support of his subject, and to make a deep impression on the minds of his auditory." On the third day, when he described the
cruelties inflicted upon the natives by Debi Sing, one of Mr. Hastings' agents, a
convulsive shudder ran throughout the whole assembly.  "In this part of his speech,"




224                                EDMUND BURKE.
says the reporter, " his descriptions were more vivid, more harrowing, more horrific,
than human utterance, on either fact or fancy, perhaps ever formed before."   Mr.
Burke himself was so much overpowered at one time that he dropped his head upon
his hands, and was unable for some minutes to proceed; while " the bosoms of his
auditors became convulsed with passion, and those of more delicate organs or a weaker frame swooned away."   Even Mr. Hastings himself, who, not having ordered
these inflictions, had always claimed that he was not involved in their guilt, was
utterly overwhelmed. In describing the scene afterward, he said, " For half an hour
I looked up at the orator in a revery of wonder, and actually felt myself to be the
most culpable man on earth."   " But at length," he added (in reference to the
grounds just mentioned), " I recurred to my own bosom, and there found a consciousness that consoled me under all I heard and all I suffered."
Such a speech it was impossible for any reporter adequately to record, and Mr.
Burke never wrote it out for publication.  He left numerous papers, however, from
which and the short hand minutes a report was framed of this and his other speeches
against Hastings, chiefly in his own language, though we can not suppose that, in
the vehement passages mentioned above, we have the exact expressions, the vivid
painting, or impassioned energy with which he electrified Westminster Hall, and
filled that vast assembly with mingled emotions of indignation and horror. The peroration of this speech, as delivered by Mr. Burke, will be given below.
The trial lasted one hundred and forty-seven days.  If conducted in an ordinary
court of justice, it would have been finished in less than three months; but in the
House of Lords, being taken up only three or four hours at a time, in the intervals
of other business, it extended through seven years.  Mr. Burke made his closing
speech in behalf of the managers on the 16th of June, 1794. It was in the darkest
season of the French Revolution, a few days before the fall of Robespierre, when the
British empire was agitated with conflicting passions, and fears were entertained by
many of secret conspiracies to overthrow the government.  To these things he referred at the close of his peroration, which has a grandeur and solemnity becoming
the conclusion of such a trial.
"My Lords, I have done! The part of the Commons is concluded! With a trembling hand,
we consign the product of these long, long labors to your charge.  Take it!  TAKE IT! It is a
sacred trust! Never before was a cause of such magnitude submitted to any human tribunal!
" My Lords, at this awful close, in the name of the Commons, and surrounded by them, I attest
the retiring, I attest the advancing generations, between which, as a link in the chain of eternal
order, we stand. We call this nation, we call the world, to witness, that the Commons have shrunk
from no labor; that we have been guilty of no prevarications; that we have made no compromise
with crime; that we have not feared any odium whatsoever, in the long warfare which we have
carried on with the crimes, the vices, the exorbitant wealth, the enormous and overpowering influence, of Eastern corruption.
" A business which has so long occupied the councils and tribunals of Great Britain, can not possibly be hurried over in the course of vulgar, trite, and transitory events. Nothing but some of
those great revolutions that break the traditionary chain of human memory, and alter the very face
of nature itself, can possibly obscure it.  My Lords, we are all elevated to a degree of importance
by it. The meanest of us will, by means of it, become more or less the concern of posterity.: My Lords, your House yet stands; it stands, a great edifice; but, let me say, it stands in the
midst of ruins-in the midst of ruins that have been made by the greatest moral earthquake that
ever convulsed and shattered this globe of ours. My Lords, it has pleased Providence to place us
in such a state, that we appear every moment to be on the verge of some great mutation. There
is one thing, and one thing only, that defies mutation-that which existed before the world itself.
I mean JUSTICE; that justice which, emanating from the Divinity, has a place in the breast of every
one of us, given us for our guide with regard to ourselves, and with regard to others; and which
will stand after this globe is burned to ashes, our advocate or our accuser before the great Judge,
when he comes to call upon us for the tenor of a well-spent life.
" My Lords, the Commons will share in every fate with your Lordships.  There is nothing sin.
ister which can happen to you, in which we are not involved. And if it should so happen that your
Lordships, stripped of all the decorous distinctions of human society, should, by hands at once base




EDMUND BURKE.                                     225
and cruel, be led to those scaffolds and machines of murder upon which great kings and glorious
queens have shed their blood, amid the prelates, the nobles, the magistrates who supported their
thrones, may you in those moments feel that consolation which I am. persuaded they felt in the critical moments of their dreadful agony! * * >'
"My Lords, if you must fall, may you so fall! But if you stand-and stand I trust you will,
together with the fortunes of this ancient monarchy; together with the ancient laws and liberties
of this great and illustrious kingdom-may you stand as unimpeached in honor as in power! May
you stand, not-as a substitute for virtue; may you stand, and long stand, the terror of tyrants;
may you stand, the refuge of afflicted nations; may you stand, a sacred temple for the perpetual
residence of inviolable JUJSTICE!"
Mr. Hastings, it is well known, was acquitted by the House of Lords.  This, however, does not imply that the atrocities so eloquently described by Mr. Burke were
found to be overstated.  Far from it.  They are now matters of undisputed history.9
One difficulty lay in the mode of proof. In previous cases of impeachment, the
High Court of Parliament had never been bound by those strict rules of evidence
which prevail in the lower courts. Proof of every kind was admitted which goes to
satisfy men in the ordinary concerns of life, as to the truth or falsity of a charge.
But it was now decided to adhere to the strict rules of legal evidence. The decision marks an advance in English justice.  If these rules are wrong, they should
be altered; but they should be one and the same. in the highest and the lowest
courts.  The managers, however, were prepared for no such decision; and the moment it was made, the acquittal of Mr. Hastings became morally certain. Hundreds
whom  we know to be guilty, are acquitted every year in our courts of justice for
want of legal proof.  Much of the proof relied upon by the managers was ruled out
on the principles now adopted, and what every body believed to be true, and history
has recorded as fact, the court could not receive in evidence.  In addition to this,
the cruelty and injustice in such cases must be chiefly exercised through intermediate agents; and it is often impossible to connect those agents by legal proof with
the real author of the crimes.  There was still another difficulty.  These crimes, in
most instances, as the court were made to believe, were the only possible means of
upholding the British government in India.  They were committed for the sake of
raising money in crises of extreme danger, and often of sudden rebellion, when, without money to support his troops, Mr. Hastings and his government would have been
swept out of India in a single month. These considerations were powerfully urged:
by Mr. Erskine in his defense of Stockdale for publishing a pamphlet in favor of'
Hastings.  "It may and must be true that Mr. Hastings has repeatedly offended'
against the rights and privileges of Asiatic government, if he was the faithful deputy
of a power which could not maintain itself for an hour without trampling upon both..
He may and must have offended against the laws of God and nature, if he was the
faithful viceroy of an empire wrested in blood from the people to whom  God and
nature had given it.  He may and must have preserved that unjust dominion overtimorous and abject nations by a terrifying, overbearing, insulting superiority, if he
was the faithful administrator of your government, which, having no root in consent
or affection, no foundation in similarity of interests, no support from  any one princi —
ple which cements men together in society, can be upheld only by alternate strata.gem  and force."  Such were the considerations which turned the tide of popular
sentiment in favor of Mr. Hastings, and made it impossible to convict him, thought
morally guilty, if not of all the crimes laid to his charge, at least of numerous and:
most flagrant acts of cruelty and oppression.  But if Mr. Burke failed in the impeachment, he succeeded in the main object which he had in view, that of laying open to the indignant gaze of the public the enormities practiced under the'
British government in India.  Nothing more was necessary to secure their correction; and his " long, long labors" in this cause became the means, though not so
9 See Mill's British India, vol. v., passim.
p




226                            EDMUND BURKE.
directly as he intended, of great and lasting benefits to a hundred and fifty millions
of people.
In addition to these labors, and during their greatest urgency, Mr. Burke was
drawn into a new conflict with Mr. Pitt, of the most exciting nature. The King
became deranged in October, 1788, and the " Regency Question" instantly arose to
agitate and divide the empire. The Opposition took the ground that the Prince of
Wales had the inherent right, as heir of the crown, to act as regent during his
lather's loss of reason.  Mr. Pitt denied this right, affirming that it lay with Parliamnent alone to provide for such an exigency-that they might commit the custody
of the King's person and the administration of the government to other hands, if they
saw fit; and might impose whatever restrictions they thought proper on the authority
of the Prince of W/ales, if they declared him regent.  The subject more naturally
belongs to the measures of Mr. Fox, and will be dwelt upon hereafter in the sketch of
his life.  It is necessary in this place only to say, that Mr. Burke took up the question, which was debated nearly two months, with more than his ordinary zeal and
strength of feeling. He thought the Prince of Wales was treated with harshness
and injustice.  He maintained his cause with consummate ability; and it is now
known that he drew up the celebrated letter on the subject, addressed by the Prince
to Mr. Pitt, which has been so much admired, not only as a fine specimen of English
composition, but as showing " the true, transmigrating power of genius, which enabled him thus to pass his spirit into the station of royalty, and to assume the calm
dignity, both of style and feeling, that became it."
It has been already remarked that the first period of Mr. Burke's political life was
the happiest. He was on the ascendent scale of influence and usefulness. His faculties were fresh; his hopes were high; and whenever he rose to speak, he was
cheered by the consciousness of being listened to with interest and respect.  But
a:fter the defeat of Mr. Fox's East India Bill, all was changed.  In common with
Mr. Fox, he was loaded with unpopularity; and, being retired in his habits, he never
attempted, like his great leader, to cast off the odium thus incurred by a familiar intercourse with his political opponents.  On the contrary, he was often drawn into
personal altercations with Mr. Pitt, in which he lost his temper, and thus became
doubly exposed to that cutting sarcasm or withering contempt with which the young
minister knew how, better than any man of his age, to overwhelm an antagonist. A
course of systematic insult was likewise adopted by certain members of the House,
fbr the purpose of putting him down.  "Muzzling the lion" was the term  applied
to such treatment of the greatest genius of the age.  When he arose to speak, he was
usually assailed with coughing, ironical cheers, affected laughter, and other tokens of
dislike.  Such things, of course, he could not ordinarily notice; though he did, in one
instance, stop to remark, that " he could teach a pack of hounds to yelp with more
melody and equal comprehension."' George Selwyn used to tell a story with much
eflect, of a country member who exclaimed, as Mr. Burke rose to speak with a paper
in his hand, " I hope the gentleman does not mean to read that large bundle of papers, and bore us with a speech into the bargain!"  Mr. Burke was so much overscome, or rather suffocated with rage, that he was incapable of utterance, and rushed.it once out of the House.  " Never before," said Selwyn, " did I see the fable realized, of a lion put to flight by the braying of an ass."  Such treatment soured his
mind; and as he advanced in years, he was sometimes betrayed into violent fits of
passion before the House, which were a source of grief to his friends, and of increased
insult from his enemies.  Under all these discouragements, however, " Nitor in adversum" was still his motto.  His public labors were such as no other man of the
age could have performed.  Besides his attendance on the House, he had nearly all
the. burden of carrying forward Mr. Hastings' impeachment; involving charges more




EDMUND BURKE.                                      227
complicated in their nature, and embracing a wider range of proof, than had ever
been submitted to an English tribunal.  Seven years were spent in this drudgery;
and it shows the unconquerable spirit of Mr. Burke, that he never once faltered, but
brought his impeachment to a close with a dignity becoming his own character and
the greatness of the interests involved.
In thus reaching forward to the end of Mr. Hastings' trial, we have already entered on the third period of Mr. Burke's political life.  As America was the leading
object of interest in the first, and India in the second of these great divisions of his
public labors, FRANCE and its portentous revolution occupied the third stage of his
eventful career, and called forth, at the close of life, the most brilliant efforts of his
genius.  It is a striking fact, that Mr. Burke was the only man in England who regarded the French Revolution of 1789, from  its very commencemenzt, with jealousy
and alarm.  Most of the nation hailed it with delight, and Mr. Pitt, no less than Mr.
Fox, was carried away for a time in the general current of sympathy and admiration.
But Mr. Burke, in writing to a friend only two months after the assembling of the
States-General, expressed his fears of the result in the following terms: " Though I
thought I saw something like this in progress for several years, it has something in it
paradoxical and mysterious.  The spirit it is impossible not to admire; but the Parisian ferocity has broken out in a shocking manner.  It is true this may be no more
than a sudden explosion; if so, no indication can be taken from it. But if it should
be character rather than accident, the people are not fit for li6erty."  A few months
confirmed his worst apprehensions. The levity, rashness, and presumption which
had so long characterized the French nation, gained a complete ascendency.  The
better class of men who' shared in the early movement were at first set aside, and
soon after driven away or murdered.  The States-General, breaking up the original
balance of the Constitution, resolved the three chambers into one, under the name of
the National Assembly; and the Third Estate, or Commons, became not only the sole
legislative, but the sole governing power of the country.  The galleries of that assembly were filled with a Parisian mob, which dictated to the representatives of the
people the measures to be adopted. The sway of a ferocious populace became unrestrained.  The King and Queen were dragged in triumph from Versailles to Paris,
where they were virtually held as prisoners from  the first, in fearful expectation of
the fate which ultimately befell them. All this took place within little more than
three months!10
It may be said, however, that the Revolution was at last productive of important
benefits to France; and some persons seem for this reason to have a vague impres10 The States-General resolved themselves into the National Assembly on the 17th of June, and
the King and Queen were taken from Versailles to Paris on the 6th of October, 1789.
The following extracts from the diary and correspondence of Mr. Gouverneur Morris, the American minister at Paris during the early stages of the Revolution, show that his views of the French
people at this time coincided with those of Mr. Burke.  "There is one fatal principle which pervades all ranks. It is, a perfect indfference to the violation of engagements. Inconstancy is so mingled in the blood, marrow, and very essence of this people, that, when a man of high rank and importance laughs to-day at what he seriously asserted yesterday, it is considered the natural order of
things."-Sparks' Life of Morris, vol. ii., p. 68. It is not, therefore, wonderful, that Mr. Morris had
no faith in the Revolution.  He told Lafayette, in reference to the leaders of it, "Their views respecting this nation are totally inconsistent with the materials of which it is composed, and the
worst thing which could possibly happen would be to grant their wishes." Lafayette acknowledged the fact. " He tells me he is sensible that his party are mad, and tells them so."-Vol. i.,
314. At a later period, speaking of Lafayette as commander of the National Guards, he says, "Lafayette has marched [to Versailles] by compulsion, guarded by his own troops, who suspect and
threaten him. Dreadful situation! Obliged to do what he abhors, or suffer an ignominious death,
with the certainty that the sacrifice of his life will not prevent the mischief."-Vol. i., 327. Mr.
Morris seems to have anticipated from the first, what happened at no very distant period, that Lafayette would be obliged to flee from France, to escape the dagger of the assassin.




228                             EDMUND BURKE.
sion that Mr. Burke did wrong in opposing it.  There is no doubt that this utter disruption of society was the means of removing great and manifold abuses, just as the
nre of London burned out the corruptions of centuries in the heart of that city.  But
no one hesitates, on this account, to condemn the spirit of the incendiary. It should
also be remembered, that these benefits were not the natural or direct results of the
rash spirit of innovation opposed by Mr. Burke.  On the contrary, they were never
experienced until the nation had fled for protection against that spirit, to one of the
sternest forms of despotism. Nor can any one prove that the benefits in question could
be purchased only at this terrible expense. Lafayette, at least, always maintained the
contrary; and the writer has reason to know that, in recommending Mignet's History
of the Revolution to a fiiend as worthy of confidence, he made a distinct exception on
this point, censuring in the strongest terms a kind of fatalism which runs through the
pages of that historian, who seems to have regarded the whole series of crimes and miseries which marked that frightful convulsion, as the only possible means of doing away
the evils of the old re'gimne. But, even if this were so, who, at that early period, was
to discover such a fact? And who is authorized, at the present day, to speak slightingly of Mr. Burke as rash and wanting in sagacity, because, while his predictions were
so many of them fulfilled to the very letter, an overruling Providence brought good out
of evil, in a way which no human forecast could anticipate? It should be remembered,
too, that Mr. Burke never looked on the Revolution as an isolated fact, a mere struggle for
power or for a new form of government, involving the interests of the French people
alone.  Considered in this light, he would have left it to take its'course; he would never
probably have written a syllable on the subject. But an event of this kind could not fail
to affect the whole system of European politics, as a fire, breaking out in the heart of
a forest, endangers the habitations of all who dwell on its borders. Whatever he said
and wrote respecting France was, therefore, primarily intended for England.  "Urit
proximus Ucalegon," was his own account of his reasons for coming forward.  "Whenever our neighbor's house is on fire, it can not be amiss for the engines to play a little
on our own. Better be despised for too anxious apprehensions, than ruined by too confident a security."  There were many in Great Britain who not only justified the early
excesses of the Revolution, and exulted when they saw the King and Queen of France
led to prison by a mob, but significantly pointed to a repetition of similar scenes upon
English ground.  Dr. Price, in a sermon before the Constitutional Society, said, in
respect to the King of France, " led in triumph, and surrendering himself to his subjects," "I am thankful that I have lived to see this period. I could almost say,'Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation.' "  When clergymen went so far, men of the world very naturally went farther.
Societies were soon formed in London and the other large towns of the kingdom, " with
the avowed purpose of obtaining political reformation by other means than those which
the Constitution pointed out as legitimate.""  Some of them maintained a correspondence with the Jacobin clubs of Paris; and, at a somewhat later period, five thousand
persons belonging to the united societies of London, Manchester, and other places, held
the following language, in a public address to the French National Assembly: "We
are of opinion that it is the duty of every true Briton to assist, to the utmost of our
power, the defenders of the rights of man, and to swear inviolable friendship to a nation which proceeds on the plan you have adopted.  Frenchmen, you are already free,
and Britons are preparing to become so.""  It was under these circumstances, and
1 Wade's British History, p. 551.
12 It is stated in the London Christian Observer for 1807, which was edited at that time by
Zachary Macaulay, Esq., father of the celebrated historian, " there seems to be but little doubt of
the formation of a plan to raise an insurrection in London about the close of 1792 or the beginning
of 1793."




EDMUND BURKE.                                       229
while such a spirit was beginning to prevail in the country, that Mr. Burke came forward to guard the people of England against the infection of principles which tended
to such results.  Whatever may have been his errors at a later period, who will question whether he was right in warning his countrymen against every thing that could
engender a spirit of insurrection?  Without deciding whether the liberties of the people
can ever be established on the Continent of Europe except by open rebellion, all will
agree that nothing could be more disastrous to the cause of free principles than any
attempts at reform  in England by violence and bloodshed.  The Revolution of 1688
has opened a new era on this subject.  The progress of the English in throwing off the
abuses which still belong to their political system, will take place hereafter in a series
of 2peaceful revolutions, like that of Parliamentary Reform in 1832. The right of petition among such a people has more force than the bayonet.  When they are once
united in a good cause, neither the crown nor the peerage can stand before them.
The first reference to the French Revolution on the floor of the House of Commons
was made by Mr. Fox in a debate on the army estimates, February 5th, 1790.  He
spoke of it in terms of eulogy and of high expectation, applauding especially the defection of the French soldiery from their officers and government.  "It is now known
throughout all Europe," he said, " that a man, by becoming a soldier, does not cease
to be a citizen."   These last remarks were certainly unfortunate.  Unqualified as they
were, they might naturally be understood to recommend a similar course to British
soldiers in the event of civil commotions.  It was still more unfortunate that, when
Colonel Phipps, who followed, reminded him  of this, stating the entire difference be
tween the situation of things in England and France, and pointing, as a better example, to the conduct of the English troops during the London riots of 1780, " who patiently submitted to insult, and, in defiance of provocation, maintained the laws of the
realm, acting under the authority of the civil power," Mr. Fox did not instantly avail
himself of the opportunity to explain his remarks, and guard them  against such an application.  On the contrary, he remained silent!  In justice to Mr. Burke, this fact
ought to be kept in view as we approach the period of his separation from  Mr. Fox.
The leader of the Whig party, if he expected the continued support of his adherents,
was bound to free them from all imputations on a subject like this.  Four days after,
when the question came up again, Mr. Burke felt bound to express his feelings at large,
in view of Mr. Fox's remarks.  In the course of his speech, he said,'' Since the House was prorogued in the summer, much work has been done in France.  The
French have shown themselves the greatest architects of ruin that have hitherto existed in the
world. In that very short space of time they have completely pulled down to the ground their
monarchy, their Church, their nobility, their law, their revenue, their army, their navy, their commerce, their arts, and their manufactures.  They have done their business for us as rivals in a way
which twenty Ramillies and Blenheims could never have done.' In the last age we were in danger of being entangled by the example of France in a net of
relentless despotism.  That no longer exists.  Our present danger arises from the example of a
people whose character knows no medium. It is, with regard to government, a danger from anarchy-a danger of being led, through admiration of successful fraud and violence, to imitation of
the excesses of an irrational, unprincipled, proscribing, confiscating, plundering, ferocious, bloody,
and tyrannical democracy.  On the side of religion, the danger of their example is no longer in
intolerance, but atheism-a foul, unnatural vice, foe to all the dignity and consolation of mankind,
which seems in France, for a long time, to have been embodied into a faction, accredited and almost avowed.  These are our present dangers from France.
" But the very worst part of the example set is, in the late assumption of citizenship by the army, and the whole of the arrangement of their military.  I am sorry that my right honorable friend
has dropped even a word expressive of exultation on that circumstance.  I attribute this opinion of
Mr. Fox entirely to his own zeal for the best of all causes-liberty.  It is with pain inexpressible
I am obliged to have even a shadow of a difference with my friend, whose authority would be always great with me and with all thinking people.  My confidence in Mr. Fox is such and so ample as to be almost implicit.  I am not ashamed to avow that degree of docility, for, when the
choice is well made, it strengthens instead of oppressing our intellect.  He who calls in the aid
of an equal understanding doubles his own.  He who profits of a superior understanding, raises




230                                EDMUND BURKE.
his power to a level with the height of the superior understanding he unites with.  I have found
the benefit of such a junction, and would not lightly depart from it.  I wish almost on all occasions
my sentiments were understood to be conveyed in Mr. Fox's words, and wish, among the greatest
benefits I can wish the country, an eminent share of power to that right honorable gentleman, because I know that to his great and masterly understanding he has joined the greatest possible degree
of that natural moderation which is the best corrective of power. He is of the most artless, candid,
open, and benevolent disposition; disinterested in the extreme; of a temper mild and placable even
to a fault, without one drop of gall in his whole constitution.  The House must perceive, from my
coming forward to mark an expression or two of my best friend, how anxious I am to keep the distemper of France from the least countenance in England, where some wicked persons have shown
a strong disposition to recommend an imitation of the French spirit of reform.
"I am so strongly opposed to any the least tendency toward the means of introducing a democracy like theirs, as well as to the end itself, that, much as it would afflict me if such a thing could
be attempted, and that any friend of mine should concur in such measures, I would abandon my
best friends and join with my worst enemies to oppose either the means or the end."'3
Mr. Fox replied in kind and respectful language, but he did not explain or modify his expressions respecting the soldiery (referred to by Mr. Burke) in those full and
explicit terms which the occasion seemed to require.  He certainly looked for no reforms in England, except through the regular channels provided by the Constitution.
He ought, therefore, to have accepted the distinction suggested by Colonel Phipps,
and declared at once, that whatever might be proper in France, the English soldiery
ought not to turn upon their officers, or resist the civil magistrate.  Such a declaration would have been useful in the excited state of the public mind at that period,
and it seems to have been absolutely demanded by the shape which the question had
assumed. Instead of this, he simply said, " He never would lend himself to support
any cabal or scheme formed in order to introduce any dangerous innovation into our
excellent Constitution"-language which was at least rather indefinite; and declared as to the soldiery, that " when he described himself as exulting over the success of some of the late attempts.in France, he certainly meant to pay a just tribute
of applause to those who, feelingly alive to a sense of the oppressions under which
their countrymen had groaned, disobeyed the despotic commands of their leaders, and
gallantly espoused the cause of their fellow-citizens, in a struggle for the acquisition
of that liberty, the sweets of which we all enjoyed." He said, also, that while he
lamented the scenes of bloodshed and cruelty among the French, he thought these
excesses should be " spoken of with some degree of compassion;" and that he be.
lieved " their present state, unsettled as it was, to be preferable to their former condition."  Such views were so entirely different from those of Mr. Burke, that it wae
already apparent they could not act much longer in concert.
Mr. Sheridan now came forward to widen the breach.  His remarks are given very
differently by different reporters.  One of them  represents him as charging Mr. Burke
with " deserting from the camp; with assaulting the principles of freedom itself; with
defending despotism; with loving to obtrude himself as the libeler of liberty, and the
enemy of men laboring for the noblest objects of mankind."   His language, as afterward given in the Parliamentary History, is less harsh; but, whatever may have been
his exact expressions, they were such as induced Mr. Burke to rise at once, and declare, in calm but indignant terms, that " such language ought to have been spared,
were it only as a sacrifice to the ghost of departed friendship.  The language itself
was not new to him; it was but a repetition of what was to be perpetually heard at
the reforming clubs and societies with which the honorable gentleman had lately become entangled, and for whose plaudits he had chosen to sacrifice his friends, though
he might in time find that the value of such praise was not worth the price at which
it was purchased.  Henceforward they were separated in politics forever."'4
13 Parliamentary History, vol. xxviii., p. 356.
14 Moore ascribes this to jealousy, a fault never before charged on Burke. Sheridan's habits
were bad, and this made it easy for Burke to give him up.




EDMUND BURKE.                                  231
This debate has been given at greater length, because it was the immediate occasion of Mr. Burke's writing his work on the French Revolution, and more remotely
of his separation from Mr. Fox and the Whig party.  His breach with Mr. Sheridan
put him on the defensive, and he at once determined to carry the question before the
public.  Accordingly, in the month of November, 1790, he published his "Reflections on the Revolution in France," in an octavo volume of four hundred pages.
No political treatise in the English tongue has ever awakened so lively an interest,
or met with so wide-spread and rapid a circulation.  Thirty thousand copies were
sold in Great Britain alone, at a time when the reading public embraced hardly a
third of its present number.  Some of the principles of this work, whether true or
false, in regard to European society, can, of course, have no application to America,
such as the necessity of an established Church, and the benefits of a titled aristocracy, which last is beautifully described as " the Corinthian capital" of the state.
It must also be admitted that, in exposing the crimes of the revolutionists, Mr.
Burke was betrayed into an error which his warmest admirers should be the first to
acknowledge, since it arose from those generous sensibilities which are peculiarly
liable to be misled.  All his sympathies were on one side.  The horror he felt at
the atrocities of the Revolution made him forget the wrongs by which it was occasioned.  It led him to think too favorably of the immediate sufferers, to overlook,
and even palliate their vices or crimes.  He felt only for princes and nobles, and
forgot the body of the people, who had for ages been held down by Feudalism in ignorance, wretchedness, and degradation.  The same feeling led him to defend institutions which, under other circumstances, he would have regarded only with abhorrence.  This accounts for his arguing so strenuously in favor of monastic establishments, which the whole history of Europe has shown to be cancers on the body
politic.  It accounts, also, for his maintaining that the old regimne'was "a despotism  rather in appearance than in reality," an assertion which will awaken the
reader's astonishment just in proportion as he is acquainted with the history of
France, and remembers the lettres ce cachet, the corvce, the gabelle, and the thousand
other instruments of tyranny, which had held the nation for centuries under the
most grinding oppression. These one-sided views were the result of a peculiarity
of mind in Mr. Burke which we have seen strikingly exemplified at a later period
in Sir Walter Scott, that of looking with an excess of veneration upon every thing
old.  His prolific fancy covered all the early forms of society with romantic and venerable associations, so that abuses which would elsewhere have called forth his keenest reprobation seemed to him in old governments, if not positive benefits, at least
evils to be touched with a trembling hand, like the weaknesses of an aged parent.
While we can not, for these reasons, give our sympathy or assent to every part of
this volume, facts have shown that Mr. Burke was in the right far more than Mr.
Fox as to the main point at issue, the character and prospects of the Revolution in
France.  Mr. Fox lived to see this, and when Lord Lauderdale once remarked in
his presence, that Burke was a splendid madman, Mr. Fox replied, " It is difficult
to say whether he is mad or inspired, but whether the one or the other, every one
must agree that he is a pop2het."  Lord Brougham observed at a much later period,
"All his predictions, except one momentary expression [relative to the martial spirit
of the French], have been more than fulfilled."  And down to the present day (for
the Revolution is still in progress), what has been the result of the experiments which
the French have been making in government for the last sixty years?  They took
refuge from their republic in a military despotism; they received back one branch
of the Bourbons and exchanged it for another; they again tried a republic for a little
more than three years; and they have now submitted to the usurpation of another
Bonaparte, as weak in intellect and despicable in character as the former one was




232                             EDMUND BURKE.
powerful and illustrious.  In all this they have shown-and it was this, in reality.
that Mr. Burke set out to inculcate-that a people who cast off the fear of God and
are governed by impulse, not by fixed principle, who have extravagant hopes of regenerating society by a mere change of its outward forms, and have learned from a
scoffing philosophy to despise those great original instincts of our nature and those
finer sensibilities of the heart, which are the ultimate security of social order, can
not, in the nature of things, be " fit for freedom." This was the real scope of Mr.
Burke's " Reflections on the Revolution in France."  He erred, indeed, in connecting
these truths with church establishments and monarchical institutions, but the truths
themselves were of imperishable value, not only for the age in which he wrote, but
for all coming ages in that long struggle on which the world has entered for the establishment of free institutions.
In a literary view, there can be but one opinion of this work. Though desultory
in its character, and sometimes careless or prolix in style, it contains more richness
of thought, splendor of imagination, and beauty of diction than any volume of the
same size in our language.  Robert Hall has truly said, " Mr. Burke's imperial fancy
has laid all nature under tribute, and has collected riches from every scene of the
creation and every walk of art.  His eulogium on the Queen of France is a masterpiece of pathetic composition, so select in its images, so fraught with tenderness, and
so rich with colors'dipt in heaven,' that he who can read it without rapture may
have merit as a reasoner, but must resign all pretensions to taste and sensibility.'
At the present day, however, when the topics discussed are no longer of any practical importance, it is a book, like Milton's Paradise Lost, to be once resolutely gone
through with by every literary man, and then read and re-read fo  life in select passages, which will awaken an ever-growing admiration of Mr. Burke for his compass
of thought, his keen sagacity, his profound wisdom, his generous sentiments, his truth
to nature and the best feelings of the heart.  It is, indeed, the great peculiarity of
his writings, that every reflecting man learns to estimate them more highly as he
advances in knowledge and in years.
We now come to the most painful event of Mr. Burke's life, except the loss of his
son-his separation fiom  Mr. Fox.  After the emphatic declaration he had made
before the House, that " he would abandon his best friends and join with his worst
enemies" to oppose French principles, we should naturally expect that the Whigs
would treat him with great tenderness and forbearance if they did not mean to drive
him from their ranks, and especially would not goad him on the subject, and provoke
a quarrel, by bringing it up unnecessarily in debate. But such was the warmth and
frankness of Mr. Fox, that whatever was upon his mind was on his tongue; and as
he was conscious of having only the kindest feelings toward Mr. Burke, and was slow
to take offense himself; he seems never once to have dreamed that any liberties he
might use could lead, by any possibility, to a breach between him and his old friend.
He therefore expressed his dissent from the principles of Mr. Burke's work in the
strongest terms; and during a debate on the formation of a government for Canada
he made a pointed allusion to certain well-known passages of the volume, speaking
in a sarcastic manner of "those titles of honor the extinction of which some gentlemen so much deplored," and of "that spirit of chivalry which had fallen into disgrace in a neighboring country." In a debate a few evenings after, he went out of
his way to praise the new Constitution of France, declaring, with a direct reference
to Mr. Burke's strictures on that instrument, " I for one admire the new Constitution,
considered altogether, as the most glorious fabric ever raised by humancn integr'ity
since the creation of man.'"  Mr. Burke instantly rose with visible emotion to give
vent to his feelings, but his Whig friends interposed to prevent him; the cry of
"Question, question" became general throughout the House; and as it was then




EDMUND BURKE.                                 233
three o'clock in the morning, Mr. Burke at last gave way, and reserved himself for
another occasion.
Great efforts were now made by the Whigs to prevent Mr. Burke from coming out
in reply; but he felt himself pledged to the House and country; it would look like
cowardice, he said, to shrink from a contest which was thus provoked.  Still he spoke
kindly and with honor of Mr. Fox, and, at a private interview between them, " talked
over the plan of all he intended to say, opened the different branches of his argumen;, and explained the limitations which he meant to impose upon himself."5  They
then walked together to the House, and Mr. Fox took occasion almost immediately
to say, that " he was extremely sorry to differ from any of his friends, but that he
should never be backward in declaring his opinion, and that he did not wish to recede from any thing he had formerly said."  This was generally considered as a direct challenge, if not a defiance of Mr. Burke, who was desirous instantly to reply;
but, finding that the House preferred to adjourn the question over the holidays, which
were then commencing, he again postponed his remarks.
When the recess was over and the Canada Bill came up (May 6th, 1791), Mr.
Burke opened the debate.  But the moment he touched on the French Revolution,
in reply to Mr. Fox, he was called to order by a friend of the latter, and Mr. Fox
himself immediately interposed in a strain of the bitterest irony, remarking, " that his
right honorable friend could hardly be said to be out of order. It seemed this was a
day of privilege, when any gentleman might stand up, select his mark, and abuse
any government he pleased.  Although nobody had said a word on the subject of
the French Revolution (sic!), his friend had risen up and abused that event. Every
gentleman had a right that day to abuse the government of every country, whether
ancient or modern, as much as he pleased, and in as gross terms as he thought proper,
with his right honorable friend."  A very extraordinary scene ensued.  Mr. Burke
attempted to explain and to discuss the question of order, but was continually interrupted from his own side of the House.  Seven times were his remarks broken in
upon by renewed calls of " order."  Mr. Fox repeated his irony about " the gentleman's right to discuss the Constitution of France;" and when Mr. Pitt defended his
old opponent, affirming that Mr. Burke, in examining the government proposed for
Canada, had a right to draw his illustrations from that of France, Mr. Fox took the
foor, and, after a series of very severe remarks, said that Mr. Burke had once told
the House, in a speech on American affairs, that he did not know how to draw up a
bill of indictment against a whole people, but " he had now learned to do it, and to
crowd it with all the technicalities which disgraced our statute-book, such as'false,'' wicked,''by instigation of the devil,' &c.; that no book his friend could cite, no
words he could deliver in debate, however ingenious or eloquent, could induce him
to change or abandon his opinions; he differed on that subject with his right honorable friend, toto colo."l6  Mr. Burke now rose and made an extended reply, commencing in " a grave and governed tone of voice."  Among other things, he remarked, that " his friend had treated him in every sentence with uncommon harshness,"
and "had endeavored to crush him at once by declaring a censure upon his whole
life and opinions." " It was certainly an indiscretion," he said, " at any period, and
especially at his time of life, to provoke enemies, or to give his friends occasion to desert him; yet if his firm and steady adherence to the British Constitution placed him
in this dilemma, he would risk all; and as public duty and public prudence taught
him, with his last words he would exclaim,'Fly from the French Constitution.'"
[Mr. Fox here whispered that " there was no loss of friends."] Mr. Burke replied,
emphatically, " Yes, there is a loss of friends  I know the price of my conduct.  I
have done my duty at the price of my friend. Our friendship is at an end!"  Mr.
lb Annual Register, vol. xxxiii., p. 116.  16 Parliamentary History, vol. xxix., p. 380.




234                            EDMUND BURKE.
Fox rose in the utmost agitation, showing that he had never once suspected the extremities to which he was driving Mr. Burke. " For some minutes he could not proceed.  Tears trickled down his cheeks, and he strove in vain to give utterance to
his feelings."  When at last he was able to speak, he adverted, in the most tender
and generous terms, to their early friendship and his obligations to Mr. Burke, and
expressed his hope " that, notwithstanding what had happened, his friend would
think on past times, and, however any imprudent words or intemperance of his might
have offended him, it would show that it had not been, at least, intentionally his fault."
Unfortunately, however, when he came to reassert and defend his own views, he did
it with some very pointed allusions to the former opinions of his friend, as inconsistent with his present ones. This grated so harshly on Mr. Burke's feelings, that he
remarked, in entering on his reply, that " the tenderness which had been displayed
in the beginning and conclusion of Mr. Fox's speech had been quite obliterated by
what had occurred in the middle."  The breach was irreparable.  They never met
again except in public; and even on his death-bed, Mr. Burke declined an interview
which Mr. Fox solicited in the kindest terms, declaring, that " it had cost him the
most heartfelt pain to obey the stern voice of duty in rending asunder a long friendship; that his principles continued the same, and could be enforced only by the gezeral persuasion of his sincerity."  This last consideration appears to have governed
him chiefly in breaking away from his old friend.  It was not the irritability of his
temper, as represented by Mr. Fox's adherents, nor was it mere wounded feeling,
which time would easily have assuaged; it was a sense of duty (though carried, certainly, to an extreme), which impelled him, with all the force of a religious sentiment, to bear public testimony against one whose opinions he thought dangerous to
the state; like the aged apostle, who is said to have hurried from eole of the city
baths when he saw Cerinthus enter it, declaring that he would not remain for a moment under the same roof with a man who inculcated such fatal errors.
From this time Mr. Burke began to act with Mr. Pitt, and, though he never took
office under his old opponent, his son, whom he had long been training for public life,
had an important station assigned him in the government of Ireland.
There is no page in the history of our English statesmen more full of tenderness
and melancholy than that which records the disappointment of Mr. Burke in regard
to this son. He was an only child, on whom all his parents' hopes were centered.
In the prospect of a speedy retirement from public life, it was the last fond wish of
the father that his son should take his place, especially as he was one who "had
within him" (and would carry into the service of his country) " a salient, living spring
of generous and manly action."  "He," as the father thought, " would have supplied every deficiency, and symmetrized every disproportion" in his own political life.
No doubt he overrated his son's abilities, for he considered them  greater than his
own; but there is the best evidence that Richard Burke had not only a heart full
of tenderness and generosity, but a finely-balanced mind, much knowledge, great
firmness and decision, united to strict integrity and high moral principle. Without
his father's suspecting it, his constitution had given way before his appointment to
Ireland. He was sinking into consumption, and his physicians detained him fiom
his post; not daring, however, to apprise Mr. Burke of the danger, for they knew
that, like the patriarch of old, " his life was bound up in the lad's life," and were
convinced that a knowledge of the truth would prove fatal to him sooner than to his
son. He was, therefore, kept in ignorance until a week before the closing scene, and
from that time until all was over, " he slept not, he scarcely tasted food, or ceased
from the most affecting lamentations."  The last moments of young Burke present
one of those striking cases in which nature seems to rally all her powers at the approach of dissolution, as the taper often burns brightest in the act of going out. His




EDMUND BURKE.                                 235
parents were waiting his departure in an adjoining room (for they were unable to
bear the sight), when he rose from his bed, dressed himself completely, and leaning
on his nurse, entered the apartment where they were sitting. " Speak to me, my
dear father," said he, as he saw them bowed to the earth under the poignancy of
their grief.' I am in no terror; I feel myself better and in spirits; yet my heart
flutters, I know not why! Pray talk to me-of religion-of morality-of indifferent
subjects."  Then turning, he exclaimed, "What noise is that?  Does it rain?  Oh
no, it is the rustling of the wind in the trees;" and broke out at once, with a clear,
sweet voice, in that beautiful passage (the favorite lines of his father) from the Morning Hymn in Milton:
His praise, ye winds, that from four quarters blow,
Breathe soft or loud; and wave your tops, ye pines,
With every plant in sign of worship wave!
He began again, and again repeated them with the same tenderness and fervor,
bowing his head as in the act of worship, and then " sunk into the arms of his parents as in a profound and sweet sleep."  It would be too painful to dwell on the
scenes that followed, until the father laid all that remained to him of his child beneath
the Beaconsfield church, adjoining his estate.  From that hour he never looked, if
he could avoid it, toward that church! Eighteen months after, when he had somewhat recovered his composure, he thus adverted to his loss in his celebrated "Letter
to a Noble Lord:" " The storm has gone over me, and I lie like one of those old oaks
which the late hurricane has scattered around me. I am stripped of all my honors;
I am  torn up by the roots, and lie prostrate on the earth! There, and prostrate
there, I most unfeignedly recognize the divine justice, and in some degree submit to
it."  "I am alone.' I have none to meet bmy enemies inz the gate!"
The "Letter" referred to was called forth by an ungenerous attack from the Duke
of Bedford, a young man who had just entered upon life. At the age of sixty-five,
after devoting more than thirty years to the service of his country, Mr. Burke found
himself oppressed with debts, arising chiefly from his kindness and liberality to indigent men of genius who sought his aid. This fact being known, a pension of ~3700
a year was granted him in October, 1'795, by the express order of the King, without
the slightest solicitation of Mr. Burke or his friends.  The Duke of Bedford, who had
become infected with French principles in politics and religion, made a very offensive allusion to this grant in a debate soon after, and has immortalized his name (the
only way he could ever have done it) by the castigation which he thus provoked.
Of this " Letter" Mr. Mathias says, in his " Pursuits of Literature," "I perceive in
it genius, ability, dignity, imagination; sights more than youthful poets when they
dreamed; and sometimes the philosophy of Plato and the wit of Lucan."
Within less than a year, Mr. Burke commenced his last work, being " Thoughts
on the Prospect of a Regicide Peace," which came out in three successive letters in
1796-7.  His object was to animate his countrymen to a zealous prosecution of the
contest with France, and he now brought out with astonishing ingenuity and eloquence those extreme principles respecting a war with the French Republic which
constituted the chief error of his life. In his " Reflections" he dwelt mainly on the
rashness of the French in their experiments upon government, as a warning to his
own countrymen against repeating the error.  He now took the ground of shutting
France out from  the society of nations! " This pretended republic is founded in
crimes, and exists by wrong and robbery; and wrong and robbery, far from giving a
title to any thing, is a war with mankind."  WTVar, therefore, to the utmost and to
the end, was the only measure to be pursued with the French Republic! "To be
at peace with robbery," said he, "is to be an accomplice with it!"  It seems wonderful how a man like Burke could have fallen into this confusion of ideas between




236                             EDMUND BURKE.
the crimes of individuals against the community in which they live, and the acts of
an organized government, however wrongly constituted, and however cruel or oppressive in the treatment of those within its borders. If the Republic robbed England
or her subjects, there was just ground of war.  But if the internal policy of a government-its crimes (however great) against those who live under it-can justify an
attack from surrounding nations, what government in Europe could escape? or what
would Europe itself be but a field of blood?  The principle of Mr. Burke was that
on which Austria and Prussia sent the Duke of Brunswick, in 1792, to invade France.
And what was the consequence? Prostrate as she was —broken down so completely
in her military spirit and resources, that Mr. Burke seemed justified in his famous
sarcasm, " Gallos quoque in bellis floruisse audivimus," we have heard that the
French were once distinguished in war-France, in a little more than a month,
chased every foreign soldier from her borders; the Republican,laders learned the
art of composing every dissension by turning the passions of the people into a rage
for foreign conquest, until seven hundred and fifty thousand men stood ready to carry
their principles throughout Europe by fire and sword; and, what was worse than
all, the synmpathy of the friends of freedom in every country on the Continent was
turned against their own governments, and given for a time with the warmest zeal
and confidence to this republic of blood. Still, Mr. Burke adhered to his principle.
His only inference from the disasters of the allies was, that they had used means
which were shamefully inadequate to the occasion; that all they had done or attempted was only like " pelting a volcano with pebble stones;" and that the whole
of Europe ought to combine in one grand confederacy to " let loose the ministers of
vengeance in famine, fever, plagues, and death upon a guilty race, to whose frame,
and to all whose habit, order, peace, religion, and virtue were alien and abhorrent."
It is remarkable that this was the only subject on which Mr. Burke was ever betrayed into extreme opinions.  Though many have thought otherwise from looking
exclusively at this period of his life, his whole history shows that he was pre-eminently a man of cautious and moderate views.  Lord Brougham has truly said, "It
would be difficult to find any statesman of any age whose opinions were more habitually marked by moderation; by a constant regard to the dictates of an enlarged
reason; by a fixed determination to be practical at the time he was giving scope to
the most extensive general views; by a cautious and prudent abstinence from  all
extremes.  He brought this spirit of moderation into public afiairs with him; and
if we except the very end of his life, when he had ceased to live much in public, it
stuck by him to the last."  And why did it now desert him?  Because, apparently,
the dangers of the French Revolution, magnified by his powerful imagination, turned
his caution into terror; and all experience shows that nothing is so rash, so headlong, so cruel even, as extreme terror when it takes full possession of a vigorous and
determined intellect. Even our virtues in such cases go to swell our excesses; and
we thus see how a man of Mr. Burke's justice, humanity, and love of genuine freedom,
could become the advocate of war upon principles which would make it eternal, and
be led to justify that doctrine of intervention, which absolute governments have ever
since been using to arrest the progress of liberal institutions in the world.
Before he had finished his " Regicide Peace," Mr. Burke found his health rapidly
declining, and in February, 1797, he removed to Bath to try the effect of its waters.
But his constitution was gone; and after remaining there four months, confined
almost entirely to his bed, he made a last effort to return to Beaconsfield, that his
bones might there rest with those of his son.  "It will be so far, at least," said he,
"on my way to the tomb, and I may as well travel it alive as dead!"  During the
short period that remained to him of life, he gave directions with the utmost calmness about the disposal of his papers; he bore his sufferings with placid resignation,




EDMUND BURKE.                                 237
hoping for divine mercy through the intercession of the Redeemer, which, in his own
words, he " had long sought with unfeigned humiliation, and to which he looked
with trembling hope."  He died on the 9th of July, 1797, in the sixty-eighth year
of his age, and was interred, according to his own directions, in the same grave with
his son.  It was the wish of his friends, and even proposed by Mr. Fox in the House
of Commons, that he should be buried in Westminster Abbey, but the plan was abandoned when the provisions of his will were made known.
Pains have been taken in this memoir to bring out the most striking qualities of
Mr. Burke's mind in connection with the principal events of his life, and thus to
avoid the necessity of an extended summation at the close. He was what the Germans would call a " many-sided man," so that any general analysis of his character
must of necessity be imperfect.  We can form a correct estimate of most orators from
three or four of their best speeches, but fully to know Mr. Burke one must take into
view all that he ever spoke, all that he ever wrote.
%  As an orator he derived little or no advantage from  his personal qualifications.
He was tall, but not robust; his gait and gesture were awkward; his countenance,
though intellectual, was destitute of softness, and rarely relaxed into a smile; and as
he always wore spectacles, his eye gave him no command over an audience.  "His
enunciation," says Wraxall, "was vehement and rapid; and his Irish accent, which:vas as strong as if he had never quitted the banks of the Shannon, diminished to the
ear the effect of his eloquence on the mind."' The variety and extent of his powers in debate was greater than that of any other
orator in ancient or modern times. No one ever poured forth such a flood of thought
-so many original combinations of inventive genius; so much knowledge of man
and the working of political systems; so many just remarks on the relation of government to the manners, the spirit, and even the prejudices of a people; so many
wise maxims as to a change in constitutions and laws; so many beautiful effusions
of lofty and generous sentiment; such exuberant stores of illustration, ornament, and
apt allusion; all intermingled with the liveliest sallies of wit or the boldest flights of
a sublime imagination. In actual debate, as a contemporary informs us, he passed
more rapidly from one exercise of his powers to another, than in his printed productions. During the same evening, sometimes in the space of a few moments, he would
be pathetic and humorous, acrimonious and conciliating, now giving vent to his indignant feelings in lofty declamation, and again, almost in the same breath, convulsing his audience by the most laughable exhibitions of ridicule or burlesque.  In respect
to the versatility of Mr. Burke as an orator, Dr. Parr says, " Who among men of eloquence and learning was ever more profoundly versed in every branch of science?
Who is there that can transfer so happily the results of laborious research to the
most familiar and popular topics?  Who is there that possesses so extensive yet so
accurate an acquaintance with every transaction recent or remote?  Who is there
that can deviate from his subject for the purposes of delight with such engaging ease,
and insensibly conduct his hearers or readers from the severity of reasoning to the
festivity of wit?  Who is there that can melt them, if the occasion requires, with
such resistless power to grief or pity?  Who is there that combines the charm of inimitable grace and urbanity with such magnificent and boundless expansion?"
A prominent feature in the character of Mr. Burke, which prepared him for this
wide exercise of his powers, was intellectual independence.  He leaned on no other
man's understanding, however great.  In the true sense of the term, he never borrowed an idea or an image.  Like food in a healthy system, every thing from without was perfectly assimilated; it entered by a new combination into the very structure of his thoughts, as when the blood, freshly formed, goes out to the extremities
under the strong pulsations of the heart. On most subjects, at the present day, this




238                             EDMUND BURKE.
is all we can expect of originality; the thoughts and feelings which a man expresses
must be truly his own.
In the structure of his mind he had a strong resemblance to Bacon, nor was he
greatly his inferior in the leading attributes of his intellect. In imagination he went
far beyond him.  He united more perfectly than any other man the discordant qualities of the philosopher and the poet, and this union was equally the source of some
of his greatest excellencies and faults as an orator.
The first thing that strikes us in a survey of his understanding is its remarkable
cJ'zprehensivenzess.  He had an amplitude of mind, a power and compass of intellectual vision, beyond that of most men that ever lived. He looked on a subject like
a man standing upon an eminence, taking a large and rounded view of it on every
side, contemplating each of its parts under a vast variety of relations, and those relations often extremely complex or remote.  To this wide grasp of original thought
he added every variety of information gathered from abroad.  There was no subject
on which he had not read, no system  relating to the interests of man as a social
being which he had not thoroughly explored. All these treasures of acquired knowledge he brought home to amplify and adorn the products of his own genius, as the
ancient Romans collected every thing that was beautiful in the spoils of conquered
nations, to give new splendor to the seat of empire.
To this largeness of view he added a surprising subtlety of intellect.  So quick
and delicate were his perceptions that he saw his way clearly through the most
complicated relations, following out the finest thread of thought without once letting
go his hold, or becoming lost or perplexed in the intricacies of the subject.  This
subtlety, however, did not usually take the form of mere logical acuteness in the
detection of fallacies. He was not remarkable for his dexterity as a disputant. He
loved rather to build up than to pull down; he dwelt not so much on the differences
of things, as on some hidden agreement between them when apparently most dissimilar.  The association of resemblance was one of the most active principles of his
nature.  While it filled his mind with all the imagery of the poet, it gave an impulse and direction to his researches as a philosopher.  It led him, as his favorite
employment, to trace out analogies, correspondencies, or contrasts (which last, as
Brown remarks, are the necessary result of a quick sense of resemblance); thus
filling up his originally comprehensive mind with a beautiful series of associated
thoughts, showing often the identity of things which appeared the most unlike, and
binding together in one system what might seem the most unconnected or contradictory phenomena.  To this he added another principle of association, still more
characteristic of the philosopher, that of cause and effect.  "Why?"  "Whence?"
By what means?   "For what end?"  "With what results?" these questions from
childhood were continually pressing upon his mind. To answer them in respect to
man in all his multiplied relations as the creature of society, to trace out the working of political institutions, to establish the principles of wise legislation, to lay open
the sources of national security and advancement, was the great object of his life;
and he here found the widest scope for that extraordinary subtlety of intellect of
which we are now speaking.  In these two principles of association, we see the origin of Mr. Burke's inexhaustible richness of thought.  We see, also, how it was that
in his mode of viewing a subject there was never any thing ordinary or commonplace.  If the topic was a trite one, the manner of presenting it was peculiarly his
own.  As in the kaleidoscope, the same object takes a thousand new shapes and col*ors under a change of light, so in his mind the most hackneyed theme was transformed and illuminated by the radiance of his genius, or placed in new relations
which gave it all the freshness of original thought.
This amplitude and subtlety of intellect, in connection with his peculiar habits of




EDMUND BURKE.                                  239
association, prepared the way for another characteristic of Mr. Burke, his remarkable
power of generalization. Without this he might have been one of the greatest of
poets, but not a philosopher or a scientific statesman. " To generalize," says Sir
James Mackintosh, "is to philosophize; and comprehension of mind, joined to the
habit of careful and patient observation, forms the true genius of philosophy."  But
it was not in his case a mere " habit," it was a kind of instinct of his nature, which
led him to gather all the results of his thinking, as by an elective affinity, around
their appropriate centers; and, knowing that truths are valuable just in proportion
as they have a wider reach, to rise from particulars to generals, and so to shape his
statements as to give them the weight and authority of universal propositions.  His
philosophy, however, was not that of abstract truth; it was confined to things in the
concrete, and chiefly to man, society, and government.  He was no metaphysician;
he had, in fact, a dislike, amounting to weakness, of all abstract reasonings in politics, affirming, on one. occasion, as to certain statements touching the rights of man,
that just " in proportion as they were metaphysically true, they were morally and
politically false!"  He was, as he himself said, " a philosopher in action;" his generalizations embraced the great facts of human society and political institutions as
affected by all the interests and passions, the prejudices and frailties of a being like
man.  The impression he made was owing, in a great degree, to the remoteness of
the ideas which he brought together, the startling novelty and yet justness of his
combinations, the heightening power of contrast, and the striking manner in which he
connected truths of imperishable value with the individual case before him. It is here
that we find the true character and office of Mr. Burke. He was the man of p7rinciples; one of the greatest teachers of" civil prudence" that the world has ever seen.
A collection of maxims might be made from his writings infinitely superior to those
of Rochefoucauld; equally true to nature, and adapted, at the same time, not to produce selfishness and distrust, but to call into action all that is generous, and noble,
and elevated in the heart of man. His high moral sentiment and strong sense of
religion added greatly to the force of these maxims; and, as a result of these fine
generalizations, Mr. Burke has this peculiarity, which distinguishes him from every
other writer, that he is almost equally instructive whether he is right or wrong as to
the particular point in debate.  He may fail to make out his case; opposing considerations may induce us to decide against him; and yet every argument he uses is
full of instruction: it contains great truths, which, if they do not turn the scale here,
may do it elsewhere; so that he whose mind is filled with the maxims of Burke has
within him not only one of the finest incentives of genius, but a fountain of the richest thought, which may flow forth through a thousand channels in all the efforts of
his own intellect, to whatever subject those efforts may be directed.
With these qualities and habits of mind, the oratory of Mr. Burke was of necessity
didactic.  His speeches were lectures, and, though often impassioned, enlivened at
one time with wit, and rising at another into sublimity or pathos, they usually became wearisome to the House from their minuteness and subtlety, as
" He went on refining,
And thought of convincing while they thought of dining."
We see, then, in the philosophical habits of his mind (admirable as the results were
in most respects), why he spoke so often to empty benches, while Fox, by seizing on
the strong points of the case, by throwing away intermediate thoughts, and striking
at the heart of the subject, never failed to carry the House with him in breathless
attention.
His method was admirable, in respect at least to his published speeches.  No
man ever bestowed more care on the arrangement of his thoughts.  The exceptions
to this remark are aparent,                       ow and then a slight irregularity




240                             EDMUND BURKE.
in his mode of transition, which seems purposely thrown in to avoid an air of sameness; and the subordinate heads sometimes spread out so widely, that their connection with the main topic is not always obvious.  But there is reigning throughout
the whole a massive unity of design like that of a great cathedral, whatever may be
the intricacy of its details.
In his reasonings (for he was one of the greatest masters of reason in our language,
though some have strangely thought him deficient in this respect) Mr. Burke did not
usually adopt the outward forms of logic. He has left us, indeed, some beautiful specimens of dialectical ability, but his arguments, in most instances, consisted of the amplest enumeration and the clearest display of all the facts and principles, the analogies,
relations, or tendencies which were applicable to the case, and were adapted to settle
it on the immutable basis of the nature and constitution of things. Here again he
appeared, of necessity, more as a teacher than a logician, and hence many were led
to underrate his argumentative powers. The exuberance of his fancy was likewise
prejudicial to him in this respect.  Men are apt to doubt the solidity of a structure
which is covered all over with flowers. As to this peculiarity of his eloquence, Mr.
Fox truly said, "It injures his reputation; it casts a vail over his wisdom.  Reduce
his language, withdraw his images, and you will find that he is more wise than eloquent; you will have your full weight of metal though you melt down the chasing."
In respect to Mr. Burke's imagery, however, it may be proper to remark, that a
large part of it is not liable to any censure of this kind; many of his figures are so
finely wrought into the texture of his style, that we hardly think of them as figures
at all.  His great fault in other cases is that of giving them too bold a relief, or
dwelling on them  too long, so that the primary idea is lost sight of in the image.
Sometimes the prurience of his fancy makes him low and even filthy.  He is like
a man depicting the scenes of nature, who is not content to give us those features
of the landscape that delight the eye, but fills out his canvas with objects which are
coarse, disgusting, or noisome.  Hence no writer in any language has such extremes
of imagery as Mr. Burke, from his picture of the Queen of France, "glittering like
the morning star, full of life, and splendor, and joy," or of friendship, as " the soft green
of the soul, on which the eye loves to repose," to Lord Chatham's administration
" pigging together in the same truck]e-bed," and Mr. Dundas, with his East India
bills, "exposed like the imperial sow of augury, lying in the mud with the prodigies
of her fertility about her, as evidences of her delicate amours."
His language, though copious, was not verbose.  Every word had its peculiar force
and application. His chief fault was that of overloading his sentences with secondary thoughts, which weakened the blow by dividing it. His style is, at times, more
careless andinaccuratethainghtbeexpectedin sogreaawviter. than mgtb  ind
was on higher things.  His idea of a truly fine sentence, as once stated to a friend,
is worthy of being remembered. It consists, said he, in a union of thought, feeling,
and imagery -  of a striking truth and a corresponding sentiment, rendered doubly
striking by the force and beauty of figurative language.  There are more sentences
of this kind in the pages of Mr. Burke than of any other writer.
In conclusion, we may say, without paradox, since oratory is only one branch of
the quality we are now considering, that while Mr. Burke was inferior as an orator
to Lord Chatham and Mr. Fox, he has been surpassed by no one in the richness and
splendor of his eloquence; and that he has left us something greater and better than
all eloquence in his countless lessons of moral and civil wisdom.




SPEECH
OF MR. BURKE ON AMERICAN TAXATION, DELIVERED IN TIE HOUSE OF COMMONS, APRIL 19,1774.
INTRODUCTION.
THE measures of the different British ministers respecting American taxation, from the passing of the
Stamp Act in 1765 to the repeal of all taxes except that on tea in 1770, have been detailed already, in connection with the speeches of Lord Chatham. Lord North's policy in respect to America was arbitrary and
fluctuating. It was well described by a contemporary writer as " a heterogeneous mixture of concession
and coercion; of concession not tending to conciliate, and of coercion that could not be carried into execution-at once exciting hatred for the intention and contempt for the weakness." After the destruction
of the tea in the harbor of Boston, violent measures prevailed. In March, 1774, laws were passed depriving Massachusetts of her charter, and closing the port of Boston against all commerce. Some, however,
who had supported Lord North in these measures, thought they should be accompanied by an act indicative of a desire to Conciliate. /Accordingly, Mr. Rose Fuller, of Rye, who usually voted with the ministry,
moved on the 19th of'April, 17I4, "that the House resolve itself into a committee of the whole House, to
take into consideration the duty of threepene per pound on tea,payable in all his Majesty's dominions
in America," with a view to repealing the saTe. Mr. Burke seconded the proposal, and sustained it in the
following speech.'i The unfavorable circumstances under which he commenced, and the complete mastery
which he soon gained over his audience, have been already described. The applause so lavishly bestowed upon this speech was richly merited. No one had ever been delivered in the Parliament of Great
Britain so full at once of deep research, cogent reasoning, cutting sarcasm, graphic description, profound
political wisdom, and fervid declamation. Lord Chatham alone had surpassed it in glowing and impassioned eloquence.
In discussing the subject, Mr. Burke confined himself to the single question, I' Ought the tax on tea to be
abandoned, and with it the entire scheme of raising a parliamentary revenue out of the colonies?'  The
measure had been popular throughout all England, except in a few commercial cities; and, whether wisely
adopted or not, there were strong objections to an abandonment of the system while America remained in
the attitude of open resistance. Instead of reserving these objections to be answered in form at the close
of the main argument, Mr. Burke disposes of them at once in a preliminary head, under what he calls " the
narrow" view of the subject; i. e., the mere question of repeal. Here he obviates the difficulties referred
to; not speaking to the several points, however, under the name of objections, but rather turning the tables on Lord North with admirable dexterity, and showing that by his previous concessions he had himself opened the way for an immediate and entire repeal. Mr. Burke next enters on his main argument
by giving a historical sketch of the colonial system of England from the passing of the Navigation Act in
1651. He shows that this system did not originally contemplate any direct taxation of the colonies. He
traces the steps by which the scheme of obtaining a revenue from America was introduced and modified;
sketches the character of the men concerned; and urges a return to the original principles of the Naviga
tion Act, as the only means of restoring peace to the empire.
It would be difficult to find any oration, ancient or modern, in which the matter is more admirably arranged. The several parts support     h  the chne 1  fsi.m'a complete _    sys_ e'otho:...   The
ArZke-tie- of. Grenville,Mr. Townsend, Lord Chatham, and his admhinistration, are not strictly excrescences, though it would be unsafe for any man less gifted than Mr. Burke to arrest the progress of the discussion, and conduct the audience through such a picture-gallery of statesmen. They do, in one sense,
form a part of the argument; for it was the character of the men that decided the character of the measures, and showed how England had been led to adopt a system which ought forever to be abandoned.
Even the glowing picture of General Conway's reception by "the trading interest," as they "jumped
upon him like children on a long-absent father," and " clung alpoDn- imas captives about their redeemer,"
whlen he carried th og      eail t oh- e   ftStfamp Act, adds force to the argumeTiiforifsTsows how American taxation was regarded by those who were best informed on the subject.
The language of this speech is racy and pungent. It is nowhere so polished or rounded off as to lose its,
sharpness. The folly of American taxation is exposed in the keenest terms, from the opening paragraph);
where the House is spoken of as having, "for nine long years," been "lashed round and round this mist
erable circle of occasional arguments and temporary expedients," to the closing sentence, in which Mr
Burke tells the ministry, "Until you come back to that system [the system of the Navigation Act], therm
will be no peace for England."
Q




242                                    MR. BURKE ON                                        [1774.
SPEECH, &o.
SIR,-I agree with the honorable gentleman1  bounded as the subject and the extent of his great
who spoke last, that this subject is not new in  abilities.
this House.  Very disagreeably to this House,    Sir, when I can not obey all his laws, I will do
very unfortunately to this nation, and to the  the best I can.  I will endeavor to obey The broad
peace and prosperity of this whole empire, no  such of them as have the sanction of his view the
topic has been more familiar to us.  For nine  example; and to stick to that rule, properone.
long years, session after session, we. have been  which, though not consistent with the other, is
lashed round and round this miserable circle of  the most rational.  He was certainly in the
occasional arguments and temporary expedients.  right when he took the matter largely.  I can
I am sure our heads must turn, and our stomachs  not prevail on myself to agree with him in his
nauseate with them.  We have had them in ev-  censure of his own conduct.  It is not, he will
cry shape; we have looked at them  in every  give me leave to say, either useless or dangerpoint of view.  Invention is exhausted; reason  ous.  He asserts that retrospect is not wise;
is fatigued; experience has given judgment; but and the proper, the only proper subject of inobstinacy is not yet conquered.                  quiry is, " not how we got into this difficulty,
The honorable gentleman has made one en-  but how  we are to get out of it."  In other
deavor more to diversify the form of this disgust-  words, we are, according to him, to consult our
ing argument. He has thrown out a speech com- invention and to reject our experience.  The
posed almost entirely of challenges.  Challenges  mode of deliberation he recommends is diametriare serious things; and, as he is a man of pru- cally opposite to every rule of reason, and every
dence as well as resolution, I dare say he has  principle of good sense established among manvery well weighed those challenges before he  kind; for that sense and that reason I have aldelivered them.  I had long the happiness to sit ways understood absolutely to prescribe, whenat the same side of the House, and to agree with  ever we are involved in difficulties from  the
the honorable gentleman on all the American  measures we have pursued, that we should take
questions.  My sentiments, I am sure, are well a strict review of those measures, in order to corknown to him; and I thought I had been per-  rect our errors, if they should be corrigible; or
fectly acquainted with his.  Though I find my-  at least to avoid a dull uniformity in mischief;
self mistaken, he will still permit me to use the  and the unpitied calamity of being repeatedly
privilege of an old friendship; he will permit me  caught in the same snare.
to apply myself to the House under the sanction     Sir, I will freely follow the honorable gentle-,of his authority; and on the various grounds he  man in his historical discussion, without the least
ihas measured out, to submit to you the poor opin- management for men or measures, farther than
ions which I have formed upon a matter of im- as they shall seem to me to deserve it.  But beportance enough to demand the fullest consider-  fore I go into that large consideration, because
ation I could bestow upon it.                    I would omit nothing that can give the House
He has stated to the House two grounds of  satisfaction, I wish to tread,
rwo modes deliberation, one narrow  and simple,   Hi7. The NARROW GROUND, to which alone the
of discussion. and merely confined to the question on  honorable gentleman, in one part of his Objections to
-you'r paper:; the other more large and compli-  speech, has so strictly confined us.   the repeal.
cated; comprehending the whole series of the        (1.) He desires to know whether, if we were
parliamentary proceedings with regard to Amer-  to repeal this tax agreeably to the will not the
ica, their causes, and their consequences.  With  proposition of the honorable gentle- Americans deregard to the latter ground, he states it as use-  man who made the motion, the Amer-       
less, and thinks it may beeven dangerous to en-  leans would not take post on this concession, in
ter into so extensive a field of inquiry, Yet, to my  order to make a new attack on the next body of
surprise, he has hardly laid down this restrictive  taxes; and whether they would not call for a reproposition, to which his authority would have  peal of the duty on wine as loudly as they do
(riven so much weight, when directly, and with  now for the repeal of the duty on tea?  Sir, I
the same authority, he condemns it., and declares  can give no security on this subject.  But I will
it absolutely necessary to enter into the most am- do all that I can, and all that can be fairly deple historical detail.  His zeal has thrown him a  manded.  To the experience which the honoralittle out of his usual accuracy.  In this perplex- ble gentleman reprobates in one instant and reity, what shall we do, sir, who are willing to sub- verts to in the next; to that experience, without
mit to the law he gives us?  He has reprobated  the least wavering or hesitation on my part, I
in one part of his speech the rule he had laid  -steadily appeal; and would to God there was no
down for debate in the other; and, after narrow-  other arbiter to decide on the vote with which;ng the ground for all those who are to speak  the House is to conclude this day:fter him, he takes an excursion himself, as un-    When Parliament repealed the Stamp Act in
the year 1766, I affirm, first, that the Americans
1 Chas. Wolfran Cornwall, Esq., one of the Lords  did not, in consequence of this measure, call upon
of the Treasury, and afterward Speaker of the House  you to give up the former parliamentary revenue
of Commons.                                       which subsisted in that country, or even any one




1774.]                           AMERICAN  TAXATION.                                       243
of the articles which compose it.2  I affirm, also, condemned by himself, and by all his associates.
that when, departing from the maxims of that re- old and new, as a destroyer, in the first trust of
peal, you revived'the scheme of taxation, and  finance, in the revenues; and in the first rank of
thereby filled the minds of the colonists with new  honor, as a betrayer of the dignity of his country.
jealousy, and all sorts of apprehension, then it was    Most men, especially great men, do not always
that they quarreled with the old taxes as well as know their well-wishers.  I come to rescue that
the new; then it was, and not till then, that they  noble Lord out of the hands of those he calls his
questioned all the parts of your legislative power; friends, and even out of his own.  I will do him
and by the battery of such questions have shaken  the justice he is denied at home.  He has not
the solid structure of this empire to its deepest been this wicked or imprudent man.  He knew
foundations.                                    that a repeal had no tendency to produce the misOf those two propositions I shall, before I have  chiefs which'give so much alarm to his honora.
done, give such convincing, such damning proof, ble friend.  His work was not bad in its princithat however the contrary may be whispered in pie, but imperfect in its execution; and the mocircles, or bawled in newspapers, they never more tion on your paper presses him only to complete
will dare to raise their voices in this House.  I a proper plan, which, by some unfortunate and
speak with great confidence.  I have reason'for unaccountable error, he had left unfinished.
it.  The ministers are with me.' They, at least,    I hope, sir, the honorable gentleman who spoke
are convinced that the repeal of the Stamp Act last is thoroughly satisfied, and satisfied out of the
had not, and that no repeal can have, the conse- proceedings of the ministry on their own favorite
quences which the honorable gentleman who de- act, that his fears from a repeal are groundless.
fends their measures is so much alarmed at. To  If he is not, I leave him, and the noble Lord who
their conduct I refer him for a conclusive answer sits by him, to settle the matter, as well as they
to his objection.  I carry my proof irresistibly  can, together; toi if the repeal of American taxes
into the very body of both ministry and Parlia- destroys all our government in America-he is
ment; not on any general reasoning growing  the man — and he is the worst of all the repealout of collateral matter, but on the conduct of  ers, because he is the last.4
the honorable gentleman's ministerial friends on    (2.) But I hear it continually rung in my ears,
the new revenue itself.                         now  and formerly, "the preamble! Will consist
The act of 1767, which grants this tea duty, what will become of the preamble, if ency permit
sets forth in its preamble that it was expedient you repeal this tax?"  I am sorry to  
to raise a revenue in America for the support of be compelled so often to expose the calamities
the civil government there, as well as for pur- and disgraces of Parliament.  The preamble of
poses still more extensive.  To this support the this law, standing as it now stands, has the lie diact assigns six branches of duties.  About two  rect given to it by the provisionary part of the
years after this act passed, the ministry-I mean  act; if that can be called provisionary which
the present ministry-thought it expedient to re- makes no provision.  I should be afraid to expeal five of the duties, and to leave, for reasons press myself in this manner, especially in the face
best known to themselves, only the sixth stand- of such a formidable array of ability as is now
ing.  Suppose any person, at the time of that drawn up before me, composed of the ancient
repeal, had thus addressed the minister: " Con- household troops of that side of the House, and
demning, as you do, the repeal of the Stamp Act, the new recruits from this, if the matter were
why do you venture to repeal the duties upon  not clear and indisputable.  Nothing but truth
glass, paper, and painters' colors?  Let your could give me this firmness; but plain truth and
pretense for the repeal be what it will, are you  clear evidence can be beat down by no ability.
not thoroughly convinced that your concessions The clerk will be so good as to turn to the act,
will produce, not satisfaction, but insolence, in  and to read this favorite preamble.
the Americans; and that the giving up these    [It was read in the following words:
taxes will necessitate the giving up of all the    "Whereas it is expedient that a revenue
rest?"  This objection was as palpable then as should be raised in your Majesty's dominions in
it is now; and it was as good for preserving the America, for making a more certain and adequate
five duties as for retaining the sixth.  Besides, provision for defraying the charge of the adminthe minister will recollect, that the repeal of the  istration of justice and support of civil governStamp Act had but just preceded his repeal; and  ment in such provinces where it shall be found
the ill policy of that measure (had it been so im- necessary, and toward farther defraying the expolitic as it has been represented), and the mis- penses of defending, protecting, and securing the
chiefs it produced, were quite recent. Upon the said dominions."]
principles, therefore, of the honorable gentleman,    You have heard this pom'pous performance.
upon the principles of the minister himself, the  Now where is the revenue which is to do all
minister has nothing at all to answer. He stands these mighty things?  Five sixths repealed —
2 There is reason to believe that the colonies abandoned-sunk   gone-lost forever.  Doec
would not have made any opposition to duties imposed for the mere regulation of trade.           4 The pungency of this argumentuam ad hominemn
3 Lord North, then Chancellor of the Bscheuev, is increased by the ingenious turn given to it by Mr.
was minister at the time of this repeal, March 5tlb, I i ake, that he is defending Lord. North against his
If"r0.                                         Iown f-liends and adherents.




244                                   MR. BURKE ON                                       [1774.
the poor solitary tea duty support the purposes  lead, and red lead, and painters' colors?  Tea is
of this preamble?  Is not the supply there stated  an object of far other importance.  Tea is peras effectually abandoned as if the tea duty had  haps the most important object, taking it with its
perished in the general wreck?  Here, Mr. necessary connections, of any in the mighty cirSpeaker, is a precious mockery-a preamble  cle of our commerce.  If commercial principles
without an act-taxes granted in order to be re- had been the true motives to the repeal, or had
pealed-and the reasons of the grant still care- they been at all attended to, tea would have been
fully kept up!  This is raising a revenue in  the last article we should have left taxed for a
America!  This is preserving dignity in En- subject of controversy.
gland!  If you repeal this tax in compliance    Sir, it is not a pleasant consideration; but
with the motion, I readily admit that you lose nothing in the world can read so awful and so inthis fair preamble.  Estimate your loss in it. structive a lesson, as the conduct of ministry in
The object of the act is gone already; and all this business, upon the mischief of not having
you suffer is the purging the statute-book of the large and liberal ideas in the management of
opprobrium  of an empty, absurd, and false re- great affairs.6  Never have the servants of the
cital.                                          state looked at the whole of your complicated inIt has been said again and again, that the five terests in one connected view.  They have taken
Pretense that taxes were repealed on commercial things by bits and scraps, some at one time and
tere rtealed principles.  lt is so said in the paper one pretense, and some at another, just as they
otn comnmercial in my hand5-a paper which I con- pressed, without any sort of regard to their relastantly carry about, which I have oft- tions or dependencies.  They never had any kind
en used, and shall often use agail)  What is got of system, right or wrong, but only invented ocby this paltry pretense of commercial principles casionally some miserable tale for the day, in orI know not; for, if your government in America  der meanly to sneak out of difficulties into which
is destroyed by the repeal of taxes, it is of no con- they had proudly strutted.  And they were put
sequence upon what ideas the repeal is ground- to all these shifts and devices, full of meanness and
ed.  Repeal this tax, too, upon commercial prin- full of mischief, in order to pilfer piecemeal a reciples, if you please.  These principles will serve  peal of an act which they had not the generous
as well now as they did formerly.  But you know  courage, when they found and felt their error,
that, either your objection to a repeal from these honorably and fairly to disclaim.  By such mansupposed consequences has no validity, or that agement, by the irresistible operation of feeble
this pretense never could remove it.  This com- counsels, so paltry a sum  as threepence in the
inercial motive never was believed by any man, eyes of a financier, so insignificant an article as
either in America4which this letter is meant to  tea in the eyes of a philosopher, have shaken the
soothej or in England, which it is meant to de- pillars of a commercial empire that circled the
ceive.  It was impossible it should; because ev- whole globe.
ery man, in the least acquainted with the detail    Do you forget that, in the very last year, you
of commerce, must know, that several of the ar- stood on the precipice of a general The wants of
tides on which the tax was repealed were fitter bankruptcy?  Your danger was in- dli Coat Inobjects of duties than almost any other articles deed great.  You were distressed in forbid the tax.
that could possibly be chosenr  without compari- the affairs of the East India Company  and you
son more so than the tea that was left taxed, as well know what sort of things are involved in the
infinitely less liable to be eluded by contraband. comprehensive energy of that significant appellaThe tax upon red and white lead was of this na- tion.  I am not called upon to enlarge to you on
ture.  You have, in this kingdom, an advantage  that danger, which you thought proper yourselves
in, lead that amounts to a monopoly.  When you  to aggravate, and to display to the world with
find yourself in this situation of advantage, you  all the parade of indiscreet declamation.  The
sometimes venture to tax even your own export. monopoly of the most lucrative trades and the
You did so, soon after the last war, when, upon  possession of imperial revenues had brought you
this principle, you ventured to impose a duty on  to the verge of beggary and ruin.  Such was
coals.  In all the articles of American contra- your representation — such, in some measure,
band trade, who ever heard of the smuggling of was your case.  The vent of ten millions of
red lead and white lead?  You might, there- pounds of this commodity, now locked up by the
fore, well enough, without danger of contraband,   6and without injury to commerce (if this were the. Buke hereausesforamoent in thprogwit.-out i.jiry to cfth  et   ress of his argument, to give us one of those fine genwhole consideration), have taxed these commodi- eralizations with which he so often strengthens and
ties. The same may be said of glass. Besides, dignifies his discussion of a particular point, by rissrnme of the things taxed were so trivial, that the ing to some broader truth with which it is connected.
loss of the objects themselves, and their utter an- The stinging force of his imagery in some parts, and
lihilation out of American comnierce would have  the beauty of it in others, are worthy of attention.
been comparatively as nothingor  But is the arti-    the next paragraph he puts te argument on 
cie of tea such an object in th-tiade of England ew groud, viz., that the wants of the East Iia
a        ss notbe fel fet to b e felt, lor f e l t sg hCompany  ought to have prevented a quarrel about
~ —  ________  ______   -    ______.tea with the colonies, which would have furnished
5 Lord Hillsborough's circular letter to the gov- an immense market, if they had not been led to com
ernors of the colonies concerning the repeal of some bine against the use of it by abhorrence of the tax:
of t]r  duties laid in the act of 1767.         he then returns to the subject of the preamble.




ti74.]                           AMERICAN TAXATION.                                       245
operation of an injudicious tax, and rotting in the  finance by flinging away your revenue; you alwarehouses of the Company, would have pre- lowed the whole drawback on export, and then
vented all this distress, and all that series of des- you charged the duty (which you had before disperate measures which you thought yourselves charged) payable in the colonies, where it was
obliged to take in consequence of it.  America  certain the collection would devour it to the
would have furnished that vent, which no oth- bone, if any revenue were ever suffered to be
er part of the world can furnish but America; collected at all.  One spirit pervades and aniwhere tea is next to a necessary of life, and  mates the whole mass.
where the demand grows upon the supply.  I    Could any thing be a subject of more just
hope our dear-bought East India committees  alarm to America than to see you go out of the
have done us at least so much good as to let us plain high road of finance, and give up your most
know, that without a more extensive sale of that certain revenues and your clearest interest merearticle, our East India revenues and acquisitions ly for the sake of insulting your colonies?  No
can have no certain connection with this country. man ever doubted that the commodity of tea
It is through the American trade of tea that your could bear an imposition of threepence.  But no
East India conquests are to be prevented from  commodity will bear threepence, or will bear a
crushing you with their burden.  They are  penny, when the general feelings of men are irponderous indeed; and they must have that ritated, and two millions of people are resolved
great country to lean upon, or they tumble upon  not to pay.  The feelings of the colonies were
your head.  It is the same folly that has lost you  formerly the feelings of Great Britain.  Theirs
at once the benefit of the West and of the East. were formerly the feelings of Mr. Hampden when
This folly has thrown open folding doors to con- called upon for the payment of twenty shillings.7
traband, and will be the means of giving the prof- Would twenty shillings have ruined Mr. Hampits of the trade of your colonies to every nation  den's fortune?  No! but the payment of half
but yourselves.  Never did a people suffer so  twenty shillings, on the principle it was demandmuch for the empty words of a preamble.  It ed, would have made him  a slave.  It is the
must be given up.  For on what principle does weight of that preamble, of which you are so
it stand?  This famous revenue stands, at this fond, and not the weight of the duty, that the
hour, on all the debate, as a description of rev- Americans are unable and unwilling to bear.
enue not as yet known in all the comprehensive,    It is then, sir, upon the principle of this measbut too comprehensive! vocabulary of finance-   ure, and nothing else, that we are at issue.  It
a preamdblary tax. It is, indeed, a tax of soph- is a principle of political expediency.  Your act
istry, a tax of pedantry, a tax of disputation, a  of 1767 asserts that it is expedient to raise a
tax of war and rebellion, a tax for any thing but revenue in America; your act of 1769 [March,
benefit to the imposers, or satisfaction to the sub- 1770], which takes away that revenue, contraject.                                          diets the act of 1767; and, by something much
(3.) Well! but, whatever it is, gentlemen will stronger than words, asserts that it is not expeoglt sosmall force the colonists to take the teas. dient.  It is a reflection upon your wisdom to
ataxtobecom- You will force them?  Has seven  persist in a solemn parliamentary declaration of
years' struggle been yet able to force  the expediency of any object, for which, at the
them?  0, but it seems we are yet in the right. same time, you make no sort of provision.  And
The tax is " trifling -in effect, it is rather an  pray, sir, let not this circumstance escape youexoneration than an imposition; three fourths it is very material-that the preamble of this act,
of the duty formerly payable on teas exported to  which we wish to repeal, is not declaratory of a
America is taken off; the place of collection is right, as some gentlemen seem to argue it; it is
only shifted; instead of the retention of a shilling  only a recital of the expediency of a certain exfrom the drawback here, it is threepence custom  ercise of a right supposed already to have been
paid in America."  All this, sir, is very true. asserted; an exercise you are now contending
But this is the very folly and mischief of the act. for by ways and means, which you confess,
Incredible as it may seem, you know that you  though they were obeyed, to be utterly insuffihave deliberately thrown away a large duty  cient for their purpose.  You are, therefore, at
which you held secure and quiet in your hands, this moment in the awkward situation of fightfor the vain hope of getting one three fourths ing for a phantom-a quiddity-a thing that
less, through every hazard, through certain liti- wants not only a substance, but even a name;
gation, and possibly through war.              for a thing which is neither abstract right, nor
The manner of proceeding in the duties on  profitable enjoyment.
Shown to be paper and glass imposed by the. same    (4.) They tell you, sir, that your dignity is
foolish by this
fery sfact that act, was exactly in'the same spirit. tied to it.  I know not how it happens, will d.init
itis emall.  There are heavy excises on those ar- but this dignity of yours is a terrible permit a reticles when used in England.  On export, these  encumbrance to you, for it has of late pea?
excises are drawn back.  But instead of with- been at war with your interest, your equity, and
holding the drawback, which might have been  every idea of your policy.  Show the thing you
done, with ease, without charge, without possibility of smuggling; and instead of applying the    7 The refusal of this celebrated man to pay " shipmoney (money already in your hands) according  money," when illegally demanded by Charles I., is
to ycur pleasure, you began your operations in  known to all.




246                                   MR. BURKE' ON                                        [1774.
contend for to be reason; show it to be common  the House.  This speech was made on the 9th
sense; show it to be the means of attaining some  day of May, 1769.  Five days after this speech,
useful end; and then I am  content to allow it that is, on the 13th of the same month, the public
what dignity you please.  But what dignity is  circular letter, a part of which I am  going to
derived from  the perseverance in absurdity, is read to you, was written by Lord Hillsborough,
more than ever I could discern.  The honorable  secretary of state for the colonies.  After regentleman has said well-indeed, in most of his citing the substance of the King's speech, he
general observations I agree with him-he says, goes on thus:
that this subject does not stand as it did formerly.    "I can take upon me to assure you, notwithOh, certainly not! every hour you continue on  standing insinuations to the contrary, from men
this ill-chosen ground, your difficulties thicken on  with factious and seditious views, that his Majyou; and, therefore, my conclusion is, remove  esty's present administration have at no time
from a bad position as quickly as you can.  The  entertained a design to propose to Parliament to
disgrace, and the necessity of yielding, both of  lay any farther taxes upon America for the purthem, grow upon you every hour of your delay.  pose of raising a revenue; and that it is at presBut will you repeal the act, says the honorable  ent their intention to propose, the next session
Dignity did  gentleman, at this instant, when Amer-  of Parliament, to take off the duties upon glass,
not prevent ica is in open resistance to your au- paper, and colors, upon consideration of such duofa repeal in thority, and that you have just revived  ties having been laid contrary to the true printhevery same 
circumstan- your system of taxation?  He thinks ciples of commerce.
ce'       he has driven us into a corner.  But    "These have always been, and still are, the
thus pent up, I am  content to meet him, be- sentiments of his Majesty's present servants, and
cause I enter the lists supported by my old au- by which their conduct in respect to America
thority, his new friends, the ministers themselves. has been governed. And his Majesty relies upon
The honorable gentleman remembers that about your prudence and fidelity for such an explanafive years ago as great disturbances as the pres- tion of his measures as may tend to remove the
ent prevailed in America on account of the new  prejudices which have been excited by the mistaxes.  The ministers represented these disturb- representations of those who are enemies to the
ances as treasonable; and this House thought peace and prosperity of Great Britain and her
proper, on that representation, to make a famous  colonies, and to re-establish that mutual confiaddress for a revival and for a new application  dence and affection upon which the glory and
of a statute of Henry VIII.  We besought the  safety of the British empire depend."
King, in that well-considered address, to inquire    Here, sir, is a canonical book of ministerial
into treasons, and to bring the supposed traitors scripture; the General Epistle to the Amerifrom America to Great Britain for trial.8  His cans.  What does the gentleman  say to it?
Majesty was pleased graciously to promise a  Here a repeal is promised; promised without
compliance with our request.  All the attempts  condition, and while your authority was actually
from this side of the House to resist these vio-' resisted.  I pass by the public promise of a peer
lences, and to bring about a repeal, were treated  relative to the repeal of taxes by this House. I
with the utmost scorn.  An apprehension of the  pass by the use of the King's name in a matter
very consequences now stated by the honorable  of supply-that sacred and reserved right of the
gentleman was then given as a reason for shut-  Commons.  I conceal the ridiculous figure of
ting the door against all hope of such an altera- Parliament, hurling its thunders at the gigantic
tion.  And so strong was the spirit for support- rebellion of America, and then, five days after,
ing the new taxes, that the session concluded  prostrate at the feet of those assemblies we afwith the following remarkable declaration.  Aft- fected to despise, begging them, by the interer stating the vigorous measures which had been  vention of our ministerial sureties, to receive our
pursued, the speech from the throne proceeds:   submission, and heartily promising amendment.
" You have assured me of your firm support These might have been serious matters formerly 
in the prosecution of them.  Nothing, in my  but we are grown wiser than our fathers. Passopinion, could be more likely to enable the well- ing, therefore, from the constitutional considera.disposed among my subjects in that part of the  tion to the mere policy, does not this letter imply
world effectually to discourage and defeat the  that the idea of taxing America for the purpose
designs of the factious and seditious, than the  of revenue is an abominable project, when the
hearty concurrence of every branch of the Leg- ministry suppose none but factious men, and with
islature in maintaining the execution of the laws  seditious views, could charge them with it? Does
in every part of my dominions."                  not this letter adopt and sanctify the American
After this, no man dreamed that a repeal un- distinction of taxing for a revenue?  Does it not
der this ministry could possibly take place. The  state the ministerial rejection of such principle of
honorable gentleman knows as well as I that taxation, not as the occasional, but the constant
the idea was utterly exploded by those who sway  opinion of the King's servants?  Does it not
say-I care not how consistently-but does it
In February, 1769, Parliament addressed the  not say that their conduct with regard to AmerKing, at the suggestion of ministers, requesting him  ica has been always governed by this policy?  It
tn exercise the powers here mentioned, under an ob- goes a great deal farther.  These excellent and
solete act of the 35th of Henry VIII.            trusty servants of the King, justly fearful lest they




1774.]                            AMERICAN  TAXATION.                                        247
themselves should have lost all credit with the  was the letter of the noble Lord upon the floor
world, bring out the image of their gracious Sov- [Lord North], and of all the King's then ministers,
ereign from the inmost and most sacred shrine, who (with, I think, the exception of two only) are
and they pawn him as a security for their prom- his ministers at this hour.  The very first news
ises.  " His Majesty relies on your prudence and  that a British Parliament heard of what it was to
fidelity for such an explanation of his measures."  do with the duties which it had given and grantThese sentiments of the minister, and these meas- ed to the King, was by the publication of the
ures of his Majesty, can only relate to the princi- votes of American assemblies.  It was in Amerple and practice of taxing for a revenue; and, ac- ica that your resolutions were predeclared.  It
cordingly, Lord Botetourt, stating it as such, did, was from thence that we knew to a certainty
with great propriety, and in the exact spirit of  how much exactly, and not a scruple more or
his instructions, endeavor to remove the fears of  less, we were to repeal.  We were unworthy to
the Virginian assembly, lest the sentiments which  be let into the secret of our own conduct.  The
it seems (unknown to the world) had always been  assemblies had confidential communications from
those of the ministers, and by which their conduct his Majesty's confidential servants.  We were
in respect to America had been governed, should, nothing but instruments.  Do you, after this,
by some possible revolution, favorable to wicked  wonder that you have no weight and no respect
A.merican taxers, be hereafter counteracted. He  in the colonies?  After this, are you surprised
addresses them in this manner:                   that Parliament is every day and every where
"'It may possibly be objected that, as his Maj- losing (I feel it with sorrow, I utter it with reesty's present administration are not immortal, luctance) that reverential affection which so entheir successors may be inclined to attempt to  dearing a name of authority ought ever to carry
undo what the present ministers shall have at- with it; that you are obeyed solely from respect
tempted to perform; and to that objection I can  to the bayonet; and that this House, the ground
give but this answer: that it is my firm opinion  and pillar of freedom, is itself held up only by
that the plan I have stated to yoh will certainly  the treacherous under-pinning and clumsy buttake place, and that it will never be departed  tresses of arbitrary power?
from; and so determined am I forever to abide    If this dignity, which is to stand in the place
by it, that I will be content to be declared infa- of just policy and common sense, had been conmous if I do not, to the last hour of my life, at suited, there was a time for preserving it, and for
all times, in all places, and upon all occasions, reconciling it with any concession. If, in the sesexert every power with which I either am, or sion of 1768, that session of idle terror and empty
ever shall be legally invested, in order to obtain  menaces, you had, as you were often pressed to
and maintain for the continent of America that do, repealed those taxes, then your strong oper
satisfaction which I have been  authorized to  ations would have come justified and enforced,
promise this day, by the confidential servants  in case your concessions had been returned by
of our gracious Sovereign, who, to my certain  outrages.  But, preposterously, you began with
knowledge, rates his honor so high, that he  violence; and before terrors could have any efwould rather part with his crown than preserve  feet, either good or bad, your ministers imnediit by deceit.""9                                 ately begged pardon, and promised that repeal
I A glorious and true character! which (since  to the obstinate Americans which they had rewe suffer his ministers with impunity to answer fused in an easy, good-natured, complying Britfor his ideas of taxation) we ought to make it our ish Parliament. The assemblies, which had been
business to enable his Majesty to preserve in all publicly and avowedly dissolved for their contuits luster.  Let him have character, since ours  macy, are.,called together to receive your subis no more!  Let some part of government be  mission.   i Your. ministerial directors blustered
kept in respect                                  li>ke tragic tyrants here; and then went mumpThis epistle is not the letter of Lord Hillsbor-  ing with a sore leg in America, canting, and
ough solely, though he held the official pen.  It whining, and complaining of faction, which represented them as friends to a revenue from the
9 A material point is omitted by Mr. Burke in this  colonies.  I hope nobody in this House will herespeech, viz., the manner in which the Americans re-after have the impudence to defend America
ceived this royal assurance. The Assembly of Vir- taxes in the name of ministry.  The moment
ginia, in their address in answer to Lord Botetourt's
speech, express themselves thus: " We will not suf-they do, with thisletter of attorney in my hand,
fer our present hopes, arising from the pleasing pros- I will tell them, in the authorized terms, they
pect your Lordship hath so kindly opened and dis- are wretches, " with  factious  and seditious
played to us, to be dashed by the bitter reflection  views; enemies to the peace and prosperity of
that any future administration will entertain awish  the mother country and the colonies," and subto depart from that plan which affords the surest and  verters " of the mutual affection and confidence
most permanent foundation of public tranquillity and  on which the glory and safety of the British emhappiness. No, my Lord, we are sure our most gra-  ire depend.
cious Sovereign, under whatever changes may happel      1 it his  confidential servnts, will remain i lmu- After this letter, the question is no more on
pen in his confidential servants, will remnain immu- 
table in the ways of truth and justice, and that he is  propriety or dignity.  They are gone already.
incapable of deceiving his faithful subjects; and we  The faith of your sovereign is pledged for the
esteem your Lordship's information not only as war- political principle.  The general declaration in
ranted, but even sanctified by the royal word."  the letter goes to the whole of it.  You must




248                                   MR. BURKE ON                                       [1774.
therefore either abandon the scheme of taxing,  pose; both revenue acts; both taxing out of the
or you must send the ministers tarred and feath- kingdom; and both taxing British manufactures
ered to America, who dared to hold out the royal exported.  As the forty-fifth is an act for raising
faith for a renunciation of all taxes for revenue. a revenue in America, the forty-fourth is an act
Them  you must punish, or this faith you must for raising a revenue in the Isle of Man.  The
preserve.  The preservation of this faith is of two acts perfectly agree in all respects except
more consequence than the duties on red lead, one.  In the act for taxing the Isle of Man, the
or white lead, or on broken glass, or atlas-ordi- noble Lord will find (not, as in the American act,
nary, or demy-fine, or blue royal, or bastard, or four or five articles, but) almost the whole body
fool's-cap, which you have given up, or the three- of British manufactures taxed from two and a
pence on tea which you have retained.  The  half to fifteen per cent., and some articles, such
letter went stamped with the public authority of  as that of spirits, a great deal higher.  You did
this kingdom. The instructions for the colony  not think it uncommercial to tax the whole mass
government go under no other sanction; and  of your manufactures, and, let me add, your agAmerica can not believe, and will not obey you, riculture too; for, I now recollect, British corn
if you do not preserve this channel of communi- is there also taxed up to ten per cent., and this,
cation sacred.  You are now punishing the col- too, in the very head-quarters, the very citadel of
onies for acting on distinctions held out by that smuggling, the Isle of Man.  Now, will the novery ministry which is here shining in riches, in  ble Lord condescend to tell me why he repealed
favor, and in power, and urging the punishment the taxes on your manufactures sent out to Amerof the very offense to which they had themselves  ica, and not the taxes on the manufactures exbeen the tempters.                              ported to the Isle of Man?  The principle was
Sir, if reasons respecting simply your own con- exactly the same, the objects charged infinitely
enerce, which is your own convenience, were the  more extensive, the duties without comparison
sole grounds of the repeal of the five duties, why  higher.  Why? why, notwithstanding  all his
does Lord Hillsborough, in disclaiming in the  childish pretexts, because the taxes were quietly
name of the King and ministry their ever having  submitted to in the Isle of Man; and because they
had an intent to tax for revenue, mention it as the  raised a flame in.imerica.  Your reasons were
means of " re-establishing the confidence and af- political, not commercial. The repeal was made,
fection of the colonies?"  Is it a way of soothing  as Lord Hillsborough's letter well expresses it, to
others to assure them that you will take good  regain " the confidence and affection of the colocare of yourself?  The medium, the only medi- nies, on which the glory and safety of the British
um, for regaining their affection and confidence  empire depend."  A wise and just motive surely,
is, that you will take off something oppressive to  if ever there was such.  But the mischief and
their minds.  Sir, the letter strongly enforces dishonor is, that you have not done what you had
that idea; for, though the repeal of the taxes is given the colonies just cause to expect, when your
promised on commercial principles, yet the  ministers disclaimed the idea of taxes for a revmeans of counteracting " the insinuations of men  enue.  There is nothing simple, nothing manly,
with factious and seditious views," is by a dis- nothing ingenuous, open, decisive, or steady in
claimer of the intention of taxing for REVENUE, the proceeding, with regard either to the continas a constant invariable sentiment and rule of con- uance or the repeal of the taxes.  The whole
duct in the government of America.              has an air of littleness and fraud.  The article
I remember that the noble Lord [Lord North] of tea is slurred over in the circular letter, as it
on the floor-not in a former debate, were by accident.  Nothing is said of a resoluProof from the
taxes on tie  to be sure (it would be disorderly to  tion either to keep that tax or to give it up.
tli tse..on  refer to it-I suppose I read it some- There is no fair dealing in any part of the transA"ot repealedr n where) but the noble Lord was action.
(commercial  pleased to say that he did not con-    If you mean to follow your true motive and
principles.
ceive how it could enter into the head  your public faith, give up your tax on tea for
of man to impose such taxes as those of 1767  raising a revenue, the principle of which has, in
(I mean those taxes which he voted for imposing  effect, been disclaimed in your name, and which
and voted for repealing), as being taxes, contrary  produces you no advantage-no, not a penny.
to all the principles of commerce, laid on British  Or, if you choose to go on with a poor pretense
manufactures.                                   instead of a solid reason, and will still adhere to
I dare say the noble Lord is perfectly well read, your cant of commerce, you have ten thousand
because the duty of his particular office requires  times more strong commercial reasons for givhe should be so, in all our revenue laws, and in  ing up this duty on tea than for abandoning the
the policy which is to be collected out of them. five others that you have already renounced.
Now, sir, when he had read this act of American    The American consumption of teas is annually,
revenue, and a little recovered from his astonish- I believe, worth 6300,000, at the least farthing.
ment, I suppose he made one step retrograde (it If you urge the American violence as a justifiis but one), and looked at the act which stands  cation of your perseverance in enforcing this tax,
just before in the statute-book.  The American  you know that you can never answer this plain
revenue is the forty-fifth chapter; the other to  question, " Why did you repeal the others given
which I refer is the forty-fourth of the same ses- in the same act, while the very same violence
sion.  These two acts are both to the same pur- subsisted?"  But you did not find the violence




1774.]                             AMERICAN  TAXATION.                                         249
cease upon that concession?  No! because the  ginning, purely commercial; and the commerconcession was far short of satisfying the princi-  cial system was wholly restrictive.  It was the
ple which Lord Hillsborough had abjured, or  system of a monopoly.  No trade was let loose
even the pretense on which the repeal of the  from that constraint, but merely to enable the colother taxes was announced; and because, by en- onists to dispose of what, in the course of your
abling the East India Company to open a shop  trade, you could not take; or to enable them to
for defeating the American resolution not to pay  dispose of such articles as we forced upon them,
that specific tax, you manifestly showed a hank- and for which, without some degree of liberty,
ering after the principle of the act which you for- they could not pay.  Hence all your specific
merly had renounced.  Whatever road you take  and detailed enumerations; hence the innumerleads to a compliance with this motion.  It opens  able checks and counter checks; hence that into you at the end of every vista.  Your corn- finite variety of paper chains by which you bind
merce, your policy, your promises, your reasons, together this complicated system of the colonies.
your pretenses, your consistency, your inconsist-  This principle  of commercial monopoly runs
ency-all jointly oblige you to this repeal.l0     through no less than twenty-nine acts of ParliaBut still it sticks in our throats.  If we go so  ment, from the year 1660 to the unfortunate pefar, the Americans will go farther.  We do not riod of 1764.
know that.  We ought, from experience, rather    In all those acts the system  of commerce
to presume the contrary.  Do we not know for is established, as that from whence Thel wsunder
certain that the Americans are going on as fast alone you proposed to make the col- thatsystlemnot
as possible, while we refuse to gratify them?  onies contribute (I mean directly and
Can they do more, or can they do worse, if we  by the operation of your superintending legislayield this point?  I think this concession will tive power) to the strength of the empire.  I venrather fix a turnpike to prevent their farther ture to say, that during that whole period, a parprogress.  It is impossible to answer for bodies  liamentary revenue from thence was never once
of men.  But I am sure the natural effect of fidel- in contemplation.  Accordingly, in all the numity, clemency, kindness, in governors, is peace, her of laws passed with regard to the plantagood will, order, and esteem, on the part of the  tions, the words which distinguish revenue laws,
governed.  I would certainly, at least, give these  specifically as such, were, I think, premeditatedfair principles a fair trial, which, since the mak- ly avoided.  I do not say, sir, that a form  of
ing of this act to this hour, they never have had. words alters the nature of the law, or abridges
Il  Sir, the honorable gentleman having spok- the power of the law-giver.  It certainly does
roand ais- en what he thought necessary upon  not.  However, titles and formal preambles are
toricalviewof the narrow part of the subject, I have  not always idle words; and the lawyers fiehee    given him, I hope, a satisfactory an- quently argue from  them.  I state these facts
swer.  He next presses me, by a variety of di- to show, not what was your right, but what has
rect challenges and oblique reflections, to say  been your settled policy. Our revenue laws have
something on the HISTORICAL PART.  I shall usually a title, purporting their being grants; aid
therefore, sir, open myself fully on that important the words give and grant usually precede the enand delicate subject; not for the sake of telling  acting parts.  Although duties were imposed on
you a long story (which I know, Mr. Speaker, America in acts of King Charles the Second, and
you are not particularly fond of), but for the  in acts of King William, no one title of giving
sake of the weighty instruction that, I flatter my-  " an aid to his Majesty," or any of the usual tiself, will necessarily result from it.  It shall not ties to revenue acts, was to be found in any of
be longer, if I can help it, than so serious a mat- them till 1764; nor were the words " give and
ter requires.                                     grant" in any preamble until the 6th of George
(1.) Permit me then, sir, to lead your atten- the Second.  However, the title of this act of
First Period:  tionvery far back-back tothe   of Geor   the Act ofSecond, notwithstanding the words
policy of the   Navigation-the corner-stone of the  of donation, considers it merely as a regulation-.
Nav A   policy of this country with regard to  " an act for the better securing of the trade of
its colonies."  Sir, that policy was, from the be- his Majesty's sugar colonies in America."  This
10 If any man has been accustomed to regard Mr. act was made on a compromise ofall, at theexBurke as more of a rhetorician than a reasoner, let press desire of a part of the colonies themselves.
him turn back and study over the series of arguments  It was therefore in some measure with their concontained in this first head. There is nothing in any  sent; and having a title directly purporting only
of the speeches of Mr. Fox or Mr. Pitt which surpass. a commercial regulation, and being in truth nothes it for close reasoning on the facts of the case, or ing more. the words were passed by, at a time
the binding force with which, at every step, the conclusion is linked to the premises. It is unnecessary  been treated with gross indignity by the Dutch. It
to speak of the pungency of its application, or the  was designed to deprive the Dutch of the immense
power with which he brings to bear upon Lord North  carrying trade which they enjoyed, and therefore
the whole course of his measures respecting the col- prohibited the importation into England or any of
onies, as an argument for repealing this "solitary  her dependencies, inforeign vessels, of any commeodduty on tea."  ities which were not the growth of the respective
1' This celebrated act was passed during the  countries in whosevesselsthey were imported. At
sway of Cromwell in 1651, at the suggestion of St. a subsequent period, other acts were passed for the
John, the English embassador to Holland, who had  increased advantage of British shipping.




250                                   MR. BURKE ON                                     [1'774
when no jealousy was entertained and things  pursued trade and forgot revenue.  You not
were little scrutinized. Even Governor Bernard, only acquired commerce, but you actually crein his second printed letter, dated in 1763, gives  ated the very objects of trade in America; and
it as his opinion, that "it was an act ofprohibi- by that creation you raised the trade of this
tion, not of revenue."  -This is-certainly true, kingdom  at least four-fold.  America had the
that no act avowedly for the purpose of revenue, compensation of your capital, which made her
and with the ordinary title and recital taken to- bear her servitude.  She had adnother compensagether, is found in the statute-book until the  tion, which you are now going- to take away
year I have mentioned, that is, the year 1764. from her.  She had, except the commercial reAll before this period stood on commercial reg- straint, every characteristic mark of a free peoulation and restraint.  The scheme of a colony  pie in all her internal concerns.  She had the
revenue by British authority appeared therefore  image of the British Constitution.  She had the
to the Americans in the light of a great innova- substance.  She was taxed by her own repretion; the words of Governor Bernard's ninth let- sentatives.  She chose most of her own magister, written in November, 1765, state this idea  trates.  She paid them all.  She had, in effect,
very strongly; "it must," says he, "have been  the sole disposal of her own internal government.
supposed, such an innovation as a parliamentary  This whole state of commercial- servitude and
taxation would cause a great alarm, and meet civil liberty, taken together, is certainly not perwith much opposition in most parts of America. feet freedom; but, comparing it with the ordiit was quite new to the people, and had no vsi- nary circumstances of human nature, it was a
ble bounds set to it."  After stating the weak- happy and a liberal condition.
ness of government there, he says, " Was this a    I know, sir, that great and not unsuccessful
time to introduce so great a novelty as a parlia- pains have been taken to inflame our Americ submentary inland taxation in America?"  What- minds by an outcry, in this House mittedto these
ever the right might have been, this mode of  and out of it, that in America the Act
using it was absolutely new in policy and prac- of Navigation neither is, nor ever was obeyed.
tice.                                          But if you take the colonies through, I affirm
Sir, they who are friends to the schemes of  that its authority never was disputed; that it
No answer to   American revenue say that the com- was nowhere disputed for any length of time;
gation laws we mercial restraint is full as hard a  and, on the whole, that it was well observed.
oppressive-   law for America to live under.  I Wherever the act pressed hard, many individuals
think so too.  I think it, if uncompensated, to be  indeed evaded it.  This is nothing.  These scata condition of as rigorous servitude as men can  tered individuals never denied the law, and never
be subject to.  But America bore it from the fun- obeyed it.  Just as it happens whenever the laws
damental Act of Navigation until 1764.  Why? of trade, whenever the laws of revenue, press
Because men do bear the inevitable constitution of hard upon the people in England; in that case
their original nature with all its infirmities.  The  all your shores are full of contraband.  Your
Act of Navigation attended the colonies from their right to give a monopoly to the East India Cominfancy, grew with their growth, and strength- pany, your right to lay immense duties on French
ened with their strength.  They were confirmed  brandy, are not disputed in England.  You do
in obedience to it, even more by usage than by  not make this charge on any man.  But you
law.  They scarcely had remembered a time  know that there is not a creek from Pentland
when they were not subject to such restraint. Firth to the Isle of Wight, in which they do not
There were   Besides, they were indemnified for it smuggle immense quantities of teas, East India
cmpensatios. by a pecuniary compensation.. Their goods, and brandies.  I take it for granted that
monopolist happened to be one of the richest men  the authority of Governor Bernard on this point
in the world.  By his immense capital (prima- is indisputable.  Speaking of these laws, as they
rily employed, not for their benefit, but his own), regarded that part of America now in so unhapthey were enabled to proceed with their fisheries, py a condition, he says, " I believe they are notheir agriculture, their ship-building, and their where better supported than in this province. I
trade too, within the limits, in such a manner as do not pretend that it is entirely fiee from a
got far the start of the slow, languid operations breach of these laws; but that such a breach, if
of unassisted nature.  This capital was a hot- discovered, is justly punished."  Whatmore can
bed to them.  Nothing in the history of mankind  you say of the obedience to any laws in any counis like their progress.  For my part, I never cast try?  An obedience to these laws formed the
an eye on their flourishing commerce, and their acknowledgment, instituted by yourselves, for
cultivated and commodious life, but they seem  your superiority, and was the payment you.
to me rather ancient nations grown to perfection  originally imposed for your protection.
through a long series of fortunate events, and a    Whether you were right or wrong in estabtrain of successful industry, accumulating wealth  lishing the colonies on the principles of commerin many centuries, than the colonies ofyesterday-   cial monopoly, rather than on that of revenue, is
than a set of miserable outcasts, a few years ago, at this day a problem of mere speculation. You
not so much sent as thrown out, on the bleak and  can not have both by the.same authority.' To
barren shore of a desolate wilderness three thou- join together the restraints of a universal intersand miles from all civilized intercourse.     nal and external monopoly, with a universal inAll this was done by England, while England  ternal and external taxation, is an unnatural un



1774.]                            AMERICAN  TAXATION.                                        251
ion-perfect uncompensated slavery.' You have  out of this House, except in such things as in some
long since decided fTor yourself and them; and  way related to the business that was to be done
you and they have prospered exceedingly under within it.  If he was ambitious, I will say this for
that decision.                                   him, his ambition was of a noble and geneirous
(2.) This nation, sir, never thought of depart- strain.  It was to raise himself, not by the low,
second Period. ing from that choice until the period  pimping politics of a court, but to win his way to
eatevenue immediately on the close of the last.power through the laborious gradations of pubrom America. war.  Then a scheme of government lic service, and to secure himself a well-earned
new in many things seemed to have been adopt-  rank in Parliament by a thorough knowledge
ed.  I saw, or thought I saw, several symptoms  of its constitution, and a perfect practice in all
of a great change, while I sat in your gallery, a  its business.
good while before I had the honor of a seat in    Sir, if such a man fell into errors, it must be
this House.  At that period the necessity was  from defects not intrinsical; they must be rather
established of keeping up no less than twenty  sought in the particular habits of his life, which,
new regiments, with twenty colonels capable of  though they do not alter the groundwork of
seats in this House.  This scheme was adopted  character, yet tinge it with their own hue. He
with very general applause from all sides, at the  was bred in a profession.  He was bred to the
very time that, by your conquests in America, law, which is, in my opinion, one of the first and
your danger from foreign attempts in that part of  noblest of human sciences-a science which does
the world was much lessened, or, indeed, rather  more to quicken and invigorate the understanding
quite over.  When this huge increase of military  than all the other kinds of learning put together;
establishment was resolved on, a revenue was to  but it is not apt, except in persons very happily
be found to support so great a burden.  Country  born, to open and to liberalize the mind exactly
gentlemen, the great patrons of economy, and  in the same proportion. Passing from that study,
the great resisters of a standing armed force, he did not go very largely into the world, but
would not have entered with much alacrity into  plunged into business; I mean, into the business
the vote for so large and expensive an army, if  of office, and the limited and fixed methods and
they had been very sure that they were to con- forms established there.  Much knowledge is to
tinue to pay for it.  But hopes of another kind  be had undoubtedly in that line; and there is no
were held out to them; and in particular, I well knowledge which is not valuable.  But it may
remember that Mr. Townsend, in a brilliant ha- be truly said that men too much conversant in
rangue on this subject, did dazzle them, by play- office are rarely minds of remarkable enlargeing before their eyes the image of a revenue to  ment.  Their habits of office are apt to give
he raised in America.                           them a turn to think the substance of business
Here began to dawn the first glimmerings of  not to be much more important than the forms
this new colony system.  It appeared more dis- in which it is conducted.  These forms are
tinctly afterward, when it was devolved upon a  adapted to ordinary occasions; and, therefore,
person [Mr. Grenville] to whom, on other ac- persons who are nurtured in office do admirably
counts, this country owes very great obligations. well, as long as things go on in their common
I do believe that he had a very serious desire to  order; but when the high-roads are broken up,
benefit the public.  But with no small study of and the waters out, when a new  and troubled
the detail, he did not seem to have his view, at scene is opened, and the file affords no preceleast equally, carried to the total circuit of our dent, then it is that a greater knowledge of manaffairs.  He generally considered his objects in  kind, and a far more extensive comprehension of
lights that were rather too detached.  Whether things is requisite than ever office gave, or than
the business of an American revenue was im- office can ever give.1   Mr. Grenville thought
posed upon him altogether; whether it was en- better of the wisdom and power of human legistirely the result of his own speculation; or, what lation than in truth it deserves.  He conceived,
is more probable, that his own ideas rather coin- and many conceived along with him, that the
cided with the instructions he had received, cer- flourishing trade of this country was greatly owtain it is, that, with the best intentions in the  ing to law and institution, and not quite so much
world, he first brought this fatal scheme into  to liberty; for but too many are apt to believe
form, and established it by act of Parliament.    regulation to be commerce, and taxes to be revNo man can believe that at this time of day I    2 This admiable  sketchasone peculiaritywhich
mean to lean on the venerable memory of a great is highly characteristic of Mr. Burke. It does not so
man. whose loss we deplore in common.  Our much describe the objective qualities of the man, as
little~ party differences have been long ago corm- the formative principles of his character. The traits
posed; and I have acted more with him, and cer- mentioned were causes of his being what he was, and
tainly with more pleasure with him, than ever I doing what he did. They account (and for this rea
acted against him.  Undoubtedly Mr. Grenville  SOn they are brought forward) for the course le took
was a first-rate figure in this country.  With a  in respect to America. The same, also, is true remasculine u.derstandim  and a stout and reso  specting the sketch of Charles Townsend which folmasculine understanding, and a stout and resolows, and, to some extent, respecting the sketch of
lute heart, he had an application undissipated  Lord Chatham. This is one of the thousand exhibiand unwearied.  He took public business, not as tions of the philosophical tendencies of Mr. Burke's
a duty which he was to fulfill, but as a pleasure he  mind, his absorption in the idea of cause ar ] effect,
was to enjoy; and he seemed to have no delight of the action and reaction of principles and feelings.




252                                   MR. BURKE ON                                       [1774.
enue.  Among regulations, that which stood first sory provision for the quartering of soldiers, the
in reputation was his idol.  I mean the Act of  people of America thought themselves proceed.
Navigation.  He has often professed it to be so. ed against as delinquents, or at best as people
The policy of that act is, I readily admit, in  under suspicion of delinquency, and in such a
many respects well understood.  But I do say, manner as they imagined their recent services
that if the act be suffered to run the full length  in the war did not at all merit.'5  Any of these
of its principle, and is not changed and modified. innumerable regulations, perhaps, would not have
according to the change of times and the fluctu- alarmed alone; some might be thought reasonation of circumstances, it must do great mischief, able; the multitude struck them with terror.
and frequently even defeat its own purpose.        But the grand maneuver in that business of
After the [French] war, and in the last years  new regulating the colonies was the 15th act of
of it, the trade of America had increased far be- the fourth of George III., which, besides containyond the speculations of the most sanguine imag- ing several of the matters to which I have just
inations.  It swelled out on every side.  It filled  alluded, opened a new principle; and here propall its proper channels to the brim.  It over- erly began the second period of the policy of this
flowed with a rich redundance, and, breaking its country with regard to the colonies, by which
banks on the right and on the left, it spread out the scheme of a regular plantation parliamentary
upon some places where it was indeed improp- revenue was adopted in theory and settled in
er, upon others where it was only irregular.  It practice.  A  revenue, not substituted in the
is the nature of all greatness not to be exact; place of, but superadded to a monopoly; which
and great trade will always be'attended with  monopoly was enforced at the same time with
considerable abuses.  The contraband will al- additional strictness, and the execution put into
ways keep pace in some measure with the fair military hands.
trade.  It should stand as a fundamental maxim,    This act, sir, had for the first time the title of
that no vulgar precaution ought to be employed  " granting duties in the colonies and plantations
in the cure of evils which are closely connected  of America;" and for the first time it was aswith the cause of our prosperity.  Perhaps this  serted in the preamble, " that it was just and necgreat person turned his eye somewhat less than  essary that a revenue should be raised there."
was just toward the incredible increase of the  Then came the technical words of " giving and
fair trade, and looked with something of too ex- granting;" and thus a complete American revquisite a jealousy toward the contraband.  He  enue act was made in all the forms, and with a
certainly felt a singular degree of anxiety on the  full avowal of the right, equity, policy, and even
subject, and even began to act from that passion  necessity of taxing the colonies, without any
earlier than is commonly imagined.  For, while  formal consent of theirs.  There are contained
he was first Lord of the Admiralty, though not also in the preamble to that act these very restrictly called upon in his official line, he pre- markable words: the Commons, &c.'"beinog
sented a very strong memorial to the Lords of  desirous to make some provision in the present
the Treasury (my Lord Bute was then at the head  session of Parliament toward raising the said revof the board), heavily complaining of the growth  enue."  By these words it appeared to the colof the illicit commerce in America.  Some mis- onies that this act was but a beginning of sorchief happened even at that time from this over- rows; that every session was to produce someearnest zeal.  Much greater happened after- thing of the same kind; that we were to go on
ward, when it operated with greater power in  from day to day, in charging them with such taxthe highest department of the finances.  The  es as we pleased, for such a military force as we
bonds of the Act of Navigation were straitened  should think proper.  Had this plan been purso much, that America was on the point of hav- sued, it was evident that the provincial asseming no trade, either contraband or legitimate.i blies, in which the Americans felt all their porThey found, under the construction and execu- tion of importance, and beheld their sole image
tion then used, the act no longer tying, but actu- of freedom, were ipso facto annihilated.  This
ally strangling them.  All this coming with new  ill prospect before them seemed to be boundless
enumerations of commodities; with regulations  in extent, and endless in duration.  Sir, they
which in a manner put a stop to the mutual were not mistaken.  The ministry valued themcoasting intercourse of the colonies; with the ap- selves when this act passed, and when they gave
pointment of Courts of Admiralty under various  notice of the Stamp Act, that both of the duties
improper circumstances; with a sudden extinc- came very short of their ideas of American taxtion of the paper currencies;4 with a compul- ation.  Great was the applause of this measure
13 For some years previous to the peace of 1763, here.  In England we cried out for new taxes
the American colonies carried on an extensive trade
in British manufactured articles with the colonies of nies to supply a currency, when the coin was withSpain and France. This, though not against the spir- drawn in the course of trade to England. Regulait of the Navigation Act, was a violation of its letter, tions putting a sudden stop to this currency proand was stopped for a time, though afterward allowed  duced great trouble in America.
under duties amounting to a prohibition. In carrying    5 The colonies had entered warmly into the war
out these regulations, the accused were to be pros- against France; and such was their zeal, that of
ecuted in the Admiralty Courts, and thus deprived of their own accord they advanced for carrying it on,
a trial by jury.                                much larger sums than were allotted as their quota
14 Paper money was issued by most of the colo- by the British government.




1774.]                            AMERICAN  TAXATION.                                         253
on America, while they cried out that they were is laid on this as a fact. However, it happens
niearly crushed with those which the wair and  neither to be true nor possible.  I will observe,
their own grants had brought apon them.          first, that Mr. Grenville never thought fit to make
Sir, it has been said in the debate, that when  this apology for himself in the innumerable dePretense that the first American revenue act (the  bates that were had upon the subject.  He might
tlde Americans act in 1764, imposing the port du- have proposed to the colony agents that they
object to being ties) passed, the Americans did not should agree in some mode of taxation as the
taxed.  object to the principle     It is true  ground of an act of Parliament, but he never
they touched it but very tenderly.  It was not could have proposed that they should tax thema direct attack.  They were, it is true, as yet selves on requisition, which is the assertion of
novices; as yet unaccustomed to direct attacks  the day.  Indeed, Mr. Grenville well knew that
upon any of the rights of Parliament.  The du- the colony agents could have no general powers
ties were port duties, like those they had been  to consent to it; and they had no time to conaccustomed to bear, with this difference, that the  sult their assemblies for particular powers before
title was not the same, the preamble not the  he passed his first revenue act.  If you compare
same, and the spirit altogether unlike.  But of  dates, you will find it impossible.  Burdened as
what service is this observation to the cause of  the agents knew the colonies were at that time,
those that make it?  It is a full refutation of the  they could not give the least hope of such grants.
pretense for their present cruelty to America; for His own favorite governor was of opinion that
it shows, out of their own mouths, that our col- the Americans were not then taxable objects.
onies were backward to enter into the present    "Nor was the time less favorable to the equity
vexatious and ruinous controversy.                of such a taxation.  I don't mean to dispute the
There is also another circulation abroad (spread  reasonableness of America contributing to the
Pretetht with a malignantintention, which I can  charges of Great Britain when she is able; nor,
then theop- not attribute to those who say the same  I believe, would the Americans themselves have
tion wo given them of  thing in this House), that Mr. Grenville  disputed it, at a proper time and season.  But
taxing them- gave the colony agents an option for it should be considered that the American govtheir assemblies to tax themselves, ernments themselves have, in the prosecution of
which they had refused.  I find that much stress the late war, contracted very large debts, which
______________________ it will take some years to pay off, and in the
L6 It is far from being true that "the Americans did  mean time, occasion very burdensome taxes for
not object to the principle" of the act of 1764; nor is that purpose only.  For instance, this governMr. Burke correct in saying they "touched it very  ment, which is as much beforehand as any,
tenderly."  The first act of the British Parliament raises every year X37,500 sterling for sinking
for the avowed purpose of raising a revenue in Amer- their debt ad must continue it for four years
ica was passed April 5th, 1764. Within a month aft- i
er the news reached Boston, the General Court of     ger at least before t wil clear."
Massachusetts met, and on the 13th of June, 1764, ad-    These ae the words of Governor Bernard's
dressed a letter to Mr Mauduit, their agent in En- letter to a member of the old ministry, and which
gland, giving him spirited and decisive instructions  he has since printed.  Mr. Grenville could not
mn the subject. It seems he had misconstrued their have made this proposition to the agents for ansilence respecting another law, and had not, there- other reason.  He was of opinion, which he has
fore, come forward in their behalf against the act. declared in this House a hundred times, that the
They say, "No agent of the province has power to  colonies could not legally grant any revenue to
make concessions in any case without express or- the crown  and that infinite mischiefs would be
ders; and that the silence of the province should 
have been imputed to any cause, even to despair, the consequence  of such a power.  When Mr.
rather than to have been construed into a tacit ces- Grenville had passed the first revenue act, and
sion of their rights, or an acknowledgment of a right in the same session had made this House come
in Parliament td impose diuties and taxes upon apeo- to a resolution for laying a stamp duty on Amerple who are not represented in the House of Corn- ica, between that time and the passing the Stamp
mons."  A committee was also chosen with power Act into a law, he told a considerable and most
to sit in the recess of the General Court, and direct- respectable merchant, a member of this House,
ed to correspond with the other provinces on the sub- w                                        
whom I am truly sorry I do not now see in his
ject, acquainting them with the instructions sent to
place, when he represented against this proceedMr. Mauduit, and requesting the concurrence of the lace, when he reprented against ths proceedother provincial assemblies in resisting " any impo- g, that if the stamp duty was dislied, he was
sitions and taxes upon this and the other American  willing to exchange it for any other equally proprovinces."  Accordingly, in November of the same  ductivei but that, if he objected to the Ameriyear, the House of Burgesses in Virginia sent an ad- cans being taxed by Parliament, he might save
dress to the House of Lords and a remonstrance to  himself the trouble of the discussion, as he was
the House of Commons on the same subject. Be- determined on the measure.  This is the fact
monstrances were likewise sent from Massachusetts  and, if you please, I will mention a vey  nquesand New York to the Privy Council. James Otis 
tionable authority for it.
also published during this year his pamphlet against ti e       ri       i.
the right of Parliament to tax the colonies while un-    Thus, sir, 1. have disposed of this falsehood.
represented in the House of Commons. This was  But falsehood has a perennial spring. Pretensethat
printed in London in 1765, about the time when the  It is said that no conjecture could be the opposition
ortthe AmeriStamp Act was passed.-See Holmes's American  made of the dislike of the colonies to cans could not
Annals, 2d ed., vol. ii., p. 225-6.              the principle.  This is as untrue as b 




254                                   MR. BURKE ON                                       [1774
the other.  After the resolution of the House, trade.  I believe, sir, the noble Lord soon saw
and before the passing of the Stamp Act, the col- his way in this business.  But he did not rashly
onies of Massachusetts Bay and New York did  determine against acts which it might be supsend remonstrances, objecting to this mode of  posed were the result of much deliberation.
parliamentary taxation.  What was the conse- However, sir, he scarcely began to open the
quence?  They were suppressed; they were put ground, when the whole veteran body of office
under the table-notwithstanding an order of  took the alarm.  A violent outcry of all (except
council to the contrary-by the ministry which  those who knew and felt the mischief) was raiscomposed the very council that had made the or- ed against any alteration.  On one hand, his atder; and thus the House proceeded to its busi- tempt was a direct violation of treaties and pubness of taxing without the least regular knowl- lie law. On the other, the Act of Navigation and
edge of the objections which were made to it. all the corps of trade laws were drawn up in arBut, to give that House its due, it was not over- ray against it.
desirous to receive information or to hear remon-    The first step the noble Lord took was to have
strance.  On the 15th of February, 1765, while  the opinion of his excellent, learned, and ever-lathe Stamp Act was under deliberation, they re- mented friend, the late Mr. Yorke, then attorney
fused with scorn even so much as to receive four general, on the point of law.L8  When he knew
petitions presented from so respectable colonies  that formally and officially, which in substance
as Connecticut, Rhode Island, Virginia, and Car- he had known before, he immediately dispatched
olina, besides one from the traders of Jamaica. orders to redress the grievance.  But I will say
As to the colonies, they had no alternative left to  it for the then minister, he is of that constitution
them  but to disobey, or to pay the taxes im- of mind, that I know he would have issued, on
posed by that Parliament which was not suffered, the same critical occasion, the very same orders,
or did not suffer itself, even to hear them remon- if the acts of trade had been, as they were not,
strate upon the subject.                        directly against him; and would have cheerfully
(3.) This was the state of the colonies before  submitted to the equity of Parliament for his inThird Period. his Majesty thought fit to change his demnity.
Lord Rockinghar's adminis ministers.  It stands upon no author-    On the conclusion of this business of the Spantrationf tlRe-  ity of mine.  It is proved by incon- ish trade, the news of the troubles, on account of
Stamp Act.  trovertible records.  The honorable  the Stamp Act, arrived in England.  It was not
gentleman has desired some of us to lay oUr hands until the end of October that these accounts were
upon our hearts, and answer to his queries upon  received.  No sooner had the sound of that
the historical part of this consideration; and by  mighty tempest reached us in England, than the
his manner (as well as my eyes could discern it) whole of the then Opposition, instead of feeling
he seemed to address himself to me.             humbled by the unhappy issue of their measSir, I will answer him as clearly as I am able, ures, seemed to be infinitely elated, and cried out
and with great openness.  I have nothing to con- that the ministry, from envy to the glory of their
ceal.  In the year sixty-five, being in a very pri- predecessors, were prepared to repeal the Stamp
vate station, far enough from any line of business, Act.  Near nine years after, the honorable genand not having the honor of a seat in this House, tleman takes quite opposite ground, and now
it was my fortune, unknowing and unknown to  challenges me to put my hand to my heart, and
the then ministry, by the intervention of a com- say whether the ministry had resolved on the
mon friend, to become connected with a very no- repeal till a considerable time after the meeting
ble person [Lord Rockingham], and at the head  of Parliament.  Though I do not very well know
of the treasury department."  It was indeed in  what the honorable gentleman wishes to infer
a situation of little rank and no consequence, suit- from the admission or from the denial of this fact,
able to the mediocrity of my talents and preten- on which he so earnestly adjures me, I do put
sions; but a situation near enough to enable  my hand on my heart, and assure him that they
me to see, as well as others, what was going on; did not come to a resolution directly to repeal.
and I did see in that noble person such sound  They weighed this matter as its difficulty and
principles, such an enlargement of mind, such  importance required. They considered maturely
clear and sagacious sense, and such unshaken  among themselves.  They consulted with all
fortitude, as have bound me, as well as others who could give advice or information.  It was
much better than me, by an inviolable attachment not determined until a little before the meeting
to him from time forward.  Sir, Lord Rocking- of Parliament; but it was determined, and the
ham very early in that summer received a strong  main lines of their own plan marked out, before
representation from many weighty English mer- that meeting.  Two questions arose.  I hope I
chants and manufacturers, from  governors of  am not going into a narrative troublesome to the
provinces and commanders of men of war, against House.
almost the whole of the American commercial    [A cry of go on, go on.]
regulations; and particularly with regard to the    The first of the two considerations was whethtotal ruin which was threatened to the Spanish  er the repeal should be total, or whether only pars Mr. Charles Yorke, whose sudden death in 1770,
17 Mr. Burke became private secretary to Lord  after having had the office of Lord Chancellor forced
Rockingham in July, 1765, and was thus united with  upon him by the King, is mentioned in a Letter of
him in his political measures.                  Junius to the Duke of Grafton. See page 201.




1774.]                            AMERICAN TAXATION.                                      2bb
tial; taking out every thing burdensome and pro- despite of all the old speculators and augurs of
ductive, and reserving only an empty acknowl- political events, in defiance of the whole embatedgment, such as a stamp on cards or dice. The  tied legion of veteran pensioners and practiced
other question was, on what principle the act instruments of a court, gave a total repeal to the
should be repealed. On this head, also, two prin- Stamp Act, and (if it had been so permitted) a
ciples were started: one, that the legislative  lasting peace to this whole empire.
rights of this country, with regard to America,    I state, sir, these particulars, because this act
were not entire, but had certain restrictions and  of spirit and fortitude has lately been, in the cirlimitations.  The other principle was, that taxes culation of the season, and in some hazarded decof this kind were contrary to the fundamental clamations in this House, attributed to timidity.
principles of commerce on which the colonies If, sir, the conduct of ministry, in proposing the
were founded, and contrary to every idea of po- repeal, had arisen from timidity with regard to
litical equity; by which equity we are bound as themselves, it would have been greatly to be conmuch as possible to extend the spirit and benefit demned.  Interested timidity disgraces as much
of the British Constitution to every part of the in the cabinet as personal timidity does in the
British dominions. The option, both of the meas- field.  But timidity, with regard to the wellire and of the principle of repeal, was made be- being of our country, is heroic virtue.  The nofore the session; and I wonder how any one can  ble Lord who then conducted affairs, and his
read the King's speech at the opening of that worthy colleagues, while they trembled at the
session without seeing in that speech both the  prospect of such distresses as you have since
repeal and the Declaratory Act very sufficiently  brought upon yourselves, were not afraid steadcrayoned out.  Those who can not see this can  ily to look in the face that glaring and dazzling
see. nothing.                                  influence at which the eyes of eagles have
Surely the honorable gentleman will not think  blenched.  HIe looked in the face of one of the
that a great deal less time than was then em- ablest, and, let me say, not the most scrupulous
ployed ought to have been spent in deliberation, Oppositions that, perhaps, ever was in this House,
when he considers that the news of the troubles and withstood it, unaided by even one of the usual
did not arrive till toward the end of October. supporters of administration.  He did this when
The Parliament sat to fill the vacancies on the  he repealed the Stamp Act.  He looked in the
14th day of December, and on business the 14th  face of a person he had long respected and reof the following January.                      garded, and whose aid was then particularly
Sir, a partial repeal, or, as the bon ton of the  wanting.  I mean Lord -Chatham.  He did this
Court then was, a modification, would have satis- when he passed the Declaratory Act.lfied a timid, unsystematic, procrastinating minis-    It is now given out, for the usual purposes, by
try, as such a measure has since done such a min- the usual emissaries, that Lord Rockingham did
istry [Lord North's].  A modification is the con- not consent to the repeal of this act until he was
stant resource of weak, undeciding minds.  To  bullied into it by Lord Chatham; and the rerepeal by a denial of our right to tax in the pre- porters have gone so far as publicly to assert, in
amble (and this, too, did not want advisers), a hundred companies, that the honorable gentlewould have cut, in the heroic style, the Gordian  man under the gallery [General Conway], who
knot with a sword.  Either measure would have  proposed the repeal in the American committee,
cost no more than a day's debate.  But when the  had another set of resolutions in his pocket ditotal repeal was adopted, and adopted on princi- rectly the reverse of those he moved.  These
ples of policy, of equity, and of commerce, this artifices of a desperate cause are, at this time,
plan made it necessary to enter into many and  spread abroad with incredible care, in every part
difficult measures.  It became necessary to open  of the town, from the highest to the lowest coma very large field of evidence commensurate to  panies; as if the industry of the circulation were
these extensive views.  But then this labor did  to make amends for the absurdity of the report.
knight's service.  It opened the eyes of several    Sir, whether the noble Lord is of a complexto the true state of American affairs; it enlarged  ion to be bullied by Lord Chatham, or by any
their ideas, it removed their prejudices, and it man, I must submit to those who know him.  I
conciliated the opinions and affections of men. confess, when I look back at that time, I considThe noble Lord who then took the lead in the ad- er him as placed in one of the most trying situministration, my honorable friend [Mr. Dowdes- ations in which, perhaps, any man ever stood.
well] under me, and a right honorable gentleman  In the House of Peers there were very few of the
[General Conway] (if he will not reject his share, ministry, out of the noble Lord's particular conand it was a large one, of this business), exerted  nection (except Lord Egmont, who acted, as far
the most laudable industry in bringing before you  as I could discern, an honorable and manly part),
the fullest, most impartial, and least garbled body  that did not look to some other future arringeof evidence that was ever produced to this House. ment, which warped his politics.  There were in
I think the inquiry lasted in the committee for both Houses new and menacing appearances, that
six weeks; and, at its conclusion, this House, by  might very naturally drive any other than a most
an independent, noble, spirited, and unexpected    19 See Lord Chatham's speech on the Stamp Act,
majority-by a majority that will redeem all the  page 103, in which he explicitly declared to Lord
acts ever done by majorities in Parliament, in the  Rockingham and his associates that he could not
teeth of all the old mercenary Swiss of state, in  give them his support.




256                                    MR. BURKE ON                                         [1774.
resolute minister from  his measure or from his  a long-absent father.  They clung upon him as
station.  The household troops openly revolted. captives about their redeemer.  All England,
The allies of ministry (those, I mean, who sup- all America, joined to his applause.  Nor did he
ported some of their measures, but refused re- seem insensible to the best of all earthly rewards,
sponsibility for any) endeavored to undermine  the love and admiration of his fellow-citizens.
their credit, and to take ground that must be fa-                  "Hope elevated and joy
tal to the success of the very cause which they           Brightened his crest."
would be thought to countenance.  The question                        Milton's Par. Lost, ix., 634.
of the repeal was brought on by ministry in the  I stood near him; and his face, to use the excommittee of this House, in the very instant when  pression of the scripture of the first martyr, " his
it was known that more than one court negotia-  face was as if it had been the face of an angel."
tion was carrying on with the heads of the Op- I do not know how others feel, but if I had stood
position.  Every thing, upon every side, was full in that situation, I never would have exchanged
of traps and mines.  Earth below shook; heav- it for all that Kings in their profusion could been above menaced; all the elements of minis- stow.2    I did hope that that day's danger and
terial safety were dissolved.  It was in the midst honor would have been a bond to hold us all
of this chaos of plots and counter-plots-it was together forever.  But, alas! that, with other
in the midst of this complicated warfare against pleasing visions, is long since vanished.
public opposition and private treachery, that the    Sir, this act of supreme magnanimity has been
firmness of that noble person was put to the  represented as if it had been a measure of an
proof.  He never stirred from his ground-no, administration that, having no scheme of their
not an iich.  He remained fixed and determined, own, took a middle line, pilfered a bit from one
in principle, in measure, and in conduct.  He  side and a bit from the other.  Sir, they took no
practiced no managements.  He secured no re- middle lines.  They differed fundamentally from
treat.  He sought no apology.                     the schemes of both parties, but they preserved
I will likewise do justice-I ought to do it-  the objects of both.  They preserved the authorto the honorable gentleman who led us in this ity of Great Britain.  They preserved the equity
House [General Conway].  Far from the duplic- of Great Britain.  They made the Declaratory
ity wickedly charged on him, he acted his part Act.  They repealed the Stamp Act.  They
with alacrity and resolution. We all felt inspired  did both fully; because the Declaratory Act
by the example he gave us, down even to myself, was without qualification, and the repeal of the
the weakest in that phalanx.  I declare for one, Stamp Act total.  This they did in the situation
I knew well enough (it could not be concealed  I have ascribed.
from any body) the true state of things; but, in    Now, sir, what will the adversary say to both
my life, I never came with so much spirits into  theseacts?  If the principle of the Declaratory
this House.  It was a time for a man to act in. Act was not good, the principle we are contendWe had powerful enemies, but we had faithful ing for this day is monstrous.  If the principle
and determined friends, and a glorious cause. of the repeal was not good, why are we not at
We had a great battle to fight, but we had the  war for a real, substantial, effective revenue? If
means of fighting; not as now, when our arms  both were bad, why has this ministry incurred
are tied behind us.  We did fight that day, and  all the inconveniences of both and of all schemes?
conquer.                                          Why have  they enacted, repealed, enforced,
I remember, sir, with a melancholy pleasure, yielded, and now attempt to enforce again?
the situation of the honorable gentleman [Gener-    Sir, I think I may as well now, as at any other
al Conway], who made the motion for the repeal, time, speak to a certain matter of Refutation oftho
in that crisis, when the whole trading interest fact, not wholly unrelated to the pretensethat the
of this empire, crammed into your lobbies, with  question under your consideration. the disturbances
in America.
a trembling and anxious expectation, waited, al- We, who would persuade you to remost to a winter's return of light, their fate from  vert to the ancient policy of this kingdom, labor
vour resolutions.  When, at length, you had de-                           _
termined in their favor, and your doors, thrown    21 General Conway must have felt this passage
open, showed them the figure of their deliverer  kieenly, and he deserved it. He was now connect-. ^,^,.    "  ~>-t...   ed with Lord North, and.had gratified the King bv
in the well-earned triumph of his important vietgoing the whole length of the most violent measures
tory, from the whole of that grave multitude there  against Wilkes. About three weeks before, he had
arose an involuntary burst of gratitude and trans- said respecting the Boston Port Bill, that he "was
port.  They jumped upon him  like children on  particularly happy in the mode of punishment adopted in it."  He was then enjoying his reward in the
20 The Roclhiigham administration was distracted  emoluments pertaining to the office of Governor of
by internal dissensions, and obnoxious to the King  Jersey, to which he had been promoted after holding
because they had determined to'repeal the Stamp  for some years that of Lieutenant General of the OrdAct, and also on personal grounds, because they neg- nance. In justice to Conway, it ought, however, to
lected to apply to Parliament for an allowance to the  be said, that notwithstanding his hasty remark in fayounger brothers of his Majesty. The Declaratory  vor of the Boston Port Bill, he was always opposed
Act was passed for the purpose of propitiating the  to American taxation. He differed fiom Lord North
King when the Stamp Act was repealed. But it at every step as to carrying on the war, and made
failed of its object; and the administration of Lord  the motion for ending it, February 27d, 1782, which
Rockingham was dissolved a few months after.     drove Lord North from power.




1774.]                             AMERICAN TAXATION.                                        257
under the effect of this short current phrase,    Ministry can not refuse the authority of the
which the court leaders have given out to all  commander-in-chief, General Gage, who, in his
their corps, in order to take away the credit of  letter of the 4th of November, from New York,
those who would prevent you from that frantic  thus represents the state of things:
war you are going to wage upon your colonies.    " It is difficult to say, from the highest to the
Their cant is this: "All the disturbances in  lowest, who has not been accessory to this insurAmerica have been created by the repeal of the  rection, either by writing or mutual agreements
Stamp Act."  I suppress for a moment my in- to oppose the act, by what they are pleased to
dignation at the falsehood, baseness, and absurd- term all legal opposition to it.  Nothing effectuity of this most audacious assertion.  Instead of ally has been proposed, either to prevent or quell
remarking on the motives and character of those  the tumult.  The rest of the provinces are in the
who have issued it for circulation, I will clearly  same situation as to a positive refusal to take the
lay before you the state of America, antecedently  stamps; and threatening those who shall take
to that repeal, after the repeal, and since the re- them, to plunder and murder them; and this afnewal of the schemes of American taxation.       fair stands in all the provinces, that unless the
It is said that the disturbances, if there were  act, from its own nature, enforce itself, nothing
The disturban any before the repeal, were slight, but a very considerable military force can do it."
foregre         bet and  without difficulty or inconven-    It is remarkable, sir, that the persons who forpeal.      ience might have been suppressed. merly trumpeted forth the most loudly the violent
For an answer to this assertion, I will send you  resolutions of assemblies; the universal insurrecto the great author and patron of the Stamp Act, tions; the seizing and burning the stamped pawho, certainly meaning well to the authority of' pers; the forcing stamp officers to resign their
this country, and fully apprised of the state of commissions under the gallows; the rifling and
that, made, before a repeal was so much as ag- pulling down of the houses of magistrates; and
itated in this House, the motion which is on your the expulsion from their country of all who dared
journals; and which, to save the clerk the  to write or speak a single word in defense of the
trouble of turning to it, I will now read to you. powers of Parliament-these very trumpeters are.
It was for an amendment to the address of the  now the men that represent the whole as a mere
17th of December, 1765.                         trifle, and choose to date all the disturbances
" To express our just resentment and indigna-  from the repeal of the Stamp Act, which put an
tion at the outrageous tumults and insurrections  end to them.  Hear your officers abroad, and let
which have been excited and carried on in North  them refute this shameless falsehood, who, in all
America; and at the resistance given by open  their correspondence, state the disturbances as
and rebellious force to the execution of the laws  owing to their true causes, the discontent of the
in that part of his Majesty's dominions; and to  people, from the taxes.  You have this evidence
assure his Majesty that his faithful commons, an- in your own archives; and it will give you comimated with the warmest duty and attachment plete satisfaction, if you are not so far lost to all
to his royal person and government, will firmly  parliamentary ideas of information as rather to
and effectually support his Majesty in all such  credit the lie of the day than the records of your
measures as shall be necessary for preserving  own House.
and supporting the legal dependence of the col-    Sir, this vermin of court reporters, when they
onies on the mother country," &c., &c.           are forced into day upon one point, Did not spring
Here was certainly a disturbance preceding  are sure to burrow in another; but from opposition
the' repeal; such a disturbance as Mr. Grenville  they shall have no refuge; I will tie Stamp Act
thought necessary to qualify by the name of an  make them bolt out of all their holes. "wen psed
insurrection, and the epithet of a rebellious force: Conscious that they must be baffled, when they
terms much stronger than any by which those  attribute a precedent disturbance to a subsewho then supported his motion have ever since  quent measure, they take other ground, almost
thought proper to distinguish the subsequent dis- as absurd, but very common in modern practice,.
turbances in America.  They were disturbances  and very wicked; which is, to attribute the ill
which seemed to him and his friends to justify as  effect of ill-judged conduct to the arguments
strong a promise of support as hath been usual which had been used to dissuade us from  it.
to give in the beginning of a war with the most They say that the opposition made in Parliament
powerful and declared enemies.  When the ac- to the Stamp Act, at the time of its passing, encounts of the American governors came before  couraged the Americans to their resistance. This
the House, they appeared stronger even than the  has even formally appeared in print in a regular
warmth of public imagination had painted them; volume, from an advocate of that faction, a Docso much stronger, that the papers on your table  tor Tucker.  This Doctor Tucker is already a
bear me out in saying, that all tle.late disturb- dean, and his earnest labors in this vineyard will,
ances, which have been at one time the minister's  I suppose, raise him to a bishopric.  But this asmotives for the repeal of five out of six of the  sertion, too, just like the rest, is false.  In all the
new court taxes, and are now his pretenses for papers which have loaded your table; in all the
refusing to repeal that sixth, did not amount-   vast crowd of verbal witnesses that appeared at
why do I compare them? no, not to a tenth part your bar-witnesses which were indiscriminateof the tumults and violence which prevailed long  ly produced from both sides of the House-not
before the repeal of that act.                   the least hint of such a cause of disturbance has
R




2L8                                   MR. BURKE ON                                       [1774.
ever appeared.  As to the fact of a strenuous  of as late a date. were sent from other governopposition to the Stamp Act, I sat as a stranger ors, and all directed to Lord Halifax.  Not one
in your gallery when the act was under consid- of these letters indicates the slightest idea of a
eration.  Far from  any thing inflammatory, I change, either known, or even apprehended.
never heard a more languid debate in this House.    Thus are blown away the insect race of courtNo more than two or three gentlemen, as I re- ly falsehoods! thus perish the miserable invenmember, spoke against the act, and that with  tions of the wretched runners for a wretched
great reserve and remarkable temper.  There  cause, which they have flyblown into every weak
was but one division in the whole progress of the  and rotten part of the country, in vain hopes that
bill; and the minority did not reach to more than  when their maggots had taken wing, their importhirty-nine or forty.  In the House of Lords I do  tunate buzzing might sound something like the
not recollect that there was any debate or divi- public voice!
sion at all.  I am sure there was no protest.  In    Sir, I have troubled you sufficiently with the
fact, the affair passed with so very, very little  state of America before the repeal. The disturbannoise, that in town they scarcely knew the na- Now I turn to the honorable gentle- m ceiaeyal im-r
ture of what you were doing.  The opposition  man who so stoutly challenges us to the repea.
to the bill in England never could have done  tell whether, after the repeal, the provinces were
this mischief, because there scarcely ever was  quiet?  This is coming home to the point. Here
less of opposition to a bill of consequence.    I meet him directly, and answer most readily:
Sir, the agents and distributors of falsehoods  They were quiet.  And I, in my turn, challenge'or from the  have, with their usual industry, cir- him to prove when, where, and by whom, and in
irensislls     culated another lie of the same na- what numbers, and with what violence, the other
stry.      ture of the former.  It is this, that laws of trade, as gentlemen assert, were violated
the disturbances arose from the account which  in consequence of your concession? or that even
had been received in America of the change in  your other revenue laws were attacked?  But I
the ministry.  No longer awed, it seems, with  quit the vantage ground on which I stand, and
the spirit of the former rulers, they thought them- where I might leave the burden of proof upon
selves a match for what our calumniators choose  him.  I walk down upon the open plain, and unto qualify by the name of so feeble a ministry as dertake to show that they were not only quiet,
succeeded.  Feeble in one sense these men cer- but showed many unequivocal marks of acknowltainly may be called; forl with all their efforts, edgment and gratitude.  And, to give him every
and they have made many, they have not been  advantage, I select the obnoxious colony of Masable to resist the distempered vigor and insane  sachusetts Bay, which at this time (but without
alacrity with which you are rushing to your ruin. hearing her) is so heavily a culprit before ParBut it does so happen, that the falsity of this cir- liament.  I will select their proceedings even
culation is, like the rest, demonstrated by indis- under circumstances of no small irritation; for,
putable dates and records.                      a little imprudently, I must say, Governor BerSo little was the change known in America, nard mixed in the administration of the lenitive
-that the letters of your governors, giving an ac- of the repeal no small acrimony arising from mat
count of these disturbances long after they had  ters of a separate nature.  Yet see, sir, the effect
arrived at their highest pitch, were all directed  of that lenitive, though mixed with these bitter
to the old ministry, and particularly to the Earl ingredients; and how this rugged people can
of Halifax, the secretary of state corresponding  express themselves on a measure of concession:
with the colonies, without once in the smallest    "If it is not in our power," say they, in their
degree intimating the slightest suspicion of any  address to Governor Bernard, " in so full a manministerial revolution whatsoever. The ministry  ner as will be expected, to show our respectful
was not changed in England until the 10th day of  gratitude to the mother country, or to make a
July, 1.765.  On the 14th of the preceding June, dutiful and affectionate return to the indulgence
Governor Fauquier, from Virginia, writes thus, of the King and Parliament, it shall be no fault
and writes thus to the Earl of Halifax: " Gov- of ours; for this we intend, and hope we shall be
ernment is set at defiance, not having strength  able fully to effect."
enough in her hands to enforce obedience to    Would to God that this temper had been curlthe laws of the country.  The private distress tivated, managed, and set in action!  Other efwhich every man feels, increases the general dis- fects than those which we have since felt would
satisfaction at the duties laid by the Stamp Act, have resulted from it.  On the requisition for
which breaks out and shows itself upon every tri- compensation to those who had suffered from the
fling occasion."  The general dissatisfaction had  violence of the populace, in the same address
produced some time before, that is, on the 29th of they say: " The recommendation enjoined by
May, several strong public resolves against the  Mr. Secretary Conway's letter, and in conseStamp Act.; and those resolves are assigned by  quence thereof made to us, we will embrace the
Governor Bernard as the cause of the insurrec- first convenient opportunity to consider and act
tions in Massachusetts Bay, in his letter of the  upon."  They did consider; they did act upon
15th of August, still addressed to the Earl of  it.  They obeyed the requisition.  I know the
Halifax; and he continued to address such ac- mode has been chicaned upon; but it was submounts to that minister quite to the 7th of Sep- stantially obeyed, and much better obeyed than
ember of the same year.  Similar accounts, and  3 fePr the parliamentary requisition of this sfes




1774.]                            AMERICAN  TAXATION.                                        259
sion will be, though enforced by all your rigor, and there a bit of white; patriots and courtiers,
and backed with all your power.  In a word, king's friends and Republicans, Whigs and Tothe damages of popular fury were compensated  ries, treacherous friends and open enemies; that
by legislative gravity.  Almost every other part it was indeed a very curious show, but utterly
of America in various ways demonstrated their unsafe to touch, and unsure to stand on.  The
gratitude.  I am bold to say, that so sudden a  colleagues whom he had assorted at the same
calm recovered after so violent a storm is with- boards, stared at each other, and were obliged
out parallel in history.  To say that no other to ask, " Sir, your name?  Sir, you have the addisturbance should happen from any other cause, vantage of me-Mr. Such-a-one-I beg a thouis folly.  But, as far as appearances went, by the  sand pardons."  I venture to say, it did so hapjudicious sacrifice of one law, you procured an  pen, that persons had a single office divided beacquiescence in all that remained.  After this tween them, who had never spoke to each other
experience, nobody shall persuade me, when a  in their lives, until they found themselves, they
whole people are concerned, that acts of lenity  knew  not how, pigging  together, heads and
are not means of conciliation.                   points, in the same truckle-bed.23
I hope the honorable gentleman has received    Sir, in consequence of this arrangement, hava fair and full answer to his question.          ing put so much the larger portion of his enemies
(4.) I have done with the third period of your and opposers in power, the confusion was such,
Fourth Period, policy-that of your repeal; and the  that his own principles could not possibly have
New taxes laid return of your ancient system, and  any effect or influence in the conduct of affairs.
by Charles
To.wnsend, un your ancient tranquillity and con- If ever he fell into a fit of the gout, or if any other
i.m's third   cord.  Sir, this period was not as cause withdrew him from public cares, principles
ministry.    long as it was happy. Another scene  directly the contrary were sure to predominate.
was opened, and other actors appeared on the  When he had executed his plan, he had not an
stage.  The state, in the condition I have de- inch of ground to stand upon.  When he had acscribed it, was delivered into the hands of Lord  complished his scheme of administration, he was
Chatham-a great and celebrated name-a name  no longer a minister.
that keeps the name of this country respectable    When his face was hid but for a moment, his
in every other on the globe.  It may be truly  whole system was on a wide sea, without chart
called                                           or compass.  The gentlemen, his particular
Clarum et venerabile nomen,          friends, who, with the names of various departG(entibus, et multum nostrse quod proderat urbi.22  ments of ministry, were admitted to seem as if
Sir, the venerable age of this great man, his they acted under him, with a modesty that bemerited rank, his superior eloquence, his splen- comes all men, and with a confidence in him
did qualities, his eminent services, the vast space  which was justified, even in its extravagance, by
he fills in the eye of mankind, and, more than all his superior abilities, had never, in any instance,
the rest, his fall from power, which, like death, presumed upon any opinion of their own.  Decanonizes and sanctifies a great character, will prived of his guiding influence, they were whirled
not suffer me to censure any part of his conduct. about, the sport of every gust, and easily driven
I am afraid to flatter him; I am sure I am not into any port; and as those who joinedwiththem
disposed to blame him.  Let"those who have be- in manning the vessel were the most directly optrayed him by'their adulation, insult him with  posite to his opinions, measures, and character,
their malevolence.  But what I do not presume  and far the most artful and most powerful of the
to censure, I may have leave to lament.  For a  set, they easily prevailed, so as to seize upon the
wise man, he seemed to me at that time to be  vacant, unoccupied, and derelict minds of his,governed too much by general maxims.  I speak  friends; and instantly they turned the vessel
with the freedom of history, and, I hope, without wholly out of the course of his policy.  As if it
offense.  One or two of these maxims, flowing  were to insult as well as to betray him, even
from  an opinion not the most indulgent to our long before the close of the first session of his
unhappy species, and surely a little too general, administration, when every thing was publicly
led him  into measures that were greatly mis- transacted, and with great parade, in his name,
chievous to himself; and, for that reason, among  they made an act declaring it highly just and
others, perhaps, fatal to his country; measures, expedient to raise a revenue in America.  For
the effects of which, I am afraid, are forever in- even then, sir even before this splendid orb was
curable.  He made an administration so check- entirely set, and while the western horizon was
ered and speckled; he put together a piece of in a blaze with his descending glory, on the opjoinery so crossly indented and whimsically dove- posite quarter of the heavens arose another Intailed; a cabinet so variously inlaid; such a piece  minary, and, for his hour, became lord of the asof diversified mosaic; such a tesselated pave- ccndant.
ment without cement; here a bit of black stone,    This light, too, is passed and set forever.  You
understand, to be sure, that I speak of Charles
22 A name illustrious and revered by nations,           _______
And rich in blessings for our country's good.  23 Supposed to allude to the Right Honorable Lord
The passage may be found in Lucan's Pharsalia, North, and George Cooke, Esq., who were made
book ix., v. 202, and forms part of the character of  joint paymasters in the summer of 1766, on the rePompey, as put by the poet in the mouth of Cato.   moval of the Rockingham administration.




260                                    MR. BURKE ON                                        [1774.
Townsend, officially the reproducer of this fatal imperfect, is not unamiable.  Like all great pubscheme, whom  I can not even now  remember  lie collections of men, you possess a marked love
without some degree of sensibility.  In truth, of virtue, and an abhorrence of vice.  But among
sir, he was the delight and ornament of this  vices, there is none which the House abhors in the
House, and the charm of every society which he  same degree with obstinacy.  Obstinacy, sir, is
honored with his presence.  Perhaps there never certainly a great vice; and, in the changeful
arose in this country, nor in any country, a man  state of political affairs, it is frequently the cause
of a more pointed and finished wit, and (where his  of great mischief.  It happens, however, very unpassions were not concerned) of a more refined, fortunately, that almost the whole line of the great
exquisite, and penetrating judgment.  If he had  and masculine virtues, constancy, gravity, magnot so great a stock as some have had who flour- nanimity, fortitude, fidelity, and firmness, are
ished formerly, of knowledge long treasured up, closely allied to this disagreeable quality, of
he knew better by far, than any man I ever was  which you have so just an abhorrence; and, in
acquainted with, how to bring together within a  their excess, all these virtues very easily fall into
short time all that was necessary to establish, to  it.  He who paid such a punctilious attention to
illustrate, and to decorate that side of the ques- all your feelings, certainly took care not to shock
tion he supported.  He stated his matter skill- them  by that vice which is the most disgustful
fully and powerfully.  He particularly excelled  to you.
in a most luminous explanation and display of his    That fear of displeasing those who ought most
subject.  His' style of argument was neither to be pleased, betrayed:.in sometimes into the
trite and vulgar, nor subtle and abstruse.  He  other extreme.  He had voted, and, in the year
hit the House just between wind and water; and, 1765, had been an advocate for the Stamp Act.
not being troubled with too anxious a zeal for any  Things and the disposition of men's minds were
matter in question, he was never more tedious or changed.  In short, the Stamp Act began to be
more earnest than the preconceived opinions and  no favorite in this House.  He therefore attendpresent temper of his hearers required, to whom  ed at the private meeting in which the resoluhe was always in perfect unison.  He conformed  lions moved by a right honorable gentleman were
exactly to the temper of the House; and he  settled-resolutions leading to the repeal.  The
seemed to guide, because he was always sure to  next day he voted for that repeal-and he would
follow it.                                       have spoken for it, too, if an illness (not, as was
I beg pardon, sir, if, when I speak of this and  then given out, a political, but, to my knowledge,
other great men, I appear to digress in saying  a very real illness) had not prevented it.
something of their characters.  In this eventful    The very next session, as the fashion of this
history of the revolutions of America, the charac- world passeth away, the repeal began to be in
ters of such men are of much importance.  Great as bad an odor in this House as the Stamp Act
men are the guide-posts and land-marks in the had been in the session before.  To conform to
state.  The credit of such men at court, or in the  the temper which began to prevail, and to prenation, is the sole cause of all the public meas- vaif mostly among those most in power, he deures.  It would be an invidious thing (most for- clared, very early in the winter, that a revenue
eign, I trust, to what you think my disposition) must be had out of America.  Instantly he was
to remark the errors into which the authority of  tied down to his engagements by some who had
great names has brought the nation, without do- no objections to such experiments, when made
ing justice at the same time to the great quali- at the cost of persons for whom they had no parties whence that authority arose.  The subject ticular regard.24  The whole body of courtiers
is instructive to those who wish to form them- drove him onward.  They always talked as if
selves on whatever of excellence has gone before  the King stood in a sort of humiliated state until
them.  There are many young members in the  something of the kind should be done.
House (such of late has been the rapid succes-    Here this extraordinary man, then Chancellor
sion of public men) who never saw that prodigy, of the Exchequer, found himself in great straits.
Charles Townsend, nor, of course, know what a  To please universally was the object of his life;
ferment he was able to excite in every thing, by  but to tax and to please, no more than to love
the violent ebullition of his mixed virtues and fail- and to be wise, is not given to men.  However,
ings.  For failings he had, undoubtedly.  Many  he attempted it.  To render the tax palatable to
of us remember them.  We are this day consid- the partisans of American revenue, he made a
ering the effect of them.  But he had no failings  preamble stating the necessity of such a revenue.
which were not owing to a noble cause —to an  To close with the American distinction, this revardent, generous, perhaps an immoderate passion  enue was external, or port duty; but again, to
for fame-a passion which is the instinct of all soften it to the other party, it was a duty of
great souls.  He worshiped that goddess where- supply.  To gratify the colonists, it was laid on
soever she appeared; but he paid his particular British manufactures; to satisfy the merchants
devotions to her in her favorite habitation, in her of Britain, the duty was trivial, and, except that
chosen temple, the House of Commons.  Be- on tea, which touched only the devoted East Insides the characters of the individuals that com- dia Company, on none of the grand objects of
pose our body, it is impossible, Mr. Speaker, not   24 See the introduction to Lord Chatham's speech
to observe, that this House has a collective char-  touching America, p. 126, where the circumstances
acter of its own.  That character. too, however of this engagement are stated.




1774.]                            AMERICAN  TAXATION.                                       261
commerce.  To counterwork the American con-    Hence arose this unfortunate act, the subject
traband, the duty on tea was reduced from a shil- of this day's debate; from  a disposition which,
ling to threepence.  But, to secure the favor of  after making an American revenue to please one,
those who would tax America, the scene of col- repealed it to please others, and again revived it
lection was changed, and, with the rest, it was  in hopes of pleasing a third, and of catching somelevied in the colonies.  What need I say more?  thing in the ideas of all.
This fine-spun scheme had the usual fate of all   (5.) The revenue act of 1767 7formed the fourth
exquisite policy.  But the original plan of the  period of American nolicv.  How we have fared
duties, and the mode of executing that plan, both  since then; what woeful variety of schemes have
arose singly and solely from a love of our ap- been adopted; what enforcing and what repealplause.  He was truly the child of the House. ing; what bullying and what submitting; what
He never thought, did, or said any thing but with  doing and undoing; what straining and what rea view to you.  He every day adapted himself  laxing; what assemblies dissolved for not obeyto your disposition, and adjusted himself before it ing, and called again without obedience; what
as at a looking-glass.5                         troops sent out to quell resistance, and, on meetHe had observed (indeed, it could not escape  ing that resistance, recalled; what shiftings, and
him) that several persons, infinitely his inferiors changes, and jumblings of all kinds of men at
in all respects, had formerly rendered themselves  home, which left no possibility of order, consistconsiderable in this House by one method alone. ency, vigor, or even so much as a decent unity of
They were a race of men (I hope in God the spe- color in any one public measure-It is a tedious,
cies is extinct) who, when they rose in their place, irksome task.  My duty may call me to open it
no man living could divine, from any known ad- out some other time; on a former occasion I tried
herence to parties, to opinions, or to principles, your temper on a part of it;6 for the present I
from any order or system in their politics, or from  shall forbear.
any sequel or connection in their ideas, what part    After all these changes and agitations, your
they were going to take in any debate.  It is as- immediate situation upon the question A inalad total
tonishing how much this uncertainty, especially  on your paper is at length brought to repeal ow de
at critical times, called the attention of all par- this.  You have anact of Parliament,, mnded
ties on such men.  All eyes were fixed on them, stating that' "it is expedient to raise a revenue
all ears open to hear them.  Each party gaped, in America."  By a partial repeal you annihiand looked alternately for their vote, almost to  lated the greatest part of that revenue, which
the end of their speeches.  While the House  this preamble declares to be so expedient.  You
hung in this uncertainty, now the hear-him's rose  have substituted no other in the place of it.  A
from this side-now they rebellowed from  the  secretary of state has disclaimed, in the King's
other; and that party to whom they fell at length  name, all thoughts of such a substitution in fufrom their tremulous and dancing balance, always  ture.  The principle of this disclaimer goes to
received them in a tempest of applause. The for- what has been left as well as what has been retune of such men was a temptation too great to be  pealed.  The tax which lingers after its comresisted by one to whom a single whiff of incense  panions (under a preamble declaring an Ameriwithheld gave much greater pain than he re- can revenue expedient, and for the sole purpose
ceived delight in the clouds of it which daily rose  of supporting the theory of that preamble) miliabout him, from the prodigal superstition of innu- tates with the assurance authentically conveyed
merable admirers.  He was a candidate for con- to the colonies, and is an exhaustless source of
tradictory honors, and his great aim was to make jealousy and animosity.  On this state, which J
those agree in admiration of him  who never take to be a fair one, not being able to discern any
agreed in any thing else.                        grounds of honor, advantage, peace, or power, for
adhering either to the act or to the preamble, I
25 Mr. Burke has here touched with great tender- shall vote for the question which leads to the reness and forbearance on the peculiar faults of Town- peal of both.
send. Horace Walpole has given them with per-   If you do not fall in with this motion, then sehaps too much prominence in the following sketch: cure soething to fight for consistent in theory
"He had almost every great talent and every little          e   
and valuable in practice.  If you must employ
quality. His vanity exceeded even his abilities, and
his suspicions seemed to make him doubt whether he  your strength, employ it to uphold you in some
had any. With such a capacity, he must have been  honorable right or some profitable wrong.  If
the greatest man of his age, and perhaps inferior to  you are apprehensive that the concession recomno man in any age, had his faults been only in a mod- mended to you, though proper, should be a means
erate proportion-in short, if he had had but common  of drawing  on you farther but unreasonable
truth, common sincerity, common honesty, common  claims, why then employ your force in supportmodesty, common steadiness, common courage, and  in  that reasonable concession against those uncommon sense."  Sir Dennis Le Marchant remarks
cornmon sense."  Sir Deis Le Marchant remarks reasonable demands.  You will employ it with
in a note: "This portrait has the broad lines of                                       i 
truth, and is more to be depended upon than Mr. more grace, with  better efect, and with great
Burke's splendid and affectionate panegyric (Speech  probable concurrence of all the quiet and rationon American Taxation); and yet, who can blame the  al people in the provinces, who are now united
warmth with which this great man claims admira- -_         -       -                 _____-_~
tion for a genius which in some points resembled   26 By moving certain resolutions relative to the
his own?"                                       disturbances in America, in May, 1770.




%62                                    MR. BURKE ON                                       [1774.
with and hurried away by the violent; having,    Let us, sir, embrace some system or other beindeed, different dispositions, but a common inter- fore we end this session.  Do you mean Peroration
est.  If you apprehend that on a concession you  to tax America, and to draw a productshall be punished by metaphysical process to the  ive revenue from thence?  If you do, speak out:
extreme lines, and argued out of your whole au- name, fix, ascertain this revenue; settle its quanthority, my advice is this: When you have recov- tity; define its objects; provide for its collection;
ered your old, your strong, your tenable position, and then fight, when you have something to fight
then face about-stop short-do nothing more-   for.  If you murder, rob!  If you kill, take posreason not at all-oppose the ancient policy and  sessiona  and do not appear in the character of
practice of the empire as a rampart against the  madmen, as well as assassins, violent, vindictive,
speculations of innovators on both sides of the  bloody, and tyrannical, without an object.  But
question, and you will stand on great, manly, and  may better counsels guide you!
sure ground.  On this solid basis fix your ma-    Again and again revert to your old principles..
chines, and they will draw worlds toward you.   Seek peace and ensue it.  Leave America, if she
Your ministers, in their own and his Majesty's  has taxable matter in her, to tax herself.  I am
name, have already adopted the American dis- not here gding into the distinctions of rights, nor
tinction of internal and external duties.  It is a  attempting to mark their boundaries.  I do not
distinction, whatever merit it may have, that was enter into these metaphysical distinctions.  I
originally moved by the Americans themselves; hate the very sound of them.  Leave the Amerand I think they will acquiesce in it, if they are  icans as they anciently stood, and these distincnot pushed with too much logic and too little  tions, born of our unhappy contest, will die along
sense in all the consequences; that is, if exter- with it.  They and we, and their and our ancesnal taxation be understood as they and you un- tors, have been happy under that system.  Let
derstand it when you please, to be, not a distinc- the memory of all actions, in contradiction to that
tion of geography, but of policy; that it is a pow- good old mode, on both sides, be extinguished forer for regulating trade, and not for supporting es- ever.  Be content to bind America by laws of
tablishments.  The distinction, which is as noth- trade; you have always done it.  Let this be
ing with regard to right, is of most weighty con- your reason for binding their trade.  Do not
sideration in practice.  Recover your old ground  burden them with taxes; you were not used to
and your old tranquillity. Try it. I am persuad- do so from the beginning.  Let this be your reaed the Americans will compromise with you. son for not taxing.  These are the arguments of
When confidence is once restored, the odious and  states and kingdoms.  Leave the rest to the
suspicious smmtnum jus27 will perish of course. schools, for there only they may be discussed
The spirit of practicability, of moderation, and  with safety.  But if, intemperately, unwisely, famutual convenience, will never call in geometri- tally, you sophisticate and poison the very source
cal exactness as the arbitrator of an amicable  of government, by urging subtle deductions, and
settlement. Consult and follow your experience, consequences odious to those you govern, from
Let not the long story with which I have exer- the unlimited and illimitable nature of supreme
cised your patience prove fruitless to your inter- sovereignty, you will teach them by these means
ests.                                            to call that sovereignty itself in question.  When
For my part, I should choose (if I could have  you drive him hard, the boar will surely turn upon
my wish) that the proposition of the honorable  the hunters.  If that sovereignty and their freegentleman [Mr. Fuller] for the repeal could go  dom can not be reconciled, which will they take?
to America without the attendance of the penal They will cast your sovereignty in your face.
bills.  Alone, I could almost answer for its sue- Nobody will be argued into slavery.  Sir, let
cess.  I can not be certain of its reception in the the gentlemen on the other side call forth all
bad company it may keep.  In such heteroge- their ability; let the best of them  get up and
neous assortments, the most innocent person will tell me what one character of liberty the Amerlose the effect of his innocency.  Though you  icans have, and what one brand of slavery they
should send out this angel of peace, yet you are  are free from, if they are bound in their property
sending out a destroying angel too; and what and industry by all the restraints you can imagwould be the effect of the conflict of these two  ine on commerce, and at the same time are made
adverse spirits, or which would predominate in  pack-horses of every tax you choose to impose,
the end, is what I dare not say: whether the  without the least share in granting them? When
lenient measures would cause American passion  they bear the burdens of unlimited monopoly, will
to subside, or the severe would increase its fury. you bring them to bear the burdens of unlimited
All this is in the hand of Providence.  Yet now, revenue too?  The Englishman in America will
even now, I should confide in the prevailing vir- feel that this is slavery-that it is legal slavery
tue and efficacious operation of lenity, though  will be no compensation either to his feelings or
working in darkness, and in chaos, in the midst his understanding.
of all this unnatural and turbid combination.  I    A noble Lord [Lord Carmarthen], who spoke
should hope it might produce order and beauty  some time ago, is full of the fire of ingenuous
in the end.                                     youth; and when he has modeled the ideas of a
27 Referring to the adage, " Summumjus estsum- lively imagination by farther experience, he will
mainjuria"-Right, when pressed to an extreme, be- be an ornament to his country in either House.
comes the height of injustice.                  He has said that the Americans are our children,




1774.]                            AMERICAN  TAXATION.                                        263
and how can they revolt against their parent?  ually afford mutual assistance.  It is necessary
He says that if they are not free in their present to coerce the negligent, to restrain the violent,
state, England is not free, because Manchester, and to aid the weak and deficient by the overand other considerable places, are not represent-  ruling plenitude of her power.  She is never to
ed. So, then, because some towns in England are  intrude into the place of others while they are
not represented, America is to have no represent-  equal to the common ends of their institution.
ative at all. They are' our children " but when  But, in order to enable Parliament to answer all
children ask for bread, we-are not to give a stone. these ends of provident and beneficent superinis it because the natural resistance of things, and  tendence, her powers must be boundless.  The
the various mutations of time, hinders our govern-  gentlemen who think the powers of Parliament
ment, or any scheme of government, from being  limited, may please themselves to talk of requiany more than a sort of approximation to the  sitions.  But suppose the requisitions are not
right, is it therefore that the colonies are to re- obeyed.  What! shall there be no reserved
cede from it infinitely?  When this child of ours  power in the empire to supply a deficiency
wishes to assimilate to its parent, and to reflect which  may weaken, divide, and dissipate the
with a true filial resemblance the beauteous coun-  whole?  We are engaged in war; the Secretenance of British liberty, are we to turn to them  tary of State calls upon the colonies to contrib.
the shameful parts of our Constitution?  Are we  ute; some would do it-I think most would
to give them our weakness for their strength-   cheerfully furnish whatever is demanded; one
our opprobrium for their glory; and the slough  or two, suppose, hang back, and, easing them.
of slavery, which we are not able to work off, to  selves, let the stress of the draught lie on the
serve them for their freedom?                   others: surely it is proper that some authority
If this be the case, ask yourselves this ques- might legally  say, "Tax yourselves for the
tion: Will they'be content in such a state of  common supply, or Parliament will do it for
slavery?  If not, look to the consequences. Re- you."  This backwardness was, as I am  told,
fleet how you ought to govern a people who  actually the case of Pennsylvania for some short
think they ought to be free, and think they are  time toward the beginning of the last war, ownot.  Your scheme yields no revenue; it yields  ing to some internal dissensions in the colony.
nothing but discontent, disorder, disobedience;  But, whether the fact were so or otherwise, the
and, such is the state of America, that, after wad- case is equally to be provided for by a compeing up to your eyes in blood, you could only end  tent sovereign power.  But then this ought to
just where you began; that is, to tax where no  be no ordinary power, nor ever used in the first
revenue is to be found; to-my voice fails me; instance.  This is what I meant when I have
my inclination, indeed, carries me no farther-all said at various times that I consider the powei
is confusion beyond it.  [Here Mr. Burke was  of taxing in Parliament as an instrument of em
compelled by illness to stop for a short time, aft- pire, and not as a means of supply.
el which he proceeded:]                           Such, sir, is my idea of the constitution of the
Well, sir, I have recovered a little, and, before  British empire, as distinguished from the constiI sit down, I must say something to another point tution of Britain; and on these grounds I think
with which gentlemen urge us: What is to be.. subordination and liberty may be sufficiently reccome of the Declaratory Act, asserting the en- onciled through the whole; whether to serve a
tireness of British legislative authority, if we  refining speculatist or a factious demagogue, I
abandon the practice of taxation?               know not; but enough, surely, for the ease and
For my part, I look upon the rights stated in  happiness of man.
Declaratory Act that act exactly in the manner in    Sir, while we held this happy course, we drew
trepealftlie ea which I viewed them on its-very first more from the colonies than all the impotent viAct.        proposition, and which I have often  olence of despotism ever could extort from them.
taken the liberty, with great humility, to lay be- We did this abundantly in the last war.  It has
fore you.  I look, I say, on the imperial rights of  never been once denied  and what reason have
Great Britain, and the privileges which the col- we to imagine that the colonies would not have
onists ought to enjoy under these rights, to be  proceeded in supplying government as liberally,
just the most reconcilable things in the world. if you had not stepped in and hindered them from
The Parliament of Great Britain sits at the head  contributing, by interrupting the channel in which.
of her extensive empire in two capacities: one  their liberality flowed with so strong a course
as the local Legislature of this island, providing  by attempting to take, instead of being satisfie,
for all things at home, immediately, and by no  to receive?  Sir William Temple says, that Hol
other instrument than the executive power. The  land has loaded itself with ten times the imposi
other, and, I think, her nobler capacity, is what I tions which it revolted from  Spain rather thar
call her imperial character, in which, as from the  submit to.  He says true.  Tyranny is a poor
throne of heaven, she superintends all the sever- provider.  It knows neither how to accumulate
al inferior Legislatures, and guides and controls  nor how to extract.
them all without annihilating any.  As all these    I charge, therefore, to this new and unfortunate
provincial Legislatures are only co-ordinate to  system, the loss not only of peace, of union, and
each other, they ought all to be subordinate to  of commerce, but even of revenue, which itf
her; else they can neither preserve mutual friends are contending for.  It is morally certail
peace, nor hope for mutual justice, nor effect- that we have lost at-least a million of free grants




z64                                  MR. BURKE ON                                     [1774.
since the peace. I think we have lost a great laid deep in vour truest interests; and that, by
deal more; and that those who look for a rev- limiting the exercise, it fixes on the firmest founenue from the provinces, never could have pur- dations a real, consistent, well-grounded authorsued, even in that light, a course more directly  ity in Parliament.  Until you come back to that
repugnant to their purposes.                  system, there will be no peace for England.
Now, sir, I trust I have shown, first, on that
narrow ground which the honorable gentleman    Mr. Burke's motion was negatived by a vote
measured, that you are like to lose nothing by  of 182 to 49.  The ministry were bent on vio
complying with the motion except what you have  lent measures, and the act for quartering troops
lost already.  I have shown afterward, that in  in Boston was passed about a month after.
time of peace you flourished in commerce, and
when war required it, had sufficient aid from the    The name of Lord North occurs so often in
colonies, while you pursued your ancient policy;  this speech.and in other parts of this volume, that
that you threw every thing into confusion when  the reader will be interested in a brief notice of
you made the Stamp Act; and that you restored  his life and character.  He was the eldest son of
every thing to peace and order when you re- the Earl of Guilford, and was born in 1732.
pealed it.  I have shown that the revival of the  Having completed his education at Oxford, and
system of taxation has produced the very worst traveled extensively on the Continent, he became
effects; and that the partial repeal has produced, a member of Parliament in 1754, and in 1759
not partial good, but universal evil.  Let these  was brought into office by Lord Chatham as a
considerations, founded on facts, not one of which  Commissioner of the Treasury.  This office he
can be denied, bring us back to our reason by  continued to hold during Lord Bute's administrathe road of our experience.                    tion, and at the close of it was made head of the
I can not, as I have said, answer for mixed  board by Mr. Grenville, who could always rely
measures; but surely this mixture of lenity  on him as a determined advocate of American
would give the whole a better chance of success. taxation.  He was thrown out of office in 1766,
When you once regain confidence, the way will when Lord Rockingham came into power; but
be clear before you.  Then you may enforce the the next year was made Paymaster of the Forces
Act of Navigation when it ought to be enforced. by Lord Chatham, in his third administration, so
You will yourselves open it where it ought still graphically described in this speech.  In 1767
farther to be opened.  Proceed in what you do, he became Chancellor of the Exchequer under
whatever you do, from policy, and not from ran- the Duke of Grafton, and when the latter resigncor.  Let us act like men, let us act like states- ed in 1770, took his place as First Lord of the
men.  Let us hold some sort of consistent con- Treasury and prime minister.  The King felt
duct.  It is agreed that a revenue is not to be greatly indebted to Lord North for thus saving
had in America.  If we lose the profit, let us get him the necessity of going back to the Whigs
rid of the odium.                             under Lord Chatham  and Lord Rockingham;
On this business of America, I confess I am  and Lord North, on his part, yielded implicitly to
serious even to sadness.  I have had but one the King's wishes, and carried on the war long
opinion concerning it since I sat, and before I sat, after he was convinced that the contest was hopein Parliament.  The noble Lord [Lord North] less.  At the end of twelve years he was defeatwill, as usual, probably attribute the part taken  ed on this subject in the House of Commons, and,
by me and my friends in this business to a de- although urged by the King to persevere, he resire of getting his places.  Let him enjoy this signed his office on the 19th of March, 1782.
happy and original idea.  If I deprived him of Within a year from this time he formed his coit, I should take away most of his wit, and all alition with Mr. Fox, and came again into power
his argument.  But I had rather bear the brunt as joint Secretary of State with his old opponent.
of all his wit, and, indeed, blows much heavier, They were dismissed, however, within less than
than stand answerable to God for embracing a nine months, and from this time Lord North held
system that tends to the destruction of some of no responsible office under government.
the very best and fairest of his works.  But I    As leader of the House of Commons, he showed
know the map of England as well as the noble  much more talent than his early opponents, esLord, or as any other person; and I know that pecially Junius, supposed him to possess.  He
the way I take is not the road to preferment. never rose into high eloquence, but he succeeded
My excellent and honorable friend under me on  admirably in managing the House.  He had exthe floor [Mr. Dowdeswell] has trod that road  traordinary tact, perfect self-command, and inwith great toil for upward of twenty years to- flexible courage.  To these was added a great
gether. He is not yet arrived at the noble Lord's fund of wit, which he used with much effect in
destination.  However, the tracks of my worthy  allaying the violence of debate, when rendered
friend are those I have ever wished to follow, almost savage, as it was at times, by the impetbecause I know they lead to honor.  Long may  uous attacks of Mr. Fox and his other opponents.
we tread the same road together, whoever may  Often, when assailed with the bitterest invectives,
accompany us, or whoever may laugh at us on  threatened with impeachment, or held out as a
our journey.  I honestly and solemnly declare, fit object of popular violence, he would rise at the
I have in all seasons adhered to the system of close of a debate and turn the laugh onhis oppo1766, for no other reason than that I think it nents by his good-humored pleasantry, while he




1774 ]                            AMERICAN  TAXATION.                                         265
(hrnished the ministerial benches with plausible  North attempted to allay the feeling, and check
reasons, at least, for carrying him through by their the prevailing disposition to take offense at what
votes.  He sometimes refreshed himself with a was said in debate.  He referred to the attacks
nap during these attacks; and on one occasion, on himself, and the manner in which he was acwhen the orator, who had been threatening him  customed to treat them.  "A  gentleman," he
with the block for his crimes, poured out an invect- remarked, "spoke of me some time ago as that
ive against him for being able to slumber over the thing called a minister.  Now," said he, looking
ruin of his country, Lord North rose and com- down at his large, round form, and patting his
plained of it as cruel that he should be denied a side, " I certainly am a thing: the member, when
privilege always granted to criminals, that of a  he called me so, said what was true.  I can not,
good night's rest before going to execution. therefore, be angry with him.  And when he
After his union with Mr. Fox, when Mr. Mar- spoke of me as the thing called a minister, he
tin, who harped continually on the subject, said  called me that which of all things he wished to
" he wished he could see a starling perched on  be himself, and therefore I took it as a compli.
the right elbow of the speaker's chair, to repeat l nent."  In private life, Lord North was beloved
incessantly to the Treasury Bench'disgraceful, by all; and, notwithstanding the incessant at.
shameless COALITION,' " Lord North suggested it tacks to which he was subjected in the House of
would be a saving of expense to have the honor- i Commons, it is probably true, as Charles Butler
able gentleman himself perform  the service, as  remarks, that " among all his political adversadeputy to the starling.  In one instance, when  ries he had not asingle enemy."  On the death
the worst possible spirit prevailed in the House, of his father in 1790, he succeeded to the earlarising out of an attack made by Colonel Fuller- dom of Guilford, and died about two years after,
ton on Lord Shelburne, and Mr. Adam on Mr. at the age of sixty.
Fox (leading to a duel in the latter case), Lord
SPEECH  
OF MR. BURKE ON MOVING HIS RESOLUTIONS FOR CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA, DELIVERED IN
THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, MARCH 22, 1775.
INTRODUCTION.
THIS speech was occasioned by one of those sudden changes of policy which occurred so often in Lord
North's treatment of the colonies.
In the midst of violent measures, and at the moment when bills were before Parliament for extinguishing the entire trade of America, he came forward, to the astonishment of his nearest friends, with a plan
for conciliation! It was in substance this, that, whenever a colony, in addition to providing for its own
government, should raise a fair proportion for the common defense, and place this sum at the disposal of
Parliament, that colony should be exempted from all farther taxation, except such duties as might be necessary for the regulation of commerce. This was obviously an insidious scheme for sowing dissension
among the Americans. Lord North's design was to open the way for treating separately with the different provinces. He could thus favor the loyal and burden the disaffected. He could array them against
each other by creating hostile interests; and thus taking them in detail, he could reduce them all to complete subjection. There was cunning in the scheme, but it proceeded on a false estimate of American
character. It sprang from a total Ignorance of'the spirit which actuated the colonies in resisting the mother
country; and exemplified in a striking manner the truth of the remarks made by Mr. Burke ipl the preceding speech, on "the mischief of not having large and liberal ideas in the management of great affairs."
While Mr. Burke saw through this scheme, he thought it presented a favorable opportunity for bringing
forward a plan of conciliation suited to the exigencies of the case; a plan which, if not adopted, might at
least put the ministry wholly in the wrong. The idea of conciliating, and even of conceding, before America had submitted, was certainly admissible, for the minister himself had founded his scheme upon it.
Mr. Burke, therefore, proposed "to admit the Americans to an equal interest in the British Constitution,
and place them at once on thefooting of other Englishmen."  In urging this measure, he discusses two
questions:
1st. " Ought we to concede?' and if so,
2dly. " What should the concession be?"
In considering the first question, he enters minutely, and with surprising accuracy of detail, into the condition of the colonies, (1.) their population, (2.) commerce, (3.) agriculture, and (4.) fisheries. He shows that
force is an improper and inadequate instrument for holding such a people in subjection to the mother country; especially considering their spirit of liberty, which he traces to (1.) their descent, (2.) their forms of
government, (3.) the religious principles of the North, (4.) the social institutions of the South, (5.) the peculiarities of their education, and (6.) their remoteness from Great Britain. He concludes this head by showing that it is vain to think either (1:) of extinguishing this spirit by removing the causes mentioned above
(since this is plainly impossible), or (2.) of putting it down by proceeding against it as criminal. He




266                                     MR. BURKE  ON                                         [1775.
comes, therefore, to the conclusion that it must be propitiated; or, in other words, that England must con
cede. He now considers,
2dly. " What should the concession be?"
He remarks that it must obviously relate to taxation, since this was the origin of the contest; and then
appeals to the case of Ireland, which was early allowed a Parliament of its own, and of Wales, Chester,
and Durham, which were admitted to a representation in the Parliament of England. After obviating objections, and exposing the evils of Lord North's scheme, he comes to the conclusion that the Americans
ought (as in the cases adduced) to be admitted to the peculiar privilege of Englishmen, that of " giving
and granting," through their own Legislatures, whatever they contributed in aid of the Crown; and not
be subjected to the imposition of taxes by a Parliament in which they were not represented. He therefore offers six main resolutions asserting these principles, and three subordinate ones for rescinding the
penal statutes against America, thus carrying the plan of conciliation into full effect.
After the sketch here given, it is hardly necessary to say that this speech is distinguished for the felicitous selection of its topics; the lucid order in which they are arranged; their close connection; the ease
with which one thought grows out of another in a regular and progressive series; and the tendency of the
whole to a single point, with all the force and completeness of a moral demonstration. The argument
throughout is founded on facts; and yet never was there a speech which had less the character of a mere
"matter of fact" production than the one before us. The outline just given is filled up with thoughts
fresh from a mind teeming with original and profound reflections on the science of government and the
nature of man. There are more passages in this than in any other of Mr. Burke's speeches, which have
been admired and quoted for the richness of their imagery, or the force and beauty of their descriptions.
The language was evidently elaborated with great care; and Sir James Mackintosh has pronounced it
"the most faultless of Mr. Burke's productions."
SPEECH, &c.
I -HOPE, sir, that, notwithstanding the austerity  bill, which seemed to have taken its flight forof the chair, your good nature will incline you to  ever, we are, at this very instant, nearly as free
some degree of indulgence toward human frailty.l  to choose a plan for our American government,
You will not think it unnatural that those who  as we were on the first day of the session.  If,
have an object depending, which strongly enga- sir, we incline to the side of conciliation, we are
ges their hopes and fears, should be somewhat in- not at all embarrassed (unless we please to make
dined to superstition. As I came into the House  ourselves so) by any incongruous mixture of cofull of anxiety about the event of my motion, I ercion and restraint.  We are therefore called
found, to my infinite surprise, that the grand pe- upon, as it were by a superior warning voice,
nal bill, by which we had passed sentence on the  again to attend to America; to attend to the
trade and sustenance of America, is to be re- whole of it together; and to review the subject
turned to us from the other House2  I do con- with an unusual degree of care and calmness.
fess, I could not help looking on this event as a    Surely it is an awful subject, or there is none
fortunate omen.  I look upon it as a sort ofprov- so on this side of the grave. When Tle subject one
idential favor, by which we are put once more in  I first had the honor of a seat in this tematic views.
possession of our deliberative capacity, upon a  House, the affairs of that continent pressed thembusiness so very questionable in its nature, so  selves upon us as the most important and most
very uncertain in its issue.  By the return of this  delicate object of parliamentary attention.  My
little share in this great deliberation oppressed
I There is too much that is fancifil in some parts  me.  I found myself a partaker in a very high
of this exordium. A man who was wholly absorbed  trust; and having no sort of reason to rely on
in his subject would not talk thus about himself, or the strength of my natural abilities for the propabout " the austerity of the chair," " indulgence to- er execution of that trust, I was obliged to take
ward human frailty," being'inclined to supersti- more than common pains to instruct myself in evtion," "a fortunate omen," "a superior warning  ery thing which relates to our colonies. I was not
voice," &c. It was this that made Mr. Hazlitt say, less under the necessity of formin  some fixed
^'". ^less undter the necessity of forming some fixed
"Most of his speeches have a sort of parliamentary 
preamble to them: there is an air of affected mod-  deas cncerning the general policy of the British
esty, and ostentatious trifling in them: he seems  empire.  Something of this sort seemed to be infond of coqueting with the House of Commons, and  dispensable, in order, amid so vast a fluctuation of
is perpetually calling the speaker out to dance a passions and opinions, to concenter my thoughts;
minuet with him before he begins." This is strongly  to ballast my conduct; to preserve me from bestated, but it shows a fault in Mr. Burke, which was ing blown about by every wind of fashionable
often spoken of by his contemporaries. Hazlitt at- doctrine.  I really did not think it safe, or mantributes it to his having been "raised into publicy, to have fresh pinciples to seek upon every
life: he was prouder of his new dignity than be-           i hich   s d ai
came so great a man."  Perhaps a truer solution is,                                      America.
that Mr. Burke's fancy too often outran his judgment,    At that period I had the fortune to find mywhich was certainly the occasion of most of his er- self in perfect concurrence with a large majority
rors in composition.                              in this House.3  Bowing under that high author2 An act interdicting the trade and fisheries of all   2 This was in 1766, when the Stamp Act was rethe New England colonies.                         pealed by the Rockingham administration.




1775.]                      CONCILIATION  WITH AMERICA                                     267
ity, and penetrated  with  the sharpness and  mind, or some want of knowledge of the world,
strength of that early impression, I have contin- to hazard plans of government, except from a
ued ever since in my original sentiments without seat of authority.  Propositions are made, not
the least deviation.  Whether this be owing to  only ineffectually, but somewhat disreputably,
an obstinate perseverance in error, or to a relig- when the minds of men are not properly disious adherence to what appears to me truth and  posed for their reception; and, for my part, 1
reason, it is in your equity to judge.          am not ambitious of ridicule-not absolutely a
Sir, Parliament having an enlarged view of candidate for disgrace.
objects, made, during, this interval, more firequent    Besides, sir, to speak the plain truth, I have in
changes in their sentiment and their conduct than  general no very exalted opinion of the virtue of
could be justified in a particular person upon the  paper government, nor of any politics in which
contracted scale of private information.  But the plan is to be wholly separated from the exethough I do not hazard any thing approaching  cution.  But when I saw that anger and vioto a censure on the motives of former Parliaments  lence prevailed every day more and more, and
to all those alterations, one fact is undoubted-   that things were hastening toward an incurable
that under them the state of America has been  alienation of our colonies, I confess my caution
kept in continual-agitation.  Every thing admin- gave way.  I felt this, as one of those few moistered as remedy to the public complaint, if it ments in which decorum yields to a higher duty.
did not produce, was at least followed by, a  Public calamity is a mighty leveler, and there
heightening of the distemper; until, by avariety  are occasions when any, even the slightest.
of experiments, that important country has been  chance of doing good, must be laid hold on, even
brought into her present situation-a situation  by the most inconsiderable person.
which I will not miscall, which I dare not name,    To restore order and repose to an empire so
which I scarcely know how to comprehend in the  great and so distracted as ours, is, merely in the
terms of any description,                       attempt, an undertaking that would ennoble the
In this posture, sir, things stood at the begin- flights of the highest genius, and obtain pardon
Mr. Burke invi- ning of the session. About that time, for the efforts of the meanest understanding.
ted to come for- a worthy member [Mr. Rose Fuller] Struggling a good while with these thoughts, by
d of great parliamentary experience, degrees I felt myself more firm.  I derived, at
who, in the year 1766, filled the chair of the Amer- length, some confidence from what in other cirican committee with much ability, took me aside, cumstances usually produces timidity.  I grew
and, lamenting the present aspect of our politics, less anxious, even from the idea of my own insigtold me, things were come to such a pass, that nificance. For, judging of what you are by what
our former methods of proceeding in the House  you ought to be, I persuaded myself that you
would be no longer tolerated.  That the public  would not reject a reasonable proposition betribunal (never too indulgent to a long and un- cause it had nothing but its reason to recomsuccessful Opposition) would now scrutinize our mend it.  On the other hand, being totally desconduct with unusual severity.  That the very  titute of all shadow of influence, natural or adven.
vicissitudes and shiftings of ministerial measures, titious, I was very sure that if my proposition
instead of convicting their authors of inconstancy  were futile or dangerous-if it were weakly
and want of system, would be taken as an occa- conceived or improperly timed, there was nothsion of charging us with a predetermined discon- ing exterior to it of power to awe, dazzle, or detent, which nothing could satisfy; while we ac- lude you.  You will see it just as it is, and you
cused every measure of vigor as cruel, and ev- will treat it just as it deserves.
ery proposal of lenity as weak and irresolute.    The PROPOSITION ispeace. Not peace through
The public, he said, would not have patience to  the medium of war; not peace to be hunt- The thing
see us play the game out with our adversaries: ed through the labyrinth of intricate and propoo.d.
we must produce our hand.  It would be ex- endless negotiations; not peace to arise out of
pected, that those who for many years had been  universal discord, fomented from principle, in all
active in such affairs, should show that they had  parts of the empire; not peace to depend on the
formed some clear and decided idea of the prin-  juridical determination of perplexing questions,
ciples of colony government, and were capable  or the precise marking the shadowy boundaries
of drawing out something like a plattbrm of the  of a complex government.  It is simple peace,
ground which might be laid for future and per- sought in its natural course and its ordinary
manent tranquillity.                            haunts. It is peace sought in the spirit of peace,
I felt the truth of what my honorable friend  and laid in principles purely pacific.  I propose,
Reluctance represented, but I felt my situation too. by removing the ground of the difference, and by
to do so.  His applicaticn might have been made  restoring the former unsuspecting confidence of
with far greater propriety to many other gentle- the colonies in the mother country, to give permen.  No man was, indeed, ever better disposed  manent satisfaction to your people; and, far
or worse qualified for such an undertaking than  from a scheme of ruling by discord, to reconcile
myself.  Though I gave so far into his opinion  them to each other in the same act, and by the
that I immediately threw  my thoughts into a  bond of the very same interest, which reconciles
sort of parliamentary form, I was by no means them to British government.
equally ready to produce them.  It generally    My idea is nothing more. Refined policy ever
argues some degree of natural impotence of  has been the parent of confusion, and ever will be




268                                     MR. BURKE ON                                     [1775.
so as long as the world endures.  Plain good  good deal beyond that mark, and has admitted
intention, which is as easily discovered at the  that-the- complaints of our- former mode of exertfirst view as fraud is surely detected at last, is ing the right of taxation were not wholly un(let me say) of no mean force in the govern- founded.  That right, thus exerted, is allowed
ment of mankind.  Genuine simplicity of heart to have had something reprehensible in it, someis a healing and cementing principle.  My plan, thing unwise, or something grievous; since, in
therefore, being formed upon the most simple  the midst of our heat and resentment, we, of ourgrounds imaginable, may disappoint some peo- selves, have proposed a capital alteration, and,
ple when they hear it.  It has nothing to rec- in order to get rid of what seemed so very exommend it to the pruriency of curious ears. ceptionable, have instituted a mode that is aitoThere is nothing at all new and captivating in  gether new; one that is, indeed, wholly alien
it.  It has nothing of the splendor of the project from all the ancient methods and forms of Parwhich has been lately laid upon your table by  liament.
the noble Lord in the blue ribbon4 [Lord North].    The principle of this proceeding  is large
It does not propose to fill your lobby with squab- enough for my purpose.  The means proposed
bling colony agents, who will require the inter- by the noble Lord for carrying his ideas into exposition of your mace at every instant to keep  ecution, I think, indeed, are very indifferently
the peace among them.  It does not institute a  suited to the end; and this I shall endeavor to
magnificent auction of finance, where captivated  show you before I sit down.  But, for the presprovinces come to general ransom  by bidding  ent, I take my ground on the admitted principle.
against each other, until you knock down the  I mean to give peace.  Peace implies reconcilhammer, and determine a proportion  of pay- iation; and, where there has been a material disments beyond all the powers of algebra to  pute, reconciliation does in a manner always imequalize and settle.                            ply concession on the one part or on the other.
The plan which I shall presume to suggest In this state of things I make no difficulty in
The planjus- derives, however, one great advantage  affirming that the proposal ought to originate
tied by Lord from  the proposition and registry of from us.  Great and acknowledged force is not
ect.     that noble Lord's project.  The idea  impaired, either in effect or in opinion, by an unof conciliation is admissible.  First, the House, in  willingness to exert itself.  The superior power
accepting the resolution moved by the noble Lord, may offer peace with honor and with safety.
has admitted, notwithstanding the menacing front Such an offer from such a power will be attribof our address,j notwithstanding our heavy bill of uted to magnanimity. But the concessions of the
pains and penalties, that we do not think ourselves weak are the concessions of fear. When such a
precluded from all ideas of free grace and bounty. one is disarmed, he is wholly at the mercy of his
The House has gone farther; it has declared  superior, and he loses forever that timle and those
conciliation admissible, previous to any submis- chances which, as they happen to all men, are
sion on the part of America.  It has even shot a  the strength and resources of all inferior power.
The capital leading questions on which you
4 That when the governor, council, or Assembly, or must this day decide, are these two: First,
General Court of any of his Majesty's provinces or whether you ought to concede; and, secondly,
colonies in America, shall propose to make provision, what your concession ought to be.
according to the condition, circumnstances, and situa-    I. On the first of these questions we have
tion of such province or colony, for contributing their gained, as I have just taken the liberty of observproportion to the common defense (such proportion to  in  to you soe round.  But I am sensible that
be raised under the authority of the General Court or   n good del        t         
General Assembly of such province or colony, and   o  e                tin  b    done
disposable by Parliament), and shall engage to make n u s  determine both on  the one and the
provision also for the support of the civil government   of these great questions with a firm and preand the administration of justice in such province or eise judgment, I think it may be necessary to concolony, it will be proper, if such proposal shall be ap- sider distinctly,
proved by his Majesty and the two houses of Parlia-    The true nature and the peculiar circumment, and for so long as such provision shall be made  stances of the object which we have First eeneral
accordingly, to forbear, in respect of such province  before us; because, after all our strug- consideration:
or colony, to levy any duty, tax, or assessment, or to                               tate and cor-.,le, whether we will or not, we must cumstances of
impose any farther duty, tax, or assessment, except..'            America.
such duties as it may be expedient to continue to govern America according to that nalevy or impose for the regulation of commerce: the ture and to those circumstances, and not accordnet produce of the duties last mentioned to be car- lng to our imaginations; not according to abstract
ried to the account of such province or colony re- ideas of right; by no means according to mere
spectively.-Resolution moved by Lord North in  general theories of government, the resort to
the committee, and agreed to by the House, 27th  which appears to me, in our present situation
February, 1775.                                 no better than arrant trifling.  I shall therefore
5 The ministry had previously procured the pass- endeavor, with your leave, to lay before you some
ing of an address to the King, declaring that a e- of the most material of these circumstances ing that aasrebellion existed in Massachusetts; requesting his
Majesty to take effectual means for its suppression; full and as clear a manner as I am able to state
and pledging the zealous co-operation of Parliament them.
in whatever measures he might adopt for that par-   (1.) The first thing that we have to considel
pose.                                           with regard to the nature of the object, is the




1775.]                      CONCILIATION  WITH  AMERICA.                                   269
number of people in the colonies.  I with great ability, by a distinguished person [Mr.
have taken for some years a good deal Gower] at your bar.  This gentleman, after thirof pains on that point.  I can by no calculation  ty-five years-it is so long since he appeared at
justify myself in placing the number below two  the same place to plead for the commerce of
millions of inhabitants of our own European  Great Britain-has come again before you to
blood and color, besides at least five hundred  plead the same cause, without any other effect of
thousand others, who form no inconsiderable part time, than that, to the fire of imagination and exof the strength and opulence of the whole. This, tent of erudition which even then marked him as
sir, is, I believe, about the true number.  There  one of the first literary characters of his age, he
is no occasion to exaggerate, where plain truth  has added a consummate knowledge in the comis of so much weight and importance.  But mercial interest of his country, formed by a long
whether I put the present numbers too high or course of enlightened and discriminating expetoo low, is a matter of little moment.  Such is rience.
the strength with which population shoots in    Sir, I should be inexcusable in coming after
that part of the world, that, state the numbers  such a person with any detail, if a great part of
as high as we will, while the dispute continues, the members who now fill the House had not
the exaggeration ends.  While we are discuss- the misfortune to be absent when he appeared
ing any given magnitude, they are grown to it. at your bar.  Besides, sir, I propose to take the
While we spend our time in deliberating on the  matter at periods of time somewhat different
mode of governing two millions, we shall find  from his.  There is, if I mistake not, a point of
we have two millions more to manage.  Your view, from whence, if you will look at this subchildren do not grow faster from infancy to man- ject, it is impossible that it should not make an
hood, than they spread from families to commu- impression upon you.
nities, and from villages to nations.6            I have in my hand two accounts: one a comI put this consideration of the present and the parative state of the export trade of England to
growing numbers in the front of our deliberation   its colonies as it stqod in the year 1704, and as
because, sir, this consideration will make it evi- it stood in the year 1772; the other a state of
dent to a blunter discernment than yours, that no  the export trade of this country to its colonies
partial, narrow, contracted, pinched, occasional alone, as it stood in 1772, compared with the
system will be at all suitable to such an object.- whole trade of England to all parts of the world,
It will show you that it is not to be considered  the colonies included, in the year 1704.  They
as one of those minima which are out of the eye  are from good vouchers; the latter period from
and consideration of the law; not a paltry ex- the accounts on your table, the earlier from an
crescence of the state; not a mean dependent, original manuscript of Davenant, who first eswho may be neglected with little damage, and  tablished the inspector general's office, which
provoked with little danger.  It will prove that has been ever since his time so abundant a
some degree of care and caution is required in  source of parliamentary information.
the handling such an object; it will show that    The export trade to the colonies consists of
you ought not, in reason, to trifle with so large  three great branches: the African, which, terma mass of the interests and feelings of the human  inating almost wholly in the colonies, must be
race.  You could at no time do so without guilt; put to the account of their commerce; the West
and, be assured, you will not be able to do it long  Indian, and the North American.  All these are
with impunity.                                  so interwoven, that the attempt to separate them
(2.) But the population of this country, fhe  would tear to pieces the contexture of the whole,
ome. great and growing population, though  and, if not entirely destroy, would very much dea very important consideration, will preciate the value of all the parts.  I therefore
lose much of its weight, if not combined with  consider these three denominations to be, what
other circumstances.  The commerce of your in effect they are, one trade.
colonies is out of all proportion beyond the num-    The trade to the colonies, taken on the export
hers of the people.  This ground of their com- side, at the beginning of this century, that is, in
merce, indeed, has been trod some days ago, and  theyyear 1704, stood thus:
__-_ -~-    - ~-_... —. —-. —-_. — _Exports to North America and the
6 This is in Mr. Burke's best style. The compar-   West Indies................   483265
ison beautifully illustrates the idea, and justifies his    To Afica............    86665
assertion, that while " the dispute continues, the exaggeration ends."  It is curious to observe, as one                                 6569,930
of the artifices of language, how Johnson treats the 
same idea in his Taxation no Tyranny, where he        the year 1772, which  I take as a middle
contrives to cover it with contempt in the minds of year between the highest and lowest of those latethe Tories, for whom he wrote, by a dexterous use  ly laid on your table, the account was as follows:
of sneers and appropriate imagery. " We are told    To North America and the West
that the continent of North America contains thiee    Indies..........4.........   4,791,734
millions, not merely of men, but of W7Vhigs-of Whigs    To Africa...................   866,398
fierce for liberty and disdainful of dominion; that    To which if you add the export
they multiply with the fecundity of their rattle-    trade fom  Scotland. which
snakes, so that every quarter of a century they      hd in 14           t      
double their numbers!"  His conclusion is, that..       4,000
they must be crushed in the egg.                                                   26:022,398




270                                    MR. BURKE ON                                      [1775.
From  five hundred and odd thousand, it has  auspicious youth, foreseeing the many virtues,
grown to six millions.  It has increased no less which made him one of the most amiable, as he
than twelve-fold.  This is the state of the colony  is one of the most fortunate men of his age, had
trade, as compared with itself at these two pe- opened to him in vision, that when, in the fourth
riods, within this century; and this is matter for generation, the third prince of the house of Brunsmeditation.  But this is not all.  Examine my  wick had sat twelve years on the throne of that
second account.  See how the export trade to  nation, which, by the happy issue of moderate and
the colonies alone in 1772 stood in the other healing councils, was to be made Great Britain
point of view, that is, as compared to the whole  he should see his son, Lord Chancellor of England,
trade of England in 1704.                       turn back the current of hereditary dignity to its
The whole export trade of En-                 fountain, and raise him to a higher rank of peergland, including that to the               age, while he enriched the family with a new
colonies, in 1704..........  6,509,000  one.  If, amid these bright and happy scenes of
Exported to the colonies alone,               domestic honor and prosperity, that angel should
in 1772.................    6,024,000  have drawn up the curtain, and unfolded the ris.
Difference..  Xc485,000  ing glories of his country, and while he was gaz.
ing with admiration on the then commercial
The trade with America alone is now within  grandeur of England, the genius should point oul
less than 2500,000 of being equal to what this  to him a little speck, scarce visible in the mass
great commercial nation, England, carried on at of the national interest, a small seminal principle
the beginning of this century with the whole  rather than a formed body, and should tell him,
world!  If I had taken the largest year of those  " Young man, there is America-which at this
on your table, it would rather have exceeded. day serves for little more than to amuse you with
But, it will be said, is not this American trade  stories of savage men and uncouth manners; yet
an unnatural protuberance, that has drawn the  shall, before you taste death, show itself equal to
juices from the rest of the body?  The reverse. the whole of that commerce which now attracts
It is the very food that has nourished every other the envy of the world.  Whatever England has
part into its present magnitude.  Our general been growing to by a progressive increase of imtrade has been greatly augmented, and aug- provement, brought in by varieties of people, by
mented more or less in almost every part to which  succession of civilizing conquests and civilizing
it ever extended, but with this material differ- settlements in a series of seventeen hundred years,
ence, that of the six millions which in the be- you shall see as much added to her by America
ginning of the century constituted the whole mass in the course of a single life!"  If this state of
of our export commerce, the colony trade was his country had been foretold to him, would ii
but one twelfth part; it is now (as a part of six- not require all the sanguine credulity of youth
teen millions) considerably more than a third of  and all the fervid glow of enthusiasm, to make
the whole.  This is the relative proportion of the  him believe it?  Fortunate man, he has livec
importance of the colonies at these two periods; to see it!  Fortunate indeed, if he live to see
and all reasoning concerning our mode of treating them munst have this proportion as its basis,  iThe quotation is taken from Virgil's fourth Eclogue,
or it is a reasoning weak, rotten, and sophistical. where te poet predicts the  birth of a child who
vi,  el lv?.1    in    should restore the peace and plenty of the Golden
Mr. Speaker, I cannot prevail on myself to                                co only refered to'  Age. The passage has been commonly referred to
hurry over this great consideration.  It is good  a child whose birth was expected from the sister of
for us to be here.  We stanpl where we have an  Augustus, and which the Emperor designed to adopt
immense view  of what is, and what is past. as his own. Hence the" acta parentis" in the words
Clouds, indeed, and darkness, rest upon the fu- below.
ture.  Let us, however, before we descend from    At simul heroum  laudes et acta Parentis
this noble eminence, reflect that this growth of    Jam legere, et qce sit poteris cog-noscere virtus,
our national prosperity has happened within the    Molli paulatim flavescet campus arista,
short period of the life of man.  It has happened    Incultisque rubens pendebit sentibus riva,
within sixty-eight years.  There are those alive    Et dura quercus sudabunt roscida mella.
whose memory might touch the two extremities.                       When thou can'st read
For instance, my Lord Bathurst might remem-   Our heroes' praises and thy Father's deeds,
her all the stages of the progress.  He was in   And know whatvirtue is, o'er all our plains
1704 of an age at least to be made to compre-   Shall golden harvests wave with ripened corn;
hend such things. He was then old enough " actang from uncultued thons,
And dewy honey flow from rugged oaks.
parentum jam legere, et qum sit potent cognoscere'virtus.M7 Suppose, sir, that the angel of this   In thus alluding to Lord Bathurst, Mr. Burke undoubtedly thought of him only as advanced in years,
7 Mr. Burke in adapting this passage to the con- without reflecting on his exact age. He was born
text, has changed some of the words and omitted  in 1684, and was therefore, in 1704, not only "of a.n
others, so as to render the construction obscure. age to be made to comprehend such things," but on
When he made the first infinitive, legere, dependent the verge of manhood, and actually took his seat in
on the preceding English phrase,he should have done  Parliament the next year, 1705. The son of Lord
the same with cognoscere, omitting poterit. Thus Bathurst, referred to above, was Henry, created Lord
it would read, " He was then old enough to read the Apsley, and raised to the dignity of Lord Chancellor
exploits of his ancestors, and learn what virtue is."   in 1771.




1775.]                      CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA.                                      271
nothing to vary the prospect and cloud the set-   (4.) As to the wealth which the colonies have
ting of his day!8                              drawn from the sea by their fisheries, you Fiss.
Excuse me, sir, if, turning from such thoughts, had all that matter fully opened at your
I resume this comparative view once more. You  bar.  You surely thought those acquisitions of
have seen it on a large scale; look at it on a value, for they seemed even to excite your envy;
small one.  I will point out to your attention a  and yet, the spirit by which that enterprising emparticular instance of it in the single province of  ployment has been exercised, ought rather, in my
Pennsylvania.  In the year 1704 that province  opinion, to have raised your esteem and admiracalled for 81 1,459 in value of your commodities, tion.  And pray, sir, what in the world is equal
native and foreign. This was the whole. What to it?  Pass by the other parts, and look at the
did it demand in 1772?  Why nearly fifty times manner in which the people of New England have
as much; for in that year the export to Pennsyl- of late carried on the whale fishery.  While we
vania was 0507,909, nearly equal to the export follow them among the tumbling mountains of
to all the colonies together in the first period.   ice, and behold them penetrating into the deepI choose, sir, to enter into these minute and par- est frozen recesses of Hudson's Bay and Davis's
ticular details, because generalities, which, in all Straits -  while we are looking for them  beother cases are apt to heighten and raise the sub- neath the arctic circle, we hear that they have
ject, have here a tendency to sink it.  When we pierced into the opposite region of polar coldspeak of the commerce with our colonies, fiction  that they are at the antipodes, and engaged unlags after truth; invention is unfruitful, and im- der the frozen Serpent of the south.10  Falkland
agination cold and barren.                      Island, which seemed too remote and romantic an
So far, sir, as to the importance of the object in  object for the grasp of national ambition, is but a
the view of its commerce, as concerned in the ex- stage and resting-place in the progress of their
ports from England.  If I were to detail the im- victorious industry.  Nor is the equinoctial heat
ports, I could show how many enjoyments they  more discouraging to them than the accumulated
procure, which deceive the burden of life; how  winter of both the poles.  We know that while
many materials which invigorate the springs of  some of them draw the line and strike the harnational industry, and extend and animate every  poon on the coast of Africa, others run the lonpart of our foreign and domestic commerce. gitude, and pursue their gigantic game along the
This would be a curious subject indeed; but I coast of Brazil.  No sea but what is vexed by
must prescribe bounds to myself in a matter so  their fisheries.  No climate that is not witness
vast and various,                               to their toils.  Neither the perseverance of Hol(3.) I pass, therefore, to the colonies in another land, nor the activity of France, nor the'dexterritre.point of view-their agriculture. This ous and firm sagacity of English enterprise, ever
they have prosecuted with such a spir- carried this most perilous mode of hardy industry
it, that, besides feeding plentifully their own grow- to the extent to which it has been pushed by this
ing multitude, their annual export of grain, comr- recent people-a people who are still, as it were.
prehending rice, has, some years ago, exceeded a  but in the gristle, and not yet hardened into the
million in value.  Of their last harvest I am per- bone of manhood.  When I contemplate these
suaded they will export much more.  At the be- things-when I know that the colonies in general
ginning of the century, some of these colonies im- owe little or nothing to any care of ours, and that
ported corn from the mother country.  For some  they are not squeezed into this happy form by
time past the old world has been fed from the new. the constraints of watchful and suspicious govThe scarcity which you have felt would have been  ernment, but that, through a wise and salutary
a desolating famine, if this child of your old age, neglect, a generous nature has been suffered to
with a true filial piety, with a Romnan charity, had  -    --
not put the full breast of its youthful exuberance  for some atrocious crime to be strangled in prison;
to the mouth of its exhausted parent.9          but the jailer, disliking to execute the sentence, left........- -......~       her without food to perish of hunger. Her daughter,
8 It may be doubted whether this amplification, with great importunity, obtained permission to visit
and the more graphic one which follows in respect her from time to time, but only after being carefully
to the fisheries of New England, are not out of place  searched to prevent the introduction of food. As
in an argument of this kind before the House of Con- the woman lived beyond all expectation, the jailer
mons. They would have been perfectly appropriate  resolved to discover the secret; and, coming sud.
in an address like that of Daniel Webster on the  denly upon them, found the daughter (who had a
landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, since the au- little before given birth to a child) sustaining the
dience had met for the very purpose of being de- mother from her own breast. The magistrates.
lighted with rich trains of thought, beautifully ex- struck with admiration at this instance of filial pipressed. We who read the speech at the present ety, pardoned the mother for the daughter's sake,
day, dwell on such passages with unmingled grati- and provided for the support of both at the public
fication, because we peruse them much in the same  expense. Festus and Solinus, writers of a later
spirit. But they would certainly be unsafe models age, represent it to have been a father, not a mothfor a business speaker.                         er, who was thus sustained; and in this form the
9 The deed of" Roman charity" referred to in this story has been more generally received in modern
beautiful image was celebrated in the annals of the times.
republic, and is related by Pliny in his Natural His-   10 The Hydrus, or Water Serpent, is a small contory, lib. vii., 36, and also, more at large, by Vale- stellation lying very far to the south, within the antrius Maximlns, lib. v., 4. A woman was condemned i arctic circle.




272                                     MR. BURKE ON                                          [1775
take her own way to perfection-when I reflect    These, sir, are my reasons for not entertaining
upon these effects-when I see how profitable  that high opinion of untried force, by which many
they have been to us, I feel all the pride of pow- gentlemen, for whose sentiments in other particer sink, and all presumption in the wisdom of hu- ulars I have great respect, seem to be so greatman contrivances melt, and die away within me. ly captivated.1
r4y rigor relents.  I pardon something to the    But there is still behind a third consideration
spirit of liberty.                                 concerning this object, which serves Third general
X am  sensible, sir, that all which I have as- to determine my opinion on the sort consideration:.cond general serted in my detail is admitted in the  of policy which ought to be pursued America and.onsideration: gross; but that quite a different con- in the management of America, events  uses'
inotto be used elusion is drawn from it.  America. more than its population and its commerce-I
ill such a case.
i h a       gentlemen say, is a noble object.  It mean its temper and character.  In this characis an object well worth fighting for.  Certainly it ter of the Americans a love of freedom is the preis, if fighting a people be the best way of gain- dominating feature, which marks and distinguishing them.  Gentlemen in this respect will be led  es the whole; and, as an ardent is always ajealous
to their choice of means by their complexions and  affection, your colonies become suspicious, resttheir habits.  Those who understand the military  ive, and untractable, whenever they see the least
art will, of course, have some predilection for it. attempt to wrest from them by force, or shuffle
Those who wield the thunder of the state may  from them by chicane, what they think the only
have more confidence in the efficacy of arms. advantage worth living for.  This fierce spirit
But I confess, possibly for want of this knowl- of liberty is stronger in the English colonies,
edge, my opinion is much more in favor of pru- probably, than in any other people of the earth,
dent management than of force; considering  and this from  a variety of powerful causes,
force not as an odious, but a feeble instrument, which, to understand the true temper of their
for preserving a people so numerous, so active, minds, and the direction which this spirit takes,
so growing, so spirited as this, in a profitable  it will not be amiss to lay open somewhat more
and subordinate connection with us.                largely.2
(1.) First, sir, permit me to observe, that the    (1.) First, the people of the colonies are deruse o force alone is but temporary.  It may sub- scendants of Englishmep.  England, sir, is Or
due for a moment, but it does not remove the ne- a nation which still, I hope, respects, and   g
cessity of subduing again; and a nation is not formerly adored her freedom.  The colonists
governed which is perpetually to be conquered.  emigrated from you when this part of your char(2.) My next objection  is its uncertainty.  acter was most predominant; and they took this
Terror is not always the effect of force; and an  bias and direction the moment they parted from
armament is not a victory.  If you do not sue- your hands.  They are, therefore, not only devoceed, you are without resource; for, conciliation  ted to liberty, but to liberty according to English
failing, force remains; but, force failing, no far- ideas and on English principles.  Abstract libther hope of reconciliation is left.  Power and  erty, like other mere abstractions, is not to be
authority are sometimes bought by kindness, but found.  Liberty inheres in some sensible object;
they can never be begged as alms by an impov- and every nation has formed to itself some favorerished and defeated violence.                     ite point which, by way of eminence, becomes
(3.) A farther objection to force is, that you  the criterion of their happiness.  It happened,
impair the object by your very endeavors to pre- you know, sir, that the great contests for freedom
serve it.  The thing you fought for is not the  in this country were, from the earliest times, chiefthing which you recover; but depreciated, sunk, ly upon the question of taxing.  Most of the conwasted, and consumed in the contest.  Nothing  tests in the ancient commonwealths turned priless will content me than whole America.  I do
not choose to consume its strength along with    11 These four arguments show how admirably Mr.
our own, because in all parts it is the British  Burke could condense when he saw fit.
strength that I consume.  I do not choose to be    12 We here see the secret of Mr. Burke's richcatlght by a foreign enemy at the end of this ex-ness of thought. It consisted, to a great extent, in
g c t and still ls il         t of it. his habit of viewing things in their causes, or trachausting conflict, and still less in the midst of it.                 ress.  Let the reader study
I may escape;but I can make no ninsurance  in them out in their results. Let the reader study
I    may eschae;nbu   I can   mae  no  insurance d   these pages with reference to this fact. Let him
against such an event.  Let me add, that I do  observe how Mr. Burke brings out the leading chanot choose wholly to break the American spirit, racteristics of the colonists, not as isolated facts,.but
because it is the spirit that has made the coun- as dependent upon certainformin  izEflences in the
try.                                              mind of the English people: their early contests,
(4.) Lastly, we have no sort of experience in  civil and religious; the necessary results of certain
favor of force as an instrument in the rule of our relations of society and forms of mental development.
colonies.  Their growth and their utility has been  Such habits of thought, if well directed, furnish an
owing to methods altogether different.  Our n-  endless variety of valuable remarks in filling out a
owing to methods altogether different. Our ansulbject.  If not abstract in their statement, but rencient indulgence has been said to be pursued to       ect. If not ad strikin thei   r satemen  bu renc,   dered intelligible and striking by a proper reference
a fault.  It may be so; but we know, if feeling  to individual cases, they always interest at the same
is evidence, that our fault was more tolerable  time that they instruct. It is with reference to this
than our attempt to mend it; and our sin far  subject, especially, that Mr. Burke should be studied
more salutary than our penitence.                 by the young orator




1775.]                      CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA.                                     273
aarily on the right of election of magistrates, or one main cause of this free spirit.  The people
on the balance among the several orders of the  are Protestants; and of that kind which is the
state.  The question of money was not with  most adverse to all implicit submission of mind
them  so immediate.  But in England it was and opinion.  This is a persuasion not only faotherwise.  On this point of taxes the ablest vorable to liberty, but built upon it.  I do not
pens and most eloquent tongues have been ex- think, sir, that the reason of this averseness in
ercised; the greatest spirits have acted and suf- the dissenting churches from all that looks like
fered.  In order to give the fullest satisfaction  absolute government, is so much to be sought in
concerning the importance of this point, it was their religious tenets as in their history. Every
not only necessary for those who in argument one knows that the Roman Catholic religion is at
defended the excellence of the English Consti-  least coeval with most of the governments where
tution, to insist on this privilege of granting  it prevails; that it has generally gone hand in
money as a dry point of fact, and to prove that hand with them; and received great favor and
the right had been acknowledged in ancient every kind of support from  authority.  The
parchments and blind usages to reside in a cer- Church of England, too, was formed from  her
tain body called the House of Commons. They  cradle under the nursing care of regular govwent much farther: they attempted to prove  ernment.  But the dissenting interests have
(and they succeeded) that in theory it ought to  sprung up in direct opposition to all the ordinabe so, from the particular nature of a House of  ry powers of the world, and could justify that
Commons, as an immediate representative of the  opposition only on a strong claim to natural libpeople, whether the old records had delivered  erty.  Their very existence depended on the
this oracle or not.  They took infinite pains to  powerful and unremitted assertion of that claim.
inculcate, as a fundamental principle, that, in all All Protestantism, even the most cold and passmonarchies, the people must, in effect, themselves, ive, is a kind of dissent.  But the religion most
mediately or immediately, possess the power of  prevalent in our northern colonies is a refinegranting their own money, or no shadow of lib- ment on the principle of resistance; it is the
erty could subsist.  The colonies draw from you, dissidencel4 of dissent; and the Protestantism of
as with their life-blood, those ideas and principles. the Protestant religion.  This religion, under a
Their love of liberty, as with you, fixed and at- variety of denominations, agreeing fn nothing
tached on this specific point of taxing. Liberty  but in.the communion of the spirit of liberty, is
might be safe or might be endangered in twen- predominant in most of the northern provinces;
ty other particulars, without their being much  where the Clurch of England, notwithstanding
pleased or alarmed.  Here they felt its pulse; its legal rights, is in reality no more than a sort
and, as they found that beat, they thought them- of private sect, not composing most probably
selves sick or sound.  I do not say whether they Ithee-tenth of the people.  The colonists left
were right or wrong in applying your general England when this spirit was high, and in the
arguments to their own case.  It is not easy, in- emigrants was the highest of all; and even that
deed, to make a monopoly of theorems and co- stream of foreigners, which has been constantly
rollaries.  The fact is, that they did thus apply  flowing into these colonies, has, for the greatest
those.general arguments; and your mode of gov- part, been composed of dissenters from the eserning them, whether through lenity or indolence, tablishments of their several countries, and have
through wisdom or mistake, confirmed them in  brought with them a temper and character far
the imagination that they, as well as you, had an  from alien to that of the people with whom they
interest in these common principles.            mixed.
(2.) They were further confirmed in this pleas-    (4.) Sir, I can perceive by their manner that
Form of gov- ing error by the for.m of their proviacial some gentlemen object to the latitude Domestic inenn""'t.  legislative assemblies. Their govern- of this description, because in the stituti"on
ments are popular in a high degree  some are  southern colonies the Church of England forms
merely popular; in all, the popular representa-  a large body, and has a regular establishment.
tive is the most weighty;13 and this share of  It is certainly true.  There is, however, a cirthe people in their ordinary government never cumstance attending these colonies, which, in
fails to inspire them  with lofty sentiments, and  my opinion, fully counterbalances this difference,
with a strong aversion from whatever tends to  and makes the spirit of liberty still more high
deprive them of their chief importance.         and haughty than in those to the northward.  It
(3.) If any thing were wanting to this neces- is that in Virginia and the Carolinas they have
eligion. sary operation of the form of government, a vast multitude of slaves.  Where this is the
religion would have given it a complete  case in any part of the world, those who are
effect.  Religion, always a principle of energy, free are by far the most proud and jealous of
in this new  people is no way worn out or im- their freedom.  Freedom is to them not only an
paired; and their mode of professing it is also  enjoyment, but a kind of rank and privilege.
3 In some of the colonies all the officers of gov- Not seein  thee that freedom,  as  in countries
ermnent were chosen directly by the people. In  where it is a comnmo  blessing, and as broad
others, the governor and some of the magistrates'4In Chapman's Select Speeches, and in some
were appointed by the Crown, but were unable to  editions of Burke, both in this country and in Enact without the co-operation of Assemblies elected  gland, this word has been strangely altered into difby the colonists.                              fidence.
S




274                                   MR. BURKE ON                                       [1775.
and general as the air, may be united with  ground.  He has heard, as well as I, that when
much abject toil, with great misery, with all great honors and great emoluments do not win
the exterior of servitude, liberty looks, among  over this knowledge to the service of the state,
them, like something that is more noble and lib- it is a formidable adversary to government.  If
eral.  I do not mean, sir, to commend the su- the spirit be not tamed and broken by these happerior morality of this sentiment, which has at py methods, it is stubborn and litigious..Abeleast as much pride as virtue in it; but I can  unt studia in mores.'7  This study renders men
not alter the nature of man.  The fact is so; acute, inquisitive, dexterous, prompt in attack,
and these people of the southern colonies are  ready in defense, full of resources.  In other
much more strongly, and with a higher and  countries, the people, more simple and of a less
more stubborn spirit, attached to liberty than  mercurial cast, judge of an ill principle in govthose to the northward.  Such were all the an- ernment only by an actual grievance.  Here
cient commonwealths; such were our Gothic  they anticipate the evil, and judge of the pressancestors; such, in our days, were the Poles;5 ure of the grievance by the badness of the
and such will be all masters of slaves, who are  principle.  They augur misgovernment at a
not slaves themselves.  In such a people the  distance; and snuff the approach of tyranny in
haughtiness of domination combines with the  every tainted breeze.
spirit of freedom, fortifies it, and renders it in-    (6.) The last cause of this disobedient spirit
vincible.                                      in the colonies is hardly less powerful  mote.
(5.) Permit me, sir, to add another circum- than the rest, as it is not merely morducationstance in our colonies, which contributes  al, but laid deep in the natural constitution of
no mean part toward the growth and  things.  Three thousand miles of ocean lie beeffect of this untractable spirit —   mean their tween you and them.  No contrivance can preeducation.  In no country perhaps in the world  vent the effect of this distance in weakening govis the law so general a study.  The profession  ernment.  Seas roll, and months pass, between
itself is numerous and powerful; and in most the order and the execution; and the want of a
provinces it takes the lead.  The greater num- speedy explanation of a single point is enough
ber of the deputies sent to Congress were law- to defeat the whole system.  You have, indeed,
yers.  But all who read, and most do read,  "winged ministers" of vengeance, who carry
endeavor to obtain some smattering in that sci- your bolts in their pounces to the remotest verge
ence.  I have been told by an eminent booksel- of the sea.l8  But there a power steps in, that
ler, that in no branch of his business, after limits the arrogance of raging passions and furitracts of popular devotion, were so many books ous elements, and says, " So far shalt thou go,
as those on the law exported to the Plantations. and no farther."  Who are you, that should fret'The colonists have now fallen into the way of  and rage, and bite the chains of nature?  Nothprinting them  for their own use.  I hear that ing worse happens to you than does to all nathey have sold nearly as many of Blackstone's tions who have extensive empire; and it hapCommentaries in America as in England. Gen- pens in all the forms into which empire can be
eral Gage marks out this disposition very partic- thrown.  In large bodies, the circulation of
ularly in a letter on your table.  He states, that power must be less vigorous at the extremities.
all the people in his government are lawyers, or Nature has said it.  The Turk can not govern
smatterers in law; and that in Boston they have  Egypt, and Arabia, and Koordistan, as he govbeen enabled, by successful chicane, wholly to  erns Thrace; nor has he the same dominion in
evade many parts of one of your capital penal Crimea and Algiers which he has at Broosa
constitutions.'   The smartness of debate will and Smyrna.  Despotism  itself is obliged to
say, that this knowledge ought to teach them  truck and huckster.  The Sultan gets such
more clearly the rights of legislature, their obli- obedience as he can.  He governs with a loose
gations to obedience, and the penalties of rebell- rein, that he may govern at all; and the whole
ion.  All this is mighty well.  But my honor- of the force and vigor of his authority in his
able and learned friend [Mr., afterward Lord  center, is derived from a prudent relaxation in
Thurlow] on the floor, who condescends to mark  all his borders.  Spain, in her provinces, is, perwhat I say for animadversion, will disdain that haps, not so well obeyed as you are in yours.
n ts s h ws d      d, P    d hd  She complies too; she submits; she watches
15When this speech was delivered, Poland had     immutable condition, the
recently been struck from the list of nations, the  times.  This is the   utable co    on, the
first partition of her territory having been made by  eternal law, of extensive and detached empire.
Austria, Prussia, and Russia in 1772.             Then, sir, from  these six capital sources of
1An amusing case of this kind may be mention- descent, of form  of government, of religion in
ed. General Gage, in carrying out the coercive  the northern provinces, of manners in the southstatutes, forbade by proclamation the calling of any  ern, of education, of the remoteness of situation
town meetings after August 1st, 1774. One was from the first mover of government-from  all
held by the Bostonians, however, in defiance of the
proclamation; and when measures were taken by   17 Studies pass into habits.
the government to disperse it, the legality of the  Is Ministrum fulminis alitem.-Horace, Odes, book
meeting was strenuously asserted, on the ground  iv., ode i. We have seen (p. 116) Lord Chatham's
that it had not been "called" since the first of Au- application of this image to the army of England.
gust, but had been only adjourned over from time  Mr. Burke here applies it, in an expanded form, to
to time!                                        her ships of war.




1775.]                       CONCILIATION  WITH  AMERICA.                                    275
these causes a fierce spirit of liberty has grown  ter obeyed than the ancient government ever was
up.  It has grown with the growth of the peo- in its most fortunate periods.  Obedience is what
pie in your colonies, and increased with the in- makes government, and not the names by which
crease of their wealth; a spirit that, unhappily  it is called; not the name of governor, as formeeting with an exercise of power in England, merly, or committee, as at present.  This new
which, however lawful, is not reconcilable to  government has originated directly from the peoany ideas of liberty, much less with theirs, has ple;iand was not transmitted through any of the
kindled this flame, that is ready to consume us. ordinary artificial media of a positive constitution.
I do not mean to commend either the spirit It was not a manufacture ready formed, and transThe piritofte in this excess, or the moral causes mitted to them in that condition from England.
Americans firm which produce it.  Perhaps a more  The evil arising from hence is this: that the coland intractablesmooth and accommodating spirit of onisthaving once found the possibility of enjoyfreedom in them would be more acceptable to  ing the advantages of order in the midst of a
us.  Perhaps ideas of liberty might be desired, struggle for liberty, such struggles will not hencemore reconcilable with an arbitrary and bound- forward seem so terrible to the settled and sober
less authority.  Perhaps we might wish the col- part of mankind as they had appeared before the
onists to be persuaded that their liberty is more  trial.
secure when held in trust for them  by us, as    Pursuing the same plan of punishing by the deguardians during a perpetual minority, than  nial of the exercise of government to still greater
with any part of it in their own hands.  But the  lengths, we wholly abrogated the ancient govquestion is not whether their spirit deserves  ernment of Massachusetts.  We were confident
praise or blame.  What, in the name of God, that the first feeling, if not the very prospect of
shall we do with it?  You have before you the  anarchy, would instantly enforce a complete subobject, such as it is, with all its glories, with all mission.  The experiment was tried.  A new,
its imperfections on its head.  You see the mag- strange, unexpected face of things appeared.
nitude, the importance, the temper, the habits, Anarchy is found tolerable.  A  vast province
the disorders.  By all these considerations we  has now subsisted, and subsisted in a consideraare strongly urged to determine something con- ble degree of health and vigor, for near a twelvecerning it.  We are called upon to fix some rule  month, without governor, without public counand line for our future conduct, which may give  cil, without judges, without executive magisa little stability to our politics, and prevent the  trates.  How long it will continue in this state,
return of such unhappy deliberations as the pres- or what may arise out of this unheard-of situaent.  Every such return will bring the matter tion, how can the wisest of us conjecture?  Our
before us in a still more untractable form.  For, late experience has taught us, that many of those
what astonishing and incredible things have we  fundamental principles, formerly believed infallinot seen already? What monsters have not been  ble, are either not of the importance they were
generated from thisaunlatuxal-eontentionL2  While  imagined to be, or that we have not at all adevery principle of authority and resistance has  verted to some other far more important and far
been pushed, upon both sides, as far as it would  more powerful principles, which entirely overgo, there is nothing so solid and certain, either rule those we had considered as omnipotent.  I
in reasoning or in practice, that has not been  am much against any farther experiments, which
shaken.  Until very lately, all authority  in  tend to put to the proof any more of these allowAmerica seemed to be nothing but an emanation  ed opinions, which contribute so much to the pubfrom yours.  Even the popular part of the colo- lie tranquillity.  In effect, we suffer as much at
ny constitution derived all its activity, and its  home by this loosening of all ties, and this confirst vital movement, from  the pleasure of the  cussion of all established opinions, as we do
Crown.  We thought, sir, that the utmost which  abroad.  For, in order to prove that the Amerthe discontented colonists could do, was to dis- icans have no right to their liberties, we are evturb authority.  We never dreamed they could  ery day endeavoring to subvert the maxims which
of themselves supply it, knowing in general what preserve the whole spirit of our own.  To prove
an operose business it is to establish a govern- that the Americans ought not to be free, we are
ment absolutely new.  But having, for our pur- obliged to depreciate the value of freedom itself;
poses in this contention, resolved that none but and we never seem to gain a paltry advantage
an obedient assembly should sit, the humors of  over them in debate, without attacking some of
the people there, finding all passage through the  those principles, or deriding some of those feellegal channel stopped, with great violence broke  ings, for which our ancestors have shed their
out another way.  Some provinces have tried  blood.
their experiment, as we have tried ours; and    But, sir, in wishing to put an end to pernicious
theirs has succeeded.  They have formed a gov- experiments, I do not mean to pre- Only three posernment sufficient for its purposes, without the  elude the fullest inquiry.  Far from  iblming withf
bustle of a revolution, or the troublesome form- it.  Far from deciding on a sudden the American
ality of an election.  Evident necessity and tacit or partial view, I would patiently go 
consent have done the business in an instant. So  round and round the subject, and survey it miwell they have done it, that Lord Dunmore (the  nutely in every possible aspect.  Sir, if I were
account is among the fragments on your table) capable of engaging you to an equal attention, I
tells you, that the new institution is infinitely bet- would state that, as far as I am capable of dis



276                                   MR. BURKE ON                                     [1775.
cerning, there are but three ways of proceeding  and, in no long time, must be the effect of atrelative to this stubborn spirit which prevails in  tempting to forbid as a crime, and to suppress as
your colonies and disturbs your government. an evil, the command and blessing of Providence,
These are, to change that spirit, as inconvenient, " Increase and multiply."  Such would be the
by removing the causes; to prosecute it as crim- happy result of an endeavor to keep as a lair of
inal; or to comply with it as necessary.  I would  wild beasts that earth which God by an express
not be guilty of an imperfect enumeration.  I can  charter has given to the children of men.  Far
think of but these three.  Another has, indeed, different, and surely much wiser, has been our
been started-that of giving up the colonies; but policy hitherto.  Hitherto we have invited our
it met so slight a reception, that I do not think  people, by every kind of bounty, to fixed estabmyself obliged to dwell a great while upon it. lishments.  We have invited the husbandman to
It is nothing but a little sally of anger, like the  look to authority for his title.  We have taught
frowardness of peevish children, who, when they  him piously to believe in the mysterious virtue
can not get all they would have, are resolved to  of wax and parchment.  We have thrown each
take nothing.                                  tract of land, as it was peopled, into districts,
(1.) The first of these plans, to change the  that the ruling power should never be wholly
Tochange itby spirit, as inconvenient, by removing  out of sight.  We have settled all we could, and
usee r- the causes, I think is the most like a we have carefully attended every settlement with
ated.     systematic proceeding.  It is radical government.
in its principle, but it is attended with great dif-    Adhering, sir, as I do, to this policy, as well as
ficulties, some of them little short, as I conceive, for the reasons I have just given, I think this new
of impossibilities.  This will appear by examin- project of hedging in population to be neither pru
ing into the plans which have been proposed,    dent nor practicable.
As the growing population of the colonies is    To impoverish the colonies in general, and in
evidently one cause of their resistance, it was particular to arrest the noble course of their malast session mentioned in both houses by men of rine enterprises, would be a more easy task.  I
weight, and received, not without applause, that, freely confess it.  We have shown a disposition
in order to check this evil, it would be proper for to a system  of this kind; a disposition even to
the Crown to make no farther grants of land. continue the restraint after the offense, looking
But to this scheme there are two objections. on ourselves as rivals to our colonies, and perThe first, that there is already so much unsettled  suaded that of course we must gain all that they
land in private hands as to afford room for an im- shall lose.  Much mischief we may certainly do.
mense future population, although the Crown not The power inadequate to all other things is often
only withheld its grants, but annihilated its soil. more than sufficient for this.  I do not look on
If this be the case, then the only effect of this av- the direct and immediate power of the colonies
arice of desolation, this hoarding of a royal wil- to resist our violence as very formidable.  In
derness, would be to raise the value of the pos- this, however, I may be mistaken.  But when I
sessions in the hands of the great private monop- consider that we have colonies for no purpose but
olists without any adequate check to the growing  to be serviceable to us, it seems to my poor unand alarming mischief of population.           derstanding a little preposterous to make them
But if you stopped your grants, what would  unserviceable in order to keep them obedient. It
be the consequence? The people would occupy  is, in truth, nothing more than the old, and, as I
without grants.  They have already so occupied  thought, exploded problem oftyranny, which proin many places.  You can not station garrisons poses to beggar its subjects into submission. But.
in every part of these deserts.  If you drive the  remember, when you have completed your system
people from one place, they will carry on their of impoverishment, that nature still proceeds in
annual tillage, and remove with their flocks and  her ordinary course; that discontent will increase
herds to another.  Many of the people in the  with misery; and that there are critical moments
back settlements are already little attached to  in the fortune of all states, when they who are too
particular situations. Already they have topped  weak to contribute to your prosperity may be
the Apalachian Mountains.  From thence they  strong enough to complete your ruin  "Spoliatis
behold before them an immense plain, one vast, arma supersunt.'20
rich, level meadow-a square of five hundred    The temper and character which prevail in our
miles.  Over this they would wander without colonies are, I am afraid, unalterable by any hua possibility of restraint.  They would change  tmian art.  We can not, I fear, falsify the pedigree
their manners with the habits of their life; would  of this fierce people, and persuade them that they
soon forget a government by which they were dis- are not sprung from a nation in whose veins the
owned; would become hordes of English Tar- blood of freedom  circulates.  The language in
tars; and, pouring down upon your unfortified  which they would hear you tell them  this tale
frontiers a fierce and irresistible cavalry, be- would detect the imposition. Your speech would
come masters of your governors and your coun- betray you.  An Englishman is the unfittest perselors, your collectors and controllers, and of all son on earth to argue another Englishman into
the slaves that adhered to them.19  Such would, slavery.
19 It is in descriptions of this kind that Mr. Burke    I think it is nearly as little in our power to
is more truly admirable than in those of a brilliant 
and imaginative character which precede.               20 Arms remain to the plundered.




1775.]                      CONCILIATION WITH  AMERICA.                                    277
change their republican religion as their free de- moral causes (and not quite easy to remove the
scent; or to substitute the Roman Catholic as a  natural) which produce the prejudices To prosecute
penalty, or the Church of England as an improve- irreconcilable to the late exercise of it as criminal.
ment.  The mode of inquisition and dragooning  our authority, but that the spirit infallibly will
is going out of fashion in the old world, and I continue, and, continuing, will produce such efshould not confide much to their efficacy in the  fects as now embarrass us, the second mode un..
new.  The education of the Americans is also  der consideration is to prosecute that spirit in its
on the same unalterable bottom with their relig- overt acts as criminal.
ion.  You can not persuade them to burn their    At this proposition I must pause a moment.
books of curious science; to banish their lawyers  The thing seems a great deal too big for my
from their courts of law; or to quench the lights  ideas of jurisprudence.  It should seem, to my
of their assemblies, by refusing to choose those  way of conceiving such matters, that there is a
persons who are best read in their privileges.  It very wide difference in reason and policy bewould be no less impracticable to think of wholly  tween the mode of proceeding on the irregular
annihilating the popular assemblies in which these  conduct of scattered individuals, or even of bands
lawyers sit.  The army, by which we must gov- of men, who disturb order within the state, and
ern in their place, would be far more chargeable  the civil dissensions which may, from  time to
tous; notquitesoeffectual; andperhaps, inthe  time, on great questions, agitate the several
end, full as difficult to be kept in obedience.  communities which compose a great empire.  It
With regard to the high aristocratic spirit of  looks to me to be narrow and pedantic to apply
Virginia and the southern colonies, it has been  the ordinary ideas of criminal justice to this great
proposed, I know, to reduce it, by declaring a  public contest.  I do not know the method of
general enfranchisement of their slaves.  This drawing up an indictment against a whole peoproject has had its advocates and panegyrists, ple.  I can not insult and ridicule the feelings
yet I never could argue myself into an opinion  of millions of my fellow-creatures, as Sir Edward
of it.  Slaves are often much attached to their Coke insulted one excellent individual [Sir Walter
masters.  A general wild offer of liberty would  Raleigh] at the bar.2   I am not ripe to pass sennot always be accepted.  History furnishes few  tence on the gravest public bodies, intrusted with
instances of it.  It is sometimes as hard to per- magistracies of great authority and dignity, and
suade slaves to be fiee as it is to compel freemen  charged with the safety of their fellow-citizens,
to be slaves; and in this auspicious scheme we  upon the very same title that I am.  I really think
should have both these pleasing tasks on our that,for wise men,this is notjudicious; for sober
hands at once.  But when we talk of enfran- men, not decent; for minds tinctured with humanchisement, do we not perceive that the Ameri- ity, not mild and merciful.
can master may enfranchise too, and arm servile    Perhaps, sir, I am mistaken in my idea of an
hands in defense of freedom?  A measure to  empire, as distinguished from a single Distinction bewhich other people have had recourse more than  state or kingdom.  But my idea of it twend  kigonce, and not without success, in a desperate situ- is this: that an empire is the aggre- som
ation of their affairs.                         gate of many states, under one common head,
Slaves as these unfortunate black people are, whether this head be a monarch or a presiding
and dull as all men are from slavery, must they  republic. It does, in such constitutions, frequentnot a little suspect the offer of freedom from that ly happen (and nothing but the dismal, cold, dead
very nation which has sold them to their present uniformity of servitude can prevent its happenmasters? From that nation, one of whose causes  ing) that the subordinate parts have many local
of quarrel with those masters is their refusal to  privileges and immunities.  Between these privdeal any more in that inhuman traffic?  An offer ileges and the supreme common authority, the line
of freedom from England would come rather odd- may be extremely nice.  Of course, disputesly, shipped to them in an African vessel, which  often, too, very bitter disputes, and much ill blood,
is refused an entry into the ports of Virginia or  will arise.  But though every privilege is an exCarolina, with a cargo of three hundred Angola  emption, in the case, from the ordinary exercise
negroes. It would be curious to see the Guinea
aptain tem.    t    twoud  e cusa  ins to see te Guin  2t See Howell's State Trials, vol. ii., p. 7, et seq.,
captain attempt at the same instant to publishfor an exhibition of coarse and brutal treatment,
his proclamation of liberty and to advertise his  which Jeffies never surpassed. The following may
sale of slaves.                                 serve as a specimen: Coke. I will prove you the noBut let us suppose all these moral difficulties  toriest traitor that ever came to the bar. Raleigh.
got over.  The ocean remains.  You can not Your words can not condemn me; my innocency is
pump this dry; and as long as it continues in its  my defense. Coke. Thou art a monster. Thou hast
present bed, so long all the causes which weak-  an English face, but a Spanish heart. Raleigh. Let
en authority by distance will continue.         me answer for myself. Coke. Thou shalt not. Raleiffh. It concerneth my life. Coke. Oh! Do I touch
"Ye gods! annihilate but space and time,                seth  y          p      e     tha
And make two lovers happy!        you? Now see the most horrible practices that ever
And make two lovers happy i,,
came out of the bottomless pit of the lowest hell.
was a pious and passionate prayer, but just as Raleigh. Here is no treason ofmine. If Lord Cobreasonable as many of these serious wishes of  ham be a traitor, what is that to me? Coke. All
very grave and solemn politicians.              that he did was by thy instigation, thou viper. Such
(2.) If then, sir, it seems almost desperate to  was the language by which officers of justice recom.
think of any alterative course for changing the  mended themselves to the favor of James 1.




278                                   MR. BURKE ON                                        [1775.
of the supreme authority, it is no denial of it. The  our late or our former address; but modes of
claim of a privilege seems rather, ex vi termini,22 public coercion have been adopted, and such as
to imply a superior power; for to talk of the priv- have much more resemblance to a sort of qualiileges of a state or of a person who has no su- fled hostility toward an independent power than
perior, is hardly any better than speaking non- the punishment of rebellious subjects.  All this
sense. Now, in such unfortunate quarrels among  seems rather inconsistent; but it shows how difthe component parts of a great political union  ficult it is to apply these juridical ideas to our
of communities, I can scarcely conceive any  present case.
thing more completely imprudent than for the    In this situation, let us seriously and coolly
head of the empire to insist that, if any privilege  ponder.  What is it we have got by all our
is pleaded against his will or his acts, that his menaces, which have been many and ferocious?
whole authority is denied; instantly to proclaim  What advantage have we derived from the penal
rebellion, to beat to arms, and to put the offend- laws we have passed, and which, for the time,
ing provinces under the ban.  Will not this, sir, have been severe and numerous?  What advery soon teach the provinces to make no distinc- vances have we made toward our object by the
tions on their part?  Will it not teach them that sending of a force which, by land and sea, is no
the government against which a claim of liberty  contemptible strength?  Has the disorder abatis tantamount to high treason, is a government ed?  Nothing less.  When I see things in this
to which submission is equivalent to slavery?  It situation, after such confident hopes, bold prommay not always be quite convenient to impress  ises, and active exertions, I can not, for my life.
dependent communities with such an idea.         avoid a suspicion that the plan itself is not corWe are, indeed, in all disputes with the colo- rectly right.
nies, by the necessity of things, the judge.  It is   If, then, the removal of the causes of this spirit
true, sir; but I confess that the character of judge  of American liberty be, for the greater part, or
in my own cause is a thing that frightens me. In- rather entirely, impracticable; if the ideas of
stead of filling me with pride, I am exceeding- criminal process be inapplicable, or, if applicaly humbled by it.  I can not proceed with a  ble, are in the highest degree inexpedient, what
stern, assured, judicial confidence, until I find  way yet remains?  No way is open but the
myself in something more like a judicial char- third and last-to comply with the American
acter.  I must have these hesitations as long as spirit as necessary, or, if you please, to submit
I am  compelled to recollect that, in my little  to it as a necessary evil.
reading upon such contests as these, the sense    If we adopt this mode, if we mean to.conciliof mankind has at least as often decided against ate and concede, let us see,
the superior as the subordinate power.  Sir, let    II. OF WHAT NATURE THE CONCESSION OUGHT
me add, too, that the opinion of my having some  TO BE.  To ascertain the nature of Th1econcessior
abstract right in my favor would not put me  our concession, we must look'at their to be made.
much at my ease in passing sentence, unless I complaint.   The colonies complain that they
could be sure that there were'no rights which, have not the characteristic mark and seal of
in their exercise under certain circumstances, British freedom.  They complain that they are
were not the most odious of all wrongs, and the  taxed in Parliament in which they are not repmost vexatious of all injustice.  Sir, these con- resented.  If you mean to satisfy them at all,
siderations have great weight with me, when I' you must satisfy them with regard to this comfind things so circumstanced that I see the same  plaint.  If you mean to please any people, you
party at once a civil litigant against me in point must give them the boon which they ask; not
of right and a culprit before me; while I sit as what you may think better for them, but of a
criminal judge on acts of his whose moral quality  kind totally different.  Such an act may be a
is to be decided on upon the merits of that very  wise regulation, but it is no concession, whereas
litigation.  Men are every now and then put, by  our present theme is the mode of giving satisthe complexity of human affairs, into strange  faction.
situations; but justice is the same, let the judge    Sir, I think you must perceive that I am rebe in what situation he will.                    solved this day to have nothing at all Right oftaxa
There is, sir, also a circumstance which con- to do with the question of the" right tio not to be
disoussed,
vinces me that this mode of criminal proceeding  of taxation.23  Some gentlemen staris not, at least in the present stage of our contest, tie, but it is true.  I put it totally out of the
altogether expedient, which is nothing less than  question.  It is less than nothing in my considthe conduct of those very persons who have  eration. I do not, indeed, wonder, nor will you,
seemed to adopt that mode, by lately declaring  sir, that gentlemen of profound learning are fond
a rebellion in Massachusetts Bay, as they had  of displaying it on this profound subject.  But
formerly addressed to have traitors brought my consideration is narrow, confined, and wholhither, under an act of Henry the Eighth, for   23 Mr. Burke here shows one of his most striing
trial.  For, though rebellion is declared, it is
trial.   For, though rebellion is declared, it is peculiarities as a reasoner on political subjects, viz.,
not proceeded against as such; nor have any  his fixed determination never to discuss them on
steps been taken toward the apprehension or the ground of mere abstract right. His mind fastconviction of any individual offender, either on  ened upon prescription as the principal guide in all
such cases. We see it as fully in his early speech22 From the very import of the tem.       es as in his Reflections on the French Revolution.




.775.]                      CONCILIATION  WITH  AMERICA.                                    279
ly limited to the policy of the question.  I do  to that solemn declaration of systematic indulgnot examine whether the giving away a man's  ence.
money be a power excepted and reserved out    Some years ago, the repeal of a revenue act,
of the general trust of government, and how far upon its understood principle, might Taxation for
all mankind, in ail forms of polity, are entitled  have served to show that we intended be[publclyr
to an exercise of that right by the charter of  an unconditional abatement of the ex- nounced.
nature; or whether, on the contrary, a right of  ercise of a taxing power. Such a measure was
taxation is necessarily involved in the general then sufficient to remove all suspicion, and to
principle of legislation, and inseperable from the  give perfect content.  But unfortunate events,
ordinary supreme power. These are deep ques- since that time, may make something farther
tions, where great names militate against each  necessary, and not more necessary for the satisother; where reason is perplexed; and an ap- faction of the colonies, than for the dignity and
peal to authorities only thickens the confusion; consistency of our own future proceedings.
for high and reverend authorities lift up their    I have taken a very incorrect measure of the
heads on both sides, and there is no sure footing  disposition of the House, if this proposal in itself
in the middle.  This point is                    would be received with dislike. I think, sir, we
-That Serbonian bog        have few American financiers. But our misforBetwixt Damieta and Mount Cassius old,       tune is, we are too acute; we are too exquisite
Where armies whole have sunk.                in our conjectures of the future, for men oppressMilton's Par. Lost, ii., 594.   ed with such great and present evils. The more
I do not intend to be overwhelmed in this bog, moderate among the opposers of parliamentary
though in such respectable  company.  The  concession freely confess that they hope no good
question with me is, not whether you have a  from taxation, but they apprehend the colonists
right to render your people miserable, but have farther views, and, if this point were conwhether it is not your interest to make them  ceded, they would instantly attack the Trade
happy.  It is not what a lawyer tells me I may  Laws.  These gentlemen are convinced that
do, but what humanity, reason, and justice tell this was the intention from the beginning, and
me I ought to do. Is a politic act the worse for the quarrel of the Americans with taxation was
being a generous one? Is no concession proper no more than a cloak and cover to this design.
but that which is made from your want of right Such has been the language even of a gentleto keep what you grant?  Or does it lessen the  man [Mr. Rice] of real moderation, and of a
grace or dignity of relaxing in the exercise of an  natural temper well adjusted to fair and equal
odious claim, because you have your evidence- government.   I am, however, sir, not a little
room full of titles, and your magazines stuffed  surprised at this kind of discourse, whenever I
with arms to enforce them?  What signify all hear it; and I am the more surprised, on account
those titles and all those arms? Of what avail are  of the arguments which I constantly find in comthey, when the reason of the thing tells me that pany with it, and which are often urged from
the assertion of my title is the loss of my suit, the same mouths and on the same day.
and that I could do nothing but wound myself    For instance, when we allege that it is against
by the use of my own weapons?                  reason to tax a people under so many Inconsistency
Such is steadfastly my opinion of the absolute  restraints in trade as the Americans, of those who innecessity of keeping up the concord of this em- the noble Lord [Lord North] in the
pire by a unity of spirit, though in a diversity  blue ribbon shall tell you that the restraints on
of operations, that, if I were sure the colonists  trade are futile and useless; of no advantage to
had, at their leaving this country, sealed a reg- us, and of no burden to those on whom they are
ular compact of servitude; that, they had sol- imposed; that the trade of America is not seemnly abjured all the rights of citizens; that cured by the acts of navigation, but by the natthey had made a vow to renounce all ideas of  ural and irresistible advantage of a commercial
liberty for them and their posterity to all gen- preference.
orations, yet I should hold myself obliged to    Such is the merit of the trade laws in this
conform to the temper I found universally prev- posture of the debate.  But when strong internalent in my own day, and to govern two mill- al circumstances are urged against the taxes;
ions of men, impatient of servitude, on the prin- when the scheme is dissected; when experience
ciples of freedom.  I am not determining a point and the nature of things are brought to prove,
of law. I am restoring tranquillity, and the gen- and do prove, the utter impossibility of obtaining
eral character and situation of a people must de- an effective revenue from  the colonies; when
termine what sort of government is fittedforthem. these things are pressed, or rather press themThat point nothing else can or ought to determine.  selves, so as to drive the advocates of colony
My idea, therefore, without considering wheth- taxes to a clear admission of the futility of the
The Americans er we yield as matter of right, or scheme; then, sir, the sleeping trade laws revive
the ritllon- grant as matter of favor, is to admit from their trance, and this useless taxation is to
glisamen.    the people of our colonies into an in- be kept sacred, not for its own sake, but as a
terest in the constitution, and, by recording that counterguard and security of the laws of trade.
admission in the journals of Parliament, to give    Then, sir, you keep up revenue laws which
them as strong an assurance as the nature of the  are mischievous, in order to preserve trade laws
thing will admit, that we mean forever to adhere  that are useless.  Such is the wisdom  of our




280                                    MR. BURKE ON                                         [1775
plan in both its members. They are separately    In forming a plan for this purpose, I endeavgiven up as of no value, and yet one is always  ored to put myself in that frame of Principles and
to be defended for the sake of the other.  But I mind which was the most natural practticeofthe
Constitution a
can not agree with the noble Lord, nor with the  and the most reasonable, and which safe guide.
pamphlet from whence he seems to have bor- was certainly the most probable means of securrowed these ideas, concerning the inutility of  ing me from all error.  I set out with a perfect
the trade laws; for, without idolizing them, I distrust of my own abilities; a total renunciation
am sure they are still, in many ways, of great of every speculation of my own; and with a prouse to us; and in former times, they have been  found reverence for the wisdom of our ancestors,
of the greatest.  They do confine, and they do  who have left us the inheritance of so happy a
greatly narrow the market for the Americans; constitution and so flourishing an empire, and,
but my perfect conviction of this does not help  what is a thousand times more valuable, the
me in the least to discern how the revenue laws  treasury of the maxims and principles which
form any security whatsoever to the commercial formed the one and obtained the other.
regulations, or that these commercial regula-    During the reigns of the Kings of Spain of the
tions are the true ground of the quarrel, or that Austrian family, whenever they were at a loss
the giving way in any one instance of authority  in the Spanish councils, it was common for their
is to lose all that may remain unconceded.       statesmen to say, that they ought to consult the
One fact is clear and indisputable. The pub- genius of Philip the Second.  The genius of
The contest lic and avowed origin of this quarrel Philip the Second might mislead them; and the
sprung from was on taxation.  This quarrel has in- issue of their affairs showed that they had not
t  deed brought on new disputes on new  chosen the most perfect standard.  But, sir, I
questions, but certainly the least bitter, and the  am sure that I shall not be misled, when, in a
fewest of all, on the trade laws.  To judge  case of constitutional difficulty, I consult the gewhich of the two be the real radical cause of  nius of the English constitution.  Consulting at
quarrel, we have to see whether the commercial that oracle (it was with all due humility and pidispute did, in order of time, precede the dispute  ety), I found four capital examples in a similar
on taxation.  There is not a shadow of evidence  case before me: those of Ireland, Wales, Chesfor it.  Next, to enable us to judge whether at ter, and Durham.
this moment a dislike to the trade laws be the    (1.) Ireland, before  the English  conquest,
real cause of quarrel, it is absolutely necessary  though  never governed by a despotic First exto put the taxes out of the question by a repeal.  power, had no Parliament.  How far the ample.
See how the Americans act in this position, and  English Parliament itself was at that time modthen you will be able to discern correctly what eled according to the present form, is disputis the true object of the controversy, or whether ed among antiquarians.4  But we have all the
any controversy at all will remain.  Unless you  reason in the world to be assured, that a form of
consent to remove this cause of difference, it is Parliament, such as England then enjoyed, she
impossible, with decency, to assert that the dis- instantly communicated to Ireland; and we are
pute is not upon what it is avowed to be.  And  equally sure that almost every successive imI would, sir, recommend to your serious consid- provement in constitutional liberty, as fast as it
eration, whether it be prudent to form a rule for was made here, was transmitted thither.  The
punishing people, not on their own acts, but on  feudal baronage and the feudal knighthood, the
your conjectures.  Surely it is preposterous at roots of our primitive constitution, were early
the very best.  It is not justifying your anger transplanted into that soil, and grew and flourby their misconduct, but it is converting your ill ished there.  Magna Charta, if it did not give us
will into their delinquency.                      originally the House of Commons, gave us, at
But the colonies will go farther.  Alas! alas! least, a House of Commons of weight and conseObjectionthat when will this speculating against quence.  But your ancestors did not churlishly
resisTNl fact and reason end?  What will sit down alone to the feast of Magna Charta.
gation Act.   quiet these panic fears which we en- Ireland was made immediately a partaker. This
tertain of the hostile effect of a conciliatory conduct?  Is it true that no case can exist in which    24 The Witenagemote, or    national council, whose
it is proper for the sovereign to accede to the de- co sent was reqisite for the enactment of laws,
sires of his discontented subjects? Is there any may be considered as the Parliament of the Anglo.
sires of his discontented subjects?  Is there any  Saxon times. It was composed of the bishops and
thing peculiar in this case to make a rule for it- abbots, the aldermen or governors of counties (afterself?  Is all authority of course lost, when it is ward called earls), and those landed proprietors who
not pushed to the extreme?  Is it a certain max- were possessed of about four or five thousand acres.
im, that the fewer causes of dissatisfaction are  The boroughs do not appear, at this early period, to
left by government the more the subject will be  have sent any representatives. Magna Charta exinclined to resist and rebel?                    pressly provided, that "no scutage or aid" (with three
All these objections being, in fact, no more than  exceptions) "shall be raised in our kigdol but by
suspicions, conjec s, d n  f d in d- the general council of the nations," and this was desuspicions, conjectures, dclivinations, formed in de- scribed as composed of "the prelates and gleater
scribed as composed of "the prelates and greater
fiance of fact and experience, they did not, sir, barons."  The first representation of the Commons
discourage me from  entertaining the idea of a  in Parliament is now generally agreed to have taken
conciliatory concession, founded on the principles  place toward the close of the reign of Henry III., or
which I have just stated.                         about A.D. 1264.




1775.]                       CONCILIATION  WITH  AMERICA.                                    281
benefit of English laws and liberties, I confess, quered, it was not looked upon as any part of the
was not at first extended to all Ireland.  Mark  realm of England.  Its old constitution, whatthe consequence. English authority and English  ever that might have been, was destroyed, and
liberty had exactly the same boundaries.  Your no good one was substituted in its place.  The
standard could never be advanced an inch before  care of that tract was put into the hands of lords
your privileges.25  Sir John Davis shows beyond  marchers-a form of government of a very sina doubt, that the refusal of a general communi- gular kind; a strange heterogeneous monster,
cation of these rights was the true cause why  something between hostility and government;
Ireland was five hundred years in subduing; and  perhaps it has a sort of resemblance, according
after the vain projects of a military government, to the modes of those times, to that of commandattempted in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, it er-in-chief at present, to whom all civil power is
was soon discovered that nothing could make  granted as secondary.  The manners of the
that country English, in civility and allegiance,  Welsh nation followed the genius of the governbut your laws and your forms of legislature.  It ment.  The people were ferocious, restive, savwas not English arms, but the English constitu-  age, and uncultivated; sometimes composed,
tion, that conquered Ireland.  From that time, never pacified.  Wales, within itself, was in perIreland has ever had a general Parliament, as she  petual disorder; and it kept the frontier of Enhad before a partial Parliament.  You changed  gland in perpetual alarm.  Benefits from  it to
the people; you altered the religion; but you  the state there were none.  Wales was only
never touched the form or the vital substance of  known to England by incursion and invasion.
free government in that kingdom.  You deposed    Sir, during that state of things, Parliament was
kings; you restored them; you altered the suc- not idle.  They attempted to subdue the fierce
cession to theirs, as well as to your own crown; spirit of the Welsh by all sorts of rigorous laws.
but you never altered their constitution; the  They prohibited by statute the sending all sorts
principle of which was respected by usurpation; of arms into Wales, as you prohibit by proclamarestored with the restoration of monarchy, and  tion (with something more of doubt on the legalestablished, I trust, forever, by the glorious rev- ity) the sending arms to America.  They disolution.  This has made Ireland the great and  armed the Welsh by statute, as you attempted
flourishing kingdom that it is; and from a dis-  (but still with more question on the legality) to
grace and a burden intolerable to this nation, has disarm New England by an instruction.  They
rendered her a principal part of our strength and  made an act to drag offenders from Wales into
ornament.  This country can not be said to have  England for trial, as you have done (but with
ever formally taxed her.  The irregular things more hardship) with regard to America.  By
done in the confusion of mighty troubles, and on  another act, where one of the parties was an Enthe hinge of great revolutions, even if all were  glishman, they ordained that his trial should be
done that is said to have been done, form no ex-  always by English.  They made acts to restrain
ample.  If they have any effect in argument, trade, as you do; and they prevented the Welsh
they make an exception to prove the rule.  None  from the use of fairs and markets, as you do the
of your own liberties could stand a moment if the  Americans from fisheries and foreign ports.  In
casual deviations from them, at such times, were  short, when the statute-book was not quite so
suffered to be used as proofs of their nullity. much swelled as it is now, you find no less than
By the lucrative amount of such casual breaches  fifteen acts of penal regulation on the subject of
in the constitution, judge what the stated and  Wales.
fixed rule of supply has been in that kingdom.    Here we rub our hands.  A fine body ofprecYour Irish pensioners would starve, if they had  edents for the authority of Parliament and the use
no other fund to live on than taxes granted by  of it!  I admit it fully; and pray add likewise
English authority. Turn your eyes to those pop- to these precedents, that all the while Wales rid
ular grants from whence all your great supplies  this kingdom  like an incubus; that it was an
are come, and learn to respect that only source  unprofitable and oppressive burden; and that
of public wealth in the British empire.          an Englishman traveling in that country could
(2.) My next example is Wales. This coun- not go six yards from the highroad without beSecond ex- try was said to be reduced by Henry the  ing murdered.
ample.   Third.26  It was said more truly to be    The march of the human mind is slow.  Sir,
so by Edward the First.  But though then con- it was not until after two hundred years discovered that, by an eternal law, Providence had de25 The English settlers in Ireland, after the inva- creed vexation to violence, and poverty to rapine.
sion of Strongbow, kept themselves within certain  Your ancestors did, however, at length open their
limits distinct from the natives, called " the Pale."  eyes to the ill husbandry of injustice. They found
They enjoyed English law, while the natives were  that the tyranny of a free people could of all tyrfor a long time denied it; and this gave rise to in-                                 t laws made
cessant contentions. By an act of James I., the priv-,  t  
ileges of the Pale were extended to all Ireland.  against a whole nation wee not the most effect26 Wales was held in vassalaee by Henry III. ual methods for securing its obedience. Accordthrough its Prince Llewellen, who in this way pur- ingly, in the twenty-seventh year of Henry VIII.,
chased the aid of Henry against a rebellious son; the course was entirely altered.  With a preambut was not reduced under English sway as part of ble stating the entire and perfect rights of the
the kingdom till the time of Edward I.           Crown of England, it gave to the Welsh all the




282                                    MR. BURKE ON                                        [1775.
rights and privileges of English subjects.  A  knights and burgesses within your said court of
political order was established; the military  Parliament, and yet have had neither knight ne
power gave way to the civil; the marches were  burgess there for the said county palatine; the
turned into counties.  But that a nation should  said inhabitants, for lack thereof, have been oftenhave a right to English liberties, and yet no  times touched and grieved with acts and statutes
share at all in the fundamental security of these  made within the said court, as well derogatory
liberties, the grant of their own property, seemed  unto the most ancient jurisdictions, liberties, and
a thing so incongruous, that, eight years after, privileges of your said county palatine, as prejuthat is, in the thirty-fifth of that reign, a corn- dicial unto the common wealth, quietness, rest,
plete and not ill-proportioned representation by  and peace of your grace's most bounden subcounties and boroughs was bestowed upon Wales  jects inhabiting within the same."
by act of Parliament.  From that moment, as by    What did Parliament with this audacious ada charm, the tumults subsided; obedience was  dress?  Reject it as a libel?  Treat it as an
restored; peace, order, and civilization followed  affront to government?  Spurn it as a derogain the train of liberty.  When the day-star of the  tion from  the rights of legislature?  Did they
English Constitution had arisen in their hearts, toss it over the table?  Did they burn it by the
all was harmony within and without.              hands of the common hangman?  They took the
Simul alba nautis                    petition of grievance, all rugged as it was, withStella refulsit,                     out softening or temperament, unpurged of the
Defluit saxis agitatus humor:          original bitterness and indignation of complaint;
Concidunt venti, fugiuntque nubes;     they made it the very preamble to their act of
Et minax (quod sic voluere) ponto      redress, and consecrated its principle to all ages
Unda recumbit.27                     in the sanctuary of legislation.
(3.) The very same year the county palatine    Here is my third example.  It was attended
Third ex- of Chester received the same relief from  with the success of the two former.  Chester,
amp"e.  its oppressions and the same remedy to  civilized as well as Wales, has demonstrated
its disorders.  Before this time Chester was lit- that freedom, and not servitude, is the cure of
tie less distempered than Wales.  The inhab- anarchy, as religion, and not atheism, is the
itants, without rights themselves, were the fit- true remedy for superstition.  Sir, this pattern
test to destroy the rights of others; and from  of Chester was followed in the reign Fourtl exthence Richard II. drew the standing army of  of Charles II. with regard to the coun- ample
archers with which for a time he oppressed En- ty palatine of Durham, whichlis my fourth examgland.  The people of Chester applied to Parlia- pie.  This county had long lain out of the pale
ment in a petition penned as I shall read to you: of free legislation.  So.scrupulously was the ex"To the King our sovereign lord, in most hum- ample of Chester followed, that the style of the
ble wise shown unto your excellent Majesty, the  preamble is nearly the same with that of the Chesinhabitants of your grace's county palatine of  ter act; and without affecting the abstract extent
Chester; that where the said county palatine of  of the authority of Parliament, it recognizes the
Chester is and hath been always hitherto exempt, equity of not suffering any considerable district
excluded and separated out and from your high  in which the British subjects may act as a body to
court of Parliament, to have any knights and bur- be taxed without their own voice in the grant.
gesses within the said court; by reason whereof    Now, if the doctrines of policy contained in
the said inhabitants have hitherto sustained mani- these preambles, and the force of these examples
fold disherisons, losses, and damages, as well in  in the acds of Parliament, avail any thing, what
their lands, goods, and bodies, as in the good, can be said against applying them with regard
civil, and politic governance and maintenance  to America?  Are not thepeople of America as
of the commonwealth of their said country: (2.) much Englishmen as the Welsh?  The preamAnd, forasmuch as the said inhabitants have al- ble of the act of Henry VIII. says the Welsh
ways hitherto been bound by the acts and stat- speak a language no way resembling that of his
utes made and ordained by your said highness  Majesty's English subjects.  Are the Americans
and your most noble progenitors, by authority of  not as numerous?  If we may trust the learned
the said court, as far forth as other counties, cit- and accurate Judge Barrington's account of
ies, and boroughs have been, that have had their  North Wales, and take that as a standard to
27 The passage is taken from an Ode of Horace  measure the rest, there is no comparison.  The
to Augustus Cesar,lib. i., 12, in which the poet cele- people can not amount to above two hundred
brates the praises of his imperial master by placing  thousand; not a tenth part of the number in the
him on a level with gods and deified heroes. With  colonies.  Is America in rebellion?  Wales was
a delicate allusion to the peaceful influence of Au- hardly ever free from it.  Have you attempted to
gustus, he refers to Castor and Pollux, the patron  govern America by penal statutes?  You made
deities of mariners, and the effect of their constella- fifteen for Wales.  But your legislative authority
tion (the Twins) in composing tempests.             perfect with regard to America.  Was it less
When their auspicious star 
To the sailor shines afar,                 perfect in Wales, Chester,, and Durham?  But
The troubled waters leave the rocks at rest:  America is virtually represented.  What! does
The clouds are gone, the winds are still,  the electric force of virtual representation more
The angry wave obeys their will,           easily pass over the Atlantic than pervade Wales,
And calmly sleeps upon the ocean's breast.    which lies in your neighborhood; or than Chestel




1775.]                      CONCILIATION  WITH  AMERICA.                                   283
and Durham, surrounded by abundance of repre- the first, I shall be far from  solicitous whether
sentation that is actual and palpable?  But, sir, you accept or refuse the last.  I think these six
your ancestors thought this sort of virtual repre- jnassive pillars will be of strength sufficient to
sentation, however ample, to be totally insuffi- support the temple of British concord.  I have
cient for the freedom of the inhabitants of terri- no more doubt than I entertain of my existence,
tories that are so near, and comparatively so in- that, if you admitted these, you would command
considerable. How, then, can I think it sufficient an immediate peaye; and, with but tolerable fufor those which are infinitely greater and infinitely  ture management, a lasting obedience in Amermore remote?                                   ica.  I am not arrogant in this confident assurYou will now, sir, perhaps imagine that I ance.  The propositions are all mere matters of
Americanot to am on the point of proposing to you  fact; and if they are such facts as draw irresistbe represented a scheme for representation of the  ible conclusions even in the stating, this is the
in Parliament.
i  colonies in Parliament.  Perhaps I power of truth, and not any management of mine.
might be inclined to entertain some such thought,    Sir, I shall open the whole plan to you togethbut a great flood stops me in my course. Oppo- er, with such observations on the mo- Purport of
suit natura.l5  I can not remove the eternal bar- tions as may tend to illustrate them  Mr. Burke's
riers of the creation.  The thing in that mode I where they may want explanation.
do not know to be possible.  As I meddle with  The first is a resolution " That the colonies and
no theory, I do not absolutely assert the imprac- plantations of Great Britain in North America,
ticability of such a representation; but I do not consisting  of fourteen separate governments,
see my way to it; and those who have been  and containing two millions and upward of free
more confident have not been more successful. inhabitants, have not had the liberty and privilege
However, the arm of public benevolence is not of electing and sending any knights and burgessshortened, and there are often several means to es or others to represent them in the high court
the same end.  What nature has disjoined in of Parliament."  This is a plain matter of fact,
one way wisdom may unite in another.  When  necessary to be laid down, and (excepting the
we can not give the benefit as we would wish, description) it is laid down in the language of
let us not refuse it altogether.  If we can not the Constitution: it is taken nearly verbatim
give the principal, let us find a substitute.  But from acts of Parliament.
how?  Where?  What substitute?                 The second is like unto the first, " That the
Fortunately I am not obliged for the ways said colonies and plantations have been liable to
and means of this substitute to tax my own un- and bounden by several subsidies, payments,
productive invention.  I am not even obliged to rates, and taxes, given and granted by Parliago to the rich treasury of the fertile framers of  ment, though the said colonies and plantations
imaginary commonwealths; not to the Republic  have not their knights and burgesses in the said
of Plato, not to the Utopia of More, not to the  high court of Parliament, of their own election,
Oceana of Harrington.  It is before me.  It is to represent the condition of their country; by
at my feet,                                     lack whereof they have been oftentimes touched
And the dull swain       and grieved by subsidies given, granted, and asTreads daily on it with his clouted shoon.29  sented to, in said court, in a manner prejudicial
Milton's Comus.   to the commonwealth, quietness, rest, and peace
1 only wish you to recognize, for the theory, the  of the subjects inhabiting within the same."
ancient constitutional policy of this kingdom with    Is this description too hot or too cold, too.
regard to representation, as that policy has been  strong or too weak? Does it arrogate too much
declared in acts of Parliament; and, as to the  to the supreme Legislature?  Does it lean too
practice, to return to that mode which a uniform  much to the claims of the people?  If it runs
experience has marked out to you as best, and  into any of these errors, the fault is not mine.
in which you walked with security, advantage, It is the language of your own ancient acts of
and honor, until the year 1763.                 Parliament.
My resolutions, therefore, mean to establish    Non meus hic sermo est sed quae prscipit Ofellus,
But to aid the the equity and justice of a taxation    Rusticus, abnormis sapiens.30
crown by   of America by grant, and not by im- It is the genuine produce of the ancient, rustic,
graots of t iheir
Provincial As- position. To mark the legal compe- manly, home-bred sense of this country.  I did
semblies.   tency of the colony assemblies for the  not dare to rub off a particle of the venerable rust
support of their government in peace, and for that rather adorns and preserves, than destroys
public aids in time of war.  To acknowledge  the metal.  It would be a profanation to touch
that this legal competency has had a dutiful and  with a tool the stones which construct the sacred
beneficial exercise; and that experience has shown  altar of peace.3l  I would not violate with modthe benefit of their grants, and the futility ofpar- ern polish the ingenuous and noble roughness of
liamentary taxation as a method of supply.        30        The precept is not ine.
These solid truths compose six fundamental.^, ~~.^~ "~,.          ~Ofellus gave it in his rustic strain,
propositions.  There are three more resolutions       Oellus gave t in isr ac, at., i.,.
Irregular, but wise. —Horace, Sat., i., 2.
corollary to these. If you admit the first set, you  Ofellus is a Sabine peasant, in whose mouth the
can hardly reject the others.  But if you admit poet puts this satire.
31 "If thou lift thy tool upon it [the altar], thou
2 Nature forbids.    29 Obsolete plural of shoe. bast polluted it." —Exodus, xx., 25.




284                                    MR. BURKE ON                                        [1775.
these truly constitutional materials.  Above all ought it, perhaps, by us; but I abstain from opinthings, I was resolved not to be guilty of tam- ions.
pering, the odious vice of restless and unstable    The fourth resolution is, "That each of the
minds.  I put my foot in the tracks of our fore- said colonies hath within itself a body, chosen
fathers, where I can neither wander nor stumble. in part, or in the whole, by the freemen, freeholdDetermining to fix articles of peace, I was re- ers, or other free inhabitants thereof, commonly
solved not to be wise beyond what was written;  called the General Assembly, or General Court,
I was resolved to use nothing else than the form  with powers legally to raise, levy, and assess,
of sound words, to let others abound in their own  according to the several usages of such colonies,
sense, and carefully to abstain from all expressions  duties and taxes toward the defraying all sorts
of my own.  What the law has said, I say.  In  of public services."
all things else I am silent.  I have no organ but    This competence in the colony assemblies is
for her words.  This, if it be not ingenious, I am  certain.  It is proved by the whole tenor of their
sure, is safe.                                   acts of supply in all the assemblies, in which the
There are, indeed, words expressive of griev- constant style of granting is, " an aid to his Majance in this second resolution, which those who  esty;" and acts granting to the Crown have regare resolved always to be in the right will deny  ularly for near a century passed the public offices
to contain matter of fact, as applied to the pres- without dispute.  Those who have been pleased
ent case, although Parliament thought them true  parodoxically to deny this right, holding that
with regard to the counties of Chester and Dur- none but the British Parliament can grant to the
ham.  They will deny that the Americans were  Crown, are wished to look to what is done, not
ever. "touched and grieved" with the taxes.  If  only in the colonies, but in Ireland, in one unithey consider nothing in taxes but their weight form, unbroken tenor every session.  Sir, I am
as pecuniary impositions, there might be some  surprised that this doctrine should come from
pretense for this denial. i But men may be sorely  some of the law servants of the Crown.  I say
touched and deeply grieved in their privileges as that if the Crown could be responsible, his Majwell as in their purses.  Men may lose little in  esty-but certainly the ministers, and even these
property by the act which takes away all their law  officers themselves, through whose hands
freedom.  When a man is robbed of a trifle on  the acts pass biennially in Ireland, or annually in
the highway, it is not the twopence lost that con- the colonies, are in a habitual course of commitstitutes the capital outrage.  This is not con- ting impeachable offenses.  What habitual offined to privileges.  Even ancient indulgences  fenders have been all presidents of the council,
withdrawn, without offense on the part of those  all secretaries of state, all first lords of trade, all
who enjoyed such favors, operate as grievances. attorneys, and all solicitors general!  However,
But were the Americans, then, not touched and  they are safe, as no one impeaches them; and
grieved by the taxes, in some measure, merely  there is no ground of charge against them exas taxes?  If so, why were they almost all either cept in their own unfounded theories.
wholly repealed or exceedingly reduced?  Were    The fifth resolution is also a resolution of
they not touched and grieved, even by the regu- fact: " That the said General Assemblies, Genlating duties of the sixth of George II.?  Else  eral Courts, or other bodies legally qualified as
why were the duties first reduced to one third  aforesaid, have at sundry times freely granted
in 1764, and afterward to a third of that third  several large subsidies and public aids for his
in the year 1766?  Were they not touched and  Majesty's service, according to their abilities,
grieved by the Stamp Act?  I shall say they  when required thereto by letter from one of his
were, until that tax is revived.  Were they not Majesty's principal secretaries of state.  And
touched and grieved by the duties of 1767, which  that their right to grant the same, and their
were likewise repealed, and which Lord Hills- cheerfi:lness and sufficiency in the said grants,
borough tells you, for the ministry, were laid con- have been at sundry times acknowledged by
trary to the true principle of cormmerce?  Is not Parliament."  To say nothing of their great exthe assurance given by that noble person to the  penses in the Indian wars; and not to take their
colonies of a resolution to lay no more taxes on  exertion in foreign ones, so high as the supplies
them an admission that taxes would touch and  in the year 1695, not to go back to their public
grieve them?  Is not the resolution of the noble  contributions in the year 1710, Ishall Proof that suc
Lord in the blue ribbon, now standing on your begin to travel only where the jour- grants.arel. c
journals, the strongest of all proofs that parlia- nals give me light; resolving to deal
mentary subsidies really touched and grieved  in nothing but fact authenticated by parliamentthem?  Else why all these changes, modifica- ary record, and to build myself wholly on that
tions, repeals, assurances, and resolutions?    solid basis.
The next proposition is, " That, from the dis-    On the 4th of April, 1748. 3 a committee of
tance of the said colonies, and from other circum- this House came to the following resolution:
stances, no method hath hitherto been devised for    " Resolved, That it is the opinion of this comprocuring a representation in Parliament for the  mittee, that it is just and reasonable that the
said colonies."  This is' an assertion of a fact.  I several provinces and colonies of Massachusetts
go no farther on the paper; though, in my pri- Bay, New  Hampshire, Connecticut, and Rhode
vate judgment, a useful representation is impossible; I am sure it is not desired by them, nor         32 Journals of the House, vol. xxv.




1775.]                      CONCILIATION WITH  AMERICA.                                   285
Island, be reimbursed the expenses they have  guided people have been engaged in an unhapbeen at in taking and securing to the Crown of  py system.  The people heard, indeed, from the
Great Britain the island of Cape Breton and its beginning of these disputes, one thing continudependencies."                                 rally dinned in their ears, that reason and justice
These expenses were immense for such colo- demanded that the Americans, who paid no
nies.  They were above XC200,000 sterling; taxes, should be compelled to contribute. How
money first raised and advanced on their public  did that fact of their paying nothing stand, when
credit.                                        the taxing system began?  When Mr. Grenville
On the 28th of January, 1756,33 a message  began to form his system of American revenue,
from the King came to us, to this effect: " His  he stated in this House that the colonies were
Majesty, being sensible of the zeal and vigor then in debt two million six hundred thousand
with which his faithful subjects of certain colo- pounds sterling money, and was of opinion they
nies in North America have exerted themselves would discharge that debt in four years.  On
in defense of his Majesty's just rights and pos- this state, those untaxed people were actusessions, recommends it to this House to take  ally subject to the payment of taxes to the
the same into their consideration, and to enable  amount of six hundred and fifty thousand a year.
his Majesty to give them such assistance as may  In fact, however, Mr. Grenville was mistaken.
be-a.proper reward and encouragement."'        The funds given for sinking the debt did not
On the third of February, 1756,' the House prove quite so ample as both the colonies and
came to a suitable resolution, expressed in words he expected.  The calculation was too sannearly the same as those of the message; but guine: the reduction was not completed till
with the farther addition, that the money then  some years after, and at different times in differvoted was an encouragement to the colonies to  ent colonies.  However, the taxes after the war
exert themselves with vigor. It will notbe nec- continued too great to bear any addition, with
essary to go through all the testimonies which  prudence or propriety; and when the burdens
your own records have given to the truth of my  imposed in consequence of former requisitions
resolutions.  I will only refer you to the places were discharged, our tone became too high to
in the journals:                               resort again to requisition.  No colony, since
Vol. xxvii. 16th and 19th May, 1757.        that time, ever has had any requisition whatsoVol. xxviii. June 1st, 1758-April 26th and  ever made to it.
30th, 1759-Mar. 26th and 31st, and April    We see the sense of the Crown, and the sense
28th, 1760-Jan. 9th and 20th, 1761.       of Parliament, on the productive nature of a
Vol. xxix. Jan. 22d and 26th, 1762-March  revenue by grant.  Now search the same jour14th and 17th, 1763.                      nals for the produce of the revenue by imposition.
Sir, here is the repeated acknowledgment b   Where is it?  Let us know the volume and the
Parliament, that the colonies not only gave, but page.  What is the gross, what is the net prodgave to satiety.  This nation has formally ac- uce?  To what service is it applied?  How
knowledged two things; first, that the colonies have you appropriated its surplus?  What, can
had gone beyond their abilities, Parliament hav- none of the many skillful index-makers that we
ing thought it necessary to reimburse them; are now employing, find any trace of it?  Well,
secondly, that they had acted legally and lauda- let them  and that rest together.  But are the
lily in their grants of money, and their mainte-  journals, which say nothing of the revenue, as
nance of troops, since the compensation is ex- silent on the discontent?  Oh no! a child may
pressly given as reward and encouragement.3  find it.  It is the melancholy burden and blot of
Reward is not bestowed for acts that are unlaw- every page.
ful; and encouragement is not held out to things    I think, then, I am, from those journals, justithat deserve reprehension. My resolution, there- fled in the sixtja and last resolution, which is:
fore, does nothing more than collect into one  "That it hath been found by experience, that
proposition what is scattered through your jour- the manner of granting the said supplies and
nals.  I give you nothing but your own, and you  aids, by the said general assemblies, hath been
can not refuse in the gross what you have so  more agreeable to the said colonies, and more
often acknowledged in detail.  The admission  beneficial and conducive to the public service,
of this, which will be so honorable to them and  than the mode of'giving and granting aids in
to you, will, indeed, be mortal to all the misera- Parliament, to be raised and paid in the said
ble stories by which the passions of the mis- colonies."  This makes the whole of the fundamental part of the plan.  The conclusion is ir33 Journals of the House, vol. xxvii.    34 Ibid. resistible. You can not say, that you were driv35 It had been asserted, against Mr. Burke's plan, en by any necessity to an exercise of the utmost
that the colonies could not legally make grants to rights of legislature.  You can not assert, that
the Crown; that it tended to render the King inde  you took on yourselves the task of imposing colpendent of Parliament, and stood on the same foot-      t   f                       
ing as the ancient benevolencies; and that Parlia-.  
ment must, therefore, impose the tax on the colonies that    competent to the purpose of supplying
if it was in any way to benefit the empire as a the exigencies of the state without wounding the
whole. Mr. Grenville and others were of this opin- prejudices of the people. Neither is it true that
ion. Hence Mr. Burke insists so strongly on these the body so qualified, and having that compeprecedents.                                    tence, had neglected the duty.




286                                    MR. BURKE ON                                        [1775.
The question now, on all this accumulated  cumstances, prevent you from taking away the
matter, is-whether you will choose to abide by  charters of Connecticut and Rhode Island, as
a profitable experience, or a mischievous theory;  you have taken away that of Massachusetts
whether you choose to build on imagination or  Colony, though the Crown has far less power in
fact; whether you prefer enjoyment or hope; the two former provinces than it enjoyed in the
satisfaction in your subjects or discontent?    latter; and though the abuses have been full as
If these propositions are accepted, every thing  great and as flagrant in the exempted as in the
which has been made to enforce a contrary sys- punished.  The same reasons of prudence and
tem must, I take it for granted, fall along with  accommodation have weight with me in restore
it.  On that ground I have drawn the following  ing the charter of Massachusetts Bay. Besides,
resolution, which, when it comes to be moved, sir, the act which changes the charter of Maswill naturally be divided in a proper manner: sachusetts is in many particulars so exceptiona"That it may be proper to repeal an act, made  ble, that if I did not wish absolutely to repeal,
in the seventh year of the reign of his present I would by all means desire to alter it, as sevMajesty, entitled, An act for granting certain  eral of its provisions tend to the subversion of
duties in the British colonies and plantations in  all public and private justice.  Such, among
America; for allowing a drawback of the duties  others, is the power in the Governor to change
of customs upon the exportation from this king- the Sheriff at his pleasure, and to make a new
dom, of coffee and cocoa-nuts of the produce of  returning officer for every special cause.  It is
the said colonies or plantations; for discontinu- shameful to behold such a regulation standing
ing the drawbacks payable on China earthen- among English laws.
ware exported to America, and for more effectu-    The act for bringing persons accused of comally preventing the clandestine running of goods mitting murder under the orders of government
in the said colonies and plantations; and that it to England for trial, is but temporary.  That
may be proper to repeal an act, made in the  act has calculated the probable duration of our
fourteenth year of the reign of his present Maj- quarrel with the colonies, and is accommodated
esty, entitled, An act to  discontinue, in such  to that supposed duration.  I would hasten the
manner, and for such time as are therein men- happy moment of reconciliation, and therefore
tioned, the landing and discharging, lading or must, on my principle, get rid of that most justly
shipping, of goods, wares, and merchandise, at obnoxious act.
the town and within the harbor of Boston, in the    The act of Henry the Eighth, for the trial of
province of Massachusetts Bay, in North Ameri- treasons, I do not mean to take away, but to
ca; and that it may be proper to repeal an act, confine it to its proper bounds and original inmade in the fourteenth year of the reign of his tention; to make it expressly for trial of treapresent Majesty, entitled, An act for the impar- sons (and the greatest treasons may be committial administration of justice in the cases of per- ted) in places where the jurisdiction of the
sons questioned for any acts done by them in the  Crown does not extend.
execution of the law, or for the suppression of    Having guarded the privileges of local legisriots and tumults in the province of Massachu- lature, I would next secure to the colonies a fair
setts Bay, in New England; and that it may be  and unbiased judicature; for which purpose, sir,
proper to repeal an act, made in the fourteenth  I propose the following resolution: "That, from
year of the reign of his present Majesty, entitled, the time when the General Assembly or GenAn act for the better regulating the government eral Court of any colony or plantation in North
of the province of Massachusetts Bay, in New  America, shall have appointed by act of assemEngland; and also, that it may be proper to ex- bly, duly confirmed, a settled salary to the offiplain and amend an act, made in the thirty-fifth  ces of the Chief Justice and other judges of the
year of the reign of King Henry the Eighth, en- Superior Court, it may proper that the said
titled, An act for the trial of treasons committed  Chief Justice and other judges of the Superior
out of the King's dominions."                    Courts of such colony, shall hold his and their
I wish, sir, to repeal the Boston Port Bill, be- office and offices during their good behavior;
cause (independently of the dangerous precedent and shall not be removed therefrom, but when
of suspending the rights of the subject during  the said removal shall be adjudged by his Majthe King's pleasure) it was passed, as I appre- esty in council, upon a hearing on complaint
hend, with less regularity, and on more partial from the General Assembly, or on a complaint
principles, than it ought.  The corporation of  from  the Governor, or Council, or the House
Boston was not heard before it was condemned. of Representatives severally, of the colony in
Other towns, full as guilty as she was, have not which the said Chief Justice and other judges
had their ports blocked up.  Even the restrain- have exercised the said offices."
ing bill of the present session does not go to the    The next resolution relates to the Courts of
length of the Boston Port Act.  The same ideas  Admiralty.
of prudence which induced you not to extend    It is this: "That it may be proper to reguequal punishment to equal guilt, even when you  late the Courts of Admiralty, or Vice Admiwere punishing, induce me, who mean not to  ralty, authorized by the 15th chapter of the 4th
chastise, but to reconcile, to be satisfied with  of George the Third, in such a manner as to
the punishment already partially innieted.       make the same more commodious to those who
Ideas of prudence, and accommodation to cir- sue, or are sued, in the said courts, and to pro.




1775.]                       CONCILIATION  WITH  AMERICA.                                    287
vide for the more decent maintenance of the  therefore, falls in exactly with the case of the
judges in the same."                             colonies.  But whether the unrepresented counThese courts I do not wish to take away. ties were de jure or de facto bound, the preamThey are in themselves proper establishments. bles do not accurately distinguish; nor indeed
This court is one of the capital securities of the  was it necessary; for, whether de jure or de facAct of Navigation.  The extent of its jurisdic- to, the Legislature thought the exercise of the
tion, indeed, has been increased; but this is alto- power of taxing, as of right, or as of fact withgether as proper, and is, indeed, on many ac- out right, equally a grievance, and equally opcounts, more eligible, where new powers were  pressive.
wanted, than a court absolutely  new.  But    t do not know that the colonies have, in any
courts incommodiously situated, in effect, deny  general way or in any cool hour, gone much bejustice; and a court, partaking in the fruits of  yond the demand of immunity in relation to taxes.
its own condemnation, is a robber.  The Con- It is not fair to judge of the temper or disposigress complain, and complain justly, of this  tions of any man, or any set of men, when they
grievance.3                                      are composed and at rest, from their conduct or
These are the three consequential proposi- their expressions in a state of disturbance and
tions.  I have thought of two or three more, irritation.  It is, besides, a very great mistake
but they come rather too near detail, and to the  to imagine that mankind follow up practically
province of executive government, which I wish  any speculative principle, either of government
Parliament always to superintend, never to as- or freedom, as far as it will go in argument
sume. If the first six are granted, congruity will and logical illation.  We Englishmen stop very
carry the latter three. If not, the things that re- short of the principles upon which we support
main unrepealed will be, I hope, rather unseemly  any given part of our Constitution, or even the
encumbrances on the building, than very materi- whole of it together.  I could easily, if I had
ally detrimental to its strength and stability.  not already tired you, give you very striking
Here, sir, I should close, but that I plainly per- and convincing instances of it.  This is nothing
bijections ceive some objections remain, which I but what is natural and proper.  All governrefuted.  ought, if possible, to remove.  The first ment, indeed every human benefit and enjoywill be, that, in resorting to the doctrine of our ment, every virtue and every prudent act, is
ancestors, as contained in the preamble to the  founded on compromise and barter.  We bal.
Chester act, I prove too much; that the griev- ance inconveniences; we give and take; we
ance from  a want of representation stated in  remit some rights that we may enjoy others;
that preamble, goes to the whole of legislation  and we choose rather to be happy citizens than
as well as to taxation.  And that the colonies, subtle disputants.  As we must give away some
grounding themselves upon that doctrine, will natural liberty to enjoy civil advantages, so we
apply it to all parts of legislative authority,  must sacrifice some civil liberties for the advantTo this objection, with all possible deference  ages to bederived from the communion and feland humility, and wishing as little as any man  lowship of a great empire.  But, in all fair dealliving to impair the smallest particle of our su- ings, the thing bought must bear some proporpreme authority, I answer, that the words are the tion to the purchase paid.  None will barter
words of Parliament, and not mine; and that all away  "the immediate jewel of his soul.""3
false and inconclusive inferences drawn from  Though a great house is apt to make slaves
them are not mine, for I heartily disclaim  any  haughty, yet it is purchasing a part of the artisuch inference.  I have chosen the words of an  ficial importance of a great empire too dear to
act of Parliament, which Mr. Grenville, surely a  pay for it all essential rights and all the intrintolerably zealous and very judicious advocate for sic dignity of human nature.  None of us who
the sovereignty of Parliament, formerly moved  would not risk his life rather than fall under a
to have read at your table, in confirmation of  government purely arbitrary.  But, although
his tenets.  It is true that Lord Chatham con- there are some among us who think our Considered these preambles as declaring strongly in  stitution wants many improvements to make it
favor of his opinions. He was a no less power- a complete system of liberty, perhaps none who
ful advocate for the privileges of the Americans. are of that opinion would think it right to aim at
Ought I not from hence to presume that these  such improvement by disturbing his country, and
preambles are as favorable as possible to both, risking every thing that is dear to him.  In every
when properly understood; favorable both to the  arduous enterprise we consider what we are to
rights of Parliament, and to the privilege of the  lose as well as what we are to gain; and the
dependencies of this crown?  But, sir, the ob- more and better stake of liberty every people
ject of grievance in my resolution I have not possess, the less they will hazard in a vain attaken from  the Chester, but from the Durham  tempt to make it more.  These are the cords of
act, which confines the hardship of want of rep- man.  Man acts from adequate motives relative
resentation to the case of subsidies, and which, to his interest, and not on metaphysical specula36 The Solicitor General informed Mr. B., when  tins.  Aristotle, the great maste of reasoning,
the resolutions were separately moved, that the 
grievance of the judges partaking of the profits of   37 Good name in man and woman, dear my Lord,
the seizure had been redressed by office; accord-    Is the immediate jewel of their souls.
ingly, the resolution was amended.                           Shakspeare's Othello, Act iii., Sc. 5.




288                                   MR. BURKE ON                                        [1775.
eautions us, and with great weight and propriety, ogy; without example of our ancestors, or root
against this species of delusive geometrical ac- in the Constitution.  It is neither regular parliacuracy in moral arguments as the most fallacious  mentary taxation nor colony grant.  " Experiof all sophistry.                                mentum in corpore vili"'38 is a good rule, which
The Americans will have no interest contrary  will ever make me adverse to any trial of experito the grandeur and glory of England, when  ments on what is certainly the most valuable of
they are not oppressed by the weight of it; and.al subjects, the peace of this empire.
they will rather be inclined to respect the acts of    Secondly, it is an experiment which must be
a superintending Legislature, when they see them  fatal, in the end, to our Constitution.  For what
the acts of that power which is itself the security, is it but a scheme for taxing the colonies in the
not the rival, of their secondary importance.  In  ante-chamber of the noble Lord and his successthis assurance my mind most perfectly acqui- ors?  To settle the quotas and proportions in
esces, and I confess I feel not the least alarm  this House is clearly impossible.  You, sir, may
from  the discontents which are to arise from  flatter yourself you shall sit a state auctioneer,
putting people at their ease; nor do I appre- with your hammer in your hand, and knock
hend the destruction of this empire from giving, down to each colony as its bids.  But to settle
by an act of free grace and indulgence, to two  (on the plan laid down by the noble Lord) the
millions of my fellow-citizens, some share of  true proportional payment for four or five-andthose rights upon which I have always been  twenty governments, according to the absolute
taught to value myself.                          and the relative wealth of each, and according
It is said, indeed, that this power of granting, to the British proportion of wealth and burden,
vested in American assemblies, would dissolve  is a wild and chimerical notion.  This new taxthe unity of the empire, which was preserved en- ation must therefore come in by the back door of
tire, although Wales, and Chester, and Durham  the Constitution.  Each quota must be brought
were added to it.  Truly, Mr. Speaker, I do not to this House ready formed; you can neither add
know what this unity means, nor has it ever been  nor alter.  You must register it.  You can do
heard of, that I know, in the constitutional policy  nothing farther.  For on what grounds can you
of this country.  The very idea of subordination  deliberate, either before or after the proposition?
of parts excludes this notion of simple and undi- You can not hear the counsel for all these protvided unity.  England is the head, but she is not inces, quarreling each on its own quantity of paythe head and the members too.  Ireland has ever ment, and its proportion to others.  If you should
had from the beginning a separate, but not an in- attempt it, the committee of provincial ways and
dependent Legislature, which, far from-distract- means, or by whatever other name it will delight
ing, promoted the union of the whole.  Every  to be called, must swallow up all the time of Parthing was sweetly and harmoniously disposed  liament.
through both islands for the conservation of En-    Thirdly, it does not give satisfaction to the
glish dominion and the communication of English  complaint of the colonies.  They complain that
liberties.  I do not see that the same principles  they are taxed without their consent; you anmight not be carried into twenty islands, and  swer, that you will fix the sum  at which they
with the same good effect.  This is my model shall be taxed.  That is, you give them the very
with regard to America, as far as the internal grievance for the remedy.  You tell them, incircumstances of the two countries are the same. deed, that you will leave the mode to themselves.
I know no other unity of this empire than I can  I really beg pardon.  It gives me pain to mendraw  from  its example during these periods, tion it; but you must be sensible that you will
when it seemed to my poor understanding more  not perform this part of the contract.  For, supunited than it is now, or than it is likely to be by  pose the colonies were to lay the duties which
the present methods.                             furnished their contingent upon the importation
But since I speak of these methods, I recol.  of your manufactures; you know you would never
Lord Nortl's lect, Mr. Speaker, almost too late, suffer suich a tax to be laid.  You know, too, that
scheme exam- that I promised, before I finished, to  you would not suffer many other modes of taxained.
say something of the proposition of tion; so that, when you come to explain yourthe noble Lord [Lord North] on the floor, which  self, it will be found that you will neither leave
has been so lately received, and stands on your to themselves the quantum nor the mode, nor, injournals.  I must be deeply concerned when- deed, any thing.  The whole is delusion from
ever it is my misfortune to continue a difference  one end to the other.
with a majority of this House.  But as the rea-    Fourthly, this method of ransom by auction,
sons for that difference are my apology for thus  unless it be universally accepted, will plunge
troubling you, suffer me to state them in a very  you into great and inextricable difficulties.  In
few words.  I shall compress them into as small what year of our Lord are the proportions of
a body as I possibly can, having already debated  payments to be settled, to say nothing of the imthat matter at large when the question was be- possibility, that colony agents should have genfore the committee.                              eral powers of taxing the colonies at their disFirst, then, I can not admit that proposition  cretion?  Consider, I implore you, that the comof a ransom  by auction, because it is a mere   38 This was an old maxim among physical inqui.
project.  It is a thing new; unheard of; sup- rers,"An experiment should be made upon some
ported by no experience; justified by no anal- worthless object."




1775.]                      CONCILIATION WITH  AMERICA.                                     289
munication by special messages, and orders be- this day forward the empire is never to know
tween these agents and their constituents on each  an hour's tranquillity. An intestine fire will be
variation of the case, when the parties come to  kept alive in the bowels of the colonies, which
contend together, and to dispute on their relative  one time or other must consume this whole emproportions, will be a matter of delay, perplexity, pire.  I allow, indeed, that the empire of Gerand confusion that never can have an end.        many raises her revenue and her troops by quoIf all the colonies do not appear at the out- tas and contingents; but the revenue of the Emcry, what is the condition of those assemblies, pire, and the army of the Empire, is the worst
who offer, by themselves or their agents, to tax  revenue and the worst army in the world.
themselves up to your ideas of their proportion?    Instead of a standing revenue, you will thereThe refractory colonies who refuse all composi- fore have a perpetual quarrel.  Indeed, the notion will remain taxed only to your old imposi- ble Lord, who proposed this project of a ransom
tions, which, however grievous in principle, are  by auction, seemed himself to be of that opinion.
trifling as to production.  The obedient colonies  His project was rather designed for breaking
in this scheme are heavily taxed; the refractory  the union of the colonies than for establishing a
remain unburdened.  What will you do?  Will revenue. He confessed that he apprehended that
you lay new and heavier taxes by Parliament his proposal would not be to their taste. I say this
on the disobedient?  Piay consider in wrat way  scheme of disunion seems to be at the bottom of
you can do it.  You are perfectly convinced that the project; for I will not suspect that the noin the way of taxing you can d6 nothing but at ble Lord meant nothing but merely to delude the
the ports.  Now suppose it is Virginia that re- nation by an airy phantom which he never infuses to appear at your auction, while Mary- tended to realize.  But, whatever his views may
land and North Carolina bid handsomely for their be, as I propose the peace and union of the colransom, and are taxed to yoir quota.  How  onies as the very foundation of my plan, it can
will you put these colonies on a par?  Will not accord with one whose foundation is perpetyou tax the tobacco of Virginia?  If you do, ual discord.
you give its death wound to your English reve-    Compare the two.  This I offer to give you,
nue at home, and to one of the very greatest is plain and simple.  The other full of The two
articles of your own foreign trade.  If you tax  perplexed and intricate mazes.  This is eclemes
the import of that rebellious colony, what do you  mild; that harsh.' This is found -by ex- compared.
tax but your own manufactures, or the goods of  perience effectual for its purposes; the other is
some other obedient and already well-taxed col- a-new project.  This is universal; the other calony?  Who has said one word on this labyrinth  culated for certain colonies only.  This is imof detail, which bewilders you more and more  mediate in its conciliatory operation; the other
as you enter into it?  Who has presented, who  remote, contingent, full of hazard. Mine is what
can present you with a clew to lead you out of  becomes the dignity of a ruling people; gratisit?  I think, sir, it is impossible that you should  tous, unconditional, and not held out as matter
not recollect that the colony bounds are so im- of bargain and sale.  I have done my duty in
plicated in one another (you know it by your proposing it to you. I have indeed tired you by
own experiments in the bill for prohibiting the  a long discourse; but this is the misfortune of
New England fishery), that you can lay no pos- those to whose influence nothing will be eonsible restraints on almost any of them  which  ceded, and who must win every inch of their
may not be presently eluded, if you do not con- ground by argument.  You have heard me with
found the innocent with the guilty, and burden  goodness. May you decide with wisdom! For
those whom, upon every principle, you ought my part, I feel my mind greatly disburdened by
to exonerate.  He must be grossly ignorant of  what I have done to day.  I have been the less
America who thinks that, without falling into  fearful of trying your patience, because on this
this confusion of all rules of equity and policy, subject I mean to spare it altogether in future. I
you can restrain any single colony, especially  have this comfort, that in every stage of the
Virginia and Maryland, the central and most American affairs, I have steadily opposed the
important of them all.                           measures that have produced the confusion, and.
Let it also be considered, that either in the  may bring on the destruction of this empire.  I
present confusion you settle a permanent con- now go so far as to risk a proposal of my own.
tingent which will and must be trifling, and then  If I can not give peace to my country, I give it.
you have no effectual revenue; or, you change  to my conscience.
the quota at every exigency, and then on every    But what, says the financier, is peace to us
new repartition you will have a new quarrel.    without money?  Your plan gives us Mr. Burke's
Reflect, besides, that when you have fixed a  no revenue.  No!  But it does. For cheme mst
qu'ota for every colony, you have not provided  it secures to the subject the power of the country.
for prompt and punctual payment.  Suppose  refusal-the first of all revenues.  Experience
one, two, five, ten years arrears.  You can not is a cheat, and fact a liar, if this power in the
issue a treasury extent against the failing colony. subject of proportioning his grant, or of not
You must make new Boston Port bills, new re- granting at all, has not been found the richest
straining laws, new  acts for dragging men to  mine of revenue ever discovered by the skill or
England for trial.  You nmust seind out new  by the fortune of man.  It does not indeed vote
fleets, new armies. All is to begin Again. From  you o1l52,750 lls. 21d., nor any other paltry
T




290                                   MR. BU.RKE ON                                      [1775.
limited sum, but it gives the strong box itself, ment from  protected freedom.  And so may I
the fund, the bank, from whence only revenues  speed in the great object I propose to you, as I
can arise among a people sensible of freedom: think it would not only be an act of injustice, but
Posita luditur arca.39 Can not you in England;  would be the worst economy in the world, to concan not you at this time of day; can not you-   pel the colonies to a sum certain, either in the
a House of Commons-trust to the principle  way of ransom or in the way of compulsory comwhich has raised so mighty a revenue, and ac- pact.
cumulated a debt of near one hundred and forty    But to clear up my ideas on this subject: a
millions in this country?  Is this principle to be revenue from  America transmitted No direct revtrue in England and false every where else? Is hither-do not delude yourselv-  enue everto be
it not true in Ireland?  Has it not hitherto been  you never can receive it-no, not a America.
trtue in..the.:colonies?  Why shouldyou presume, shilling.  We have experience that from remote
that in any country, a body duly constituted for countries it is not to be expected.  If; when you
any functions will-.neglect to perform its duty, attempted to extract revenue from Bengal, you
and abdicate its trust?   Such a presumption  were obliged to return in loan what you had tawould go against all government in all modes. ken in imposition, what can you expect from
But, in truth, this dread of penury of supply, North America? for certainly, if ever there was
fiom a free assembly, has no foundation in na- a country qualified to produce wealth, it is India;
ture.  For first observe, that, besides the desire, or an institution fit for the transmission, it is the
which all men have naturally, of supporting the  East India Company. America has none of these
honor of their own government, that sense of aptitudes. If America gives you taxable objects
dignity, and that security of property, which  on which you lay your duties here, and gives you,
ever attends freedom, has a tendency to increase  at the same time, a surplus by a foreign sale of
the stock of the free community.  Most may be  her commodities to pay the duties on these obtaken where most is accumulated.  And what  jects which you tax at home, she has performed
is the soil or climate where experience has not her part to the British revenue.  But with reuniformly proved that the voluntary flow  of  gard to her own internal establishments, she
heaped-up plenty, bursting from the weight of  may, I doubt not she will, contribute in moderits own rich luxuriance, has ever run with a  ation; I say in moderation; for she ought not to
more copious stream of revenue, than could be be permitted to exhaust herself.  She ought to be
squeezed from the dry husks of oppressed indi- reserved to a war, the weight of which, with the
gence, by the straining of all the politic machin- enemies that we are most likely to have, must be
cry in the world.                               considerable in her quarter of the globe.  There
Next, we know that parties must ever exist in  she may serve you, and serve you essentially.
a free country.  We know, too, that the emula-    For that service, for all service, whether of
tions of such parties, their contradictions, their re- revenue, trade, or empire, my trust is.
ciprocal necessities, their hopes, and their fears, in her interest in the British Constitumust send them  all in their turns to him that tion.  My hold of the colonies is in the close afholds the balance of the state.  The parties are  fection which grows from common names, from
the gamesters, but government keeps the table, kindred blood, from similar privileges, and equal
fmed is sure to be the winner in the end.  When  protection.  These are ties which, though light
this game is played, I really think it is more to  as air, are as strong as links of iron.  Let the
be feared that the people will be exhausted, than  colonies always keep the idea of their civil rights
that government will not be supplied; whereas, associated with your goverament; they willcling
whatever is got by acts of absolute power, ill and grapple to you, and no force under heaven
obeyed, because odious, or by contracts ill kept, will be of power to tear them  from their allebecause constrained, will be narrow, feeble, un- giance.  But let it be once understood that your
certain, and precarious.                        government may be one thing, and their priviEase would retract         leges another; that these two things may exist
Vows made in pain, as violent and void. —Milt. without any mutual relation; the cement is gone;
I, for one, protest against compounding our de- the cohesion is loosened; and every thing hastens
mands.  I declare against compounding, for a  to decay and dissolution.  As long as you have
poor limited sum, the immense, ever-growing, the wisdom to keep the sovereign authority of
eternal debt4~ which is due to generous govern- this country as the sanctuary of liberty, the sacred temple consecrated to our common faith,
39 The quotation is taken from the first Satire of wherever the chosen race and sons of England
1favenal, the ninetieth line, where the poet de- worship  reedom, they will turn their faces toaeribes the excess to which gambling was then car- ward you.d The more they  ultiply, the more
ned on at Rome.                                 ____________________________
Neque enim loculis comitantibus itur   4t This is one of those beautiful allusions to the
Ad casum tabulaw, positd sed luditur arcd.   Scriptures with which Mr. Burke so often adorns
n   n m     t  p       his pages. The practice among the Jews of worFor now no more the pocket's stores supply
shiping toward the temple in all their dispersions,'The boundless charges of the desperate die;
he  was founded on the prayer of Solomon at its dedica~The chest is staked!-Gtff"or~d-.         tion: " If thy people go out to battle, or whithersoever
~"'-The debt immense of endless gratitude."  thou shalt send them, and shall pray unto the Lard
Milton's Par. Lost, iv., 53.   toward the c', uiwhich thou hast chosen, and toward




1775.]                      CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA.                                     291
friends you will have.  The more ardently they  bravery and discipline?  No! surely no!  It is
love liberty, the more perfect will be their obe- the love of the people; it is their attachment to
dience.  Slavery they can have any where.  It their government, from  the sense of the deep
is a weed that grows in every soil.  They may  stake they have in such a glorious institution,
have it from Spain; they may have it from Prus- which gives you your army and your navy, and
sia; but, until you become lost to all feeling of  infuses into both that liberal obedience, without
your true interest and your natural dignity, free- which your army would be a base rabble, and
dom they can have from none but you.  This is your navy nothing but rotten timber.
the commodity of price, of which you have the    All this, I know well enough, will sound wild
monopoly.  This is the true Act of Navigation, and chimerical to the profane herd of those vulwhich binds to you the commerce of the colonies, gar and mechanical politicians, who have no place
and through them secures to you the wealth of  among us; a.sort of people who think that noththe world.  Deny them this participation of free- ing exists but what is gross and material, and
dom, and you break that sole bond which origin- who therefore, far from  being qualified to be
ally made, and must still preserve, the unity of  directors of the great movement of empire, are
the empire.  Do not entertain so weak an imag- not fit to turn a wheel in. the machine.  But to
ination as that your registers and your bonds, men truly initiated and rightly taught, these rulyour affidavits and your sufferances, your cockets ing and master principles, which, in the opinion
and your clearances, are what form the great se- of such men as I have- mentioned, have no subcurities of your commerce.  Do not dream that staritial existence, are in truth every thing and all
your letters of office, and your instructions, and  in all.  Magnanimity in politics is not seldom
your suspending clauses, are the things that hold  the truest wisdom; and a great empire and littogether the great contexture of this mysterious  tie minds go ill together.  If we are conscious
whole.  These things do not make your govern- of our situation, and glow with zeal to fill our
ment.  Dead instruments, passive tools as they  place as becomes our station and ourselves, we
are, it is the spirit of the English communion  ought to auspicate all our public proceedings on
that gives all their life and efficacy to them.  It America with the old warning of the Church, Suris the spirit of the English Constitution, which, in- sum corda!43  We ought to elevate our minds to
fused through the mighty mass, pervades, feeds: the greatness of that trust to which the order of
unites, invigorates, vivifies every part of the em- Providence has called us.  By adverting to the
pire, even down to the minutest member.4        dignity of this high calling, our ancestors have
Is it not the same virtue which does every  turned a savage wilderness into a glorious emthing for us here in England?  Do you imagine, pire, and have made the most extensive and the
then, that it is the land tax which raises your only honorable conquests, not by destroying, but
revenue? that it is the annual vote in the Corn- by promoting, the wealth, the number, the hapmittee of Supply,'which gives you your army? or piness of the human race.  Let us get an Amerthat it is the Mutiny Bill which inspires it with  ican revenue as we have got an American empire.  English privileges have made it all that
the House that I have builtfor thy name, then hear it is; English privileges alone will make it all it
thou in heaven their prayer and their supplication, can be.
and maintain their cause."-1st Kings, viii.,44-5.    [n full confidence of this unalterable truth, I
Accordingly, " When Daniel knew that the writing  now (quod felix faustumque sit)44 lay the first
was signed, he went into his house; and his win- stoe    the temple of peace; and   move you
dows being open toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon             c ies and plantations o   reat
his knees three times a day, and prayed and gave                                      of  te
thanks before his God, as he did aforetime."-Dan.,   it   in North America, consisting of fourteen
vi., o0.                                        separate governments, and containing two milL42 The reader of Virgil will trace the origin of this ions and upward of free inhabitants, have not
beautiful sentence to the poet's description of the  had the liberty and privilege of electing and
Animus Mundi, or soul of the universe, in the sixth  sending any knights and burgesses, or others, to
book of the Eneid, lines 726-7.                 represent them in the high court of Parliament."
Spiritus intus alit; totamque infusa per artus
Mens agitat molem et magno se corpore miscit.    On this resolution the previous question was
Within a Spirit lives: a Mind infused       demanded, and was carried against Mr. Burke
Through every member of that mighty mass,   by a majority of 270 to 78.  The other resoluPervades, sustains, and actuates the whole.    tions, of course, fell to the ground.
Mr. Burke's application of this image to the Spirit   43 " Let your hearts rise upward," a call to silent
af Freedom in the English Constitution is one of the prayer, at certain intervals of the Roman Catholic
finest conceptions of his genius. The thought rises service.
into new dignity and strength when we view it (as   44 This was a form of prayer among the Romans
it lay in the mind of Burke) in connection with the  at the commencement of any important undertaking,
sublime passage by which it was suggested.      "that it may be happy and prosperous."




292                              MR. BURKE  PREVIOUS TO                                     [1780.
SPEECH I
OF MR. BURKE AT BRISTOL, PREVIOUS TO THE ELECTION, DELIVERED SEPTEMBER 6, 1780.
INTRODUCTION.
MR. BURKE did not originally seek the honor of representing the city of Bristol in the House of Commons. On the dissolution of Parliament in 1774, he was chosen member for Malton in Yorkshire, through
the influence of Lord Rockingham; and was in the act of returning thanks to his constituents, when a
deputation arrived from Bristol, informing him that he had been put in nomination by his friends there.
He repaired immediately to the spot, and after a severe contest was elected by a considerable majority.
During the six years which followed, Mr. Burke was laboriously engaged in his duties as a member
of Parliament. His time was so fully occupied, that while he never neglected the interests of his constituents, he found but little leisure or opportunity to see them in person. He was, indeed, ill fitted,
in some respects, for conciliating popular favor by visits and entertainments. His studious habits and
refined tastes led him to shrink from the noise and bustle of a progress among the people of Bristol,
which, in so large a city, would almost of necessity assume the character of a regular canvass. In addition to this, he had offended a majority of his constituents by his political conduct, especially by opposing
the American war-by voting (against their positive instructions) for the grant of increased privileges to
the Irish trade-by supporting Lord Beauchamp's bill for the relief of insolvent debtors-and by the share
he took in the repeal of some very cruel enactments against the Roman Catholics.
In this state of things, Parliament was unexpectedly dissolved about a year before its regular term of
expiration, and Mr. Burke found himself suddenly thrown, under every possible disadvantage, into the
midst of a contested election. He immediately repaired to Bristol; and, as a preliminary step, in order
to try his ground, he requested a meeting of the corporation, at which he delivered the following speech
in explanation and defense of his conduct. Never was there a more manly or triumphant vindication.
Conscious of the rectitude of his intentions, he makes no attempt to shuffle or evade. "No," he exclaims, " I did not obey your instructions. I conformed to the instructions of truth and nature, and maintained your interest against your opinions, with the constancy that became me. A representative that
was worthy of you ought to be a person of stability. I am to look, indeed, to your opinions; but to such
opinions as you and I must have five years hence. I was not to look at the flash of the day. I knew
that you chose me in my place, along with others, to be a pillar of the state, and notaweather-cockon the
top of the edifice, exalted for my levity and versatility, and of no use but to indicate the shiftings of every
cfashionable gale."  The voice of posterity has decided in Mr. Burke's favor upon all the topics here
discussed; and the wonder is, that these masterly reasonings should ever have been necessary, in defense of measures which were equally demanded by justice and humanity, and perhaps by the very
existence of the empire.
This is, in many respects, the best speech of Mr. Burke for the study and imitation of a young orator.
It is more simple and direct than any of his other speeches. It was addressed to merchants and business-men; and while it abounds quite as much as any of his productions in the rich fruits of political
wisdom, and has occasionally very bold and striking images, it is less ambitious in style, and less profluent in illustration, than his more elaborate efforts in the House of Commons.
SPEECH, &c.
MR. MAYOR AND  GENTLEMEN,-I am  ex-    I found, on my arrival here, that three gentletremely pleased at the appearance of this large  men had been long in eager pursuit of sos 
and respectable meeting.  The steps I may be  an object which but two of us can ob- requesting
obliged to take will want the sanction of a con-  tai.  I found that they had all mete meeting.
siderable authority; and in explaining any thing  with encouragement.  A contested election in
which may appear doubtful in my public con- such a city as this is no light thing.  I paused
duct, I must naturally desire a very full audience. on the brink of the precipice.  These three genI have been backward to begin my canvass. tlemen, by various merits, and on various titles,
The dissolution of the Parliament was uncertain; I made no doubt were worthy of your favor.  I
and it did not become me, by an unseasonable  shall never attempt to raise myself by depreciaimportunity, to appear diffident of the fact of my  ting the merits of my competitors.  In the comsix years' endeavors to please you. I had served  plexity and confusion of these cross pursuits, I
the city of Bristol honorably; and the city of  wished to take the authentic public sense of my
Bristol had no reason to think that the means  friends upon a business of so much delicacy.  I
of honorable service to the public were become  wished to take your opinion along with me; that
inoditferent to me.                               if I should give up the contest at the very begin



1780.]                           THE BRISTOL ELECTION.                                     293
ning, my surrender of my post may not seem the    Do you think, gentlemen, that every public
effect of inconstancy, or timidity, or anger, or dis- act in the six years since I stood in this place
gust, or indolence, or any other temper unbecom- before you-that all the arduous things which
ing a man who has engaged in the public serv- have been done in this eventful period, which
ice. If, on the contrary, I should undertake the  has crowded into a few years' space the revoluelection, and fail of success, I was full as anxious tions of an age, can be opened to you on their
that it should be manifest to the whole world  fair grounds in half an hour's conversation?
that the peace of the city had not been broken    But it is no reason, because there is a bad
by my rashness, presumption, or fond conceit of  mode of inquiry, that there should be no exammy own merit.                                   ination at all.  Most certainly it is our duty to
I am not come, by a false and counterfeit show  examine; it is our interest too.  But it must be
of deference to your judgment, to seduce it in  with discretion; with an attention to all the cirmy favor.  I ask it seriously and unaffectedly. cumstances, and to all the motives; like sound
If you wish that I should retire, I shall not con-  judges, and not like caviling pettifoggers and
sider that advice as a censure upon my conduct, quibbling pleaders, prying into flaws and huntor an alteration in your sentiments, but as a  ing for exceptions. Look, gentlemen, to the whole
rational submission to the circumstances of af- tenor of your member's conduct.  Try whether
fairs.  If, on the contrary, you should think it his ambition or his avarice have justled him out
proper for me to proceed on my canvass, if you  of the straight line of duty, or whether that grand
will risk the trouble on your part, I will risk it foe of the offices of active life-that master-vice
on mine.  My pretensions are such as you can  in men of business, a degenerate and inglorious
not be ashamed of, whether they succeed or fail. sloth-has made him flag, and languish in his
If you call upon me, I shall solicit the favor course.  This is the object of our inquiry.  If
of the city upon manly ground.  I come before  our member's conduct can bear this touch, mark
you with the plain confidence of an honest serv- it for sterling. He may have fallen into errors;
ant in the equity of a candid and discerning  he must have faults; but our error is greater,
master.  I come to claim your approbation, not and our fault is radically ruinous to ourselves,
to amuse you with vain apologies, or with pro- if we do not bear, if we do not even applaud
fessions still more vain and senseless.  I have the whole coipound and mixed mass of such a
lived too long to be served by apologies, or to  character. Not to act thus is folly; I had almost
stand in need of them.  The part I have acted  said, it is impiety.  He censures God who quarhas been in open day; and to hold out to a.con- rels with the imperfections of man.
duct, which stands in that clear and steady light    Gentlemen, we must not be peevish with those
for all its good and all its evil, to hold out to  who serve the people; for none will t will drive
that conduct the paltry winking tapers of excuses  serve us while there is a Court to theic ofrthe
and promises, I never will do it.  They may  serve, but those who are of a nice people.
obscure it with their smoke, but they never can  and jealous honor.  They who think every
illumine sunshine by such a flame as theirs.    thing, in comparison of that honor, to be dust
I am sensible that no endeavors have been left and ashes, will not bear to have it soiled and
untried to injure me in your opinion.  But the  impaired by those for whose sake they make a
Transition: use of character is to be a shield against thousand sacrifices to preserve it immaculate
Publi moen calumny. I could wish, undoubtedly (if  and whole.  We shall either drive such men
be treated idle wishes were not the most idle of  from the public stage, or we shall send them to
p. all things), to make every part of my con- the Court for protection, where, if they must
duct agreeable to every one of my constituents. sacrifice their reputation, they will at least seBut in so great a city, and so greatly divided as cure their interest.  Depend upon it, that the
this, it is weak to expect it. In such a discord- lovers of freedom will be free.  None will vioancy of sentiments, it is better to look to the na- late their conscience to please us in order afterture of things than to the humors of men.  The  ward to discharge that conscience which they
very attempt toward pleasing every body, dis- have violated by doing us faithful and affectioncovers a temper always flashy, and often false  ate service.  If we degrade and deprave their
and insincere.  Therefore, as I have proceeded  minds by servility, it will be absurd to expect
straight onward in my conduct, so I will proceed  that they who are creeping and abject toward
in my account of those parts of it which have  us will ever be bold and incorruptible asserters
been most excepted to.  But I must first beg  of our freedom  against the most seducing and
leave just to hint to you, that we may suffer very  the most formidable of all powers.  No!  Hugreat detriment by being open to every talker. man nature is not so formed; nor shall we imIt is not to be imagined how much of service is prove the faculties or better the morals of public
lost from spirits full of activity and full of ener- men by our possession of the most infallible regy, who are pressing, who are rushing forward  ceipt in the world for making cheats and hypoto great and capital objects, when you oblige  crites.
them to be continually looking back. While they    Let me say with plainness, I, who am  no
are defending one service, they defraud you of a  longer in a public character, that if by a fair, by
hundred.  Applaud us when we run; console  an indulgent, by a gentlemanly behavior to our
us when we fall; cheer us when we recover; but representatives, we do not give confidence to
let us pass on-for God's sake, let us pass on.   their minds and a liberal scope to their under



294                            MR. BURKE PREVIOUS TO                                    [1780.
standings; if we do not permit our members to  fatigued in body and in mind, to a little repose,
act upon a very enlarged view of things, we  and to a very little attention to my family and my
shall at length infallibly degrade our national private concerns.  A visit to Bristol is always a
representation into a confused and shuffling bus- sort of canvass, else it will do more harm than
tie of local agency.  When the popular member good.  To pass from the toils of a session to the
is narrowed in his ideas, and rendered timid in  toils of a canvass is the farthest thing in the
his proceedings, the service of the Crown will world from  repose.  I could hardly serve you
be the sole nursery of statesmen.  Among the  as I have done and court you too.  Most of you
frolics of the Court, it may at length take that of  have heard that I do not very remarkably spare
attending to its business.  Then the monopoly of  myself in public business; and in the His services
mental power will be added to the power of all private business of my constituents I i" Lo~"nd.
other kinds it possesses.  On the side of the peo- have done very near as much as those who have
pie there will be nothing but impotence; for ig- nothing else to do.  My canvass of you was not
norance is impotence; narrowness of mind is im- on the'change, nor in the county meetings, noT
potence; timidity is itself impotence, and makes  in the clubs of this city.  It was in the House
all other qualities that go along with it impotent of Commons; it was at the Custom-house; it
and useless.                                    was at the Council; it was at the Treasury; it
At present it is the plan of the Court to make  was at the Admiralty.  I canvassed you through
its servants insignificant.  If the people should  your affairs, and not your persons.  I was not
fall into the same humor, and should choose their only your representative as a body; I was the
servants on the same principles of mere obsequi- agent, the solicitor of individuals.  I ran about
ousness, and flexibility, and total vacancy or in- wherever your affairs could call me; and in actdifference of opinion in all public matters, then  ing for you, I often appeared rather as a ship-brono part of the state will be sound, and it will be  ker than as a member of Parliament.  There was
in vain to think of saving it'                  nothing too laborious or too low for me to underI thought it very expedient at this time to  take.  The meanness of the business was raised
give you this candid counsel  and with this coun- by the dignity of the object.  If some lesser matsel I would willingly close, if the matters which  ters have slipped through my fingers, it was beat various times have been objected to me in this  cause I filled my hands too full, and, in my eacity concerned only myself and my own election. gerness to serve you, took in more than my hands
These charges, I think, are four in number: my  could grasp.  Several gentlemen stand round
Subject: Charg- neglect of a due attention to my con- me.who are my  illing witnesses, and there are
es against Mr.  stituents; the not paying more fre- others who, if they were here, would be still betBurke as representativeofIris- quent visits here; my conduct on  ter, because they would be unwilling witnesses
cute       the affairs of the first Irish trade  to the same truth.  It was in the middle of a
acts; my opinion and mode of proceeding on  summer residence in London, and in the middle
Lord Beauchamp's debtor's bills; and my votes of a negotiation at the Admiralty for your trade,
on the late affairs of the Roman Catholics.  All that I was called to Bristol; and this late visit,
of these (except, perhaps, the first) relate to mat- at this late day, has been possibly in prejudice to
ters of very considerable public concern; and it your affairs.
is not lest you should censure me improperly,    Since I have touched upon this matter, let me
but lest you should form  improper opinions on  say, gentlemen, that if I had a dispo- Mr. Burke,on
matters of some moment to you, that I trouble  sition or a right to complain, I have  ietoni cornm,
you at all upon the subject.  My conduct is of  some cause of complaint on my side. plain.
small importance.                               With a petition of this city in my hand, passed
I. With regard to the first charge, my friends through the corporation without a dissenting
First Charge: have spoken to me of it in the style  voice, a petition in unison with almost the whole
Neglect ofcon- of amicable expostulation; not so  voice of the kingdom (with whose formal thanks
stituents.    much blaming the thing, as lament- I was covered over), while I labored on no less
ing the effects.  Others, less partial to me, were  than five bills for a public reform,2 and fought
less kind in assigning the motives.  I admit, against the opposition of great abilities, and of
there is a decorum and propriety in a member the greatest power, every clause, and every
of Parliament's paying a respectful court to his word of the largest of those bills, almost to the
constituents. If I were conscious to myself that very last day of a very long session-all this
pleasure or dissipation, or low, unworthy occupa- time a canvass in Bristol was as calmly carried
tions had detained me from personal attendance  on as if I were dead.  I was considered as a
on you, I would readily admit my fault, and qui- man wholly out of the question. While I watchetly submit to the penalty.  But, gentlemen, I ed, and fasted, and sweated in the House of
live a hundred miles distance from Bristol; and  Commons, by the most easy and ordinary arts of
at the end of a session I come to my own house, election, by dinners and visits, by " How-do-youdos" and " My worthy fiiends," I was to be quiIt is hardly necessary to remark how much strik- ety moved out of my seat; and promises were
ing and just thought is crowded into this exordium  etmed        engagements entered promis  weit
and transition. It would be difficult to find any   ae ad engagements entered into, without
where in the same space an equal amount of    2 Mr. Burke here refers to his bills for economical
weighty considerations so perfectly suited to intro- reform, which were advocated in his speech on this
duce such a discussion,                         subject, delivered February 11th, 1780.




1780.]                          THE BRISTOL ELECTION.                                        29:
any exception or reserve, as if my laborious zeal But time at length has made us all of one opinin my duty had been a regular abdication of my  ion; and we have all opened our eyes on the
trust.                                           true nature of the American war, to the true
To open my whole heart to you on this sub- nature of all its successes and all its failures.
Ground ot ject, I do confess, however, that there    In that public storm, too, I had my private
reluctance to were other times besides the two years feelings.  I had seen blown down and prostrate
in which I did visit you, when I was on the ground several of those houses to whom
not wholly without leisure for repeating that I was chiefly indebted for the honor this city has
mark of my respect; but I could not bring my  done me.  I confess, that while the wounds of
mind to see you.  You remember that in the those I loved were yet green, I could not bear
beginning of this American war (that era of ca- to show myself in pride and triumph in that
lamity, disgrace, and downfall-an era which no place into which their partiality had brought
feeling mind will ever mention without a tear me, and to appear at feasts and rejoicings, in
for England) you were greatly divided; and a the midst of the grief and calamity of my warm
very strong body, if not the strongest, opposed it- friends, my zealous supporters, my generous benself to the madness which every art and every  efactors.  This is a true, untarnished, undisguispower were employed to render popular, in or- ed state of the affair.  You will judge of it.
der that the errors of the rulers might be lost in    This is the only one of the charges in which
the general blindness of the nation.  This oppo- I am  personally concerned.  As to the other
sition continued until after our great, but most matters objected against me, which in their turn
unfortunate victory at Long Island.3  Then all I shall mention to you, remember once more I do
the mounds and banks of our constancy were  not mean to extenuate or excuse.  Why should
borne down at once, and the phrensy of the Amer- I, when the things charged are among those
ican war broke in upon us like a deluge.  This upon which I found all my reputation?  What
victory, which seemed to put an immediate end  would be left to me, if I myself was the man who
to all difficulties, perfected in us that spirit of  softened, and blended, and diluted, and weakendomination which our unparalleled prosperity  ed, all the distinguishing colors of my life, so as
had but too long nurtured.  We had been so to leave nothing distinct and determinate in my
very powerful, and so very prosperous, that even  whole conduct? 4
the humblest of us were degraded into the vices    II. It has been said, and it is the second charge,
and follies of kings.  We lost all measure be- that in the questions of the Irish  eond harg 
tween means and ends; and our headlong de- trade I did not consult the interest Giving free trade
sires became our politics and our morals.  All of my constituents, or, to speak out
men who wished for peace, or retained any sen- strongly, that I rather acted as a native of Iretiments of moderation, were overborne or si- land, than as an English member of Parliament.
lenced; and this city was led by every artifice    I certainly have very warm, good wishes for
(and probably with more management, because the place of my birth.  But the sphere of my
I was one of your members) to distinguish itself  duties is my true country.  It was as a man atby its zeal for that fatal cause.  In this temper tached to your interests, and zealous for the conof yours and of my mind, I should have sooner servation of your power and dignity, that I act
fled to the extremities of the earth than have  ed on that occasion, and on all occasions.  You
shown myself here.  I, who saw in every Amer- were involved in the American war.  A new
ican victory (for you have had a long series of  world of policy was opened, to which it was
these misfortunes) the germ and seed of the na- necessary we should conform, whether we would
val power of France and Spain, which all our or not; and my only thought was how to conheat and warmth against America was only  form  to our situation in such a manner as to
hatching into life-I should not have been a  unite to this kingdom, in prosperity and in affecwelcome visitant with the brow  and the lan- tion, whatever remained of the empire.  I was
guage of such feelings.  When afterward the true to my old, standing, invariable principle,
other face of your calamity was turned upon  that all things which came from Great Britain
you, and showed itself in defeat and distress, I should issue as a gift of her bounty and benefishunned you full as much.  I felt sorely this va-              adage, that the audience makes the
andt in  did rot wish to  nd4 It is   an old adage, that the audience makes the
riety in our wretchedness, and I did not wish tod it is certainly the fact that Mr. Brke
havetheleac  of isu g yu.h  orator; and it is certainly the fact that Mr. Burke,
have the least appearance of insulting you with  in speaking thus largely of himself before a body
that show  of superiority which, though it may  of plain men like the people of Bristol, was entirely
not be assumed, is generally suspected in a time  free from that appearance of display, and that intruof calamity from those whose previous warnings  sion of what is purely fanciful, which sometimes
have been despised.  I could not bear to show  marked his performances in the House of Commons.
you a representative whose face did not reflect Never was a defense more ingenious, and yet more
that of his constituents; a face that could not simple and manly. There is o  ffected  odest
y in y     j     a    s   i  y     s   about it, nor is there the slightest appearance of
oy in your oys and sorrow in your sorrows. vanity or arrogance. If any one should consider be3 This occurred in August, 1776, when the army forehand what kind of answer was to be given to
under Washington was defeated, and New York  so frivolous an objection, it would hardly seem postaken by the British. This success made the war sible to frame one containing so much solid and inpopular throughout England, and created an expect- genious thought, and yet so perfectly suited to the
ation of the immediate reduction of the colonies.    nature of the case.




296                              MR. BURKE PREVIOUS TO                                        [1780.
cence, rather than as claims recovered against a  France, and to cast off yours.  As for us, we
struggling litigant; or at least, that if your be-  were able neither to protect nor to restrain
neficence obtained no credit in your concessions,  them.  Forty thousand men were raised and
yet that they should appear the salutary provi- disciplined without commission from the Crown.
sions of your wisdom and foresight; not as things  Two illegal armies were seen with banners diswrung from  you with your blood, by the cruel played at the same time, and in the same coungripe of a rigid necessity.  The first conces- try.  No executive magistrate, no judicature in
sions, by being (much against my will) mangled  Ireland, would acknowledge the legality of the
and stripped of the parts which were necessary  army which bore the King's commission; and
to make out their just correspondence and con- no law, or appearance of law, authorized the
nection in trade, were of no use. The next year  army commissioned by itself.  In this unexama feeble attempt was made to bring the thing  pled state of things, which the least error, the
into better shape.  This attempt (countenanced  least trespass on the right or left, would have
by the Minister), on the very first appearance of  hurried down the precipice into an abyss of
some popular uneasiness, was, after a consider- blood and confusion, the people of Ireland deable progress through the House, thrown out by  mand a freedom  of trade with arms in their
him.                                               hands.  They interdict all commerce between
What was the consequence?   The whole  the two nations.  They deny all new supply in
Demaned kingdom  of Ireland was instantly in a  the House of Commons, although in time of war.
bythe Irish flame.  Threatened by foreigners, and, They stint the trust of the old revenue, given for
as they thought, insulted by England, two years to all the King's predecessors, to six
they resolved at once to resist the power of  months.  The British Parliament, in a former
session frightened into a limited concession by
5 Ireland was reduced to so much distress by the  the menaces of Ireland, frihtened out of it by
stoppage of trade during the American war, that the menaces of England, was now  fightene
Lord Nugent offered a number of resolutions in 1778.  
for removing the restrictions of the Navigation Act, bac  again, and made a universal surrender of
and allowing her a large participation in the co   all that had been thought the peculiar, reserved,
merce of the world. This was vehemently opposed  uncommunicable rights of England —the excluby Bristol, in common with the other great commer- sive commerce of America, of Africa, of the
cial towns; but Mr. Burke felt himself bound to sup- West Indies-all the enumerations of the Acts
port the measure against the wishes and instruc- of Navigation-all the manufactures, iron, glass,
tions of his constituents. The ministry, however, even the last pledge of jealousy and pride, the
became alarmed by the clamor, and nothing effect-                                  r  ear, te 
ual was done. In 1779, another attempt of the same
nature was made by Lord Nugent, with Lord North's  veteate prejudice molded into the constitution
approbation; but the minister became alarmed again, of our frame, even the sacred fleece itself,6 all
and defeated the plan. The Irish, indignant at this  went together.  No reserve; no exception; no
treatment, now formed associations (after the exam- debate; no discussion. A sudden light broke in
ple of the Americans) to abstain from the use of all upon us all.  It broke in, not through well-conEnglish manufactured articles.  Associations of a  trived and well-disposed windows, but through
still more alarming character had already commen- flaws  and  breaches; through  the  yawning
ced.  The French and Spanish fleets effected a       ass of or ruin.  We    e taught wisdom
junction in August, 1779, and, driving back the En- bu.   N
glish fleet (which was much inferior), swept the                    No tn n E             
channel without resistance or molestation, and  to have a prejudice, or daled to mutter a petithreatened a descent on Ireland. The people, left tion.  What was worse, the whole Parliament
without protection by the English government, flew  of England, which retained authority for nothing
to arms; a part of them under an implied authority  but surrenders, was despoiled of every shadow
from the magistrates, and part with no authority but of superintendence.  It was, without any qualithe necessity of national defense. The celebrated  fication, denied in theory, as it had been tramcorps of IRISH VOLUNTEERS, consisting of between  ple upon in practice. This scene of shame and
forty and fifty thousand men, was embodied, armed, disrace  has, n a manner while I am speain
disgrace has in a manner wh ile I am speaking.
and officered, within a few weeks. The Irish Par-    I
liament met shortly after, and approved their con- ended b  the perpetual establishment of military
duct by a unanimous vote of thanks. With these  power, in the dominions of this Crown, without
troops at their command, they sent a significant ad- consent of the British Legislature, contrary to
dress to the King, declaring that "it was not by  the policy of the constitution, contrary to the
temporary expedients, but by a free trade that the  declaration of right; 7 and by this your liberties
nation was to be saved from impending ruin."  To
enforce this address, they limited their supplies to        The allusion here is to the story of the Argothe period of six months, instead of the ordinary  nauts, and the golden fleece of Colchis, which was
term of two years. It was now obvious that a re- guarded by a dragon that never slept. Many have
bellion in Ireland would be added to that in the  supposed this to be a historical myth, relating to
colonies, unless the ministry yielded at once. The  the first introduction of sheep into Greece from the
whole nation "had their face toward America, and  Euxine for the sake of their wool, and Mr. Burke
their back toward England."  Hence the instan- perhaps so regarded it. The image that follows is
taneous concessions so graphically described by  one of- the strongest to be found in the speeches of
Mr. Burke. Even the woolen trade-" the sacred  Mr. Burke or any other orator.
fleece"-which the English had guarded with such    7 The Irish Parliament, flushed by their success
jealous care, was thrown open to the Irish.       in respect to trade, passed a bill enacting that the




1780.]                          THE BRISTOL ELECTION.                                        297
are swept away along with your supreme au- of brightening and burnishing, observe who they
thority-and both, linked together from the be- were that composed this famous embassy.  My
ginning, have, I am afraid, both together perish- Lord Carlisle is among the first ranks of our noed forever.                                      bility.  He is the identical man who, but two
What! gentlemen, was I not to foresee, or, years before, had been put forward at the openCourseof foreseeing, was I not to endeavor to  ing of a session in the House of Lords, as the
Mr. Burke. save you from all these multiplied mis- mover of a haughty and rigorous address against
chiefs and disgraces? Would the little, silly, can- America.  He was put in the front of the emvass prattle of obeying instructions, and having  bassy of submission.  Mr. Eden was taken from
no opinions but yours, and such idle, senseless  the office of Lord Suffolk, to whom he was then
tales, which amuse the vacant ears of unthink- under Secretary of State; from the office of that
ing men, have saved you from " that pelting of  Lord Suffolk, who, but a few weeks before, in
the pitiless storm," to which the loose improvi- his place in Parliament, did not deign to inquire
dence, the cowardly rashness of those who dare  where a congress of vagrants was to be found.
not look danger in the face, so as to provide  This Lord Suffolk sent Mr. Eden to find these
against it in time, and therefore throw  them- vagrants, without knowing where his King's genselves headlong into the midst of it, have expos- erals were to be found, who were joined in the
ed this degraded nation, beat down and prostrate  same commission of supplicating those whom
on the earth, unsheltered, unarmed, unresisting? they were sentto subdue.  They enter the capWas I an Irishman on that day, that I boldly  ital of America only to abandon it; and these
withstood our pride? or on the day that I hung  assertors and representatives of the dignity of
down my head, and wept in shame and silence  England, at the tail of a flying army, let fly their
over the humiliation of Great Britain?  I be- Parthian shafts of memorials and remonstrances
came unpopular in England for the one, and in  at random behind them. Their promises and their
Ireland for the other.8  What then?  What ob- offers, their flatteries and their menaces, were all
ligation lay on me to be popular?  I was bound  despised; and we were saved the disgrace of
to serve both kingdoms.  To be pleased with  their formal reception, only because the Congress
my service was their affair, not mine.           scorned to receive them; while the State House
I was an Irishman in the Irish business, just as of independent Philadelphia opened her doors to
He acted in re- much as I was an American, when, the public entry of the embasador of France.
spect to Ireland on the same principles, I wished you  From war and blood we went to submission; and
as lie had previouslydoneinre- to concede to America, at a time  from submission plunged back again to war and
grdtoAmericua. when she prayed concession at our blood; to desolate and be desolated, without meafeet. Just as much was I an American, when  sure, hope, orend. I am a Royalist: I blushed for
I wished Parliament to offer terms in victory, this degradation of the Crown. I am a Whig: I
and not to wait the well-chosen hour of defeat, blushed for the dishonor of Parliament.  I am
for making good, by weakness and by supplica- a true Englishman: I felt to the quick for the
tion, a claim of prerogative, pre-eminence, and  disgrace of England.  I am a man: I felt for
authority.                                       the melancholy reverse of human affairs, in the
Instead of requiring it from me as a point of  fall of the first power in the world.
duty to kindle with your passions, had you all been    To read what was approaching in Ireland, in
as cool as I was, you would have been saved dis- the black and bloody characters of the American
graces and distresses that are unutterable.  Do  war, was a painful, but it was a necessary part
you remember our commission?  We sent out of my public duty; for, gentlemen, it is not
a solemn embassy across the Atlantic Ocean, to  your fond desires or mine that can alter the nalay the crown, the peerage, the Commons of  ture ofthings; by contending against which what
Great Britain, at the feet of the American Con- have we got, or shall ever get, but defeat and
gress.9  That our disgrace might want no sort shame?  I did not obey your instructions! No,
I conformed to the instructions of truth and namilitary force of Ireland should be governed by laws  ture  and mainained you   interest against your
of their own country, and not of the English Parlia-                            b  
ment. Lord North yielded, and introduced an alter-                              
ation by which the law was made perpetual. It representative worthy of you ought to be a perwas hence called the Irish Perpetual Mutiny Act, s   of stability.  I am to look, indeed, to your
and was strongly condemned by Mr. Burke and  opinions; but to such opinions as you and I must
many of the best friends of Ireland, for the reasons  have five years hence.  I was not to look to the
here given.                                     flash of the day: I knew that you chose me, in
8 Mr. Burke "withstood the pride" of England, nmy place along with others, to be a pillar of the
when he insisted on the grant of fiee trade to the state, and not a weather-cock on the top of the
Irish, who had always been treated as a conquered edifice exalted for my levity and versatility, and
people; and "wept in shame and silence over the        7 
humiliation of Great Britain," when the Irish Per-  f        e     t inic     t    sii      
petual Mutiny Act was passed. The former made  fashnble gale.  Would to God, the value of
him unpopular in England, the latter in Ireland.    my sentiments on Ireland and on America had
9 This was soon after the defeat ofBurgoyne; and been at this day a subject of doubt and discussion!
Mr. Burke argues, that as the people of Bristol now
-aw he was right in wishing to cc.ciliate America, voting for an extension of trade to Ireland, as a
and prevent these disgraces, so he vas also right in  measure of conciliation for that country.




298                            MR. BURKE PREVIOUS TO                                    [1780.
No matter what my sufferings had been, so that tion, I might not only secure my acquittal, but
this kingdom had kept the authority I wished it to  make merit with the opposers of the bill.  But
maintain, by a grave foresight, and by an equi- I shall do no such thing. The truth is, that I did
table temperance in the use of its power.       occasion the loss of the bill, and by a delay caused
III. The next article of charge on my public  by my respect to you.  But such an event was
Third Charge: conduct, and that which I find rather never in my contemplation; and I am so far from
Reliefofinsol- the most prevalent of all, is Lord  taking credit for the defeat of that measure, that
et debtors  Beauchamp's bill.10 I mean his bill of  I can not sufficiently lament my misfortune, if but
last session, for reforming the law-process con- one man who ought to be at large has passed a
cerning imprisonment. It is said (to aggravate  year in prison by my means.  I am a debtor to
the offense) that I treated the petition of this the debtors: I confess judgment: I owe what,
city with contempt, even in presenting it to the  if ever it be in my power, I shall most certainly
House, and expressed myself in terms of marked  pay-ample atonement, and usurious amends to
disrespect.  Had this latter part of the charge  liberty and humanity for my unhappy lapse.
been true, no merits on the side of the question  For, gentlemen, Lord Beauchamp's bill was a
which I took could possibly excuse me.  But I law of justice and policy, as far as it went; I say
am incapable of treating this city with disrespect. as far as it went, for its fault was its being, in
Very fortunately, at this minute (if my bad eye- the remedial part, miserably defective.
sight does not deceive me), the worthy gentle-    There are two capital faults in our law with
man [Mr. Williams], deputed on this business, relation to civil debts.  One is, that  rrorsofthe
stands directly before me.  To him  I appeal, every man is presumed solvent: a law forthe rewhether I did not, though it militated with my  presumption, in innumerable cases, c
oldest and my most recent public opinions, deliv- directly against truth.  Therefore the debtor is
er the petition with a strong and more than  ordered, on a supposition of ability and fraud, to
usual recommendation to the consideration of the  be coerced his liberty until he makes payment.
House, on account of the character and conse- By this means, in all cases of civil insolvency
quence of those who signed it.  I believe the  without a pardon from his creditor, he is to be
worthy gentleman will tell you, that the very day  imprisoned for life; and thus a miserable, misI received it I applied to the solicitor, now the  taken invention of artificial science, operates to
attorney general, to give it an immediate con- change a civil into a criminal judgment, and to
sideration, and he most obligingly and instantly  scourge misfortune or indiscretion with a punishconsented to employ a great deal of his very val- ment which the law does not inflict on the greatuable time to write an explanation of the bill. I est crimes.
attended the committee with all possible care and    The next fault is, that the inflicting of that pundiligence, in order that every objection of yours ishment is not on the opinion of an equal and pubmight meet with a solution, or produce an alter- lie judge, but is referred to the arbitrary discretion
ation. I entreated your learned recorder (always  of a private, nay, interested and irritated individready in business in which you take a concern) ual.  He who formally is, and substantially ought
to attend. But what will you say to those who  to be the judge, is in reality no more than minisblame me for supporting Lord Beauchamp's  terial, a mere executive instrument of a private
bill, as a disrespectful treatment of your petition, man, who is at once judge and party.  Every
when you hear that, out of respect to you, I my- idea of judicial order is subverted by this proself was the cause of the loss of that very bill? cedure.  If the insolvency be no crime, why is
For the noble Lord who brought it in, and who, it punished with arbitrary imprisonment?  If it
I must say, has much merit for this and some  be a crime, why is it delivered into private hands
other measures, at my request consented to put to pardon without discretion, or to punish without
it off for a week, which the speaker's illness  mercy and without measure?
lengthened to a fortnight; and then the frantic    To these faults, gross and cruel faults in our
tumult about popery drove that and every ra- law, the excellent principle of Lord Remedyprotional business from the House.l  So that if I Beauchamp's bill applied some sort posed by Lord
chose to make a defense of myself, on the little  of remedy.  I know that credit must BOoheai'p.
principles of a culprit, pleading in his exculpa- be preserved, but equity must be preserved too;
o This bill (introduced Feb. 10, 1780) allowed an  and it is impossible that any thing should be necimprisoned debtor, who gave up all his property, and  essay  to commerce which is inconsistent with
made oath that he was not worth five pounds in the justice.  The principle of credit was not weakworld, except the bedding of his wife and the clothes ened by that bill. God forbid! The enforcement
of his children, to appear before a court. This court of that credit was only put into the same public
was strictly to investigate the facts, and release him  judicial hands on which we depend for our lives,
if they saw fit, from imprisonment, though not from  and all that makes life dear to us.  But, indeed,
his debt, for which his future earnings were still this business was taken up too warmly, both here
liable. This bill Mr. Burke supported. It was lost, and elsewhere. The bill was extremely mistakhowever, in the way mentioned above. And yet at                       
Bristol he was overwhelmed with obloquy, for giv-    It was supposed to enact what it never ening his countenance to this imperfect measure of  acted; and complaints were made of clauses in
justice and humanity, and actually lost his election
chiefly on this ground.                         involved Parliament in danger, and brought London
1i The'No Popery" riots which for some days to the verge of a general conflagration.




1780.1                          THE BRISTOL ELECTION.                                       299.t as novelties, which existed before the noble  jail.  1 can not name this gentleman without reLord that brought in the bill was born.  There  marking that his labors and writings have done
was a fallacy that ran through the whole of the  much to open the eyes and hearts of mankind. He
objections.  The gentlemen who opposed the bill has visited all Europe, not to survey the sumptualways argued as if the option lay between that ousness of palaces or the stateliness of temples;
bill and the ancient law; but this is a grand mis- not to make accurate measurements of the retake; for practically the option is between, not mains of ancient grandeur, nor to form a scale of
that bill and the old law, but between that bill the curiosity of modern art; not to collect medals,
and those occasional laws called " acts of grace."  or collate manuscripts, but to dive into the depths
For the operation of the old law is so savage, and  of dungeons; to plunge into the infection of hosso inconvenient to society, that, for a long time  pitals; to survey the mansions of sorrow and pain
past, once in every Parliament, and lately twice, to take the gage and dimensions of misery, de.
the Legislature has been obliged to make a gen- pression, and contempt; to remember the forgotcral arbitrary jail delivery, and at once to set ten, to attend to the neglected, to visit the forsakopen, by its sovereign authority, all the prisons  en, and to compare and collate the distresses of
in England.                                     all men in all countries.  His plan is original,
Gentlemen, I never relished acts of grace, nor and it is as full of genius as it is of humanity.
Actrace ever submitted to them, but from de- It was a voyage of discovery; a circumnavigathe worst,os- spair of better.  They are a dishonor- tion of charity.  Already the benefit of his lasible remdy  able invention, by which, not from hu- bor is felt more or less in every country: I hope
ianity, not from policy, but merely because we he will anticipate his final reward, by seeing all
have not room enough to hold these victims of  its effects fully realized in his own.  He will re
the absurdity of our laws, we turn loose upon the  ceive, not by retail, but in gross, the reward of
public three or four thousand naked wretches, those who visit the prisoner; and he has so forecorrupted by the habits, debased by the ignominy  stalled and monopolized this branch of charity,
of a prison.  If the creditor had a right to those  that there will be, I trust, little room to merit by
carcasses as a natural security for his property, I  such acts of benevolence hereafter.l2
am sure we have no right to deprive him of that    IV. Nothing now remains to trouble you with
security; but if the few pounds of flesh were not but the fourth charge against me-  Fort rge
necessary to his security, we had not a right to  the business of the Roman Catho- ReieifoftRolrg.
detain the unfortunate debtor, without any bene- lies.t3  It is a business closely con- Catholi
fit at all to the person who confined him.  Take  nected with the rest.  They are all on one and
it as you will, we commit injustice.  Now Lord  the same principle.  My little scheme of conBeauchamp's bill intended to do deliberately, and  duct, such as it is, is all arranged.  I could do
with great caution and circumspection, upon each  nothing but what I have done on this subject,
several case, and with all attention to the just without confounding the whole train of my ideas
claimant, what acts of grace do in a much great- and disturbing the whole order of my life.  Gener measure, and with very little care, caution, or tlemen, I ought to apologize to you for seeming
deliberation.                                   to think any thing at all necessary to be said upon
I suspect that here, too, if we contrive to op- this matter. The calumny is fitter to be scrawled
The existing  pose this bill, we shall be found in a  with the midnight chalk of incendiaries, with " No
tysltem too, d struggle against the nature ofthings; popery," on walls and doors of devoted houses,
dured.    for, as we grow enlightened, the pub- than to be mentioned in any civilized company.
lie will not bear, for any length of time, to pay  I had heard that the spirit of discontent on that
for the maintenance of whole armies of prison- subject was very prevalent here.  With pleasure
ers; nor, at their own expense, submit to keep  I find that I have been grossly misinformed.  If
jails as a sort of garrisons, merely to fortify the  it exists at all in this city, the laws have crushed
absurd principle of making men judges in their its exertions, and our morals have shamed its apown cause.  For credit has little or no concern  pearance in daylight.  I have pursued this spirit
in this cruelty.  I speak in a commercial assemn- wherever I could trace it, but it still fled from me.
bly.  You know that credit is given because cap- 
ital nmst be employed; that men calculate the    12 This admirable sketch forms not only a just
m *s be    in. tt  -. -l11 th  tribute to the labors of Mr. Howard, and a beautiful
chances of insolvency; and they either withhold  rounding off of the present head, but it has all the
the credit or make the debtor pay the risk in the  force of an aromentfroe admitted facts; for Lord
price.  The counting-house has no alliance with  Beauchamp's bill was designed to prevent tens of
the jail.  Holland understands trade as well as thousands from being immured in those very prisons
we, and she has done much more than this obnox- whose filth and wretchedness Mr. Howard had laid
ious bill intended to do.  There was not, when  open before the public. Mr. Burke's image of "a
Mr. Howard visited Holland, more than one pris- voyage of discovery, a circumnavigation of charity,"
oner for debt in the breat city of Rotterdam. Al- was suggested by the exploring expedition of Capthough Lord Beauchamp's [other] act (which  tain Cooke, wose recent death at Owyhee had just
been heard of i England. This made the allusion
was previous to this bill, and intended to feel the   n a of do   England. This made the  allit
one of double interest to the public, who were at
way for it) has already preserved liberty to thou- that time lamenting his death.
sands, and though it is not three years since the    13 This charge relates to Mr. Burke's vote in 1778
iast act of grace passed, yet, by Mr. Howard's last for repealing a cruel law against the Roman Cathoaccount, there were near three thousand again in  lies. This repeal gave rise to the No Popery riots.




300                             MR. BURKE PREVIOUS TO                                     [1780.
It was a ghost which all had heard of, but none  The Protestant religion, in that violent struggle,
had seen.  None would acknowledge that he  infected, as the Popish had been before, by worldthought the public proceeding with regard to  ly interests and worldly passions, became a perour Catholic Dissenters to be blamable, but sev- secutor in its turn, sometimes of the new sects,
eral were sorry it had made an ill impression  which carried their own principles farther than
upon others, and that my interest was hurt by  it was convenient to the original reformers, and
my share in the business.  I find with satisfac- always of the body from  whom  they parted;
tion and pride, that not above four or five in this  and this persecuting spirit arose not only from
city (and I dare say these misled by some gross  the bitterness of retaliation, but from the merci.
misrepresentation) have signed that symbol of de- less policy of fear.
lusion and bond of sedition, that libel on the na-    It was long before the spirit of true piety and
tional religion and English character, the Protest- true wisdom, involved in the principles of reforant Association.14  It is, therefore, gentlemen, not mation, could be depurated from the dregs and
by way of cure, but of prevention, and lest the arts  feculence of the contention with which it was carof wicked men may prevail over the integrity of  ried through.  However, until this be done, the
any one among us, that I think it necessary to  reformation is not complete; and those that think
open to you the merits of this transaction pretty  themselves good Protestants, from their animosity
much at large; and I beg your patience upon it;  to others, are in that respect no Protestants at all.
for, although the reasonings that have been used  It was at first thought necessary, perhaps, to opto depreciate the act are of little force, and though  pose to popery another popery, to get the better
the authority of the men concerned in this ill de- of it.  Whatever was the cause, laws were made
sign is not very imposing, yet the audaciousness  in many countries, and in this kingdom in particof these conspirators against the national honor, ular, against Papists, which are as bloody as any
and the extensive wickedness of their attempts, of those which had been enacted by the popish
have raised persons of little importance to a de- princes and states; and where those laws were
gree of evil eminence, and imparted a sort of sin- not bloody, in my opinion they were worse, as
ister dignity to proceedings that had their origin  they were slow, cruel outrages on our nature,
in only the meanest and blindest malice,         and kept men alive only to insult in their persons
In explaining to you the proceedings of Par- every one of the rights and feelings of humanity.
liament which have been complained of, I will I pass those statutes, because I would spare your
state to you, first, the thing that was done; next, pious ears the repetition of such shocking things;
the persons who did it; and, lastly, the grounds  and I come to that particular law the repeal of
and reasons upon which the Legislature pro- which has produced so many unnatural and unceeded in this deliberate act of public justice  expected consequences.
and public prudence.                                A statute was fabricated in the year 1699 by
1. Gentlemen, the condition of our nature is which the saying mass (a church serv- Cracter
Causes which such, that we buy our blessings at a  ice in the Latin tongue, not exactly the of the law
led to severe price.  The Reformation, one of the  same as our Liturgy, but very near it, inquestion.
measures
against Roman greatest periods of human improve- and containing no offense whatsoever against the
Catholics    ment, was a time of trouble and con- laws or against good morals) was forged into a
fusion.  The vast structure of superstition and  crime punishable with perpetual imprisonment.
tyranny which had been for ages in rearing, and  The teaching school, a useful and virtuous occuwhich was combined with the interest of the great pation, even the teaching in a private family, was
and of the many; which was molded into the  in every Catholic subjected to the same unprolaws, the manners, and civil institutions of na- portioned punishment.  Your industry and the
tions, and blended with the frame and policy of  bread of your children was taxed for a pecuniary
states, could not be brought to the ground with- reward to stimulate avarice to do what nature reout a fearful struggle; nor could it fall without fused; to inform and prosecute on this law. Eva violent concussion of itself and all about it. cry Roman Catholic was, under the same act, to
When this great revolution was attempted in a  forfeit his estate to his nearest Protestant relamore regular mode by government, it was op- lation, until, through a profession of what he did
posed by plots and seditions of the people; when  not believe, he redeemed by his hypocrisy what
by popular efforts, it was repressed as rebellion  the law had transferred to the kinsman as the
by the hand of power; and bloody executions  recompense of his profligacy.  When thus turn(often bloodily returned) marked the whole of its  ed out of doors from his paternal estate, he was
progress through all its stages.  The affairs of  disabled from acquiring any other by any indusreligion, which are no longer heard of in the tu- try, donation, or charity, but was rendered a for
mult of our present contentions, made a principal eigner in his native land, only because he re
ingredient in the wars and politics of that time; tained the religion along with the property hand
the enthusiasm  of religion threw a gloom  over ed down to him from those who had been the old
the politics, and political interests poisoned and  inhabitants of that land before him.
perverted the spirit of religion upon all sides.    Does any one who hears me approve this
1 Those who signed the articles of this associa- scheme of things, or think there is common just
tion became pledged to use all the efforts in their ice, common sense, or common honesty in anl
power to obtain the re-enactment of the law in ques- part of it?  If any does, let him say it, and I ar
tion.                                            ready to discuss the point with temper and cat;




1780.]                            THE BRISTOL ELECTION.                                      301
dor.  But instead of approving, I perceive a vir- to their ruin at the pleasure of necessitous and
tuous indignation beginning to rise in your minds  profligate relations, and according to the meason the mere cold stating of the statute.         ure of their necessity and profligacy.  Examples
But what will you feel when you know from   of this are many and affecting.  Some of them
Reasons for  history how this statute passed, and  are known to a friend who stands near me in
nosing that              motives,                                                        since
1g      de what were the motives, and what the  this hall.  It is but six or seven years since a
of doing it.   mode of making it?  A party in this  clergyman of the name of Malony, a man of mornation, enemies to the system of the Revolution, als, neither guilty nor accused of any thing nox.
were in opposition to the government of King  ious to the state, was condemned to perpetual imWilliam.  They knew that our glorious deliv- prisonment for exercising the functions of his reerer was an enemy to all persecution.  They  ligion, and, after lying in jail two or three years,
knew that he came to free us fiom slavery and  was relieved by the mercy of government from
popery, out of a country where a third of the  perpetual imprisonment, on condition of perpetpeople are contented Catholics under a Protest- ual banishment.  A  brother of the Earl of
ant government.  He came; with a part of his  Shrewsbury, a Talbot, a name respectable in
army composed of those very Catholics, to over- this country while its glory is any part of its
set the power of a Popish prince.  Such is the  concern, was hauled to the bar of the Old Bailey
effect of a tolerating spirit; and so much is lib- among common felons, and only escaped the same
erty served in every way, and by all persons, by  doom, either by some error in the process, or that
a manly adherence to its own principles.  While  the wretch who brought him there could not corfreedom is true to itself, every thing becomes sub- rectly describe his person; I now forget which.
ject to it, and its very adversaries are an instru-  In short, the persecution would never have rement in its hands.                              lented for a moment, if the judges, superseding
The party I speak of (like some among us who  (though with an ambiguous example) the strict
would disparage the best friends of their country) rule of their artificial duty by the higher obligaresolved to make the king either violate his prin- tion of their conscience, did not constantly throw
ciples of toleration, or incur the odium of protect-  every difficulty in the way of such informers.
ing Papists.  They therefore brought in this bill, But so ineffectual is the power of legal evasion
and made it purposely wicked and absurd, that it against legal iniquity, that it was but the other
might be rejected.  The then Court party, dis- day that a lady of condition, beyond the middle
covering their game, turned the tables on them, of life, was on the point of being stripped of her
and returned their bill to them stuffed with still whole fortune by a near relation, to whom she
greater absurdities, that its loss might lie upon  had been a friend and benefactor; and she must
its original authors.  They, finding their own  have been totally ruined, without a power of reball thrown back to them, kicked it back again  dress or mitigation from the courts of law, had
to their adversaries; and thus this act, loaded  not the Legislature itself rushed in, and, by a
with the double injustice of two parties, neither special act of Parliament, rescued her from the
of whom intended to pass what they hoped the  injustice of its own statutes.  One of the acts
other would be persuaded to reject, went through  authorizing such things was that which we in
the Legislature, contrary to the real wish of all part repealed, knowing what our duty was, and
parts of it, and of all the parties that composed  doing that duty as men of honor and virtue, as
it.  In this manner these insolent and profligate  good Protestants, and as good citizens!  Let
factions, as if they were playing with balls and  him stand forth that disapproves what we have
counters, made a sport of the fortunes and the  done!
liberties of their fellow-creatures.  Other acts of    Gentlemen, bad laws are the worst sort of
persecution have been acts of malice.  This was  tyranny.  In such a country as this,       
a subversion of justice from wantonness and pet- they are of all bad things the worst: nity of a bad
ulance.  Look into the history of Bishop Burnet. worse by far than any where else; law i Ezgl"nd.
He is a witness without exception.               and they derive a particular malignity even from
The effects of the act have been as mischiev- the wisdom and soundness of the rest of our inOperation oUS as its origin was ludicrous and  stitutions.  For very obvious reasons, you can
othe law' shameful.  From that time every per- not trust the Crown with a dispensing power
son of that communion, lay and ecclesiastic, has  over any of your laws. However, a government,
been obliged to fly from the face of day.  The  be it as bad as it may, will, in the exercise of a
clergy, concealed in garrets of private houses, or discretionary power, discriminate times and perobliged to take shelter (hardly safe to themselves, sons; and will not ordinarily pursue any man,
but infinitely dangerous to their country) under when its own safety is not concerned.  A merthe privileges of foreign ministers, officiated as cenary informer knows no distinction.  Under
their servants, and under their protection.  The  such a system, the obnoxious people are slaves,
whole body of the Catholics, condemned to beg- not only to the government, but they live at the
gary and to ignorance in their native land, have  mercy of every individual.  They are at once
been obliged to learn the principles of letters, at the slaves of the whole community, and of every
the hazard of all their other principles, from the  and other institutions in France, where a sense of
charity of your enemies.15  They have been taxed  wrong conspiring with the instructions of men attached to absolute monarchy, made them enemies
15 Hundreds were sent to the college at St. Omer of the English government.




302                              MR. BURKE PREVIOUS TO                                      [1780.
part of it; and the worst and most unmerciful  on the subject during the whole progress of the
men are those on whose goodness they most de-  bill.  I do not say this as disclaiming my share
pend.                                             in that measure.  Very far from  it.  I inform
In this situation men not only shrink from   you of this fact, lest I should seem to arrogate
the frowns of a stern magistrate, but they are  to myself the merits which belong to others.
obliged to fly from  their very species.  The  To have been the man chosen out to redeem
seeds of destruction are sown in  civil inter-  our fellow-citizens from  slavery; to purify our
course, in social habitudes. The blood of whole-  laws froml absurdity and injustice; and to cleanse
some kindred is infected. Their tables and beds  our religion from the blot and stain of persecuare surrounded with snares. All the means giv- tion, would be an honor and happiness to which
en by Providence to make life safe and comfort- my wishes would undoubtedly aspire, but to
able are perverted into instruments of terror and  which nothing but my wishes could possibly
torment.  This species of universal subservien- have entitled me.  That great work was in
cy, that makes the very servant who waits be- hands in every respect far better qualified than
hind your chair the arbiter of your life and for- mine.  The mover of the bill was Sir GEORGE
tune, has such a tendency to degrade and abase  SAVILE.
mankind, and to deprive them  of that assured        When an act of great and signal humanity
and liberal state of mind, which alone can make  was to be done, and done with all the weight
us what we ought to be, that I vow  to God I  and authority that belonged to it, the world
would sooner bring myself to put a man to im- could cast its eyes upon none but him.  I hope
mediate death for opinions I disliked, and so to  that few things which have a tendency to bless
get rid of the man and his opinions at once, than  or adorn life have wholly escaped my observato fret him with a feverish being, tainted with  tion in my passage through it.  I have sought
the jail distemper of a contagious servitude, to  the acquaintance of that gentleman, and have
keep him  above ground, an animated mass of  seen him in all situations.  He is a true genius;
putrefaction; corrupted himself, and corrupting  with an understanding vigorous, and acute, and
all about him.l6                                  refined, and distinguishing even to excess; and
2. The act repealed was of this direct tend- illuminated with a most unbounded, peculiar, and
Autorof ency, and it was made in the manner original cast of imagination.  With these he
the repeal. which I have related to you. I will now  possesses many external and instrumental adtell you by whom the bill of repeal was brought vantages, and he makes use of them all.  -is
into Parliament. I find it has been industriously  fortune is among the largest-a fortune which,
given out in this city (from kindness to me, un- wholly unincumbered,.as it is, with one single
questionably) that I was the mover or the sec- charge from luxury, vanity, or excess, sinks unonder.  The fact is, I did not once open my lips der the benevolence of its dispenser.  This pri06 Mr. Burke's mode of treating a subject will be vate benevolence, expanding itself into patriotseen more clearly, if we compare him with such a ism, renders his whole being the estate of the
speaker as Mr. Fox. In the present case, for in- public, in which he has not reserved a peculitum
stance: (1.) He prepares the way by a beautiful for himself of profit, diversion, or relaxation.7
narration, full of thought, in which he shows how it During the session, the first in, and the last out
was possible for Protestants, in defiance of all their of the House of Commons; he passes from the
principles, to become persecutors. (2.) He states at senate to the camp; and, seldom seeing the seat
large the cruel enactments of the law in question. of his ancestors, he is always in Parliament to
(3.) He describes the manner in which it was pass- serve his country, or in the field to defend it.
ed amid the conflicts of "insolent and profligate  But in all well-wrougt compositions, some parfactions," who on both sides had "made it purposely   in  ll well-wrougt compositions, some parwicked and absurd, that it might be rejected" by  ticuars stand out more eminently than the rest
the opposing party. (4.) He shows that this law, and the things which will carry his name to posinstead of being suffered to sink at once into abey- terity are his two bills-I mean that for a limance as too bad to be executed, had been carried  itation of the claims of the Crown upon landed
into effect with terrible fidelity. (5.) He adds force  estates,'8 and this for the relief of the Roman
and dignity to these individual statements by rising  Catholics.  By the forer, he has emancipated
to a general truth, that "bad laws are the worst       rty;           latter, he has  uieted consort of tyranny," converting "all that makes life    ee;      by   th, he has  ught tht gnd
safe and comfortable into instruments of terror and    ee  and by both,     has taught that grand
torment."  Now Mr. Fox, from his habit of striking  les   to govenment and subject-no longel to
directly at the heart of a subject, would probably  regard each other as adverse parties.
have thrown away the first of these heads, and commenced at once with the third; showing the atro-   17 The peculium  among the Romans was that
ciously wicked manner in which the law was pass- small amount of property which a slave was allowed, and interweaving with his statement just enough  ed to possess and call his own, as distinct from his
of the provisions of the act and the cruelties of its master's estate.
execution, to make it stand forth in all its enormity'1 This bill, passed in 1769, was called the Nullum
as deserving public execration. Experience show- Tempus Act, because it set aside the old maxim,
ed that Mr. Fox's method was best suited to the pur- "Nullum Tempus Regi occurrit," no length of posposes of actual debate; while Mr. Burke's speeches  session bars the King. It provided that the Crown
have come down to posterity as objects of far great- should have no claim upon any estate which had
er interest to reflecting men for the depth, and corn- been enjoyed by any one during sixty years of un
pass, and richness of their thoughts.            disputed possession.




1780.]                           THE BRISTOL ELECTION.                                       303
Such was the mover of the act that is corn-    3. To prove this-to prove that the measure
plained of by men who are not quite so good as was both clearly and materially proper, Reasons for
he is; an act, most assuredly, not brought in by  I will next lay before you (as I prom- the repea.
him from any partiality to that sect which is the  ised) the political grounds and reasons for the
object of it; for, among his faults, I really can  repeal of that penal statute, and the motives to
not help reckoning a greater degree of prejudice  its repeal at that particular time.
against that people than becomes so wise a man.    (1.) Gentlemen, America-when the English
I know that he inclines to a sort of disgust, mix- nation seemed to be dangerously, if (L.)Itwa due
ad with a considerable degree of asperity, to the  not irrecoverably divided; when one, to the genersystem; and he has few, or rather no habits [in  and that the most growing branch,was the Roman
common] with any of its professors.  What he torn from the parent stock, and in- Catholic.
has done was on quite other motives.  The mo- grafted on the power of France, a great terror
tives were these, which he declared in his excel- fell upon this kingdom.  On a sudden we awaklent speech on his motion for the bill; namely, ened from our dreams of conquest, and saw ourhis extreme zeal to the Protestant religion, which  selves threatened with an immediate invasion;
he thought utterly disgraced by the act of 1699; which we were, at that time, very ill prepared
and his rooted hatred to all kind of oppression, to resist. You remember the cloud that gloomed
under any color or upon any pretense whatsoever. over us all. In that hour of our dismay, from the
The seconder was worthy of the mover and  bottom of the hiding-places into which the indisthe motion.  I was not the seconder.  It was  criminate rigor of our statutes had driven them,
Mr. Dunning, recorder of this city.  I shall say  came out the Roman Catholics. They appeared
the less of him, because his near relation to you  before the steps of a tottering throne with one
makes you more particularly acquainted with  of the most sober, measured, steady, and dutiful
his merits.  But I should appear little acquaint- addresses that was ever presented to the Crown.'9
ed with them, or little sensible of them, if I could  It was no holiday ceremony; no anniversary comutter his name on this occasion without express- pliment of parade and show.  It was signed by
ing my esteem for his character. I am not afraid  almost every gentleman of that persuasion of
of offending a most learned body, and most jeal- note or property in England.  At such a crisis,
ous of its reputation for that learning, when I  nothing but a decided resolution to stand or fall
say he is the first of his profession. It is a point with their country could have dictated such an
settled by those who settle every thing else; and  address; the direct tendency of which was to
I must add (what I am enabled to say from my  cut off all retreat, and to render them peculiarly
own long and close observation) that there is not obnoxious to an invader of their own communion.
a man, of any profession, or in any situation, of  The address showed, what I long languished to
a more erect and independent spirit; of a more  see, that all the subjects of England had cast off
proud honor; a more manly mind; a more firm  all foreign views and connections, and that every
and determined integrity.   Assure yourselves  man looked for his relief from  every grievance
that the names of two such men will bear a  at the hands only of his own natural government.
great load of prejudice in the other scale, before    It was necessary, on our part, that the natural
they can be entirely outweighed.                 government should show  itself worthy of that
With this mover and this seconder agreed  name.  It was necessary, at the crisis I speak
the whole House of Commons; the wvhole House  of, that the supreme power of the state should
of Lords; the whole bench of Bishops; the King; meet the conciliatory dispositions of the subject.
the Ministry; the Opposition; all the distinguish-  To delay protection would be to reject allegiance.
ed clergy of the establishment; all the eminent And why should it be rejected, or even coldly
lights (for they were consulted) of the dissent- and suspiciously received?  If any independent
ing churches.  This according voice of national Catholic state should choose to take part with
wisdom ought to be listened to with reverence. this kingdom in a war with France and Spain,
To say that all these descriptions of Englishmen  that bigot (if such a bigot could be found) would
unanimously concurred in a scheme for introduc- be heard with little respect who could dream of
ing the Catholic religion, or that none of them   objecting his religion to an ally, whom the nation
understood the nature and effects of what they  would not only receive with its freest thanks, but
were doing, so well as a few obscure clubs of  purchase with the last remains of its exhausted
people whose names you never heard of, is treasure.  To such an ally we should not dare
shamelessly absurd.  Surely it is paying a mis-   19 This address may be found in Belsham's George
erable compliment to the religion we profess, to  III., vol. ii., p. 496. It is all that Mr. Burke represuggest that every thing eminent in the kingdom  sents it. Among other things it says, " In a time of
is indifferent, or even adverse to that religion, public danger, when your Majesty's subjects can
and  that its security is wholly abandoned to the  have but one interest, and ought to have but one
zeal of those who have nothing but their zeal to  wish and sentiment, we humbly hope it will not be
t.ee... w         we ighing b.  thei   z.   deemed improper to assure your Majesty of our undistinguish them.  In weighinff this unanimous
distingush them.  I     iunanimous  reserved affection to your government, of our unalconcurrence of whatever the nation has to boast terable attachment to the cause and welfare of our
of, I hope you will recollect that all these con- common country, and our utter detestation of the decurring parties do by no means love one another signs and views of any foreign power against the
enough to agree in any point which was not dignity of your Majesty's Crown, the safety and tran
both evidently and importantly right.            quillity of your Majesty's subjects."




304                             MR. BURKE PREVIOUS TO                                    [1780,
to whisper a single syllable of those base and in- brunt of war in the heart of their country. Yet
vidious topics, upon which some unhappy men  the Americans are utter strangers to me; a nawould persuade the state to reject the duty and  tion among whom I am not sure that I have a
allegiance of its own members.  Is it, then, be- single acquaintance. Was I to suffer my mind
cause foreigners are in a condition to set our to be so unaccountably warped; was I to keep
malice at defiance, that with them we are will- such iniquitous weights and measures of temper
ing to contract engagements of friendship, and  and of reason, as to sympathize with those who
to keep them with fidelity and honor; but that, are in open rebellion against an authority which I
because we conceive some descriptions of our respect, at war with a country which by every
countrymen are not powerful enough to punish  title ought to be, and is most dear to me; and
our malignity, we will not permit them to sup- yet to have.no feeling at all for the hardships and
port our common interest? Is it on that ground  indignities suffered by men, who, by their very
that our anger is to be kindled by their offered vicinity, are bound up in a nearer relation to us;
kindness?  Is it on that ground that they are to  who contribute their share, and more than their
be subjected to penalties, because they are will- share, to the common prosperity; who perform
ing by actual merit to purge themselves from  the common offices of social life, and who obey
imputed crimes?  Lest by an adherence to the  the laws to the full as well as I do?  Gentlemen,
cause of their country they should acquire a title  the danger to the state being out of the question
to fair and equitable treatment, are we resolved  (of which, let me tell you, statesmen themselves
to furnish them with causes of eternal enmity, and  are apt to have but too exquisite a sense), I could
rather supply them with just and founded mo- assign no one reason of justice, policy, or feeling,
tives to disaffection, than not to have that dis- for not concurring most cordially, as most coraffection in existence to justify an oppression, dially I did concur, in softening some part of that
which, not from policy but disposition, we have  shameful servitude, under which several of my
predetermined to exercise?                     worthy fellow-citizens were groaning.
What shadow of reason could be assigned,    (3.) Important effects followed this act of wiswhy, at a time when the most Protestant part of dom.  They appeared at home and (3.) Justified by
this Protestant empire [America] found it for its abroad to the great benefit of this iect o1nteBrfitadvantage to unite with the two principal Popish  kingdom; and, let me hope, to the ish Empire.
states, to unite itself in the closest bonds with  advantage of mankind at large.  It betokened
France and Spain for our destruction, that we union among ourselves.  It showed soundness
should refuse to unite with our own Catholic  even on the part of the persecuted, which gencountrymen for our own preservation?  Ought erally is the weak side of every community. But
we, like madmen, to tear off the plasters that the  its most essential operation was not in England.
lenient hand of prudence had spread over the  The act was immediately, though very imperwounds and gashes, which, in our delirium of  fectly, copied in Ireland; and this im- (o) conciliaambition, we had given to our own body?  No  perfect transcript of an imperfect act, ting the peoperson ever reprobated the American war more this first faint sketch of toleration, 
than I did, and do, and ever shall.  But I never which did little more than disclose a principle,
will consent that we should lay additional volun- and mark out a disposition, completed in a most
tary penalties on ourselves for a fault which car- wonderful manner the re-union to the state of all
iies but too much of its own punishment in its the Catholics of that country. It made us, what
own nature.  For one, I was delighted with the we ought always to have been, one family, one
proposal of internal peace. I accepted the bless- body, one heart and soul, against the family coming with thankfulness and transport; I was truly  bination, and all other combinations of our enehappy to find one good effect of our civil dis- mies.  We have indeed obligations to that peotractions, that they had put an end to all relig- ple, who received such small benefits with so
ious strife and heart-burning in our own bowels. much gratitude; and for which gratitude and atWhat must be the sentiments of a man, who  tachment to us, I am afraid, they have suffered
would wish to perpetuate domestic hostility, when  not a little in other places.20
the causes of dispute are at an end; and who,    I dare say you have all heard of the privileges
crying out for peace with one part of the nation  indulged to the Irish Catholics residing in Spain.
on the most humiliating terms, should deny it You have likewise heard with what circumstances
to those who offer friendship without any terms of severity they have been lately expelled from the
at all?                                         sea-ports of that kingdom, driven into the inland
(2.1 But if I was unable to reconcile such a  cities, and there detained as a sort of prisoners of
(2.) Due to denial to the contracted principles of  state.  I have good reason to believe that it was
the claims of local duty, what answer could I give  the zeal to our government and our cause (somehumanity  to the broad claims of general human- 
ity?  I confess to you freely, that the sufferings   20 This remark Mr. Burke goes on to illustrate in
and distresses of the people of America in this the next paragraph, by referring to a recent perseand distresses of the people of America in this                                         a
cution of Irish Catholics in Spain, and then argues
cruel war have at times affected me more deeply       of Irish Catholics in Spain, and then argues
cruel war have a    es afeted me    re     that if they are persecuted abroad for their attachthan I can express. I felt every gazette of tri- ment to the English government, it is doubly cruel
umph as a blow upon my heart, which has a hund- to persecute them at home as if enemies of the state.
red times sunk and fainted within me at all the  Unless this connection is noticed, the remarks which
mischiefs brought upon those who bear the whole follow may seem a useless digression.




1780.]                          THE BRISTOL ELECTION.                                      305
what indiscreetly expressed in one of the ad- correspondent good will, to drive them to despair,
dresses of the Catholics of Ireland) which has there is a country at their very door to which they
thus drawn down on their heads the indignation  wouldbe invited; a country in all respects as good
of the Court of Madrid, to the inexpressible loss as ours, and with the finest cities in the world
of several individuals, and, in future, perhaps, to  ready built to receive them; and thus the bigotry
the great detriment of the whole of their body. of a free country, and in an enlightened age, would
Now, that our people should be persecuted in  have repeopled the cities of Flanders, which, in
Spain for their attachment to this country, and  the darkness of two hundred years ago, had been
persecuted in this country for their supposed en- desolated by the superstition of a cruel tyrant.
mity to us, is such a jarring reconciliation of con- Our manufactures were the growth of the persetradictory distresses, is a thing at once so dread- cutions in the Low Countries.  What a spectaful and ridiculous, that no malice short of diabol- cle would it be to Europe to see us, at this time
ical would wish to continue any human creatures  of day, balancing the account of tyranny with
in such a situation.  But honest men will not for- those very countries, and, by our persecutions,
get either their merit or their sufferings.  There  driving back trade and manufacture, as a sort
are men (and many, I trust, there are) who, out of vagabonds, to their original settlement! But
of love to their country and their kind, would tor- I trust we shall be saved this last of disgraces.
ture their invention to find excuses for the mis-   (4.) So far as to the effect of the act on the intakes of their brethren, and who, to stifle dissen- terests of this nation.  With regard (4.) Justified by
sion, would construe even doubtful appearances to the interests of mankind at large, imple in foreign
with the utmost favor.  Such men will never I am sure the benefit was very con- countries.
persuade themselves to be ingenious and refined  siderable. Long before this act, indeed, the spirit
in discovering disaffection and treason in the man- of toleration began to gain ground in Europe. In
ifest, palpable signs of suffering loyalty.  Perse- Holland the third part of the people are Cathocution is so unnatural to them, that they gladly  lies; they live at ease, and are a sound part of
snatch the very first opportunity of laying aside  the state.  In many parts of Germany, Protestall the tricks and devices of penal politics, and of  ants and Papists partake the same cities, the
returning home, after all their irksome and vex- same councils, and even the same churches. The
atious wanderings, to our natural family mansion, unbounded liberality of the King of Prussia's conto the grand social principle that unites all men, duct on this occasion is known to all the world,
in all descriptions, under the shadow of an equal and it is of a piece with the other grand maxims
and impartial justice.                          of his reign.  The magnanimity of the imperial
Men of another sort-I mean the bigoted en- court, breaking through the narrow principles of
emies to liberty-may perhaps, in their politics, its predecessors, has indulged its Protestant submake no account of the good or ill affection of  jects not only with property, with worship, with
the Catholics of England, who are but a handful liberal education, but with honors and trusts, both
of people (enough to torment, but not enough to  civil and military.  A worthy Protestant gentlefear), perhaps not so many, of both sexes and  man of this country now fills, and fills with credof all ages, as fifty thousand.  But, gentlemen, it it, a high office in the Austrian Netherlands.
is possible you may not know that the people of  Even the Lutheran obstinacy of Sweden has
that persuasion in Ireland amount at least to six- thawed at length, and opened a toleration to all
teen or seventeen hundred thousand souls.  I do  religions.  I know, myself, that in France the
not at all exaggerate the number.  A nation to  Protestants begin to be at rest.  The army,
be persecuted!  While we were masters of the  which in that country is every thing, is open to
sea, embodied with America, and in alliance with  them; and some of the military rewards and
half the powers of the Continent, we might per- decorations which the laws deny, are supplied
haps, in that remote corner of Europe, afford to  by others, to make the service acceptable and
tyrannize with impunity.  But there is a revolu- honorable.  The first minister of finance in that
tion in our affairs which makes it prudent to be  country [Necker] is a Protestant.  Two years'
just.  In our late awkward contest with Ireland  war without a tax is among the first fruits of
about trade, had religion been thrown in, to fer- their liberality.  Tarnished as the glory of this
ment and imbitter the mass of discontents, the  nation is, and as far as it has waded into the
consequences might have been truly dreadful; shades of an eclipse, some beams of its former
but, very happily, that cause of quarrel was pre- illumination still play upon its surface, and what
viously quieted by the wisdom of the acts I am  is done in England is still looked to as argument,
commending.                                     and as example.  It is certainly true, that no law
Even in England, where I admit the danger of this country ever met with such universal apfrom the discontent of that persuasion  plause abroad, or was so likely to produce the
1b.) Keeping
viluable me to be less than in Ireland; yet, even  perfection of that tolerating spirit, which, as I
in England. here, had we listened to the counsels observed, has been long gaining ground in Euof fanaticism and folly, we might have wounded  rope; for abroad it was universally thought that
ourselves very deeply, and wounded ourselves in  we had done what, I am sorry to say, we had not;
a very tender part.  You are apprised that the  they thought we had granted a full toleration.
Catholics of England consist mostly of your best That opinion was, however, so far from hurting
manufacturers.  Had the Legislature chosen, in- the Protestant cause, that I declare, with the
stead of returning their declarations of duty with  most serious solemnity, my firm belief, that no
U




306                            MR. BURKE PREVIOUS TO                                     [1780.
one thing done for these fifty years past was so  left this good work in the rude, unfinished state
likely to prove deeply beneficial to our religion  in which good works are commonly left, through
at large as Sir George Savile's act.  In its effects the tame circumspection with which a timid pruit was "an act for tolerating and protecting Prot- dence so frequently enervates beneficence.  In
estantism throughout Europe;" and I hope that doing good, we are generally cold, and languid,
those who were taking steps for the quiet and  and sluggish, and, of all things, afraid of being
settlement of our Protestant brethren in other too much in the right.  But the works of malice
countries will, even yet, rather consider the  and injustice are quite in another style.  They
steady equity of the greater and better part of  are finished with a bold, masterly hand; touched,
the people of Great Britain, than the vanity and  as they are, with the spirit of those vehement pasviolence of a few.                             sions that call forth all our energies whenever we
I perceive, gentlemen, by the manner of all oppress and persecute.
The question  about me, that you look with horror    Thus this matter was left for the time, with
answered, wily on the wicked clamor which has been  the full determination in Parliament not to suffer
was not the toleration made  raised on this subject, and that, in- other and worse statutes to remain, for the purmore complete? stead of an apology for what was pose of counteracting the benefits proposed by
done, you rather demand from  me an account the repeal of one penal law; for nobody then
why the execution of the scheme of toleration  dreamed of defending what was done as a benwas not made more answerable to the large  efit, on the ground of its being no benefit at all.
and liberal grounds on which it was taken up. We were not then ripe for so mean a subterfuge.
The question is natural and proper; and I re-    I do not wish to go over the horrid scene that
member that a great and learned magistrate  was afterward acted.2   Would to Farther action
[Lord Thurlow], distinguished for his strong  God it could be expunged forever prevented by
and systematic understanding, and who at that from the annals of this country! but, riots.
time was a member of the House of Commons, since it must subsist for our shame, let it subsist
made the same objection to the proceeding. for our instruction.  In the year 1780 there were
The statutes, as they now stand, are, without found in this nation men deluded enough (for I
doubt, perfectly absurd; but I beg leave to ex- give the whole to their delusion), on pretenses
plain the cause of this gross imperfection in the  of zeal and piety, without any sort of provocatolerating plan as well and as shortly as I am  tion whatsoever, real or pretended, to make a
able.  It was universally thought that the ses- desperate attempt, which would have consumed
sion ought not to pass over without doing some- all the glory and power of this country in the
thing in this business.  To revise the whole  flames of London, and buried all law, order, and
body of the penal statutes was conceived to be religion, under the ruins of the metropolis of the
an object too big for the time.  The penal statute, Protestant world.  Whether all this mischief
therefore, which was chosen for repeal (chosen to  done, or in the direct train of doing, was in their
show our disposition to conciliate, not to perfect original scheme, I can not say.  I hope it was
a toleration) was this act of ludicrous cruelty, of  not; but this would have been the unavoidable
which I have just given you the history.  It is consequence of their proceedings, had not the
an act which, though not by a great deal so  flames they lighted up in their fury been extinfierce and bloody as some of the rest, was infi- guished in their blood.
nitely more ready in the execution.  It was the    All the time that this horrid scene was acting
act which gave the greatest encouragement to  or avenging, as well as for some time before, and
those pests of society, mercenary informers, and  ever since, the wicked instigators of this unhappy
interested disturbers of household peace; and it multitude, guilty, with every aggravation, of all
was observed, with truth, that the prosecutions, their crimes, and screened in a cowardly darkeither carried to conviction or compounded, for ness from  their punishment, continued, without
many years, had been all commenced upon that interruption, pity, or remorse, to blow up the
act.  It was said, that while we were deliber- blind rage of the populace with a continued
sting on a more perfect scheme, the spirit of the  blast of pestilential libels, which infected and
age would never come up to the execution of  poisoned the very air we breathed in.
the statutes which remained, especially as more    The main drift of all the libels and all the
steps, and a co-operation of more minds and pow- riots was, to force Parliament (to  easons for not
ers, were required toward a mischievous use of  persuade us was hopeless) into an re-enllacitinglese
them, than for the execution of the act to be re- act of national perfidy which has as demanded by
pealed; that it was better to unravel this texture  no example; for, gentlemen, it is therioters
from below than from above, beginning with the
latest, which, in general practice, is the severest   21 The powerful descriptions of Dickens in his Barevil.  It was alleged that this slow proceeding  naby Rudge have made the public familiar with the
would be attended with the advantage of a pro- terrible scenes enacted in London during the "No
gressive experienie, and that the people. would  Popery" riots of 1780. Those who first framed the
gressive experiene: and that the people would
goIeocedt toleration, when t. Protestant Association were actuated, no doubt, by
grow reconciled:to toleration, when they should  a mistaken zeal for religion, but those who took up
find; by the effectsi. that justice was not so irrec- the cause afterward had far other designs. Dr..oncilable an enemy to convenience as they had  Johnson truly said: " Those who in age of infidelity
imagined.                                       exclaim, "Popery! Popery! would have cried fire
These, gentleme.n, were the reasons why we  in the midst of the general deluge."




1780.]                          THE BRISTOL ELECTION.                                    307
proper you should all know what infamy we es- matched turpitude, be a crime, I am guilty among
caped by refusing that repeal, for a refusal of  the foremost; but indeed, whatever the faults of
which, it seems, I, among others, stand some- that House may have been, no one member was
where or other accused.  When we took away, found hardy enough to propose so infamous a
on the motives which I had the honor of stating  thing; and, on full debate, we passed the resoluto you, a few of the innumerable penalties upon  tion against the petitions with as much unaniman oppressed and injured people, the relief was ity as we had formerly passed the law of which
not absolute, but given on a stipulation and corn- these petitions demanded the repeal.
pact between them and us; for we bound down    There was a circumstance (justice will not
the Roman Catholics with the most solemn oaths suftlr me to pass it over) which, if Exemplary de.
to bear true allegiance to this government; to  any thing could enforce the reasons I portmenetofthe
Roman Cathoabjure all sort of temporal power in any other; have given, would fully justify the lies during the
and to renounce, under the same solemn obliga- act of relief, and render a repeal, or rots.
tions, the doctrines of systematic perfidy with  any thing like a repeal, unnatural, impossible.
which they stood (I conceive very unjustly) It was the behavior of the persecuted Roman
charged.  Now our modest petitioners came up  Catholics under the acts of violence and brutal
to us, most humbly praying nothing more than  insolence which they suffered.  I suppose there
that we should break our faith, without any one are not in London less than four or five thousand
cause whatsoever of forfeiture assigned; and  of that persuasion from my country, who do a
when the subjects of this kingdom had on their great deal of the most laborious works in the
part fully performed their engagement, we should  metropolis, and they chiefly inhabit those quarrefuse on our part the benefit we had stipulated  ters which were the principal theater of the fury
on the performance of those very conditions that of the bigoted multitude.  They are known to
were prescribed by our own authority, and taken  be men of strong arms and quick feelings, and
on the sanction of our public faith, that is to more remarkable for a determined resolution than
say, when we had inveigled them with fair prom- clear ideas or much foresight; but though proises within our door, we were to shut it en them, voked by every thing that can stir the blood of
and, adding mockery to outrage, to tell them  men, their houses and chapels in flames, and with
"Now we have got you fast; your consciences the most atrocious profanations of every thing
are bound to a power resolved on your destruc- which they hold sacred before their eyes, not a
tion.  We have made you swear that your re- hand was moved to retaliate, or even to defend.
ligion obliges you to keep your faith.  Fools, as Had a conflict once begun, the rage of their peryou are! we will now let you see that our relig- secutors would have redoubled.  Thus, fury inion enjoins us to keep no faith with you."  They  creasing by the reverberation of outrages, house
who would advisedly call upon us to do such  being fired for house, and church for chapel, I am
things must certainly have thought us not only  convinced that no power under heaven could have
a convention of treacherous tyrants, but a gang  prevented a general conflagration, and at this day
of the lowest and dirtiest wretches that ever dis- London would have been a tale; but I am well
graced humanity.  Had we done this, we should  informed, and the thing speaks it, that their clergy
have indeed proved that there were some in the  exerted their whole influence to keep their people
world whom no faith could bind; and we should  in such a state of forbearance and quiet, as, when
have convicted ourselves of that odious principle  I look back, fills me with astonishment; but not
of which Papists stood accused by those very sav- with astonishment only. Their merits on that ocages, who wished us, on that accusation, to de- casion ought not to be forgotten; nor will they,
liver them over to their fury.                 when Englishmen come to recollect themselves.
In this audacious tumult, when our very name  I am sure it were far more proper to have called
and character, as gentlemen, was to be canceled  them forth and given them  the thanks of both
forever, along with the faith and honor of the na- houses of Parliament, than to have suffered those
tion, I,.who had exerted myself very little on the  worthy clergymen and excellent citizens to be
quiet passing of the bill, thought it necessary  hunted into holes and corners, while we are makthen to come forward.  I was not alone; but ing low-minded inquisitions into the number of
though some distinguished members on all sides, their people; as if a tolerating principle was
and particularly on ours, added much to their never to prevail, unless we were very sure that
high reputation by the part they took on that only a few could possibly take advantage of it.
day (a part which will be remembered as long  But indeed we are not yet well recovered of our
as honor, spirit, and eloquence have estimation  fright.  Our reason, I trust, will return with our
in the world), I may and will value myself so  security, and this unfortunate temper will pass
far, that, yielding in abilities to many, I yielded  over like a cloud."
in zeal to none.  With warmth and with vigor,    Gentlemen, I have now laid before you a few
and animated with a just and natural indigna- of the reasons for taking away the pen- Objection t
tion, I called forth every faculty that I possessed, alties of the act of 1699, and for re- the repeal exand I directed it in every way which I could pos- fusing to establish them on the riotous
sibly employ it.  I labored night and day.  I la- requisition of 1780. Because I would not sufbored in Parliament.  I labored out of Parliament. If, therefore, the resolution of the House    22 ITape.0elsv eiiirep ve6o. - Demosthenes, de
of Commons, refusing to commit this act of un- Corona.




308                             MR. BURKE PREVIOUS TO                                     [1780.
fer any thing which may be for your satisfaction  The tenderness of the executive power is the
to escape, permit me just to touch on the objec- natural asylum  of those upon whom  the laws
tions urged against our act and our resolves, and  have declared war; and to complain that men
intended as a justification of the violence offered  are inclined to favor the means of their own
(a)a to both houses.  " Parliament," they  safety, is so absurd that one forgets the injustice
liament acted assert, " was too hasty, and they ought, in the ridicule.
in haste.      e
in so essential and alarming a change,    I must fairly tell you, that, so far as my printo have proceeded with a far greater degree of  ciples are concerned (principles that Pernicious disdeliberation."  The direct contrary. Parliament I hope will only depart with my last Pos't"ofe"
to lord it over
was too slow. They took fourscore years to de- breath), I have no idea of a liberty others.
liberate on the repeal of an act which ought not unconnected with honesty and justice. Nor do
to have survived a second session.  When at I believe that any good constitutions of governlength, after a procrastination of near a century, ment or of freedom, can find it necessary for
the business was taken up, it proceeded in the  their security to doom any part of the people to
most public manner, by the ordinary stages, and  a permanent slavery.  Such a constitution of
as slowly as a law, so evidently right as to be  freedom, if such can be, is in effect no more than
resisted by none, would naturally advance. Had  another name for the tyranny of the strongest facit been read three times in one day, we should  tion; and factions in republics have been, and
have shown only a becoming readiness to recog- are, full as capable as monarchs, of the most
nize by protection the undoubted dutiful behavior cruel oppression and injustice. It is but too true
of those whom we had but too long punished for that the love, and even the very idea, of genuine
offenses of presumption or conjecture.  But for liberty is extremely rare.  It is but too true that
what end was that bill to linger beyond the usual there are many whose whole scheme of freedom
period of an unopposed measure?  Was it to be  is made up of pride, perverseness, and insolence.
delayed until a rabble in Edinburgh should die- They feel themselves in a state of thraldom;
tate to the Church of England what measure of  they imagine that their souls are cooped and
persecution was fitting for her safety?23  Was it cabined in, unless they have some man, or some
to be adjourned until a fanatical force could be  body of men, dependent on their mercy.  This
collected in London, sufficient to frighten us out desire of having some one below them descends
of all our ideas of policy and justice?  Were  to those who are the very lowest of all-and a
we to wait for the profound lectures on the rea- Protestant cobbler, debased by his poverty, but
son of state, ecclesiastical and political, which  exalted by his share of the ruling Church, feels
the Protestant Associatic l have since conde- a pride in knowing it is by his generosity alone
scended to read to us? Or were we, seven hund- that the peer, whose footman's instep he measred peers and commoners, the only persons ig- ures, is able to keep his chaplain from a jail.
norant of the ribald invectives which occupy the  This disposition is the true source of the passion
place of argument in those remonstrances, which  which many men in very humble life have taken
every man of common observation had heard a  to the American war. Our subjects in America!
thousand times over, and a thousand times over our colonies! our dependants! This lust of parhad despised?  All men had before heard what ty power is the liberty they hunger and thirst
they have to say; and all men at this day know  for, and this siren song of ambition has charmed
what they dare to do; and I trust, all honest ears that one would have thought were never
men are equally influenced by the one and by  organized to that sort of music.24
the other.                                         This way of proscribing the citizens by denomBut they tell us, that those our fellow-citi- inations and generaldescriptions, dig- rorptio 
zens, whose chains we have a little  nified by the name of reason of state, men by classes
man clatholic  relaxed, are enemies to liberty and  and security  for constitutions and cr"ey"j"st.
goernment, andie our free constitution-not enemies, commonwealths, is nothing better at bottom than
ogatens, aeld
dght to be  eld  I presume, to their own liberty; and  the miserable invention of an ungenerous ambias to the constitution, until we give  tion, which would fain hold the sacred trust of
them  some share in it, I do not know on what power without any of the virtues, or any of the
pretense we can examine into their opinions about energies, that give a title to it; a receipt of
a business in which they have no interest or policy made up of a detestable compound of malconcern.  But after all, are we equally sure that ice, cowardice, and sloth.  They would govern
they are adverse to our constitution, as that our men against their will; but in that government
statutes are hostile and destructive to them?  they would be discharged from the exercise of
For my part, I have reason to believe their opin- vigilance, providence, and fortitude; and thereions and inclinations in that respect are various, fore, that they may sleep on their watch, they
exactly like those of other men; and if they lean  consent to take some one division of the society
more to the Crown than I, and than many of you,.~,1 ^1^1 1       24 No llman ever touched with such force that proud
think wve ought, we must remember that he who  and cruel spirit which actuates a people who hold
aims at another's life is not to be surprised if  others in subjection  It was just the spiit of the
he flies into any sanctuary that will receive him. Athenian mob toward their colonies, and of every
Roman toward the provinces of the empire; and it
33 The Protestant Association originated at Ed- was no doubt r:e principal cause of the American
inburgh.                                        war.




1780.]                          THE BRISTOL ELECTION.                                      309
into partnership of the tyranny over the rest. prejudices,whatever they might be, of a large part
But let government, in what form  it may be, of the people, ought not to have been shocked;
comprehend the whole in its justice, and restrain  that their opinions ought to have been previously
the suspicious by its vigilance; let it keep watch  taken, and much attended to; and that thereby the
and ward; let it discover by its sagacity, and  late horrid scenes might have been prevented.
punish by its firmness, all delinquency against    I confess my notions are widely different; and
its power, whenever delinquency exists in the  I never was less sorry for any action of my life.
overt acts; and then it will be as safe as ever I like the bill the better on account of the events
God and nature intended it should be.  Crimes of all kinds that followed it. It relieved the real
are the acts of individuals, and not of denomina- sufferers; it strengthened the state; and by the
tions; and, therefore, arbitrarily to class men un- disorders that ensued, we had clear evidence that
der general descriptions, in order to proscribe  there lurked a temper somewhere, which ought
and punish them in the lump for a presumed de- not to be fostered by the laws.  No ill conselinquency, of which perhaps but a part, perhaps quences whatever could be attributed to the Act
none at all, are guilty, is indeed a compendious  itself.  We knew beforehand, or we were poormethod, and saves a world of trouble about ly instructed, that toleration is odious to the inproof; but such a method, instead of being law, tolerant; freedom to oppressors; propertyto robis an act of unnatural rebellion against the legal bers; and all kinds and degrees of prosperity to
dominion of reason and justice; and this vice, in  the envious.  We knew that all these kinds of
any constitution that entertains it, at one time or men would gladly gratify their evil dispositions
other will certainly bring on its ruin.         under the sanction of law and religion, if they
We are told that this is not a religious perse- could; if they could not, yet, to make way to
cution, and its abettors are loud in disclaiming  their objects, they would do their utmost to suball severities on account of conscience. Very  vert all religion and all law. This we certainly
fine, indeed! Then let it be so. They are not knew; but knowing this, is there any reason bepersecutors; they are only tyrants. With all my  cause thieves break in and steal, and thus bring
heart. I am perfectly indifferent concerning the  detriment to you and draw ruin on themselves,
pretexts upon which we torment one another; that I am to be sorry that you are in possession
or whether it be for the constitution of the Church  of shops, and of warehouses, and of wholesome
of England, or for the constitution of the state  laws to protect them?  Are you to build no
of England, that people choose to make their houses because desperate men may pull them
fellow-creatures wretched. When we were sent down upon their own heads?  Or, if a malignant
into a place of authority, you that sent us had  wretch will cut his own throat because he sees
yourselves but one commission to give.  You  you give alms to the necessitous and deserving,
could give us none to wrong or oppress, or even  shall his destruction be attributed to your charto suffer any kind of oppression or wrong, on any  ity, and not to his own deplorable madness?  If
grounds whatsoever; not on political, as in the  we repent of our good actions, what, I pray you,
affairs of America; not on commercial, as in  is left for our faults and follies?  It is not the
those of Ireland; not in civil, as in the laws for beneficence of the laws, it is the unnatural temdebt; not in religious, as in the statutes against per which beneficence can fret and sour, that is
Protestant or Catholic dissenters.  The divers- to be lamented.  It is this temper which, by all
ified but connected fabric of universal justice  rational means, ought to be sweetened and coris well cramped and bolted together in all its rected.  If froward men should refuse this cure,
parts; and, depend upon it, I never have em- can they vitiate any thing but themselves? Does
ployed, and I never shall employ, any engine of  evil so react upon good, as not only to retard its
power which may come into my hands to wrench  motion, but to change its nature?  If it can so
it asunder.  All shall stand if I can help it, and  operate, then good men will always be in the
all shall stand connected. After all, to complete  power of the bad; and virtue, by a dreadful rethis work, much remains to be done; much in  verse of order, must lie under perpetual subjecthe east, much in the west.  But great as the  tion and bondage to vice.
work is, if our will be ready, our powers are not    As to the opinion of the people, which some
deficient.                                     think, in such cases, is to be implicitly obeyed;
Since you have suffered me to trouble you so  near two years' tranquillity, which followed the
(c.) Thatthe  much on this subject, permit me, gen- Act, and its instant imitation in Ireland, proved
consrepuene tlemen, to detain you a little longer. abundantly that the late horrible spirit was, in a
hadb ten u.a I am, indeed, most solicitous to give  great measure, the effect of insidious art, and
you perfect satisfaction.  I find there  perverse industry, and gross misrepresentation.
are some of a better and softer nature than the But suppose that the dislike had been much more
persons with whom I have supposed myself in de- deliberate, and much more general than I am
bate, who neither think ill of the act of relief, nor persuaded it was.  When we know that the
by any means desire the repeal; not accusing but opinions of even the greatest multitudes are the
lamenting what was done, on account of the con- standard of rectitude, I shall think myself obliged
sequences, have frequently expressed their wish to make those opinions the masters of my conthat the late Act had never been made. Some science. But if it may be doubted whether omof this description, and persons of worth, I have nipotence itself is competent to alter the essenmet with in this city.  They conceive that the tial constitution of right and wrong, sure I am




310           MR. BURKE ON DECLINING  THE ELECTION AT BRISTOL.                             [1780.
that such things as they and I are possessed of  the good-will of his countrymen; if I have thus
no such power.  No man carries farther than I  taken my part with the best of men in the best
do the policy of making government pleasing to  of their actions, I can shut the book.  I might
the people; but the widest range of this politic  wish to read a page or two more; but this is
complaisance is confined within the limits of jus- enough for my measure. I have not lived invain.
tice.  I would not only consult the interests of    And now, gentlemen, on this serious day, when
the people, but I would cheerfully gratify their  I come, as it were, to make up my account with
humors. We are all a sort of children that must you, let me take to myself some degree of honest
be soothed and managed. I think I am not aus- pride on the nature of the charges that are against
tere or formal in my nature.  I would bear-I  me.  I do not here stand before you accused of
would even myself play my part in any innocent venality, or of neglect of duty.  It is not said
buffooneries to divert them; but I never will act that, in the long period of my service, I have, in
the tyrant for their amusement. If they will mix  a single instance, sacrificed the slightest of your
malice in their sports, I shall never consent to  interests to my ambition, or to my fortune.  It
throw them any living, sentient creature what- is not alleged that, to gratify any anger, or resoever: no, not so much as a kitling, to torment. venge of my own, or of my party, I have had a
"But if I profess all this impolitic stubborn-  share in wronging or oppressing any description
If such views ness, I may chance never to be elect- of men, or any one man in any description. No!
must exclude ed into Parliament."  It is certainly  The charges against me are all of one kind,
the speaker
from Parlia- not pleasing to be put out of the public that I have pushed the principles of general juswilling to re service. But I wish to be a member of  tice and benevolence too far; farther than a caumain out.   Parliament, to have my share of doing  tious policy would warrant, and farther than the
good, and resisting evil.  It would therefore be  opinions of many would go along with me.  In
absurd to renounce my objects in order to obtain  every accident which may happen through life
my seat. I deceive myself, indeed, most grossly, -in pain, in sorrow, in depression, and distress
if I had not much rather pass the remainder of  -I will call to mind this accusation, and be
my life hidden in the recesses of the deepest ob- comforted.
scurity, feeding my mind even with the visions    Gentlemen, I submit the whole to your judgand imaginations of such things, than to be placed  ment.  Mr. Mayor, I thank you for the trouble
on the most splendid throne of the universe, tan- you have taken on this occasion.  In your state
talized with the denial of the practice of all which  of health, it is particularly obliging. If this comcan make the greatest situation any other than  pany should think it advisable for me to withthe greatest curse.  Gentlemen, I have had my  draw, I shall respectfully retire.  If you think
day.  I can never sufficiently express my grat- otherwise, I shall go directly to the councilitude to you for having set me in a place where- house and to the'change, and, without a mioin I could lend the slightest help to great and  ment's delay, begin my canvass.
laudable designs. If I have had my share in any
measure giving quiet to private property, and
private conscience; if, by my vote, I have aided    At the close of this speech Mr. Burke was enin securing to families the best possession, peace;  couraged by his friends to proceed with the canif I have joined in reconciling kings to their vass; but it was soon apparent that the opposubjects, and subjects to their prince; if I have  sition he had to encounter could not be concilassisted to loosen the foreign holdings of the cit- iated or resisted.  He therefore, on the second
izen, and taught him to look for his protection  day of the election, declined the poll in the speech
to the laws of his country, and for his comfort to  which follows:
SPEECH
OF MR. BURKE ON DECLINING THE ELECTION AT BRISTOL, DELIVERED SEPTEMBER 9, 1780.
GENTLEMEN,-I decline the election.  It has know to be among the most weighty and reever been my rule through life to observe a pro- spectable people of the city) I have the means
portion between my efforts and my objects.  I of a sharp one in my hands  but I thought it far
have never been remarkable for a bold, active, better, with my strength unspent, and my repuand sanguine pursuit of advantages that are per- tation unimpaired, to do early and from  foresonal to myself,                                sight that which I might be obliged to do from
I have not canvassed the whole of this city in  necessity at last.
form; but I have taken such a view of it as sat-    I am not in the least surprised, nor in the least
isfies my own mind that your choice will not ul- angry at this view of things.  I have read the
timately fall upon me.  Your city, gentlemen, book of life for a long time, and I have read
is in a state of miserable distraction; and I am  other books a little.  Nothing has happened to
resolved to withdraw whatever share my preten- me but what has happened to men much better
sions may have had in its unhappy divisions.  I than me, and in times and in nations full as good
have not been in haste.  I have tried all prudent as the age and country that we live in.  To say
means.  I have waited for the effect of all con- that I am no way concerned would be neither
tingencies.  If I were fond of a contest, by the  decent nor true.  The representation of Bristol
partiality of my numerous friends (whom  you  was an object on many accounts dear to me, and




1783.]           MR. BURKE ON THE EAST INDIA  BILL OF MR. FOX.                                 311
I certainly should very far prefer it to any other  been snatched from us at the moment of the elecin the kingdom.  My habits are made to it; and  tion, and in the middle of the contest, while his
it is in general more unpleasant to be rejected   desires were as warm and his hopes as eager as
after a long trial than not to be chosen at all.    ours, has feelingly told us what shadows we are,
But, gentlemen, I will see nothing  except  and what shadows we pursue.l
your former kindness, and I will give way to no      It has been usual for a candidate who declines,
other sentiments than those of gratitude.  From   to take his leave by a letter to the sheriffs; but
the bottom of my heart I thank you for what you  I received your trust in the face of day, and in
have done for me.  You have given me a long  the face of day I accept your dismission.  I am
term, which is now expired.  I have performed  not-I am not at all ashamed to look upon you,
the conditions, and enjoyed all the profits to the  nor can my presence discompose the order of bufull; and I now surrender your estate into your  siness here.  I humbly and respectfully take my
hands without being in a single tile or a single  leave of the sheriffs, the candidates, and the electstone impaired or wasted by my use.  I have  ors, wishing heartily that the choice may be for
served  the public for fifteen years.  I have  the best at a time which calls, if ever time did
served you, in particular, for six.  What is past  call, for service that is not nominal.  It is no
is well stored.  It is safe, and out of the power  plaything you are about.  I tremble when I conof fortune.  What is to come is in wiser hands  sider the trust I have presumed to ask.  I conthan ours, and He in whose hands it is, best  fided perhaps too much in my intentions.  They
knows whether it is best for you and me that I  were really fair and upright; and I am bold to
should be in Parliament, or even in the world.    say that I ask no ill thing for you when, on partGentlemen, the melancholy event of yesterday  ing from this place, I pray that whomever you
reads to us an awful lesson against being too  choose to succeed me, he may resemble me exmuch troubled about any of the objects of ordi-  actly in all things except in my abilities to serve
nary ambition.  The worthy gentleman who has  and my fortune to please you.
SPEECH
OF MR. BURKE ON THE EAST INDIA BILL OF MR. FOX, DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS,
DECEMBER 1, 1783.
INTRODUCTION.
So enormous were the abuses of the British power in India, that men of all parties demanded strong
measures to secure an effectual remedy. Those embraced in the East India bill of Mr. Fox, as matured
between him and Mr. Burke, were certainly of this character. All the concerns of the Company were
taken into the hands of the English government. Seven commissioners, to be appointed for four years by
Parliament, were intrusted with the civil and military government of the country; while the commercial
concerns of the Company were committed to the hands of nine assistant directors, to be chosen out of the
proprietors of East India stock. A second bill provided for the correction of numerous abuses in the administration of Indian affairs.
The first bill was brought into the House of Commons by Mr. Fox, on the 18th of November, 1783, and
was strenuously opposed at every stage of its progress. The principal objections were, that it set aside
the charter of the East India Company, threw too much patronage into the hands of the ministry, and might
operate injuriously to the national credit. Mr. Fox's coalition with Lord North, which had brought the
ministry into power, was also a subject of the severest animadversion. When the question came up, on
the 1st of December, for going into a committee on the bill, Mr. Powys, a former friend and adherent of Mr.
Fox, opposed it with all his strength. He had great authority in the House, as a country gentleman representing an extensive county, and sustained by a reputation for strong sense and unimpeachable integrity. He denounced the measure in the strongest terms, as a violation of chartered rights, and as designed
to make Mr. Fox minister for life, by giving him an amount of patronage which would render it impossible
for the King to remove him.
Mr. Wraxall, who was then a member of the House, and who was equally opposed with Mr. Powys to
the passing of the bill, observes, in his Historical Memoirs, vol. iv., p. 566, " Burke, unable longer to observe silence after such reflections, then rose; and, in a dissertation rather than a speech, which lasted
more than three hours, exhausted all the powers of his mighty mind in the justification of his friend's
measure. The most ignorant member of the House, who had attended to the mass of information, historical, political, and financial, which fell from the lips of Burke on that occasion, must have depalted rich
in knowledge of Hindostan. It seemed impossible to crowd a greater variety of matter applicable to the
subject into a smaller compass; and those who differed most widely from him in opinion did not render
the less justice to his gigantic range of ideas, his lucid exposition of events, and the harmonic flow of his
Mr. Burke here refers to Mr. Coombe, one of his exhaustion of the contest, had died suddenly the
competitors, who, overcome by the excitement and evening before.




312                                MR. BURKE ON THE                                      [1783.
periods. There were portions of his harangue in which he appeared to be animated by feelings and con
siderations the most benign, as well as elevated; and the classic language in which he made Fox's panegyric, for having dared to venture on a measure so beset with dangers, but so pregnant, as he asserted,
with benefits to mankind, could not be exceeded in beauty."
In giving this speech, those parts are omitted which contain minute details of the abuses of power on
the part of the Company's servants in India. Though essential to the argument as originally stated, they
would only be tedious at the present day, and, indeed, can hardly be understood without an intimate acquaintance with the concerns of the East India Company.
SPEECH, &c.
MR. SPEAKER,-I thank you for pointing to enues of that country, is a strong indication of
me; I really wished much to engage your at- the value which they set upon these objects.
tention in an early stage of the debate.  I have    It has been a little painful to me to observe
been,,ng very deeply, though perhaps ineffect- the intrusion into this important debate of such
ually, engaged in the preliminary inquiries which  company as quo varranto, and nandamus, and
have continued without intermission for some  certiorari; as if we were on a trial about mayyears.  Though I have felt, with some degree  ors and aldermen, and capital burgesses; or enof sensibility, the natural and inevitable impres- gaged in a suit concerning the borough of Pensions of the, several matters of fact, as they have  ryn, or Saltash, or St. Ives, or St. Mawes. Genbeen succe;'sively disclosed, I have not at any  tlemen have argued with as much heat and pastime attempte     t rouble you on the merits of sion, as if the first things in the world were at
the subject, and very little on any of the points stake; and their topics are such as belong only
which incidentally arose in the course of our pro- to matter of the lowest and meanest litigation.
ceedings.  But I should be sorry to be found to- It is not right, it is not worthy of us, in this mantally silent upon this day.  Our inquiries are now  ner to depreciate the value, to degrade the majescome to their final issue. It is now to be determ- ty of this grave deliberation of policy and empire.
ined whether the three years of laborious par-    For my part, I have thought myself bound,
liamentary research,' whether the twenty years wh6n a matter of this extraordinary weight came
of patient Indian suffering, are to produce a sub- before me, not to consider (as some gentlemen
stantial reform in our Eastern administration; are so fond of doing) whether the bill originated
or, whether our knowledge of the grievances has from a Secretary of State for the Home Departabated our zeal for the correction of them, and ment, or from a secretary for the foreign; from
our very inquiry into the evil was only a pretext a minister of influence or a minister of the peoto elude the remedy which is demanded from us pie; from Jacob or from Esau.?  I asked mvby humanity, by justice, and by every principle self, and I asked myself nothing else, what part
of true policy. Depend upon it, this business can  it was fit for a member of Parliament, who has
not be indifferent to our fame.  It will turn out supplied a mediocrity of talents by the extreme
a matter of great disgrace or great glory to the of diligence, and who has thought himself obligwhole British nation.  We are on a conspicuous ed, by the research of years, to wind himself
stage, and the world marks our demeanor.       into the inmost recesses and labyrinths of the
I am therefore a little concerned to perceive  Indian detail, what part, I say, it became such a
Mode in which the spirit and temper in which the member of Parliament to take, when a minister
the bill was op- debate has been all along pursued  of state, in conformity to a recommendation from
posed.     upon one side of the House.  The  the Throne, has brought before us a system for
declamation of the gentlemen who oppose the bill the better government of the territory and comhas been abundant and vehement; but they have merce of the East.  In this light, and in this
been reserved, and even silent about the fitness only, I will trouble you with my sentiments.
or unfitness of the plan to attain the direct object   It is not only agreed but demanded, by the
it has in view.  By some gentlemen it is taken right honorable gentleman [Mr. Pitt],  leasire
up (by way of exercise, I presume) as a point of  and by those who act with him, that a called for.
law on a question of private property and corpo- whole system  ought to be produced; that it
rate franchise; by others it is regarded as the ought not to be a half measure; that it ought
petty intrigue of a faction at court, and argued  to be no palliative; but a legislative provision,
merely as it tends to set this man a little high- vigorous, substantial, and effective.  I believe
er, or that a little lower in situation and power. that no man who understands the subject can
All the void has been filled up with invectives doubt for a moment that those must be the conagainst coalition; with allusions to the loss of ditions of any thing deserving the name of a reAmerica; with the activity and inactivity of min- form  in the Indian government; that any thing
isters.  The total silence of these gentlemen short of them would not only be delusive, but,
concerning the interest and well-being of the in this matter, which admits no medium, noxious
people of India, and concerning  the interest in the extreme.
which this nation has in the commerce and rev-     Mr. Powys, o retained a lingering affection
2 Mr. PowYys, who reta.ined a lingering affection
for Mr. Fox, had ascribed the bill to the influence
Mr. Burke had taken a very active part in these of Lord North, saying, "the voice is Jacob's, but
researches as a member of a committee of the House. the hands are the hands of Esau."




1783.]                       EAST INDIA  BILL OF MR. FOX.                                   313
To all the conditions proposed by his adversa- subverted but by rooting up the holding radical
ries the mover of the bill perfectly agrees; and  principles of government, and even of society
on his performance of them he rests his cause. itself.  The charters which we call, by distincOn the other hand, not the least objection has  tion, "great," are public instruments of this nabeen taken with regard to the efficiency, the  ture; I mean the charters of King John and
vigor, or the completeness of the scheme.  I King Henry the Third.  The things secured by
am, therefore, warranted to assume, as a thing  these instruments may, without any deceitful amadmitted, that the bills accomplish what both  biguity, be very fitly called the chartered rights
sides of the House demand as essential.  The  of men.3
end is completely answered, so far as the direct    These charters have made the very name of
and immediate object is concerned.              a charter dear to the heart of every Englishman.
But though there are no direct, yet there are  But, sir, there may be, and there are charters,
various collateral objections made; objections  not only different in nature, but formed on princifrom the effects which this plan of reform for In- ples the very reverse of those of the great chardian administration may have on the privileges  ter.  Of this kind is the charter of the East Inof great public bodies in England; from its prob- dia Company.  Magna Charta is a charter to
able influence on the constitutional rights, or on  restrain power, and to destroy monopoly.  The
the freedom and integrity of the several branch- East India charter is a charter to establish moes of the Legislature.                          nopoly, and to create power.  Political power
Before I answer these objections, I must beg  and commercial monopoly are not the rights of
Answer to leave to observe, that if we are not able  men; and the rights to them derived from charobjections. to contrive some method of governing In- ters, it is fallacious and sophistical to call " the
dia well, which will not of necessity become the  chartered rights of men."   These chartered
means of governing Great Britain ill, a ground is rights (to speak of such charters and of their
laid for their eternal separation; but none for effects in terms of the greatest possible moderasacrificing the people of that country to our con- tion) do at least suspend the natural rights of
stitution.  I am, however, far from  being per- mankind at large, and in their very frame and
suaded that any such incompatibility of interest constitution are liable to fall into a direct violadoes at all exist.  On the contrary, I am certain  tion of them.
that every means effectual to preserve India fiom  It is a charter of this latter description (that is
oppression is a guard to preserve the Bi:ish Con- to say, a charter of power and monopoly) which
stitution from  its worst corruption.  l'o show  is affected by the bill before you.  The bill, sir,
this, I will consider the objections, which I think  does, without question, affect it; it does affect it
are four:                                       essentially and substantially; but, having stated
1st. That the bill is an attack on the charter- to you of what description the chartered rights
ed rights of men.                               are which this bill touches, I feel no difficulty at
2dly. That it increases the influence of the  all in acknowledging the existence of those charCrown.                                          tered rights in their fullest extent.  They belong
3dly. That it does not increase, but diminishes to the Company in the surest manner, and they
the influence of the Crown, in order to promote  are secured to that body by every sort of public
the interests of certain ministers and their'party. sanction.  They are stamped by the faith of the
4thly. That it deeply affects the national credit. King; they are stamped by the faith of ParliaI. As to the first of these objections, I must ment; they have been bought for money, for
Violation of observe that the phrase of " the char- money honestly and fairly paid  they have been
th Compa- tered rights of nen"' is full of affecta- bought for valuable consideration, over and over
tion, and very unusual in the discus- again.
sion of privileges conferred by charters of the    I therefore freely admit to the East India
present description.  But it is not difficult to dis- Company their claim  to exclude their fellowcover what end that ambiguous mode of expres- subjects from  the commerce of half the globe.
sion, so often reiterated, is meant to answer.  I admit their claim to administer an annual terThe rights of men, that is to say, the natural ritorial revenue of seven millions sterling, to cornrights of mankind, are indeed sacred things; and  mand an army of sixty thousand men, and to disif any public measure is proved mischievously to  pose (under the control of a sovereign imperial
affect them, the objection ought to be fatal to  discretion, and with the due observance of the
that measure, even if no charter at all could be  natural and local law) of the lives and fortunes
set up against it.  If these natural rights are  of thirty millions of their fellow-creatures.  All
farther affirmed and declared by express cove- this they possess by charter and by acts of Parnants, if they are clearly defined and secured  liament (in my opinion) without a shadow of conagainst chicane, against power, and authority, by  troversy.
written instruments and positive engagements,    Those who carry the rights and claims of the
they are in a still better condition; they partake  Company the farthest do not contend for more
not only of the sanctity of the object so secured, than this, and all ttls I freely grant; but, grantbut of that solemn public faith itself, which se-   3 This opening of the subject with a distinction
cures an object of such importance.  Indeed, thus clearly drawn and illustrated, is highly charac
this formal recognition, by the sovereign power, teristic of Mr. Burke, and lays the foundation of his
of an original right in the subject, can never be  entire argument.




314                                 MR. BURKE ON THE                                      [1783.
ing all this, they must grant to me in my turn that and we re-enter into all our rights, that is, into
That charter all political power which is set over the exercise of all our duties.  Our own Is liable to
is a trust for  aerevoked
theenefit of men, and that all privilege claimed or authority is indeed as much a trust orig- i ketr
the public.  exercised in exclusion of them, being  inally as the Company's authority is a beabused.
wholly artificial, and for so much a derogation  trust derivatively; and it is the use we make
from  the natural equality of mankind at large, of the resumed power that must justify or conought to be some way or other exercised ulti- demn us in the resumption of it.  When we
mately for their benefit.  If this is true with re- have perfected the plan laid before us by the
gard to every species of political dominion and  right honorable mover, the world will then see
every description of commercial privilege, none  what it is we destroy, and what it is we create.
of which can be original, self-derived rights, or By that test we stand or fall, and by that test I
grants for the mere private benefit of the hold- trust that it will be found in the issue, that we
ers, then such rights, or privileges, or whatever are going to supersede a charter abused to the
else you choose to call them, are all in the strict- full extent of all the powers which it could
est sense a trust; and it is of the very essence  abuse, and exercised in the plenitude of despotof every trust to be rendered accountable, and  ism, tyranny, and corruption; and that, in one
even totally to cease, when it substantially varies  and the same plan, we provide a real chaltered
from the purposes for which alone it could have  security for the rights of men cruelly violated
a lawful existence.                             under that charter.
This I conceive, sir, to be true of trusts of    This bill, and those connected with it, are inpower vested in the highest hands, and of such  tended to form the Magna Charta of Hindostan.5
as seem  to hold of no human creature;4 but Whatever the treaty of Westphalia is to the libabout the application of this principle to subor- erty of the princes and free cities of the empire,
dinate derivative trusts, I do not see how a con- and to the three religions there professed; whattroversy can be maintained.  To whom, then, ever the great charter, the statute of tallage, the
would I make the East India Company account- petition of right, and the declaration of right, are
able? why, to Parliament, to be sure; to Par- to Great Britain, these bills are to the people of
liament, from whom their trust was derived; to  India.  Of this benefit, I am certain, their conParliament, which alone is capable of compre- dition is capable, and when I know that they are
bending the magnitude of its object and its abuse, capable of more, my vote shall most assuredly be
and alone capable of an effectual legislative rem- for our giving to the full extent of their capacity
edy.  The very charter which.is held out to ex- of receiving, and no charter of dominion shall
elude Parliament from  correcting malversation  stand as a bar in my way to their charter of
with regard to the high trust vested in the Corn- safety and protection.
pany is the very thing which at once gives a title    The strong admission I have made of the
and imposes a duty on us to interfere with effect Company's rights (I am  conscious of it) binds
wherever power and authority originating from  me to do a great deal.  I do not presume to
ourselves are perverted from their purposes, and  condemn those who argue a priori against the
become instruments of wrong and violence,       propriety of leaving such extensive political powIf Parliament, sir, had nothing to do with this  ers in the hands of a company of merchants.  I
charter, we might have some sort of Epicurean  know  much is, and much more may be said
excuse to stand aloof, indifferent spectators of  against such a system; but with my particular
what passes in the Company's name in India and  ideas and sentiments, I can not go that way to
in London; but if we are the very cause of the  work.6  I feel an insuperable reluctance in givevil, we are in a special manner engaged to the  ing my hand to destroy any established instituredress; and for us passively to bear with op- tion of government upon a theory, however plaupressions committed under the sanction of our sible it may be.  My experience in life teaches
own authority is, in truth and reason, for this me nothing clear upon the subject.  I have
House to be an active accomplice in the abuse.  known merchants with the sentiments and the
That the power notoriously, grossly abused  abilities of great statesmen, and I have seen perhas been bought from us, is very certain; but sons in the rank of statesmen, with the concepthis circumstance, which is urged against the  tion and character of peddlers.  Indeed, my obbill, becomes an additional motive for our inter- servation has furnished me with nothing that is
ference, lest we should be thought to have sold  to be found in any habits of life or education,
the blood of millions of men for the base consideration of money.  We sold, I admit, all that we   5 This is an instance of Mr. Burke's habit of rising
had to sell, that is our authority, not our control. from the particular case before him, and connecting
We had not a right to make a market of our d-  wit with a higher range of collateral thought. It is in
ties.                                           this way that he adds great dignity to his subject,
and often enriches it with venerable associations.
I ground myself, therefore, on this principle,   6 We have here an instance of Mr. Burke's utter
that if the abuse is proved, the contract is broken, repugnance to argue any question on the ground of
4 Mr. Burke here alludes to regal authority, and  mere abstract right. Some might deny the binding
hints at the argument drawn from the exclusion of  force of a charter which gave such ample powers;
James II. at the Revolution of 1688, on which Mr. but his habits of mind led him to abide by all estabFox insisted so powerfully in his speech the same  lished institutions until driven from them by the
evening.                                        most obvious necessity.




i783.]                      EAST INDIA BILL OF MR. FOX.                                    315
which tends wholly to disqualify men for the  siderably larger than England; and the whole of
functions of government, but that by which the  the Company's dominions, comprehending Bompower of exercising those functions is very fre- bay and Salsette, amounts to 281,412 square
quently obtained, I mean a spirit and habits of  miles, which forms a territory larger than any
low cabal and intrigue, which I have never, in  European dominion, Russia and Turkey exceptone instance, seen united with a capacity for ed. Through all that vast extent of country there
sound and manly policy,                         is not a man who eats a mouthful of rice but by
To justify us in taking the administration of  permission of the East India Company.
their affairs out of the hands of the East    So far with regard to the extent.  The popuWhat abuse
ustifies a  India Company, on my principles, I lation of this great empire is not easy
revocation  must see several conditions.  1st. The  to be calculated. When the countries
object affected by the abuse should be great and  of which it is composed came into our possesimportant.  2d. The abuse affecting this great sion, they were all eminently peopled and emiobject ought to be a great abuse.  3d. It ought nently productive, though at that time considto be habitual, and not accidental.  4th. It ought erably declined from  their ancient prosperity.
to be utterly incurable in the body as it now  But since they are come into our hands-!
stands constituted.  All this ought to be made  However, if we take the period of our estimate
as visible to me as the light of the sun, before I immediately before the utter desolation of the
should strike off an atom of their charter.  A  Carnatic, and if we allow for the havoc which
right honorable gentleman [Mr. Pitt] has said, our government had even then made in these reand said, I think, but once, and that very slightly  gions, we can not, in my opinion, rate the popu(whatever his original demand for a plan might lation at much less than thirty millions of souls;8
seem to require), that " there are abuses in the  more than four times the number of persons in
Company's government."  If that were all, the  the island of Great Britain.
scheme of the mover of this bill, the scheme of    My next inquiry to that of the number is the
his learned friend, and his own scheme of refor- quality and description of the inhabit- Character of
mation (if he has any), are all equally needless. ants.  This multitude of men does not the people.
There are, and must be, abuses in all govern- consist of an abject and barbarous populace, much
ments.  It amounts to no more than a nugatory  less of gangs of savages, like the Guaranies and
proposition.  But before I consider of what na- Chiquitos, who wander on the waste borders of
ture these abuses are of which the gentleman  the River of Amazon or the Plate, but a people
speaks so very lightly, permit me to recall to  for ages civilized and cultivated; cultivated by
your recollection the map of the country which  all the arts of polished life, while we were yet in
this abused chartered right affects.  This I shall the woods. There have been (and still the skeledo, that you may judge whether in that map I tons remain) princes once of great dignity, authorcan discover any thing like the first of my con- ity, and opulence. There are to be found the chiefs
ditions, that is, whether the object affected by  of tribes and nations.  There is to be found an
the abuse of the East India Company's power ancient and venerable priesthood, the depository
be of importance sufficiently to justify the meas- of their laws, learning, and history, the guides of
ure and means of reform  applied to it in this  the people while living, and their consolation in
bill.                                           death; a nobility of great antiquity and renown;
(1.) With very few, and those inconsiderable  a multitude of cities not exceeded in population
Igitud eof intervals, the British dominion, either and trade by those of the first class in Europe;
the object af- in the Company's name, or in the  merchantsand bankers, individual housesofwhom
names of princes absolutely dependent have once vied in capital with the Bank of Engupon the Company, extends from the mountains  land, whose credit had often supported a totterthat separate India from Tartary to Cape Como- ing state, and preserved their governments in the
rin, that is, one-and-twenty degrees of latitude! midst of war and desolation; millions of ingeIn the northern parts it is a solid mass of land, nious manufacturers and mechanics; millions of
about eight hundred miles in length, and  the most diligent, and not the least intelligent,
Extent.
four or five hundred broad. As you go  tillers of the earth. Here are to be found almost
southward, it becomes narrower for a space. It all the religions professed by men; the Bralinafterward dilates; but, narrower or broader, you  ical, the Mussulmen, the Eastern and the Westpossess the whole eastern and northeastern coast ern Christians.
of that vast country, quite from the borders of    If I were to take the whole aggregate of our
Pegu. Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa, with Benares possessions there, I should compare it, as the
(now unfortunately in our immediate possession), nearest parallel I can find, with the empire of
measure 161,978 square English miles; a terri- Germany.  Our immediate possessions I should
tory considerably larger than the whole kingdom  compare with the Austrian dominions, and they
of France.7  Oude, with its dependent provin- would not suffer in the comparison.  The Nabob
ces, is 53,286 square miles, not a great deal less  of Oude might stand for the King of Prussia; the
than England. The Carnatic, with Tanjore and  Nabob of Arcot I would compare, as superior in
the Circars, is 65,948 square miles, very con- territory and equal in revenue, to the Elector
7 France has since been materially enlarged, its
extent being at present two hundred and four thou-  Now one hundred and fifty millions, great addi
sand square miles.                             tions having been made to the territory.




316                                MR. BURKE ON THE                                       [1783.
of Saxony. Cheyte Sing, the Rajah of Benares, tion, out of the infinite mass of materials which
might well rank with the Prince of Hesse, at have passed under my eye, or can keep my mind
least; and the Rajah of Tanjore (though hardly  steady to the great leading points I have in view.
equal in extent of dominion, superior in revenue)    With regard, therefore, to the abuse of the
to the Elector of Bavaria. The Polygars, and the  external federal trust, I engage myself to Political
northern Zemindars, and other great chiefs, might you to make good these three positions. abuses.
well class with the rest of the princes, dukes, First, I say, that from Mount Imaus (or whatcounts, marquesses, and bishops in the empire, ever else you call that large range of mountains
all of whom I mention to honor, and surely with- that walls the northern frontier of India), where
out disparagement to any or all of those most it touches us in the latitude of twenty-nine, to
respectable princes and grandees.9               Cape Comorin, in the latitude of eight, there is
All this vast mass, composed of so many or- not a single prince, state, or potentate, great or
ders and classes of men, is again infinitely divers- small, in India, with whom they have come into
ified by manners, by religion, by hereditary em- contact, whom  they have not sold.  I say sold,
ployment, through all their possible combinations. though sometimes they have not been able to
This renders the handling of India a matter in a  deliver according to their bargain.  Secondly, I
high degree critical and delicate. But oh! it has say, that there is not a single treaty they have
been handled rudely indeed.  Even some of the  ever made which they have not broken. Thirdreformers seem to have forgot that they had any  ly, I say, that there is not a single prince or
thing to do but to regulate the tenants of a manor, state, who ever put any trust in the Company,
or the shop-keepers of the next county town.    who is not utterly ruined; and that none are in
It is an empire of this extent, of this compli- any degree secure or flourishing, but in the exact
cated nature, of this dignity and importance, that proportion to their settled distrust and irreconI have compared to Germany and the German  cilable enmity to this nation.
government; not for an exact resemblance, but    These assertions are universal.  I say, in the
as a sort of a middle term, by which India might full sense, universal.  They regard the external
be approximated to our understandings, and, if  and political trust only; but I shall produce others
possible, to our feelings, in order to awaken  fully equivalent in the internal.  For the present,
something of sympathy for the unfortunate na- I shall content myself with explaining my meantives, of which I am afraid we are not perfectly  ing; and if I am called on for proof while these
susceptible while we look at this very remote ob- bills are depending (which I believe I shall not),
ject through a false and cloudy medium.         I will put my finger on the appendices to the re(2.) My second condition, necessary to justify  ports, or on papers of record in the House, or the
Greatres of me in touching the charter, is, whether committees, which I have distinctly present to
th buse.   he Company's abuse of their trust, with  my memory, and which I think I can lay before
regard to this great object, be an abuse of great you at half an hour's warning.
atrocity.  I shall beg your permission to consid-    The first potentate sold by the Company for
er their conduct in two lights: first, the political, money was the Great Mogul, the de- Sale of princes
and then the commercial. Their political conduct scendant of Tamerlane.  This high and states.
(for distinctness) I divide again into two heads: personage, as high as human veneration can look
the external, in which I mean to comprehend  at, is, by every account, amiable in his manners,
their conduct in their federal capacity, as it re- respectable for his piety according to his mode,
lates to powers and states independent, or that and accomplished in all the Oriental literature.
not long since were such; the other internal,    All this, and the title derived under his charter
namely, their conduct to the countries either im- to all that we hold in India, could not save him
mediately subject to the Company, or to those  from the general sale.  Money is coined in his
who, under the apparent government of native  name; in his name justice is administered; he
sovereigns, are in a state much lower, and much  is prayed for in every temple through the counmore miserable, than common subjection.          tries we possess-but he was sold!
The attention, sir, which I wish to preserve    It is impossible, Mr. Speaker, not to pause
to method will not be considered as unnecessary  here for a moment, to reflect on the inconstancy
or affected.t0 Nothing else can help me to selec-  of human greatness, and the stupendous revolu9 This attempt to illustrate the relation of the  tions that have happened in our age of wonders.
states of India, by comparing them with those of  Could it be believed, when I entered into existGermany, is highly characteristic of Mr. Burke, ence, or when you, a younger man, were born,
whose mind was ever full of correspondences; but that on this day, in this House, we should be emthere is something rather fanciful in it, especially  ployed in discussing the conduct of those British
when carried out to so great a length. Indeed, Mr. subjects who had disposed of the power and perBurke himself seems to have felt that the compari- son of the Grad Mogul?  This is no idle specson might appear a little ludicrous, for he adds, with  ulation.  Awfl lessons are taught by it, and b
a slight sneer at the counts, marquesses, and bish-              
ops, "all of whom I mention to honor."-           r. M   Br    h         g     o  t  stt  to
ops,' all of whom I mention to honor?."         other events, of which it is not yet too late to
10 This apology for the exactness of his method profit. [Mr. Burke here goes on to state the
reminds us of the extraordinary care bestowed by  terms on which the Great Mogul was betrayed
Mr. Burke on the orderly arrangement of his ideas.
He sometimes takes pains to conceal it, lest his we see traces of elaborate forecast in the disposition
speeches should seem too formal; but every where I of his materials.




1783.]                       EAST INDIA  BILL OF MR. FOX.                                  317
into the hands of his chief minister Sujah Dow-  of the right of war and peace, is, that All who confidlah, and adds:] The descendant of Tamerlane  there are none who have ever confid- ed in the Cbn
now stands in need almost of the common nec- ed in us who have not been utterly ru- ruined.
essaries of life, and in this situation we do not al- ined. There is proof more than enough in the
low him, as bounty, the smallest portion of what condition of the Mogul; in the slavery and indiwe owe him in justice.                          gence of the Nabob of Oude; the exile of the RaThe next sale was that of the whole nation of  jah of Benares; the beggary of the Nabob of Benthe Rohillas, which the grand salesman, without gal; the undone and captive condition of the Raa pretense of quarrel, and contrary to his own  jah and kingdom of Tanjore; the destruction of
declared sense of duty and rectitude, sold to the  the Polygars; and, lastly, in the destruction of
same Sujah ul Dowlah.  He sold the people to  the Nabob of Arcot himself, who, when his dominutter extirpation for the sum  of four hundred  ions were invaded, was found entirely destitute
thousand pounds.  Faithfully was the bargain  of troops, provisions, stores, and (as he asserts)
performed on our side.  Hafiz Rhamet, the most money, being a million in debt to the Company.
eminent of their chiefs, one of the bravest men  and four millions to others; the many millions
of his time, and as famous throughout the East which he had extorted from so many extirpated
for the elegance of his literature, and the spirit of princes and their desolated countries having, as
his poetical compositions (by which he supported  he has frequently hinted, been expended for the
the name of Hafiz), as for his courage, was in- ground-rent of his mansion-house in an alley in
vaded with an army of a hundred thousand men  the suburbs of Madras.  Compare the condition
and an English brigade.  This man, at the head  of all these princes with the power and authority
of inferior forces, was slain, valiantly fighting for of all the Mahratta states; with the independence
his country.  His head was cut off, and deliv- and dignity of the Soubah [Prince] of the Decered, for money, to a barbarian.  His wife and  can  and the mighty strength, the resources, and
children, persons of that rank, were seen begging  the manly struggle of Hyder Ali; and then the
a handful of rice through the English camp. The  House will discover the effects, on every power
whole nation, with inconsiderable exceptions, was in India, of an easy confidence, or of a rooted
slaughtered or banished.  The country was laid  distrust in the faith of the Company.
waste with fire and sword; and that land, dis-    These are some of my reasons, grounded on
tinguished above most others by the cheerful the abuse of the external political trust of that
face of paternal government and protected la- body, for thinking myself not only justified, but
bor, the chosen seat of cultivation and plenty, is bound to declare against those chartered rights
now almost throughout a dreary desert, covered  which produce so many wrongs.  I should deem
with rushes and briers, and jungles full of wild  myself the wickedest of men if any vote of mine
beasts. * *    *                                could contribute to the continuance of so great
[Mr. Burke next speaks of numerous other in- an evil.
stances in which chiefs and countries had been    Now, sir, according to the plan I proposed, I
sold by the Company's agents, and adds:]       shall take notice of the Company's in- Abuses in the
All these bargains and sales were regularly  ternal government, as it is exercised internal govattended with the waste and havoc of the coun- first on the dependent provinces, and
try, always by the buyer, and sometimes by the  then as it affects those under the direct and imobject of the sale.  This was explained to you  mediate authority of that body.  And here, sir,
by the honorable mover when he stated the  before I enter into the spirit of their interior
mode of paying debts due from the country pow- government, permit me to observe to you upon
ers to the Company.  An honorable gentleman, a few of the many lines of difference which are
who is not now in his place, objected to his jump- to be found between the vices of the Company's
ing near two thousand miles for an example; but government, and those of the conquerors who
the southern example is perfectly applicable to  preceded us in India, that we may be enabled a
the northern claim, as the northern is to the  little the better to see our way in an attempt to
southern; for, throughout the whole space of  the necessary reformation.
these two thousand miles, take your stand where    The several irruptions of Arabs, Tartars, and
you will, the proceeding is perfectly uniform, Persians into India were, for the Early invaders
and what is done in one part will apply exactly  greater part, ferocious, bloody, and pared vit the
to the other.                                   wasteful in the extreme.l   Our en- Englisi.
My second assertion is, that the Company  trance into the dominion of that country was, as
Violation  never has made a treaty which they  generally, with small comparative effusion of
oftreaties. have not broken.  This position is so  blood, being introduced by various frauds and
connected with that of the sales of provinces and  delusions, and by taking advantage of the incukingdoms, with the negotiation of universal dis- rable, blind, and senseless animosity which the
traction in every part of India, that a very mi- several country powers bear toward each other,
nute detail may well be spared on this point, rather than by open force.  But the difference
[The details given by Mr. Burke under this in favor of the first conquerors is this: the
head abundantly support his position, but are   1t This comparison is in Mr. Burke's finest style,
here omitted, as of no present interest to the  exhibiting not only admirable powers of description,
reader.]                                       but of philosophical observation as to the sources of
My third assertion, relative to the abuse made  national prosperity.




318                               MR. BURKE ON THE                                       [1783.
Asiatic conquerors very soon abated of their fe- Every rupee of profit made by an Englishman is
rocity, because they made the conquered coun- lost forever to India.  With us are no retributotry their own.  They rose or fell with the rise  ry superstitions, by which a foundation of charity
or fall of the territory they lived in.  Fathers  compensates, through ages, to the poor, for the
there deposited the hopes of their posterity; and  rapine and injustice of a day.  With us, no pride
children there beheld the monuments of their erects stately monuments which repair the misfathers.  Here their lot was finally cast; and it chiefs which pride had produced, and which
is the natural wish of all that their lot should  adorn a country out of its own spoils.  England
not be cast in a bad land.  Poverty, sterility, has erected no churches, no hospitals,13 no palaand desolation are not a recreating prospect to  ces, no schools; England has built no bridges,
the eye of man; and there are very few  who  made no high-roads, cut no navigations, dug out
can bear to grow  old among the curses of a no reservoirs.  Every other conqueror of every
whole people.  If their passion or their avarice  other description has left some monument, either
drove the Tartar hordes to acts of rapacity or of state or beneficence, behind him.  Were we
tyranny, there was time enough, even in the short to be driven out of India this day, nothing would
life of man, to bring round the ill effects of an  remain to tell that it had been possessed, during
abuse of power upon the power itself. If hoards the inglorious period of our dominion, by any
were made by violence and tyranny, they were  thing better than the orang-outang or the tiger.
still domestic hoards; and domestic profusion,    There is nothing in the boys we send to India
or the rapine of a more powerful and prodigal worse than the boys whom we are whipping at
hand, restored them to the people.  With many  school, or that we see trailing a pike or bending
disorders, and with few  political checks upon  over a desk at home.  But as English youth in
power, nature had still fair play; the sources of India drink the intoxicating draught of authority
acquisition were not dried up; and therefore the  and dominion before their heads are able to bear
trade, the manufactures, and the commerce of  it, and as they are full grown in fortune long bethe country flourished.  Even avarice and usury  fore they are ripe in principle, neither nature nor
itself operated, both for the preservation and the  reason have any opportunity to exert themselves
employment of national weath.  The husband- for remedy of the excesses of their premature
man and manufacturer paid heavy interest, but power.  The consequences of their conduct,
then they augmented the fund from whence they  which in good minds (and many of theirs are
were again to borrow.  Their resources were  probably  such) might produce penitence or
dearly bought, but they were sure; and the gen- amendment, are unable to pursue the rapidity
eral stock of the community grew by the gener- of their flight.  Their prey is lodged in Enal effort.                                      gland; and the cries of India are given to seas
But, under the English government, all this and winds, to be blown about, in every breaking
order is reversed.  The Tartar invasion was up of the monsoon, over a remote and unhearing
mischievous, but it is our protection that destroys ocean.  In India, all the vices operate by which
India.  It was their enmity, but it is our friend- sudden fortune is acquired; in England are often
ship.  Our conquest there, after twenty years, displayed, by the same persons, the virtues which
is as crude as it was the first day.  The natives dispense hereditary wealth. Arrived in Influence
scarcely know what it is to see the gray head  England, the destroyers of the nobility onEngland.
of an Englishman.  Young men (boys almost) and gentry of a whole kingdom will find the
govern there, without society, and without sym- best company of this nation at a board of elepathy with the natives.  They have no more  gance and hospitality.  Here the manufacturer
social habits with the people than if they still and husbandman will bless the just and punctual
resided in England, nor, indeed, any species of  hand that in India has torn the cloth from the
intercourse but that which is necessary to mak- loom, or wrested the scanty portion of rice and
ing a sudden fortune, with a view to a remote  salt from the peasant of Bengal, or wrung from
settlement.  Animated with all the avarice of  him the very opium in which he forgot his opage, and all the impetuosity of youth, they roll pressions and his oppressor.  They marry into
in one after another, wave after wave; and there  your families; they enter into your senate; they
is nothing before the eyes of the natives but an  ease your estates by loans; they raise their value
endless, hopeless prospect of new flights of birds                     te mn o          t 
of pre  and passage. withappetitescontinual draws off the mind from the main object, to mark
of prey and passage, with appetites continually the difference between the two classes of birds.
renewing for a food that is continually wasting.?  But Mr. Burke goes much farther. He introduces
the image by speaking of " an endless, hopeless pros.
12 There is here a mixture of incongruous images, pect" of these flights; and then represents them as
which is not common with Mr. Burke. The English  having "a)ppetites"-these are "continually renewadventurers are in the same sentence waves of the  ing"-the "food" of these "appetites" is next resea, and yet birds of prey! But, passing by this, ferred to, and this food is then described as "conwe have at the close of the sentence a fault into  tinually wasting."  By these details, the mind is
which Mr. Burke does very often fall, that of running  drawn off from the principal object to a mere picout his images into too many particulars. "New  ture. Such images may dazzle, but they do not
flights of birds of prey" was a striking metaphor illustrate or enforce the leading thought, which is
to represent the successive arrivals of English ad- the appropriate object of figurative language.
venturers. The extension of the idea to birds of   13 The paltry foundation at Calcutta is scarcely
"passage" was perhaps unfortunate, because it worth naming as an exception.




1783.]                       EAST INDIA  BILL OF MR. FOX.                                     319
by demand; they cherish and protect your rela- the East India Company.  Some of these will
tions which lie heavy on your patronage; and  come up again in his speech on the Nabob of
there is scarcely a house in the kingdom that Arcot's debts, and in Mr. Sheridan's speech on
does not feel some concern and interest that the treatment of the Begums or Princesses of
makes all reform of our Eastern government ap- Oude.  Having made out his case by the enupear officious and disgusting, and, on the whole, meration of these atrocities, he proceeds to his
a most discouraging attempt.  In such an at-  conclusion as follows:]
tempt, you hurt those who are able to return        As the Company has made this use of their
kindness or to resent injury.  If you succeed, trust, I should ill discharge mine if I refused to
you save those who can not so much as give you  give my most cheerful vote for the redress of
thanks.  All these things show the difficulty of  these abuses, by putting the affairs of so large
the work we have on hand, but they show  its  and valuable a part of the interests of this nanecessity too.  Our Indian government is, in its  tion, and of mankind, into some steady hands,
best state, a grievance.  It is necessary that the  possessing the confidence and assured of the
correctives should be uncommonly vigorous, and  support of this House, until they can be restored
the work of men sanguine, warm, and even im- to regularity, order, and consistency.
passioned in the cause.  But it is an arduous    I have touched the heads of some of the grievthing to plead against abuses of a power which  ances of the people and the abuses of governoriginates from  your own country, and affects  ment, but I hope and trust you will give me
those whom we are used to consider as strangers. credit when I faithfully assure you that I have
I shall certainly endeavor to modulate myself  not mentioned one fourth part of what has come
to this temper, though I am sensible that a cold  to my knowledge in your committee; and, farstyle of describing actions which appear to me  ther, I have full reason to believe that not one
in a very affecting light, is equally contrary to  fourth part of the abuses are come to my knowlthe justice due to the people, andto all genuine  edge, by that or by any other means.  Pray
human feelings about them.  I ask pardon of  consider what I have said only as an index to
truth  and nature for this compliance; but I direct you in your inquiries.
shall be very sparing of epithets either to per-    If this, then, sir, has been the use made of the
sons or things.  It has been said (and, with re- trust of political powers, internal and Commercial
gard to one of them, with truth) that Tacitus  external, given by you in the charter, oftl" Ce.  t
and Machiavel, by their cold way of relating  the next thing to be seen is the con- pany.
enormous crimes, have in some sort appeared  duct of the Company with regard to the comnot to disapprove them; that they seem a sort mercial trust.  And here I will make a fair
)f professors of the art of tyranny, and that they  offer: If it can be proved that they have acted
corrupt the minds of their readers by not ex- wisely, prudently, and frugally, as merchants, I
pressing the detestation and horror that natu- shall pass by the whole mass of their enormities
rally belong to horrible and detestable proceed-  as statesmen.  That they have not done this,
ings.  But we are in general, sir, so little ac- their present condition is proof sufficient. Their
quainted with Indian details; the instruments  distresses are said to be owing to their wars.
of oppression under which the people suffer are  This is not wholly true; but if it were, is not
so hard to be understood; and even the very  that readiness to engage in war which distinnames of the  sufferers are  so uncouth  and  guishes them, and for which the Committee of
strange to our ears, that it is very difficult for  Secrecy has so branded their politics, founded on
our sympathy to fix upon these objects.  I am  the falsest principles of mercantile speculation?
sure that some of us have come down stairs    The principle of buying cheap and selling dear
from  the committee-room  with impressions on  is the first, the great foundation ofmerTests ofgood
our minds which to us were the inevitable re- cantile dealing.l4    Have they ever at- mercantile
sults of our discoveries; yet, if we should ven- tended to this principle?   Nay, for mee
ture to express ourselves in the proper language  years have they not actually authorized in their
of our sentiments to other gentlemen not at all servants a total indifference as to the prices they
prepared to enter into the cause of them, noth-  were to pay?
ing could appear more harsh and dissonant, more    A great deal of strictness in driving bargains
violent and unaccountable, than our language  for whatever we contract is another of the prin-.
and behavior.  All these circumstances are not, ciples of mercantile policy.  Try the Company
I confesS, very favorable to the idea of our at- by that test!  Look at the contracts that are
tempting to govern India at all; but there we.__
are; there we are placed by the Sovereign Dis-    5 There is great ingenuity in throwing the arguposer; and we must do the best we can in our ment to show the commercial incompetency and
situation.  The situation of man is the preceptor mismanagement of the Company into this form.
of his duty.                                      The idea of tests was calculated to arrest attention.
Upon the plan which I laid down, and to which  Those selected commend themselves to the good
I beg leave to return I was considering the con- sense of all, as indispensable requisites in a good
I beg leave to return, I was considering the con-  ^^^   Canosity  is excited as Mr. Burke, in
ductn,. C pyohe tn i merchant. Curiosity is excited as Mr. Burke, in
duct of the Company to those nations which are  stating each test, goes on to apply it to the conduct
indirectly subject to their authority.  [Mr. Burke  of the Company. The inference is irresistible, they
here goes into very ample details of the injuries  are not fit to be intmtested with such vast commercial
inflicted on states and monarchs connected with  interests.




320                               MR. BURKE ON THE                                     [1783.
made for them.  Is the Company so much as a  sales can bear the payment of that interest, and
good commissary for their own armies?  I en- at that rate of exchange?  Have they once congage to select for you, out of the innumerable  sidered the dilemma in which they are placedmass of their dealings, all conducted very nearly  the ruin of their credit in the East Indies if they
alike, one contract only, the excessive profits on  refuse the bills-the ruin of their credit and exwhich, during a short term, would pay the whole  istence in England if they accept them?  Inof their year's dividend.  I shall undertake to  deed, no trace of equitable government is found
show that, upon two others, the inordinate prof- in their politics; not one trace of commercial
its given, with the losses incurred in order to  principle in their mercantile dealing; and hence
secure those profits, would pay a year's divi- is the deepest and maturest wisdom  of Parliadend more.                                     ment demanded, and the best resources of this
It is a third property of trading men to see kingdom must be strained to restore them; that
that the clerks do not divert the dealings of the  is, to restore the countries destroyed by the mismaster to their own benefit.  It was the other conduct of the Company, and to restore the Comday, only, when their governor and council taxed  pany itself, ruined by the consequences of their
the Company's investment with a sum of fifty  plans for destroying what they were bound to
thousand pounds, as an inducement to persuade  preserve.
only seven members of their Board of Trade to    (3.) I required, if you remember, at my outgive their honor that they would abstain from  set, a proof that these abuses were ha- The abuses
such profits upon that investment as must have  bitual; but surely this is not necessary habitual,
violated their oaths if they had made at all!  for me to consider as a separate head, because
It is a fourth quality of a merchant to be ex- I trust I have made it evident beyond a doubt,
act in his accounts.  What will be thought when  in considering the abuses themselves, that they
you have fully before you the mode of accounting  are regular, permanent, and systematical.
made use of in the treasury of Bengal?  I hope    (4.) I now come to my last condition, without
you will have it soon.  With regard to one of  which, for one, I will never readily lend And icutheir agencies, when it came to the material my hand to the destruction of any estab- rable.
part, the prime cost of the goods on which a  lished government, which is, that in its present
commission of fifteen per cent. was allowed, to  state the government of the East India Comthe astonishment of the factory to whom  the  pany is absolutely incorrigible.
commodities were sent, the accountant general    Of this great truth I think there can be little
reports that he did not think himself authorized  doubt, after all that has appeared in this House.
to call for vouchers relative to this and other It is so very clear, that I must consider the leavparticulars, because the agent was upon his ing any power in their hands, and the determined
honor with regard to them! A new principle  resolution to continue and countenance every
of account upon honor seems to be regularly  mode and every degree of peculation, oppression,
established in their dealings and their treasury, and tyranny, to be one and the same thing.  I
which in reality amounts to an entire annihila- look upon that body incorrigible, from the fullest
tion of the principle of all accounts.         consideration both of their uniform conduct, and
It is a fifth property of a merchant who does their present real and virtual constitution.
not meditate a fraudulent bankruptcy to calcu-    If they had not constantly been apprised of all
late his probable profits upon the money he takes the enormities committed in India under Tlhe abuses
up to vest in business.  Did the Company, when  their authority; if this state of things fully 1nJow
they bought goods on bonds bearing eight per had been as much a discovery to them  dressed.
cent. interest, at ten and even twenty per cent. as it was to many of us, we might flatter ourdiscount, even ask themselves a question con- selves that the detection of the abuses would lead
cerning the possibility of advantage from deal- to their reformation.  I will go farther: if the
ing on these terms?                           court of directors had not uniformly condemned
The last quality of a merchant I shall advert every act which this House or any of its committo is the taking care to be properly prepared, in  tees had condemned; if the language in which
cash or goods, in the ordinary course of sale, for they expressed their disapprobation against enorthe bills which are drawn on them.  Now I ask  mities and their authors had not been much more
whether they have ever calculated the clear vehement and indignant than any ever used in
produce of any given sales, to make them tally  this House, I should entertain some hopes.  If
with the four millions of bills which are come  they had not, on the other hand, as uniformly
and coming upon them, so as at the proper peri- commended all their servants who had done their
ods to enable the one to liquidate the other? duty and obeyed their orders, as they had heavily
No, they have not.  They are now obliged to  censured those who rebelled, I might say these
borrow money of their own servants to purchase people have been in error, and when they arc
their investment.  The servants stipulate five sensible of it they will mend. But when I reflect
per cent. on the capital they advance if their on the uniformity of their support to the objects
bills should not be paid at the time when they  of their uniform censure, and the state of insigbecome due; and the value of the rupee on  nificance and disgrace to which all of those have
which they charge this interest is taken at two  been reduced whom they approved, and that even
shillings and a penny.  Has the Company ever utter ruin and premature death have been among
troubled themselves to inquire whether their the fruits of their favor, I must be convinced that,




1783.]                      EAST INDIA  BILL OF MR  FOX.                                   321
in this case as in all others, hypocrisy is the only  say, " Me nemo ministro fur erit, atque ideo nulli
vice that never can be cured.                    comes exeo."'7  This man, whose deep reach of
Attend, I pray you, to the situation and pros- thought, whose large legislative conceptions, and
perity of Benfield,l' Hastings, and others of that whose grand plans of policy make the most shinsort.  The last of these had been treated by the  ing part of our reports, from whence we have
Company with an asperity of reprehension that all learned our lessons, if we have learned any
has no parallel.  They lament "that the pow- good ones; this man, from whose materials those
er of disposing of their property for perpetuity  gentlemen who have least acknowledged it have
should fall into such hands."  Yet for fourteen  yet spoken as from  a brief; this man, driven
years, with little interruption, he has governed  from  his employment, discountenanced by the
all their affairs, of every description, with an ab- Directors, has had no other reward and no other
solute sway.  He has had himself the means of  distinction but that inward " sunshine of the
heaping up immense wealth; and during that soul" which a good conscience can always bewhole period, the fortunes of hundreds have de- stow upon itself.  He has not yet had so much
pended on his smiles and frowns.  He himself  as a good word, but fiom a person too insignifitells you he is encumbered with two hundred and  cant to make any other return for the means with
fifty young gentlemen, some of them of the best which he has been furnished for performing his
families in England, all of whom aim at return- share of a duty which is equally urgent on us all."s
ing with vast fortunes to Europe in the prime of    Add to this, that from the highest in place to
life. He has, then, two hundred and fifty of your the lowest, every British subject who1 in obedichildren as his hostages for your good behavior;'6 ence to the Company's orders, has been active
and loaded for years, as he has been, with the  in the discovery of peculations, has been ruined.
execrations of the natives, with the censures of  They have been driven fiom. India. When they
the court of Directors, and struck and blasted  made their appearance at home, they were not
with the resolutions of this House, he still main- heard; when they attempted to return, they were
tains the most despotic power ever known in  stopped.  No artifice of fraud, no violence of
India.  He domineers with an overbearing sway  power, has been omitted to destroy them in chars
in the assemblies of his pretended masters; and  acter as well as in fortune.
it is thought in a degree rash to venture to name    Worse, far worse, has been the fate of the
his offenses in this House, even as grounds of a  poor creatures, the natives of India, whom  the
legislative remedy.                              hypocrisy of the Company has betrayed into comOn the other hand, consider the fate of those  plaint of oppression and discovery of peculation.
who have met with the applauses of the Direct- The first women in Bengal, the Ranny [Princess]
ors.  Colonel Monson, one of the best of men, of Rajeshahi, the Ranny of Burdwan, the Ranny
had his days shortened by the applauses, desti- of Amboa, by their weak and thoughtless trust
tute of the support of the Company.  General in the Company's honor and protection, are ut.
Clavering, whose panegyric was made in every  terly ruined.  The first of these women, a perdispatch from  England, whose hearse was be- son of princely rank and once of correspondent
dewed with the tears and hung round with the  fortune, who paid above two hundred thousand a
eulogies of the court of Directors, burst an honest year quit-rent to the state, is, according to very
and indignant heart at the treachery of those  credible information, so completely beggared as
who ruined him  by their praises.  Uncommon  to stand in need of the relief of alms.  Mapatience and temper supported Mr. Francis a  homed Reza Khan, the second Mussulman in
while longer under the baneful influence of the  Bengal, for having been distinguished by the illcommendation of the court of Directors.  His omened honor of the countenance and protection
health, however, gave way at length, and in  of the court of Directors, was, without the preutter despair he returned to Europe. At his re- tense of any inquiry whatsoever into his conturn the doors of the India House were shut to  duct, stripped of all his employments, and rethis man, who had been the object of their con- duced to the lowest condition. His ancient rival
stant admiration.  He has indeed escaped with  for power, the Rajah Nuncomar, was, by an inlife, but he has forfeited all expectation of credit, suit on every thing which India holds respectconsequence, party, and following. He may well able and sacred, hanged in the face of all his nation by the judges you sent to protect that peoTS The reader will enter fally into the character ple; hanged for a pretended crime, upon an ex
of Paul Benfield when he comes to the speech on post facto British act of Parliament, in the midst
the Nabob of Arcot's debts. He was originally a of his evidence against Mr. Hastings.  The acservant of the Company in a low situation, with an  cuser they saw hanged.  The culprit, without
income of only a few hundred pounds a year. He  acquittal or inquiry, triumphs on the ground of
afterward became a banker at Madras, and so in-          dera muer nt of
gratiated himself with the Nabob of Arcot as to ob-                               ncomar onl
tain at last the complete control of his actions, and   17 No one shall plunder through my instrumentto run up pretended debts against him to the amount ality, and therefore I go out as the companion of no
of millions.                                    ole.
6 Mr. Burke here refers to the writers in the's Did Mr. Burke, when he delivered this glowing
East India Company, who belonged generally to  eulogy on Sir Philip Francis, suspect that he was
some of the best families in England, and who were the man on whom he had previously be-' -.ved his.
wholly dependent on the governor general.       praises under the name of Junius?
X




:322                                MR. BURKE ON THE                                       [1783.
but of all living testimony, and even of evidence  interest of their servants, has been driven from
yet unborn.  From that time not a complaint has  that court.
been heard from the natives against their gov-    This, sir, has been their conduct; and it ha.
ernors.  All the grievances of India have found  been the result of the alteration which  ge i the
a complete remedy.'                              was insensibly made in their constitu- co...tittionof
Men will not look to acts of Parliament, to  tion.  The change was made insen- the Company
regulations, to declarations, to votes, and resolu- sibly, but it is now strong and adult, and as pubtions. No, they are not such fools. They will ask, lie and declared as it is fixed beyond all power
What is the road to power, credit, wealth, and  of reformation; so that there is none who hears
honors?  They will ask, What conduct ends in  me that is not as certain as I am that the Comneglect, disgrace, poverty, exile, prison, and the  pany, in the sense in which it was formerly ungibbet? These will teach them the course which  derstood, has no existence.  The question is not,
they are to follow. It is your distribution of these  what injury you may do to the proprietors of
that will give the character and tone to your India stock, for there are no such men to be
government. All the rest is miserable grimace. injured.  If the active, ruling part of the ConWhen I accuse the court of Directors of this pany, who form  the general court, who fill the
A part of tle habitual treachery in the use of re- offices, and direct the measures (the rest tell for
*)oincersnoe  ward and punishment, I do not mean  nothing), were persons who held their stock as a
thes abuses. to include all the individuals in that means of their subsistence; who, in the part they
c:ourt.  There have been, sir, very frequently, took, were only concerned in the government of,mlen of the greatest integrity and virtue among  India for the rise or fall of their dividend, it would
them, and the contrariety in the declarations and  be indeed a defective plan of policy.  The interconduct of that court has arisen, I take it, from  est of the people who are governed by them would
this: that the honest Directors have, by the force  not be their primary object-perhaps a very small
of matter of fact on the records, carried the rep- part of their consideration at all; but then they
robation of the evil measures of the servants in  might well be depended on, and perhaps more
India.  This could not be prevented while these  than persons in other respects preferable, for prerecords stared them  in the face; nor were the  venting the peculations of their servants to their
delinquents, either here or there, very solicitous  own prejudice.  Such a body would not easily
about their reputation, as long as they were able  have left their trade as a spoil to the avarice of
to secure their power. The agreement of their those who received their wages. But now things
partisans to censure them, blunted for a while  are totally reversed.  The stock is of no value,
the edge of a severe proceeding.  It obtained  whether it be the qualification of a Director or
for them a character of impartiality, which en- Proprietor; and it is impossible that it should.
abled them  to recommend, with some sort of  A Director's qualification may be worth about
grace, what will always carry a plausible ap- two thousand five hundred pounds, and the inpearance, those treacherous expedients called  terest, at eight per cent., is about one hundred
moderate measures.  While these were under and sixty pounds ayear.  Of what value is that,
discussion, new matter of complaint came over, whether it rise to ten, or fall to six, or to nothing,
which seemed to antiquate the first. The same  to him  whose son, before he is in Bengal two
circle was here trod round once more; and thus, months, and before he descends the steps of the
through years, they proceeded in a compromise  council chamber, sells the grant of a single conof censure for punishment, until, by shame and  tract for forty thousand pounds?  Accordingly,
despair, one after another, almost every man  the stock is bought up in qualifications.  The
who preferred his duty to the Company to the  vote is not to protect the stock, but the stock is
bought to acquire the vote; and the end of the'9 The case was this. Nuncomar was a Hindoo  vote is to cover and support, against justice,
ofthe highest rank, who accused Mr. Hastings to the, some man of power who has made an obnoxious
council at Calcutta (falsely, it is now believed) of  fortune in India, or to maintain in power those
putting up offices for sale, and receiving bribes. who are actually employing it in the acquisition
While the matter was in progress, Nuncomar wasof such a fortune and to avail themselves in rehimself arrested on a charge of having forged a bond  t    o                                 
Z:)            turn of his patronage, that he may shower the
five years before; and though his accuser was a
native, no one doubts that Mr. Hastings caused the so   othe East,  barbaric pearl and gold,"20
accusation to be made. Forgery is a very common       them, their families, and dependents; so that
offense among the Hindoos, and was punished but all the relations of the Company are not only
slightly by their laws. But Mr. Hastings had Nun- changed, but inverted.  The servants in India
comar prosecuted in an English court at Calcutta, are not appointed by the Directors, but the Diand thus made him amenable to English laws, under rectors are chosen by them.  The trade is carwhich the crime is punished with death. Nunco- ried on with their capitals.  To them  the revmar was condemned and actually executed in the  enues othe country are mortgaged. The eat of
face of the whole native population of Calcutta, who..                    i
looked on with astonishment and horror. Never the supreme poers n Calcutta.  The house 
was there a more flagrant act of injustice. The En-  Leadenhall Street is nothing more than a'change
glish law respecting forgery was not made with ref-for their agents, factors, and deputies to meet in,
erence to the natives of India; they knew nothing   20 "Or where the gorgeous Eastwith richest hand
of it; and the whole proceeding was little, if at all,  Showers on her kings barbaric pearl and gold."
short of deliberate murder under the forms of law.                      Milton's Par. Lost, ii., 4.




1783.]                       EAST INDIA  BILL OF MR. FOX.                                 323
to take care of their affairs and support their in- to despise the resolution of the House of Comterests; and this so avowedly, that we see the mons.  Without so much as the pretense of
known agents of the delinquent servants mar- looking into a single paper, without the formalshaling and disciplining their forces, and the ity of inquiry, they superseded all the labors of
prime spokesmen in all their assemblies.       their own Directors and of this House.
Every thing has followed in this order, and ac-   It will naturally occur to ask how it was posFacts confirm- cording to the natural train of events. sible that they should not attempt some sort of
ing these state- I will close what I have to say on the examination into facts as a color for their resistmets"     incorrigible condition of the Company ance to a public authority, proceeding so very
by stating to you a few facts that will leave no deliberately, and exerted, apparently at least, in
doubt of the obstinacy of that corporation, and of favor of their own.  The answer, and the only
their strength too, in resisting the reformation of answer which can be given, is, that they were
their servants.  By these facts you will be ena- afraid that their true relations should be mistakbled to discover the sole grounds upon which en.  They were afraid that their patrons and
they are tenacious of their charter.  It is now  masters in India should attribute their support
more than two years that, upon account of the of them to an opinion of their cause, and not to an
gross abuses and ruinous situation of the Com- attachment to their power.  They were afraid it
pany's affairs (which occasioned the cry of the should be suspected that they did not mean blindwhole world long before it was taken up here), ly to support them in the use they made of that
that we instituted two committees to inquire  power.  They determined to show that they, at
into the mismanagements by which the Com- least, were set against reformation; that they
pany's affairs had been brought to the brink of  were firmly resolved to bring the territories, the
ruin.  These inquiries had been pursued with  trade, and the stock of the Company to ruin.
unremitting diligence; and a great body of facts rather than be wanting in fidelity to their nonawas collected and printed for general informa- inal servants and real masters in the ways they
tion.  In the result of those inquiries, although  took to their private fortunes.
the committees consisted of very different de-    Even since the beginning of this session, the
scriptions, they were unanimous.  They joined  same act of audacity was repeated, with the
in censuring the conduct of the Indian adminis- same circumstances of contempt of all the decotration, and enforcing the responsibility upon two  rum of inquiry on their part, and of all the promen,c2  whom this House, in consequence of these  ceedings of this House.  They again made it a
reports, declared it to be the duty of the Direct- request to their favorite [Mr. Hastings] and your
ors to remove from their stations, and recall to  culprit to keep his post, and thanked and applaudGreat Britain, " because they had acted in a man- ed him, without calling for a paper which could
ncr repugnant to the honor and policy of this na- afford light into the merit or demerit of the transtion, and thereby brought great calamities on In- action, and without giving themselves a moment's
dia, and enormous expenses on the East India  time to consider, or even to understand, the artiCompany."                                      cles of the Mahratta peace.  The fact is, that
Here was no attempt on the charter.  Here  for a long time there was a struggle, a faint one
The Comrpany was no question of their privileges. indeed, between the Company and their servants;
forbade the Di- To vindicate their own honor, to sup- but it is a struggle no longer.  For some time
rectors to carry
out te resolu- port their own interests. to enforce  the superiority has been decided.  The interests
tion.      obedience to their own orders-these  abroad are become the settled preponderating
were the sole object of the monitory resolution  weight both in the court of Proprietors and the
of this House.  But as soon as the General Court court of Directors.  Even the attempt you have
could assemble, they assembled to demonstrate  made to inquire into their practices and to rewho they really were.  Regardless of the pro- form abuses has raised and piqued them to a far
ceedings of this House, they ordered the Direct- more regular and steady support.  The Comors not to carry into effect any resolution they  pany has made a common cause and identified
might come to for the removal of Mr. Hastings themselves with the destroyers of India.  They
and Mr. Hornby.  The Directors, still retaining  have taken on themselves all that mass of enorsome shadow of respect to this House, instituted  mity; they are supporting what you have reproan inquiry themselves, which lasted from June  bated; those you condemn they applaud; those
to October; and, after an attentive perusal and  you order home to answer for their conduct, they
full consideration  of papers, resolved to take  request to stay, and thereby encourage to prosteps for removing the persons who had been  ceed in their practices.  Thus the servants of
the objects of our resolution, but not without a the East India Company triumph, and the repreviolent struggle against evidence.  Seven Di- sentatives of the people of Great Britain are derectors went so far as to enter a protest against feated.
the vote of their court.  Upon this the General    I therefore conclude, what you all conclude,
Court takes the alarm; it reassembles; it orders that this body, being totally perverted from the
the Directors to rescind their resolution, that is, purposes of its institution, is utterly incorrigible;
not to recall Mr. Hastings and Mr. Hornby, and  and because they are incorrigible, both in con-......___-............................... _duct and constitution, power ought to be taken
2i Mr. Hastings, the Governor General, and Mr. out of their hands, just on the same principles
Hornby, President of Bombay.                    on which have been made all the just changes




324                                MR. BURKE ON THE                                      [1783.
and revolutions of government that have taken  be trusted, safely trusted, to act in strict conplace since the beginning of the world.         formity to their common principles, manners,
I will now say a few words to the general measures, interests, and connections. They will
Scheme op. principle of the plan which is set up  want neither monitor nor control. It is not easy
posed to Mr. against that of my right honorable  to choose men to act in conformity to a public
friend. It is to re-commit the govern- interest against their private; but a sure dependrment of India to the court of Directors.  Those ence may be had on those who are chosen to
who would commit the reformation of India to  forward their private interest at the expense of
the destroyers of it, are the enemies to that ref- the public. But if the Directors should slip, and
ormation.  They would make a distinction be- deviate into rectitude, the punishment is in the
tween Directors and Proprietors, which, in the  hands of the General Court, and it will surely
present state of things, does not, can not exist. be remembered to them at their next election.
But a right honorable gentleman says he would    If the government of India wants no reformakeep the present government of India in the  tion, but gentlemen are amusing themselves with
court of Directors, and would, to curb them, a theory, conceiving a more democratic or arisprovide salutary regulations. Wonderful! That tocratic mode of government for these dependis, he would appoint the old offenders to correct encies, or if they are in a dispute only about patthe old offenses, and he would render the vicious ronage, the dispute is with me of so little conand the foolish wise and virtuous by salutary  cern, that I should not take the pains to utter an
regulations!  He would appoint the wolf as affirmative or negative to any proposition in it.
guardian of the sheep; but he has invented a  If it be only for a theoretical amusement that
curious muzzle, by which this protecting wolf they are to propose a bill, the thing is at best
shall not be able to open his jaws above an inch  frivolous and unnecessary.  But if the Compaor two at the utmost.  Thus his work is finish- ny's government is not only full of abuse, but is
ed.  But I tell the right honorable gentleman  one of the most corrupt and destructive tyranthat controlled depravity is not innocence, and  nies that probably ever existed in the world (as
that it is not the labor of delinquency in chains  I am sure it is), what a cruel mockery would it
that will correct abuses.  Will these gentlemen  be in me, ana in those who think like me, to proof the direction animadvert on the partners of  pose this kind of remedy for this kind of evil!
their own guilt?  Never did a serious plan of    II. I now come to the second objection: That
amending of any old tyrannical establishment this bill will increase the influence of tne second
propose the authors and abettors of the abuses  Crown.  An honorable gentleman has objection.
as the reformers of them. If the undone people  demanded of me whether I was in earnest when
of India see their old oppressors in confirmed  I proposed to this House a plan for the reduction
power, even by the reformation, they will expect of that influence.2  Indeed, sir, I was much,
nothing but what they will certainly feel-a con- very much in earnest.  My heart was deeply
tinuance, or rather an aggravation, of all their concerned in it, and I hope the public has not
former sufferings.  They look to the seat of lost the effect of it.  How far my judgment was
power, and to the persons who fill it; and they  right for what concerned personal favor and
despise those gentlemen's regulations as much  consequence to myself, I shall not presume to
as the gentlemen do who talk of them.           determine, nor is its effect upon me of any moBut there is a cure for every thing.  Take  ment.  But as to this bill, whether it increases
away, say they, the court of Proprietors, and the  the influence of the Crown or not, is a question
court of Directors will do their duty.  Yes, as I should be ashamed to ask.  If I am not able
they have done it hitherto!  That the evils in  to correct a system of oppression and tyranny,
India have solely arisen from the court of Pro- that goes to the utter ruin of thirty millions of
prietors, is grossly false.  In many of them, the  my fellow-creatures and fellow-subjects, but by
Directors were heartily concurring; in most of some increase to the influence of the Crown, I
them, they were encouraging, and sometimes  am ready here to declare that I, who have been
commanding; in all, they were conniving.        active to reduce it, shall be at least as active
But who are to choose this well-regulated  and strenuous to restore it again. I am no lover
and reforming court of Directors?  Why, the  of names; I contend for the substance of tgood
very proprietors who are excluded from all man- and protecting government, let it come from
agement for the abuse of their power.  They  what quarter it will.
will choose, undoubtedly, out of themselves, men    But I am not obliged to have recourse to this
like themselves; and those who are most for- expedient. Much, very much the con- No evi.delce
ward in resisting your authority, those who are  trary. I am sure that the influence of tlat tie bill
most engaged in faction or interest with the de- the Crown will by no means aid a ref- tihe influence
linquents abroad, will be the objects of their ormation of this kind, which can nei- oteC.
selection.  But gentlemen say that when this ther be originated nor supported but by the unchoice is made the Proprietors are not to inter- corrupt public virtue of the representatives of
fare in the measures of the Directors, while  the people of England. Let it once get into the
those Directors are busy in the control of their ordinary course of administration, and to me all
common patrons and masters in India.  No, in-     
deed, I believe they will not desire to interfere.   22 Referring to Mr. Burke's plan of economical
They will choose those whom  they know may  reform.




1783.]                        EAST INDIA BILL OF MR. FOX.                                  325
hopes of reformation are gone.  I am far from  That influence this bill cuts up by the roots; I
knowing or believing that this bill will increase  mean the influence of protection.  I shall explain
the influence of the Crown.  We all know that myself: The office given to a young man going
the Crown has ever had some influence in the  to India is of trifling consequence; but he that
court of Directors, and that it has been extreme- goes out an insignificant boy, in a few years rely increased by the acts of 1773 and 1780. The  turns a great nabob.  Mr. Hastings says he has
gentlemen (Mr. Dundas, &c.) who, as part of  two hundred and fifty of that kind of raw matetheir reformation, propose " a more active con- rials, who expect to be speedily manufactured
trol on the part of the Crown," which is to put into the merchantable quality I mention.  One
the Directors under a Secretary of State spe- of these gentlemen, suppose, returns hither, loadcially named for that purpose, must know that ed with odium and with riches. When he comes
their project will increase it farther.  But that to England, he comes as to a prison or as to a
old influence has had, and the new will have, sanctuary, and either is ready for him, according
incurable inconveniences, which can not happen  to his demeanor.  What is the influence in the
under the parliamentary establishment proposed  grant of any place in India, to that which is acin this bill.  An honorable gentleman (Governor quired by the protection or compromise with such
Johnstone) not now in his place, but who is well guilt, and with the command of such riches, unacquainted with the India Company, and by no  der the dominion of the hopes and fears which
means a friend to this bill, has told you that a  power is able to hold out to every man in that
ministerial influence has always been predomi- condition?  That man's whole fortune-half a
nant in that body; and that to make the Direct- million, perhaps-becomes an instrument ofinfluors pliant to their purposes, ministers generally  ence, without a shilling of charge to the civil
caused persons meanly qualified to be chosen  list; and the influx of fortunes which stand in
Directors. According to his idea, to secure sub- need of this protection is continual.  It works
serviency they submitted the Company's affairs both ways; it influences the delinquent, and it:
to the direction of incapacity.  This was to ruin  may corrupt the minister.  Compare the influthe Company in order to govern it.  This was ence acquired by appointing, for instance, even
certainly influence in the very worst form in  a Governor General, and that obtained by prowhich it could appear.  At best it was clandes- tecting him.  I shall push this no farther; but
tine and irresponsible.  Whether this was done  I wish gentlemen to roll it a little in their own
so much upon system as that gentleman suppos- minds.
es, I greatly doubt.  But such; in effect; the op-    The bill before you cuts off this source of ileration of government on that court unquestion- fluence.  Its design and main scope is to reguably was, and such, under a similar constitu- late the administration of India upon the princition, it will be forever. Ministers must be whol- ples of a court of judicature, and to exclude, as
ly removed from the management of the aftairs far as human prudence can exclude, all possiof India, or they will have an influence in its pat- bility of a corrupt partiality, in appointing to
ronage. The thing is inevitable. Their scheme  office, or supporting in office, or covering from
of a new Secretary of State, "with a more vig- inquiry and punishment, any person who has
orous control," is not much better than a repeti- abused or shall abuse his authority.  At the
tion of the measure which we know by experi- board, as appointed and regulated by this bill,
ence will not do.  Since the year 1773 and the  reward and punishment can not be shifted and
year 1780, the Company has been under the  reversed by a whisper.  That commission becontrol of the Secretary of State's office, and we  comes fatal to cabal, to intrigue, and to secret
had then three Secretaries of State.  If more representation, those instruments of the ruin of
than this is done, then they annihilate the direc- India.  He that cuts off the means of premature
tion which they pretend to support, and they  fortune, and the power of protecting it when acaugment the influence of the Crown, of whose  quired, strikes a deadly blow at the great fund,
growth they affect so great a horror.  But, in  the bank, the capital stock of Indian influence,
truth, this scheme of reconciling a direction real- which can not be vested any where, or in any
ly and truly deliberative, with an office really  hands, without the most dangerous consequences
and substaitially controlling, is a sort of machin- to the public.
ery that can be kept in order but a very short   III. The third contradictory objection is, that
time.  Either the Directors will dwindle into  this bill does not increase the influence of Third obclerks, or the Secretary of State, as hitherto has the Crown; on the contrary, that thejust jection.
been the course, will leave every thing to them, power of the Crown will be lessened and transoften through design, often through neglect. If ferred to the use of a party, by giving the patronboth should affect activity, collision, procrastina- age of India to a commission nominated by Partion, delay, and, in the end, utter confusion, must liament and independent of the Crown.  The conensue.                                          tradiction is glaring, and it has been too well exBuit, sir, there is one kind of influence far posed to make it necessary for me to insist upon
A worse kind greater than that of the nomination to  it; but, passing the contradiction, and taking it
of l"uence. office.  This, gentlemen in opposition  without any relation, of all objections, that is the
have totally overlooked, although it now exists most extraordinary.  Do not gentlemen know
in its full vigor; and it will do so, upon. their that the Crown has not at present the grant of
scheme, in at least as much force as it does now. a single office under the Company, civil or mili



326                                MR. BURKE ON THE                                      [1783
tary, at home or abroad?  So far as the Crown  This House of Commons would not endure the
is concerned, it is certainly rather a gainer, for sound of such names.  He would perish by the
the vacant offices are to be filled up by the King. means which he is supposed to pursue for the
It is argued, as a part of the bill derogatory  security of his power.  The first pledge he must
tenure  to the prerogatives of the Crown, that give of his sincerity in this great reform will be
tor four years the Commissioners named in the bill in the confidence which ought to be reposed in
defended.   are to continue for a short term  of  those names.
years (too short, in my opinion), and because,    For my part, sir, in this business I put all induring that time, they are not at the mercy of  direct questions wholly out of my mind.  My
every predominant faction of the Court.  Does sole question, on each clause of the bill, amounts
not this objection lie against the present Direct- to this: Is the measure proposed required by the
ors, none of whom are named by the Crown, and  necessities of India?  I can not consent totally
a proportion of whom hold for this very term of  to lose sight of the real wants of the people who
four years?  Did it not lie against the Governor are the objects of it, and to hunt after every matGeneral and council named in the act of 1773, ter of party squabble that may be started on the
who were invested by name, as the present Comn- several provisions.  On the question of the duramissioners are to be appointed in the body of the  tion of the commission I am clear and decided.
act of Parliament, who were to hold their places  Can I, can any one who has taken the smallest
for a term of years, and were not removable at trouble to be informed concerning the affairs of
the discretion of the Crown?  Did it not lie  India, amuse himself with so strange an imaginaagainst the reappointment, in the year 1780, tion as that the habitual despotism and oppresupon the very same terms?  Yet at none of these  sion, that the monopolies, the peculations, the
times, whatever other objections the scheme  universal destruction of all the legal authority
might be liable to, was it supposed to be a dero- of this kingdom, which have been for twenty
gation to the just prerogative of the Crown, that a  years maturing to their present enormity, comcommission created by act of Parliament should  bined with the distance of the scene, the boldhave its members named by the authority which  ness and artifice of delinquents, their corbinacalled it into existence?  This is not the dis- tion, their excessive wealth, and the faction they
posal by Parliament of any office derived from  have made in England, can be fully corrected
the authority of the Crown, or now disposable  in a shorter term than four years?  None has
by that authority.  It is so far from being any  hazarded such an assertion; none who has a rething new, violent, or alarming, that I do not rec- gard for his reputation will hazard it.
ollect, in any parliamentary commission, down to    Sir, the gentlemen, whoever they are, who
the commissioners of the land tax, that it has ever shall be appointed to this commission, TheCom2isbeen otherwise.                                 have an undertaking of magnitude on si0ert.havk
The objection of the tenure for four years is an  their hands, and their stability must to perorm.
objection to all places that are not held during  not only be, but it must be thought, real; and
pleasure; but in that objection I pronounce the  who is it will believe that any thing short of an
gentlemen, from my knowledge of their complex- establishment made, supported, and fixed in its
ion and of their principles, to be perfectly in earn- duration with all the authority of Parliament,
est. The party (say these gentlemen) of the min- can be thought secure of a reasonable stability?
ister who proposes this scheme will be rendered  The plan of my honorable friend is the reverse
Answer to the powerful by it, for he will name his of that of reforming by the authors of the abuse.
objection that
the miisate   party friendstothecommission. This The best we could expect from them  is, that
isPll enint  objection against party is a party ob- they should not continue their ancient pernicious
Commiesioners. jection; and in this, too, these gen- activity.  To those we could think of nothing
tlemen are perfectly serious.  They see that if, but applying control, as we are sure that even a
by any intrigue, they should succeed to office, regard to their reputation (if any such thing
they will lose the clandestine patronage, the true  exists in them) would oblige them to cover, to
instrument of clandestine influence, enjoyed in the  conceal, to suppress, and consequently to prename of subservient Directors, and of wealthy, vent, all cure of the grievances of India.  For
trembling Indian delinquents.  But as often as what can be discovered which is not to their
they are beaten off this ground, they return to it disgrace?  Every attempt to correct an abuse
again.  The minister will name his friends, and  would be a satire on their former administration.
persons of his own party. Who should he name? Every man they should pretend to call to an acShould he name those whom he can not trust?  count would be found their instrument or their
Should he name those to execute his plans who  accomplice.  They can never see a beneficial
are the declared enemies to the principles of his regulation but with a view to defeat it.  The
reform?  His character is here at stake.  If he shorter the tenure of such persons, the better
proposes for his own ends (but he never will pro- would be the chance of some amendment.
pose) such names as, from their want of rank, for-    But the system of the bill is different. It calls
tune, character, ability, or knowledge, are likely  in persons nowise concerned with any act cento betray or to fall short of their trust, he is in an  sured by Parliament; persons generated with, and
independent House of Commons; in a House of  for the reform of which they are themselves the
Commons which has, by its own virtue, destroyed  most essential part.  To these the chief regulathe instruments of parliamentary subservience. tions in the bill are helps, not fetters; they are




1783.]                      EAST INDIA BILL OF MR. FOX.                                      327
authorities to support, not regulations to restrain  owing to the mismanagement of the East India
them.  From these we look for much more than  Company, have already taken a million from that
innocence.  From  these we expect zeal, firm- fund by the non-payment of duties.  The bills
ness, and unremitted activity.  Their duty, their drawn upon the Company, which are about four
character, binds them to proceedings of vigor;  millions, can not be accepted without the conand they ought to have a tenure in their office  sent of the treasury.  The treasury, acting unwhich precludes all fear, while they are acting  der a parliamentary trust and authority, pledges
up to the purposes of their trust; a tenure with- the public for these millions. If they pledge the
out which none will undertake plans that re- public, the public must have a security in its
quire a series and system of acts.  When they  hands for the management of this interest, or
know  that they can not be whispered out of  the national credit is gone; for otherwise it is
their duty, that their public conduct can not be  not only the East India Company, which is a
censured without a public discussion, that the  great interest, that is undone, but, clinging to
schemes which they have begun will not be com- the security of all your funds, it drags down the
mitted to those who will have an interest and  rest, and the whole fabric perishes in one ruin.
credit in defeating and disgracing them, then  If this bill does not provide a direction of integwe may entertain hopes. The tenure is for four rity and of ability competent to that trust, the obyears, or during their good behavior. That good  jection is fatal.  If it does, public credit must
behavior is as long as they are true to the prin- depend on the support of the bill.
ciples of the bill; and the judgment is in either    It has been said, if you violate this charter,
house of Parliament. This is the tenure of your what security has the charter of the Bank, in
judges; and the valuable.principle of the bill is, which public credit is so deeply concerned, and
to make a judicial administration for India.  It even the charter of London, in which the rights
is to give confidence in the execution of a duty  of so many subjects are involved?  I answer, in
which requires as much perseverance and forti- the like case they have no security at all-notude as can fall to the lot of any that is born of  no security at all.  If the Bank should, by every
woman.                                           species of mismanagement, fall into a state simAs to the gain by party from the right honor- ilar to that of the East India Company; if it
Awrt- able gentleman's bill, let it be shown  should be oppressed with demands it could not
jection as to that this supposed party advantage is answer, engagements which it could not perparty gai.   pernicious to its object, and the object- form, and with bills for which it could not protion is of weight; but until this is done, and this cure payment, no charter should protect the mishas not been attempted, I shall consider the sole  management from  correction, and such public
objection, from its tendency to promote the inter- grievances from redress.  If the city of London
est of a party, as altogether contemptible.  The  had the means and will of destroying an empire.
kingdom is divided into parties, and it ever has  and of cruelly oppressing and tyrannizing over
been so divided, and it ever will be so divided; millions of men as good as themselves, the charand if no system for relieving the subjects of this  ter of the city of London should prove no sanekingdom  from oppression, and snatching its af- tion to such tyranny and such oppression.  Charfairs from ruin, can be adopted until it is demon- ters are kept when their purposes are mintatined;
strated that no party can derive an advantage  they are violated when the privilege is supported
from it, no good can ever be done in this coun- against its aim and object.
try.  If party is to derive an advantage from the    Now, sir, I have finished all I proposed to say;
reform of India (which is more than I know or as my reasons for giving my vote to thiserrti
believe), it ought to be that party which alone  bill.  If I am wrong, it is not for want
in this kingdom has its reputation, nay, its very  of pains to know what is right.  This pledge, at
being, pledged to the protection and preser- least, of my rectitude, I have given to my country.
vation of that part of the empire.  Great fear    And now, having done my duty to the bill, let
is expressed that the Commissioners named in  me say a word to the author.  I should Eulogium
this bill will show some regard to a minister out leave him to his own noble sentiments, "o Mr. Fox.
of place [Lord North].  To men like the object- if the unworthy and illiberal language with which
ors, this must appear criminal. Let it, however, he has been treated, beyond all example of parbe remembered by others, that if the Comnis- liamentary liberty, did not make a few words
sioners should be his friends, they can not be his  necessary, not so much in justice to him as to
slaves.  But dependents are not in a condition  my own feelings.  I must say, then, that it will
to adhere to friends, nor to principles, nor to any  be a distinction honorable to the age, that the
uniform line of conduct.  They may begin cen- rescue of the greatest number of the human race
sors, and be obliged to end accomplices.  They  that ever were so grievously oppressed, from the
may be even put under the direction of those  greatest tyranny that was ever exercised, has
whom they were appointed to punish.              fallen to the lot of abilities and dispositions equal
IV. The fourth and last objection is, that to the task; that it has fallen to one who has
Fourth  the bill will hurt public credit. I do not the enlargement to comprehend, the spirit to unobjection know whether this requires an answer; dertake, and the eloquence to support so great a
but if it does, look to your foundations.  The  measure of hazardous benevolence.  His spirit is
sinking fund is the pillar of credit in this coun- not owing to his ignorance of the state of men
try; and let it not be forgot, that the distresses, and things; he well knows what snares are




328              MR. BURKE ON  THE EAST INDIA  BILL OF MR. FOX.                               [1783.
spread about his path, from personal animosity,    Implebit terras voce; et furialia bella
from court intrigues, and possibly from popular    Fuline compescet lingue.23
delusion.  But he has put to hazard his ease,    This was what was said of the predecessor of
his security, his interest, his power, even his dar- the only person to whose eloquence it does not
ling popularity, for the benefit of a people whom   wrong that of the mover of this bill to be comhe has never seen.  This is the road that all he- pared.  But the Ganges and the Indus are the
roes have trod before him.  He is traduced and  patrimony of the fame of my honorable friend,
abused for his supposed motives. He will remem- and not of Cicero.  I confess I anticipate with
ber that obloquy is a necessary ingredient in the  joy the reward of those whose whole consecomposition of all true glory; he will remem- quence, power, and authority exist only for the
ber that it was not only in the Roman customs, benefit of mankind; and I carry my mind to all.
hut it is in the nature and constitution of things, the people, and all the names and descriptions
that calumny and abuse are essential parts of a  that, relieved by this bill, will bless the labors
triumph.2'  These thoughts will support a mind, of this Parliament and the confidence which the
which only exists for honor, under the burden of  best House of Commons has given to him  who
temporary  reproach.  He is doing, indeed, a  the best deserves it.  The little cavils of party
great good, such as rarely falls to the lot, and al- will not be heard where freedom  and happiness
most as rarely coincides with the desires of any  will be felt.  There is not a tongue, a nation, or
man.  Let him use his time.  Let him give the  religion in India which will not bless the prewhole length of the reins to his benevolence.2 siding care and manly beneficence of this House,
He is now on a great eminence, where the eyes  and of him who proposes to you this great work.
of mankind are turned to him.  He may live  Your names will never be separated before the
long; he may do much.  But here is the summit. throne of the Divine Goodness, in whatever lanHe never can exceed what he does this day.         guage, or with whatever rites pardon is asked
He has faults, but they are faults that, though  for sin, and reward for those who imitate the
they may in a small degree tarnish the luster  Godhead in his universal bounty to his creatures.
and sometimes impede the march of his abilities, These honors you deserve, and they will surely
have nothing in them to extinguish the fire of  be paid, when all the jargon of influence, and
great virtues.  In those faults there is no mix- party, and patronage are swept into oblivion.
ture of deceit, of hypocrisy, of pride, of ferocity,    I have spoken what I think and what I feel
of complexional despotism, or want of feeling  of the mover of this bill.  An honorable friend
for the distresses of mankind.  His are faults of mine, speaking of his merits, was charged
which might exist in a descendant of Henry the  with having made a studied panegyric.  I don't
Fourth of France, as they did exist in that father know  what his was.  Mine, I am  sure, is a
of his country.  Henry the Fourth wished that studied panegyric; the fruit of much meditahe might live to see a fowl in the pot of every  tion; the result of the observation of near twenpeasant of his kingdom.  That sentiment of  ty years.  For my own part, I am happy that I
homely benevolence was worth all the splendid  have lived to see this day.  I feel myself oversayings that are recorded of kings; but he  paid for the labors of eighteen years, when, at
wished, perhaps, for more than could be obtain-  this late period, I am able to take my share, by
ed, and the goodness of the man exceeded the  one humble vote, in destroying a tyranny that
power of the king.  But this gentleman, a sub- exists to the disgrace of this nation and the deject, may this day say this, at least, with truth, struction of so large a part of the human species.
that he secures the rice in his pot to every man
in India.  A poet of antiquity thought it one of    The bill passed the House of Commons by a
the first distinctions to a prince whom he meant very large majority, but was defeated in the
to celebrate, that, through a long succession of  House of Lords by a resort to means which are
generations, he had been the progenitor of an  fully explained in the sketch of Mr. Fox's life.
able and virtuous citizen [Cicero], who, by force    In connection with this defeat, Mr. Fox was
of the arts of peace, had corrected governments  dismissed, and Mr. William  Pitt placed at the
f oppression and suppressed wars of rapine.       head of affairs.  Mr. Burke went out of office
Indole proh quanta juvenis, quantumque daturus  with his friend, and was engaged for some years
Ausonie populis, ventura in saecula civem.      in a most active opposition to Mr. Pitt, whom
Ille super Gangem, super exauditus et Indos,    he attacked with great force in the speech which
21 During the procession in a Roman triumph, the  immediately follows.
soldiers and spectators proclaimed the praises of the
conqueror, or indulged in keen sarcasms and coarse   23 The poet here addresses Tullus Attins, one of
ribaldry at his expense, the most perfect freedom of the ealy kings of the Volsci, who, according to some
speech being exercised on this occasion.-Smith's  accounts, was the progenitor of Cicero, and congratDictionary of Antiquities, p. 1018.               ulates him, in this character, on the greatness o' his
22 Mr. Burke seems to have been partial to this future descendant.
image. Elsewhere he speaks of " pouring out all   Rich in the gifts of nature, favored youth 
the length of the reins," &c., using the image in va-   Thou to the Italian race shall give the MAN
rious forms a number of times. It is derived from    In ages far remote their city's pride;  [streams,
the "laxas habenas," "effunderehabenas" of Virgil,   Whose voice sublime shall ring o'er Ganges'
in speaking of the management of steeds in chariot   Through both the Indies, to Earth's utmost bound,
races, &c.                                           Ard still, with lightning-force, the rage of war.




1785.1               MR. BURKE ON THE NABOB OF ARCOT'S DEBTS.                                       329
SPEECH
OF MR. BURKE ON THE NABOB OF ARCOT'S DEBTS, DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS,
FEBRUARY 28, 1785.
INTRODUCTION.
THE design of this speech was to convict Mr. Pitt of a scandalous abuse of power. It charges him
with allowing the claims of a set of unprincipled speculators in India to the amount of four millions of
pounds, in direct defiance of an act of Parliament drawn up by Mr. Pitt himself.
Men of-all parties had agreed that these claims were of a highly suspicious character, and ought never
to be paid until they were severely scrutinized. Mr. Pitt, in his East India Bill, had therefore provided.
that "whereas large sums of money are claimed to be due to British subjects by the Nabob of Atcot, the
Court of Directors, as soon as may be, shall take into consideration the origin and justice of these demands."  And yet, one of the first acts of the Board of Control created by that bill, was to take the whole
matter out of the hands of the Directors just as they had commenced the investigation! This was done
by Mr. Henry Dundas, President of the Board of Control, and it is, therefore, against him more immediately that the force of this speech is directed, though Mr. Pitt, as prime minister, was justly held responsible. A mandate was issued for paying all these claims without farther inquiry, and the Directors of
the East India Company, notwithstanding their most earnest remonstrances, were compelled to sign an
order for disbursing what proved to be nearly five millions of pounds sterling (interest included) on u:count
of these debts.-Mill's British India, v., 26.
A few words only will be necessary to explain their origin. Mohammed All, Nabob of the Carnatic, or,
as he was more commonly called, Nabob of Alcot, fiom the town where he held his courlt, was a man of
weak judgment but strong passions, who was established in his dominions, to the prejudice of anl elder
brother, by the policy and arms of the Presidency of Madras.  At an early period, he fell under the influence of Paul Benfield and a few other English residents, who played upon his passions, encouraged his
schemes of conquest, and ruled him with absolute authority.  They no doubt lent him money to some
extent; but, as their means were limited, the amount could not have been very great.  Every thing
which they did lend, however, was put upon extravagant interest; and when he failed to pay, the amount
was sometimes doubled or tripled in taking new securities.  There is also reason to believe, that, in order
to obtain their favor, he gave them acknowledgments of debts to an immense amount, which wete understood by both parties to be purely fictitious. Thus, from time to time, enormous sums were put uponl
interest, at the rate of twenty or thirty per cent. a year, until the annual proceeds of the debts thus accunulated were equal, as Mr. Burke remarks, to "the revenue of a respectable kingdom."  The Directors of the Company, in the mean time, had no knowledge of these proceedings, which were studiously
concealed from all but the immediate agents in this system of usury and peculation. The Nabob at last
became wholly unable to protect the dominions over which he had been placed, and the Company were
compelled, in self-defense, and for the accomplishment of their designs. to take the military operations
of the country into their own hands.  In doing this, they received from the Nabob an assignment of his
revenues, for the purpose of defraying the expense. But it now came out that these very revenues, to
a great extent, had been previously assigned to Benfield and his fiiends, to secure the interest on their
claims. Hence it was important for the Company to inquire how far these claims had any real foundation. Under Mr. Pitt's East India Bill, this inquiry became equally important to the whole British nation, because the civil and military concerns of India had now passed into the hands of the government
at home. Whatever allowance was made to Benfield and his associates on the score of these debts, was
so much money deducted fiom the resources provided for the government of India. Any deficit that occurred was of course to be supplied out of the general treasury of the empire; and the question was,
therefore, truly stated by Mr. Burke to be this, " Whether the Board of Control could transfer the public
revenue to the private emolument of certain servants of the East India Company, without the inquiry
into the origin and justice of their claims, prescribed by an act of Parliament."
Mr. Fox brought the subject before the House in a call for papers, supported by a powerful speech, on
the evening of the 28th of February, 1785. Mr. Dundas replied at great length, and was followed by Sir
Thomas Rxumbold, formerly President of Madras, who condemned the decision of the Board in brief but
energetic terms.  It was now late, and the cry of "Question! " "Question!" was heard fiom every
quarter. At this moment Mr. Burke rose and commenced the speech before us, which lastedfve hours!
Never did a man speak under such adverse circumstances. The House was completely wearied out
by the preceding discussion; and the majority, besides being prejudiced against Mr. Burke on other
grounds, were so vexed at the unfortunate timing and length of his speech, that the more lhe dilated on
the subject, the more filrmly they were resolved to vote him down. In fact, no one that night seems to




330                                  MR. BURKE ON  THE                                        [1785
have had any conception of the real character of the speech which was delivered in their hearing. Lord
Grenville was asked by Mr. Pitt, toward the close, whether it was best to reply, and instantly said,
"No! not the slightest impression has been made. The speech may with perfect safety be passed over
in silence."  And yet, if Lord Grenville had been called upon, at a subsequent period of his life, to name
the most remarkable speech in our language for its triumph over the difficulties of the subject, for the
union of brilliancy and force, of comprehensive survey and minute detail, of vivid description and impassioned eloquence, he would at once, probably, have mentioned the speech on the Nabob of Arcot's debts.
It does not, however, contain as much fine philosophy, or profound remark, as some of Mr. Burke's earlier
speeches. Nor is it faultless in style, though it is generally distinguished by an elastic energy of expression admirably suited to the subject. Still, there are passages which mark a transition into greater
profluence of imagery on the one hand, and greater coarseness of language on the other, arising from the
excited state of Mr. Burke's mind. Never had his feelings been so completely roused. In none of his
speeches do we find so much of cutting sarcasm. In none, except that against Warren Hastings, has he
poured out his whole soul in such fervid declamation. His description of Hyder Ali, sweeping over the
Carnatic with fire and sword, is the most eloquent passage which he ever produced. Lord Brougham
has pronounced this speech "by far the first of all Mr. Burke's orations."
SPEECH, &c.
THE times we live in, Mr. Speaker, have been  that our concerns in India were matters of delidistinguished by extraordinary events.  Habitu- cacy; that to divulge any thing relative to them
ated, however, as we are, to uncommon combina- would be mischievous to the state.  He did not
tions of men and of affairs, I believe nobody rec- tell us that those who would inquire into his
ollects any thing more surprising than the spec- proceedings were disposed to dismember the
iaele of this day.  The right honorable gentle-  empire.  He had not the presumption to say
tiian [Mr. Dundas], whose conduct is now in ques- that, for his part, having obtained, in his Indian
tion, formerly stood forth in this House the pros-  presidency, the ultimate object of his ambition,
ecutor of the worthy baronet [Sir Thomas Rum-  his honor was concerned in executing with integbold] who spoke after him.  He charged him  rity the trust which had been legally committed
with several grievous acts of malversation in  to his charge; that others, not having been so foroffice; with abuses of a public trust of a great tunate, could not be so disinterested, and therefore
and heinous nature.  In less than two years we  their accusations could spring from no other source
see the situation of parties reversed, and a singu- than faction, and envy to his fortune.
lar revolution puts the worthy baronet in a fair    Had he been frontless enough to hold such
way of returning the prosecution in a recrimina- vain, vaporing language, in the face of a grave,
tory bill of pains and penalties, grounded on a  a detailed, a specified matter of accusation, while
breach of public trust, relative to the govern-  he violently resisted every thing which could bring
ment of the very same part of India.  If he  the merits of his cause to the test; had he been
should undertake a bill of that kind, he will find  wild enough to anticipate the absurdities of this
no difficulty in conducting it with a degree of  day; that is, had he inferred, as his late accuser
skill and vigor fully equal to all that have been  has thought proper to do, that he could not have
exerted against him.'                              been guilty of malversation in office, for this sole
But the change of relation between these two  and curious reason, that he had been in office;
gentlemen is not so striking as the total differ- had he argued the impossibility of his abusing
ence of their deportment under the same unhap-  his power on this sole principle, that he had
py circumstances.  Whatever the merits of the  power to abuse, he would have left but one imworthy baronet's defense might have been, he did  pression on the mind of every man who heard
not shrink from the charge.  He met it with man- him, and who believed him in his senses-that,
liness of spirit and decency of behavior.  What in the utmost extent, he was guilty of the charge.2
would have been thought of him if he had held
the present langouage of his old accuser?  When    2 This is the best of Mr. Burke's exordiums; it
articles were exhibited against him by that right  would be difficult, indeed, to find a better in any oraarticles were exhibited against him by that right to  a          Or mdr  e        t    ofDeosbeih r     gtm     he i    not tn  tion. ancient or modern, except that of Demosthenes
honorable gentleman, he did not think proper to
honorable gentleman, he dd not tn   proper to  for the Crown. It springs directly out of a turn in the
tell the House that we oughht to institute no in-  debate, and has therefore all the freshness and interquiry, to inspect no paper, to examine no wit-  est belonging to a real transaction which has just taness.  He did not tell us (what at that time he  ken place before the audience. It turns upon a strikmight have told us with some show of reason) ing circumstance, the sudden and remarkable change...-~_...-~_~    ~           in the relative position of the two parties; and puts
It requires a minute knowledge of the times to  Mr. Dundas in the wrong from the very outset. Beunderstand this reference. Mr. Dundas, in 1782, had  fore a syllable is said touching the merits of the case,
brought in a bill of pains and penalties against Sir it presents him in the worst possible attitude-that
Thomas Rumbold for high crimes and misdemeanors  of shuffling and evading, instead of "meeting the
as Governor of Madras; but he managed it so badly, charge," like his old antagonist, " with manliness of
that he was at last compelled to give it up in disgrace.  spirit and decency of behavior."  There is great inHence Mr. Burke's reference to his "skill and ener- genuity in selecting the various points of contrast
gy" was a cutting sarcasm which Mr. Dundas could  between the deportment of Mr. Dundas and of Sir
not but feel most keenly.                          Thomas Rumbold in the two cases. The attack'"




1785.]                          NABOB OF AR COT'S DEBTS.                                        331
But, sir, leaving these two gentlemen to altern-  the law?  This can not be supposed even of an
ate, as criminal and accuser, upon what princi- act of Parliament conceived by the ministers
pies they think expedient, it is for us to consider  themselves, and brought forth during the deliriwhether the Chancellor of the Exchequer [Mr.  unm of the last session.3
Pitt] and the Treasurer of the Navy [Mr. Dundas],    II. My honorable friend [Mr. Fox] has told
acting as a Board of Control, are justified, by law  you in the speech which introduced St.ect-Debts
or policy, in suspending the legal arrangements  his motion, that, fortunately, this of tle Nabobor
made by the court of Directors, in order to trans-  question is not a great deal involv- vovel inny pefer the public revenues to the private emolument ed in the labyrinths of Indian detail. culiar mystery.
of certain servants of the East India Company,  Certainly not: but if it were, I beg leave to aswithout the inquiry into the origin and justice  sure you that there is nothing in the Indian deof their claims prescribed by an act of Parlia- tail which is more difficult than the detail of any
nent.                                              other business.  I admit, because I have some
I. It is not contended that the act of Parlia- experience of the fact, that, for the interior regpreliminary ment did not expressly ordain an in- ulation of India, a minute knowledge of India is
ti.8cusion  quiry.  It is not asserted that this in-  requisite; but, on any specific matter of delinquiry was not, with equal precision of  quency in its government, you are as capable of
terms, specially committed, under particular reg-  judging as if the same thing were done at your
ulations, to the court of Directors.  I conceive,  door.  Fraud, injustice, oppression. peculation,
therefore, the Board  of Control had no right engendered in India, are crimes of the same blood,
whatsoever to intermeddle in that business.  (1.)  family, and cast with those that are born and bred
There is nothing certain in the principles of ju-  in England.  To go no farther than the case berisprudence, if this be not undeniably true, that fore us: you are just as competent to judge
when a special authority is given to any persons  whether the sum of four millions sterling ought,
by name, to do some particular act, no others, by  or ought not, to be passed from the public treasvirtue of general powers, can obtain a legal title  ury into a private pocket, without any title exto intrude themselves into that trust, and to ex-  cept the claim of the parties, when the issue of
ercise those special functions in their place.  I  fact is laid in Madras, as when it is laid in Westtherefore consider the intermeddling of ministers  minster.  Terms of art, indeed, are different in
in this affair as a downright usurpation.  But if  different places, but they are generally underthe strained construction by which they have  stood in none.  The technical style of an Indian
forced themselves into a suspicious office (which  treasury is not one jot more remote than the jarevery man, delicate with regard to character, gon of our own exchequer, from the train of our
would rather have sought constructions to avoid)  ordinary ideas, or the idiom of our common lanwere perfectly sound and perfectly legal, of this  guage.  The difference, therefore, in the two
I am certain, (2.) That they can not be justified  cases is not in the comparative difficulty or facilin declining the inquiry which had been pre- ity of the two subjects, but in our attention to
scribed to the court of Directors.  If the Board  the one and our total neglect of the other.  Had
of Control did lawfully possess the right of exe-  this attention and neglect been regulated by the
cuting the special trust given to that court, they  value of the several objects, there would be nothmust take it as they found it, subject to the very  ing to complain of.  But the reverse of that supsame regulations which bound the court of Di- position is true.  The scene of the Indian abuse
rectors.  It will be allowed that the court of Di- is distant, indeed; but we must not infer that
rectors had no authority to dispense with either  the value of our interest in it is decreased in
the substance or the mode of inquiry prescribed  proportion as it recedes from our view.  In our
by the act of Parliament.  If they had not, where, politics, as in our common conduct, we shall be
in the act, did the Board of Control acquire that worse than infants, if we do not put our senses
capacity?  Indeed, it was impossible they should  under the tuition of our judgment, and effectuacquire it. What must we think of the fabric and  ally cure ourselves of that optical illusion which
texture of an act of Parliament which should find
it necessary to prescribe a strict inquisition; that     That session was one of which we could not exshould descend into minute regulations for the  peat Mr. Barke to speak in aly other terms than
conduct of that..nq.istion;   that should com.it those of bitter disappointment and the keenest asconduct of that inquisition; that should commit
ci a   s d c.it perity. It was the first meeting of Parliament aftthis trust to a particular description of men, and  er the elections of 1784, which had annihilated the
in the very same breath should enable another  power of Mr. Fox, and put his young rival in conmbody, at their own pleasure, to supersede all plete possession of the House, as prime minister.
the provisions the Legislature had made, and  One of its most important acts was the passing
to defeat the whole purpose, end, and object of  of Mr. Pitt's East India Bill, which dexterously
-~.-~_-_._.__.........._ adopted the most valuable features of Mr. Fox's
infinitely more severe from the indirect form which  bill. We may easily conceive of Mr. Burke's morit assumes —showing what Sir Thomas Rumbold did  tification at seeing the results of his labors thus
not do, and turning each of these negatives into a  turned to the advantage of one by whom he was
cutting reflection upon Mr. Dundas, as having " left driven from power. Early in this session the well.
but one impression on the mind of every man who  known case ol'the Westminster election came up,
heard him, and who believed him in his senses-  in respect to which Mr. Fox was certainly treated
that, in the utmost extent, he was guilty of the with arrogance and injustice by Mr. Pitt. To this,
charge.'                                          undoubtedly, Mr. Burke here alludes in' part.




332                                   MR. BURKE ON  THE                                       [1785
makes a brier at our nose, of greater magnitude  leading to despair, at the manner in which we
than an oak at five hundred yards' distance.       are acting in the great exigencies of Illustrationfrom
I think I can trace all the calamities of this  our country.  There is now  a bill two bnl before
the House.
Narrownessof country to the single source of our not in this House appointing a rigid inme     b the griLt having had steadily before our eyes a  quisition into the minutest detail of our offices
lortceTit   general, comprehelsive, well-connect-  at home.  The collection of sixteen millions anempire.    ed, and well-proportioned view of the  nually, a collection on which the pub- (i.i ThatonLthe
whole of our dominions, and a just sense of their  lie greatness, safety, and credit have th.';.,g li.c".'
true bearings and relations.  Alter all its re- their reliance; the whole order of couts.
ductions, the British empire is still vast and va- criminal jurisprudence, which holds together sorious.  After all the reductions of the House  ciety itself, have at no time obliged us to call
of Commons (stripped as we are of our bright- forth such powers; no, nor any thing like them.
est ornaments and of our most important privi-  There is not a principle of the law and constituleges)," enough are yet left to furnish us, if we  tion of this country that is not subverted to favor
please, with means of showing to the world that the execution of that project.  And  obr what is
we deserve the superintendence of as large an  all this apparatus of bustle and terror?  Is it
empire as this kingdom ever held, and the con-  because any thing substantial is expected from
tinua nce of as ample privileges as the House of  it?  No: the stir and bustle itself is the end
Commons, in the plenitude of its power, had  proposed!  The eye-servants of a short-sighted
been habituated to assert.  But if we make our- master will employ themselves, not on what is
selves too little for the sphere of our duty; if, on  most essential to his affairs, but on what is nearthe contrary, we do not stretch and expand our  est to his ken.  Great difficulties have given a
minds to the compass of their object, be well just value to economy; and our minister of the
assured that every thing about us will dwindle  day must be an economist, whatever it may cost
by degrees, until at length our concerns are  us.  But where is he to exert his talents?  At
shrunk to the dimensions of our minds.  It is not home, to be sure; for where else can he obtain a
a predilection to mean, sordid, home-bred cares, profitable credit for their exertion?  It is nothing
that will avert the consequences of a false esti- to him whether the object on which he works
mation of our interest, or prevent the shameful under our eye be promising or not.  If he does
dilapidation into which a great empire must fall, not obtain any public benefit, he may make regby mean reparations upon mighty ruins5            ulations without end.  Those are sure to pay in
I confess I feel a degree of disgust, almost present expectation, while the effect is at a dis-...Mr. B- ~~ in                               tance, and may be the concern of other times
4 Mr. Burke, in speaking of the loss of some of  and other men.  On these principles he chooses
our brightest ornaments," refers no doubt to a                     h  d                         
number of very able men of the Whig party, about              
one hundred and sixty of whom lost their election, to suppose) a naked   ossibility, that he shall
in 1784, through their adherence to Mr. Fox and his draw some resource out of crumbs dropped from
East India Bill. The "privileges" here referred to  the trenchers of penury; that something shall be
were those denied to Mr. Fox in respect to the  laid in store fiom the short allowance of revenue
Westminster election.                              officers overloaded with duty and famished for
o in this paragraph we have one of those fine  want of bread; by a reduction from officers who
generalizations which give so much richness and  are at this very hour ready to batter the treasuforce to the eloquence of Mr. Burke. In the pre-y            hat breaks through stone walls fo an
ceding paragraph he exposes one of the most corn- ry with what breas th gh stone walls  r an
cedig paragaph he exposes one of the most      increase of their appointments.  From the marmonl errors amoing men, that of allowing their interest in an object to decrease as it recedes from vie oless  bones of these skeleton establishments,
and this error he places in the strongest light, by his  by the use of every sort of cutting, and of every
image of the brier and the oak when seen at differ- sort of fretting tool, he flatters himself that he
ent distances. Here most orators would have stop- may chip and rasp an empirical alimentary powped; not so Mr. Burke; his observation had taught der, to diet into some similitude of health and
him that this was peculiarly the error of English  substance the languishing chimeras of fraudulent
politicians. In his first great speech, that on Amer- reformation
ican taxation, he had, eleven years before, pointed     hile he is thus employed accoding to his
out a similar error, as the leading characteristic of
Lord North. He (Iwelt on the "mischief  of lot  hav- policy and to his taste, he has not leisure to ining large and liberal ideas in the management of     ire into those abuses i Idia that ae dawgreat affairs."  "Never," says he, "have the serv-  ng off money by millions from the treasures of
ants of the state looked at the whole of your com- this country, which  are exhausting  the vital
plicated interests in one view. They have taken  juices from  members of the state, where the
things by bits and scraps, some at one time and one  public inanition is far more sorely felt than in the
pretense, and some at another, jest as they are  local exchequer of England.  Not content with
pressed, without any sort of regard to their relations  winking at these abuses, while he attempts to
and dependencies."  It was thus that America was  squeeze the laborious, ill-paid drudges of Enlost to England through the folly of Lord North; and
it ws iy the same narrowness of view,'; the same  glish revenue, he lavishes in one act of corrupt
predilection to mean, sordid, home-bred cares," that prodigality, upon those who never served the
Parliament, under the guidance of Mr. Pitt, were                                                ___.
eacrificing the highest interests of the empire by  the fabric of government "by mean reparations upon
their neglect of Indian affairs, and seeking to sustain  mighty ruins."




1785.]                          NABOB  OF ARCOT'S DEBTS.                                        333
public in any honest occupation at all, an annual    Strange as this scheme of conduct in ministry
income equal to two thirds of the whole collec- is, and inconsistent with all just policy, it is still
tion of the revenues of this kingdom.              true to itself, and faithful to its own perverted
Actuated by the same principle of choice, he  order.  Those who are bountiful to crimes will
(Z.) Tliatoncom- has now on the anvil another scheme, be rigid to merit and penurious to service. Their
nercial intter-e   full of difficulty and desperate haz- penury is even held out as a blind and cover to
oreatBritainand ard, which totally alters the corn- their prodigality.  The economy of injustice is
I eand      mercial relation of two kingdoms; to furnish resources for the fund of corruption.
and what end soever it shall have, may bequeath  Then they pay off their protection to great crimes
a legacy of heart-burning and discontent to one  and great criminals, by being inexorable to the
of the countries, perhaps to both, to be perpetu- paltry frailties of little men; and these modern
ated to the latest posterity.  This project is also  Flagellants are sure, with a rigid fidelity, to
undertaken on the hope of profit.  It is provid- whip their own enormities on the vicarious back
ed, that out of some (I know not what) remains  of every small offender.7
of the Irish hereditary revenue, a fund at some    It is to draw your attention to economy of
time, and of some sort, should be applied to the  quite another order-it is to animad- The moneyed
protection of the Irish trade.  Here we are com- vert on offenses of a far different de- c.ncrns or
India more
manded again to tax our faith, and to persuade  scription, that my  honorable friend worty ofatourselves, that out of the surplus of deficiency,  [Mr. Fox] has brought before you the ten
out of the savings of habitual and systematic  motion of this day. It is to perpetuate the abuses
prodigality, the minister of wonders will provide  which are subverting the fabric of your empire,
support for this nation, sinking under the mount- that the motion is opposed.  It is therefore with
ainous load of two hundred and thirty millions  reason (and, if he has power to carry himself
of debt.  But while we look with pain at his des- through, I commend his prudence) that the right
perate and laborious trifling-while we are ap- honorable gentleman [Mr. Dundas] makes his
prehensive that he will break his back in stoop-  stand at the very outset, and boldly refuses all
in'g to pick up chaff and straws, he recovers him- parliamentary information.  Let him admit but
self at an elastic bound, and with a broad-cast one step toward inquiry, and he is undone. You
swing of his arms, he squanders over his Indian  must be ignorant, or he can not be safe.  But,
field a sum far greater than the clear produce  before his curtain is let down, and the shades of
of the whole hereditary revenue of the kingdom  eternal night shall vail our Eastern dominions
of Ireland.6                                      from our view, permit me, sir, to avail myself of
the means which were furnished in anxious and
6 The reader can not but notice the rhetorical                       de      trate out of this sinskill with which these two instances, taken fiom   nquisitive times, to demonst     out of this sinmeasures then before the House, and therefore the  g     t of the present minister what advantages
more striking, are brought forward by Mr. Burke to  you are to derive from  permitting the greatest
illustrate his general principle, as stated above. concern of this nation to be separated from the
They are both put, especially the former one, with  cognizance, and exempted even out of the comgreat power of language and thought. They add  petence, of Parliament.  The greatest body of
all the liveliness and pungency of individual appli- your revenue, your most numerous armies, your
cation to the weight and authority of a general most important commerce, the richest sources of
truth. But they do more-and here is part of the    u puic cred contray to eery idea    th
skill-they reach forward as well as backward.  ret                      onty    t      y da of the
They not only illustrate the past, but prepare for                                      
the future. They lay the foundation of another at- point of being converted into a mystery of state.
tack. They furnish the ground of the fine contrast You are going to have one half of the globe hid
here drawn between Mr. Pitt's penuriousness at even from  the common liberal curiosity of an
home and prodigality abroad. They open the way  English gentleman.  Here a grand revolution
for the keen philosophy of the next paragraph, commences.8  Mark the period, and mark the
which shows how "the economy of injustice" is
made to "furnish resources for the fund of corrup-   7 The Flagellants were a sect of the thirteenth
tion."  Thus theylead on to the next great portion  century, who sought to expiate their crimes by the
of the speech, which insists on' an economy of quite  discipline of the scourge. They traversed Europe,
another order," and demands the strictest inquiry  whipping themselves through the principal cities
into grants thus lavishly made to a band of Indian  and at the doors of churches, and creating great
peculators.                                        commotion wherever they appeared.
This fine adjustment of the several parts of an    s This prediction proved true. The establishment
oration, mutually to support or prepare the way for of the Board of Control, under Mr. Pitt's bill, merged
each other, is one of the most striking characteris- the civil and political concerns of India in those of
tics of the great orators of antiquity, and especially  the British government. "The President of the
of Demosthenes.  Most readers overlook it, and are  Board of Control," says Mill, in his British India,
wholly unconscious that there is any art in the case. " is essentially a new Secretary of State, a SecreThe orator seems so completely to "speak right on,"  tary for the Indian Department. * * s The other five
that they are not in the least aware of the skill with  members of the Board are seldom called to deliberwhich he has selected and arranged his materials  ate, or, even for form's sake, to assemble. * * * Of
with a view  to bring every thing forward in its this pretended Board, and real Secretary, the sphere
proper place, and to give every thing the appear- of action extends to the whole of the civil and miliance of an unpremeditated and spontaneous effusion  tary government exercised by the Company, but
of thought.                                       not to their commercial transactions."-iv., 487.




334                               MR. BURKE ON THE                                       [1785.
circumstances.  In most of the capital changes  grew  more noisy, and attracted more notice.
that are recorded in the principles and system   The pecuniary discussions caused by a  accuof any government, a public benefit of some kind  mulation of part of the fortunes of their:servants
or other has been pretended.  The revolution  in a debt from the Nabob of Arcot, was the first
commenced in something plausible, in something  thing which very particularly called for, and long
which carried the appearance at least of punish- engaged, the attention of the. court of Directors
ment of delinquency, or correction of abuse. This debt amounted to eight hundred and eighty
But here, in the very moment of the conversion  thousand pounds sterling, and was claimed, for
of a department of British government into an  the greater part, by English gentlemen residing
Indian mystery, and in the very act in which the  at Madras. This grand capital, settled at length
change commences, a corrupt private interest is by order at ten per cent., afforded an annuity of
set up in direct opposition to the necessities of  eighty-eight thousand pounds.
the nation.  A diversion is made of millions of    While the Directors were digesting their asthe public money from the public treasury to a  tonishment at this information, a memorial was
private purse.  It is not into secret negotiations  presented to them from three gentlemen, informfor war, peace, or alliance, that the House of  ing them that their friends had lent likewise to
Commons is forbidden to inquire.  It is a matter merchants of Canton, in China, a sum of not more
of account; it is a pecuniary transaction; it is than one million sterling. In this memorial they
the demand of a suspected steward upon ruined  called upon the Company for their assistance and
tenants and an embarrassed master, that the  interposition with the Chinese government for
Commons of Great Britain are commanded not the recovery of the debt. This sum, lent to Chito inspect.  The whole tenor of the right hon- nese merchants, was at twenty-four per cent.,
orable gentleman's argument is consonant to the  which would yield, if paid, an annuity of two
nature of his policy.  The system  of conceal- hundred and forty thousand pounds.'0
ment is fostered by a system of falsehood. False    Perplexed as the Directors were with these
facts, false colors, false names of persons and  demands, you may conceive, sir, that they did
things, are its whole support.                  not find themselves very much disembarrassed
Sir, I mean to follow the right honorable gen- by being made acquainted that they must again
tleman over that field of deception, clearing what exert their influence for a new reserve of the
he has purposely obscured, and fairly stating what happy parsimony of their servants, collected into
it was necessary for him to misrepresent.  For a second debt from the Nabob of Arcot, amountthis purpose, it is necessary you should know, ing to two millions four hundred thousand pounds,
with some degree of distinctness, a little of the  settled at an interest of twelve per cent.  This
locality, the nature, the circumstances, the mag- is known by the name of the Consolidation of
nitude of the pretended debts on which this mar- 1777, as the former of the Nabob's debts was
velous donation is founded, as well as of the per- by the title of the Consolidation of 1767.  To
sons from whom and by whom it is claimed,       this was added, in a separate parcel, a little reIII. Madras, with its dependencies, is the see- serve called the Cavalry debt, of one hundred
Hiistoryof ond (but with a long interval, the sec- and sixty thousand pounds, at the same interest.
the debts. ond) member of the British empire in the  The whole of these four capitals, amounting to
East.  The trade of that city and of the adjacent four millions four hundred and forty thousand
territory was, not very long ago, among the most pounds, produced, at their several rates, annuiflourishing in Asia.  But since the establishment ties amounting to six hundred and twenty three
of the British power, it has wasted away under thousand pounds a year; a good deal more than
a uniform, gradual decline, insomuch that in the  one third of the clear land tax of England at
year 1779 not one merchant of eminence was four shillings in the pound; a good deal more
to be found in the whole country.  During this  than double the whole annual dividend of the
period of decay, about six hundred thousand  East India Company, the nominal masters to the
sterling pounds a year have been drawn off by  proprietors in these funds. Of this interest, three
English gentlemen, on their private account, by  hundred and eighty three thousand two hundred
the way of China alone. If we add four hundred
thousand as probably remitted through other   9 It may be doubted whether this image is not
thousand as pobably remitted through  o     t too fr, so as to turn off the attention
channels and in other mediums, that is, in Jew- from the idea to be enforced to the picture here pre
els, gold, and silver, directly brought to Europe, serted.
and in bills upon the British and foreign compa-   io These claims on China merchants are not mennies, you will scarcely think the matter over- tioned as having any direct connection with the
rated.  If we fix the commencement of this ex- debts of the Nabob of Arcot; they are enumerated
traction of money from the Carnatic at a period  merely as part of the twenty millions abstracted
no earlier than the year 1760, and close it in the fr  the Carnatic by Enlish residents, and as havyear 1780, it probably will not amount to a great ing been urged upon the East India Company for
deal loss than twenty millions of money.        aid in their collection. In this view alone are they
deal less than twenty millions of money.        brought into the sum total of ~4,440,000 mentioned
During the deep, silent flow  of this steady  below. The China debts arethen deducted, leaving,
stream of wealth, which set from India into Eu-as will be seen at the close of the statement, the
rope, it generally passed on with no adequate  debts of the Nabob of Arcot with " an interest of
observation; but happening at some periods to  ~383,200 a year, chargeable on the public revenues
meet rifts of rocks that checked its course, it of the Carnatic."




1785.]                         NABOB OF ARCOT'S DEBTS.                                      335
pounds a year stood chargeable on the public  set of men whose names, with few exceptions,
revenues of the Carnatic.                        are either buried in the obscurity of their origir
Sir, at this moment, it will not be necessary to  and talents, or dragged into light by the enor-'lese.debts consider the various operations which  mity of their crimes.1
usopicious  the capital and interest of this debt    In my opinion, the courage of the minister
magnitude  have successively undergone.  I shall was the most wonderful part of the Thesesuspiciosw
"lonle.    speak to these operations when I come  transaction, especially as he must rnobfiedbyrtot'
particularly to answer the right honorable gen- have read, or rather the right hon- declarations.
tleman on each of the heads, as he has thought orable gentleman says he has read for him, whole
proper to divide them.  But this was the exact volumes upon the subject. The volumes, by-theview  in which these debts first appeared to  way, are not one tenth part so numerous as the
the court of Directors and to the world.  It va- right honorable gentleman has thought proper
ried afterward; but it never appeared in any  to pretend, in order to frighten you from inquiry;
other than a most questionable shape.  When  but in these volumes, such as they are, the minthis gigantic phantom  of debt first appeared  ister must have found a full authority for a susbefore a young minister, it naturally would have  picion (at the very least) of every thing relative
justified some degree of doubt and apprehen- to the great fortunes made at Madras. What is
sion.  Such a prodigy would have filled any  that authority?  Why, no other than the standcommon  man  with  superstitious fears.  He ing authority for all the claims which the miniswould exorcise that shapeless, nameless form, try has thought fit to provide for-the grand
and by every thing sacred would have adjured  debtor-the Nabob of Arcot himself. Hear that
it to tell by what means a small number of slight prince, in the letter written to the court of Diindividuals, of no consequence or situation, pos- rectors, at the precise period while the main body
sessed of no lucrative offices, without the com- of these debts were contracting.  In his letter
mand of armies, or the known administration of  he states himself to be, what undoubtedly he is,
revenues, without profession of any kind, with- a most competent witness to this point.  After
out any sort of trade sufficient to employ a ped- speaking of the war with Hyder Ali in 1768
dler, could have, in a few years (as to some even  and 1769, and of other measures which he cenin a few months), amassed treasures equal to the  sures (whether right or wrong, it signifies nothrevenues of a respectable kingdom.  Was it not ing), and into which he says he had been led
enough to put these gentlemen, in the novitiate  by the Company's servants, he proceeds in this
of their administration, on their guard, and to call manner: "If all these things were against the
upon them for a strict inquiry (if not to justify  real interests of the Company, they are ten thouthem in a reprobation of those demands without sand times more against mine, and against the
any inquiry at all), that when all England, Scot- prosperity of my country, and the happiness of
land, and Ireland had for years been witness to  my people, for your interests and mine are the
the immense sums laid out by the servants of the  same. What were they owing to, then?  To
Company in stocks of all denominations, in the  the private views of a few individuals, who have
purchase of lands, in the buying and building of  enriched themselves at the expense of your inhouses, in the securing quiet seats in Parliament, fluence and of my country; for your servants
or in the tumultuous riot of contested elections, have no trade in this country; neither do you
in wandering throughout the whole range of  pay them high wages, yet in a few years they
those variegated modes of inventive prodigality, return to England with many lacs of pagodas.
which sometimes have excited our wonder, some- How can you or I account for such immense
times roused our indignation, that after all India  fortunes, acquired in so short a time, without any
was four millions still in debt to them?  India in  visible means of getting them?"
debttothem! For what? Every debt for which    When he asked this question, which involves
an equivalent of some kind or other is not given, its answer, it is extraordinary that curiosity did
is, on the face of it, a fraud. What is the equiva- not prompt the Chancellor of the Exchequer to
lent they have given?  What equivalent had they  that inquiry, which might come in vain recomto give?  What are the articles of commerce or mended to him  by his own act of Parliament.
the branches of manufacture which those gentle- Does not the Nabob of Arcot tell us, in so many
men have carried hence to enrich India?  What words, that there was no fair way of making the
are the sciences they beamed out to enlighten  enormous sums sent by the Company's servants
it?  What are the arts they introduced to cheer to England?  And do you imagine that there
and to adorn it?  What are the religious, what was or could be more honesty and good faith in
the moral institutions they have taught among
that people as a guide to life, or as a consolation'a It is unnecessary to remark on the beauty of
when life is to be no mole, that there is an ete- this amplification, which has all the force of the senal debt-a debt " still paying, still to owe,"  verest logic, since it enumerates the only proper
and legitimate means by which such a debt could
which must be bound on the present generation  have been entailed upon a people. The psage is
in India, and entailed on their mortgaged poster- peculiarly characteristic of Mr. Burke's genius. It
ity forever?"  A debt of millions, in favor of a  was dictated by that penetrating philosophy of his
~~~  -_-._  _______-  which was always searching into the causes of
1 The debt immense of endless gratitude;      things, and thus furnishing the materials of profound
--     still paying, still to owe. —Milon.  remark and exuberant illustration.




336                                  MR. BURKE  ON  THE                                       [1785.
the demands for what remained behind in India?  under the false names of debtors and creditors
Of what nature were the transactions with him- of state.13
self?  If you follow the train of his information,    IV. The great patron of these creditors (to
you must see that, if these great sums were at whose honor they ought to erect stat- Examination
all lent, it was not property, but spoil that was  ues), the right honorable gentleman of te debts.
lent; if not lent, the transaction was not a con-  [Mr. Dundas], in stating the merits which rectract, but a fraud.  Either way, if light enough  ommended them  to his favor, has ranked them
could not be furnished to authorize a full con-  under three grand divisions-the first, the creddemnation of these demands, they ought to have  itors of 1767; then the creditors of the cavalry
been left to the parties who best knew and un- loan; and, lastly, the creditors of the loan in
derstood each other's proceedings.  Itisnotnec-  1777.  Let us examine them, one by one, as
essary that the authority of government should  they pass in review before us.
interpose in favor of claims whose very founda-    (1.) The first of these loans, that of 1767, he
tion was a defiance of that authority: and whose  insists, had an indisputable claim upon Consolidaobject and end was its entire subversion.          the public justice.  The creditors, he tionof1767.
It may be said that this letter was written by  affirms, lent their money  publicly; they adthe Nabob of Arcot in a moody humor, under the  vanced it with the express knowledge and apinfluence of some chagrin.  Certainly it was;  probation of the Company; and it was contractbut it is in such humors that truth comes out; ed at the moderate interest of ten per cent.  In
and when he tells you, from his own knowledge,  this loan the demand is, according to him, not
what every one must presume, from the extreme  only just, but meritorious in a very high degree;
probability of the thing, whether he told it or not,  and one would be inclined to believe he thought
one such testimony is worth a thousand that con- so, because he has put it last in the provision he
tradict that probability, when the parties have a  has made for these claims!
better understanding with each other, and when       I readily admit this debt to stand the fairest
they have a point to carry that may unite them   of the whole; for, whatever may be my suspiin a common deceit.                                cions concerning a part of it, I can convict it of
If this body of private claims of debt, real or nothing worse than the most enormous usury.
These debt  devised, were a question, as it is false- But I can convict, upon the spot, the right honornotto bepaid ly pretended, between the Nabob of  able gentleman of the most daring misrepresentby theNabob. Arcot as debtor, and Paul Benfield  ation in every one fact, without any exception.
and his associates as creditors, I am sure I should  that he has alleged in defense of this loan, and
give myself but little trouble about it.  If the  of his own conduct with regard to it.  I will
hoards of oppression were the fund for satisfying  show you that this debt was never contracted
the claims of bribery and peculation, who would  with the knowledge of the Company; that it had
wish to interfere between such litigants?  If the  not their approbation; that they received the
demands were confined to what might be drawn  first intelligence of it with the utmost possible
from the treasures which the Company's records  surprise, indignation, and alarm.
uniformly assert that the Nabob is in possession     So far from being previously apprised of the
of, or if he had mines of gold, or silver, or dia- transaction from  its origin, it was two Coce
monds (as we know that he has none), these gen- years before the court of Directors ob- raom the
tlemen might break open his hoards, or dig in his  tained  any  official intelligence  of it. Company.
mines, without any disturbance from me.  But  "The dealings of the servants with the Nabob
the gentlemen on the other side of the House  were concealed, fiom the first, until they were
know as well as I do, and they dare not contra-  found out"  (says Mr. Sayer, the  Company's
diet me, that the Nabob of Arcot and his cred-  counsel) " by the report of the country."  The
itors are not adversaries, but collusive parties,  presidency, however, at last thought proper to
and that the whole transaction is under a false  send an official account.  On this the Directors
color and false names.  The litigation is not, tell them, " To your great reproach, it has been
nor ever has been, betvween their rapacity and  concealed from us.  We can not but suspect this
his hoarded riches.  No!  It is between him  debt to have had its weight in your proposed agand them  combining and confederating on one  grandizement of Mohammed Ali [the Nabob of
side, and the public revenues and the miserable  A'rcot]; but whether it has or has not, certain
inhabitants of a ruined country on the other.  it is, you are guilty of a high breach of duty in
These are the real plaintiffs and the real defend- concealing it from us."
ants in the suit.  Refusing  a shilling from his   13 The ascendency gained by Mr. Benfield over the
hoards for the satisfaction of any demand, the  Nabob of Arcot was represented, by a select corn.
Nabob of Arcot is always ready-nay, he earn- miittee at Madras in 1783, to have been of the 1most
estly, and with eagerness and passion, contends  absolute kind. They say that, to secure the permafor delivering up to these pretended creditors  nencyofhispover atd profit, he  ept the Nabob
his territory and his subjects.  It is, therefore, an entire stranger to the state of his own affairs;
i and mines, but from  the  that he kept the accounts and correspondence in
not from   treasuries and mines, but rfrom b      the English language, which neither the Nabob nor
food of your unpaid armies, fiom the blood with- his son could read; that he had sulrrontded the Naheld from  the veins and whipped out of the  bob on every side, " making him believe,what was
backs of the most miserable of men, that we  not true, and subscribe to wthat he did not underare to pamper extortion, usury, and peculation, stand."




1785.]                        NABOB OF ARCOT'S DEBTS.                                      337
These expressions concerning the ground of  dividuals, while the interest of the Company is al.
the transaction, its effect, and its clandestine na- most wholly neglected, and payment to us renture, are in the letters bearing date March 17, dered extremely precarious."  Here, then, is
1769.  After receiving a more full account on  the rock of approbation of the court of Directthe 23d of March, 1770, they state that " Messrs. ors, on which the right honorable gentleman
John Pybus, John Call, and James Bourchier, as says this debt was founded.  Any member, Mr.
trustees for themselves and others of the Nabob's  Speaker, who should come into the House, on
private creditors, had proved a deed of assign- my reading this sentence of condemnation of the
ment upon the Nabob and his son of fifteen dis- court of Directors against their unfaithful servtricts of the Nabob's country, the revenues of  ants, might well imagine that he had heard a
which yielded, in time of peace, eight lacs of  harsh, severe, unqualified invective against the
pagodas (X320,000 sterling) annually; and like- present ministerial Board of Control.  So exactwise an assignment of the yearly tribute paid  ly do the proceedings of the patrons of this abuse
the Nabob from the Rajah of Tanjore, amount- tally with those of the actors in it, that the exing to four lacs of rupees (c40,000)."  The ter- pressions used in the condemnation of the one
ritorial revenue at that time possessed by these  may serve for the reprobation of the other, withgentlemen, without the knowledge or consent ~ut the change of a word.
of their masters, amounted to three hundred and    To read you all the expressions of wrath and
sixty thousand pounds sterling annually.  They  indignation fulminated in this dispatch against the
were making rapid strides to the entire posses- meritorious creditors of the right honorable gension of the country, when the Directors, whom  tleman, who, according to him, have been so fully
the right honorable gentleman states as having  approved by the Company, would be to read the
authorized these proceedings, were kept in such  whole.
profound ignorance of this royal acquisition of    The right honorable gentleman, with an adterritorial revenue by their servants, that in the  dress peculiar to himself, every now Action of the
same letter they say, " This assignment was ob- and then slides in the " Presidency of plaridsenadof
tained by three of the members of your board  Madras," as synonymous to the Com- ferentthing.
in January, 1767, yet we do not find the least pany.  That the presidency did approve the
trace of it upon your consultations until August, debt is certain.  But the right honorable gen1768, nor do any of your letters to us afford any  tleman, as prudent in suppressing as skillful in
information relative to such transactions till the  bringing forward his matter, has not chosen to
1st of November, 1768.  By your last letters of  tell you that the presidency were the very perthe 8th of May, 1769, you bring the whole pro- sons guilty of contracting this loan; creditors
ceedings to light in one view."                themselves, and agents and trustees for all the
As to the previous knowledge of the Comn- other creditors.  For this, the court of DirectNever rati- pany, and its sanction to the debts, you  ors accuse them of breach of trust; and for this,
fied by the see that this assertion of that knowledge  the right hbnorable gentleman considers them
Directors.
is utterly unfounded.  But did the Di- as perfectly good authority for those claims. It
rectors approve of it, and ratify the transaction  is pleasant to hear a gentleman of the law quote
when it was known?  The very reverse.  On  the approbation of creditors as an authority for
the same third of March the Directors declare, their own debt!
" Upon an impartial examination of the whole    How they came to contract the debt to themconduct of our late governor and council of Fort selves; how  they came to act as agents for
George [Madras], and on the fullest considera- those whom they ought to have controlled, is for
tion, that the said governor and council have, in  your inquiry.  The policy of this debt was annotorious violation of the trust reposed in them, nounced to the court of Directors by the very
manifestly preferred the interest of private indi- persons concerned in creating it.  "Till very
viduals to that of the Company, in permitting  lately" (say the presidency), "the Nabob placed
the assignment of the revenues of certain valua- his dependence on the Company.  Now he has
t!e districts, to a very large amount, from  the  been taught by ill advisers that an interest out
Nabob to individuals"-and then highly aggra- of doors may stand him in good stead.  He has
vating their crimes, they add: "We order and  been made to believe that his private creditors:lirect that you do examine, in the most impar- have power and interest to overrule the court of
tial manner, all the above-mentioned transactions,  Directors."  The Nabob was not misinformed.
and that you punish, by suspension, degradation, The private creditors [Benfield, &c.] instantly
dismission, or otherwise, as to you shall seem  qualified a vast number of votes; and having
meet, all and every such servant or servants of  made themselves masters of the court Tile Directors
the Company who may by you be found guilty  of Proprietors, as well as extending  te tstlls
of any of the above offenses."  "We had (say  a powerful cabal in other places as sanctioned.
the Directors) the mortification to find that the  important, they so completely overturned the auservants of the Company, who had been raised, thority of the court of Directors at home and'
supported, and owed their present opulence to the  abroad, that this poor, baffled government was
advantages gained in such service, have in this soon obliged to lower its tone.  It was glad to
instance most unfaithfully betrayed their trust, be admitted into partnership with its own servabandoned the Company's interest, and prostitu- ants.  The court of Directors, establishing the
ted its influence to accomplish the purposes of in- debt which they had reprobated as a breach of
y




338                                  MR. BURKE ON  THE                                        [1785.
trust, and which was planned for the subversion  and there it found its rest.  During the whole
of their authority, settled its payments on a par  process, as often as any of these monstrous inwith those of the public; and even so, were not terests fell into an arrear (into which they were
able to obtain peace, or even equality in their  continually falling), the arrear, formed into a
demands.  All the consequences lay in a regu-  new capital, was added to the old, and the same
lar and irresistible train.  By employing their  interest of twenty per cent. accrued upon both.
influence for the recovery of this debt, their or-  The Company, having got some scent of the
ders, issued in the same breath, against creating  enormous usury which prevailed  at Madras,
new debts, only animated the strong desires of  thought it necessary to interfere, and to order all
their servants to this prohibited prolific sport,  interests to be lowered to ten per cent.  This
and it soon produced a swarm of sons and daugh- order, which contained no exception, though it
ters not in the least degenerated from the virtue  by no means pointed particularly to this class
of their parents,                                  of debts, came like a thunder-clap on the Nabob.
From  that moment the authority of the court He considered his political credit as ruined; but,
of Directors expired in the Carnatic, and every  to find a remedy to this unexpected evil, he
where else.  "Every man,1' says the presiden-  again added to the old principal twenty per
cy, " who opposes the government and its meas- cent. interest accruing for the last year.  Thus
ures, finds an immediate countenance from  the  a new fund was formed; and it was on that acNabob; even our discarded officers, however un- cumulation of various principals; and interests
worthy, are received into the Nabob's service. heaped upon interests, not on the sum originally
It was, indeed, a matter of no wonderful sagacity  lent, as the right honorable gentleman would
to determine whether the court of Directors,  make you believe, that ten per cent. was settled
with their miserable salaries to their servants of  on the whole.
four or five hundred pounds a year, or the dis-    When you consider the enormity of the intertributor of millions, was most likely to be obeyed.  est at which these debts were contracted, and
It was an invention beyond the imagination of  the several interests added to the principal I
all the speculatists of our speculating age, to see  believe you will not think me so skeptical if I
a government quietly settled in one and the  should doubt whether for this debt of  $880,000
same town, composed of two distinct members; the Nabob ever saw  ~100,000 in real money
one to pay scantily for obedience, and the other  The right honorable gentleman, suspecting, with
t bribe high for rebellion and revolt.ii           all his absolute dominion over fact, that he never
The next thing which recommends this par-  will be able to defend even this venerable patriticular debt to the right honorable  archal job, though sanctified by its numerous isby enormousin- gentleman is, it seems, the moder- sue, and hoary with prescriptive years, has reterest.      ate interest of ten per cent.  It course to recrimination, the last resource of guilt.
would be lost labor to observe on this assertion.  He says that this loan of 1767 was provided for in
The Nabob, in a long apologetic letter for the  Mr. Fox's India Bill; and, judging of others by
transaction between him  and the body of the  his own nature and principles, he more than insincreditors, states the fact as I shall state it to  uates that this provision was made, not from any
you.  In the accumulation of this debt, the first sense of merit in the claim, but from partiality
interest paid was from  thirty to thirty-six per to General Smith, a proprietor, and an agent for
cent.; it was then brought down to twenty-five  that debt.  If partiality  could have had any
per cent.; at length it was reduced to twenty; weight against justice and policy with the then
S   ministers and their friends, General Smith had
4 Soon after the concessions thus forcibly extorted  titles to it   Bt the   honorable gentleman
from the Directors, Lord Pigot was sent out as Gov-       to t           right h ral         tlm
ernor to Madras, with instructions to restore the au-                  I         Geneal Smith was
thority of the Company. He was immediately met vey far from  looking on himself as partially
with new demands from Mr. Benfield to an enor- treated in the arrangements of that time; inmous amount. He hesitated to admit them; and  deed, what man dared to hope for private parimmediately a majority of the council, who were in  tiality in that sacred plan for relief to nations?
Mr. Benfield's interest, turned against Lord Pigot.   It is not necessary that the right honorable
He endeavored to maintain his power by impeach- gentleman  should sarcastically call that time
ing two of the majority, and thus excluding the    [M. Fox's East India Bill] to            lleti
from the council. This produced a breach in the
council, as stated by Mr. Burke, one part adhering    ell do I remember every  circumstance of that
to Lord Pigot, and the other (being the majority) de- memorable period. God forbid I should forget
nying and resisting his power. The latter determ- it. 0, illustrious disgrace! 0, victorious defeat
ined at last to proceed to extremities.  Having  May your memorial be fresh and new  to the
met and declared themselves vested with the gov- latest generations!  May the day of that generinent, they actually arrested their own governor erous conflict be stamped in characters never to
in 1776, held him in close confinement, and assumed  be canceled or worn out from  the records of
supreme authority. This outrage awakened great time!  Let no man hear of us who shall not
indignation in Great Britain. Orders were imme- h                                    e int     s 
diately sent out for his release and return to En-     t             gle against        t     s 
gland, that the facts might be investigated; but be- courts, and the perfidious levity of the multitude,
fore these orders could reach India he iwas dead. He  we fell in the cause of honor, in the cause of
sunk under the effect of anxiety and prolonged im- our country, in the cause of human nature itprisonment.                                       self!  But if fortune should be as powerful over




1785.]                          NABOB  OF ARCOT'S DEBTS.                                        339
fame, as she has been prevalent over virtue, at their ravages throughout the devoted revenues
least our conscience is beyond her jurisdiction,  of the Carnatic.l7
My poor share in the support of that great rneas-    (2.) The tenor, the policy, and the conseure no man shall ravish from me.  It shall be  quences of this debt of 1767, are, inl
Caveeoalry  Debt.
safely lodged in the sanctuary of my heart, nev-  the eyes of the ministry, so excellent,
er, never to be torn from thence but with those  that its merits are irresistible; and it takes the
holds that grapple it to life!                     lead to give credit and countenance to all the
I say, I well remember that bill, and every  rest.  Along with this chosen body of heavyTis debt not one of its honest and its wise provi-  armed infantry, and to support it in the line,
protected by sions.  It is not true that this debt was  the right honorable gentleman has stationed his
Ir. Fox's bill.
ever protected or enforced, or any rev- corps of black cavalry.  If there be any advantenue whatsoever set apart for it.  It was left in  age between this debt and that of 1769, accordthat bill just where it stood, to be paid or not ing to him the Cavalry Debt has it.  It is not a
to be paid out of the Nabob's private treasures, subject of defense; it is a theme of panegyric.
according to his own discretion.  The Company  Listen to the right honorable gentleman, and
had actually given it their sanction, though al- you will find it was contracted to save the counways relying for its validity on the sole security  try; to prevent mutiny in armies; to introduce
of the faith of him who, without their knowledge  economy in revenues; and for all these honoror consent, entered into the original obligation. able purposes, it originated at the express deIt had no other sanction; it ought to have had  sire, and by the representative authority of the
no other.  So far was Mr. Fox's bill from provid- Company i'telf.
ing funds for it, as this ministry have wickedly     First, let me say a word to the authority.
done for this, and for ten times worse transac-  This debt was contracted, not by Not authorized by
tions, out of the public estate, that an express  the authority of the Company, not the Caactin hbict
clause immediately preceded positively forbid- by its representatives (as the right had usrpeda the
ding any British subject from receiving assign- honorable gentleman has the un- Madras.
ments upon any part of the territorial revenue, paralleled confidence to assert), but in the ever
on any pretense whatsoever.'5                      memorable period of 1777, by the usurped powYou recollect, Mr. Speaker, that the Chancel- er of those who rebelliously, in conjunction with
lor of the Exchequer [Mr. Pitt] strongly pro- the Nabob of Arcot, had overturned the lawful
fessed to retain every part of Mr. Fox's bill government of Madras.1S   For that rebellion,
which was intended to prevent abuse; but in his this House unanimously directed a public prosIndia bill, which (let me do justice) is as able  ecution.  The delinquents, after they had suband skillful a performance for its own purposes  verted the government in order to make themas ever issued from the wit of man, premeditat- selves a party to support them  in their power,
ing this iniquity-" hoc ipsum ut strueret Trojam- are universally known to have dealt jobs about
que aperiret Achivis'L6 expunged this essential to the right and to the left, and to any who were
clause, broke down the fence which was raised  willing to receive them.  This usurpation, which
to cover the public property against the rapacity  the right honorable gentleman well knows was
of his partisans, and thus leveling every obstruc- brought about by and for the great mass of these
tion, he made a firm, broad highway for " Sin  pretended debts, is the authority which is set up
and Death," for usury and oppression, to renew  by him to represent the Company; to represent
~-__~ ~that Company which, from the first moment of
5 The following were the words of Mr. Fox's bill. their heain   of ts corupt and  fraudulent
"And be it further enacted by the authority afore-                             he  uni       y dissaid, that the Nabob of Arcot, the Rajah of Tanjore,                                 u       y 
or any other protected prince of India, shall not as- ownd ac   isavoed it!
sign, mortgage, or pledge any territory or land what-    So much for the authority.  As to the facts,
soever. or the revenue or produce thereof to any  partly true and partly colorable, as they Real origin
British subject whatsoever; nor shall it be lawful stand recorded, they are in substance ofthedebt.
for any British subject whatsoever to take or re- these.  The Nabob of Arcot, as soon as he had
ceive any such assignment, mortgage, or pledge; thrown off the superiority of this country by
and the same are hereby declared null and void. means of these creditors, kept up a great army
And all payments, or deliveries of produce or rev-  which he never paid.  Of course his soldiers
enue under any such assignment, shall and may be  
recovered back by such native prince paying or wre generally n a state of mutiny.  Theusurpdelivering the same from the person or persons re-  ng council say that they labored hard with their
ceiving the same, or from his or their represents- master, the Nabob, to persuade him to reduce
tives."                                           these mutinous and useless troops. He consent16 The passage is taken from Virgil's Eneid,    17 The allusion here is to Satan's first passage to
book ii., line 60, and relates to Sinon, the Greek  this eath, as described by Milton i his Paradise
spy, when brought in by the shepherds.             Lost, near the close of the second Book.
-qui se ignotum venientibus ultro,                             Sin and Death amain
Hoc ipsium ut strueret Trojamque aperiret Achivis, Following his track (such was the will of Heaven),
Obtulerat.                                        Paved after him a broad and beaten way
He offered himself unknown to them approaching,   Over the dark abyss.
This very end to gain, and open Troy                 I  The circumstances of this usurpation have been
To the Greeks.                                    already detailed in note 14, page 338.




340                                 MR. BURKE ON THE                                      [1785
ed; but, as usual, pleaded inability to pay them   considering the trifle of interest to Mr. Taylor
their arrears.  Here was a difficulty: the Nabob  and the others as of no great matter; but instead
had no money; the Company had no money; of this, I am oppressed with the burden of pay
eveiy public supply was empty.  But there was due to those troops, and the interest which is goone resource which no season has ever yet dried  tng on to Mr. Taylor from the day the teeps were
up in that climate. The soucars [money lenders] granted to him."   What I have read to you is
were at hand; that is, private English money- an extract of a letter from the Nabob of the Carjobbers offered their assistance.  Messrs. Tay- natic to Governor Rumbold, dated the 22d, and
lor, Majendie, and Call proposed to advance the  received the 24th of March, 1779.
small sum of c160,000, to pay off the Nabob's    Suppose his Highness not to be well broken
black cavalry, provided the Company's authority  in to things of this kind, it must, indeed, surprise
was given for their loan.  This was the great so known and established a bond vender as the
point of policy always aimed at and pursued  Nabob of Arcot, one who keeps himself the
through a hundred devices by the servants at largest bond warehouse in the world, to find that
Madras.  The presidency, who themselves had  he was now to receive in kind; not to take monno authority for the functions they presumed to  ey for his obligations, but to give his bond in
exercise,'9 very readily gave the sanction of the  exchange for the bond of Messrs. Taylor, MajenCompany to those servants who knew that the  die, and Call, and to pay, beside, a good smart
Company (whose sanction was demanded) had  interest, legally 12 per cent. [in reality perhaps
positively prohibited all such transactions.     twenty or twenty-four per cent.], for this exHowever, so far as the reality of the dealing  change of paper.  But his troops were not to
goes, all is hitherto fair and plausible; and here  be so paid or so disbanded; they wanted bread,
the right honorable gentleman concludes, with  and could not live by cutting and shuffling of
commendable prudence, his account of the busi- bonds.  The Nabob still kept the troops in
ness.  But here it is I shall beg leave to corn- service, and was obliged to continue, as you
mence my supplement, for the gentleman's dis- have seen, the whole expense; to exonerate
creet modesty has led him to cut the thread of  himself from which, he became indebted to the
the story somewhat abruptly.  One of the most soucars.
essential parties is quite forgotten.  Why should    Had it stood here, the transaction would have
the episode of the poor Nabob be omitted? When  been of the most audacious strain of fraud and
that prince chooses it, nobody can tell his story  usury perhaps ever before discovered, whatever
better.  Excuse me if I apply again to my book, might have been practiced and concealed.  But
and give it you from the first hand-from the  the same authority (I mean the Nabob's) brings
Nabob himself.                                   before you something, if possible, more striking.
" Mr. Stratton [one of the members of the  He states that, for this their paper, he immediDocument- council at Madras] became acquainted  ately handed over to these gentlemen something
aryp"roof. with this, and got Mr. Taylor and oth- very different from  paper; that is, the receipt
ers to lend me four lacs of pagodas toward dis- of a territorial revenue, of which it seems they
charging the arrears of pay of my troops.  Upon  continued, as long in possession as the Nabob
this, I wrote a letter of thanks to Mr. Stratton;  himself continued in possession of any thing.
and, upon the faith of this money being paid im- Their payments, therefore, not being to commediately, I ordered many of my troops to be  nence before the end of four months, and not
discharged by a certain day, and lessened the  being completed in two years, it must be prenumber of my servants.  Mr. Taylor, &c., some  sumed (unless they proved the contrary) that
time after acquainted me that they had no ready their payments to the Nabob were made out of
money, but they would grant teeps [notes of  the revenues they had received from his assignhand], payable in four months.  This astonished  ment.  Thus they condescended to accumulate
me; for I did not know what might happen when  a debt of 160,000, with an interest of 12 per
the sepoys were dismissed from my service.  I cent., in compensation for a lingering payment
begged of Mr. Taylor and the others to pay this to the Nabob of 160,000 of his own money i
sum to the officers of my regiments at the time    Still we have not the whole.  About two years
they mentioned; and desired the officers, at the  after the assignment of those territorial revenues
same time, to pacify and persuade the men be- to these gentlemen, the Nabob receives a remonlonging to them that their pay would be given  strance from  his chief manager, in a principal
to them at the end of four months; and that till province, of which this is the tenor: " The enthose arrears were discharged their pay should  tire revenue of those districts is by your Highbe continued to them.  Two years are nearly  ness's order set apart to discharge the tunkaws
expired since that time, but Mr. Taylor has not [assignments] granted to the Europeans.  The
yet entirely discharged the arrears of those troops, gomastahs [agents] of Mr. Taylor, to Mr. De
and I am obliged to continue their pay from that Fries, are there in order to collect those tuntime till this.  I hoped to have been able, by this kaws; and as they receive all the revenue that
expedient, to have lessened the number of my  is collected, your Highness's troops have seven
troops, and discharged the arrears due to them, or eight months' pay due which they can not receive, and are thereby reduced to the greatest
19 The acting presidency were the usurping ones distress.  In such times, it is highly necessary to
who had imprisoned Lord Pigot.                  provide for the sustenance of the troops, that they




1785.]                         NABOB OF ARCOT'S DEBTS.                                        341
may be ready to exert themselves in the service  Mr. Paul Benfield, for instance, without property
of your Highness."                                upon which any one would lend to themselves a
Here, sir, you see how these causes and effects  single shilling, are enabled at once to take provact upon one another.  One body of troops mu- inces in mortgage, to make princes their debttinies for want of pay; a debt is contracted to  ors, and to become creditors for millions!
pay them, and they still remain unpaid.  A ter-    But it seems the right honorable gentleman's
ritory destined to pay other troops is assigned  favorite soucar cavalry have proved Exposure of the
for this debt, and these other troops fall into the  the payment before the Mayor's rebtsnthtte
same state of indigence and mutiny with the first. Court at Madras!  Have they so? proved incourt.
Bond is paid by bond; arrear is turned into new  Why, then, defraud our anxiety and their chararrear; usury engenders new  usury; mutiny  acters of that proof?  Is it not enough that the
suspended in one quarter,'starts up in another; charges which I have laid before you have stood
until all the revenues and all the establishments  on record against these poor injured gentlemen
are entangled into one inextricable knot of con- for eight years?  Is it not enough that they are
fusion, from which they are only disengaged by  in print by the orders of the East India Compabeing entirely destroyed.  In that state of con- ny for five years?  After these gentlemen have
fusion, in a very few months after the date of the  borne all the odium of this publication, and all
memorial I have just read to you, things were  the indignation of the Directors, with such unexfound, when the Nabob's troops, famished to feed  ampled equanimity, now that they are at length
English soucars, instead of defending the coun- stimulated into feeling, are you to deny them
try, joined the invaders, and deserted in entire  their just relief?  But will the right honorable
bodies to Hyder Ali.2                             gentleman be pleased to tell us how they came
The manner in which this transaction was  not to give this satisfaction to the court of Dicarried on shows that good examples are not. rectors, their lawful masters, during all the eight
easily forgot, especially by those who are bred  years of this litigated claim?  Were they not
in a great school.  One of those splendid exam- bound, by every tie that can bind man, to give
ples give me leave to mention at a somewhat them this satisfaction?  This day, for the first
more early period, because one fraud furnishes  time, we hear of the proofs.  But when were
light to the discovery of another, and so on, until these proofs offered?  In what cause?  Who
the whole secret of mysterious iniquity bursts  were the parties?  Who inspected?  Whoconupon you in a blaze of detection.  The paper I tested this belated account?  Let us see someshall read you is not on record.  If you please, thing to oppose to the body of record which apyou may take it on my word.  It is a letter pears against them. The Mayor's Court! The
written from  one of undoubted information in  Mayor's Court?  Pleasant!  Does not the honMadras, to Sir John Clavering, describing the  orable gentleman know  that the first corps of
practice that prevailed there, while the Compa- creditors [the creditors of 1767] stated it as a
ny's allies were under sale, during the time of  sort of hardship to them, that they could not have
Governor Winch's administration.                 justice at Madras, from the impossibility of their
"One mode," says Clavering's correspondent, supporting their claims in the Mayor's Court?
"of amassing money at the Nabob's cost is cu- Why?  Because, say they, the members of that
rious.  He is generally in arrears to the Con- court were themselves creditors, and therefore
pany.  Here the Governor, being cash-keeper, could not sit as judges!  Are we ripe to say
is generally on good terms with the banker, who  that no creditor under similar circumstances was
manages matters thus: The Governor presses  a member of the court when the payment which
the Nabob for the balance due from  him; the  is the ground of this cavalry debt was put in
Nabob flies to his banker for relief; the banker  proof?  Nay, are we not in a manner compelled
engages to pay the money, and grants his notes  to conclude that the court was so constituted,
accordingly, which he puts in the cash-book as  when we know there is scarcely a man in Madready money; the Nabob pays him an interest ras who has not some participation in these
for it at two and three per cent. a month, till the  transactions?  It is a shame to hear such proofs
tunkalws assignments] he grants on the particu- mentioned, instead of the honest, vigorous scrular districts for it are paid. Matters in the mean  tiny which the circumstances of such an affair
time are so managed, that there is no call for so indispensably call for."l
this money for the Company's service, till the    But his Majesty's ministers, indulgent enough
tunkawts become due.  By this means not a cash  to other scrutinies, have not been satisfied with
is advanced by the banker, though he receives a
heavy interest from the Nabob, which is divided   21 As to this pretended proof before the Mayor's
as lawful spoil."                                 Court at Madras, the fact turned out to be just as
Here, Mr. Speaker, you have the whole art Mr. Burke supposed. It was wholly collusive. It
and mystery, the true Free-mason secret of the  consisted merely of an affidavit of the money-lendand mystery, the true Free-mason secret of the        evedoubt
ers themselves, who swore (what no one ever doubtprofession of soucaring; by which a few inno- ed) that they had engaged, and agreed to pay (not
cent, inexperienced young Englishmen, such as that they had actually paid), the sum of ~160,000
20 This took place in 1780, during that terrible  to the Nabob of Arcot. This affidavit was made
devastation of the Carnatic by Hyder Ali, which Mr. two years after the transaction, before George ProcBurke so vividly describes toward the close of this tor, mayor, who was also agent for some of the
speech.                                           creditors.




342                                MR. BURKE ON THE                                      [1785.
authorizing the payment of this demand without to have twenty-five per cent at once struck off
such inquiry as the act has prescribed; but they  from the capital of a great part of this debt, and
have added the arrear of twelve per cent. inter- prayed to have a provision made for this reduced
est, from the year 1777 to the year 1784, to  principal, without any interest at all!  This was
make a new capital, raising thereby C160,000 to  an arrangement of their own-an arrangement
C294,000.  Then they charge a new twelve  made by those who best knew the true constituper cent. on the whole from  that period, for a  tion of their own debt; who knew how little fatransaction in which it will be a miracle if a  vor it merited, and how little hopes they had to
single penny will be ever found really advanced  find any persons in authority abandoned enough
from the private stock of the pretended creditors. to support it as it stood.
(3.) In this manner, and at such an interest,    But what corrupt men, in the fond imaginathe ministers have thought proper to dispose of  tions of a sanguine avarice, had not the Yet allowc294,000 of the public revenues, for what is confidence to propose, they have found a ed in fu
called the Cavalry Loan. After dispatching this, Chancellor of the Exchequer in England hardy
consolidation the right honorable gentleman leads to  enough to undertake for them.  He has cheered
of 777'.   battle his last grand division, the con- their drooping spirits.  He has thanked the pecsolidated debt of 1777.  But having exhausted  ulators for not despairing of their commonall his panegyric on the two first, he has nothing  wealth.2   He has told them they were too modat all to say in favor of the last.  On the con- est.  He has replaced the twenty-five per cent.
Authorized trary, he admits that it was contracted  which, in order to lighten themselves, they had
byno one. in defiance of the Company's orders, abandoned in their conscious terror.  Instead of
without even the pretended sanction of any pre- cutting off the interest, as they had themselves
tended representatives. Nobody, indeed, has yet consented to do, with one fourth of the capital,
been found hardy enough to stand forth avowed- he has added the whole growth of four years'
ly in its defense.  But it is little to the credit of  usury of twelve per cent. to the first overgrown
the age, that what has not plausibility enough to  principal, and has again grafted on this meliorafind an advocate, has influence enough to obtain  ted stock a perpetual annuity of six per cent., to
a protector.  Could any man expect to find that take place from  the year 1781.  Let no man
protector any where?  But what must every  hereafter talk of the decaying energies of naman think, when he finds that protector in the  ture.  All the acts and monuments in the recchairman of the Committee of Secrecy [Mr. Dun- ords of peculation; the consolidated corruption
das], who had published to the House, and to the  of ages, the patterns of exemplary plunder in the
world, the facts that condemn these debts-the  heroic times of Roman iniquity, never equaled the
orders that forbid the incurring of them-the  gigantic corruption of this single act.  Never did
dreadful consequences which attended them. Nero, in all the insolent prodigality ofdespotism,
Even in his official letter, when he tramples on  deal out to his Pretorian guards a donation fit to
his parliamentary report, yet his general lan- be named with the largess showered down by the
guage is the same.  Read the preface to this bounty of our Chancellor of the Exchequer on
part of the ministerial arrangement, and you  the faithful band of his Indian Sepoys.
would imagine that this debt was to be crushed,    The right honorable gentleman [Mr. Dundas]
with all the weight of indignation which could  lets you freely and voluntarily into the whole
fall from a vigilant guardian of the public treas- transaction.  So perfectly has his conduct conury, upon those who attempted to rob it.  What founded his understanding, that he fairly tells you
must be felt by every man who has feeling, when, that through the course of the whole business he
after such a thundering preamble of condemna- has never conferred with any but the agents of
tion, this debt is ordered to be paid without any  the pretended creditors! After this, do you want
sort of inquiry into its authenticity? without a  more to establish a secret understanding with
single step taken to settle even the amount of  the parties? to fix, beyond a doubt, their colluthe demand? without an attempt so much as to  sion and participation in a common fraud?
ascertain the real persons claiming a sum, which    If this were not enough, he has furnished you
rises in the accounts from one million three hund- with other presumptions that are not Contradictory
red thousand pounds sterling to two million  toe shaen.  It is to  one of the known reasonl a^sign
four hundred thousand pounds principal money? indications of guilt to stagger and pre- them.
without an attempt made to ascertain the pro- varicate in a story, and to vary in the motives
prietors, of whom no list has ever yet been laid  that are assigned to conduct.  Try these minisbefore the court of Directors; of proprietors ters by this rule.  In their official dispatch, they
who are known to be in a collusive shuffle, by  tell the presidency of Madras that they have eswhich they never appear to be the same in any  tablished the debt for two reasons; first, betwo lists, handed about for their own particular cause the Nabob (the party indebted) does not
purposes?                                      dispute it; secondly, because it is mischievous
My honorable friend [Mr. Fox] who made  to keep it longer afloat, and that the payment
Abandoned, you the motion has sufficiently ex- of the European creditors will promote circulato a great ex- posed the nature of this debt.  He  tion in the country.  These two motives (for the
claimants   has stated to you that its own agents, plainest reasons in the world) the right honoratllemselves  in the year 1781, in the arrangement
they proposed to make at Calcutta, were satisfied     22 -ne de republica desperandum sit.




1785]                         NABOB OF ARCOT'S DEBTS.                                      843
ble gentleman has this day thought fit totally to  burden of the proof on those who make the deabandon.  In the first place, he rejects the au- mand?  Ought not ministry to have said to the
thority of the Nabob of Arcot.  It would indeed  creditors, "The person who admits your debt
be pleasant to see him adhere to this exploded  stands excepted as to evidence; he stands chargtestimony.  He next, upon grounds equally solid, ed as a collusive party, to hand over the public
abandons the benefits of that circulation, which  revenues to you for sinister purposes?  You say
was to be produced by drawing out all the juices you have a demand of some millions on the Inof the body.  Laying aside, or forgetting these  dian treasury.  Prove that you have acted by
pretenses of his dispatch, he has'just now as- lawful authority; prove, at least, that your monsumed a principle totally different, but to the ey has been bona fide advanced; entitle yourself
full as extraordinary.  He proceeds upon a sup- to my protection by the fairness and fullness of the
position that many of the claims may be fictitious. communications you make."  Did an honest credHe then finds that, in a case where many valid  itor ever refuse that reasonable and honest test?
and many fraudulent claims are blended togeth-    There is little doubt that several individuals
er, the best course for their discrimination is in- have been seduced by the purveyors dobtedly
discriminately to establish them all!  He trusts to the Nabob of Arcot to put their some honest
(I suppose), as there may not be a fund sufficient money (perhaps the whole of honest creditors.
for every description of creditors, that the best and laborious earnings) into their hands, and that
warranted claimants will exert themselves in  such high interest, as, being condemned at law,
bringing to light those debts which will not leaves them at the mercy of the great managers
bear an inquiry.  What he will not do himself, whom  they trusted.  These seduced creditors
he is persuaded will be done by others; and for are probably persons of no power or interest, eithis purpose he leaves to any person a general ther in England or India, and may be just obpower of excepting to the debt.  This total jects of compassion.  By taking, in this archange of language and prevarication in princi- rangement, no measures for discrimination and
pie is enough, if it stood alone, to fix the pre- discovery, the fraudulent and the fair are, in the
sumption of unfair dealing.  His dispatch as- first instance, confounded in one mass.  The
signs motives of policy, concord, trade, and cir- subsequent selection and distribution is left to
eulation.  His speech proclaims discord and lit- the Nabob!  With him the agents and instruigations, and proposes, as the ultimate end, detec- ments of his corruption, whom he sees to be omtion.                                          nipotent in England, and who may serve him in
But he may shift his reasons, and wind and future, as they have done in times past, will
turn as he will, confusion waits him  at all his have precedence, if not an exclusive preference.
doubles.  Who will undertake this detection?  These leading interests domineer, and have alWill the Nabob?  But the right honorable gen- ways domineered, over the whole.  By this artleman has himself this moment told us that no rangement the persons seduced are made deprince of the country can by any motive be pendent on their seducers  honesty (comparaprevailed upon to discover any fraud that is tive honesty, at least) must become of the party
practiced upon him by the Company's servants.  of fraud, and must quit its proper character and
He says what (with the exception of the corn- its just claims, to entitle itself to the alms of bribplaint against the cavalry loan) all the world  ery and peculation.
knows to be true; and without that prince's    But be these English creditors what they
concurrence, what evidence can be had of the may, the creditors mlost certainly not Btcief
fraud of any, the smallest of these demands? fraudulent are the natives, who are nu- ly natives
The ministers never authorized any person to  merous and wretched indeed: by exenter into his exchequer and to search his rec- hausting the whole revenues of the Carnatic
ords.  Why, then, this shameful and insulting  nothing is left for them.  They lent bona fide;
mockery of a pretended contest?  Already con- in all probability, they were even forced to lend,
tests for a preference have arisen among these  or to give goods and service for the Nabob's obrival bond creditors.  Has not the Company it- ligations.  They had no trust to carry to his
self struggled for a preference for years, without market. They had no faith of alliances to sell.
any attempt at detection of the nature of those  They had no nations to betray to robbery and
debts with which they contended?  Well is the ruin.  They had no lawful government sediNabob of Arcot attended to in the only specific  tiously to overturn; nor had they a governor, to
complaint he has ever made.  He complained  whom it is owing that you exist in India, to deof unfair dealing in the cavalry loan.  It is fixed liver over to captivity and to death in a shameful
upon him with interest on interest, and this loan  prison.^3
is excepted from all power of litigation.         These were the merits of the principal part of
This day, and not before, the right honorable the debt of 1777, and the universally conceived
gentleman thinks that the general establishment cause of its growth; and thus the unhappy naof all claims is the surest way of laying open the tives are deprived of every hope of payment for
fraud of some of them.  In India this is a reach  their real debts, to make provision for the arrears
of deep policy; but what would be thought of of unsatisfied bribery and treason.  You see in
this mode of acting on a demand upon the treas-  23 For the circumstances attending the imprisonury in England?  Instead of all this cunning, is ment and death of Lord Pigot, Governor of Madras,
there not one plain way open, that is, to put the   see note 14, page 338.




344                                MR. BURKE ON THE                                       [1785.
this instance that the presumption of guilt is not    In short, when you pressed this sensitive plant,
only no exception to the demands on the public  it always contracted its dimensions.  When the
treasury, but, with these ministers, it is a neces- rude hand of inquiry was withdrawn, it expandsary condition to their support.  But that you  ed in all the luxuriant vigor of its original vegemay not think this preference solely owing to  tation.  In the treaty of 1781, the whole of the
their known contempt of the natives, who ought, Nabob's debt to private Europeans is, by Mr.
with every generous mind, to claim their first Sullivan, agent to the Nabob and the creditors,
charities, you will find the same rule religiously  stated at nZ2,800,000, which (if the cavalry loan
observed with Europeans too.  Attend, sir, to  and the remains of the debt of 1767 be subtractthis decisive case.  Since the beginning of the  ed) leaves it nearly at the amount originally dewar, besides arrears of every kind, a bond debt dared at the Durbar in 1777; but then there is
has been contracted at Madras, uncertain in its  a private instruction to Mr. Sullivan, which, it
amount, but represented from four hundred thou- seems, will reduce it again to the lower standsand pounds to a million sterling.  It stands only  ard of r1,400,000.  Failing in all my attempts,
at the low interest of eight per cent.  Of the le- by a direct account, to ascertain the extent of
gal authority on which this debt was contracted, the capital claimed (where, in all probability,
of its purposes for the very being of the state, of  no capital was ever advanced), I endeavored, if
its publicity and fairness, no doubt has been en- possible, to discover it by the interest which was
tertained for a moment.  For this debt, no sort to be paid.  For that purpose, I looked to the
of provision whatever has been made!  It is re- several agreements for assigning the territories
jected as an outcast, while the whole undissipa-  of the Carnatic to secure the principal and inted attention of the minister has been employed  terest of this debt.  In one of them I found a
for the discharge of claims entitled to his favor sort of postscript, by way of an additional reby the merits we have seen!                      mark (not in the body of the obligation), the
I have endeavored to find out, if possible, the  debt represented at  1,400,000; but when I
Impossible to amount of the whole of those demands, computed the sums to be paid for interest by indetermine the
amount of  in order to see how much, supposing  stallments in another paper, I found they produced
these debts.  the country in a condition to furnish  the interest of two millions, at twelve per cent.,
the fund, may remain to satisfy the public debt and the assignment supposed that if these inand the necessary establishments; but I have  stallments might exceed, they might also fall
been foiled in my attempt.  About one fourth, short of the real provision for that interest.
that is, about eC220,000 of the loan of 1767, re-    Another installment bond was afterward grantmains unpaid.  How much interest is in arrear ed.  In that bond the interest exactly tallies with
I could never discover; seven or eight years, at a capital of -1,400,000.  But, pursuing this
least, which would make the whole of that debt capital through the correspondence, I lost sight
about X396,000.  This stock, which the min- of it again, and it was asserted that this installisters, in their instructions to the Governor of  ment bond was considerably short of the interest
Madras, state as the least exceptionable, they  that ought to be computed to the time mentioned.
have thought proper to distinguish by a marked  Here are, therefore, two statements of equal auseverity, leaving it the only one on which the in- thority, differing at least a million from each othterest is not added to the principal, to beget a  er; and as neither persons claiming. nor any
new interest.                                   special sum  as belonging  to each particular
The cavalry loan, by the operation of the same  claimant is ascertained in the instruments of
authority, is made'up to  X294,000, and this  consolidation or in the installment bonds, a large,294,000, made up of principal and interest, is scope was left to throw in any sums for any percrowned with a new interest of twelve per cent. sons, as their merits in advancing the interest of
What the grand loan, the bribery loan of 1777, that loan might require; a power was also left for
may be, is among the deepest mysteries of state. reduction, in case a harder hand or more scanty
It is probably the first debt ever assuming the  funds might be found to require it.  Stronger
title of consolidation that did not express what grounds for a presumption of fraud never apthe amount of the sum consolidated was.  It is peared in any transaction.  But the ministers,
little less than a contradiction in terms.  In the  faithful to the plan of the interested persons,
debt of the year 1767 the sum was stated in the  whom alone they thought fit to confer with on
act of consolidation, and made to amount to  this occasion, have ordered the payment of the
e880,000 capital.  When this consolidation of  whole mass of these unknown, unliquidated
1777 was first announced at the Durbar [Court], sums, without an attempt to ascertain them.
it was represented authentically at c2,400,000. On this conduct, sir, I leave you to make your
In that, or rather in a higher state, Sir Thomas  own reflections.
Rumbold found and condemned it.  It afterward    It is impossible (at least I have found it imfell into such a terror as to sweat away a million  possible) to fix on the real amount of the preof its weight at once; and it sunk to X1,400,000. tended debts with which your ministers have
However, it never was without a resource for re- thought proper to load the Carnatic.  They are
cruiting it to its old plumpness.  There was a  obscure; they shun inquiry; they are enormous.
sort of floating debt of about four or five hund- That is all you know of them.
red thousand pounds more, ready to be added as    That you may judge what chance any honoroccasion should require.                         able and useful end of government has for a pio



1785.]                          NABOB OF ARCOT'S DEBTS.                                         345
vision that comes in for the leavings of these glut- and the hire of mercenaries for his use and unte nd re  tonous demands, I must take it on my-  der his direction.  This disposition was to be sesources of the self to bring before you the real con-  cured by the Nabob's putting himself under the
carnatic.    dition of that abused, insulted, racked, guarantee of France, and, by the means of that
and ruined country; though in truth my mind re- rival nation, preventing the English forever from
volts from it; though you will hear it with hor-  assuming an equality, much less a superiority, in
ror; and I confess I tremble when I think on  the Carnatic.  In pursuance of this treasonable
these awful and confounding dispensations of  project (treasonable on the part of the English),
Providence.  I shall first trouble you with a few  they extinguished the Company as a sovereign
words as to the cause.                            power in that part of India; they withdrew the
The great fortunes made in India in the be-  Company's garrisons out of all the forts and
ntroductory ginnings of conquest naturally excited  strong-holds of the Carnatic; they declined to rereniaks aon  an emulation in all the parts, and  ceive the embassadors from foreign courts, and
the mode of
plundering  through the whole succession of the  remitted them  to the Nabob of Arcot; they fell
thlecountry. Company's service; but in the Con-  upon and totally destroyed the oldest ally of the
pany it gave rise to other sentiments.  They did  Company, the King of Tanjore, and plundered the
not find the new  channels of acquisition flow  country to the amount of near five millions sterwith equal riches to them.  On the contrary, ling; one after another, in the Nabob's name, but
the high flood-tide of private emolument was  with English force, they brought into a miserable
generally  in the lowest ebb of their affairs.  servitude all the princes and great independent
They began also to fear that the fortune of war  nobility of a vast country.  In proportion to these
might take away what the fortune of war had  treasons and violences, which ruined the people,
given.  Wars were accordingly discouraged by  the fund of the Nabob's debt grew and flourished.
repeated injunctions and menaces; and, that the    Among the victims to this magnificent plan
servants might not be bribed into them  by the  of universal plunder, worthy of the heroic Hyder
native princes, they were strictly forbidden to  avarice of the projectors, you have all heard Ali.
take any money whatsoever from  their hands.  (and he has made himself to be well rememberBut vehement passion is ingenious in resources.  ed) of an Indian chief called Hyder Ali Khan.
The Company's servants were not only stimu-  This man possessed the western [Mysore], as
lated, but better instructed by the prohibition.  the Company, under the name of the Nabob of
They soon fell upon a contrivance which an-  Arcot, does the eastern division of the Carnatic.
swered their purposes far better than the meth-  (t was among the leading measures in the design
ods which were forbidden, though in this also  of this cabal (according to their own emphatic
they violated an ancient, but, they thought, ap  language) to extirpate this Hyder Ali.  They
abrogated order.  They reversed their proceed- declared the Nabob of Arcot to be his soverlngs.  Instead of receiving presents, they made  eign, and himself to be a rebel, and publicly inloans.  Instead of carrying on wars in their own  vested their instrument with the sovereignty of
name, they contrived an authoritT, at once;rre- the kingdom  of Mysore.  But their victim  was
sistible and irresponsible, in whose npme they  not of the passive kind.  They were soon obliged
might ravage at pleasure; and. being thus freed  to conclude a treaty of peace and close alliance
from all restraint, they indulged themselves in  with this rebel at the gates of Madras.4  Both
the most extravagant speculations of plunder. before and since that treaty, every principle of
The cabal of creditors who have been the ob- policy pointed out this power as a natural alliject of the late bolntifil prant from his Majes-  ance, and on his part it was courted by every
ty's ministers, in order t. possess themselves, un- sort of amicable office.  But the cabinet council
der the name of creditors and assignees, of every  of English creditors would not suffer their Nabob
country in Idip, as fast as it should be con-  of Arcot to sign the treaty, nor even to give to
quered, inspired into the mind of the Nabob of  a prince, at least his equal, the ordinary titles of
Arcot (then P dependent on the Company of the  respect and courtesy.  From  that time forward
hurblst order) a scheme of the most wild and des- a continued plot was carried on within the divan,
perate ambition that, I believe, ever was admit-  black and white, of the Nabob of Arcot, for the
ted into the thoughts of a man so situated.  First  destruction of Hyder Ali.  As to the outward
they persuaded him to consider himself as a prin-  members of the double, or rather treble governcipal member in the political system of Europe.  ment of Madras, which had signed the treaty,l5
In the next place they held out to him, and he                                     -_~
readily imbibed the idea, of the general empire    24 This took place in 1769, when Hyder Ali artof Hindostan.  As a preliminary to this under-  fully drew off the British army to a great distance
taking, they prevailed on him to propose a tri- from Madras, and then suddenly, by a forced march
partite division of that vast country-one part to  of one hundred and twenty miles in three days, surthe Company, another to the Mahrattas, and the  prised the city in a defenseless state  No resist-,.,."..  1^1    A i n1 u1 ance could be offered, and the Council of Madras
third to himself.  To himself he reserved all the        cold  e o     d a   the  oci o 
was compelled to conclude a treaty, which provided
southern part of the great peninsula, copre-for a restitution of its conquests. and a co-operation
hended under the general name of the Deccan.   with Hyder Ali for their mutual benefit.
On this scheme of their servants, the Company    25 This triple government seems to have been the
was to appear in the Carnatic in no other light Nabob of Arcot, the nominal sovereign, and the two
than as contractor for the provision of armies, factions into which the Council was divided.




346                                 MR. BURKE  ON  THE                                       [1785.
they were always prevented by some overruling        The alms of the settlement [Madras], in this
influence (which they do not describe, but which  dreadful exigency, were certainly liberal, and all
can not be misunderstood) from performing what 
justice and interest combined so evidently to en- his usual manner) turns the whole into argunent,
force.                                            mingled with the severest irony and sarcasm.
When at length Hyder Ali found that he had    Demosthenes gives us a picture of the scene by a
to do with men who either would sign  few distinct characteristic touches-the Presidents
is nvasi  to do w     mn wo e         wol   si  starting from their seats in the midst of supperofthe Car- no conventions or whom no treaty andrs,!nl t.^  no cnventio, or whom no.treaty and e   rashing into the market-place-tearing down the
no signature could bind, and who were  booths around it-burning up the hurdles even,
the determined enemies of human intercourse it- though the space would not be wanted till the next
self, he decreed to make the country possessed  day-sending for the generals-crying out for the
by these incorrigible and predestinated criminals  trumpeter: The Council meeting on the morrow at
a memorable example to mankind. He resolved, break of day-the people (usually so reluctant to
in the gloomy recesses of a mind capacious of  attend) pouring along to the assembly before the
such thinos, to leave the whole Carnatic an ever-  Council had found a moment's opportunity to inquire
lasting monument of vengeance, and to put per- o         e ol  easures-the entering of the Council
into the assembly-their announcing the newspetual desolation as a barrier between him and   their b       g f     d the mesenger to tell his
their bringing forward the messenger to tell his
those against whom  the faith which holds the   tory: And then the proclamation of the herald,
moral elements of the world together was no  " Who will speak?"-the silence of all-the voice
protection.  He became at length so confident of their common country crying out again through
of his force, so collected in his might, that he  the herald, "Who will speak for our deliverance?"
made no secret whatsoever of his dreadful reso- -all remaining silent-when Demosthenes arose,
lution.  -Having  terminated  his disputes with  and suggested measures which caused all these danevery enemy and every rival, who buried theirgers to pass away Strep vioc, like a cloud!.i ndetestation......    Mr. Burke had no individual scene of this kind to
mutuLal animosities in their common detestation....
mutl. a eities in  thei caom mo   Art be  depict; his description was of necessity a general
against the creditors of the Nabob of Arcot, he  one, embracing those elements of terror and destrucdrew from every quarter whatever a savage fe- tion which attend the progress of an invading army.
rocity could add to his new rudiments in the arts  There are three central points around which the
of destruction  and compounding all the mate- description gathers as it advances. First, the forces
rials of fury, havoc, and desolation into one black  of Hyder Ali (like those of Fabius at the approach
cloud, he hung for a while on the declivities of  of Hannibal), hanging in "one black cloud on the
the mountains.  While the authors of all these  declivities of the mountains." Secondly, "the storm
evils were idly and stupidly gazing on this men- of qoziversa1 fie," which did in fact lay waste the
m   m e t.  Carnatic from one extremity to the other. Thirdly,
acing meteor, which blackened all their horizon, the "O7hiilwiLd of cavalry"-how apt an image of
it suddenly burst, and poured down the wshole  Hyder Ali's terrible band of Abyssinian horsemen,
of its contents upon the plains of the Carnatic. which swept the whole country around, and hurried
Then ensued a scene of woe, the like of which  tens of thousands "into captivity in an unknown
no eye had seen, no heart conceived, and which  and hostile land!"  Lord Brougham, in a criticism
no tongue can adequately tell.  All the horrors  on this passage, pointedly remarks, that some of
of war before known or heard of were mercy to  the secondary touches which fill up the picture,
that new havoc. A storm of universal fire blast-  such as "blackening of all the horizon," " the men-acing meteor," the " goading spears of drivers," and
ed every field, consumed every house, destroyed  acing meteor" the oading spears of divers, and
h  r     inhab t nt    *   " the trampling of pursuing horses," rather diminish
every temple. The miserable inhabitants, flyinso, the
yin than increase the effect. He mentions, also, "the
from their flaming villages, in part were slaugh- storml of unusual fire"-an expression flat enough
tered; others, without regard to sex, to age, to  certainly, if Mr. Burke had used it, to merit all his
the respect of rank, or sacredness of function;  censures. But if his Lordship had recalled the cirfathers torn from children, husbands from wives, cumstances of Hyder Ali's march, he would have
enveloped in a whirlwind of cavalry, and, amid  seen that Jre was one of his chief instruments of
the goading spears of drivers and the tramplina  destruction; and therefore that the "storm  of uniof pursuing lhorses, were swept into captivity in  versal fire," no less than the black cloud and the
of pursuing horses, were swept into captivity, in  w     i    of c         s      o       a promien
i   whirlwind of cavalry, should occupy a prominent
an unknown and hostile land.  Those who were  place in the picture.
place in the picture.
able to evade this tempest fled to the walled    Without wishing, however, to criticise so admiracities, but, escaping from fire, sword, and exile, ble a passage too closely, or agreeing with Lord
they fell into the jaws of famine.2               Brougham in all his remarks, the Editor would suggest that the first two sentences of this paragraph
26 The reader will find it interesting to compare  are too much.clogged with qualifying thoughts. In
this passage with the most eloquent one in Mr. a passage leading to so animated a description, the
Fox's speeches, beginning "And all this without an  ideas should be few and simple; there should be
intelligible motive," page 549; and also with De- nothing to occupy or detain the mind; every thing
mosthenes' description (about the middle of his Ora- should bear it forward to one point. But instead of
tion for the Crown) of the terror and confusion at this, Mr. Burke, when he had spoken of men who
Athens, when the news arrived that Elateia had  would sign no convention, goes on to describe them
been seized by Philip.                            as those "whom no treaty and no signature could
Mr. Fox does not attempt to describe; he simply  bind, and who were the determined enemies of hushows us a man on a field of battle, asking wahy it man intercourse itself;" he then represents them
is fought; and, as the inquiry goes on, we catch  as "incorrigible and predestinated criminals," and in
glimpses of the scene around, while Mr. Fox (after the next sentence speaks of them as those "against




1785.]                         NABOB OF ARCOT'S DEBTS.                                     347
was done by charity that private charity could  and from the Irish to the German Sea, east and
do; but it was a people in beggary; it was a  west, emptied and emboweled (may God avert
nation which stretched out its hands for food. the omen of our crimes!) by so accomplished a
For months together these creatures of suffer- desolation.  Extend your imagination a little
ance, whose very excess and luxury in their most farther, and then suppose your ministers taking
plenteous days had fallen short of the allowance  a survey of this scene of waste and desolation!
of our austerest fasts, silent, patient, resigned, What would be your thoughts if you should be
without sedition oir disturbance, almost without informed that they were computing how much
complaint, perished by a hundred a day in the  had been the amount of the excises, how much
streets of Madras; every day seventy at least the customs, how much the land and malt tax,
laid their bodies in the streets, or on the glacis in order that they should charge (take it in the
of Tanjore, and expired of famine in the granary  most favorable light) for public service upon the
of India.  I was going to awake your justice  relics of the satiated vengeance of relentless entoward this unhappy part of our fellow-citizens, emies the whole of what England had yielded in
by bringing before you some of the circumstan- the most exuberant seasons of peace and abundces of this plague of hunger. Of all the calami- anco?  What would you call it?  To call it
ties which beset and waylay the life of man, this  tyranny, sublimed into madness, would be too
comes the nearest to our heart, and is that where- faint an image.  Yet this very madness is the
in the proudest of us all feels himself to be noth- principle upon which the ministers at your right
ing more than he is.  But I find myself unable  hand have proceeded in their estimate of the revto manage it with decorum.  These details are  enues of the Carnatic, when they were providing,
of a species of horror so nauseous and disgust- not supply for the establishments of its protecing; they are so degrading to the sufferers and  tion, but rewards for the authors of its ruin.
to the hearers  they are so humiliating to hu-    Every day you are fatigued and disgusted
man nature itself, that, on better thoughts, I find  with this cant, " The Carnatic is a Not easily reit more advisable to throw a pall over this hide- country that will soon recover, and suscitated.
ous object, and to leave it to your general con- become instantly as prosperous as ever."  They
ceptions.                                       think they are talking to innocents, who will beFor eighteen months, without intermission, lieve that, by sowing of dragons' teeth, men may
this destruction raged from the gates of Madras  come up ready grown and ready armed.27  They
to the gates of Tanjore; and so completely did  who will give themselves the trouble of considthese masters in their art, Hyder Ali, and his ering (for it requires no great reach of thought,
more ferocious son [Tippoo Saib], absolve them- no very profound knowledge) the manner in
selves of their impious vow, that when the Brit- which mankind are increased and countries culish armies traversed, as they did, the Carnatic, tivated, will regard all this raving as it ought to
for hundreds of miles in all directions, through  be regarded.  In order that the people, after a
the whole line of their march they did not see  long period of vexation and plunder, may be in
one man-not one woman-not one child-not a condition to maintain government, government
one four-footed beast of any description whatev- must begin by maintaining them.  Here the road
er!  One dead, uniform silence reigned over the  to economy lies, not through receipt, but through
whole region.  With the inconsiderable excep- expense; and in that country nature has given
tions of the narrow vicinage of some few forts, I no short cut to your object.  Men must propawish to be understood as speaking literally.  I gate, like other animals, by the mouth.  Never
mean to produce to you more than three wit- did oppression light the nuptial torch-never did
nesses, above all exception, who will support extortion and usury spread out the genial bed.
this assertion in its full extent.  That hurricane  Does any of you think that England, so wasted,
of war passed through every part of the central would, under such a nursing attendance, so rapprovinces of the Carnatic.  Six or seven districts  idly and cheaply recover?  But he is meanly
to the north and to the south (and these not whol- acquainted with either England or India, who
ly untouched) escaped the general ravage.       does not know that England would a thousand
The Carnatic is a country not much inferior times sooner resume population, fertility, and
Extent of the in extentto England. Figure toyour- what ought to be the ultimate secretion from
Carnatic.   self, Mr. Speaker, the land in whose  both, revenue, than such a country as the Carrepresentative chair you sit; figure to yourself  natic.
the form and fashion of your sweet and cheerful    The Carnatic is not by the bounty of nature a
country from Thames to Trent, north and south, fertile soil.  The general size of its Requires conwhom the faith which holds the moral elements of cattle is proof enough that it is much stt iretio
the world together was no protection."  All this, or otherwise.  It is some days since I pense.
nearly all, were better omitted in such a place, and  moved that a curious and interesting map, kept
perhaps, also, his description of Hyder Ali's confed- in the India House, should be laid before you.2?
erates as those "who buried their mutual animosities in their common detestation of the creditors of   27 Cadmus, having slain a dragon which guarded
the Nabob of Arcot."  Every one must feel, espe- the fountain of Mars, sowed its teeth by command
cially in reading these sentences aloud, that there  of Minerva, and instantly full-grown men sprang up,
is a heaviness about them which is any thing but armed, from the ground.
fitted to introduce a description like that which fol-  28 Mr. Barnard's map of the Jaghire. By Jaglows.                                           hire is here meant a tract of country whose reve



348                                 MR. BURKE ON THE                                        r1785.
The India House is not yet in readiness to send  and population, that every where the reservoirs
it; I have therefore brought down my own copy, were fallen into a miserable decay.  But after
and there it lies for the use of any gentleman  those domestic enemies had provoked the entry
who may think such a matter worthy of his at- of a cruel and foreign foe into the country, he
tention.  It is, indeed, a noble map, and of no- did not leave it until his revenge had completed
ble things; but it is decisive against the golden  the destruction begun by their avarice.  Few,
dreams and sanguine speculations of avarice run  very few indeed, of these magazines of water that
mad.  In addition to what you know must be  are not either totally destroyed, or cut through
the case in every part of the world (the neces- with such gaps as to require a serious attention,
sity of a previous provision of habitation, seed, and much cost to re-establish them as the means
stock, capital), that map will show you that the  of present subsistence to the people, and of future
use of the influences of Heaven itself are in that revenue to the state.
country a work of art.  The Carnatic is refresh-    What, sir, would a virtuous and enlightened
ed by few or no living brooks or running streams, ministry do on the view of the ruins    i affored
No aid afforded
and it has rain only at a season; but its product of such works before them? on the by the ministry
of rice exacts the use of water subject to per- view of such a chasm  of desolation forthispnepoe..
petual command.  This is the national bank of  as that which'yawned in the midst of those counthe Carnatic, on which it must have a perpetual tries, to the north and south, which still bore some
credit, or it perishes irretrievably. For that rea- vestiges of cultivation?  They would have reson, in the happier times of India, a number al- duced all their most necessary establishments;
most incredible of reservoirs have been made in  they would have suspended the justest payments;
chosen places throughout the whole country. they would have employed every shilling derived
They are formed for the greater part of mounds  from the producing to reanimate the powers of the
of earth and stones, with sluices of solid mason- unproductive parts.  While they were performry; the whole constructed with admirable skill ing this fundamental duty-while they were celeand labor, and maintained at a mighty charge. brating these mysteries of justice and humanity,
In the territory contained in that map alone, I they would have told the corps of fictitious credhave been at the trouble of reckoning the reser- itors, whose crimes were their claims, that they
voirs, and they amount to upward of eleven  must keep an awful distance; that they must sihundred, from the extent of two or three acres  lence their inauspicious tongues; that they must
to five miles in circuit.  From these reservoirs hold off their profane and unhallowed paws from
currents are occasionally drawn over the fields,  this holy work.  They would have proclaimed,
and these water-courses again call for a consid-  with a voice that should make itself heard, that
erable expense to keep them  properly scoured  in every country the first creditor is the plow;
and duly leveled.  Taking the district in that that this original, indefeasible claim supersedes
map as a measure, there can not be in the Car- every other demand.
natic and Tanjore fewer than ten thousand of    This is what a wise and virtuous ministry
these reservoirs of the larger and middling di- would have done and said.  This, therefore, is
mensions, to say nothing of those for domestic  what our minister could never think of saying
services and the use of religious purifications.  or doing.  A  ministry of another kind would
These are not the enterprises of your power, have first improved the country, and have thus
nor in a style of magnificence suited to the taste  laid a solid foundation for future opulence and
of your minister.  These are the monuments of  future force.  But on this grand point of the resreal kings, who were the fathers of their people; toration of the country there is not one syllable
testators to a posterity which they embraced as  to be found in the correspondence of our ministheir own.  These are the grand sepulchers  ters, from the first to the last.  They felt nothbuilt by ambition; but by the ambition of an in- ing for a land desolated by fire, sword, and famsatiable benevolence, which, not contented with  inc; their sympathies took another direction.
reigning in the dispensation of happiness during  They were touched with pity for bribery, so
the contracted term of human life, had strained, long tormented with a fruitless itching of its
with all the reachings and graspings of a viva- palms 29 their bowels yearned for usury, that
cious mind, to extend the dominion of their boun- had long missed the harvest of its returning
ty beyond the limits of nature, and to perpetuate  months 30 they felt for peculation. which had
themselves through generations of generations,  been for so many years raking in the dust of an
the guardians, the protectors, the nourishers of  empty treasury; they were melted into compasmankind!                                          sion for rapine and oppression, licking their dry,
Long before the late invasion, the persons who  parched, unbloody jaws.  These were the obThe reservoirs are objects of the grant of public mon- jects of their solicitude!  These were the necesneede repra- ey now before you had so diverted the  sities for which they were studious to provide!
tion.      supply of the pious funds of culture    To state the country and its revenues in their
_____ ~~__________~~_____   real condition, and to provide for those fictitious
nues are permanently assigned to some individual  lais, consistently with the support of an army
or company for a specific purpose. The Jaghire re- 
ferred to in this case was an extensive district in    2 "Yet let me tell you, Cassius, you yourself
the neighborhood of Madras, which had been grant-      Are much condemned to have an itching
ed by the Nabob to the East India Company for            palm."                    Jelius Cesar.
military service.                                   3 Interest is rated by the month in India.




1785.]                          NABOB OF ARCOT'S DEBTS.                                      349
and a civil establishment, would have been im-  justified by Lord Macartney himself, who, in a
Revenues of possible; therefore the ministers are  subsequent letter, informs the court that his
theCarnatic: silent on that head, and rest them- sketch is a matter of speculation; it supposes
estimated by selves on the authority of Lord Ma- the country restored to its ancient prosperity,
the ministry. cartney, who, in a letter to the court and the revenue to be in a course of effective
of Directors, written in the year 1781, speculat- and honest collection.  If, therefore, the minising on what might be the result of a wise manage- ters have gone wrong, they were not deceived
ment of the countries assigned by the Nabob of  by Lord Macartney; they were deceived by no
Arcot, rates the revenue as in time of peace at man.  The estimate of the Directors is nearly
twelve hundred thousand pounds a year, as he  the very estimate furnished by the right honordoes those of the King of Tanjore (which had not able gentleman himself [Mr. Dundas], and pubbeen assigned) at four hundred and fifty.31  On  lished to the world in one of the printed reports
this Lord Macartney grounds his calculations, and  of his own committee; but as soon as he obon this they choose to ground theirs.  It was on  tained his power, he chose to abandon his acthis calculation that the ministry, in direct oppo- count.  No part of his official conduct can be
sition to the remonstrances of the court of Direct- defended on the ground of his parliamentary inors, have compelled that miserable, enslaved body  formation.
to put their hands to an.order for appropriating the    In this clashing of accounts and estimates
enormous sum of o480,000 annually as a fund for ought not the ministry, if they wished The ministry
paying to their rebellious servants a debt contract- to preserve even appearances, to have ougt, in thse
ed in defiance of their clearest and most positive  waited for information of the actual to have delayinjunctions.                                     result of these speculations, before ed  decision.
The authority and information of Lord Ma- they laid a charge, and such a charge, not conLord Ma art- cartney is held high on this occasion, ditionally and eventually, but positively and auney's estimate though it is totally rejected in every  thoritatively, upon a country which they all
made in a different state of other particular of this business.  I knew, and which one of them had registered on
tie country.  believe I have the honor of being al- the records of this House, to be wasted beyond
most as old an acquaintance as any Lord Ma- all example, by every oppression of an abusive
cartney has.  A constant and unbroken friend- government, and every ravage of a desolating
ship has subsisted between us from a very early  war.  But that you may discern in what manperiod; and I trust he thinks that, as I respect ner they use the correspondence of office, and
his character, and in general admire his conduct, that thereby you may enter into the true spirit
I am one of those who feel no common interest of the ministerial Board of Control, I desire you,
in his reputation; yet I do not hesitate wholly  Mr. Speaker, to remark, that through their whole
to disallow the calculation of 1781, without any  controversy with the court of Directors, they do
apprehension that I shall appear to distrust his not so much as hint at their ever having seen
veracity or his judgment.  This peace estimate  any other paper from Lord Macartney, or any
of revenue was not grounded on the state of the  other estimate of revenue, than this of 1781. To
Carnatic as it then, or as it had recently stood. this they hold.  Here they take post; here they
It was a statement of former and better times. intrench themselves.
There is no doubt that a period did exist, when    When I first read this curious controversy bethe large portion of the Carnatic held by the Na- tween the ministerial board and the Buttlhey sup
bob of Arcot might be fairly held to produce a  court of Directors,33 common candor Pmstrlible
revenue to that, or to a greater amount; but the  obliged me to attribute their tenacious  stimte, hat
whole had so melted away by the slow and silent adherence to the estimate of 1781 to committee.
hostility of oppression and mismanagement, that a total ignorance of what had appeared upon the
the revenues, sinking with the prosperity of the  records.  But the right honorable gentleman has
country, had fallen to about X~800,000 a year, chosen to come forward with an uncalled-for deceven before an enemy's horse had imprinted his  laration; he boastingly tells you that he has seen,
hoof on the soil of the Carnatic.3'  From  that read, digested, compared every thing, and that, if
view, and independently of the decisive effects of  he has sinned, he has sinned with his eyes broad
the war which ensued, Sir Eyre Coote conceived  open.  Since, then, the ministers will obstinately
that years must pass before the country could be  " shut the gates of mercy" on themselves, let them
restored to its former prosperity and production, add to their crimes what aggravations they please.
It was that state of revenue (namely, the actual They have, then (since it must be so), willfully
state before the war) which the Directors have  and corruptly suppressed the information which
opposed to Lord Macartney's speculation. They  they ought to have produced, and, for the support
The estimate of refused to take the revenues for more  of peculation, have made themselves guilty of
the Directors  than  ~800,000.  In this they are  spoliation and suppression of evidence.  The paper I hold in my hand, which totally overturns
M Lord  Macartey was at that time Governor of  (for the present, at least) the estimate of 1781,
32 The manner in which Mr. Burke here individu. they have no more taken notice of in their conalizes, by mentioning the horse's hoof, is peculiarly  troversy with the court of Directors than if it had
appropriate and beautiful, after the description giv-   3 This controversy arose out of the resistance
en above of the "whirlwind of cavalry" which had  made by the Directors to the order of the Board of
swept over the Carnatic.                         Control for the payment of these debts.




350                                MR. BURKE ON THE                                       [1785.
no existence.  It is the report made by a corn- putable fact before them, what has been done by
mittee appointed at Madras to manage the whole  the Chancellor of the Exchequer and his accomof the six countries assigned to the Company by  plices?  Shall I be believed?  They have dethe Nabob of Arcot.  This committee was wise- livered over those very territories, on the keeply instituted by Lord Macartney, to remove from  ing of which in the hands of the committee the
himself the suspicion of all improper manage- defense of our dominions, and, what was more
ment in so invidious a trust, and it seems to have  dear to them, possibly, their own job, depended 
been well chosen.  This committee has made a  they have delivered back again, without condicomparative estimate of the only six districts tion, without arrangement, without stipulation
which were in a condition to be let to farm. In  of any sort for the natives of any rank, the whole
one set of columns they state the gross and net of those vast countries, to many of which he had
produce of the districts as let by the Nabob. To  no just claim, into the ruinous mismanagement
that statement they oppose the terms on which  of the Nabob of Arcot!  To crown all, accordthe same districts were rented for five years un- ing to their miserable practice whenever they do
der their authority.  Under the Nabob, the gross any thing transcendently absurd, they preface
farm was so high as X~570,000 sterling. What this their abdication of their trust by a solemn
was the clear produce?  Why, no more than  declaration, that they were not obliged to it by
about 6250,000; and this was the whole profit any principle of policy, or any demand of justice
to the Nabob's treasury, under his own manage- whatsoever.
ment, of all the districts which were in a condi-    I have stated to you the estimated produce of
tion to be let to farm on the 27th of May, 1782. the territories of the Carnatic, in a con- Subsequent
Lord Macartney's leases stipulated a gross prod- dition to be farmed in 1782, according estimates.
uce of no more than about 6530,000, but then  to the different managements into which they
the estimated net amount was nearly double  fall, and this estimate the ministers have thought
the Nabob's.  It, however, did not then exceed  proper to suppress.  Since that, two other ac~480,000; and Lord Macartney's commission- counts have been received.  The first informs
ers take credit for an annual revenue amounting  us that there has been a recovery of what is
to this clear sum.  Here is no speculation; here  called arrear, as well as of an improvement of
is no inaccurate account clandestinely obtained  the revenue of one of the six provinces [Tinnefrom  those who might wish, and were enabled  velly] which were let in 1782.  It was brought
to deceive.  It is the authorized, recorded state  about by making a new war.  After some sharp
of a real recent transaction.  Here is not twelve  actions, by the resolution and skill of Colonel
hundred thousand pounds-not eight hundred. Fullarton, several of the petty princes of the
The whole revenue of the Carnatic yielded no most southerly of the unwasted provinces were
more in May, 1782, than four hundred and  compelled to pay very heavy rents and tributes,
eighty thousand pounds; nearly the very pre- who for a long time before had not paid any accise sum which your minister, who is so careful knowledgment. After this reduction, by the care
of the public security, has carried from  all de- of Mr. Irwin, one of the committee, that province
scriptions of establishment, to form  a fund for was divided into twelve farms.  This operation
the private emolument of his creatures.34        raised the income of that particular province;
In this estimate we see, as I have just observed, the others remain as they were first farmed.  So
the Nabob's farms rated so high as ~570,000. that, instead of producing only their original rent
Hitherto all is well; but follow on to the effect- of  480,000, they netted, in about two years and
ive net revenue-there the illusion vanishes; and  a quarter, Io1,320,000  sterling, which would
you will not find nearly so much as half the prod- be about X660,000 a year if the recovered aruce.  It is with reason, therefore, Lord Macart- rear was not included. What deduction is to be
neyinvariably, throughout the whole correspond- made on account of that arrear I can not deence, qualifies all his views and expectations of  termine, but certainly what would reduce the
revenue, and all his plans for its application, annual income considerably below the rate I have
with this indispensable condition, that the man- allowed.
agement is not in the hands of the Nabob of    The second account received is the letting of
Arcot.  Should that fatal measure take place, the wasted provinces of the Carnatic.  This, I
he has over and over again told you that he has understand, is at a growing rent, which may or
no prospect of realizing any thing whatsoever may not realize what it promises; but if it should
for any public purpose.  With these weighty  answer, it will raise the whole, at some future
declarations, confirmed by such a state of indis- time, to o1,200,000.
You must here remark, Mr. Speaker, that this
3 The Company were, of course, unable to pay  revenue is the produce of all the Nabob's dominthe Nabob's debts at once, and the Board of Control ions.  During the assignment the Nabob paid
therefore exacted from the Directors a paper setting nothing because the Company had all. Supapart for this purpose twelve lacs of pagodas, or                        lately-assigned territory
about ~480,000 a year. It appears, from the above. 
computation, that the entire revenue of the Carnatic to yield up to the most sanguine expectations
would be absorbed by this assignment. Nothing re- of the right honorable gentleman; and suppose
mained for its government and defense. This was   1l,200,000 to be annually realized (of which
left to come out of the other means of the Company, we actually know of no more than the realizing
and if these failed, from the public treasury at home. of six hundred thousand), out of this you must




1785]                         NABOB OF ARCOT'S DEBTS.                                      351
deduct the subsidy and rent which the Nabob  dia Company, which, after the provision for the
paid before the assignment, namely, 2340,000  cavalry and the consolidation of 1777, was to
a year.  This reduces back the revenue, appli- divide the residue of the fund of 0480,000 a
cable to the new distribution made by his Majes- year with the lenders of 1767.  This debt the
ty's ministers, to about,800,000. Ofthatsum, worthy chairman, who sits opposite to me, confive eighths are by them  surrendered to the  tends to be three millions sterling.  Lord Madebts.  The remaining three are the only fund  cartney's account of 1781 states it to be, at that
left for all the purposes so magnificently dis- period, o1,200,000.  The first account of the
played in the letter of the Board of Control; that court of Directors makes it  O900,000.  This,
is, for the new-cast peace establishment; a new  like the private debt, being without any solid
fund for ordnance and fortifications; and a large  existence, is incapable of any distinct limits.
allowance for what they call "the splendor of  Whatever its amount or its validity may be, one
the Durbar" [Court of the Nabob].              thing is clear; it is of the nature and quality of
You have heard the account of these terri- a public debt.  In that light, nothing is provided
tories as they stood in 1782. You have seen the  for it but an eventual surplus to be divided with
actual receipt since the assignment in 1781, of  one class of the private demands, after satisfying
which I reckon about two years and a quarter the two first classes.  Never was a more shameproductive.  I have stated to you the expecta- ful postponing a public demand, which, by the
tion from  the wasted part.  For realizing all reason of the thing, and the uniform practice of
this, you may value yourselves on the vigor and  all nations, supersedes every private claim.36
diligence of a governor and committee that have    Those who gave this preference to private
done so much.  If these hopes from the commit- claims consider the Company's as a lawful detee are rational, remember that the committee  mand; else, why did they pretend to provide for
is no more.  Your ministers, who have formed  it? On their own principles they are condemned.
their fund for these debts on the presumed effect    But I, sir, who profess to speak to your underof the committee's management, have put a com- standing and to your conscience, and Thisdebtought
plete end to that committee.  Their acts are  to brush away from this business all notto bechargrescinded; their leases are broken; their rent- false colors, all false appellations, as n.esofthleCarers are dispersed.  Your ministers knew, when  well as false facts, do positively deny
they signed the death-warrant of the Carnatic, that the Carnatic owes a shilling to the Compathat the Nabob would not only turn all these un- ny, whatever the Company may be indebted to
fortunate farmers of revenue out of employment, that undone country.  It owes nothing to the
but that he has denounced his severest vengeance  Company, for this plain and simple reason: The
against them for acting under British authority. territory charged with the debt is their own! To
With a knowledge of this disposition, a British  say that their revenues fall short, and owe them
Chancellor of the Exchequer and Treasurer of  money, is to say they are in debt to themselves,
the Navy, incited by no public advantage, im- which is only talking nonsense.  The fact is,
pelled by no public necessity, in a strain of the  that by the invasion of an enemy, and the ruin
most wanton perfidy which has ever stained the  of the country, the Company, either in its own
annals of mankind, have delivered over to plun- name or in the names of the Nabob of Arcot and
der, imprisonment, exile, and death itself, accord- Rajah of Tanjore, has lost for several years what
ing to the mercy of such execrable tyrants as it might have looked to receive from its own esAmir ul Omra and Paul Benfield, the unhappy  tate.  If men were allowed to credit themselves,
and deluded souls who, untaught by uniform ex- upon such principles any one might soon grow
ample, were still weak enough to put their trust rich by this mode of accounting.  A flood comes
in English faith.5 They have gone farther; they  down upon a man's estate in the Bedford level
have thought proper to mock and outrage their of a thousand pounds a year, and drowns his
misery by ordering them  protection and com- rents for ten years.  The chancellor would put
pensation.  From what power is this protection  that man into the hands of a trustee, who would
to be derived?  And from what fund is this corn- gravely make up his books, and for this loss credit
pensation to arise?  The revenues are delivered   36 The civil and military government of India, and
over to their oppressor; the territorial jurisdic- the charge of its revenues, ad been taken from the
tion, from whence that revenue is to arise, and  Company by Mr. Pitt's bill, and placed in the hands
under which they live, is surrendered to the same  of the British government. All debts due to the
iron hands; and that they shall be deprived of  Company had, therefore, become public debts; and
all refuge and all hope, the minister has made a  if brought into the account at all, ought, on estabsolemn, voluntary declaration that he never will lished principles, to have taken the precedence of
interfere with the Nabob's internal government. every other. Instead of this, they had been put
VI. The last thing considered by the Board  after most of the others! Mr. Burke, however, conVI. Th  lasotro mn thg csderdbts the Board-,tends that they ought not to be brought into the
Theomp  of Control, among the debts of the Car- account at all. The Company were now masters of
ny't Debt.  natic, was that arising to the East In-        country; and whatever sums they had expend35 The favorite son of the Nabob, Amir ul Omra, ed in thus adding to their dominions ought to be
was so vicious and cruel, that, although destined to carried to the account of "profit and loss."  They
succeed his father, the Company set him aside on  ought not to be brought in as debts, to squeeze more
the death of the Nabob in 1795, and gave the gov- revenue out of the natives, or to be saddled on the
ernment to his brother.                        public, if that revenue should fail.




352                                MR. BURKE ON THE                                      [1785.
himself in his account for a debt due to him of  are soucars who will supply you on the mortgage
X 10,000.  It is, however, on this principle the  of your territories.  Then steps forward some
Company makes up its demands on the Carnatic. Paul Benfield, and from his grateful compassion
In peace they go the full length, and indeed more  to the Nabob, and his filial regard to the Comthan the full length, of what the people can bear pany, he unlocks the treasures of his virtuous
for current establishments; then they are absurd  industry, and for a consideration of twenty-four
enough to consolidate all the calamities of war or thirty-six per cent. on a mortgage of the terinto debts; to metamorphose the devastations of  ritorial revienue, becomes security to the Compathe country into demands upon its future produc- ny for the Nabob's arrear.
tion.  What is this but to avow a resolution ut-    All this intermediate usury thus becomes sancterly to destroy their own country, and to force  tified by the ultimate view to the Company's
the people to pay for their sufferings, to a gov- payment.  In this case, would not a plain man
ernment which has proved unable to protect ei- ask this plain question of the Company: If you
ther the share of the husbandman or their own? know that the Nabob must annually mortgage
In every lease of a farm, the invasion of an ene- his territories to your servants to pay his annual
my, instead of forming a demand for arrear, is a  arrear to you, why is not the assignment or mortrelease of rent; nor for that release is it at all nec- gage made directly to the Company itself?  By
essary to show that the invasion has left nothing  this simple, obvious operation, the Company
to the occupier of the soil, though in the present would be relieved and the debt paid, without
case it would be too easy to prove that melan- the charge of a shilling interest to that prince.
choly fact.  I therefore applaud my right hon- But if that course should be thought too indulgorable friend, who, when he canvassed the Corn- ent, why do they not take that assignment with
pany's accounts, as a preliminary to a bill that such interest to themselves as they pay to othought not to stand on falsehood of any kind, fixed  ers; that is, eight per cent.?  Or, if it were
his discerning eye and his deciding hand on these  thought more advisable (why it should I know
debts of the Company, from the Nabob of Arcot not) that he must borrow, why do not the Comand Rajah of Tanjore, and at one stroke ex- pany lend their own credit to the Nabob for their
punged them  all, as utterly irrecoverable; he  own payment?  That credit would not be weakmight have added, as utterly unfounded.         ened by the collateral security of his territorial
On these grounds I do not blame the arrange- mortgage.  The money might still be had at
ment this day in question, as a preference given  eight per cent.  Instead of any of these honest
to the debt of individuals over the Company's  and obvious methods, the Company has for years
debt.  In my eye, it is no more than the prefer- kept up a show of disinterestedness and moderaence of a fiction over a chimera; but I blame  tion, by suffering a debt to accumulate to them
the preference given to those fictitious private  from the country powers, without any interest at
debts over the standing defense and the standing  all; and at the same time have seen before their
government.  It is there the public is robbed. eyes, on a pretext of borrowing to pay that debt,
It is robbed in its army; it is robbed in its civil the revenues of the country charged with a usuadministration; it is robbed in its credit; it is ry of twenty, twenty-four, thirty-six, and even
robbed in its investment, which forms the corn- eight-and-forty per cent., with compound intermercial connection between that country and  est, for the benefit of their servants!  All this
Europe.  There is the robbery.                  time they know that by having a debt subsisting
But my principal objection lies a good deal without any interest, which is to be paid by conThisdebtmade deeper.  That debt to the Company  tracting a debt on the highest interest, they manthe pretext for is the pretext under which all the  ifestly render it necessary to the Nabob of Arcot
others of the
mostunjustifia- other debts lurk and cover them- to give the private demand a preference to the
selves.  That debt forms the foul, public; and, by binding him and their servants
putrid mucus, in which are engendered the  together in a common cause, they enable him to
whole brood of creeping ascarides, all the end- form a party to the utter ruin of their own auless involutions, the eternal knot, added to a knot thority and their own affairs.  Thus their false
of those inexpugnable tape-worms which devour moderation and their affected purity, by the natthe nutriment, and eat up the bowels of India. ural operation of every thing false and every
It is necessary, sir, you should recollect two  thing affected, becomes pander and bawd to the
things: first, that the Nabob's debt to the Corn- unbridled debauchery and licentious lewdness of
pany carries no interest.  In the next place you  usury and extortion.
will observe, that whenever the Company has    In consequence of this double game, all the
occasion to borrow, she has always commanded  territorial revenues have, at one time Extreme or
whatever she thought fit at eight per cent. Car- or other, been covered by those locusts, treo tio of
rying in your mind these two facts, attend to the  the English soucars.  Not one single the onecesnprocess with regard to the public and private  foot of the Carnatic has escaped them;
debt, and with what little appearance of decency  a territory as large England!  During these opthey play into each other's hands a game of utter erations, what a scene has that country presentperdition to the unhappy natives of India. The  ed! The usurious European assignee supersedes
Nabob falls into an arrear to the Company. The  the Nabob's native farmer of the revenue; the
presidency presses for payment.  The Nabob's farmer flies to the Nabob's presence to claim his
answer'd, I have no money. Good! But there  bargain; while his servants murmur for wages,




1785.]                         NABOB OF ARCOT'S DEBTS.                                       353
and his soldiers mutiny for pay.3  The mortgage  these soucars are no other than the creditors
to the European assignee is then resumed, and  themselves.  The minister, not content with authe native farmer replaced; replaced, again to  thorizing these transactions in a manner and to
be removed on the new clamor of the European  an extent unhoped for by the rapacious expectaassignee.  Every man of rank and landed for- tions of usury itself, loads the broken back of the
tune being long since extinguished, the remain- Indian revenues, in favor of his worthy friends
ing miserable last cultivator, who grows to the  the soucars, with an additional twenty-four per
soil, after having his back scored by the farmer, cent. for being security to themselves for their
has it again flayed by the whip of the assignee, own claims; for condescending to take the counand is thus, by a ravenous, because a short-lived  try in mortgage to pay to themselves the fruits
succession of claimants, lashed from oppressor to  of their extortions!
oppressor, while a single drop of blood is left as    The interest to be paid for this security, acthe means of extorting a single grain of corn. cording to the most moderate strain of soucar
Do not think I paint.  Far, very far from it; I demand, comes to one hundred and eighteen
do not reach the fact, nor approach to it.  Men  thousand pounds a year, which, added to the
of respectable condition, men equal to your sub-  E480,000 on which it is to accrue, will make
stantial English yeomen, are daily tied up and  the whole charge on account of these debts on
scourged to answer the multiplied demands of  the Carnatic revenues amount to Jo598,000 a
various contending and contradictory titles, all year, as much as even a long peace will enable
issuing from one and the same source.  Tyran- those revenues to produce.  Can any one reflect
nous exaction brings on servile concealment, and  for a moment on all those claims of debt, which
that, again, calls forth tyrannous coercion. They  the minister exhausts himself in contrivances to
move in a circle, mutually producing and pro- augment with new usuries, without lifting up his
duced; till at length nothing of humanity is left hands and eyes in astonishment of the impuin the government, no trace of integrity, spirit, deuce both of the claim and of the adjudication?
or manliness in the people, who drag out a pre- Services of some kind or other these servants of
carions and degraded existence under this sys- the Company must have done, so great and emitem  of outrage upon human nature.  Such is nent, that the Chancellor of the Exchequer can
the effect of the establishment of a debt to the  not think that all they have brought home is
Company, as it has hitherto been managed, and  half enough.  He halloos after them, " Gentleas it ever will remain, until ideas are adopted  men, you have forgot a large packet behind you,
totally different from those which prevail at this  in your hurry; you have not sufficiently recovtime.                                            ered yourselves; you ought to have, and you
Your worthy ministers, supporting what they  shall have, interest upon interest, upon a prohibare obliged to condemn, have thought fit to re- ited debt that is made up of interest upon internew the Company's old order against contract- est.  Even this is too little; I have thought of
ing private debts in future.  They begin by re- another character for you, by which you may
warding the violation of the ancient law  and  add something to your gains; you shall be sethen they gravely re-enact provisions, of which  curity to yourselves; and hence will arise a new
they have given bounties for the breach.  This usury, which shall efface the memory of all the
inconsistency has been well exposed by Mr. Fox. usuries suggested to you by your own dull inBut what will you say to their having gone the  ventions."
length of giving positive directions for contract-    VII. I have done with the arrangement relaing the debt which they positively forbid?      tive to the Carnatic. After this, it is to Tretment
I will explain myself. They order the Nabob, little purpose to observe on what the ofTanjore.
Theordersorthe out of the revenues of the Carnatic, ministers have done to Tanjore.  Your minisministry render
netw debtSnee- to allot four hundred and eighty  ters have not observed even form and ceremony
nary,,  t an eo"0   thousand pounds a year as a fund  in their outrageous and insulting robbery of that
terest.     for the debts before us.  For the  country, whose only crime has been its early and
punctual payment of this annuity, they order him  constant adherence to the power of this, and the
to give soucar security. When a soucar, that is, suffering of a uniform pillage in consequence of
a money-dealer, becomes security for any na- it.  The debt of the Company from the Rajah
tive prince, the course is, for the native prince  of Tanjore is just of the same stuff with that of
to counter-secure the money-dealer by making  the Nabob of Arcot.,s
over to him in mortgage a portion of his terri-, s Tanjore was a. small kingdom on the southeasttory equal to the sum annually to be paid, with  ern coast of India, bordering on the Carnatic. Hyan interest of at least twenty-four per cent. The  der Ali was eager to bring it into subjection to himpoint fit for the House to know is, who are these  self; and the presidency at Madras (then under the
soucars to whom this security on the revenues co"trol of Benfield and his associates) united in the
in favor of the Nabob's creditors is to be given?  desig  and sent an army fo this purpose. At a
te    later period they changed their policy, and sent anThe majority of the House, unaccustomed to these    r army to seize and  old it for t  Company.
transctions.l hawihstnhmother army to seize and hold it for the Company.
transactions, wisll hear with astonishment that "Never," says Mill, "was the resolution taken to
37 The books of the Company, in 1781, show that make war upon a lawful sovereign with a view of
the Nabob's farmers of revenue rarely continued in  stripping him of his dominions, and either putting
office three months. What must have been the state  him and his family to death, or making them prison,
of the country under such a system of exaction!   ers for life, on amore accommodating principle. WeV
z




354                                  MR. BURKE ON  THE                                       [1785.
The subsidy from Tanjore, on the arrear of  voked all India, he is to be subjected to a new
Tajore which this pretended debt (if any there  penalty.  To what penalty?  Why, to no less
debt of    be) has accrued to the Company, is not,  than the confiscation of all his revenues.  But
e400,000 utterly without like that paid by the Nabob of Arcot,  this is to end with the war, and they are to be
ounation.  a compensation for vast countries ob- faithfully  returned?  Oh, no; nothing like it.
tained, augmented, and preserved for him; not The country is to remain under confiscation unthe price of pillaged treasuries, ransacked houses, til all the debt which the Company shall think
and plundered territories.  It is a large grant fit to incur in such war shall be discharged; that
irom a small kingdom not obtained by our arms - is to say, forever.  His sole comfort is to find
robbed, not protected by our power; a grant for  his old enemy, the Nabob of Arcot, placed in
which no equivalent was ever given, or pretend- the very same condition.
ed to be given.  The right honorable gentle-    The revenues of that miserable country were,
man [Mr. Dundas], however, bears witness in  before the invasion of Hyder, reduced to Revenues
his reports to the punctuality of the payments  a gross annual receipt of three hundred of Tanjore.
of this grant of bounty, or, if you please, of fear. and sixty thousand pounds.  From  this receipt
It amounts to one hundred and sixty thousand  the subsidy I have just stated is taken.  This
pounds sterling net annual subsidy.  He bears again, by payments in advance, by extorting dewitness to a farther grant of a town and port, posits of additional sums to a vast amount for
with an annexed district of thirty thousand pounds  the benefit of their soucars, and by an endless vaa year, surrendered to the Company since the  riety of other extortions, public and private, is
first donation.  He has not borne witness, but the  loaded with a debt, the amount of which I never
fact is (he will not deny it), that, in the midst of  could ascertain, but which is large undoubtedly,
war, and during the ruin and desolation of a con- generating a usury the most completely ruinous
siderable part of his territories, this prince made  that probably was ever heard of; that is, fortymany very large payments.  Notwithstanding  eight per cent., payable monthly, with compound
these merits and services, the first regulation of  interest!
ministry is to force from him  a territory of an     Such is the state to which the Company's
extent which they have not yet thought proper servants have reduced that country. Tainjore cornto ascertain for a military peace establishment,  Now  come the reformers, restorers,  ltoananunlt-bthe particulars of which they have not yet been  and comforters of India.  What have tlt,,t  N4^o00
pleased to settle,                                they done?  In addition to all these of Arcot.
The next part of their arrangement is with  tyrannous exactions, with all these ruinous debts
Penaltyagnist regard to war.  As confessedly this  in their train, looking to one side of an agreement
theRajahifen- prince had no share in stirring up any  while they willfully shut their eyes to the other,
gagd in wa   of the former wars, so all future wars  they withdraw from Tanjore all the benefits of
are completely out of his power; for he has no  the treaty of 1762, and they subject that nation
troops whatever, and is under a stipulation not to a perpetual tribute of forty thousand a year to
so much as to correspond with any foreign state, the Nabob of Arcot-a tribute never due, or preexcept through the Company.  Yet, in case the  tended to be due to him, even when he appeared
Company's servants should be again involved in  to be something-a tribute, as things now stand,
war, or should think proper again to provoke any  not to a real potentate, but to a shadow, a dream,
enemy, as in times past they have wantonly pro- an incubus of oppression.  After the Company
has accepted in subsidy, in grant of territory, in
}wave done the lRajah greet injury- we have no in-..                 v                  ~
h ve done the R  ijah great i-jU1y  R v    rn  remission of rent, as a compensation for their own
tention of doing him right. This constitutes a full.   eas                     e            i
and sufficient reason for going on to his destruction."    tectlonat least two hundred thousand pounds
-Such was the doctrine! As Tanjore was thus seized  a ear without discounting a shilling for that rewithout any authority from the Directors at London, ceipt, the ministers condemn this harassed nathe presidency at Madras was ordered to restore it; tion to be tributary to a person [the Nabob of Arand Lord Pigot was sent out to carry the restora- cot] who is himself, by their own arrangement,
tion into effect. A statement has already been giv- deprived of the right of war or peace; deprived
en of the violence which ensued, and the imprison- of the power of the sword; forbid to keep up a
ment of Lord Pigot by the majority of the Council, s e regiment of soldiers  and is therefoe
who were in the interest of Benfield and his parti-     y n                                the r o
sans. When the restoration was at last effected,abd from all protection of the counit was only partial; some of the territory was with- try which   the object of the pretended tibute.
held; and no part of the goods, money, or revenues, Tribute hangs on the sword.  It is an incident
so unjustly taken fi-om the Rajah, were restored. inseparable from real sovereign power.  In the
The Directors of the East India Company were or- present case, to suppose its existence is as absurd
dered, in Mr. Pitt's East India Bill, to examine into  as it is cruel and oppressive.  And here, Mr.
the subject, and came to the conclusion that cer-  Speaker, you have a clear exemplification of the
tain portions of territory should be restored to the  use of those false names and false colors which
Rajah. The Board of Control overruled this de-          gentlemen who have lately taken possession
the gentlemen who have lately taken possession
cision, and, though Tanjore' had been repeatedly
plundered, and reduced to a state of extreme dest     India choose to lay on fo the purpose of distution, levied upon the country about ~400,000 as  guising their plan of oppression.  The Nabob of
a pretended debt for arrearage of tribute.  Other  Arcot and Rajah of Tanjore have, in truth and
wrongs inflicted on Tanjore are enumerated by Mr. substance, no more than a merely civil authority,
Burke.                                            held in the most entire dependence on the Corn



1785.]                          NABOB  OF ARCOT'S DEBTS.                                        355
pany. The Nabob, without military, without fed- tribute.4~  This horrid and unnatural instrument
eral capacity, is extinguished as a potentate; but of extortion had been a distinguishing feature in
then he is carefully kept alive as an independent the enormities of the Carnatic politics that loudand sovereign power, for the purpose of rapine and  ly called for reformation. But the food of a whole
extortion; for the purpose of perpetuating the old  people is by the reformers of India conditioned or
intrigues, animosities, usuries, and corruptions.   payments from its prince at a moment that he is
It was not enough that this mockery of tribute  overpowered with a swarm  of their demands,
was to be continued without the correspondent without regard to the ability of either prince c.
protection, or any ofthe stipulated equivalents, but people.  In fine, by opening an avenue to the
ten years of arrear, to the amount of X400,000  irruption of the Nabob of Arcot's creditors and
sterling, is added to all the debts to the Company  soucars, whom  every man who did not fall in
and to individuals, in order to create a new debt, love with oppression and corruption, on an ex
to be paid (if at all possible, to be paid in whole  perience of the calamities they produced, would
or in part) only by new usuries; and all this for have raised wall before wall, and mound before
the Nabob of Arcot, or, rather, for Mr. Benfield  mound, to keep from a possibility of entrance, a
and the corps of the Nabob's creditors and their more destructive enemy than Hyder Ali is introsoucars.  Thus these miserable Indian princes  duced into that kingdom.  By this part of their
are continued in their seats, for no other pur- arrangement, in which they establish a debt to
pose than to render them, in the first instance, the Nabob of Arcot, in effect and substance they
objects of every species of extortion, and, in the  deliver over Tanjore, bound hand and foot, to
second, to force them to become, for the sake of  Paul Benfield, the old betrayer, insulter, oppressa momentary shadow of reduced authority, a sort or, and scourge of a country which has for years
of subordinate tyrants, the ruin and calamity, not been an object of an unremitted, but, unhappily,
the fathers and cherishers of their people.       an unequal struggle, between the bounties of
But take this tribute only as a mere charge  Providence to renovate and the wickedness of
Cruelarrange- (without title, cause, or equivalent)  mankind to destroy.
mentrespect- on this people; what one step has    The right honorable gentleman talks of his
ing the means   
of irrigating   been taken to furnish grounds for a  fairness in determining the territo- Injstice ofar.
Tanjore.    just calculation and estimate of the  rial dispute between the Nabob of ing between the
proportion of the burden and the ability?  None; Arcot and the prince of that coun- Rajad the Nnot an attempt at it.  They do not adapt the bur- try, when he superseded the determ- bob of Arcot.
den to the strength, but they estimate the strength  ination of the Directors, in whom the law  had
of the bearers by the burden they impose.  Then  vested the decision of that controversy.  He is
what care is taken to leave a fund sufficient to  in this just as feeble as he is in every other part.
the future reproduction of the revenues that are  But it is not necessary to say a word in refutato bear all these loads?  Every one but toler- tion of any part of his argument.  The mode of
ably conversant in Indian affairs must know that i the proceeding sufficiently speaks the spirit of it.
the existence of this little kingdom depends on its It is enough to fix his character as a judge, that
control over the River Cavery.39  The benefits of  he never heard the Directors in defense of their
Heaven to any community ought never to be con- adjudication, nor either of the parties in support
nected with political arrangements, or made to  of their respective clainms.  It is sufficient for me
depend on the personal conduct of princes, in  that he takes from the Rajah of Tanjore by this
which the mistake, or error, or neglect, or dis- pretended adjudication, or, rather, from  his untress, or passion of a moment on either side may  happy subjects, X40,000 a year of his and their
bring famine on millions, and ruin an innocent revenue, and leaves upon his and their shoulders
nation perhaps for ages.  The means of the sub- all the charges that can be made on the part of
sistence of mankind should be as immutable as the Nabob, on the part of his creditors, and on the
the laws of nature, let power and dominion take  part of the Company, without so much as hearwhat course they may.  Observe what has been  ing him as torigto    or to ability.  But what prindone with regard to this important concern. The  cipally induces me to leave the affair of the teruse of this river is indeed at length given to the  ritorial dispute between the Nabob and the Rajah
Rajah, and a power provided for its enjoyment at A to another day is this, that both the parties being
his own charge; but the means of furnishing that  stripped of their all, it little signifies under which
charge (and a mighty one it is) are wholly cut  of their names the unhappy, undone people are
off.  This use of the water, which ought to have  delivered over to the merciless Soucars, the allies
no more connection than clouds, and rains, and I of that right honorable gentleman and the Chansunshine, with the politics of the Rajah, the Na- cellor of the Exchequer.  In them ends the acbob, or the Company, is expressly contrived as count of this long dispute of the Nabob of Arcot
a means of enforcing demands and arrears of  anid the Rajah of Tanjore.
39 This river rises in a chain of mountains called. —-- __.                _       A —- --   --
the Ghauts, near the Malibar coast, and, after a    40 This refers to the instructions of the Board of
course of four hundred and fifty miles, flows into  Control, which expressly provide that the use of
the sea through Tanjore. The vast rice plains of  water from the Cavery for the irrigation of his terthat country are dependent for their products on the  ritory shall be enjoyed by the Rajah "only while ie
waters of this river, which are turned upon the fields  shall be punctual in paying his annual tribute to the
by means of embankments and canals.               Nabob."




356                                  MR. BURKE ON THE                                        [1785.
that his judgment in this case can be censured by  in his reports, the ill treatment of the Rajah of
attack on Mr.  none but those who seem to act as if  Tanjore (a branch of the royal house of the MahDundas in reply they were paid agents to one oC the  rattas, every injury to whom the Mahrattas felt
tionsIagainstMr. parties.4'  What does he think of his  as offered to themselves) as a main cause of the
Burke.      court of Directors?  If they are paid  alienation of that people from the British power?
by either the parties, by which of them does he  And does he now think that, to betray his printhink they are paid?  He knows that their de-  ciples, to contradict his declarations, and to becision has been directly contrary to his.  Shall come himself an active instrument in those opI believe that it does not enter into his heart to  pressions which he had so tragically lamented,
conceive that any person can steadily and active- is the way to clear himself of having been actu.
ly interest himself in the protection of the injured  ated by a pecuniary interest at the time when he
and oppressed without being well paid for his  chose to appear full of tenderness to that ruined
service?  I have taken notice of this sort of  nation?
discourse some days ago, so far as it may be         VIII. The right honorable gentleman is fond
supposed to relate to me.  I then contented  of parading on the motives of others, Motives which
myself, as I shall now do, with giving it a cold, and on his own.  As to himself, he  Lntledi to fIh
though a very direct contradiction.  Thus much  despises the imputations of those who debts.
I do from respect to truth.  If I did more, it might suppose that any thing corrupt could influence
be supposed, by my anxiety to clear myself, that him in this his unexampled liberality of the pubI had imbibed the ideas which, for obvious rea- lie treasure.  I do not know that I am obliged to
sons, the right honorable gentleman wishes to  speak to the motives of the ministry in the arhave received concerning all attempts to plead  rangements they have made of the pretended
the cause of the natives of India, as if it were a  debts of Arcot and Tanjore.  If I prove fraud
disreputable employment.  If he had not forgot, and collusion with regard to public money on
in his present occupation, every principle which  those right honorable gentlemen, I am not obliged
ought to have guided him, and, I hope, did guide  to assign their motives, because no good motives
him, in his late profession [the law], he would  can be pleaded in favor of their conduct.  Upon
have known that he who takes a fee for plead-  that case I stand; we are at issue, and I desire
ing the cause of distress against power, and  to go to trial.  This, I am  sure, is not loose
manfully performs the duty he has assumed, re- railing or mean insinuation, according to their
ceives an honorable recompense for a virtuous  low and degenerate fashion when they make atservice.  But if the right honorable gentleman  tacks on the measures of their adversaries.  It
will have no regard to fact in his insinuations or is a regular and juridical course and, unless I
to reason in his opinions, I wish him at least to  choose it, nothing can compel me to go farther.
consider that if taking an earnest part with re-    But since these  unhappy  gentlemen have
gard to the oppressions exercised in India, and  dared to hold a lofty tone about their motives,
with regard to this most oppressive case of Tan- and affect to despise suspicion, instead of being
jore in particular, can ground a presumption of  careful not to give cause for it, I shall beg leave
interested motives, he is himself the most mer- to lay before you some general observations on
cenary man I know.  His conduct, indeed, is  what I conceive was their duty in so delicate a
such that he is on all occasions the standing  business.
testimony against himself.  He it was that first    If I were worthy to suggest any line of prucalled to that case the attention of the House. dence to that right honorable gentleThe reports of his own committee are ample and  man, I would tell him that the way to isters to avoid
afiecting upon that subject; and as many of us  avoid suspicion in the settlement of suspicion.
as have escaped his massacre must remember pecuniary transactions, in which great fiauds
the very pathetic picture he made of the suffer-  have been very strongly presumed, is to attend
ings of the Tanjore country on the day when he  to these few plain principles: First, to hear all
moved the unwieldy code of his Indian resolu-  parties equally, and not the managers for the
tions.4   Has he not stated over and over again, suspected claimants only; not to proceed in the
4 This refes to an i n tMrdark, but to act with as much publicity as pos1      This refers to an insinuation thrown out by Mr. sible; not to precipitate decision; to be religious
Dundas, some days previous, that Mr. Burke was a  in following the rules prescribed in the commispaid agent of the Rajah of Taniore. Nothing could  
be more false, and the only pretense for it was that                w  a    a   above
William Burke, brother of Edmund, was in the Ra- all, not to be fond of straining constructions to
jah's service. At that time, Mr. Burke simply re- force a jurisdiction, and to draw to ourselves the
pelled the insinuation. He now  turns back Mr. management of a trust in its nature invidious and
Dundas' attack upon himself.                      obnoxious to suspicion, where the plainest letter
42 Mr. Dundas was chairman of the Committee of  of the law does not compel it.  If these few plain
Secrecy on Indian Affairs. In 1782 he made a num- rules are observed, no corruption ought to be susber of voluminous reports on the subject, and intro- peed  if ayofthem are violated, suspicion will
duced nearly a hundred resolutions to carry out his                      If allof them a  violated
views. The-"massacre" to whichMr. Burke sport- attachn prortion.   f      of them   re    l
ively alludes, seems to have been the defeat of the  a corrupt motive of some  in  or other will not
Coalition Ministry in respect to their East India Bill, only be suspected, but must be violently prein accomplishing which Mr. Dundas bore a very act- sumed.
ive part.                                            The persons in whose favor all these rules




1785.]                          NABOB  OF ARCOT'S DEBTS.                                        357
have been violated, and the conduct of ministers  generous design of bestowing Old Sarum on the
The payment of toward them, will naturally call for  Bank of England, Mr. Benfield has thrown in
these debts owing
to the parliament- you consideration, and will serve to  the borough of Cricklade to re-enforce the counry influence of  lead you through a series and corn- ty representation!  Not content with this, in
Paul Benfield, the   N                                rereentation
principalcreditor. bination of facts and characters, if order to station a steady phalanx for all future
I do not mistake, into the very inmost recesses  reforms, this public-spirited  usurer, amid his
of this mysterious business.  You will then be  charitable toils for the relief of India, did not
in possession of all the materials on which the  forget the poor, rotten Constitution of his native
principles of sound jurisprudence will found, or  country.  For her, he did not disdain to stoop
will reject the presumption of corrupt motives;  to the trade of a wholesale upholsterer for this
or, if such motives are indicated, will point out to  House, to furnish it, not with the faded tapestry
you of what particular nature the corruption is. figures of antiquated merit, such as decorate,
Our wonderful minister [Mr. Pitt], as you all and may reproach some other houses, but with
know, formed a new plan, a plan insigne, recens, real, solid, living patterns of true modern virtue.
alio indictum  ore,43 a plan for supporting the  Paul Benfield made (reckoning himself) no fewfreedom  of our Constitution by court intrigues, er than eight members in the last Parliament.
and for removing its corruptions by Indian de-  What copious streams of pure blood must he not
linquency!4  To carry that bold paradoxical have transfused into the veins of the present!
design into execution, sufficient funds and apt    But what is even more striking than the real
instruments became necessary.  You are per-  services of this new-imported patriot Benfielddidnot
fectly sensible that a parliamentary reform occu- is his modesty.  As soon as he had tPaklimsefint,
pies his thoughts day and night, as an essential conferred this benefit on the Consti- wenttoMadras.
member of this extraordinary project.  In his  tution, he withdrew  himself from our applause.
anxious researches upon this subject, natural in-  He conceived that the duties of a member of
stinct, as well as sound policy, would direct his  Parliament (which, with the elect faithful, the
eyes, and settle his choice on Paul Benfield. true believers, the Islam of parliamentary reform,
Paul Benfield is the grand parliamentary reform-  are of little or no merit, perhaps not much beter, the reformer to whom  the whole choir of  ter than specious sins) might be as well attendreformers bow, and to whom even the right hon- ed to in India as in England, and the means of
orable gentleman himself must yield the palm;  reformation to Parliament itself be far better
for what region in the empire, what city, what provided. Mr. Benfield was, therefore, no soonborough, what county, what tribunal, in  this  er elected, than he set off for Madras, and dekingdom, is not full of his labors?"  Others have  frauded the longing eyes of Parliament.  We
been only speculators; he is the grand practical have never enjoyed in this House the luxury of
reformer; and while the Chancellor of the Ex-  beholding that minion of the human race, and
chequer pledges in vain the man and the minis- contemplating that visage, which has so long reter to increase the provincial members, Mr. Ben- flected the happiness of nations.
field has auspiciously and practically begun it.    It was, therefore, not possible for the minister
Leaving far behind him even Lord Camelford's  to consult personally with this great man. What,
-.- -.-_.___-. —..-           -  _- -~ —-- -    then, was he to do?  Through a sagacity that
-3 Extraordinary and new, uttered by no other never failed him in these pursuits, he found out
mouth.                                             in Mr. Benfield's representative his exact re44 There is great keenness in this attack on Mr.
There is get keenness in tis attack on Mr. semblance.  A specific attraction, by which he
Pitt as a parliamentary reformer. His "supporting               
gravitates  toward  all such  characters, soon
the freedom of our Constitution by court intrigues, 
refers to his defeating Mr. Fox's East India Bill in oght  our mititer into a close connection
the House of Lords by appealing secretly to the  with Mr. Benfield's agent and attorney, that is,
King, through Lord Temple, and obtaining a decla- with the grand contractor (whom  I name to
ration that "whoever voted for the India Bill were  honor46), Mr. Richard Atkinson; a name that
not only not his friends [the King's], but that he  will be well remembered as long as the records
should consider them his enemies."  This use of the  of this House, as long as the records of the Britpowerful influence of the sovereign to overrule the  ish treasury as lon  as the monumental debt of
decisions of Parliament was considered by Mr. England shall endure.
Burke and his friends as a direct blow at the "freedom of the Constitution."  It was also a mode of    Ths gentlean, s  acts as attorney for Mr.
"removing its corruptions by Indian delinquency,"  Pa  Benfiel. Every one who hears Mr. Atkinson,
because Mr. Pitt was united with Paul Benfield  me is well acquainted with the sa- in fraeting M
and other Indian delinquents in opposing Mr. Fox's  cred friendship, and the steady, mu- Pitt's IndiaBill.
bill, and these men operated chiefly through the  tual attachment, that subsists between him and
purchase of rotten boroughs, which Mr. Pitt had  the present minister.  As many members as
always treated as the great source of corruption to  chose to attend in the first session of this Parliathe Constitution. It was known that Mr. Pitt, out of  ment can best tell their own feelings at the
an avowed regard to his former principles, intendede  then. 
to bring forward some plan of parliamentary reform    wi      c e  ten          a ted.  Hw     
this session. This called forth the terrible irony  ho able e      eman  was consulted in the origand sarcasm of this passage. After his failure in  inal frame and fabric of the bill, commonly called
that plan, Mr. Pitt never again attempted parlia- -Mr. Pitt's India Bill, is matter only of conjecmentary reform.                                    -                _
5 Qum3 regio in terris nostri non plena laboris?  i      46 Quem gratia honoris nomino.




358                               MR. BURKE ON THE                                      [1785.
ture, though by no means difficult to divine. name of Benfield might have stodl beobre those
But the public was an indignant witness of the  frightful figures.  But my best information goes
ostentation with which that measure was made  to fix his share no higher than four hundred
his own, and the authority with which he brought thousand pounds.  By the scheme of the presup clause after clause, to stuff and fatten the  ent ministry for adding to the principal twelve
rankness of that corrupt act.  As fast as the  per cent. from the year 1777 to the year 1781.
clauses were brought up to the table, they were  four hundred thousand pounds, that smallest of
accepted.  No hesitation-no discussion. They  the sums ever mentioned for Mr. Benfield, will
were received by the new minister, not with ap- form  a capital of -E592,000 at six per cent.
probation, but with implicit submission.  The  Thus, besides the arrears of three years, amountreformation may be estimated by seeing who  ing to o106,500 (which, as fast as received, may
was the reformer. Paul Benfield's associate and  be legally lent out at twelve per cent.), Benfield
agent was held up to the world as legislator of  has received, by the ministerial grant before you,
Hindostan!  But it was necessary to authenti- an annuity of H35,520 a year, charged on the
cate the coalition between the men of intrigue  public revenues.
in India and the minister of intrigue in England,    Our mirror of ministers of finance did not think
by a studied display of the power of this their this enough for the services of such a friend as
connecting link. Every trust, every honor, every  Benfield.  He found that Lord Macartney, in ordistinction was to be heaped upon him.  He was der to frighten the court of Directors from  the
at once made a director of the India Company; object of obliging the Nabob to give soucar semade an alderman of London; and to be made, curity for his debt, assured them  that, if they
if ministry could prevail (and I am sorry to say  should take that step, Benfield would infallibly
how near, how very near they were prevailing), be the soucar, and would thereby become the
representative of the capital of this kingdom. entire master of the Carnatic.  What Lord MaBut, to secure his services against all risk, he  cartney thought sufficient to deter the very
was brought in for a ministerial borough.  On  agents and partakers with Benfield in his iniquihis part, he was not wanting in zeal for the com- ties was the inducement to the two right honmon cause.  His advertisements show his mo- orable gentlemen to order this very soucar setives, and the merits upon which he stood.  For curity to be given, and to recall Benfield to the
your minister, this worn-out veteran submitted  city of Madras, from the sort of decent exile into
to enter into the dusty field of the London con- which he had been relegated by Lord Macarttest; and you all remember, that in the same  ney.  You must, therefore, consider Benfield as
virtuous cause he submitted to keep a sort of  soucar security for e480,000 a year, which, at
public office or counting-house, where the whole  twenty-four per cent. (supposing him contented
business of the last general election was man- with that profit), will, with the interest of his old
His activity in aged. It was openly managed by the  debt, produce an annual income of X149,520 a
Mr. Pitt's favor direct agent and attorney of Benfield. year.
tionofiS4,and It was managed upon Indian princi-    Here is a specimen of the new and pure arisits reward.   ples, and for an Indian interest. This tocracy created by the right honorable gentlewas the golden cup of abominations; this the  man [Mr. Pitt], as the support of the Crown and
chalice of fornications of rapine, usury, and op- Constitution, against the old, corrupt, refractory,
pression, which was held out by the gorgeous natural interests of this kingdom; and this is
Eastern harlot; which so many of the people, the grand counterpoise against all odious coaliso many of the nobles of this land, had drained  tions of these interests.47  A single Benfield outto the very dregs.  Do you think that no reck- weighs them all.  A criminal, who long since
oning was to follow this lewd debauch? that no  ought to have fattened the region kites with his
payment was to be demanded for this riot of  offal, is, by his Majesty's ministers, enthroned
public drunkenness and national prostitution? in the government of a great kingdom, and enHere! you have it here before you.  The prin- feoffed with an estate which, in the comparison,
cipal of the grand election manager must be in- effaces the splendor of all the nobility of Europe.
demnified; accordingly, the claims of Benfield  To bring a little more distinctly into view the
and his crew must be put above all inquiry!    true secret of this dark transaction, I beg you
For several years, Benfield appeared as the  particularly to advert to the circumstances which
chief proprietor, as well as the chief agent, di- I am going to place before you.
rector, and controller of this system  of debt.   The general corps of creditors, as well as Mr.
untofBen- The worthy chairman of the Compa- Benfield himself, not looking well Tempor ary ithfield's interest in ny has stated the claims of this single  into futurity, nor presaging the min- drawal ofBenthese claims.                                 getea n teNaoofrotfield's name from
tl'eseclam    gentleman on the Nabob of Arcot ister of this day, thought it not ex- the list of creditas amounting to five hundred thousand pounds. pedient for their common interest ors
Possibly, at the time of the chairman's statement, that such a name as his should stand at the head
they might have been as high.  Eight hundred  of their list.  It was therefore agreed among
thousand pounds had been mentioned some time  them that Mr. Benfield should disappear by makbefore; and, according to the practice of shifting  ing over his debt to Messrs. Taylor, Majendie,
the names of creditors in these transactions, and                         __
reducing or raising the debt itself at pleasure, I   47 This sneer refers to the attacks made by Mr.
think it not impossible that at one period the  Pitt on Mr. Fox's coalition with Lord North




1785.]                        NABOB OF ARCOT'S DEBTS.                                      359
and Call, and should, in return, be secured by  thought fit to determine on the debt of 1777.
their bond.                                     The recorded proceedings at thisenfield permitThe debt thus exonerated of so great a weight time knew nothing of any debt to ted to return to
of its odium, and otherwise reduced from  its  Benfield.  There was his own testi- Mad
alarming bulk, the agents thought they might mony; there was the testimony of the list; there
venture to print a list of the creditors.  This was  was the testimony of the Nabob of Arcot against
lone for the first time in the year 1783, during  it; yet such was the ministers' feeling of the true
ihe Duke of Portland's administration.  In this secret of this transaction, that they thought proplist the name of Benfield was not to be seen. To  er, in the teeth of all these testimonies, to give
this strong negative testimony was added the  him license to return to Madras! Here the minfarther testimony of the Nabob of Arcot.  That isters were under some embarrassment.  Conprince (or, rather, Mr. Benfield for him) writes  founded between their resolution of rewarding the
to the court of Directors a letter full of com- good services of Benfield's friends and associates
plaints and accusations against Lord Macartney, in England, and the shame of sending that notoriconveyed in such terms as were natural for one  ous incendiary to the court of the Nabob of Arof Mr. Benfield's habits and education to employ. cot, to renew his intrigues against the British
Among the rest, he is made to complain of his government, at the time they authorize his reLordship's endeavoring to prevent an intercourse  turn, they forbid him, under the severest penalof politeness and sentiment between him [the  ties, from any conversation with the Nabob or
Nabob] and Mr. Benfield; and, to aggravate the  his ministers; that is, they forbid his communiaffront, he expressly declares Mr. Benfield's vis- cation with the very person on account of his
its to be only on account of respect and of grat- dealings with whom  they permit his return to
itude, as no pecuniary transactions subsisted be- that city!  To overtop this contradiction, there
tween them!                                    is not a word restraining him from the freest inSuch, for a considerable space of time, was the  tercourse with the Nabob's second son, the real
Suitof Benfield outward form of the loan of 1777, in  author of all that is done in the Nabob's name,
which brought
tle ystery to which Mr. Benfield had no sort of  who, in conjunction with this very Benfield, has
light.     concern.  At length intelligence ar- acquired an absolute dominion over that unhappy
rived at Madras that this debt, which had always man, is able to persuade him to put his signature
been renounced by the court of Directors, was to whatever paper they please, and often without
rather like to become the subject of something  any communication of the contents.  This manmore like a criminal inquiry than of any patron- agement was detailed to them at full length by
age or sanction from  Parliament.  Every ship  Lord Macartney, and they can not pretend ignobrought accounts, one stronger than the other, rance of it.
of the prevalence of the determined enemies of    I believe, after this exposure of facts, no man
the Indian system.  The public revenues be- can entertain a doubt of the collusion This proves
came an object desperate to the hopes of Mr. of ministers with the corrupt interest tercorse beBenfield; he therefore resolved to fall upon his of the delinquents in India.  When- t.ntreand
associates, and, in violation of that faith which  ever those in authority provide for the Benfield.
subsists among those who have abandoned all interest of any person, on the real but concealed
other, commences a suit in the Mayor's Court state of his affairs, without regard to his avowed,
against Taylor, Majendie, and Call for the bond  public, and ostensible pretenses, it must be pregiven to him: when he agreed to disappear for sumed that they are in confederacy with him,
his own benefit as well as that of the common  because they act for him on the same fraudulent
concern.  The assignees of his debt, who little  principles on which he acts for himself.  It is
expected the springing of this mine even from  plain that the ministers were fully apprised of
such an engineer as Mr. Benfield, after recov- Benfield's real situation, which he had used
ering their first alarm, thought it best to take  means to conceal while concealment answered
ground on the real state of the transaction.  his purposes.  They were, or the person on
They divulged the whole mystery, and were  whom they relied was, of the cabinet council of
prepared to plead that they had never received  Benfield, in the very depth of all his mysteries.
from  Mr. Benfield any other consideration for An honest magistrate compels men to abide by
the bond than a transfer, in trust for himself, of  one story.  An equitable judge would not hear
his demand on the Nabob of Arcot. A univers- of the claim of a man who had himself thought
al indignation arose against the perfidy of Mr. proper to renounce it.  With such a judge his
Benfield's proceedings.  The event of the suit shuffling and prevarication would have damned
was looked upon as so certain, that Benfield was his claims; such a judge never would have
compelled to retreat as precipitately as he had  known, but in order to animadvert upon, proadvanced boldly; he gave up his bond, and was  ceedings of that character.
reinstated in his original demand, to wait the for-    I have thus laid before you, Mr. Speaker, I
tune of other claimants.  At that time, and at think with sufficient clearness, the connection of
Madras, this hope was dull indeed; but at home  the ministers with Mr. Atkinson at the general
another scene was preparing.                    election; I have laid open to you the connection
It was long before any public account of this  of Atkinson with Benfield; I have shown Bendiscovery at Madras had arrived in England that field's employment of his wealth, in creating a
the present minister and his Board of Control parliamentary interest, to procure a ministerial




360                                  MR. BURKE ON  THE                                        [1785.
protection; I have set before your eyes his  that they have only formed an alliance with them
large concern in the debt, his practices to hide  for screening each other from justice, according
that concern from  the public eye, and the lib-  to the exigence of their several necessities.  That
eral protection which he has received from the  they have done so is evident; and the junction of
minister.  If this chain of circumstances do not the power of office in England with the abuse of
lead you necessarily to conclude that the minis-  authority in the East has not only prevented even
Inference from ter has paid to the avarice of Ben-  the appearance of redress to the grievances of
the whole as to
them.otivesfor field the services done by Benfield's  India, but I wish it may not be found to have
tlhepoay..entof connections to his ambition, I do not dulled, if not extinguished, the honor, the candor,,he Nabob of
&rcot'sdebts. know any thing short of the confes- the generosity, the good nature, which used forsion of the party that can satisfy you of his guilt.  merly to characterize the people of England.  I
Clandestine and collusive practice can only be  confess I wish that some more feeling than I
traced by combination and comparison of cir-  have yet observed for the sufferings of our felcumstances.  To reject such combination and  low-creatures and fellow-subjects in that opcomparison is to reject the only means of de- pressed part of the world had manifested itself
tecting fraud; it is, indeed, to give it a patent in any one quarter of the kingdom, or in any
and free license to cheat with impunity.           one large description of men.
I confine myself to the connection of ministers,    That these oppressions exist is a fact no more
mediately or immediately, with only two persons  denied, than it is resented as it ought Hence the op
concerned in this debt.  How many others, who  to be.  Much evil has been done in rpiesa.. Onoftbe
support their power and greatness within and  India under the British authority. lookedand negwithout doors, are concerned originally, or by  What has been done to redress it? lected.
transfers of these debts, must be left to general We are no longer surprised at any thing.  We
opinion.  I refer to the reports of the select corn- aie above the unlearned and vulgar passion of
mittee for the proceedings of some of the agents  adhilration.4   But it will astonish posterity when
in these affairs, and their attempts, at least, to  they read our opinions in our actions, that, after
furnish ministers with the means of buying Gen- years of inquiry, we have found out that the sole
eral Courts, and even whole Parliaments, in the  grievance of India consisted in this, that the
gross.                                             servants of the Company there had not profited
I know that the ministers will think it little  enough of their opportunities, nor drained it su'Ministers not less than acquittal, that they are not ficiently of its treasures; when they shall hear
actinge fr..   charged with having taken to them- that the very first and only important act of a
piels,'ut St selves some part of the money of which  commission, specially named by act of Parlialove ofpower. they have made so liberal a donation  ment, is to charge upon an undone country, in
to their partisans, though the charge may be in- favor of a handful of men in the humblest ranks
disputably fixed upon the corruption of their pol- of the public service, the enormous sum of peritics.  For my part, I follow their crimes to that haps four millions of sterling money!
point to which legal presumptions and natural in-    It is difficult for the most wise and upright
dications lead me, without considering what spe- government to correct the abuses of remote delcies of evil motive tends most to aggravate or to  egated power, productive of unmeasured wealth,
extenuate the guilt of their conduct; but if I am  and protected by the boldness and strength of
to speak my private sentiments, I think that in a  the same ill-got riches.  These abuses, full of
thousand cases for one it would be far less mis- their own wild native vigor, will grow and flourchievous to the public, and full as little dishon-  ish under mere neglect. But where the supreme
orable to themselves, to be polluted with direct authority, not content with winking at the rabribery, than thus to become a standing auxiliary  pacity of its inferior instruments, is so shameless
to the oppression, usury, and peculation of mul-  and corrupt, as openly to give bounties and pretitudes, in order to obtain a corrupt support to  miums for disobedience to its laws; when it will
their power.  It is by bribing, not so often by  not trust to the activity of avarice in the pursuit
being bribed, that wicked politicians bring ruin  of its own gains; when it secures public robbery
on mankind.  Avarice is a rival to the pursuits  by all the careful jealousy and attention with
of many.  It finds a multitude of checks, and  which it ought to protect property from  such
many opposers, in every walk of life.  But the  violence; the commonwealth then is become toobjects of ambition are for the few; and every  tally perverted from its purposes; neither God
person who aims at indirect profit, and therefore  nor man will long endure it; nor will it long
wants other protection than innocence and law, endure itself.  In that case, there is an unnatinstead  of its rival, becomes its instrument. ural infection, a pestilential taint fermenting in
There is a natural allegiance and fealty due to  the constitution of society, which fever and conthis domineering, paramount evil, from  all the  vulsions of some kind or other must throw off:
vassal vices, which acknowledge its superiority,  or in which the vital powers, worsted in an unand readily militate under its banners; and it is
under that discipline alone that avarice is able    4 Nil admirari prope res est una, Numici,
to spread, to any considerable extent, or to ren-     Sola qua possit facere et servare beatum.
der itself a general public mischief.  It is, there-                            Horace, Epist. vi.
fore, no apology for ministers that they have not     Not to admire is all the art I know,
been bought by the East India delinquents, but         To make men happy, and to keep them so.




1785.]                          NABOB OF ARCOT'S DEBTS.                                         361
equal struggle, are pushed back upon them-    While discovery of the misgovernment of othselves, and, by a reversal of their whole func- ers led to his own power, it was wise to inquire;
tions, fester to gangrene-to death; and instead  it was safe to publish; there was then no deliof what was but just now the delight and boast cacy; there was then no danger.  But when
of the creation, there will be cast out in the face  his object is obtained, and in his imitation he has
of the sun a bloated, putrid, noisome carcass, full outdone the crimes that he had reprobated in
of stench and poison, an offense, a horror, a les- volumes of reports, and in sheets of bills of pains
son to the world.                                  and penalties, then concealment becomes pruIn my opinion, we ought not to wait for the  dence, and it concerns the safety of the state that
fruitless instruction of calamity to inquire into  we should not know, in a mode of parliamentary
the abuses which bring upon us ruin in the worst cognizance, what all the world knows but too
of its forms, in the loss of our fame and virtue.  well; that is, in what manner he chooses to disMr. Dund.s' But the right honorable gentleman  pose of the public revenues to the CREATURuE
pretense that [Mr. Dundas] says, in answer to all of his politics.
lhe subject is
toodelicateto the powerful arguments of my honor-    The debate has been long, and as much so
be taker IP. able friend [Mr. Fox], "that this inqui-  on my part, at least, as on the part Peroration:
ry is of a delicate nature, and that the state will of those who have spoken before me. Indi"e, oerserf
suffer detriment by the exposure of this transac- But long as it is, the more material perplexed or retion."  But it is exposed.  It is perfectly known  half of the subject has hardly been er ease to invole the honor
in every member, in every particle, and in every  touched on; that is, the corrupt and ad safetyoftle
way, except that which may lead to a remedy. destructive system to which this debt empnire.
He knows that the papers of correspondence are  has been rendered subservient, and which seems
printed, and that they are in every hand.         to be pursued with at least as much vigor and
He and delicacy are a rare and singular coa- regularity as ever. If I considered your ease or
lition. He thinks that to divulge our Indian poli- my own, rather than the weight and importance
tics may be highly dangerous.  He! the mov- of this question, I ought to make some apology
er! the chairman! the reporter of the Commit- to you, perhaps some apology to myself, for havtee of Secrecy! he that brought forth in the ut- ing detained your attention so long. I know on
most detail, in several vast, printed folios, the  what ground I tread.  This subject, at one time
most recondite parts of the politics, the military, taken up with so much fervor and zeal, is no
the revenues of the British empire in India! longer a favorite in this House.  The House itWith six great chopping bastards [Reports of  self has undergone a great and signal revolution.
the Committee of Secrecy], each as lusty as an  To some the subject is strange and uncouth; to
infant Hercules, this delicate creature blushes at several harsh and distasteful; to the relics of the
the sioht of his new bridegroom, assumes a vir- last Parliament it is a matter of fear and appregin delicacy; or, to use a more fit, as well as a  hension.  It is natural for those who have seen
more poetic comparison, the person so squeam- their friends sink in the tornado which raged
ish, so timid, so trembling, lest the winds of  during the late shift of the monsoon, and have
heaven should visit too roughly, is expanded to  hardly escaped on the planks of the general
broad sunshine, exposed like the sow of imperial wreck, it is but too natural for them, as soon as
augury, lying in the mud with all the prodigies  they make the rocks and quicksands of their
of her fertility about her, as evidence of her deli-  former disasters, to put about their new-built
cate amours                                        barks, and, as much as possible, to keep aloof
Triginta capitum foetus enixa jacebit,       fiom this perilous lee-shore.
Alba, solo recubans, albi circum ubera nati.4l   But let us do what we please to put India
from our thoughts, we can do nothing to sepals Mr. Burke here accommodates to his purpose a  rate it f     o   pulic interest and our national
passage of Virgil's 2Eneid, book iii., p. 391, in which  r
passage of Virgil's  neid, book iii., E. 391, in hich  reputation. Our attempts to banish this importuthe prophet Helenus gives a sign to _Eneas indica-      ut   i o    mae it retus again
tive of the spot where he should build a city, and                         e   r                   
cease from his labors.'                    ~
cease from his labors.                            and  again,  and every time in a shape more unCumi tibi solicito secreto ad flaminis undam.    pleasant than the former.  A government has
Littoreis ingens inventa sub ilicibus sus     been fabricated for that great province; the right
Trig7 nta capitu mfatus eeixajacebit,         honorable gentleman says, that therefore you
Alba, solo r'eczbans, albi circumn ubera nati;    ought not to examine into its conduct. Heavens!
Is locus urbis erit, requies ea certa laborum.    what an argument is this!  We are not to exDryden has rendered the lines somewhat loosely, amine into the conduct of the direction, because
in the following manner:                          it is an old government; we are not to examine
When in the shady shelter of a wood,            into this Board of Control, because it is a new
And near the margin of a gentle flood,                 then we are       to examine into the conone; then we are only to examine into the conThou shalt behold a sow upon the ground,
ou shal behold a sw   o   the run,  duct of those who have no conduct to account
VtllitL thirty sckingr young encompass' a round,
he dam    d of ing wteasfallen snow,;.  Unfortunately, the basis of this new govThe dam and offsprin- white as fallern snow,
These on thy city shall their name bestow,       ernment has been laid on old, condemned delinAnd there shall end thy labor and thy woe.      quents, and its superstructure is raised out of
No one will dispute the ingenuity of Mr. Burke  scription of the Queen of France, could ever have
in turning these lines to his purpose; but it will be  soiled his pages with such a passage as the one
a wonder to most men, that he, who wrote the de- above.




362                                       MR. BURKE.                                       [1785
prosecutors turned into protectors.  The event ough inquiry. A Board of Commissioners was ap
has been such as might be expected.  But if  pointed to examine into these new claims.  Aftei
it had been otherwise constituted; had it been  an investigation of many years, only Xl,346,796
constituted even as I wished, and as the mover were allowed as good, thus showing that less than
of this question had planned, the better part of  one part in twenty of all these claims could be
the proposed establishment was in the publicity  regarded as true and lawful debts.  It is the
of its proceedings; in its perpetual responsibility  opinion of well-informed men that the claims of
to Parliament. Without this check, what is our Benfield and his associates, if fairly investigated,
government at home; even awed, as every Eu- would have been reduced in very near the same
ropean government is, by an audience formed of  proportion.
the other states of Europe, by the applause or    But has Mr. Burke made out his case as to the
condemnation of the discerning and critical corm- motives of Mr. Pitt?  Has he proved that these
pany before which it acts?  But if the scene  claims were allowed without inquiry, as a " recon the other side of the globe, which tempts, in- ompense" to Benfield and the other creditors for
vites, almost compels to tyranny and rapine, be their parliamentary influence?  This question
not inspected with the eye of a severe and unre- will be differently answered by different persons,
mitting vigilance, shame and destruction must according to their estimate of Mr. Pitt's characensue.  For one, the worst event of this day, ter.  Mill, in his British India, speaking of Mr.
though it may deject, shall not break or subdue  Burke's charge, says, "In support of it, he adme.  The call upon us is authoritative.  Let duces as great a body of proof as it is almost
who will shrink back, I shall be found at my  ever possible to bring to a fact of such a depost. Baffled, discountenanced, subdued, discred- scription."  He goes on to examine Mr. Dunited, as the cause of justice and humanity is, it das' defense, that the Nabob and others were alwill be only the dearer to me.  Whoever, there- lowed " to object" to these claims, and adds,
fore, shall at any time bring before you any  " That this was a blind is abundantly clear,
thing toward the relief of our distressed fellow- though it is possible that it stood as much becitizens in India, and toward a subversion of the  tween his own eyes and the light, as he was
present most corrupt and oppressive system for desirous of putting it between the light and
its government, in me shall find a weak, I am  eyes of other people."  There was also another
afraid, but a steady, earnest, and faithful assistant.   blind," mentioned by Wraxall, viz., that these
claims had, to some extent, changed hands, and
The motion for inquiry was voted down.  Mr. that the innocent would suffer with the guiltyt
Pitt was now at the height of his popularity, and  if any of them were disallowed.  It is easy to
had an overwhelmng majority at his command, see how strongly Mr. Pitt was tempted, at this
ready to sustain him in all his measures.  The critical moment of his life, to attach undue imconsequences were very serious to the finances portance to such considerations.  It was imposof the country.  Many years were necessarily  sible to go back and lay bare all the frauds and
occupied in paying so large a debt.  In 1814  crimes of the English residents in India.  To
iMr. Hume publicly stated that, according to the  prevent them  hereafter was the great object.
best information he could obtain, the amount paid  Once firmly seated in power, he was resolved
(interest included) was nearly five millions of  to do it; and when he was brought off in tripounds; nor was this all.  Mr. Hume adds, umph at the polls through the agency (to a con"the knowledge of the fact that Mr. Dundas siderable extent) of men like Benfield, in conhad in that manner admitted, without any kind  nection with the immense East India interest
of inquiry, the whole claims of the Consolidated  throughout the country, it was natural for him
Debt of 1777, served as a strong inducement to  to feel that he must not be too scrupulous in reothers to get from the Nabob obligations or bonds spect to the past, but must rather aim in future
of any description, in hopes that some future good- at the prevention of all such evils.  It is thus
natured president of the Board of Control would  that the errors of political men spring from mindo the same for them.  We accordingly find that gled motives; and while we can not doubt that
an enormous debt of near thirty millions sterling  Mr. Pitt was more or less influenced in this
was very soon formed after that act of Mr. Dun- case, as in that of Mr. Hastings' impeachment.
das, and urgent applications were soon again  by his "avarice of power," we should be slow
made to have the claims paid in the same man- to admit that his conduct implies that dereliction
ner."  It now became necessary to make a thor- of principle imputed to him by Mr. Burke.
EXTRACTS.
PEaoRATIo N cOF Tn  OPENING SPEECH AT THE     My Lords, what is it that we want here to a
PERORATION OF'rTIE OPENING SPEECH AT THE.
TRIAL OF WAaRRENH HASTINGeS.            great act of national justice?  Do we want a
TRIAL OF WARREN HxASTING-S.             C 
cause, my Lords?  You have the cause of opIn the name of the Commons of England, I pressed princes, of undone women of the first
charge all this villainy upon Warren Hastings, rank, of desolated provinces, and of wasted kingin this last moment of my application to you.    doms.




EXTRACTS.                                          363
Do you want a criminal, my Lords?  When  Church in its ancient form, in its ancient ordiwas there so much iniquity ever laid to the  nances, purified from the superstitions and the
charge of any one?  No, my Lords, you must vices which a long succession of ages will bring
not look to punish any other such delinquent upon the best institutions.  You have the reprefrom India.  Warren Hastings has not left sub- sentatives of that religion which says that their
stance enough in India to nourish such another God is love, that the very vital spirit of their indelinquent.                                     stitution is charity-a religion which so much
My Lords, is it a prosecutor you want?  You  hates oppression, that when the God whom we
have before you the Commons of Great Britain  adore appeared in human form, he did not appear
as prosecutors; and I believe, my Lords, that in a form of greatness and majesty, but in symthe sun, in his beneficent progress round the pathy with the lowest of the people, and thereby
world, does not behold a more glorious sight made it a firm  and ruling principle that their
than that of men, separated from a remote peo- welfare was the object of all government, since
pie by the material bounds and barriers of na- the person, who was the Master of Nature, chose
ture, united by the bond of a social and moral to appear himself in a subordinate situation.
community-all the Commons of England re- These are the considerations which influence
senting, as their own, the indignities and cruel- them, which animate them, and will animate
ties that are offered to all the people of India.   them, against all oppression; knowing that He
Do we want a tribunal?  My Lords, no ex- who is called first among them, and first among
ample of antiquity, nothing in the modern world, us all, both of the flock that is fed and of those
nothing in the range of human imagination, can  who feed it, made himself " the servant of all."
supply us with a tribunal like this.  My Lords,    My Lords, these are the securities which we
here we see virtually, in the mind's eye, that sa- have in all the constituent parts of the body of
cred majesty of the Crown, under whose author- this House.  We know them, we reckon, we
ity you sit, and whose power you exercise.  We rest upon them, and commit safely the interests
see in that invisible authority, what we all feel of India and of humanity into your hands. Therein reality and life, the beneficent powers and pro- fore, it is with confidence, that, ordered by the
tecting justice of his Majesty.  We have here the  Commons,
heir-apparent to theCrown, such as the fond wish-    I impeach Warren Hastings, Esquire, of high
es of the people of England wish an heir-apparent crimes and misdemeanors.
of the Crown to be. We have here all the branch-    I impeach him in the name of the Commons of
es of the royal family, in a situation between maj- Great Britain, in Parliament assembled, whose
esty and subjection, between the Sovereign and  parliamentary trust he has betrayed.
the subject-offering a pledge, in that situation,    I impeach him in the name of all the Commons
for the support of the rights of the Crown and the  of Great Britain, whose national character he has
liberties of the people, both which extremities dishonored.
they touch.  My Lords, we have a great hered-    I impeach him in the name of the people of
itary peerage here; those who have their own  India, whose laws, rights, and liberties he has
honor, the honor of their ancestors, and of their subverted, whose property he has destroyed,
posterity, to guard, and who will justify, as they  whose country he has laid waste and desolate.
have always justified, that provision in the Con-    I impeach him in the name, and by virtue, of
stitution by which justice is made an hereditary  those eternal laws of justice which he has viooffice.  My Lords, we have here a new nobility, lated.
who have risen, and exalted themselves, by va-    I impeach him in the name of human nature
rious merits, by great military services, which  itself, which he has cruelly outraged, injured,
have extended the fame of this country from the  and oppressed, in both sexes, in every age, rank,
rising to the setting sun.  We have those, who, situation, and condition of life.
by various civil merits and various civil talents,
have been exalted to a situation which they well
deserve, and in which they will justify the favor FRENCH REVOLUTION: ERRORS AT ITS COMof their Sovereign and the good opinion of their                MENCEMENT.'
fellow-subjects, and make them  rejoice to see    You began ill, because you began by despising
those virtuous characters, that were the other every thing that belonged to you.  You set up
day upon a level with them, now exalted above your trade without a capital.  If the last generthem in rank, but feeling with them in sympathy  ations of your country appeared without much
what they felt in common with them before. We luster in your eyes, you might have passed them
have persons exalted from the practice of the by, and derived your claims from  a more early
law, from the place in which they administered  race of ancestors.  Under a pious predilection
high, though subordinate justice, to aseat here, to  for those ancestors, your imaginations would
enlighten with their knowledge, and to strength- have realized in them  a standard of virtue and
on with their votes, those principles which have  wisdom, beyond the vulgar practice of the hour,
listinguished the courts in which they have pre- and you would have risen with the example to
sided.                                           t The extracts which follow under this head are
My Lords, you have here, also, the lights of our taken from Mr. Burke's Reflections on the Itevoreligion; you have the bishops of England.  My  lution in France, and his Letters on the Regicide
Lords, you have that true image of the primitive  Peace.




364                                     MR. BURKE.
whose imitation you aspired.  Respecting your you, beyond any thing recorded in the history of
forefathers, you would have been taught to re- the world; but you have shown that difficulty is
spect yourselves.  You would not have chosen  good for man.
to consider the French as a people of yesterday,    Compute your gains; see what is got by
as a nation of low-born, servile wretches, until those extravagant and presumptuous speculathe emancipating year of 1789.  In order to  tions which have taught your leaders to despise
furnish, at the expense of your honor, an excuse  all their predecessors, and all their contemporato your apologists here for several enormities of  ries, and even to despise themselves, until the
yours, you would not have been content to be rep- moment in which they became truly despicable,
resented as a gang of Maroon slaves, suddenly  By following those false lights, France has bought
broke loose from the house of bondage, and there- undisguised calamities at a higher price than any
fore to be pardoned for your abuse of the liberty  nation has purchased the most unequivocal blessto which you were not accustomed, and were ill ings!  France has bought poverty by crime!
fitted.  Would it not, my worthy friend, have  France has not sacrificed her virtue to her inbeen wiser to have you thought, what I, for one, terest, but she has abandoned her interest, that
always thought you, a. generous and gallant na- she might prostitute her virtue.  All other nation, long misled, to your disadvantage, by your tions have begun the fabric of a new governhigh and romantic sentiments of fidelity, honor, ment, or the reformation of an old, by establishand loyalty; that events had been unfavorable  ing originally, or by enforcing with greater exto you, but that you were not enslaved through  actness, some rites or other of religion.  All
any illiberal or servile disposition; that, in your other people have laid the foundations of civil
most devoted submission, you were actuated by  fieedom in severer manners, and a system of a
a principle of public spirit, and that it was your more austere and masculine morality.  France,
country you worshiped, in the person of your when she let loose the reins of regal authority,
king?  Had you made it to be understood that, doubled the license of a ferocious dissoluteness
in the delusion of this amiable error, you had  in manners, and of an insolent irreligion in opingone farther than your wise ancestors; that you  ions and practices, and has extended through all
were resolved to resume your ancient privileges, ranks of life, as if she were communicating some
while you preserved the spirit of your ancient and  privilege, or laying open some secluded benefit,
your recent loyalty and honor; or, if diffident of  all the unhappy corruptions that usually were
yourselves, and not clearly discerning the almost the disease of wealth and power.  This is one
obliterated Constitution of your ancestors, you  of the new principles of equality in France.
had looked to your neighbors in this land, who    France, by the perfidy of her leaders. has uthad kept alive the ancient principles and models terly disgraced the tone of lenient council in the
of the old common law of Europe, meliorated and  cabinets of princes, and disarmed it of its most
adapted to its present state-by following wise  potent topics.  She has sanctified the dark, susexamples you would have given new examples of picious maxims of tyrannous distrust, and taught
wisdom to the world.  You would have rendered  kings to tremble at (what will hereafter be called)
the cause of liberty venerable in the eyes of every  the delusive plausibilities of moral politicians.
worthy mind in every nation.  You would have  Sovereigns will consider those who advise them
shamed despotism from the earth, by showing that to place an unlimited confidence in their people.
freedom was not only reconcilable, but as, when  as subverters of their thrones; as traitors who
well disciplined, it is, auxiliary to law.  You  aim at their destruction, by leading their easy
would have had an unoppressive, but a product- good nature, under specious pretenses, to admit
ive revenue.  You would have had a flourishing  combinations of bold and faithless men into a
commerce to feed it.  You would have had a free  participation  of their power.  This alone (if
Constitution, a potent monarchy, a disciplined ar- there were nothing else) is an irreparable camy, a reformed and venerated clergy, a mitigated, lamity to you and to mankind.  Remember
but spirited nobility, to lead your virtue, not to  that your Parliament of Paris told your king
overlay it; you would have had a liberal order that, in calling the states together, he had nothof commons, to emulate and to recruit that no- ing to fear but the prodigal excess of their zeal
bility; you would have had a protected, satisfied, in providing for the support of the throne.  It is
laborious, and obedient people, taught to seek and  right that these men should hide their heads. It
to recognize the happiness that is to be found by  is right that they should bear their part in the
virtue in all conditions; in which consists the true  ruin which their counsel has brought on their
moral equality of mankind, and not in that mon-  Sovereign and their country.  Such sanguine
strous fiction, which, by inspiring false ideas and  declarations tend to lull authority asleep; to
vain expectations into men destined to travel in  encourage it rashly to engage in perilous ad.
the obscure walk of laborious life, serves only to  ventures of untried policy; to neglect those proaggravate and imbitter that real inequality which  visions, preparations, and precautions which disit never can remove, and which the order of civil tinguish benevolence from imbecility, and withlife establishes as much for the benefit of those  out which no man can answer for the salutary
whom it must leave in a humble state, as those  effect of any abstract plan of government or of
whom it is able to exalt to a condition more  freedom.  For want of these, they have seen the
splendid, but not more happy. You had a smooth  medicine of the state corrupted into its poisonl.
and easy career of felicity and glory laid open to  They have seen the French rebel against a mild




EXTRACTS.                                          365
and lawful monarch, with more fury, outrage,                  T
1 *  11,~       1   ~11 1         b~SEIZURE OF THE KING AND QUEEN OF FRANCE
and insult, than ever any people has been known
to rise against the most illegal usurper or the    History will record, that on the morning of
most sanguinary tyrant.  Their resistance was the 6th of October, 1789, the King and Queen
made to concession; their revolt was from pro- of France, after a day of confusion, alarm, distection; their blow was aimed at a hand holding  may, and slaughter, lay down, under the pledged
out graces, favors, and immunities.             security of public faith, to indulge nature in a
This was unnatural.  The rest is in order. few  hours of respite and troubled melancholy
They have found their punishment in their suc- repose.  From  this sleep the Queen was first
cess.  Laws overturned; tribunals subverted; startled by the voice of the sentinel at her door,
industry without vigor; commerce expiring;  who cried out to her to save herself by flightthe revenue unpaid, yet the people impover- that this was the last proof of fidelity he could
ished; a church pillaged, and a state not re- give-that they were upon him, and he was
lieved; civil and military anarchy made the  dead.  Instantly he was cut down.  A band of
constitution of the kingdom; every thing human  cruel ruffians and assassins, reeking with his
and divine sacrificed to the idol of public credit, blood, rushed into the chamber of the Queen,
and national bankruptcy the consequence; and, and pierced, with a hundred strokes of bayonets
to crown all, the paper securities of new, preca- and poniards, the bed from whence this perserious, tottering power, the discredited paper se- cuted woman had but just time to fly almost nacurities of impoverished fraud, and beggared  ked, and, through ways unknown to the murderrapine, held out as a currency for the support ers, had escaped to seek refuge at the feet of a
of an empire, in lieu of the two great recognized  King and husband not secure of his own life for
species that represent the lasting conventional a moment.
credit of mankind, which disappeared and hid    This King, to say no more of him, and this
themselves in the earth from whence they came, Queen, and their infant children (who once would
when the principle of property, whose cieatures have been the pride and hope of a great and
and representatives they are, was systematically  generous people) were then forced to abandon
subverted.                                      the sanctuary of the most splendid palace in the
Were all these dreadful things necessary?  world, which they left swimming in blood, polWere they the inevitable results of the despe- luted by massacre, and strewed with scattered
rate struggle of determined patriots, compelled  limbs and  mutilated carcases.  Thence they
to wade through blood and tumult to the quiet were conducted into the capital of their kingshore of a tranquil and prosperous liberty?  No! dom.  Two had been selected from the unpronothing like it.  The fresh ruins of France, which  voked, unresisted, promiscuous slaughter, which
shock our feelings wherever we can turn our eyes, was made of the gentlemen of birth and family
are not the devastation of civil war; they are the  who composed the King's body-guard.  These
sad but instructive monuments of rash and igno- two gentlemen, with all the parade of an execurant counsel in time of profound peace.  They are  tion of justice, were cruelly and publicly dragged
the display of inconsiderate and presumptuous, be- to the block, and beheaded in the great court
cause unresisted and irresistible authority. The of the palace.  Their heads were stuck upon
persons who have thus squandered away the pre- spears, and led the procession; while the royal
cious treasure of their crimes, the persons who  captives who followed in the train were slowly
have made this prodigal and wild waste of pub- moved along, amid the horrid yells, and thrilling
lie evils (the last stake reserved for the ultimate  screams, and frantic dances, and infamous conransom of the state), have met in their progress tumelies, and all the unutterable abominations
with little, or rather with no opposition at all. of the furies of hell, in the abused shape of the
Their whole march was more like a triumphal vilest of women.  After they had been made to
procession than the progress of a war.  Their taste, drop by drop, more than the bitterness of
pioneers have gone before them, and demolished  death, in the slow torture of a journey of twelve
and laid every thing level at their feet.  Not one  miles, protracted to six hours, they were. under
drop of their blood have they shed in the cause  a guard composed of those very soldiers who
of the country they have ruined.  They have  had thus conducted them through this famous
made no sacrifice to their projects of greater triumph, lodged in one of the old palaces of
consequence than their shoe-buckles, while they  Paris. now converted into a Bastile for kings.
were imprisoning their king, murdering their fellow-citizens, and bathing in tears, and plunging
v, J.       7,     i        I7 1rHE QUEEN OF FRANCE AND THE SPIRIT OF
in poverty and distress, thousands of worthy men                  CHIV.
and worthy families. Their cruelty has not even
been the base result of fear.  It has been the ef-    I hear, and I rejoice to hear, that the great
feet of their sense of perfect safety in authorizing  lady, the other object of the triumph, has borne
treasons, robberies, rapes, assassinations, slaugh- that day (one is interested that beings made for
ters, and burnings, throughout their harassed  suffering should suffer well), and that she bears
land; but the cause of all was plain from the all the succeeding days-that she bears the imbeginning.                                      prisonment of her husband, and her own captivity, and the exile of her friends, and the insulting adulation of addresses, and the whole weight




366                                        MR. BURKE.
of her accumulated wrongs, with a serene pa-    This mixed system  of opinion and sentiment
tience, in a manner suited to her rank and race, had its origin in the ancient chivalry; and the
and becoming the offspring of a sovereign dis- principle, though varied in its appearance by the
tinguished for her piety and her courage; that, varying state of human affairs, subsisted and inlike her, she has lofty sentiments; that she feels fluenced through a long succession of generawith the dignity of a Roman matron; that in the  tions, even to the time we live in.  If it should
last extremity she will save herself from  the  ever be totally extinguished, the loss, I fear, will
last disgrace; and that, if she must fall, she will be great.  It is this which has given its characfall by no ignoble hand.                          ter to modern Europe.  It is this which has disIt is now sixteen or seventeen years since I  tinguished it under all its forms of government,
saw the Queen of France, then the dauphiness, and distinguished it to its advantage from  the
at Versailles; and surely never lighted on this states of Asia, and, possibly, from  those states
orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more  which flourished in the most brilliant periods of
delightful vision.  I saw  her just above the  the antique world.  It was this which, without
horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated  confounding ranks, had produced a noble equalsphere she just began to move in, glittering like  ity, and handed it down through all the gradathe morning star, full of life, and splendor, and  tions of social life.  It was this opinion which
joy.  Oh! what a revolution! and what a heart mitigated kings into companions, and raised primust I have, to contemplate, without motion,  vate men to be fellows with kings.  Without
that elevation and that fall!  Little did I dream,  force or opposition, it subdued the fierceness of
when she added titles of veneration to those  pride and power; it obliged sovereigns to subof enthusiastic, distant, respectful love, that she
should ever be obliged to carry the sharp anti- -the various orders of knights devoted to the servdote against disgrace concealed in that bosom    icef the Monarch, and the honor and protection of
little did I dream that I should have lived to see  the Fair producing "that generous loyalty to rank
such di   fallen upon her in a nation of gal- and sex, that proud submission, that dignified obe*such disasters.alln un..r.n. n n o dience," which formed so peculiarly the spirit of
lant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cav- chivalry. Individual instances would, no doubt, be
aliers.  I thought ten thousand swords must present to his imagination, of men like Bayard, and
have leaped from their scabbards to avenge even  hundreds of others, whose whole life was made up
a look that threatened her with insult.3  But the  of " high thoughts seated in a heart of courtesy."
age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, econ- It is here that we find the true type of Mr. Burke's
omists, and calculators has succeeded; and the  genius, rather than in the brilliant imagery with
glory of Europe is extinguished forever.  Nev- which the paragraph commences.
er, never more shall we behold that generous    When Mr. Burke speaks of vice as having "lost
loyalty to lank and sex, that proud smissionhalf its evil by losing all its grossness," he obvious
loyalty to rank and sex, that proud submission,  ly refers ot to te personal guilt of the man, but to, 7  y refers not to the personal guilt of the man, but to
that dignified obedience, that subordination of  the injurious effects he produces on society. Even in
the heart, which kept alive, even in servitude it- this sense, he would hardly have laid down so sweep.
self, the spirit of an exalted freedom.  The un- ingaproposition, except from the influenceof one-sidbought grace of life, the cheap defense of na- ed views in a moment of excited feeling and imagintions, the nurse of manly sentiment and heroic  ation.  Vice, in the higher classes, when connected
enterprise is gone!  It is gone, that sensibility  with grace and refinement of maners is certainly
pinipe, t    c it o h, wic  fel   less offensive to taste, but it is more insidious and sestaof pinple, that chastity of honorwound, which inspired courage while a ductive. It is, in addition to this, a mere system of
stain like a wound, which inspired courage while.hypocrisy, for vice is degrading in its nature; and
it mitigated ferocity, which ennobled whatever  the covering of polish and refinement thrown over
it touched, and under which vice itself lost half  it is intended simply to deceive. Genuine faith and
its evil by losing all its grossness.4            moral principle must die out under such a system;
and we see how it was that French society became
2 The "sharp antidote against disgrace" here  reduced to that terrible condition described by Mr.
mentioned was a dagger, which, it was then re- Gouverneur Morris, in a passage already quoted for
ported, the Queen carriedin her bosom, with a view  another purpose.  "There is one fatal principle
to end her life if any indignities should be offered  which pervades all ranks; it is a perfect indiEffrher. See London Chris. Obs., vol. vi., p. 67. The  ence to the violation of engagements. Inconstancy
report, however, proved to be incorrect.          is so mingled in the blood, marrow, and very es3 This image may have been suggested by the fol- sence of this people, that, when a man of high ralk
lowing lines of Milton's Paradise Lost, book i., line  and importance laughs to-day at what he seriously
664, which are correspondent in thought, though not asserted yesterday, it is considered the natural orcoincident in expression:                         der of things."  How could it be otherwise, among
He spake; and, to confirm his words, outflew      a people who had taken it as a maxim that " maenMillions offlaming swords, drawn from the thighs  ners are morals?"  Such a maxim Mr. Burke would
Of mighty cherubim.                               have rejected with horror; but his own remark is
It is hardly necessary to remark on the wide  capable of being so understood, or, at least, so apextent of reading and reflection involved in these  plied, as to give a seeming countenance to this corthree sentences. The whole history of the Middle  rupt sentiment. History, on which he so much re.
Ages must have flashed across the mind of Mr. lied, affords the completest testimony, that the ruin
Burke as he wrote-the division of Europe into  of states which have attained to a high degree of
feudal dependencies, creating a "cheap defense of  civilization has almost uniformly resulted from the
nations," in bodies of armed mea always ready at polished corruption of the higher classes, and not
a moment's call, without expense to the sovereign  from the " grossness" of the lower.




EXTRACTS.                                          367
mit to the soft collar of social esteem; compelled  economical politicians, are themselves, perhaps,
stern authority to submit to elegance; and gave  but creatures; are themselves but effects, which,
a domination vanquisher of laws, to be subdued  as first causes, we choose to worship. They cerby manners.                                     tainly grew  under the same shade in which
learning flourished.  They too may decay with
Po L I E OF    their natural protecting principles.  With you,
POLITICAL INFLUENCE OF ESTABLISHED OPIN- 
for the present at least, they all threaten to disIONS.                      appear together.  Where trade and manufacWhen ancient opinions and rules of life are  tures are wanting to a people, and the spirit of
taken away, the loss can not possibly be esti- nobility and religion remains, sentiment supplies,
mated.  From that moment we have no con- and not always ill-supplies their place; but if
pass to govern us; nor can we know distinctly  commerce and the arts should be lost in an exto what port we steer.  Europe, undoubtedly, periment to try how well a state may stand withtaken in a mass, was in a flourishing condition  out these old fundamental principles, what sort
the day on which your revolution was complet- of a thing must be a nation of gross, stupid, feed.  How much of that prosperous state was rocious, and, at the same time, poor and sordid
owing to the spirit of our old manners and opin- barbarians, destitute of religion, honor, or manly
ions is not easy to say; but as such causes can pride, possessing nothing at present, and hoping
not be indifferent in their operation, we must for nothing hereafter?
presume that, on the whole, their operation was
beneficial.
VTIEXVS OF THE ENGLISH NATION.
We are but too apt to consider things in the               O  T    E         
state in which we find them, without sufficiently    When I assert any thing as concerning the
adverting to the causes by which they have been  people of England I speak from observation, not
produced, and, possibly, may be upheld.  Noth- from authority; but I speak from the experience
ing is more certain, than that our manners, our I have had in a pretty extensive and mixed com3ivilization, and all the good things which are  munication with the inhabitants of this kingdom,
connected with manners and with civilization, of all descriptions and ranks, and after a course
have, in this European world of ours, depended  of attentive observation, begun in early life, and
for ages upon two principles, and were indeed  continued for near forty years. I have often been
the result of both combined; I mean the spirit astonished, considering that we are divided from
of a gentleman, and the spirit of religion.  The  you but by a slender dike of about twenty-four
nobility and the clergy, the one by profession, miles, and that the mutual intercourse between
the other by patronage, kept learning in exist- the two countries has lately been very great, to
ence even in the midst of arms and confusions, find how little you seem to know of us.  I susand while governments were rather in their pect that this is owing to your forming a judgcauses than formed.  Learning paid back what ment of this nation from  certain publications,
it received to nobility and to priesthood; and paid  which do very erroneously, if they do at all, repit with usury, by enlarging their ideas, and by  resent the opinions and dispositions generally
furnishing their minds.  Happy if they had all prevalent in England. The vanity, restlessness,
continued to know their indissoluble union, and  petulence, and spirit of intrigue of several petty
their proper place!  Happy if learning, not de- cabals, who attempt to hide their total want of
bauched by ambition, had been satisfied to con- consequence in bustle, and noise, and puffing,
tinue the instructor, and not aspired to be the  and mutual quotation of each other; makes you
master!  Along with its natural protectors and  imagine that our contemptuous neglect of their
guardians, learning will be cast into the mire, abilities is a general mark of acquiescence in
and trodden down under the hoofs of a swinish  their opinions.  No such thing, I assure you.
multitude.5                                     Because half a dozen grasshoppers under a fern
If, as I suspect, modern letters owe more than  make the field ring with their importunate chink,
they are always willing to own to ancient man- while thousands of great cattle, reposed beneath
ners, so do other interests which we value fully  the shadow of the British oak, chew the cud and
as much as they are worth.  Even commerce, are silent, pray do not imagine that those who
and trade, and manufacture, the gods of our make the noise are the only inhabitants of the
See the fate of Bailly and Condorcet, supposed  field; that, of course, they ale many in number
to be here particularly alluded to. Compare the  or that, after all, they are other than the little,
circumstances of the trial and execution of the for- shriveled, meager, hopping, though loud and
mer with this prediction.                       troublesome insects of the hour.
Mr. Burke has been accused, without the slight-    I almost venture to affirm, that not one in a
est reason, of here applying the phrase "swinish  hundred among us participates in the " triumph"
multitude" to the lower class of society in general, of the revolution society. If the King and Queen
as a distinctive appellation. The language was oba distictive  appellation. The language was o- of France and their children were to fall into our
viously suggested by the scriptural direction, " Cast 
not you pearls before swine."  Bailly and Condor-  n the mt amcet did this, and experienced the natural consequen- nioU  of all hostilities (I deprecate such an event,
ces; and Mr. Burke says that such will always be I deprecate such hostility), they would be treatthe case, that "learning will be trodden under the ed with another sort of triumphal entry into Lon
hoofs of a (not the) swinish multitude."        don.  We formerly have had a king of France




368                                     MR. BURKE.
in that situation; you have read how he was ulation, instead of exploding general prejudices,
treated by the victor in the field; and in what employ their sagacity to discover the latent wismanner he was afterward received in England. dom which prevails in them.  If they find what
Four hundred years have gone over us; but I they seek, and they seldom  fail, they think it
believe we are not materially changed since that more wise to continue the prejudicei with the
period.  Thanks to our sullen resistance to inno- reason involved, than to cast away the coat of
vation; thanks to the cold sluggishness of our prejudice, and to leave nothing but the naked
national character, we still bear the stamp of  reason; because prejudice, with its reason, has
our forefathers.  We have not (as I conceive) a motive to give action to that reason, and an
lost the generosity and dignity of thinking of the  affection which will give it permanence. Preju.
fourteenth century; nor, as yet, have we subtil- dice is of ready application in the emergency; it
ized ourselves into savages.  We are not the  previously engages the mind in a steady course
converts of Rousseau; we are not the disciples  of wisdom  and virtue, and does not leave the
of Voltaire; Helvetius has made no progress  man, hesitating in the moment of decision, skepamong us. Atheists are not our preachers; mad- tical, puzzled, and unresolved.  Prejudice renmen are not our lawgivers.  We know that we ders a man's virtue his habit, and not a series
have made no discoveries; and we think that no  of unconnected acts.  Through just prejudice.
discoveries are to be made in morality; nor his duty becomes a part of his nature.
many in the great principles of government, nor
in the ideas of liberty, which were understood      II       OF TE ENGLI   CNTTTN.
long before we were born, altogether as well
as they will be after the grave has heaped its    You will observe that, from Magna Charta to
mold upon our presumption, and the silent tomb  theDeclaration of Right, it has been the uniform
shall have imposed its law on our pert loquacity. policy of our Constitution to claim and assert
In England we have not yet been completely  our liberties, as an entailed inheritance derived
emboweled of our natural entrails; we still feel to us from our forefathers, and to be transmitted
within us, and we cherish and cultivate those  to our posterity, as an estate specially belonging
inbred sentiments which are the faithful guard- to the people of this kingdom, without any referians, the active monitors of our duty, the true  ence whatever to any other more general or prior
supporters of all liberal and manly morals. We  right.  By this means our Constitution preserves
have not been drawn and trussed in order that a unity in so great a diversity of its parts.  We
we may be filled, like stuffed birds in a museum, have an inheritable Crown, an inheritable peer.
with chaff, and rags, and paltry blurred shreds  age, and a House of Commons and a people inof paper about the rights of man. We preserve  heriting privileges, franchises, and liberties, from
the whole of our feelings, still native and entire, a long line of ancestors.
unsophisticated by pedantry and infidelity. We    The policy appears to me to be the result of
have real hearts of flesh and blood beating in  profound reflection, or, rather, the happy effect
our bosoms.  We fear God; we look up with  of following nature, which is wisdom  without
awe to kings; with affection to Parliaments; reflection, and above it.  A spirit of innovation
with duty to magistrates; with reverence to  is generally the result of a selfish temper and
priests; and with respect to nobility.  Why?  confined views.  People will not look forward
Because, when such ideas are brought before  to posterity, who never look backward to their
our minds, it is natural to be so affected; be- ancestors.  Besides, the people of England well
cause all other feelings are false and spurious, know  that the idea of inheritance furnishes a
and tend to corrupt our minds, to vitiate our pri- sure principle of conservation, and a sure prinmary morals, to render us unfit for rat.onal lib- ciple of transmission, without at all excluding a
erty; and by teaching us a servile, licentious, principle of improvement.  It leaves acquisition
and abandoned insolence, to be our low sport for free; but it secures what it acquires.  Whata few holidays, to make us perfectly fit for, and  ever advantages are obtained by a state projustly deserving of slavery through the whole  ceeding on these maxims are locked fast as in a
course of our lives.                            sort of family settlement; grasped as in a kind
You see, sir, that in this enlightened age I am  of mortmain, forever.  By a constitutional polibold enough to confess that we are generally  cy, working after the pattern of nature, we remen of untaught feelings; that instead of cast- ceive, we hold, we transmit, our government and
ing away all our old prejudices, we cherish them  our privileges, in the same manner in which we
to a very considerable degree, and, to take more  enjoy and transmit our property and our lives.
shame to ourselves, we cherish them  because  The institutions of policy, the goods of fortune.
they are prejudices; and the longer they have  the gifts of Providence, are.handed down, to us
lasted, and the more generally they have pre- and from us, in the same course and order. Our
vailed, the more we cherish them.  We are  political system  is placed in a just correspondafraid to put men to live and trade each on his ence and symmetry with the order of the world,
own private stock of reason; because we sus- and with the mode of existence decreed to a perpect that the stock in each man is small, and  manent body composed of transitory parts, wherethat the individuals would do better to avail in, by the disposition of a stupendous wisdom,
themselves of the general bank and capital of  molding together the great mysterious incorponations and of ages.  Many of our men of spec- ration of the human race, the whole, at one time,




EXTRACTS.                                          369
is never old, or middle-aged, or young, but, in a  have been conducted by persons, who, while they
condition of unchangeable constancy, moves on  attempted or effected changes in the commonthrough the varied tenor of perpetual decay, fall, wealth, sanctified their ambition by advancing
renovation, and progression.  Thus, by preserv- the dignity of the people whose peace they
ing the method of nature in the conduct of the  troubled.  They had long views.  They aimed
state, in what we improve, we are never wholly  at the rule, not at the destruction of their counnew; in what we retain, we are never wholly  try.  They were men of great civil and great
obsolete.  By adhering in this manner, and on  military talents, and if the terror, the ornament
those principles, to our forefathers, we are guid- of their age.  They were not like Jew brokers
ed not by the superstition of antiquarians, but by  contending with each other who could best remthe spirit of philosophic analogy.  In this choice  edy with fraudulent circulation and depreciated
of inheritance we have given to our firame of pol- paper the wretchedness and ruin brought on their
ity the image of a relation in blood; binding up  country by their degenerate councils.  The comthe Constitution of our country with our dearest pliment made to one of the great bad men of the
domestic ties; adopting our fundamental laws old stamp (Cromwell) by his kinsman, a favorite
into the bosom of our family affections; keeping  poet of that time, shows what it was he proposed,
inseparable, and cherishing with the warmth of  and what, indeed; to a great degree, he accomall their combined and mutually reflected chari- plished in the success of his ambition.
ties, our state, our hearths, our sepulchres, and  " Still as you rise, the state exalted too,
our altars.                                       Finds no distemper while'tis changed by you;
Through the same plan of a conformity to na-   Changed like the world's great scene, when, withture in our artificial institutions, and by calling  out noise,
in the aid of her unerring and powerful instincts,   The rising sun night's vulgar lights destroys."
to fortify the fallible and feeble contrivances of    These disturbers were not so much like men
our reason, we have derived several other, and  usurping power, as asserting their natural place
those no small benefits, from considering our lib- in society.  Their rising was to illuminate and
erties in the light of an inheritance.  Always beautify the world.  Their conquest over their
acting as if in the presence of canonized fore- competitors was by outshining them.  The hand
fathers, the spirit of freedom, leading in itself to  that, like a destroying angel, smote the country,
misrule and excess, is tempered with an awful communicated to it the force and energy under
gravity.  This idea of a liberal descent inspires which it suffered.  I do not say (God forbid) I
us with a sense of habitual, native dignity, which  do not say that the virtues of such men were to
prevents that upstart insolence almost inevitably  be taken as a balance to their crimes, but they
adhering to and disgracing those who are the first were some corrective to their effects.  Such
acquirers of any distinction..By this means our was, as I said, our Cromwell.  Such were your
liberty becomes a noble freedom.  It carries an  whole race of Guises, Condes, and Colignis.
imposing and majestic aspect.  It has a pedigree  Such the Richelieus, who in more quiet times
and illustrating ancestors. It has its bearings and  acted in the spirit of a civil war.  Such, as betits ensigns armorial.  It has its gallery of por- ter men, and in a less dubious cause, were your
traits, its monumental inscriptions, its records, Henry the Fourth and your Sully, though nursed
evidences, and titles.  We procure reverence to  in civil confusions, and not wholly without some
our civil institutions, on the principle upon which  of their taint.  It is a thing to be wondered at
nature teaches us to revere individual men; on  to see how  very soon France, when she had
account of their age, and on account of those  a moment to respire, recovered and emerged
from whom they are descended.  All your soph- from  the longest and most dreadful civil war
isters can not produce any thing better adapted  that ever was known in any nation.  Why? beto preserve a rational and manly freedom  than  cause, among all their massacres, they had not
the course that we have pursued, who have  slain the mind in their country.  A conscious
chosen our nature rather than our speculations, dignity, a noble pride, a generous sense of glory
our breasts rather than our inventions, foi the  and emulation; was not extinguished.  On the
great conservatories and magazines of our rights contrary, it was kindled and inflamed.  The orand privileges.                                 gans, also, of the state, however shattered, existed.  All the prizes of honor and virtue, all the
rewards, all the distinctions remained. But your
DEGRADING INFLUENCE OF LOW VIEWS IN    present confusion, like a palsy, has attacked the
POLITICS.
PO~LITI~CS,          fountain of life itself.  Every person in your
When men of rank sacrifice all ideas of dig- country, in a situation to be actuated by a prinnity to an ambition without a distinct object, ciple of honor, is disgraced and degraded, and
and work with low instruments and for low ends. can entertain no sensation of life except in a
the whole composition becomes low and base. mortified and humiliated indignation.
Does not something like this now  appear in
France?  Does it not produce something igno-              T             THE RIGHT  OF MAN.
n i.3       TR~E TH. 3ORY OF THE RIGHTS OF MAN.
ble and inglorious? a kind of meanness in all the
prevalent policy? a tendency in all that is done    Far am I from denying in theory; full as far
to lower, along with individuals, all the dignity  is my heart from withholding in practice (if I
and importance of the state?  Other revolutions were of power to give or to withhold) the rea.
A A




370                                      MR. BURKE.
rights of men.  In denying their false claims of  practical defect.  By having a right to every
right, I do not mean to injure those which are  thing they want every thing.  Government is a
real, and are such as their pretended rights  contrivance of human wisdom to provide for huwould totally destroy.  If civil society be made  man wants.  Men have a right that these wants
for the advantage of man, all the advantages for should be provided for by this wisdom.  Among
which it is made become his right.  It is an in- these wants is to be reckoned the want, out of
stitution of beneficence; and law itself is only  civil society, of a sufficient restraint upon their
beneficence acting by a rule.  Men have a right passions.  Society requires not only that the
to live by that rule; they have a right to do jus- passions of individuals should be subjected, but
tice, as between their fellows, whether their fel- that even in the mass and body, as well as in
lows are in politic function or in ordinary oc- the individuals, the inclinations of men should
cupation.  They have a right to the fruits of  frequently be thwarted, their will controlled, and
their industry, and to the means of making their their passions brought into subjection.  This
industry fruitful.  They have a right to the ac- can only be done by a poower out of themselves,
quisitions of their parents; to the nourishment and not, in the exercise of its function, subject
and improvement of their offspring; to instruc- to that will and to those passions which it is its
dion in life, and to consolation in death.  What- office to bridle and subdue.  In this sense, the
ever each man can separately do, without tres- restraints on men, as well as their liberties, are
passing upon others, he has a right to do for to be reckoned among their rights; but as the
himself; and he has a right to a fair portion  liberties and the restrictions vary with times and
of all which society, with all its combinations of  circumstances, and admit of infinite modificaskill and force, can do in his favor.  In this part- tions, they can not be settled upon any abstract
nership all men have equal rights, but not to  rule, and nothing is so foolish as to discuss them
equal things.  He that has but five shillings in  upon that principle.
the partnership has as good a right to it as he    The moment you abate any thing fiom the full
that has five hundred pounds has to his larger rights of men each to govern himself, and suffer
proportion; but he has not a right to an equal any artificial, positive limitation upon those rights,
dividend in the product of the joint stock; and  from that moment the whole organization of govas to the share of power, authority, and direc- ernment becomes a consideration of convenience.
tion which each individual ought to have in the  This it is which makes the Constitution of a state,
management of the state, that I must deny to  and the due distribution of its powers, a matter of
*be among the direct, original rights of man in  the most delicate and complicated skill.  It reeivil society; for I have in my contemplation  quires a deep knowledge of human nature and
the civil, social man, and no other.  It is a thing  human necessities, and of the things which fato be settled by convention.                     cilitate or obstruct the various ends which are
If civil society be the offspring of convention, to be pursued by the mechanism of civil instithat convention must be its law.  That conven- tutions.  The state is to have recruits to its
tion must limit and modify all the descriptions strength, and remedies to its distempers. What
of constitution which are formed under it.  Ev- is the. use of discussing a man's abstract right
cry sort of legislative, judicial, or executory  to food or medicine?  The question is upon the
power, are its creatures.  They can have no  method of procuring and administering them.
being in any other state of things; and how can  In that deliberation I shall always advise to call.any man claim, under the conventions of civil in the aid of the farmer and the physician rather
society, rights which do not so much as suppose  than the professor of metaphysics.
its existence? rights which are absolutely re-    The science of constructing a commonwealth,
pugnant to it?  One of the first motives to civil or renovating it, or reforming it, is. like every
society, and which becomes one of its funda- other experimental science, not to be taught a
mental rules, is, that no man should be judge in  priori.  Nor is it a short experience that can
his own cause.  By this each person has at once  instruct us in that practical science, because the
divested himself of the first fundamental right of  real effects of moral causes are not always imuncovenanted man; that is, to judge for himself, mediate, but that which in the first instance is
and to assert his own cause.  He abdicates all prejudicial may be excellent in its remoter operright to be his own governor.  He inclusively, ation, and its excellence may arise even from
in a great measure, abandons the right of self- the ill effects it produces in the beginning. The
defense, the first law of nature.  Men can not reverse also happens; and very plausible schemes,
enjoy the rights of an uncivil and of a civil state  with very pleasing commencements, have often
together.  That he may obtain justice, he gives  shameful and lamentable conclusions. In states
up his right of determining what it is in points there are often some obscure and almost latent
the most essential to him.  That he may secure  causes, things which appear at first view of little
some liberty, he makes a surrender in trust of  moment, on which a very great part of its prosthe whole of it.                                 perity or adversity may most essentially depend.
Government is not made in virtue of natural The science of government being, therefore, so
rights, which may and do exist in total inde- practical in itself, and intended for such practical
pendence of it, and exist in much greater clear- purposes-a matter which requires experience.
ness, and in a much greater degree of abstract and even more experience than any person can
perfection; but their abstract perfection is their  gain in his whole life, however sagacious and




EXTRACTS.                                           371
observing he may be-it is with infinite caution  have consecrated the state, that no man should
that any man ought to venture upon pulling  approach to look into its defects or corruptions
down an edifice which has answered in any tol- but with due caution; that he should never
orable degree, for ages, the common purposes of  dream  of' beginning its reformation by its subsociety, or on building it up again, without hav- version; that he should approach to the faults
ing models and patterns of approved utility be- of the state as to the wounds of a father, with
fore his eyes.                                   pious awe and trembling solicitude.  By this
wise prejudice we are taught to look with horaU  STATESMANSHIP          ror on those children of their country who are
STATESMANSHIP         prompt rashly to hack that aged parent in
The true lawgiver ought to have a heart full pieces, and put him into the kettle of magicians,
of sensibility.  He ought to love and respect his  in hopes that, by their poisonous weeds and wild
kind, and to fear himself.  It may be allowed to  incantations, they may regenerate the paternal
his temperament to catch his ultimate object constitution, and renovate their father's life.
with an intuitive glance, but his movements to-    Society is, indeed, a contract.  Subordinate
ward it ought to be deliberate.  Political ar- contracts for objects of mere occasional interest
rangement, as it is a work for social ends, is to  may be dissolved at pleasure; but the state ought
be only wrought by social means.  There mind  not to be considered as nothing better than a partmust conspire with mind.  Time is required to  nership agreement in a trade of pepper and coffee,
produce- that union of minds which alone can  calico or tobacco, or some other such low concern,
produce all the good we aim at.  Our patience  to be taken up for a little temporary interest, and
will achieve more than our force.  If I might to be dissolved by the fancy of the parties.  It is
venture to appeal to what is so much out of  to be looked on with other reverence, because it
fashion in Paris, I mean to experience, I should  is not a partnership in things subservient only
tell you that in my course I have known, and, to the gross animal existence of a temporary and
according  to my measure, have co-operated  perishable nature.  It is a partnership in all sciwith great men; and I have never yet seen  ence; a partnership in all art; a partnership in
any plan which has not been mended by the  every virtue, and in all perfection.  As the ends
observations of those who were much inferior of such a partnership can not be obtained in
in understanding to the person who took the lead  many generations, it becomes a partnership not
in the business.  By a slow but well-sustained  only between those who are living, but between
progress the effect of each step i's watched; the  those who are living, those who are dead, and
good or ill success of the first gives light to us in  those who are to be born.  Each contract of
the second; and so; from light to light, we are  each particular state is but a clause in the great
conducted with safety throuigh the whole series. primeval contract of eternal society, linking the
We see that the parts of the system do not clash. lower with the higher natures, connecting the
The evils latent in the most promising contriv- visible and invisible world, according to a fixed
ances are provided for as they arise.  One ad- compact sanctioned by the inviolable oath which
vantage is as little as possible sacrificed to anoth- holds all physical and all moral natures each in
er.  We compensate, we reconcile, we balance. their appointed place.  This law is not subject
We are enabled to unite into a consistent whole  to the will of those who, by an obligation above
the various anomalies and contending principles them, and infinitely superior, are bound to subthat are found in the minds and affairs of men. mit their will to that law.  The municipal corFrom hence arises not an excellence in simplic- porations of that universal kingdom are not mority, but one far superior, an excellence in corn- ally at liberty at their pleasure, and on their specposition.  Where the great interests of mankind  ulations of a contingent improvement, wholly to
are concerned through a long succession of gen- separate and tear asunder the bands of their suberations, that succession ought to be admitted  ordinate community, and to dissolve it into an uninto some share in the councils which are so  social, uncivil, unconnected chaos of elementary
deeply to affect them.  If justice requires this, principles.  It is the first and supreme necessity
the work itself requires the aid of more minds only, a necessity that is not chosen, but chooses;
than one age can furnish.  It is from this view  a necessity paramount to deliberation, that adof things that the best legislators have been often  mits no discussion and demands no evidence,
satisfied with the establishment of some sure, which alone can justify a resort to anarchy.
solid, and ruling principle in government; a  This necessity is no exception to the rule, bepower like that which some of the philosophers cause this necessity itself is a part, too, of that
have called a plastic nature; and having fixed  moral and physical disposition of things to which
the principle, they have left it afterward to its man must be obedient by consent of force; but
own operation.                                   if that which is only submission to necessity
should be made the object of choice, the law is
broken, nature is disobeyed, and the rebellious
THE STHATE CONSECRATED IN T-IE HEARTS OF  are outlawed, cast forth, and exiled from  this
THE PEOPLE,                      world of reason, and order, and peace, and virTo avoid, therefore, the evils of inconstancy  tue, and fruitful penitence, into the antagonist
and versatility, ten thousand times worse than  world of madness, discord, vice, confusion, and
those of obstinacy and the blindest prejudice. we  unavailing sorrow.




372                                     MR. BURKE.
These, my dear sir, are, were, and I think long  fies his condition.  It is for the man in humble
will be, the sentiments of not the least learned  life, and to raise his nature, and to pul him  in
and reflecting part of this kingdom.  They who  mind of a state in which the privileges of opuare included in this description form their opin- lence will cease, when he will be equal by naions on such grounds as such persons ought to  ture, and may be more than equal by virtue,
form  them.  The less inquiring receive them  that this portion of the general wealth of his
from an authority which those whom Providence  country is employed and sanctified.
dooms to live on trust need not be ashamed to    The English people are also satisfied that to
rely on.  These two sorts of men move in the  the great the consolations of religion are as necsame direction, though in  a different place. essary as its instructions.  They, too, are among
They both move with the order of the universe. the unhappy.  They feel personal pain and doThey all know or feel this great ancient truth: mestic sorrow.  In these they have no privi" Quod illi principi et prepotenti Deo qui om- lege, but are subject to pay their full contingent
nem hune mundum regit, nihil eorum qume qui- to the contributions levied on mortality.  They
dem fiant in terris acceptius quam concilia et want this sovereign balm  under their gnawing
caetus homlinum jure sociati que civitates appel- cares and anxieties, which, being less conversant
lantur."6  They take this tenet of the head and  about the limited wants of animal life, range withheart not from the great name which it imme- out limit, and are diversified by infinite combinadiately bears, nor from the greater from whence  tions in the wild and unbounded regions of imit is derived, but from that which alone can give  agination.  Some charitable dole is wanting to
true weight and sanction to any learned opinion, these, our often very unhappy brethren, to fill the
the common nature and common relation of men. gloomy void that reigns in minds which have
Persuaded that all things ought to be done with  nothing on earth to hope or fear; something to
reference, and referring all to the point of refer- relieve in the killing languor and over-labored
ence to which all should be directed, they think  lassitude of those who have nothing to do;
themselves bound, not only as individuals, in the  something to excite an appetite to existence in
sanctuary of the heart, or as congregated in that the palled satiety which attends on all pleasures
personal capacity, to renew the memory of their which may be bought, where nature is not left
high origin and cast, but also in their corporate  to her own process, where even desire is anticicharacter, to perform  their national homage to  pated, and even fruition defeated by meditated
the Institutor, and Author and Protector of civil schemes and contrivances of delight, and no insociety; without which civil society man could  terval, no obstacle is interposed between the
not by any possibility arrive at the perfection of  wish and the accomplishment.
which his nature is capable, nor even make a remote and faint approach to it.  They conceiveU                     Y G 
i-u- TT   1                   1 -L  fr-L   I THE REVOLUTIONARY GOVERNMIENT OF FRANCE.
that He who gave our nature to be perfected by
our virtue, willed also the necessary means of its    Out of the tomb of the murdered monarchy in
perfection.  He willed, therefore, the state. He  France has arisen a vast, tremendous, unformed
willed its connection with the source and orig- specter, in a far more terrific guise than any
inal archetype of all perfection.  They who are  which ever yet have overpowered the imaginaconvinced of this His will, which is the law of  tion and subdued the fortitude of man.  Going
laws, and the sovereign of sovereigns, can not straightforward to its end, unappalled by peril,
think it reprehensible that this our corporate  unchecked by remorse, despising all common
fealty and homage, that this our recognition of  maxims and all common means, that hideous
a seigniory paramount, I had almost said this ob- phantom overpowered those who could not belation of the state itself, as a worthy offering on  lieve it was possible she could at all exist. * *
the high altar of universal praise, should be per-    The republic of regicide, with an annihilated
formed as all public solemn acts are performed, revenue, with defaced manufactures, with a ruin buildings, in music, in decorations, in speech, ined commerce, with an uncultivated and halfin the dignity of persons, according to the cus- depopulated country, with a discontented, distoms of mankind, taught by their nature! that tressed, enslaved, and famished people, passing
is, with modest splendor, with unassuming state, with a rapid, eccentric, incalculable course,
with mild majesty, and sober pomp.  For those  from the wildest anarchy to the sternest despotpurposes they think some part of the wealth of ism, has actually conquered the finest parts of
the country is as usefully employed as it can be  Europe, has distressed, disunited, deranged, and
in fomenting the luxury of individuals.  It is the  broke to pieces all the rest.
public ornament.  It is the public consolation.    What now stands as government in France is
It nourishes the public hope.  The poorest man  struck at a heat.  The design is wicked, imfinds his own importance and dignity in it, while  moral, impious, oppressive, but it is spirited and
the wealth and pride of individuals at every mo- daring; it is systematic; it is simple in its prinment makes the man of humble rank and fortune  ciple; it has unity and consistency in perfection.
sensible of his inferiority, and degrades and vili- In that country, entirely to cut off a branch of
6 That nothing is more acceptable to the All-pow- commerce, to extinguish a manufacture, to de.
erful Being who rules the world than those councils stroy the circulation of money, to violate credit,
of men under the authority of law, which bear the  to suspend the course of agriculture, even to
name of states.- Somnium Scipionis, sect. iii.  burn a city or to lay waste a province of their




EXTRACTS.                                         373
own, does not cost them  a moment's anxiety.  seen it; and if the world will shut their eyes
To them, the will, the wish, the want, the lib- to this state of things they will feel it more.
erty, the toil, the blood of individuals is as noth- The rulers there have found their resources in
ing.  Individuality is left out of their scheme of  crimes.  The discovery is dreadful; the mine
government.  The state is all in all.  Every  exhaustless.  They have every thing to gain,
thing is referred to the production of force; aft- and they have nothing to lose.  They have a
erward, every thing is trusted to the use of it. boundless inheritance in hope; and there is no
It is military in its principle, in its maxims, in  medium for them between the highest elevation
its spirit, and in all its movements.  The state  and death with infamy.
has dominion and conquest for its sole objects;
dominion over minds by proselytism, over bodies  TH     TEATMENT O EBASAD             F      F -
7 ^  ^'  THEIR TREATMIENT OF EMBASSADORS FROMI ]JOtbv arms.
b^~~r~ al~^^'~~~~F.FIG_ POWERS.
Thus constituted, with an immense body of natural means, which are lessened in their amount    To those who do not love to contemplate the
only to be increased in their effect, France has, fall of human greatness, I do not know a more
since the accomplishment of the revolution, a  mortifying spectacle than to see the assembled
complete unity in its direction. It has destroyed  majesty of the crowned heads of Europe waiting
every resource of the state which depends upon  as patient suitors in the ante-chamber of regiopinion and the good will of individuals.  The  cide. They wait, it seems, until the sanguinary
riches of convention disappear.  The advant- tyrant Carnot shall have snorted away the fumes
ages of nature in some measure remain; even  of the indigested blood of his sovereign.  Then,
these, I admit, are astonishingly lessened; the  when sunk on the down of usurped pomp, he
command over what remains is complete and  shall have sufficiently indulged his meditation
absolute.  They have found the short cut to  with what monarch he shall next glut his raventhe productions of nature, while others in pur- ing maw, he may condescend to signify that it
suit of them  are obliged to wind through the  is his pleasure to be awake; and that he is at
labyrinth of a very intricate state of society. leisure to receive the proposals of his high and
They seize upon the fruit of the labor; they  mighty clients for the terms on which he may
seize upon the laborer himself. Were France but respite the execution of the sentence he has passhalf of what it is in population, in compactness, ed upon them.  At the opening of those doors,
in applicability of its force, situated as it is, and  what a sight it must be to behold the plenipobeing what it is, it would be too strong for most tentiaries of royal impotence, in the precedency
of the states of Europe, constituted as they are, which they will intrigue to obtain, and which will
and proceeding as they proceed.  Would it be  be granted to them according to the seniority
wise to estimate what the world of Europe, as of their degradation, sneaking into the regicide
well as the world of Asia, had to dread from  presence, and with the relics of the smile, which
Genghis Khan, upon a contemplation of the re- they had dressed up for the levee of their massources of the cold and barren spot in the remot- ters, still flickering on their curled lips, presentest Tartary from whence first issued that scourge  ing the faded remains of their courtly graces to
of the human race?  Ought we to judge from  meet the scornful, ferocious, sardonic grin of a
the excise anid stamp duties of the rocks, or from  bloody ruffian, who, while he is receiving their
the paper circulation of the sands of Arabia, the  homage, is measuring them with his eye, and fitpower by which Mohammed and his tribes laid  ting to their size the slider of his guillotine!
hold at once on the two most powerful empires
of the world, beat one of them  totally to the                                               -.round      topee  h  other, and, il not.'   ILLUSTRATION FROMI A CASE SUPPOSED IN ENground, broke to pieces the other, and, in not                      GLAND.
much longer space of time than I have lived,
overturned governments, laws, manners, relig-    To illustrate my opinions on this subject, let
ion, and extended an empire from  the Indus to  us suppose a case, which, after what has happenthe Pyrenees?                                  ed, we can not think absolutely impossible, though
Material resources never have supplied, nor the augury is to be abominated, and the event
ever can supply the want of unity in design and'deprecated with our most ardent prayers.  Let
constancy in pursuit  but unity in design, and  us suppose, then, that our gracious Sovereign
perseverance and boldness in pursuit, have nev- was sacrilegiously murdered; his exemplary
er wanted resources, and never will.  We have  Queen, at the head of the matronage of this land,
not considered as we ought the dreadful energy  murdered in the same manner; that those prinof a state in which the property has nothing to  cesses, whose beauty and modest elegance are
do with the government.  Reflect. again and  the ornaments of the country, and who are the
again, on a government in which the property  leaders and latterns of the ingenuous youth of
is in complete subjection, and where nothing  their sex, were put to a cruel and ignominious
rules but the mind of desperate men. The con- death, with hundreds of others, mothers and
dition of a commonwealth not governed by its daughters, ladies of the first distinction; that
property was a combination of things which the  the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York, prinlearned and ingenious speculator Harrington, ces the hope and pride of the nation, with all
who has tossed about society into all forms, their brethren, were forced to fly from the knives
never could imagine to be possible..  We have  of assassins-that the whole body of our excel



374                                      MR. BURKE.
lent clergy were either massacred or robbed of  ties of their interest, and as their soldiers, how
all, and transported-the Christian religion, in  should we feel if we were to be excluded from
all its denominations, forbidden and persecuted  all their cartels?  How must we feel if the pride
-the law, totally, fundamentally, and in all its  and flower of the English nobility and gentry,
parts, destroyed-the judges put to death by rev- who might escape the pestilential clime and the
olutionary tribunals-the peers and commons  devouring sword, should, if taken prisoners, be
robbed to the last acre of their estates; mas- delivered over as rebel subjects, to be condemned
sacred if they stayed, or obliged to seek life in  as rebels, as traitors, as the vilest of all criminflight, in exile, and in beggary-that the whole  als, by tribunals formed of Maroon negro slaves,
landed property should share the very same fate  covered over with the blood of their masters.
-that every military and naval officer of honor who were made free, and organized into judges
and rank, almost to a man, should be placed in  for their robberies and murders?  What should
the same description of confiscation and exile-   we feel under this inhuman, insulting, and barthat the principal merchants and bankers should  barous protection of Muscovites, Swedes, or Holbe drawn out, as from a hen-coop, for slaughter.anders?  Should we not obtest Heaven, and
-that the citizens of our greatest and most flour- whatever justice there is yet on earth?  Opishing cities, when the hand and the machinery  pression makes wise men mad; but the distemof the hangman were not found sufficient, should  per is still the madness of the wise, which is bethave been collected in the public squares, and  ter than the sobriety of fools.  Their cry is the
massacred by thousands with cannon; if three  voice of sacred misery, exalted, not into wild
hundred thousand others should have been doom- raving, but into the sanctified frenzy of prophed to a situation worse than death in noisome  ecy and inspiration-in that bitterness of soul,
and pestilential prisons-in such a case, is it in  in that indignation of suffering virtue, in that exthe faction of robbers I am to look for my coun- altation of despair, would not persecuted Entry?  Would this be the England that you and  glish loyalty cry out with an awful warning
I, and even strangers admired, honored, loved, voice, and denounce the destruction that waits
and cherished? Would not the exiles of England  on monarchs, who consider fidelity to them as
alone be my government and my fellow-citizens? the most degrading of all vices; who suffer
Would not their places of refuge be my tempo- il to be punished as the most abominable of all
rary country?  Would not all my duties and all crimes; and who have no respect but for rebmy affections be there, and there only?  Should  els, traitors, regicides, and furious negro slaves,
I consider myself as a traitor to my country, and  whose crimes have broke their chains?  Would
deserving of death, if I knocked at the door and  not this warm language of high indignation have
heart of every potentate in Christendom to sue- more of sound reason in it, more of real affection,
cor my friends, and to avenge them on their en- more of true attachment, than all the lullabies
emies?  Could I, in any way, show myself more  of flatterers, who would hush monarchs to sleep
a patriot?  What should I think of those poten- in the arms of death?
tates who insulted their suffering brethren; who
treated them as vagrants, or, at least, as mendi- CO
cants; and could find no allies, no friends, but in  C CT  EXPECTED  FROM  MR. PITT WENx
regicide murderers and robbers?  What ought            RENCI BROKE OF  NETATIN 
I to think and feel if, being geographers instead    ACE IN 1
of kings, they recognized the desolated cities, the    After such an elaborate display had been made
wasted fields, and the rivers polluted with blood, of the injustice and insolence of an enemy, who
of this geometrical measurement, as the honora- seemis to have been irritated by every one of the
ble member of Europe called England?  In that means which had been commonly used with efcondition, what should we think of Sweden, Den- feet to soothe the rage of intemperate power, the
mark, or Holland, or whatever power afforded  natural result would be, that the scabbard, in
us a churlish and treacherous hospitality, if they  which we in vain attempted to plunge our sword,
should invite us to join the standard of our King, should have been thrown away with scorn.  It
our laws, and our religion; if they should give  would have been natural, that, rising in the fullus a direct promise of protection; if, after all ness of their might, insulted majesty, despised
this, taking advantage of our deplorable situation; dignity, violated justice, rejected supplication,
which left us no choice, they were to treat us as patience goaded into fury, would have poured
the lowest and vilest of all mercenaries? If they  out all the length of the reins upon all the wrath
were to send us far from the aid of our King and  which they had so long restrained.7  It might
our suffering country, to squander us away in                                 suggested by  irthe most pestilential climates for a venal enlarge-il's description of Neptune, as seatl   in his chrio,
ment of their own territories, for the purpose of  and controlling his impatient steeds (book v., line
trucking them, when obtained, with those very  818), till willing at last to give full course to thei,
robbers and murderers they had called upon us swiftness,
to oppose with our blood?  What would be our            manibusque omnes effundit habenas.
sentiments, if, in that miserable service, we were    He pours forth all the reins from out his hands.
not to be considered either as English, or as   In like manner, the attributes here personified,
Swedes, Dutch, Danes, but as outcasts of the hu- "insulted majesty," "despised dignity," &c., "poml
man race?  While we were fighting those bat- out all the length of the reins upon all the wrath




EXTRACTS.                                           375
have been expected, that, emulous of the glory  forth from their hideous kennel (where his scruof the youthful hero [the Austrian Archduke  pulous tenderness had too long immured them)
Charles] in alliance with him, touched by the  those impatient dogs of war, whose fierce reexample of what one man, well formed and well gards affright even the minister of vengeance
placed, may do in the most desperate state of  that feeds them; that he would let them loose,
affairs, convinced there is a courage of the cab- in famine, fever, plagues, and death upon a
inet full as powerful, and far less vulgar than that guilty race, to whose frame, and to all whose
of the field, our minister would have changed the  habit, order, peace, religion, and virtue are alien
whole line of that unprosperous prudence, which  and abhorrent.'0  It was expected that he would
hitherto had produced all the effects of the blind- at last have thought of active and effectual war:
est temerity.  If he found his situation full of  that he would no longer amuse the British lion
danger (and I do not deny that it is perilous in  in the chase of mice and rats; that he would no
the extreme), he must feel that it is also full of  longer employ the whole naval power of Great
glory.and that he is placed on a stage, than  Britain, once the terror of the world, to prey
which no muse of fire that had ascended the  upon the miserable remains of a peddling comhighest heaven of invention could imagine any  merce, which the enemy did not regard, and
thing more awful and august.s  It was hoped  from which none could profit.  It was expected
that, in the swelling scene in which he moved, that he would have reasserted whatever remained
with some of the first potentates of Europe for to him of his allies, and endeavored to recover
his fellow-actors, and with so many of the rest those whom their fears had led astray; that he
for the anxious spectators of a part, which, as  would have rekindled the martial ardor of his
he plays it, determines forever their destiny and  citizens; that he would have held out to them
his own, like Ulysses, in the unraveling point of  the example of their ancestry, the assertor of
the epic story, he would have thrown off his pa- Europe, and the scourge of French ambition;
tience and his rags together; and, stripped of  that he would have reminded them of a posterity
unworthy disguises, he would have stood forth  which, if this nefarious robbery, under the fraudin the form and in the attitude of a hero.9  On  ulent name and false color of a government,
that day, it was thought he would have assumed  should in full power be seated in the heart of
the port of Mars; that he would bid to be brought Europe, must forever be consigned to vice, im~ ~ -       ~~-  -.^~~ ~piety, barbarism, and the most ignominious slavwhich they had so long restrained."  We have few 
ic  tey ad so lo  restrained  e have few  cry of body and mind.  In so holy a cause it
images in our language of equal force and beauty.    as pes d tat he would (as in the beoin
" See the prologue to Shakspeare's Henry V.: 
Oh for. aMsefitd          uling of the war he'did) have opened all the temOh for a Muse of Fire that would ascend
_ for a Mu;se ofFir~e that; would ascend  ples; and with prayer, with fasting, and with
The highest heaven of invention!. 
The  ges heaen o ine         supplication (better directed than to the grim
" The scene referred to is that near the close of  Moloch of r-egicide in France), have called upon
tlhe tweuty-first book of the Odyssey, where Ulysses,      raise  tt uni   c,  hih   a   so ofen
who had appeared disguised as a beggar among the                             wi              
suitors of Penelope, finding that none of them could  stored  Heaven, a        a  pious violence
bend his bow, takes it in hand himself, amid the  foced cown blessings upon a repentant people.
jeers of all, strings it with the ease of a lyre, and  It was hoped that, when he had invoked upon
sends the arrow whizzing through the rings which  his endeavors the favorable regard of the Prohad been suspended as a mark.                    tector of the human race, it would be seen that
-- But when the wary hero wise           his menaces to the enemy and his prayers to
Had made his hand familiar with the bow,         the Almighty were not followed, but accompaPoising it, and examining-at once —              nied, with correspondent action.  It was hoped
As when, in harp and song adept, a hard          that his shrilling trumpet should be heard, not
Strings a new lyre, extending, first, the chords,    to announce a show, but to sound a charge.
He knits them to the frame, at either end,
With promptest ease; with such Ulysses strung
His own huge bow, and with his right hand trilld   DUTIES OF THE HIGHER CLASSES IN CARRYING
The nerve, which, in its quick vibration, sang                       THE WA
As with a swallow's voice. Then anguish turn'd
The suitors pale; and in that moment Jove          In the nature of things it is not with their perGave him his rolling thunder for a sign.         sons that the higher classes principally pay their
Such most propitious notice froml the son        contingent to the demands of war.  There is anOf wily Saturn, hearing with delight,            other and not less imlportant part which rests with
He seized a shaft which at the table side                     i      i,.  3"ead  vn ~.. i. ~i ~ie'  >almost exclusive weight upon them.  They lurLay ready drawn; but in his quiver's womb             t  means
The rest yet slept, though destined soon to steep
Their points in Grecian blood. He lodged the reed           "How war may best upheld,
Full on the bow-string, drew the parted head       Move by her two main nerves, iron and gold,
Home to his breast, and aiming as he sat,          In all her equipage." —Milton's Par. Lost.
At once dismissed it. Through the numerous rings       t    t     a   e                  ii
~.~ ~,   -t. J.  i..  -'"  i~Not that they are exempt from  contributing,
Swift flew the gliding steel, and, issuing, sped ______________________
Beyond them.-Cowper.                               0 Then should the warlike Harry like himself,
He then pours out the arrows at his feet, and      Assume the port of Mars, and at his heels,
turns his bow on the suitors till they are all de-  Leasht in like hounds shouldfamine, sword, and
stroyed.                                             Crouch for employment.                 [fire,




376                                     MR. BURKE.
also, by their personal service in the fleets and  their country may demand the certain sacrifice
armies of their country.  They do contribute, of thousands.
and in their full and fair proportion, according
to the relative proportion of their numbers in
SENTIMENTS BECOWIING'HE CRISTS.
the community.  They contribute all the mind 
that actuates the whole machine.  The forti-    Nor are sentiments of elevation in themselves
tude required of them is very different from the turgid and unnatural.  Nature is never more
unthinking alacrity of the common soldier, or truly herself than in her grandest form.  The
common sailor, in the face of danger and death;  Apollo of Belvidere (if the universal robber has
it is not a passion, it is not an impulse, it is not yet left him at Belvidere) is as much in nature; sentiment; it is a cool, steady, deliberate prin- as any figure from the pencil of Rembrandt, or
ciple, always present, always equable; having  any clown in the rustic revels of Teniers.  Inno connection with anger; tempering honor deed, it is when a great nation is in great diffiwith prudence; incited, invigorated, and sus- culties that minds must exalt themselves to the
tained by a generous love of fame; informed, occasion, or all is lost.  Strong passion, under
moderated, and directed by an enlarged knowl- the direction of a feeble reason, feeds a low feedge of its own great public ends; flowing in  ver, which serves only to destroy the body that
one blended stream  from  the opposite sources entertains it.  But vehement passion does not
of the heart and the head; carrying in itself its always indicate an infirm judgment.  It often
own commission, and proving its title to every  accompanies, and actuates, and is even auxiliary
other command, by the first and most difficult to a powerful understanding; and when they
command, that of the bosom in which it resides  both conspire and act harmoniously, their force
it is a fortitude which unites with the courage  is great to destroy disorder within, and to repel
of the field the more exalted and refined courage  injury from  abroad.  If ever there was a time
of the council; which knows as well to retreat that calls on us for no vulgar conception of things,
as to advance; which can conquer as well by  and for exertions in no vulgar strain, it is the
delay as by the rapidity of a march or the im- awful hour that Providence has now appointed
petuosity of an attack; which can be, with Fa- to this nation.  Every little measure is a great
bins, the black cloud that lowers on the tops of  error; and every great error will bring on 1no
the mountains, or with Scipio, the thunderbolt small ruin.  Nothing can be directed above the
of war; which, undismayed by false shame, can  mark that we must aim at; every thing below
patiently endure the severest trial that a gallant it is absolutely thrown away.
spirit can undergo, in the taunts and provocations  -.        %       x  
of the enemy, the suspicions, the cold respect, and    Who knows whether indignation may not suc" mouth honor" of those from whom  it should  ceed to terror, and the revival of high sentiment,
meet a cheerful obedience; which, undisturbed  spurning away the delusion of a safety purchased
by false humanity, can calmly assume that most at the expense of glory, may not yet drive us to
awful moral responsibility of deciding when vie- that generous despair, which has often subdued
tory may be too dearly purchased by the loss of  distempers in the state, for which no remedy
a single life, and when the safety and glory of  could be found in the wisest councils?
MISCELLANEOUS.
WILLIAM III. FORMING THE GRAND ALLIANCE  1held on his course.  He was faithful to his obWILLIAM  III. FORMING THE GRAND ALLIANCE
AGAINST Louis XIV.                  ject; and in councils, as il arms, over and over
again repulsed, over and over again he returned
The steps which were taken to compose, to  to the charge.  All the mortifications he had
reconcile, to unite, and to discipline all Europe  suffered from the last Parliament, and the greatagainst the growth of France, certainly furnish  er he had to apprehend from that newly chosen,
to a statesman the finest and most interesting  were not capable of relaxing the vigor of his
part in the history of that great period.  It form- mind.  He was in Holland when he combined
ed the master-piece of King William's policy, the vast plan of his foreign negotiations.  When
dexterity, and perseverance.  Full of the idea  he came to open his design to his ministers in
of preserving, not only a local civil liberty unit- England, even the sober firmness of Somers, the
ed with order, to our country, but to embody it undaunted resolution of Shrewsbury, and the adin the political liberty, the order, and the inde- venturous spirit of Montague and Orford, were
pendence of nations united under a natural head, staggered.  They were not yet mounted to lhe
the King called upon his Parliament to put itself  elevation of the King.  The cabinet (then the
into a posture " to preserve to England the weight regency) met on the subject at Tunbridge Wells
and influence it at present had on. the councils the 28th of August, 1698; and there, Lord Somand affairs ABROAD. It will be requisite Eu- etr holding the pen: after expressing doubts on
rope should see you will not be wanting to your- the. state of the continent, which they ultimately
selves."                                        refer to the King, as best informed, they give
Baffled as that monarch was, and almost heart- him a most discouraging portrait of the spirit of
broken at the disappointment he met with in the  this nation.  "So far as relates to England,"
mode he first proposed for that great end, he  say these ministers, "it would be want of duty




EXTRACTS.                                         377
not to give your majesty this clear account, that workman died; but the work was formed on
there is a deadness and want of spirit in the na- true mechanical principles; and it was as truly
tion universally, so as not to be at all disposed  wrought.  It went by the impulse it had receivto entering into a new war.  That they seem  ed from the first mover.  The man was dead;
to be tired out with taxes to a degree beyond  but the Grand Alliance survived, in which King
what was discerned, till it appeared upon occa- William lived and reigned.  That heartless and
sion of the late elections.  This is the truth of  dispirited people, whom Lord Somers had reprethe fact upon which your majesty will determine  sented, about two years before, as dead in enerwhat resolution ought to be taken."             gy and operation, continued that war, to which it
His majesty did determine, and did take and  was supposed they were unequal in mind and in
pursue his resolution.  In all the tottering imbe- means, for near thirteen years.
cility of a new government, and with Parliament
totally unmanageable, he persevered.  He per-                              
THE DUrE. OF BEDFORD'S HOLD ON HIS PROPsevered to expel the fears of his people by his                     ERTY.
fortitude-to steady their fickleness by his constancy-to expand their narrow prudence by his    The Crown has considered me after long servenlarged wisdom-to sink their factious temper ice, the Crown has paid the Duke of Bedford
in his public spirit.  In spite of his people, he  by advance.  He has had a long credit for any
resolved to make them  great and glorious; to  services which he may perform  hereafter.  He
make England, inclined to shrink into her narrow  is secure, and long may he be secure, in his adself, the arbitress of Europe, the tutelary angel vance, whether he performs any services or not.
of the human race.  In spite of the ministers, But let him  take care how he endangers the
who staggered under the weight that his mind  safety of that Constitution which secures his own
imposed upon theirs, unsupported as they felt utility or his own insignificance; or how he disthemselves by the popular spirit, he infused into  courages those who take up even puny arms to
them  his own soul; he renewed in them their defend an order of things, which, like the sun of
ancient heart; he rallied them in the same cause. heaven, shines alike on the useful and the worthIt required some time to accomplish this work. less.  His grants are ingrafted on the public
The people were first gained, and through them  law of Europe, covered with the awful hoar of
their distracted representatives.  Under the in- innumerable ages.  They are guarded by the
fluence of King William, Holland had rejected  sacred rules of prescription, found in that full
the allurements of every seduction, and had re- treasury of jurisprudence from which the jejunesisted the terrors of every menace.  With Han- ness and penury of our municipal law has, by
nibal at her gates, she had nobly and magnani- degrees, been enriched and strengthened.  This
mously refused all separate treaty, or any thing  prescription I had my share (a very full share) in
which might for a moment appear to divide her bringing to its perfection.2  The Duke of Bedaffection or her interest, or even to distinguish  ford will stand as long as prescriptive law enher in identity from England.                   dures; as long as the great stable laws of propThe English House of Commons was more  erty, common to us with all civilized nations,
reserved.  The principle of the Grand Alliance  are kept in their integrity, and without the smallwas not directly recognized in the resolution of  est intermixture of laws, maxims, principles, or
the Commons, nor the war announced, though  precedents of the grand revolution.  They are
they were well aware the alliance was formed  secure against all changes but one.  The whole
for the war. However, compelled by the return- revolutionary system, institutes, digest, code,
ing sense of the people, they went so far as to  novels, text, gloss, comment, are not only not
fix the three great immovable pillars of the  the same, but they are the very reverse, and the
safety and greatness of England, as they were  reverse, fundamentally, of all the laws on which
then, as they are now, and as they must ever be  civil life has hitherto been upheld in all the govto the end of time.  They asserted in general ernments of the world.  The learned professors
terms the necessity of supporting Holland; of  of the rights of man regarded prescription, not
keeping united with our allies; and maintaining  as a title to bar all claim, set up against all
the liberty of Europe; though they restricted  possession-but they look on prescription as ittheir vote to the succors stipulated by actual self a bar against the possessor and proprietor.
treaty.  But now  they were fairly embarked, They hold an immemorial possession to he no
they were obliged to go with the course of the  more than a long-continued, and therefore an agvessel; and the whole nation, split before into an  gravated injustice.
hundred adverse factions, with a king at its head    Such are their ideas, such their religion; and
evidently declining to his tomb, the whole nation  such their law.  But as to our country and our
— Lords, Commons, and people-proceeded as race, as long as the well-compacted structure of
one body, informed by one soul. Under the Brit- our church and state, the sanctuary, the holy of
ish union, the union of Europe was consolidated; 
ish union, the union of Eope  was consolidated;    1 This passage is taken firom a letter to a Noble
and it long held together with a degree of cohe- Lord, which was called forth by a inslting attack
sion, firmness, and fidelity, not known before or from the Duke of Bedford when Mr. Barke receivsince in any political combination of that extent. ed his pension.
Just as the last hand was given to this im-   2 Sir George Savile's Act, called the Nullmcn  Temmense and complicated machine, the master- pus Act.




378                                      MR. BURKE.
holies of that ancient law, defended by reverence, to resist, and whose wisdom it behooves us not
defended by power, a fortress at once and a tem- at all to dispute, has ordained it in another manple,a shall stand inviolate on the brow  of the  ner, and  (whatever my querulous weakness
British Sion-as long as the British monarchy, might suggest) a far better.  The storm  has
not more limited than fenced by the orders of  gone over me, and I lie like one of those old
the state, shall, like the proud Keep of Windsor, oaks which the late hurricane has scattered
rising in the majesty of proportion, and girt with  about me.  I am stripped of all my honors; I
the double belt of its kindred and coeval towers, am torn up by the roots, and lie prostrate on the
as long as this awful structure shall oversee and  earth!  There, and prostrate there, I most unguard the subjected land-so long the mounds feignedly recognize the divine justice, and in
and dikes of the low, fat, Bedford level will have  some degree submit to it.
nothing to fear from the pick-axes of all the levelers of France.  As long as our sovereign lord
CHARACTER OF SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS.
the King, and his faithful subjects, the lords and
commons of this realm-the triple cord, which    Last night (February 23, 1792), in the sixtyno man can break; the solemn, sworn, constitu- ninth year of his age, died, at his house in Leitional frank-pledge of this nation; the firm guar- cester Fields, Sir Joshua Reynolds.
antees of each other's being and each other's    His illness was long, but borne with a mild
rights; the joint and several securities, each in  and cheerful fortitude, without the least mixture
its place and order, for every kind and every  of any thing irritable or querulous, agreeably to
quality of property and of dignity.  As long as the placid and even tenor of his whole life.  He
these endure, so long the Duke of' Bedford is had from the beginning of his malady a distinct
safe; and we are all safe together-the high  view of his dissolution, which he contemplated
from the blights of envy and the spoliations of  with that entire composure, that nothing but the
rapacity; the low from the iron hand of oppres- innocence, integrity, and usefulness of his life,
sion and the insolent spurn of contempt. Amen! and an unaffected submission to the will of Provand so be it, and so it will be,                 idence, could bestow.  In this situation he had
Dam domus Eneae Capitoli immobile saxum        every consolation from family tenderness, which
Accolet; imperiumque pater Romanus habebit."  his own kindness to his family had indeed well
deserved.
MR. BURE  ON Ti-iE     S S.          Sir Joshua Reynolds was, on very many acMR. [BURiE ON THE DEATH OF I-IlS SON.                                                      i
counts, one of the most memorable men of his
Had it pleased God to continue to me the  time.  He was the first Englishman who added
hopes of succession, I should have been, accord- the praise of the elegant arts to the other glories
ing to my mediocrity, and the mediocrity of the  of his country.  In taste, in grace, in facility, in
age I live in, a sort of founder of a family; I happy invention, and in the richness and harmoshould have left a son, who, in all the points in  ny of coloring, he was equal to the greatest maswhich personal merit can be viewed, in science, ters of the most renowned ages.  In portrait he
in erudition, in genius, in taste, in honor, in gen- went beyond them; for he communicated to
erosity, in humanity, in every liberal sentiment, that description of the art, in which English artand every liberal accomplishment, would not ists are the most engaged, a variety, a fancy,
have shown himself inferior to the Duke of Bed- and a dignity derived from the higher branches,
ford, or to any of those whom he traces in his  which even those who professed them in a supeline.  His grace very soon would have wanted  rior manner did not always preserve when they
all plausibility in his attack upon that provision  delineated individual nature.  His portraits rewhich belonged more to mine than to me.  HE  mind the spectator of the invention of history
would soon have supplied every deficiency, and  and the amenity of landscape.  In painting porsymmetrized every disproportion.  It would not traits, he appeared not to be raised upon that
have been for that successor to resort to any  platform, but to descend upon it fiom a higher
stagnant wasting reservoir of merit in me, or in  sphere.  His paintings illustrate his lessons, and
any ancestry.  He had in himself a salient, liv- his lessons seem to be derived from his paintings.
ing spring of generous and manly action.  Ev-    He possessed the theory as perfectly as the
cry day he lived he would have repurchased the  practice of his art.  To be such a painter, he
bounty of the Crown, and ten times more, if ten  was a profound and penetrating philosopher.
times more he had received.  He was mnade a    In full happiness of foreign and domestic fame,
public creature, and had no enjoyment whatever admired by the expert in art and by the learned
but in the performance of some duty.  At this  in science, courted by the great, caressed by
exigent moment, the loss of a finished man is not sovereign powers, and celebrated by distinguisheasily supplied.                                 ed poets, his native humility, modesty, and canBut a Disposer whose power we are little able  dor never forsook him, even on surprise or prov__~rr,  -   ~    7 ~~~r,~~~ri       ocation; nor 7was the least degree of arrogance
Templumin i modum arcis. Tacitus of the tem- oction;       was          
ple of Jelusalem.                               or assumption visible to the most scrutinizing
While on the Capitol's unshaken rock,         eye, in any part of his conduct or discourse.
The Eniean race shall dwell, and FATHER JOVE    His talents of every kind-powerful from naRule o'er the Empire.                         tue, and not meanly cultivated by letters-his
Virgil's zEneid, book ix., line 448.   social virtues in all the relations and all the hab.




EXTRACTS.                                         379
itudes of life, rendered him the center of a very  ousy, too much innocence to provoke any enmigreat and unparalleled variety of agreeable so- ty. The loss of no man of his time can be felt
cieties, which will be dissipated by his death. with more sincere, general, and unmixed sorrow.
He had too much merit not to excite some jeal-    HAIL AND FAREWELL!
DETACHED SENTIMENTS AND MAXIMS.'
Never was there a jar or discord between gen- the existing materials of his country.  A dispouine sentiment and sound policy.  Never, no, sition to preserve, and an ability to improve, taken
never, did nature say one thing and wisdom say together, would be my standard of a statesman.
another.                                        Every thing else is vulgar in the conception,
The meditations of the closet have infected perilous in the execution.
senates with a subtle frenzy, and inflamed arm-    It is one of the excellencies of a method, in
ies with the brands of the furies.              which time is among the assistants, that its opWe are alarmed into reflection; our minds eration is slow, and, in some cases, almost imWe are alarmed into reflection; our minds.
are purified by terror and pity; our weak, un-perceptible
thinking pride is humbled under the dispensa-   It can not be too often repeated, line upon
tions of a mysterious wisdom.                   line, precept upon precept, until it comes into
The road to eminence and power, from obscure the currency of a proverb, to innovate is not to
condition, ought not to be made too easy, nor a reform.
thing too much of course.  The temple of honor    It is the degenerate fondness for taking short
ought to be seated on an eminence.  If it be cuts, and little fallacious facilities, that has in so
opened through virtue, let it be remembered that many parts of the world created governments
virtue is never tried but by some difficulty and with arbitrary powers.
some struggle.
Rage and frenzy will pull down more in half
Public virtue, being of a nature magnificent an hour, than prudence, deliberation, and foreand splendid, instituted for great things, and con- sight can build up in a hundred years.
versant about great concerns, requires abundant
scope and room, and can not spread and grow    I shall always consider that liberty as very
under confinement, and in circumstances strait- equivocal in her appearance, which has not wisened, narrow, and sordid.                      dom and justice for her companions, and does
not lead prosperity and plenty in her train.
All persons possessing any portion of power
ought to be strongly and awfully impressed with    What is liberty without wisdom and without
an idea that they act in trust, and that they are virtue?  It is the greatest of all possible evils;
to account for their conduct in that trust to the for it is folly, vice, and madness, without tuition
one great master, author, and founder of society. or restraint.
They who administer in the government of    The strong struggle in every individual to premen, in which they stand in the person of God serve possession of what he has found to belong
himself, should have high and worthy notions of to him and to distinguish him, is one of the secutheir function and destination. Their hope should rities against injustice and despotism implanted
be full of immortality.                         in our nature.  It operates as an instinct to seIt is with the greatest difficulty that I attempt cure property, and to preserve communities in a
settled state.  What Is there to shock in this?
to separate policy from justice.  Justice is itse   sle  s    W                           
Nobility is a graceful ornament to the civil order.
the great standing policy of civil society and any                   ornament to the civil order.
e great sang picy of civil society, and ay It is the Corinthian capital of polished society.
eminent departure from  it, under any circumstances, lies under the suspicion of being no poli-   It is a sour, malignant, envious disposition,
cy at all.                                      without taste for the reality, or for any image or
In all mutations (if mutations must be), the representation of virtue, that sees with joy the
circumstance which will serve most to blunt the   nmerited fall of what had long flourished in
edge of their mischief, and to promote what good splendor and in honor.
may be in them, is, that they should find us with    The perennial existence of bodies corporate
our minds tenacious of justice, and tender of  and their fortunes, are things particularly suited
property.                                      to a man who has long views; who meditates
A man, full of warm, speculative benevolence, designs that require time in fashioning, and which
may wish society otherwise constituted than he Prpose duration when they are accomplished.
finds it; but a good patriot, and a true politician,   None can aspire to act greatly, but those who
always considers how he shall make the most of are of force greatly to suffer.
A few of these sentences have been very slight-   S    instances of self-denial operate powerly modified or abridged, in order to give them the fully on our minds; and a man who has no wants
character of distinct propositions, but in no way af-  has obtained great freedom  and firmness, and
fecting the sense.                              even dignity.




380                                     MR. BURKE.
Difficulty is a severe instructor, set over us by    It is often impossible, in political inquiries, to
the supreme ordinance of a parental guardian  find any proportion between the apparent force
and legislator, who knows us better than we  of any moral causes we may assign, and their
know ourselves, as he loves us better too.      known operation.  Some states, at the very moPater ipse colendi          ment when they seemed plunged in unfathomaHand facilem esse viam volnit.2       ble abysses of disgrace and disaster, have suddenHe that wrestles with us strengthens our ly emerged; they have begun a new course and
nerves and sharpens our skill.                  opened a new reckoning; and even in the depths
of their calamity, and on the very ruins of the
It has been the glory of the great masters in  country, have laid the foundations of a towering
all the arts to confront and to overcome; and  and durable greatness.
when they have overcome the first difficulty, to
turn it into an instrument for new conquests over fse, reti  couageos  sdom  thee ir also a
new di-f^lties. -false, reptile prudence, the result, not of caution,
new difficulties.
but of fear.  The eye of the mind is dazzled and
Hypocrisy delights in the most sublime specu- vanquished.  An abject distrust of ourselves, an
lations; for, never intending to go beyond spec- extravagant admiration of the enemy, present us
ulation, it costs nothing to have it magnificent.  with no hope but in a compromise with his pride,
Men who are too much confined to profes-by a submission to his will.
sional and faculty habits, and, as it were, invet-    Parsimony is not economy.  Expense. and
crate in the recurrent employment of that nar- great expense, umay be an essential part in true
row circle, are rather disabled than qualified for economy, which is.a distributive virtue, and conwhatever depends on the knowledge of mankind, sists not in saving, but in selection.  Parsimony
on experience in mixed affairs, on a comprehen- requires no providence, no sagacity, no powers
sive, connected view of the various complicated  of combination, no comparison, no judgment.
external and internal interests which go to the  Mere instinct, and that not an instinct of the
formation of that multifarious thing called a noblest kind, may produce this false economy in
state.                                          perfection. The other economy has larger views.
Turbulent, discontented men of quality, in  It demands a discriminating judgment, and a
proportion as they are puffed up with personal firm, sagacious mind.
pride and arrogance, generally despise their own    If wealth is the obedient and laborious slave
order.                                          of virtue and of public honor, then wealth is in
The great must submit to the dominion of its place, and has its use.  If we command our
prudence and of virtue, or none will long submit wealth, we shall be ich and free  if our wealth
to the dominion of the great.                   commands us, we are poor indeed.
Living law, full of reason, and of equity and    No sound ought to be heard in the church but
justice (as it is, or it should not exist), ought to  the healing voice     Christian charity.  Those
be severe and awful too; or the words of men- who quit their proper character to assume what
ace, whether written on the parchment roll of  does not belong to them, are, for the greater
England, or cut into the brazen tablet of Rome, part, ignorant both of the character they leave
will excite nothing but contempt.               and of the character they assume.  They have
nothing of politics but the passions they excite.
Men and states, to be secure, must be respect- Surely the church is a place where one day's
ed.  Power, and eminence, and consideration, truce ought to be allowed to the dissensions and
are things not to be begged.  They. must be animosities of mankind.
commanded; and those who supplicate for mercy
from others, can never hope for justice through    Stea   independent minds, when they have an
themselves,                                     object of so serious a concern to mankind as government under their contemplation, will disdain
The blood of man should never be shed but to assume the part of satirists and declaimers.
to redeem the blood of man.  It is well shed for
our family, for our friends, for our God, for our    Those persons who ceep into the hearts of
country, for our kind.  The rest is vanity; the  most people, who are  hosen as the copaions,.' ~~rest is crime.               of their softer hours, and their reliefs from care
and anxiety, are never persons of shining qualiIn a conflict between nations, that state which  ties or strong virtues.  It is rather the soft green
is resolved to hazard its existence rather than to of the soul on which we rest our eyes that are
abandon its objects, must have an infinite advant- fatigued with beholding more glaring objects.
age over that which is resolved to yield rather
than to carry its resistance beyond a certain    When pleasure is over, we relapse into indifortai  ference, or, rather, we fall into a soft tranquillity,
point.
which is tinged with the agreeable color of the for2  The Father of our race himself decrees     mer sensation.
That culture shall be hard.
Virgil's Georgics, i., 121.  Nothing tends so much to the corruption ofsci3 See, also, on this subject, the sketch of Mr. ence as to suffer it to stagnate: these waters must
George Grenville's character, page 251.        be troubled before they can exert their virtues.




EXTRACTIS.                                         381
It is better to cherish virtue and humanity by    Whoever uses instruments, in finding helps,
leaving much to free will, even with some loss finds also impediments.
to the object, than to attempt to make men mereternl c                                     n 
~..' ~.~ T~'I          ~ T~ It is ordained, in the eternal constitution of
machines and instruments of a political benevo- 
ience.  The world on the whole will gain b   things, that men of intemperate minds can not
lenc.The world on the whole, will gain by  be free.  Their passions forge their fetters.
a liberty without which virtue can not exist.
The dignity of every occupation wholly de-    Some persons, by hating vices too much, come
to love men too little.
pends upon the quantity and the kind of virtueen too 
that may be exerted in it                          There are some follies which baffle argument.
The degree of estimation in which any pro- which go beyond ridicule, and which excite no
The degree of estimation in which any pro-           n
fession is held becomes the standard of the esti-eeli   i us  ut disgust.
mation in which the professors hold themselves.    Men are as much blinded by the extremes of
It is generally in the season of prosperity  misery as by the extremes  of prosperity.  Desthat men discover their real temper, principles   ete situations produce desperate councils and
and designs.'desperate measures.
They who always labor can have no true
Nothing but the possession of some power    They whr ca  have      true
can, with any certainty, discover what at the bot-  judgment. They never give themselves time
to cool.  They can never plan the future by the
tom is the true character of any man.           Ps
past.
All men that are ruined, are ruined on the
side of their natural propensities.                Men who have an interest to pursue are exside of their natural propensities.
tremely sagacious in discovering the true seat
Good men do not suspect that their destruc- of power.
tion is attempted through their virtues.
In all bodies, those who will lead must also,
True humility is the low, but deep and firm  in a considerable degree, follow.
foundation of all real virtue.
The virtues and vices of men in large towns
While shame keeps its watch, virtue is not are sociable  they are always in garrison; and
wholly extinguished  in the      no          -  theart,y come embodied and half disciplined into
eration be utterly exiled from the minds of ty- the hands of those who mean to form them for
rants.                                          civil or military action.
The punishment of real tyrants is a noble and    The elevation of mind, to be derived from fear.
awful act of justice; and it has with truth been  will never make a nation glorious.
said to be consolatory to the human mind.
The vice of the ancient democracies, and one
The arguments of tyranny are as contempti- cause of their ruin, was, that they ruled by occtble as its force is dreadful.  
sional decrees (psephismata), which broke in
Wisdom  is not the most severe corrector of  upon the tenor and consistency of the laws.
folly.                                            Those who execute public pecuniary trusts,
The love of lucre, though sometimes carried  ought, of all men, to be the most strictly held to
to a ridiculous, sometimes to a vicious excess, is their duty.
the grand cause of prosperity to all states.
e grad c e o pro ri  t a  s        Nothing turns out to be so oppressive and un.
Good order is the foundation of all good things. just as a feeble government.




HENRY GRATTAN.
HENRY GRATTAN was born at Dublin on the third day of July, 1746.  His father
was an eminent barrister, and acted for many years as recorder of that city, which
he also represented for a time in the Parliament of Ireland.
In the year 1763, young Grattan entered Trinity College, Dublin, where he was
distinguished for the brilliancy of his imagination and the impetuosity of his feelings.
Having graduated in 1767, with an honorable reputation, he repaired to London, and
became a member of the Middle Temple.  His mind, however, was at first too exclusively occupied with literary pursuits to allow of his devoting much time to the study
of the law. Politics next engaged his attention. The eloquence of Lord Chatham
drew him as an eager listener to the debates in Parliament, and acted with such fascination upon his mind as seemed completely to form his destiny. Every thing was
forgotten in the one great object of cultivating his powers as a public speaker.  To
emulate and express, though in the peculiar forms of his own genius, the lofty conceptions of the great English orator, was from this time the object of his continual study
and most fervent aspirations.
In 1772 he returned to Ireland, where he was admitted to the bar; and in 1775
he became a member of the Irish Parliament, under the auspices of Lord Charlemont.
He, of course, joined the ranks of Opposition, and united at once with Mr. Flood and
the leading patriots of the day, in their endeavors to extort from the English minister
the grant of free trade for Ireland.  The peculiar circumstances of the country favored their design. The corps of Irish Volunteers had sprung into existence upon
the alarm of invasion from France, and was marshaled throughout the country, to
the number of nearly fifty thousand, for the defense of the island. With a semblance
of some connection with the government, it was really an army unauthorized by the
laws, and commanded by officers of their own choosing. Such a force could obviously be turned, at any moment, against the English; and, seizing on the advantage
thus gained, Mr. Grattan, in 1779, made a motion, which was afterward changed
into a direct resolution, that " nothing but a free trade could save the country from
ruin."  It was passed with enthusiasm by the great body of the House; and the
nation, with arms in their hands, echoed the resolution as the watch-word of their
liberties. Lord North and his government were at once terrified into submission.
They had tampered with the subject, exciting hopes and expectations only to disappoint them, until a rebellion in Ireland was about to be added to a rebellion in
America.  In the emphatic words of Mr. Burke, " a sudden light broke in upon us
all. It broke in, not through well-contrived and well-disposed windows, but through
flaws and breaches-through the yawning chasms of our ruin."  Every thing they
asked was freely granted; and Ireland, as the English minister imagined, was propitiated.
But Mr. Grattan had already fixed his eye on a higher object-the complete independence of the Irish Parliament.  By an act of the sixth year of George the First,
it was declared that Ireland was a subordinate and dependent kingdom; that the
Kings, Lords, and Commons of England had power to make laws to bind Ireland;
that the Irish House of Lords had no jurisdiction, and that all proceedings before that
court were void.  This arbitrary act Mr. G-rattan now determined to set aside.  He




HENRY GRATTAN.                                 383
availed himself of the enthusiasm which pervaded the nation, and, reminding them
that the concessions just made might be recalled at any moment, if England continued to bind Ireland by her enactments, he urged them to a DECLARATION OF RIGHT,
denying the claim of the British Parliament to make laws for Ireland. His friends
endeavored to dissuade him from bringing the subject before the Irish Parliament;
but the voice of the nation was with him, and on the 19th of April, 1780, he made
his memorable motion for a Declaration of Irish Right.  His speech on that occasion,
which is the first in this selection, " was the most splendid piece of eloquence that
had ever been heard in Ireland."  As a specimen of condensed and fervent argumentation, it indicates a high order of talent; while in brilliancy of style, pungency
of application, and impassioned vehemence of spirit, it has rarely, if ever, been surpassed. The conclusion, especially, is one of the most magnificent passages in our
eloquence.
Mr. Grattan's motion did not then pass, but he was hailed throughout Ireland as
the destined deliverer of his country.  No Irishman had ever enjoyed such unbounded
popularity.  He animated his countrymen with the hope of ultimate success; he inspired them with his own imaginative and romantic spirit, and awakened among
them a feeling of nationality such as had never before existed.  He taught them to
cherish Irish affections, Irish manners, Irish art, Irish literature; and endeavored,
in short, to make them a distinct people from the English in every respect but one,
that of being governed by the same sovereign.  Nothing could be more gratifying
to the enthusiastic spirit of that ardent and impulsive race; and though it was impossible that such a plan should succeed, he certainly stamped his own character,
in no ordinary degree, on the mind of the nation.  That peculiar kind of eloquence,
especially, which prevails among his countrymen, though springing, undoubtedly,
from the peculiarities of national temperament, was rendered doubly popular by the
brilliant success of Mr. Grattan, who presents the most perfect exhibition of the
highly-colored and impassioned style of speaking in which the Irish delight, with
but few of its faults, or, rather, for the most part, with faults in the opposite direction.
With this ascendency over the minds of the people, Mr. Grattan spent nearly two
years in preparing for the next decisive step.  The Volunteers held their famous meeting at Dungannon in February, 1782, and passed unanimously a resolution drawn
up by Mr. Grattan, that " a claim of any body of men, other than the King, Lords,
and Commons of Ireland, to make laws to bind this kingdom, is unconstitutional,
illegal, and a grievance."  This resolution was virtually a declaration of war in case
the act of Parliament complained of, was not repealed.  It was adopted throughout
the country, not merely by shouting thousands at mass meetings, but by armed regiments of citizens and owners of the soil, and by grand juries at judicial assizes.
The administration of Lord North was now tottering to its fall.  The avowed friends
of Ireland, Lord Rockingham, Lord Shelburne, and Mr. Fox, took his place in March,
1782; and Mr. Grattan determined at once to try the sincerity of their feelings.  He
therefore gave notice that, on the 16th of the ensuing April, he should repeat his
motion, in the Irish House of Commons, for a Declaration of Irish Right.  It was a.
trying moment for the new Whig administration.  To concede at such a time, when
the Irish stood with arms in their hands, was to lay England at their feet.  Mr.
Fox, therefore, seconded by Burke, Sheridan, Sir Philip Francis, Colonel Barre, and
other distinguished Irishmen, pleaded for delay.  Lord Charlemont brought the
message to the bedside of Mr. Grattan, who was confined by a severe illness, and
received for reply,' No TIME! No TIME! The Irish leaders are pledged to the
people; they can not postpone the question; it is public propegrty."  When the day
arrived, Mr. Grattan, to the surprise of all who knew his debilitated state, made his
appearance in the House, and delivered a speech, the second one in these extracts,




384                           HENRY GRATTAN.
which won universal admiration for its boldness, sublimity, and compass of thought.
Lord Charlemont remarked afterward, in speaking of this effort, and of Mr. Grattan's
weakness of health when he came forward, that " if ever spirit could be said to act
independent of body, it was on that occasion."  It was in vain for the friends of the
minister to resist. The resolutions were carried almost by acclamation. Mr. Fox,
when he heard the result, decided instantly to yield, declaring that he would rather
see Ireland wholly separated from the crown of England than held in subjection by
force.  He, therefore, soon after brought in a bill for repealing the act of the sixth
of George First.
As an expression of their gratitude for these services, the Parliament of Ireland
voted the sum of ~100,000 to purchase Mr. Grattan an estate.  His feelings led
him, at first, to decline the grant; but, as his patrimony was inadequate to his support in the new position he occupied, he was induced, by the interposition of his
friends, to accept one hcaf the amount.
Mr. Flood had been greatly chagrined at the ascendency gained by Mr. Grattan,
and he now endeavored to depreciate his efforts by contending that the " simple repeal" of the act of the sixth of George First was of no real avail; that the English
Parliament must pass a distinct act, reznoeucing all claim to make law for Ireland.
Every one now sees that the pretense was a ridiculous one; but he succeeded in
confusing and agitating the minds of the people on this point, until he robbed Mr.
Grattan, to a considerable extent, of the honor of his victory.  He came out, at last,
into open hostility, stigmatizing him as " a mzencdicant patriot, subsisting on the public
accounts-who, bought by his country for a sum of money, had sold his country for
prompt payment."  Mr. Grattan instantly replied in a withering piece of invective,
to be found below, depicting the character and political life of his opponent, and
ingeniously darkening every shade that rested on his reputation.
As most of the extracts in this selection are taken from the early speeches of Mr.
Grattan, it will be unnecessary any farther to trace his history.  Suffice it to say,
that, although he lost his popularity at times, through the influence of circumstances
or the arts of his enemies, he devoted himself throughout life to the defense of his
country's interests.  He was vehemently opposed to the union with England; but
his countrymen were so much divided that it was impossible for any one to prevent it.
At a later period (1805), he became a member of the Parliament of Great Britain,
where he uniformly maintained those principles of toleration and popular government
which he had supported in Ireland. He was an ardent champion of Catholic Emancipation, and may be said to have died in the cause. He had undertaken, in 1820,
to present the Catholic Petition, and support it in Parliament, notwithstanding the
remonstrances of his medical attendants, who declared it would be at the hazard
of his life.  "I should be happy," said he, "to die in the discharge of my duty."
Exhausted by the journey, he did die almost immediately after his arrival in London, May 14th, 1820, at the age of seventy, and was buried, with the highest honors
of the nation, in Westminster Abbey.  His character was irreproachable; and Sir
James Mackintosh remarked, in speaking of his death in the House of Commons,'He was as eminent in his observance of all the duties of private life, as he was
heroic in the discharge of his public ones."  " I never knew a man," said Wilberforce,
" whose patriotism and love for his country seemed so completely to extinguish all
private interests, and to induce him to look invariably and exclusively to the public
good."
The personal appearance and delivery of Mr. Grattan are brought vividly before
us in one of the lively sketches of Charles Phillips.  "He was short in stature, and
unprepossessing in appearance.  His arms were disproportionately long.  His walk
was a stride. With a person swinging like a pendulum, and an abstracted air, he




HENRY GRATTAN.                                 385
seemed always in thought, and each thought provoked an attendant gesticulation.
How strange it is, that a mind so replete with grace, and symmetry, and power, and
splendor, should have been allotted such a dwelling for its residence! Yet so it was;
and so, also, was it one of his highest attributes that his genius, by its' excessive light,'
blinded his hearers to his physical imperfections. It was the victory of mind over
matter."  "The chief difficulty in this great speaker's way was the first five minutes.
During his exordium laughter was imminent.  He bent his body almost to the ground,
swung his arms over his head, up, and down, and around him, and added to the grotesqueness of his manner a hesitating tone and drawling emphasis. Still, there was
an earnestness about him that at first besought, and, as he warmed, enforced, nay,
commanded attention."
The speeches of Mr. Grattan afford unequivocal proof, not only of a powerful
intellect, but of high and original genius. There was nothing commonplace in his
thoughts, his images, or his sentiments. Every thing came fresh from his mind,
with the vividness of a new creation.  His most striking characteristic was, condensation and rapidity of thought.  " Semper instans sibi," pressing continually
upon himself, he never dwelt upon an idea, however important; he rarely presented
it under more than one aspect; he hardly ever stopped to fill out the intermediate
steps of his argument.  His forte was reasoning, but it was " logic on fire;" and he
seemed ever to delight in flashing his ideas on the mind with a sudden, startling
abruptness.  Hence, a distinguished writer has spoken of his eloquence as a " combination of cloud, whirlwind, andfiame"-a striking representation of the occasional
obscurity and the rapid force and brilliancy of his style. But his incessant effort to
be strong made him  sometimes unnatural.  He seems to be continually straining
after effect.  He wanted that calmness and self-possession which mark the highest
order of minds, and show their consciousness of great strength.  When he had mastered his subject, his subject mastered him. His great efforts have too much the
air of harangues.  They sound more like the battle speeches of Tacitus than the
orations of Demosthenes.
His style was elaborated with great care. It abounds in metaphors, which are
always striking, and often grand. It is full of antithesis and epigrammatic turns,
which give it uncommon point and brilliancy, but have too often an appearance of
labor and affectation. His language is select. His periods are easy and fluentmade up of short clauses, with but few or brief qualifications, all uniting in the expression of some one leading thought.  His rhythmus is often uncommonly fine.  In the
peroration of his great speech of April 19th, 1780, we have one of the best specimens
in our language of that admirable adaptation of the sound to the sense which distin.
guished the ancient orators.
Though Mr. Grattan is not a safe model in every respect, there are certain purposes for which his speeches may be studied with great advantage.  Nothing can
be better suited to break up a dull monotony of style-to give raciness and pointto teach a young speaker the value of that terse and expressive language which is,
to the orator especially, the finest instrument of thought.
BB




SPEECH
OF MR. GRATTAN IN THE IRISH HOUSE OF COMMONS IN MOVING A DECLARATION OF IRISH
RIGHT, DELIVERED APRIL 19, 1780.
INTRODUCTION.
Ireland had been treated by the English, for three centuries, like a conquered nation. A Parliament
had indeed been granted her, but a well-known statute, called Poynings' Act, had so abridged the rights
of that Parliament, as to render it almost entirely dependent on the English Crown. By the provisions
of this act, which was passed in 1494, through the agency of Sir Edward Poynings, then Lord Deputy of
Ireland, no session of the Irish Parliament could be held without a license previously obtained from the
King of England in council, on the recommendation of the Deputy and his council in Ireland. Thus, the
English government had power to prevent the Irish Parliament from ever assembling, except for purposes which the King saw reason to approve. At a later period, there was indeed a relaxation of the
severity of this act, but the restraints still imposed were borne reluctantly by the Irish, and gave rise at
times to violent struggles. Under such an administration, the commercial and manufacturing interests of
Ireland were wholly sacrificed to those of the English; the exportation of woolen goods, and of most
other articles of English manufacture, and also the direct import of foreign articles, being denied the
Irish. These restrictions had been removed in part, as already stated, on the ground of "expediency,"
by an act of the British Parliament, passed December 13, 1779, under the terror of the Irish Volunteers,
and Mr. Grattan, with the same instrument of compulsion in his hands, now moved the Irish Parliament
to a Declaration of Right, which should deny the authority of England to make laws for Ireland-an authority asserted by an act of the British Parliament, passed in the sixth year of George I.
SPEECH, &c.
I have entreated an attendance on this day,    You can not dictate to those whose sense you
that you might, in the most public manner, deny  are instructed to represent.
the claim of the British Parliament to make law     Your ancestors, who sat within these walls,
for Ireland, and with one voice lift up your hands lost to Ireland trade and liberty.  You, by the.against it.                                     assistance of the people, have recovered trade.
If I had lived when the ninth of William took  You owe the kingdom a CONSTITUTION; she calls
Duty of resist- away the woolen manufacture, or upon you to restore it.
ngtole'earli when the sixth of George the First    The ground of public discontent seems to be,
possible.    took away your Constitution, I should  "We have gotten commerce, but not freedom."
have made a covenant with my own conscience,  The same power which took away the expoit
to seize the first reasonable moment of rescuing  of woolen and the export of glass, may take them
my country from the ignominy of such acts of  away again.  The repeal is partial, and the
power:; or, if I had a son, I should have admin- ground of repeal is a principle of expediency.
istered to him an oath that he would consider    Sir, expedient is a word of appropriated and
himself as a person separate and set apart for tyrannical import-expedient is a word caseofIrethe discharge of so important a duty.            selected to express the reservation of land ad of
Upon the same principle am  I now come to  authority, while the exercise is mitigat- compared.
move a Declaration of Right, the first moment ed-expedient is the ill-omened expression in
occurring in-my time, in which such a declara- the repeal of the American Stamp Act.  Ention. could be made with any chance of success, gland thought it " expedient" to repeal that law.
and without-:an-, ggravation of oppression.      Happy had it been for mankind if, when she
Sir, it must appear to every person that, not- withdrew the exercise, she had not reserved the
The commer- withstanding the import of sugar, and  right.  To that reservation she owes the loss of
si^on notat. export of woolens,' the people of this her American empire, at the expense of millions;
isfactory.   country are not satisfied; something  and America the seeking of liberty through a
remains —the. greater work is behind-the pub- scene of bloodshed.  The repeal of the Woolen
lie heart is not welLat ease.  To promulgate our Act, similarly circumstanced, pointed against the
satisfaction, to stop the throats of millions with  principle of our liberty, may be a subject for ilthe votes of Parliamentfto preach homilies to the  luminations to a populace, or a pretense for aposVolunteers, to utter invectives against the peo- tacy to a courtier, but can not be a subject of
ple under the pretense of affectionate advice, is settled satisfaction to a free born, an intelligent
an attempt, weak,;suspicious and inflammatory. and an injured community.
It is, therefore, they [the people of Ireland]
These were a part of the, concession made by  consider the free trade as a trade de facto, not
Lord North.                                      de jure-a license to trade under the Parliament




1780.]    MR. GRATTAN ON MOVING A DECLARATION  OF IRISH  RIGHT.                            387
of England, not a free trade under the charter of  Henry, with the charter of John, and with all
Free trade not Ireland-a tribute to her strength, to  the passions of the people! " Our lives are at
granted to Ire- maintain which she must continue in  your service; but our liberties-we received
land as a right.
a state of armed preparation, dread- them  from  God, we will not resign them  to
ing the approach of a general peace, and attrib- man!"  Speaking to you thus, if you repulse
uting all she holds dear to the calamitous condi- these petitioners, you abdicate the office of Partion of the British interest in every quarter of  liament, you forfeit the rights of the kingdom,
the globe.  This dissatisfaction, founded upon a  you repudiate the instructions of your constituconsideration of the liberty we have lost, is in- ent, you belie the sense of your country, you
creased when they consider the opportunity they  palsy the enthusiasm of the people, and you reare losing; for, if this nation, after the death-  ject that good which not a minister-not a
wound given to her freedom, had fallen on her Lord North-not a Lord Buckinghamshire-not
knees in anguish, and besought the Almighty to  a Lord Hillsborough, but a certain providential
frame an occasion in which a weak and injured  conjuncture, or, rather, the hand of God, seems
people might recover their rights, prayer could  to extend to you.
not have asked, nor God have formed, a moment    I read Lord North's propositions, and I wish
more opportune for the restoration of liberty, than  to be satisfied, but I am controlled by a paper
this in which I have the honor to address you.   (for I will not call it a law); it is the sixth of
England now smarts under the lesson of the  George First.  [Here the clerk, at Mr. GratThe situation  American war. The doctrine of im- tan's request, read from the Act of the sixth of
of England en- perial legislature she feels to be per- George I., "that the kingdom  of Ireland hath
ables the Irish
to demand   nicious-the revenues and monopo- been, is, and of right ought to be, subordinate
their rits.  lies annexed to it she found to be un- to and dependent upon the Imperial Crown of
tenable.  Her enemies are a host pouring upon  Great Britain, as being inseparably united to and
her from all quarters of the earth-her armies annexed thereunto; and that the King's Majesare dispersed-the sea is not her's-she has no  ty, by and with the consent of the Lords spiritminister, no ally, no admiral none in whom she  ual and temporal, and the Commons of Great
long confides, and no general whom she has not Britain in Parliament assembled, hath, and of
disgraced.  The balance of her fate is in the  right ought to have, full power and authority to
hands of Ireland.  You are not only her last make laws and statutes of sufficient force and
connection-you are the only nation in Europe  validity to bind the kingdom and the people of
that is not her enemy.  Besides, there does, of  Ireland.]
late, a certain damp and supineness overcast her    I will ask the gentlemen of the long robe, is
arms and councils, miraculous as that vigor which  this the law?  I ask them whether it is This act is
has lately inspirited yours. With you every thing  not the practice? I appeal to the judges "eforced.
is the reverse.  Never was there a Parliament of the land, whether they are not in a course of
in Ireland so possessed of the confidence of the  declaring that the Parliament of England nampeople.  You are now the greatest political as- ing Ireland, binds her?  I appeal to the magissembly in the world.  You are at the head of  trates of Ireland whether they do not, from time
an immense army; nor do we only possess an  to time, execute certain acts of the British Parunconquerable force, but a certain unquenchable  liament?  I appeal to the officers of the army,
fire, which has touched all ranks of men like a  whether they do not confine and execute their
visitation.  Turn to the growth and spring of  fellow-subjects by virtue of the Mutiny Act of
your country, and behold and admire it!         England?  And I appeal to this House whether
Where do you find a nation who, upon what- a country so circumstanced is free?  Where is
Spiritof the ever concerns the rights of mankind, the freedom  of trade?  Where is the security
Irish atio. expresses herself with more truth or of property?  Where the liberty of the people?
force, perspicuity or justice — not in the set I here, in this Declaratory Act, see my country
phrases of the scholiast; not the tame unreality  proclaimed a slave!  I see every man in this
of the courtier; not the vulgar raving of the rab- House enrolled a bondsman!  I see the judges
ble; but the genuine speech of liberty, and the  of the realm, the oracles of the law, borne down
unsophisticated oratory of a free nation.  See  by an unauthorized power!  I see the magisher military ardor, expressed not in forty thou- trates prostrate; and I see Parliament witness
sand men conducted by instinct, as they were  to these infringements, and silent! I therefore
raised by inspiration, but manifested in the zeal say, with the voice of three millions of people,
and promptitude of every young member of the  that, notwithstanding the import of sugar, and
growing community.  Let corruption tremble! export of woolen and kerseys, beetle-wood and
Let the enemy, foreign or domestic, tremble! prunellas, nothing is safe, satisfactory, or honorbut let the friends of liberty rejoice at these  able; nothing, except a Declaration of Right!
means of safety and this hour of redemption-an  What! Are you, with three millions The Dlaraenlightened sense of public right, a young ap- of men at your back, with charters in tion therefore
petite for freedom, a solid strength, and a rapid  one hand and arms in the other, afraid deded
fire, which not only put a Declaration of Right to say, We are a free people?  Are you-the
within your power, but put it out of your power greatest House of Commons that ever sat in Ireto decline one!  Eighteen counties are at your land, that want but this one act to equal that
bar.  There they stand, with the compact of  English House of Commons which passed the




388                            MR. GRATTAN  ON MOVING                                    [1780.
Petition of Right, or that other, which passed  consternation at the Custom-house, and, despisthe Declaration-are you, are you afraid to tell ing the example which great men afforded, tenthe British Parliament that you are a free peo- dered for entry prohibited manufactures, and
ple?  Are the cities and the instructing coun- sought, at his private risk, the liberty of his
ties, who have breathed a spirit that would have  country.  With him, I am convinced, it is necdone honor to old Rome, when Rome did honor essary to agitate the question of right.  In vain
to mankind-are they to be free by connivance?  will you endeavor to keep it back; the passion
Are the military associations -  those bodies is too natural, the sentiment too irresistible; the
whose origin, progress, and deportment have  question comes on of its own vitality.  You
transcended, equaled, at least, any thing in mod- must reinstate the laws.
ern or ancient story, in the vast line of North-    There is no objection to this resolution except
ern array-are they to be free by connivance? fears.  I have examined your fears;  o o 
What man will settle among you?  Who will I pronounce them to be frivolous. If fearforconseleave a land of liberty and a settled government England is a tyrant, it is you have qu"nc.~
for a kingdom controlled by the Parliament of  made her so.  It is the slave that makes the tyanother country; whose liberty is a thing by  rant, and then murmurs at the master whom he
stealth; whose trade a thing by permission; himself has constituted.  I do allow, on the subwhose judges deny her charters; whose Parlia-  ject of commerce, England was jealous in the
ment leaves every thing at random; where the  extreme; and I do say, it was commercial jealhope of freedom depends on the chance that the  ousy; it was the spirit of monopoly.  The wooljury shall despise the judge stating a British  en trade and the Act of Navigation had made her
act, or a rabble stop the magistrate in the exe- tenacious of a comprehensive legislative authorcution of it, rescue your abdicated privileges by  ity, and, having now ceded that monopoly, there
anarchy and confusion, and save the Constitu- is nothing in the way of our liberty except our
tion by trampling on the government?           own corruption and pusillanimity.  Nothing can
But I shall be told that these are groundless  prevent your being free, except yourselves; it is
Nothingleso jealousies, and that the principal cities, not in the disposition of England, it is not in the
can satisfy  and more than one half the counties of  interest of England, it is not in her force. What!
pop. the kingdom, are misguided men, rais- can eight millions of Englishmen, opposed to
ing those groundless jealousies.  Sir, they may  twenty millions of French, seven millions of
say so, and they may hope to dazzle with illu- Spanish, to three millions of Americans, reject
minations, and they may sicken with addresses, the alliance of three millions in Ireland?  Can
but the public imagination will never rest, nor eight millions of British men, thus outnumbered
will her heart be well at ease; never, so long  by foes, take upon their shoulders the expense
as the Parliament of England claims or exer- of an expedition to enslave Ireland?  Will
cises legislation over this country.  So long as  Great Britain, a wise and magnanimous country,
this shall be the case that very free trade (oth- thus tutored by experience and wasted by war,
erwise a perpetual attachment) will be the cause  the French navy riding her channel, send an army
of new discontent.  It will create a pride and  to Ireland to levy no tax, to enforce no law, to anwealth, to male you feel your indignities; it will swer no end whatever, except to spoliate the charfurnish you with strength to bite your chain; the  ters of Ireland, and enforce a barren oppression?
liberty withheld poisons the good communicated.    What! has England lost thirteen provinces?
The British minister mistakes the Irish charac- has she reconciled herself to this England offered
ter.  Had he intended to make Ireland a slave, loss, and will she not be reconciled "substatiall' to
he should have kept her a beggar. There is no  to the liberty of Ireland?  Take no- America.
middle policy.  Win her heart by a restoration  tice, that the very Constitution which I move
of her right, or cut off the nation's right hand; you to declare, Great Britain herself offered to
greatly emancipate, or fundamentally destroy! America: it is a very instructive proceeding in
We may talk plausibly to England; but so long  the British history.  In 1778 a commission went
as she exercises a power to bind this country, out with powers to cede to the thirteen provso long are the nations in a state of war.  The  inces of America totally and radically the legisclaims of the one go against the liberty of the  lative authority claimed over her by the British
other, and the sentiments of the latter go to op- Parliament;4 and the commissioners, pursuant
pose those claims to the last drop of her blood.  to their powers, did offer to all, or any of the
The English Opposition, therefore, are right; American states, the total surrender of the legmere trade will not satisfy Ireland.  They judge  islative authority of the British Parliament.  I
of us by other great nations; by the English  will read you their letter to the Congress.
nation, whose whole political life has been a  [Here the letter was read, surrendering  the
struggle for liberty.  They judge of us with a  power, as aforesaid].  What! has England oftrue knowledge and just deference for our char-      
acter, that a country enlightened as Ireland  the Irish Custom-house, which had been prohibited
armed as Ireland, and injured  as Ireland, will by an English act of Parliament, for the purpose of
m.,. as I d a.  T aw   trying the validity of the Act of the sixth of George
be satisfied with nothing less than liberty. I ad-the First.
mire that public-spirited merchant3 who spread     This is the commission referred to in such severe terms by Mr. Burke in a speech delivered at
s Alderman Horan, who offered goods for entry at Bristol. See page 297.




1780.]                    A DECLARATION  OF IRISH  RIGHT.                                  389
fered this to the resistance of America, and will my country from being free; no gratitude which
she refuse this to the loyalty of Ireland?  But, should oblige Ireland to be the slave of England.
though you do not hazard disturbance by agree- In cases of robbery or usurpation, nothing is an
ing to this resolution, you do most exceedingly  object of gratitude, except the thing stolen, the
hazard tranquillity by rejecting it.  Do not im- charter spoliated.  A nation's liberty cal not,
agine that the question will be over when this like her money, be rated and parceled out in
motion shall be negatived.  No! it will recur in  gratitude.  No man can be grateful or liberal
a vast variety of shapes and diversity of places. of his conscience, nor woman of her honor, nor
Your constituents have instructed you, in great nation of her liberty.  There are certain inimnumbers, with a powerful uniformity of senti- partable, inherent, invaluable properties not to
ment, and in a style not the less awful because  be alienated from the person, whether body polfull of respect.  They will find resources in their itic or body natural.  With the same contempt
own virtue, if they have found none in yours. do I treat that charge which says that Ireland
Public pride and conscious liberty, wounded by  is insatiable; seeing that Ireland asks nothing
repulse, will find ways and means of vindication. but that which Great Britain has robbed her of
You are in that situation in which every man, -her rights and privileges.  To say that Ireevery hour of the day, may shake the pillars of  land is not to be satisfied with liberty, because
the state.  Every court may swarm with ques- she is not satisfied with slavery, is folly.
tions of right, every quay and wharf with pro-    I laugh at that man who supposes that Ireland
hibited goods.  What shall the judges, what the  will not be content with a free trade and a free
commissioners, do upon such occasion?  Shall Constitution; and would any man advise her to
they comply with the laws of Ireland against the  be content with less?
claims of England, and stand firm where you have    I shall be told that we hazard the modification
trembled?  Shall they, on the other hand, not of the law of Poynings, and the Judges Bill, and
comply; and shall they persist to act against the  the Habeas Corpus Bill, and the Nullum Temlaw?  Will you punish them, will you proceed  pus Bill; but I ask, have you been for years begagainst them, for not showing a spirit superior ging for these little things, and have you not yet
to your own?  On the other hand, will you not been able to obtain them?  And have you been
punish them?  Will you leave your liberties to  contending against a little body of eighty men,
be trampled on by those men?  Will you bring  in Privy Council assembled, convocating themthem and yourselves, all constituted orders, ex- selves into the image of a Parliament, and minecutive power, judicial power, parliamentary au- istering your high office; and have you been
thority, into a state of odium, impotence, and con- contending against one man, an humble individtempt; transferring the task of defending public  ual, to you a leviathan-the English Attorney
right into the hands of the populace, and leaving  General, exercising Irish legislation in his own
it to the judges to break the laws, and to the  person, and making your parliamentary deliberpeople to assert them?  Such would be the con- ations a blank, by altering your bills or suppresssequence of false moderation, of irritating timid- ing them; have you not been able to quell this
ity, of inflammatory palliations, of the weak and  little monster?  Do you wish to know the reacorrupt hope of compromising with the court be- son?  I will tell you; because you have not
fore you have emancipated the country.          been a Parliament, nor your country a people.
I have answered the only semblance of a solid  Do you wish to know the remedy?  Be a Parimortreason against the motion. I will now  liament, become a nation, and those things will
ant objection try to remove some lesser pretenses, follow in the train of your consequence.
obviated.  some minor impediments; for instance:    I shall be told that tithes are shaken, being
first, that we have a resolution of the same kind  vested by force of English acts.  But in answer
already in our journals.  But how often was the  to that, I observe, time may be a title, but an
Great Charter confirmed?  Not more frequently  English Act of Parliament certainly can not.  It
than your rights have been violated.  Is one sol- is an authority which, if a judge would charge,
itary resolution, declaratory of your rights, suf- no jury would find, and which all the electors
ficient for a country, whose history, from the be- of Ireland have already disclaimed-disclaimed
ginning unto the end, has been a course of vio- unequivocally, cordially, and universally.
lation?                                          Sir, this is a good argument for an act of title,
The fact is, every new breach is a reason for but no argument against a Declaration of Right.
a new repair; every new infringement should  My friend, who sits above me, has a bill of conbe a new  declaration, lest charters should be firmation.5  We do not come unprepared to Paroverwhelmed by precedents, and a nation's rights liament.  I am not come to shake property, but
lost in oblivion, and the people themselves lose to confirm property, and to restore freedom. The
the memory of their own freedom.                nation begins to form-we are moldering into a
I shall hear of ingratitude, and name the ar- people; freedom asserted, property secured, and
gument to despise it.  I know the men who use the army, a mercenary band, likely to be deit are not grateful.  They are insatiate; they  pendent on your Parliament, restrained by law.
are public extortioners, who would stop the tide   s A bill to be immediately introduced on passing
of public prosperity, and turn it to the channel the Declaration, by which all laws of the English
of their own wretched emolument.  I know of Parliament affecting property were to be confirmed
no species of gratitude which should prevent by the Irish Parliament.




390               MR. GRATTAN ON MOVING A DECLARATION, ETC.                              [1780.
Never was such a revolution accomplished in so  this land, which has no foundation in necessity,
short a time, and with such public tranquillity. In  or utility, or empire, or the laws of England, or
what situation would those men, who call them- the laws of Ireland, or the laws of nature, or the
selves friends of constitution and of government, laws of God.  Do not suffer that power, which
have left you?  They would have left you with- banished your manufacturers, dishonored your
out a title (as they stole it) to your estates, with- peerage, and stopped the growth of your people.
out an assertion of your Constitution, or a law  Do not, I say, be bribed by an export of woolen,
for your army; and this state of private and pub- or an import of sugar, and suffer that power,
lie insecurity, this anarchy, raging in the king- which has thus withered the land, to have existdom for eighteen months, these mock-moderators ence in your pusillanimity.  Do not send the
would have had the presumption to call peace.  people to their own resolves for liberty, passing
The King has no other title to his Crown than  by the tribunals of justice, and the high court of
Appealtothe that which you have to your liberty. Parliament; neither imagine that, by any formaprinciple of Both are founded, the throne and your tion of apology, you can palliate such a commisthe Revolu-                tiour                      apology,         palliate       commostionofl68S. freedom, upon the right vested in the sion to your hearts, still less to your children,
subject to resist by arms, notwithstanding their who will sting you in your grave for interposing
oaths of allegiance, any authority attempting to  between them  and their Maker, and robbing
impose acts of power as laws; whether that au- them of an immense occasion, and losing an opthority be one man or a host, the second James  portunity which you did not create and can nevor the British Parliament, every argument for er restore.
the house of Hanover is equally an argument    Hereafter, when these things shall be hisfor the liberties of Ireland.  The Act of Settle- tory, your age of thraldom, your sud- Peorio
ment6 is an act of rebellion, or the sixth of George  den resurrection, commercial redress,
the First an act of usurpation.  I do not refer to  and miraculous armament,7 shall the historian
doubtful history, but to living record, to common  stop at liberty, and observe, that here the princharters, to the interpretation England has put cipal men among us were found wanting, were
on those charters (an interpretation made, not awed by a weak ministry, bribed by an empty
by words only, but crowned by arms), to the rev- treasury; and when liberty was within their
olution she has formed upon them, to the King  grasp, and her temple opened its folding doors,
she has established, and, above all, to the oath  fell down, and were prostituted at the threshold?
of allegiance solemnly plighted to the house of    I might, as a constituent, come to your bar
Stuart, and afterward set aside in the instance  and demand my liberty.  I do call upon you by
of a grave and moral people, absolved by virtue the laws of the land, and their violation; by the
of those very charters; and as any thing less instructions of eighteen counties; by the arms,
than liberty is inadequate to Ireland, so is it dan- inspiration, and providence of the present mogerous to Great Britain.  We are too near the ment-tell us the rule by which we shall go;
British nation; we are too conversant with her assert the law of Ireland; declare the liberty of
history; we are too much fired by her example  the land!  I will not be answered by a public
to be any thing less than equals; any thing less, lie, in the shape of an amendment; nor, speakwe should be her bitterest enemies. An enemy  ing for the subjects' freedom, am I to hear of
to that power which smote us with her mace, faction.  I wish for nothing but to breathe in
and to that Constitution from whose blessings we  this our island, in common with my fellow-subwere excluded, to be ground, as we have been, jects, the air of liberty. I have no ambition, unby the British nation, bound by her Parliament, less it be to break your chain and contemplate
plundered by her Crown, threatened by her ene- your glory.  I never will be satisfied so long as
mies, and insulted with her protection, while we  the meanest cottager in Ireland has a link of the
returned thanks for her condescension, is a sys- British chain clanking to his rags.  He may be
tem of meanness and misery which has expired  naked, he shall not be in irons.  And I do see
in our determination and in her magnanimity.   the time at hand; the spirit is gone forth; the
That there are precedents against us, I allow; Declaration of Right is planted; and though
Precedents acts of power I would call them, not great men should fall off, yet the cause shall
notofbind- precedents; and I answer the English  live; and though he who utters this should die,
f"'  pleading such precedents, as they an- yet the immortal fire shall outlast the humble
swered their Kings when they urged precedents  organ who conveys it, and the breath of liberty,
against the liberty of England.  Such things are  like the word of the holy man, will not die with
the tyranny of one side, the weakness of the oth- the prophet, but survive him.S
er, and the law of neither. We will not be bound                       ___
by them; or rather, in the words of the Decla-    Referring to the rapid formation of the volunration of Right, no doing, judgment, or proceed- teer corps.
ing to the contrary shall be brought into prece-   8 The reader will be interested to observe the
dent or example.  Do not, then, tolerate a pow- rhythrnus of the last three paragraphs; so slow and
er the power of the British government over dignified in its movement; so weighty as it falls on
er_,, —    the ear; so perfectly adapted to the sentiments ex6 This was an act of the British Parliament set- pressed in this magnificent passage. The effect
tling the line of succession to the British Crown on  will be heightened by comparing it with the rapid
the descendants of the Princess Sophia of Hanover, and iambic movement of the passage containing Mr.
to the exclusion of the Stuarts.               Erskine's description of the Indian chief, page 696.




1782.]                  MR. GRATTAN'S SECOND MOTION, ETC.                                   391
Mr. Grattan then moved the Declaration of  mons, and he was voted down.  He renewed
Right; but the power of the English govern- the motion two years after, in connection with
ment was too great in the Irish House of Com- the speech which follows.
SPEECH
OF MR. GRATTAN IN THE IRISH HOUSE OF COMMONS ON MAKING HIS SECOND MOTION FOR A
DECLARATION OF IRISH RIGHT, DELIVERED APRIL 16, 1782.
INTRODUCTION.
DURING the two years which had elapsed since the preceding speech, great changes had taken place,
both in England and in Ireland, which made the passing of the Declaration certain, if strongly insisted upon
by the people. Mr. Grattan, therefore, in moving it a second time, uses not so much the language of argument or persuasion, as of assured triumph. He speaks of it in his first sentence as if already carried.
SPEECH,1 &c.
I am  now  to address a free people.  Ages  he was forced to assent to acts which deprived
Te object have passe  away, and this is the first the Catholics of religious, and all the Irish of
alreadyse- moment in which you could be distin-  civil and commercial rights, though the Irish
c"red.    guished by that appellation.  I have  were the only subjects in these islands who had
spoken on the subject of your liberty so often, fought in his defense.  But you have sought
that I have nothing to add, and have only to ad- liberty on her own principles.  See the Presbymire by what Heaven-directed steps you have  terians of Bangor petition for the Catholics of
proceeded, until the whole faculty of the nation  the South!  You, with difficulties innumerable,
is braced up to the act of her own deliverance. with dangers not a few, have done what your
I found Ireland on her knees.  I watched over ancestors wished, but could not accomplish; and
her with an eternal solicitude, and have traced  what your posterity may preserve, but will never
her progress from  injuries to arms, and from   equal.  You have molded the jarring elements
arms to liberty.  Spirit of Swift-spirit of Mol- of your country into a nation, and have rivaled
yneux2-your genius has prevailed-Ireland is  those great and ancient states whom you were
now a nation-in that new character I hail her; taught to admire, and among whom you are now
and, bowing to her august presence, I say, Esto  to be recorded.
pe:petua r3                                        In this proceeding you had not the advantages
She is no longer a wretched colony, returning  which were common to other great Her inferior
Comparison thanks to her Governor for his rapine, countries-no monuments, no trophies, advantages.
with other and to her King for his oppression; none of those outward and visible signs of greatcountries.  nor is she now  a fretful, squabbling  ness, such as inspire mankind, and connect the
sectary, perplexing her little wits, and firing her  ambition of the age which is coming on with
furious statutes with bigotry, sophistry, disabili- the example of that which is going off, and
ties, and death, to transmit to posterity insignifi- forms the descent and concatenation of glory.
canoe and war.  Look to the rest of Europe. No!  You have not had any great act recorded
Holland lives on the memory of past achieve-  among all your misfortunes; nor have you one
ments.  Sweden has lost her liberty.  England  public tomb to assemble the crowd, and speak
has sullied her great name by an attempt to en- to the living the language of integrity and freeslave her colonies!  You are the only people-  dom.  Your historians did not supply the want
you, of the nations in Europe, are now the only  of monuments.  On the contrary, those narrators
people-who excite admiration; and in your  of your misfortunes who should have felt for your
present conduct, you not only exceed the present wrongs, and have punished your oppressors with
generation, but you equal the past.  I am  not oppression's natural scourge, the moral indignaafraid to turn back and look antiquity in the face. tion of history, compromised with public villainy,
The Revolution, that great event-whether you  and trembled; they recited your violence, they
call it ancient or modern, I know not-was tar-  suppressed your provocation, and wrote in the
nished with bigotry.  The great deliverer-for  chain that entrammeled their country.  I am
such I must ever call the Prince of Nassau-   come to break that chain; and I congratulate
was blemished by oppression.  He assented to-   my country, who, without any of the advantages
I speak of, going forth, as it were, with nothing
This speech and the preceding are from a copy  but a stone and a sling, and what oppression
corrected by Mr. Grattan, and published in 1821.    could not take away the favor of Heaven ac2 William Molyneux, the mathematician and astronomer, was originally bred to the law, and, being  coplished her own redemption, and left you
deeply interested for his countlymen, he wrote his   thing to add, and every thing to admire.  You
celebrated work on the rights of the Irish Parlia- want no trophy now-the records of Parliament
ment, the first and ablest work ever produced on  are the evidence of your glory.
the subject. He was born in 1656, and died in 1698.    I beg to observe, that the deliverance of IreL3 et her endure forever.                     land has proceeded from  her own right hand.




392                      MR. GRATTAN'S SECOND MOTION                                    [1782.
I rejoice at it; for, had the great acquisition  of subjects and the duty of kings.  Let other
Her deliver  of your freedom proceeded from  the  nations imagine that subjects are made for the
ance achieved bounty of England, that great work  Monarch; but we conceive that kings, and Parby herself   would have been defective   would  liaments like kings, are made for the subject.
have been defective both in renown and secu- The House of Commons, honorable and right
rity.  It was necessary that the soul of the  honorable as it may be; the Lords, noble and
country should have been exalted by the act of  illustrious as we pronounce them, are not originher own redemption, and that England should  al, but derivative.  Session after session they
withdraw her claim by operation of treaty, and  move their periodical orbit about the source of
not of mere grace and condescension.  A gratu- their being-the NATION. Even the King-Majitous act of Parliament, however express, would  esty-must fulfill her due and tributary course
have been revocable; but the repeal of her round that great luminary; and, created by its
claim, under operation of treaty, is not.  In that beam and upheld by its attraction, must incline
case, the Legislature is put in covenant, and  to that light or go out of the system.
bound by the law of nations, the only law that    Ministers-we mean the ministers who have
can legally bind Parliament.  Never did this been dismissed;4 I rely on the good in- Arg.ument rcountry stand so high.  England and Ireland  tentions of the present-former minis- totted on tle
opposers of
treat ex Cequo.  Ireland transmits to the King  ters, I say, have put questions to us. the Declaraher claim  of right, and requires of the Parlia- We beg to put questions to them. t
ment of England the repeal of her claim  of  They desired to know by what authority this
power, which repeal the English Parliament is nation had acted.  This nation desires to know
to make under the force of a treaty, which de- by what authority they acted.  By what authorpends on the law of nations-a law which can  ity did government enforce the articles of war?
not be repealed by the Parliament of England. By what authority does government establish the
I rejoice that the people are a party to this  post-office?  By what authority are our mertreaty, because they are bound to preserve it. chants bound by the East India Company's
There is not a man of forty shillings freehold  charter?  By what authority has Ireland one
that is not associated in this our claim of right, hundred years been deprived of her export
and bound to. die in its defense-cities, coun- trade?  By what authority are her peers deties, associations, Protestants, and Catholics.  It prived of their judicature?  By what authority
seems as if the people had joined in one great has that judicature been transferred to the peers
sacrament.  A flame has descended from heav- of Great Britain, and our property, in its last reen on the intellect of Ireland, and plays round  sort, referred to the decision of a non-resident,
her head with a concentrated glory.            unauthorized, illegal, and unconstitutional tribuThere are some who think, and a few who  nal?  Will ministers say it was the authority
Defense of declare, that the associations to which  of the British Parliament?  On what ground,
teerAslso  I refer are illegal.  Come, then, let us then, do they place the question between the
ciatios.  try the charge.  And first, I ask, what government on one side, and the people on the
were the grievances?  An army imposed on us other?  The government, according to their
by another country-that army rendered perpet- own statement, has been occupied to supersede
ual-the Privy Council of both countries made a the lawgiver of the country, and the people to
part of our Legislature-our Legislature depriv- restore him. His Majesty's late ministers thought
ed of its originating and propounding power-  they had quelled the country when they bought
another country exercising over us supreme leg- the newspapers, and they represented us as wild
islative authority-that country disposing of our men, and our cause as visionary; and they penproperty by its judgments, and prohibiting our sioned a set of wretches to abuse both; but we
trade by its statutes! These were not grievanc- took little account of them or their proceedings,
es, but spoliations; they left you nothing. When  and we waited, and we watched, and we moved,
you contended against them, you contended for as it were, on our native hills, with the minor
the whole of your condition.  When the minis- remains of our parliamentary army, until that
ter asks by what right, we refer him  to our minority became Ireland!  Let those ministers
Maker.  We sought our privileges by the right now go home, and congratulate their king on
which we have to defend our property against a the deliverance of his people. Did you imagine
robber, our life against a murderer, our country  that those little parties, whom, three years ago,
against an invader, whether coming with civil you beheld in awkward squads parading the
or military force, a foreign army, or a foreign  streets, would arrive to such distinction and efLegislature.  This is a case that wants no prec- feet?  What was the cause?  For it was not
edent.  The revolution wanted no precedent; the sword of the volunteer, nor his muster, nor
for such things arrive to reform a course of bad  his spirit, nor his promptitude to put down acciprecedents, and, instead of being founded on  dental disturbance, public discord, nor his own
precedent, become such.  The gazing world, unblamed and distinguished deportment: this
whom they came to save, begins by doubt and  was much; but there was more than this. The
concludes by worship.  Let other nations be   4 Lord North and his associates are here referred to.
deceived by the sophistry of courts-Ireland  The "present" ministers were Lord Rockingham,
has studied politics in the lair of oppression; Lord Shelburne, Mr. Fox, &c., composing the Whig
and, taught by suffering, comprehends the right administration, which followed that of Lord North.




1782.]                  ON A DECLARATION OF IRISH  RIGHT.                                  393
upper orders, the property and the abilities of  That bill must fall, or the Constitution can not
the country, formed with the Volunteer; and the  stand.  That bill was originally limited by this
volunteer had sense enough to obey them. This  House to two years, and it returned from Enunited the Protestant with the Catholic, and the  gland without the clause of limitation.  What!
landed proprietor with the people.  There was a bill making the army independent of Parliastill more than this-there was a continence  ment, and perpetual?  I protested against it
which confined the corps to limited and legiti- then; I have struggled with it since; and I am
mate objects.  There was a principle which  now come to destroy this great enemy of my
preserved the corps from adultery with French  country.  The perpetual Mutiny Bill must vanpolitics.  There was a good taste which guard- ish out of the statute book.  The excellent tract
ed the corps from the affectation of such folly. of Molyneux was burned-it was not answered,
This, all this, made them bold; for it kept them  and its flame illumined posterity.  This evil
innocent, it kept them rational.  No vulgar rant paper shall be burned; but burned like a felon,
against England, no mysterious admiration of  that its execution may be a peace-offering to the
France, no crime to conceal, no folly to blush  people, and that a Declaration of Right may be
for, they were what they professed to be; and  planted on its guilty ashes.  A new Mutiny Bill
that was nothing less than society asserting her must be formed, after the manner of England,
liberty according to the frame of the British  and a Declaration of Right flaming in its preConstitution-her inheritance to be enjoyed in  amble.  As to the legislative powers of the Priperpetual connection with the British empire. vy Council, I conceive them to be utterly inadI do not mean to say that there were not divers missible, against the Constitution, against the
violent and unseemly resolutions. The immensi- privileges of Parliament, and against the dignity
ty of the means was inseparable from  the ex- of the realm.  Do not imagine such power to
cess. Such are the great works of nature-such  be a theoretical evil; it is, in a very high deis the sea; but, like the sea, the waste and ex- gree, a practical evil.  I have here an inventory
cess were lost in the immensity of its blessings, of bills, altered and injured by the interference
benefits, and advantage; and now, having given  of the Privy Councils-Money Bills originated
a Parliament to the people, the Volunteers-will, by them-Protests by the Crown, in support of
I doubt not, leave the people to Parliament, and  those Money Bills-prorogation following those
thus close, pacifically and majestically, a great Protests.  I have a Mutiny Bill of 1780, altered
work, which will place them above censure and  by the Council and made perpetual-a bill in
above panegyric.  Those associations, like other  1778, where the Council struck out the clause
institutions, will perish; they will perish with the  repealing the Test Act-a Militia Bill, where
occasion that gave them being; and the gratitude  the Council struck out the compulsory clause,
of their country will write their epitaph:      requiring the Crown to proceed to form a mili-' This phenomenon, the departed Volunteer, tia, and left it optional to his majesty's ministers
justified by the occasion, with some alloy of  whether there should be a militia in Ireland.  I
public evil, did more public good to Ireland than  have the Money Bill of 1775, when the Council
all her institutions.  He restored the liberties of  struck out the clause enabling his majesty to
his country; and thus, from  his grave, he an- take a part of our troops for general service,
swers his enemies."                             and left it to the minister to withdraw the forces
Connected by freedom, as well as by allegi- against act of Parliament.  I have to state the
En gland and ance, the two nations, Great Britain  altered Money Bill of 1771; the altered Money
Ireland now and Ireland, form a constitutional con- Bill of 1775; the altered Money Bill of 1780.
confederate.
federacy as well as an empire.  The  The day would expire before I could recount
Crown is one link, the Constitution another; and, their ill doings.  I will never consent to have
in my mind, the latter link is the most powerful. men-God knows whom-ecclesiastics, &c., &c.;
You can get a king any where; but England is men unknown to the constitution of Parliament,
the only country with whom  you can get and  and only known to the minister who has breathparticipate a free Constitution. This makes En- ed into their nostrils an unconstitutional existgland your natural connection, and her king your ence-steal to their dark divan, which they call
natural as well as your legal sovereign.  This  the Council, to do mischief, and make nonsense of
is a connection, not as Lord Coke has idly said, bills which their Lordships, the House of Lords,
not as Judge Blackstone has foolishly said, not or we, the House of Commons, have thought
as other judges have ignorantly said, by con- good and meet for the people. No! These men
quests; but, as Molyneux has said, and as I now  have no legislative qualifications; they shall have
say, by compact-that compact is a free Consti- no legislative power.  1st. The repeal of the
Esentiaprin- tution.  Suffer me now to state some  perpetual Mutiny Bill, and the dependency of
ciples of the  of the things essential to that free  the Irish army on the Irish Parliament; 2d. The
onf. Constitution.  They are as follows: abolition of the legislative power of the Council;
The independency of the Irish Parliament-the  3d. The abrogation of the claim of England to
exclusion of the British Parliament from  any  make law for Ireland; the exclusion of the Enauthority in this realm-the restoration of the  glish House of Peers, and of the English' King's
Irish judicature, and the exclusion of that of  Bench from any judicial authority in this realm;
Great Britain.  As to the perpetual Mutiny Bill, the restoration of the Irish Peers to their final
it must be more than limited-it must be effaced.  judicature; the independency of the Irish Par



394                            MR. GRATTAN'S INVECTIVE                                  [1783.
liament in its sole and exclusive Legislature —  one step farther, and proposed to impart the
these are my terms.                             privileges they enjoyed to the Roman Catholics,.~______  ~          by making them voters. But this the Protestants of neither party were willing to do. The
Mr. Grattan now moved the Declaration of  Romanists comprised three quarters of the popRight, which was carried almost without a dis- ulation; very few of them could read or write;
senting voice; and a bill soon after passed the  and both parties-the Patriots as well as the
British Parliament, ratifying the decision by re- Aristocracy-equally shrunk from  the experipealing the obnoxious act of George I.          ment of universal suffrage among this class of
The Parliament of Ireland was at last inde- their fellow-citizens. Under these circumstanpendent; but the beneficial results, so glowingly  ces, the call for Parliamentary Reform was very
depicted by Mr. Grattan, were never realized; faintly echoed by the great body of the people.
all were sacrificed and lost through a spirit of  The Convention of Volunteers had none of that
selfishness and faction.  The Protestants of Ire- power which they had previously exerted on the
land were divided into two parties, the Aristoc- question of Parliamentary Independence. A bill
racy and the Patriots. The former were exelu- was brought into the House of Commons by Mr.
sive, selfish, and arrogant; the latter were eager Flood for extending the right of suffrage, but it
for reform, but too violent and reckless in the  was voted down in the most decisive manner.
measures they employed to obtain it. The Par- The bitterest animosities now  prevailed, and
liament of Ireland was a borough Parliament, new subjects of contention arose from time to
the members of the House of Commons being, time.  Associations were formed, at a later pein no proper sense, representatives of the people, riod, under the name of United Irishmen, debut put in their places by a comparatively small signed to promote the cause of liberty.  Rash
number of individuals belonging to the higher men, in many instances, gained the ascendency:
classes. These classes, while they were among  an insurrection was planned, and in part comthe foremost to demand that " England should  menced; and measures of great severity were
not give law to Ireland," were equally determ- resorted to by the British government to restore
ined that the Irish Parliament, in. making laws, order.  The more sober part of the community
should do it for the peculiar benefit of the Aris- became weary of these contentions, and some
tocracy, and the support of their hereditary in- began to look to a union with England as the
fluence.  The Patriots, on the other hand, de- only safeguard of their persons and property.
manded Parliamentary Reform, and clamored for The British ministry had the strongest motives
universal suffrage. To enforce their claims, they  to urge on this measure in order to prevent fuassembled a Convention of the Volunteers at ture troubles; and in the year 1800, to a great
Dublin in 1783, with a view to influence, and  extent by the use of bribes, the union was efperhaps overawe the Parliament.  Their sue- fected, and from this time the Parliament of Irecess would have been certain if they had gone  land became extinct.
INVECTIVE
OF MR. GRATTAN AGAINST MR. FLOOD, DELIVERED OCTOBER 28, 1783.
It has been said by Mr. Flood, that " the pen have been corrupt; and in the last, seditious;
would fall from the hand, and the fetus of the that after an envenomed attack on the persons
mind would die unborn," if men had not a privi- and measures of a succession of viceroys, and
lege to maintain a right in the Parliament of En- after much declamation against their illegalgland to make law for Ireland.  The affectation  ities and their profusion, he took office, and beof zeal, and a burst of forced and metaphorical came a supporter of government when the proconceits, aided by the arts of the press, gave an fusion of ministers had greatly increased, and
alarm which, I hope, was momentary, and which  their crimes multiplied beyond example; when
only exposed the artifice of those who were wick- your money bills were altered without reserve
ed, and the haste of those who were deceived.   by the Council; when an embargo was laid on
But it is not the slander of an evil tongue that your export trade, and a war declared against
can defame me.  I maintain my reputation in the liberties of America.  At such a critical
public and in private life.  No man who las not moment, I will suppose this gentleman to be
a bad character can ever say that I deceived; corrupted by a great sinecure office to muzzle
no country can call me cheat.  But I will sup- his declamation, to swallow  his invectives, to
pose such a public character.  I will suppose give his assent and vote to the ministers, and to
such a man to have existence.  I will begin become a supporter of government, its measures,
with his character in its political cradle, and I its embargo, and its American war.  I will sup.
will follow him to the last state of political dis-  pose that he was suspected by the government
solution.                                      that had bought him, and in consequence thereI will suppose him, in the first stage of his  of, that he thought proper to resort to the acts of
life, to have been intemperate; in the second, to a trimmer, the last sad refuge of disappointed am



1783.]                            AGAINST  MR. FLOOD.                                      395
bition; that, with respect to the Constitution of  of office, I will suppose him to come forth, and
his country, that part, for instance, which regard- to tell his country that her trade had been deed the Mutiny Bill, when a clause of reference  stroyed by an inadequate duty on English sugar,
was introduced, whereby the articles of war, as her Constitution had been ruined by a Perwhich were, or hereafter might be, passed in  petual Mutiny Bill!  In relation to three fourths
England, should be current in Ireland without of our fellow-subjects, the Catholics, when a bill
the interference of her Parliament-when such  was introduced to grant them rights of property
a clause was in view, I will suppose this gentle- and religion, I will suppose this gentleman to
man to have absconded.  Again, when the bill have come forth to give his negative to their
was made perpetual, I will suppose him again  pretensions.  In the same manner, I will supto have absconded; but a year and a half after  pose him to have opposed the institution of the
the bill had passed, then I will suppose this gen- Volunteers, to which we owe so much, and that
tleman to have come forward, and to say that he went to a meeting in his own county to preyour Constitution had been destroyed by the Per-  vent their establishment; that he himself kept
petual Bill.  With regard to that part of the Con- out of their associations; that he was almost
stitution that relates to the law of Poynings, I will i the only man in this House that was not in unisuppose the gentleman to have made many a long, form, and that he never was a Volunteer until he
very long disquisition before he took office, but, ceased to be a placeman, and until he became
after he received office, to have been as silent on  an incendiary.
that subject as before he had been loquacious.    With regard to the liberties of America, which
That, when money bills, under color of that law,  were inseparable from ours, I will suppose this
were altered, year after year, as in 1775 and  gentleman to have been an enemy, decided and
1776, and when the bills so altered were re- unreserved; that he voted against her liberty, and
sumed and passed, I will suppose that gentleman  voted, moreover, for an address to send four thouto have absconded or acquiesced, and to have sup- sand Irish troops to cut the throats of the Amerported the minister who made the alteration; but icans; that he called these butchers "armed
when he was dismissed from office, and a mem- negotiators," and stood with a metaphor in his
ber introduced a bill to remedy this evil, I will mouth, and a bribe in his pocket, a champion
suppose that this gentleman inveighed against I against the rights of America, the only hope of
the mischief, against the remedy, and against Ireland, and the only refuge of the liberties of
the person of the introducer, who did that duty  mankind.  Thus defective in every relationship,
which he himself for seven years had abandoned. whether to Constitution, commerce, or toleration,
With respect to that part of the Constitution  I will suppose this man to have added much priwhich is connected with the repeal of the 6th  vate improbity to public crimes; that his probof George the First, when the inadequacy of the  ity was like his patriotism, and his honor on a
repeal was debating in the House, I will sup- level with his oath.  He loves to deliver panepose this gentleman to make no kind of objec- gyrics on himself.  I will interrupt him, and
tion; that he never named, at that time, the  say, "Sir, you are much mistaken if you think
word renunciation; and that, on the division on  that your talents have been as great as your
that subject, he absconded; but when the office  life has been reprehensible.  You began your
he had lost was given to another man, that he  parliamentary career with an acrimony and percame forward, and exclaimed against the meas- sonality which could have been justified only by
ure; nay, that he went into the public streets to  a supposition of virtue.  After a rank and clamcanvass for sedition; that he became a rambling  orous opposition you became, on a sudden, silent;
incendiary, and endeavored to excite a mutiny in  you were silent for seven years; you were silent
the Volunteers against an adjustment between  on the greatest questions; and you were silent
Great Britain and Ireland, of liberty and repose, for money! In 1773, while a negotiation was
which he had not the virtue to make, and against pending to sell your talents and your turbulence,
an administration who had the virtue to free the  you absconded from  your duty in Parliament;
country without buying the members.             you forsook your law of Poynings; you forsook
With respect to commerce, I will suppose this  the questions of economy, and abandoned all the
gentleman to have supported an embargo which  old themes of your former declamation.  You
lay on the country for three years, and almost were not at that period to be found in the House.
destroyed it; and when an address in 1778, to  You were seen, like a guilty spirit, haunting the
open her trade, was propounded, to remain silent lobby of the House of Commons, watching the moand inactive.  And with respect to that other ment in which the question should be put, that you
part of her trade, which regarded the duty on  might vanish.  You were descried with a crimsugar, when the merchants were examined in  inal anxiety, retiring from the scenes of your past
1778, on the inadequate protecting duty, when  glory; or you were perceived coasting the upper
the inadequate duty was voted, when the act benches of this House like a bird of prey, with
was recommitted, when another duty was pro- an evil aspect and a sepulchral note, meditating
posed, when the bill returned with the inade- to pounce on its quarry.  These ways-they
quate duty substituted, when the altered bill was  were not the ways of honor-you practiced
adopted, on every one of those questions I will pending a negotiation which was to end either
suppose the gentleman to abscond; but a year in your sale or your sedition.  The former takand a half after the mischief was done, he out ing place, you supported the rankest measures




396                          MR. GRATTAN'S INVECTIVE                                 [1800.
that ever came before Parliament; the embargo  sorry game of a trimmer in your progress to
of 1776, for instance.'0, fatal embargo, that the acts of an incendiary.  You give no honest
breach of law, and ruin of commerce!' You sup- support either to the government or the people.
ported the unparalleled profusion and jobbing of  You, at the most critical period of their existLord Harcourt's scandalous ministry-the ad- ence, take no part; you sign no non-consumpdress to support the American war-the other tion agreement; you are no Volunteer; you opaddress to send four thousand men, which you  pose no Perpetual Mutiny Bill; no altered Sugar
had yourself declared to be necessary for the de- Bill; you declare that you lament that the Decfense of Ireland, to fight against the liberties of  laration of Right should have been brought forAmerica, to which you had declared yourself a  ward; and observing, with regard to both prince
friend. You, sir, who delight to utter execra- and people, the most impartial treachery and detions against the American commissioners of  sertion, you justify the suspicion of your Sover1778, on account of their hostility to America-   eigu, by betraying the government, as you had
you, sir, who manufacture stage thunder against sold the people, until, at last, by this hollow conMr. Eden for his anti-American principles-   duct, and for some other steps, the result ofmoryou, sir, whom it pleases to chant a hymn to the  tified ambition, being dismissed, and another perimmortal Hampden-you, sir, approved of the  son put- in your place, you fly to the ranks of the
tyranny exercised against America; and you, Volunteers and canvass for mutiny; you announce
sir, voted four thousand Irish troops to cut the  that the country was ruined by other men during
throats of the Americans fighting for their free- that period in which she had been sold by you.
dom, fighting for your freedom, fighting for the  Your logic is, that the repeal of a declaratory law
great principle, LIBERTY! But you found, at is not the repeal of a law at all, and the effect of
last (and this should be an eternal lesson to men  that logic is, an English act affecting to emanof your craft and cunning), that the King had  cipate Ireland, by exercising over her the legisonly dishonored you; the court had bought, but lative authority of the British Parliament. Such
would not trust you; and, having voted for the  has been your conduct; and at such conduct
worst measures, you remained, for seven years, every order of your fellow-subjects have a right
the creature of salary, without the confidence of  to exclaim! The merchant may say to yougovernment.  Mortified at the discovery, and  the constitutionalist may say to you-the Amerstung by disappointment, you betake yourself to  ican may say to you-and I, I now say, and say
the sad expedients of duplicity.  You try the  to your beard, sir-you are not an honest man "
INVECTIVE
OF MR. GRATTAN AGAINST MR. CORRY, DELIVERED DURING THE DEBATE ON THE UNION OF
IRELAND TO ENGLAND, FEBRUARY 14, 1800.
Has the gentleman done?  Has he completely  " traitor," unqualified by any epithet?  I will
done?  He was unparliamentary from the begin- tell him; it was because he dare not.  It was
ning to the end of his speech.  There was scarce  the act of a coward, who raises his arm  to
a word that he uttered that was not a violation of strike, but has not courage to give the blow.  I
the privileges of the House; but I did not call him  will not call him a villain, because it would be
toorder. Why?  Because the limited talents of unparliamentary, and he is a privy counselor.
some men render it impossible for them to be se- I will not call him  fool, because he happens
were without being unparliamentary; but before to be Chancellor of the Exchequer; but I say
I sit down I shall show him how to be severe and  he is one who has abused the privilege of Parparliamentary at the same time.  On any other liament and the freedom of debate, to the utteroccasion I should think myselfjustifiable in treat- ing language which, if spoken out of the House,
ing with silent contempt any thing which might I should answer only with a blow. I care not how
fall from that honorable member; but there are  high his situation, how low his character, how
times when the insignificance of the accuser is contemptible his speech; whether a privy counlost in the magnitude of the accusation.  I know  selor or a parasite, my answer would be a blow.
the difficulty the honorable gentleman labored  He has charged me with being connected with
under when he attacked me, conscious that, on  the rebels.  The charge is utterly, totally, and
a comparative view  of our characters, public meanly false.  Does the honorable gentleman
and private, there is nothing he could say which  rely on the report of the House of Lords for the
would injure me.  The public would not believe  foundation of his assertion?  If he does, I can
the charge.  I despise the falsehood.  If such  prove to the committee there was a physical ima charge were made by an honest man, I would  possibility of that report being true; but I scorn
answer it in the manner I shall do before I sit  to answer any man for my conduct, whether he
down.  But I shall first reply to it when not  be a political coxcomb, or whether he brought
made by an honest man.                        himself into power by a false glare of courage
The right honorable gentleman has called  or not.  I scorn to answer any wizard of the
me "an unimpeached traitor."  I ask, why not Castle, throwing himself into fantastical airs:




1800.]                            AGAINST MR. CORRY.                                         397
but if an honorable and independent man were  blow is aimed at the independence of our counto make a charge against me, I would say, " You  try.
charge me with having an intercourse with reb-    The right honorable gentleman says I fled
els, and you found your charge upon what is said  from the country, after exciting rebellion; and
to have appeared before a committee of the Lords. that I have returned to raise another.  No such
Sir, the report of that committee is totally and  thing.  The charge is false.  The civil war had
egregiously irregular."  I will read a letter not commenced when I left the kingdom; and I
from Mr. Nelson, who had been examined before  could not have returned without taking a part.
that committee; it states that what the report On the one side there was the camp of the rebel;
represents him as having spoken is not what he on the other, the camp of the minister, a greater
said.  [Mr. Grattan here read the letter from  traitor than that rebel.  The strong-hold of the
Mr. Nelson, denying that he had any connection  Constitution was nowhere to be found.  I agree
with Mr. Grattan, as charged in the report; and  that the rebel who rises against the government
concluded by saying, "never was misrepresenta- should have suffered; but I missed on the scaftion more vile than that put into my mouth by the fold the right honorable gentleman.  Two desreport."]                                        perate parties were in arms against the ConstiFrom the situation that I held, and from the tution.  The right honorable gentleman beconnections I had in the city of Dublin, it was longed to one of those parties, and deserved
necessary for me to hold intercourse with vari- death.  I could not join the rebel-I could not
ous descriptions of persons.  The right honora- join the government.  I could not join tortureble member might as well have been charged  I could not join half-hanging-I could not join
with a participation in the guilt of those traitors; free quarter.  I could take part with neither. I
for he had communicated with some of those very  was, therefore, absent from a scene where I could
persons on the subject of parliamentary reform. not be active without self-reproach, nor indifferThe Irish government, too, were in communica- ent with safety.
tion with some of them.                            Many honorable gentlemen thought differently
The right honorable member has told me I de- from me.  I respect their opinions; but I keep
serted a profession where wealth and station were my own; and I think now, as I thought then, that
the reward of industry and talent.  If I mistake  the treason of the minister against the liberties of
not, that gentleman endeavored to obtain those  the people was infinitely worse than the rebellion
rewards by the same means; but he soon desert- of the people against the minister.
ed the occupation of a barrister for those of a par-    I have returned, not, as the right honorable
asite and pander. He fled from the labor of study  member has said, to raise another storm-I have
to flatter at the table of the great.  He found the  returned to discharge an honorable debt of gratLords' parlor abetter sphere for his exertions than  itude to my country, that conferred a great rethe hall of the Four Courts; the house of a great ward for past services, which, I am proud to say,
man a more convenient way to power and to  was not greater than my desert.  I have replace; and that it was easier for a statesman of  turned to protect that Constitution of which I
middling talents to sell his friends than a lawyer was the parent and the founder, from the assasofno talents to sell his clients.                sination of such men as the honorable gentleman
For myself, whatever corporate or other bod- and his unworthy associates.  They are cories have said or done to me, I, from the bottom of rupt-they are seditious-and they, at this very
my heart, forgive them.  I feel I have done too  moment, are in a conspiracy against their counmuch for my country to be vexed at them.  I try.  I have returned to refute a libel, as false
woull rather that they should not feel or ac- as it is malicious, given to the public under the
knowledge what I have done for them, and call appellation of a report of the committee of the
me traitor, than have reason to say I sold them. Lords.  Here I stand, ready for impeachment or
I will always defend myself against the assassin; trial: I dare accusation.  I defy the honorable
but with large bodies it is different.  To the  gentleman; I defy the government; I defy the
people I will bow; they may be my enemy-I whole phalanx.  Let them come forth.  I tell
never shall be theirs.                           the ministers I will neither give them  quarter
At the emancipation of Ireland, in 1782, I nor take it.  I am here to lay the shattered retook a leading part in the foundation of that mains of my constitution on the floor of this
Constitution which is now endeavored to be de- House, in defense of the liberties of my country.
stroyed.  Of that Constitution I was the author;                  *        *         *
in that Constitution I glory; and for it the hon-    My guilt or innocence have little to do with
orable gentleman should bestow praise, not in- the question here.  I rose with the rising forvent calumny.  Notwithstanding my weak state tunes of my country-I am willing to die with
of body, I come to give my last testimony against her expiring liberties.  To the voice of the peothis Union, so fatal to the liberties and interest ple I will bow, but never shall I submit to the
of my country.  I come to make common cause  calumnies of an individual hired to betray them
with these honorable and virtuous gentlemen  and slander me.  The indisposition of my body
around me; to try and save the Constitution; has left me, perhaps, no means but that of lying
or if not save the Constitution, at least to save  down with fallen Ireland, and recording upon her
cur characters, and remove from our graves the  tomb my dying testimony against the flagitious
foul disgrace of standing apart while a deadly  corruption that has murdered her independence.




398         MR. GRATTAN ON THE CHARACTER OF LORD CHATHAM.
The right honorable gentleman has said that this  purchase public scorn by private infamy-the
was not my place-that, instead of having avoice lighter characters of the model have as little
in the councils of my country, I should now stand  chance of weaning me from the habits of a life
a culprit at her bar-at the bar of a court of  spent, if not exhausted, in the cause of my nacriminal judicature, to answer for my treasons. tive land.  Am I to renounce those habits now
The Irish people have not so read my history; forever, and at the beck of whom?  I should
but let that pass; if I am what he said I am, the  rather say of what-half a minister-half a monpeople are not therefore to forfeit their Constitu- key-a'prentice politician, and a master coxtion.  In point of argument, therefore, the attack  comb.  He has told you that what he said of me
is bad-in point of taste or feeling, if he had  here, he would say any where.  I believe he
either, it is worse-in point of fact, it is false, would say thus of me in any place where he
utterly and absolutely false-as rancorous a  thought himself safe in saying it.  Nothing can
falsehood as the most malignant motives could  limit his calumnies but his fears-in Parliament
suggest to the prompt sympathy of a shameless he has calumniated me to-night, in the King's
and a venal defense.  The right honorable gen- courts he would calumniate me to-morrow; but
tleman has suggested examples which I should  had he said or dared to insinuate one half as
have shunned, and examples which I should have  much elsewhere, the indignant spirit of an honfollowed.  I shall never follow his, and I have  est man would have answered the vile and venal
ever avoided it.  I shall never be ambitious to  slanderer with-a blow.
CHARACTER OF LORD CHATHAM.
The Secretary stood alone.  Modern degen-    A character so exalted, so strenuous, so varieracy had not reached him.  Original and unac- ous, so authoritative, astonished a corrupt age,
commodating, the features of his character had  and the Treasury trembled at the name of Pitt
the hardihood of antiquity.  His august mind  through all her classes of venality.  Corruption
overawed Majesty; and one of his Sovereigns  imagined, indeed, that she found defects in this
[George III.] thought royalty so impaired in his statesman, and talked much of the inconsistency
presence, that he conspired to remove him, in  of his glory, and much of the ruin of his victoorder to be relieved from his superiority.l  No  ries-but the history of his country and the castate chicanery, no narrow  system  of vicious lamities of the enemy answered and refuted her.
politics, no idle contest for ministerial victories,    Nor were his political abilities his only talents 
sunk him to the vulgar level of the great; but, his eloquence was an era in the Senate.  Peculoverbearing, persuasive, and impracticable, his  iar and spontaneous, familiarly expressing giganobject was England-his ambition was fame. tic sentiments and instinctive wisdom-not like
Without dividing, he destroyed party; without the torrent of Demosthenes. or the splendid concorrupting, he made a venal age unanimous. flagration of Tully, it resembled, sometimes the
France sunk beneath him   with one hand he  thunder, and sometimes the music of the spheres.
smote the house of Bourbon, and wielded in the  Like Murray [Lord Mansfield], he did not conother the democracy of England.  The sight of  duct the understanding through the painful subhis mind was infinite, and his schemes were to  tilty of argumentation; nor was he, like Townaffect, not England, not the present age only, send,2 forever on the rack of exertion, but rather
but Europe and posterity.  Wonderful were the  lightened upon the subject, and reached the point
means by which these schemes were accom-  by the flashings of his mind, which, like those of
plished, always seasonable, always adequate, the  his eye, were felt, but could not be followed.
suggestions of an understanding animated by ar-    Upon the whole, there was in this man somedor, and enlightened by prophecy.               thing that could create, subvert, or reform; an
The ordinary feelings which make life amiable  understanding, a spirit, and an eloquence to sumand indolent-those sensations which soften and  mon mankind to society, or to break the bonds of
allure, and vulgarize, were unknown to him. No  slavery asunder, and rule the wildness of free
domestic difficulties, no  domestic weakness, minds with unbounded authority; something
reached him; but, aloof from the sordid occur- that could establish or overwhelm empire, and
rences of life, and unsullied by its intercourse, strike a blow in the world that should resound
he came occasionally into our system to counsel through its history.
and decide.                                                      __
2 Mr. Charles Townsend. See his character in
See page 63.                 Burke's speech on American Taxation




MR. SHERIDAN.
RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN was born at Dublin in September, 1751.  His father, Thomas Sheridan, author of the first attempt at a Pronouncing Dictionary of
our language, was a distinguished teacher of elocution, and during most of his life
was connected with the stage. This fact very naturally turned the attention of young
Sheridan, even from his boyhood, to theatrical composition; and, being driven to
strenuous exertion in consequence of an early marriage, he became a dramatic writer
at the age of twenty-four. His first production was The Rivals, which, by the liveliness of its plot and the exquisite humor of its dialogue, placed him at once in the
first rank of comic writers. His next work was the opera of The Duenna, which
was performed seventy-five times during the season in which it was first produced,
and yielded him a very large profit. In the year 1776, in conjunction with two
friends, he purchased Garrick's half of the Drury Lane Theater; and becoming proprietor of the other half at the end of two years, he gave his father the appointment
of manager.  He now produced his School for Scandal, which has been regarded by
many as the best comedy in our language. This was followed by The Critic, which
was equally admirable as a farce; and here ended, in 1779, his " legitimate offerings
on the shrine of the Dramatic Muse."  He still, however, retained his proprietorship
in Drury Lane, which would have furnished an ample support for any one but a person
of his expensive and reckless habits.
Mr. Sheridan had cherished from early life a very lively interest in politics; and
now that his thirst for dramatic fame was satiated, his ambition rose higher, and led
him to seek for new distinction in the fields of oratory. He had already made the
acquaintance of Lord John Townsend, Mr. Windham, and other distinguished members of the Whig party, and was desirous of forming a political connection with Mr.
Fox.  To promote this object, Townsend made a dinner-party early in 1780, at
which he brought them together.  Speaking of the subject afterward, he said, "I
told Fox that all the notions he might have conceived of Sheridan's talents and
genius from the'Rivals,' &c., would fall infinitely short of the admiration of his
astonishing powers which I was sure he would entertain at the first interview. Fox
told me, after breaking up from dinner, that he had always thought Hare, after my
uncle, Charles Townsend, the wittiest man he had ever met with, but that Sheridan
surpassed them both, infinitely."  Sheridan, on his side, formed the strongest attachment for Mr. Fox as a man and a political leader, and was soon after placed on terms
of equal intimacy with Mr. Burke.  He was admitted to Brooks's Club-house, the
head-quarters of the Whigs,' and soon after became a member for Stafford, at an
expense of ~2000.
Mr. Sheridan's maiden speech was delivered on the 20th of November, 1780. The
House listened to him  with marked attention, but his appearance did not entirely
satisfy the expectations of his friends. Woodfall, the reporter, used to relate that
The following lines of Tickell give the character of Brooks:
And know, I've bought the best Champagne from Brooks;
From liberal Brooks, whose speculative skill
Is hasty credit and a distant bill;
Who, nursed in clubs, disdains a vulgar trade,
Exults to trust, and blushes to be paid.
Nothing could be more convenient for a man of Sheridan's habits than so indulgent a creditor.




400                            MR. SHERIDAN.
Sheridan came up to him in the gallery, when the speech was ended, and asked him,
with much anxiety, what he thought of his first attempt.  "I am sorry to say,"
replied Woodfall, " that I don't think this is your line-you had better have stuck to
your former pursuits." Sheridan rested his head on his hand for some minutes, and
then exclaimed, with vehemence, " It is in me, and it shall come out of me!"  He
now devoted himself with the utmost assiduity, quickened by a sense of shame, to
the cultivation of his powers as a speaker; and having great ingenuity, ready wit,
perfect self-possession, and a boldness amounting almost to effrontery, he made himself at last a most dexterous and effective debater.
During the short administration of the Marquess of Rockingham, in 1782, Mr.
Sheridan came into office as Under Secretary of State; but on the decease of Rockingham, he resigned in common with Fox, Burke, and others, when Lord Shelburne
was made prime minister in preference to Mr. Fox.  Mr. William Pitt now came
into the ministry, at the age of twenty-three, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, and
undertook, soon after, to put down Mr. Sheridan by a contemptuous allusion to his
theatrical pursuits.  " No man," said he " admires more than I do the abilities of
that right honorable gentleman-the elegant sallies of his thought, the gay effusions
of his fancy, his dramatic turns, and his epigrammatic point. If they were reserved
for the proper stage, they would no doubt receive the plaudits of the audience; and
it would be the fortune of the right honorable gentleman, " sui plausu gaudere theatri."2  Mr. Sheridan replied to this insolent language, with admirable adroitness,
in the following words: " On the particular sort of personality which the right honorable gentleman has thought proper to make use of, I need not comment. The propriety, the taste, and the gentlemanly point of it must be obvious to this House.
But let me assure the right honorable gentleman that I do now, and will, at any time
he chooses to repeat this sort of allusion, meet it with the most perfect good humor.
Nay, I will say more. Flattered and encouraged by the right honorable gentleman's
panegyric on my talents, if I ever engage again in the composition he alludes to, I
may be tempted to an act of presumption, and attempt an improvement on one of Ben
Jonson's best characters, that of the Angry Boy, in the Alchymist."  The effect was
irresistible.  The House was convulsed with laughter; and Mr. Pitt came very near
having the title of the Angry Boy fastened on him for the remainder of his life.
When the administration of Lord Shelburne gave way to the Coalition Ministry
of Mr. Fox and Lord North, in 1783, Sheridan was again brought into office as Secretary of the Treasury.  The defeat of Mr. Fox's East India Bill threw him out of
power at the close of the same year; and from that time, for more than twenty-two
years, he was a strenuous and active opponent of Mr. Pitt.
In the year 1787, Mr. Burke, who had devoted ten years to the investigation of
English atrocities in India, called forth the entire strength of the Whig party for the
impeachment of Warren Hastings.  To Mr. Sheridan he assigned the management
of the charge relating to the Begums or princesses of Oude. It was a subject peculiarly suited to his genius; and, aided by an intimate knowledge of the facts, which
was supplied him by the researches of Burke, he brought forward the charge in the
House of Commons, on the 7th of February, 1787. His speech on this occasion was
so imperfectly reported that it may be said to be wholly lost.  It was, however,
according to the representation of all who heard it, an astonishing exhibition of eloquence.  The whole assembly, at the conclusion, broke forth into expressions of tumultuous applause. Men of all parties vied with each other in their encomiums;
and Mr. Pitt concluded his remarks by saying that "an abler speech was perhaps
never delivered."  A motion was made to adjourn, that the House might have time
to recover their calmness and " collect their reason," after the excitement they had
2 To exult in the applause of his own theater.




MR. SHERIDAN.                                      40:
undergone; and Mr. Stanhope, in seconding the motion, declared that he had come
to the House prepossessed in favor of Mr. Hastings, but that nothing less than a min
acle could now prevent him from voting for his impeachment.  Twenty years after.
Mr. Fox and Mr. Windham, two of the severest judges in England, spoke of this
speech with undiminished admiration. The former declared it to be the best speech
ever made in the House of Commons.  The latter said that " the speech deserved all
its fame, and was, in spite of some faults of taste, such as were seldom  wanting in
the literary or in the parliamentary performances of Sheridan, the greatest that had
been delivered within the memory of man."3
When the Commons voted to impeach Mr. Hastings, Sheridan was chosen one of
the managers, and had assigned to him the charge relating to the Begums of Oude.
He was thus called upon to reproduce, as far as possible, his splendid oration of the
preceding year, in presence of an assembly still more dignified and august, and under
circumstances calculated to inflame all his ambition as an orator and a man.  The
expectation of the public was wrought up to the highest pitch.  During the four
days on which he spoke, the hall was crowded to suffocation; and such was the
eagerness to obtain seats, that fifty guineas were in some instances paid for a single
ticket.  These circumstances, undoubtedly, operated to the injury of Mr. Sheridan.
They aggravated those " faults of taste" which were spoken of by Mr. Windham.
They led him into many extravagances of language and sentiment; and though all
who heard it agreed in pronouncing it a speech of astonishing power, it must have
been far inferior in true eloquence to his great original effort in the House of Commons. His success in these two speeches was celebrated by Byron in the following
lines, which are, however, much more applicable to Burke than to Sheridan:
When the loud cry of trampled Hindostan
Arose to Heaven, in her appeal to man,
His was the thunder-his the avenging rodThe wrath-the delegated voice of God,
Which shook the nations through his lips, and blazed,
Till vanquished senates trembled as they praised.
Contrary to what might have been expected, Mr. Sheridan never attempted, in
after life, that lofty strain of eloqueice which gained him  such rapturous applause
on this occasion.  " Good sense and wit were the great weapons of his oratoryshrewdness in detecting the weak points of an adversary, and infinite powers of raillery in exposing them."   This is exactly the kind of speaking which has always been
3 It was natural, in respect to such a speech, that some erroneous or exaggerated statements
should have been given to the public. There is an anecdote related by Bissett, in his Reign of
George III., which must be regarded in this light. Bissett says, "The late Mr. Logan, well known
for his literary efforts, and author of a masterly defense of Mr. Hastings, went that day to the House,
prepossessed for the accused and against the accuser. At the expiration of the first hour, he said
to a fiiend,' All this is declamatory assertion without proof;' when the second was finished,' This
is a wonderful oration;' at the close of the third,' Mr. Hastings has acted unjustifiably;' the fourtlh'Mr. Hastings is a most atrocious criminal;' and at last,' Of all monsters of iniquity, the most
enormous is Warren Hastings!'"
Now the natural and almost necessary impression made by this story is, that Mr. Logan, previou.s
to hearing this speech, had written his " masterly defense of Mr. Hastings;" and that, being thus
"prepossessed" and committed in favor of the accused, he experienced the remarkable change of
views and feelings here described. But the fact is, his defense of Hastings was written after the
speech in question was delivered; and Mr. Logan therein charged the Commons with having acted,
in their impeachment of Hastings, " from motives of personal animosity-not from regard to public
justice."  It is incredible that a man of Mr. Logan's character-a distinguished clergyman of the
Church of Scotland-should have written such a pamphlet, or brought such a charge, only a few
months after he had expressed the views of Mr. Hastings ascribed to him above.  This anecdote
must, therefore, have related to some other person who was confounded with Mr. Logan, and may
be numbered with the many uncertainties which are current under the name of Literary History.
C c




402                             MR. SHERIDAN.
most popular in the House of Commons. It made Mr. Sheridan much more formidable to Mr. Pitt, during his long and difficult administration, than many in the Opposition ranks of far greater information and reasoning abilities.  Notwithstanding his
habitual indolence, and the round of conviviality in which he was constantly engaged, Sheridan contrived to pick up enough knowledge of the leading topics in debate to make him a severe critic on the measures of Mr. Pitt.  If authorities or research were necessary, he would frankly say to his friends who desired his aid, " You
know I am  an ignoramus-here I am-instruct me, and I'll do my best."  And
such was the quickness and penetration of his intellect, that he was able, with surprising facility, to make himself master of the information thus collected for his use,
and to pour it out with a freshness and vivacity which were so much the greater
because his mind was left free and unencumbered by the effort to obtain it.  A
curious instance is mentioned of his boldness on such occasions, when his materials
happened to fail him.  In 1794, when he came to reply to the argument of Mr.
Hastings' counsel on the Begum charge, his friend, Mr. Michael Angelo Taylor, undertook to read for him any papers which it might be necessary to bring forward in
the course of his speech. One morning, when a certain paper was called for, Mr.
Taylor asked him for the bag containing his documents.  Sheridan replied, in a
whisper, that he had neither bag nor papers-that they musJ contrive, by dexterity
and boldness, to get on without them.  The Lord Chancellor, in a few moments,
called again for the minutes of evidence.  Taylor pretended to send for the bag;
and Sheridan proceeded with the utmost confidence, as if nothing had happened.
Within a few minutes the " pacer's" were again demanded, when Mr. Fox ran up tc
Taylor, and inquired anxiously for the bag.  "The man has no bag," says Taylor,
in a whisper, to the utter discomfiture of Mr. Fox.  Sheridan, in. the mean time,
went on.-taking the facts for granted-in his boldest strain.  When stopped by the
court, and reproved for his negligence in not bringing forward the evidence, he assumed an indignant tone, and told the Chancellor that, " as a manager of the impeachment in behalf of the Commons, he should conduct the case as he thought fit,
that it was his most ardent desire to be perfectly correct in what he stated; and that.
should he fall into error, the printed minutes of the evidence would correct him!"
With all this apparent negligence, however, the papers of Mr. Sheridan, after his
death, disclosed one remarkable fact, that his wit was most of it studied out beforehaSd. His commonplace book was found to be flll of humorous thoughts and sportive turns, put down usually in a crude state just as they occurred to his mind, and
afterward wrought into form for future use.  To this collection we may trace a large
part of those playful allusions, keen retorts, sly insinuations, and brilliant salliesthe jest, the frolic, and the fun-which flash out upon us in his speeches in a manner so easy, natural, and yet unexpected, that no one could suspect them of being any
thing but the spontaneous suggestions of the moment.  His biographer has truly said
that, in this respect, " It was the fate of Mr. Sheridan throughout life-and in a great
degree, perhaps his policy-to gain credit for excessive indolence and carelessness,
while few persons, with so much natural brilliancy of talents, ever employed more
art and circumspection in their display."
Mr. Sheridan usually took part in every important debate in Parliament, and gained
much applause, in 1803, by a speech of uncommon eloquence, in which he endeavored to unite all parties for the defense of the country, when threatened with invasion by France.  In the course of this speech, he turned the ridicule of the House
upon Mr. Addington, the prime minister, in a way which was not soon forgotten.
Mr. Addington was one of those "respectable" half-way men with whom it is difficult to find fault, and yet whom nobody confides in or loves. He was the son of an,eminent physician, and there was something in his air and manner which savored




MR. SHERIDAN.                                   403
of the profession, and had given him, to a limited extent, the appellation of " The
Doctor."  Mr. Sheridan, in the course of his speech, adverting to the personal dislike
of many to Mr. Addington, quoted the lines of Martial:
Nol amo te, Sabine, nec possum dicere quare;
Hoc tantum possum dicere, non amo te;
and added the English parody:
i do not like you, Doctor Fell;
The reason why I can not tell;
But this, I'm sure, I know full well,
I do not like you, Doctor Fell.
His waggish emphasis on the word doctor, and his subsequent repetition of it in the
course of his speech, called forth peals of laughter; and thenceforth the minister
was generally known by the name of the Doctor.4  The Opposition papers took up
the title, and twiste& and tortured it into every form of attack, till Mr. Addington
was borne down and driven from office by mere ridicule-a weapon which is often
more fatal than argument to men of moderate abilities in high political stations.
Mr. Sheridan had always lived beyond his means, and was utterly ruined in 1809,
by the burning of the Drury Lane Theater, which comprised all his property. He was
also betrayed by his convivial habits into gross intemperance. Wine being no longer
of sufficient strength to quicken his faculties for conversation or debate, stronger
liquors were substituted. A persdn sitting one evening in a coffee-house, near St.
Stephen's Chapel, saw, to his surprise, a gentleman with papers before him, after
taking tea, pour the contents of a decanter of brandy into a tumbler, and drink it off
without dilution. He then gathered up his papers and went out. Shortly after, the
spectator, on entering the gallery of the House of Commons, heard the brandy-drinker, to his astonishment, deliver a long and brilliant speech.  It was Mr. Sheridan!
The natural consequences of such a life were not slow in overtaking him: he soon
became bankrupt in character and health, as well as in fortune.  The relief which
he occasionally obtained from  his friends served only to protract his misery.  He
was harassed with writs and executions, at the moment when he was sinking under
disease; and a sheriff's officer, but for the intervention of his physician, would have
carried him in his blanket to prison.  A powerful writer in the Morning Post now
called the attention of the public to his wretched condition. " Oh! delay not to
draw  aside the curtain within which that proud spirit hides its sufferings.  Prefer
ministering in the chambers of sickness to mustering at' the splendid sorrows which
adorn the hearse'-I say, life and succor against Westminster Abbey and a funeral!"
Mlen of all ranks were roused. His chamber was crowded with sympathizing friends,
but it was too late. He died on the 7th of July, 1816, at the age of sixty-four, a
melancholy example of brilliant talents sacrificed to a love of display and convivial
indulgence.  He was buried with great pomp in the only spot of the Poet's Corner
which remained unoccupied.  His pall was borne by royal and noble dukes, by earls
and marquesses, and his funeral procession was composed of the most distinguished
nobility and gentry of the kingdom.5
4 The Scottish members having deserted Mr. Addington in some debate about this time, Mr.
Sheridan convulsed the House by suddenly exclaiming, in the words of the messenger to Macbeth, Doctor, " the THANES fly from thee!"
5 Mr. Moore, in the following lines, gave vent to his feelings at the conduct of those who deserted
Sheridan in his poverty, but crowded around his death-bed and flocked to his funeral with all the
tokens of their early respect and affection:
How proud they can press to the funeral array
Of him whom they shunn'd in his sickness and sorrowHow bailiffs may seize his last blanket to-day,
Whose pall shall be held up by nobles to-morrow' (over)




404                               MR. SHERIDAN.
Wraxall, in his Posthumous Memoirs, vol. i., 36-8, gives the following description
of Mr. Sheridan's person and manner of speaking in his best days, before intemperance had begun its ravages on his body or mind.  " His countenance and features
had in them  something peculiarly pleasing, indicative at once of intellect, humor,
and gayety. All these characteristics played about his lips when speaking, and operated with inconceivable attraction; for they anticipated, as it were, to the eye the
effect produced by his oratory on the ear; thus opening for him a sure way to the
heart or the understanding.  Even the tones of his voice, which were singularly
mellifluous, aided the general effect of his eloquence; nor was it accompanied by
Burke's unpleasant Irish accent.  Pitt's enunciation was unquestionably more imposing, dignified, and sonorous; Fox displayed more argument, as well as vehemence;
Burke possessed more fancy and enthusiasm; but Sheridan won his way by a sort
of fascination."
"He possessed a ductility and versatility of talents which no public man in oui
time has equaled; and these intellectual endowments were sustained by a suavity
of temper that seemed to set at defiance all attempts to ruffle or discompose it.
Playing with his irritable or angry antagonist, Sheridan exposed him by sallies of wit,
or attacked him with classic elegance of satire; performing this arduous task in the
face of a crowded assembly, without losing for an instant either his presence of mind,
his facility of expression, or his good humor. He wounded deepest, indeed, when he
smiled, and convulsed. his hearers with laughter while the object of his ridicule or
animadversion was twisting under the lash.  Pitt and Dundas, who presented the
fairest marks for his attack, found, by experience, that though they might repel, they
could not confound, and still less could they silence or vanquish him. In every
attempt that they made, by introducing personalities, or illiberal reflections on his
private life and literary or dramatic occupations, to disconcert him, he turned their
weapons on themselves.  Nor did he, while thus chastising his adversary, alter a
muscle of his own countenance; which, as well as his gestures, seemed to participate, and display the unalterable serenity of his intellectual formation. Rarely did
he elevate his voice, and never except in subservience to the dictates of his judgment,
with the view to produce a corresponding effect on his audience. Yet he was always
heard, generally listened to with eagerness, and could obtain a hearing at almost any
hour.  Burke, who wanted Sheridan's nice tact and his amenity of manner, was
continually coughed down, and on those occasions he lost his temper.  Even Fox
often tired the House by the repetitions which he introduced into his speeches.  Sheridan never abused their patience.  Whenever he rose, they anticipated a rich repast
of wit without acrimony, seasoned by allusions and citations the most delicate, yet
obvious in their application."
Still, it should be remembered that such desertion is the inevitable fate of degrading vice, and
especially of the beastly intemperance to which Sheridan had so long been abandoned. Large contributions had.previously been made for his relief, but his improvidence knew no bounds; and he
had for somrt time reduced himself to such a state that few of his old acquaintances could visit him
without pain, or (it may be added) without the deepest mortification to himself, though they might
wish, after his death, to do honor to his memory as a man of genius.




SPEECH
OF MR. SHERIDAN ON SUMMING UP THE EVIDENCE ON THE SECOND, OR BEGUM CHARGE AGAINS'
WARREN HASTINGS, DELIVERED BEFORE THE HOUSE OF LORDS, SITTING AS A HIGH COURT OF
PARLIAMENT, JUNE, 1788.
INTRODUCTION.
THE Begums, or princesses referred to in this speech, were the mother and widow of the celebrated
Sujah Dowlah, Nabob of Oude, a kingdom on the upper waters of the Ganges. At his death, he bequeathed for their support large yearly revenues from the government lands, called jaghires,l in addition
to the treasures he had accumulated during his reign. He left his throne to Asoph Dowlah, a son by the
younger Begum, who proved to be a man of weak intellect and debauched habits, and who soon became
a mere vassal of the East India Company, under the government of Mr. Hastings. To secure his subjection, and guard against invasion from the neighboring states, Mr. Hastings compelled him to take large
numbers of British troops into his pay; thus relieving the Company of enormous expense, and subjecting
the natives to the severest exactions fiom men ostensibly placed among them for their protection. Single
officers of the British army were known to have accumulated fortunes of several hundred thousand
pounds during a few years service in Oud,'la hily the whole kingdom was thus reduced from a state
of the highest prosperity, to beggary adii' ruin. The young Nabob was unable to make his regular payments of tribute, until, at the close of 1781, a debt of ~1,400,000 stood against him on the Company's books.
Mr. Hastings was, at this time, in the most pressing want of money. He had powerful enemies at Calcutta; his continuance in office depended on his being able to relieve the Company at once from its financial difficulties; and to do this effectually was the object of his memorable journey into upper India, in
July, 1780. He looked to two sources of supply, Benares and Oude; and from one or both of these, he
was determined to extort the means of relief fiom all his embarrassments. In respect to Benares, Mr.
Mill states, in his British India, that Cheyte Sing, the Rajah of that kingdom, had paid his tribute "with
an exactness rarely exemplified in the history of the tributary princes of Hindostan."  But the same
system had been adopted with him, as with the Nabob of Oude; and when he at last declared his inability to pay, Mr. Hastings threw him into prison during the journey mentioned above, deprived him of his
throne, and stripped him of all his treasures. They proved, however, to be only ~200,000, a sum far short
of what Mr. Hastings expected, for he had always supposed the Ilajah to be possessed of immense hoards
of wealth.
Disappointed in his first object, the Governor General now turned his attention to Oude. He knew
the young Nabob would be ready, on almost any terms, to purchase deliverance from the troops which
were quartered on his kingdom. He accordingly appointed a meeting with him at Chunar, a fortress of
Benares, September 19th, 1781. Here the Nabob secretly offered him a bribe of ~100,000. Mr. Hastings
took it; whether with the intention to keep it as his own or pay it over to the Company, does not certainly appear. The transaction, however, soon became public, and the money was finally paid over, but
not without a letter fromn Mr. Hastings to the Board of Directors, intimating in the most significant terms
his anxiety to retain the money. On this point, Mr. Sheridan touches with great force in the progress
of his speech. But Asoph Dowlah was not to escape so easily. A much larger sum than ~100,000 was
needed, and he was at length driven to an arrangement by which it was agreed, in the words of Mr. Mill,
"that his Highness should be relieved from the expense, which he was unable to bear, of the English
troops and gentlemen; and he. on his part, engaged to strip the Begums of both their treasures and their
jaghires, delivering to the Governor General the proceeds."-Brit. India, iv., 375. In other words, he
was to rob his mother and his grandmother, not only of all their property, but of the yearly income left
by his father for their support.
But it was easier for the Nabob to promise than to perform. Such were the struggles of nature and
religion in his breast, that for three months he hesitated and delayed, while Mr. Hastings, who was in the
utmost need of money, was urging him to the performance. Finally, Mr. Middleton, the Resident at
Oude, was ordered to cut the matter short-"to supersede the authority of the Nabob, and perform the
necessary measures by the operation of English troops," if there was any further delay. Under this
threat, Asoph resumed the jaghi'res; but declared, in so doing, that it was "an act of compulsion."  The
treasures were next to be seized. They were stored in the Zenana or Harem at Fyzabad, where the
princesses resided; a sacred inclosure, guarded with superstitious veneration by the religion of the Hindoos, against access of all except its own inmates. A body of English troops, under the guidance of Mr.
Middleton, marched to Fyzabad, on the 8th of January, 1782, and demanded the treasures. They were
l The lands thus farmed were also al lled jaghires, and those who farmed them jaghiredars.




406                              MR. SHERIDAN  AGAINST                                       [1788.
refused, and the town and castle were immediately taken by storm. The Zenana was now in the power
of the English; but Mr. Middleton shrunk from an act of profanation which would probably have created
a general revolt throughout Oude, and endeavored to break the spirit of the Begums by other means.
He threw into prison their two ministers of state, aged men of the highest distinction; abridged them
of their food, till they were on the borders of starvation; tortured them with the lash; deprived the in
mates of the Zenana of their ordinary supply of provisions, till they were on the point of perishing of
want; and thus succeeded in extorting property to the amount of ~600,000, leaving these wretched women nothing for their support or comfort, not even their common household utensils..Such was the charge which Mr. Sheridan was now to lay before the House of Lords, on the fourteenth
day of the trial, Mr. Fox having previously submitted that which related to the treatment of Cheyte Sing.
The facts in this case were not denied by Mr. Hastings as to any of the important particulars. His defense was this: (1.) That the property did not belong to the Begums. (2.) That their plunder was demanded by state necessity. (3.) That they had rebelled against him by attempting to assist Cheyte Sing,
when deposed; by inducing the jaghiredars, or farmers of the jaghires, to resist their resumption; and
by promoting insurrections in Oude. To get affidavits on these points, Mr. Hastings had sent his friend,
Sir Elijah Impey, Chief Justice of Bengal, some hundreds of miles into Oude. (4.) That he was not responsible for the cruelties practiced on the Begums and their ministers, because he had given no direct
order on that subject. Such was Mr. Hastings' defense before the House of Commons; and hence Mr.
Sheridan shaped his speech before the House of Lords to meet these points.
After disclaiming, in his exordium, those vindictive feelings so loudly charged upon the managers by
Mr. Hastings' friends:
I. He proves by the testimony of Lord Cornwallis the wretched condition to which Oude was reduced;
charges all its calamities on the misgovernment and violence of Mr. Hastings; and shows that it was
nevertheless extremely difficult, at such a distance, to produce the full evidence which might be desired
of what every one knew to be the fact.
II. He then dwells at large on the evidence. (1.) That afforded by Mr. Hastings himself, in the contradictor-y nature of his various defenses before the House of Commons. (2.) That which went to show
the character and station of the Begums, and their perfect right to the property they held. The latter
is proved by the explicit decision of the Council at Calcutta, sanctioned by Mr. Hastings himself, after
deliberate inquiry; and also by the guarantees of the Company, founded on that decision.
III. He briefly touches on the plea of State Necessity, and rejects it with indignation, as wholly inapplicable to a case like this.
IV. He takes up the treaty at Chunar for plundering the Begums, and the pretexts by which it had
been justified. Here he comments with great severity on the conduct of Impey in taking the affidavits,
and his appearance before the Lords as a witness-goes at great length in an examination of the affidavits-shows by a comparison of dates and by other circumstances, that the whole of this defense was
an after-thought, resorted to by Mr. Hastings, subsequent to the treaty, to excuse his conduct-and that
there were causes enough for the commotions in Oude, arising out of the oppression of the English, without any intervention of the Begums.
V. He describes the scenes connected with the resumption of the jaghires, and the cruelties inflicted
upon the Begums and their ministers to extort the treasures.
VI. He charges all these crimes and cruelties upon Mr. Hastings, as committed by his authorized
agents, and rendered necessary by his express instructions.
This speech, considered as a comment on evidence, is one of great ability, notwithstanding the imperfect
manner in which it is reported. It was a task for which Mr. Sheridan's mind was peculiarly fitted. His
keen sagacity, ready wit, and thorough knowledge of the human heart, had here the widest scope for
their exercise. He shows uncommon tact in sifting testimony, detecting motives, and exposing the subterfuges, contradictions, and falsehoods of Mr. Hastings and his friends. Intermingled with the examination of the evidence, there is a great deal of keen satire and bitter sarcasm, which must have told powerfully on the audience, especially when set off by that easy, pointed, and humorous style of delivery, in
which Mr. Sheridan so greatly excelled. When he rises into a higher strain, as in examining Mr. Hastings' plea of "state necessity," or describing the desperation of the natives, throwing themselves on the
swords of the soldiery, under the cruel exactions of Major Hanney, he is truly and powerfully eloquent.
His attempts to be pathetic or sentimental, as in his famous description of Filial Piety, are an utter failure. It is this passage, in connection with his constant tendency to strain after effect, which has led
some, at the present day, to underrate the talents of Mr. Sheridan, and treat him as a mere ranter. His
biographer, Mr. Moore, suggests that many of the blemishes in his printed speeches may be ascribed to
the bad taste of his reporter, who makes even Mr. Fox talk, at times, in very lofty and extravagant language. This may to a certain extent be true, but we can not doubt that the "faults of taste" spoken of
by Mr. Windham lay in this direction. Sheridan looked upon the audience in Westminster Hall with
the eye of an actor. He saw the admirable opportunity which it afforded him for scenic effect; and he
obviously resorted to clap-trap in many passages, which he contrived to make most of his audience feel
were his best ones, when they were really his worst. Still, these form only a small part of the speech,
and there are many passages to which we can not deny the praise of high and genuine eloquence.




1788.]             WARREN HASTINGS ON THE BEGUM CHARGE.                                         407
SPE E C 1-, &c.
M Y LORDS,-I shall not waste your Lordships' and by an honest solicitude for the honor of our
time nor my own, by any preliminary observa-  country, and the happiness of those who are untions on the importance of the subject before  der its dominion and protection.
you, or on the propriety of our bringing it in this    With such views, we really, my Lords, lose
solemn manner to a final decision.  My honor-  sight of Mr. Hastings, who, however great in
able friend [Mr. Burke], the principal mover of  some other respects, is too insignificant to be
the impeachment, has already executed the task  blended  with  these important circumstances.
in a way the most masterly and impressive.  He,  The unfortunate prisoner is, at best, to my mind.
whose indignant and enterprising genius, roused  no mighty object.  Amid the series of mischiefs
by the calls of public justice, has, with unprece-  and enormities to my sense seeming to surround
dented labor, perseverance, and eloquence, excit-  him, what is he but a petty nucleus, involved
ed one branch of the Legislature to the vindica-  in its laminae, scarcely seen or heard of?
lion of our national character, and through whose    This prosecution, my Lords, was not, as is almeans the House of Commons now makes this leged, " begot in prejudice, and nursed in error."
embodied stand in favor of man against man's  It originated in the clearest conviction of the
iniquity, need hardly be followed on the general wrongs which the natives of Hindostan have engrounds of the prosecution.                        dured by the maladministration of those in whose
Confiding in the dignity, the liberality, and in- hands this country had placed extensive powers;
The prosecu- telligence of the tribunal before which  which ought to have been exercised for the bention not dicta-                               mg
ted byvindict I now have the honor to appear in my  efit of the governed, but which was used by the
ve feelings.  delegated capacity of a manager, I do  prisoner for the shameful purpose of oppression.
not, indeed, conceive it necessary to engage your I repeat with emphasis, my Lords, that nothing
Lordships' attention for a single moment with  personal or malicious has induced us to institute
any introductory animadversions.  But there is this prosecution.  It is absurd to suppose it.
one point which here presents itself that it be-  We come to your Lordships' bar as the reprecomes me not to overlook.  Insinuations have  sentatives of the Commons of England; and, as
been thrown out that my honorable colleagues  acting in this public capacity, it might as truly
and myself are actuated by motives of malignity  be said that the Commons, in whose name the
against the unfortunate prisoner at the bar.  An  impeachment is brought before your Lordships,
imputation of so serious a nature can not be per- were actuated by enmity to the prisoner, as that
mitted to pass altogether without comment; we, their deputed organs, have any private spleen
though it comes in so loose a shape, in such  to gratify in discharging the duty imposed upon
whispers and oblique hints as to prove to a  us by our principals.
certainty that it was made in the consciousness,    Your Lordships will also recollect and disand, therefore, with the circumspection of false-  criminate between impeachment for Does notenhood.                                             capital offenses and impeachment for da"ger Mr.
I can, my Lords, most confidently aver, that a  high crimes and misdemeanors.  In 
prosecution more disinterested in all its motives  an impeachment of the former kind, when the
and ends; more free from  personal malice or life of an individual is to be forfeited on convicpersonal interest; more perfectly  public, and  tion, if malignity be indulged in giving a strong
more purely animated by the simple and un- tincture and coloring to facts, the tenderness of
mixed spirit of justice, never was brought in  man's nature will revolt at it; for, however
any country, at any time, by any body of men, strongly indignant we may be at the perpetraagainst any individual.  What possible resent- tion of offenses of a gross quality, there is a feelment can we entertain against the unfortunate  ing that will protect an accused person from the.
prisoner?  What possible interest can we have. influence of malignity in such a situation; but
in his conviction?  What possible object of a  where no traces of this malice are discoverable,
personal nature can we accomplish by his ruin?  where no thirst for blood is seen, where, seeking
For myself, my Lords, I make this solemn assev- for exemplary more than sanguinary justice, an
eration, that I discharge my breast of all malice,  impeachment is brought for high crimes and
hatred, and ill will against the prisoner, if at any  misdemeanors, malice will not be imputed to the
- time indignation at his crimes has planted in it prosecutors if, in illustration of the crimes althese passions; and I believe, my Lords, that I leged, they should adduce every possible circummay with equal truth answer for every one of  stance  in support of their allegations. W,         v
my colleagues.                                     will it not?  Because their ends have nothin(
We are, my Lords, anxious, in stating the  abhorrent to human tenderness.  Because, in
crimes with which he is charged, to keep out of  such a case as the present, for instance, all that
recollection the person of the unfortunate pris- is aimed at in convicting the prisoner is a tenmoner.  In prosecuting him to conviction, we are  porary seclusion from  the society of his counimpelled only by a sincere abhorrence of his  trymen, whose name he has tarnished by his
guilt, and a sanguine hope of remedying future  crimes, and  a deduction  from  the enormous
delinquency.  We can have no private incentive  spoils which he has accumulated by his greedy
to the part we have taken.  We are actuated  rapacity.
singly by the zeal we feel for the public welfare,    I. The only matter which I shall, in this stage




408                               MR. SHERIDAN  AGAINST                                      [1788.
of my inquiry, lay before your Lordships, in order    To these letters what answer shall we return?
Wretched con- to give you an impression of the in- Let it not, my Lords, be by words, Nothing but the
punishment of
dition ofOude, fluence of the crimes on the prisoner  which will not find credit with the the guilty can
and Mr. Hast-                                                                          restore the conings' responsi- over the country in which they were  natives, who have been so often de- redtoe of the 
bility tlerefor. committed, is to refer to some pas- ceived by our professions but by natives.
sages in a letter of the Earl of Cornwallis.'     deeds which will assure them  that we are at
You see, my Lords, that the British govern-  length truly in earnest.  It is only by punishing
ment, which ought to have been a blessing to  those who have been guilty of the delinquencies
the powers in India connected  with  it, has  which have ruined the country, and by showing
proved a scourge to the natives, and the cause  that future criminals will not be encouraged or
of desolation to their most flourishing provinces. countenanced by the ruling powers at home, that
Behold, my Lords, this frightful picture of the  we can possibly gain confidence with the people
consequences of a government of violence and  of India.  This alone will revive their respect
oppression  Surely the condition of wretched- for us, and secure our authority over them.
ness to which this once happy and independent This alone will restore to us the alienated atprince is reduced by our cruelty, and the ruin  tachment of the much-injured Nabob, silence his
which in some way has been brought upon his  clamors, heal his grievances, and remove his discountry, call loudly upon your Lordships to in- trust.  This alone will make him  feel that he
terpose, and to rescue the national honor and  may cherish his people, cultivate his lands, and
reputation from  the infamy to which both will extend the mild hand of parental care over a ferbe exposed, if no investigation be made into the  tile and industrious kingdom, without dreading
causes of their calamities, and no punishment in- that prosperity will entail upon him new rapine
flicted on the authors of them.  By policy as and extortion.  This alone will inspire the Nawell as justice, you are vehemently urged to  bob with confidence in the English government,
vindicate the English character in the East; and the subjects of Oude with confidence in the
for, my Lords, it is manifest that the native  Nabob.  This alone will give to the soil of that
powers have so little reliance on our faith, that delightful country the advantages which it dethe preservation of our possessions in that division  rived from a beneficent Providence, and make it
of the world can only be effected by convincing  again what it was when invaded by an English
the princes that a religious adherence to its en- spoiler, the garden of India.
gagements with them shall hereafter distinguish /  It is in the hope, my Lords, of accomplishing
our India government.                             these salutary ends, of restoring character to England and happiness to India, that we have come
Here Mr. Sheridan read the letter of Lord Corn-          happiness to India, that  e hae 
wallis, then Governor General of India, which stated te bar of this exalted tribunal.
that he had been received by the Nabob Vizier.In looking round for an object fit to be hel4
[Asoph Dowlah] with every mark of friendship and  Out to an oppressed people, and to the  l. Hastings'
respect; but that the attentions of the court of Luck-'world as an example of national just- the real crimnow [the capital of Oude] did not prevent his seeing  ice, we are forced to fix our eyes on
the desolation that overspread the face of the cou    Mr. Hastings.  It is he, my Lords, who has detry, the sight of which had shocked his very soul; thal   raded our fame.and blasted our fortunes in the
he spoke to the Nabob on the subject, and earnestly   
East.  It is he who has tyrannized with relentrecommended to himn to adopt some system of gov-                                                 
errluellt which mgli't restor e tile Sasperity  of hiis ~lqss severity over the devoted natives of those re-~
ernment which might restore the prosperity of his
kingdom and make his people happy; that the de- g-S.  It i he  ho mst aton, as a victim, fou'
graded prince replied to his Lordship, " that as long  the multiplied calamities he has produced!
as the demands of the English government upon the    But though, my Lords, I designate the prisrevenue of Oude should remain unlimited, he, the  oner as a proper subject of exemplary Not to be colNabob, could have no interest in establishing econ- punishment, let it not be presumed oteclivt'
omy, and that, while they continued to interfere in  that I wish to turn the sword ofjust- evidence.
the internal regulations of the country, it would be  ic  against him  merely because some example
in vain for him to attempt any salutary reform; for 
that his subjects knew he was only a cipher in his               S             i    
own dominions, and therefore laughed at and de- heart as it is from equity and law.  Were I not
spised his authority and that of his subjects.    persuaded that it is impossible I should fail to
The revenue of Oude, before its connection with  render the evidence of his crimes as conclusive
the English, exceeded three millions of pounds ster- as the effects of his conduct are confessedly afflictling ayear, and was levied without any deterioration  ing, I should blush at having selected him  as an
of the country. Within a very few years the coun-___                                        __
try was reduced, by the exactions of the Company  to give stability to the British empire in India; but
and its agents, in connection with the misgovern- also observed that, as the princes of that country
ment of the Nabob, to the condition described above  had so frequently had cause to lament the infidelity
by Lord Cornwallis.                               of engagements, it would require time, and repeated
2 To prove the necessity of bringing such a con- proofs of good faith, to convince them of the honesty
viction to the mind of every native prince, Mr. Sher- of the professions thus held out to them; that ambiidan read a letter to Lord Cornwallis from Captain  tion, or a desire of conquest, should no longer be enKirkpatrick, who was resident at the court of the  couraged by British councils, and that a most scrugreat Mahratta chief, Madajee Scindia. This let- pulous adherence to all treaties and engagements
ter stated that the new system of moderation intro- should be the basis of our future political transacduced by his Lordship was certainly the only one  tions.




1788.]              WARREN HASTINGS ON THE BEGUM CHARGE.                                        409
object of retributive justice.  If I invoke this  procured are written by the party himself, or the
heavy penalty on Mr. Hastings, it is because I  participators in his proceedings, who studied, as
honestly believe him to be a flagitious delinquent,  it was their interest, though contrary to their
and by far the most so of all those who have con- duty, to conceal the criminality of their conduct,
tributed to ruin the natives of India and disgrace  and, consequently, to disguise the truth.
the inhabitants of Britain.  But while I call for    But though, my Lords, I dwell on the difficuljustice upon the prisoner, I sincerely desire to  ties which the managers have to encounter with
render him justice.  Itwould indeed distress me, respect to the evidence in this impeachment, I
could I imagine that the weight and consequence  do not solicit indulgence, or even mean to hint,
of the House of Commons, who are a party in  that what we have adduced is in any material
this prosecution, could operate in the slightest degree defective.  Weak no doubt it is in some
degree to his prejudice; but I entertain no such  parts, and deplorable, as undistinguished by any
solicitude or apprehension.  It is the glory of  compunctious visitings of repenting accomplices.
the Constitution under which we live, that no  But there is enough, and enough in sure validity,
man can be punished without guilt, and this  notwithstanding every disadvantage and impediguilt must be publicly demonstrated by a series  ment, to abash the front of guilt no longer hid,
-of clear, legal, manifest evidence, so that noth- and to flash those convictions on the minds of
ing dark, nothing oblique, nothing authoritative, your Lordships, which should be produced.
nothing insidious, shall work to the detriment of    II. I now proceed, my Lords, to re- Examination
the subject.  It is not the peering suspicion of  view the evidence.                      of evidence.
apprehended guilt.  It is not any popular ab-    (1.) The first article which I shall notice
horrence of its wide-spread consequences.  It is must, I think, be considered pretty Mr. IHastings''not the secret consciousness in the bosom of the  strong.  It is the defense, or rather "consistency
judge which can excite the vengeance of the law. the defenses, of the prisoner before the Iouse
and authorize its infliction  No!  In this good  of Commons: for he has already made four:
land, as high as it is happy, because as just as it three of which he has since abandoned and enis free, all is definite, equitable, and exact.  The  deavored to discredit.  I believe it is a novelty
laws must be satisfied before they are incurred; in the history of criminal jurisprudence, that a
and ere a hair of the head can be plucked to the  person accused should first set up a defense, and
ground, legal guilt must be established by legal afterward strive to invalidate it.  But this, cerproof.                                            tainly, has been the course adopted by the prisBut this cautious, circumspect, and guarded  oner; and I am the more surprised at it, as he
Peculiar difi- principle  of English  jurisprudence,  has had the full benefit of the ablest counsel.
culty ofob- which we all so much value and re- Rescued from his own devious guidance, I could
taining evidencein this vere, I feel at present in some degree  hardly have imagined that he would have acted
case.     inconvenient, as it may prove an im- so unwisely or indecently, as to evince his conpediment to public justice; for the managers of  tempt of one House of Parliament by confessing
this impeachment labor under difficulties with  the impositions which he had practiced on the
regard to evidence that can scarcely occur in  other.  But by this extraordinary proceeding,
any other prosecution.  What! my Lords, it he has given, unwarily, to your Lordships a
may perhaps be asked, have none of the consid- pledge of his past trtth, in the acknowledged
erable persons who are sufferers by his crimes  falsehood of his present conduct.
arrived to offer at your Lordships' bar their test-    In every court of law in England, the confesimony, mixed with their execrations against the  sion of a criminal, when not obtained by any
prisoner?  No-there are none.  These suffer- at least, of the victims of Mr. Hastings' policy would
ers are persons whose manners and prejudices  appear in person to convict him of his crimes. Mr.
keep them  separate from  all the world, and  Erskine, on the trial of Stockdale, refers to this fact
whose religion will not permit them to appear in a passage of estraordinary dexterity and force.
oefore your Lordships.  But are there no wit- HHe contrasts the present case with that of Verres,
nesses, unprejudic                thee  no -  in wich hundreds floced frospectaily to Rome, as
ties, ready to come fdorward, from the simpe love  witnesses against their oppressor; but the princes
ties, ready to come forward, from  the simple lovegh suffering a thousandfold  reatof Hindostan, thoughr  suffering a thousandfold greatofjustice, and to give a faithful narrative of the  er oppressions, could not, for reasos hinted at by
er oppressions, could not, for reasons hinted at by
transactions that passed under their eyes?  No-  Mr. Sheridan, be brought fiom the other side of the
there are none.  The witnesses whom we have  globe to confront the author of their ruin. Nearly
been compelled to summon are, for the most part,  all the English residents in India sided with Hastthe emissaries and agents employed, and involved  ings, either because they had shared in the robbery
in these transactions; the wily accomplices of  of India, or because they believed that his extorthe prisoner's guilt, and the supple instruments  tions and cruelties were the only means by which
of his oppressions.  But are there collected no  the British power could have -been maintained in
written  documents or authentic papers, contain- that country. These residents could not, therefore,
written documents or authentic papers, contain- b  e             t c        fw      a  w e     ai
ad p t a t o hs c?  be expected to come forward as witnesses against
ing a true and perfect account of his crimes?  him. It was only, as Mr. Sheridan states, from his
No —there are none.3  The only papers we have  own papers, and the testimony of those who participated in his crimes, that evidence could be obtained;
3 This is finely and truly put. The managers had  and it was proper that the court should be apprised
the severest difficulties to encounter in respect to ev. at the outset of the extreme difficulty under which
idence. It would naturally be expected that some. the Managers labored in regard to evidence.




410                               MR. SHERIDAN  AGAINST                                      [1788.
promise of favor or lenity, or by violent threats, of Commons as truth!  He did not, it seems.
is always admitted as conclusive evidence against himself prepare the defense which he read as
himself.  And if such confession were made be- his own before that body.  He employed others
fore a grave and respectable assembly of per- to draw it up.  Major Scott comes to your bar.
sons competent to take cognizance of crimes, and represents Mr. Hastings, as it were, conthere is no doubt but that it would have due  tractizg for a character, to be made ready to his
weight, because it is fair to presume that it must hands.  Knowing, no doubt, that the accusation
be voluntary, and not procured by any undue or  of the Commons had been drawn up by a comimproper means.  The prisoner has, in his de- mittee, he thought it necessary, as a point of
fense, admitted manay facts; and it is the inten- punctilio, to answer it by a committee also. For
tion of the managers, accordingly, to urge in sup-  himself, he had no knowledge of the facts! no
port of the charges his admission of them. For, recollection of the circumstances!  I-He commits
when he did it, he was speaking the language  his defense wholly to his friends!  He puts his
not of inconsiderate rashness and haste, but of  memory in trust, and duly nominates and appoints
deliberate consideration and reflection, as will commissioners to take charge of it!  One furappear to your Lordships by a passage which I nishes the raw material of fact, the second spins
shall cite from  the introduction to the defense  the argument, and the third twines up the coilr
read by Mr. Hastings himself at the bar of the  elusion; while Mr. Hastings, with a master's eye,
House of Commons.  He employs the following  is cheering them  on, and overlooking the loom.
words: "Of the discouragement to which I al-  To Major Scott he says, "you have my good
lude, I shall mention but two points, and these  faith in your hands-take care of my consistenit is incumbent upon me to mention, because  cy-manage my veracity to the best advantage!"
they relate to effects which the justice of this  " Mr. Middleton, you have my mnemory in comhonorable House may, and I trust will, avert, mission!"   "Mr. Shore, make me out a good
The first is an obligation to my being at all com-  financier!"  "Remember, Mr. Impey, you have
mitted in my defense; since, in so wide a field  my humanity in your hands!'5  When this prod-'
for discussion, it would be impossible not to ad- uct of their skill was done, he brings it to the
mit some things of which an advantage might be  House of Commons, and says, "I was equal to
taken to turn them into evidence against myself, the task.  I knew the difficulties, but I scorned
whereas another might as well use as I could, them: here is the truth, and if the truth tends
or better, the same materials of my defense, to convict me, I am  content myself to be the
without involving me in the same consequences. channel of it."   His friends hold up their heads
But I am  sure the honorable House will yield  and say, " What noble magnanimity! This nuzst
me its protection against the cavils of unwar- be the effect of real innocence!"
ranted inference, and if truth can tend to convict    But this journeyman's work, after all, is found
me, I am  content to be myself the channel to  to be defective.  It is good enough for the House
convey it.  The other objection lies in my own  of Commons, but not for your Lordships.  The
breast.  It was not till Monday last that I form- prisoner now presents himself at your bar, and
ed the resolution, and I knew not then whether  his only apprehension seems to arise from what
I might not, in consequence, be laid under the  had been thus done for him. He exclaims, "I am
obligation of preparing and completing in five  careless of what the managers say or do. Some
days (and in effect so it proved) the refutation  of them have high passions, and others have bitof charges which it has been the labor of my  ter words, but these I heed not.  Save me from
accuser, armed with all the powers of Parlia- the peril of my own panegyric; snatch me from
ment, to compile during as many years of almost my own friends.  Do not believe a syllable of
undisturbed leisure."                             what I said before!  I can not submit now to be
Here, then, my Lords, the prisoner has, upon  tried, as I imprudently challenged, by the acdeliberation, committed his defense to paper; and  count which I have myself given of my own
after having five days to consider whether he  transactions!"   Such is the language of the
should present it or not, he actually delivers it prisoner, by which it appears that truth is not
himself to the House of Commons as one founded  natural to him, but that falsehood comes at his
in truth, and triumphantly remarks, that "if truth  beck.  Truth, indeed, it is said, lies deep, and
could tend to convict him: he was willing to be  requires time and labor to gain; but falsehood
himself the channel to convey it."                 swims on the surface, and is always at hand.
But what is his language iows that he has the    It is in this way, my Lords, that the prisoner
advice of counsel?4  Why, that there is not a  shows you how he sports with the dignity and
word of truth in what he delivered to the House  feelings of the House by asserting; that to be
__-:~  _    __ —-- ~- false, and not entitled to credit this day, which,
Mr. Hastings' counsel told him that he had co- on a former he        a         to be trth itself.
on a former, he had averred to be truth itself.
mitted himself imprudently in some parts of the de-              tis a         an   i
fense which he delivered in at the bar of the House  Ideed fo   this avowal and disavoal of deof Commnons. He, therefore, introduced his fiiend,      The keenness of this satire can be understood
Major Scott, to prove that the paper had been drawn  only by one who has entered fully into the charac.
up by Mr. Middleton, Mr. Shore, and others-that ter of the men here brought forward-the convenMr. Hastings had not even read it through, and  lent elasticity of memory in Middleton, the abanought not, therefore, to be held responsible for its  donment of Impey to every excess of cruelty which
contents.                                         would promote the designs of Hastings, &c.




1788.]              WARREN HASTINGS ON THE BEGUM CHARGE.                                       411
fenses, and from  the present defense differing  ships will find that whatever treasures were
from all the former which have been delivered  given or lodged in a Zenana of this description
to your Lordships, it does seem that Mr. Hast-  must, upon the evidence of the thing itself, be
ings thinks he may pursue this course just as far  placed beyond the reach of resumption.  To
as best suits his convenience or advantage.  It dispute with the counsel about the original right
is not at all improbable, if he should deem  it to those treasures-to talk of a title to them by
expedient, that he will hereafter abandon the  the Mohammedan law!  Their title to them is
one now submitted to you, and excuse himself  the title of a saint to the relics upon an altar,
by saying, "It was not made by me, but by my  placed there by Piety, guarded by holy Supercounsel, and I hope, therefore, your Lordships  stition, and to be snatched from thence only by
will' give no credit to it.",./But if he will abide  Sacrilege.6
by this, his last revised and amended defense, I    What, now, my Lords, do you think of the
will join issue with him upon it, and prove it to  tyranny and savage apathy of a man who could
be in numerous places void of truth, and almost act in open defiance of those prejudices which
every part of it unfounded in argument as well are so interwoven wtth the very existence of the
as fact.                                          females of the East, that they can be removed
(2.) I am now to advert more particularly to  only by death?  What do your Lordships think
Characterofthe the evidence in support of the alle- of the atrocity of a man who could threaten to
heright to te gations of the charge on which the  profane and violate the sanctuary of the prinproperty,  prisoner is arraigned.  We have al- cesses of Oude, by declaring that he would storm
ready shown, most satisfactorily, that the Be- it with his troops, and expel the inhabitants from
gums of Oude were of high birth and distin- it by force?  There is, my Lords, displayed in
guished rank; the elder, or grandmother of the  the whole of this black transaction a wantonness
reigning prince being the daughter of a person  of cruelty and ruffian-like ferocity that, happily,
of ancient and illustrious lineage, and the youn- are not often incident even to the most depraved
ger, or prince's mother, of descent scarcely less  and obdurate of our species.7
noble.  We have also shown, with equal clear-    Had there been in the composition of the prisness, by the testimony of several witnesses, how  oner's heart one generous propensity, or lenient
sacred is the residence of women in India.  To  disposition even slumbering and torpid, it must
menace, therefore, the dwelling of these prin-  have been awakened and animated into kindness
cesses with violation, as the prisoner did, was a  and mercy toward these singularly interesting
species of torture, the cruelty of which can only  females.  Their character, and situation at the
be conceived by those who are conversant with  time, presented every circumstance to disarm
the peculiar customs and notions of the inhabit- hostility, and to kindle the glow of manly symants of Hindostan.                                pathy; but no tender impression could be made
We have nothing in Europe, my Lords. which  on his soul, which is as hard as adamant, and as
Reverence  can give us an idea of the manners of black as sin.  Stable as the everlasting hills in
paid to the  the East.  Your Lordships can not its schemes and purposes of villainy, it has never,hier classes'offermaes even learn the right nature of the peo- once been shaken by the cries of affliction, the
ill India.   ple's feelings and prejudices from any  claims of charity, or the complaints of injustice.
history of other Mohammedan countries-not With steady and undeviating step he marches on
even from  that of the Turks; for they are a  to the consummation of the abominable projects
mean and degraded race in comparison with  of wickedness which are engendered and conmany of these great families, who, inheriting  trived in its gloomy recesses.  What his soul
from their Persian ancestors, preserve a purer prepares his hands are ever ready to execute.
style of prejudice and a loftier superstition.    It is true, my Lords, that the prisoner is conWomen there are not as in Turkey-they nei- spicuously gifted with the energy of vice, and
ther go to the mosque nor to the bath.  It is    6 Mr. Law, one of the counsel for Mr. Hastings, ennot the thin vail alone that hides them; but, in  deavored, in his reply, to throw ridicule on this metthe inmost recesses of their Zenana, they are  aphor, by asking how the Begum could be considered
kept from public view by those reverenced and  a "saint," or how the camels, which formed part of
protected walls, which, as Mr. Hastings and Sir the treasure, could be placed on an "altar."  This
called forth one of iMr. Sheridan's keen retorts.
Elijah Impey admit, are held sacred even by the  "Tlls is the first time in   y life," said he, "rin
ffian hand  ~f  ~'rfare o, the tnole llllcourteot "This is the first time in my life," said he, "in
ruffian hand of warfare, or the more uncourteous  which I ever head of' special pleading' on a metahand of the law.  But, in this situation, they are  phor, or a' bill of indictment' against a trope; but
not confined from a mean and selfish policy of  such is the turn of the learned counsel's mind, that
man, or from a coarse and sensual jealousy.  En-  when he attempts to be humorous, no jest can be
shrined, rather than immured, their habitation and  found, and when serious, no fact is visible."
retreat is a sanctuary, not a prison —their jeal-     Middleton the instrument of Hastings in these
ousy is their o wn-a jealousy of their own hon- cruelties, shows, in a letter of excuse to his master,
or, that leads them to regard liberty as a degra- how sacred the Zenana, or Harem was considered
-,'.,,                among the Hindoos. "; No man," he says, "can endation. and the gaze of even admiring eyes as              t             ana    cly  i   e case o
ter the walls of the Zenana-scarcely in the case of
inexpiable pollution to the purity of their fame  acting against an open enemy."  It will be seen
and the sanctity of their honor.                  hereafter, how this threat was executed, and how
Such being the general opinion (or prejudices, Middleton himself shrunk from its literal performlet them be called) of this country, your Lord- ance.




412                               MR. SHERIDAN  AGAINST                                      [1788.
the firmness of indurated sensibility.  These are  as well as the practice of the Mohammedan law,
the qualities which he assiduously cultivates, and  the reigning prince may alienate and dispose of
of which his friends vauntingly exult. They have, either real or personal property.  And it farther
indeed, procured him his triumphs and his glories,  appears, my Lords, from the testimony which has
Truly, my Lords, they have spread his fame, and  been laid before you, that the younger Begum, or
erected the sombre pyramids of his renown.        the Nabob's [Asoph Dowlah] mother, lent monThat the treasures, my Lords, of the Zenana,  ey to her son, amounting to twenty-six lacs of
the object of the prisoner's rapacity, and the in- rupees, for which she received, as a pledge, his
centive to his sacrilegious violation of this hal- bonds.  Here is the evidentia rei that the money
lowed abode of the princesses of Oude, were  so lent was acknowledged to be hers; for no one
theirprivate property, justly acquired, and legally  borrows his own money and binds himself to resecured, and not the money of the state, as is al- pay it!
leged, has been clearly and incontestably demon-    But, my Lords, let us look into the origin of
strated.  It must be recollected how conclusive  this pretended claim to the Begum's Origin ofthe
was the testimony, both positive and circum- treasures.  We hear nothing  of it cleu rrtet thley
stantial, which we brought to support this point. till the Nabob [Asoph] became em- property.
Believing that it must have pressed itself upon  barrassed by the enormous expense of maintainyour memories, I shall avoid here the tediousness  ing the military establishments to which he was
of a detailed recapitulation.  Permit me, how- compelled by the prisoner.  Then, as a dernier
ever, to call your attention to a very brief sum-  resort, the title to the treasures was set up, as
mary of it.                                       the property of the Crown, which could not be
It is in complete evidence before you that Su- willed away.  This, truly, was the dawn of the
P^rooftlat tie jah ill Dowlah, the husband of the  claim.  Not long afterward, we detect the open
treasures were elder [younger] Begum, entertained8 interference of Mr. Hastings in this fraudulent
tihe private
propertyofthe the warmest affection for his wife, transaction.  It was, indeed, hardly to be exBegun"".   and the liveliest solicitude for her pected that he would permit so favorable an ochappiness.  Endeared  to  him  by the double  casion to escape of indulging his greedy rapaeties of conjugal attachment, and the grateful re- ity.  We find, accordingly, that Mr. Bristow,
membrance of her exemplary conduct toward  the resident at the court of Lucknow [the capital
him in the season of his severest misfortunes and  of Oude], duly received instructions to support,
accumulated distress, he seems, indeed, to have  with all possible dexterity and intrigue, the previewed her with an extravagance of fondness  tensions of the Nabob.  The result of the negobordering on enthusiasm.  You know, my Lords, tiation which in consequence took place, was,
that when the Nabob [Sujah Dowlah] was re- that the mother, as well to relieve the distresses
duced, by the disastrous defeat which he sus- of her son, as to secure a portion of her property,
tained at Buxar, to the utmost extremity of ad- agreed finally to cancel his bond for the twentyverse fortune, she, regardless of the danger and  six lacs of rupees already lent, and to pay him
difficulties of the enterprise, fled to him, for the  thirty additional lacs, or;o300,000, making in
purpose of administering to his misery the solace  the whole o560,000 sterling.  Part of this sum
of tenderness; and, prompted by the noblest sen-  it was stipulated should be paid in goods contiment, took along with her, for his relief, the  tained in the Zenana, which, as they consisted
jewels with which he had enriched her in his  of arms and other implements of war, the Nabob
happier and more prosperous days.  By the sale  alleged to be the property of the state, and reof these he raised a large sum of money, and re- fused to receive in payment.  The point, howtrieved his fortunes.  After this generous and  ever, being referred to the Board at Calcutta,
truly exemplary conduct on her part, the devo-  Mr. Hastings then, it is important to remark,
tion of the husband to the wife knew no bounds. vindicated the right of the Begums to all the
Can any farther proof be required of it than the  goods of the Zenana, and brought Decided by Mr.
appointment of his son, by her [Asoph Dowlah,  over a majority of the council to his Hastitng to belong to the Bethe reigning  Nabob], as the successor to his  opinion.  The matter in dispute be- guns.
throne?  With these dispositions, then, toward  ing thus adjusted, a treaty between the mother
his wife, and from the manifest ascendency which  and son was formally entered into, and to which
she had acquired over him, is it, my Lords, I ask, the English became parties, guaranteeing  its
an unwarrantable presumption that he did devise  faithful execution. In consideration of the money
to her the treasures which she claimed?  On the  paid to him by the mother, the son agreed to requestion of the legal right which the Nabob had  lease all claim to the landed and remaining parts
to make such a bequest I shall not now dwell;  of the personal estate, left by his father And confirm
it having been already shown, beyond disputa- Sujah ul Dowlah to the princess his ed totlhemby
tion, by the learned manager [Mr. Adam] who  widow.  Whatever, therefore, might treaty.
opened the charge, that, according to the theory  have been her title to this property before, her
~s ~~ 8 ~73~* ~. ~S~-~T h           eright, under this treaty and the guarantee, beMr. Sheridan here inadvertently puts " elder"  
for "younger," as is obvious from his subsequent                   a  s       a, as the
statement. The elder Begum was Sujah Dowlah's  las of India, and the laws ofnations, could psmother, and grandmother of the reigning Nabob, sibly make it.
Asoph Dowlab, as stated by Mr. Sheridan on a pre-    But, my Lords, notwithstanding the opinion
ceding page.                                      which Mr. Hastings so strenuously supported in




1788.]              WARREN HASTINGS ON THE BEGUM CHARGE.                                        413
the council at Calcutta of the absolute right of  the complicated wickedness of the transaction.
r. Hastings' the princess to all the property in the  We have already seen the noblest heroism  and
ubterftge to Zenana, yet when it became conven- magnanimity displayed by the mother Begum.
avoid the argument.    ient to his nefarious purposes to dis- It was she, my Lords, you will recollect, who
own it, he, with an effrontery which has no ex- extricated, by the most generous interposition,
ample, declared that this recorded decision be- her husband Sujah Dowlah from  the rigors of
longed not to him, but to the majority of the  his fortune after the fatal battle of Buxar.  She
council!  That, in short, being reduced to an in- even saved her son, the reigning Nabob. from
efficient minority in the council, he did not con- death, at the imminent hazard of her own life.
sider himself as responsible for any of their acts, She, also, as you know, gave to her son his
either of those he opposed or those he approved. throne. iA son so preserved, and so befriended,
My Lords, you are well acquainted with the na- Mr. Hastings did arm against his benefactress,
ture of majorities and minorities; but how shall and his mother.  He invaded the rights of that
I instance this new doctrine?  It is as if Mr. prince, that he might compel him to violate the
Burke, the great leader of this prosecution, laws of nature, and the obligations of gratitude,
should, some ten years hence, revile the mana- by plundering his parent.  Yes, my Lords, it
gers, and commend Mr. Hastings!  What, sir, was the prisoner who cruelly instigated the son
might one of us exclaim  to him, do you, who  against the mother.  That mother, who  had
instigated the inquiry, who brought the charge  twice given life to her son, who had added to it
against him, who impeached him, who convinced  a throne, was (incredible as it may appear), by
me, by your arguments, of his guilt, speak of Mr. the compulsion of that man at your bar, to whose
Hastings in this plausive style?  Oh! but sir, guardianship she was bequeathed by a dying
replies Mr. Burke, this was done in the House  husband-by that man, who is wholly insensible
of Commons, where, at the time, I was one of an  to every obligation which sets bounds to his rainefficient minority, and, consequently, I am  not pacity and his oppression, was she pillaged and
responsible for any measure, either those I op- undone!  But the son was not without his exposed or approved!                                cuse.  In the moment of anguish, when bewaillf, my Lords, at any future period, my honor- ing his hapless condition, he exclaimed that it
able friend should become so lost to truth, to  was the English who had driven him to the perhonor, and consistency, as to speak in this man- petration of such enormities.  " It is they who
ner, what must be the public estimation of his  have reduced me.  They have converted me to
character?  Just such was the conduct of the  their use.  They have made me a slave, to comprisoner in avowing that he did not consider pel me to become a monster."
himself responsible for the measures which he    Let us now, my Lords, turn to the negotia-.
approved while controlled in the council by Gen- tions of Mr. Middleton with the Be- The a.rnntee
eral Clavering, Colonel Monson, and Mr. Fran-  gums in 1778, when the "discon- givenltothe
elder Begum
cis, the only halcyon season that India saw dur- tents of the superior Begum would establishtes er
ing his administration,                           have induced her to leave the coun- ight.
But, my Lords, let it be observed that the  try, unless her authority was sanctioned and her
claims of the Nabob to the treasures  property secured by the guarantee of the ComThe sole pre-                      t
tense or the  of the Begums were,at this time, the  pany."'   This guarantee the counsel of Mr.
claim only plea alleged for the seizure  Hastings have thought it necessary to deny;
pasage of the These were founded on a passage of  knowing that if the agreements with the elder
Koran.
the Koran, which is perpetually quot- Begum were proved, it would affix to their clied, but never proved.  Not a word was then  ent the guilt of all the sufferings of the women
mentioned of the strange rebellion which was  of the Khord Mahal [dwelling of the female relaafterward conjured up. and of which the existence and the notoriety were equally a secret!    o Early in 1778, the elder Begul became so much
a disaffection which was at its height at the  dissatisfied with her grandson's urgency for money,
very moment when the Begums were dispens-    der the pressure of Mr. Hastings, that she medirated a withdrawal firom his dominions,  and a piling their liberality to the Nabob, and exercising  tated a withdrawal fom  is dominions and a pi
7... grimage to Mecca. The English resident at Oude,
the greatest generosity to the English in dis- Mr.  dleton, in common with the Nabob, was optress! a disturbance without its parallel in his-  posed to her departure.  She demanded, as the contory, which was raised by two women, carried  dition ofremaining, that the Board at Calcutta should
on by cunuchs, and finally suppressed by an aff- ^uarantee her property against the exactions of her
davit!9                                          grandson. This property, consisting chiefly of cerNo one, my Lords, can contemplate the seiz- tainjaghies, or grants of revenue, was given her by
Cruelty of com- ure of this treasure, with the attend- her so  Sujah Dowlah, not merely for her own suptellin the Na-   circumstances of aggavation        ort, but that of his numerous female relations, "the
bob to seize. e   t  u                        at women of the Khord Mahal," spoken of below. Mr.
reasures.    without being struck with horror at Middleton represented to the Board at Calcutta that
9 The force of this sarcasm upon Mr. Impey and  her claims were just. Whether a formal guarantee
his affidavits will be better understood when the  was given (as Mr. Sheridan attempts to show), is
reader comes to Mr. Sheridan's examination of  doubtful; still, it is certain, as he proves, that the
Hastings' second pretense for seizing the treasures, property of the Begum in herjaoghires was exemptnamely, that the Begums and their ministers had  ed from taxation by the Board, which was the fullfomented a rebellion against the Nabob.           est admission of her rights.




414                              MR. SHERIDAN  AGAINST                                      [1788.
tives of the Nabob], the revenues for whose sup- his country.  To talk of a free-will gift! It is
port were secured by the same engagement. audacious and ridiculous to name the supposiIn treating this part of the subject, the principal tion.  It was not a free-will gift.  What was it,
difficulty arises from the uncertain evidence of  then?  Was it a bribe?  Or was it extortion?
Mr. Middleton, who, though concerned in the  I shall prove it was both-it was an act of gros.
negotiation of four treaties, could not recollect bribery  and of rank extortion.  The secrecy
affixing his signature to three out of that number! which marked this transaction is not the smallIt can, however, be shown, even by his evidence,  est proof of its criminality.  When Benarunm
that a treaty was signed in October, 1778, where-  Pundit had, a short time before, made a present
in the rights of the elder Begum were fully rec- to the Company of a lac of rupees, Mr. Hastognized; a provision secured for the women and  ings, in his own language, deemed it "worthy
children of the late Vizier in the Khord Mahal; the praise of being recorded."  But in this inand that these engagements received the fullest stance, when ten times that sum was given, neisanction of Mr. Hastings. These facts are, more- ther Mr. Middleton nor the council were acover, confirmed by the evidence of Mr. Purling, quainted with the transaction, until Mr. Hasta gentleman who delivered himself fairly, and as ings, four months afterward, felt himself compellhaving no foul secrets to conceal.  Mr. Purling  ed to write an account of it to England; and the
swears he transmitted copies of these engage-  intelligence  returned thus circuitously to his
ments, in 1780, to Mr. Hastings at Calcutta; the  friends in India!  It is peculiarly observable in
answer returned was, "that, in arranging the  this transaction, how much the distresses of the
taxes of the other districts, he should pass over different parties were at variance.  The first
the jaghires of the Begums."  No notice was  thing Mr. Hastings does is to leave Calcutta in
then taken of any impropriety in the transac- order to go to the relief of the distressed Nabob.
tions in 1778, nor any notice given of an intend-  The second thing is to take one hundred thoued revocation of those engagements.               sand pounds from that distressed Nabob, on acIn June, 1781, however, when General Clav- count of the distressed Company.  The third
Meeting of Hast- ering and Colonel Monson were no  thing is, to ask of the distressed Company this
ings with the Nabob at tCht.ar,  more, and Mr. Francis had return- very same hundred thousand pounds on account
wien thie present ed to Europe, all the hoard and ar- of the distresses of Mr. Hastings!  There never
of ~i00,000 0was
made.        rear of collected evil burst out with- were three distresses that seemed so little reconout restraint, and Mr. Hastings determined on  cilable with one another.  This money, the prishis journey to the Upper Provinces. It was then, oner alleges, was appropriated to the payment
that, without adverting to intermediate transac-  of the army.  But here he is unguardedly contions, he met with the Nabob Asoph Dowlah at tradicted by the testimony of his friend, Major
Chunar, and received from him  the mysterious  Scott, who shows it was employed for no such
present of XS100,000.  To form  a proper idea  purpose.  My Lords, through all these windings
of this transaction, it is only necessary to consid- of mysterious hypocrisy, and of artificial coner the respective situations of him who gave and  cealment, is it not easy to discern the sense of
of him who received this present.  It was not hidden guilt?1
given by the Nabob from  the superflux of his   III. Driven from every other hold, the prisonwealth, nor in the abundance of his esteem  for er is obliged to resort, as a justifica- PleaofState
the man to whom it was presented.  It was, on  tion of his enormities, to the stale pre- Necessity.
the contrary, a prodigal bounty, drawn from  a  text of State Necessity!  Of this last disguise,
country depopulated by the natural progress of  it is my duty to strip him.  I will venture to
British rapacity.  It was after the country had  say, my Lords, that no one instance of real ne
felt still other calamities-it was after the angry  cessity can be adduced.  The necessity which
dispensations of Providence had, with a progress-  the prisoner alleges listens to whispers for the
ive severity of chastisement, visited the land with  purpose of crimination, and deals in rumor to
a famine one year, and with a Colonel Hanney  prove its own existence.  Iis a State Necessity 
the next-it was after he, this Hanney, had re- No, my Lords, that imperial tyrant, State Necesturned to retrace the steps of his former ravages
-it was after he and his voracious crew  had    1 The officers of the East India Company were
com wsato er  ains w his.  hm seiln hd made  forbidden by its laws to receive presents; but Mr.
come to plunder ruins which himself had made %.,
come to plunder ruins which himself had made, Hastings did accept the offered gift from Asoph
and to glean from desolation the little that fam- Dowlah. " The Nabob," says Mr. Mill, " was totally
ine had spared, or rapine overlooked; then it was unprovided with the money; the gift could be tenthat this miserable bankrupt prince, marching  dered only in bills, which were drawn on one of the
through his country, besieged by the clamors of  great bankers of the country. As the intention of
his starving subjects, who cried to him for pro- concealing the transaction should not be imputed to
tection through their cages-meeting the curses  Mr. Hastings unless as far as evidence appears, so
of some of his subjects, and the prayers of oth-in this case the disclosure can not be imputed as a
ers-with famine at his heels, and reproach fol- virtue, since no rudent  an would have risked the
chance of discovery which the publicity of a banklowing him-then it was that this prince is rep-  er's transactions implied. Mr. Hastings informed
resented as exercising this act of prodigal boun- the Directors of what he had received, in a lettcr
ty to the very man whom he here reproaches-  dated January 20, 1782, and in very plain terms reto the very man whose policy had extinguished  quested their permission to make the money his sown."
his power, and whose creatures had desolated  -British India; iv., 409.




1788.]             WARREN HASTINGS ON THE BEGUM  CHARGE.                                   415
sity, is yet a generous despot-bold in his de- Lords, that though their predecessors had exmeanor, rapid in his decisions, though terrible in  hausted his revenue; though they had shaken
his grasp.  What he does, my Lords, he dares  the tree till nothing remained upon its leafless
avow; and avowing, scorns any other justifica- branches, yet that a new flight was upon the
tion, than the high motives that placed the iron  wing to watch the first buddings of its prosperiscepter in his hand.  Even where its rigors are ty, and to nip every promise of future luxuriance.
suffered, its apology is also known; and men  To the demands of the Nabob, Mr. Hastings
learn to consider it in its true light, as a power finally acceded.  The bribe was the price of his
which turns occasionally aside from just govern- acquiescence. But with the usual per- Bad faith of
ment, when its exercise is calculated to prevent fidy of the prisoner, this condition of Mr. Hasti"gs
greater evils than it occasions.  But a quibbling, the treaty never was performed.  You will recprevaricating necessity, which tries to steal a  ollect, my Lords, that Mr. Middleton was asked
pitiful justification from  whispered accusations whether the orders which were pretended to be
and fabricated rumors-no, my Lords, that is no  given for the removal of the English were, in
State Necessity!  Tear off the mask, and you  any instance, carried into effect?  To this quessee coarse, vulgar avarice lurking under the dis- tion he refused at first to answer, as tending to
guise.  The State Necessity of Mr. Hastings is criminate himself.  But when his objection was
a juggle.  It is a being that prowls in the dark. overruled, and it was decided that he should anIt is to be traced in the ravages which it com- swer, so much was he agitated that he lost all
mits, but never in benefits conferred or evils pre- memory.  It turned out, however, by an amendvented.  I can conceive justifiable occasions for ed recollection, that he never received any direct
the exercise even of outrage, where high public  order from Mr. Hastings.  But, my Lords, who
interests demand the sacrifice of private right. can believe that a direct order is necessary when
If. any great man, in bearing the arms of his Mr. Hastings wants the services of Mr. Middlecountry-if any admiral, carrying the vengeance ton?  Rely upon it, a hint is sufficient to this
apd the glory of Britain to distant coasts, should  servile dependent and obsequious parasite.  Mr.
be driven to some rash acts of violence, in order, Hastings has only to turn his eye toward himperhaps, to give food to those who are shedding  that eye at whose scowl princes turn pale-and
their blood for their country-there is a State  his wishes are obeyed.
Necessity in such a case, grand, magnanimous,    But, my Lords, this is not the only instance
and all-commanding, which goes hand in hand  in which the Nabob was duped by the bad faith
with honor, if not with use!  If any great gen- of the prisoner.  In the agreement relative to
eral, defending some fortress, barren, perhaps, the resumption of the jaghires, the prince had
itself, but a pledge of the pride and power of  demanded and obtained leave to resume those of
Britain-if such a man, fixed like an imperial certain individuals; but Mr. Hastings, knowing
eagle on the summit of his rock, should strip its that there were some favorites of the Nabob
sides of the verdure and foliage with which it whom  he could not be brought to dispossess,
might be clothed, while covered on the top with  defeated the permission, without the least regard
that cloud from which he was pouring down his to the existing stipulations to the contrary, by
thunders on the foe-would he be brought by  making the order general.
the House of Commons to your bar?l2  No, my    Such, my Lords, is the conduct of which Mr.
Lords, never would his grateful and admiring  Hastings is capable, not in the moment of cold
countrymen think of questioning actions which, or crafty policy, but in the hour of confidence,
though accompanied by private wrong, yet were  and during the effervescence of his gratitude
warranted by real necessity.  But is the State  for a favor received!  Thus did he betray the
Necessity which is pleaded by the prisoner, in  man  to whose liberality  he stood indebted.
defense of his conduct, of this description?  I Even the gratitude, my Lords, of the prisoner
challenge him to produce a single instance in  seems perilous; for we behold here the danger
which any of his private acts were productive  which actually awaited the return he made to
of public advantage, or averted impending evil. an effusion of generosity!
IV. We come now to the treaty of Chunar,    The fact is, my Lords, as appears from the
Treaty of clu- which preceded the acceptance of the  clearest evidence, that when Mr. Hast- He defends it
ber of tlhe rb- bribe to which we have already allud- ings left Calcutta he had two resources by pretendilg
bery of the Be-                                                                      that the Begumn.      ed.  This transaction, my Lords, had  in view, Benares and Oude.  The first gains lad re
its beginning in corruption, its continuance in  having failed him, in consequence of ed
fraud, and its end in violence.  The first proposi- the unexpected insurrection which terminated,
tion of the Nabob was, that our army should be unhappily for him, in the capture of Bedjigar, he
removed and all the English be recalled from his turned his attention to Oude, previously, however.
dominions.  He declared, to use his own lan- desolating the former province, which he was unguage, that "the English are the bane and ruin  able to pillage, destroying and cutting off the very
of my affairs.  Leave my country to myself, and  sources of life.  Thus frustrated in his original
all will yet be recovered."  He was aware, my  design, the genius of the prisoner, ever fertile in....................       expedients, fixed itself on the treasures of the
12 This glowing picture was no doubt suggested  Begums, and now devised, as an apology for the
oy Sir Gilbert Elliot's noble defense of the Rock of signal act of cruelty and rapacity which he wa.
Gibraltar a few years before.                   meditating, the memorable rebellion; and, to




416                             MR. SHERIDAN  AGAINST                                         [1788
substantiate the participation of these unfortu- he had no recollection beyond the mere "probabilnate princesses in it, he dispatched the Chief  ity;' that they had taken place.  By consulting in
Justice of India to collect materials.l3          this manner what was " probable" and the contraThe conduct of Sir Elijah Impey in this busi- ry; he may certainly have corrected his memory at
Ir. Impey his  ness, with all deference to the pro- times.  I am, at all events, content to accept of
gent forcollect- test which he has entered against this mode of giving his testimony, provided that
being spoken of in a place where the converse of the proposition has also a place;
he can not have the privilege of replying, I do  and that where a circumstance is improbable, a
not think ought to be passed over without ani- similar degree of credit may be subtracted from.
madversion.  Not that I mean to say any thing  the testimony of the witness.  Five times in the
harsh of this elevated character, who was select- House of Commons, and twice in this court, for
ed to bear forth and to administer to India the  instance, has Sir Elijah Impey borne testimony
blessings of English jurisprudence.  I will not that a rebellion was raging at Fyzabad [the
question either his feebleness of memory, or dis- abode of the Begums], at the period of his jourpute in any respect the convenient doctrine  ney to Lucknow  [the residence of the Nabob].
which he has set up in his vindication, "that Yet, on the eighth examination, he contradicted
what he ought to have done it is likely he actu- all the former, and declared that what he meant
ally did perfornm.'  I have always thought, my  was, that the rebellion had been raging, and the
Lords, that the appointment of the Chief Justice  country was then in some degree restored to
to so low and nefarious an office as that in which  quiet.  The reasons he assigned for the former
he was employed is one of the strongest aggra- errors were, that he had forgotten a letter revations of Mr. Hastings' guilt.  That an officer, ceived from  Mr. Hastings, informing him  that
the purity and luster of whose character should  the rebellion was quelled, and that lie had also
be maintained even in the most domestic retire- forgotten his own proposition of traveling through
ment; that he, who, if consulting the dignity of  Fyzabad to Lucknow!  With respect to the letBritish justice, ought to have continued as sta- ter, nothing can be said, as it is not in evidence 
tionary as his court at Calcutta; that such an  but the other observation can scarcely be admitexalted character, I repeat, as the Chief Justice  ted when it is recollected that, in the House of
of India, should have been forced on a circuit of  Commons, Sir Elijah Impey declared that it was
five hundred miles for the purpose of transacting  his proposal to travel through Fyzabad, which
such a business, was a degradation without ex- had originally brought forth the intelligence that
ample, and a deviation from propriety which has  the way was obstructed by the rebellion, and that
no apology.  But, my Lords, this is, in some de- in consequence of it he altered his route and went
gree, a question which is to be abstracted for the  by the way of Illahabad.  But what is yet more
consideration of those who adorn and illumine  singular is, that on his return he again would
the seats of justice in Britain, and the rectitude  have come by the way of Fyzabad, if he had not
of whose deportment precludes the necessity of  been once more informed of the danger; so that,
any farther observation on so opposite a conduct. had it not been for these friendly informations,
The manner, my Lords, in which Sir Elijah  -the Chief Justice would have run plump into the
His apperance Impey  delivered  his evidence  de- very focus of the rebellion!
as witneessbe. serves, also, your attention.  He ad-    These, my Lords, are the pretexts by which
mitted, you will recollect, that, in giv- the fiction of a rebellion was endeavored to be
ing it, he never answered without looking equally  forced on the public credulity; but the trick is
to the probability and thefact in question.  Some- now discovered, and the contriver and the exectimes he allowed circumstances of which he said  uter are alike exposed to the scorn and derision
13 In regard to this pretended rebellion in favor of  of the wold.
Cheyte Sing ofBenares, Mr. Millhas the following re-    There are two circumstances here which are
marks as the result of subsequent impartial investi- worthy of remark.  The first is, that Improbabilgation. "The insurrection at Benares happened on  Sir Elijah Impey, when charged with ities inlis
the 16th of August, and the treaty was signed at Chu- so dangerous a commission as that of tetimony.
nar on the 19th of September. The Begums, who  procuring evidence to prove that the Beoum
had first to hear of the insurrection at Benares [some  had meditated the expulsion of the Nabob from
hundred miles off], and then spread disaffection  te 
throughout a great kingdom, had, therefore, little       one, and the Englsh from Be, twice
time for the contraction of gilt.  And  hatwasthe  intended to pass through the city of their resiproof upon the strength of which the Begums were  dence.  But, my Lords, this giddy chief justice
selected for a singular and aggravated punishment? disregards business.  He wants to see the counNo direct proof whatever. Hardly an attempt is try!  Like some innocent school-boy, he takes
made to prove any thing except a rsumor. Mr. the primrose path, and amuses himself as he goes!
Hastings' friends are produced in great numbers to  He thinks not that his errand is in danoer and
say that they heard a rumor!  But before a just death, and that his party of pleasure endsin loadjudgment can be pronounced, the party accused  ing others with irons.  When at Lucknov, he
should be heard in defense. Was this justice af-         
forded to the Begums? Not a tittle. Mr. Hastings     me ntioso pte      the          Na.  N o
pronounced judgment, and sent his instrument, the  He  too polite.  Nor, from the same courtesy,
Nabob, to inflict punishment, in thefirst place. Some  to Mr. Hastings.  He is, indeed, a master of
time after this was done, he proceeded to collect ev- ceremonies in justice!
idence!"-British India, iv., 380-2.                  When examined, the witness sarcastically re



1788.]              WARREN HASTINGS ON THE BEGUM CHARGE.                                       417
marked " that there must have been a sworn in-  preter, and could also look the satisfaction conterpreter, from the looks of the manager."  How  ceived by the Chief Justice on the occasion, when
I looked, Heaven knows! but such a physiogno- it clearly appears by the evidence that there was
mist there is no escaping.  He sees a sworn in- no interpreter present, are points which I believe
terpreter in my looks!  He sees the manner of  he alone can explain!
taking an oath in my looks!  He sees the Basin    I will concede to the witness, as he seems deof the Ganges in my looks!  As for himself, he  sirous it should be done, that he did not strictly
looks only at the tops and bottoms of affidavits! attend to form when taking these affidavits.  I
In seven years he takes care never to look at will admit that he merely directed the Bible to.these swearings; but when he does examine  be offered to the whites, and the Koran to the
them, he knows less than before!4                blacks, and packed up their depositions in his
The other circumstance, my Lords, to which  wallet without any examination.  Or, I will adI have alluded, is, that it is fair to presume that mit that he glanced them over in India, having
Sir Elijah Impey was dissuaded by Mr. Hast- previously cut off all communication between his.
ings and Middleton from passing by the way of  eye and his mind, so that nothing was transferred
Fyzabad, as they well knew that if he approached  from  the one to the other.  Extraordinary as
the Begums he would be convinced by their re- these circumstances certainly are, I will, never-.
ception of him as the friend of the Governor Gen- theless, admit them all; or if it be preferred by
eral, that nothing could be more foreign from the  the prisoner, I will admit that the affidavits were
truth than their suspected disaffection.  Neither  legally and properly taken; for, in whatever light
should it escape your notice, my Lords, that they may be received, I will prove that they are
while he was taking evidence at Lucknow  in  not sufficient to sustain a single allegation of
the face of day, in support of the charge of re- criminality against those they were designed to
bellion against the princesses, the Chief Justice  inculpate.
heard not a word either from the Nabob or his    But it is to these documents, my Lords, such.
minister, though he frequently conversed with  as they are, that the defense of the prisoner is
both, of any treasonable machinations or plot- principally confided; and on the degree of retings!  Equally unaccountable does it appear, spect which may be given to them by your Lordthat Sir Elijah Impey, who advised the taking  ships does the event of this trial materially de- 
of these affidavits for the safety of the prisoner  pend.
at your bar, did not read them at the time to see    Considered, therefore, in this view, I shall
whether or not they were adequate to this pur- presently solicit your Lordships' atten- Antecedent
pose                                             tion, while I examine them  at some presum.ptions
At length, it seems, he did read the affidavits, length, and with some care.  But be- chalges inthe
affidavits
but not till after having declared on oath that fore I enter into the analysis of the
he thought it unnecessary. To this he acknowl- testimony, permit me to remind the court that
edged he was induced "by having been misled  the charge against the princesses of Oude, to
by one of the managers on the part of the Com- substantiate which these affidavits were taken,
mons, who, by looking at a book which he held  consisted originally of two allegations.  They
in his hand, had entrapped him to own that a  were accused of a euniform spirit of hostility to
sworn interpreter was present when he received  the British government, as well as the overt act
these affidavits, and that he was perfectly satis- of rebellion. But, my Lords, the first part of the
fied with his conduct on the occasion."           charge the counsel for the prisoner has been:
Now, my Lords, how I, by merely looking into  compelled to abandon, not being able to get one,
a book, could intimate the presence of an inter- fact out of the whole farrago of these depositions
A' An examination of the Minutes of Evidence at to support it.
the trial will show that Mr. Sheridan was fully just-    When the half of an accusation is thus desertified in this severe treatment of Impey. The latter ed for the want of proof, is it not natural for us
acknowledged that he went from Benares, where  to suspect the whole?  I do not say that it abthis business was concerted between him and Mr. solutely shows the falsity of it nor do I mean to
Hastings, to Lucknow, the capital of Oude, for the                 a     et    t I         maintn  th
employ such an argument  but I maintain that
express purpose of taking the affidavits, though his it should inuence the mind so fa  as to make
jurisdiction did not extend to the province of Oude.        d               in         a       to  e
"X What the affidavits contained," he says, "I did  it curious and severely iquisitive into the other
not know; nor do I know at present, for I have  branch of the charge, and to render it distrustnever read them." He adds, that " he did not know  ful of its truth.
Iwhether the persons who swvore to them had ever read    But in this particular case the court have an.
them."  At the time of taking the affidavits of the  additional motive for jealousy and suspicion.  It
natives, not so much as a sworn interpreter was will not escape the recollection of your Lordpresent, as  he admitted, though he endeavored to  ships, in weighing the validity of the allegation
turn off the matter with a jest on Mr. Sheridan's           n 
"looks."  See Minutes of Evidence, page 622 to  which nw  remains to be considered, namely,
651. Mr. Mill remarks on this point, "The exam- "that the Begums influenced the jaghiredars,'
ination of Sir Elijah Impey, upon the subject of affi- and excited the discontents in Oude," what were
davits, discloses a curious scene, in which it appears the circumstances in which it arose, and by
that one object alone was in view, namely, that of whom it was preferred.  You will bear in mind,.
getting support to any allegations which Mr. Hastings had set up."-British India, iv., 383.                  15 Persons holding jaghires.
DD




418                              MR. SHERIDAN  AGAINST                                      [1788.
my Lords, that it appears in evidence that Mr.  to assert that they were taken for the purpose
Hastings left Calcutta in the year 1781, for the  of procuring the best possible information of the
avowed purpose of collecting a large sum of mon- state of the country, and of the circumstances
ey, and that he had only two resources.  Failing  of the insurrection; and being, therefore, merely
in Benares, as we have already seen, he next accessary evidence in the present case, were
lays his rapacious hand on the treasures of the  entitled to more weight.  This I declare, withBegums.  Here, then, we have in the person of  out hesitation, to be a falsehood.  They were
the prisoner both the accuser. and the judge. taken, I aver, for the sole and exclusive purpose
With much caution, therefore, should this judge  of vindicating the plunder of the Begums. They
be heard, who has, apparently at least, a profit were taken to justify what was afterward to be
in the conviction, and an interest in the condem- done. Disappointed at Benares, he turned to the
nation of the party to be tried.  I say nothing of  remaining resource, the treasures of the printhe gross turpitude of such a double character, cesses; and prepared, as a pretext for his mednor of the frontless disregard of all those feel- itated robbery, these documents.
ings which revolt at mixing offices so distinct    I shall proceed to examine the affidavits sevand incompatible.                                 erally, as far as they relate to the charge against
The next point which I wish to press on your  the Begums.6  They really contain, my Lords,
Lordships' consideration, previously to my tak- nothing except vague rumor and improbable
ing up the affidavits, is the infinite improbability  surmise.  It is stated, for example, by Mere hear
of the attempt which is alleged to have been  one of these deponents, a black officer saymade by the Begums to dethrone the Nabob  in a regiment of sepoys, that having a considerand exterminate the English.  Estimating the  able number of persons as hostages in a fort
power of the princesses at the highest standard, where he commanded, who were sent thither by
it manifestly was not in their reach to accom- Colonel Hannay, the country people surrounded
plish any overthrow, decisive or even momenta- the fort and demanded their release: but instead
ry, of their sovereign, much less of the English. of complying with their demand, he put twenty
l am  not so weak, however, as to argue that, of these hostages to death; and on a subsequent
because the success of an enterprise seems im- day the heads of eighteen more were struck ofl;
possible, and no adequate reason can be assigned  including the head of a great Rajah.  In consefor undertaking it, that it will therefore never be  quence of this last execution, the populace beattempted; or that, because the Begums had no  came exceedingly exasperated, and among the
interest in exciting a rebellion, or sufficient pros- crowd several persons were heard to say, that
pect of succeeding in it, they are innocent of the  the Begums had offered a reward of a thousand
charge.  I can not look at the prisoner without rupees for the head of every European; one
Lknowing, and being compelled to confess that hundred for the head of every sepoy officer, and:there are persons of such a turn of mind as to  ten for the head of a common sepoy. Now, my;prosecute mischief without interest; and that Lords, it appears pretty clearly that no such re-.there are passions of the human soul which lead, ward was ever offered; for, when this garrison,without a motive, to the perpetration of crimes. evacuated the fort, the people told Captain Gor-, do not, therefore, my Lords, wish it to be  don; who then commanded it, that if he would
understood that I am contending that the charge  deliver up his arms and baggage, they would
is rendered, by the matter I have stated, abso- permit him and his men to continue their march
lutely false.  All I mean is, that an accusation, unmolested.  So little did the people, indeed.
made under such circumstances, should be re- think of enriching themselves by this process of
ceived with much doubt and circumspection;  decapitation, that, when the detachment of Britand that your Lordships, remembering how it is ish forces was reduced to ten men, and when of
preferred, will accompany me through the dis- course the slaughter of them would have been:cussion of. the affidavits, free and uninfluenced by  a work of no danger or difficulty, they were still
any bias derived from  the positive manner in  permitted to proceed on their route without any
which the guilt of the Begums has been pro- interruption.:nounced.                                            Captain Gordon himself supposes that the BeWe now come to the examination of this mass          We preten         ye   t 
minof evidence which Mr. Hastings conceives    6   W     retend  ot  says the eporte  to give
Examsna-                                         more than a mere summary, anid that a very brief
tionofthe of so much consequence to his acquittal one, of this part of Mr.    ida's speech. In the
on the present charge.  In the defense  discussion of these affidavits he was very copious,
which has been submitted to your Lordships, reading, comparing, and commenting on the whole
the prisoner complains.most bitterly that the  with an uncommon degree of force, acuteness, and
chief mover of the prosecution treated these af- eloquence; sometimes employing too the severest
fidavits in his peceuliar:  m     tXr. What the pecel- sarcasm, and wit the most pungent and brilliant.
i    ir manner of my honorable friend  [Mr. Burke],   Speaking of the testimony of one of the officers of
here alluded to, was,, I can not tell.  But I will the army, who had given three affidavits in the salme
here alluded to, was,. I can:.not tell.  But I will
day, he observed'that he had sworn once-then
say, that if he treated them in any other way  again-and made nothing of it; then comes he with
than as the most rash, irregular, and irrelevant another and swears a third time, and in compaeny
testimony which was ever.hrpught before a ju- does better. Single-handed, he can do nothing;
dicial tribunal, he did not do as they deserved. but succeeds by platoon sweearing, and volleys of
The prisoner has had, moreover, the hardihood  oaths!'"




1788.]            tWARREN HASTINGS ON THE BEGUM  CHARGE.                                    419
gums encouraged the country people to rise, be-  wilds; of having seen tigers and other prowling
cause when he arrived at the bank of the  monsters of the forest; of having surveyed
River Saunda Nutta, at the opposite side  mountains, and navigated streams; of having
of which stands the town of Nutta, the Fowzdar, been entertained in palaces and menaced with
or Governor, who commanded there for the Bow  dungeons; of having heard a number of rumors,
[younger] Begum, in whose jaghire the town  but that he never saw any rebellious or hostile
lay, did not instantly send boats to carry him  appearances.
and his men over the river; and because the    Such, my Lords, are the contents of these
Fowzdar [governor] pointed two or three guns  memorable depositions, on which the prisoner reacross the river. Even admitting this statement lies as a vindication of an act of the most transto be true, I can not see how it is to affect the  cendent rapacity and injustice of which there is
Begums.  Where is the symptom of hostility?  any record or tradition.
Surely it was the duty of the commanding offi-    I know, my Lords, that if I were in a court of
cer of the fort not to let any troops pass until he  law, sitting merely to try the question of the vaascertained who they were, and for what pur- lidity of this testimony, to rise in order to compose they came. To have done otherwise would  ment upon it, I should be prevented from prohave been unmilitary, and a violation of the most ceeding. By the bench I should be asked, " What
sacred duties of his station.  But, my Lords, do you mean to do?  There is nothing in these
after a while Captain Gordon crosses the river, affidavits upon which we can permit you for a
and finds himself in a place of safety as soon as minute to occupy the time of the court.  There
he enters a town which was under the authority  is not, from the beginning to the end, one particle
of the Begums, where he was treated with kind- of legal, substantial, or even defensible proof.
ness, and afterward sent with a protecting guard  There is nothing except hearsay and rumor."
to Colonel Hannay.  This last circumstance, But though, my Lords, I am persuaded that such
which is mentioned in the first affidavit of Cap- would be the admonition which I should receive
tain Gordon, is suppressed in the second, for from the court, yet, being exceedingly anxious
what purpose it is obvious.  But let us attend  to meet every thing at your Lordships' bar on
to the testimony of Hyder Beg Cawn, who, as  which the prisoner can build the smallest degree
the minister of the Nabob, was the person, cer- of dependence, I must pray your indulgence
tainly, of all others, the best acquainted with  while I examine separately the points which are
the transactions then passing in the country. attempted to be set up by these affidavits.
Though with every source of intelligence open    They are three in number:
to him, and swearing both to rumor and to fact,    1. That the Begums gave assist-    astin
he does not mention a syllable in proof of the  ance to Cheyte Sing, Rajah of Ben-,charges agaist
pretended rebellion, which was to dethrone his ares.                                  tle Begum.
sovereign, nor even hint at any thing of the kind.    2. That they encouraged and assisted the jagNeither, my Lords, is the evidence of the En- hiredars to resist the resumption of the jaghires.
no. glish officers more conclusive.  That of And,
Mr. Middleton, which has been so much    3. That.they were the principal movers of all
relied upon, contains but a single passage which  the commotions in Oude.
is at all pertinent, and this is not legal evi-    These, my Lords, are the three allegations
dence.  He says, " there was a general report that the affidavits are to sustain, and which are
that the Begums had given much encourage- accompanied with the general charge that the
ment and some aid to the jaghiredars in resisting  Begums were in rebellion.
the resumption, and that he had heard there had    (1.) Of the rebellion here pretended, I can
been a good disposition in them toward the Ra- not, my Lords, find a trace.  With the (i.) charge
jah Cheyte Sing. His evidence is mere hearsay. care and indefatigable industry of an an- o rebelion.
He knows nothing of himself. He saw no insur- tiquary, hunting for some precious vestige which
rection. He met with no unfriendly dispositions. is to decide the truth of his speculations, have I
But on the mere rumors which he had stated  searched for the evidence of it.  Though we
did this conscientious servant of Mr. Hastings  have heard it spoken of with as much certainty
with promptitude execute the scheme of plunder as the one which happened in Scotland in the
which his master had devised.                   year 1745, not the slightest appearance of it can
The testimony of Colonel Hannay is of the  I discover.  I am unable to ascertain either the
same description.  He simply states that "three  time when, or the place where it raged.  No
Zimindars told him that they were credibly in- army has been seen to collect; no battle to be
formed that the Begums had a hostile design  fought; no blood to be spilt.  It was a rebellion
against the Nabob.. When asked who these  which had for its object the destruction of no
Zemindars were, he replied that he was not at human: creature but those who planned it-it
liberty to disclose their names.  They had made  was a rebellion which, according to Mr. Middlethe communication to him under an express in- ton's expression, no man, either horse or foot,
junction of secrecy, which he could not violate  ever marched to quell!  The Chief Justice was
There is also the deposition of a Frenchman, the only one who took the field against it.  The
which is drawn up quite in the style of magnifi- force against w'hich it was raised instantly withcence and glitter which belongs to his nation. drew to give it elbow-room; and even then, it
He talks of having penetrated immeasurable  was a rebellion which perversely showed itself




420                              MR. SHERIDAN AGAINST                                     [1788
in acts of hospitality to the Nabob whom it was  great equipage, and that it would be considered
to dethrone, and to the English whom it was to  an unpardonable disrespect to the person visited
extirpate!  Beginning in nothing, it continued  were they to come unescorted." This, my Lords,
without raging, and ended as it originated!      is really the truth.  The Indian princes never
If, my Lords, rebellions of this mysterious perform  a journey without a splendid retinue.
nature can happen, it is time to look about us. The habits of the East require ostentation and
Who can say that one does not now exist which  parade.  They do not, as the princes of Europe
menaces our safety?> Perhaps at the very mo- -who, sometimes from  one motive and sonmement I am speaking one ravages our city! Per- times from another, at times from political views
haps it may be lying perdue in a neighboring vil- and at times from  curiosity, travel, some to
lage!  Perhaps, like the ostentatious encamp-  France to learn manners, and others to England
ment which has given celebrity to Brentford and  to learn liberty-choose to be relieved from the
Ealing, it may have fixed its quarters at Ham- pomps of state and the drudgery of equipage.
mersmith or Islington, ready to pour down its  But, my Lords, perhaps, in this instance, the Naviolence at the approach of night!               bob, wishing to adapt himself to the service on
But, my Lords, let us endeavor to fix the time  which he was going, did dispense with his usual
when this horrid rebellion occurred.  To the  style.  Hearing of a rebellion without an army,
first of August, 1781, it is clear there was none. he may have thought that it could only, with
At this date letters were received from  Colo- propriety, be attacked by a prince without a
nel Morgan, the commanding officer of Oude, guard!
who is silent on the subject.  On the 27th of    It has also been contended, my Lords, in proof
September, he gives an account of some insur- of this rebellion, that one thousand Nudgies were
rections at Lucknow, the seat of the court, but raised at Fyzabad and sent to the assistance of
of none at Fyzabad, where the Begums resided. Cheyte Sing.
Nearly of the same date there is a letter from     It is deemed a matter of no consequence that
Major Hannay, then at the Rajah's court, in  the officer second in command to the Rajal
which the state of his affairs are described, but [Cheyte Sing], has positively sworn that these
no suspicion expressed of his being assisted by  troops came from Lucknow, and not from Fyzathe Begums.                                      bad.l8  This the prisoner wishes to have conAt this time, therefore, there was certainly no  sidered as only the trifling mistake of the name
rebellion or disaffection displayed. Nay, we find, of one capital for another.  But he has found it
on the contrary, the Nabob going to visit his more difficult to get over the fact which has
mother, the very princess who is charged with  been attested by the same witness, that the
revolting against his authority.  But, my Lords, troops were of a different description from those
it is alleged that he was attended by two thou- in the service of the Begums, being matchlock,
sand horse, and the inference is drawn by the  and not swords men.  It is, therefore, manifest
counsel of the prisoner that he took this military  that the troops were not furnished by the prinforce to quell the insurrection; to confirm which  cesses, and it seems highly probable that they
they appealed to Mr. Middleton, who, being ask- did come fiom  Lucknow; not that they were
ed whether these troops were well appointed, sent by the Nabob, but by some of the powerful
caught in an instant a gleam of martial memo- jaghiredars who have uniformly avowed an averry,17 and answered in the affirmative.- Unfor- sion to the English.
tunately, however, for the martial memory of Mr.   It has been more than once mentioned, by some
Middleton, it is stated by Captain Edwards, who  of the witnesses, my Lords, that Sabid Ally, the
was with the Nabob as his aid-de-camp, that younger son of the Bow [younger] Begum, was
there were not more than five or six hundred  deeply and criminally concerned in these transhorse, and these so bad and miserably equipped  actions.  Why was he, therefore, permitted to
that they were unable to keep up with him, so  escape with impunity?  To this question Sir
that very few were near his person or within  Elijah Impey gave a very satisfactory answer,
the reach of his command.  That of these few, when he informed us that the young man was
the most were mutinous from being ill paid, and  miserably poor, and a bankrupt.  Here is a com-,.
were rather disposed to promote than put down  plete solution of the enigma.  There never enany insurrection. But, my Lords, I will concede  ters into the mind of Mr. Hastings a suspicion
to the prisoner the full amount of military force  of treason where there is no treasure!  Sabid.
for which he anxiously contends.  I will allow  Ally found, therefore, protection in his poverty,
the whole two thousand cavalry to enter in a  and safety in his insolvency.  My Lords, the
gallop into the very city of Fyzabad.  For, has political sagacity of Mr. Hastings exhibits the
not Captain Edwards proved that they were only  converse of the doctrine which the experience
the usual guard of the Nabob?  Has not, more- of history has established.  Hitherto it has genover, Mr. Middleton himself declared, rather in- erally been deemed that the possession of propdiscreetly, I confess, "that it is the constant erty attaches a person to the country which concustom of the princes of India to travel with a  tains it, and makes him cautious how he hazards
~ ___ __._-__ ~ _~_    any enterprise which might be productive of in-'7 This alludes to Mr. Middleton having declared,..
on a former occasion, that he had no memory for   18 That is, they came from the residence of the
military afaivs. iNabob, not of the Begums.




I7?I.J               WARREN HASTINGS ON THE BEGUM CHARGE.                                      421
novation, or draw upon him the suspicion or dis- if the princesses wished to strike a blow'against
pleasure of government; and that, on the con-  the English, they might have done it with suctrary, the needy, having no permanent stake, are  cess.  This man, whose life was thus preserved,
always desperate, and easily seduced into com- and who, in the first burst of the natural feelings
motions which promise any change; but, my  of his heart, poured forth his grateful acknowlLords, the prisoner, inverting this doctrine, has, edgments of the obligation, afterward became the
in the true spirit of rapacity and speculation  instrument of the destruction of his protectress.
which belongs to him, never failed to recognize  I will produce the letter wherein he thanks her
loyalty in want, and to discern treason in wealth!  for her interference, and confesses that he owes
Allow me now, my Lords, to lay before you  his life to her bounty.20
Proofs o   some of those proofs which we have    It has been asked, with an air of some trihie Begum's collected of the steady friendship and  umph, why Captain Gordon was not called to
good dispositions of the Begums, to the  the bar?  Why call him  to the bar?  Would
English interests.  I have in my hands a letter he not, as he has done in his affidavit, suppress
from one of them, which I will read, complain-  the portion of testimony we require?  I trust
ing of the cruel and unjust suspicions that were  that he may never be brought to swear in this
entertained of her fidelity.'9   Your Lordships  case till he becomes sensible of his guilt, and
must perceive the extraordinary energy which  feels an ardent, contrite zeal to do justice to his
the plain and simple language of truth gives to  benefactress, and to render her the most ample
her representations.  Her complaints are elo- atonement for the injuries which she has susquence; her supplications, persuasion; her re- tained by his ingratitude and wickedness.  The
monstrances, conviction.                           conduct of Captain Gordon, in this instance, is
I call, moreover, the attention of the court to  so astonishingly depraved, that I confess I am
case of cap- the interference of the Bow [younger]  in some degree disposed to incredulity.  I can
tain Gordon.  Begum  in behalf of Captain Gordon, scarcely believe it possible that, after having reby which his life was saved, at a moment when, peatedly acknowledged that he owed his life and
19 The following is the letter: "The disturbances liberty to herbeneficent hand, he could so far
of Colonel Hannay and Mr. G-ordon were made a  forget these obligations as spontaneously, and of
pretense for seizing my jaghire. The state of the  his own free will, to come forward, and expend
matter is this: When Colonel Hannay was by Mr. a part of that breath which she had preserved, in
Hastings ordered to march to Benares, during the  anaffidavit by which her ruin was to be effected!
troubles of Cheyte Sing, the Colonel, who had plun- My knowledge of the human heart will hardly
dered the whole country, was incapable of proceed- permit me to think that any rational being could
ingffrom the union qf thousands of Zenzindars, wzho deliberately commit an act of such wanton atrochad seized this favorable opportunity. They  ar-it.  I must imaine that there has been some
assed Mr. Gordon near Junivard, and the Zemin-         ^
dars of that place and Acherpore opposed his mar   scandlous deception; that, led on by Mr. Midfroml thence, till he arrived near Saunda. As the  dleton, he made his deposition, ignorant to what
Saunda Nutta, from its overflowing, was difficult to  purpose it would be applied.  Every feeling of
cross without a boat, Mr. Gordon sent to the Fouz- humanity recoils at the transaction viewed in
dar (Governor) to supply him. He replied, that the  any other light.  It is incredible, that any intelboats were all in the river, but would assist him, ac- ligent person could be capable of standing up in
cording to orders, as soon as possible. Mr. Gordon's  the presence ofGod, and of exclaiming, " To you,
situation would not admit of his waiting; he forded  my benevolent friend, the breath  I  now draw
the Nutta upon his elephant, and was hospitably       t to Heaven,                e          ne 
next to Heaven, I owe to you.  My existence is
received and entertained by the Fouzdar for six                                                  i
days. In the mean time, a letter was received by  an emanation from your bounty.  I am indebted
me from Colonel Hannay, desiling me to escort Mr. to you beyond all possibility of return, and thereGordon to Fyzabad. As my friendship for the En- fore my gratitude shall be your destruzction!"
glish was always sincere, I readily complied, and    If, my Lords, if I am right in my conjecture,
sent some companies of Nejeebs to escort Mr. Gor- that Captain Gordon was thus seduced into the
don and all his effects to Fyzabad; where, having  overthrow of his benefactress, I hope he will preprovided for his entertainment, I effected his junc- sent himself at your bar, and, by stating the imtion with Colonel Hannay. The letters of thanks re-                                         
ceived from both these gentlemen, upon this occa-  osiin  ch           act d uon hi, vidite
sion, are still in my possession, copies of which I    wn chacte  and that of human nature, from
gave in charge to Major Gilpin, to be delivered to  this foul imputation.
Mr. Middleton, that he might forward them to the    20 Mr. Sheridan read the following letter of Colonel
Governor General. To be brief, those who have  Gordon: "Begum Saib, of exalted dignity and genloaded me with accusations are now clearly con- erosity, &c., whom God preserve."
victed offalsehood; but is it not extraordinary that,   After presenting the usual compliments of servinotwithstanding the justness of my cause, nobody  tude, &c., in the customary manner, my address is
relieves my misfortunes! My prayers have been  presented. "Your gracious letter, in answer to the
constantly offered to Heaven for your arrival. Re- petition of your servant from Goondah, exalted me.
port has announced it, for which reason I have taken  From the contents I became unspeakably impressed
up the pen, and request you will not place implicit with the honor it conferred. May the Almighty proconfidence in my accusers, but, weighing inl the scale  tect that royal purity, and bestow  happiness, inof justice their falsehood and mny representations, crease of wealth, and prosperity.  The welfare of
you will exert your influence in putting a period to  your servant is entirely owing to your favor and bethe misfortunes with which I am overwhelmed."    nevolence, -c., -c."




422                              MR. SHERIDAN AGAINST                                   [1788.
The'original letters which passed on this oc- In a letter to the council, which is on record, he
casion between Captain Gordon and the Begum  confesses that, from  the 22d of August to the
were transmitted by her to Mr. Middleton, for 22d of September, he was confined in a situation
the purpose of being shown to the Governor of the utmost hazard; that his safety during this
General.  These letters Mr. Middleton endeav- period was exceedingly precarious, and that the
ored to conceal. His letter-book, into which they  affairs of the English were generally thought to
were transcribed, is despoiled of those leaves be unfavorable in the extreme.  In his defense,
which contained them.  When questioned about however, Mr. Hastings has forgotten entirely
them, he said that he had deposited Persian copies these admissions.  It certainly appears that the
of the letters in the office at Lucknow, and that princesses demonstrated the firmness of their
he did not bring translations of them with him to  attachment to the British; not in the season of
Calcutta, because he left the former city the very  prosperity or triumph; not from the impulse of
next day after receiving the originals; but, my  fear, nor the prospect of future protection; but
Lords, I will boldly assert that this pretext is a  that they, with a magnanimity almost unexamblack and barefaced perjury.  It can be proved  pled, came forward at a moment when the hoard
that Middleton received the letters at least a  of collected vengeance was about to burst over
month before he departed from Lucknow.  He  our heads; when the measure of European guilt
left that city on the 17th of October, and he re- in India was completely filled by the oppressions
ceived them on the 20th of the preceding month. which had just been exercised on the unfortuWell aware that by these documents the purity  nate Cheyte Sing  and when offended Heaven
of the Begum's intentions would be made mani- seemed, at last, to interfere to change the meek
fest; that, while accused of disaffection, their at- dispositions of the natives, to awaken their retachment was fully displayed, he, as their pun- sentment, and to inspirit their revenge.
ishment was predetermined, found it necessary to    (2.) On the second allegation, my Lords, namesuppress the testimonials of their innocence; but, ly, "that the Begums encouraged and (2.) Charge of
my Lords, these letters, covered as they were by  aided the jaghiredars," I do not think Jdug,the
every artifice which the vilest ingenuity could de- it necessary to say much.  It is evi- to resist.
vise to hide them, have been discovered, and are  dent, from the letters of Mr. Middleton, that no
now bared to view by the aid of that Power to  such aid was required to awaken resentments,
whom all creation must bend-to whom nothing, which must, indeed, unavoidably have arisen from
in the whole system of thought or action, is im- the nature of an affair in which so many powerpossible; who can invigorate the arm of infancy  ful interests were involved.  The jaghires dewith a giant's nerve; who can bring light out of  pending were of an immense amount, and as
darkness, and good out of evil; can view the con- their owners, by the resumption of them, would
fines of hidden mischief, and drag forth each lin- be at once reduced to poverty and distress, they
ister of guilt from amid his deeds of darkness and  wanted surely no new instigation to resistance.
disaster, reluctant, alas! and unrepenting, to ex- It is ridiculous to attempt to impute to the Beemplify, at least, if not atone, and to qualify any  gums, without a shadow of proof, the inspiring
casual sufferings of innocence by the final doom  of sentiments which must inevitably have been
of its opposite; to prove there are the never fail- excited in the breast of every jaghiredar by the
ing corrections of God, to make straight the ob- contemplation of the injury and injustice which
liquity of man!                                 were intended to be done him.  Reluctant to
My Lords, the prisoner, in his defense, has as- waste the time of the court, I will dismiss the
cribed the benevolent interposition of the Begumn  discussion of this charge by appealing to your
in favor of Captain Gordon to her knowledge of Lordships individually to determine, whether, on
the successes of the English.  This is an impu- a proposal being made to confiscate your several
tation as ungenerous as it is false.  The only  estates (and the cases are precisely analogous),
success which the British troops met with at this  the incitements of any two ladies of this kingdom
time was that of Colonel Blair, on the third of  would be at all required to kindle your resentSeptember; but he himself acknowledged, that ments and to rouse you to opposition?
another victory gained at such a loss would be    (3.) The commotions, my Lords, which preequal to a defeat.  The reports that were cir- vailed in Oude have also been attrib- (3) Clarge o
culated throughout the country, so far from be- uted to the Begums, and constitute exciting coning calculated to strike the princesses with awe the third and remnaining  allegation Ouie. These
of the English, were entirely the reverse. These  against them    But these disorders I Englishrapac
were, that Mr. Hastings had been slain at Be- confidently aver, were, on the contra- i
nares, and that the English had sustained the  ry, the work of the English,  hich I will show
most disastrous defeats.2'                      by the most incontestible evidence.)
But, my Lords, to remove every doubt from       They were produced by their rapacity and
your minds, I will recur to what never fails me  violence, and not by the "perfidious artifices" of
-the evidence of the prisoner against himself, these old women.) To drain the province of its
21 This alludes to the reports which went abroad  money, every species of cruelty, of extortion, of
after the rising of the people of Benares in favor of rapine of stealth  was employed by the emissatheir Rajah Cheyte Sing against Mr. Hastings. He  ries of Mr. Hastings.  The Nabob perceived
was, as stated in the next paragraph, in a situation  the growing discontents among the people, and,
of extreme hazard for a month after that event.    alarmed at the consequences, endeavored, by the




1788.]              WARREN HASTINGS ON THE BEGUM CHARGE.                                        423
strongest representations, to rid his devoted coun- abroad, and, with malice and mortal enmity to
try of the oppressions of its invaders, and partic- man, withered by the grasp  of death  every
ularly from  the vulture grasp of Colonel Han- growth of nature and humanity, all means of
nay; swearing by Mohammed that if " this tyrant delight, and each original, simple principle of
were not removed he would quit the province,"  bare ex'istence?" the answer would have been,
as a residence in it was no longer to be en- not one of these causes!  No wars have ravdured.2   Thus this mild people suffered for a  aged these lands and depopulated these villages!
while in barren anguish and ineffectual bewail-  No desolating foreign foe! No domestic broils 
ings.  At length, however, in their meek bo- No disputed succession!  No religious, supersoms, where injury never before begot resent- serviceable zeal!  No poisonous monster!  No
ment, nor despair aroused to courage, increased  affliction of Providence, which, while it scourged
oppression had its effect.  They determined on  us, cut off the sources of resuscitation!  No!
resistance.  They collected round their implaca-  This damp of death is the mere effusion of Britble foe [Colonel Hannay], and had nearly sacri- ish amity! We sink under the pressure of their
ficed him.  So deeply were they impressed with  support!  We writhe under their perfidious
the sense of their wrongs, that they would not gripe! They have embraced us with their proeven accept of life from their oppressors.  They  tecting arms, and lo! these are the fruits of their
threw  themselves upon the swords of the sol- alliance!
diery, and sought death as the only termination      What then, my Lords, shall we bear to be told
of their sorrows and persecutions.  Of a people  that, under such circumstances, the exasperated
thus injured and thus feeling, it is an audacious  feelings of a whole people, thus spurred on to
fallacy to attribute their conduct to any external clamor and resistance, were excited by the poor
impulse.  My Lords, the true cause of it is to  and feeble influence of the Begums? K After
be traced to the first-born principles of man.  It hearing the description given by an eye-witness
grows with his growth; it strengthens with his  [Colonel Naylor, successor of Hannay]23 of the
strength.  It teaches him to understand; it en- paroxysm of fever and delirium  into which deables him to feel.  For where there is human  spair threw  the natives when on the banks of
fate, can there be a penury of human feeling?  the polluted Ganges, panting for breath, they
Where there is injury, will there not be resent- tore more widely open the lips of their gaping
ment?  Is not despair to be followed by cour- wounds, to accelerate their dissolution; and while
age?  The God of battles pervades and pene- their blood was issuing, presented their ghastly
trates the inmost spirit of man, and; rousing him  eyes to heaven, breathing their last and fervent
to shake off the burden that is grievous, and the  prayer that the dry earth might not be suffered
yoke that is galling, reveals the law written on  to drink their blood, but that it might rise up to
his heart, and the duties and privileges of his  the throne of God, and rouse the eternal Provinature.                                           dence to avenge the wrongs of their countryIf, my Lords, a stranger had at this time en-  will it be said that all this was brought about by
Desolation tered the province of Oude, ignorant of  the incantations of these Begums in their secludof aude; its what had happened since the death of  ed Zenanat or that they could inspire this eneffects.    Sujah Dowlah-that prince who with a  thusiasm and this despair into the breasts of a
savage heart had still great lines of character, people who felt no grievance, and had suffered
and who, with all his ferocity in war, had, with  no torture? What motive, then, could have such..a cultivating hand, preserved to his country the  influence in their bosom?  What motive! That
wealth which it derived from benignant skies and  which nature, the common parent, plants in the
a prolific soil-if, observing the wide and gen- bosom of man; and which, though it may be less
eral devastation of fields unclothed and brown; active in the Indian than in the Englishman, is
of vegetation burned up and extinguished; of  still congenial with, and makes a part of his bevillages depopulated and in ruin; of temples un- ing. That feeling which tells him that man was
roofed and perishing; of reservoirs broken down  never made to be the property of man; but that,
and dry, this stranger should ask, " what has  when in the pride and insolence of power, one huthus laid waste this beautiful and opulent land; man creature dares to tyrannize over another, it is
what monstrous madness has ravaged with wide-  a power usurped, and resistance is a duty. That
spread war; what desolating foreign foe; what principle which tells him that resistance to powcivil discords; what disputed succession; what er usurped is not merely a duty which he owes
religious zeal i what fabled monster has stalked  to himself and to his neighbor, but a duty which
- ~-~_____________ _-~~ ~   he owes to his God, in asserting and maintain22 When Colonel Hannay entered the service of  ing the rank which he gave him in his creation.
the Nabob, being sent there by Hastings with Brit- That principle which neither the rudeness of igish troops, he was a man in debt. He was de- norance can stifle, nor the enervation of refinescribed by one of the witnesses as "involved in       nt extinuish    That principle which   akes
his circumstances."  At the end of three years,                                     e w      
he was understood to have realized a fortune of  it base for a mato suffer  hen he ought to act
three hundred thousand pounds sterlizg! See Min- which, tending to preserve to the species the
utes of Evidence, p. 390, 391. It is not wonderful   23 This is the most graphic and powerful descripthat such a man should have awakened the resist- tion to be found in the speeches of Mr. Sheridan. It
ance so eloquently described in this and the next is almost entirely fiee from those "faults of taste"
paragraph.                                         which were so common in his most labored passages.




424                               MR. SHERI'DAN  AGAINST                                      [1788.
original designations of Providence, spurns at the  proceedings.  He was here only repeating the
arrogant distinctions of man, and indicates the  experiment which he so successfully performed
independent quality of his race.!                 in the case of Cheyte Sing.  Even when disapI trust, now, that your Lordships can feel no  pointed in those views by the natural meekness
Mr. Hastings hesitation in acquitting the unfortu- and submission of the princesses, he could not
never belieel nate princessesofthisallegation.  But relinquish the scheme, and hence, in his letter
be uilty.    though the innocence of the Begums  to the court of Directors January 5th, 1782, he
may be confessed, it does not necessarily follow, represents the subsequent disturbances in Oude
I am ready to allow, that the prisoner must be  as the cause of the violent measures he had
guilty. There is a possibility that he might have  adopted two months previous to the existence of
been deluded by others, and incautiously led into  these disturbances!  He there congratulates his
a false conclusion.  If this be proved, my Lords, masters on the seizure of the treasures which
I will cheerfully abandon the present charge. he declares, by the law of Mohammed, were the
But if, on the other hand, it shall appear, as I am   property of Asoph ul Dowlah.
confident it will, that in his subsequent conduct    My Lords, the prisoner more than once asthere was a mysterious concealment denoting  sured the House of Commons that the 3Ir. Hasting'
conscious guilt; if all his narrations of the busi- inhabitants of Asia believed him  to p-etelaeot a
ness be found marked with inconsistency and  be a preternatural being, gifted with Pence, i his
contradiction, there can be, I think, a doubt no  good fortune or the peculiar favorite  ao
longer entertained of his criminality.             of Heaven; and that Providence never failed to
It will be easy, my Lords, to prove that such  take up and carry, by wise, but hidden means,
Proved byhis concealment was actually practiced.  every project of his to its destined end.  Thus,
ocalmeent From  the month  of September, in  in his blasphemous and vulgar puritanical jartexts.    which the seizure of the treasures  gon, did Mr. Hastings libel the course of Provitook place, till the succeeding January, no inti- dence.  Thus, according to him, when his cormation whatever was given of it by Mr. Hast-  ruptions and briberies were on the eve of exposings to the council at Calcutta.  But, my Lords, ure, Providence inspired the heart of Nuncomar
look at the mode in which this concealment is to commit a low, base crime, in order to save
attempted to be evaddd.  The first pretext is, him from ruin.24  Thus, also, in his attempts on
the want of leisure!  Contemptible falsehood! Cheyte Sing, and his plunder of the Begums,
He could amuse his fancy at this juncture with  Providence stepped forth, and inspired the one
the composition of Eastern tales, but to give an  with resistance and the other with rebellion, to
account of a rebellion which convulsed an em- forward his purposes!  Thus, my Lords, did he
pire, or of his acquiring so large an amount of  arrogantly represent himself as a man not only
treasure, he had no time!                         the favorite of Providence, but as one for whose
The second pretext is, that all communication  sake Providence departed from the eternal course
between Calcutta and Fyzabad was cut off. This  of its own wise dispensations, to assist his adis no less untrue.  By comparing dates, it will ministration by the elaboration of all that is delbe seen that letters, now in our possession, pass- eterious and ill; heaven-born forgeries —inspired
ed at this period between Mr. Middleton and the  treasons —Providenztial rebellions! arraigning that
prisoner.  Even Sir Elijah Impey has unguard- Providence
edly declared that the road leading fiom the one  "Whose works are goodness, and whose ways are
city to the other was as clear from interruption       right."
as that between London and any of the neigh-                      a      d on apecedi  pae, w
boringsr vrilla-es.  So satisfied ame 1 indeed, on    21 Nuncomar, as stated on a preceding page, was
boring villages.  So satisfied am  I, indeed, on      Hitoo of high al,  who accused Hastings to the
a Hindoo of high rank, who accused HastiLngs to the
this point, that I am willing to lay aside every  Council at Calcutta of having put up offices to sale,
other topic of criminality against the prisoner,  and of receiving bribes for allowing offenders to esand to rest this prosecution alone on the question  cape punishment. The accusation was malicious,
of the validity of the reasons assigned for the  and possibly false; but a majority of the Council,
concealment we have alleged.  Let those, my  who were unfiiendly to Hastings, declared it to be
Lords, who still retain any doubts on the subject,  flll  sutaited. At this moment, Nuncomar was
turn to the prisoner's narrative of his jouney to  chaged  through Hastings' istrumentalty, wit
Benares.  They will there detect aid         o   having formed a bond. For this offense, which,
Benares.  They will there detect, amid a mot-               the  atives Of  ndia, would hardly be conamong the natives of India, would hardly be costley mixture of cant and mystery, of rhapsody and  sidered ciminal, Hastings had him arraigned, not
enigma, the most studious concealment.            before a Hindoo court, but before the Supreme Court
It may, perhaps, be asked, why did Mr. Hast- of Bengal. over which Impey presided as Chief JusTlese ac-  ings use all these efforts to vail this  tice. Here, to the astonishment of all, Nuncomar
counted or. business? Though it is not strictly in- was sentenced to die, under the laws of Engl]and,
cumbent on me to give an answer to the ques-  and not of his own country. Every one expected
tion, vet I will say that he had obviously a rea- tat Iinpey would have respited Nunconar, and,son    i.  Looin  to th naua ec of  3         that Hastings would have been satisfied with his
son for it.  Looking to the natural effect of deep  cotviction, without demanding his blood. The Couninjurites on the human mind, he thought that op- cil interposed for the deliverance of Nuncomar in
pression must beget resistance.  The attempt the most energetic manner, but Hastings was inwhich the Begums might be driven to make in  flexible. Impey, the instrument of his vengeance,
their own defense, though really the effect, he  refused all delay, and Nuncomar was hung like a
was determined to represent as the cause of his felon, to the horror of all India.




1788.]              WARREN HASTINGS ON THE BEGUM CHARGE.                                        425
It does undoubtedly, my Lords, bear a strange  prudence be the successful management and conWalltofcon- appearance, that a man of reputed  duct of a purpose to its end, I can at once bring
nalseooyd and ability, like the prisoner, even when  instances into view where this species of prudence
crimes,    acting wrongly, should have recourse  belonged to minds distinguished by the atrocity
to so many bungling artifices, and spread so thin  of their actions.  When I survey the history of
a vail over his deceptions.  But those who are  a Philip of Macedon, of a Cesar, of a Cromwell,
really surprised at this circumstance must have  I perceive great guilt successfully conducted, if
attended very little to the demeanor of Mr. Hast-  not by legitimate discretion, at least by a consumings.  Through the whole of his defense upon  mate crcft, or by an all-commanding sagacity,
this charge, sensible that truth would undo hin, productive of precisely the same effects.  These,
he rests his hopes on falsehood.  Observing this  however, I confess, were isolated characters, who
rule, he has drawn together a set of falsehoods  left the vice they dared to follow either in the state
without consistency, and without connection; not of dependent vassalage, or involved it in destrucknowing, or not remembering, that there is noth- tion.  Such is the perpetual law of nature, that
ing which requires so much care in the fabrica- virtue, whether placed in a circle more contracted
tion, as a system  of lies.  The series must be  or enlarged, moves with sweet concert.  There
regular and unbroken; but his falsehoods are  is no dissonance to jar; no asperity to divide;
eternally at variance, and demolish one another. and that harmony which makes its felicity at the
Indeed, in all his conduct, he seems to be actu- same time constitutes its protection.  Of vice, on
ated but by one principle, to do things contrary  the contrary, the parts are disunited, and each in
to the established form. This architect militates  barbarous language clamors for its pre-eminence.
against the first principles of the art.  He be- It is a scene where, though one domineering pasgins with the frieze and the capital, and lays the  sion may have sway, the others still press forbase of the column at the top.  Thus turning  ward with their dissonant claims; and, in the
his edifice upside down, he plumes himself upon  moral world, effects waiting on their causes, the
the novelty of his idea, till it comes tumbling  discord which results, of course, insures defeat.
about his ears.  Rising from  these ruins, he is    In this way, my Lords, I believe the failure of
soon found rearing a similar structure.  He de- Mr. Hastings is to be explained, and Not so with
lights in difficulties, and disdains a plain and se- such, I trust, will be the fate of all who Mr' Hastings.
cure foundation.  He loves, on the contrary, to  shall emulate his character or his conduct.  The
build on a'precipice, and to encamp on a mine. doctrine of my friend, from what I have said, can,
Inured to falls, he fears not danger.  Frequent  therefore, hold only in those minds which can not
defeats have given him a hardihood, without im- be satisfied with the indulgence of a single crime;
pressing a sense of disgrace.                     where, instead of one base master passion having
It was once, my Lords, a maxim, as much ad- the complete sway, to which all the faculties are
mitted in the practice of common life  subject, and on which alone the mind is bent, there
Some men may
unite prudence as in the schools of philosophy, that is a combustion and rivalry among a number of
and crime..
where Heaven is inclined to destroy, passions yet baser, when pride, vanity, avarice,
it begins with frenzying the intellect.  " Quem. lust of power, cruelty, all at once actuate the huDeus vult perdere prius dementat."  This doe- man soul and distract its functions;  all of them
trine the right honorable manager (Mr. Burke),  at once filling their several spaces, some in their
who opened generally to your Lordships the ar- larger, some in their more contracted orbits; all
tides of impeachment, still farther extended. He  of them  struggling for pre-eminence, and each
declared that the co-existence of vice and pru-  counteracting the other.  In such a mind, undeece was incompatible; that the vicious man, doubtedly, great crimes can never be accompabeing deprived of his best energies, and curtailed  nied by prudence.  There is a fortunate disabilin his proportion of understanding, was left with  ity, occasioned by the contention, that rescues the
such a short-sighted penetration as could lay no  human species from the villainy of the intention.
claim to prudence.  This is the sentiment of my  Such is the original denunciation of nature.  Not
noble and exalted friend, whose name I can never  so with the nobler passions.  In the breast where
mention but with respect and admiration due to  they reside, the harmony is never interrupted by
his virtue and talents; whose proud disdain of  the number.  A perfect and substantial agreevice can only be equaled by the ability with which  ment gives an accession of vigor to each, and,
lie exposes ant controls it; to whom I look up  spreading their influence in every direction, like
with homlage; whose genius is commensurate  the divine intelligence and benignity fiom which
with philanthropy; whose memory will stretch  they flow, they ascertain it to the individual by
itself beyond the fleeting objects of any little par-  which they are possessed, and communicate it to
tial shuffling —through the whole wide range of  the society of which he is a member.
human knowledge and honorable aspiration after    My Lords, I shall now revert again to the
good-as large as the system which forms life-   claims made  on the princesses of Tle Nal,ob his
as lasting as those objects which adorn it; but in  Oude.  The counsel for the prisoner mere "assl
this sentiment, so honorable to my friend, I can  have labored to impress on the court the idea that
not implicitly agree.25  If the true definition of  the Nabob was a prince sovereignly independent,
2 The reader will at once see the object of Mr.
Sheridan in thus apparently differing from  Mr. turn of thought, and thus to set forth his views in
Burke. It was to arrest attention, by an ingenious  stronger relief.




426                              MR. SHERIDAN  AGAINST                                    [1788
and in no degree subject to the control of Mr. the affidavits.  He replied, " that he knew nothHastings   but, after the numberless proofs we  ing at all of their having been translated, and that
have adduced of his being, on the contrary, a  he had no conversation whatever with Mr. Iastmere cipher in the hands of the Governor Gen- ings on the subject of the affidavits after he had
eral, your Lordships will require of them, to cre- delivered them  to him."  He was next asked
ate such a conviction on your minds, much more  whether he did not think it a little singular that
conclusive evidence than any which they have  he should not have held any conversation with
hitherto presented.  I believe, both as regards the Governor General on a subject of so much
the resumption of the jaghires, and especially the  moment as that of the affidavits which he had
seizure of the treasures, they will find it very diffi- taken.  His answer was, that he did not think it
cult to show the independence of the prince.26    singular, because he left Chunar the very day aftIt has, my Lords, been strenuously contended  er he delivered the affidavits to Mr. Hastings. By
The seizure of on our parts, that the measure of  this answer the witness certainly meant it should
irst'popoedt  seizing the treasures originated with  beunderstood that when he quitted Chunar he left
by the Nabob.  the prisoner, and in maintenance of  the Governor General behind him; but it appears.
the position we have brought forward a chain of  from letters written by the witness himself, and
testimony clear, and, we think, satisfactory; but which we have already laid before the court, that
the counsel for the prisoner, on the other hand, he arrived at Chunar on the 1st of December,
assert with equal earnestness, that the proposition  1781;  that he then began to take the affidavits,
for seizing the treasures came originally from the and, when completed, he and Mr. Hastings left
Nabob.  It is therefore incumbent on them to sup-  Chunar in company, and set out on the road to
port their assertion by proof, as we have done. Benares; and that, after being together from the
Certainly the best evidence of the fact would be  first to the sixth of the month, the former took
the exhibition of the letter of the Nabob to Mr. leave of the latter, and proceeded on his journey
Hastings, in which they allege the proposition  to Calcutta.  Here, then, my Lords, we detect
was made.  Why, then, is not this document, a subterfuge artfully contrived to draw you into
which must at once settle all disputation on the  a false conclusion!  There is also another part
subject, produced?  The truth is, there is no  of the witness's evidence which is entitled to as
such letter.  I peremptorily deny it, and chal- little credit. He has sworn that he knew nothing
lenge the prisoner and his counsel to produce a  of the Persian affidavits having been translated.
letter or paper containing any proposition of the  Now; my Lords, we formerly produced a letter
kind coming immediately from the prince.         from Major William Davy, the confidential secMy Lords, the seizure of the treasures and the  retary and Persian translator to the Governor
It was te re- jaghires was the effect of a dark con- General, in which he states that he made an
oiuttofa con- spiracy, in which six persons were  affidavit before Sir Elijah Impey at Buxa.r on
spiracy set on
toot byMr.  concerned.  Three of the conspira- the 12th of December, just six days after Sir
Hastigs.  tors were of a higher order.  These  Elijah parted from Mr. Hastings, swearing that
were Mr. Hastings, who may be considered as the papers annexed to the affidavits were faiththe principal and leader in this black affair; Mr. ful translations of the Persian affidavits!  What
Middleton, the English resident at Lucknow; and  shall we say, my Lords, of such testimony?  I
Sir Elijah Impey.  The three inferior or subor- will make only one remark upon it, which I shall
dinate conspirators were, Hyder Beg Khan, the  borrow from an illustrious man; " that no one
nominal minister of the Nabob, but in reality the  could tell where to look for truth, if it could not
creature of Mr. Hastings, Colonel Hannay, and  be found on the judgment seat, or know what to
Ali Ibrahim Khan.                                credit, if the affirmation of a judge was not to be
Sir Elijah Impey was intrusted by Mr. Hast- trusted."
ings to carry his orders to Mr. Middleton, and    I have, my Lords, before observed, that the
to concert with him the means of carrying them  Chief Justice was intrusted by the Impey sent as
into execution.  The Chief Justice, my Lords, prisoner to concert with Mr. Mid- an lg itNibbeing a principal actor in the whole of this ini- dleton the means of carrying into to propose, as
ftrom himself, to
quitous business, it will be necessary to take no- execution the order of which he was seie the treastice of some parts of the evidence which he has  the bearer from  the Governor Gen- ures.
delivered upon oath at your Lordships' bar.      eral to the resident.  These orders do not apWhen asked, what became of the Persian affi- pear any where in writing, but your Lordships
Exposure, in davit, sworn before him, after he had  are acquainted with their purport.  The court
mpes sb- delivered them  to Mr. Hastings, he  must recollect that Mr. Middleton was instructterfuges.  replied that he really did not know! ed by them to persuade the Nabob to propose, as
He was also asked, if he had them translated, or from himnself to Mr. Hastings, the seizure of the
knew of their having been translated, or had any  Begum's treasures.  That this was really so, apconversation with Mr. Hastings on the subject of  pears undeniably as well from the tenor of Mr.
Middleton's letter on the subject, as from  the
26 This claim is directly in the face of Mr. Hast-. M                         
s' own statemlent, in the Minutes of Conrsultation, prisoner's account of the business in his defense.
where he says that Asopl ul Dowlah, by the treaty  Evidently, Mr. Hastings was on this occasion
made upon the death of his father, " became event- hobbled by difficulties which put all his ingenum
ually and necessarily the vassal of the Company."  ity into requisition.  He was aware that it must
See quotation in Mill, vol. iv., 368.           seem extraordinary, that at the very moment he




1788.]             WARREN HASTINGS ON THE BEGUM  CHARGE.                                  427
was confiscating the property of the Begums, on  the jaghires.  The former measure he wished
the plea of their treasonable machinations, he  to substitute in the room of the latter, and by
should stipulate that an annual allowance equal no means to couple them  together.  But Mr.
almost to the produce of that property should be  Hastings was too nice a reasoner for the prince.
secured to them.  Though he had accused the  He insisted that one measure should be carried
princesses of rebellion, by which, of course, their into execution, because the Nabob had proposed
treasures were forfeited to the state, yet he was it; and the other, because he himself determinreluctant to appear as the principal in seizing  ed upon it.
them.                                             It also appears that the Nabob was taught to
Do not: my Lords, these embarrassments prove  plead his right to the treasures, as founded upon
This shows Mr. that the prisoner was sensible of the  the laws of the Koran.  Not a word was said
Hastings knew
the seizure to  injustice of his proceedings?  If the about the guarantee and treaty which had barred
be Uij st.   princesses were in rebellion, there could  that right, whatever it might have been!  But,
be no ground for his demurring to seize their  my Lords, if all Mr. Hastings would have the
property. The consciousness of their innocence  world believe is true, he [the Nabob] had still a
could alone, therefore, make him timid and irres- much better title-one against which the treaty
olute.  To get rid at once of his difficulties, he  and guarantee could not be raised, and this was
resorts to the expedient which I have before stat- the treason of the Begums, by which they fored, namely, of giving directions to Sir Elijah  feited all their property to the state, and every
Impey that Mr. Middleton should urge the Na- claim upon English protection. On this right by
bob to propose, as from himself, the seizure of  forfeiture, the Nabob, however, was silent.  Bethe treasures.  My Lords, the unhappy prince, ing a stranger to the rebellion, and to the treason
without a will of his own, consented to make the  of his parents, he was reduced to the necessity
proposal, as an alternative for the resumption  of reviving a right under the laws of the Koran,
of the jaghires; a measure to which he had the  which the treaty and guarantee had forever exmost unconquerable reluctance.  Mr. Hastings, tinguished.
as it were to indulge the Nabob, agreed to the    This letter, moreover, contains this remarkaproposal; rejoicing, at the same time, that his ble expression, namely, " that it would be suffischeme had proved so far successful; for he  cient to hint his [Mr. Hastings'] opinion upon it,
thought this proposal, coming from the Nabob, without giving a formal sanction to the measure
would free him from the odium of so unpopular proposed."  Why this caution?  If the Begums
a plundering. But the artifice was too shallow; were guilty of treason, why should he be fearand your Lordships are now able to trace the  ful of declaring to the world that it was not the
measure to its source.  The court will see from  practice of the English to protect rebellious subthe evidence that Mr. Hastings suggested it to  jects, and prevent their injured sovereigns from
Sir Elijah Impey, that Sir Elijah Impey might proceeding against them  according to law?suggest it to Middleton, that Middleton might that he considered the treaty and guarantee, -by
suggest it to the Nabob, that his Highness might which the Begums held their property, as no
sugsgest it to Mr. Hastings; and thus the sug- longer binding upon the English government,
gestion returned to the place from which it had  who consequently could have no farther right to
originally set out!                             interfere between the Nabob and his rebellious
One single passage of a letter, written by  parents, but must leave him at liberty to punish
Conirmtion  Middleton to Mr. Hastings on the 2d  or forgive them as he should think fit?  But, my
from a letter of December, 1781, will make this Lords, instead of holding this lanauage, which
of 5iddleto n.
point as clear as day. He informs the  manliness and conscious integrity would have
Governor General that " the Nabob, wishing to  dictated, had he been convinced of the guilt of
evade the measure of resuming the jaghires, had  the Begums, Mr. Hastings wished to derive all
sent him a message to the following purport: possible advantage from active measures against
that if the measure proposed was intended to  them, and at the same time so far to save approcure the payment of the balance due to the  pearances, as that he might be thought to be
Company, he could better and more expeditious- passive in the affair.
ly effect that object by taking from his mother    My Lords, in another part of the same letter,
the treasures of his father, which he asserted to  Mr. Middleton informs the Governor Letters and pabe in her hands, and to which he claimed a  General "that he sent him, at the pers s.ppre.sed
right, founded on the laws of the Koran; and  same time, a letter fiom the Nabob ford other proof
that it would be sufficient that he [Mr. Hastings] on the subject of seizing the treasures."  This
would hint his opinion upon it, without giving a  letter has been suppressed.  I challenge the
formal sanction to the measure proposed."  Mr. counsel for the prisoner to produce it, or to acMiddleton added, "the resumption of the jag- count satisfactorily to your Lordships for its not
hires it is necessary to suspend till I have your having been entered upon the Company's reeanswer to this letter."                         ords.  Nor is this, my Lords, the only suppresIn the first place, it is clear from this letter sion of which we have reason to complain. The
that. though the Nabob consented to make the  affidavit of Goulass Roy, who lived at Fyzabad,
desired proposal for seizing the treasures, it was the residence of the Begums, and who was
only as an alternative; for it never entered into  known to be their enemy, is also suppressed.
his head both to seize the treasures and resume  No person could be so well informed of their




428                               MR. SHERIDAN  AGAINST                                     [1788
guilt, if they had been guilty, as Goulass Roy, their being forgot.  I call upon the counsel to
who resided upon the spot where levies were  state the nature of those instructions, which were
said to have been made for Cheyte Sing by their deemed of so much importance, that the Governorder.  If, therefore, his testimony had not de- or was so greatly afraid Mr. Middleton would
stroyed the charge of a rebellion on the part of  not recollect them, and which, nevertheless, he
the Begums, there is no doubt but it would have  did not dare to commit to writing.
been carefully preserved.  The information of    To make your Lordships understand some othMr. Scott has. moreover, been withheld from us. er expressions in the above passage, Thisaccounted
This gentleman lived unmolested at Taunda, I must recall to your memory, that  tYMidtdleteo
where Sumshire Khan commanded for the Be- it has appeared in evidence that Mr. dreaded toJre
gums, and where he carried on an extensive  Middleton had a strong objection to hi''s.
manufacture without the least hinderance from  the resumption of thejaghires; which he thought
this supposed disaffected governor.  Mr. Scott a service of so much danger, that he removed
was at Taunda too when it was said that the  Mrs. Middleton and his family when he was
Governor pointed the guns of the fort upon Cap- about to enter upon it; for he expected resisttain Gordan's party.  If this circumstance, my  ance not only from  the Begums, but from  the
Lords, did really happen, Mr. Scott must have  Nabob's own aumeels [agents]; who, knowing
heard of it, as he was himself at the time un- that the prince was a reluctant instrument in the
der the protection of those very guns.  Why, hands of the English, thought they would please
then, is not the examination of this gentleman  him by opposing a measure to which he had givproduced?  I believe your Lordships are satis- en his authority against his will.  Middleton
fled that, if it had supported the allegations  undoubtedly expected the whole country would
against Sumshire Khan, it would have been can- unanimously rise against him; and therefore it
celed.                                            was, my Lords, that he suspended the execution
It is not clear to me, my Lords, that, as serv- of the order of resumption, until he should find
bMiadleton  ile a tool as Mr. Middleton was, the  whether the seizure of the treasures, proposed
olt l'erhaps. prisoner intrusted him with every part as an alternative, would be accepted as such.
ed in by Mr. of his intentions throughout the busi- The prisoner pressed him to execute the order
Hoti'"go.  ness ofin the                                           jas. He cetain  mis-  fo resmin  the  es and offered to go himtrusted, or pretended to mistrust him, in his pro- self upon that service if he should decline it.
ceedings relative to the resumption of the jag-  Middleton at last, having received a thundering
hires.  When it began to be rumored abroad  letter from Mr. Hastings, by which he left him
that terms so favorable to the Nabob as he ob- to act under "a dreadful responsibility," set out
tained in the treaty of Chunar-by which Mr. for Fyzabad.
Hastings consented to withdraw the temporary    My Lords, for all the cruelties and barbarities
brigade, and to remove the English gentlemen  that were executed there, the Governor General
from Oude-would never have been granted, if  in his narrative says, he does not hold himself
the Nabob had not bribed the parties concerned  answerable, because he commanded Middleton
in the negotiation to betray the interests of the  to be personally present during the whole of the
Company, Mr. Hastings confirmed the report by  transaction, until he should complete the seizing
actually charging Mr. Middleton and his assist- of the treasures and resuming thejaghires. But
ant resident, Mr. Johnson, with having accepted  for what purpose did he order Middleton to be
of bribes.  They both joined in the most solemn  present?  I will show, by quoting the orders
assurances of their innocence, and called God  verbatim: "You yourself must be personally
to witness the truth of their declarations.  Mr. present; you must not allow any negotiation or!
Hastings, after this, appeared satisfied; possibly  forbearance, but must prosecute both services,
the consciousness that he had in his own pocket until the Begums are at the entire mercy of the
the only bribe which was given on the occasion, Nabob."  These peremptory orders, given unthe -100,000, might have made him  the less  der "a dreadful responsibility," -were not issued,
earnest in prosecuting any farther inquiry into  my Lords, as you see, for pui poses of humanity;
the business.                                     not that the presence of the resident might teA passage in a letter from Mr. Hastings shows  strain the violence of the soldier; but that he
The instruc- that he did not think proper to com- might be a watch tpon the Nabob, to steel his
tions given  mit to writing all the orders which  heart against the feelings of returning nature in
ways commllt- he wished Mr. Middleton to execute; his breast, and prevent the possibility of his reted to writn  for there Mr. Hastings expresses his lenting, or granting any terms to his mother and
doubts of the resident's "firmness and activity; grandmother.  This, truly, was the abominable
and, above all, of his recollection of his instruc- motive which induced the prisoner to command
tions and their importance; and said, that if he, the personal attendance of Middleton, and yel,
Mr. Middleton, could not rely on his own pow- my Lords, he dares to say that he is not responser, and the means he possessed for performing  ible for the horrid scene which ensued.  [Here
those services, he wouldfree him from the charge, Mr. Sheridan was taken ill, and retired for a while
and proceed to Lucknow and undertake it him- to try if in the fresh air he could recover, so as
self."  My Lords, you must presume that the  that he might conclude all he had to say upon
instructions here alluded to were verbal; for had  the evidence on the second charge.  Some time
they been written, there could be no danger of  after, Mr. Fox informed their Lordships that Mr




1788.]              WARREN HASTINGS ON THE BEGUM CHARGE.                                        429
Sheridan was much better, but that he felt he  lent familiarity as formerly.  After, however, an
was not sufficiently so to be able to do justice  intimacy of about six months, the Governor Gento the subject he had in hand.  The managers  eral very unexpectedly arraigns his friend before
therefore hoped their Lordships would be pleased  the board at Calcutta.  It was on this occasion
to appoint a future day, on which Mr. Sheridan  that the prisoner, rashly for himself, but happily
would finish his observations on the evidence.    for the purposes of justice, produced these letters.
Upon this, their Lordships returned to their  Whatever, my Lords, was the meaning of this
own House, and adjourned the court.]               proceeding-whether it was a juggle to elude
My Lords, permit me to remind you, that inquiry, or whether it was intended to make an
Iiddleto's let-when I had last the honor of address-  impression at Fyzabad-whether Mr. Hastings
ter brought to  ing you, I concluded with submitting  drew up the charge, and instructed Mr. Middlelighllt by a breach
between him   to the court the whole of the corre- ton how to prepare the defense  or whether the
and Hastings.  spondence, as far as it could be ob- accused composed the charge, and the accuser
tained, between the principal and agents in the  the defense, there is discernible in the transacnefarious plot carried on against the Nabob Viz- tion the same habitual collusion in which the parier and the Begums of Oude.  These letters de- ties lived, and the prosecution ended, as we have
mand of the court the most grave and deliberate  seen, in a rhapsody, a repartee, and a poetical
attention, as containing not only a narrative of  quotation by the prosecutor!
that foul and unmanly conspiracy, but also a    The private letters, my Lords, are the only part
detail of the motives and ends for which it was  of the correspondence thus provi- The private letters thusbrought
formed, and an exposition of the trick and quib- dentially disclosed, which is deserv- to light, i'ret
ble, the prevarication and the untruth with which  ing of attention.  They were writ- weorthy ofcnfi-'
it was then acted, and is now attempted to be de- ten in the confidence of private com- public ones.
fended.  It will here be naturally inquired, with  munication, without any motives to palliate and
some degree of surprise, how the private corre- color facts, or to mislead.  The counsel for the
spondence which thus establishes the guilt of its  prisoner have, however, chosen to rely on the
authors came to light?  This was owing to a  public correspondence, prepared, as appears on
mutual resentment which broke out about the  the very face of it, for the concealment of fraud
middle of December, 1782, between the parties. and the purpose of deception.  They, for examMr. Middleton, on the one hand, became jealous  pie, dwelt on a letter from Mr. Middleton, dated
of the abatement of Mr. Hastings' confidence;  December, 1781, which intimates some supposed
and the Governor General was incensed at the  contumacy of the Begums; and this they thought
tardiness with which the resident proceeded.       countenanced the proceedings which afterward
From this moment, shyness and suspicion be- took place, and particularly the resumption of
cause of  tween the principal and the agent took  the jaghires; but, my Lords, you can not have
tllisbreaph. place.  Middleton hesitated about the  forgotten, that both Sir Elijah Impey and Mr.
expediency of resuming the jaghires, and began  Middleton declared, in their examination at your
to doubt whether the advantage would be equal bar, that the letter was totally false.  Another
to the risk.  Mr. Hastings, whether he appre- letter, which mentions " the determination of the
hended that Middleton was retarded by any re- Nabob to resume the jaghires," was also dwelt
turn of humanity or sentiments ofjustice, by any  upon with great emphasis; but it is in evidence
secret combination with the Begum and her son, that the Nabob, on the contrary, could not, by
or a wish to take the lion's share of the plunder  any means, be induced to sanction the measure;
to himself, was exasperated at the delay.  Mid- that it was not, indeed, till Mr. Middleton had
dleton represented the unwillingness of the Na- actually issued his own Perwannas [warrants]
bob to execute the measure-the low state of his for the collection of the rents, that the Prince,
finances-that his troops were mutinous for want to avoid a state of the lowest degradation, conof pay-that his life had been in danger from an  sented to give it the appearance of his act.
insurrection among them-and that in this mo-    In the same letter, the resistance of the Bement of distress he had offered one hundred thou-  gums to the seizure of their treasures is noticed
sand pounds, in addition to a like sum paid be-  as an instance offemale levity, as if their defense
fore, as an equivalent for the resumption which  of the property assigned for their subsistence was
was demanded of him.  Of this offer, however, it a matter of censure, or that they merited a renow appears, the Nabob knew nothing!  In con- proof for feminine lightness, because they urged
ferring an obligation, my Lords, it is sometimes  an objection to being starved!
contrived, from  motives of delicacy, that the        The opposition, in short, my Lords, which was
name of the donor shall be concealed from  the  expected from the princesses, was looked to as a
person obliged; but here it was reserved for  justification of the proceedings which afterward
Middleton to refine this sentiment of delicacy, so  happened.  There is not, in the private letters,
as to leave the person giving utterly ignorant of  the slightest intimation of the anterior rebellion,
the favor he bestowed!                             which by prudent after-thought was so greatBut notwithstanding these little differences  ly magnified.  There is not a syllable of those
ddetn  nd suspicions, Mr. Hastings and Mr. dangerous machinations which were to dethrone
Rccusedby Middleton, on the return of the latter  the Nabob; nor of those sanguinary artifices by
Hastings. to Calcutta in October, 1782, lived in  which the English were to be extirpated.  It is
the same style of friendly collusion and fraudu-  indeed said, that if such measures were rigor



430                              MR. SHERIDAN  AGAINST                                      [1788.
ously pursued, as had been set on foot, the peo- ty!  Mr. Hastings guarantees to the allies of
pie might be driven from murmurs to resistance,  the Company their prosperity and his protection.
and rise up in arms against their oppressors.     The former he secures by sending an army to
Where, then, my Lords, is the proof of this  plunder them  of their wealth and to desolate
mighty rebellion?  It is contained alone, where  their soil.  The latter produces the misery and
it is natural to expect it, in the fabricated corre- the ruin of the protected.  His is the protection
spondence between Middleton and Hastings, and  which the vulture gives to the lamb, which covin the affidavits collected by Sir Elijah Impey!  ers while it devours its prey; which, stretching
The gravity of the business on which the Chief  its baleful pinions and hovering in mid air, disJustice was employed on this occasion, contrast- perses the kites and lesser birds of prey, and
ed with the vivacity, the rapidity, and celerity of  saves the innocent and helpless victim from all
his movements, is exceedingly curious.  At one  talons but its own.
moment he appeared in Oude, at another in Chu-    It is curious, my Lords, to remark, that in the
nar, at a third in Benares, procuring testimony, correspondence of these creatures of Want of princiand in every quarter exclaiming, like Hamlet's  Mr. Hastings, and in their earnest en- tle dosrrlapondGhost,  SWEAR!"  To him might also have been  deavors to dissuade him from the re- eHse between
applied the words of Hamlet to the Ghost," What, sumption of the jaghires, not a word his agents.
Truepenny! are you there?"27 But the similitude  is mentioned of the measure being contrary to
goes no farther.  He was never heard to give the  honor-to faith; derogatory to national characinjunction,                                       ter; unmanly or unprincipled.  Knowing the
"Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive  man to whom they were writing, their only arAgainst thy mother aught!"28                  guments were, that it was contrary to policy and
V. It is, my Lords, in some degree worthy  to expediency.  Not one word do they mention
Resumptionof of you  observation, that not one of  of the just claims which the Nabob had to the
the jag/ires,  the private letters of Mr. Hastings  gratitude and friendship of the English. Not one
and seizure of
the Begums'  has at any time been disclosed. Even  syllable of the treaty by which we were bound
easMes iddleton, when all confidence was  to protect him.  Not one syllable of the relation
broken between them  by the production of his  which subsisted between him and the princesses
private correspondence at Calcutta, either feel- they were about to plunder.  Not one syllable
ing for his own safety, or sunk under the fascina- is hinted of justice or mercy.  All which they
ting influence of his master, did not dare attempt addressed to him was the apprehension that the
a retaliation!  The letters of Middleton, how- money to be procured would not be worth the
ever, are sufficient to prove the situation of the  danger and labor with which it must be attendNabob, when pressed to the resumption of the  ed.  There is nothing, my Lords, to be found in
jaghires.  He is there described as being some- the history of human turpitude; nothing in the
Reluctance  times lost in sullen melancholy-at nervous delineations and penetrating brevity of
oftheNabob. others, agitated beyond expression, ex-  Tacitus; nothing in the luminous and luxuriant
hibiting  every  mark  of agonized sensibility. pages of Gibbon, or of any other historian, dead
Even Middleton was moved by his distresses to  or living, who, searching into measures and charinterfere for a temporary respite, in which he  acters with the rigor of truth, presents to our abmight become more reconciled to the measure. horrence depravity in its blackest shapes, which
" I am fully of opinion," said he, "that the de- can equal, in the grossness of the guilt, or in the
spair of the Nabob must impel him to violence. hardness of heart with which it was conducted,
I know, also, that the violence must be fatal to  or in low  and groveling motives, the acts and
himself; but yet I think, that with his present character of the prisoner.9 It was he who, in
feelings, he will disregard all consequences."    the base desire of stripping two helpless women,
Mr. Johnson, the assistant resident, also wrote  could stir the son to rise up in vengeance against
to the same purpose.  The words of his letter  them; who, when that son had certain touches
are memorable.  "He thought it would require  of nature in his breast, certain feelings of an
a campaign to execute the orders for the resump-    2 Mr. G        w   pr t w     t 
t       of.'h,,  A'    a          29 Mr. Gibbon was present when this compliment
tlon of  the  jaghires!       A  campaign against was paid to his history, and considered it sufficientwhom?  Against the Nabob, our friend and ally ly  important to be noticed in his Memoir of himself.
who had voluntarily given the order!!  This  "Before my departure from England," he says, "I
measure, then, which we have heard contended  was present at the august spectacle of Mr. Hast.
was for his good and the good of his country, ings' trial, in Westminster Hall. It is not my provcould truly be only enforced by a campaign! ince to absolve or condemn the Governor of India,
Such is British justice! Such is British humani- but Mr. Sheridan's eloquence demanded my ap2 ~'~711~~~~~   Gsfm nthseS A      plause; nor could I hear without emotion the per
27 Ghost- (from beneath the stage). SWEAR!     sonal compliment which he paid me in the presence
Hamlet. Ah ha, boy, say'st thou so? Art thou  of the British nation."
there, Truepenny?-Shakspeare's Hamlet, Act I.,   One of Sheridan's Whig friends, who was scanscene 5.                                          dalized by this allusion to the Tory historian, asked
28 This is the instruction of the Ghost to Hamlet:  the orator, when he sat down, how he came to comBut howsoever thou pursuest this act,           pliment Gibbon with the epithet "luminous." SherTaint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive  idan, whose love of fun never deserted him under
Against thy mother aught. Leave that to Heaven! any circumstances, instantly replied, in a half-vwhisHamlet, Act I., scene 5.   per, "I said voluminous."




1788.]             WARREN  HASTINGS ON THE BEGUM  CHARGE.                                  431
awakened conscience, could accuse, him of en- which the piety of the kingdom had raised for
tertaining peevish objections to the plunder and  the retreat and seclusion of the objects of its
sacrifice of his mother; who, having finally di- pride and veneration!  It was in these shades,
vested him of all thought, all reflection, all mem- rendered sacred by superstition, that innocence
ory, all conscience, all tenderness and duty as a  reposed.  Here venerable age and helpless inson, all dignity as a monarch; having destroyed  fancy found an asylum!  If we look, my Lords,
iis character and depopulated his country, at into the whole of this most wicked transaction,
length brought him to violate the dearest ties  from the time when this treachery was first conof nature, in countenancing the destruction of his ceived, to that when, by a series of artifices the
parents.  This crime, I say, has no parallel or most execrable, it was brought to a completion,
prototype in the Old World or the New, from the  the prisoner will be seen standing aloof, indeed,
day of original sin to the present hour.  The but not inactive. He will be discovered reviewvictims of his oppression were confessedly desti- ing his agents, rebuking at one time the pale
tute of all power~to resist their oppressors. But conscience of Middleton, at another relying on
their  hAbility, which from other bosoms would  the stouter villainy of Hyder Beg Cawn.30 With
have claimed some compassion, at least with re- all the calmness of veteran delinquency, his eye
spect tt the mode of suffering, with him only  will be seen ranging through the busy prospect,
excited the ingenuity of torture.  Even when  piercing the darkness of subordinate guilt, and
every feeling of the Nabob was subdued; when, disciplining with congenial adroitness the agents
as we have seen, my Lords, nature made a last, of his crimes and the instruments of his cruelty.
lingering, feeble stand within his breast; even    The feelings, my Lords, of the several parties
then, that cold spirit of malignity, with which  at the time will be most properly judg- Effect on te
his doom was fixed, returned with double rigor ed of by their respective correspond- Begumsand sharper acrimony to its purpose, and com- ence.  When the Bow [younger] Begum, depoiled the child to inflict on the parent that de- spairing of redress from  the Nabob, addressed
bltruction of which he was himself reserved to  herself to Mr. Middleton, and reminded him of
be the final victim.                            the guarantee which he had signed, she was inGreat as is this climax, in which, my Lords, stantly promised that the amount of her jaghire
His lypocritic- I thought the pinnacle of guilt was should be made good, though he said he could
letter Tet attained, there is yet something still not interfere with the sovereign decision of the
ag/"ir'es.    more transcendently flagitious.  I Nabob respecting the lands.  The deluded and
particularly allude to his [Hastings'] infamous, unfortunate woman "thanked God that Mr. Midletter, falsely dated the 15th of February, 1782, dleton was at hand for her relief."  At this very
in which, at the very moment that he had given  instant he was directing every effort to her dethe order for the entire destruction of the Be- struction; for he had actually written the orders
gums, and for the resumption of the jaghires,  which were to take the collection out of the
he expresses to the Nabob the warm and lively  hands of her agents!  But let it not be forgotinterest which he took in his welfare; the sin- ten, my Lords, when the Begum was undeceived
cerity and ardor of his friendship; and that, -when she found that British faith was no prothough his presence was eminently wanted at tection-when she found that she should leave
Calcutta, he could not refiain from coming to his the country, and prayed to the God of nations
assistance, and that in the mean time he had  not to grant his peace to those who remained
sent four regiments to his aid; so deliberate  behind-there was still no charge of rebellion,
and cool, so hypocritical and insinuating, is the  no recrimination made to all her reproaches for
villainy of this man!  What heart is not exas- the broken faith of the English; that, when stung
perated by the malignity of a treachery so bare- to madness, she asked " how long would be her
faced and dispassionate?  At length, however, reign," there was no mention of her disaffection.
the Nabob was on his guard.  He could not be  The stress is therefore idle, which the counsel
deceived by this mask.  The offer of the four for the prisoner have strove to lay on these exregiments developed to him the object of Mr. pressions of an injured and enraged woman.
Hastings.  He perceived the dagger bunglingly  When at last, irritated beyond bearing, she deconcealed in the hand, which was treacherously  nounced infamy on the heads of her oppressors,
extended as if to his assistance.  From this mo- who is there that will not say that she spoke in
ment the last faint ray of hope expired in his a prophetic spirit; and that what she then prebosom.  We accordingly find no further confi- dieted has not, even to its last letter, been ac
dence of the Nabob in the prisoner.  Mr. Mid- complished?31  But did Mr. Middleton, even to
dleton now swayed his iron scepter without con-...
trol.  The jaghires were seized.  Every meas-   30 This was the Nabob's minister, but a creature
ure was carried.  The Nabob, mortified, hum- of Mr. Hastings.
bled, and degraded, sunk into insignificance and    I" his speech before the House of Commons,
contempt.  This letter was sent at the very time  M. Sheridan thus remarks on Mr. Hastings' accuwhen the troops surrounded the walls of Fyza- sation agaist the Begums, "that they complaied
i.ad    a-,~  scene,       ~".,of the injustice that was done them."
[ad; and then began a scene of horrors, which,     God of heaven! had they not a right to comi I wished to inflame your Lordships' feelings, plain? After the violation of a solemn treaty, plun[ should only have occasion minutely to describe dered of their property, and on the eve of the last
-— to state the violence committed on that palace extremity of misery, were they to be deprived of the




432                             MR. SHERIDAN  AGAINST                                        [1788.
this violence, retort any particle of accusation?  eye but must look reproof to this conduct, not
No! he sent a jocose reply, stating that he had  a heart but must anticipate its condemnation.
received such a letter under her seal, but that,  Filial piety!  It is the primal bond of society.
from its contents, he could not suspect it to come  It is that instinctive principle which, panting for
from her; and begged, therefore, that she would  its proper good, soothes, unbidden, each sense
endeavor to detect the forgery!, Thus did he  and sensibility of man.  It now quivers on every
add to foul injuries the vile aggravation of a bru- lip.  It now beams from every eye.  It is that
tal jest.  Like the tiger, he showed the savage-  gratitude which, softening under the sense of recness of his nature by grinning at his prey, and  ollected good, is eager to own the vast, countfawning over the last agonies of his unfortunate  less debt it never, alas! can pay, for so many
victim!                                            long years of unceasing solicitudes, honorable
The letters, my Lords, were then inclosed to  self-denials, life-preserving cares.  It is that part
Decla.ed by the Nabob, Ewho, no more than the rest,  of our practice where duty drops its awe, where
Middletonto made any attempt to justify himself by  reverence refines into love.  It asks no aid of
be innocent     y
imputing any criminality to the Be-  memory. It needs not the deductions of reason.
gums.  He only sighed a hope that his conduct Pre-existing, paramount over all, whether morto his parents had drawn no shame upon his  al law  or human rule, few  arguments can inhead; and declared his intention to punish, not crease, and none can diminish it.  It is the sacany disaffection in the Begums, but some officious  rament of our nature; not only the duty, but the
servants who had dared to foment the misunder-  indulgence of man. It is his first great privilege.
standing between them  and himself.  A letter  It is among his last most endearing delights.
was finally sent to Mr. Hastings, about six days  It causes the bosom to glow with reverberated
before the seizure of the treasures from the Be-  love.  It requites the visitations of nature, and
gums, declaring their innocence  and referring  returns the blessings that have been received.
the Governor General, in proof of it, to Captain  It fires emotion into vital principle.  It changes
Gordon, whose life they had protected, and whose  what was instinct into a master passion; sways
safety should have been their justification.  This  all the sweetest energies of man; hangs over
inquiry was never made.  It was looked on as  each vicissitude of all that must pass away; and
unnecessary, because the conviction of their in- aids the melancholy virtues in their last sad tasks
nocence was too deeply impressed already.          of life, to cheer the languors of decrepitude and
The counsel, my Lords, in recommending an  age; and
His parental attention to the public in reference to  "Explore the thought, explain the aching eye!"32
trasted with the private letters, remarked particu-    But, my Lords, I am ashamed to consume so
his abuse of
fila  ety  larly that one of the latter should not much of your Lordships' time in attempting to
the Nabob.  be taken in evidence, because it was give a cold picture of this sacred impulse, when
evidently and abstractedly private, relating the  I behold so many breathing testimonies of its inanxieties of Mr. Middleton on account of the ill- fluence around me; when every countenance in'
ness of his son.  This is a singular argument this assembly is beaming, and erecting itself into
indeed.  The circumstance, however, undoubt-  the recognition of this universal principle!
edly merits strict observation, though not in the    The expressions contained in the letter of Mr.
view in which it was placed by the counsel.  It Middleton, of tender solicitude for his son, have
goes to show, that some, at least, of the persons  been also mentioned. as a proof of the amiableconcerned in these transactions felt the force of  ness of his aflections.  I confess that they do not
those ties which their efforts were directed to  tend to raise his character in my estimation.  Is
tear asunder; that those who could ridicule the  it not rather an aggravation of his guilt, that he,
respective attachment of a mother and a son  who thus felt the anxieties of a parent, and who,
who could prohibit the reverence of the son to  consequently, must be sensible of the reciprocal
the mother; who could deny to maternal debil- feelings of a child, could be brought to tear asunity the protection which filial tenderness should  der, and violate in others, all those dear and saafford, were yet sensible of the straining of those  cred bonds?  Does it not enhance the turpitude
chords by which they are connected.  There is  of the transaction, that it was not the result of
something in the present business, with all that idiotic ignorance or brutal indifference?  I aver
is horrible to create aversion, so vilely loathsome,  that his guilt is increased and magnified by these
as to excite disgust.  It is, my Lords, surely su-  considerations.  His criminality would have been
perfluous to dwell on the sacredness of the ties  less had he been insensible to tenderness-less,
which those aliens to feeling, those apostates to  -    ---
humanity, thus divided.  In such an assembly as   32 This line occurs in the beautiful passage which
the one before which I speak, there is not an  closes Pope's Epistle to Dr. Arbutlmot. Mr. Sheri_ _ _    ____   -_ _._ __ _  ~____  dan, in quoting it, inadvertently changed the word
ultimate resource of impotent wretchedness, lament- ascking into achingr, and thus lessened the finely
ation. and regret? Was it a crime, that they should  graphic effect of the original.
crowd together in fluttering trepidation, like a flock    Me, let the tender office long engage
of unresisting birds, on seeing the felon kite, who,   To rock the cradle of reposing age,
having darted at one devoted bird and missed his    With lenient arts extend a mother's breath,
aim, singled out a new object, and was springing on    Make languor smile, and smooth the bed of death,
his prey with redoubled vigor in his wing, and keen-    Explore the thought, explain the asking eye,
er vengeance in his eye?"                          And keep a. while one parent from the sky 




1788.]              WARREN HASTINGS ON THE BEGUM CHARGE.                                      433
if he had not been so thoroughly acquainted with  of Mr. Middleton were in reality the acts of Mr.
the true quality of parental love and filial duty.  Hastings, I should not trouble your Lordships by
The jaghires being seized, my Lords, the Be- combating them; but as this part of his criminSeizure of   gums were left without the smallest ality can be incontestably ascertained, I appeal
the treasures. shae of that pecuniary compensation  to the assembled legislators of this realm to say
promised by Mr. Middleton, as an equivalent for whether these acts were justifiable on the score
the resumption.  And as tyranny and injustice, of policy.  I appeal to all the august presidents
when they take the field, are always attended by  in the courts of British justice, and to all the
their camp followers, paltry pilfering and petty  learned ornaments of the profession, to decide
insult, so in this instance, the goods taken fiom  whether these acts were reconcilable to justice.
the princesses were sold at a mock sale at an in- I appeal to the reverend assemblage of prelates
ferior value.  Even gold and jewels, to use the  feeling for the general interests of humanity and
language of the Begums, instantly lost their value  for the honor of the religion to which they bewhen it was known that they came from them. long, to determine whether these acts of Mr.
Their ministers were imprisoned, to extort the de-  Hastings and Mr. Middleton were such as a
ficiency which this fraud occasioned; and every  Christian ought to perform, or a man to avow.
mean art was employed to justify a continuance    My Lords, with the ministers of the Nabob [Baof cruelty toward them.  Yet this was small to  har Ally Cawn and Jewar Ally Cawn] Cruelties inthe frauds of Mr. Hastings.  After extorting up- was confined in the same prison that l.egitdn'mst
ward of 6600,000, he forbade Mr. Middleton  arch  rebel Sumshire Cawn, against isters.
to come to a conclusive settlement with the prin- whom so much criminality has been charged by
cesses.  He knew that the treasons of our allies the counsel for the prisoner.  We hear, howin India had their origin solely in the wants of  ever, of no inquiry having been made concerning
the Company.  He could not, therefore, say that his treason, though so many were held respecting
the Begums were entirely innocent, until he had  the treasures of the others.  With all his guilt,
consulted the General Record of Crimes, thiel he was not so far noticed as to be deprived of his
Cash Account of Calcutta!  His prudence was' food, to be complimented with fetters, or even to
fi!ly justified by the event; for there was actu- have the satisfaction of being scourged, but was
ally found a balance of twenty-six lacs more  cruelly liberated from a dungeon, and ignominagainst the Begums, which X260,000 worth of  iously let loose on his parole!
treason had never been dreamed of before. " Talk    [Here Mr. Sheridan read the following order
tnot to us, said the Governor General,  of their from  Mr. Middleton to Lieutenant Rutledge in
g'uilt or innocence, but as it suits the Company's relation to the Begum's ministers, dated January'trectn!  We will not try them by the Code of  28, 1782:
Justinian, nor the Institutes of Timur.  We will    " SIR,-When this note is delivered to you by
not judge them either by British laws, or their Hoolas Roy, I have to desire that you order the
iocal customs!  No! we will try them  by the  two prisoners to be put in irons, keeping thems'lMultiplication Table; we will find the guilty by from all food, rc., agreeably to my instucttions
the Rule of Three; and we will condemn them  of yesterday.               NATr. MIDDLETOA. a
according to the unerring rules of-CocKER'S    The Begums' ministers, on the contrary, to exS^rithmetic i"                                   tort from them the disclosure of the place which
My Lords, the prisoner has said in his defense, concealed the treasures, were, according to the
Jutieby that the cruelties exercised toward  evidence of Mr. Holt, after being fettered and
Hastings on the the Begums were not of his order. imprisoned, led out on a scaffold, and this array
ground ofpicy. But in another part of it he avows, of terrors proving unavailing, the meek-tempered
"that whatever were their distresses, and who- Middleton, as a dernier resort, menaced them
ever was the agent in the measure, it was, in his  with a confinement in the fortress of Churnargar.
opinion, reconcilable to justice, honor, and sound  Thus, ny Lords, was a British garrison made
policy."  By the testimony of Major Scott, it the climax of cruelties!  To English arms, to
appears, that though the defense of the prisoner English officers, around whose banners humanwas not drawn up by himself, yet that this para- ity has ever entwined her most glorious wreath,
graph he wrote with his own proper hand. Mid- how will this sound?  It was in this fort, where
dleton, it seems, had confessed his share in these  the British flag was flying, that these helpless
transactions with some degree of compunction,  prisoners were doomed to deeper dungeons,
and solicitude as to the consequences.  The pris- heavier chains, and severer punishments. Where
oner observing it, cries out to him, " give me the  that flag was displayed which was wont to cheer
pen, I will defend the measure as just and neces- the depressed, and to dilate the subdued heart of
sary. I will take something upon myself. What- misery, these venerable but unfortunate  men
ever part of the load you can not bear, my unbur- were fated to encounter every aggravation of
dened character shall assume!  Your conduct I horror and distress.  It, moreover, appears that
will crown with my irresistible approbation. Do  they were both cruelly flogged, though one was
you find memzory and I will find character, and  above seventy yeais of age.  Being charged with
thus twin warriors we will go into the field, each  disaffection, they vindicated their innocencein,his proper sphere of action, and assault, re-' Tell us where are the remaining treasures,"
pulse, and contumely shall all be set at defiance."  was the reply.  " It is only treachery to your imI\f I could not prove, my Lords, that those acts  mediate sovereigns, and you will then be fit asE E




434                               MR. SHERIDAN AGAINST                                       [1788.
sociates for the representatives of British faith  when told, need no comment.  I will not offer
and British justice in India!"  Oh Faith! Oh  a single syllable to awaken your Lordships' feelJustice!  I conjure you by your sacred names  ings; but leave it to the facts which have been
to depart for a moment from this place, though  stated to make their own impression.34
it be your peculiar residence; nor hear your    VI. The inquiry which now only remains, my
names profaned by such a sacrilegious combina-  Lords, is, whether Mr. Hastings is to t.istins
tion as that which I am  now compelled to re- be answerable for the crimes commit- responsible
peat-where all the fair forms of nature and art, ted by his agents?  It has been fully  ctofhis
truth and peace, policy and honor, shrink back  proved that Mr. Middleton signed the agents.
aghast from the deleterious shade-where all ex- treaty with the superior Begum  in Octobei,
istences, nefarious and vile, have sway-where,          All these statements have been confirmed by
amid the black agents on one side and Middle-  subsequent investigations; and Mr. Mill has added
ton with Impey on the other, the great figure of  others connected with them, which are necessary to
the piece-characteristic in his place, aloof and  fill out the picture." The Begums gave up the treasindependent from the puny profligacy in his train, ures; but the eunuchs were not yet released. More
but far from idle and inactive, turning a malig-   oney was absolutely required, and new severities
nant eye on all mischief that awaits him; the  were employed. The sufferings to which they were
multiplied apparatus of temporizing expedients  t    exposed drew front the eunuchs the offer of an
engagement for the payment of the demanded sum,
and intimidating Instruments, now cringing on  which they undertook to complete within the period
his prey, and fawning on his vengeance-now   of one month, fom their owe credit and effects. The
quickening the limping pace of craft, and forcing  engagement was taken, but the confinement of the
every stand that retiring nature can make to the  eunuchs was not relaxed; the mother and grandheart; the attachments and the decorums of life; mother of the Nabob remained under guard; and
each emotion of tenderness and honor; and all the  the resident was commanded to make with them
distinctions of national pride; with a long cata- no settlement whatsoever. The prisoners entreated
loogue of crimes and aogravations beyond the  their release, declaring their inability to procure any
farther sums of money while they remained in conreach of thought for human malignity to perpe-d  
nreach o ht for hu n m     y to p     -  finement. So far from any relaxation of their suftrate or human vengeance to punish; lowes than  ferings, higher measures of severity were enjoined.
perditioe,-blacker than despair!t3                After they had lain two months in irons, the comIt might, my Lords, have been hoped, for the  manding officer advised a temporary release from
The Beglins honor of the human heart, that the Be- fetters on account of their health, which was rapidly
rleatemFlit  gums were themselves exempted from  sinking; but the instructions of the resident comgreatseverity. a share in these sufferings, and that pelled him to refuse the smallest mitigation of their
they had been wounded only through the sides  tortue. Tey were threatened with beitg removed
of their ministers.  The reverse of this, howev- to Lucknow [to the fortress of Chunargar], where
e, is te ft  Teir p c  w        they would only be subjected to severer coercion,
er, is the fact. Their palace was surrounded by      less tey performed, without delay, what they
unless they performed, without delay, what they
a guard, which was withdrawn by MajorGilpin  averred themselves unable to perform. They were
to avoid the growing resentments of the people,  accordingly soon after removed to Lucknow, and
and replaced by Mr. Middleton, through his fears  cruelties inflicted upon them, of which the nature
of that " dreadful responsibility" which was im- is not disclosed; of which the following letter, adposed upon him by Mr. Hastings.  The women, dressed by the assistant resident to the commanding
also, of the Khord Mahal, who were not involved  officer of the English guard, is a disgraceful proof.
in the Begums' supposed crimes; who had raised' Sir,-The Nabob having determined to inflict coti? 77-    PA-          J *-  -^2, reorcal punishment upon the prisoners under your
no sub-rebellion of their own; and who, it has.pore  punishment upon the prisoners under your
be.   1p 1.. ld. in ali    guard, this is to desire that his officers, when they
been proved, lived in a distinct dwelling, were  come, may have fiee access to the prisoners, and be
causelessly implicated, nevertheless, in the same  permitted to do with them as they shall see proper.'
punishment.  Their residence surrounded with  The women in the Zenana, in the mean while, were,
guards, they were driven to despair by famine,  at various times, deprived of food, till they were on
and when they poured forth in sad procession, the point of perishing for want. The rigors went on
were beaten with bludgeons, and forced back by  increasing till the month of December [that is, for
the soldiery to the scene of madness which they  nearly a year], when the resident, convinced by
had quitted.  These are acts, my Lords, which, his own experience, and the representation of the
__________officer commanding the guard by which the prin33 This apostrophe to Faith and Justice is finely  cesses were coerced, that every thing which force
conceived, and, if carried out with the simplicity and  could accomplish was already performed, removed,
conciseness which a man like Lord Chatham would  of his own authority, the guard front the palace of
have given it, might have formed one of the most the Begums, and set at liberty their ministers."magnificent passages in our language. But it was  See British India, iv., 396-98.
the besetting sin of Mr. Sheridan to overdo. He has    Mr. Hastings is referred to by the resident throughhere marred a noble idea by overlaying it with ac- out, as requiring all these severities. If any thing
cessories-by an accumulation of circumstances and  could add to the horror which they awaken, it is
of glaring epithets, which divert the attention from  the fact that he hypocritically pretended to believe
the leading thought, and thus, to a great extent, de- that the Nabob wished them  to be inflicted, and
stroy the effect.                                 taught the victims of his cruelty to ascribe their
It might be a useful exercise for the student in  final release to his own clemency. The resident
oratory, to write out this passage in more simple and  was directed to inform them that the Governor ten
concise terms, such as we may suppose would have  eral was "the spring from whence they were reoeen used by Lord Chatham or Lord Erskine.       I stored to their dignity and consequence."




1788.]             WARREN HASTINGS ON THE BEGUM CHARGE.                                    435
1778. He also acknowledged signing some oth- the same degree accountable to the law, to his
ers of a different date, but could not recollect the  country, to his conscience, and to his GOD!
authority by which he did it!  These treaties    The prisoner has endeavored also to get rid
were recognized by Mr. Hastings, as appears by  of a part of his guilt, by observing His measures
the evidence of Mr. Purling, in the year 1780. that he was but one of the supreme l:otchargeable
In that of October, 1778, the jaghire was se- council, and that all the rest had sane- vwho were decured, which was allotted for the support of the  tioned those transactions with their apwomen in the Khord Mahal. But still the pris- probation.  Even if it were true that others did
oner pleads that he is not accountable for the  participate in the guilt, it can not tend to diminish
cruelties which were exercised.  His is the  his criminality. But the fact is, that the council
plea which tyranny, aided by its prime minister, erred in nothing so much as in a reprehensible
treachery, is always sure to set up.  Mr. Mid- credulity given to the declarations of the Govdleton has attempted to strengthen this ground  ernor General.  They knew not a word of those
by endeavoring to claim the whole infamy in  transactions until they were finally concluded.
those transactions, and to monopolize the guilt! It was not until the January following that they
He dared even to aver, that he had been con- saw the mass of falsehood which had been pubdemned by Mr. Hastings for the ignominious  lished under the title of " Mr. Hastings' Narrapart he had acted.  He dared to avow this, be- tive."  They were, then, unaccountably duped
cause Mr. Hastings was on his trial, and he  to permit a letter to pass, dated the 29th of Nothought he never would be arraigned; but in the  vember, intended to seduce the Directors into a
face of this court, and before he left the bar, he  belief that they had received intelligence at that
was compelled to confess that it was for the  time, which was not the fact.  These observalenience, and not the severity of his proceedings, tions, my Lords, are not meant to cast any oblothat he had been reproved by the prisoner.      quy on the council; they undoubtedly were deIt will not, I trust, be concluded, that, be- ceived; and the deceit practiced on them is a deNo excuse that cause Mr. Hastings has not marked  cided proof of his consciousness of guilt.  When
lie did not order
ese ruelties every passing shade of guilt, and be- tired of corporeal infliction, Mr. Hastings was
by name. n   cause he has only given the bold out- gratified by insulting the understanding.  The
line of cruelty, he is therefore to be acquitted. coolness and reflection with which this act was
It is laid down by the law of England, that law  managed and concerted raises its enormity and
which is the perfection of reason, that a person  blackens its turpitude.  It proves the prisoner
ordering an act to be done by his agent is an- to be that monster in nature, a deliberate and
swerable for that act with all its consequences, reasoning tyrant!  Other tyrants of whom we
" quod facit per alium, facit per se."35  Mid- read, such as a Nero, or a Caligula, were urged
dleton was appointed, in 1777, the confidential to their crimes by the impetuosity of passion.
agent, the second self of Mr. Hastings.  The  High rank disqualified them  from  advice, and
Governor General ordered the measure.  Even  perhaps equally prevented reflection.  But in
if he never saw, nor heard afterward of its con- the prisoner we have a man born in a state of
sequences, he was therefore answerable for ev- mediocrity; bred to mercantile life; used to sysery pang that was inflicted, and for all the blood  tern; and accustomed to regularity; who was
that was shed.  But he did hear, and that in- accountable to his masters, and therefore was
stantly, of the whole.  He wrote to accuse Mid- compelled to think and to deliberate on every
dleton of forbearance and of neglect! He com- part of his conduct.  It is this cool deliberation,
manded him to work upon the hopes and fears  I say, which renders his crimes more horrible,
of the princesses, and to leave no means untried,  and his character more atrocious.
until, to speak his own language, which was    When, my Lords, the Board of Directors rebetter suited to the banditti of a cavern, " he ob- ceived the advices which Mr. Hastings The inquiry
tained possession of the secret hoards of the old  thought proper to transmit, though un- recated byp
ladies."  He would not allow even of a delay  furnished with any other materials to Ml astings.
of two days to smooth the compelled approaches  form their judgment, they expressed very strongof a son to his mother, on this occasion!  His  ly their doubts, and properly ordered an inquiry
orders were peremptory.  After this, my Lords, into the circumstances of the alleged disaffection
can it be said that the prisoner was ignorant of  of the Begums, declaring it, at the same time,
the acts, or not culpable for their consequences?  to be a debt which was due to the honor and
It is true, he did not direct the guards, the fam-  justice of the British nation. This inquiry, howine, and the bludgeons; he did not weigh the  ever, Mr. Hastings thought it absolutely necesfetters, nor number the lashes to be inflicted on  sary to elude.  He stated to the council, in anhis victims; but yet he is just as guilty as if he  swer, " that it would revive those animosities
had borne an active and personal share in each  that subsisted between the Begums and the Natransaction.  It is as if he had commanded that bob [Asoph Dowlah], which had then subsided.
the heart should be torn from  the bosom, and  If the former were inclined to appeal to a foreign
\enjoined that no blood should follow.  He is in  jurisdiction, they were the best judges of their
\non ____   _          -       -___ -___________   own feeling, and should be left to make their
35 This adage, though often quoted thus, is, prop- own complaint."  All this, however, my Lords,
elly, "Qui facit per alium, facit per se."  He who  is nothing to the magnificent paragraph which
a ts through another does the thing himself.    concludes this communication.  " Besides,' says




436              MR. SHERIDAN AGAINST WARREN HASTINGS, ETC.                                 [1788
he, "I hope it will not be a departure from offi- would be perfect in the spirits and the aspirings
His re.marks cial language to say, that the Majesty  of men!-where the mind rises; where  the
aboutthe off Justice ought not to be approached  heart expands; where the countenance is ever
Justice.    without solicitation.  She ought not to  placid and benign; where her favorite attitude
descend to inflame or provoke, but to withhold  is to stoop to the unfortunate; to hear their cry
her judgment until she is called on to determ-  and to help them; to rescue and relieve, to sucine."  What is still more astonishing, is, that cor and save; majestic, from its mercy; venerSir John Macpherson, who, though a man of  able, from  its utility; uplifted, without pride;
sense and honor, is rather Oriental in his imagin- firm, without obduracy; beneficent in each prefation, and not learned in the sublime and beau- erence; lovely, though in her frown!
tiful from the immortal leader of this prosecu-    On that Justice I rely: deliberate and sure,
tion, was caught by this bold, bombastic quibble, abstracted from  all party purpose and roration
and joined in the same words, " that the majesty  political speculation; not on words, but
of justice ought not to be approached without on facts.  You, my Lords, who hear me, I consolicitation.'  But, my Lords, do you, the judg-  jure, by those rights which it is your best prives of this land, and the expounders of its rightful ilege to preserve; by that fame which it is your
laws, do you approve of this mockery, and call best pleasure to inherit; by all those feelings
it the character of justice, which takes theforsm  which refer to the first term in the series of exof right to excite wrong?  No, my Lords, jus- istence, the original compact of our nature, our
tice is not this halt and miserable object; it is controlling rank in the creation. This is the call
not the ineffective bawble of an Indian pagod; it on all to administer to truth and equity, as they
is not the portentous phantom of despair; it is  would satisfy the laws and satisfy themselves,
not like any fabled monster, formed in the eclipse  with the most exalted bliss possible or conceivof reason, and found in some unhallowed grove  able for our nature; the self-approving conof superstitious darkness and political dismay! sciousness of virtue, when the condemnation we
No, my Lords.  In the happy reverse of all look for will be one of the most ample mercies
this, I turn from the disgusting caricature to the  accomplished for mankind since the creation of
real image!  Justice I have now before me au-  the world!  My Lords, I have done.
gust and pure!  The abstract idea of all that




CHARLES JAMES FOX.
CHARLES JAMES Fox was born on the 24th of January, 1749, and was the second
son of Henry Fox (the first Lord Holland), and Lady Georgiana Lennox, daughter of the second Duke of Richmond.  The father, as heretofore mentioned, was
the great antagonist of Lord Chatham.  He was a man of amiable feelings, but
dissolute habits; poor (as the natural consequence) during most of his life, and governed in his politics by the master principle of the Walpole school-love of power
for the sake of money.  In 1757, he obtained the appointment of Paymaster of the
Forces.  This office, as then managed, afforded almost boundless opportunities for acquiring wealth; and so skillfully did he use his advantages, that within eight years
he amassed a fortune of several hundred thousand pounds.  A part of this money he
spent in erecting a magnificent house on his estate at Kingsgate, in the Isle of Thanet.
" Upon a bleak promontory," says one of his contemporaries, " projecting into the German Ocean, he constructed a splendid villa worthy of Lucullus, and adorned it with
a colonnade in front of the building, such as Ictinus might have raised by order of
Pericles." Here Charles spent a portion of his early years, and the estate fell to him,
as a part of his patrimony, after his father's death.
Lord Holland's oldest son, Stephen, being affected with a nervous disease which
impaired his faculties, Charles, who gave early proofs of extraordinary talent, became
the chief object of pride and hope to the family. His father resolved to train him
up for public life, and to make him what he himself had always endeavored to be, a
leader in fashionable dissipation, and yet an orator and a statesman. He had lived
in the days of Bolingbroke, and it would almost seem as if he intended to make that
gifted but profligate adventurer the model of his favorite child.  He began by treating him with extreme indulgence.  His first maxim was, " Let nothing be done to
break his spirit," and with this view he permitted no one either to contradict or to
punish the boy. On the contrary, he encouraged him in the wildest whims and ca
prices. When about five years old, Charles was standing one day by his father as
he wound up his watch, and said, "I have a great mind to break that watch."  " No,
Charles, that would be foolish."  "But indeed I must do it-I must."  "Nay," replied the father,  if you have so violent an inclination, I won't balk it," giving the
watch to the boy, who instantly dashed it on the floor. Amid all this indulgence,
however, his studies were not neglected; he showed surprising quickness in performing his tasks, and the same ready and retentive memory for which he was remarkable
in after life. His father made him, from childhood, his companion and equal, encouraging him to converse freely at table, and to enter into all the questions discussed by
public men who visited the family. Charles usually acquitted himself to the admiration of all, and was no doubt indebted to this early habit of thinking and speaking
with freedom, for that frankness and intrepidity, amounting often to rashness, which
distinguished him as an orator. Lord Holland, in the mean time, was steadily aiming
at the object he had in view. He wrought upon his son's pride; he inflamed him
with that love of superiority which is usually the most powerful excitement of genius; he'continually pointed him to public life, as the great theater of his labors and
triumphs.
Under such influences, his progress at a private school of distinction, where he was




438                            CHARLES JAMES FOX.
sent from childhood, was uncommonly rapid; the severe discipline pursued having
the effect at once to repress his irregularities, and to turn his passion for superiority
in the right direction. Here he laid the foundation of that intimate acquaintance
with the classics, for which he was distinguished beyond most men of his age. He
can hardly be said to have studied Latin or Greek after he was sixteen years old. So
thoroughly was he grounded in these languages from boyhood, that he read them
throughout life much as he read English, and could turn to the great authors of antiquity at any moment, not as a mental effort, but for the recreation and delight he
found in their pages. This was especially true of the Greek writers, which were then
less studied in England than at present.  He took up. Demosthenes as he did the
speeches of Lord Chatham, and dwelt with tlhe same zest on the Greek tiragredians as
oniith e,:.lays ofShakspere.  As an instance of this, Mr. Trotter, who attended him
at the close of life, mentions, that Mr. Fox once entered the room, just as he was beginning to read the Alcestis of Euripides.  " You will soon find something you like,"
said he; "tell me when you come to it."  Mr. Fox, who had not opened the book fbr
many years, watched the reader's countenance till he came to the description of A1cestis, after praying for her children, as she mourned so pathetically over her lot, when
he broke out with a kind of triumph at the effect produced by the exquisite tender-.
ness of the passage. In the wildest excesses of his life, the classics were still his companions; in the midst of public business, he corresponded with Gilbert Wakefield on
the nicest questions of Greek criticism; he usually led to the subject in conversation
with literary men; and we see in the Memoirs of the poet Campbell what delight
he expressed at their first interview, in finding how perfectly they agreed on some
disputed points in Virgil. As an orator, he was much indebted to his study of the
Greek writers for the simplicity of his taste, his severe abstinence from every thing
like mere ornament, the terseness of his style, the point and stringency of his reasonings, and the all-pervading cast of intellect which distinguishes his speeches, even in
his most vehement bursts of impassioned feeling.
Charles was next sent to Eaton, where he joined associates who were less advanced
than himself in classical literature.  This made him a leader in their studies and
amusements.  In every thing that called for eloquence, especially, whether in public
meetings or private debate, or the contentions of the play-ground, he held an acknowledged pre-eminence.  On such occasions, he always manifested those kind and generous feelings for which he was distinguished throughout life; espousing the cause
of the weaker party, and exerting all his powers of oratory in behalf of those who
were injured or neglected through prejudice or partiality for others. Never content
with mediocrity, he endeavored to surpass his companions in every thing he undertook; and his habits of self-indulgence unfortunately taking a new direction, he now
became a leader in all the dissipation of the school. To complete the mischief; his
father took him, at the age of fourteen, on a trip to the Spa in Germany, at that time
the great center of gambling for Europe; and, incredible as it may seem, he there
initiated him in all the mysteries of the gaming-table! At the end of three months,
Charles returned to Eaton with that fatal passion which so nearly proved his ruin
for life, and immediately introduced gambling among his companions to an extent
never before heard of in a public school. Under his influence, one of the boys, it is
said, contracted debts of honor to the amount of ten thousand pounds, which he felt
bound to pay when he arrived at manhood!
At the end of six years Charles was removed to Oxford, where he continued two
years, still maintaining the highest rank as a scholar.  Notwithstanding his love of
pleasure, he must have devoted most of his time at the university to severe study;
for his tutor, Dr. Newcombe, remarks, in a letter which Mr. Fox was fond of slowing
in after life, " Application like yours requires some intermission, and you are the only




CHARLES JAMES FOX.                               439
person with whom  I have ever had connection, to whom I could say this."  His
studies were confined almost entirely to the classics and history; he paid but little
attention to the mathematics, a neglect which he afterward lamented as injurious
to his mental training; and perhaps for this reason he never felt the slightest interest, at this or any subsequent period, in those abstract inquiries which are designed
to settle the foundations of moral and political science.  Charles Butler having once
mentioned to him that he had never read Smith's Wealth of Nations, " To tell you
the truth," said Mr. Fox, " nor have I either.  There is something in all these subjects which passes my comprehension; something so wide that I could never embrace them myself, nor find any one that did."  This was one of the greatest defects
in his character as a statesman. His tastes were too exclusively literary.'With
those habits of self-indulgence so unhappily created in childhood, he rarely did any
thing but what he liked-he read poetry, eloquence, history, and elegant literature,
because he loved them, and he read but little else. He had never learned to grapple
with difficulties, except in connection with a subject which deeply interested his
feelings. To secure some favorite object, he would now and then submit to severe
drudgery, but he soon reverted to his old habits; and, with powers which, if rightly
disciplined, would have enabled him to enter more easily than almost any man of
his age into the abstrusest inquiries, he never mastered the principles of his own profession; -he was not, in the strict sense of the term, a scientific statesman.  He could
discuss the Greek meters with Porson; and when a fiiend once insisted that a certain line in the Iliad could not be genuine because it contained measures not used
by Homer, he was able, from his early recollections of the poet, instantly to adduce
nearly twenty examples of the same construction.  But he had no such acquaintance
with the foundations of jurisprudence or the laws of trade; and at a period when
the labors of Adam Smith were giving a new science to the world, and establishing
the principles of political economy, the true source of the wealth of nations, he was
obliged to say, " it is a subject which passes my comprehension." His deficiency in
this respect was indeed less seen, because, being in opposition nearly all his life, he
was rarely called to propose measures of finance; his chief business was to break
down, and not to build up; yet he always felt the want of an early training in scientific investigation, correspondent to that he received in classical literature.
Mr. Fox left the University at the age of seventeen, and entered at once upon
manhood.  The light restraints imposed during his education being now removed, he
became sole master of his own actions; and the prodigal liberality of his father supplied him with unbounded means of indulgence.  For two years he traveled on the
Continent, making great proficiency in Italian and French literature, and plunging,
at the same time, into all the extravagance and vice of the most corrupt capitals of
Europe.  His father had succeeded, even beyond his intentions, in making him a'leader in fashionable dissipation;' and he now began to fear that he had thus defeated his main design, that of training him up to be an'orator and a statesman.'
He recalled him from the Continent, and was compelled, in doing so (as afterward
appeared from his banker's accounts), to pay one hundred thousand pounds of debt,
contracted in two years! To wean him from habits which he had himself engendered, Lord Holland now resorted to the extraordinary expedient of having his son
returned as a member of Parliament from Midhurst, a borough under his control, in
May, 1768, being a year and eight months before he was eligible by law!
Under this return, Mr. Fox took his seat in the House, at the opening of Parliament
in November, 1768.  His deficiency in age was perhaps unknown; at all events, no
one came forward to dispute his right.  By education he was a Tory; he had distinguished himself when at Paris by some lively French verses reflecting severely on
Lord Chatham; and in all his feelings, habits, and associations, he was opposed to




440                          CHARLES JAMES FOX.
the cause of popular liberty. He now came out a warm supporter of the Duke of
Grafton, with whom his father was closely allied in politics, just after Junius's first
attack on the administration of his Grace; and delivered his maiden speech, April
15th, 1769, in support of that flagrant outrage on the rights of the people, the seating
of Colonel Luttrell, as a member of the House, in the place of John Wilkes. Horace
Walpole speaks of him as distinguished for his "insolence" on this occasion, as well
as " the infinite superiority of his parts."  When Lord North came in as minister,
in February, 1770, Mr. Fox, through the influence of his father, was appointed a
junior Lord of the Admiralty, and three years after, one of the Lords of the Treasury.
His time was now divided between politics and gambling, and he was equally devoted
to both. In the House, he showed great, though irregular power as an orator, and
at the gaming-table he often lost from five to ten thousand pounds at a single sitting.
Though he differed from Lord North on the Royal Marriage Bill and Toleration Act,
he sustained his Lordship in all his political measures, and even went at times beyond him-declaring that, for his part, he "paid no regard whatever to the voice
of the people;" urging the imprisonment of Alderman Oliver and the Lord Mayor
of London for the steps they took to guard the liberty of the press; and inveighing
against Sergeant Glynn's motion respecting the rights of juries in cases of libel, the
very rights which he himself afterward secured to them by an act of Parliament!
To these views, derived from his father, and confirmed by all his present associates,
he might very possibly have adhered through life, except for a breach which now took
place between him and Lord North: so much do political principles depend on party
connections and private interest.  But his Lordship found Mr. Fox too warm and independent in his zeal; he sometimes broke the ranks and took his place as a leader;
and in one instance, when Woodfall was brought to the bar of the House for making
too free a use of his press, Mr. Fox proposed an amendment to a motion made by his
Lordship, and actually carried it against him, under which Woodfall was committed
to Newgate-a measure never contemplated by the ministry, and only calculated to
injure them by its harshness.  Such a violation of party discipline could not be overlooked, and it was decided at once to dismiss him. A day or two after (February
28th, 1774), as he was seated on the Treasury bench conversing with Lord North,
the following note was handed him by the messenger of the House:
" SIR,-His Majesty has thought proper to order a new commission of the Treasury to be made
out, in which I do not perceive your name.  (Signed)                     NORTH."
The cool contempt of this epistle shows the estimate in which he was held by the
ministry, who plainly regarded him as a reckless gambler, whose friendship or hatred,
notwithstanding all his talents, could never be of the least importance to any party.
There was too much reason for this. opinion.  His father, after expending an enormous sum in paying his debts (one statement makes it ~140,000 in the year 1773
alone), died about this time, leaving him an ample fortune, including his splendid estate in the Isle of Thanet; but the whole was almost immediately gone, sacrificed to
the imperious passion which had taken such entire possession of his soul. Paris and
London were equally witnesses to its power. The celebrated Madame Duffand, in a
letter written at a somewhat later period, speaks of him and his companion, Colonel
Fitzpatrick, as objects of curious speculation; but adds, in another letter-" Je ne saurais m'interesser a eux: ce sont des tetes absolument derangees et sans esperance de
retour."1 The whole world, in fact, regarded him in very much the same way as
Lord North.
It is probable that nothing but a blow like this, showing him the contempt into
1 I could not interest myself in them: they are absolutely deranged in their minds, and there is
no hope of their recovery.




CHARLES JAMES FOX.                               441
which he had sunk, rousing all his pride, and driving him into the arms of new associates, whose talents commanded his respect, and whose instructions molded his
political principles, could ever have saved Mr. Fox from the ruin in which he was
involved. As it was, years passed away before he gained a complete mastery over
this terrible infatuation; and it may here be stated, by way of anticipation, that his
friends, at a much later period (1793), finding him involved, from time to time, in
the most painful embarrassments from this cause, united in a.subscription, with which
they purchased him an annuity of ~3000 a year, which could not be alienated, and
after this testimony of their regard he wholly abstained from gambling.
The period at which Mr. Fox now stood was peculiarly favorable to the formation
of new and more correct political principles.  Hitherto he had none that could be
called his own; he had never, probably, reflected an hour on the subject; he had simply carried out those high aristocratic feelings with which he was taught from childhood to look down upon the body of the people.  But a change in the policy of Lord
North now made Amerzica the great object of political interest. Within a few weeks,
the Boston Port Bill and its attendant measures were brought forward, designed to
starve a town of twenty thousand inhabitants, with the adjoining province, into submission; the charter of that province was violently set aside; a British governor was
empowered to send persons three thousand miles across the Atlantic, to be tried in
England for supposed offenses in America; and British troops were to be employed in
carrying out these acts of violence and outrage. Mr. Fox was naturally one of the
most humane of men; -'cHe possessed," says Lord Erskine, " above all persons I ever
knew, the most gentle and yet the most ardent spirit; he was tremblingly alive to
every kind of private wrong or suffering; he had an indignant abhorrence of every
species of cruelty, oppression, and injustice."  With these feelings, quickened by the
resentment which he naturally entertained against Lord North, it could not require
much argument from Burke, Dunning, Barre, and the other leaders of the Opposition,
into whose society he was now thrown, to make Mr. Fox enter with his whole soul
into all their views of these violent, oppressive acts.  He came out at once to resist
them, and was the first man in the House who took the ground of denying the right
of Parliament to tax the colonies without their consent. He affirmed that on this subject, " Just as the House of Commons stands to the House of Lords, so stands America
with Great Britain;" neither party having authority to overrule or compel the other.
He declared, " There is not an American but must reject and resist the principle and
right."  He accused Lord North of the most flagrant treachery to his adherents in New
England. " You boast," said he, " of having friends there; but, rather than not make
the ruin of that devoted country complete, even your friends aCre to be involved in
one common famine!"  His Lordship soon found that he had raised up a most formidable antagonist where he had least expected.  Mr. Fox now entered into debate,
not occasionally, as before, when the whim struck him, but earnestly and systemat.
ically, on almost every question that came up; and his proficiency may be learned
from a letter of Mr. Gibbon (who was then a member of the House and a supporter
of the ministry), in which, speaking of a debate on the subject of America (February, 1775), he says: " The principal men both days were Fox and Wedderburne, on
opposite sides: the latter displayed his usual talents; the former, taking the vast
compass of the question before us, discovered powers for regular debate which neither
his friends hoped nor his enemies dreaded."-Misc. Worls, ii., 21.
Mr. Fox's sentiments respecting the treatment of America, though springing, perhaps, at first from humane feelings alone, or opposition to Lord North, involved, as
their necessary result, an entire change of his political principles. He was now
brought, for the first time, to look at public measures, not on the side of privilege or
prerogative, but of the rights and interests of the people. From that moment, all




442                             CHARLES JAMES FOX.
the sympathies of his nature took a new direction, and he went on identifying himself more and more, to the end of life, with the popular part of the Constitution and
the cause of free principles throughout the world.  It was the test to which he brought
every measure: it was his object, amid all the conflicts of party and personal interest, in his own expressive language, " to widen the basis of freedom-to infuse and
circulate the spirit of liberty."   As an orator, especially, he drew from  this source
the most inspiring strains of his eloquence. No English speaker, not even Lord Chatham himself, dwelt so often on this theme; no one had his generous sensibilities more
completely roused; no one felt more strongly the need of a growing infusion of this
spirit into the English government, as the great means of its strength and renovation.  He urges this in a beautiful passage in his speech on Parliamentary Reform,
"because it gives a power of which nothing else in government is capable; because
it incorporates every man with the state, and arouses every thing that belongs to the
soul as well as the body of man; because it makes every individual feel that he is
fighting for himself and not for another; that it is his own cause, his own safety,
his own concern, his own dignity on the face of the earth, and his own interest in that
identical soil, which he has to maintain. In this principle we find the key to all the
wonders which were achieved at Thermopylae: the principle of liberty alone could
create those sublime and irresistible emotions; and it is in vain to deny, from  the
striking illustration that our times have given, that the principle is eternal, and that
it belongs to the heart of man."
It was happy for Mr. Fox, in coming out so strongly against Lord North at the
early age of twenty-five, that he enjoyed the friendship of some of the ablest men
in the empire among the Whigs, on whom he could rely with confidence in forming
his opinions and conducting his political inquiries.  To Mr. Burke he could resort,
in common with all the associates of that wonderful man, for every kind of knowledge on almost every subject; and he declared, at the time of their separation from
each other in 1791, that "if he were to put all the political information which he
had learned from books, all he had gained from science, and all which any knowledge
of the world and its affairs had taught him, into one scale, and the improvement
which he had derived from his right honorable friend's instruction and conversation
were placed in the other, he should be at a loss to decide to which to give the preference."  Mr. Dunning (afterward Lord Ashburton) was another leader among the
Whigs, who, though less generally known as an orator from  the imperfection of his
voice and manner, was one of the keenest opponents in the House of those arbitrary
acts into which George III. drove the Duke of Grafton and Lord North; and it caln
hardly be doubted that he had great influence with Mr. Fox at this time (though
they were separated at a later period) in weaning him from his early predilections
for the royal prerogative, and inspiring him  with those sentiments which the Whigs
expressed in their celebrated resolution (drawn up by Mr. Dunning himself), that
"the influence of the Crown has inecreased, is inc-seasing, and OUGHT TO BE DIMINISHED. 2
2 The reader will be interested in the following beautiful tribute to the memory of Lord Ashburton as an orator, from the pen of Sir William Jones: " His language was always pure, always
elegant, and the best words dropped easily from his lips into the best places with a fluency at all
times astonishing, and, when he had perfect health, really melodious. That faculty, however, in
which no mortal ever surpassed him, and which all found irresistible, was his wit. This relieved
the weary, calmed the resentful, and animated the drowsy; this drew smiles even from such as
were the objects of it, and scattered flowers over a desert, and, like sunbeams sparkling on a lake,
gave spirit and vivacity to the dullest and least interesting cause. Not that his accomplishments
as an advocate consisted principally of volubility of speech or liveliness of raillery. He was endued with an intellect sedate yet penetrating, clear yet profound, subtle yet strong. His knowledge, too, was equal to his imagination, and his memory to his knowledge. "- Works, vol. iv, p. 577.




CHARLES JAMES FOX.                               443
The ambition of Mr. Fox was now directed to a single object, that of making
himself a powefulc debater.  A debater, in the distinctive sense of the term, is described by a lively writer, as " one who goes out in all weathers"-one who, instead
of carrying with him  to the House a set speech drawn up beforehand, has that
knowledge of general principles, that acquaintance with each subject as it comes up,
that ready use of all his faculties, which enables him to meet every question where
he finds it: to grapple with his antagonist at a moment's warning, and to avail himself of every advantage which springs from a perfect command of all his powers and
resources. These qualities are peculiarly necessary in the British House of Commons, because the most important questions are generally decided at a single sitting;
and there is no room for that pernicious custom so prevalent in the American Congress, of making interminable speeches to constituents under a semblance of addressing the House. In addition to great native quickness and force of mind, long-continued practice is requisite to make a successful debater. Mr. Fox once remarked to a
friend, that he had literally gained his skill " at the expense of the House," for he had'
sometimes tasked himself, during an entire session, to speak on every question that
came up, whether he was interested in it or not, as a means of exercising and training his faculties.  He now found it necessary to be intimately acquainted with the
history of the Constitution and the political relations of the country; and though he
continued for some years to be a votary of pleasure, he had such wonderful activity
of mind and force of memory, that he soon gained an amount of information on these
topics such as few men in the House possessed, and was able to master every subject
in debate with surprising facility and completeness.  In all this he thought of but
one thing-not language, not imagery, not even the best disposition and sequence of
his ideas, but argumzent: how to put down his antagonist, how to make out his own
case.  His love of argument was, perhaps, the most striking trait in his character.
Even in conversation (as noticed by a distinguished foreigner who was much in his
society), he was not satisfied, like most men, to throw out a remark, and leave it to
make its own way, he must prove it, and subject the remarks of others to the same
test; so that ciscussion formed the staple of all his thoughts, and entered to a great
extent into all his intercourse with others.  With such habits and feelings, he rose,.
says Mr. Burke, "by slow degrees to be the most brilliant and accomplished debater
the world ever saw."  There was certainly nothing of envy or disparagement (though
charged upon him  with great bitterness by Dr. Parr) in Mr. Burke's selecting the
term " debater" to express the distinctive character of Mr. Fox.  The character is.
one which gives far more weight and authority to a speaker in Parliament, than the
most fervid oratory when unattended by the qualities mentioned above.  It was not
denied by Mr. Burke, but rather intimated by his use of the word " brilliant," that
Mr. Fox did superinduce upon those qualities an ardor and an eloquence by which
(as every one knows) he gave them their highest effect. It is emphatically true, also,
notwithstanding Dr. Parr's complaint of the expression, that Mr. Fox did rise "by
slow degrees" to his eminence as an orator, an eminence of so peculiar a kind that
no human genius could ever have attained it in any other way; and it is equally
true, that whenever the name of Mr. Fox is mentioned, the first idea which strikes
every mind is the one made thus prominent by Mr. Burke-we instantly think of
him as " the most brilliant and accomplished debater the world ever saw."  So much,
indeed, was this the absorbing characteristic of his oratory, that nearly all his faults
lay in this direction.  He had made himself so completely an intellectual gladiator,
that too often he thought of nothing but how to obtain the victory.
Notwithstanding the irregularities of his private life, to which Mr. Fox still unfortunately clung, he gradually rose as a speaker in Parliament, until, at the end of
Lord North's administration, he was the acknowledged leader of the Whig party in




444                         CHARLES JAMES FOX.
the House.  In many respects, he *was peculiarly qualified for such a station.  He
had a fine, genial spirit, characteristic of the family, which drew his political friends
around him with all the warmth of a personal attachment. " He was a man," said
Mr. Burke, soon after their separation from each other, " who was made to be loved."
His feelings were generous, open, and manly; the gaming-table had not made him,
as it does most men, callous or morose; he was remarkably unassuming in his manners, yet frank and ardent in urging his views; he was above every thing like trick
or duplicity, and was governed by the impulses of a humane and magnanimous disposition. These things, in connection with his tact and boldness, qualified him preeminently to be the leader of a Whig Opposition; while his rash turn of mind, resulting from the errors of his early training, would operate less to his injury in such
a situation, and his very slight regard for political consistency would as yet have no
opportunity to be developed.
It was with these characteristics, that, at the end of the long struggle which drove
Lord North from power, Mr. Fox came into office as Secretary of State under Lord
Rockingham, in March, 1782.  This administration was terminated in thirteen
weeks by the death of his Lordship, and Mr. Fox confidently expected to be made
prime minister. But he had now to experience the natural consequences of his reckless spirit and disregard of character. The King would not, for a moment, entertain
the idea of placing at the head of affairs a man who, besides his notorious dissipation, had beggared himself by gambling, and was still the slave of this ruinous passion. Nor was he alone in his feelings.  Reflecting men of the Whig party, who
were out of the circle of Mr. Fox's immediate influence, had long been scandalized
by the profligacy of his life.  In 1779, Dr. Price, who went beyond him in his devotion to liberal principles, remarked with great severity on his conduct, in a Fast Ser-:mon which was widely circulated in print.  " Can you imagine," said he, "that a
~spendthrift in his own concerns will make an economist in managing the concerns of
others? that a wild gamester will take due care of the state of a kingdom? Treachery, vanity, and corruption must be the effects of dissipation, voluptuousness, and impiety.  These sap the foundations of virtue; they render men necessitous and supple, ready at any time to fly to a court in order to repair a shattered fortune and
procure supplies for prodigality."  In addition to this, Mr. Fox had made himself!personally obnoxious to George III., by another exhibition of his rashness. He had:treated him with great indignity in his speeches on. the American war, pointing directly to his supposed feelings and determinations in a manner forbidden by the theory
of the Constitution, and plainly implying that he was governed by passions unbecoming his station as a King, and disgraceful to his character as a man. It is difficult to
understand how Mr. Fox could allow himself in such language (whatever may have
been his private convictions), if he hoped ever to be made minister; and it was certainly to be expected, for these reasons as well as those mentioned above, that the'King would never place him at the head of the government while he could find any
other man who was competent to fill the station.  He accordingly made Lord She]-'burne prime minister early in July, 1782, and Mr. Fox instantly resigned.
This step led to another which was the great misfortune of his life.  Parties were
so singularly balanced at the opening of the next Parliament, in December, 1782, that
neither the minister nor any of his opponents had the command of the House. According to an estimate made by Gibbon, Lord Shelburne had one hundred and forty
adherents, Lord North one hundred and twenty, and Mr. Fox ninety, leaving a considerahble number who were unattached.  Early in February, 1783, a report crept
abroad, that a coalition was on the tapis between Mr. Fox and Lord North.  The
story was at first treated as an idle tale.  A coalition of some kind was indeed expected, because the government could not be administered without an analgamation




CHARLES JAMES FOX.                               445
of parties; but that Mr. Fox could ever unite with Lord North, alter their bitter animosities and the glaring contrast of their principles on almost every question in politics, seemed utterly incredible. There was nothing of a personal nature to prevent
an arrangement between Lord Shelburne and Lord North; but Mr. Fox had for years
assailed his opponent in such language as seemed forever to cut them off from any
intercourse as men, or any union of their interests as politicians.  He had denounced
him as " the most infamous of mankind," as " the greatest criminal of the state, whose
blood must expiate the calamities he had brought upon his country;"3 and, as if with
the express design of making it impossible for him  to enter into such an alliance,
he had, only eleven months before, said of Lord North and his whole ministry in the
House of Commons: " From the moment I should make any terms with one of them,
I would rest satisfied to be called the most infamous of mankind.  I could not for
an instant think of a coalition with men who, in every public and private transaction
as ministers, have shown themselves void of every principle of honor and honesty: in
the hands of such men I would not trust my honor even for a minute."4 Still, rumors
of a coalition became more and more prevalent, until, on the 17th of February, 1783,
says Mr. Wilberforce, in relating the progress of events, " When I reached the House,
I inquired,'Are the intentions of Lord North and Fox sufficiently known to be condemned?''Yes,' said Henry Banks,'and the more strongly the better.'"  The
debate was on Lord Shelburne's treaty of peace with America; and every eye was
turned to the slightest movements of the ex-minister and his old antagonist, until, at
a late hour of the evening, Lord North came down from the gallery where he had
been sitting, and took his place by Mr. Fox.  His Lordship then arose, and attacked
the treaty with great dexterity and force, as bringing disgrace upon the country by
the concessions it made. Mr. Fox followed in the same strain, adding, in reference
to himself and Lord North, that all causes of difference between them had ceased with
the American war. The Coalition was now complete  The debate continued until
nearly eight o'clock the next morning, when Lord Shelburne was defeated by a majority of sixteen votes, and was compelled soon after to resign.
Next came the Coalition Ministry.  To this the King submitted with the utmost
reluctance, after laboring in vain first to persuade Mr. Pitt to undertake the government, and then to obtain, as a personal favor from Lord North, the exclusion of Mr.
Fox.  So strong were the feelings of his Majesty, that he hesitated and delayed for
six weeks, until, driven by repeated addresses from the House, he was compelled to
yield; and this ill-fated combination came into power on the 2d of April, 1783, with
the Duke of Portland as its head, and Mr. Fox and Lord North as principal secretaries
of state.  " The occurrence of this coalition," says Mr. Cooke, one of Mr. Fox's warmest admirers, " is greatly to be deplored, as an example to men who, without any of
the power, may nevertheless feel inclined to imitate the errors of Fox. It is to be deplored as a blot on the character of a great man, as a precedent which strikes at the
foundation of political morality, and as a weapon in the hands of those who would
destroy all confidence in the honesty of public men."5 The laxity of principle which
it shows in Mr. Fox may be traced to the errors of his early education. It was the result of the pernicious habit in which he was trained of gratifying every desire without
the least regard to consequences, and the still more pernicious maxims taught him by
his father-" that brilliant talents would atone for every kind of delinquency, and that
in politics, especially, any thing would be pardoned to a man of great designs and splendid abilities."  Certain it is that Mr. Fox could never understand why he was condemned so severely for his union with Lord North.  As an opponent, he had spoken
of him, indeed, in rash and bitter terms, but never with a malignant spirit, for nothing
3 Age of Pitt and Fox, vol. i., 145.           4 Fox's Speeches, vol. ii., 39.
5 History of Party, vol. iii., 316.




446                          C-HARLES JAMES FOX.
was farther from his disposition; and, knowing the character of the men, we can credit
the statement of Mr. Gibbon, who was intimate with both, " that in their political contest:. these great antagonists had never felt any personal animosity; that their reconciliation was easy and sincere; and that their friendship had never been clouded by
the shadow of suspicion and jealousy." Every one now feels that Mr. Fox uttered
his real sentiments when he said, " It is not in my nature to bear malice or ill will;
my friendships are perpetual; my enmities are not so: amicitice se?,mpiternzce, inimicitice placabiles."  But he had thus far shown himself to the world only on the worst
side of his character; and it is not surprising that most men considered him (what
in fact he appeared to be on the face of the transaction) as a reckless politician, bent
on the possession of power at whatever sacrifice of principle or consistency it might
cost him.  Even the warmest Whigs regarded him, to a great extent, in the same
light.  " From the moment this coalition was formed," says Bishop Watson, " I lost
all confidence in public men."  " The gazettes," says Sir Samuel Rorilly in a letter
to a friend, " have proclaimed to you the scandalous alliance between Fox and Lord
North.  It is not Fox alone, but his whole party; so much so that it is no exaggeration to say, that of all the public characters of this devoted country (Mr. Pitt only
excepted), there is not a man who has, or deserves, the nation's confidence."6
The great measure of the Coalition ministry was Mr. Fox's East India Bill.  Perilous as the subject was to a new administration lying under the jealousy of the people and the hostility of the King, it could not be avoided; and Mr. Fox met it with
a fearless resolution, which at least demands our respect. The whole nation called
for strong measures, and Mr. Fox gave them a measure stronger than any one of them
had contemplated.  He cut the knot which politicians had so long endeavored to untie.  He annulled the charter of the East India Company, and, after providing ior
the payment of their debts, he took all their concerns into the hands of the government at home, placing the civil and military afiairs of India under the control of a
board of seven commissioners, and putting their commercial interests into the hands
of a second board, to be managed for the benefit of the shareholders.  Never, since
the Revolution of 1688, has any measure of the government produced such a ferment
in the nation. Lawyers exclaimed against the bill as a violation of chartered rights;
all the corporate bodies of the kingdom saw in it, a precedent which might be fatal
to themselves; the East India Company considered it as involving the ruin of their
commercial interests; and politicians regarded it as a desperate effort of Mr. Fox,
after forcing his way into office against the wishes of the King, to set himself above
the King's reach, and, by this vast accession of patronage, to establish his ministry
for life.  Mr. Fox had again to suffer the bitter consequences of his disregard of character. These objections were plausible, and some of the provisions of the bill were
certainly impolitic for one situated like Mr. Fox.  Yet Mr. Mill, in his British India,
speaks of the alarm excited as one " for which the ground was extremely scanty, and
for which, notwithstanding the industry and art with which the advantage was improved by the opposite party, it is difficult (considering the usual apathy of the public on much more important occasions) entirely to. account."7 As to the principal
charge, Lord Campbell observes, in his Lives of the Chancellors, " No one at the
present day believes that the framers of the famous East India Bill had the intention
imputed to them of creating a power independent of the Crown."8  And as to the
other objections, it is obvious to remark, that any effectual scheme of Indian reform
would, of necessity, encroach on the charter of the Company; that such encroachments must in any case be liable to abuse as precedents; and that if (as all agreed
was necessary) the government at home assumed the civil and military administration of India, a large increase of patronage must fall into the hands of ministers,
6 Memoirs, vol. i., p. 269.     7 Vol. iv., p. 475.       8 Vol. v., p. 551.




CHARLES JAMES FOX.                               447
which others could abuse as easily as Mr. Fox.  But the difficulty was, no one knew
how far to trust him!  His conduct had given boundless scope for jealousy and
suspicion.  He had put into the hands of his enemies the means of utterly ruining
his character; and it is undoubtedly true, as stated by a late writer, that he was at
this period regarded by the great body of the nation " as selfish, vicious, and destitute of virtue-by thousands he was looked upon as a man with the purposes of a
Catiline and the manners of a Lovelace."9
Under all these difficulties, Mr. Fox placed his reliance on his majority in the
House, and went forward with an unbroken spirit, trusting to time, and especially to
the character of the men whom he should name as commissioners, for the removal
of this wide-spread opposition. He introduced his bill on the 18th of November,
1783, in a speech explaining its import and design; and at the end of twelve
days, after one of the hardest-fought battles which ever took place in the House, he
closed the debate with a speech of great ability (to be found below), in reply to his
numerous opponents, and especially to Mr. Dundas and Mr. Pitt.  Believing (as almost every one now does) that Mr. Fox was far from being governed by the base
motives ascribed to him-that, though ambitious in a high degree, and hoping, no
doubt, to strengthen his ministry by this measure, his bill was dictated by generous
and humane feelings, and was no more stringent than he felt the exigency of the
case to demand-we can not but admire the dignity and manliness with which he
stood his ground. He had every inducement, when he met this unexpected opposition, to shrink back, to modify his plan, to compromise with the East India Company, and to establish his power by uniting his interests with theirs. Even those who
distrust his motives will therefore do honor to his spirit, and will be ready to say
with Mr. Moore,'~ "We read his speech on the East India Bill with a sort of breathless anxiety, which no other political discourses, except those, perhaps, of Demosthenes, could produce.  The importance of the stake which he risks-the boldness
of his plan-the gallantry with which he flings himself into the struggle, and the
frankness of personal feeling that breathes throughout, all throw around him an interest like that which encircles a hero of romance; nor could the most candid autobiography that ever was written exhibit the whole character of a man more transparently through it."
The bill passed the Commons by a vote of 217 to 103, but when it came up in
the House of Lords it met with a new and more powerful resistance. Lord Temple, a near relative of Mr. Pitt, had obtained a private audience of the King, and
represented the subject in such a light, that his Majesty commissioned him to say,
that "whoever voted for the India Bill were not only not his friends, but that he
should consider them his enemies."  At its first reading, Lord Thurlow  denounced
it in the strongest terms; and turning to the Prince of Wales, who was present as a
peer with the view to support the bill, he added, with a dark scowl as he looked him
directly in the face, "I wish to see the Crown great and respectable, but if the pres
ent bill should pass, it will be no longer worthy of a man of honor to wear. The
King may take the diadem from his own head and put it on the head of Mr. Fox."
An instantaneous change took place among the peerage.  The King's message
through Lord Temple had been secretly but widely circulated among the Lords, especially those of the royal household, who had given their proxies to the ministry.
These proxies were instantly withdrawn.  Even Lord Stormont, a member of the
cabinet, who at first supported the bill, changed sides after two days; the Prince of
Wales felt unable to give Mr. Fox his vote; and the bill was rejected by a majority
of ninety-five to seventy-six.  The King hastened to town the moment he learned
the decision of the Lords; and at twelve o'clock the next night, a messenger con9 Age of Pitt and Fox, vol. i., p. 177.  10 Life of Sheridan, vol. i., 215, Phila.




448                            CHARLES JAMES FOX.
veyed to Mr. Fox and Lord North his Majesty's orders "that they should deliver up
the seals of their offices, and send them by the under-secretaries, Mr. Frazer and Mr.
Nepean, as a personal interview  on the occasion would be disagreeable to him."
The other ministers received their dismissal the next day in a note signed " Temple."
But the battle was not over. Mr. Fox had still an overwhelming majority in the
House; and feeling that the interference of the King was an encroachment on the
rights of the Commons, he resolved to carry his resistance to the utmost extremity.
Accordingly, some days after, when Mr. Pitt came in as minister, he voted him  down
by so large a majority that a division was not even called for. Again and again he
voted him  down, demanding of him, in each instance, to resign in accordance with
parliamentary usage, and bringing upon him  at last a direct vote, " That after the
expressed opinion of the House, the continuance of the present minister in office is
contrary to constitutional p2riciples, and injurious to the interests of his Majesty
and the people."  Earl Temple was terrified, and threw  up his office within a few
days, but Mr. Pitt stood firm.  The contest continued for three months, during which
Mr. Fox delayed the supplies from time to time, and distinctly intimated that he might
stop9 them? entirely, and prevent the passing of the Mutiny Bill, if Mr. Pitt did not resign.1  But his impetuosity carried him too far. He was in this case, as in some others, his own worst enemy.  The King's interference was certainly a breach of privilege, and, under other circumstances, the whole country would have rallied round Mr.
Fox to resist it.  But every one now saw that the real difficulty was his exclusion
from office; and when he attempted to force his way back by threatening to suspend
the operations of government, the nation turned against him more strongly than ever.
They ascribed all that he did to mortified pride or disappointed ambition; they gave
him no credit for those better feelings which mingled with these passions, and which
he seems to have considered (so easily do men deceive themselves) as the only motives that impelled him to the violent measures he pursued.'2 Addresses now. poured
in upon the King from every quarter, entreating him not to yield.  At a public meeting in Westminster Hall, Mr. Fox, who was present with a view to explain his conduct, was put down by cries of " No Great Mogul!"  " No India tyrant!"  " No
usurper!"  " No turn-coat!"  " No dictator!"  The city of London, once so strongly
in his favor, now turned against him.  Sir Horace Mann relates, that, going up to
the King at this time with one of the addresses of the House against Mr. Pitt, he
met the Lord Mayor of London and others who had just come down from presenting
one in his favor; and on Sir Horace remarking, " I see I am among my friends," they
replied, " We weqre your friends, but you have joined those who have set up a Lord
Protector."  Such demonstrations of public feeling operated powerfully on the House
11 The bill for punishing mutiny in the army and navy is passed at each session for only one year.
The power of withholding this bill and that which provides the annual supplies, gives the House of
Commons, in the last extremity, an absolute control over ministers.
12 One of the speeches in this selection, that of December 17th, 1783, has been given with a particular reference to this point. The reader will be interested to remark how completely the matter
of this speech is made up of just sentiments and weighty reasonings-contempt of underhand dealing, scorn of court servility, detestation of that dark engine of secret influence, which had driven
Lord Chatham and so many others fiom power. All this is expressed with a spirit and eloquence
which Chatham alone could have equaled, but coming from Mr. Fox, it availed nothing. He stood
in so false a position, that he could not even defend the popular part of the Constitution without turning the people more completely against him. The city of London, the most democratic part of the
kingdom, thanked the King for that very interference which Toryism itself will not deny was a direct breach of the Constitution. But the people were taught to believe that Mr. Fox was aiming
to make himself a " dictator" by the East India Bill, and they justified any measures which the
King thought necessary for putting such a man down. Hardly any page of English history is more
instructive than that which records the errors of Mr. Fox, and the pernicious consequences both to
himself and others.




CHARLES JAMES FOX.                               449
Mr. Fox's adherents gradually fell off, until, on a division at the end of eleven weeks,
March 8th, 1784, his majority had sunk from fifty-four to a single vote!  A shout
of triumph now broke forth from the ministerial benches. The contest in the House
was ended, and the question was carried at once to the whole country by a dissolution of Parliament.
The elections which followed, in April, 1784, went against the friends of Mr. Fox
in every part of the kingdom; more than a hundred and sixty having lost their places,
and become " Fox's Martyrs," in the sportive language of the day. In Westminster,
which Mr. Fox and Sir Cecil Wray had represented in the preceding Parliament, the
struggle was the most violent ever known-Wray in opposition to his old associate.
At the end of eleven days, Mr. Fox was in a minority of three hundred and eighteen,
and his defeat seemed inevitable, when relief came from a quarter never before heard.
of in a political canvass.  Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, a woman of extraordinary beauty and the highest mental accomplishments, took the field in his behalf..
She literally became the canvasser of Mr. Fox. She went from house to house soliciting votes; she sent her private carriage to bring mechanics and others of the,
lowest class to the polls; she appeared at the hustings herself in company with Mr.
Fox; and on one occasion, when a young butcher turned the laugh upon her by offering his vote for a kiss, in the enthusiasm of the moment she took him at his word,.
and paid him on the spot! With such an ally, Mr. Fox's fortunes soon began to mend,
and at the termination of forty days, when the polls were closed, he had a majority over,
Sir Cecil Wray of two hundred and thirty-five votes.  This triumph was celebrated.
by a splendid procession of Mr. Fox's friends, most of them bearingfox tails, which
gave rise to one of Mr. Pitt's best sarcasms. Some one having expressed his wonder
how the people could procure such an immense number of foxes' tails; " That is by
no means surprising," said Pitt; "this has been a good sporting year, and more foxes
have been destroyed than in any former season.  I think, upon an average, there has
at least one Fox been run down in every borough of the kingdom "'  The Prince of
Wales showed the lively interest he had taken in the contest, by'joining the procession on horseback in his uniform of a colonel of the Tenth Dragoons.  A few days.
after, he celebrated the victory in a fete at Carlton House, attended by more than
six hundred persons, the gentlemen being dressed in the costume of Mr. Fox, "buff
and blue," and some even of the ladies wearing the same colors, with the " Fox laurel" on their heads, and the " Fox medal" suspended from their necks.
But Mr. Fox was not allowed to enjoy the fruits of his victory. Sir Cecil Wray
demanded a scrutiny or revision of the poll, involving enormous expense, and a de —
lay, perhaps, of years, in taking testimony as to disputed votes.  All this time Mr.
Fox was to be deprived of his seat-the object really aimed at in the whole transaction.  The presiding officer lent himself to this design; he returned Lord Hood
(the third candidate) as a member; and made a report to the House, that he had
granted a scrutiny in relation to Sir Cecil Wray and Mr. Fox.  There was no precedent for a scrutiny in a case like this, where the poll had been continued down to
the very day before the meeting of Parliament, and the presiding officer was required by his writ to return two I;mmbers for Westminster on the 18th of May, being the next day.  If he could avoid this-if he was authorized (instead of doing
the best he could) to reserve the question, and enter on a scrutiny after the session
had commenced, it is obvious that the entire representation of the country would
be in the hands of the returning officers. Any one of them, from party views or
corrupt motives, might deprive a member of his seat as long as he saw fit, under
the pretense (as in the present case) of satisfying his " conscience" by a protracted revision of the polls.  The case came up early in the session, and Mr. Fox, being returned by a friend for the borough of Kirkwall, in the Orkney Isles, was enabled to
F F




450                        CHARLES JAMES FOX.
join in the debate. Under any other circumstances Mr. Pitt would never have allowed
his passions to become interested in such an affair; even if he thought the scrutiny legal, he would have seen the necessity of putting an end at once to a precedent so ob
noxious to abuse. But the conflict of the last session seems to have poisoned his mind,
and he showed none of that magnanimity which we should naturally expect in one
who had achieved so splendid a victory at the recent elections.  He assailed Mr. Fox
in the language of taunt and ungenerous sarcasm, describing him as a man on whom
a sentence of banishment had been passed by his country-as " driven by the impulse
of patriotic indignation an exile fiom his native clime, to seek refuge on the stormy
and desolate shores of the Ultima Thule."  Nothing could be more admirable than
the firmness and elasticity of.Mr. Fox's spirit under these depressing circumstances,
stripped as he was of nearly all his former supporters in the House.  He seemed, like
the old Romans, to gather strength and courage from the difficulties that surrounded
him. On the 8th of June, 1784, he discussed the subject of the Westminster scrutiny
in one of the clearest and most fervid pieces of reasoning ever delivered in the House of
Commons; adding, at the same time, some admonitions for Mr. Pitt and his other opponents, which effectually secured him against uncivil treatment in all their subsequent contests. Although the vote went against him at that time by a majority of
117, the House and the country soon became satisfied that the whole proceeding was
dishonorable and oppressive; and, at the end of nine months, Mr. Pitt had the mortification to see his majority, so firm on every other subject, turning against him upon
this, and, by a vote of 162 to 124, putting an end to the scrutiny and requiring an
immediate return.  Mr. Fox was accordingly returned the next day.  The moment
he took his seat as a member for Westminster, Mr. Fox moved, that all the proceedings in regard to the scrutiny be expunged from the journals of the House. This motion was supported by Mr. Scott, afterward Lord Eldon, who, on this occasion (the only
one in his life), came out in opposition to Mr. Pitt; but the majority were unwilling
to join him in so direct a vote of censure, and the motion was lost.l3  Mr. Fox recovered two thousand pounds damages from the presiding officer, the High Bailiff of Westminster, and a law was soon after passed providing against any farther abuses of this
kind.
Mr. Fox was appointed one of the managers of the impeachment against Warren
Hastings in 1786, and had assigned to him the second charge, relating to the oppressive treatment of Cheyte Sing, Rajah of Benares.  This duty he performed in a manler which awakened general admiration, and fully sustained the high character he
ihad already gained as a parliamentary orator.
In the autumn of 1788, while traveling in Italy, Mr. Fox was unexpectedly presented with the prospect of being called again to the head of affairs.  The King became,suddenly deranged; and if the malady continued, the Prince of Wales would, of course,
be Regent, and Mr. Fox his prime minister. A messenger with this intelligence found
him at Bologna, and urged his immediate return, as the session of Parliament was soon
to commence. He started at once, and never quitted his chaise during the whole journey, traveling night and day until he reached London, on the 24th of November. At
this time no definite anticipations could be formed in respect to the King's recovery.
Parliament had voted a fortnight's recess, to allow time for deciding on the proper
steps to be taken, and the political world was full of intrigue and agitation. It was
the great object of the Prince and his future ministers to come in untrammeled-to
13 Lord Eldon, speaking of this subject at a later period, said: "When the legality of the conduct of the High Bailiff of Westminster was before the House, all the lawyers on the ministerial
side defended his right to grant a scrutiny. I thought their law bad, and I told them so. I asked
Kenyon how he could answer this-that every writ or commission must be returned on the day on
which it was made returnable. He could not answuer it."




CHARLES JAMES FOX.                                451
have his authority as Regent, during his father's illness, established on the same footing as if he had succeeded to the throne by the King's death. The existing ministry,
on the other hand, who believed the King might speedily recover, were desirous to
impose such restrictions on the Regency as would prevent Mr. Fox and his friends
from  intrenching themselves permanently in power.  It is curious to observe how
completely the two parties changed sides under this new aspect of their political interests.  Mr. Fox became the defender of the prerogative, and Mr. Pitt of the popular
part of the Constitution.  Before Mr. Fox returned from Italy, Lord Loughborough
[Mr. Wedderburne] had devised a theory to meet the present case.  He maintained
that here (as in the case of natural death) "the administration of the government
devolved to him  [the Prince of Wales] ofr ight;" that it belonged to Parliament " not
to confer, but to declare the right;" and it is now known that he actually advised the
Prince, in secret, to assume the royal authority at a meeting of the Privy Council, and
then to summon Parliament, in his own name, for the dispatch of business.'4  This
theory, with one important modification, Mr. Fox took with him into the House. In
a debate on the 10th of December, 1788, he maintained that during the incapacity
of the King, the Prince " had as clear and express a right to assume the reins of government and exercise the power of sovereignty, as in the case of his Majesty's having
undergone a natural and perfect demise;" but he added (limiting the theory of Lord
Loughborough) that " as to this right, the Prince himself was not to judge when he
was entitled to exercise it, but the two Houses of Parliament, as the organs of the
nation, were alone qualified to pronounce when the Prince ought to take possession
of and exercise this right.""5  Mr. Pitt, the moment he heard this doctrine, exclaimed
to a friend who sat by him. in the House, " Now I'll unwbhig that gentleman for the
rest of his life!"  He instantly rose, and declared it to'be "little less than treason
against the Constitution: he pledged himself to prove that the Heir-apparent had
no more right, in the case in question, to the exercise of the executive authority, than
any other subject in the kingdom, and that it belonged entirely to the two remaining
branches of the Legislature, in behalf of the nation at large, to make such a provision
for supplying the temporary deficiency as they might think proper."  Mr. Fox, either
seeing that he had been misunderstood, or feeling that he had gone too far, explained
himself, two days after, to have meant, that " fiom the moment the two Houses of
Parliament declared the King unable to exercise the royal sovereignty, from that moment a right to exercise the royal authority attached to the Prince of Wales"-that
"he must appeal to the court competent to decide whether it belonged to him or not,
or must wait till that court itself made such a declaration."'6  This was apparently
taking still lower ground; but even this Mr. Pitt maintained was equally false and unfounded. " He denied that the Prince had any right whatever;" he declared it " subversive of the principles of the Constitution to admit that the Prince of Wales might
set himself on the throne during the lifetime of his father; he denied that Parliament were mere judges in this emergency, affirming that they acted for the entire
body of the people in a case not provided for in the Constitution;" and affirmed it to
be " a question of greater magnitude and importance even than the present exigency, a question that involved in it the principles of the Constitution, the protection
and security of our liberties, and the safety of'the state."  A Regency Bill was now
framed by the Ministers, making the Prince of Wales Regent, but committing the
King's person to the care of the Queen, with the right of appointing the officers of
the royal household.  It provided that the Prince should have no power over the
personal property of the King, and no authority either to create new peers, or to
grant any pension, place, or reversion to be held after the King's recovery, except
14 See a paper of Lord Loughborough on this subject in Campbell's Lives of the Chancellors, vol.
vi., page 195.'i Speeches, vol. iii., page 401.        16 Id. ib., page 407




452                           CHARLES JAMES FOX.
offices made permanent by law.  Nearly three months were spent in debating this
subject, every possible delay being interposed by Mr. Pitt, who was now confident of
the King's early recovery. Accordingly, about February 19th, his Majesty was declared
by the physicians to be restored to a sound state of mind; and Mr. Fox's prospect of
office became more remote than ever, the King and the people being equally imbittered against him, as having again endeavored to establish himself in power by the
use of violent and illegal means.7  On the question so vehemently discussed at that
time touching the rights of the Prince of Wales, there has been a diversity of opinion
down to the present day.  All agree in considering Lord Loughborough's theory as
"a flimsy speculation;" but men have differed greatly as to Mr. Fox's doctrine.
When the Regency question came up again, in 1810, an able writer in favor of the
Prince remarked in the Edinburgh Review: " Strict legalfright, which could be asserted and made good in a court of judicature, he [the Prince] certainly had none.
It was observed, with more truth than decorum, by Mr. Pitt, that every individual of
his father's subjects had as good a legal right to the Regency as his Royal Highness
the Prince of Wales.""  Lord Campbell, however, would seem to hold with Mr. Fox,
when he says: "The next heir to the throne is entitled, during the continuance of
this [the King's] disability, to carry on the executive government as Regent, with the
same authority as if the disabled Sovereign were naturally dead;"" unless, indeed,
he uses the word " entitled" in a looser sense to describe not what is strictly a legal
right, but what is most accordant with the analogies of the Constitution and the nature of a hereditary monarchy.  If so, he agrees with Lord Brougham, who nevertheless regarded the restrictions imposed on the Prince Regent as wise and necessary.  After stating what he considered the argument from analogy, he says, in respect to this case: "There were reasons of a practical description which overbore
these obvious considerations, and reconciled men's minds to such an anomalous proceeding.  It seemed necessary to provide for the safe custody of the King's person,
and for such a sure restoration of his powers as should instantly replace the scepter
in his hand the very moment that his capacity to hold it should return.  His Vicegerent must plainly have no control over this operation, neither over the royal patient's custody, nor over the resumption of his office and the termination of his own.
But it would not have been very easy to cut off all interference on the Regent's part
in this most delicate matter, had he been invested with the full powers of the Crown.
So, in like manner, the object being to preserve things as nearly as possible in their
present state, if those full powers had been exercised uncontrolled, changes of a nature quite irreversible might have been effected while the monarch's faculties were
asleep; and not only he would have awakened to a new order of things, but the affairs of the country would have been administered under that novel dispensation by
one irreconcilably hostile to it, while its author, appointed in the course of nature once
more to rule as his successor, would have been living and enjoying all the influence
acquired by his accidental, anticipated, and temporary reign. These considerations,
and the great unpopularity of the Heir-apparent and his political associates, the Coalition party, enabled Mr. Pitt to carry his proposition of a Regency with restricted
powers, established by a bill to which the two remaining branches alone of the crip
17 George III., throughout his whole life, believed that a conspiracy had been formed to prevent,
his remounting the throne. No explanations could ever relieve his mind from this error, and he
always looked with abhorrence on those who resisted the limitations of the Regent's authority, and
the transfer of his person to the custody of the Queen. The feelings of the nation were strongly excited in his behalf. Without sharing in his error, they considered him as treated with disrespect,
and strongly condemned those who objected to the restrictions mentioned above. It was in this
way, as well as by his East India Bill and Coalition, that Mr. Fox did more than any other man in
the empire to remove the unpopularity of the King, and to draw his subjects around him in support
and sympathy.     18 Vol. xviii., page 91.  19 Lives of the Chancellors, vol. vi., page 187.




CHARLES JAMES FOX.                               453
pled Parliament had assented; instead of their addressing the Heir-apparent, de.
claring the temporary vacancy of the throne, and desiring him temporarily to fill it"
When the same question came up again, in 1810, the Prince waived the claim  of
right, and yielded quietly to the restrictions enumerated above.  These two precedents have settled the constitutional law and usage on this subject.
Mr. Fox's next conflict with his antagonist related to the Russian Armament, and
here he carried the whole country with him in opposition to the warlike designs of
the ministry.  The courts of London and Berlin had demanded of the Empress of
Russia, not only to desist from her war with Turkey, but to restore the numerous
and important conquests she had made.  Unwilling to provoke the resentment of
these powerful and self-created arbiters, Catharine consented to yield every thing but
a small station on the Black Sea called Ockzakow, with the dependent territory. Mr.
Pitt, under a mistaken view of the importance of this fortress, peremptorily insisted
on its surrender; the Empress, taking offense at this treatment, as peremptorily refused; and the British ministry made the most active preparations for war. When
the subject came before Parliament, early in 1791, Mr. Fox put forth all his strength
against this armament. Reflecting men throughout the country condemned Mr. Pitt
for interfering in the contests of other nations; and, as the discussion went on in Parliament, ministers found their: majority so much reduced, that they promptly and
wisely gave up the point in dispute. Mr. Fox gained greatly in the public estimation by his conduct on this occasion. He appeared in his true character, that of a
friend of peace; and was justly considei'ed as having saved the country, probably
from a long and bloody war, certainly from much unnecessary expense contemplated
by the ministry.  While this question was under discussion, he sent a friend, Mr.
Adair, to St. Petersburgh, as it was generally supposed with confidential communications for the Empress.  Mr. Burke, after his breach with Mr. Fox, spoke of this
mission as involving, if not treason, at least a breach of the Constitution fraught
with the most dangerous consequences. It is not easy to understand the ground of
this severe charge. Mr. Fox was not in the secrets of the government, and could
communicate nothing to the Empress which was not known to the world at large.
He could only assure her that the English people were averse to war, and might,
perhaps, exhort her not to lower her terms (though this was never proved); but as
the two nations were still at peace, his communications with Catharine were certainly less objectionable than Burke's correspondence with Dr. Franklin during the American war, which he once proposed to read in Parliament, and which caused Lord New
Haven to exclaim: " Do not my senses deceive me? Can a member of this Assembly not only avow his correspondence with a rebel, but dare to read it to us?"2o  There
is one decisive fact which shows, that Mr. Adair's mission could not have been regarded by the King and ministry as it was by Mr. Burke.  He was afterward sent as Envoy to the courts of Vienna and Constantinople.  "The confidence of the Sovereign,"
as Dr. Parr remarks, " completely and visibly refutes the accusations of Mr. Burke."
After Mr. Pitt was thus beaten off from  the Russian Armament, Mr. Fox and his
friends opened upon him one of the severest attacks he ever experienced, by proposing a vote of censzre, on the ground that he had acted the part either of a bully or
a coward-that he had disgraced the country by disarming, if there was just cause
of war, and by arming if there was not. Mr. Fox's speech on that occasion will be
found in this volume; it was one of his most powerful and characteristic efforts.
Mr. Fox likewise distinguished himself at this period by his efforts to defend the
rights of juries.  The law of libel, as laid down by Lord Mansfield in the case of
Woodfall,2 restricted the jury to the question of fact, " Was the accused guilty of publishing, and did he p/bint his remarks at the government?"  They were not allowed
20 Wraxall's Memoirs, vol. ii., p. 277.             1 See page 199.




454                          CHARLES JAMES FOX.
to inquire into his motives, or the legality of what he said; and the real issue was,
therefore, in the hands of the judges, who, being appointed by the Crown, were peculiarly liable to be swayed by court influences.  This made the trial by jury in libel
cases a mere nullity, and too often turned it into an instrument for crushing the liberty of the press. Mr. Burke took up the subject at the time of Woodfall's trial, and
prepared a bill giving juries the right to judge of the law as well as the fact, but it
was rejected by a large majority. This bill, in all its leading features, Mr. Fox brought
forward again in the year 1791, after the famous trial of the Dean of St. Asaph, in
which Mr. Erskine made his masterly argument on the rights of juries.2?  "When a
man," said Mr. Fox, in urging his bill, "is accused of murder, a crime consisting of
law and fact, the jury every day find a verdict of guilty, and this also is the case
in felony and every criminal indictment.  Libels are the only exception, the single
anomaly."  "All will admit that a writing may be an overt act of treason; but
suppose in this case the Court of King's Bench should charge the jury;'Consider
only whether the criminal published the papers-do not inquire into the nature of
it-do not examine whether it corresponds to the definition of treason'-would Englishmen endure that death should be inflicted by the decision of a jury thus trammeled and overruled?"  Mr. Pitt generously seconded Mr. Fox in this effort, and
as he raised Mr. Grenville to the House of Lords in 1790, he could give the bill a
more powerful support in that body, but Lord Thurlow succeeded in defeating it
that session. It was passed, however, in 1792, notwithstanding the pertinacious
opposition of the law Lords, Thurlow, Kenyon, and Bathurst; and Mr. Fox had the
satisfaction of thus performing one of the most important services ever rendered to
the liberty of the press.
The progress of our narrative has led us forward insensibly into the midst of the
French Revolution.  Some one, speaking of this convulsion, remarked to Mr. Burke,
that it had shaken the whole world.  " Yes," replied he, " and it has shaken the
heart of Mr. Fox out of its place!"  Certain it is that every thing Mr. Fox did or
said on this subject, whether right or wrong, sprung directly from his heart, from the
warm impulse of his humane and confiding nature.  In fact, the leading statesmen
of that day were all of them governed, in the part they took, far more by temperament and previous habits of thought, than by any deep-laid schemes of policy. Mr.
Burke was naturally cautious. His great principle in government was prescription.
With him  abstract right was nothing, circumstances were every thing; so that his
first inquiry in politics was, not what is true or proper in the nature of things, but
what is practicable, what is expedient, what is wise and safe in the present posture
of affairs. Hence, on the question of taxing America, he treated all discussions of
the abstract right with utter contempt. " I do not enter into these metaphysical
distinctions," said he, " I hate the sound of them."  Mr. Fox, on the contrary, instantly put the question on the ground of right; all the sympathies of his nature
were on the side of the colonies as injured and insulted.  " There is not an American," said he, " but must reject and resist the principle and the right." With such
feelings and habits of thought, it might have been foreseen from the beginning that
Mr. Burke and Mr. Fox would be at utter variance respecting the French Revolution, carried on, as it was, upon the principle of the inherent " rights of man."  The
difficulty was greater, because each of them, to a certain extent, had the truth on
his side.  The right of self-government in a people, as Mr. Fox truly said, does not
depend on precedent or the concessions of rulers, but is founded in the nature of
things.  "It is not because they have been free, but because they have a right to be
free, that men demand their freedom."  Mr. Burke, on the other hand, was equally
correct in maintaining that the question of resistance is far from being a question of
22 For this speech, see page 656.




CHARLES JAMES FOX.                                455
mere abstract right.  Circumstances, to a great extent, enter as an essential element
into the decision of that question. No one is weak enough to suppose that any nation, however oppressed, can be justified in a rebellion which it is plainly impossible
to carry through; or that self-government would be any thing but a curse to a people
who are destitute of moral and political virtue. These are points, however, on which
it is usually impossible to decide in the early stages of a revolution. A people sometimes make their destiny by the energy of their own will. The trials and privations
through which they pass (as in the case of the seven United Provinces) prepare them
for self-government.  It was, therefore, natural for a man of Mr. Fox's sanguine
temperament, especially with the example of America before him, to have confident
hopes of the same auspicious results in France.
The first instance of popular violence that occurred was the attack on the Bastile
(July 14th, 1789); and Mr. Fox, in referring to it in the House, quoted, very happily, from Cowper's Task (which had been recently published), the beautiful lines respecting that fortress:
"Ye horrid towers, th' abode of broken hearts,
Ye dungeons and ye cages of despair,
That monarchs have supplied from age to age
With music such as suits their sovereign ears:
The sighs and groans of miserable men!
There's not an English heart that would not leap
To hear that ye were fall'n at last."
So far as this event was concerned, Mr. Burke's sympathies were entirely with Mr.
Fox.  He said it was impossible not to admire the spirit by which the attack was
dictated; but the excesses which followed brought him out soon after as an opponent of the Revolution, while Mr. Fox, as might be expected from one of his ardent
feelings, still clung to the cause he had espoused.  He lamented those excesses as
truly as Mr. Burke, but his hopeful spirit led him to believe they would speedily pass
away.  He ascribed them to the feelings naturally created by the preceding despotism, and thus insensibly became the apologist of the revolutionary leaders, as Mr.
Burke was of the court and nobility.
The false position into which Mr. Fox was thus drawn was the great misfortune
of his subsequent life.  He had no feelings in common with the philosophizing assassins of France, and from the moment he learned their true character, and saw the
utter failure of their experiments, it is much to be regretted that he should in any
way have been led to appear as their advocate. And yet it seemed impossible for
one of his cast of mind to avoid it.  When Austria and Russia invaded France
(July, 1792), for the avowed purpose of putting back the Bourbons on the throne, he
felt (as the whole world now feel) that it was not only the worst possible policy, but
a flagrant violation of national right.  He sympathized with the French.  He rejoiced, and proclaimed his joy in the House of Commons, when they drove out the
invaders, and seized, in their turn, upon the Austrian Netherlands. So, too, on the
questions in dispute between England and France, which soon after resulted in war,
he condemned the course taken by his own government as harsh and insulting. He
thus far sided with the French, declaring that the English ministry had provoked the
war, and were justly chargeable with the calamities it produced. And when the
French, elated by their success in the Netherlands, poured forth their armies on the
surrounding nations, with the avowed design of carrying out the Revolution by fire
and sword, Mr. Fox was even then led by his peculiar position to palliate what he
had no wish to justify.  He dwelt on the provocations they had received, and showed
great ingenuity in proving that the spirit of conquest and treachery which characterized the Republic, was only the spirit of the Bourbons transfused into the new
government-that they had taught the nation, and trained it up for ages, to be the




456                         CHARLES JAMES FOX.
plunderers of mankind. It is difficult to conceive, at the present day, how all this
grated upon the ears of an immense majority of the English people. The world has
learned many lessons from the French Revolution, and one of the most important is
that which Mr. Fox was continually inculcating, that nations, however wrong may
be their conduct, should be left to manage their internal concerns in their own way.
But the doctrines of Mr. Burke had taken complete possession of the higher class of
minds throughout the country. The French were a set of demons. They had murdered their king, and cast off religion; it was, therefore, the duty of surrounding nations to put them out of the pale of civilized society-to treat them as robbers and
pirates; and whatever violence might result from such treatment was to be charged
on the revolutionary spirit of the French. That spirit was certainly bad enough,
and would very likely, under any circumstances, have produced war; but if Mr. Fox's
advice had been followed, much of the enthusiasm with which the whole French nation rushed into the contest would have been prevented, and the fire of the Revolution might possibly have burned out within their own borders, instead of involving
all Europe in the conflagration. But the great body of the English people were unprepared for such views, and Mr. Fox was the last man from whom they could hear
any thing of this kind even with patience.  His early mistakes as to the Revolution
had made him the most unpopular man in the kingdom; and it must be admitted
that, while he was right in the great object at which he aimed, the nature of the
argument and the warmth of his feelings made him seem too often to be the advocate of the French, even in their worst excesses. It was hardly possible, indeed, to
oppose the war without appearing to take part with the enemy.  Even Mr. Wilberforce, when he made his motion against it in 1794, was very generally suspected of
revolutionary principles.  " When I first went to the levee," said he, " after moving
my amendment, the King cut me."  " Your friend Mr. Wilberforce," said Mr. Windham to Lady Spencer, " will be very happy any morning to hand your Ladyship to
the guillotine!"
The name of Mr. Windham naturally suggests another event connected with Mr.
Fox's views of the French Revolution. Nearly all his friends deserted him, and became his most strenuous opponents. Mr. Burke led the way, as already stated in
the sketch of his life.  The Duke of Portland, Lord Loughborough, Mr. Windham,
and a large number of the leading Whigs, followed at a somewhat later period, leaving him with only a handful of supporters in the House to maintain the contest with
Mr. Pitt. Any other man, in such circumstances, would have given up in despair,
but Mr. Fox's spirit seemed always to rise in exact proportion to the pressure that
was laid upon him.  While he pleaded incessantly for peace with France, he maintained a desperate struggle for the rights of the English people during that memorable season of agitation and alarm from 1793 to 1797. His remedy for the disaffection which prevailed so extensively among the middling and lower classes, was
that of Lord Chatham: " Remove their grievances, that will restore them to peace
and tranquillity."  " It may be asked," said he, " what would I propose to do in times
of agitation like the present? I will answer openly. If there is a tendency in the
Dissenters to discontent, because they conceive themselves to be unjustly suspected
and cruelly calumniated, what would I do?  I would instantly repeal the Test and
Corporation Acts, and take from them, by such a step, all cause of complaint. If
there are any persons tinctured with a republican spirit, because they think that the
representative government would be more perfect in a republic, I would endeavor to
amend the representation of the Commons; and to show that the House, though not
chosen by all, can have no other interest than to prove itself the representative of all.
If there are men dissatisfied in Scotland, or Ireland, or elsewhere, by reason of disabilities and exemptions, of unjust prejudices, and of cruel restrictions, I would repeal




CHARLES JAMES FOX.                               457
the penal statutes, which are a disgrace to our law books.  If I were to issue a proclamation [the King had just issued one against seditious writings], this should be my
proclamation:' If any man has a grievance, let him bring it to the bar of the Commons' House of Parliament, with the firm persuasion of having it honestly investigated.'  These are the subsidies that I would grant to government."
Such were, indeed, the subsidia, the support and strength in the hearts of his people, which the King of England needed. But George III. and his counselors at that
time looked only to restriction and force. A repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts
was not to be thought of (though strenuously urged by Mr. Fox), because Dr. Price
and Dr. Priestley, who were leading Dissenters, had been warm friends of the French
Revolution.  The King would hear nothing of any relief for the Roman Catholics;
his coronation oath required him to keep them in perpetual bondage. A; to parliamentary reform, Mr. Fox himself, at an earlier period, saw no plan which he thought
free from objections; and hence Mr. Moore, and others of his friends, have been led
hastily to represent him as a cold, if not a hypocritical advocate of this measure.
But from a private letter (see article Fox, in the Encyclopedia Britannica), it appears that his views at this time experienced a material change.  "I think," said
he, "we ought to go further toward agreeing with the democratic or popular party
than at any former period."  Accordingly, in May, 1797, he supported Mr. Grey's
motion for reform in a speech (to be found below) of uncommon beauty and force.
His great struggle, however, for the rights of the people was somewhat earlier, during the period which has been called (though with some exaggeration) the " Reign
of Terror."  Lord Loughborough, and the other Whigs who seceded to Mr. Pitt, had
urged the ministry, with the proverbial zeal of new converts, into the most violent
measures for putting down political discussion. The Habeas Corpus Act wa:s suspended; the Traitorous Correspondence Bill made it high treason to hold intercourse
with the French, or supply them with any commodities; the Treasonable Practice
Bill was designed to construe into treason a conspiracy to levy war, even without an
overt act amounting thereto; and the Seditious Meetings' Bill forbade any assembly of more than fifty persons to be held for political purposes, without the license
of a magistrate.  The two bills last mentioned were so hostile to the spirit of a free
government, that even Lord Thurlow opposed them in the most vehement manner.
It was during the discussion of the latter, that Mr. Fox made his famous declaration, that " if the bill should pass into a law, contrary to the sense and opinion of a
great majority of the nation, and if the law, after it was passed, should be executed
according to the rigorous provisions of the act, resistance would not be a question
of duty, but of prudence."23
It was unfortunate for Mr. Fox that he was so often hurried into rash declarations
of this kind.  Threats are not usually the best mode of defending the cause of fieedom.  Nor is it true that men, under a representative government, have a right instantly to resist any law which the Legislature have regularly enacted, unless it be
one diametrically opposed to the law of God. There is another remedy both in the
judiciary and in the popular branch of the government.  Mr. Fox's doctrine, that
" a law, contrary to the sense and opinion of the great majority of the nation," may
be rightfully resisted, is a species of "nullification" hitherto unknown in America.
Another of his hasty expressions did him great injury about three years after.  At
a dinner of the Whig club in 1798, he gave as a toast, " The Sovereigntty of the
People of Great Britain." Exactly what he meant by this, it is difficult to say. He
was a firm friend of the British Constitution, with its three estates of King, Lords, and
Commons.  He always declared himself to be against a republic; and he could not,
therefore, have wished that the functions of sovereignty should be taken from the
23 See Parliamentary History, vol. xxxiii., p. 456.




4.8s                          CHARLES JAMES FOX.
existing head of the government, and. conferred on the body of the people or their
representatives in Parliament. If he only meant that the King and Lords ought to
yield in all cases to the deliberate and well-ascertained wishes of the people (a doubtful doctrine, certainly, in a mixed government), he took a very unfortunate inode of
expressing his views.  It is not wonderful, at all events, that the King considered it
as a personal insult, and ordered his name to be struck from the list of Privy Counselors, a step never taken in any other case during his long reign, except in that of
Lord George Germaine when convicted of a dereliction of duty, if not of cowardice,
at the battle of Minden.
Mr. Pitt's ascendency in the House was now so complete, that Mr. Fox had no
motive to continue his attendance in Parliament. He therefore withdrew from pub.
lic business for some years, devoting himself to literary pursuits and the society of
his friends. At no time does his character appear in so amiable a point of view.
He had gradually worn out his vices.  His marriage with Mrs. Anrlstead, which was
announced at a later period, exerted the happiest influence on his character.  This
was truly, as a friend remarked, the golden season of his life.  He devoted much of
his time to the study of the classics, and especially of the Greek tragedians.  At this
time, also, he commenced his work on the Revolution of 1688, which was published
after his death.
From this retirement he was temporarily called forth by an occurrence which led
to one of the noblest efforts of his eloquence.  In December, 1799, Bonaparte was
elected First Consul of France for ten years; and the day after his induction into
office, he addressed a letter to the King of England in his own hand, making proposals of peace.  Mr. Pitt, however, refused even to treat with him on the subject.
Upon the third of February, 1800, the question came before the House on a motion
for approving the course taken by the ministry, and Mr. Fox again appeared in his
place.  Mr. Pitt, who felt the difficulty of his situation, had prepared himself beforehand with the utmost care.  In a speech of five hours long, he went back to the
origin of the war, brought up minutely all the atrocities of the Revolution, dwelt on
the instability of the successive governments which had marked its progress, conmented with terrible severity on the character and crimes of Bonaparte during the
preceding four years, and justified on these grounds his backwardness to recognize
the new government or to rely on its offers of peace.  When he concluded, at four
o'clock in the morning, Mr. Fox, who was always most powerful in reply, instantly
rose and answered him in a speech of nearly the same length, meeting him  on all
the main topics with a force of argument, a dexterity in wresting Mr. Pitt's weapons
out of his hands and turning them  against himself, a keenness of retort, a graphic
power of description, and an impetuous flow of eloquence, to which we find no parallel in any of his published speeches.  Both these great efforts will be found in this
collection, with all the documents which are necessary to a full understanding of the
argument.  Respecting one topic dwelt upon in these speeches, namely, the justice
of the war with France, it may be proper to add a few words explanatory of Mr.
Fox's views, to be followed by similar statements, on a future page, as to the ground
taken by Mr. Pitt.
Mr. Fox held that the grievances complained of by the English, viz., the opening
of the River Scheldt, the French Decree of Fraternity, and the countenance shown
to disaffected Englishmen (points to be explained hereafter in notes to these speeches),
ought to have been made the subject of full and candid negotiation.   England.
was bound not only to state her wrongs, but to say explicitly what would satisfy her.
But Mr. Pitt recalled the English embassador from Paris on the tenth of August,
1792 (when Louis XVI. became virtually a prisoner), before the occurrence of any
of these events.  He suspended the functions of M. Chauvelin, the \French embassa



CHARLES JAMES FOX.                             459
dor at London, from the same date.  He began to arm immediately after the alleged
grievances took place; and when called upon by the French for an explanation of
this armament, he declined to acknowledge their agents as having any diplomatic
character, so that the points in dispute could not be regularly discussed; and after
the execution of Louis XVI., he not only refused to accredit any minister from France,
but sent M. Chauvelin out of the kingdom.  Mr. Fox maintained that England,
under these circumstances, was the aggressor, though the formal declaration of war
came from France.  He who shuts up the channel of negotiation while disputes are
pending, is the author of the war which follows. No nation is bound to degrade
herself by submitting to any clandestine modes of communication; she is entitled to
that open, avowed, and honorable negotiation commonly employed by nations for the
pacific adjustment of their disputes.  Mr. Fox did not ask the ministry to treat with
the new French government as having any existence de jure —he expressly waived
this-but simply de facto, and as the English government had refused this, he held
them responsible for the war. Such was his argument, and it was certainly one of
great force.  It may be true, as alleged by the friends of Mr. Pitt, that the French
government were insincere in their offers and explanations; it is highly probable
that the enthusiasm  awakened by their triumph over their Austrian and Prussian
invaders, had filled the nation with a love of conquest which would ultimately have
led to a war with England. For this very reason, however, the course marked out
by Mr. Fox ought to have been studiously followed.  But Mr. Pitt shared in the
common delusion of the day.  He felt certain that France, split up as she was into
a thousand factions, could not long endure the contest.  "It will be a very short
war," said he to a friend, " and certainly ended in one or two campaigns."  Mr. Wilberforce, who at this time enjoyed his confidence, while he would not admit that the
English were strictly the assailants, says in his Journal, " I had but too much reason
to know that the ministry had not taken due pains to prevent its breaking out."  As
might be expected, Mr. Wilberforce united with Mr. Fox in condemning the refusal
of Mr. Pitt to negotiate with Bonaparte.
But Mr. Fox's ardent desires for peace, though disappointed at this time, were
soon after gratified by the treaty of Amiens, at the close of 1801.  It proved, however, to be a mere truce.  War was declared by England in May, 1803.  To this
declaration Mr. Fox was strenuously opposed, and made a speech against it, which
Lord Brougham refers to as one of his greatest efforts.  It does not so appear in any
of the reports which have come down to us, and his Lordship perhaps confounded it
with the speech of October, 1800, which he does not even mention.
Mr. Pitt, who had been again placed at the head of affairs, died in January, 1806;
and Mr. Fox, at the end of twenty-two years, was called into the service of his country as Secretary of Foreign Affairs, on the 5th of February, 1806, through the instrumentality of Lord Grenville.  His office was at that time the most important one under the government, and he may be considered as virtually minister. One of his first
official acts was that of moving a resolution for an early abolition of the slave trade,
which he had from the first united with Mr. Wilberforce in opposing.  This resolution was carried by a vote of 114 against 15, and was followed up, the next session,
by effectual measures for putting an end to this guilty traffic. He soon after entered
on a negotiation for peace with France, which commenced in a somewhat singular
manner.  A Frenchman made his appearance at the Foreign Office, under the name
of De la Grevilliere, and requested a private interview with Mr. Fox. He went on
to say, that " it was necessary for the tranquillity of all crowned heads to put to death
the ruler of France, and that a house had been hired at Passy for this purpose." On
hearing these words, Mr. Fox drove him at once from his presence, and dispatched
a communication to Talleyrand informing him of the facts.  "I am not ashamed to




460                         CHARLES JAMES FOX.
confess to you who know me," said he, " that my confusion was extreme at finding
myself led into conversation with an avowed assassin. I instantly ordered him to
leave me.  Our laws do not allow me to detain him, but I shall take care to have
him landed at a sea-port as remote as possible from France." A reply was sent from
Bonaparte, saying, among other things, " I recognize here the principles, honor, and
virtue of Mr. Fox.  Thank him on my part."  In connection with this reply, Talleyrand stated, that the Emperor was ready to negotiate for a peace, " on the basis
of the treaty of Amiens." Communications were accordingly opened on the subject,
but at this important crisis Mr. Fox's health began to fail him. He had been taken
ill some months before in consequence of exposure at the funeral of Lord Nelson, and
his physicians now insisted that he should abstain for a time from all public duties.
In July the disease was found to be dropsy of the chest, and, after lingering for three
months, he died at the house of the Duke of Devonshire, at Chiswick, on the 13th
of September, 1806. He was buried with the highest honors of the nation in Westminster Abbey, his grave being directly adjoining the grave of Lord Chatham, and
close to that of his illustrious rival, William Pitt.
Mr. Fox was the most completely English of all the orators in our language.
Lord Chatham was formed on the classic model-the express union offorce, majesty,
and grace.  He stood raised above his audience, and launched the bolts of his eloquence like the Apollo Belvidere, with the proud consciousness of irresistible might.
Mr. Fox stood on the floor of the House like a Norfolkshire farmer in the midst of
his fellows: short, thick-set, with his broad shoulders and capacious chest, his bushy
hair and eyebrows, and his dark countenance working with emotion, the very image
of blunt honesty and strength.
His uncZderstanzdizg was all English-plain, practical, of prodigious force-always
directed to definite ends and objects, under the absolute control of sound common
sense.  He had that historical cast of mind by which the great English jurists
and statesmen have been so generally distinguished. Facts were the staple of his
thoughts; all the force of his intellect was exerted on the actual and the positive.
He was the most practical speaker of the most practical nation on earth.
His heart was English.  There is a depth and tenderness of feeling in the national character, which is all the greater in a strong mind, because custom requires
it to be repressed. In private life no one was more guarded in this respect than
Mr. Fox; he was the last man to be concerned in getting up a scene.  But when he
stood before an audience, he poured out his feelings with all the simplicity of a child.
" I have seen his countenance," says Mr. Godwin, " lighten up with more than mortal ardor and goodness; I have been present when his voice was suffocated with
tears." In all this, his powerful understanding went out the whole length of his
emotions, so that there was nothing strained or unnatural in his most vehement
bursts of passion.  "His feeling," says Coleridge, "was all intellect, and his intellect
was all feeling."  Never was there a finer summing up; it shows us at a glance the
whole secret of his power.  To this he added the most perfect sincerity and artlessness of manner.  His very faults conspired to heighten the conviction of his honesty.
His broken sentences, the choking of his voice, his ungainly gestures, his sudden
starts of passion, the absolute scream with which he delivered his vehement passages,
all showed him to be deeply moved and in earnest, so that it may be doubted whether
a more perfect delivery would not have weakened the impression he made.
Sir James Mackintosh has remarked, that "Fox was the most Demosthenean
speaker since Demosthenes," while Lord Brougham says, in commenting on this passage, " There never was a greater mistake than the fancying a close resemblance between his eloquence and that of Demosthenes." When two such men differ on a point
like this, we may safely say that both are in the right and in the wrong. As to cer



CHARLES JAMES FOX.                               461
tain qualities, Fox was the very reverse of the great Athenian; as to others, they
had much in common. In whatever relates to the forms of oratory-symmetry, dignity, grace, the working up of thought and language to their most perfect expression
-Mr. Fox was not only inferior to Demosthenes, but wholly unlike him, having no
rhetoric and no ideality; while, at the same time, in the structure of his understanding, the modes of its operation, the soul and spirit which breathes throughout his eloquence, there was a striking resemblance. This will appear as we dwell for a moment on his leading peculiarities.
(1.) He had a luminous simplicity, which gave his speeches the most absolute unity
of impression, however irregular might be their arrangement. No man ever kept the
great points of his case more steadily and vividly before the minds of his audience.
(2.) He took every thing in the concrete. If he discussed principles, it was always
in direct connection with the subject before him. Usually, however, he did not even
discuss a subject-he grappled with an antagonist.  Nothing gives such life and interest to a speech, or so delights an audience, as a direct contest of man with man
(3.) He struck instantly at the heart of his subject.  He was eager to meet his
opponent at once on the real points at issue; and the moment of his greatest power
was when he stated the argument against himself, with more force than his adversary or any other man could give it, and then seized it with the hand of a giant, tore
it in pieces, and trampled it under foot.
(4.) His mode of enforcing a subject on the minds of his audience was to come
back again and again to the strong points of his case.  Mr. Pitt amplified when he
wished to impress, Mr. Fox repeated.  Demosthenes also repeated, but he had more
adroitness in varying the mode of doing it.  "Idem haud iisdem verbis."
(5.) He had rarely any preconceived method or arrangement of his thoughts. This
was one of his greatest faults, in which he differed most from the Athenian artist.
If it had not been for the unity of impression and feeling mentioned above, his
strength would have been wasted in disconnected efforts.
(6.) Reasoning was his forte and his passion. But he was not a regular reasoner.
In his eagerness to press forward, he threw away every thing he could part with, and
compacted the rest into a single mass. Facts, principles, analogies, were all wrought
together like the strands of a cable, and intermingled with wit, ridicule, or impassioned feeling.  His arguments were usually personal in their nature, ad hominem,
&c., and were brought home to his antagonist with stinging severity and force.
(7.) He abounded in hits-those abrupt and startling turns of thought which rouse
an audience, and give them more delight than the loftiest strains of eloquence.
(8.) He was equally distinguished for his side blows, for keen and pungent remarks
flashed out upon his antagonist in passing, as he pressed on with his argument.
(9.) He was often dramatic, personating the character of his opponents or others,
and carrying on a dialogue between them, which added greatly to the liveliness and
force of his oratory.
(10.) He had astonishing dexterity in evading difficulties, and turning to his own
advantage every thing that occurred in debate.
In nearly all these qualities he had a close resemblance to Demosthenes.
In his language, Mr. Fox studied simplicity, strength, and boldness.  " Give me an
elegant Latin and a homely Saxon word," said he, "and I will always choose the
latter." Another of his sayings was this: " Did the speech read well when reported?
If so, it was a bad one." These two remarks give us the secret of his style as an orator.
The life of Mr. Fox has this lesson for young men, that early habits of recklessness
and vice can hardly fail to destroy the influence of the most splendid abilities and
the most humane and generous dispositions.  Though thirty-eight years in public
life, he was in office only eighteen months.




SPEECH
OF MR. FOX ON THE BILL FOR VESTING THE AFFAIRS OF THE EAST INDIA COMPANY IN THE
HANDS OF CERTAIN COMMISSIONERS, FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE PROPRIETORS AND THE
PUBLIC, DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, DECEMBER 1, 1783.
INTRODUCTION.
THE reader is already acquainted with the leading provisions of this bill, which were stated in the
introduction to Mr. Burke's speech on the same subject. It was intended to place all the concerns of
the East India Company in the hands of the British government. It abolished the courts of Directors
and Proprietors, and divided the duties of the former between two distinct Boards. The first, having
the entire government of India, civil and military, with the appointment and removal of officers, was to
consist of seven Commissioners or Directors, to be chosen first by Parliament, and afterward by the
Crown, and removable pnly in consequence of an address to the King from one of the Houses of Parliament. The other, having the management of the Company's commercial concerns, was to consist of nine
Assistant Directors, appointed in the first instance by Parliament, and afterward by a major vote of the
proprietors at an open poll. The bill was to remain in force four years, until after the next general
election; and was accompanied by another, containing a variety of excellent regulations for the removal
of abuses in India.
The debate was long and vehement. Burke had delivered his splendid speech of four hours in length,
pouring forth a flood of information on the subject of India, such as no other man in England could have
communicated. Dundas had attacked the bill with all his acuteness, and his perfect acquaintance with
Indian affairs. Mr. Pitt had followed, denouncing it as a violation of chartered rights, designed to create
an " imperium in imperio," which would place Mr. Fox above the King's control, and promising to bring
forward another proposal " which would answer all the exigencies of the case without the violence and
danger of this measure."  It was at the end of such a debate, after two o'clock in the morning, that Mr.
Fox rose to speak; and probably not a man in the kingdom but himself could have obtained a hearing
under such circumstances, much less have commanded the fixed attention of the House for nearly three
hours longer, as he did in this speech.
As he spoke in reply, his object was not so much to dwell on the positive side of the argument, which
he had already done at the second reading of the bill, as to obviate objections, to turn back the reasoning
of his antagonists upon themselves, and especially to relieve his character from the odium which rested
upon it in consequence of his coalition with Lord North. As a specimen of uncommon dexterity in this
respect, and of bold, indignant retort upon his antagonists, it has a high order of merit.
SPEECH, &c.
SIR,-The necessity of my saying something  not, indeed, for the wisdom  of the observations
upon the present occasion is so obvious to the  which fell from him this night (acute Preliminary
House, that no apology will, I hope, be expect- and judicious though he is upon most remarkson its
ed from me in troubling them even at so late an  occasions), but from the natural weight with the caus.
hour.'  I shall not enter much into a detail, or of all such characters in this coun- of libert
minute defense of the particulars of the bill be- try, the aggregate of whom should, I think, alfore you, because few particular objections have  ways decide upon public measures.  His ingebeen made.  The opposition to it consists only  nuity, however, was never, in my opinion, exin general reasonings, some of little application, erted more ineffectually, upon more mistaken
and others totally aside from the point in ques- principles, and more inconsistent with the comtion.                                            mon tenor of his conduct, than in this debate.
The bill has been combated through its past    The honorable gentleman charges me with
stages upon various principles; but, to the pres-  abandoning that cause, which, he says in terms
ent moment, the House has not heard it canvass- of flattery, I had once so successfully asserted.
ed upon its own intrinsic merits.  The debate  I tell him, in reply, that if he were to search the
to-night has turned chiefly upon two points, history of my life, he would find that the period
namely, violation of charter, and increase of in- of it in which I struggled most for the real, subfluence; and upon both these points I shall say  stantial cause of liberty is this very moment that
a few words.                                     I am  addressing you.  Freedom, according to
The honorable gentleman, who opened the de- my conception of it, consists in the safe and sabate [Mr. Powis], first demands my attention; cred possession of a man's property, governed
by laws defined and certain  with many personTwo o'clock in the morning.           al privileges, natural, civil, and religious, which




1783.]                     MR. FOX  ON  THE  EAST INDIA  BILL.                                  463
he cal not surrender without ruin to himself,  cover the inheritance of family maxims when
and of which to be deprived by any other power  they question the principles of the Revolution;
is despotism.  This bill, instead of subverting,  but I have no scruple in subscribing to the artiis destined to stabilitate these principles; instead  cles of that creed which produced it.3  Soveiof narrowing the basis of freedom, it tends to  eigns are sacred, and reverence is due to every
enlarge it  instead of suppressing, its object is  king; yet, with all my attachments to the person
to infuse and circulate the spirit of liberty.     of a first magistrate, had I lived in the reign of
What is the most odious species of tyranny?  James the Second, I should most certainly have
Precisely that which this bill is meant to anni- contributed my efforts, and borne part in those
hilate.  That a handful of men, free themselves, illustrious struggles which vindicated an empire
should exercise the most base and abominable  from hereditary servitude, and recorded this val-:espotism over millions of their fellow-creatures;  uable doctrine, that trust abused is revocable.'
that innocence should be the victim of oppres-    No man will tell me that a trust to a compasion; that industry should toil for rapine; that ny of merchants stands upon the solemn and
the harmless laborer should sweat, not for his  sanctified ground by which a trust is committed
own benefit, but for the luxury and rapacity  to a monarch; I am, therefore, at a loss to recof tyrannic depredation; in a word, that thirty  oncile the conduct of men who approve that remillions of men, gifted by Providence with the  sumption of violated trust, which rescued and
ordinary endowments of humanity, should groan  re-established our unparalleled  and admirable
under a system of despotism, unmatched in all Constitution with a thousand valuable improvethe histories of the world?2  What is the end  ments and advantages at the Revolution, and
of all government?  Certainly the happiness of  who, at this moment, rise up the champions of
the governed.  Others may hold different opin- the East India Company's charter.4 although the
ions; but this is mine, and I proclaim it. What,  incapacity and incompetence of that Company
then, are we to think of a government, whose  to a due and adequate discharge of the trust degood fortune is supposed to spring from the ca- posited in them by that charter are themes of
lamities of its subjects, whose aggrandizement ridicule and contempt to all the world; and algrows out of the miseries of mankind?  This is though, in consequence of their mismanagement,
the kind of government exercised under the East connivance, and: imbecility, combined with the
India Company upon the natives of Hindostan;  wickedness of their servants, the very name of
and the subversion of that infamous government an Englishman is detested, even to a proverb.
is the main object of the bill in question.        throughout all Asia, and the national character
I. But in the progress of accomplishing this end, is become degraded and dishonored.  To rescue
Violation it is objected that the charter of the Corn- that name from odium, and redeem this characof charter pany should not be violated; and upon  ter from  disgrace, are some of the objects of
justified  this point, sir, I shall deliver my opinion  the present bill; and gentlemen should, indeed,
without disguise.   A charter is a trust to one  gravely weigh their opposition to a measure,
or more persons for some given benefit.  If this  which, with a thousand other points not less valtrust be abused, if the benefit be not obtained, uable, aims at the attainment of these objects.
and that its failure arises from  palpable guilt,    Those who condemn the present bill as a vioor (what in this case is full as bad) from palpa- lation of the chartered rights of the East India
ble ignorance or mismanagement, will any man  Company, condemn, on the same ground, I say
gravely say that the trust should not be resumed  again, the Revolution as a violation of the charand delivered to other hands?-more especially  tered rights of King James II.'  He, with as
in the case of the East India Company, whose  much reason, might have claimed the property
manner of executing this trust, whose laxity and                                        
languor produced, and tend to produce conse-          Johnson decides the question in the same way
quences diametrically opposite to the ends of  with Mr. Fox, in his Taxation no Tyranny. "A charconfiding that trust, and of the institution for  te is a grant of certain powers or privileges givwhich it was granted?  I be  of gentlemen to  en to a part of the community for the advantage of,be aware of thel t whic  eir         the whole; and is therefore liable, by its nature, to
be aware of the lengths to which their argu- cb e or to revocation. Every actof government
mentsuponheinangibili  of thichange or to revocation. Every act of government
ments upon the intangibility of this charter may  aims at public good. A charter, which experience
be carried.  Every syllable virtually impeaches  has shown to be detrimental to the nation, is to be
the establishment by which we sit in this House, repealed; because general prosperity must always
in the enjoyment of this freedom, and of every  be preferred to particular interest. If a charter be
other blessing of our government.  Arguments  used to evil purposes, it is forfeited, as the weapon
of this kind are batteries against the main pillar is taken away which is injuriously employed."
of the British Constitution.  Some men are con-       Here is another characteristic of Mr. Fox, that
sistent with their own private opinions, and dis- of turning defense into attack. The reader of Demosthenes will remember how uniformly the same
2 We have here one of Mr. Fox's peculiarities, thing is done by the great Athenian orator.
on which much of his force depends, viz., terse and    5 Mr. Fox gives us, thus early, one of those repcrapid enumeration-the crowding of many particu- titions by which he was so much accustomed to enlars into one striking mass of thought. His enumer- force his reasonings. The statement, however, is
ations, however, are not made, like those of most finely varied by an expansion of the argument, and
men, for rhetorical effect; they are condensed argu- enlivened by that dramatic mode of presenting the
ments, as will be seen by analyzing this passage.   thought, in which he so much delighted.




464                                     MR. FOX ON                                      [1783.
of dominion. But what was the language of the  any that can be imputed to this bill; and de.
people?  " No, you have no property in domin- posits in one man an arbitrary power over million. Dominion was vested in you, as it is in ev- ions, not in England, where the evil of this corcry chief magistrate, for the benefit of the corn- rupt ministry could not be felt, but in the East
munity to be governed.  It was a sacred trust, Indies, the scene of every mischief, fraud, and
delegated by compact.  You have abused the  violence.  The learned gentleman's bill affordtrust; you have exercised dominion for the pur- ed the most extensive latitude for malversation;
poses of vexation and tyranny-not of comfort, the bill before you guards against it with all
protection, and good order, and we therefore re- imaginable precaution.  Every line in both the
sume the power which was originally ours. We  bills, which I have had the honor to introduce,
recur to the first principles of all government, presumes the possibility of bad administration,
the will of the many; and it is our will that for every word breathes suspicion.  This bill
you shall no longer abuse your dominion."  The  supposes that men are but men.  It confides in
case is the same with the East India Company's no integrity; it trusts no character; it inculgovernment over a territory, as it has been said  cates the wisdom  of a jealousy of power, and
by Mr. Burke, of two hundred and eighty thou- annexes responsibility, not only to every action,
sand square miles in extent, nearly equal to all but even to the inaction of those who are to
Christian Europe, and containing thirty millions dispense it. The necessity of these provisions
of the human race.  It matters not whether do- must be evident} when it is known that the difminion arises from  conquest or from  compact. ferent misfortunes of the Company have resultConquest gives no right to the conqueror to be  ed not more from what the servants did, than
a tyrant; and it is no violation of right to abol- from what the masters did not.
ish the authority which is misused.               To the probable effects of the learned gentleII.1  Having said so much upon the general man's bill and this, I beg to call the attention
Objections matter of the bill, I must beg leave to  of the House.  Allowing, for argument's sake
answered make a few observations upon the re- to the Governor General of India, under the
marks of particular gentlemen; and first of the first-named bill [Mr. Dundas'], the most unlimlearned gentleman over against me [Mr. Dun- ited and superior abilities, with soundness of
das]. The learned gentleman has made a long, heart, and integrity the most unquestionable 
and, as he always does, an able speech; yet, what good consequences could be reasonably
translated into plain English, and disrobed of expected from  his extraordinary, extravagant,
the dextrous ambiguity in which it has been  and unconstitutional power, under the tenure by
enveloped, to what does it amount?  To an es- which he held it?  Were his projects the most
tablishment of the principles upon which this bill enlarged, his systems the most wise and excelwas founded, and an indirect confession of its lent which human skill could devise; what fair
necessity.  He allows the frangibility of char- hopes could be entertained of their eventual sucters, when absolute occasion requires it; and  cess, when, perhaps, before he could enter upon
admits that the charter of the Company should  the execution of any measure, he may be renot prevent the adoption of a proper plan for the  called in consequence of one of those changes
future government of India, if a proper plan can  in the administrations of this country, which have
be achieved upon no other terms.  The first been so frequent for a few years, and which
of these admissions seems agreeable to the civil some good men wish to see every year?  Exmaxims of the learned gentleman's life, so far actly the same reasons which banish all rational
as a maxim can be traced in a political charac- hope of benefit from  an Indian administration
ter so various and flexible;6 and to deny the  under the bill of the learned gentleman, justify
second of these concessions was impossible even  the duration of the proposed commission.  If
for the learned gentleman, with a staring reason  the dispensers of the plan of governing India (a
upon your table to confront him if he attempt- place from which the answer of a letter can not
ed it7  The learned gentleman's bill,' and the  be expected in less than twelve months) have
bill before you, are grounded upon the same bot- not greater stability in their situations than a
tom, of abuse of trust, maladministration, debil- British ministry, adieu to all hopes of rendering
ity, and incapacity in the Company and their serv- our Eastern territories of any real advantage
ants.  But the difference in the remedy is this: to this country; adieu to every expectation of
the learned gentleman's bill opens a door to an  purging or purifying the Indian system, of reinfluence a hundred times more dangerous than  form, of improvement, of reviving confidence, of
6 A side blow of this kind, in passing, is peculiar- regulating the trade upon its proper principles,
ly characteristic of Mr. Fox.                   of restoring tranquillity, of re-establishing the
7 Mr. Dundas, as a member of the Shelburne minis- natives in comfort, and of securing the perpetutry, had brought in a bill on the subject about seven  ity of these blessings by the cordial reconcilemonths before. This gave the Governor General ment of the Indians with their former tyrants
of Bengal a controlling power over the other two
prsdnis an atoie hm weupon fixed terms of amity, friendship, and felpresidencies; and authorized him, when he saw fit,.      I i
to act on his own responsibility, in opposition to the lowsh  I will leave the House and the kngtowhich is best Housed the  ki      ng       -
opinion of his own council. His bill also created a dom to judge which is best calculated to accomnew Secretary of State for Indian affairs, with am- plish those salutary ends; the bill of the learnple powers resembling, to a considerable extent, ed gentleman, which leaves all to the discretion
those of Mr. Fox's commissioners.              of one man, or the bill before you, which de



1783.]                             THE EAST INDIA BILL.                                       465
pends upon the duty of several men, who are in  must feel under the conviction with which he
a state of daily account to this House, of hourly  certainly gives this opinion; but I submit to evaccount to the ministers of the Crown, of occa- cry man who hears me, what would be the probsional account to the proprietors of East India  able comments of the other side of the House,
stock, and who are allowed sufficient time to  had I proposed either the erection of an Indian
practice their plans, unaffected by every politic- secretary, or the annexation of the Indian busial fluctuation.                             f   ness to the office which I hold?
But the learned gentleman wishes the appoint-    In the assemblage of the learned gentleman's
ment of an Indian Secretary of State in prefer- objections, there is one still more curious than
ence to these commissioners.  In all the learned  those I have mentioned.  He dislikes this bill
gentleman's ideas on the government of India, because it establishes an imperium in imperio
the notion of a new  Secretary of State for the  [one government within another].  In the course
Indian department springs up, and seems to be  of opposition to this measure, we have been facherished with the fondness of consanguinity.8  miliarized to hear certain sentiments and partic-.
But that scheme strikes me as liable to a thou- ular words in this House, but directed, in reality,
sand times more objections than the plan in agi- to other places [for the King].  I therefore take
tation; nay, the learned gentleman had rather, it for granted that the learned gentleman has not
it seems, the affairs of India were blended with  so despicable an idea of the good sense of the,
the business of the office which I have the honor members, as to expect any more attention withinto hold.  His good disposition toward me upon  these walls to such a dogma than has been shown.
all occasions can not be doubted, and his sinceri- to the favorite phrase of his honorable friend near
ty in this opinion is unquestionable.  I beg the  him [Mr. Pitt], who calls a bill which,backs this
House to attend to the reason which the learned  sinking Company with the credit of the state a
gentleman gives for this preference, and to see  confiscation of their property!  I would only
the plights to which men even of his understand- wish to ask the learned gentleman if he really
ing are reduced who must oppose.  He laughs  holds the understanding even of the multitude in
at the responsibility of the Commissioners to this such contempt as to imagine this species of arHouse, who, in his judgment, will find means of  gument can have the very slightest effect?  The
soothing and softening, and meliorating the mem- multitude know the fallacy of it as well as the
hers into an oblivion of their maladministration.   learned gentleman himself.  They know that a
What opinion has the learned gentleman of a  dissolution of the East India Company has been
Secretary of State?  Does he think him so inert, wished for scores of years, by many good people
so inactive, so incapable a creature, that, with all in this country, for the very reason that it was
this vaunted patronage of the seven Commission- an imperium in imperio.  Yet the learned gen —
ers in his own hands, the same means of sooth- tleman, with infinite gravity of face, tells you he
ing, and softening, and meliorating, are thrown  dislikes this bill, because it establishes this novel
away upon him?  The learned gentleman has  and odious principle!  Even a glance at this
been for some years conversant with ministers; bill, compared with the present constitution of
but his experience has taught him, it seems, to  the Company, manifests the futility of this objec —
consider secretaries not only untainted and im- tion, and proves that the Company is, in its presmaculate, but innocent, harmless, and incapable! ent form, a thousand times more an imperium in
In his time, secretaries were all purity, with ev- imperio than the proposed Commissioners.  The
ery power of corruption in their hands; but so  worst species of government is that which can.
inflexibly attached to rigid rectitude, that no  run counter to all the ends of its institution with
temptation could seduce them  to employ that impunity.  Such exactly is the East India Com —
power for the purpose of corrupting, or, to use  pany.  No man can say that the Directors and
his own words, for soothing, or softening, or me- proprietors have not, in numerous instances, mer —
liorating!  The learned gentleman has formed  ited severe infliction; yet who did ever think of
his opinion of the simplicity and inaction of see- a legal punishment for either body?  Now the
retaries from that golden age of political probity  great feature of this bill is to render the Comwhen his own friends were in power, and when  missioners amenable, and to punish them  upon
himself was every thing but a minister.  This  delinquency.
erroneous humanity of opinion arises from  the    The learned gentleman prides himself that hislearned gentleman's unsuspecting, unsullied na- bill did not meddle with the commerce of the
ture, as well as from a commerce with only the  Company; and another gentleman, after ac —
best and purest ministers of this country, which  knowledging the folly of leaving the govern —
has given him so favorable an impression of a  ment in the hands of the Company, propose'
Secretary of State that he thinks this patronage, separate the commerce entirely from the d
so dangerous in the hands of seven Commissioners, perfectly safe in his hands.'  I leave to the
learned gent n tt p e w h hs        rasping. "His character," says a late writer, "was
learned gentleman that pleasure which his mind  not simple; it was curiously artificial. Under the
8 Had the Earl of Shelburne continued in power, affectation of patriotism, he had a great craving for
it was understood that Mr. Dundas was to be the  public honors. There was a vein of subtlety in his
Indian secretary. Mr. Fox here stingingly alludes nature, and an appearance of insincerity in his manto this fact.                                    ner, which deprived him of the confidence of his as9 These bitter sarcasms were aimed at Lord Shel- sociates."-Age of Fox and Pitt, i., 107.
G G




466                                        MR. FOX  ON                                        1783.
ion, and leave the former safe and untouched to  ure which can be devised for the government of
the Company itself..I beg leave to appeal to  India, that presents the slightest promise of solid
every gentleman conversant in the Company's  successi and that it tends to increase it in a far
affairs, whether this measure is, in the nature of  less degree than the bill proposed by the learned
things, practicable- at -this moment.  That the  gentleman [Mr. Dundas].  The very genius of
separation-of the commercefrom the government influence consists in hope or fear; fear of losing
of' the East may be-;ultimately brought about, I  what we have, or hope of gaining more.  Make
doubt not..,But when gentlemen reflect upon  these Commissioners removable at will, and you
the immediate state of the Company's affairs; set all the little passions of human nature afloat.
when they reflect that their government was  If benefit can be derived from the bill, you had
carried on for the sake of' their commerce; that better burn it than make the duration short of the
both have been blended together for such a se- time necessary to accomplish the plans it is desries of years; vwhen they review the peculiar, tined for. -That consideration pointed out the experplexed, and involved state of the eastern ter- pediency of a fixed period, and in that respect it
ritories, their dissimilitude:to every system  in  accords with the principle of the learned gentlethis part of. the'globej ad.consider the deep and  man's bill, with this superior advantage, that, inlaborious deliberation-with -which every step for stead of leaving the Commissioners liable to all
the establishment. of-. a salutary plan of govern-  the influence which springs from the appointment
ment, in the: room of the present odious one, must of a Governor General, removable at pleasure,
be taken-the utter impossibility of instantly de- this bill invests them with the power, for the time
taehing.the governing power: from interference  specified,upon the same tenure that British judgwith the commiercial body, will be clear and in- es hold their station; removable upon delinquendubitable..:                          cy, punishable upon guilt; but fearless of power
A gentleman has asked, Why not choose the  if they discharge their trust, liable to no seduceCommissioners out'of the [present] body of Direct- ment, and with full time and authority to execute
ors;- and why not leave the choice of the assistant their functions for the common good of the counDirectors in the Court of Proprietors? That is to  try, and for their own glory.  I beg of the House
say, why not do that which would infallibly undo  to attend to this difference, and then judge upon
all you'are aiming at.? -I mean no general dis- the point of increasing the influence of the Crown,
pairagement when I say that the body of the Di- contrasted with the learned gentleman's bill.
rectors havegiv:'en inei orable proofs that they     The state of accusations against me upon this
are not the sort of people to whom any man can  subject of influence, is truly curious. The learned
look for the success or salvation of India. Among  gentleman [Mr. Dundas], in strains of emphasis,.them there are, without doubt, some individuals  declares that this bill diminishes the influence of,respectable both for their knowledge and integ- the Crown beyond all former attempts, and calls
grity; but I put it to the candor of gentlemen, upon those who formerly voted with him in sup-'tether they are the species of men whose wis-  port of that influence, against our efforts to re-.dL', energy' anddiligence would give any prom-  duce it; and who now sit near me, to join him now
ise,f emancipating thd East India concerns from  in opposing my attempts to diminish that darling.their present disasterts and'disgraces.  Indeed,  influence. He tells them I "out-Heroded Herod;:":both'uestibos maiy be answered in two words. that I am outdoing all my former outdoings  and
Why not;choose the Directors, wiho have ruined  proclaims me as the merciless and insatiate en-.the' Compcany?'Why not leave the power of elec- emy of the influence of the Crown.
tion in' the piprorietors, -iho have thwarted every   Down sits the learned gentleman, and up starts
gOod, attempted.by the' Directrs?                an honorable gentleman [Mr. Martin], with a
The last point adverted to by the learned gen- charge against me, upon the same subject, of a
tleman. relates to: ifltuence  ailnd upon his re-  nature the direct reverse.  I have fought undei
hiarkks,combnined with what fell'from some oth- your banners, cries the honorable gentleman,.ers:upon the. same' stbject,' I beg leave to make  against that fell giant, the influence of the Crown..a: few:ob'servations. -'Mu:h- of my life has.been  I have bled in that battle which you commanded,
employed to'diminish the inordinate influlece'of  and. have a claim upon the rights of soldiership.
the Crown.  In common with others, I succeed-'You have conquered through us; and now that.d;        and I-gloryin it'. T' i'To support that kind of  victory is in your arms, you turn traitor to our.influence which I fiornmrly subverted, is a deed of  cause, and carry over your powers to the enemy.
whiich I'shall never deserve'tobe  beaccused. The  The fiercest of your former combatants in the
affirmationwitli which:Ifiirst'introduce.d this plan,  cause of influence falls far short of you at this
I now repeat.  I' reassert, that this'bill as little  moment; your attempts in re-erecting this mon-.augments the influen'ce of the Crown as any meas- ster exceed all the exertions of your former foes.
_ -~~~~-~... _....~....-.This night you will make the influence of the':Mr.Fox.aldhis friendshad long urged, and suc-  Crown a Colossus, that shall bestride the land
ceeded l at last inpassi  the celebrated resolutionpediment.  I impeach you
and crush every impediment.  I impeach you
/drawn up by Mr'.Dunning, "That the influence of
rown ha increased,    creasing, and    t to  for treachery to your ancient principles! Come,
be diminished"' He applies this principle very hap- come, and divide with us!!
pily to:the present case'by showing, that the Corn-    This honorable gentleman, after a thrust or.missioners'mustbe; ralised above that influence, if  two at the Coalition, sits down; and while the
-they are to'discharlge their duty.                House is perplexing itself to reconcile these wide




1783.]                           THE EAST INDIA  BILL.                                     467
differences, the right honorable gentleman [Mr. pany's circumstances, presented last week, furPitt] over the way confounds all past contradic- nished matter of triumph to the honorable gention, by combining, in his own person, these ex- tleman for the full space of three hours; that is
travagant extremes.  He acknowledges that he  to say, while counsel were at the bar.  I made
has digested a paradox; and a paradox well he  no objection to the account but this trifling one,
might call it, for never did a grosser one puzzle  that X12,000,000 were stated which ought not
the intellects of a public assembly.  By a mirac- to appear at all there, and which were placed
ulous kind of discernment, he has found out that there only for delusion and fallacy.  I never obthe bill both increases and diminishes the influ-  jected to the arithmetic of the account.  The
ence of the Crown!                             sums, I doubt not, were accurately cast up even
The bill diminishes the influence of the Crown,  to a figure. Yet the House will recollect that the
says one; you are wrong, says a second, it in- honorable gentleman, about this very hour of that
creases it: you are both right, says a third, for debate, endeavored to protract the business to the
it both increases and diminishes the influence of  next day, upon assuring the House that the Comthe Crown!  Now, as most members have one pany would then support their statement.  I reor other of these opinions upon the subject, the  fused to accede, because I knew the matter to be
honorable gentleman can safely join with all mere shifting and maneuvering for a vote, and
parties upon this point; but few, I trust, will be  that the Company could not support their statefound to join him!1                            ment.  Was I right?  The House sees whether
Thus, sir, is this bill combated, and thus am I I was.  The House sees the finance post is now
accused.  The nature and substance of these ob- totally abandoned, and for the best reason in the
jections I construe as the strongest comment world, because it is no longer tenable. But the
upon the excellence of the bill.  If a more ra- honorable gentleman is, indeed, a man of resourtional opposition could be made to it, no doubt it ces.  He now gives me a challenge; and I beg
would.  The truth is, it increases the influence  the House to remark that I accept his challenge,
of the Crown, and the influence of party, as little  and that I prophecy he will no more meet me
as possible; and if the reform  of India, or any  upon this than upon the former points.l2
other matter, is to be postponed until a scheme    But there is no limit to a youthful and vigorbe devised against which ingenuity, or ignorance, ous fancy.  The right honorable gentleman just
or caprice, shall not raise objections, the affairs now, in very serious terms, and with all his haof human life must stand still.                 bitual gravity, engages, if the House will join
I beg the House will attend a little to the  in opposing us to-night, that he will digest and
Conductof manner in which the progress of this methodize a plan, the outline of which he has
Mr. Pitt.  bill has been retarded, especially by the  already conceived.  He has nothing now to ofright honorable gentleman [Mr. Pitt]. First, the  fer; but justly confiding in the fertility of his
members were not all in town, and time was de- own imagination, and the future exercise of his
sired upon that account.  Next, the finances of  faculties, he promises that he will bring a plan,
the East India Company were misstated by me, provided the majority of this House will join him
and time was desired to prove that.  The time  to-night.  Now, if ever an idea was thrown out
came, and the proofs were exhibited, counsel to pick up a stray vote or two in the heel of a
heard, and yet the issue was; that my former debate, by a device, the idea thrown out a while
statement, instead of being controverted, became  ago by the honorable gentleman is precisely
more established by the very proofs which were  such. But if I can augur rightly from the combrought to overturn it. The honorable gentleman  plexion of the House, his present will have exhas misrepresented me to-night again.  He has actly the same success with all his past strataan evident pleasure in it, which, indeed, I can not gems to oppose this bill.'3
prevent; but I can prevent this House and this    His learned friend [Mr. Durdas], with singucountry from believing him.  He prefers the au- lar placidness, without smile or sneer,  nswer to the
thority of his own conception (eager enough,'in  has said,:  as this measure was prob-pretnse thatn
all conscience, to misunderstand me) of what I ably decided upon some time since, w.astaken unsaid, to my own repeated declarations of my own  the East India Company, wvho could awaes
meaning.  He supposes I mistake, because he  not ept ect such a blow, ought to have been inwishes it.  I never did say, the Company were  formed of the intended project.  The Company
absolute bankrupts to the amount of the debt; was evidently unaware of this attack, and, in
but I said there was immediate necessity of pay- fairness, should have been apprised of it."  Does
ing that given sum, without any immediate means the learned gentleman imagine that men are in
of providing for it.  The account of the Com- their sober senses who listen to such caviling
and quibbling opposition?  The Company unaI Mr. Fox did not very often indulge in humor; ware of this attack!  The learned gentleman's
he was usually too much in earnest to do it; but,in ownlabors, inependentofanyotherintimation
exposing the inconsistency of his.,opp.one.l~,ts,,he
caught the.very spirit of Lord -.North.' Thus ihe
gave the House the relief of a hearty iaugh after a  i'Mr' Pitt had challenged Mr. Fox to discuss with
sitting of ten hours, and laid the foundation, at the him the particulars of astatement drawnl out by the
same time, of.the -conclusion: whichhe- draws, that Company, towhioh Mir. Fox had objected.
his scheme can not be'far fiom- righbt when opposed    i He was right; for the ministry -lad an accession
on such contradictory grounds.          -:   of five.yotes this night above- the frmer:division.




468                                     MR. FOX  ON                                        [1783.
had been an ample warning to the Company to  tleman accuses us of surprising the Company;
be prepared.  Every man in the kingdom, who  and his right honorable friend [Mr. Pitt], in hopes
reads a newspaper, expected something; and  his proposal of another bill may have weight in
the only wonder with the nation was, how it the division, repeats the hackneyed charge of
could be so long delayed.  The reports of the  precipitation, and forces the argument for delay
committees alarmed the public so much, for the  in a taunt, " that we wish to get rid of our torhonor'of the country, and for the salvation of the  ments by sending this bill to the other House."
Company, that all eyes were upon East India  The honorable gentleman's talents are splendid
affairs.  This sort of observation had, indeed, and various; but I assure him that all his efforts
much better come from any other man in this  for the last eight days have not given me a sinHouse than from that identical gentleman.        gle torment.  Were I to choose a species of
If these were not sufficient to rouse the atten- opposition to insure a ministerial tranquillity, it
tion and diligence of the Company, his Majesty's would be the kind of opposition which this bill
speech at the commencement and conclusion of  has received; in which every thing brought to
the late session of Parliament gave them  note  confute has tended to confirm, and in which the
of preparation in the most plain and decisive  arguments adduced to expose the weakness have
terms.  In his opening speech, his Majesty thus  furnished materials to establish the wisdom  of
speaks to Parliament upon the subject of India: the measure. So impossible is it, without some" The regulation of a vast territory in Asia  thing of a tolerable cause, even for the right honopens a large field for your wisdom, prudence, orable gentleman's abilities to have effect, though
and foresight.  I trust that you will be able to  his genius may make a flourishing and superior
form some fundamental laws which may make  figure in the attempt!
their connection with Great Britain a blessing    Before I proceed to the other parts of the deto India; and that you will take therein proper bate, I wish to say one word upon a remark of
measures to give all foreign nations, in matters  the learned gentleman [Mr. Dundas]; he says,
of foreign commerce, an entire and perfect con- that the clause relative to the zemindars was
fidence in the probity, punctuality, and good or- suggested by his observations.    God forbid I
der of our government.  You may be assured  should detract from  the merit, or diminish the
that whatever depends upon me shall be execu- desert of any man.  Undoubtedly that excellent
ted with a steadiness which can alone preserve  part of the regulation bill derives from the learnthat part of my dominions, or the commerce  ed gentleman; and if he were in this House
which arises from it."                           when I introduced the subject of India he would
The learned gentleman, who knows more of  have known, that I did him full and complete
the dispositions of the Cabinet [Lord Shelburne's]  justice upon that point.
at that time than I do, can better tell whether    My noble friend [Lord John Cavendish] has
any measure of this nature was'then intended. said, this bill does not arise from the Realgrounds
The words are very wide, and seem to portend, poverty of the Company, but that lib- ofthe bill.
at least, something very important; but wheth- eral policy and national honor demanded it.
er any thing similar to this measure was meant, Upon the last day this bill was debated, I conas this passage seems to imply, or not, is indif- fined myself chiefly to the demonstration of the
ferent to the point in question  this is clear from  fallacy and imposture of that notable schedule
it, that it gives a very ceremonious warning to  presented by the East India Company; and, havthe East India Company; enough surely to ex- ing proved its falsehood, I can now with the
pose the weakness and futility of the learned  greater safety declare, that if every shilling of
gentleman's remark. The changes and circum- that fictitious property were real and forthcomstances of the cabinet, in the course of the last ing, a bill of this nature was not therefore the
session, can be the only excuse for the delay of  less necessary.  I thought we were fully undersome decisive measure with regard to Indi; stood upon this point, from the opening speech
and if, in addition to all these, any thing more is in this business, which did not so degrade the
requisite to confirm the notoriety of Parliament's  measure as to say it originated in the poverty of
being to enter upon the business, the following  the Company.  This, as my noble friend rightly
paragraph of the King's closing speech, last remarks, was the smallest reason for its adopJuly, completes the mass of evidence against tion, and this opinion is not, as the right honorthe learned gentleman.                           able gentleman [Mr. Pitt] insinuates, "shifting,"
His Majesty, after intimating a belief that he  but recognizing and recording the true grounds
shall be obliged to call his Parliament together of the bill.  If any misunderstanding, then, has
earlier than usual, thus speaks:                 hitherto taken place upon this head, it will, I
" The consideration of the affairs of the East trust, cease henceforth; and so odious a libel
Indies will require to be resumed as early as upon this country will not pass current, as that
possible, and to be pursued with a serious and  sordid motives only induced the government of
unremitting attention."  Superadd to all this the  England to that which we were bound to do, as
part of the King's opening speech this year upon  politicians, as Christians, and as men, by every
India; and if the whole do not constitute suffi-                                  _
cient testimony that the Company had full no-   14 The zemindars, or native landlords, had a iight
tice, nothing can.                              of inheritance confirmed to them in Mr. Fox's seec
Yet, notwithstanding all this, the learned gen- ond bill.




1783.]                           THE EAST INDIA BILL.                                      469
consideration which makes a nation respectable,  to himself to reconcile his practice and his docgreat, and glorious!                            trine in the best manner he can.'s
Having vindicated the bill from this aspersion,    III. The honorable gentleman [Mr. Pitt] could
and founded it upon that basis which every hon- not for one night pass by the Coalition; Tie Coaiest and sensible man in England must approve, yet I think he might have chosen a fitter tion.
I may be allowed to say, that some regard may  time to express his indignation against the noble
be had even to the mean and mercenary upon  Lord [Lord North] than the present moment.
this subject-a portion of whom we have here, An attack upon the noble Lord in his presence,
in common with all other countries.  Will such  would bear a more liberal color; and the cause
men endure with temper a constant drain upon  of his absence now would surely rather disarm
this kingdom, for the sake of this monopolizing  than irritate a generous enemy!16  There are
corporation? Will those, for instance, who clam- distinctions in hatred, and the direst foes upon
or against a twopenny tax, afford, with good hu- such occasions moderate their aversion.  The
mor, million after million to the East India Corn- Coalition is, however, a fruitful topic; and the
pany?  The Sinking Fund is at this moment power of traducing it, which the weakest and
a million the worse for the deficiency of the Com- meanest creatures in the country enjoy and expany; and as the noble Lord [Lord J. Cavendish] ercise, is of course equally vested in men of rank
says, an extent [execution] must in three weeks  and parts, though every man of parts and rank
arrest their property, if Parliament does not in- would not be apt to participate the privilege.
terpose, or enable them to discharge a part of  Upon the Coalition, the honorable gentleman is
their debt to the Crown.  Let those, therefore, welcome to employ his ingenuity, but upon anwho think the commerce ought to be instantly  other subject alluded to by him I shall beg leave
separated from the dominion (were that at this to advise, nay, even to instruct him.
time possible), and who think it ought to be left   In what system of ethics will the honorable
wholly in the present hands, reflect that the  gentleman find the precept taught of ripping up
formation of a vigorous system  of government old sores, and reviving animosities among indifor India is not more incumbent upon us than  viduals, of which the parties themselves retain
the establishment of the eastern trade, upon  no memory?7  This kind of practice may incur
such principles of solidity and fitness as shall a much worse charge than weakness of undergive some just hopes that the public may be  standing, and subject a man to much greater imspeedily relieved from  the monstrous pressure  putations than are commonly applied to political
of constantly supporting the indigence of the  mistakes of party violence.  The soundness of
Company.'  the heart may be liable to suspicion, and the
I have spoke of myself very often in the course  moral character be in danger of suffering by it
Notice  of  of what I have said this night, and must in the opinion of mankind.  To cover the heats
pernalat speak still more frequently in the course  and obliterate the sense of former quarrels betack rnade Sp
Ih.y Mr. Pitt. of what I have to say. The House will tween two persons, is a very distinguished virsee this awkward task is rendered indispensable, tue; to renew  the subject of such differences,
infinitely more having been said concerning me, and attempt the revival of such disputes, deserves
during the debate, than concerning the question, a name which I could give it, if that honorable
which is the proper subject of agitation.  The  gentleman had not forgotten himself, and fallen
right honorable gentleman [Mr. Pitt] says, that into some such deviation.  He values himself, I
nothing ever happened to give him an ill impres- doubt not, too much again to make a similar slip,
sion of my character, or to prevent a mutual and must even feel thankful to me for the counconfidence.  He says rightly; there have been  sel I thus take the liberty to give him.
interchanges of civility, and amicable habits be-    An honorable gentleman under the gallery
tween us, in which I trust I have given him no  [Mr. Martin], to whom an abuse of the Coalition
cause to complain.  But after pronouncing a  seems a sort of luxury, wishes that a starling
brilliant eulogy upon me and my capacity to  were at the right hand of the chair to cry out
serve the country, the honorable gentleman con- " disgraceful Coalition!"  Sir, upon this subject
siders me, at the same time, the most dangerous I shall say but a few words.
man in the kingdom.  (Mr. Pitt said across the    The calamitous situation of this country reHouse,  "dangerous only fomrn  this measure."  quired an administration whose stabil- Defense of
To which Mr. Fox instantly made this reply.) ity could give it a tone of firmness that "easure.
I call upon the House to attend to the honorable  with foreign nations, and promise some hope of
gentleman.  He thinks me dangerous only from  restoring the faded glories of the country. Such
this measure, and confesses that hitherto he has 
seen nothing in my conduct to obliterate his good   15 There is a great dexterity in this retort, and
opinion.  Compare this with his opposition dur- something of that over-reaching in the assumption,
ing the last and the present session.  Let every  that Mr. Pitt had "seen nothing in his conduct to
man reflect, that up to this moment the honora-obliterate his good opinion," which we sometimes
see in Demosthenes.
ble gentleman deemed me worthy of confidence,       Lord North left te House, in a state ofindisand competent to my situation in the state.  I position, about midnight.
thank him for the support he has afforded to the   17 Alluding to the passage quoted by Mr. Pitt from
minister he thus esteemed, and shall not press that famous speech of Mr. Fox's, which produced
the advantage he gives me, farther than leaving  the duel between him and Mr. Adam.




470                                     MR. FOX  ON                                       [1783.
an administration could not be formed without and disaffected members fall off, then turn about,
some junction of the parties; and if former differ- and, to palliate their own defection, call the body
ences were to be an insurmountable barrier to  of the army deserters!   We have not deserted;
union, no chance of salvation remained for the  here we are, a firm phalanx.  Deserted, indeed,
country, as it is well known that four public men  we have been in the moment of disaster, but
could not be found who had not at one time or never dejected, and seldom complaining.  Some
other taken opposite sides in politics. The great of those who rose upon our wreck, and who
cause of difference between us and the noble  eagerly grasped that power which we had the
Lord in the blue ribbon [Lord North] no longer labor of erecting, now call us deserters.  We
existed; his personal character stood high; and  retort the term with just indignation. Yet while
thinking it safer to trust him than those who had  they presume we have the attributes of men,
before deceived us, we preferred to unite with  they would expect us to have the obduracy of
the noble Lord.  A similar junction in 1757,18  savages.  They would have our resentments inagainst which a similar clamor was raised, saved  satiate, our rancor eternal.  In our opinion, an
the empire from  ruin, and raised it above the  oblivion of useless animosity is much more norivalship of all its enemies.  The country, when  ble; and in that the conduct of our accusers goes
we came into office, bore not a very auspicious  hand in hand with us.  But I beg of the House,
complexion; yet, sir, I do not despair of seeing  and I wish the world to observe, that although,
it once again resume its consequence in the scale  like them, we have abandoned our enmities, we
of nations, and make as splendid a figure as ever.  have not, like them, relinquished our friendships.
Those who have asserted the impossibility of our There is a set of men, who, from the mere vanagreeing with the noble Lord and his friends ity of having consequence as decisive voters, obwere false prophets, for events have belied their  ject to all stable government.  These men hate
augury.  We have differed like men, and like  to see an administration so fixed as not to be
men we have agreed.                              movable by their vote.  They assume their digA body of the best and honestest men in this nity on the mere negative merit of not acceptHouse, who serve their country without any  ing places; and in the pride of this self-denial,
other reward than the glory of the disinterested  and the vanity of fancied independence, they obdischarge of their public duty, approved that ject to every system that has a solid basis, bejunction, and sanctify the measure by their cor- cause their consequence is unfelt.  Of such men
dial support.                                    I can not be the panegyrist, and I am sorry that
Such, sir, is this Coalition, which the state of  some such men are among the most estimable
the country rendered indispensable, and for which  in the House.it
the history of every country records a thousand    IV. An honorable gentleman advises me, for
precedents; yet to this the term  disgraceful is the future, not to mention the name of Miscellaneapplied!  Is it not extraordinary, then, that gen- the Marquess of Rockingham, who, he.~
tlemen should be under such spells of false delu- says, would never countenance a bill of this kind.
sion as not to see that if calling it disgraceful This is indeed imposing hard conditions upon
makes it so, these epithets operate with equal those who have willingly suffered a sort of politforce against themselves?  If the Coalition be  ical martyrdom in the cause of that noble Lord's
disgraceful, what is the anti-Coalition?  When  principles-those who surrendered pomp and
I see the right honorable gentleman [Mr. Pitt] power, rather than remain where his principles
surrounded by the early objects of his political, ceased -to be fashionable, and were withering
nay, his hereditary'9 hatred, and hear him revile  into contempt. I venerate the name of that noble
the Coalition, I am lost in the astonishment how  Marquess, and shall ever mention it with love
men can be so blind to their own situation as to  and reverence; but at no period of my life with
attempt to wound us in this particular point, pos- more confidence than at this moment, when I say
sessed as we are of the power of returning the  that his soul speaks in every line of the bill besame blow, with the vulnerable part staring us fore you, for his soul speaks in every measure
directly in the face.  If the honorable gentle- of virtue, wisdom, humane policy, general jusman under the gallery [Mr. Martin] wishes that tice, and national honor.  The name of the noa starling were perched up on the right hand of  ble Lord, who enjoys his fortune, has been menthe chair, I tell him that the wish is just as rea- tioned in this debate, and will be mentioned again
sonable to have another starling upon the left by me. I will tell the honorable gentleman that
hand of the chair, to chirp up Coalition against this noble Lord [Earl Fitzwilliam], though not
Coalition, and so harmonize their mutual dis- the issue of his loins, inherits, with his property,
grace, if disgrace there be.                     the principles of that noble Marquess in all their
With the same consistency, an honorable gen- purity and soundness; and is as incapable as that
tleman calls us deserters!20  Us!   A few cold  noble Marquess himself, or as any man on earth,
is That of Lord Chatham with the Duke of New-   21 Alluding probably to Mr. Powys, who had been
castle.                                          a friend of Mr. Fox, but would not vote with him
9 Mr. Jenkinson, Mr. Dundas, &c., sat near Mr. after his junction with Lord North. Mr. Powys, at
Pitt.                                           the opening of the debate, ascribed the obnoxious
20 This refers to the resignation of Mr. Fox, Mr. features of the present bill to Lord North, saying,
Burke, and tie other Rockingham  Whigs, when  "The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the
Lord Shelburne seized the reins of government.    hands of Esau."




1783.]                             THE EAST INDIA BILL.                                   471
of countenancing any act which either immedi- he was against me, and our conduct: was,violent.
ately or ultimately tended to the prejudice of his and unconstitutional, it was trteasonable': And
country, or the injury of the Constitution.2  I yet the means were in both instances the same,
have had the honor of knowing the noble Earl -the means were the votes of this House 
from an early age. I have observed the motives    A game of a two-fold quality is playing by the:
sf his actions; I am endeared to him by every  other side of the House upon this occasion, to
lie of kindred sentiment and of mutual principle. which I hope the House, and I hope the kingdom,
A character more dignified and exalted exists will attend.  They are endeavoring to injure us
not in the empire; a mind more firmly attached  through two channels at the same time,; through:
to the Constitution of his country.  He is, what a certain great quarter, and through the people.
the nation would desire in the heir of Lord Rock- They are attempting to alarm  the first by asingham, the only compensation that we could  serting that this bill increases the influence of
have for his loss.                             ministry against the Crown; and rousing the
An honorable gentleman on the other side  people, under an idea that it increases the influ[Mr. T. Pitt] has used violent terms against this ence of the Crown against them. That they, will
bill and the movers of it.  Sir, I tell that honor- fail in both, I doubt not.  In the great quarter
able gentleman [looking him directly in the face] I trust they are well understood, and:the princethat the movers of this bill are not to be brow- ly mind of that high person is a security against
beaten by studied gestures, nor frightened by  their devices. They are running swiftly to take
tremulous tones, solemn phrases, or hard epi- off whatever little imposition might have. been
thets.  To arguments they are ready to reply; put upon any part, even of the multitude; and I
but all the notice they can take of assertions is wish to rescue the character of the public unto mark to the House that they are only asser- derstanding from the contemptuous impliciation,
tions.  The honorable gentleman again repeats that it is capable of being gulled by such arti,
his favorite language of our having seized upon  fices. I feel for my country's honor when I say
the government. His Majesty changed his minis- that Englishmen, free themselves, and fond of
try last April, in consequence of a vote of this giving freedom  to others, disdain these, strataHouse; his Majesty did the same twelve months  gems, and are equally above the silliness of credbefore [when Lord North was displaced], in con- iting the revilers of this act, and the baseness
sequence of a vote of this House. His Majesty, of confederating or making common cause with
in so doing, followed the example of his prede- those who would support a system which has
cessors; and his successors will, I doubt not, fol- dishonored this country, and which keeps thirty
low the example of his Majesty.  The votes of millions of the human race in wretchedness.  I
Parliament have always decided upon the dura- make allowances for the hair-brained, headstrong
tion of the ministry, and always will, I trust. It delusions of folly and ignorance, and the effects
is the nature of our Constitution; and those who  of design.  To such evils every measure, is liadislike it had better attempt to alter it.  The  ble, and every man must expect a portion of the.
honorable gentleman called the change in 1782  consequence.  But for the serious and grave de:.
a glorious one; this in 1783 a disgraceful one. terminations of the public judgment I have the
Why?  For a very obvious, though a very bad  highest value; I ever had, and ever shall have.
reason. The honorable gentleman assisted in ef- If it be a weakness, I confess it, that to lose the
fecting the first, and strenuously labored to pre- good opinion of even the meanest man gives me
vent the second.  The first battle he fought with  some pain; and whatever triumph my enemies
us; the second against us, and we vanquished  can derive from such a frame of mind they are
him. In 1782 his friends were out, and would  welcome to.  I do not, after the example of,'the
be in.  In 1783 his friends were in, nor  oould  honorable gentleman who began this debate. [Mr.
go out.  Thus, having done without him what Powys], hold the opinion of constituents in diswe once did with him,,the House sees his mo- paragement. The clear and decided opinion of
tive. It is human nature, certainly; but certain- the more reasonable and respectable should, in
ly not the better part of human nature. He says  my opinion, weigh with the member, upon the
he is no party man, and abhors a systematic op- same principle that, I think, the voice of the naposition.  I have always acknowledged myself  tion should prevail in this House, and in every
to be a party man.  I have always acted with  other place.  But when the representative yields
a party in whose principles I have confidence; to the constituent, it should, indeed, be by the
and if I had such an opinion of any ministry as majority of the reasonable and respectable; and
the gentleman professes to have of us, I would  not, as we shall see in a day or two, some of
pursue their overthrow by a systematic opposi- the honestest men in England vot'.g against
tion. I have done so more than once, and I think  the most popular tax ever introduced into this
that, in succeeding, I saved my country.  Once House, in direct opposition to their own convicthe right honorable gentleman, as I have said, tion, and not upon the opinion of either the more
was with me, and our conduct was fair, manly, respectable or reasonable class of their constitconstitutional, and honorable.  The next time uents. 
22 Earl Fitzwilliam had been named by Mr. Fox    My noble friend [Sir John Cavendish], with
as the first of the Commissioners under this bill.  23 This refers to the Receipt Tax, for the repeal
The names of the remainder were withheld until of which Alderman Newnham had made a motion
the bill should have passed.                    a few days before.




472                                     MR. FOX  ON                                      [1783.
his characteristic spirit, has said, that we never upon these principles, and the people were with
sought power by cabal, or intrigue, or under- us; if we are opposed upon other principles,
hand operations; and this he said in reply to an  they will not be against us.  Much labor has
honorable gentleman [Mr. T. Pitt], whose con- been employed to infuse a prejudice upon the
duct demonstrates that he thinks these the sur- present subject; but I have the satisfaction to
est path for his friends.  This bill, as a ground  believe that the labor has been fruitless, making
of contention, is farcical.  This bill. if it admit- a reasonable allowance for the mistakes of the
ted it, would be combated upon its intrinsic qual- uninformed, the first impressions of novelty, and
ities, and not by abusing the Coalition or raising  the natural result of deliberate malice. We dea clamor about influence.  But why don't the  sire to be tried by the test of this bill, and risk
gentlemen speak out fairly, as we do; and then  our character upon the'issue; confiding thorlet the world judge between us?  Our love and  oughly in the good sense, the justice, and the
loyalty to the sovereign are as ardent and firm  spirit of Englishmen.  Not lofty sounds, nor seas their own.  Yet the broad basis of public  lected epithets, nor passionate declamation in
character, upon which we received, is the prin- this House, nor all the sordid efforts of interested
ciple by which we hope to retain this power, men out of this House-of men whose acts in
convinced that the surest road to the favor of  the East have branded the British name, and
the prince is by serving him with zeal and fidel-, whpse ill gotten opulence has been working
ity; that the safest path to popularity is by re- through a thousand channels to delude and deducing the burden, and restoring the glory of  bauch the public understanding — can fasten
the nation.  Let those (looking at Mr. Jenkin- odium  upon this measure, or draw an obloquy
son) who aim at office by other means, by inscru- upon the authors of it.  We have been tried in
table and mysterious methods, speak out; or, if  the cause of the public, and until we desert that
they will not, let the world know it is because  cause we are assured of public confidence and
their arts will not bear examination, and that protection.
their safety consists in their obscurity.24   Our    The honorable gentleman [Mr. Powys] has
principles are well known; and I should prefer supposed for me a soliloquy, and has put into
to perish with them, rather than prosper with  my mouth some things which I do not think are
any other.                                      likely to be attributed to me. He insinuates that
The honorable gentleman under the gallery  I was incited by avarice, or ambition, or party
[Mr. Martin] also says he dislikes systematic  spirit.  I have failings in common with every
opposition. Whether perpetually rising up with  human being, besides my own peculiar faults 
peevish, capricious objections to every thing pro- but of avarice I have indeed held myself guiltposed by us deserve that name or not, I leave  less.  My abuse has been for many years even
the gentleman himself to determine, and leave  the profession of several people; it was their
the House to reflect upon that kind of conduct traffic, their livelihood; yet until this moment I
which condemns the theory of its own constant knew not that avarice was in the catalogue of
practice.  But I meet the gentleman directly  the sins imputed to me.  Ambition I confess I
upon the principle of the term.  He dislikes  have, but not ambition upon a narrow bottom,
systematic opposition; now I like it.  A sys- or built upon paltry principles.  If, from the detematic opposition to a dangerous government votion of my life to political objects; if, from the
is, in my opinion, a noble employment for the  direction of my industry to the attainment of
brightest faculties; and if the honorable gentle- some knowledge of the Constitution and the true
man thinks our administration a bad one, he is interests of the British empire, the ambition of
right to contribute to its downfall.  Opposition  taking no mean part in those acts that elevate
is natural in such a political system as ours.  It nations and make a people happy, be criminal,
has subsisted in all such governments; and per- that ambition I acknowledge.  And as to party
haps it is necessary.  But to those who oppose, spirit-that I feel it, that I have been ever under
it is extremely essential that their manner of  its impulse, and that I ever shall, is what I proconducting it incur not a suspicion of their mo- claim to the world.  That I am one of a party
tives. If they appear to oppose from disappoint- -a party never known to sacrifice the interests,
ment, from mortification, from pique, from whim, or barter the liberties of the nation for mercenathe people will be against them.  If they op- ry purposes, for personal emolument or honors
pose from public principle, from  love of their -a party linked together upon principles which
country rather than hatred to administration, comprehend whatever is most dear and precious
from evident conviction of the badness of meas- to free men, and essential to a fiee Constitution
ures, and a full persuasion that in their resist- -is my pride and my boast.
ance to men they are aiming at the public wel-    The honorable gentleman has given me one
fare, the people will be with them. We opposed  assertion which it is my pride to make; he says
that I am connected with a number of the first
2 Mr. Jenkinson had entered life as the protege  families in the country.25  Yes, sir, I have a peof Lord Bute, and was looked upon for many years c li       h                    ren ned fr
culiar galory that a body of men, renowned for
as the pivot of every court intrigue, the confdentialt                   
agent of the King, and the prime mover in all kinds  their ancestry, important for their possessions,
of secret influence; hence this pointed allusion. He distinguished for their personal worth, with all
was afterward known as Lord Hawkesbury, and at     _  _~
a subsequent period as Lord Liverpool.                    25 The Rockingham Whigs.




1783.]                            THE EAST INDIA  BILL.                                    473
that is valuable to men at stake-hereditary for- of any man's virtue. Our merit will be more in
tunes and hereditary honors-deem me worthy  this, when the names of those are known whom
of their confidence.  With such men I am some- we mean to propose to this House, to execute
thing-without them, nothing.  My reliance is this commission.  [Name them, said Mr. Arden,
upon their good opinion; and in that respect, across the House.] I will not. I will not name
perhaps, I am fortunate. Although I have a just them.  The bill shall stand or fall by its own
confidence in my own integrity, yet, as I am  merits, without aid or injury from their characbut man, perhaps it is well that I have no choice  ter.  An honorable gentleman has said these
but between my own eternal disgrace and a  Commissioners will be made up of our "adherfaithful discharge of my public duty, while men  ents and creatures."  Sir, there is nothing more
of this kind are overseers of my conduct, while  easy than to use disparaging terms; yet I should
men whose uprightness of heart and spotless  have thought the name of Earl Fitzwilliam would
honor are even proverbial in the country [look- have given a fair presumption that the colleagues
ing at Lord John Cavendish], are the vigils of  we shall recommend to. this House for the comy deeds, it is a pledge to the public for the  execution of this business with that noble Lord,
purity and rectitude of my conduct.  The pros- will not be of a description to merit these unperity and honor of the country are blended with  handsome epithets.  I assure the honorable genthe prosperity and honor of these illustrious per-.tleman they are not.  I assure him they are not
sons.  They have so much at stake, that if the  men whose faculties of corrupting, or whose corcountry falls they fall with it; and to counte- ruptibility, will give any alarm to this House, or
nance any thing against its interest would be a  to this country.  They are men whose private
suicide upon themselves. The good opinion and  and public characters stand high and untainted;
protection of these men is a security to the na- who are not likely to countenance depredation,
tion for my behavior, because if I lose them  I or participate the spoils of rapacity.  They are
lose my all.                                    not men to screen delinquency, or to pollute the
-Having said so much upon the extraneous sub- service by disgraceful appointments.  Would
jects introduced by the honorable gentleman  such men as Earl Fitzwilliam suffer unbecon[Mr. Powys] into the debate, I shall proceed to  ing appointments to be made?  Is Earl Fitzmake some observations upon the business in  william a man likely to do the dirty work of a
question.  When the learned gentleman [Mr. minister?  If they, for instance, were to nominDundas] brought in his bill last year, the House  ate a Paul Benfield to go to India in the supreme
saw its frightful features with just horror; but council, would Earl Fitzwilliam subscribe to his
a very good method was adopted to soften the  appointment?  This is the benefit of having a
terrors of the extravagant power which that bill commission of high honor, chary of reputation,
vested in the Governor General.  The name of  noble and pure in their sentiments, who are su.
a noble Lord [Lord Cornwallis] was sent forth  perior to the little jobs and traffic of political
at the same time, whose great character lent a  intrigue.26
grace to a proposition which, destitute of such    But this bill, sir, presumes not upon the proban advantage, could not be listened to for one  ity of the men; it looks to the future possibilimoment.  Now, sir, observe how differently we  ty of dissimilar successors, and to the morality
have acted upon the same occasion.              of the present Commissioners, who are merely
Earl Fitzwilliam has been spoken of here this human, and therefore not incapable of alteration.
day, in those terms of admiration with which his Under all the caution of this bill, with the rename is always mentioned.  Take notice, how- sponsibility it imposes, I will take upon me to
ever, that we did not avail ourselves of the fame  say that if the aggregate body of this Board deof his virtue and abilities in passing this bill termined to use all its power for the purpose of
through the House.                              corruption, this House, and the people at large,
If such a thing were to have taken place as  would have less to dread from them, in the way
the institution of an Indian secretaryship (ac- of influence, than from a. few Asiatics who would
cording to the suggestions of some gentlemen), probably be displaced in consequence of this arthis noble Lord would certainly have been the  rangement-some of whom will return to this
very person whom, for my part, I should have  country with a million, some with seven hundred
advised his Majesty to invest with that office. thousand, some with five, besides the three or four
Yet, although his erect mind and spotless honor hundred thousand of others, who are cut off in
would have held forth to the public the fullest their career by the hand of Fate.  An inundaconfidence of a faithful execution of its duties, tion of such wealth is far more dangerous than
the objections in regard to influence upon a re- any influence that is likely to spring from a plan
movable officer, are ten-fold in comparison with  of government so constituted as this proposedthe present scheme.  The House must now see, whether the operation of such a mass of wealth
that with all the benefits we might derive from                         a n     b M       
that, nol Lrd' I,,        i    ll   *IT      26 The Commissioners, as named by Mr. Fox when
that noble Lord's character-that  although his the bill passed the House, were Earl Fitzwilliam,
name would have imparted a sanctity, an orna- Chairman of the Board, the Honorable Frederick
ment, and an honor to the bill, we ushered it in  Montague, Lord Lewisham, the Honorable George
without that ceremony, to stand or fall by its Augustus North, eldest son of Lord North, Sir Gilown intrinsic merits, neither shielding it under bert Elliot, Baronet, Sir Henry Fletcher, Baronet,
the reputation nor gracing it under the mantle  and Robert Gregory, Esq.




474                                      MR. FOX  ON                                         [1783
be considered in its probable effects upon the  of present reputation and future fame.  These,
principles of the members, of this House, or the  and whatever else is precious to me, I stake upon
manners of the people at large; more especially  the constitutional safety, the enlarged policy, the
when a reflection that Orientalists are in general  equity, and the wisdom  of this measure; and
the most exemplary class of people in their mor- have no fear in saying (whatever may be the
als, and in their deportment the most moderate,  fate of its authors) that this bill will produce to
and corresponding with the distinction of their  this country every blessing of commerce and
high birth and family, furnishes a very reasona-  revenue; and that by extending a generous and
ble presumption that the expenditure of their  humane government over those millions whom
money will be much about as honorable as its  the inscrutable destinations of Providence have
-.a4luirement.2                                     placed under us in the remotest regions of the
I shall now, sir, conclude my speech with a  earth, it will consecrate the name of England
few words upon the opinion of the right honor-  among the noblest of nations.
able gentleman [Mr. Pitt].  He says "he will 
stake his character upon the danger of this bill."
I meet him in his own phrase, and oppose him,    The vote was carried by a majority of 217 to
character to character.  I risk my all upon the  103.  But when the bill reached the House of
excellence of this bill.  I risk upon it whatever  Lords, it was met and defeated by the influence
is most dear to me, whatever men most value,  of the King, as already mentioned in the sketch
the character of integrity, of talents, of honor,  of Mr. Fox's life.
SPEECH
OF MR. FOX ON THE USE OF SECRET INFLUENCE TO DEFEAT HIS EAST INDIA BILL, DELIVERED
IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, DECEMBER 17, 1783.
INTRODUCTION.
ON the ninth of December, 1783, when Mr. Fox's East India Bill went up to the House of Lords, the
ministry supposed themselves to possess the fullest evidence that it would pass that body by a decided majority. Within three days, however, rumors were in circulation of some extraordinary movements in the
interior of the Court. vit was affirmed that Lord Temple was closeted with the King on the eleventh, and
that his Majesty had intrusted him with a message of some kind, expressing a strong disapprobation of the
bill; which message his Lordship and others were circulating among the peers, and especially among the
Lords of the Bedchamber and other members of the royal household who were more immediately connected
with the King's person. On the fifteenth, the Duke of Portland, as head of the ministry, alluded to these
rumors in the House of Lords. Lord Temple admitted that the interview referred to had taken place, but
would neither acknowledge nor deny any thing farther touching the reports in question. It was evident,
however, that a powerful impression had been made. Some peers who had given their proxies to the
minister or his friends, withdrew them only a few hours before the time appointed for the second,reading
of the bill; and a letter was at ]ength' placed in the hands of the ministry, containing the message of the
King which had produced these unexpected results. The substance of this letter is given in the speech
below.
In view of these facts, before the bill had been decided upon by the Lords, Mr. Baker moved a resolntion in the House of Commons, that " it is now necessary to declare, that to report any opinion or pretended opinion of his Majesty upon any bill or other proceeding depending in either House of Parliament,
is a high crime and misdemeanor, derogatory to the honor of the Crown, a breach of the fundamental privileges of Parliament, and subversive of the Constitution of this country."'  In his remarks on the subject,
Mr. Baker divided the criminality into two parts; first, the giving of secret advice to his Majesty; and, secondly, the use that had been made of the King's name for the purpose of influencing the votes of members
of Parliament in a matter depending before them. He proved from the journals, that "any reference to
the opinions of the King touching a. bill before either House had always been judged a high breach of the
privileges of Parliament."  The motion was seconded by Lord Maitland, and was vehemently opposed by
Mr. Pitt, who was a near relative of Lord Temple. Mr. Fox then delivered the following speech, in which
he gave full vent to his indignation at the injustice done to ministers and the wound inflicted upon the Constitution by this interference.
SPEECH, &c.
I did not intend, sir, to have said any thing in  my own opinion, its propriety and necessity are
addition to that which has been already urged so  completely and substantially established. A few
ably in favor of the resolution now agitated. In  particulars, suggested in the course of the debate
27 The adventurers to India, here called Oriental- by gentlemen on the other side of the House,
ists, such as Paul Benfield, &c., were in most in-   1 This speech has been slightly abridged by omitstances persons of no family, and of little worth or ting a few passages in which the ideas were unneceducation. Hence the sneering terms here used.   essarily expanded.




1783.]                              SECRET INFLUENCE.                                           475
may be thought, however, to merit some animad- mon way, and by no inferior agents.  A noble
version.  And, once for all, let no man complain  Earl [Lord Temple] is said to have used the
of strong language.  Things are now arrived at name of Majesty with the obvious and express
such a crisis as renders it impossible to speak  intention of affecting the decisions of the Legiswithout warmth. Delicacy and reserve are crim- lature concerning a bill, of infinite consequence to
inal where the interests of Englishmen are at haz,' thirty millions of people, pending in Parliament.
ard.  The various points in dispute strike to the  I tell gentlemen this is not a newspaper ssurmise,
heart; and it were unmanly and pusillanimous to  but something much stronger and more serious;
wrap up in smooth and deceitful colors objects  there is a written record to be produced.  This
which, in their nature and consequences, are cal- letter [pulling it out of his pocket] is not to be put
culated to fill the House and the country with a  in the balance with the lie of the day. It states,
mixture of indignation and horror.                that "his Majesty allowed Earl Temple to say,
This, at least, has made such an impression on  that whoever voted for the India Bill were not
reatess of my mind, that I never felt so much anx-  only not his friends, but he should consider them
the interests iety; I never addressed this House un-  as his enemies; and if these words were not
der such a pressure of impending mis- strong enough, Earl Temple might use whatever.chief; I never trembled so much for public lib- words he might deem stronger, or more to the
erty as I now do. The question before the House  purpose."  Is this parliamentary, or is it truth?
involves the rights of Parliament in all their con-  Where is the man who dares to affirm the one
sequences and extent.  These rights are the ha- or deny the other; or to say that he believes in
sis of our Constitution, and form the spirit of what-  his conscience such a rumor was not calculated
ever discriminates the government of a free coun- to produce an immediate effect?  It certainly
try. And have not these been threatened and as- tended, in the first instance, to vilify, in the grosssaulted?  Can they exist a moment in opposition  est and most violent manner, the proceedings of
to such an interference as that which is supposed  Parliament.  It says to the public, that we are
by the resolution, and has been stated by several not equal to our trust; that we either ignorantly
honorable gentlemen to have taken place? No:  or willfully betray the interest of our constituents;
human nature is not sufficiently perfect to resist and that we are not to be guided in our decisions
the weight of such a temptation.  When, there-  by their convictions or our own, but by that un'fore, shall the House assert its dignity, its inde- seen and mysterious authority of which the Sovpendence, its prerogatives, by a resolute and un-  ereign, his counselors, and the Legislature, are
equivocal declaration of all its legal and consti-  only the blind and passive instruments.  Both
tutional powers, but in the instant of their dan-  Houses of Parliament are, consequently, parties
ger?  The disease, sir, is come to a crisis; and  in the contest, and reduced, by this unfortunate
now is the juncture which destines the patient to  and wicked device, to the predicament of a man
live or die.  We are called to sanctify or oppose  struggling for his life.  We are robbed of ouran absolute extinction of all for which our ances- rights, with a menace of immediate destruction
tors struggled and expired.  We are called to  before our face.  From  this moment, farewell
protect and defend, not only the stipulated fran- to every independent measure! \Whenever the
chises of Englishmen, but the sacred privileges liberties of the people, the rights of private propof human nature.  We are called to protract the  erty, or the still more sacred and invaluable privruin of the Constitution.  The deliberations of  ileges of personal safety, invaded, violated, or in
this night must decide whether we are to be free  danger, are vindicated by this House, where alone
men or slaves; whether the House of Commons  they can be legally and effectually redressed, the
be the palladium of liberty or the organ of des-  hopes of the public, anxious, eager, and panting
potism; whether we are henceforth to possess a  for the issue, are whispered away, and forever
voice of our own, or to be only the mechanical suppressed by the breath of secret influence. A
echo of secret influence.  Is there an individualP  Parliament thus fettered and controlled, without
who feels for his own honor, callous to an appre-  spirit and without freedom, instead of limiting,
hension of such a consequence as this?  Does  extends, substantiates, and establishes, beyond all
not every regard which he owes to a body that precedent, latitude, or condition, the prerogatives
can not be degraded without his disgrace, that of the Crown.   B But, though the British House of
can not expire without involving his fate, rouse  Commons were so shamefully lost to its own
his indignation, and excite him to every exertion,  weight in the Constitution, were so unmindful of
both in his individual and delegated capacity, its former struggles and triumphs in the great
which can reprobate, suspend, or destroy a prac- cause of liberty and mankind, were so indiffertice so inimical to public prospeiity, as well as  ent and treacherous to those primary objects and
hostile to the very existence of this House?       concerns for which it was originally instituted, I
But what is this resolution?  It has been  trust the characteristic spirit of this country is
Fact of in- called, with great teclhnical acuteness, still equal to the trial; I trust Englishmen will
terfeence. a truism, which seems as incapable of  be as jealous of secret influence as superior to
discussion as it is of proof.  The foundation of  open violence; I trust they are not more ready
it, however, is a matter of such general and pal- to defend their interests against foreign depredapable notoriety, as to put every degree of skep- tion and insult than to encounter and defeat this
ticism to defiance.  Rumors of a most extraor- midnight conspiracy against the Constitution.
dinary nature have been disseminated in no com-    The propositioA of this evening is, therefore,




476                                      MR. FOX  ON                                      [1783.
founded on a fact the most extraordinary and  such magnitude as it does.  But let us consider
Greatness alarming this country could possibly  the nature of the business which it is intended
o the evil. hear; a fact which strikes at the great to impede or suppress. For nearly twenty years
bulwark of our liberties, and goes to an absolute  have the affairs of the East India Company, more
annihilation, not only of our chartered rights, or less, occasionally engrossed the attention of
but of those radical and fundamental ones which  Parliament.  Committees of this House, comare paramount to all charters, which were con- posed of the most able, industrious, and upright
signed to our care by the sovereign disposition  characters, have sat long, indefatigably, and asof Nature, which we can not relinquish without siduously, in calling forth, arranging, digesting,
violating the most sacred of all obligations; to  and applying every species of evidence which
which we are entitled, not as members of socie- could be found.  Reports of their honest and
ty, but as individuals and as men; the rights of  elaborate conduct are before the House.   The
adhering steadily and uniformly to the great and  public feel the pressure of this monstrous and
supreme laws of conscience and duty; of prefer- multifarious object.  Gentlemen in opposition
ring, at all hazards, and without equivocation, were, at least, not insensible to its necessity, its
those general and substantial interests which we  urgency, and its importance.  A right honorahave sworn to prefer; of acquitting ourselves  ble gentleman [Mr. W. Pitt], who has distinhonorably to our constituents, to our friends, to  guished himself so much upon this occasion, proour own minds, and to that public whose trust- tested very solemnly against all palliatives, exees we are and for whom we act.                  pedients, or any abortive substitutes for radical
How often shall the friends of the noble Earl and complete measures.  To meet that right
Condict of   whom I have named be called upon to  honorable gentleman's idea. as well as to suit
Lord Temple's negative the proposition, by vouching  the exigence of the case, the present bill was
friends when
challenged to  for him his innocence of the charge? brought in. It has been called a rash, inconsidden iit.  Will any of them lay their hand on their erate, and violent measure. The House is aware
heart, and disavow the fact in that nobleman's  what discussion it has occasioned; and I dare
name?  Let them  fairly, honorably, and deci- any one to mention a single argument brought
dedly put an end to that foul imputation which  against it which has not been candidly and fairly
rests on his conduct, and the House must imme- tried, not by the weight of a majority, but by the
diately dismiss the report as idle and ill founded. force of plain and explicit reasoning.  No bill
But, while no man comes honestly forward and  was more violently and systematically opposed,
takes truth by the hand, we must look to the  investigated at greater length, or with more abilconsequence.  This House must not lose sight ity; passed the House under the sanction of a
of its rights and those of the community.  The  more respectable and independent majority; or
latter van subsist no longer than the former are  had more the countenance and patronage of the
safe., We now deliberate on the life and blood  country at large.  How, then, did it succeed in
of the Constitution.  Give up this point, and we  the other House?  What was the reception
seal our own quietus, and are accessory to our which, thus circumstanced, it received from their
own insignificance or destruction.               Lordships?   Some degree of decency might
But how is the question, thus unsuccessfully  have been expected fiom one branch of the LegConduct o  put to the friends and abettors of se- islature to another. That respectable independLor e.Tenple cret influence in this, answered, when  ence which ought to be the leading feature in
theHouseof put to the noble principal in the other their decisions is not incompatible with, but esLords.   House? Is he ready and eager to vin- sential to such a mutual deference for the prodicate his own character, and rescue that of his cedure of each, as must be the consequence
Sovereign from so foul a reproach?  No; but of acting constitutionally.  The bill, however,
he replies in that mean, insidious, equivocal, and  though matured and debated by all the abilities
temporizing language, which tends to preserve  of this House, though urged by the most powerthe effect without boldly and manfully abiding  ful of all arguments, necessity, and though recby the consequences of the guilt.  Such was the  ornmended by almost two to one on every divianswer, as mysterious and ill-designed as the  sion it occasioned, will, in all probability, be lost.
delinquency it was intended to conceal; and the    But, sir, I beseech the House to attend to the
man only, who could stoop to the baseness of the  manner in which it is likely to meet Means by
one, was the most likely in the world to screen  such a fate.  Is this to be effected by is to be
himself behind the duplicity of the other. What, the voice of an independent majority? defeated.
then, shall we infer from a system of acting and  Can any man view the Lords of the Bedehamspeaking thus guarded and fallacious, but that her in that respectable light? and the whole
the device was formed to operate on certain  fortune of the measure now  depends on their
minds, as it is rumored to have done; and that determination.  The rumor, so often stated and
such a shallow and barefaced pretext could influ-    ~
ence those only who, without honor or consisten-        In the year 1781 two committees of the House
of Connmmons, one a select and the other a secret
Cy, are endowed with congenial understandings I X
cy, are endowed with congenial understandings!  committee, were appointed to inquire into the af-'Had this alarming and unconstitutional inter- fairs of the East India Company, both at home and
Importance ference happened in matters of no con- abroad. The reports of the select committee were
oftthe billin sequence, orbut of inferior consequence,  twelve, and those of the secret committee six in
question,  the evil would not have appeared of I umber.




1783.]                              SECRET INFLUENCE.                                           477
alluded to, was calculated and intended to an-  have broken that faith, and relinquished their
swer an immediate and important end.  I am   own judgments, in consequence of a rumor that
far from  saying that it ought.  Those in high  such a conduct would be personally resented by
office and of elevated rank should prove them-  the Sovereign.  What bill, in the history of Parselves possessed of high and elevated sentiments;  liament, was ever so traduced, so foully misrepshould join to an exquisite sense of personal hon- resented  and betrayed in its passage. through
or the most perfect probity of heart; should dis- the different branches of the Legislature?  The
cover as much dignity and strength of under-  stroke which must decide the contest can not
standing as may be naturally expected from a  come fiom its real enemies, but its false friends:
superior education, the distinctions of fortune,  and its fate, without example in the annals of
and the example of the great and the wise.  But this House, will be handed down to the remothow does this description agree with their mode  est posterity, not as a trophy of victory, but as a
of managing their proxies?  These they cordi- badge of treachery.
ally give in [to the ministry] before a rumor of     Here, sir, the right honorable gentleman [M1r.
the King's displeasure reaches their ears.  The  Pitt], with his usual liberality, up- Thereal am
moment this intimation is made, on the same  braids me with monopolizing, not only bition of Mr.
day, and within a few hours, matters appear to  all the influence of the Crown, the
them in quite a different light, and the opinion  patronage of India, and the principles of Whigwhich they embrace in the morning is renounced  ism, but the whole of the royal confidence; but
at noon.  I am as ready as any man to allow, all such round, unqualified, and unfounded imwhat is barely probable, that these Lords might putations must be contemptible, because they
receive new convictions: which, like a miracle, are not true; and the bitterest enemy, not lost
operated effectually and at once; and that, not- to every sense of manliness, would scorn to bewithstanding their proxies, from such a sudden  come an accuser on grounds so palpably false.
and extraordinary circumstance, without hear- It is, indeed, as it has always been, my only aming any debate or evidence on the subject, they  bition to act such a part in my public conduct
might feel an immediate and unaccountable im- as shall eventually give the lie to every species
pulse to make their personal appearance, and  of suspicion which those who oppose me seem
vote according to their consciences. Who would  so anxious to create and circulate; and if to
choose to say that all this may not actually have  compass that by every possible exertion from
been the case?  There is certainly, however, a  which no man in the sound exercise of his unvery uncommon coincidence in their Lordship's  derstanding can honestly dissent, be a crime,
peculiar situation, and this unexpected revolution  I plead guilty to the charge.  This I are not
of sentiment; and, were I disposed to treat the  ashamed to avow the predominating passion of
matter seriously, the whole compass of language  my life; and I will cherish it in spite of calumaffords no terms sufficiently strong and pointed  ny, declamation, and intrigue, at the risk of all
to mark the contempt which I feel for their con- I value most in the world.
duct.  It is an impudent avowal of political    But, sir, in this monopoly of influence, the
profligacy; as if that species of treachery were  Lords of the Bedchamber ought, at least, Lords i
less infamous than any other.  It is not merely  for the sake of decency, to have been waiting on
the ~ing.
a degradation of a station which ought to be oc- excepted. These, we all know, are con- t 
cupied only by the highest and most exemplary  stantly at the beck of whoever is minister of the
honor, but forfeits their claim to the characters  day.  How  often have they not been stigmaof gentlemen, and reduces them to a level >ith  tized with the name of the household troops,
the meanest and the basest of the species' it in- who, like the Praetorian bands of ancient Rome,3
suits the noble, the ancient, and the character- are always prepared for the ready execution of
istic independence of the English peerage, and  every secret mandate!  I remember a saying
is calculated to traduce and vilify the British  of an able statesman, whom, though I differed
Legislature in the eyes of all Europe and to the  with him in many things, I have ever acknowllatest posterity.  By what magic nobility can  edged to be possessed of many eminent and usethus charm vice into virtue I know not, nor wish  ful qualities.  The sentence I allude to I have
to know; but in any other thing than politics,  always admired for its boldness and propriety.
and among any other men than Lords of the  It was uttered by the late George Grenville in
Bedchamber, such an instance of the grossest experiencing a similar treachery; and would to
perfidy would, as it well deserves, be branded  God the same independent and manly sentiments
with infamy and execration,                       had been inherited by all who bear the name!
Is there any thing, then, sir, more plain and ob-  "I will never again," said he,' be at the head
otivs for vious, than that this great, this import-                                       ____
thisinterfer- ant, this urgent measure, is become the  Gibbon, speaking of the Pretorian bands, says,.  handle of a desperate faction, whose  "Tley derived their institution from  Augustus.
principal object is power and place?  It is the  That crafty tyrant, sensible that laws might color,
Victim  not of open and fir reasonin           but that arms alone could maintain his usurped dovlctim, not of open and fair reasoning, but  ofr   bod  of
minion, had gradually formed this powerful body of
that influence which shuns the light and shrinks  guards, in constant readiness to protect his person,
from discussion.  Those who pledged their hon- to awe the Senate, and either to prevent or crush
or in its support, from an acknowledged convic- the first motions of rebellion."-Hist. of the Decline
tion of its rectitude, its propriety, and utility,  and Fall, ch. v.




478                                   MR. FOX ON                                        [1783.
of a string of janizaries, who are always ready  as sound a judge of the practice as of the theory
to strangle or dispatch me on the least signal."  of government, he might have added, with still
Where, sir, is that undue, that unconstitution- greater truth, that we shall certainly lose our
Kitdofino  al influence with which the right hon- liberty when the deliberations of Parliament are
encesought orable gentleman upbraids me and  decided, not by the legal and usual, but by the
by M. Fo. those with whom  I act?  Are our illegal and extraordinary exertions of prerogative.
measures supported by any other means than    The right honorable gentleman declares that
ministers have usually employed?  In what, if the King is thus prevented from con- Secret influthen, am I the " champion of influence?"  Of  suiting his peers, who are constitution-,rereog'tive
the influence of sound and substantial policy, of  ally styled the ancient and hereditary ofthle Lords.
open, minute, and laborious discussion, of the  counselors of the Crown, or any other of his submost respectable Whig interest in the kingdom, jects, whenever he is pleased to call for it, he
of an honorable majority in this House, of public  would be a captive on his throne, and the first
confidence and public responsibility, I am proud  slave in his own dominions.  Does he, then, afto avail myself, and happy to think no man can  feet to think or allege that it is the desire of
bar my claim.  But every sort of influence un- ministers to proscribe all social intercourse beknown to the Constitution, as base in itself as tween his Majesty and his subjects?  I will tell
it is treacherous in its consequences, which is the right honorable gentleman thus far his argualways successful because incapable of opposi- ment goes, and that is something worse than
tion, nor ever successful but when exerted in the  puerility and declamation; it is disguising truth
dark, which, like every other monster of factious under such colors as are calculated to render it
breed, never stalks abroad but in the absence of  odious and detestable. v/The Lords are undoubtpublic principle, never assumes any other shape  edly entitled to advise the throne collectively;
than a whisper, and never frequents any more  but this does not surely entitle every noble indipublic place of resort than the back stairs or vidual to take his Majesty aside, and, by a shockcloset at St. James's-all this secret, intriguing, ing farrago of fiction and fear, poison the royal
and underhand influence I am willing and ready  mind with all their own monstrous chimeras!
to forego.  I will not even be the minister of a  Whoever knows the mode of digesting business
great and free people on any condition deroga- in the cabinet must be sensible that the least intory to my honor and independence as a private  terference with any thing pending in Parliament
gentleman.  Let those who have no other oh- must be dangerous to the Constitution.  The
ject than place have it, and hold it by the only  question is not, whether his Majesty shall avail
tenure worthy of their acceptance, secret influ- himself of such advice as no one readily avows,
ence; but without the confidence of this House, but who is answerable for such advice? J Is the
as well as that of the sovereign, however neces- right honorable gentleman aware that the resary to my circumstances, and desirable to my  sponsibility of ministers is the only pledge and sefriends, the dignity and emoluments of office shall curity the people of England possess against the
never be mine.                                 infinite abuses so natural to the exercise of this
The task, therefore, the gentleman has a-: power?  Once remove this great bulwark of the
Mr. Pitt the signed me, of beingthechampion ofin- Constitution, and we are in every respect the
deel  fluence, belongs more properly to him- slaves and property of despotism. And is not this
ence.    self, who has this night stood foward  the necessary consequence of secret influence?
in defense of a practice which can not be in-   How, sir, are ministers situated on this ground?
dulged for a moment but at the imminent risk  Do they not come into power with a Effect ofeof every thing great and valuable which our halter about their necks, by which the cretinfluence
Constitution secures.  With what consistency he  most contemptible wretch in the king-    initer
embarks in a cause so hostile and ominous to  dom may dispatch them at pleasure?  Yes, they
the rights and wishes of Englishmen, those who  hold their several offices, not at the option of the
have known his connections and observed his sovereign, but of the very reptiles who burrow
professions will judge.  Let him  not, then, in  under the throne.  They act the part of pupthe paroxysm of party zeal, put a construction  pets, and are answerable for all the folly, the igon my conduct which it will not bear, or endeav- norance, and the temerity or timidity, of some
or to stamp it with the impression of his own. unknown juggler behind the screen; they are
For that influence which the Constitution has  not once allowed to consult their own, but to pay
wisely assigned to the different branches of the  an implicit homage to the understandings of
Legislature, I ever have contended, and, I trust, those whom to know were to despise. The only
ever shall.  That of the Crown, kept within its rule by which they are destined to extend authorlegal boundaries, is essential to the practice of  ity over free men is a secret mandate which
government; but woe to this country the mo- carries along with it no other alternative than
ment its operations are not as public and noto- obedience-or ruin!  What man, who has the
rious as they are sensible and effective! A great feelings, the honor, the spirit, or the heart of a
writer4 has said that the English Constitution  man, would stoop to such a condition for any
will perish when the legislative becomes more  official dignity or emolument whatever?  Boys,
corrupt than the executive power.  Had he been  without judgment, experience of the sentiments.-.-.. —.  --— - -~ ---              suggestedby.the. knowledge.of the;world, or the
4 Montesquieu.-Esprit des Lois liv.fxi.., h. 6.,   amiable decencies of a- sound mind, may follow




1783.]                             SECRET INFLUENCE.                                       479
the headlong course of ambition thus precipi- Legislature and their different powers invariably
tantly, and vault into the seat while the reins of  point.  Whoever interferes with this primary
government are placed in other hands; but the  and supreme direction must, in the highest deminister who can bear to act such a dishonora- gree, be unconstitutional. Should, therefore, his
ble part, and the country that suffers it, will be  Majesty be disposed to check the progress of the
mutual plagues and curses to each other.        Legislature in accomplishing any measure of
Thus awkwardly circumstanced, the best min- importance, either by giving countenance to an
ister on earth could accomplish nothing, nor on  invidious whisper, or the exertion of his negative,
any occasion, however pressing and momentous, without at the same time consulting the safety
exert the faculties of government with spirit or of his ministers, here would be an instance of
effect. It is not in the human mind to put forth  maladministration, for which, on that supposition,
the least vigor under the impression of uncer- the Constitution has provided no remedy.  And
tainty.  While all my best-meant and best-con- God forbid that ever the Constitution of this
certed plans are still under the control of a vil- country should be found defective in a point so
lainous whisper, and the most valuable conse- material and indispensable to the public welfare!
quences, which I flatter myself must have result-    Sir, it is a public and crying grievance that we
ed from  my honest and indefatigable industry, are not the first who have felt this se- Former opera/are thus defeated by secret influence, it is im- cret influence. It seems to be a habit tion of secret
-i -...                         influence.
possible to continue in office any longer either against which no change of men or
with honor to myself or success to the public. measures can operate with success. It has overThe moment I bring forward a measure ade- turned a more able and popular minister [Lord
quate to the exigency of the state, and stake my  Chatham] than the present, and bribed him with
reputation, or indeed whatever is most dear and  a peerage, for which his best friends never corinteresting in life, on its merit and utility, instead  dially forgave him.  The scenes, the times, the
of enjoying the triumphs of having acted fairly  politics, and the system  of the court may shift
and unequivocally, all my labors, all my vigil- with the party that predominates, but this dark,
ance, all my expectations, so natural to every  mysterious engine is not only formed to control
generous and manly exertion, are not only vilely  every ministry, but to enslave the Constitution.
frittered, but insidiously and at once whispered  To this infernal spirit of intrigue we owe that
away by rumors, which, whether founded or not, incessant fluctuation in his Majesty's councils by
are capable of doing irreparable mischief, and  which the spirit of government is so much rehave their full effect before it is possible to con- laxed, and all its minutest objects so fatally detradict or disprove them.                       ranged.  During the strange and ridiculous inSo much has been said about the captivity of  terregnum of last year,6 I had not a doubt in my
rhe King's  the throne, if his Majesty acts only in  own mind with whom it originated; and I looked
acting with his
aminiters   concert with his ministers, that one  to an honorable gentleman [Mr. Jenkinson] oppoolsiygrold of would imagine the spirit and soul of  site to me, the moment the grounds of objection
their being re-          tho
sponsible.   the British Constitution were yet un- to the East India Bill were stated.  The same
known in this House.  It is wisely established  illiberal and plodding cabal which then invested
as a fundamental maxim, that "the King can do  the throne, and darkened the royal mind with igno wrong;" that whatever blunders or even  norance and misconception, has once more been
crimes may be chargeable on the executive pow- employed to act the same part.  But how will
er, the Crown is still faultless. But how?  Not the genius of Englishmen brook the insult?  Is
by suffering tyranny and oppression in a free  this enlightened and free country, which has so
government to pass with impunity; certainly  often and successfully struggled against every
not; but the minister who advises or executes species of undue influence, to revert to those
an unconstitutional measure does it at his peril;  Gothic ages when princes were tyrants, ministers
and he ought to know that Englishmen are not minions, and governments intriguing?  Much
only jealous of their rights, but legally possessed.and gloriously did this House fight and overcome
of powers competent, on every such emergency, the influence of the Crown by purging itself of
to redress their wrongs.  What is the distinc- ministerial dependents; but what was the contion between an absolute and a limited monarchy  tractors' bill, the Board of Trade, or a vote of
but this, that the sovereign in the one is a des- the revenue officers, compared to a power equal
pot, and may do what he pleases; but in the  to one third of the Legislature, unanswerable
other is himself subjected to the laws, and con- for and unlimited in its acting?7  Against those
sequently not at liberty to advise with any one  we had always to contend; but we knew their
on public affairs not responsible for that advice; strength, we saw their disposition; they fought
and the Constitution has clearly directed his under no covert, they were a powerful, not a
negative to operate under the same wise restric- sudden enemy.  To compromise the matter
tions. These prerogatives are by no means vest- therefore, sir, it would become this House to say,
ed in the Crown to be exerted in a wanton and
d  in te Cro   t b er    in a w     6 Between the resignation of Lord Shelburne and
arbitrary manner. The good of the whole is the      appointment of    successors.
the appointment of his successors.
exclusive object to which all the branches of the    7 This refers to a bill excluding certain placemen
from Parliament, and others from voting at elections.
Mr. Pitt was at this time but twenty-four years  on the ground of their holding offices or contracts unold.                                            der the government.




480                                      MR. FOX  ON                                     [1783.
" Rather than yield to'a stretch of prerogative  orable gentleman, I doubt not, will soon teach
thus unprecedented and alarming, withdraw your him experience and caution; and when once he
secret influence, and whatever intrenchments has known them  as long, received as many of
have been made on the Crown we are ready to  their promises, and seen their principles as much
repair: take back those numerous and tried de- tried as I have done, he may not, perhaps, be
pendents who so often secured you a majority in  quite so prodigal of his credulity as he now is.
Parliament; we submit to all the mischief which  Is he apprised of the lengths these men would
even this accession of strength is likely to pro- go to serve their own selfish and private views?
duce; but, for God's sake, strangle us not in the  that their public spirit is all profession and hypocvery moment we look for success and triumph by  risy? and that the only tie which unites and keeps
an infamous string of Bed-chamber janizaries!"  them together is that they are known only to each
The right honorable gentleman has told us, other, and that the moment of their discord puts
eply to rr. with his usual consequence and tri- a period to their strength and consequence?
Pittasto re- umph, that our duty, circumstanced as    If, however, a change must take place, and a
we are, can be attended with no diffi- new ministry is to be formed and sup- consequences
culty whatever: the moment the Sovereign with- ported, not by the confidence of this ministry  on
draws his confidence it becomes us to retire.  I House, or of the public, but by the such grounds.
will answer him in my turn, that the whole sys- sole authority of the Crown, I, for one, shall not
tern in this dishonorable business may easily be  envy that right honorable gentleman his situation.
traced.  Aware of that glorious and independent From that moment I put in my claim for a momajority which added so much dignity and sup- nopoly of Whig principles.  The glorious cause
port to the measure which appears thus formida- of freedom, of independence, and of the Constituble to secret influence, they find all their eflbrts  tion, is no longer his, but mine.  In this I have
to oppose it here abortive; the private cabal is lived; in this I will die.  It has borne me up unconsequently convened, and an invasion of the  der every aspersion to which my character has
throne, as most susceptible of their operations, been subjected.  The resentments of the mean
proposed.  It was natural to expect that I, for and the aversions of the great, the rancor of the
one, would not be backward to spurn at such an  vindictive and the subtlety of the base, the dereinterference.  This circumstance affords all the  liction of friends and the efforts of enemies,
advantage they wished.  I could not be easy in  have not all diverted me from that line of conmy situation under the discovery of such an in- duct which has always struck me as the best.
suit; and this critical moment is eagerly em- In the ardor of debate, I may have been, like all
braced to goad me from office, to upbraid me ither men, betrayed into expressions capable of
with the meanness of not taking the hint, to re- misrepresentation; but the open and broad path
mind me in public of the fate which I owe to se- of the Constitution has uniformly been mine.  I
cret advice.  When that hour comes-and it never was the tool of any junto.  I accepted of
may not be very distant-that shall dismiss me  office at the obvious inclination of this House; I
from the service of the public, the right honora- shall not hold it a moment after the least hint
ble gentleman's example of lingering in office  from them to resume a private station.
after the voice of the nation was that he should    The right honorable gentleman is, however,
quit it, shall not be mine.8  I did not come in by  grasping at place on very different Mr. Pitt's situthe fiat of Majesty, though by this fiat I am not grounds.  He is not called to it by in oinist..eon
unwilling to go out.  I ever stood, and wish now  a majority of this House; but, in de- such grounds.
and always to stand on public ground alone.  I fiance of that majority, stands forth the advocate
have too much pride ever to owe any thing to  and candidate for secret influence.  How will he
secret influence.  tI trust in God this country has reconcile a conduct thus preposterous to the Contoo much spirit not to spurn and punish the min- stitution with those principles for which he has
ister that does!                               pledged himself to the people of England?  By
It is impossible to overlook or not to be suP- what motives can he be thus blind to a system
Ir. Pitt's en. prised at the extreme eagerness of the  which so flatly and explicitly gives the lie to all
gerness on the right honorable gentleman about our his former professions?  Will secret influence
tiect. " places, when twenty-four hours, at conciliate that confidence to which his talents,
most, would give him full satisfaction.  Is it that connections, and principles entitle him, but which
some new information may be requisite to finish  the aspect under which he must now  appear
a system thus honorably begun?  Or is the right to an indignant and insulted public effectually
honorable gentleman's youth the only account bars his claim?  Will secret influence unite this
which can be given of that strange precipitancy  House in the adoption of measures which are not
and anxiety which he betrays on this occasion?  his own, and to which he only gives the saneIt is, in my opinion, the best apology which can  tion of his name to save them from contempt?
be urged in his behalf.  Generosity and unsus-  Will secret influence draw along with it that afpecting confidence are the usual disposition of  fection and cordiality from  all ranks without
this tender period.  The friends of the right hon- which the movements of government must be
absolutely at a stand? Or, is he weak and vioThis refers to Mr. Pitt's continuing for a time  lent enough to imagine that his Majesty's mere
in office the year before, when Lord Shelburne, to  nomination will singly weigh against the constiwhose ministry he belonged, was defeated.       tutional influence of all these considerations?




1784.]                       THE WESTMINSTER SCRUTINY.                                          481
For my own part, it has been always my opinion    When I say in what manner and to what ends
that this country can labor under no greater mis- the wisdom and experience of our an- Respect due
fortune than a ministry without strength and sta- cestors have thus directed the exercise to the Ki'g.
bility.  The tone of government will never re- of all the royal prerogatives, let me not be uncover so as to establish either domestic harmony  derstood as meaning in any degree to detract
or foreign respect, without a permanent admin- from those dutiful regards which all of us owe,
istration; and whoever knows any thing of the  as good citizens and loyal subjects, to the prince
Constitution, and the present state of parties  who, at present fills the British throne.  No man
among us, must be sensible that this great bless- venerates him  more than I do, for his personal
ing is only and substantially to be obtained and  and domestic virtues.  I love him  as I love the
realized in connection with public confidence. It Constitution, for the glorious and successful efis undoubtedly the prerogative of the Sovereign  forts of his illustrious ancestors in giving it form
to choose his own servants; but the Constitution  and permanency.  The patriotism of these great
provides that these servants shall not be obnox- and good men must endear, to every lover of his
ious to his subjects by rendering all their exer- country, their latest posterity.  The King of Entions, thus circumstanced, abortive and imprac-  gland can never lose the esteem  of his people,
ticable.  The right honorable gentleman had, while they remember with gratitude the many
therefore, better consider how much he risks by  obligations which they owe to his illustrious famjoining an arrangement thus hostile to the inter- ily. Nor can I wish him a greater blessing than
ests of the people; that they will never consent that he may reign in the hearts of his subjects,
to be governed by secret influence; and that all and that their confidence in his government may
the weight of his private character, all his elo- be as hearty and sincere as their affection for his
quence and popularity, will never render the mid- person.
night and despotic mandates of an interior cabinet acceptable to Englishmen.                        The motion was carried by a majority of 73.
SPEECH
OF MR. FOX ON THE WESTMINSTER SCRUTINY, DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS,.
JUNE 8, 1784.
INTRODUCTION.
THE leading facts respecting the Middlesex election of 1784 have already been given in the sketch of
Mr. Fox's life. His contest with Sir Cecil Wray lasted forty days, and when the polls were closed there
was a majority for Mr. Fox of two hundred and thirty-five votes.
Great care had been taken throughout the contest to prevent false voting. At the suggestion of Lord
Mahon, acting for Sir Cecil Wray, it was agreed, before opening the polls, that eleven inspectors and five
friends should be constantly present on each side; and that whenever a person was challenged, his case
should be reserved, and no vote allowed him until his claims were thoroughly investigated. A large part
of Mr. Fox's votes were subjected to this test, and toward the close of the polls hardly one was received
" without an appeal to the presiding officer, and a decision that such vote was good."l Some of these decisions may have been hasty, but after such an arrangement Sir Cecil Wray ought to have acquiesced:
to dispute the vote was unfair and uncandid in the extreme. But he did dispute it. Before the result was
declared, he delivered to the presiding officer, Thomas Corbett, High Bailiff of Westminster, a list of bad
votes which had been polled, as he affirmed, by Mr. Fox, and demanded a scrutiny, or re-examination of
the entire poll. This was granted by Mr. Corbett on the 17th of May, 1784, when, by the writ under which
he acted, he was bound to return two members for Westminster on the 18th, being the next day! Twoquestions, therefore, arose; first, whether a scrutiny into an election so conducted could be fairly and properly demanded; and, secondly, whether the presiding officer had a legal right to grant a scrutiny which ran
beyond the time prescribed in his writ.
Parliament met May 18th, 1784, and Mr. Fox, who had been returned by a friend as member for Kirkwall, in the Orkneys, took his seat for that borough. Within a few days, the subject was brought before
the House. Mr. Corbett appeared at the bar, and read a long paper in defense of his conduct. Witnesses:
were examined, counsel were heard on both sides, and the subject was discussed in the House, fiomn tinme
to time, under various aspects.
On the 8th of June, Mr. Wellbore Ellis offered the following resolution: "That it appearing to the House'
that Thomas Gorbett, Esquire, bailiff of the Liberty of the City of Westminster, having received a precept
from the Sheriff of Middlesex for electing two citizens to serve in Parliament for the said city; and having taken and finally closed the poll on the 17th day of May last, being the day next before the day for the
return of the said writ, he be now directed forthwith to make return of his precept, and the names of members chosen in pursuance thereof."  During the debate which followed Mr. Fox delivered the following
speech, in which,
Parliamentary History, xxiv., 844.
H nI




482                                       MR. FOX  ON                                        [1784.
I. He examines the evidence by which Mr. Corbett had endeavored to justify his granting the scrutiny.
II. He discusses the question of law in respect to such a measure.
III. He enters into remarks of a more general nature respecting the authors of this scrutiny, the expense
it involved, the alternative suggested of issuing a writ for a new election; and repels the intimation of Mr.
Pitt, that he " ought not again to disturb the peace of the city of Westminster!"
A circumstance occurred at the commencement of the speech which turned greatly to the advantage of
Mr. Fox. He began by complaining of a want of courtesy in the mode of carrying on the debate, and added,'But I have no reason to expect indulgence, nor do I know that I shall meet with bare justice in this
House."  Murmurs of disapprobation broke forth from a large part of the House, in which the minister had
an overwhelming majority. Mr. Fox was at once roused to the utmost. His ordinary embarrassment and
hesitation in commencing a speech instantly passed away. He repeated the words; he challenged his
opponents to make a motion for taking them down with a view to his being censured; he referred to Mr.
Grenville's bill in proof that the House was considered as peculiarly liable to act unjustly in such cases;
he turned upon Lord Mulgrave, Lord Mahon, and Lord Kenyon, who had just spoken, commenting in the
severest terms on the treatment they had shown him, and affirming that he might reasonably object to them
as judges to decide in his cause; and repeated, for the fourth time, " Ihave no reason to expect indulgence,
nor do I know that I shall meet with bare justice in this House." Never was a great assembly more completely subdued. From that moment, he was heard with the utmost respect and attention. He had remarked, in going to the Hotse, that this would be one of the best speeches he ever made. It proved so;
and if the subject had been equal to his manner of treating it, embracing great national interests, instead
of the details of a contested election, roused to the utmost as he was, he would probably have made it the
greatest speech he ever delivered.
SPEECH, &e.
MR. SPEAKEaR,-Before I enter upon the con- sprung from it, the dispositions which have been
sideration of this question, I can not help express- manifested in particular classes of men, all coning my surprise, that those who sit over against cur to justify the terms I have adopted, and to
me [the ministry] should have been hitherto si- establish the truth of what I have asserted.
lent in this debate.  Common candor might have    If the declaration I have made had happened
taught them  to urge whatever objections they  not to have been supported by the occurrences I
have to urge against the motion of my honora- allude to, the very consideration of Mr. Grenble friend [Mr. Ellis] before this time; because, ville's bill is of itself sufficient to vindicate what
in that case, I should have had an opportunity of I have said.  That bill, sir, originated in a be-replying to their arguments; and sure it would  lief that this House, in the aggregate, was an
-have been fair to allow me the slight favor of  unfit tribunal to decide upon contested elections.
-being the last speaker upon such a subject.  But, It viewed this House, as every popular assemn-sir, I have no reason to expect indulgence, nor bly should be viewed, as a mass of men capable,do I know that I shall meet with bare justice in  of political dislike and personal aversion; capathis House.2  Sir, I say that I have no reason to  ble of too much attachment and too much aniexpect indulgence, nor do I know that I shall mosity; capable of being biased by weak and
meet with bare justice in this House.3            by wicked motives; liable to be governed by
Mr. Speaker, there is a regular mode of check- ministerial influence, by caprice, and by corrupting any member of this House for using improp- tion.  Mr. Grenville's bill viewed this House as
er words in a debate; and that is, to move to  endued with these capacities; and judging it
have the improper words taken down by the  therefore incapable of determining upon controClerk, for the purpose of censuring the person  verted elections with impartiality, with justice,
who has spoke them.  If I have said any thing  and with equity, it deprived it of the means of
unfit for this House to hear, or me to utter-if  mischief, and formed a judicature as complete.any gentleman is offended by any thing that fell and ample perhaps as human skill can constifrom me, and has sense enough to point out and  tute.4  That I am debarred the benefits of that
spirit to correct that offense, he will adopt that celebrated bill is clear beyond all doubt, and
parliamentary and gentleman-like mode of con- thrown entirely upon the mercy, or, if you please,
duct; and that he may have an opportunity of upon the wisdom  of this House.  Unless, then,.doing so, I again repeat, that I have io reason  we are to suppose that human nature is totally
to expect INDULGENCE,  nor do I know that I shall altered within a few months-unless we can be.meet with BARE JUSTICE ins this House.           so grossly credulous as to imagine that the presSir, I am warranted in the use of these words,
by events and authorities that leave little to be     M Mr. Grenville's bill enacted that the persons to,doubted and little to be questioned.  The treat- try disputed elections shall be drawn out of a glass
ment this business has received within these  to the number of forty-nine; that the parties in the
walls, the extraordinary proceedings which have            shall strike from these names alternately
"~~' " ________   ____ ^_ _     without assigning any reason until they reduce the
2 Expressions of disapprobation from the ministe- number to thirteen; that these thirteen shall be gov-.ial side of the House.                           erned by positive law, and sworn upon oath to ad3 Expressions of disapprobation repeated.       minister strict justice.




1784.]                     THE WESTMINSTER SCRUTINY.                                       483
ent is purged of all the frailties of former Parlia- very respectable and learned profession, has
ments-unless I am to surrender my understand-  raised himself to considerable eminence; a pering, and blind myself to the extraordinary con- son who fills one of the first seats of justice in
duct of this House, in this extraordinary business, this kingdom, and who has long discharged the
for the last fortnight-I may say, and say with  functions of a judge in an inferior but very hontruth, " that I expect no indulgence, nor do I know  orable situation. This person, sir, has upon this
that I shall meet with bare justice in the House."  day professed and paraded much upon the inmThere are in this House, sir, many persons to  partiality with which he should discharge his
whom I might, upon every principle of equity, conscience in his judicial capacity as a member
fairness, and reason, object as judges to decide  of Parliament in my cause.  Yet this very perupon my cause, not merely from their acknowl- son, insensible to the rank he maintains, or should
edged enmity to me, to my friends, and to my  maintain in this country, abandoning the gravity
politics, but from their particular conduct upon  of his character as a member of the Senate, and
this particular occasion. To a noble Lord [Lord  losing sight of the sanctity of his station, both in
Mulgrave] who spoke early in this debate, I this House and out of it,6 even in the very act of
might rightly object as a judge to try me, who, delivering a judicial sentence, descends to minute
from the fullness of his prejudice to me and pred- and mean allusions to former politics-comes
ilection for my opponents, asserts things in di- here stored with the intrigues of past times, and
rect defiance of the evidence which has been  instead of the venerable language of a good judge
given at your bar.  The noble Lord repeats  and a great lawyer, attempts to entertain the
again that " tricks' were used at my side in the  House by quoting, or by misquoting, words supelection, although he very properly omits the  posed to have been spoken by me in the heat of
epithet which preceded that term when he used  former debates, and in the violence of contending
it in a former debate.  But does it appear in  parties, when my noble friend [Lord North] and
evidence that any tricks were practiced on my  I opposed each other.  This demure gentleman,
part?  Not a word.  Against him, therefore, sir, this great lawyer, this judge of law, and equiwho, in the teeth of the depositions on your ta- ty, and constitution, also enlightens this subject,
ble, is prompted by his enmity toward me to  instructs and delights his hearers, by reviving
maintain what the evidence (the ground this this necessary intelligence, that when I had the
House is supposed to go upon) absolutely de- honor of first sitting in this House for Midhurst. I
nies, I might object with infinite propriety as a  was not full twenty-one years of age! And all
judge in this cause.                           this he does for the honorable purpose of sanctiThere is another judge, sir, to whom I might fying the High Bailiff of Westminster in defraudobject with greater reason if possible than to  ing the electors of their representation in this
the last.  A person evidently interested in in- House, and robbing me of the honor of asserting
creasing the numbers of my adversaries upon  and confirming their right by sitting as their
the poll, but who has relinquished his right as representative! Against him, therefore, sir, and
an elector of Westminster, that his voting may  against men like him, I might justly object as a
not disqualify him from being a judge upon the  judge or as judges to try my cause; and it is
committee to decide this contest.  A person too, with perfect truth I once more repeat; " that I
sir, who in the late election scrupled not to act have no reason to expect indulgence, nor do Ilknow
as an agent, an avowed, and indeed an active  that I shall meet with bare justice in this House."
agent, to my opponents.5  Is there any interrup-    Sir, I understand that the learned gentleman
tion, sir?  I hope not. I am but stating a known  I have just alluded to (I was not in the House
fact, that a person who is to pronounce a judg- during the first part of his speech) has insinuament this night in this cause, avoided to exercise  ted that I have no right to be present during this
one of the most valuable franchises of a British  discussion, and that hearing me is an indulgence.
citizen, only that he might be a nominee for my  Against the principle of that assertion, sir, and
adversaries; concluding that his industry upon  against every syllable of it, I beg leave, in the
the committee would be of more advantage to  most express terms, directly to protest. I maintheir cause than a solitary vote at the election. tain, that I not only have a right to speak, but
This, sir, I conceive would be a sufficient objec- a positive and clear right to vote upon this oction to him as a judge to try me.               casion; and I assure the House that nothing but
A third person there is [Mr., afterward Lord  the declaration I have made in the first stage of
Kenyon] whom I might in reason challenge up- this business should prevent me from doing so.
on this occasion.  A person of a sober demean- As to myself, if I were the only person to be
or, who, with great diligence and exertion in a  aggrieved by this proceeding, if the mischief of
it extended not beyond me, I should rest thor5Here Lord Mahon started up in much agitation, oughly and completely satisfied with the great
and exposed himself to the House as the person  and brilliant display of knowledge and abilities
alluded to. He appeared inclined to call Mr. Fox    h have been exhibited by the learned gento order, but his friends prevented him. His Lordship, as already stated, was an avowed and active  tlemen [Mr. Erskine and others], who appeared
agent of Sir Cecil Wray during the election, and
had been placed by his nomination on the joint com-  We have, in this enumeration of qualities, one
mittee selected by the two parties to conduct the  of those side-blows so common with Mr. Fox, as he
scrutiny.                                      is pressing forward to his main point.




484                                    MR. FOX  ON                                       [1784.
for me and for my constituents at your bar. If  gence or ability would be but a slight recomI alone was interested in the decision of this mat- pense for their zeal, constancy, firm attachment,
ter, their exertions, combined with the acute and  and unshaken friendship to me upon all occaingenious treatment this question has received  sions, and under all circumstances.
from many gentlemen on this side of the House,    There are two leading points of view in which
whose arguments are, as learned as they are, this question should be considered.  The first is,
evidently unanswerable, would have contented  whether the High Bailiff of Westminster has had
me..Buta dense of duty superior to all personal sufficient evidence to warrant his granting a
advantage calls on me to exert myself at this  scrutiny, supposing that he possessed a legal distime..'.  Whatever can best encourage and ani- cretion to grant it.  The second, whether any
mate to diligence and to energy; whatever is returning officer can by law grant a scrutiny.
most powerful and influencing upon a mind not even upon the completest evidence of its necescallous to every sentiment of gratitude and hon- sity, which scrutiny can not commence till after
or, demand at this moment the exercise of ev- the day on which the writ is returnable.
ery function and faculty that I am master of.   It is of little consequence in which order the
This, sir, is not my cause alone; it is the cause  question is taken up.  I shall    Examnination of
of the English Constitution; the cause of the    I. First proceed upon the evice.  e edence. ne..electors of this kingdom; and it is in particular    (1.) The great defense of the High Bailiff is
the especial cause of the most independent, the  built upon the circumstance of Sir Cecil Wray
most spirited, the most kind, and generous body  and his agents having furnished him with reguof men that ever concurred upon a subject of  lar lists of bad votes on my part; and to prove
public policy.  It is the cause of the Electors  that these lists were delivered they have brought
of Westminster; the cause of those who, upon  a witness who knows not a syllable of the truth
many trials, have supported me against hosts of  of the contents of the list!  The witness who
enemies; of those who upon a recent occasion, drew the affidavit which affirms those bad votes
when every art of malice, of calumny, and cor- to have polled for me, upon cross-examination
ruption; every engine of an illiberal and shame- appears equally ignorant of the truth of the affiless system of government; when the.most gross davits; and therefore the burden of the proof
and monstrous fallacy [as to the East India Bill] rested upon the evidence of Affleck, whose testthat ever duped and deceived a credulous coun- imony, nevertheless, after four hours examinatry have been propagated and worked with all tion, is expunged from your books as inadmissiimaginable subtlety and diligence, for the pur- ble.  Expunged, however, though it is, I wish
pose of rendering me unpopular throughout the  the House to recollect the answers he gave conempire, have, with a steadiness, with a sagacity, cerning the descriptions of the bad voters which
with a judgment becoming men of sense and  are imputed to me, and to the stated number of
spirit, defeated all the miserable malice of my  them.  The number is said to be one hundred
enemies; vindicated themselves from the charge  and forty-three; and the House will recollect
of caprice, and changeableness, and fluctuation; that, although I repeatedly pressed the witness
and, with a generosity that binds me to them by  to name some of them, he could not even name
every tie of affection; supported me through the  one.  I questioned Affileck particularly whether
late contest, and accomplished a victory against the one hundred and forty-three were persons
all the arts and powerof the basest system of iwho did not exist where they pretended to reoppression that ever destined the overthrow of  side; his answer was that some did reside in the
any, individual.'r                              streets as mentioned in the poll-books, and that
If, by speaking in this House (where many  others could not be found at all.  Those who
perhaps may think I speak too much), I have ac- could not be found at all (if any such there were)
quired any reputation; if I have any talents, and  might fairly be deemed bad votes, but the other
that attention to public business has matured or class of voters involved a question of law; and
improved those talents into any capability of sol- I submit to the House whether, if the evidence
id service, the present subject and the present of this man, instead of being rejected as incommoment, beyond any other period of my life, petent, had actually been admitted, the whole
challenge and call them  into action.8  When  tenor of it, instead of exculpating, would not in
added to the importance of this question upon  the strongest sense tend to criminate the High
the English Constitution, combined with the im- Bailiff. Had he known his duty, or been disposed
mediate interest I feel personally in the fate of  to discharge it, this he would have said to such
it, I am impelled by the nobler and more forci- a reporter. " You may be, and most likely are,
ble incitement of being engaged in the cause of  interested in deceiving me.  After much arguthose to whom the devotion of all I have of dili- ment and discussion I, as the sole judge in this
court, have admitted these to be legal votes,
7 This fine burst of eloquence is highly character- which you (of whom   know nothin) afirm to
istic of the speaker; not lofty or imaginative, but be only lodgers or nonresidents.  My situation
simple, terse, bold, and springing from those gener- i                a    
ZDS Sentis too solemn to be affected by such information.
ous sentiments which were the master-spirit of Mr.
Fox's oratory.
Fox's oratory.                                  and therefore I dismiss it as unfit for me to pro8 The reader of Cicero will at once trace the open- ceed upon."'
ing of this sentence to'the exordium of the oration    This should have been the High Bailiff's confor the poet Archias.                           duct, but his conduct is the exact reverse of it.




1784.]                       THE WESTMINSTER  SCRUTINY.                                     485
He receives this species of information, and from  at your bar, as the rule that governed him in this
this sort of men; and not only so, but accepts  business, is exactly and directly the very reverse
affidavits imputing bribery to some persons who  of the principle he pretended to act upon at the
canvassed for ipe, acknowledging at the same  time of granting the scrutiny. Fortunately, howmoment that he had no cognizance of bribery; ever, this fact is established in clear and unquesand never once inquires into the truth of the  tioned evidence before you. Mr. O'Bryen's testcharge, nor whether any credit is due to the de- imony is complete and decisive to that. point. His
poser, nor even who the deposer is. All this the  words were, " that the High Bailiff in the vestry,
High Bailiff does in concert with my adversaries, upon granting the scrutiny, disclaimed the informsecretly, collusively, without even once giving  ations delivered to him by Sir Cecil Wray and
me or any one of my agents the very slightest his agents-that he replied with peevishness and
idea that any such intercourse had subsisted be- some displeasure to Sir Cecil for having mentween him [the judge of the court] and one of  tioned them-that he declared he believed he had
the parties litigating that upon which he was to  never read them; certainly never with any atexercise his judicial function.                 tention-that he threw them aside unnoticedTo have received such information with the  that they had not the least operation upon his
least attention was in itself criminal enough; but  judgment; and that they did not, in th* very
studiously, cautiously, and deliberately to have  slightest sense, influence his determination in
concealed it from me was base and wicked in the  granting the scrutiny."  These were his words.
extreme.  Had I been apprised of these mach- Atkinson, upon cross-examination, was obliged
inations, I might have established the falsehood  to acknowledge this; and Grojan's want of memof every accusation; and surely, if justice had  ory upon it goes of itself a great way to establish
been the object of the High Bailiff, he would not the truth, if it required farther corroboration.
rest one moment until he communicated to me    Now, let the House and the world judge of this
the burden of these informations and affidavits, High Bailiff, who, upon granting the scrutiny, afespecially if he meant to overturn the whole tide  fects to be insulted at the supposition of his actof precedents, and to innovate upon the practice  ing upon this ex parte information, and yet rests
of all the returning officers that ever lived in this  all his defense at the bar of this House upon that
kingdom, in granting a scrutiny to commence  very ex parte information which, but a fortnight
after the return of the writ.  If truth was his before, he disclaimed and despised!!
aim, the obvious mode of ascertaining it was to    Without adverting to his shameful and scanhave given the other party an opportunity of  dalous conduct (which, if he had one spark of
knowing the charges brought against them; to  feeling, would make him blush to show his face,
let them have the chance of contradicting their much less to avow the act) in holding this fraudaccusers; and if we failed in falsifying these in- ulent intercourse with my enemies, cautiously
formations, the High Bailiff would have had this concealing that any such intercourse subsisted
presumption in his favor, that it was only be- between them, treacherously betraying the cause
cause we could not.  But, sir, not this nor any  of justice, which his situation bound him to supthing like it did the High Bailiff of Westminster. port inviolate, and basely lending himself to one
So far from  acting like an impartial judge, he  party for the ruin of the other; can any thing
appears to have been the agent, or rather the  better show his iniquity than varying the grounds
mere tool of my opponents; and every syllable  of his defense according to the variation of scene,
of these informations upon which he acted might and the pressure of exigency.  This continual
have been, for aught he knew, the vilest mass  shifting demonstrates that he has no honest deof falsehood and perjury that ever thwarted the  fense to make; put the most favorable construccourse of justice.  I say then, sir, if the High  tion possible upon his conduct, and the best of
Bailiff absolutely possessed a legal discretion in  the alternatives marks him  a hypocrite, at the
granting a scrutiny, to have granted it upon this least.  If he has spoken truth in the vestry, he
sort of evidence, and under these circumstances, is an arrant liar before this House; or if he vinwas, to say no worse of it, an act that can not dicates himself before you upon pure principles,
be justified upon any obvious principle of law, he has grossly and wickedly deceived me and all
reason, common sense, or common equity.         who heard the contempt he expressed in the vest(2.) But what will the candid part of the House  ry for that information upon which he has expathink of this High Bailiff when they consider that tiated at the bar of this House with such extrathe grounds of his vindication at your bar differ ordinary reverence.9
as much as light and darkness, from his vindica-    So much for the consistency of the High Bailiff,
tion in the vestry of Covent Garden, upon grant- respecting his alleged motives in granting a scruing the scrutiny?  And here, sir, I have to la- tiny.
ment that the paper which he read to this House    (3.) It is said upon the other side of the House
as his defense, which the gentlemen opposite to  that the poll was not a scrutiny, and said, in exme [the ministry], for reasons as honorable, per-     This is oneof those repetitions, so often spoken
haps, to themselves as to the High Bailiff, so       
hapsto them' selves  as to the High Bailiff, s  of as a peculiarity of Mr. Fox. He manages it adstrenuously opposed being laid on the table, is mirably in this case; varying the mode of statement,
now impossible to be produced. That paper, sir, and crushing into one mass the preceding charges of
would have enabled me, from his own words, to  fraudulent collusion and gross inconsistency on the
have proved to you that the principle he avowed  part of Mr. Corbett.




486                                     MR. FOX  ON                                      [1784.
press contradiction to the evidence produced at    (4.) With a view to exculpate this High Bailiff,
your bar.  Never was a poll a scrutiny, unless his deputy, Mr. Grojan, related an incident which
the poll in question was such.  It is established  I shall notice; and the exultation of the opposite
by respectable testimony at your bar that the  side of the House, at the time of that relation, renpoll was an absolute scrutiny.'l  It is proved that ders that notice the more necessary. It was this:
the parish books were constantly at the hust- He asked a man which way the street lay in
ings, and each voter's name, profession, and de- which he lived, and the man said it was that tvay,
scription collated with the books.  It is proved  pointing his hand toward Drury Lane.  "I inmthat when the names of voters could not be mediately suspected him, and afterward rejected
found in the parish books (which was often the  him," says Mr. Grojan. Now, sir, this story hapcase, and yet the votes perfectly legal) a gentle- pens to be strictly true; and true to the confusion
man in the interest of each side frequently went of those who relate it for the vindication of the
to the very street in which the voter said he  High Bailiff.  Were my election to depend upon
lived; that the vote was suspended until that in- the merits of a single vote, I do not know that I
quiry was made; and that the decision was al- should prefer any other inhabitant of this great
ways governed by the report of the inquirers in  city before that very masn then rejected by Mr.
such case.  Was this or was it not a scrutiny?  Grojan; for in all Westminster there is not a
But it is said that the poll was "crammed" at better qualified, a more undoubted legal voter
one time, and hence an inference is drawn that than that identical person. And what is the fact,
the poll was not a scrutiny.  This is strange sir?  That this honest, ignorant man came topoll
reasoning, surely.  To support this inference, it with liquor in his head; and embarrassed by the
should be proved that votes were excepted to, scene, by the shouting, and by the manner, perand yet admitted in the hurry without examina- haps, of the question, made that absurd reply.
tion or inquiry. Does this appear to be the case?  These events, sir, were not unfrequent at that
Nothing like it.  With all Mr. Grojan's disposi- husting s; and when one considers the facility of
tion to shelter the High Bailiff, with all his power puzzling such men in all places, when one conof memory at one time, and his want of it at an- siders that Mr. Grojan is not of all men living
other, does he assert any such thing?  No, sir; the most embarrassed in the exercise of his duty,
he could not with truth, and even he could not nor exactly the most anxious for the comments of
venture upon this without truth.  Did you ever by-standers upon his conduct, there is little wonhear, or did such a thing ever happen, as that a  der that honest, uninformed men, surrounded by
returning officer of his own accord should reject thousands, with half a dozen inspectors plaguing
any votes not excepted to by the contending par- them with different questions at the same moties?  Certainly not.  These votes, therefore, ment, in the midst of noise and huzzaing, in that
in whose legality the candidates themselves  state of hilarity, perhaps, which is too frequent
agreed, must be justly presumed by the High  at general elections, should sometimes give a
Bailiff to be unexceptionable; and from hence to  foolish, unconnected answer to such interrogatosuppose that the poll was no scrutiny, is weak in  ries as generally come from Mr. Grojan.
the extreme.  In the early part of the election,    (5.) I understand that a learned gentleman has
it was the natural wish of each candidate to get said that he would have closed the poll long beupon the head of the poll.  Each brought up as fore the High Bailiff proclaimed his intention of
many friends as possible, and this accounts for doing so.  I do not mean to argue the legality
what they call cramming the poll.  Respecting  of that position with the learned gentleman.
the High Bailiffs difficulty in forming an opinion  That the fact was exactly otherwise is all that
as to which of the two had the greater number is necessary for me to maintain.  It is in eviof legal votes, had I been the lowest upon the  dence before you that he did not close it until
poll at the close of the election, there might have  the 17th of May; and that he then closed it not
been some little color for his affectation of scru- from  deficiency of voters, but for the express
ples.  Why? because upon the days when the  purpose of enabling himself to make his return
poll was most crammed, when the greatest num- by the 18th, the day on which the writ was rebers polled, and when there was least inquiry and  turnable.  The first and the only notice I had of
least examination into their legality, Sir Cecil his intention to close the poll was on the ThursWray had a very great majority over me.  I be- day preceding (May 13th); and I do confess, and
gan to gain upon my adversary, not when thou- have always declared, that my object was to consands polled of a day, but when only few hund- tinue the poll during the three intermediate days,
reds and less than a hundred polled each day-   that the High Bailiff may be obliged to assign
at a time when there was sufficient leisure to  this as his reason, since the act of closing the
scrutinize the votes, and when the most acute, poll was his own act. In this I hold myself perthe most jealous and sharp inquiry took place as fectlyjustifiable.  During these three days I conto the qualification of each voter that was per- fess it was my wish to protract the poll, but I
haps ever practiced in any court of hustings.    solemnly deny that it was ever prolonged by me'0 Mr. Fox does not mean that there was a scru-    single hour more; and also deny that up to
tiny, in the technical sense of the term; but that the  the 13th of May, I had any proposal or any offer
election was so conducted, under the arrangement that I could notice for closing it.
mentioned above, as to give it all the substantial at-   (6.) Attempts have been made to prove, and
tributes of a scrutiny.                         that is the last head of evidence I shall touch




1784.]                      THE WESTMINSTER SCRUTINY.                                      487
upon, that insinuations came from us at a cer- to methodize, arrange, and simplify the business
tain period of the poll of demanding a scrutiny, before the return, that we might go on in the
That some of my friends might have expressed  committee under Granville's bill with the greatthat intention is very probable; but give me er facility and expedition, and with less expense;
leave to say, sirs that if I had myself formally  and this would have been a material point of
demanded it there is no rule of law that war- preparation for us.  This, sir, was all I ever
rants a conclusion against me on account of my  meant by a scrutiny before Mr. Corbett, and all
own conduct as a party.  A thousand motives that any man of common fairness and liberality
there may be to justify me in demanding of the can suppose I meant.
High Bailiff that which it would be perfectly    (7.) A  noble Lord over against me [Lord
right in him to refuse.  If, in any case of litiga- Mulgrave], in his zeal to exculpate the High
tion, a judge should grant to one of the parties Bailiff, charges me with having intimidated him,
whatever he wished, how could he ever come to  and charges it upon the evidence of Mr. Groa just decision?  Or who would ever be defeat-  jan.  That noble Lord, disdaining all regard to
ed, whatever may be the badness of his cause? consistency whenever he thinks he can impute
But, sir, has it been offered to you inproof, or a fault to us, at the same moment that he asis there a man that can say I ever did for one serts the High Bailiff was intimidated, pronounmoment entertain the idea, much less ex;ess it, ces a flashy panegyric upon the firmness and inthat a scrutiny could go on after the day on trepidity of the very man he affirms to have been
which the writ was returnable?  Sir, I do as- thus terrified.  But, sir, the High Bailiff was
sure you, so absurd, so preposterous, so perni- threatened-and how? Was it by threats of ascious a thought never once possessed me. I had  saulting him?  No.  Was it by holding up the
occasion very maturely to consider this subject fear of danger to him by mobs or riots?  No.
at the first Westminster election. Lord Lincoln  Was it by a menace of taking away his books,
then demanded a scrutiny, which the High Bail- breaking the peace of the hustings, and interiff granted, and which the noble Lord afterward  rupting him in the discharge of his duty?  No,
relinquished.  I remember to have investigated  no; but it was by warning him  of the consethe matter then.  I consulted the greatest dead  quences of unjust partialities, false or corrupt
and living authorities, the best books, and the  decisions; it was by threatening him with legal
most learned men in my circle; and the result punishment if he did not make the law of the
was that the granting a scrutiny before the re- land the rule of his conduct.  Grojan tells you
turn of the writ was legal; but no book, no  that he believes these threats sometimes induced
lawyer, no man before this time ever to my  the High Bailiff to make decisions in my favor,
knowledge maintained that a scrutiny could be contrary to his judgment.  Yet this is the man
continued, much less begun, after the day on  whose firmness and intrepidity the noble Lord
which the writ was returnable.                  commends so much, and whom the government
Then say my enemies, why did you expect of this country is straining every nerve to bear
the High Bailiff to grant you a scrutiny, which  harmless through this unprecedented business.
you must know could not be finished before the  An officer whose deputy, as a palliation of great18th of MaTy?-and at that I see the gentlemen  er guilt, defends by saying that he committed a
on the opposite benches [the ministry] exult a palpable breach of his duty, and only because he
little.  But, sir, it is a weak and childish exult- is threatened with legal punishment if he acts
ation.  Do they think, or if they deceive them- against law!  Sir, for my own part I believe
selves, can they believe the public will think  there is as much sincerity in the noble Lord's
that I could have been so gross an idiot as to  panegyric as there is veracity in the deputy
suppose a scrutiny of this election could be over Bailiff's inference from these threats. All I wish
before the 18th, with the instance of Vandeput however, is, that you would properly notice this
and Trentham staring me in the face; where  species of intimidation. It is an intimidation, sir,
an unfinished scrutiny lasted above five months? the influence of which I hope will reach every
Can they imagine I could hope a scrutiny in this man, every magistrate in this country, however
case, where upward of three thousand voters splendid his station, however lifted up above his
polled more than at the contested election of fellow-creatures in office or dignity.  To keep
Vandeput and Trentham, could by any possible  before his eyes the danger of a vicious or a wanmeans be over before the 18th?  Surely not. A  ton breach of the law of the land.  Would to
tolerable knowledge of Mr. Thomas Corbett, the  God this House were in a capacity to become
High Bailiff of Westminster, gave me no extrav- an object of those consequences, which the veragant hopes of success in any scrutiny where he diet of a jury would determine to follow the viowas to be the sole judge.  All, therefore, I ever lation of the laws!  With. what content, with
meant was, that an inquiry might take place  what confidence should I submit my cause to
previous to the 18th; which inquiry might ena- such a tribunal!"
ble us to form the train and order of the neces-.      
11 This paragraph is worthy of being dwelt upoi.
sary evidence, that we might the better know                    or. ox's most striking pecuihowtodiscover the differentspeciesofbad as showing some of Mr. Fq'ox's most striking peculihow to discover the different species of bad votes, arities. (1.) He instantly turns his defense into an
and class under their various heads those which  attack, by exposing the " inconsistency" of Lord
were doubtful, those which were suspected, and Mulgrave. (2.) He adopts his favorite mode of
those which were positively illegal; and so far question and answer, by which he so often gives




488                                     MR. FOX  ON                                       [1784.
Having now, Mr. Speaker, gone through the  and inquire what has been done in similar cases
aecapitu- various depositions that have been made  on similar occasions.  In other words, I should
lation.   before you-having, from the evidence, try what is the common law.  If I find practice
shown that the alleged grounds of the High  and precedent direct me, then every thing is
Bailiff's first granting this scrutiny were the di- plain and easy; but if no statute and no precerect reverse of those he declares to this House  dent should be found by which I could steer in
to have been his motives-having shown that he  this ambiguity, my next obvious resort would be
was in habits of clandestine intercourse with my  to legal analogies, to cases which, though not preopponents-having shown that he was in the  cisely the same in all points, are yet perfectly simconstant course of receiving ex parte information  ilar in principle. If in this department of research
in an illicit and shameful secrecy-having shown  I find any thing to direct me, there too all will be
that he positively and solemnly denied this se- smooth, intelligible, and certain; but if I find no
ries of iniquitous proceeding in the vestry, which  positive statute, nor precedent, nor practice at
he boldly avows at your bar-having shown that common law, and no legal analogy, whereby I
the poll was as much a scrutiny as any poll can might discover the fact, there is then much diffipossibly be-having explained my views in the  culty, indeed, but not an insurmountable one.
event of my demanding a scrutiny-having de- Still I should make an effort, and my last and
scribed the species of intimidation used to this  fourth resort should be to the experience and unman, and confirmed that, so far from exculpating,  derstanding  of mankind-to those arguments
it tends deeply to criminate him-having shown  which common sense suggests-to fair concluthis, sir, and shown it by the evidence which you  sions deducible from fair reasoning, founded upon
have heard at your bar, I shall conclude this the immutable principles of policy and expedipart of my subject with submitting to every man  ency.
of honor and candor who hears me, whether he    Now, sir, if some of these various modes of dereally thinks that the High Bailiff of Westmin- fining the law should happen to favor me upon
ster exercised a sound and honest discretion in  the present subject, and that others should unforgranting a scrutiny, supposing for argument sake  tunately militate against me, still I may be right
that he actually possessed a legal power to  in my position; but not with that fullness of congrant it.                                        viction, that clearness of certainty which I might
II. The remainder of what I have to say shall wish.  The case, however, is so entirely otherQuestion be directed to prove that he had no such  wise, that I do venture to affirm, and engage to
of law.  power, and to lay before you the fatal ef- prove to the satisfaction of every man capable of
fects of such a precedent as the loss of this ques- being satisfied, that not only nothing in any of
tion will afford.                                these different ways of attaining the fact does
I am not a professional man, and can not be  operate in the slightest degree against me, but
supposed to speak with the information of pro- that all and each concur in supporting me, and
fessional gentlemen upon a legal subject. There  demonstrating the illegality and violence of my
are, however, general and fixed principles of corn- enemies in the present business.  I do, therefore,
mon sense which serve to guide an unlearned man  assert, that the High Bailiff of Westminster, in
upon a subject of this kind.i  Four different ways granting this scrutiny, has violated the law of the
occur to me by which in a case of doubt the law  land, by the combined force and testimony of these
may be discovered and ascertained.  First of all, four tests:
I should look into the statute-book upon the table;    By the statutes.
if, upon searching there, I find an act of Parlia-    By the common law.
ment upon the point in dispute, doubt and conject-    By the analogies of law.
tre cease at once, and all is clear and certain.    By policy and expediency.
But if there should be found no act to regulate    (1.) First, as to the statutes.  The act of the
the case in question, I should then; in the second  tenth and eleventh of William III. was made for
place, have recourse to practice and precedent, the avowed purpose of checking the bad conduct
of returning officers.  The preamble of the bill
liveliness and force to a statement. (3.) He shows and every clause in it proves this to have been
what the intimidation consisted in, viz., pointing out
the consequences of a breach of lav. Thus he flashes the object of enacting it. Asthepatofit  hic
his defense upon the mind, in the very act of stating elates to returns s merely directory, it is gross
what he did. (4.) He adroitly rounds off by apply- and absurd to construe it in any other manner
ing the whole to his present situation; expressing  than that which makes it answer the evident purhis fervent wish that every member of that House  pose for which it is enacted.  It requires that the
could feel himself liable to the punishment of the  writs for any future Parliament shall be returned
laws, if through party prejudice, or any other cause, on or before the day that Parliament is called to
he gave his vote unjustly. The manner in which  meet-that the return shall be made to the clerl
all this is wrought into a single paragraph, andofthe cron, which clerk of the crorn is authorpoured at once upon the mind, is truly admirable.
12 The reader will be struck with the beauty of ized to receive four shillings for every knight and
this preparation for the legal argument by a brief two shillings for every burgess.  It imposes a
view of the sources from which it was to be de- penalty upon the sheriff if he does not make his
duced. The argument itself is one of the finest in  return on or before this day.
our language for clearness, condensation, and bind-    Now observe the construction given by the opmig force.                                       posite side of the House to this plain, intelligible




1784.]                       THE WESTMINSTER  SCRUTINY.                                       489
statute.  It is true, say they, this act is binding  they guarded against abuses from that class of reupon a sheriff, but not at all upon a mayor or turning officers whose fortune and sphere of life
bailiff!  Why?'Because a mayor or bailiff are  presumed most for their integrity, and made no
not mentioned!  True, they are not mentioned; provision whatever for the possible misconduct
and probably the action I spoke of some time ago  of that very description  of returning officers
might not lie against the High Bailiff, not that he  whose situation gave the least pledge or security
has not openly transgressed the spirit of the law, for honest and uncorrupt conduct!  If I am not
but because the penal part of every statute is to  mistaken, this species of reasoning carries with
be construed according to the strict letter of the  it its own refutation.
act.  But I submit to the House whether they    A noble Lord over against me (Lord Mulever heard so low, so vile, so dirty a quibble;  grave) has advanced a singular kind of argument,
whether they ever heard so base a perversion of  indeed, touching the intention of this act of King
common sense, as to suppose the Legislature of  William.  He has read to you from the journals
this country to have been such a set of idiots, an instruction to the committee appointed to bring
such a herd of miserable beings, as that in an act it in, which instruction suggests to them the inmade for the avowed and declared purpose of  troduction of a clause to secure the returns for
correcting and punishing the misconduct of re- cities and boroughs within the specified time;
turning officers, they should have provided against and, in a style of inference peculiar to himself, he
the partialities, and corruption, and roguery of  concludes that as the express words [mayor and
sheriffs, and have left the nation at the mere  bailiff] do not appear in the statute, the Legislamercy of mayors and bailiffs, without restraint, ture never meant to include the returning officers
redress, or punishment?  This is the construe- of cities and boroughs.
tion put upon this act by his Majesty's ministers,    Now I will take upon me to say, that every
the patrons of this High Bailiff although they  other man in this country (that noble Lord and
see those express words in the body of the act-  those who concur with him in opposition to my
"that the clerk of the crown shall receive at the  honorable friend's motion excepted), capable of
time of these returns (which returns must be  understanding the sense of an act of Parliament,
made on or before the day of the meeting of such  will draw the direct converse of his conclusion
new Parliament) four shillings for every knight, from the non-insertion of that clause.  The sole
and two shillings for every burgess."  Why men- view of this statute was to correct the abuses
tion the burgess, if that act is not meant to com- of returning officers.  The instruction from the
pel the return of the writ under which he is cho- House to the Committee proves that the disease
sen?  Was there ever such an outrage upon  extended to mayors and bailiffs.  The omission
common sense, as to maintain, although they see  of that clause, therefore, clearly demonstrates
the fee stated for the burgess to pay, though they  that the framers of the act thought the suggessee the return required proceeding from the sher- tion fully comprehended in the act as it stands,
iff's precept to the mayor or bailiff that the mayor and that it would be mere tautology and needor bailiffis not obliged to make return within the  less repetition to be more explicit. What a mistime prescribed by the same act; that is, on or erable Legislature must that be which, in the
before the day that the new Parliament shall be act of applying a remedy to an acknowledged
called to meet?                                  evil, creates ten times a greater than that which
But there is another point which defines the  it endeavors to cure. Those who'made this law
meaning of the Legislature to a certainty, and  were, in my opinion, good politicians; but they
that is the exception in favor of new writs upon  were evidently not good prophets; for they did
vacancies.  In that case, there is an obligation  not foresee that an hour would come when men
that the return be made within fourteen days aft- should rise up, and put such a construction upnO
er the election upon that vacancy.  Is it consist- their labors as marked them for the most despient with reason, or, rather, is it not making down- cable set of drivelers that ever insulted society
right nonsense of this act, to suppose that it should  under the appellation of law-makers. In a word,
compel a return within a certain time in cases of sir, I contend that the statute of King William
vacancy, but that upon a general election all should  is decisively and completely with us.
lie at the mere will and pleasure of the returning  The 23d of Henry the Sixth is likewise with
officer?  Will the gentlemen urge the same con- us, and does afford me a legal remedy against
temptible reasoning here, and assert that the com- the High Bailiff, of which I shall most certainly
pulsion in this case only respects the returns of  avail myself.13  That act authorizes the sheriff to
the knights of the shire?  What?  That an act issue his precepts to the returning officers of cities
should be made to prevent the collusion and knav- and boroughs.  It requires that they shall make
ery of returning officers, yet that it extends only  a return to the sheriff and gives the person choto the preclusion of frauds in returning about one  sen and not returned an action, which s1usst be
hundred because they are knights of the shire! brought within three months after the meetinlg of
and leaves the remaining four hundred at the  Parliament.  From this it is evident that the rediscretion of every mayor or bailiff!  Sheriffs turn of the writ, and of the precept proceeding
are, in general, of a much superior rank and char- from the writ, must be at one and the same time,
acter to the other returning officers; yet the wittol caution which the honorable interpreters of   13 He did so afterward, and obtained damages
this act impute to the English Legislature is, that from Mr. Corbett to the amount of ~2000.




490                                    MR. FOX ON                                       [1784.
viz., by the meeting of the Parliament; for oth- pensable, as petitions complaining of pluralities
erwise observe what rank nonsense this statute  of election are always heard in order, next to
would be. The misconduct of returning officers  double returns.  Thus you see with what dexmade it necessary to give a power of legal pun- terity this has been managed.
ishment to the party chosen and not returned.    This curious return had two views.  First, to
That power is here given; but if we can sup- exclude me from sitting for Westminster.  Secpose that the act does not compel the return to  ondly, to deprive me of the advantage of Mr.
be positively made by the meeting of Parliament, Grenville's bill.  And, sir, does any man think
the penalty is all a farce; for who will make a  this return was the fabrication of Mr. Thomas
return that will subject him to a civil action, if  Corbett? The party spirit and personal rancor,
it be in his power to avoid it.  Whether the re- so visible in his defense before this House, conturn be true or false, therefore, it is as clear as firm that he has all the disposition, if not all the
daylight that some return must be made by the  ability in the world, to do me every mischief.
meeting of Parliament, for it is insulting com- Yet I can not be persuaded, when I consider who
mon sense to say that the man who incurs a le- they are that take the lead in his vindication begal penalty shall have a legal power of evading  fore this House, and when I observe how very
it.  That is to say, that a returning officer may, familiar they appear to be with this historical
of his own authority, prolong his return until the  return14 (as my noble friend has well called it),
three months pass away, within which time alone that so peculiar, so ingenious, and so original a
the action can commence for the punishment of  fragment as this could ever have been his sole
this gross abuse!                              production. In a word, sir, this accursed historI have, therefore, sir, no difficulty in saying, ical return, this return unmatched, and unpreceand I am confident every fair man agrees in the  dented in the history of Parliament, is the only
truth of it, that these two acts, in their letter as species of return that could have robbed me and
well as their spirit, demonstrate that the High  the independent electors of Westminster of a fair
Bailiff of Westminster, in granting this scrutiny, hearing before that admirable judicature instihas positively broken the statute law of the land. tuted by Mr. Grenville's bill.
(2.) The second point to which I shall advert    A learned gentleman who appears at your bar
in the arrangement of this argument is the point for the High Bailiff, admits that no instance of'
of practice, or what the common law is upon this this kind ever happened before; and to induce
occasion.  And the best way to show that the  the House to support his client, he says it will
High Bailiff of Westminster's return is against never happen again.  How he comes to know
both the one and the other, is to observe this that a line of conduct so convenient to a minisfact, that in all the records of Parliament, in all ter, so well suited to those who have the power
the annals of elections, and in the history of this to oppress, and a disposition to exert every powcountry, not a single precedent can be found to  er against those they dislike [will not be repeatjustify this extraordinary return. The main and  ed], the learned gentleman himself best underevident drift of it was to deprive me of the ben- stands.  But surely, after such an admission, to
efit of Mr. Grenville's bill; and to accomplish  pray the sanction of this House for an act allowthis end, do but observe how many obvious modes edly unprecedented, is somewhat singular. The
of return he has passed by. Had the bailiff done  learned gentleman's prophecy is surprising, it is
his duty, and returned Lord Hood and me, Sir true; but the argument drawn from that prophCecil Wray would not have been injured, for he ecy is still more surprising. Grant the scrutiny,
would instantly petition, and the merits of the says he, in this case; but you certainly never
election would be tried by a committee upon  will do the like again. Perpetrate the most gross
their oaths.  Had the bailiff, doubting, as he  and glaring injustice deliberately, for you never
pretends, the legality of my majority, returned, will commit a similar outrage hereafter!  A
as he undoubtedly might have done, Lord Hood  good understanding, however, seems to prevail
and Sir Cecil Wray, then I should have petition- between those within and those outside of the
ed, and one of Mr. Grenville's committees would  bar. And the intimation of a learned gentleman
have redressed me. Had he returned Lord Hood  over against me, of an intention to bring in a bill
alone, still it was cognizable by Grenville's bill. to regulate this matter in future, does in a great
A petition against an undue return would have  measure account for the prediction of the High
been presented, and this House infallibly pre- Bailiff's counsel, that this iniquitous precedent
vented all interference in the matter, except in  will be no example for future imitation.  Now,
appointing the committee. Or, if he had return- sir, I take the first opportunity of saying that a
ed the three candidates, the double return would  bill declaring the law, after a decision directly
have entitled it to a priority of hearing (upon  contrary to law, shall be opposed by me with all
that great and fundamental maxim that the first the faculties and force I am master of.  This is
object was to have the House complete), and a no new principle with me. I have ever set myaommittee under Grenville's bill would instantly  self against the affectation of applying a remedy
have tried the merits of the return, and rescued  upon erroneous decisions, subversive of law in
the case from the prejudices and party influence  supreme courts of judicature.  In the case of
of the House of Commons.  At all events, my  the determination concerning general bonds of
sitting here for Kirkwall rendered an immediate_                      __                     -
discussion and decision upon the business indis-   1 So called from its detailing the facts of the case.




1784.]                      THE WESTMINSTER SCRUTINY.                                      491
resignation of Church livings in the House of  in question, do absolutely, positively, and subLords last year, a bill passed there and was sent stantially make against them.  If out of the
afterward to this House, the purport of which  mass of precedents I were to choose one, to
was to declare the law in that case, after a de- prove the grossness of this proceeding, I think
termination which reversed the uniform current it would be the very case of Oxfordshire.  The
of decisions in Westminster Hall for a series of  candidates who at that election were lowest on
ages.5  Such a bill would have been most fatal the poll demanded a scrutiny, and the sheriff
in its example, because it would have taken  granted it.  Every one knows that the sheriff
away the only check, restraint, and control, upon  carried his partialities for the losing candidates,
courts of dernier appeal.  It would take away  who demanded the scrutiny to the greatest
the general public inconvenience arising from  lengths; yet, partial as he was, and although
the false determinations of superior courts.  I his friends were diminishing their opponent's
opposed that bill, sir, and opposed it with sue- majority daily by the scrutiny, he gave them nocess, for this House rejected it.  I shall oppose  tice that his duty bound him to stop the scrutithe bill suggested by the learned gentleman  ny for the purpose of making his return on the
upon the same principle, and every other bill of  day the writ was returnable.  He accordingly
the same tendency; for sure there can not be a  stopped it, and made his return.  If this sheriff
more barefaced violence of decency and justice, interested as he was for those who were gaining
a grosser mockery of the common sense of man- by the scrutiny, conceived it possible for him to
kind, than to authorize a scrutiny in direct op- be sanctioned by any law or precedent in makposition to the whole tide of precedents, and ex- ing a special return, and going on with the scruactly subversive of positive law, because you in- tiny, would he not have done so?  Undoubtedly
tend to bring in a bill to prevent the repetition  he would; and the kind of return he made
in future time of so scandalous and' shocking a  proves that he would, if he thought he might.
proceeding.                                     Unwilling that those who were obnoxious to him
An incident occurs to me which will be prop- should sit in the House, he returns all the four
er to mention here.  Much discussion formerly  candidates; and this he does as the last and
took place upon this subject of regulating scru- greatest act of friendship he could confer on his
tinies, and especially at the time of the Oxford- fiiends, previous to the extinction of his authorshire election; concerning which election I shall ity, viz., the return of the writ.  I do not say
presently trouble the House with a few observa- that in making this double return the sheriff did
tions.  Great pains and labor were employed  right.  But right or wrong, it proves this, that
then with a view to frame an act of Parliament all the service he could render his friends he
upon the subject; and a great man, whose name  did.  Does any one doubt that the two candiI mention only with the purest respect and rev- dates, thus aided by the sheriff, and in the act
erence for his character [Lord Mansfield], took  of growing daily upon their adversaries by the
an active part, and gave the whole attention of  scrutiny, would not have preferred the partial,
his extensive and shining talents to the business. the kind, and favoring tribunal of their determYet, after the most deliberate and mature con- ined friend the sheriff, to the House of Commons,
sideration of the subject, even he abandoned it, had they supposed that any thing could justify
in a despair of being able to accomplish any sys- him in continuing the scrutiny after the meeting
tem of management, from which many evils and  of Parliament?  But so frightful an idea was
various disadvantages impossible to be remedied, never cherished; and they held themselves bound
might not flow. All attempts to regulate scru- forever in gratitude to the sheriff for having intinies by act of Parliament were then conse- eluded them in his return.  An honorable genquently given up.  The learned gentleman [Mr. tleman, whom I see in his place, but who I beHarding] will excuse me if I can not easily be- lieve neither sees nor hears me at this moment,l'
lieve that he will effect that which Lord Mans- knows full well that all I am stating relative to
field relinquished as impracticable; and even  the Oxfordshire election is strictly true. He can
this consideration would be an additional motive  not easily have forgotten the part he took in that
with me, for not hastily assenting to a bill of the  memorable transaction. He engaged eagerly in
complexion suggested by him to the House upon  the contest, and embarked in that interest which
the present subject.                            I should certainly have embraced had I been of
I have said that this business had no prece- an age to form  an opinion, and to act upon it.
dent in the annals of Parliament.  The gentle- That honorable gentleman can attest the veracmen on the other side do not attempt, because  ity of this recital; but it were vain flattery, I
they dare not, to show that this High Bailiff is fear, to hope that he will rise up to-night, and
justified by any.  The only cases they venture vindicate, by his voice and his vote, the princito touch upon are the cases of Oxford and West- ples of the cause he then supported, and which
minster; and yet these two cases are fundament- gained his friends the election.
ally and altogether against them.  Could they    He must remember that a long discussion took
cite any instances more apposite, undoubtedly  place in this House, touching the right of a certhey would never have alluded to those, which,
under a hope of giving some color to the matter   16 Mr. Jenkinson, who was fast asleep upon the
treasury bench, and whom Mr. Pitt awoke when
15 Case of Fytche and the Bishop of London.   Mr. Fox alluded to him.




492                                      MlR. FOX  ON                                     [1784.
tain class or copyhold tenants who voted for those  ness of a scrutiny?  But during the existence of
who had the majority upon the poll; and that Parliament, when a writ issues upon a vacancy,
the disqualification of this description of voters  no particular day is named for its return.  A poll
seated those in the House who were lowest upon  or a scrutiny (which means only the continuation
the poll and the scrutiny.  And here I must ob- of the poll in another form) may be carried on,
serve, what a strong and unanswerable confirm- because it does not in the least infringe upon the
ation of the point I am endeavoring to establish  exigency of the writ; because no particular time
springs from a careful review of the Oxfordshire  is mentioned for the return; and because his Majcase. The cause of the unsuccessful candidates  esty does not call upon that individual representwas pleaded at the bar by one of the greatest ative to come upon a precise day, for the dispatch
characters of that time, and one of the greatest of great and urgent affairs that affect his people,
ornaments of this; I mean Lord Camden, quen  as upon a general election. This, therefore, congratia honoris nomino!, A question was agita- stitutes the distinction, and it is a wide and a mated to ascertain a peculiar qualification, which  terial distinction.  The grievance from the abbore the most inauspicious, and as it afterward  sence of one representative is slight, and the law
proved, the most fatal aspect toward his clients. in that case admits a scrutiny; but in the other
If any objection to determine the point upon that case, to withhold the return beyond the time apground could possibly be supported, does any  pointed, is infringing the exigency, and violating
one doubt that his ingenuity and penetration  the terms on which it was issued, which are, that
would not have discovered it?  Does any one  the Parliament must meet upon that express day,
doubt that he would have enforced that objec- for that express purpose.
tion with all that perspicuity and fervor of elo-    Why there should be this distinction —why
quence which so much characterize that noble  the compulsion of a return by a specified period
Lord?  But the idea of a sheriff's withholding  should not exist as well in cases of vacancy as of
a return on account of a scrutiny never once  general election, is not now the point in dispute.
occurred to him, nor to those who managed it If it be, as I think it is, a defect, it only serves to
within the bar i nor do I believe, until this time  prove that in the best works of human wisdom
(to answer the laudable purpose of the present there are flaws and imperfections.  Our aim is
moment), did it ever enter into the head of any  to find out what is the law, not why it is the law;
man as legal or practicable.                    and, from  the whole, it is clear that the High
So much for the Oxfordshire case, which I Bailiff of Westminster, in overstepping this dismaintain goes with us in all its points and prin- tinction, and granting a scrutiny to commence
ciples.                                          after the day of the general return, has broken
With respect to the Westminster case in 1749. every statute that appears upon this subject in
A learned gentleman [Mr. Harding], who has  your books, and gone in the face of every precespoken with much liveliness, but without one  dent that can be found in your journals.
word of legal argument, tells you that the scru-    (3.) The third ground upon which I shall take
tiny then and the scrutiny now are cases exactly  up this subject is upon that of the analogies of
in point.  In contradiction to that, I affirm that law.  Upon this I shall detain the House only
not the least similitude subsists between them.  with a few words; not only because my ignoIn this case the writ is returnable upon the 18th  rance of that profession disqualifies me from treat~day of May i in that no precise time is mention- ing the point fully, but because all that can be said
ed for the return; and here consists the whole  has been urged with the greatest force and effect
difference.  Every one knows that the election  possible by the learned gentlemen who appeared
of Trentham and Vandeput was upon a vacancy  at your bar in my behalf; the proof of which is,
in consequence of Lord Trentham's accepting a  that not a position they have advanced upon the
seat at the Board of Admiralty. Upon a gener- legal analogies has been controverted by the
al election the King calls a Parliament for the  learned gentlemen who pleaded for the High
dispatch of great and urgent affairs, and he calls  Bailiff without the bar, or those venerable judgit to meet upon a particular day. Now, sir, ob- es and crown lawyers who have attempted to deserve, if there be no compulsion upon returning  fend him within the bar.  Little, therefore, re
officers to make their returns by that express  mains for me to say.  But little as I affect to have
time, what is to become of the great and urgent of information upon this part of the subject, I have
affairs for the dispatch of which his Majesty calls  enough to know that wherever the gentlemen on
a Parliament?                                   the other side have attempted to assimilate this
Can you reconcile, for one moment, that the  case with legal analogies, they have completely
nation should be bound by laws and burdened  and entirely failed.  They have endeavored to
with taxes to which they did not consent; that establish that an officer may go on to execute
the King should have no Parliament, and the peo- the object for which the writ was issued from
ple no representatives to dispatch the weighty and  the courts in Westminster Hall, even after the
urgent affairs they are called to consider by a par- day on which the writ is returnable.  Yes, sir,
ticular day, only because it is the whim or fancy, he may go on; but how?  Upon the authority
or wickedness of a returning officer, at his leisure, of the expired writ?  No, by no means!  He
to keep them employed in the long, laborious busi- goes on by a neew power given him by that court
whence the writ originally issues, to complete
17 Whom I name only to praise.          that which the premature expiration of his first




1784.]                      THE WESTMINSTER  SCRUTINY.                                     493
commission prevented his accomplishing.  In a  sumption is, that the "great and urgent affairs"
word, the court has the power of rendering effect- for which he calls them together demand their
ual its own process, and therefore grants a writ immediate deliberation.  It is clear that our anof venditioni exponas, where the sheriff has not cestors were extremely cautious that nothing
been able to sell the goods levied under the first should prevent or obstruct their meeting; and,
writ, and grants many other writs of different ti- lest returning officers should be instrumental to
ties, for the purpose of completing that process this obstruction, all the statutes, and all the precthe court has begun.  But has any man said, that edents that bear upon this matter, confirm their
without a fresh authority, any sheriff, or any offi- jealousy, and prove their diligence to guard
cer of any court of law, can proceed a single step  against abuses.  The misconduct of returning
under the old writ, one single hour after the day  officers, the facility of evil, and the dangerous
named for its return? I say, no, sir. There is not consequences resulting from it, were the evident
one man, however ignorant in other things, who  and avowed cause of making those laws which
does not know that all the authorities of all writs I have mentioned, and which were avowedly inare defunct and extinct on the day named for tended to restrain them.  Let but the conduct of
their return.  It is admitted that the court can  the High Bailiff of Westminster be sanctified this
grant a new power to complete its own process. night by this House, and I challenge the ingenuNow, sir, to show the gentlemen on the other ity of mankind to show a more effectual mode
side that they have not a shred of analogy to sup- of putting the nation into the hands of returning
port them, I will suppose, for a moment, that the  officers.
writ under which the High Bailiff carried on this    What security can any man have that a Parelection had been issued from  this court, what liament shall meet when the King calls it, if you
writ, or what legal authority can you give him  establish this precedent? An honorable friend of
to finish that which he says is still depending? mine who has this day spoken for the first time [Sir
None, I say, sir.  A court of law can effectuate  James Erskine], and who has exhibited a power
its own process by giving its officer a new power of fancy and force of argument that give a high
on the demise of the old; but did you ever hear promise of his making a splendid figure in this
of one court granting an authority to accomplish  House, has said, it was possible the House of Comthe purpose of a writ issued from another? Nev- mons of England might, upon the assembling of a
er.  Such a thing was never heard of.  And how  new Parliament, be confined to the members fiom
stands the fact here; that the Court of Chancery  Scotland, where all scrutinies precede elections,
issues the writ, and the House of Commons (an- and where the positiveness of the law precludes
other court) is to send forth a fresh writ to finish  the commission of these knaveries.  Now, althat which has not been finished under the King's though the brilliant fancy of my honorable friend
writ issuing from chancery, the duration of which  might, perhaps, have stretched the possibility a
ceased on the 18th of May!  See the infinite ab- little too far, is there a man who will engage,
surdity into which these poor attempts to make  that this case once sanctified, the example will
out analogies involve the supporters of the High  not be followed to the most calamitous excess?
Bailiff.  Will they say, though this House can  The exact number of five hundred and thirteen
not issue a supplemental power, the usual officer English members might not, indeed, be absent
for making out parliamentary writs can?  Try  upon the meeting of a new Parliament; but will
it, sir, and you will puzzle all the writ-framers  any man say why twenty, why sixty, why one
belonging to the House.  I will venture to say, hundred, nay, why two hundred might not, by the
that all the skill of the Crown-office, and all the  ignorance, by the caprice, by the folly, by the stuskill of the Court of Chancery combined, will be  pidity, or (what is more analogous to the case in
at a loss in what shape or mode to frame an in- question) by the baseness or treachery of a restrument so exotic and hideous.  I will not push  turning  officer, remain unreturned?  Here I
this point further, satisfied that no candid man  must notice the low, the little, the miserable alcan have a second opinion upon the subject; and  lusions which are so frequently made by those
shall conclude this part of my speech with affirm-  over against me, to the place that did me the
ing that the statutes, the precedents, and analo- honor of sending me to Parliament.l8  But it is
gies of law assert and establish the truth of my  a poor and pitiful kind of triumph.  Much as
honorable friend's motion; and that, by those  they may affect to exult, nothing can be clearer
three tests, I am clearly entitled to the judgment than their disappointment upon the occasion;
of this House against the conduct of the High  and the petition lately presented against my seat
Bailiff of Westminster.                        for Kirkwall proves their mortification to a cer(4.) The fourth and last ground of considera- tainty.  And indeed it appears, from the conduct
tion is upon that of expediency, of sound sense, of government, that Scotland is the only place that
and of general policy.  And here I shall have as could return me; as the same shameless perselittle trouble as upon the three former grounds, cution would, no doubt, have followed me in any
to establish every position, and to show the House  other place in England.  Fortunately, there was
the iniquity of this proceeding.  The conduct of  one part of the kingdom where their oppression
this bailiff not only violates the spirit and letter of   is Mr. Pitt, as already stated, had spoken of
every law, but absolutely, in so far, subverts the  Mr. Fox as an "exile driven to seek refage on
main principles of the British Constitution. When  the stormy and desolate shores of the Ultima
*the King calls a new Parliament, the fair pre-  Thule."




494                                      MR. FOX  ON                                        [1784.
could not prosper, and from which their violence  ation as to deem it wise and salutary upon slight
and injustice could not exclude me.               occasions, or upon any occasion, to lessen that
Sir, I do really believe that the supporters of  which is already much too little. The whole tide
this extraordinary business look but a short way, of reasoning has, on the contrary, run in the othand do not at all calculate or count upon its  er channel; and the great argument for a parprobable effects.  If there had not been an act liamentary reform  has been founded upon this
of Parliament expressly to regulate scrutinies in  very defect of real representation, which the nothe city of London, who can say that at this mo- ble Lord over against me is so zealous to diminment, when laws are to be made as serious and  ish.  As the honorable gentleman near him,
interesting as any that ever passed in this coun- however [Mr. Pitt], is the professed friend of
try-when great and weighty impositions must that reform, in the representation of the people
be laid upon the subjects-when new and im- of this country, which I have in common with
portant regulations are to be entered upon con- him, so long labored in vain to accomplish, I
cerning the commerce, the credit, and revenues  shall hope to see him stating this very case of
of the nation-who can say that at this time the  Westminster, to induce the House to adopt the
capital of the country, so deeply and supremely  motion which will be made upon that subject by
interested in all these objects, might not be de- my honorable friend [Mr. Sawbridge] in a few
prived of representation as well as the city of  days.  Of the prosperity of that motion I now
Westminster?  But, sir, I beg pardon.  I am   entertain real confidence.  The boasted power
doing injustice.  The sheriffs of London are too  in this House of the right honorable gentleman
well acquainted with their duty, and too zealous  insures success to any measure he abets.  No
for the honorable discharge of it, to have been  question, therefore, can be entertained of attainguilty of so gross an outrage upon the laws of  ing it, if the honorable gentleman is serious upon
the land, or lent themselves to be the vile and  the subject; for surely the people of England
sordid instruments of so base a business,         can never be persuaded that the majority, which
But the character of an officer is a weak se- supported the minister in vindicating a direct
curity against the abuse of an office.  Under  violation of the law of the land, in the person of
men less informed, and less tenacious of their of- Mr. Corbett, could have failed him in endeavorficial reputation, who can say (if an express act ing to effect an object so long looked for, so
had not rendered it impossible) that the patrons  loudly called for, and so essentially necessary to
of Sir Cecil Wray, who are also patrons of Mr. the security of the Constitution and the good of
Atkinson,19 might not practice the same strata- the nation, as a reform in the palpably defective
gem in the city of London, and by that maneu- representation of the people in this House.
ver prevent the wishes and the sentiments of    The same noble Lord attempts to strengthen
the capital from being declared in this House, his cause with a species of argument still more
through the constitutional organ of their repre- extraordinary, if possible, than the former, alsentatives?  They, sir, I affirm, are weak and  though of nearly the same nature.  He tells you,
foolish men, rash and giddy politicians, who, by  that representing Westminster has been a mere
supporting a measure of this kind, become par- naval honor; and after stating the choice of
ties in a precedent, capable of producing conse- Lord Rodney when on foreign service, leads you
quences which strike at the source and root of  to this inference, that the electors of Westminall legislation; for it is the fundamental maxim  ster are wholly unsolicitous whether they are
of our Constitution, that the consent of the peo- represented or not.  This is rating the electors
pie by their representatives is essential and in- of Westminster at a low estimate indeed; but I,
dispensable to those laws that are to govern  sir, who know them better than the noble Lord,
them.                                             deny that they are so insensible to the blessings
Upon this, however, a curious sort of reason- of the British Constitution as his argument preing is adopted, and a noble Lord [Lord Mul- tends.  The electors of Westminster have resgrave] sees no evil in a defect of representatives  cued themselves from this imputation.  Sir, they
for Westminster, as it is virtually represented by  are seriously anxious to be represented, and they
those who sit here for other places. In the prin- tell you so. But I remember when absence was
ciple that every member is bound to the cornm  deemed a disqualification for naval officers upon
mon interest of all, I certainly do agree; but I  a Westminster election. I remember when Lord
beg leave to set myself wholly against the gen- Hood was in the zenith of his fame, that persons
eral argument of virtual representation.  We  now in my eye [looking at Lord Mahon] urged
have too much of virtual, and too little of real his absence to the electors as a ground of rejecrepresentation in this House.  And to the pres- tion; and advised them to prefer Sir Cecil Wray,
ent hour I never heard that the most determined  who was present and able to represent them, to
enemy to a parliamentary reform  ever urged  Lord Hood, who was absent and unable.@  This,
that the virtual representation of the country  though not my argument (whose opinion is uniwas so complete a substitute for real represent- formly that all electors of all places should elect
19 This would seem to be Mr. Richard Atkinson,   20 This kind of home thrust, by referring to some
the agent of Paul Benfield, spoken of by Mr. Burke  past incident, is one of Mr. Fox's most striking pein his speech on the Nabob of Arcot's debts, who  culiarities.  So, likewise, is the turn given in the
had just been defeated in London at the general next sentence, respecting the coalition of one who
election.                                        so hated Coalitions.




1784.]                       THE WESTMINSTER SCRUTINY.                                        495
the men of their choice), was the exact argu- ever been insulted with this mockery of his
ment of the present supporters of Lord Hood in  scruples?21
favor of that of Sir Cecil Wray, who then opposed   To show, in another striking point of view,
him, but who now-in his enmity to any junc- that this scrutiny is against the law, let the
tion after past opposition, in his utter abhorrence  House reflect for a moment upon its utter ineffiof all coalitions  is linked with that very Lord  cacy to enable the High Bailiff to form a judgHood in ties of friendship and good faith, which  ment, as that is the pretended cause of it. What
he certainly never will violate.                  means has he of exploring those things which he
Efforts, sir, have been made to explain the act now affects to entertain doubts upon?  He can
of George II. to the exculpation of this High  command no witness; he can compel no appearBailiff; and his supporters affect to justify him  ance.  He has no legal authority for penetrating
upon his declared difficulty in making up his  the obscurity of any fact like other judges; he
"conscience."'   Why, sir, the very act they at- can administer no oath; he can impart no remtempt to shield him under is his strongest con- edy to the party aggrieved by so tedious and
demnation.  The oath imposed in that act only  vexatious a process; he can award no costs; he
binds him  to decide to "the best of his judg- can try no offense that occurs in the execution
ment': by a limited time.  Lives there one man  of this important duty; he is governed by no
who shall say, "this man would have incurred  precedents; he is bound by no decisions: what
the penalties of perjury if he had returned the  he affirms to-day he may deny to-morrow; he
majority upon the poll?"  Lives there one man  has, in a word, all the means of doing injustice,
who thinks the disquietude of his conscience  and no one power or competent faculty to do
alone prompted him to make the return he has  justice.  Yet to this species of tribunal is this
made, when they must see a thousand instances  House going (in violation of law  and practice)
every day of decisions of conscience, in cases a  to send me and my cause, on purpose to evade
thousand times more ambiguous and solemn?  one which is full, adequate, effective, and vigorI will ask the House whether this High Bailiff  ous-I mean, a committee under Grenville's bill.
has appeared to them, in the course of this busi-    A noble Lord expresses his suspicions of the
ness, so spotless, so immaculate, so consistent, sincerity of my praises of Grenville's bill, and
as to induce them to give him credit for a deli- says he imagines there is "a snake in the grass."
cacy of nerve, and a tenderness of scruple be- It is most true, that I had my doubts upon the
yond any other man living?  Every person in  effects of that bill, when it first passed into a
the exercise of a judicial function stands pre- law.  But, sir, it is exerting the worst tyranny
cisely in his predicament.  What would become  upon the understanding of men, if they are to be
of us if a judge were forever to delay justice, forever condemned for having entertained doubts
until he could make up his conscience to the  upon a subject purely theoretical.  Extinct is
minutest point of precise accuracy upon every  every idea of freedom, and lost is the boasted
doubt?  There are few  cases upon which a  liberty of debate, and the spirit of fiee thinking
man can not form some opinion.  All that is re- in this country, if men are to be debarred fiom
quired here is to form the best opinion he can; profiting by practice, and changing opinion upon
and if seven weeks did not afford the High Bail- the conviction of experiment.  All I can say,
iff time enough to determine, it is surely hard  sir, is, that the many salutary effects of that bill
with those who are obliged to decide almost im- have long since completely converted me; and
mediately in the most important interests of hu- I do assure you, in great sincerity, that no man
ianity.  My honorable friend who made this  living reveres and loves it more than I do. There
motion, with that weight and wisdom  that ac- can be no stronger proof of its superior excelcompany all his observations, has adverted to  lence, than that the evasion of it is the only posthe case of jurors.  Have you, then, patience at sible means by which his Majesty's ministers
this man's pretense of conscience, when you re- could perpetrate this gross act of injustice. The
fleet that twelve men must all concur before  most infallible of all tests, the test of repeated
they go out of court, in a judgment which per-  practice, asserts its virtues; and my attachment
haps consigns a fellow-creature to an ignomin- to it is not a little increased, for that it resemious death?  The case may be doubtful too, and  bles that inestimable right-one of the few that
yet they must all concur in a few hours, at most. Englishmen have yet to boast-the trial by jury.
It is unnecessary to push this point farther.  I  Oh that it were possible to mold this House into
appeal to the House.  There are feelings which  the size and character of a jury!  of twelve men
even party prejudices can not dispossess us of. acting indeed upon conscience, and sworn upon
We owe to each other a certain candor; and I  oath to give a true verdict according to evidence!
am sure I should be thoroughly satisfied to put
this matter to the private answer of any man    2 There can hardly be found any where a paswho hears me; if I were only to ask him, upon  sage which is a more complete "settler" than this
his honor as a gentleman whether he really  paragraph about Mr. Corbett's conscience. There
his honor as a gentleman, whether he real is a sort of power in it which no speaker but Debelieves the return of this High Bailiff is anwhich  o speaker but.  mothenes ever so fully possessed-strong common
act of conscience?  And whether he thinks, if  sse brief  ut irresistible  easoning, keen saCI stood in Sir Cecil Wray's place, and he had  casm, manly appeal, all wrought together in the
my majority, we should ever have heard of  tersest language, and vivified by the warmest emothis man's difficulty in giving judgment; or  tion.




496                                     MR. FOX ON                                       [1784.
How easy should I feel concerning the issue of  the subject; that if the common law were silent,
this discussion!                                and that legal analogies gave no light upon the
In addition to all these arguments, will the  subject, even upon the grounds of common sense
House reflect that this scrutiny is not final in de- and expediency, the law is clear and intelligible.
ciding the right of sitting here?22 Will they re- But when all these concur to define and to deflect that, after all the waste of time, after all the  cide the law; when positive statutes, when pracexpense, all the labor, all the fatigue, which are  tice and precedents, when the analogies of law,
indispensable upon it, its termination (whenever and the arguments of expediency, founded upon
it may happen) is but the commencement of an- the immutable principles of wisdom, reason, and
other process before a judicature; capable and  sound policy, ALL combine and unite to establish
competent to administer justice, with a new se- and to assert it, can I have any fear to say that
ries of expense, and labor, and fatigue?  And  this motion ought to pass, and that the High
who can tell us when this scrutiny shall con- Bailiff of Westminster, instead of being permitclude?  The granting it is not more illegal and  ted to proceed with this scrutiny, should instantoppressive than the duration is uncertain and in- ly make a return of members for Westminster?
definite.  Who can promise when such a con-    Some gentlemen have argued that this motion
science as Corbett's will be quieted? And who  does not agree with the prayer of the petition
will venture to say that, after one, two, three, or [previously presented by Mr. Fox].  Let it be
ten years' investigation, the High Bailiff's con- recollected, sir, that the petition was presented
science may not be as unsatisfied, even upon the  by me with a view of its being referred to a comscrutiny, as it appears at this moment, after a  mittee.23  Really, sir, if there is not enough of
seven weeks' poll?                             candor to admit this assertion without being ex" But," say the supporters of the High Bailiff, plained, there seems but little chance of a fair
"this House will take care that there is no vex- hearing, or of a fair construction, upon points
atious delay in the business, and will from time  much more material.  I again declare it was
to time call upon him for a return, or for the  presented for the purpose I have described.  A
cause that may prevent his making one."  I un- majority of this House decided that the petition
derstand that argument perfectly well, sir; and  was not cognizable by Mr. Grenville's bill; and
it is of itself sufficient to show the grossness of  it was upon a suggestion from the other side of
this proceeding.  WThen the bailiff will be called  the House that I presented it the same day, to
on to make a return, and when he will obey that save time, and prayed that counsel might be heard
call, can be very easily conceived, indeed.  If it at the bar in favor of it.  The sole object of that
were possible for this man, in the course of this petition was, that this House might order such a
scrutiny, to strike off from my numbers so many  return as would come under the jurisdiction of a
as would place Sir Cecil Wray on the head of  committee; the motion before you goes precisethe poll, I have not the smallest doubt that all ly to the same point, and to no other.
delays, subsequent to such an event, would ap-    To that argument, if it deserves the name of
pear just as frivolous, as vexatious and oppress- argument, that we are inconsistent in desiring the
ive to the gentlemen on the opposite bench [the  High Bailiff to make a return, when we contend
Ministry], and to the High Bailiff's conscience, as that all his authority under that writ is completethe whole proceeding now appears to me, and  ly defunct, it is almost unnecessary to reply, beto the injured electors of Westminster.  Upon  cause it evidently defeats itself.  In contending
all the considerations, therefore, that I have men- that the High Bailiff was functus officio24 on the
tioned-the inordinate expense; the inefficacy  18th of May, we are fortified by law; and, in deof the tribunal; the obvious necessity of after- siring he would make some return, we are justiward resorting to a more adequate and compe-  fled by precedent.
tent judicature; the certainty that this precedent    We contend, and contend with truth, that the
will be the source of future oppressions; the dan- writ under which the High Bailiff carried on the
gerous example of it to other returning officers, election, being returnable on the 18th of May, on
who, under the sanction of this case, can give  that very day deprived the bailiff of all judicial
full scope to their partialities, their caprices, and  authority, and devested him  of all legal power
corruptions; the circumstance of depriving so  under that writ.  To proceed with a scrutiny is
great and respectable a body of men of their a great act of authority; to tell us who have, in
representation in this House; the recognizing  his opinion, the majority of legal votes, is not.
that dreadful doctrine, that a King may be with- That this House should order a returning officer
out a Parliament, and the people without repre- to commence a scrutiny several days after the
sentation, at the mere will and bare discretion  positive day on which his writ was returnable.
of any low, mean, ignorant, base, and wretched  can not be paralleled by a single case in all the
being, who may happen to be a returning officer history of Parliament.  That it should order a
-from  all these considerations, therefore, I am  returning officer, who tells you he proceeded to
convinced, and I hope I have convinced this  an election, carried on a poll for a sufficient time.
House, that if no statute could be found upon  and that he then closed that poll of his own au22 The question could be brought up again after   23 Here the minister shook his head, as if to deny
the return was made, and tried before a committee the fact.
of the House under Mr. Grenville's bill.         24 Discharged from further duty.




1784.]                      THE WESTMINSTER  SCRUTINY.                                       497
thority, to make a return, has happened again  facility of a collusion in a case of this sort, to keep
and again.  We do not desire him  to exercise  a candidate from his seat, whose right to it is
any jurisdiction under that writ now; we only  clear, unquestioned, and unquestionable.  Supdesire him to acquaint us with the fruits of the  pose that not one single bad vote had been givjurisdiction which he has exercised under it. en for Lord Hood in the late election, and that
I have done so and so, says the High Bailiff. the noble Lord were not (he best knows why)
"Tell us what you mean,' is all we say.  "I  resigned and easy under this proceeding, what
have, on such a day, proceeded to an election,"  could be more hard and cruel than his situation?
says he; "I have carried on a poll for forty  Does not the House see that ministers will be endays; I have, on the day before the return of  abled by this precedent to exclude an obnoxious
the writ, closed that poll, of my own author- candidate for an indefinite space of time, even
ity."  All this we understand.  In all this you  though his majority be the most undoubted posdid your duty.  Only tell us who are the candi- sible, and his election the fairest in the world?
dates chosen upon this long poll?  We do not It is only for the losing candidate to demand, and
mean to say you have at present any authority  for the returning officer to grant, a scrutiny.
to do any thing under that writ; all we want to  These are some of the evils that present themknow is, what you did when you had authority  selves upon the recognition of this practice as
under it?  Let the House reflect upon this fair right and legal.  For my part, I see nothing in,
and reasonable distinction, and they will see the  the late election for Westminster peculiar and i
paltriness of those quibbles, the misery of those  distinct from many other elections, but this sin-.
low  subterfuges, which imply that we would  gly, that I was one of the candidates.  In that
bring  a dead man to life;" and which imply  light it is already seen by every cool, dispassion-.
an inconsistency between the motion and the ar- ate, and sensible man; and that the whole nation.
guments advanced in support of it.               will contemplate and construe the business of this
What, I beg leave to ask, has appeared to the  night as an act of personal oppression, I am thorHouse extraordinary or uncommon in the elec- oughly convinced; nor can they think otherwise,
tion for Westminster, that justifies this matchless  when they learn that in all the law books of this
violence?  In all the variety of evidence they  country, in all your journals, in all the histories
have heard at the bar, has there been a proof of  of Parliament, in all the annals of elections, in
one single bad vote of my side? Not one. But this great land of elections, where, from time to 
there was much hearsay that I had bad votes, time, all that power, all that ingenuity, all that.
Sir Cecil Wray and his agents told the High  opulence could devise or execute, has been tried
Bailiff they heard I had.  Good God, sir, am I in elections-where, in the vast mass of cases
addressing men of common sense?  Did any of  that have happened, in all the multiplied variety
you ever yet hear of an election wherein the losing  of singular and curious contests we read and hear
candidate did not charge bad votes and bad prac- of, nothing is found that assimilates with, or autices upon the fortunate candidate?  Peevish-  thorizes this scrutiny, under these circumstances —
ness upon miscarriage is perhaps an error, but it not even by the worst of men, in the worst of'
is the habit of human nature; and was the High  times.
Bailiff of Westminster so unhackneyed in the    III. (1.) I will acquit the honorable gentle —
ways of men, as to be unapprized of this frailty; man over against me [Mr. Pitt] of be- erk or.
or are the discontents of Sir Cecil Wray, and the  ing the author, or being a voluntary  aore general
loose accusations of his agents, the extraordinary  instrument in this vile affair; and in
things which the House sees in the Westminster that concession, sir, I do not give him much. It
election, to justify this proceeding? Is the length  is but crediting him for a little common sense,
of the election one of these uncommon incidents? indeed, when I suppose that, from a regard to
By no means. The same thing happened at Bris- that government of which he is the nominal leadtol, where, without doubt, a scrutiny would have  er, from a regard to his own character with the
been granted, if the returning officer had thought world at this time, and his reputation with pos —
the law would bear him  out in it.  The same  terity, he acts his part in this business not with —
thing happened at Lancaster, where a scrutiny  out concern.  That he may be accusable of too
was demanded and refused, and where, when the  servile a compliance is probable enough; but of'
connections of one of the candidates25 are consid- a free agency in it I believe he is guiltless. Not:
ered, no doubt can be entertained that every strat- to him, sir, but to its true cause, do I attribute
agem to procrastinate, every scheme to perplex, this shameful attack-to that black, that obstievery expedient to harass, all that a disposition  nate, that stupid spirit which, by some strange
not the mildest when victorious, nor the most pa- infatuation, pervades, and has pervaded the countient when vanquished, all that wealth, all that oils of this country throughout the whole course
the wantonness of wealth could do, would have  of this unfortunate and calamitous reign-to that
been exerted; and where a plan so admirably  weak, that fatal, that damnable system, which has.
calculated for litigation, for vexation, for expense, been the cause of all our disgraces and all our
for oppression, as a scrutiny, would not have been  miseries-to those secret advisers, who hate with.
admitted, were it found legal or practicable.    rancor and revenge with cruelty-to those maLet the House reflect for a moment upon the  lignant men, whose character it is to harass the
object of their enmity with a relentless and insa2 Mr. Lowther, the nephew of Sir James Lowther. tiate spirit of revenge; to those, sir, and not to,
I:




498                                    MR. FOX  ON                                       [1784.
the honorable gentleman, do I impute this unex- its lenity it might adopt the latter method, but
ampled persecution.6                            that their opinion was for issuing a new writ.
(2.) Having said so much as to the real au-  Now, sir, if T, who think the old writ totally anthors of this measure, there remains another con- nihilated-who think that its powers and authorsideration with which I am desirous to impress  ities have been completely extinct since the 18th
the House.  It is a consideration, however, of May-had delivered such an opinion, there
which in policy I ought to conceal, because it would have been nothing in it inconsistent. And
will be an additional incitement to my enemies  I should certainly be for issuing a new writ in
to proceed in their career with vigor; but it will preference to a scrutiny, if the law, the reason
nevertheless show the extreme oppression and  of the thing, and the practice of Parliament, did
glaring impolicy of this scrutiny-I mean the  not convince me that the High Bailiff having finconsideration of expense.                       ished the election on the 17th, might make a reI have had a variety of calculations made upon  turn as of that day.  But for the learned gentlethe subject of this scrutiny, and the lowest of all men who contend that the old writ is still in full
the estimates is a18,000.  This, sir, is a serious vigor and force; who think that the High Bailiff
and an alarming consideration.  But I know it has acted constitutionally and legally, and that a
may be said (and with a pitiful triumph it per- scrutiny may go on after the return of the writhaps will be said) that this is no injury to me, in- for those gentlemen to assert that the issuing a
asmuch as I shall bear but a small portion of the  new one would be the fitter measure, is indeed
burden; but this, sir, to me, is the bitterest of all extraordinary.  But, sir, against that position,
reflections!                                     that the House might order the scrutiny to proAffluence is, on many accounts, an enviable  ceed, as a measure of lenity, I beg leave directly
state; but if ever my mind languished for and  to oppose myself! I beg leave to deprecate such
sought that situation, it is upon this occasion; it lenity, such oppressive, such cruel lenity!
is to find that, when I can bear but a small part    To issue a new writ is a severe injustice, and
of this enormous load of wanton expenditure, the  a great hardship; but if I am forced to the alternmisfortune of my being obnoxious to bad men in  ative, if I am driven to the necessity of choosing
nighmauthority should extend beyond myself; it between two evils, I do implore the House rather
is when I find that those friends whom I respect to issue a new writ than to order this scrutiny.
for their generosity, whom I value for their vir- Nothing can possibly be half so injurious, half so
tues, whom I love for their attachment to me, burdensome, half so vexatious to me and to my
and those spirited constituents to whom  I am  friends, as this scrutiny; and it is evidently inefbound by every tie of obligation, by every feeling  fectual, as it can not be supposed that I should
of gratitude, should, besides the great and import- finally submit to the decision of a tribunal from
ant injury they receive in having no representa- which I have so little justice to expect.  There
tion in the popular Legislature of this country, is nothing, I assure the House, to which I should
be forced into a wicked waste of idle and fruit- not rather resort than to the conscience of Mr.
less costs, only because they are too kind, too par-  Thomas Corbett; upon whom I do not expect.tialto me. This, sir, is their crime; and for their that the translation of the scene from Covent
-adherence to their political principles, and their Garden to St. Ann's, or proceeding upon a scrui:personal predilection for me, they are to be pun- tiny instead of a poll, will operate such converiished with these complicated hardships.         sions as to give me any hope of his displaying'These, sir, are sad and severe reflections; and  any other character, or appearing in any other
although I a.m convinced they will infuse fresh  light than that in which I have seen him upon.courage into my enemies, and animate them the  many occasions in his official capacity.  Theremrnore to carry every enmity to the most vexatious  fore, sir, if it be only the alternative, I beg that
and vindictive extremity, still it shows the wick- the issuing a new writ may be the alternative
-edness of this scrutiny, and the fatality of its ef- you will adopt.  In that case, I assure the hon-:fects as an example for future ministers.       orable gentleman [Mr. Pitt] that I shall immedi(3.) Little remains for me now to say upon  ately apply to him for one of the Chiltern Hund-'this subject; and I am sure I am unwilling to  reds to vacate my seat for Kirkwall, and instanttrespass more upon the House than is barely nec- ly throw myself, as my only chance for the honor
essary. I can not, however, omit to make an ob- of sitting in this House, upon the good opinion.servation upon an argument of two learned  of the electors of Westminster-who, in a season
-gentlemen,27 who concluded two very singular of frenzy and general delusion; who, when arti-.speeches with this very singular position, that fice, fallacy, and imposture prevailed but too suc-,the House had only to choose between issuing  cessfully in other parts of the country, discovered:a new  writ or ordering the scrutiny; that in  a sagacity, a firmness, and a steadiness superior
__ _____-_-_-~~~.Q to the effects of a vulgar and silly clamor; ana
a6 This refers to that system of secret influence  who upon the very spot, the very scene of action,with the King, supposed to have commenced with      fested that they understood and despised the
"Lord Bute, which was so much complained of at the  mis   h          undestood   d desised the
beginming of this reign. Here Mr. Fox alludes par- hypocrisy, the fraud, and falsehood which gulled
ticularly to Lord Temple's communications with the  and duped their fellow-subjects in other places.
King, respecting the East India Bill, and the events  In the event of a new election, I do anticipate
dependent thereon.                              future triumphs more brilliant, more splendid, if
72 The Lord Advocate and Mr. Hardinge.         possible, than those I had lately the honor of en



1784.]                       THE WESTMINSTER SCRUTINY.                                         499
joying.  Little fear do I feel of success with the  of those by whom I am supported-when I conelectors of Westminster, who will not, I am sure, sider that all that artifice could dictate and powabandon me until I desert those principles which  er could execute have been exerted upon this
first recommended me to their favor!              occasion, I can have no doubt that the hand of a
(4.) A person of great rank in this House [Mr. revengeful government pervades it all. The opPitt] has thrown out a hint or threat, I know  position of such a government upon an election
not which to call it, in a former debate, " that I  is a discouraging circumstance; and the likelishould not again disturb the peace of the city of  hood of renewing again those events which I
Westminster."   Good God, sir! did any man  have witnessed within the last two months, is
ever hear such aggravating, such insulting in- indeed a formidable and terrific prospect.
sinuations? I disturb the peace of Westminster!    When I look back, sir, to all thee shameful and
Is that honorable gentleman not contented with  shocking scenes of the Westminster electionbreaking every law, with violating every stat- when I consider that my enemies practiced all
ute, with overturning every analogy and every  that was possible of injustice, indecency, and
precedent, to accomplish this business; but must irreverence in their efforts to overwhelm mehe, at the very moment he thus makes a deep  when I consider the gross, the frontless prostibreach in the English Constitution, complete the  tution of names too sacred to be mentioned28catalogue of injury, by adding pertness and per- when I consider that all the influence of all the
sonal contumely to every species of rash and in- various branches of government was employed
considerate violence!  I, I disturb the peace of  against me, in contempt of propriety and defithis city, who have three times had the honor of  ance of law-when I consider that a body of
representing it in this House!  I, who was fa- men was brought, in the appearance of constavored with the free suffrages of its electors, long, bles, to the place of election, under the command
long before any of those who lately opposed me  of a magistrate, and against the express opinion
were ever talked of, ever thought of for such a  of all the other magistrates of Westminsterdistinction!  Every man qualified to sit in Par- that these constables broke that peace they were
liament has a right to offer himself wherever he  bound to preserve, and created a riot which
thinks proper; and it is indecent, daring, and  proved fatal to one of their own body-when I
audacious in any man, to insinuate that he ought consider that this was made the pretense of a
not to disturb the peace of the place.  I there- wanton, and indecent, and unconstitutional introfore hope, sir, that a language so peculiarly false  duction of the military, in violation of all that has
and unbecoming toward me, and so directly re- been done by our ancestors to keep sacred the
pugnant to the genius and spirit of the Constitu- freedom  of election-when I consider that the
tion, will meet with the disapprobation it de- lives of innocent'men were deemed light and
serves in this House, as it certainly will be re- trivial impediments to the gratification of that
ceived with merited odium  and execration out implacable spirit of revenge, which  appears
of this House.                                    through the whole of this business-when I conUpon the generous protection of the electors  sider that several men of the lower order of life,
of this city I shall certainly throw myself, in case  whose only crime was appearing in my interest,
of a new writ; and, in doing so, sir, well I am  were confined for many weeks in a prison, and
aware what a series of various difficulties I have  obliged to stand trial,29 and that others, of the
to encounter.  Expenses at elections, in despite  higher rank, ingenious and amiable men, valuaof every effort to reduce them, still continue  ble for their qualities, respectable for their charmost exorbitant; and how ill matched in funds  acters, distinguished for their abilities, and every
and certain inexhaustible resources I stand with  way meriting the esteem of mankind, were also
my opponents, is indeed very unnecessary to ex- attacked without the show  of a pretense, and
plain.  But, sir, it is not in the article of ex- obliged to undergo the ceremony of a public acpenses that I should most dread the operation of  quittal from the foul crime of murder-when I
that power that sustains my adversaries-that consider that palpable perjury, and subornation
poswer which discovers itself in characters that of perjury were employed to accomplish the sancan not be mistaken, through every part of this  guinary object of this base conspiracy-when I
transaction.  I must be blind not to see that the  consider that the malignity of my enemies has
hand of government appears throughout this  stopped at nothing, however gross and wicked, to
matter. When I consider the extreme care em-  ruin me and all that appeared in my interestployed in preparing it for the measures which  when I consider all this, sir, I can not, indeed, but
have been taken in this House in consequence  look with some anxiety to the circumstance of a
of it-when I consider the evident determination  new election.
not to let it rest here-when I consider the ex-    I am  not, it is well known, sir, of a melantraordinary zeal and anxiety of particular per- choly complexion, or of a desponding turn of
sons in this House to shelter and to sanctify this    Reference is here made to the use of the King's
TT- * -r~ ~~^~~c~   I T  -I   i - - r  Reference is here made to the use of the Kilg's
High Bailiff-when I consider the situation of
name by Lord Temple and others, to defeat Mr.
those who take the lead, and are most active in  Fox.
his vindication-when I consider the indifference    29 They were acquitted on that trial. Mr. O'Bryof my adversaries to the expenses which result en, who is next referred to, was indicted for murder,
From this scrutiny, but which expenses must be  but no evidence whatever was produced agahinst
a severe stroke upon the spirit and independence  him, and he was of course discharged.




500                                       MR. FOX ON                                       [1792.
mind; yet the idea of again combating this host  think there is little to be expected from such a
of oppressions might, in other situations, deter  House of Commons.  But let the question termme from the risk.  But I owe too much to the  inate as it may, I feel myself bound to maintain
electors of Westminster ever to abandon them   an unbroken spirit through such complicated diffrom any dread of any consequences; and I do  ficulties.  And I have this reflection to solace
assure you that I should conceive a new writ, me, that this unexampled injustice could never
with the hazard of all these hardships, as a great have succeeded but by the most dangerous and
indulgence and favor, compared to that mockery, desperate exertions of a government, which,
that insult upon judicature, a scrutiny under Mr. rather than not wound the object of their enmiThomas Corbett.                                  ty, scrupled not to break down all the barriers
Sir, I have nothing more to say upon this sub-  of law; to run counter to the known custom of
ject.  Whatever may be the fate of the ques- our ancestors; to violate all that we have of
tion, it will be a pleasing reflection to me that I  practice and precedent upon this subject; and
have delivered my opinions at full upon a point to strike a deep blow into the very vitals of the
so important to that great and respectable body  English; Constitution, without any other induceof men, to whom I am so much indebted; and I  ment, or temptation, or necessity, except the masincerely thank the House for the honor of their  lignant wish of gratifying an inordinate and im.
patience and attention through so long a speech. placable spirit of resentment.
To the honorable gentleman over against me
[Mr. Pitt] I will beg leave to offer a little advice.    These eloquent reasonings, and the significant
If he condemns this measure, let him not stoop  appeal at the close, were lost upon Mr. Pitt
to be the instrument of its success.  Let him   He had taken his ground, and Mr. Ellis' motion
well weigh the consequences of what he is about,  was negatived by a majority of 117.  Still the
and look to the future effect of it upon the nation  mind of the country was affected precisely as
at large.  Let him  take care, that when they  Mr. Fox declared it would be.  The scrutiny
see all the powers of his administration employed  was more and more regarded as dishonorable
to overwhelm an individual, men's eyes may not and unjust; especially when, at the expiration
open sooner than they would if he conducted  of eight months, Mr. Fox was found to have lost
himself within some bounds of decent discretion, only eighteen votes, as'compared with his antagand not thus openly violate the sacred principles  onist.  All this time had been spent upon two
of the Constitution. A moderate use of his pow- out of seven parishes, and how long the investier might the longer keep people from reflecting  gation might be continued no one could predict.
upon the extraordinary means by which he ac-  On Feb. 9th, 1785, another motion was made
quired it. But if the honorable gentleman neg-  for an immediate return.  This was rejected by
lects his duty, I shall not forget mine.  Though  a greatly diminished majority. The motion was
he may exert all the influence of his situation to  renewed at the close of the same month, when
harass and persecute, he shall find that we are in-  the majority against it was reduced to nine.  On
capable of unbecoming submissions.  There is a  the third of March, 1785, it was made again,
principle of resistance in mankind which will not and Mr. Pitt now endeavored to stave it off by
brook such injuries; and a good cause and a good  moving an adjournment; but perfectly as he was
heart will animate men to struggle in proportion  master of his majority on every other subject,
to the size of their wrongs, and the grossness of  they deserted him here.  His motion was negtheir oppressors.  If the House rejects this mo- atived by a vote of 162 to 124.  The original
tion, and establishes the fatal precedent which  motion was carried, and the next day the High
follows that rejection, I confess I shall begin to  Bailiff made a return of Mr. Fox.
SPEECH
OF MR. FOX ON THE RUSSIAN ARMAMENT, DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, MARCH 1,
1792.
INTRODUCTION.
THIS was the most galling attack ever made by Mr. Fox on his great antagonist. The circumstances
of the case were these. Turkey having commenced war against Russia in 1788, Joseph, Emperor of
Austria, espoused the cause of the Russians, and attacked the Turks. At the end of two years, however, Joseph died, and his successor, Leopold, being unwilling to continue the contest, resolved on peace.
He therefore called in the mediation of England and Prussia at the Congress of Reichenbach; and the
three allied powers demanded of the Empress of Russia to unite in making peace on the principle of
the status quo, that is, of giving up all the conquests she had gained during the war. To this Catharine
strongly objected, and urged the formation of a new Christian kingdom out of the Turkish provinces
of Bessarabia, Moldavia, and Wallachia, over which her grandson Constantine was expected to be
ruler. This the allied powers refused, on the ground of its giving too great a preponderance to Russia;
and the Empress, being unable to resist so strong an alliance, consented finally to relinquish all her conquests, with the exception of the fortress of Oczakow (pronounced Otchakoff), at the mouth of the Dnie



1792.]                          THE RUSSIAN  ARMAMENT.                                          501
per, on the Black Sea, and a desert tract of country dependent thereon, which was valuable only as a
security for her former conquests. England and Prussia, however, insisted on her restoring Oczakow,
to which they attached undue importance as the supposed key of Constantinople, distant about one hundred and ninety miles. The pride of Catharine was touched, and she indignantly refused. Mr. Pitt
instantly prepared for war, and with his views and feelings at that time he would probably have thrown
himself into the contest with all the energy and determination which marked his character.
But when he brought the subject before Parliament, he found that both sides of the House shrunk back.
His majority carried him through, indeed, but with diminished numbers; and as the question came up
again and again under different forms, it became obvious that the nation would never sustain him on so
narrow an issue; for it seemed preposterous to every one to think of plunging England into war about a
fortress in the wilds of Tartary, which hardly any man in the kingdom had ever heard of before. He
therefore wisely determined to recede, though much to the mortification of some of his friends, and particularly of the Duke of Leeds, his foreign secretary, who instantly resigned under a sense of the disgrace brought upon government. Still Mr. Pitt continued his preparations for war (fearing, no doubt, that
the Empress might rise in her demands), and thus brought upon himself new charges of wasting the
public money, since it turned out that Catharine was still ready to abide by her original terms. On those
terms the matter was finally adjusted, Mr. Pitt pledging himself that Turkey should accept them within
four months, or be abandoned to her fate. Accordingly, peace was concluded on this basis between the
Empress and the Porte, in August, 1791, and Oczakow has remained from that time in the hands of the
Russians.
At the next session of Parliament, early in 1792, the Opposition seized upon this as a favorable opportunity to attack Mr. Pitt. He had placed himself, they affirmed, in a dilemma from which it was impossible for him to escape. If Oczakow was so important as to justify threats of war, and the expenditure of
so large a sum for its recovery, he deserved a vote of censure for giving it up; if not so important, he
equally deserved censure for endangering the peace of the nation, and adding, by his rashness, to the
weight of the public burdens. Whether he had acted the part of a coward or a bully, he had equally
disgraced the nation, and deserved its sternest reproof. Such were the views with which Mr. Whithread
moved his celebrated resolutions, on the 29th of March, 1792, condemning Mr. Pitt as having been " guilty
of gross misconduct tending to incur unnecessary expense, and to diminish the influence of the British
nation in Europe."
The debate occupied two nights, probably the most painful ones Mr. Pitt ever spent in the House of
Commons. He was ingeniously defended on the ground of the balance of power, by Mr. Jenkinson, Mr.
Grant, and Mr. Dundas (though some of his adherents gave him up, and joined in the general reprobation);
and was lashed unmercifully by Mr. (afterward Earl) Grey, Sir Philip Francis, Mr. Sheridan, Mr. Windham, and others. Mr. Sheridan; speaking of the plea that ministers had obtained the navigation of the
Dniester as a " radoucissement," said, "The Empress, with a vein of sarcasm, granted them their sqveetener, but required them to go to the Porte and demand the same on their part. The entry of the Grand Vizier (Mr. Pitt) into the divan, accompanied by the Reis Effendi (Mr. Dundas), must have been a very curious spectacle! What sort of reception and dialogue must have taken place?'What glorious terms
have you procured with your grand fleet? Have you humbled Russia?  Does she tremble at your power? Does she crouch? Have you burned her fleets for us? Have you demolished St. Petersburgh?' A
melancholy No! imust be the answer.' Vhat! does she not repent that she provoked you? But have
yon made her give up Ocza7kow?  That your sovereign has pledged himself for.' The reply must be,'Nothing of all this! We have engaged, if you do not comply with every tittle she demanded of you
before we presumed to interfere, that iee will abandon you to all the conse/qsences of the war!'"  Mr.
Windham, speaking of the unimportance of Oczakow as a ground of arming, said, "Their political object
was almost a nothing, and that nothing they have failed to obtain! They have not even the plea of a
great and glorious failure. They aimed at trifling objects, and their success has been still more diminutive.
It reminds one of the account of an invalid who could swallow nothing, and even that wcould not stay on
his stomach!  Or, to express it more classically,
Nil habuit Codrus, attamen infelix ille,
Perdidit totum nil!"'
Mr. Pitt bore the whole in silence, resolved, when the attack was through, to sum up briefly in his own
defense, and throw himself on his majority. But Mr. Fox held back, obviously with a view to defeat the
plan; until, at the end of the first evening, Mr. Dundas called upon him by name to come forward, claiming for Mr. Pitt a right to the closing turn. Mr. Fox denied the right, but promised (as there was not then
enough time left) to open the debate the next evening, if the House would adjourn over. This was accordingly done, and, on the evening of the first of March, he delivered the following speech. Lord Brougham has spoken of it as perhaps the ablest, and certainly the most characteristic, of all Mr. Fox's productions. The occasion was one which gave the fullest scope for his favorite mode of attack, the argumenturm ad honminem, the exposure of inconsistencies, the detection of what he considered the secret
Codrus had nothing, yet, unhappy man,
He all that nothing lost!




502                                       MR. FOX  ON                                        [1792.
motives of his opponents, and the bitterest invectives against Mr. Pitt's conduct, as bringing indelible
disgrace on the country. The reader will mark the dexterity and force with which he wrests from the
hands of Mr. Pitt's friends every weapon they had used in his defense-the ingenuity with which he
shapes and interprets every act of the minister into a ground of condemnation-the closeness with which
he holds him to the point, and the incessant goading to which he subjects him, on the horns of the dilemma mentioned above.
SPEECH, &c.
SIR,-After the challenge which was thrown  the truth, never did man stand so much in need of
Reasn fo out to me in the speech of a right hon-every advantage   Never was thee  
notspeaking orable gentleman [Mr. Dundas], last an occasion in which a minister was ftloa, n(dlhis
before.                                                                                  present back-.    night, I consider it my duty to trouble  exhibited - to this House in cireurn- vardliess to
you somewhat at length on this important ques- stances so ungracious as those under explain.
tion.  But before I enter into the consideration  which he at present appears.  Last session of
of it, I will explain why I did not obeya call Parliament, we had no fewer than four debates
made, and repeated several times, in a manner  upon the question of the armament, in which the
not very consistent either with the fieedom of de-  right honorable gentleman involved this country,
bate, or with the order which the right honora-  without condescending  to explain the object
ble gentleman [Mr. Pitt] himself has prescribed  which he had in view.  The minority of this
for the discussion of this day.  Why any mem-  House stood forth against the monstrous measure
bers should think themselves entitled to call on  of involving the country. without, unfolding the
an individual in that way, I know not; but why  reason.  The minister proudly and obstinately
I did not yield to the call is obvious.  It was  refused, and called on the majority to support
said by an honorable gentleman, last night, to be  him.  We gave our opinion at large on the
the wish of the minister to hear all that could be  subject, and with effect, as it turned out, on the
said on the subject, before he should rise to en-  public mind.  On that of the right honorable
ter into his defense.  If so, it certainly would  gentleman, however, we were not successful;
notbecome me to prevent him from hearing any  for what was his conduct?  He replied to us,
other gentleman who might be inclined to speak  " I hear what you say. I could answer all your
on the occasion; and as he particularly alluded  charges; but I know my duty to my King too
to me, I thought it respectful to give way to gen-  well to submit, at this moment, to expose the
tiemen, that I might not interrupt the course  secrets of the state, and to lay the reasons before
which he has chosen, as it seems he reserves  you of the measure on which I demand your
himself till I have spoken.                        confidence.  I choose rather to lie for a time
This call on me is of a singular nature.  A   under all the imputations which you may heap
Mr. Pitt no  minister is accused of having rashly  upon me, trusting to the explanations which will
right to claim engaged the country in a measure by  come at last."  Such was explicitly his lanwhich we have suffered disaster and  guage.  However I might differ from the right
disgrace, and when a motion of censure is made,  honorable gentleman in opinion, I felt for his sithe chooses to reserve himself, and speak after ev-  uation.  There was in this excuse some shadow
ery one, that no means may be given to reply to  of reason by which it might be possible to dehis defense-to expose its fallacy, if fallacious,  fend him, when the whole of his conduct came
or to detect its misrepresentations, if he shall to be investigated.  I thought it hard to goad
choose to misrepresent what may be said.  If  him, when, perhaps, he considered it as unsafe
the right honorable gentleman is truly desirous  to expose what he was doing.  But when the
of meeting the charges against him, and has con-  conclusion of the negotiation had loosed him
fidence in his ability to vindicate his conduct, why  from his fetters, when he had cast off the tramnot pursue the course which would be manly and  nels that bound him, I thought that, like the
open?  Why not go into a committee, as was  horse described by Homer (if I remembered, I
offered him  by the honorable gentleman who  would quote the lines), exulting in the fresh pasmade the motion [Mr. Whitbread], in which the  tures after he had freed himself fiom the bridle,
forms of this House would have permitted mem-  the right honorable gentleman would have been
bers on each side to answer whatever was ad-  eager to meet us with every sort of explanavanced by the other, and the subject would have  tion and satisfaction.l   I thought that, restrained
received the most ample discussion?  Instead of
this honorable course, he is determined to take    1 The lies referred to are those near the end of
all advantages.  He screens himself by a strat-  the sixth book of the Iliad in which Paris, after beoin  withheld for a time from the combat, is repreagem which no defendant in any process in this                     a time f    te combat, is epresented as rushing to meet the foe with all the eacountry could enjoy; since no man put upon his  ers of   ose ecped fom te stall, wen e
defense in any court of justice could so contrive  seeks his accustomed pastures.
as not only to prevent all reply to his defense, but,    
all refutation of what he may assert, and all ex-    d' To o      ao   tbSp fof 7iroSo KO a e    rvo  L 
desuov cTrotbPlVSac OsEi0 7redioto KpoaTowv,
planation of what he may misrepresent.             i    i ooOa         o   ora.E'LOUoC XoVEcOaL EV,),&oc wo7'a/zo~o,
Such are the advantages which the right hon-  dv&LOUV' -6oV 6E Rapr EXe, aidjs  6D XaLrat
orable gentleman [Mr. Pitt] is determined to   zotl, aaacovrat. 6' 6ayXa',aL)t  reroL6Od,
seize in this moment of his trial; and, to confess  ti/Qa E yovva f pet /zer Tr' j71ea cl vouv lr'ovY.




1792.]                           THE RUSSIAN  ARMAMENT.                                         503
by no delicacy, and panting only for the moment precluded from  all inquiry into that business.
that was to restore him to the means of develop-  But now  the right honorable gentleman, coning, and of expatiating upon every part of his con- scious that the country feels somewhat differentduct that was mysterious; of clearing up that ly, admits the ground of criminality to have been
which had been reprobated; of repelling on the  laid, by producing those documents on your taheads of his adversaries those very accusations  ble, imperfect as they are.  It is from his own
with which they had loaded him-the right hon- confession, therefore, that I am to pronounce him
orable gentleman would have had but one wish, guilty, until he proves himself not to be so; and
that of coming forward in a bold and manly man-  it is enough for me to contend that the papers
ner, and endeavoring to make his cause good  now before us afford him prima facie no justifiagainst us in the face of the world.  Has he done  cation, but, on the contrary, affbrd strong proof
so?  Has he even given us the means of inquir-  of his guilt, inasmuch as they evince a complete
ing fully and fairly into his conduct?  No such  failure in the object he aimed to extort.  Sir,
thing.  He lays before us a set of papers, suffi- the right honorable gentleman is sensible how
cient, indeed, as I shall contend, to found a strong  much these circumstances render it necessary
criminal charge of misconduct against him, but for him to take every possible advantage his sitevidently mutilated, garbled, and imperfect, with  nation can give him. Instead, therefore, of showa view of precluding that full inquiry which his  ing himself anxious to come forward, or thinking
conduct demands, and which we had every rea- it his duty to explain, why it was inconvenient
son to expect he would not have shrunk from on  or impolitic for him to state last year the true
this day.  We call for more.  They are denied  grounds on which he had called upon us to arm,
us.  Why?  " Because," say the gentlemen on  what was the object of that armament, and why
the other side, " unless the papers now before  he had abandoned it, he lays a few papers on the
you show there is ground for accusation, and un- table, and contents himself with an appeal unless you agree to accuse, it is not safe or proper  heard of before: " If you have any thing to say
to grant you more."  But is this a defense for against me, speak out, speak all.  I will not say
the right honorable gentleman?  Do these pa-  a word till you have done.  Let me hear you
pers exculpate him? Directly the reverse. Pri-  one after another.  I will have all the advantage
a fa.cie they condemn him.  They afford us, in  of the game-none of you shall come behind
the first instance, the proof of disappointment. me; for as soon as you have all thrown forth
They show us that we have not obtained what what you have to say, I will make a speech,
we aimed to obtain; and they give us no justi-  which you shall not have an opportunity to confication of the right honorable gentleman for  tradict, and I will throw myself on my majority,
that disappointment.  I have heard much inge- that makes you dumb forever."  Such is the situnity displayed to maintain that there was no  nation in which we stand, and such is the course
guilt.  But what is the fallacy of this argument?  which the right honorable gentleman thinks it honWhen we called for papers during the Spanish  orable to pursue!  I cheerfully yield to him the
negotiation [as to Nootka Sound], we were an-  ground he chooses to occupy, and I will proceed,
swered, " the negotiation was pending, and it was  in obedience to the call personally addressed to
unsafe to grant them. "   Very well.  But when  me, frankly to state the reasons for the vote of
it was over, and the same reasons for withhold- censure, in which I shall this night agree.
ing them could not be said to exist, we were    I. Much argument has been used on topics
told, " Look to the result.  The nation is satis- not unfit, indeed, to be mixed with Mr. Pittnot exfled with what we have got, and you must lay a  this question, but not necessary; doctrinobytl,
g'round of criminality before we can admit your  topics which undoubtedly may be balanceofpower.
principle of calling for papers."   Thus we were  incidentally taken up, but which are not essenThe wanton courser thus with reins unbound      tial to the discussion.  In this class I rank what
Breaks from his stall, and beats the trembling  has been  said upon the balance of Europe.
ground;                                     Whether the insulated policy which disdained
Pamper'd and proud, he seeks the wonted tides,  all continental connection whatever, as adopted
And laves, in height of blood, his shining sides;   a the beginning of the present reign-whether
His head now freed, he tosses to the skies;     the system of extensive foreign connection, so eaHis lmane dishevel'd o'er his shoulders flies;
He snuffs the females in the distant plain,     gerly insisted on by a young gentleman who spoke
And springs, exulting, to his fields again.-Pope.  yesterday for the first time [Mr. Jenkinson, aft2 In 1789, a Spanish frigate broke up a small trad- erward Lord Liverpool]-orwhether the medium
ing establishment of the English at Nootka Sound, between these two be our interest, are certainalleging that Spain had an exclusive right to all the  ly very proper topics to be discussed, but as cerPacific coast from Cape Horn to the sixteenth de. tainly not essential topics to this question.  Of
gree of north latitude. Mr. Pitt entered into nego- the three, I confidently pronounce the middle
tiations on the subject, which could not then be made  line the true political course of this country.  I
public; and in order to enforce his demands, he ap-                                 continenta conplied to Parliament in 1790 for a large increase of.., iy                             
military and naval force. It was granted, and Spai  nection is to be determined by its own merits.
yielded the point during the same year. She reyielded  the point duing 1the same year.  She re-  I am one of those who hold that a total inatten-'tored Nootka Sound, and conceded to England the  tion to foreign connections might be, as it has
ilght of carrying on a free navigation and her fish- proved, very injurious to this country.  But if I
tries in the North Pacific Ocean.                 am driven to choose between the two extremes.




504                                       MR. FOX  ON                                        [1792.
between that of standing insulated and aloof from  mands she made before we began to arm? Cerall foreign connections, and trusting for defense to  tainly not.  We find, from the documents before
our own resources, and that system as laid down  us, that she adhered to one uniform, steady course,
in the speech of an honorable gentleman [Mr. from which neither the apprehension of commerJenkinson], who distinguished himself so much  cial loss, nor the terrors of our arms, influenced
last night, to the extent to which he pressed it, her one moment to recede.  What, then, are we
I do not hesitate to declare that my opinion is to conclude from this intricate system of balances
for the first of those situations.  I should prefer and counterbalances, and those dangerous theo.
even total disunion to that sort of connection, to  ries with which the honorable gentleman seemed
preserve which we should be obliged to risk the  to amuse himself?  Why, that these are specublood and the resources of the country in every  lations too remote from our policy; that in some
quarrel and every change that ambition or acci- parts, even according to the honorable gentledent might bring about in any part of the Con- man's argument, they may be defective, after all,
tinent of Europe.  But in the question before us, and consequently, that if the system  he builds. deny that I am driven to either of these ex- upon it fails in one of its possibilities, it fails in
tremes.  The honorable gentleman, who spoke  the whole of them.  Such must ever be the fate
with all the open ingenuousness, as well as the  of systems so nicely constructed.  But it is not
animation of youth, seemed himself to dread the  true that the system  necessary to enable this
extent to which his own doctrines would lead  country to derive the true benefit from the Dutch
him.  He failed, therefore, to sustain the policy  alliance ought to be founded upon those involved
of the system he described, in that part where it and mysterious politics which make it incumbent
can alone apply, namely, to the degree in which  upon us, nay, which prove its perfection, by comit is necessary for us to support a balance of pelling us to stand forward the principals in every
power.  Holland, for instance, he states to be  quarrel, the Quixotes of every enterprise, the agour natural ally. Granted.  " To preserve Hol- itators in every plot, intrigue, and disturbance,
land, and that she may not fall into the arms of  which are every day arising in Europe to emFrance, we must make an alliance with Prussia."  broil one state of it with another.  I confess that
Good.  But Prussia may be attacked by Austria. l my opinions fall infinitely short of these perilous
" Then we must make an alliance with the Otto- extremes; that possibly my genius is too scanty,
man  Porte, that they may fall on Austria."  and my understanding too limited and feeble, for
Well, but the Porte may be attacked by Russia.  the contemplation of their consequences; and
~' Then we must make an alliance with Sweden, that I can speculate no farther than on connecthat she may fall on Russia."  By the way, I  tions immediately necessary to preserve us, safe
must here remind him that he totally forgot even  and prosperous, from the power of our open ento mention Poland, as if that country, now be- eries, and the encroachment of our competitors.
come in some degree able to act for itself, from  This I hold to be the only test by which the merthe change in its Constitution, was of no moment, its of an alliance can be tried.  I did think, for
or incapable of influencing in any manner this  instance, that when the intrigues of France threatsystem of treaties and attacks.  His natural in- ened to deprive us of our ancient ally, Holland, it
gelnuity pointed out to him that, in casting up the  was wise to interfere, and afterward to form an
account of all this, it would not produce a fa- alliance by which that evil might be prevented."'
vorable balance for England, and he evaded the  But to push the system  farther is pernicious.
consequence of his own principle, by saying that Every link in the chain of confederacies, which
perhaps Russia would not attack  the Porte! has been so widely expatiated upon by the mem"for when we speculate on extreme cases (says her already alluded to, carries us more and more
the honorable gentleman) we have a right to  from the just point.  By this extension the broad
make allowances.  It is fair to expect that when  and clear lines of your policy become narrower
we are in alliance with the Porte, Russia will and less distinct, until at last the very trace of
feel too sensibly the importance of the conmer- them is lost.
cial advantages she enjoys in her intercourse    Other topics have been introduced into the
with this country to risk the loss of them by an  discussion.  The beginning of the war between
attack on her."   Are we, then, to suppose, in  Russia and the Porte has been referred to. What
a scene of universal contest and warfare, that possible connection that has with our armament
this ambitious power, who is reproached as per- I know not, but of that I shall have occasion to
petually and systematically aiming at the de- speak by and by.4
struction of the Porte, and while the rest of Eu-    II. I come, however, sir, to a question more
rope was at peace, has been in a state of restless  immediately before us, and that is, the value
and unceasing hostility with her, will then be the  and importance attached, in the minds of his
only power at peace, and let slip so favorable an
opportunity of destroying her old enemy, simply           178,    e  anifere serious dissentions intelAL   *  8 *    n > D.   1  land, and France manifested her intentions to interbecause she is afraid of losing her trade with you  p, with a view of                en   ao.hn~~                                 _. pose, with a view of gaining an ascendency among
in the Baltic?  If the honorable gentleman                                                       I
the Baltc?  If the honorable  gent  e Dutch.  England and Prussia instantly united
means to state this as a rational conjecture, I  to prevent it; and Mr. Pitt went largely into prepawould ask him  to look to the fact.  Did her rations for war, which had the approbation and consense of these advantages restrain her in the  currence of the whole English nation.
late war, or compel her to desist from the de-     See page 508.




1792.]                         THE RLSSIAN  ARMAMENT.                                        505
Majesty's ministers, to the fortress of Oczakow;  in a worse situation than he found them; for,
Ill onsistency  and here I must beg leave to say,  previous to his interference, if Russia had gone
otniristes in that they have not once attempted to  to Constantinople, he would have been unfettered
of Oczakow, answer the arguments so judiciously  by the stipulations which bind him now, and he
and their conductrespect and ably enforced by my honorable  and his ally might have interfered to save the'" it.'    friend who made this motion. It was Porte fiom total destruction.  But at present the
explicitly stated by the gentlemen on the other  possible and total extirpation of the Ottoman powside, as the only argument for our interference  er is made to depend on a point so precarious as
at all, that the balance of Europe was threaten- their accepting the proposal which the right
ed with great danger if Oczakow was suffered  honorable gentleman thought fit to agree to for
to remain in the hands of Russia.  Of no less  them  within the space of four months.   And
importance did ministers last year state this for- what is this proposal?  Why, that the Turks
tress of Oczakow, than as if it were indeed the  should give up, not only the war they had betalisman on which depended the fate of the whole  gun, but this very Oczakow, which of itself was
Ottoman empire.  But if this, from  their own  sufficient, in the hands of Russia, to overturn the
admission, was true last year, what has happen- balance.  If, therefore, it was so im- Dilernmafor
ed to alter its value?  If it then excited the  portant to recover Oczakow, it is not ministers.
alarms of his Majesty's ministers for the safety  recovered, and ministers ought to be censured.
of Europe, what can enable them now to tell us  If unimportant, they ought never to have dethat we are perfectly secure?  If it was true  manded it.  If so unimportant, they ought to be
that her bare possession of Oczakow would be  censured for arming; but if so important as they
so dangerous, what must be the terror of Eu- have stated it, they ought to be censured for disrope. when they see our negotiators put Russia  arming without haVing gotten it.  Either way,
into the way of seizing even Constantinople it- therefore, the argument comes to the same point,
self?  This was the strong argument of my  and I care not on which side the gentlemen choose
honorable friend [Mr. Whitbread], and which he  to take it up; for whether Oczakow be, as they
maintained with such solid reasoning that not told us last year, the key to Constantinople, on
the slightest answer has been given to it.  To  the preservation of which to Turkey the balance
illustrate the value of Oczakow, however, one  of Europe depended, or, as they must tell us
honorable gentleman [Mr. Grant] went back to  now, of no comparative importance, their conthe reign of Elizabeth, and even to the days of  duct is equally to be condemned for disarming,
Philip and Demosthenes.  He told us that when  and pusillanimously yielding up the object, in
Denosthenes, urging the Athenians to make war the first instance; for committing the dignity of
on Philip, reproached them with inattention to  their Sovereign, and hazarding the peace of their
a few towns he had taken, the names of which  country, in the second.
they scarcely knew, telling them  that those    But they tell us it is unfair to involve them
towns were the keys by which he would in time  in this dilemma.  There was a middle No escape
invade and overcome Greece, he gave them  a  course to be adopted.  Oczakow  was from  tis
salutary warning of the danger that impended. certainly of much importance; but this
But if the opponents of that great orator had  importance was to be determined upon by cirprevailed, if they had succeeded in inducing their cumstances.  Sir, we are become nice, indeed, in
countrymen to acquiesce in the surrender not our political arithmetic.  In this calculating age
only of those towns, but of considerably more, we ascertain to a scruple what an object is realas in the present instance, with what face would  ly worth.  Thus it seems that Oczakow  was
he afterward have declared to his countrymen,  worth an armament, but not worth a war; it
" True it was that these sorry and nameless  was worth a threat, but not worth carrying that
towns were the keys to the Acropolis itself; but threat into execution!  Sir, I can conceive nothyou have surrendered them, and what is the  ing so degrading and dishonorable as such an alr
consequence?  You are now in a state of the  gument. To hold out a menace without ever semost perfect security.  You have now nothing  riously meaning to enforce it. constitutes, in comto fear.  You have now the prospect of sixteen  mon languagoe, the true description of a billy.
years of peace before you!"  I ask, sir, what Applied to the transactions of a nation, the diswould have been the reception even of Demos- grace is deeper, and the consequences fatal to
thenes himself, if he had undertaken to support its honor.  Yet such is the precise conduct the
such an inconsistency?                          King's ministers have made the nation hold in
Let us try this, however, the other way.  In  the eyes of Europe, and which they defend by
order to show that his Majesty's ministers merit an argument that, if urged in private life, would
the censure which is proposed, I will admit that stamp a man with the character of a coward
the preservation of the Turks is necessary for and a bully, and sink him to the deepest abyss
the security of a balance of power.  I'trust, at of infamy and degradation.  Sure I am that this
the same time, that this admission, which I make  distinction never suggested itself to the reflecmerely for the argument, will not be disingen- tion of a noble Duke [the Duke of Leeds], whose
uously quoted upon me, as hypothetical state-        M. Pitt as already stated, when lie gave up
ments too commonly are, for admissions of fact. Oczakow, agreed that Turkey should accede to
What will the right honorable gentleman gain  these terms within four months, or be abandoned
by it?  The Turks, by his arrangement, are left to her fate.




506                                     MR. FOX  ON                                      [1792.
conduct throughout the whole of this business  to avert the mischief, I should not hesitate one
has evinced the manly character of his mind, un- moment to act upon my own responsibility.  If,
accustomed to such calculations!  From  him  however, the public opinion did not happen to
we learn the fact. He said in his place that his  square with mine; if, after pointing out to them
colleagues thought it fit to risk a threat to re- the danger, they did not see it in the same light
cover Oczakow, but would not risk a war for it. with me; or if they conceived that another remSuch conduct was not for him. It might suit the  edy was preferable to mine, I should consider it
characters of his colleagues in office: it could not as due to my King, due to my country, due to
his. But they say it might be worth a war with  my own honor, to retire, that they might pursue
the public opinion, but worth nothing without it! the plan which they thought better by a fit inI can not conceive any case in which a great and  strument-that is, by a man who thought with
wise nation, having committed itself by a men- them.  Such would be my conduct on any subace, can withdraw  that menace without dis-  ject where conscientiously I could not surrender
grace.  The converse of the proposition I can  my judgment.  If the case was doubtifl, or the
easily conceive.  That there may be a place, emergency not so pressing, I should be ready,
for instance, not fit to be asked at all, but which  perhaps, to sacrifice my opinion to that of the
being asked for, and with a menace, it is fit to  public; but one thing is most clear in such an
insist upon.  This undoubtedly goes to make a  event as this, namely, that I ought to give the
nation, like an individual, cautious of committing  public the means of forming an accurate estiitself, because there is no ground so tender as  mate.
that of honor. How do ministers think on this    Do I state this difference fairly?  If I do, and
subject?  Oczakow was every thing by itself; if the gentleman over against me will They ought, at
but when they added to Oczakow the honor of  admit that in the instance before us ownTpriSiples,
England, it became nothing!  Oczakow, by it- the public sentiment ought to have tohae ascert    h     a  ined it beself, threatened the balance of Europe.  Ocza- influenced them, it follows that the forehand.
kow and national honor united weighed nothing  public sentiment ought to have been consulted
in the scale!   Honor is, in their political arith- before we were committed in the eyes of Eumetic, a minus quantity, to be subtracted from  rope, and that the country ought to have had the
the value of Oczakow!  Sir, I am ashamed of  means, and the information necessary to form
this reasoning; nor can I reflect on the foul their judgment upon the true merits of this quesstain it has fixed on the English name, without tion.  Did the King's ministers act thus?  Did
feeling mortified and humbled indeed!  Their they either take the public opinion, or did they
late colleague, the noble Duke [of Leeds], urged  give us the means of forming one?  Nothing
his sentiments with the feelings that became him  like it.  On the 28th of March, 1791, the mes-feelings that form a striking contrast to those  sage was brought down to this House.  On the
that actuate the right honorable gentleman. He  29th, we passed a vote of approbation,' but no
told his country, that when he had made up his opinion was asked from us, no explanation was
mind to the necessity of demanding Oczakow, it given us.  So far from  it, we were expressly
was his opinion that it might have been obtained  told our advice was not wanted; that we had
without a war; but having once demanded it, nothing to do with the prerogative of the Crown
he felt it his duty not to shrink from the war that to make war; that all our business was to give
might ensue from the rejection of that demand, confidence.  So far with regard to this House.
and preferred the resignation of his office to the  I can not help thinking this conduct somewhat
retracting that opinion.  Far different was the  hard upon the majority, who certainly might
conduct of the right honorable gentleman [Mr. have counted for something in the general opinPittl, though his advice was the same; and small ion, when the right honorable gentleman was
were the scruples he felt in tarnishing the honor collecting it, if he meant fairly so to do. I grant,
of his Sovereign, whose name he pledged to this  indeed, that there are many ways by which the
demand, and afterward obliged him  to recede  feeling and temper of the public may be tolerafrom it.                                        bly well known out of this House as well as in it.
III. They tell us, however, and,seem to val- I grant that the opinion of a respectable meeting
Publicopinion. ue themselves much upon it, that, in  at Manchester, of a meeting at Norwich; of a
Mtinisters o0ghlt abandoning the object for which they  meeting at Wakefield, of public bodies of men in
to have resigned ifitwvas d- had armed, they acted in conformity  different parts of England,-might give the right
verse to their                                                        
settle coniiic- to public opinion.  Sir, I will fairly  honorable gentleman a correct idea of the public
tions.     state my sentiments on this subject. impression.6  Permit me to say, also, that in the
It is right and prudent to consult the public  speeches of the minority of this House, he might
opinion.  It is frequently wise to attend even to  find the ground of public opinion, both as to what
public prejudices on subjects of such infinite im- might give it rise, and what might give it counportance, as whether they are to have war or tenance.' But was the majority of this House
peace.  But if, in the capacity of a servant to  the only body whose dispositions were not worth
the Crown, I were to see, or strongly to imag- consulting?  Will the minister say, "I traveled
ine that I saw any measures going forward that to Norwich, to York, to Manchester, to Wakethreatened the peace or prosperity of the coun-   6 Public meetings were held in these and in other
try, and if the emergency were so pressing as to  places, and resolutions passed hostile to the measdemand the sudden adoption of a decisive course  ures of the minister.




1792.]                           THE RUSSIAN  ARMAMENT.                                         507
field, for opinions " " I listened to the minority; the public was against us;' we only know that
r. Pitt'scon- I looked to Lord Stormont, to the Earl a great party in this country was against us, and
duct on this  of Guilford; but as to you, my trusty  therefore we apprehended that, though one canmsubject insulting to his ad-  majority, I neglected you! I had oth-  paign might have been got through, at the beerent     business for you!  It is not your  ginning of the next session they would have inoffice to give opinions, your business is to con- terrupted us in procuring the supplies."   I befide!  You must pledge yourself, in the first in- lieve I quote the right honorable gentlemlan corstance, to all I can ask from you, and perhaps  rectly.  And here, sir, let me pause, and thank
some time in the next year I may condescend to  him for the praise which he gives the gentlemen
let you know the grounds on which you are act- on this side the House.  Let me indulge the
ing."  Such is the language he holds, if his con- satisfaction of reflecting, that though we have
duct were to be explained by words, and a con- not the emoluments of office, nor the patronage
duct more indecent or preposterous is not easily  of power, yet we are not excluded from great
to be conceived; for it is neither more nor less  influence on the measures of government.  We
than to tell us, " When I thought the Ottoman  take pride to ourselves, that at this moment we
power in danger, I asked for an armament to  are not sitting in a committee of supply, voting
succor it.  You approved, and granted it to me. enormous fleets and armies to carry into execuThe public sense was against me, and, without tion this calamitous measure.  To us he honestminding you, I yielded to that sense.  My opin- ly declares this credit to be due; and the counion, however, remains still the same; though it try will, no doubt, feel the gratitude they owe
must be confessed that I led you into giving a  us for having saved them from the miseries of
sanction to my schemes, by a species of reason- war.8
ing which it appears the country has saved itself    An honorable gentleman, indeed [Mr. Jenkinby resisting.  But they were to blame.  I yet son], has told us that our opposition to But the tfil
think that the exact contrary of what was done  this measure in its commencement oc- ure of lis negotiations not
ought to have been done, and that the peace  casioned its having been abandoned chargeableto
and safety of Europe depended upon it.  But by the ministers; but he will not al- the O"ppsiti.''
never mind how you voted, or how directly op- low us the merit of having saved the country
posite to the general opinion, with which I com- from a war by our interposition, but charges us
plied, was that opinion I persuaded you to sup- with having prevented their obtaining the terms
port.  Vote nzoz that I was right in both; in the  demanded, which would have been got without
opinion I still maintain, and in my compliance  a war.  I am glad to hear this argument; but
with its opposite! The peace of Europe is safe. must declare, in the name of the minority, that
I keep msy place, and all is right again."7       we think ourselves most unfairly treated by it,
But after all, the right honorable gentleman  and forced into a responsibility that belongs in
Not treh ow. did not act from any deference to the  no manner whatsoever to our situation.  The
ever, that Mr. public opinion; and to prove this, I minister, when repeatedly pressed on this subPitt did yield
to public opin- have but to recall to your recollec-  ject during the last session; was uniform in af0".'      tion dates. The message was brought firming that he had reasons for his conduct, to
down, as I said before, on the 28th of March; his mind so cogent and unanswerable, that he
and in less than a week, I believe in four days, was morally certain of the indispensable necesafterward, before it was possible to collect the  sity of the measures he was pursuing.  He has
opinion of any one public body of men, their said the same since, and to this hour continues
whole system was reversed. The change, there- his first conviction.  If, therefore, the right honfore, could not come from the country, even had  orable gentleman [Mr.'Pitt] thought so, and
they been desirous of consulting it.  But I have  thought, at the same time, that our arguments
proved that they were not desirous to have an  were likely to mislead the country from its true
opinion from  any quarter.  They came down  interests, why did he contizne silent?  If public
with their purposes masked and vailed to this  support was so necessary to him, that without
House, and tried all they could to preclude in- it, as he tells us now, he could not proceed a
quiry into what they were doing.  These are  single step, why did he suffer us to corrupt the
not the steps of men desirous of acting by opin- passions, to blind and to pervert the understandion.  I hold it, however, to be now acknowl-  ings of the public, to a degree that compelled his
was driven    edged, that it was not the public  sacrifice of this essential measure?  Why did he
fiom his ground opinion, but that of the minority in  quietly, and without concern, watch the prevaby the Opposition in Parlia  this House, which  compelled  the  lence of our false arguments?  Why did he sancment.       ministers to relinquish their ill-ad-  tion their progress, by never answering them,
vised projects; for a right honorable gentleman,  when he knew the consequence must necessarily
who spoke last night [Mr. Dundas], confessed  be to defeat his dearest object, and put the safethe truth in his own frank way.  " Wb certain- ty of his country to the hazard?  Why did he
ly," said he, "do not know that the opinion of  not oppose some antidote to our poison?  But,' There is nothing in the whole speech more char-  Nothing could be more adroit than the manner
acteristic of Mr. Fox, than the ingenuity with which  in which Mr. Dundas' remark is here converted into
he turns the conduct of Mr. Pitt into an insult to his  an acknowledgment that the minority had saved
"faithful majority," and the force he gives it by put- the country fiom war, and a little below, that they
ting' the whole into Mr. Pitt's own mouth.         were not " afaction," as represented by others.




508                                     MR. FOX  ON                                      [1792.
having neglected to do this (because of his duty  accession of power to Russia, from the possesto preserve state secrets, as he would have us sion of Oczakow, so far from  affecting Great
believe), what semblance of right, what possible  Britain, is not likely, according to what the minpretext has he to come forward now, and accuse  isters must assure us, to disturb the tranquillity
us of thwarting his views, or to cast the respons- of her nearest neighbors. That Oczakow, thereibility of his failure and disgrace upon us, whose fore, was at any time an object sufficient to justarguments he never answered, and to whom he ify their interference, I have stated many reaobstinately and invariably refused all sort of in- sons for concluding will not be alleged this night.
formation, by which we might have been enabled    IV. Some of the gentlemen on the other side,
to form a better judgment, and possibly to agree  indeed, have advanced other grounds, Pretense that
with him on this subject?  Another right hon- and told us (I confess it is for the first  a tessor, a
orable gentleman, however [Mr. Dundas], judges time) that in this war the Empress ft s""eoe.
more fairly of us, and I thank him for the hand- of Russia was the aggressor; that on her part
some acknowledgment he paid to the true char- the war was offensive; and that it became us to
acter of the gentlemen on this side of the House; interfere to stop her progress.  They tell us of
for by owning that, because we did not happen  various encroachments in the Kuban [a part of
to approve of this armament, it was abandoned, Tartary], of hostilities systematically carried on
he acknowledges another fact-that we are not in violation of treaties, and many other instances;
what another honorable gentleman [Mr. Steele] not one of which they have attempted to prove
chose to represent us, a faction, that indiscrim- by a single document, or have rested on any othinately approves of every thing, right and wrong. er foundation than their own assertions.  But to
This is clearly manifest from his own admissions; these, sir, I shall oppose the authority of minisfor, giving up when they found we condemned, ters themselves; for, in one of the dispatches of
they must have begun in the idea that we should  the Duke of Leeds to Mr. Whitworth [British
approve.  We approved in the case of Holland, minister to Russia], he desires him to communiand in that of Spain.  In the first case we did  cate to the court of Petersburgh, that if they will
so, because the rectitude of the thing was so clear consent to make peace with the Turks on the
and manifest, that every well-wisher to England  status quo,9 the allies will consent to guarantee
must have done it.  We did so in the case of the Crimea to them, " the object of the wcar," as
Spain, because the objects were explained to us. he states it to be.  I desire no further proof than
The insult given, and the reparation demanded, this, that we always considered the Turks as the
were both before us.  But had the right honor- aggressors; for it follows, that where any place
able gentleman any right, because we agreed to  in the possession of one power is made the ohthe Dutch and Spanish armaments, to anticipate  ject of a war by another, the power claiming
the consent of Opposition to the late one. It was that object is the aggressor.  If, for example,
insulting to impute the possibility to us! What, we were at war with Spain, and Gibraltar the
agree to take the money out of the pockets of the object, Spain, of course, would be the aggressor:
people, without an insult explained, or an object the contrary, if the Havana were the object. The
held up!  It is said the object was stated. and  King of England, therefore, by the dispatch which
that the means only were left to conjecture; that I have quoted, has, in words and in fact, acknowlthe object proposed to the House was an arma- edged the Turks to have been the aggressors in
ment to make a peace, and Oczakow was sup- this war, by making pretensions to a province
posed to be the means by which that peace was solemnly ceded to Russia in the year 1783.  I
to be effected.  Sir, it is almost constantly my  can scarcely think that ministers mean to conmisfortune to be differing from the right honor- tend that cession by treaty does not give right
able gentleman [Mr. Pitt] about the import of to possession.  Where are we to look, therefore,
the words object and means.  In my way of using  to ascertain the right of a country to any place
these words, I should have directly transposed  or territory, but to the last treaty?  To what
them, and called the armament the mneans of  would the opposite doctrine lead?  France might
effecting peace, and Oczakow the object of that claim Canada, ceded in 1763, or we Tobago, cedarmament. And the event proves that ministers ed in 1783.  It might be urged that they took
thought as I should have done; for they gave  advantage of our dispute with our own colonies,
up that object, because they knew they could get and that the treaty gave no right.  Canada, Jathe end they proposed by their armament with- maica, every thing, might be questioned. Where
out it.  This object, indeed, whatever was its would be the peace of Europe, if these doctrines
importance; whether it was or was not, as we were to be acted on?  Every country must conhave alternately heard it asserted and denied, the tinue in a state of endless perplexity, armament,
key of Constantinople; nay, as some wild and  and preparations.  But, happily for mankind, a
fanciful people had almost persuaded themselves, different principle prevails in the law of nations.
the key to our possessions in the East Indies, the  There the last treaty gives the right; and upon
King's ministers have completely renounced; that we must aver, that if, as the dispatch says,
and seem, by their conduct, to have cared very  the Crimea was the object, the Turk was the aglittle what became of that or Constantinople it- gressor.l
self.  The balance of Europe, however, is per-   9 State of things previous to the war.
fectly safe, they tell us; and on that point we   ^T On this subject, Mr. Whitbread said in his openhave nothing more to apprehend. The enormous ing speech, "It was stated by Count Osterman, in




1792.1                           THE RUSSIAN  ARMAMENT.                                         509
V. What, therefore, was the right claimed by  that unnecessary barbarity which dragged them
ealmotives the right honorable gentleman to en- from their homes, deprived them of their liberty,:),Mr.Pitt's ter into this dispute?  I will answer. and tore them from  the industrious exercise of
The right of a proud man, anxious to Ithose modes of life by which they earned support
play a lofty part.  France had gone off the stage. for their families, want( nly, cruelly, and without
The character of the miserable disturber of em-  pretext, because without the smallest intention of
pires was vacant, and he resolved to boast and  employing them.  The gentlemen well know
vapor, and play his antic tricks and gestures on  what I state to be a fact; for they know that
the same theater.  And what has been the first their system was changed, and their object abaneffect of this new experiment upon the British  doned, before even they had begun to issue pressnation?  That, in the pride and zenith of our warrants!
power, we have miserably disgraced ourselves    VI. I return, sir, to the disgraceful condition in
in the eyes of Europe; that the name of his Maj- which the right honorable gentleman Disgrce
esty has been sported with, and stained; that the  has involved us.  Let us see whether brought upon
people of England have been inflamed, their com-  what I have said on this point be not by Mr. Pitt's
merce disturbed, the most valuable citizens drag- literally true.  The Empress of Rus- conduit.
ged from  their houses [by press-warrants], and  sia offered, early in the year 1790, to depart from
half a million of money added to the public bur- the terms she had at first thrown out, namely,
dens.  And here, sir, in justice to my own feel- that Bessarabia, Wallachia, and Moldavia should
ings, I can not pass over wholly in silence the  be independent of the Ottoman power.  This, it
fate of that valuable body of our fellow-citizens  appears, she yielded upon the amicable reprewho are more particularly the victims of these  sentations of the allied powers, and substituted
false alarms, and by whom the most bitter por- in the room of them those conditions which have
tion of the common calamity must be borne.  I  since been conceded to her, namely, that the
am  compelled to admit that every state has a  Dniester should be the boundary between the
right, in the season of danger, to claim the serv- two  empires, and  all former treaties should
ices of all, or any of its members; that the "' sa- be confirmed.  " Then," say ministers, "if we
lies populi suprema lex est."   Tenderness and  gained this by simple negotiation, what may we
consideration in the use of such extensive pow-  not gain by an armament?"  Thus judging of
ers is all I can recommend to those whose busi- her pusillanimity by their own, they threatened
ness it is to call them into action.  But here I  her.  What did she do?  Peremptorily refused
must lament, in common with every feeling mind,  to depart one atom from her last conditions; andt
~~~                              ~~_____________ _ — - - I this determination, I assert, was in the possession
his letter to Mr. Whitworth and Count Goltze, dated  of is Majesty's ministers lono before the arraJune 6th, 1791, that the courts of London and Berlin   t.  They  new  not only this early in tie
at the time avowed that Russia had been unjustly
attacked."  Mr. Pitt, therefore, could not but admit,   onth of March, 1791, but lilteise the resoluin his reply to Mr. Fox, that "in point of strict fact, ti  of te Empress not to rise in her demands.
the Turks were aggressors" in commencing the war. notwithstanding any farther success that might
Still, he contended, that" such had been the conduct attend her arms.  The memorial of the court
of Russia toward the Porte, and such the indubitable  of Denmark, which they have, for reasons best
proof of her hostile intentions toward that power, known to themselves, refused us, hut which was
that although the Turks struck the first blow, the  circulated in every court, and published in evwar might fairly be termed a defensive one." This  ery newspaper in Europe, fully informed them
statement was undoubtedly true, and is confirmed  of these matters. But the King's ministers with
by Belsham, in his Memoirs of the reign of George   
III., vol. iv., 258. It is there shown that Catharine  an absurdity of which there is no exaple, calland the Emperor Joseph met at Cherson in 1787 —  ed upon the country to arm.  Why?  Not bethat "the Turkish Empire at this period presenting  cause they  meant to employ  the armament
an easy andinviting prospect of conquest, a negotia- against her, but in the fanciful hope that, betion was set on foot, with this view, between the two  cause. in an amicable negotiation, the Empress
imperial courts —that "scarcely did she [Catharine]  had been prevailed upon not to press the demand
deign to affect concealment of her hostile intentionls;of Wallachia,  oldavia, and Bessarabia as indeand over one of the gates of the city she caused toeigties the  should infallibly sucbe inscribed,'This is the gate which leads to BYzAN- pt, ty s                       d i      y 
riUM;'" and that "the Ottoman Porte, fully ap-   ed by arming   and not employing that armaprised of the machinations of the imperial courts. ment,   pesuacing her to abandon all the rest!
took a hasty resolution, notwithstanding  her own  And what was the end? Why, that after pledgextreme unpreparedness for commencing offensive  ing the King's name in the most deliberate and
operations, to publish an immediate declaration of  solemn manner; after lofty vaporing, menacing,
war against Russia, in the hope, probably, of being  promising, denying, turning, and turning again;
able to conciliate the Emperor [Joseph] before his Iafter keeping up the parade of an armament for
plan of hostilities was matured."  In this the Turks  four months, accompanied  with those severe
did not succeed. Joseph, according to his agree-                        seamen &c   to  e regret
ment, immediately united with Cathaine in theamen, &c.], to be reget
seut, immediately uinited with Catharitte it the  ted even when necessary, to be reprobated when
war; and no one doubts that the dismemberment of  t             when necessary  to be reprobated when
the Turkish Empire had been concerted between  not the    ht honorable  gentleman  crouches
tlem; so that Mr. Pitt was correct in saying the  humbly at her feet; entreats, submissively supTurks were acting on the defensive.                plicates of her moderation, that she will grant
l The highest law is the safety of the state.    j him some small trifle of what he asks, if it is but




510                                    MR. FOX  ON                                      [1792.
by way of a boon; and finding at last that he  the profit to be got is not meant to counterbalcan get nothing, either by threats or his pray- ance, in some measure, the honor to be sacriers, gives up the whole precisely as she insisted  ficed. Let us see how the right honorable genupon having it!                                tleman managed this. On the first indication of
The right honorable gentleman, however, is hostile measures against Russia, one hundred
He now seeks determined that this House shall take  and thirty-five members of this House divided
to transfter this i sgrace
tltgrace to the the whole of this disgrace upon itself. against the adoption of them.  This it was, accommonls.  I heard him with much delight, on a  cording to a right honorable gentleman who
former day, quote largely from  that excellent spoke in the debate yesterday [Mr. Dundas], that
and philosophical work, "The Wealth of Na- induced ministers to abandon their first object;
tions."'2  In almost the first page of that book  but not like the Duke of Leeds, who candidly
he will find it laid down as a principle that, by  avowed, that if he could have once brought hima division of labor in the different occupations self to give up the claim of Oczakow, he would
of life, the objects to which it is applied are per- not have stood out for the razing its fortifications,
fected, time is saved, dexterity improved, and  or any such terms.  The ministers determine
the general stock of science augmented; that by  that the nation, at least, shall reap no benefit
joint effort and reciprocal accommodation the from the reversal of their system.  " You have
severest tasks are accomplished, and difficulties resisted our projects," say they; "you have dissurmounted, too stubborn for the labor of a sin- covered and exposed our incapacity; you have
gle hand.  Thus, in the building of a great pal- made us the ridicule of Europe, and such we
ace, we observe the work to be parceled out shall appear to posterity; you have defeated, ininto different departments, and distributed and  deed, our intentions of involving you in war; but
subdivided into various degrees, some higher, you shall not be the gainers by it  you shall not
some lower, to suit the capacities and condition  save your money!  We abandon Oczakow, as
of those who are employed in its construction. you compel us to do; but we will keep up the
There is the architect that invents the plan, and  armament if it is only to spite you!"
erects the stately columns.  There is the dust-    Determined to act this dishonorable part, their
man and the nightman to clear away the rubbish. next care was to do it in the most dis- He next saciThe right honorable gentleman applies these  graceful manner; and as they had fces the public
principles to his politics; and, in the division  dragged Parliament and their King mode ofinegoand cast of parts for the job we are now to exe- through the dirt and mire, they re- ti'"g
cute for him, has reserved for himself the high- solved to exhibit them in this offensive plight to
er and more respectable share of the business, the eyes of Europe.  To do this, they did not
and leaves all the dirty work to us.  Is he asked  care to trust to the minister we had at Peterswhy the House of Commons made the armament burgh-a gentleman distinguished for amiable
last year?  He answers, " The House of Com- manners, and by the faithful, the vigilant, and
mons did not make the armament!  I made it. the able discharge of his duty.  Why was the
The House of Commons only approved of it."  management of the negotiation taken from him?
Is he asked why he gave up the object of the  Was he too proud for this service?  No man is
armament, after he had made it?  "I did not too proud to do his duty; and of all our foreign
give it up!" he exclaims.  "I think the same  ministers, Mr. Whitworth" I should think the
of its necessity as ever. It is the House of Corn- very last to whom it could be reproached that
mons that gives it up!  It is the House that he is remiss in fulfilling  the directions he resupports the nation in their senseless clamor ceives, in their utmost strictness.  But a new
against my measures.  It is to this House that man was to be found; one whose reputation for
you must look for the shame and guilt of your talents and honor might operate, as they hoped,
disgrace."  To himself he takes the more con- as a sort of set-off against the incapacity he was
spicuous character of menacer.  It is he that to cure, and the national honor he was deputed
distributes provinces, and limits empires; while  to surrender. Was it thus determined, because,
he leaves to this House the humbler office of in looking round their diplomatic body, there was
licking the dust, and begging forgiveness;      no man to be selected from it, whose character
"Not mine these groans-                         assimilated with the dirty job he was to exeThese sighs that issue, or these tears that flow."  cute?  As there was honor to be sacrificed, a
"I am forced into these submissions by a low, stain to be fixed upon the national character, encontracted, groveling, mean-spirited, and igno- gagements to be retracted, and a friend to be
rant people!"  But this is not all.  It rarely  abandoned; did it never occur to them  that
And saddles happens that in begging pardon (when  there was one mnall upon their diplomatic list
witlolyl.. men determine upon that course) they  who would have been pronounced by general
s'~y expense have not some benefit in view, or that acclamation thoroughly qualified in soul and
qualities for this service?  Such a person they
2 Mr. Fox, in order to relieve the minds of his miht h                        occupied as to
hearers from a continual stream of invective, now 
turns off for a few moments to Adam Smith's doc-    ke. inconvenient to employ him.  They
trine of a division of labor, and then makes it the'-~            _ ~ -~-       - __-.
starting-point of a new attack, to which he gives    3 Afterward Lord Wh:itworth, and embassador
double life and force by his dramatic mode of put- at the court of Botlaparte during the peace of
ting the subject.                               Amiens.




1792.]                          THE RUSSIAN  ARMAMENT.                                          511
would have found him  absent from  his station, of the Dniester, the allies cal not propose any
under the pretense of attending his duty in this  terms to them.  What answer do they receive?
House, though he does not choose often to make  An unequivocal rejection of every one of their
his appearance here.i  Instead of this, howev- propositions; accompanied, however, with a decer, they increased the dishonor that they doomed  laration, to which I shall soon return, that the
us to suffer, by sending a gentleman endowed  navigation of that river shall be free to all the
with every virtue and accomplishment, who had  world, and a reference to those maxims of policy
acquired, in the seryice of the Empress of Rus- which have invariably actuated the Empress of
sia, at an early period of his life, a character for Russia in her intercourse with neutral nations.
bravery and enterprise that rendered him per- whose commerce she has at all times protected
sonally esteemed by her, and in whom fine tal- and encouraged. With this declaration the Britents and elegant manners, ripened by habit and  ish plenipotentiaries declare themselves perfectexperience, had confirmed the flattering promise  ly contented; nay, more, they engage that if the
of his youth.  Did they think that the shabbi- Turks should refuse these conditions, and conness of their message was to be done away by  tinue obstinate longer than four months, the althe worth of the messenger?  If I were to send  lied courts " will abandon the termination of the
a humiliating apology to any person, would it war to the events it may produce."  And here
change its quality by being intrusted to Lord  ends forever all care for the Ottoman empire, all
Rodney; Admiral Pigot, my honorable friend be- solicitude about the balance of power. The right
hind me [General Burgoyne], Lord Cornwallis, honorable gentleman will interpose no furt.ier to
Sir Henry Clinton, Sir William  Howe, or any  save either, but rests the whole of a measure,
other gallant and brave officer?.Certainly not. once so indispensable to our safety, upon this
It was my fortune, in very early life, to have  doubtful issue, whether the Turks will accept in
set out in habits of particular intimacy with Mr. December those very terms which in July the
Faulkener, and however circumstances may have  British ministers could not venture to propose to
intervened to suspend that intimacy, circumstan- them!
ces arising from wide differences in political opin-    Sir, we may look in vain to the events of forion, they never have altered the sentiments of pri- mer times for a disgrace parallel to comparison of
vate esteem which I have uniformly felt for him; what we have suffered.  Louis the Mi- Pitt' coiland with every amiable and conciliating quality  Fourteenth, a monarch often named ofLois xiv.
that belongs to man, I know him to be one from  in our debates, and whose reign ex- lcircnlst.lnwhom improper submissions are the least to be  hibits more than any other the ex- 
expected. Well, sir, these gentlemen, Mr. Whit- tremes of prosperous and of adverse fortune, nevworth and Mr. Faulkener, conimmence the nego- er, in the midst of his most humiliating distresstiation by the offer of three distinct propositions, es, stooped to so despicable a sacrifice of all that
each of them better than the other, and accom- can be dear to man. The war of the succession.
pany it with an expression somewhat remarka-  unjustly begun by him, had reduced his power,
ble, namely, that this negotiation is to be as un- had swallowed up his armies and his navies, had
like all the others as possible, and to be "found- desolated his provinces, had drained his treascd in peLfect candor."   To prove this, they sub- ures, and deluged the earth with the blood of the
mlit at once to the Russian ministers "all that best and most faithful of his subjects.  Exhausttheir instructions enable them to propose." Who  ed by his various calamities, he offered his enewould not have imagined, according to the plain  mies at one time to relinquish all the objects for
import of these words, that unless the Empress which he had begun the war. That proud monhad assented to one of these propositions, all arch sued for peace, and was content to receive
amicable interposition would have been at an  it from our moderation.  But when it was made
end, and war the issue?  The " perfect candor"  a condition of that peace, that he should turn his
promised in the beginning of their note, leads  arms against his grandson, and compel him by
them to declare explicitly, that unless the forti- force to relinquish the throne of Spain, humbled,
fications of Oczakow be razed, or the Turks are  exhausted, conquered as he was, misfortune had
allowed, as an equivalent, to keep both the banks  not yet bowed his spirit to conditions so hard as
- - ~ L~~ — -l is lthese.  We know the event. He persisted still in
" Lord Auckland is understood to have been te he      wa  util the folly ad   ickedness of Queen
object of this fierce attack, which was certainly un-       ic nes of 
Anne's ministers enabled him to conclude the
fair and ungentlemanly, as directed against one wvho, pene s ministers enabled him  to conclude the
not being present, had no opportunity to speak in  peace of Utrecht, on terms considerably less dishis own defense. Mr. Pitt, in his reply, asked Mr. advantageous even than those he had himself proFox whether "it was decent or manly to go out of  posed.  And shall?we, sir, the pride of our age,
his way to allude, in an unhandsome manner, to an  the terror of Europe, submit to this humiliating
honorable gentleman in his absence, who was sup- sacrifice of our honor?  Have we suffered a deposed to have been employed in a diplomatic ca-   at  t Blenheim?  Shall we. with our increaspacity;" and declared that " no man who had been
pacity;"  and declared that  n o man who had beetn.ie prosperity, our widely difiused capital, our
honored with the office of a minister at foreign   1 
courts had ever discharged his duty more ably, mor       the   just slbje  of or common exultation,
honestly, or in a manner more creditable to himself,  ever-flowing coffers, that enable us to give back
or advantageous to his country, than the honorable  to the people what, in the hour of calamity, we
gentleman so illiberally alluded to."''Parliamenet-  wereC compelled to take from them; fushed with
ary History, xxix., 998.  a recent triumph over S4pain [respectingl  Nootka




512                                      MR. FOX  ON                                         [1792.
Sound], and yet more than all, while our old rival delay, as an answer from  the Russian court
and enemy was incapable of disturbing us, shall might have been had in five or six weeks.  Was
it be for us to yield to what France disdained in  it reasonable in ministers to suppose, that bethe hour of her sharpest distress, and exhibit our-  cause, in the early part of the -negotiation, the
selves to the world, the sole example in its an-  Empress had shown so much regard to us as
nals of such an abject and pitiful degradation?15 actually to give up whatever pretensions she had
VII. But gentlemen inform us now, in justifi- formed to other provinces of the Turkish empire,
Pretenses for con- cation, as I suppose they mean it, solely with the view of obtaining our concurtinuin the arnrt -  of all these measures, that to ef- rence to the principle on which she offered to
mernt: (1.) That the
Emperor might   feet a peace between Russia and  make peace, she would revert to those very prehave imposed barder conditions on  the Porte was only the ostensible  tensions the instant she had obtained that conthe Turks.    cause of our armament, or at least currence on our part, for the benefit of which
was not the sole cause; and that ministers were  she had sacrificed them? Surely, as I have said,
under some apprehension lest the Emperor of  it was worth while to make the experiment; but
Germany, if the allies were to disarm, should in- simple and obvious as this was, a very different
sist on better terms from the Turks than he had  course was adopted.  Oczakow, indeed, was reagreed to accept by the convention of Reichen-  linquished before the armament began, as we
bach.  This I can not believe.  When his Maj- may find by comparing the date of the pressesty sends a message to inform his Parliament warrants with that of the Duke of Leed's resigthat he thinks it necessary to arm for a specific  nation.  As soon as the King's message was
purpose, I can not suppose that a falsehood has  delivered to Parliament, a messenger was disbeen put into his Majesty's mouth, and that the  patched to Berlin with an intimation of the resoarmament which he proposes as necessary for lution to arm.  This, perhaps, was rashly done
one purpose is intended for another! If the right as the ministry might have foreseen that the
honorable gentleman shall tell me, that although  measure would probably meet with opposition,
the war between Russia and the Porte was the  and much time could not have been lost by waitreal cause of equipping the armament, yet that ing the event of the first debate.  No sooner
being once equipped, it was wise to keep it up  was the division [upon the debate] known, than
when no longer wanted on that account, because  a second messenger was sent off to overtake and
the Emperor seemed inclined to depart from the  stop the dispatches of the first; and this brings
convention of Reichenbach; then I answer, that me to another argument, which I confess appears
it was his duty to have come with a second mes- to me very unlikely to help them out. They tell
sage to Parliament, expressly stating' this new  us, that the King of Prussia having (.) That. conobject, with the necessary information to enable  armed in consequence of our assur- rtinulance ofthe
not'    a roament was
the House to judge of its propriety. Another of  ances of support, we could not dis- nece.s —y, until
(,) TIht the the arguments for continuing the arm- arm before we knew the sentiments Prusia coold
Enipre.srof  ament after the object was relinquish- of the court of Berlin, without the im-'n
[lave risenin ed, is, that Russia might have insisted  putation of leaving our ally in the lurch.  Did
her demrands.I
on harder terms, not conceiving her- we wait for the sentiments of that court to deself bound by offers which we had refused to ac- termine whether Oczakow  was to be given up
cept.  I perfectly agree with gentlemen, that or not?   Sir, when that measure was resolved
after the repeated offer of those terms on the  upon, the right honorable gentleman. actually had
part of Russia, and the rejection of them by us, abandoned his ally; and that such was the sense
the Empress was not bound to adhere to them  of the court of Berlin, I believe can be testified
in all possible events and contingencies.  If the  by every Englishman who was there at the time.
war had continued, she would have had a right No sooner did the second messenger arrive, and
to further indemnification for the expense of it. the contents of his dispatches become known,
But was it not worth the minister's while to try  than a general indignation rose against the conthe good faith of the Empress of Russia, after  duet of the right honorable gentleman; and I
she had so solemnly pledged herself to all Eu-  am well enough informed on the subject to state
rope that she would not rise in her demands?  to this House, that not an Englishman could
The experiment would have been made with lit- show his face in that capital without exposing
tie trouble, by the simple expedient of sending a  himself to mortification, perhaps to insult. But,
messenger to ask the question.  The object of  between the 28th of March, 1791, when the meshis armament would have suffered little by the  sage was brought down to this House, and the
2-   d or 3d of April, when the second messenger
1 We. have here an instance of the admirable  was dispatched with the news that ministers had
use which Mr. Fox sometimes made of history in  abandoned the object of it, the armament could
his orations. The case selected was perfectly suit- not have been materially advanced.  Why then
ed to his purpose; and the brief but masterly sketchht honorable.enw as it persisted in?  The right honorable cenwhich he gives of the circumstances and conduct of                                     
the French monarch, as contrasted with those of the                              kept ap the armaBritish minister, was suited to awaken the keenest ment   compliance with his engagements with
sense of disgrace in the minds of an English audi- Prussia, when the armament, in fact, did not exence. In respect to style alone, it is one of the best ist, and when it had been begun but four or five
specimens we have in our eloquence of terse and  days previous to his renouncing the object of it.
powerful language.                                That could not have been his motive.  What,




1792.]                          THE RUSSIAN  ARMAMENT.                                        513
then, was the motive?  Why, that he was too  public, something that we may use against the
proud to own his error, and valued less the mon-  minority; that minority whom we have endeavey and tranquillity of the people than the appear-  ored to represent as your allies.  We have sacance of firmness, when he had renounced the  rificed our allies, the Turks, to you.  You can
reality.  False shame is the parent of many  do no less than sacrifice your allies, the minorcrimes.'6  By false shame a man may be tempt-  ity, to us?"  If I had been to advise the Emed to commit a murder, to conceal a robbery. press on the subject, I would have counseled her
Influenced by this false shame, the ministers rob- to grant the British minister something of this
bed the people of their money, the seamen of  sort. I would even have advised her to raze the
their liberty, their families of support and pro- fortifications of Oczakow, if he had insisted on it.
tection, and all this to conceal that they had un- I would have appealed from  her policy to her
dertaken a system which was not fit to be pur- generosity, and said, " Grant him  this as an
sued.  If they say that they did this, apprehen- apology, for he stands much in need of it.  His
sive that, without the terror of an armament, whole object was to appear to gain something,.
Russia would not stand to the terms which they  no matter what, by continuing the armament,
had refused to accept, they do no more than ac- and even in this last pitiful and miserable object
knowledge that, by the insolence of their arm- he has failed."  If, after all, I ask, whether these
ing and the precipitancy of their submission, terms are contained in the peace that we have
they had either so provoked her resentment, or concluded for the Turks, or, rather, which the
excited her contempt, that she would not even  Turks concluded for themselves, the answer is,
condescend to agree to her own propositions  "We have no authentic copy of it."  Is this
when approved by them.  But however they  what we have got by our arms, by distressing
might have thought her disposed to act on this  our commerce, dragging our seamen from their
subject, it was at least their duty to try whether  homes and occupations, and squandering  our
such would have been her conduct or not.          money?  Is this the efficacy of our interference,.
VIII. To prove that the terms to which they  and the triumph of our wisdom  and our firmThe freenavi- agreed at last were the same with  ness?  The Turks have at length concluded
gaion of the those they before rejected, all I feel it a peace, of which they do not even condescend:
realgain.    necessary for me to observe is, that to favor us with a copy, so that we know what
the free navigation of the River Dniester, the  it is only by report, and the balance of Europe,.
only novelty introduced into them, was implied  late in so much danger, and of so much importin proposing it as a boundary; for it is a well- ance, is left for them to settle without consultknown rule that the boundary between two pow- ing us!  Is it for this that we employed such
ers must be as fiee to the one as to the other. men as Mr. Faulkener and Mr. Whitworth?
True, says the minister, but we have got the free  They were sent to negotiate for the materials
navigation for the subjects of other powers, par- of a speech, and failed.  But what are the com —
ticularly for those of Poland.  If this be an ad- plaints that private friendship has a right to
vantage, it is one which he has gained by con- make, compared with those of an insulted pubcession; for if he had not agreed that the river lie?  Half a million of money is spent, the peo —
should be the boundary, the navigation would  pie alarmed and interrupted in their proper purnot have been free. The Turks offered no such  suits by the apprehension of a war, and for what?'
stipulation, had they been put in possession of  For the restoration of Oczakow?  No!  O.ezaboth the banks. Besides which, as a noble Duke, kow is not restored.  To save the Turks from
whom I have already quoted, well observed, it being too much humbled?  No. They are now
is an advantage, whatever may be its value, in a worse situation than they would have been
which can subsist only in time of peace.  It is had we never armed at all.  If Russia hadpernot, I suppose, imagined that the navigation will severed in that system of encroachment of which
be free in time of war.  They have, then, got she is accused, we could, as I observed before,
nothing that deserves the name of a "modifica-  then have assisted them  unembarrassed.  We
tion," a term, I must here observe, the use of  are now tied down by treaties, and fettered by
which is not justified even by the original me- stipulations. We have even guaranteed to Rus —
morial, where the sense is more accurately ex- sia what we before said it would be unsafe for
pressed by the French word': radoucissement."  the Turks to yield, and dangerous to the peace'
Was it, then, for some radoucisserment [softening]  of Europe for Russia to possess.  This is what'
that they continued their armament?  Was it the public have got by the armament..  What,.
to say to the Empress, when they had conceded  then, was the private motive?
every thing, " We have given you all you asked,       Scilicet, ut Turno contingat regia cojux,
give us something that we may hold out to the         Nos, animae viles, inhumata infletaque turba,
Sternamur camnpis.l7
16 The reader can not fail to remark how adroitly
this mention of Mr. Pitt's pride and false shame is
used by Mr. Fox to introduce anew some of the lead-   17  That Turnus may obtain a royal spouse,
ing topics of reproach-lavish expenditure, pressing     We abject souls, unburied and unwept,
of seamen, &c. He thus keeps the great points of        Lie scattered on te plains.
his case continually in view, at one time by inci-   The lines are taken from the AEneid of Virgil,
dental references in passing, at another by extend- book xi., line 371, and are part of Drances! speech
ed and formal repetitions.                        in which he charges Turnus with sacrificing, the
K i




514                                     MR. FOX ON                                       [1792.
IX. The minister gained, or thought he was  of their representatives, or inquiring into it altTendency of  to gain, an excuse for his rashness  erward, unless we can make out ground for a
soch conduct
to destroy con- and misconduct; and to purchase this criminal charge against the executive governfidece in the excuse was the public money and  ment.  Let us disclaim these abuses, and return
stitution.   the public quiet wantonly sacrificed, to the Constitution.
There are some effects, which, to combine with    I am not one of those who lay down rules as
their causes, is almost sufficient to drive men  universal and absolute; because I think there is
mad!  That the pride, the folly, the presump- hardly a political or moral maxim which is unition of a single person shall be able to involve a  versally true; but I maintain the general rule to
whole people in wretchedness and disgrace, is be, that before the public money be voted away,
more than philosophy can teach mortal patience  the occasion that calls for it should be fairly
to endure.  Here are the true weapons of the  stated, for the consideration of those who are the
enemies of our Constitution!  Here may we  proper guardians of the public money.  Had the
search for the source of those seditious writings, minister explained his system to Parliament bemeant either to weaken our attachment to the  fore he called for money to support it, and ParConstitution, by depreciating its value, or which  liament had decided that it was not worth suploudly tell us that we have no Constitution at porting, he would have been saved the mortificaall.  We may blame, we may reprobate such  tion and disgrace in which his own honor is indoctrines; but while we furnish those who cir- volved, and, by being furnished with a just exculate them  with arguments such as these; cuse to Prussia for withdrawing from the prosewhile the example of this day shows us to what cution of it, have saved that of his Sovereign and
degree the fact is true, we must not wonder if  his country, which he has irrevocably tarnished.
the purposes they are meant to answer be but Is unanimity necessary to his plans?  He can be
too successful.'s  They argue, that a Constitu- sure of it in no manner, unless he explains them
tion can not be right where such things are pos- to this House, who are certainly much better
sible; much less so when they are practiced  judges than he is of the degree of unanimity
without punishment.  This, sir, is a serious re- with which they are likely to be received. Why,,fection to every lran who loves the Constitution  then, did he not consult us?  Because he had
10f England.  Against the vain theories of men, other purposes to answer in the use he meant to
wvho project fundamental alterations upon grounds make of his majority.  Had he opened himself to
t.f mere speculative objection, I can easily defend  the House at first, and had we declared against.it: but when they recur to these facts, and show  him, he might have been stopped in the first in-me how we may be doomed to all the horrors of  stance: had we declared for him, we might have
war by the caprice of an individual who will not held him too firmly to his principle to suffer his
e.veJva condescend to explain his reasons, I can only  receding from it as he has done.  Either of these.fly to this House, and exhort you to rouse from  alternatives he dreaded.  It was his policy to deyour lethargy of confidence into the active mis- cline our opinions, and to exact our confidence;;trust and vigilant control which is your duty and  that thus having the means of acting either way,
your office.  Without recurring to the dust to  according to the exigencies of his personal situawhich the minister has been humbled, and the  tion, he might come to Parliament and tell us what,dirt he has been dragged through, if we ask, for our opinions ought to be; which set of principles
what has the peace of the public been disturbed? would be most expedient to shelter him from inFor what is that man pressed and dragged like  quiry, and from punishment.  It is for this he.a felon to a service that should be honorable? comes before us with a poor and pitiful excuse,
we must be answered, for some three quarters that for want of the unanimity he expected, there.of a mile of barren territory on the banks of the  was reason to fear, if the war should go to a secDniester! In the name of all we value, give us, ond campaign, that it might be obstructed.  Why
when such instances are quoted in derogation of  not speak out, and own the real fact?  He feared
our Constitution, some right to answer, that these  that a second campaign might occasion the loss;are not its principles, but the monstrous abuses  of his place.  Let him keep but his place, he.intruded into its practice.  Let it not be said, cares not what else he loses.  With other men,
that because the executive power, for an ade- reputation and glory are the objects of ambition;
(quate and evident cause, may adopt measures power and place are coveted but as the means,that require expense without consulting Parlia- of these.  For the minister, power and place are
~ment, we are to convert the exception into a  sufficient of themselves.  With them he is conrule; to reverse the principle; and that it is tent; for them  he can calmly sacrifice every
now to be assumed, that the people's money  proud distinction that ambition covets, and every
may be spent for any cause, or for none, without noble prospect to which it points the way!
either submitting the exigency to the judgment    X. Sir, there is yet an argument which I have
not sufficiently noticed.  It has been Miscellneous
people in a useless war, simply that he might re-     as a ground forhis defense thathe concluding receive Lavinia as his bride.                    mwaks.
18 Mr. Fox shows great dexterity in thus retorting  was prevented from gaining  what he
upon Mr. Pitt those charges of weakening the Brit- deanded by our opposition; and, but for this
ishConstitution, which were brought against himself Russia would have complied, and never would
and friends so often at this time, in consequence of have hazarded a war.  Sir, I believe the direct.his admiration of the French Revolution.       contrary, and my belief is as good as their asser



1797.]                         PARLIAMENTARY  REFORM.                                         515
tion, unless they will give us some proof of its cor- swer, " if the right of inquiry into every part of
rectness.  Until then, I have a right to ask them, a negotiation they think fit, and of knowing why
what if Russia had not complied?  Worse and  they are to vote the money of their constituents,
worse for him!  He must have gone on, redoub- be denied the House of Commons."  But there
ling his menaces and expenses, the Empress of  is something like a reason why no foreign power
Russia continuing inflexible as ever, but for the  will negotiate with us, and that a much better
salutary opposition which preserved him from his reason than a dread of disclosing their secrets, in
extremity of shame.  I am not contending that the right honorable gentleman's example. I dearmaments are never necessary to enforce nego- dare, therefore, for the genius of our Constitutiations; but it is one, and that not the least, of  tion, against the practice of his Majesty's ministhe evils attending the right honorable gentle- ters; I declare that the duties of this House are,
man's misconduct, that by keeping up the parade  vigilance in preference to secrecy, deliberation
of an armament, never meant to be employed, he in preference to dispatch.  Sir, I have given my
has, in a great measure, deprived us of the use of reasons for supporting the motion for a vote of
this method of negotiating, whenever it may be censure on the minister.  I will listen to his denecessary to apply it effectually; for if you pro- fense with attention, and I will retract wherever
pose to arm in concert with any foreign power, he shall prove me to be wrong.
that power will answer, "What security can
you give me that you will persevere in that system?  You say you can not go to war, unless    Mr. Pitt closed the debate with great ability.
your people are unanimous."  If you aim to ne- He insisted on the necessity of restraining the amgotiate against a foreign power, that power will bition of Russia, and complained that Mr. Fox
say, "I have only to persist-the British minis- " had pushed his arguments, for the purpose of
ter may threaten, but he dare not act-he will aggravation, to a degree of refinement beyond
not hazard the loss of his place by a war."  A  all reason."  The vote was then taken, and stood
right honorable gentleman [Mr. Dundas], in ex- 244 in his favor, and 116 against him.  The
cuse for withholding papers, asked what foreign  country acquiesced in this decision, though most
power would negotiate with an English cabinet, persons condemned his taking a stand on such
if their secrets were likely to be developed, and  narrow ground as the occupation of Oczakow.
exposed to the idle curiosity of a House of Comn- Subsequent events have proved that Mr. Pitt's
mons?  I do not dread such a consequence; but jealousy of the growing power of Russia was
if I must be pushed to extremes, if nothing were  well founded; and it has long been the settled
left me but an option between opposite evils, I policy of the other powers of Europe, at all hazshould have no hesitation in choosing.  " Better ards to prevent the Czar from becoming master
have no dealings with them at all," I should an- of Constantinople.
SPEECH
OF MR. FOX IN FAVOR OF MR. GREY'S MOTION FOR PARLIAMENTARY REFORM, DELIVERED IN
THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, MAY 26, 1797.
INTRODUCTION.
Mr. Fox had always professed to be in favor of Parliamentary Reform, though he did not agree in the
details of any of the schemes which had been hitherto proposed, and he was not, perhaps, fully persuaded
that those schemes could be so modified as to accomplish the desired object. But on this occasion he
seems to have given his support to Mr. Grey's motion, with a sincere desire that it might prevail. The
country was in a most disastrous state; the French had subdued all their enemies on the Continent, and
England was left to maintain the contest single-handed; the pressure of commercial difficulties had rendered it necessary to suspend specie payments by law; great distress prevailed throughout the nation;
there was much angry feeling and despondency both in England and Scotland, and a hostility to the government in Ireland, which soon after resulted in. open rebellion. Under these circumstances, Mr. Fox felt
that the prospects of Great Britain were gloomy in the extreme, and that measures were called for calculated to inspire the nation with increased confidence and interest in the government. As essential to
this end, he urged a reform in Parliament which should give the people their just share in the Constitution; and he took occasion, at the same time, to inveigh against the measures of Mr. Pitt as hurrying on
the country to the brink of ruin.
This speech bears internal evidence of having been corrected, to some extent, by Mr. Fox or his friends.
While it has all the elasticity of spirit and rapidity of progress which mark his other speeches, it has
greater polish and beauty than most of his parliamentary efforts, especially in an admirable passage
toward the close, in which he speaks of the energy imparted to the ancient republics by the Spirit of
Liberty.




516                                    MR. FOX  ON                                       [1797.
SPEECH,' &c.
SIR,-Much and often as this question has sion.  With the ideas that I entertain, I can not
been discussed, and late as the hour is, I feel it listen for a moment to suggestions that are applimy duty to make some observations, and to de- cable only to other situations and to other times;
liver my opinion on a measure of high import- for unless we are resolved pusillanimously to wait
ance at all times, but which, at the present pe- the approach of our doom, to lie down and die,
riod, is become infinitely more interesting than  we must take bold and decisive measures for our
ever.                                           deliverance. We must not be deterred by meanI fear, however, that my conviction on this sub- er apprehensions.  We must combine all our
Reform de-  ject is not common to the House.  I strength, fortify one another by the communion
canddbytfhe fear that we are not likely to be agreed  of our courage; and, by a seasonable exertion
the country, as to the importance of the measure, of national wisdom, patriotism, and vigor, take
nor as to the necessity; since, by the manner in  measures for the chance of salvation, and encounwhich it has been discussed this night, I foresee  ter with unappalled hearts all the enemies, forthat, so far from being unanimous on the propo- eign and internal-all the dangers and calamisition, we shall not be agreed as to the situation  ties of every kind which press so heavily upon
and circumstances of the country itself, much less us.  Such is my view of our present emergency;
as to the nature of the measures which, in my  and, under this impression, I can not, for a momind, that situation and those circumstances im- ment, listen to the argument of danger arising
periously demand.  I can not suppress my as- from innovation, since our ruin is inevitable if we
tonishment at the tone and manner of gentlemen  pursue the course which has brought us to the
this day.  The arguments that have been used  brink of the precipice.
would lead the mind to believe that we are in a    But before I enter upon the subject of the
state of peace and tranquillity, and that we have  proposition that has been made to us, Reform not
no provocation to any steps for improving the ben- I must take notice of an insinuation tl'lt fropty
efits we enjoy, or retrieving any misfortune that that has, again and again, been flung fee'ligsf,lct
we have incurred.  To persons who feel this to  out by gentlemen on the other side of desire ofoffice
be our situation, every proposition tending to me- the House as to party feelings, in which they at
liorate the condition of the country must be sub- feet to deplore the existence of a spirit injurious
ject of jealousy and alarm; and if we really dif- to the welfare of the public.  I suspect, by the
fer so widely in sentiment as to the state of the frequent repetition of this insinuation, that they
country, I see no probability of an agreement in  are desirous of making it believed, or that they
any measure that is proposed.  All that part of understand themselves by the word party feelthe argument against reform which relates to the  ings an unprincipled combination of men for the
danger of innovation is strangely misplaced by  pursuit of office and its emoluments, the eagerthose who think with me, that, so far from pro- ness after which leads them to act upon feelings
curing the mere chance of practical benefits by a  of personal enmity, ill-will, and opposition to his
reform, it is only by a reform that we can have a  Majesty's ministers.  If such be their interpretchance of rescuing ourselves from a state of ex- ation of party feelings, I must say that I am uttreme peril and distress.  Such is my view of our terly unconscious of any such feeling; and I am
situation.  I think it is so perilous, so imminent, sure that I can speak with confidence for my
that though I do not feel conscious of despair-  friends, that they are actuated by no motives of
an emotion which the heart ought not to admit-   so debasing a nature.  But if they understand
yet it comes near to that state of hazard when  by party feelings, that men of honor, who enterthe sentiment of despair, rather than of hope, may  tain similar principles, conceive that those prinbe supposed to take possession of the mind.  I ciples may be more beneficially and successfully
feel myself to be the member of a community, in  pursued by the force of mutual support, harmony,
which the boldest man, without any imputation  and confidential connection; then I adopt the inof cowardice, may dread that we are not merely  terpretation, and have no scruple in saying that
approaching to a state of extreme peril, but of  it is an advantage to the country; an advantage
absolute dissolution; and with this conviction  to the cause of truth and the Constitution; an adimpressed upon my mind, gentlemen will not be- vantage to freedom  and humanity; an advantlieve that I disregard all the general arguments age to whatever honorable object they may be enthat have been used against the motion on the gaged in, that men pursue it with the united force
score of the danger of innovation from any disre- of party feeling; that is to say, pursue it with the
spect to the honorable members who have urged  confidence, zeal, and spirit which the communion
them, or to the ingenuity with which they have  of just confidence is likely to inspire.  And if the
been pressed, but because I am firmly persuad- honorable gentlemen apply this description of par
ed that they are totally inapplicable to the cir- ty feeling to the pursuit in which we are engaged.
cumstances under which we come to the discus- I am equally ready to say, that the disastrous con.
dition of the empire ought to animate and invigTwo or three paragraphs of this speech are omit- orate the union of all those who feel it to be thein
ted, relating, not to the question of reform, but to old  duty to check and arrest a career that threatens us
contests between Mr. Fox and Mr. Pitt.          with such inevitable ruin; for, surely, those whG




1797.]                          PARLIAMENTARY  REFORM.                                          517
think that party is a good thing for ordinary occa-  ed; and though in all the discussions that have
sions must admit that it is peculiarly so on emer- taken place, I have had occasion to express my
gencies like the present. It is peculiarly incum- doubt as to the efficacy of the particular mode,
bent upon men who feel the value of united ex-  I have never hesitated to say that the principle
ertion, to combine all their strength to extricate  itself was beneficial; and that though not called
the vessel when in danger of being stranded.       for with the urgency which some persons, and,
But gentlemen seem to insinuate that this un- among others, the right honorable gentleman,
Tile lscussion, ion of action is directed more against declared to exist, I constantly was of opinion
from its r na- persons than measures, and that al- that it ought not to be discouraged. Now, howture, involves a
certain degree of lusions ought not to be made to the  ever, that all doubt upon the subject is removed
persol'ality    conduct of particular men.  It is not by the pressure of our calamities, and the dreadeasy to analyze this sort of imputation, for it is ful alternative seems to be, whether we shall
not easy to disjoin the measure from its author, sink into the most abject thraldom, or continue
nor to examine the origin and progress of any  in the same course until we are driven into the
evil without also inquiring into and scrutinizing  horrors of anarchy, I can have no hesitation in
the motives and the conduct of the persons who  saying, that the plan of recurring to the princigave rise to it.  How, for instance, is it possible  ple of melioration which the Constitution points
for us to enter into the discussion of the partic-  out, is become a desideratum  to the people of
ular question now before the House, without a cer- Great Britain. Between the alternatives of base
tain mixture of personal allusion?  We complain  and degraded slavery on the one side, or of tuthat the representation of the people in Parlia-  multuous, though, probably, short-lived anarchy
ment is defective.  How  does this complaint on the other, though no man would hesitate to
originate?  From the conduct of the majorities  make his choice, yet, if there be a course obvious
in Parliament.  Does not this naturally lead us and practicable, which, without either violence
to inquire whether there is not either something  or innovation, may lead us back to the vigor we 
fundamentally erroneous in our mode of election, have lost, to the energy that has been stifled, to
or something incidentally vicious in the treatment the independence that has been undermined, and
of those majorities?  We surely must be per- yet preserve every thing in its place, a moment
mitted to inquire whether the fault and calamity  ought not to be lost in embracing the chance
of which we complain is inherent in the institu-  which this fortunate provision of the British systion (in which case nothing personal is to be  tem has made for British safety.
ascribed to ministers, as it will operate, in a    This is my opinion, and it is not an opinion
more or less degree. in all the circumstances in  merely founded upon theory, but upon No argun rent
which we may find ourselves); or whether it is  actual observation of what is passing'inirt  lmto
be drawn friom
an occasional abuse of an original institution, ap-  in the world.  I conceive that if w te erae ofn
plicable only to these times and to these men, in  are not resolved to shut our eyes to France.
which case they are peculiarly guilty, while the  the instructive lessons of the times, we must be
system of representation itself ought to stand ab- convinced of the propriety of seasonable concesso ived.                                          sion. I see nothing in what is called the lamentI put the question in this way, in order to show  able example of France, to prove to me that
that a certain degree of personality is insepara-  timely acquiescence with the desires of the peoble from the discussion, and that gentlemen can  pie is more dangerous than obstinate resistance to
not with justice ascribe to the bitterness of party  their demands; but the situations of Great Britfeelings, what flows out of the principle of free  ain and France are so essentially different, there
inquiry.  Indeed, this is a pregnant example of  is so little in common between the character of
there being nothing peculiarly hostile to persons  England at this day, and the character of France
in this subject; it is not a thing now taken up  at the commencement of the Revolution, that it
for the first time, meditated and conceived in par-  is impossible to reason upon them from parity of
ticular hostility to the right honorable the Chan-  circumstances or of character.  It is not necescellor of the Exchequer.  Be it remembered, sary for me, I am sure, to enter into any analysis
Refrm early  that he himself has again and again  of the essential difference between the character
proposed by Mr. introduced and patronized the same  of a people that had been kept for ages in the
Pitt, in which lie
was supported  measure, and that on all the occa-  barbarism  of servitude, and a people who have
by Mr. Fox.   sions on which he has brought it for-  enjoyed for so long a time the light of freedom.
ward it has invariably received my approbation  But we have no occasion to go to France for
and support.  When he brought it forward first. examples; another country, nearer to our hearts,
in the year 1782, in a time of war and of severe  with which we are better acquainted, opens to
public calamity, I gave to the proposition my  us a book so legible and clear, that he must be
feeble support.  Again, when he brought it for- blind indeed who is not able to draw  from  it
ward in 1783, at a time when I was in a high  warning and instruction; it holds forth a lesson
office in his Majesty's service, I gave it my sup- which is intelligible to dullness itself.  Let us
port.  Again, in 1785, when the right honora- look to Ireland, and see how remarkably the arble gentleman himself was in place, and renewed  guments and reasoning of this day tally with the
his proposition, it had my countenance and sup-  arguments and reasoning that unfortunately preport. I have invariably declared myself a fiiend  vailed in the sister kingdom, and by which the
to parliamentary reform, by whomsoever propos- King's ministers were fatally able to overpower




518                                      MR. FOX  ON                                     [1797.
the voice of reason and patriotism, and stifle all The spirit of reform spread over the country
attention to the prayers and applications of the  they made humble, earnest, and repeated appli
people.                                         cations to the Castle2 for redress; but there they
It is impossible for any coincidence to be more  found a fixed determination to resist every claim,
Argument from perfect.  We are told that there are  and a rooted aversion to every thing that bore
the case of Ireland asto in-  in England, as it is said there were  even the color of reform.  They made their apcreasing diaf- in Ireland a small number of persons plications to all the considerable characters in
ing reform.   desirous of throwing the country into  the country, who had on former occasions distinconfusion, and of alienating the affections of the  guished themselves by exertions in the popular
people from the established government.  Per- cause; and of these justly eminent men I desire
mit me, Mr. Speaker, in passing to observe, that to speak as I feel, with the utmost respect for
the right honorable the Chancellor of the Ex- their talents and virtues.  But, unfortunately,
chequer did not represent my learned friend [Mr. they were so alarmed by the French Revolution,
Erskine] quite correctly, when he stated that my  and by the cry which had been so artfully set up
learned friend admitted the existence ofsuchmen. by ministers, of the danger of infection, that they
On the contrary, the argument of my learned  could not listen to the complaint. What was the
friend was hypothetical; he said, if it be true, consequence? These bodies of men, who found
as it is so industriously asserted, that such and  it vain to expect it from the government at the
such men do exist in the country, then surely in  Castle, or from  the Parliament, and having no
wisdom you ought to prevent their number from  where else to recur for redress, joined the socieincreasing, by timely conciliation of the body of  ties, which the report accuses of cherishing the
moderate men who desire only reform.  In this desire of separation from England; and became
opinion I perfectly acquiesce with my learned  converts to all those notions of extravagant and
friend.  I believe that the number of persons frantic ambition, which the report lays to their
who are discontented with the government of  charge, and which threaten consequences so
the country, and who desire to overthrow it, is dreadful and alarming that no man can contemvery small indeed. But the right honorable gen- plate them without horror and dismay.
tleman [Mr. Pitt] says that the friends of moder-    What, then, is the lesson to be derived from
ate reform are few, and that no advantage is to  this example, but that the comparatively small
be gained by conceding to this very small body  societies of 1791 became strong and formidable
what will not satisfy the violent, which, he con- by the accession of the many who had nothing
tends, is the more numerous party; and he vehe- in common with them at the outset?  I wish it
mently demands to know whom he is to divide, were possible for us to draw the line more accuwhom to separate, and what benefit he is to ob- rately between the small number that the report
tain from  this surrender?  To this I answer, describes to have had mischievous objects origthat if there be two bodies [the rash and the  inally in view, and the numerous bodies who
moderate], it is wisdom, it is policy, to prevent were made converts by the neglect of their petithe one from falling into the other, by granting  tion for constitutional rights.  Is it improbable
to the moderate what is just and reasonable. If  that the original few were not more than ten or
the argument of the right honorable gentleman  twenty thousand in number?  What, then, do I
be correct, the necessity for concession is more  learn from this?  That the impolitic and unjust
imperious; it is only by these means that you  refusal of government to attend to the applicacan check the spirit of proselytism, and prevent tions of the moderate, made eighty or ninety
a conversion that by-and-  wtiTne too formida- thousand proselytes from moderation to violence.3
ble for you to resist.  Mark this, and see how it This is the lesson which the book of Ireland exapplies to the precedent of Ireland.  In the re- hibits! Can you refuse your assent to the morport that has been made by the Parliament of  al?  Will any man argue, that if reform  had
that kingdom on the present disorders, it is said  been conceded to the eighty or ninety thousand
that, so long ago as the year 1791, there existed  moderate petitioners, you would have this day to
some societies in that country which harbored  deplore the union of one hundred thousand men,
the desire of separation from England, and which  bent on objects so extensive, so alarming, so cawished to set up a republican form of govern- lamitous? I wish to warn you by this example.
ment.  The report does not state what was the  Every argument that you have heard used this
precise number of those societies in 1791; it de- day was used at Dublin.  In the short-sighted
dares, however, that the number was small and  pride and obstinacy of the government, they
insignificant.  From small beginnings, however, turned a deaf ear to the supplicant; they have
they have increased to the alarming number of  now, perhaps, in the open field to brave the asone hundred thousand men in the province of  sertor.  Unwarned, untutored by example, are
Ulster only.  By what means have they so in- you still to go on with the same contemptuous
creased, and who are the proselytes that swell and stubborn pride?  I by no means think that
their numbers to so gigantic a size? Obviously  Great Britain is at this moment in the same sitthe men who had nosuch design originally; ob- uation as Ireland. I by no means think that the
viously the persons who had no other object in    2 The residence of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.
view in all the petitions which they presented,   3 The societies spoken of were those of the United
than Catholic emancipation and reform in Par- Irishmen, which embraced a pretty large part of the
liament.  This is also admitted by the report. entire population in some parts of the island.




1797.]                         PARLIAMENTARY REFORM.                                        519
discontents of this country have risen to such a  would be giving us the best chance; because,
height as to make us fear for the general peace  seeing every thing go on from bad to worseof the country; but I deprecate the course which  seeing the progress of the most scandalous waste
has been pursued in Ireland.  What England is countenanced by the most criminal confidence,
now, Ireland was in 1791.  What was said of  and that the effrontery of corruption no longer
the few, they have now applied to the many; requires the mask of concealment-seeing liberand as there are discontents in this country, ty daily infringed,4 and the vital springs of the
which we can neither dissemble nor conceal, let nation insufficient for the extravagance of a disus not, by an unwise and criminal disdain, irri- sipated government, I must believe that, unless
tate and fret them  into violence and disorder. the people are mad or stupid, they will suspect
The discontents may happily subside; but a man  that there is something fundamentally vicious in
must be sanguine indeed in his temper, or dull our system, and which no reform would be equal
in his intellect, if he would leave to the opera- to correct.  Then, to prevent all this, and to try
tion of chance what he might more certainly ob- if we can effect a reform without touching the
tain by the exercise of reason. Every thing that main pillars of the Constitution, without changT  estng is dear and urgent to the minds of En- ing its forms, or disturbing the harmony of its
discontent in glishmenr presses upon us; in the crit- parts, without putting any thing out of its place,
mndsre-  ical moment at which I now address  or affecting the securities which we justly hold
F'rm.    you, a day, an hour, ought not to elapse, to be so sacred, is, I say, the only chance which
without giving to ourselves the chance of this  we have for retrieving our misfortunes by the
recovery.  When government is daily present- road of quiet and tranquillity, and by which naing itself in the shape of weakness that borders  tional strength may be recovered without dison dissolution-unequal to all the functions of  turbing the property of a single individual.
useful strength, and formidable only in pernicious /It has been said that the House possesses the
corruption-weak in power, and strong only in  confidence of the country as much as  ecent petiinfluence-am I to be told that such a state of  ever.  This, in truth, is as much as the House, as
things can go on with safety to any branch of  to say that his Majesty's ministers tedoe not
the Constitution?  If men think that, under the  possess the confidence of the country possenotf
impression of such a system, we can go on with- in the same degree as ever, since the the country.
out a recurrence to first principles, they argue  majority of the House support and applaud the
in direct opposition to all theory and all practice. measures of the government, and give their counThese discontents can not, in their nature, sub- tenance to all the evils which we are doomed to
side under detected weakness and exposed inca- endure.  I was very much surprised to hear any
pacity.  In their progress and increase (and in- proposition so unaccountable advanced by any
crease they must), who shall say that a direc- person connected with ministers, particularly as
tion can be given to the torrent, or that, having  the noble Lord [Hawkesbury] had, but a sentence
broken its bounds, it can be kept from  over- or two before, acknowledged that there had been,
whelming the country?  Sir, it is not the part to be sure, a number of petitions presented to his
of statesmen, it is not the part of rational beings, Majesty for the dismission of his ministers. The
to amuse ourselves with such fallacious dreams; one assertion is utterly incompatible with the othwe must not sit down and lament over our hap- er, unless he means to assert that the petitions
less situation; we must not deliver ourselves up  which have been presented to the Throne are of
to an imbecile despondency that would hasten  no importance.  The noble Lord can hardly, I
the approach of danger; but, by a seasonable  think, speak in this contemptuous manner of the
and vigorous measure of wisdom, meet it with a  petitions from Middlesex, London, Westminster,
sufficient and a seasonable remedy. We may be  Surrey, Hampshire, York, Edinburgh, Glasgow,
disappointed.  We may fail in the application, and many other places, unless he means to insinfor no man can be certain of his footing on  uate that they are proofs only of our very great
ground that is unexplored; but we shall at least industry, and that they are not the genuine sense
have a chance for success-we shall at least do  of the districts from which they come.  If the
what belongs to legislators and to rational beings noble Lord ascribes them to our industry, he gives
on the occasion, and I have confidence that our us credit for much more merit of that kind than
efforts would not be in vain. I say that we should  we are entitled to.  It certainly is not the pecul
give ourselves a chance, and, I may add, the best iar characteristic of the present Opposition, that
chance for deliverance; since it would exhibit they are very industrious in agitating the public
to the country a proof that we had conquered  mind. But, grant to the noble Lord his positionthe first great difficulty that stood in the way of  be it to our industry that all these petitions are to
bettering our condition-that we had conquered  be ascribed. If industry could procure them, was
ourselves.  We had given a generous triumph  it our moderation, our good will and forbearance.
to reason over prejudice; we had given a death- that have made us, for more than fourteen years,
blow to those miserable distinctions of Whig and  relax from this industry, and never bring forward
Tory, under which the Warfare has been main-  Tis refers to the operation of the Treason and
tained between pride and privilege, and, through  Sedition Bills, which restricted the holding of pubthe contention of our rival jealousies, the genu- lic meetings, extended the laws of high treason, and
ine rights of the many have been gradually un- subjected persons found guilty of seditious libels to
dermined and frittered away.  I say, that this transportation beyond the seas.




520                                    MR. FOX  ON                                      [1797.
these petitions until now?  No, sir, it is not to  added to the number of those who had from the
our industry that they are to be ascribed now, beginning opposed the disastrous career of the
nor to our forbearance that they did not come  ministers in that war.  I remember that, upon
before. The noble Lord will not give us credit for that occasion, Lord North made use of precisely
this forbearance; and the consequence is, that he  the same argument as that which is now brought
must own, upon his imputation of industry, that forward: "What!" said he; " can you contend
the present is the first time that we were sure of  the war is unpopular, after the declaration in its
the people, and that these petitions are a proof  favor that the people have made by their choice
that at length the confidence of the people in  of representatives?  The general election is the
ministers is shaken.  That it is so, it is in vain  proof that the war continues to be the war of the
for the noble Lord to deny. They who in former people of England."  Such was the argument of
times were eager to show their confidence by ad- Lord North, and yet it was notoriously otherwise;
dresses have now been as eager to express their so notoriously otherwise, that the right honorable
disapprobation in petitions for their removal. gentleman, the present Chancellor of the ExcheqHow, then, can we say that the confidence of the  uer, made a just and striking use of it, to demonpeople is not shaken?  Is confidence to be al- strate the necessity of parliamentary reform.5  He
ways against the people, and never for them? referred to this event as to a demonstration of this
It is a notable argument, that because we do not doctrine.  " You see," said he, " that so defectfind at the general election very material changes ive, so inadequate is the present practice, at least
in the representation, the sentiments of the people  of the elective franchise, that no impression of
continue the same, in favor of the war, and in fa- national calamity, no conviction of ministerial ervor of his Majesty's ministers.  The very ground  ror, no abhorrence.of disastrous war, is sufficient
of the present discussion gives the answer to this to stand against that corrupt influence which has
argument.  Why do we agitate the question of  mixed itself with election, and which drowns and
parliamentary reform? Why, but because a gen- stifles the popular voice."  Upon this statement,
eral election does not afford to the people the means and upon this unanswerable argument, the right
of expressing their views; because this House is not honorable gentleman acted in the year 1782.
a sufficient representative of thepeople.  Gentle- When he proposed a parliamentary reform, h'e
Fse reason- men are fond of arguing in this circle. did it expressly on the ground of the experience
ing on the   When we contend that ministers have  of 1780, and he made an explicit declaration,
subject.    not the confidence of the people, they  that we had no other security by which to guard
tell us that the House of Commons is the faithful ourselves against the return of the Mr. itt's arrepresentative of the sense of the country.  When  same evils.  He repeated this warning gument and
we assert that the representation is defective, and  in 1783 and in 1785. It was the leadshow, from the petitions to the Throne, that the  ing principle of his conduct.  "Without a reHouse does not speak the voice of the people, they  forme," said he, " the nation can not be safe; this
turn to the general election, and say, that at this war may be put an end to, but what will protect
period the people had an opportunity of choosing  you against another?  As certainly as the spirit
faithful organs of their opinion; and because very  which engendered the present war actuates the
little or no change has taken place in the represent- secret councils of the Crown, will you, under the
ation, the sense of the people must be the same. influence of a defective representation, be inSir, it is in vain for gentlemen to shelter themselves volved again in new wars, and in similar calamby this mode of reasoning.  We assert that, un- ities."  This was his argument in 1782; this
der the present form and practice of elections, we  was his prophecy; and the right honorable gencan not expect to see any remarkable change pro- tleman was a true prophet.  Precisely as he produced by a general election. We must argue from  nounced it, the event happened; another war took
experience. Let us look back to the period of the  place; and I am sure it will not be considered as
American war. It will not be denied by the right an aggravation of its character that it is at least
honorable gentleman, that toward the end of the  equal in disaster to the war of which the right
war, it became extremely unpopular, and that the  honorable gentleman complained.  " The defect
King's ministers lost the confidence of the nation. of representation," he said, " is the national disIn the year 1780 a dissolution took place, and then  ease; and unless you apply a remedy directly to
it was naturally imagined by superficial observers, that disease, you must inevitably take the consewho did not examine the real state of the repre- quences with which it is pregnant." With such
sentation, that the people would have returned a  an authority, can any man deny that I reason
House of Commons that would have unequivo- right?  Did not the right honorable gentleman
cally spoken their sentiments on the occasion. demonstrate his case?  Good God! what a fate
What was the case?  I am able to speak with  is that of the right honorable gentleman, and in
considerable precision. At that time I was much
Illustetion    more than I am at present in the way    5 This was in Mr. Pitt's speech in favor of Parlia.
from eelec- of knowing personally the individuals mentary Reform, deliveed in 1782; and  e have
tions at tie                      a            here a striking instance of the dexterity and force
close of the  returned, and of making an accurate
Amseowe  returned, and of making  * 7*         with which Mr. Fox took the arguments of his oppoAmerican war. estimate of the accession gained to nents and tuned the   against themselves. The
the popular side by that election.  I can take  pungency and eloquence with which he turns upon
upon me to say, that the change was very small Mr. Pitt at the close of the paragraph, are surprisingindeed: not more than three or four persons were  ly great.




1797.]                          PARLIAMENTARY  REFORM.                                          521
what a state of whimsical contradiction does he  mony that happily reigns in all the departments
stand!  During the whole course of his admin-  of the executive power?  Is it the reciprocal afistration, and particularly during the course of  fection that subsists between the government and
the present war, every prediction that he has  the people?  Is it in the energy with which the
made, every hope that he has held out, every  people are eager to carry into execution the
prophecy that he has hazarded, has failed; he  measures of the administration, from the hearthas disappointed the expectations that he has  felt conviction that they are founded in wisdom,
raised; and every promise that he has given has  favorable to their own freedom, and calculated
proved to be fallacious; yet, for these very dec- for national happiness?  Is it because our relarations, and notwithstanding these failures, we  sources are flourishing and untouched, because
have called him a wise minister.  We have given  our vigor is undiminished, because our spirit is
him our confidence on account of his predictions, animated by success, and our courage by our
and have continued it upon their failure.  The  glory?  Is it because government have, in a
only instance in which he really predicted what perilous situation, when they have been obliged
has come to pass, we treated with stubborn in- to call upon the country for sacrifices, shown a
credulity.  In 1785, he pronounced the awful conciliating tenderness and regard for the rights
prophecy, " Without a parliamentary reform the  of the people, as well as a marked disinterestednation will be plunged into new wars; without ness and forbearance on their own parts, by which
a parliamentary reform  you can not be safe  they have, in an exemplary manner, made their
against bad ministers, nor can even good minis-  own economy to keep pace with the increased
ters be of use to you."  Such was his predic- demands for the public service?  Are these the
tion; and it has come upon us. It would seem as  sources of the strength of government?  I forif the whole life of the right honorable gentleman, bear, sir, to push the inquiry.  I forbear to alfrom  that period, had been destined by Provi-  lude more particularly to symptoms which no
dence for the illustration of his warning.  If we  man can contemplate at this moment without
were disposed to consider him  as a real enthu- grief and dismay.  It is not the declarations of
siast, and a bigot in divination, we might be apt right honorable gentlemen that constitute the
to think that he had himself taken measures for strength of a government.  That government is
the verification of his prophecy; for he might now  alone strong which possesses the hearts of the
exclaim to us, with the proud fervor of success,  people; and will any man contend that we should
" You see the consequence of not listening to the  not be more likely to add strength to the state,
oracle.  I told you what would happen; it is  if we were to extend the basis of the popular
true that your destruction is complete; I have  representation?  Would not a House of Complunged you into a new war; I have exhausted  mons freely elected be more likely to conciliate
you as a people; I have brought you to the  the support of the people?  If this be true in the
brink of ruin, but I told you beforehand what abstract, it is certainly our peculiar duty to look
would happen; I told you that, without a reform  for this support in the hour of difficulty.  What
in the representation of the people, no minister,  nan who foresees a hurricane is not desirous of
however wise, could save you; you denied me my  strengthening his house?  Shall nations alone
means, and you take the consequence "              be blind to the dictates of reason?  Let us not,
The right honorable gentleman speaks, sir, of  sir, be deterred from this act of prudence by the
dAsver to t^he the strength of government. But what false representations that are made to us. France
arguent from  symptom of strength does it exhibit?  is the phantom that is constantly held out to terthe supposed                 n
strengtltoftlle Is it the cordiality of all the branches  rify us fiom our purpose.  Look at France; it
gove rmelt.  of the national force?6  Is it the ha-  will not be denied but that she stands on the
broad basis of free representation.  Whatever
6 The keenness of the sarcasm involved in these  other views the government of France may exquestions will be seen by adverting to the state of  hibit, and which may afford just alarm  to other
the country at this time, which was partially referred  nations, it can not be denied that her representto in the Introduction. About a month before, the fleet ative system has proved itself capable of vigorous
at Spithead had broken out into a general mutiny, exertion
and, notwithstanding the measures of Parliament de-                               i          
signed to remove their discontent, they had renewed                      do nt wh y  
the mutiny only four days previous to the delivery of  France; and though I am persuaded Argment ror
this speech. The King, as head of the " executive  you have no necessity for any terror reorm frorm the
power," felt so much pressed by the unpopularity    of  such imitation being forced upon largovernments
Mr. Pitt, that he was supposed to be seriously con- you, yet I say that you ought to be cintsand in
templating a change of ministers. Mr. Fox also al- as ready to adopt the virtues as you  r
ludes to the wide-spread commercial embarrass- are steady in averting from the country the vices
ments, the suspension of specie payments, the gen-  of Fance.  If it is cleary demonstrated that general distress which prevailed among the people, nine representation alone can give solid power,
their loss of energy and spirit as the natural conse-.  n     r          
quence, the diminished resources of the government,
and the victories of France on the Continent, whic  the people mst make th  governent, yo  ought
had left England to continue the war alone. In ad- to act on this grand maxim of political wisdom
dition to this, he refers to the lavish expenditures of thus demonstrated, and call in the people, acthe government, and the favoritism shown to their  cording to the original principles of your system,
friends and adherents.                            to the strength of your government.  In doing




522                                   MR. FOX ON                                         [1797
this, you will not innovate, you will not imitate. the benefit which the wisdom of our ancestors reIn making the people of England a constituent solved that it should confer on the British Conpart of the government of England, you do no  stitution?  With the knowledge that it can be
more than restore the genuine edifice designed  reinfused into our system without violence, withand framed by our ancestors.  An honorable  out disturbing any one of its parts, are we bebaronet spoke of the instability of democracies, come so inert, so terrified, or so stupid, as to hesand says that history does not give us the exam- itate for one hour to restore ourselves to the
ple of one that has lasted eighty years.  Sir, I health which it would be sure to give?  When
am not speaking of pure democracies, and there- we see the giant power that it confers upon othfore his allusion does not apply to my argument. ers, we ought not to withhold it from Great BritEighty years, however, of peace and repose  ain.  How long is it since we were told in this
would be pretty well for any people to enjoy, House that France was a blank in the map of
and would be no bad recommendation of a pure  Europe, and that she lay an easy prey to any
democracy. I am ready, however, to agree with  power that might be disposed to divide and plunthe honorable baronet, that, according to the ex- der her? Yet we see that, by the mere force and
perience of history, the ancient democracies of the  spirit of this principle, France has brought all
world were vicious and objectionable on many ac- Europe to her feet. Without disguising the vices
counts; their instability, their injustice, and many  of France, without overlooking the horrors that
other vices, can not be overlooked.  But surely, have been committed, and that have tarnished
when we turn to the ancient democracies of  the glory of the Revolution, it can not be denied
Greece, when we see them in all the splendor of  that they have exemplified the doctrine that if
arts and of arms, when we see to what an eleva- you wish for power you must look to liberty.  If
tion they carried the powers of man, it can not be  ever there was a moment when this maxim ought
denied that, however vicious on the score of in- to be dear to us, it is the present.  We have tried
gratitude or injustice, they were, at least, the  all other means; we have had recourse to every
pregnant source of national strength, and that in  stratagem that artifice, that influence, that cunparticular they brought forth this strength in a pe- ning could suggest; we have addressed ourselves
culiar manner in the moment of difficulty and dis- to all the base passions of the nation; we have
tress.  When we look at the democracies of the  addressed ourselves to pride, to avarice, to fear;
ancient world, we are compelled to acknowledge  we have awakened all the interested emotions;
their oppression of their dependencies, their horri- we have employed every thing that flattery, evble acts of injustice and of ingratitude to their own  ery thing that address, every thing that privilege
citizens; but they compel us also to admiration  could effect: we have tried to terrify them into
by their vigor, their constancy, their spirit, and  exertion, and all has been anequal to our emertheir exertions in every great emergency in which  gency. Let us try them by the only means which
they were called upon to act. We are compelled  experience demonstrates to be invincible; let us
co own that this gives a power of which no other addiess ourselves to their love; let us identify them
form of government is capable. Why? Because  with ourselves; let us make it their own cause
it incorporates every man with the state, because  as well as ours!  To induce them to come forit arouses every thing that belongs to tne soul as ward in support of the state, let us make them a
well as to the body of man; because it makes ev- part of the state; and this they become the very
ery individual feel that he is fighting for himself, instant you give them a House of Commons which
and not for another; that it is nis own cause, his is the faithful organ of their will. Then, sir, when
own safety, his own concern, his own dignity on  you have made them believe and feel that there
the face of the earth, and his own interest in that can be but one interest in the country, you will
identical soil which he has to maintain; and ac- never call upon them in vain for exertion.  Can
cordingly we find that whatever may be object- this be the case as the House of Commons is now
ed to them on account of the turbulency of the  constituted?  Can they think so if they review
passions which they engendered, their short du- the administration of the right honorable gentleration, and their disgusting vices, they have ex- man, every part of which must convince them that
acted from the common suffrage of mankind the  the present representation is a mockery and a
palm of strength and vigor. Who that reads the  shadow?
Persian war-what boy, whose heart is warmed    There has been,. at different times, a great deal
by the grand and sublime actions which the dem- of dispute about virtual representa- A real and not
ocratic spirit produced, does not find in this prin- tion.  Sir, I am no great advocate avirtualrepre
ciple the key to all the wonders which were  of these nice subtleties and special people demandachieved at Thermopyle and elsewhere, and of  pleadings on the Constitution; much duct off ecent
which the recent and marvelous acts ofthe French  depends upon appearance as well as Parliaments.
people are pregnant examples?  He sees that reality. I know well that a popular body of five
the principle of liberty only could create the sub- hundred and fifty-eight gentlemen, if truly indelime and irresistible emotion  and it is in vain  pendent of the Crown, would be a strong barrier
to deny, from' the striking illustration that our to the people. But the House of Commons should
own times have given, that the principle is eter- not only be, but appear to be, the representatives
nal, and that it belongs to the heart of man. of the people; the system should satisfy the prejShall we, then, refuse to take the benefit of this  udices and the pride, as well as the reason of the
invigorating principle?  Shall we refuse to take  people; and you never can expect to give that




1797.]                        PARLIAMENTARY REFORM.                                        523
just impression which a House of Commons a scandal on our character, which not merely
ought to make on the people, until you derive it degrades the House of Commons in the eyes of
unequivocally from them.  It is asked why gen- the people; it does more, it undermines the very
tlemen who were against a parliamentary re- principles of integrity in their hearts, and gives
form on former occasions should vote for it now. a fashion to dishonesty and imposture.  They
Ten years ago men might reasonably object to  hear of a person receiving four or five thousand
any reform of the system, who ought now, in my  pounds as the purchase-money of a seat for a
opinion, to be governed by motives that are irre- close borough; and they hear the very man who
sistible in its favor. They might look back with  received and put the money into his pocket make
something like satisfaction and triumph to former a vehement speech in this House against bribery 
Parliaments, and console themselves with the re- They see him move for the commitment to prisflection that, though in moments of an ordinary  on of a poor, unfortunate wretch at your bar,
kind, in the common course of human events, Par- who has been convicted of taking a single guinea
liament might abate from its vigilance, and give for his vote in the very borough, perhaps, where
ministers a greater degree of confidence than  he had publicly and unblushingly sold his influwas strictly conformable with representative duty  ence, though, under the horrors of a war which
-yet there was a point beyond which no artifice  he had contributed to bring upon the country, that
of power, no influence of corruption, could carry  miserable guinea was necessary to save a family
them; that there were barriers in the British  from starving! Sir, these are the things that parConstitution over which the House of Commons alyze you to the heart; these are the things that
never would leap, and that the moment of dan- vitiate the whole system; that spread degenerager and alarm would be the signal for the return  cy, hypocrisy, and sordid fraud over the counof Parliament to its post.  Such might have been  try, and take from us the energies of virtue, and
the reasoning of gentlemen on the experience of  sap the foundations of patriotism and spirit. The
former Parliaments; and with this rooted trust system that encourages so much vice ought to
in the latent efficacy of Parliament, they might be put an end to; and it is no argument, that
have objected to any attempt that should cherish  because it lasted a long time without mischief;
hopes of a change in the system itself. But what it ought now to be continued when it is found to
will the same gentlemen say after the experi- be pernicious; it has arisen to a height that deence of the last and the present Parliament? feats the very end of government; it must sink
What reliance can they have for any one vestige  under its own weakness.  And this, sir, is not a
of the Constitution that is yet left to us?  Or case peculiar to itself, but inseparable from all
rather, what privilege, what right, what securi- human institutions. All the writers of eminence
ty, has not been already violated? " Quid intac- upon forms of government have said that, in order
tumn nefasti liquimus?"7  And seeing that in no  to preserve them, frequent recurrence must be
one instance have they hesitated to go the full had to their original principle. This is the opinlength of every outrage that was conceived by  ion of Montesquieu, as well as of Machiavelli.
the minister; that they have been touched by no  Gentlemen will not be inclined to dispute the
scruples, deterred by no sense of duty, corrected  authority of the latter, on this point at least; and
by no experience of calamity, checked by no ad- he says, that without this recurrence they grow
monition or remonstrance; that they have never out of shape, and deviate from their general form.
made out a single case of inquiry; that they have  It is only by recurring to former principles that
never interposed a single restraint upon abuse; any government can be kept pure and unabused.
may not gentlemen consistently feel that the re- But, say gentlemen, if any abuses have crept into
form which they previously thought unnecessary  our system, have we not a corrective whose effiis now indispensable?                           cacy has been proved, and of which every body
We have heard to-day, sir, all the old argu- approves?  Have we not Mr. Grenville's bill, as
No argument ments about honor on the one side be- an amendment to the Constitution? An amendto be derived ing as likely as honor on the other; ment it is; an amendment which acknowledges
from the per.                                               t is           whc   anere
sonal honor that there are good men on both sides the deficiency.  It is an avowal of a defective
represent.   of the House; that a man upon the  practice.  It is a strong argument for reform,
tives.   one side of the House as well as upon  because it would not be necessary if the plan of
the other, may be a member for a close borough  representation were sufficient.  But, sir, there is
and that he may be a good man, sit where he  a lumping consideration, if I may be Dangerfrom
may.  All this, sir, is very idle language; it is allowed the phrase, which now more t geptr,'
not the question at issue.  No man disputes the  than ever ought to make every man a ministry.
existence of private and individual integrity; convert to parliamentary reform; there is an anbut, sir, this is not representation.  If a man  nual revenue of twenty-three millions sterling
comes here as the proprietor of a burgage ten- collected by the executive government from the
ure. he does not come here as the representative  people. Here, sir, is the despot of election; here
of the people.  The whole of this system, as it is the new power that has grown up to a magis now carried on, is as outrageous to morality  nitude, that bears down before it every defensive
as it is pernicious to just government; it brings  barrier established by our ancestors for the pro______________________tection of the people. They had no such tyrant
7 What, in our wickedness, have we left untouch  to control; they had no such enemy to oppose.
ed?                                             Against every thing that was known, against




524                                     MRi. FOX ON                                     [1797.
every thing that was seen, they did provide; but to that of war have fallen into a severer calamiit did not enter into the contemplation of those  ty than ourselves?  Does he mean to say that
who established the checks and barriers of our Sweden, or that Denmark, has suffered more by
system, that they would ever have to stand  observing an imprudent neutrality, than England
against a revenue of twenty-three millions a  or Austria by wisely plunging themselves into a
year!  The whole landed rental of the kingdom  war?  Or does he mean to insinuate that Prusis not estimated at more than twenty-five mill- sia has been the victim of its impolicy, in getting
ions a year, and this rental is divided and dis- out of the conflict on the first occasion? If this
persed over a large body, who can not be sup- be the interpretation of the right honorable genposed to act in concert, or to give to their pow- tleman's argument, I do not believe that he will
er the force of combination and unity.  But it is get many persons to subscribe to the justice of
said, that though the government is in the receipt his comparison.  But probably he alludes to the
of a revenue of twenty-three millions a year, it fate of Holland.  If this be the object to which
has not the expenditure of that sum, and that its he wishes to turn our eyes, he does it unjustly.
influence ought not to be calculated from what Holland acted under the despotic mandate of that
it receives, but from  what it has to pay away. right honorable gentleman; and Holland, whatI submit, however, to the good sense, and to the  ever she has suffered, whatever may be her prespersonal experience of gentlemen who hear me, ent situation, lays her calamities to the charge of
if it be not a manifest truth that influence de- England. I can not, then, admit of the argument,
pends almost as much upon what they have to  that our situation is comparatively better than
receive as upon what they have to pay?  And  that of the nations who altogether kept out of
if this be true of the influence which individuals  the war; or, being drawn into it in the first inderive from the rentals of their estates, and from  stance, corrected their error, and restored to
the expenditure of that rental, how much more  themselves the blessings of peace.
so is it true of government, who, both in the re-    I come now to consider the specific proposition
ceipt and expenditure of this enormous revenue, of my honorable friend, and the argu- Reform proare actuated by one invariable principle-that ments that have been brought against posed by
of extending or withholding favor in exact pro- it.  Let me premise, that however Mr Gray.
portion to the submission or resistance to their averse gentlemen may be to any specific propomeasures, which the individuals make?  Com- sition of reform, if they are friendly to the prinpare this revenue, then, with that against which  ciple, they ought to vote for the present question,
our ancestors were so anxious to protect us, and  because it is merely a motion for leave to bring
compare this revenue with all the bulwarks of  in a bill.  An opposition to such a motion comes
our Constitution in preceding times, and you  with a very ill grace from the right honorable
must acknowledge that, though those bulwarks  gentleman, and contradicts the policy for which
were sufficient to protect us in the days of King  he strenuously argued.  In 1785, he moved for
William and Queen Anne, they are not equal to  leave to bring in a bill on a specific plan, and
the enemy we have now to resist.                he fairly called for the support of all those who
But it is said, what will this reform do for us? approved of the principle of reform, whatever
Will it be a talisman sufficient to re- might be the latitude of their ideas on the subBenefito to
e expected trieve all the misfortunes which we  ject; whether they wished for more or less than
from reform  have incurred?  I am free to say that his proposition. he thought that they should agree
it would not be sufficient, unless it led to reforms to the introduction of the bill, that it might be
of substantial expense, and of all the abuses that freely discussed in the committee, in hopes that
have crept into our government.  But at the  the united wisdom of the House might shape out
same time, I think it would do this, I think it something that would be generally acceptable.
would give us the chance, as I said before, of  Upon this candid argument I, for one, acted.  I
recovery.  It would give us, in the first place, did not approve of his specific proposition, and
a Parliament vigilant and scrupulous, and that yet I voted with him for leave to bring in the
would insure to us a government active and  bill.  And this, sir, has generally happened to
economical. It would prepare the way for every  me on all the former occasions, when proposirational improvement, of which, without disturb- tions have been made. Though I have constanting the parts, our Constitution is susceptible. It ly been a friend to the principle, I have never
would do more; it would open the way for ex- before seen a specific plan that had my cordial
ertions infinitely more extensive than all that we  approbation.  That which came nearest, and of
have hitherto made.  The right honorable gen- which I the least disapproved, was the plan of
tleman says that we have made exertions. True. an honorable gentleman who is now no more
But what are they in comparison with our ne- [Mr. Flood].  He was the first person who sugcessity?  The right honorable gentleman says, gested the idea of extending what might be
that when we consider our situation compared  proper to add to representation, to housekeepers,
with that of countries which have taken another as to a description of persons the best calculated
line of conduct, we ought to rejoice.  I confess, to give efficacy to the representative system.
sir, that I am at a loss to conceive what country  My honorable friend's plan, built upon this idea.
the right honorable gentleman has in view in  is an improvement of it, since it is not an atthis comparison.  Does he mean to assert that tempt even to vary the form and outline, much
the nations who preferred the line of neutrality  less to new-model the representation of the peo



1797.1                          PARLIAMENTARY REFORM.                                           525
ple; it keeps every thing in its place; it neither  land.8  This, sir, was the opinion of Sergeant
varies the number, nor changes the name, nor  Glanville, and of one of the most celebrated comdiverts the course of any part of our system; it mittees of which our parliamentary history has to
corrects without change; it extends without de-  boast; and this, in my opinion, is the safest line
struction of any established right; it restores  of conduct you can adopt.  But it is said that
simply what has been injured by abuse, and re- extending the right of voting to housekeepers
instates what time has moldered away; no man  may, in some respects, be compared This does not
can have a right to complain of genuine prop- to universal suffrage.  I have always i volve unierty assailed; no habit even, no mode of think-  deprecated universal suffrage, not so which is to be
ing, no prejudice, will be wounded; it traces  much on account of the confusion deprecated
back the path of the Constitution from which we  to which it would lead, as because I think that
have wandered, but it runs out into no new di- we should in reality lose the very object which
rection.                                          we desire to obtain; because I think it would, in
A noble Lord says that the county represent- its nature, embarrass and prevent the deliberaIt leaes the ation must be good, that it must be  tive voice of the country from  being heard.  I
county repre- approved of; be it so: this proposes to  do not think that you augment the deliberative
leave the county representation where  body of the people by counting all the heads; but
it is; I wish so to leave it.  I think that rep- that, in truth, you confer on individuals, by this
resentation ought to be of a compound nature. means, the power of drawing forth numbers, who.
The counties may be considered as territorial rep- without deliberation, would implicitly act upon
resentation, as contradistinguished from popular; their will.  My opinion is, that the best plan of
but, in order to embrace all that I think necessa- representation is that which shall bring into actry, I certainly would not approve of any farther  ivity the greatest number of independent voters;
extension of this branch of the representation.  and that that is defective which would bring forth
It has been asked whether the rights of corpo- those whose situation and condition take from
rations ought not to be maintained.  That is a  them the power of deliberation.  I can have no
matter for farther discussion.  I have no hesita- conception of that being a good plan of election
tion in saying that my opinion leans the other  which should enable individuals to bring regiway; but if it should be thought so, it may be so  ments to the poll.  I hope gentlemen will not
modified in the bill.  There is no reasonable ob- smile if I endeavor to illustrate my position by
jection to its introduction on account of our not referring to the example of the other sex.  In
now agreeing with all its parts.  My honorable  all the theories and projects of the most absurd
friend, with all his abilities, and all the industry  speculation, it has never been suggested that it
with which he has digested his proposition, does  would be advisable to extend the elective sufnot presume to offer it as a perfect plan.  He  frage to the female sex.  And yet, justly redoes not call upon you to adopt all his notions, specting, as we must do, the mental powers, the
nor does he think that every part of his plan  acquirements, the discrimination, and the talents,
will be found to quadrate with the abstract prin- of the women of England, in the present imciples of representation.  He looks to what is  proved state of society-knowing the opportunipracticable in the condition in which we are  ties which they have for acquiring knowledgeplaced, not to what a new people might be tempt- that they have interests as dear and as important
ed to hazard.  My opinion, however unimport-  as our own, it must be the genuine feeling of evant it may be, goes with my honorable friend. ery gentleman who hears me, that all the suneI think there is enough of enterprise and vigor rior classes of the female sex of England must
in the plan to restore us to health, and not be more capable of exercising the elective sufenough to run us into disorder.  I agree with  frage with deliberation and propriety than the
him, because I am firmly of opinion, with all the  uninformed individuals of the lowest class of men
philosophical writers on the subject, that when  to whom  the advocates of universal suffrage
a country is sunk into a situation of apathy and  would extend it.  And yet, why has it never
abuse, it can only be recovered by recurring to  been imagined that the right of election should
first principles.                                 be extended to women?  Why! but because by
Now, sir, I think that, acting on this footing, to  the law of nations, and perhaps also by the law
and extends the extend the right of election to house- of nature, that sex is dependent on ours; and berightofvotingto keepers is the best and most advisa- cause, therefore, their voices would be governed
allhouseholders. kee                plv                                                     oveinet
ble plan of reform. I think, also, that  by the relation in which they stand in society.
it is the most perfect recurrence to first princi-  Therefore it is, sir, that, with the exception of
ples-I do not mean to the first principles of so- companies, in which the right of voting merely
ciety, nor the abstract principles of representa- affects property, it has never been in the contemtion-but to the first known and recorded prin-  plation of the most absurd theorists to extend the
ciples of our Constitution. According to the ear-  elective franchise to the other sex.  The desidly history of England, and the highest authorities  eratum  to be obtained is independent voters;
on our parliamentary Constitution, I find this to  and that, I say, would be a defective system that
be the case.  It is the opinion of the celebrated  should bring regiments of soldiers, of servants,
Glanville, that in all cases where no particular 
right intervenes, the common law right of pay-    8 Those who paid parish taxes according to their
ing scot and lot was the right of election in the  ability, were said to " pay scot and lot."




526                                     MR. FOX ON                                       [1797.
and of persons whose low condition necessarily  be permitted, without dishonor, to act in opposicurbed the independence of their minds.  That, tion to the sentiments of the city of London, of the
then, I take to be the most perfect system which  city of Westminster, or of the city of Bristol; but if
shall include the greatest number of independent he dares to disagree with the Duke, or Lord, or
electors, and exclude the greatest number of those  Baronet, whose representative he is, must he be
who are necessarily, by their condition, depend- considered as unfit for the society of men of honor?
ent.  I think that the plan of my honorable    This, sir, is the chicane and tyranny of corrupfriend draws this line as discreetly as it can be  tion; and this, at the same time, is called repredrawn, and it by no means approaches to univers- sentation!  In a very great degree the county
al suffrage.  It would neither admit, except in  members are held in the same sort of thraldom.
particular instances, soldiers nor servants. Uni- A number of peers possess an overweening inversal suffrage would extend the right to three  terest in the county, and a gentleman is no lonmillions of men, but there are not more than  ger permitted to hold his situation than as he
seven hundred thousand houses that would come  acts agreeably to the dictates of those powerful
within the plan of my honorable friend; and when  families. Let us see how the whole of this stream
it is considered, that out of these some are the  of corruption has been diverted from the side of
property of minors, and that some persons have  the people to that of the Crown; with what contwo or more houses, it would fix the number of stant, persevering art every man who is possessed
voters for Great Britain at about six hundred  of influence in counties, corporations, or boroughs,
thousand; and I call upon gentlemen to say  that will yield to the solicitations of the court, is
whether this would not be sufficiently extensive  drawn over to that phalanx which is opposed to
for deliberation on the one hand, and yet suffi- the small remnant of popular election.  I have
ciently limited for order on the other.  This has looked, sir, to the machinations of the present
no similarity to universal suffrage; and yet, tak- minister in this way, and I find that, including
ing the number of representatives as they now  the number of additional titles, the right honorastand, it would give to every member about fif- ble gentleman has made no fewer than one hundteen hundred constituents.                       red and fifteen peers in the course of his adminIt has often been a question, both within and  istration; that is to say, he has bestowed no fewer
Objection to  without these walls, how far repre- than one hundred and fifteen titles, including new
tberre",ptet- sentatives ought to be bound by the  creations and elevations from one rank to anothatives are com- instructions of their constituents. It er.  How many of these are to be ascribed to napelled to obey                                            I.
theinstructions is a question upon which my mind is tional services, and how many to parliamentary
of the proprietors ho psenr  not altogether made up, though I own  interest, I leave the House to inquire. The counthem.      I lean to the opinion that, having to  try is not blind to these arts of influence, and it is
legislate for the empire, they ought not to be impossible that we can expect them to continue
altogether guided by instructions that may be to endure them.9
dictated by local interests.  I can not, however,    Now, sir, having shown this to be the state of
approve of the very ungracious manner in which  our representation, I ask what reme- Refor.lecI sometimes hear expressions of contempt for the  dy there can be other than reform. essay and un
opinion of constituents.  They are made with a  What can we expect, as the necesvery bad grace in the first session of a septenni- sary result of a system so defective and vicious
al Parliament; particularly if they should come in all its parts, but increasing calamities, until
from individuals who, in the concluding session  we shall be driven to a convulsion that would
of a former Parliament, did not scruple to court overthrow every thing?  If we do not apply this
the favor of the very same constituents by de- remedy in time, our fate is inevitable. Our most
claring that they voted against their conscience  illustrious patriots-the men whose memories
in compliance with their desire, as was the case  are the dearest to Englishmen, have long ago
of an honorable alderman of the city of London. pointed out to us parliamentary reform  as the
But, sir, there is one class of constituents whose  only means of redressing national grievance.  I
instructions it is considered as the implicit duty  need not inform you that Sir George Savile was
of members to obey. When gentlemen represent its most strenuous advocate; I need not tell you
populous towns and cities, then it is a disputed  that the venerable and illustrious Camden was
point, whether they ought to obey their voice, or through life a steady adviser of seasonable refollow the dictates of their own conscience; but form; nay, sir, to a certain degree we have the
if they represent a noble Lord or a noble Duke, authority of Mr. Burke himself for the propriety
then it becomes no longer a question of doubt; of correcting the abuses of our system; for genand he is not considered as a man of honor who  tlemen will remember the memorable answer
does not implicitly obey the orders of his single  which he gave to the argument that was used
constituent!  He is to have no conscience, no  for our right of taxing America, on the score of
liberty, no discretion of his own; he is sent here 
by my Lord this or the Duke of that, and if he      Mr   ke's   Bill o  Economical eform  took
]     t..-.   i'..  away a very large number of sinecure offices, which
does not obey the instructions he receives, he is                 u       o       e offces, 
ministers had been accustomed to use as means of
not to he considered as a man of honor and a gen- patronage and reward. Mr. Pitt therefore resorted
tleman.  Such is the mode of reasoning that pre- to the expedient of raising men to the peerage, as a
vails in this House.  Is this fair?  Is there any  means of influence, to an extent which was generalreciprocity in this conduct?  Is a gentleman to  ly and justly complained of.




1797.]                        PARLIAMENTARY  REFORM.                                       527
their being virtually represented, and that they  propose the remedy, and fatal will it Peroration:
were in the same situation as Manchester, Bir- be for England if pride and prejudice oftin, for
mingham, and Sheffield.  " What!" said Mr. much longer continue to oppose it. toearh'gr.dee
Burke, " when the people of America look up to  The remedy which is proposed is sim- the Crown at.
you with the eyes of filial love and affection, will pie, easy, and practicable; it does not the people.
you turn to them the shameful parts of the Con- touch the vitals of the Constitution; and I sinstitution?"  With the concurring testimony of cerely believe it will restore us to peace and harso many authorities for correcting our abuses, mony.  Do you not think that you must come to
why do we hesitate?  Can we do any harm by  parliamentary reform soon? and is it not better
experiment?  Can we possibly put ourselves into  to come to it now, when you have the power of
a worse condition than that in which we are?  deliberation, than when, perhaps, it may be exWhat advantages we shall gain I know not.  I torted from you by convulsion? There is as yet
think we shall gain many. I think we shall gain  time to frame it with freedom and discussion; it
at least the chance of warding off the evil of con- will even yet go to the people with the grace and
fusion, growing out of accumulated discontent. I favor of a spontaneous act.  What will it be
think we shall save ourselves from the evil that when it is extorted from  you with indignation
has fallen upon Ireland.  I think we shall satisfy  and violence?  God forbid that this should be
the moderate, and take even from the violent (if the case! but now is the moment to prevent it;
any such there be) the power of increasing their and now, I say, wisdom and policy recommend
numbers and of making converts to their schemes. it to you, when you may enter into all the conThis, sir, is my solemn opinion, and upon this siderations to which it leads, rather than to postground it is that'I recommend with earnestness pone it to a time when you will have nothing to
and solicitude the proposition of my honorable  consider but the number and the force of those
friend.                                         who demand it.  It is asked, whether liberty
And now, sir, before I sit down, allow me to  has not gained much of late years, and whether
Intimation that make a single observation with re- the popular branch ought not, therefore, to be
Mr. Fox design- spect to the character and conduct content?  To this I answer, that if liberty has
ed to withdraw,
tosome extent, of those who have, in conjunction  gained much, power has gained more.  Power
frt   with myself, felt it their duty to op- has been indefatigable and unwearied in its enpose the progress of this disastrous war.  I hear croachments.  Every thing has run in that direcit said, "You do nothing but mischief when you  tion through the whole course of the present
are here; and yet we should be sorry to see you  reign.  This was the opinion of Sir George Saaway."  I do not know how we shall be able to vile, of the Marquis of Rockingham, and of all
satisfy the gentlemen who feel toward us in this the virtuous men who, in their public life, proved
way. If we can neither do our duty without mis- themselves to be advocates for the rights of the
chief, nor please them with doing nothing, I know  people.  They saw and deplored the tendency of
but of one way by which we can give them con- the Court; they saw that there was a determtent, and that is by putting an end to our exist- ined spirit in the secret advisers of the Crown
ence. With respect to myself, and I believe I can  to advance its power, and to encourage no adalso speak for others, I do not feel it consistent ministration that should not bend itself to that
with my duty totally to secede from this House. pursuit.  Accordingly, through the whole reign,
I have no such intention  but, sir, I have no hes- no administration which cherished notions of a
itation in saying, that, after seeing the conduct of different kind has been permitted to last; and
this House; after seeing them give to ministers nothing, therefore, or next to nothing, has been
their confidence and support, upon convicted fail- gained to the side of the people, but every thing
ure, imposition, and incapacity; after seeing them  to that of the Crown, in the course of this reign.
deaf and blind to the consequences of a career During the whole of this period, we have had no
that penetrates the hearts of all other men with  more than three administrations, one for twelve
alarm, and that neither reason, experience, nor months, one for nine, and one for three months,
duty, are sufficiently powerful to influence them  that acted upon the popular principles of the early
to oppose the conduct of government; I certain- part of this century: nothing, therefore, I say, has
ly do think I may devote more of my time to  been gained to the people, while the constant curmy private pursuits, and to the retirement which  rent has run toward the Crown; and God knows
I love, than I have hitherto done; I certainly  what is to be the consequence, both to the Crown
think I need not devote much of it to fruitless and the country!  I believe that we are come
exertions, and to idle talk, in this House. When- to the last moment of possible remedy. I believe
ever it shall appear that my efforts may contrib- that at this moment the enemies of both are few;
ute in any degree to restore us to the situation  but I firmly believe that what has been seen in Irefrom which the confidence of this House in a land will be experienced also here; and that if we
desperate system and an incapable administra- are to go on in the same career with convention
tion, has so suddenly reduced us, I shall be found bills and acts of exasperation of all kinds, the
ready to discharge my duty.l~                  few will soon become the many, and that we shall
Sir, I have done. I have given my advice. I have to pay a severe retribution for our present
pride.  What a noble Lord said some time ago
10 Mr. Fox did for some time discontinue a regular of France may be applicable to this very subjectattendance on the House.                      I " What!" said he, " negotiate with Franco? with




528' MR. FOX  ON                                        [1800.
men whose hands are reeking with the blood of  to remain in place.  Let them  retire from his
their Sovereign?  What, shall we degrade our-  Majesty's councils, and then let us, with an earnselves by going to Paris, and there asking in hum-  est desire of recovering the country, pursue this
ble, diplomatic language, to be on a good under-  moderate scheme of reform, under the auspices
standing with them?" Gentlemen will remember  of men who are likely to conciliate the opinion
these lofty words; and yet we have come to this  of the people.  I do not speak this, sir, from perhumiliation; we have negotiated with France;  sonal ambition.  A new administration ought to
and I should not be surprised to see the noble Lord  be formed: I have no desire, no wish to make a
himself (Hawkesbury) going to Paris, not at the  part of any such administration; and I am sure
head of his regiment, but on a diplomatic mis- that such an arrangement is feasible, and that it
sion to those very regicides, to pray to be upon  is capable of being done without me.  My first
a good understanding with them. Shall we, then,  and chief desire is to see this great end accombe blind to the lessons which the events of the  plished.  I have no wish to be the person, or to
world exhibit to our view?   Pride, obstinacy,  be one of the persons, to do it; but though my
and insult, must end in concessions, and those  inclination is for retirement, I shall always be
concessions must be humble in proportion to our  ready to give my free and firm  support to any
unbecoming pride.  Now is the moment to pre-  administration that shall restore to the country
vent all these degradations; the monarchy, the  its outraged rights, and re-establish its strength
aristocracy, the people themselves, may now be  upon the basis of free representation; and theresaved; it is only necessary, at this moment, to  fore, sir, I shall certainly give my vote for the
conquer our own passions.  Let those ministers  proposition of my honorable friend.
whose evil genius has brought us to our present
condition retire from the post to which they are     On a division, the numbers were, Yeas, 93 
unequal.  I have no hesitation in saying, that  Noes, 253. Mr. Grey's motion was therefore rethe present administration neither can nor ought  jected.
SPEECH
OF MR. FOX ON THE REJECTION OF BONAPARTE'S OVERTURES FOR PEACE, DELIVERED IN THE
HOUSE OF COMMONS, FEBRUARY 3, 1800.
INTRODUCTION.
NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, having usurped the government of France, became First Consul in December,
1799; and, as an air of moderation seemed appropriate under these circumstances, he made overtures of
peace to the King of England, in a letter written with his own hand. Mr. Pitt, who had no belief in the
permanence of his power, rejected his offers in terms which were certainly rude, if not insulting. Some
of them will be given hereafter in notes to this speech.
The correspondence in question was laid before Parliament, and, on the 3d of February, 1800, a motion
was made by Mr. Dundas approving of the course taken, and pledging the country for a vigorous prosecution of the war. After Mr. Whitbread, Mr. Canning, and Mr. Erskine had spoken, Mr. Pitt rose, and held
the House in fixed attention for nearly five hours by one of the most masterly orations he ever pronounced
in Parliament. Mr. Fox then delivered the following speech in reply; and never were these two great
orators brought into more direct competition, or the distinctive features of their eloquence exhibited in
finer contrast.
Mr. Pitt, instead of entering at once on the reasons for refusing at that time to negotiate, treated the rise
of Napoleon as only a new stage of the French Revolution, and thus dextrously prepared the way for going back to consider,
1. The origin of the war, maintaining that France was the sole aggressor throughout the whole conflict.
II. The atrocities of the French in overrunning and subjugating a large part of Europe during the preceding eight years.
Ill. The genius and spirit of the Revolution, as " an insatiable love of aggrandizement, an implacable
spirit of destruction against all the civil and religious institltions of every country."
IV. The instability of the system, as marked from the first by sudden and great changes.
V. The past history and character of Napoleon, whom he depicted in the darkest colors, as devoid of all
faith, the inveterate enemy of England, and the cruel oppressor of every country he had overrun. His
power he represented as wholly unstable, and insisted that England ought never to enter into a treaty with
him until, "from experience and the evidence offacts, we are convinced that such a treaty is admissible."
On these grounds he defended his refusal to negotiate. This speech should be taken up previous to the
one before us, if the reader intends to enter fully into the merits of the case.
Mr. Fox, in reply, without the exactness of Mr. Pitt's method, touches upon most of these points, and adverts to others with great pungency and force.
He condemns Mr. Pitt for reviving the early animosities of the contest as a reason for refusing to treat,
since on this principle the war must be eternal.




1800.]             THE  REJECTION  OF BONAPARTE'S OVERTURES.                                    529
He censures tie severe and unconciliating terms in which a respectful offer of negotiation had been rejected.
He insists, in regard to the origin of tile war, that Austria and Prussia (so long the allies of England)
were undeniably the aggressors; that England provoked the contest by harsh treatment of the French
minister; that, in relation to her grievances, she ought from the first to have stated definitely to the
French what would satisfy her; that she ought, especially, to have accepted the mediation urged upon
her by France, before a single blow had been struck, with a view to prevent the contest; that the English were, therefore, far from being guiltless as to the origin of the war, while the French, in all their aggressions, had been simply carrying out the principles taught them by the Bourbons, whom Mr. Pitt now
proposed to restore.
While condemning the atrocities of the French, he sets off against them the outrages practiced on Pe,
land and other countries by the powers in league with England; and exposes the inconsistency of refus.
ing, on the ground of character, to treat with the French, while such rank oppressors were taken into thestrictest alliance.
He dwells upon the fact, that Mr. Pitt, who now refused to treat on account of the outrages of the.
French and the instability of their government, had himself twice opened negotiations (in 1796 and 1797).
in the midst of these very outrages, while the existing governments were confessedly of the most unstable
kind, and comments with great severity upon Mr. Pitt's explanation of his conduct on those occasions.
Finally, in reference to the question, " When is this war to end?" he considers the grounds on which
Mr. Pitt had intiniated a willingness to treat with Bonaparte, if the Bourbons could not be restored, viz;.
"experience and the evidence of facts;" he adverts for a moment to some of the charges brought against.
the First Consul; and, recurring again to the grounds stated, inquires, " Where, then, is this war, which,
is pregnant with all these horrors, to be carried? Where is it to stop? Not till sve establish the houses
of Bourbon"-or, at least, not until we have had due " experience" of Bonaparte's intentions. " So that we
are called upon to go on merely as a speculation" —" to keep Bonaparte some time longer at war, as a stateofprobation —" to try an EXPERIMENT, if he will not behave himself better than heretofore!"  With this
thought he concludes, in the boldest and most eloquent strain of mingled argument, irony, and invective
which he ever produced.
The speech is admirably.reported, and was considered by most who heard it as the ablest Mr. Fox
ever made.
SPEEC H, &c.
MR. SPEAKER.,-At so late an hour of the  enumerated and advanced as arguments for our
night, I am sure you will do me the justice to  continuing the war. What! at the end of seven
believe that I do not mean to go at length into  years of the most burdensome and the most cathe discussion of this great question. Exhausted  lamitous struggle in which this country ever was
as the attention of the House must be, and un- enga.ged, are we again to be amused with no-.
accustomed as I have been of late to attend in  tions of finance, and calculations of the exhaustmy place, nothing but a deep sense of my duty  ed resources of the enemy, as a ground of confi.
could have induced me to trouble you at all, and  dence and of hope?  Gracious God! were we
particularly to request your indulgence at such  not told five years ago that France was not only
an hour.                                          on the brink and in the jaws of ruin, but that,
Sir, my honorable and learned friend [Mr. Er- she was actually sunk into the gulf of bankruptnew era in  skine] has truly said, that the present cy? Were we not told, as an unanswerable are
tiewar,butthe is a new  era in the war, and the  gument against treating, "that she could not hold!
old arguuments                                    C
uSed ritcon- right honorable gentleman opposite  out another campaign —that nothing but peacee
t.   to me [Mr. Pitt] feels the justice of  could save her-that she wanted only time to.
the remark; for, by traveling back to the com- recruit her exhausted finances-that to grant
mencement of the war, and referring again to  her repose was to grant her the means of again
all the topics and arguments which he has so  molesting this country, and that we had nothing
often and so successfully urged upoh the House, to do but persevere for a short time, in order to.
and by which he has drawn them on to the sup- save ourselves forever from  the consequences
port of his measures, he is forced to acknowl- of her ambition and her jacobinism?"  What!
edge that, at the end of a seven years' conflict, after having gone on from  year to year upon
we are come but to a new era in the war, at assurances like these, and after having seen the
which he thinks it necessary only to press all his repeated refutations of every prediction. are we
former arguments to induce us to persevere. All again to be gravely and seriously assured, that
the topics which have so often misled us-all we have the same prospect of success on the
the reasoning which has so invariably failed-   same identical grounds?  And, without any othall the lofty predictions which have so constantly  er argument or security, are we invited, at this
been falsified by events-all the hopes which  new era of the war, to conduct it upon principles.
have amused the sanguine, and all the assuran- which, if adopted and acted upon, may make it
ces of the distress and weakness of the enemy  eternal?  If the right honorable gentleman shall!
which have satisfied the unthinking, are again  succeed in prevailing on Parliament and the
L L




530                                       MR. FOX  ON                                        [1800.
country to adopt the principles which he has ad-  could be more proper nor more wise than this
vanced this night, I see no possible termination  language; and such ought ever to be the tone
to the contest.  No man can see an end to it;  and conduct of men intrusted with the very imand upon the assurances and predictions which  portant task of treating with a hostile nation.
have so uniformly failed, we are called upon not Being a sincere friend to peace, I must say witlh
merely to refuse all negotiation, but to counte-  Lord Malmesbury, that it is not by reproaches
nance principles and views as distant from wis- and by invective that we can hope for a recondom and justice, as they are in their nature wild  ciliation; and I am convinced, in my own mind,
and impracticable.                                that I speak the sense of this House, and, if not
I must lament, sir, in common with every gen- of this House, certainly of a majority of the peoMinisterscen- uine friend of peace, the harsh and un- pie of this country, when I lament that any unsrnaglefr   conciliating language which ministers  provoked and unnecessary recriminations should
decng to  have held to the French, and which  be flung out, by which obstacles are put in the
negotiate.   they have even made use of in their  way of pacification.  I believe it is the prevailanswer to a respectful offer of a negotiation.' ing sentiment of the people, that we ought to
Such language has ever been considered as ex- abstain from harsh and insulting language; and
tremely unwise, and has ever been reprobated  in common with them, I must lament that both
by diplomatic men.  I remember with pleasure  in the papers of Lord Grenville, and this night,
the terms in which Lord Malmesbury, at Paris, such license has been given to invective and rein the year 1796, replied to expressions of this  proach.3
sort, used by M. de la Croix.  He justly said,    For the same reason, I must lament that the'that offensive and injurious insinuations were  right honorable  gentleman  [M1. The originaland
only calculated to throw  new  obstacles in the  Pitt] has thought proper to go at cesoCt. e iar.tot
way of accommodation, and that it was not by  such length, and with such severity now the question.
revolting reproaches nor by reciprocal invective  of minute investigation, into all the early circumthat a sincere wish to accomplish the great work  stances of the war, which (whatever they were)
of pacification  could be evinced."   Nothing  are nothing to the present purpose, and ought not
1 The language referred to was of the following  to influence the present feelings of the House.  I
kind. As a reason for refusing to negotiate, Lord  certainly shall not follow him through the whole
(Grenville goes back to the origin of the war, de- of this tedious detail,'though I do not agree with
(laring it to have been " an unprovoked attack" on  him in many of his assertions.  I do not know
the part of France. He says it sprung out of "a  what impression his narrative may make on other
system, to the prevalence of which PFrance justly  gentlemen; but I will tell him fairly and candidascribes all her present miseries, and which has in-.    contie to thi,  ly, lie has not convinced me. I continue to think,
oolved all the rest of Europe in a long and destruc- 
(:ive warfare, of a nature long since unknown to the  and untl I see better gounds for chang     my
ractice of civilized nations'-he assumes that this  opinion than any that the right honorable gentle-.system "continues to prevail; that the most solemn  man has this night produced, I shall continue to
treaties have only prepared a way for fresh aggres- think, and to say, plainly and explicitly, " that
sioun;" and ascribes to the French those "gigantic  this country was the aggressor in the Th~e rititshal-,objects of ambition, and those restless schemes of  war."  But with regard to Austria lies, Austria
destiuction, which have endangered the very exist- and Prussia-is there a man who, for deniably the i -
ellnceof civil society."  In addition to this, he tells  one moment, can dispute that they geesoerso:the French people, through their new ruler, that ere the aressors?  It will be vain for the:they-ou-ht at once to t.ake back the Bourbons; that 
"the best and most natural pledge" they can give     h  hooable gentleman to enter into lon
of adesire for peace, is "the restoration of that line  and plausible reasoning against the evidence of
of princes which for so many centuries maintained  documents so clear, so decisive-so fiequently,
the French nation in prosperity at home, and con- so thoroughly investigated.  The  unfortunate
sideration and respect abroad."  He tells Bona- monarch, Louis XVI., himself, as well as those
parte in direct terms, that England can not trust who were in his confidence, has borne decisive
ihim; that there is "no sufficient evidence of the  testimony to the fact, that between him  and the.prsinciples by which the new government will be  Emperor [Leopold of Austria] there was an intidirected; no reasonable grounld by which to judge                                  f
of its stability."  Such language deserved the cen-c    u                                nlst
-sres.passed upon it by Mr. Fox. Nothing could            Do I  ean by this that a positive treaty
-lmore irritate the French people than to talk to them    as entered into for the dismemberment of
of restoring that hated dynasty against which they  France?  Certainly not.  But no man can read'had so.lately rebelled. Nothing was more calcula-    Warmly as Mr. Wilberforce was attached to
ted to, provoke Bonaparte to the utmost, and to foster Mr. Pitt, he expressed himself still more strongly
a desire to invade England (which he attempted  on this subject in a letter to afriend. "I must say
some years after), than personal reflections of this I was shocked at Lord Grenville's letter; for though
kind on the stability of his government.          our government must feel adverse to any measure
2 This is one of Mr. Fox's characteristic argu- which might appear to give the stamp of out' authorrments, ad hominem. It was Mr. Pitt (through his ity to Bonaparte's new dignity, yet I must say that
embassador) who thus reproved the French minis- unless they have some better reason than I fear they
ter, M. de la Croix, for certain harsh expressions  possess for believing that he is likely to be hurled
used during the negotiations for peace in 1796; and  fiom his throne, it seems a desperate game to play
Mr. Fox now turns the reproof back upon Mr. Pitt, -to offend, and insult, and thereby irritate, this vain
in language dictated by himself.                  man beyond the hope of forgiveness."-Life, 215.




1800.]              THE REJECTION OF BONAPARTE'S OVERTURES.                                      531
the declarations which were made at Mantua,4  of Europe, " to put the King of France in a situas well as at Pilnitz, as they are given by M.  ation to establish, in perfect liberty, the foundaBertrand de Molville, without acknowledging  tions of a monarchical government equally agreethat this was not merely an intention, but a dec- able to the rights of Sovereigns and the welfare
laration of an intention, on the part of the great of the French."  Whenever the other princes
powers of Germany, to interfere in the internal should agree to co-operate with them, " then,
affairs of France, for the purpose of regulating  and in, that case, their Majesties were determthe government, against the opinion of the peo- ined to act promptly, and by mutual consent,
pie.  This, though not a plan for the partition  with the forces necessary to obtain the end proof France, was, in the eye of reason and common  posed by all of them.  In the mean time, they
sense, an aggression against France. The right declared that they would give orders for their
honorable gentleman denies that there was such  troops to be ready for actual service."  Now, I
Declaration a thing as a treaty of Pilnitz.  Grant- would ask gentlemen to lay their hands up
ofPilnitz.  ed.  But was there not a Declaration  their heart, and say with candor hait he true
which amounted to an act of hostile aggression?5  and fair construction of this Declaration wasThe two powers, the Emperor of Germany and  whether it was not a menace and an insult to
the King of Prussia, made a public declaration, France, since, in direct terms, it declared, that
that they were determined to employ their forces,  whenever the other powers should concur, they
in conjunction with those of the other Sovereigns would attack France, then at peace with them,
4 The Count d'Artois, brother of the King of  and then employed only in domestic and internal
France, met the Emperor Leopold of Austria, the  regulations?  Let us suppose the case to be that
King of Sardinia, and the King of Spain, at Mantua, of Great Britain.  Will any gentleman say that
in May, 1791, and, on his representation, these mon- if two of the great powers should make a public
archs entered into an agreement to march one hund- declaration, that they were determined to make
red thousand men to the borders of France, in ex- an attack on this kingdom as soon as circumpectation that the French people, terrified at the ap- stances should favor their intention; that they
proach of the allied powers, would seek safety by  only waited for this occasion  and that i  the
submitting themselves to Louis XVI., and asking    ean tie they wold  ee  their fors 
n.        ^.           mean time they would keep their forces ready
his mediation; but Louis, hoping at that time to re- 
store the monarchy by his own efforts, discouraged          urpose  i         
the immediate execution of the plan. See Mlignet. the Parliament and people of this country as a
p. 119; Alison's History of Europe, vol. i., p. 571, hostile aggression?  And is there any Englishthird edition,                                     man in existence who is such a friend to peace
5 The following is a copy of this celebrated Decla- as to say that the nation could retain its honor
ration, which led to a general war in Europe. It and dignity if it should sit down under such a
was framed in August, 1791, at Pilnitz, a fortress in  menace?  I know too well what is due to the
Saxony, by the Emperor Leopold and the King of  national character of England to believe that
Prussia, and was given to the Count d'Artois, that there would  e two opinions on the case, if thus
he might use it to induce the other courts of Europe          t                          
to enter into a league for restoring Louis XVI.      t hme to or o     feelig  and understand"His Majesty the Emperor, and his Majesty the  lngs.  We must, then, respect in others the inKing of Prussia, having heard the desires and repre- dignation which such an act would excite in oursentations of Monsieur and of his royal highness the  selves; and when we see it established, on the
Count d'Artois, declare jointly, that they regard the  most indisputable testimony, that both at Pilnitz
situation in which his Majesty the King of France  and at Mantua declarations were made to this efactually is, as an object of common interest to all the  feet it is idle to say that as far as the Emperor
Sovereigns of Europe. They hope that this concern  and the Kin  of Prssia were concerned, they
can not fail to be acknowledged by the powers  
whose assistance is claimed; and that in conse-       e not the aggressors in the war.
quence they will not refuse to employ jointly with     Oh! but the decree of the 19th of Novemtheir said Majesties the most efficacious means, in  ber, 1792."6  That, at least, the right honorable
proportion to their forces, to place the King of    G This famous "Decree of Fraternity" was passed
France in a state to settle in the most perfect lib- under the following circumstances. The allied Auserty the foundations of a monarchical government, trian and Prussian armies, under the Duke of Brunsequally suitable to the rights of Sovereigns and the  wick, were beaten back by the French, who immediwelfare of the French. Then and in that case, their  ately pressed forward into the Austrian Netherlainds,
said Majesties are decided to act quickly and with  and made themselves masters of the country by the
one accord with the forces necessary to obtain the  decisive battle of Jemmape, November 6th, 1792.
common end proposed. In the mean time they will When the news reached Paris, the decree in quesgive suitable orders to their troops, that they may  tion was passed in tihe exultation felt at this and
be ready to put themselves in motion."-Aliso7's  other victories of the republic. It was in the folHFistory qf Europe, vol. i., p. 574, third edition.  lowing words:
The French justly regarded this as a hostile act,   "The National Convention declare, in the naime
and, after calling in vain for an explanation from the  of the French nation, they will grant fraternity and
Emperor, who had marched large bodies of troops to  assistance to all those people who wish to procure
their borders, they declared war against Austria on  liberty. And they charge the executive power to
the 20th of April, 1792. Prussia instantly united  send orders to the generals to give assistance to
with Austria, and, three months after, July 25th, such people; and to defend citizens who have su;1792, the Duke of Brunswick invaded France at the  fered, and are now suffering, in the cause oflibemrty.ar
hlead of one hundred and thirty-eight thousand Aus- -Alison, vol. i., p. 592, third edition.
trianl and Prussian troops.                          The reader will decide whether to consider it with




532                                     MR. FOX  ON                                       [1800.
gentleman says, you must allow to be an act of  Did you explain yourself on that subject?  Did
Decree oftlhe aggression, not only against England,  you make it one of the grounds for the dismissal
French Nation- but against all the Sovereigns of Eu- of M. Chauvelin?  Sir, I repeat it, that a nation,
na Convention.
rope.  I am  not one of those, sir, to justify itself in appealing to the last solemn rewho attach much interest to the general and in- sort, ought to prove that it has taken every possidiscriminate provocations thrown out at random, ble means, consistent with dignity, to demand the
like this resolution of the 19th of November, reparation and redress which would be satisfacto1792.  I do not think it necessary to the digni- ry; and if she refuses to explain what would be
ty of any people to notice and to apply to them- satisfactory, she does not do her duty, anor exonerselves menaces without particular allusion, which  ate herselffrom the charge of being the aggressor,
are always unwise in the power which uses them,    The right honorable gentleman has this night,
and which it is still more unwise to treat with se- for the first time, produced a most The plan ofunitriousness.  But if any such idle and general prov- important paper; the instructions ing with Russia
to prevent the
ocation to nations is given, either in insolence or which were given to his Majesty's war would have
eea praiseworin folly, by any government, it is a clear first prin- minister at the court of St. Peters- ity if only acted
ciple, that an explanation is the thing which a  burgh, about the end of the year upon.
magnanimous nation, feeling itself aggrieved,  1792, to induce her Imperial Majesty to join
ought to demand; and if an explanation be giv- her efforts with those of his Britannic Majesty,
en which is not satisfactory, it ought clearly and  to prevent, by their joint mediation, the evils
distinctly to say so.  There should be no am- of a general war.  Of this paper, and of the
biguity, no reserve, on the occasion.  Now we  existence of any such document, I, for one, was
all know, from documents on our table, that M. wholly ignorant.  But I have no hesitation in
Chauvelin [the French minister] did give an ex- saying that I entirely approve of the instructions
planation of this silly decree.  He declared, " in  which appear to have been given; and I am
lnation  the name of his government, that it sorry to see the right honorable gentleman disofthis decree,was never meant that the French gov- posed rather to take blame to himself than credby the French
liister at  ernment should favor insurrections; it for having written them.  He thinks that he
London that the decree was applicable only  shall be subject to the imputation of having been
to those people who, after having acquired their rather too slow to apprehend the dangers with
liberty by conquest, should demand the assist- which the French Revolution was fraught, than
ance of the Republic; but that France would  that he was forward and hasty-"Quod solum
respect, not only the independence of England, excusat, hoc solum  miror in illo."s  I do not
but also that of her allies with whom  she was agree with him.  I by no means think that he
not at war."  This was the explanation of the was blamable for too much confidence in the
offensive decree.  " But this explanation was not good intentions of the French.  I think the tensatisfactory." Did you say so to M. Chauvelin? or and composition of this paper was excellentDid you tell him that you were not content with  the instructions conveyed in it wise. and that it
this explanation? and when you dismissed him, wanted but one essential thing to have entitled
afterward, on the death of the King [of France], it to general approbation, namely, to have been
did you say that this explanation was unsatisfac- acted upon!  The clear nature and intent of that
tory?  No.  You did no such thing; and I con- paper I take to be, that our ministers were to
[f'not satisfact- tend, that unless you demanded fur- solicit the court of Petersburgh to join with them'ty were bound ther explanations, and they were re- in a declaration to the French government, stattoelayo hantd fused, you have no right to urge the  ing explicitly what course of conduct, with rewould satisfy. decree of the 19th of November as spect to their foreign relations, they thought necan act of aggression.  In all your conferences essary to the general peace and security of Euand correspondence with M. Chauvelin, did you  rope, and what, if complied with, would have inhold out to him what termns would satisfy you? duced them to mediate for that purpose.  This
Did you give the French the power or the means was a proper, wise, and legitimate course of proof.settling the misunderstanding which that de- ceeding.  Now, I ask you, sir, whether, if this
cree, or any other of the points at issue, had ere- paper had been communicated to Paris, at the
ated?  I maintain, atht when a nation refuses to  end of the year 1792, instead of Petersburgh, it
state to another the thing which would satisfy  would not have been productive of most seaher, she shows that she is not actuated by a de- sonable benefits to mankind; and, by informing:sire to preserve peace between them; and I aver the French in time of the means by which they
that this was the case here.  The Scheldt, for might have secured the mediation of Great Britinstance.  You now say that the navigation of  ain, have not only avoided the rupture with this
the Scheldt was one of your causes of complaint.7  country, but have also restored general peace to
Mr. Fox, as an empty vaunt, or with Mr. Pitt, as a the ocean), under the provisions of the treaty of
declaration of.war against all the thrones of Europe. Westphalia, which settled the political relations of
7 When the French conquered the Austrian Neth- modern Europe. Holland and her protector, Enerlands (as mentioned in the preceding note), they  gland, had just ground of complaint for the aggresforcibly opened the navigation of its principal river, sion, though it was too unimportant in itself to justhe Scheldt, down to the sea. This had been closed  tify a war.
for nearly one hundred and fifty years, out of regard    8 The only thing he excuses is the only thing in
to the rights of Holland (through which it entered  him which I admire.




1800.]              THE REJECTION OF BONAPARTE'S OVERTURES.                                     533
the continent?  The paper, sir, was excellent in    But "France," it seems, "then declared wai;
its intentions; but its merit was all in the com- against us; and she was the aggress- Engl..l.,,
position.  It was a fine theory, which ministers  or. because the declaration came from  aggressor il
dismissing,
did not think proper to carry into practice.  It her."   Let us look at the circumstan- M.ciili..ewas very much like what the right honorable  ces of this transaction on both sides. l,.
gentleman at the head of the Board of Control Undoubtedly the declaration was made by them;
[Mr. Dundas] said some years ago of the corn- but is a declaration the only thing which constimercial system upon which we have maintained  tutes the commencement of a war? Do gentleour government in the East Indies.  "Nothing  men recollect that, in consequence of a dispute
could be more moral, more beautiful, and benev- about the commencement of war, respecting the
olent, than the instructions which were sent out capture of a number of ships, an article was into our governors; but unfortunately those in- serted in our treaty with France, by which it
structions had been confined to the registers of  was positively stipulated that in future, to prevent
the corporation; they were to be found only in  all disputes, the act of the dismissal of a minister
the minute-books of Leadenhall Street.  Their from either of the two courts should be held and
beneficial effects had never been felt by the peo- considered as tantamount to a declaration of
pie, for whose protection and happiness the the- war?"   I mention this, sir, because when we
ories were framed."9  In the same manner, this  are idly employed in this retrospect of the origin
very commendable paper, so well digested, and  of a war which has lasted so many years, instead
so likely to preserve us from the calamities of  of turning our eyes only to the contemplation of
war, was never communicated to the French; the means of putting an end to it, we seem disnever acted upon; never known to the world  posed to overlook every thing on our own parts,
until this day; nay, on the contrary, at the  and to search only for grounds of imputation on
very time that ministers had drawn up this pa- the enemy.  I almost think it an insult on the
per, they were insulting M. Chauvelin in every  House to detain them with this sort of examinaway, until about the 23d or 24th of January, tion.  Why, sir, if France was the aggressor,
1793, when they finally dismissed him, without as the right honorable gentleman says she was
stating any one ground upon which they were  has tho t proper   order that you should etire
has thought proper  to order that you should retire
willing to preserve terms with the French.'0    from the kingdom within the term of eight days."
9 It is striking to see how dexterously Mr. Fox    Mr. Pitt justified his sending M. Chauvelin out
turns back Mr. Dundas' words upon himself in this of the kingdom on this ground, that by the death of
case, as he did those of Lord Malmesbury upon Mr. Louis XVI. he was reduced to the character of a
Pitt on a preceding page.                         private individual; and was ordered to leave the
10 As the treatment of M. Chauvelin formed the country under the Alien Act. which authorized the
hinge of the controversy between Mr. Fox and Mr. government to send out of the kingdom any foreignPitt, it will be proper briefly to remind the reader ers they thought proper.
of the principal dates and facts. M. Chauvelin was   11 This was the treaty of Commerce and Navigasent to London as French minister by Louis XVI. tion made with France by Mr. Pitt, September 26th,
When that monarch was virtually deposed by the  1786. The second article contains the provision here
events of August 10th, 1792, M. Chauvelin was in- referred to. Mr. Pitt could answer Mr. Fox's arguformed that his functions as minister were suspend- ment only by saying, "This article does not now
ed, and though new credentials were sent him by  apply. I made the treaty with the regal governthe existing French government, they were not re- ment of France, and it can not be pleaded in behalf
ceived. Informal communications did, however, pass of the new government, which I have not recogbetween him and Lord Grenville, the Secretary of nized."  But unfortunately for Mr. Pitt, he was conForeign Affairs, but the tone of his Lordship was  tinuing to act upon the Commercial Tr-eaty as a
considered, not only by the French, but by Mr. Fox  treaty still in force. And how could he do this, and
and his friends, as offensive, and even insulting. M. yet not be subject to the article respecting the disCha.velin was addressed as styling himself pleni- missal of a minister?  By acting upon the treaty,
potentiary of France, and reminded that all qfficial he did in fact recognize the new government. This
communication with that country had ceased. He  was Mr. Fox's argument in his letter to the electors
was told that France "must confine herself within  of Westminster. "Every contract," says he, "must
her own territory, without insulting other govern- be at an end when the contracting parties have no
ments, without disturbing their tranquillity, with- longer any existence in their own persons, or by their
out violating their rights."  Such language, when  representatives. After the tenth of August, 1792,
France had been asking the mediation of England  the political existence of Louis XVI. (who was the
to prevent a general war in Europe, and while she  contracting party in the Treaty of Commerce) was
was offering explanations of her decrees, was completely annihilated. The only question, therestrongly condemned by Mr. Fox. Even if but little  fore, is, whether the Executive Council of France
confidence could be reposed in the sincerity of the  did or did not represent the political power so anniFrench, this treatment was felt to be wrong and hilated? If we say they did not, the contracting
irritating. On the 24th of January, 1793, three days party has no longer any political existence, either
after Louis XVI. was beheaded, the following note in his own person or by representation, and the
was addressed to M. Chauvelin by Lord Grenville: treaty becomes null and void. If we say they did,
"I am charged to notify you, sir, that the character then we have actually acknowledged them as repwith which you have been invested at this court, resentatives (for the time at least) of what was the
and the functions which have so long been suspend- executive government of France."  Hence the dised, being now  entirely terminated by the fatal missal of M. Chauvelin was, by the provisions of an
death of his Most Christian Majesty, you have no  existing treaty, a virtual declaration of war. So
longer any public character here; and his Majesty  Mr. Fox contended.




534                                     MR. FOX  ON                                       [1800.
throughout, did not Prussia call upon us for the  to act otherwise.'3  They could not have lived
stipulated number of troops, according to the ar- so long under their ancient masters without imtide of the definitive treaty of alliance subsisting  bibing the restless ambition, the perfidy, and the
between us, by which, in case that either of the  insatiable spirit of the race.  They have imitated
contracting parties was attacked, they had a  the practice of their great prototype, and, through
right to demand the stipulated aid? and the  their whole career of mischiefs and of crimes,
same thing again may be asked when we were  have done no more than servilely trace the steps
attacked. The right honorable gentleman might of their own Louis XIV.  If they have overrun
here accuse himself, indeed, of reserve; but it countries and ravaged them, they have done it
unfortunately happened, that at the time the point upon Bourbon principles; if they have ruined
was too clear on which side the aggression lay. and dethroned Sovereigns, it is entirely after the
Prussia was too sensible that the war could not Bourbon manner; if they have even fraternized
entitle her to make the demand, and that it was with the people of foreign countries, and pretendnot a case within the scope of the defensive  ed to make their cause their own, they have only
treaty.  This is evidence worth a volume of  faithfullylly   owed the Bourbon example.  They
subsequent reasoning; for if, at the time when  have constantly had Louis, the Grand Monarque,
all the facts were present to their minds, they  in their eye.  But it may be said, that this excould not take advantage of existing treaties, ample was long ago, and that we ought not to
and that too when the courts were on the most refer to a period so distant.  True, it is a refriendly terms with one another, it will be mani- mote period applied to the man, but not so of the
fest to every thinking man that they were sensi- principle. The principle was never extinct; nor
ble they were not authorized to make the demand. has its operation been suspended in France, exI really, sir, can not think it necessary to fol- cept, perhaps, for a short interval, during the adFrance was  low the right honorable gentleman  ministration of Cardinal Fleury; and my cornattacked in r                                    pher
atdtelitl, an  into all the minute details which he  plaint against the Republic of France is, not that
t merely in has thought proper to give us re- she has generated new crimes-not that she has
concerns.   specting the first aggression; but promulgated new  mischief-but that she has
that Austria and Prussia were the aggressors, adopted and acted upon the principles which
not a man in any country, who has ever given  have been so fatal to Europe under the practice
himself the trouble to think at all on the subject, of the house of Bourbon.  It is said, that wherecan doubt.  Nothing could be more hostile than  ever the French have gone, they have introduced
their whole proceedings.  Did they not declare  revolution-they have sought for the means of
to France, that it was her internal concerns, not disturbing neighboring states, and have not been
her external proceedings, which provoked them  content with mere conquest.  What is this but
to confederate against her?  Look back to the  adopting the ingenious scheme of Louis XIV.?
proclamations with which they set out."'  Read  He was not content with merely overrunning a
the declarations which they made themselves to  state.  Whenever he came into a new territory,
justify their appeal to arms.  They did not pre- he established what he called his chamber of
tend to fear her ambition-her conquests-her claims, a most convenient device, by which he
troubling her neighbors; but they accused her inquired whether the conquered country or provof new-modeling her own government.  They  ince had any dormant or disputed claims-any
said nothing of her aggressions abroad.  They  cause of complaint-any unsettled demand upon
spoke only of her clubs and societies at Paris.   any other state or province-upon which he
Sir, in all this, I am not justifying the French;  might wage war upon such state, thereby disThe agres  I am not trying to absolve them from  cover again ground for new devastation, and gratioan tf tlhe  blame, either in their internal or ex- ify his ambition by new acquisitions. What have
French utteriv wrong, but ternal policy. I think, on the contra- the republicans done more atrocious, more Jacoconducted onil
Bourbonprin- ry, that their successive rulers have  binical than this?  Louis went to war with Holciples.   been as bad and as execrable, in vari- land.  His pretext was, that Holland had not
ous instances, as any of the most despotic and un- treated him with sufficient respect.  A very just
principled governments that the world ever saw. and proper cause for war indeed!
I think it impossible, sir, that it should have been    This, sir, leads me to an example which I think
otherwise.  It was not to be expected that the  seasonable, and worthy the attention Treaties were
French, when once engaged in foreign wars, of his Majesty's ministers.  When "ew'ih theod
should not endeavor to spread destruction around  our Charles II., as a short exception  ught, (o  til
them, and to form plans of aggrandizement and  to the policy of his reign, made the the Frelle.^
plunder on every side.  Men bred in the school triple alliance for the protection of backtot heo'of the house of Bourbon could not be expected  Europe, and particularly of Holland, igis"'t flhea
against the ambition of Louis XIV., what was
12 The manifesto of the Duke of Brunswick when  the conduct of that great, virtuous, and most
he invaded France, declared that "all persons found
in arms against the allied powers should be punish-   " There is great adroitness in thus tracing the
ed as rebels to their King; and in case the King  French spirit of aggression to the principles and
and Queen were not immediately set at liberty, the  practice of the Bourbons, especially as Mr. Pitt, in
city of Paris was threatened with the horrors of refusing to treat with Bonaparte, had pointed to the
military execution, with avenging punishment and  restoration of the Bourbons as the most certain
total destruction."                             mode of preparing the way for peace.




1800.]              THE REJECTION OF BONAPARTE'S OVERTURES.                                     535
able statesman, M. de Witt, when the confeder- plained of the aggression, and yet no stir was
ates came to deliberate upon the terms upon  made aboutit. The courts of Europe Svoy ought t
which they should treat with the French mon- stood by and saw the outrage; and leave been proarch?  When it was said that he had made un- our ministers saw it.  The right hon- timne, and not
principled conquests, and that he ought to be  orable gentleman will in vain, there- ground ofconforced to surrender them all, what was the lan- fore, exert his powers to persuade tinuingtew.
guage of that great and wise man?  "No," said  me of the interest he takes in the preservation
lie; " I think we ought not to look back to the  of the rights of nations, since, at the moment
origin of the war so much as the means of put- when an interference might have been made with
ting an end to it.  If you had united in time to  effect, no step was taken, no remonstrance made.
prevent these conquests, well; but now that he  no mediation negotiated, to stop the career of conhas made them, he stands upon the ground of  quest.  All the pretended and hypocritical sensiconquest, and we must agree to treat with him, bility " for the rights of nations, and for social ornot with reference to the origin of the conquest, der," with which we have since been stunned, can
but with regard to his present posture.  He has  not impose upon those who will take the trouble
those places, and some of them we must be con- to look back to the period when this sensibility
tent to give up as the means of peace; for con- ought to have roused us into seasonable exertion.
quest will always successfully set up its claims  At that time, however, the right honorable gento indemnification."  Such was the language of  tleman makes it his boast that he was preventthis minister, who was the ornament of his time; ed, by a sense of neutrality, from  taking any
and such, in my mind, ought to be the language  measures of precaution on the subject.  I do not
of statesmen, with regard to the French, at this  give the right honorable gentleman much credit
day; and the same ought to have been said at for his spirit of neutrality on the occasion.  It
the formation of the confederacy.  It was true  flowed from the sense of the country at the time,
that the French'had overrun Savoy; but they  the great majority of which was clearly and dehad overrun it upon Bourbon principles; and, cidedly against all interruptions being given to
having gained this and other conquests before  the French in their desire of regulating their
the confederacy was formed, they ought to have  own internal government.
treated with her rather for future security, than    But this neutrality, which respected only the
for past correction.  States in possession, wheth- internal rights of the French, and E,,londoouht
er monarchical or republican, will claim indem- from  which the people of England to iavxe ceptnity in proportion to their success; and it will would never have departed but for tion urged upon
never so much be inquired by what right they  the impolitic and hypocritical cant her by Franer.
gained possession, as by what means they can  which was set up to arouse their jealousy and
be prevented from enlarging their depredations.  alarm  their fears, was very different from  the
Such is the safe practice of the world; and such  great principle of political prudence which ought
ought to have been the conduct of the powers  to have actuated the councils of the nation, on
when the reduction of Savoy made them coalesce. seeing the first steps of France toward a career
The right honorable gentleman may know more  of external conquest.  My opinion is, that when
of the secret particulars of their overrunning Sa- the unfortunate King of France offered to us, in
voy than I do; but certainly, as they have come  the letter delivered by M. Chauvelin and M. Talto my knowledge, it was a most Bourbon-like  leyrand, and even entreated us to mediate beact.  A great and justly celebrated historian, I tween him and the allied powers of Austria and
mean Mr. Hume, a writer certainly estimable  Prussia, they [ministers] ought to have accepted
in many particulars, but who is a childish lover  of the offer, and exerted their influence to save
of Princes, talks of Louis XIV. in very magnifi- Europe from the consequence of a system which
cent terms.  But he says of him, that, though he  was then beginning to manifest itself.'l  It was:
managed his enterprises with great skill and
bravery, he was unfortunate in this, that he tnev-    1 Early in 1792 the King of France sent a letter
er got a good and fair pretense for war.  This  to the King of England, through Talleyrand tnd
he reckons among his misfortunes.  Can we say  Chauvelin, requesting the latter to mediate bemore of the republican French?  In s   g on  tween France and the allied powers, Austria and
morof the reubli    Frenchs?   n.seizig on  Prussia. "I consider," says Louis, "the success of
Savoy, I think they made use of the words " con- the alliance in which I wish you to concur with as
venances morales et physiques."'    These were  much zeal as I do, as of the highest importance; I conher reasons. A most Bourbon-like phrase. And I sider it as necessary to the stability of the respecttherefore contend, that as we never scrupled to  ive Constitutions of our two kingdoms; and I will
treat with the princes of the house of Bourbon  add that our union ought to command peace to Euon account of their rapacity, their thirst of con- rope."  A  few weeks after, the French monarch
quest, their violation of treaties, their perfidy, and  again applied to the  ing of England, through M.
their restless spirit, so, I contend, we ought not Chauvelin, " to interpose, and, by his wisdom and
to refuse to treat with their republia.. i   influence, avert, while there is still time, the progto refuse to treat with their republican imitators.    confederacy fored against Fance,  and
ress of the confederacy formed against France, and
Ministers could not pretend ignorance of the  which threatened the peace, the liberties, and the
unprincipled manner in which the French had  happiness of Europe."  After an interval of twenseized on Savoy.  The Sardinian minister con- ty days, July 8, 1792, the British government declined. The Duke of Brunswick invaded Franco
14 Conveniences moral and physical.        at the close of the same month.




536                                     MR. FOX  ON                                     [1800.
at least, a question of prudence; and as we had  thing as a rule or doctrine by which we are di.
never refused to treat and to mediate with the rected, or can be justified, in waging a war for
old princes on account of their ambition or their religion. The idea is subversive of the very founperfidy, we ought to have been equally ready  dations upon which it stands, which are those of
now, when the same principles were acted upon  peace and good will among men. Religion never
by other men. I must doubt the sensibility which  was and never can be a justifiable cause of war;
could be so cold and so indifferent at the proper but it has been too often grossly used as the premoment for its activity.  I fear that there were  text and the apology for the most unprincipled
at that moment the germs of ambition rising in  wars.
the mind of the right honorable gentleman, and    I have already said, and I repeat it, that the
that he was beginning, like others, to entertain  conduct of the French to foreign na- Though the
hopes that something might be obtained out of  tions can not be justified.  They have dole wrong,
the coming confusion.  What but such a senti- given great cause of offense, but cer- atthislatepement could have prevented him from overlooking  tainly not to all countries alike. The rilld", wo'l
the fair occasion that was offered for preventing  right honorable gentlemen opposite to war eternal.
the calamities with which Europe was threat- me have made an indiscriminate catalogue of all
ened?  What but some such interested princi- the countries which the French have offended,
ple could have made him forego the truly honor- and, in their eagerness to throw odium on the
able task, by which his administration would have  nation, have taken no pains to investigate the
displayed its magnanimity and its power?  But sources of their several quarrels.  I will not defor some such feeling, would not this country, tain you, sir, by entering into the long detail
both in wisdom and in dignity, have interfered, which has been given of their aggressions and
and, in conjunction with the other powers, have  their violences; but let me mention Sardinia as
said to France, "You ask for a mediation.  We  one instance which has been strongly insisted
will mediate with candor and sincerity, but we  upon. Did the French attack Sardinia when at
will at the same time declare to you our appre- peace with them?  No such thing.  The King
hensions.  We do not trust to your assertion of  of Sardinia had accepted of a subsidy from Great
a determination to avoid all foreign conquest, and  Britain; and Sardinia was, to all intents and purthat you are desirous only of settling your own  poses, a belligerent power.  Several other inConstitution, because your language is contra- stances might be mentioned; but though. perdicted by experience and the evidence of facts. haps, in the majority of instances, the French
You are Frenchmen, and you can not so soon  may be unjustifiable, is this the moment for us
have forgotten and thrown off the Bourbon prin- to dwell upon these enormities-to waste our
ciples in which you were educated.  You have  time, and inflame our passions by criminating
already imitated the bad practice of your princes. and recriminating upon each other?  There is
You have seized on Savoy without a color of right. no end to such a war.  I have somewhere read,
But here we take our stand.  Thus far you have  I think in Sir Walter Raleigh's History of the
gone, and we can not help it; but you must go  World, of a most bloody and fatal battle which
no farther.  We will tell you distinctly what we  was fought by two opposite armies, in which alshall consider as an attack on the balance and the most all the combatants on both sides were
security of Europe; and, as the condition of our killed, "because," says the historian, "though
interference, we will tell you also the securities  they had offensive weapons on both sides, they
that we think essential to the general repose."  had none for defense."  So, in this war of words,
This ought to have been the language of his Maj- if we are to use only offensive weapons-if we
esty's ministers when their mediation was solic- are to indulge only in invective and abuse, the
ited; and something of this kind they evidently  contest must be eternal.
thought of when they sent the instructions to Pe-    If this war of reproach and invective is to be
tersburgh which they have mentioned this night, countenanced, may not the French Tie French
but upon which they never acted.  Having not with equal reason complain of the may recrimindone so, I say they have no right to talk now  outrages and horrors committed by  ersallied with
about the violated rights of Europe, about the  the powers opposed to them?  If we E"" lan..aggression of the French, and about the origin  must not treat with the French on account of
of the war in which this country was so sudden- the iniquity of their former transactions, ought!y afterward plunged.  Instead of this, what did  we not to be as scrupulous of connecting ourthey do?  They hung back; they avoided ex- selves with other powers equally criminal?
planation; they gave the French no means of  Surely, sir, if we must be thus rigid in scrutisatisfying them; and I repeat my proposition-   nizing the conduct of an enemy, we ought to be
when there is a question of peace and war be- equally careful in not committing ourselves, our
tween two nations, that government feels itself in  honor, and our safety, with an ally who has manthe wrong which refuses to state wzith clearness ifested the same want of respect for the rights.and precision what she should consider as a satis- of other nations.  Surely, if it is material to
faction and a pledge of peace.                 know the character of a power with whom you
Sir, if I understand the true precepts of the  are about only to treat for peace, it is more
Theirreligionof Christian religion, as set forth in  material to know the character of allies with
tohe Frenor rns- the New Testament, I must be per- whom you are about to enter into the closest
ung to treat.   mitted to say, that there is no such  connection of friendship, and for whose exertions




1800.]            THE REJECTION  OF BONAPARTE'S OVERTURES.                                 537
you are about to pay.  Now, sir, what was the    But the behavior of the French toward Switzconduct of your own allies to Poland?  Is there  erland raises all the indignation of Switzerland was
a single atrocity of the French, in Italy, in Switz- the right honorable gentleman, and scaudalouu"l
abused, but Enerland, in Egypt, if you please, more unprincipled  inflames his eloquence. I admire the gland first invited her to depart
and inhuman than that of Russia, Austria, and  indignation which he expresses, and fromTl erneT
Prussia, in Poland?  What has there been in  I think he felt it, in speaking of this trality.
the conduct of the French to foreign powers; country, so dear and so congenial to every man
what in the violation of solemn treaties; what who loves the sacred name of liberty. " He who
in the plunder, devastation, and dismemberment loves liberty," says the right honorable gentleof unoffending countries; what in the horrors man, "thought himself at home on the favored
and murders perpetrated upon the subdued vie- and happy mountains of Switzerland, where she
tims of their rage in any district which they  seemed to have taken up her abode under a sort
have overrun, worse than the conduct of those  of implied compact, among all other states, that
three great powers in the miserable, devoted, she should not be disturbed in this her chosen
and trampled on kingdom  of Poland, and who  asylum."  I admire the eloquence of the right
have been, or are, our allies in this war for re- honorable gentleman in speaking of this country
ligion and social order, and the rights of na- of liberty and peace, to which every man would
tions?  "Oh! but you regretted the partition  desire, once in his life at least, to make a pilof Poland!"  Yes, regretted! you regretted the  grimage'  But who, let me ask him, first proviolence, and that is all you did.  You united  posed to the Swiss people to depart from  the
yourselves with the actors; you, in fact, by your neutrality, which was their chief protection, and
acquiescence, confirmed the atrocity.  But they  to join the confederacy against the French?  I
are your allies; and though they overran and  aver that a noble relation of mine [Lord Robert
divided Poland, there was nothing, perhaps, in  Fitzgerald], then the minister of England to the
the manner of doing it which stamped it with  Swiss Cantons, was instructed, in direct terms,
peculiar infamy and disgrace.  The hero of Po- to propose to the Swiss, by an official note, to
land  [Suwarrow], perhaps, was merciful and  break from the safe line they had laid down for
mild!  He was " as much superior to Bona- themselves, and to tell them, "in such a contest
parte in bravery, and in the discipline which he  neutrality was criminal."  I know that noble
maintained, as he was superior in virtue and  Lord too well, though I have not been in habits
humanity!"  He was animated by the purest of intercourse with him of late, from the employprinciples of Christianity, and was restrained in  ments in which he has been engaged, to suspect
his career by the benevolent precepts which it that he would have presented such a paper withinculcates!  Was he?  Let unfortunate War- out the express instructions of his court, or that
saw, and the miserable inhabitants of the suburb  he would have gone beyond those instructions.
of Praga in particular, tell!  What do we un-    But was it only to Switzerland that this sort
derstand to have been the conduct of this mag- of language was held? What was our Tuscany and
nanimous hero, with whom, it seems, Bonaparte  language also to Tuscany and Genoa?.'e.iat.C
is not to be compared?  He entered the suburb  An honorable gentleman [Mr. Can- same way.
of Praga, the most populous suburb of Warsaw; ning] has denied the authenticity of a pretended
and there he let his soldiery loose on the miser- letter which has been circulated, and ascribed to
able, unarmed, and unresisting people.  Men, Lord Harvey.  He says, it is all a fable and a
women, and children, nay, infants at the breast, forgery.  Be it so; but is it also a fable that
were doomed to one indiscriminate massacre! Lord Harvey did speak in terms to the Grand
Thousands of them were inhumanly, wantonly  Duke, which he considered as offensive and inbutchered! And for what?  Because they had  sulting?  I can not tell, for I was not present;
dared to join in a wish to meliorate their own  but was it not, and is it not believed?  Is it a
condition as a people, and to improve their Con- fable that Lord Harvey went into the closet of
stitution, which had been confessed by their own  the Grand Duke, laid his watch on the table,
Sovereign to be in want of amendment.  And  and demanded, in a peremptory manner, that
such is the hero upon whom the cause of relig- he should, within a certain number of minutes
ion and social order is to repose!  And such is     i       r        p          
in his Pleasures of Hope, though many, in consethe man whom we praise for his discipline and  quence of his using the word Pra  le [" Prague's
his virtue, and whom we hold out as our boast proud arch" or bridge] instead of Praga, have been
and our dependence; while the conduct of Bona- led to suppose that another Polish city was referred
parte unfits him to be even treated with as an  to. The capture of the place is described in the folenemy?16                                       lowing lines:
The sun went down, nor ceased the carnage there,
16 Praga was taken in the manner here described, Tumultuous murder shook the midnight air;
on the 4th of November, 1794. Thirteen thousand  On Prague's proud arch the fires of ruin glow,
Poles covered the field of battle without the walls, His blood-dyed waters murmuring far below;
two thousand perished in the Vistula, nearly fifteen  The storm prevails, the rampart yields away,
thousand were made prisoners by the Russians, and  Bursts the wild cry of horror and dismay!
about twelve thousand were butchered in the way  Hark! as the smoldering piles with thunder fall,
described by Mr. Fox. This led to the third and  A thousand shrieks for hopeless mercy call!
last partition of Poland, in 1795. This battle was the  Earth shook-red meteors flashed along the sky,
one which Campbell describes with so much power And conscious Nature shudder'd at the cry!




')38                                  MR. FOX ON                                         [1800.
(I think I have heard within a quarter of an  they have overrun.  Pretenses for outrage will
hour), determine, aye or no, to dismiss the  never be wanting to the strong, when they wish
French minister, and order him  out of his do- to trample on the weak; but when we accuse
minions, with the menace, that if he did not, the  the French of having seized on Venice, after
English fleet should bombard Leghorn?  Will stipulating for its neutrality, and guaranteeing
the honorable gentleman deny this also?  I its independence, we should also remember the
certainly do not know it from  my own knowl- excuse that they made for the violence, namely,
edge; but I know that persons of the first cred- that their troops had been attacked and murderit, then at Florence, have stated these facts, and  ed.  I say I am always incredulous about such
that they have never been contradicted.  It is excuses   but I think it fair to hear whatever can
true that, upon the Grand Duke's complaint of  be alleged on the other side.  We can not take
this indignity, Lord Harvey was recalled; but one side of a story only.  Candor demands that
was the principle recalled? was the mission re- we should examine the whole before we make
called?  Did not ministers persist in the demand  up our minds on the guilt.  I can not think it
which Lord Harvey had made, perhaps ungra- quite fair to state the view of the subject of one
ciously? and was not the Grand Duke forced, party as indisputable fact, witnout even mentionin consequence, to dismiss the French minister?  ing what the other party has to say for itself.
and did they not drive him to enter into an un- But, sir, is this all?  Though the perfidy of the
willing swar with the republic?  It is true that French to the Venetians be clear and palpable,
he afterward made his peace, and that, having  was it worse in morals, in principle, and in exdone so, he was treated severely and unjustly by  ample, than the conduct of Austria?  My honthe French; but what do I conclude from all orable friend [Mr. Whitbread] properly asked,
this, but that we have no right to be scrupulous,  "Is not the receiver as bad as the thief?"  If
we who have violated the respect due to peacea- the French seized on the territory of Venice, did
ble powers ourselves, in this war, which, more  not the Austrians agree to receive it?  "But
than any other that ever afflicted human nature. this," it seems, "is not the same thing."  It is
has been distinguished by the greatest number quite in the nature, and within the rule of diploof disgusting and outrageous insults by the great matic morality, for Austria to receive the counto the smaller powers.  And I infer from this, try which was thus seized upon unjustly. " The
also, that the instances not being confined to the  Emperor took it as a compensation.  It was his
French, but having been perpetrated by every  by barter.  He was not answerable for the guilt
one of the allies, and by England as much as by  by which it was obtained."  What is this, sir,
others, we have no right, either in personal char- but the false and abominable reasoning with
acter, or from our own deportment, to refuse to  which we have been so often disgusted on the
treat with the French on this ground.  Need I subject of the slave trade?  Just in the same
speak of your conduct to Genoa also? Perhaps  manner have I heard a notorious wholesale dealthe note delivered by Mr. Drake was also a for- er in this inhuman traffic justify his abominable
gery.  Perhaps the blockade of the port never trade.  " I am not guilty of the horrible crime
took place.  It is impossible to deny the facts, of tearing that mother from  her infants; that
which were so glaring at the time. It is a pain- husband from his wife; of depopulating that vilful thing to me, sir, to be obliged to go back to  lage; of depriving that family of their sons, the
these unfortunate periods of the history of this  support of their aged parents! No, thank Heavwar, and of the conduct of this country; but I en! I am not guilty of this horror. I only bought
am forced to the task by the use which has been  them  in the fair way of trade.  They were
made of the atrocities of the French as an argu- brought to the market; they had been guilty of
ment against negotiation.  I think I have said  crimes, or they had been made prisoners of war;
enough to prove, that if the French have been  they were accused of witchcraft, of obi, or of
guilty, we have not been innocent. Nothing but some other sort of sorcery; and they were
determined incredulity can make us deaf and  brought to me for sale.  I gave a valuable conblind to our own acts, when we are so ready to  sideration for them. But God forbid that I should
yield an assent to all the reproaches which are  have stained my soul with the guilt of dragging
thrown out on the enemy, and upon which re- them from their friends and families!"  Such has
proaches we are gravely told to continue the  been the precious defense of the slave trade, and
war.                                            such is the argument set up for Austria in this
" But the French," it seems, "have behaved  instance of Venice. " I did not commit the crime
caseof ill every where.  They seized on Venice, of trampling on the independence of Venice; I'enice. which had preserved the most exact neu- did not seize on the city; I gave a quid pro quo.
trality, or rather," as it is hinted, Chad manifest- It was a matter of barter and indemnity; I
ed symptoms of friendship to them."  I agree  gave half a million of human beings to be put
with the right honorable gentleman, it was an  under the yoke of France in another district.
abominable act. I am not the apologist, much  and I had these people turned over to me in reless the advocate, of their iniquities; neither turn!';l7  This, sir, is the defense of Austria;
will I countenance them in their pretenses for   17 By the treaty of Campo Formio, concluded Oc.
the injustice.  I do not think that much regard  tober 17th, 1797, France ceded to Austria the whole
is to be paid to the charges which a triumphant of the Venetian territory east of the Adige, includsoldiery brine on the conduct of a people whom  ing that part of Istria, Dalmatia, &c., which had




1800.]             THE  REJECTION  OF BONAPARTE'S OVERTURES.                                    539
and under such detestable sophistry is the infer- propriety, declare himself the head of the order
nal traffic in human flesh, whether in white or of the Chartreuse monks.  Not content with takblack, to be continued, and even justified!  At ing to himself the commandery of this institution
no time has that diabolical traffic been carried  of Malta, Paul has even created a married man
to a greater length than during the present war,  a Knight, contrary to all the most sacred rules
and that by England herself, as well as Austria  and regulations of the order; and yet this ally
and Russia.                                        of ours is fighting for religion! So much for his
" But France," it seems, " has roused all the  religion.  Let us see his regard to social order!
Not true that  nations of Europe against her;" and  How does he show his abhorrence of the princiboth Francesand the long catalogue has been read to  ples of the French, in their violation of the rights
haveunited all you, to prove that she must have  of other nations?   What has been his conduct
Europe against
French aggres- been atrocious to provoke them  all. to Denmark?  He says to her, "You have sedision.       Is it true, sir, that she has roused  tious clubs at Copenhagen; no Danish vessel
them  all? It does not say much for the address  shall therefore enter the perts of Russia!"  He
of his Majesty's ministers, if this be the case. holds a still more despotic language to HamWhat, sir! have all your negotiations, all your burgh.  He threatens to lay an embargo on her
declamation, all your money, been squandered in  trade; and he forces her to surrender up men
vain?  Have you not succeeded in stirring the  who are claimed by the French as their citizens,
indignation, and engaging the assistance of a  whether truly or not, I do not inquire.  He
single power?  But you do yourselves injustice. threatens her with his own vengeance if she reBetween the crimes of France and your money  fuse, and subjects her to that of the French if
the rage has been excited, and full as much is she comply.  And what has been his conduct to
due to your seductions as to her atrocities.  My  Spain?  He first sends away the Spanish minishonorable and learned friend [Mr. Erskinej was  ter from Petersburgh, and then complains, as a
correct, therefore, in his argument; for you can  great insult, that his minister was dismissed from
not take both sides of the case; you can not ac- Madrid!  This is one of our allies; and he has
cuse France of having provoked all Europe, and  declared that the object for which he has taken
at the same time claim  the merit of having  up arms, is to replace the ancient race of the
roused all Europe to join you.                    house of Bourbon on the throne of France, and
You talk, sir, of your allies.  I wish to know  that he does this for the cause of religion and
Charcter of  who your allies are?   Russia is one  social order!  Such is the respect for religion
oneoftheallies of them, I suppose.  Did France at- and social order which he himself displays, and
ant I. ofnRus- tack Russia?  Has the mnagnani- such are the examples of it with which we coasRI.
sio. us Paul taken the field for social lesce!
order and religion, or -on account of personal    No man regrets, sir, more than I do, the enoraggression?tl  The Emperor of Russia has de- mities that France has committed; The atrocitiesof
dlared himself Grand Master of Malta, though his but how  do they bear upon the ge.'.ent ga"inst
religion is as opposite to that of the Knights as  question as it at present stands?  negoiation, far
ours is; and he is as much considered a heretic  Are we forever to deprive ourselves ready treated
by the Church of Rome as we are.  The King  of the benefits of peace, because peace.
of Great Britain might, with as much reason and  France has perpetrated acts of injustice?  Sir,
we can not acquit ourselves upon such ground.
formerly belonged to the Venetian republic. All
We have negotiated.  With the knlowledge   of
Europe was scandalized at the eagerness with                             
which the Emperor, who had commenced the war these acts of injustice and disorder, we have
as the defender of the weak and the protector of  treated with them twice; yet the right honorasocial order against the common destroyer, grasped  ble gentleman can not enter into negotiation
the spoils which were offered him at the close of  with them again; and it is worth while to atthe contest.                                       tend to the reasons that he gives for refusing'8 Paul I. of Russia, father of the Emperors Alex- their offer.  The Revolution itself is no more an
ander and Nicholas. His conduct had for some time  objection now  than it was in the year 1796,
been singular, and even foolish. When the Knights  when he did neotiate.  For the  overnmet of
of Malta were driven out by Bonaparte, Paul re- F               thatme  re  nt
ceived them  at St. Petersburg            l France at that time was surely as unstable as
ceived them  at St. Petersburah, and was greatly.
delighted to be chosen their Grand Master, direct- it is at present.  The crimes of the French, the
deli-hted to be chosen their Grand Master, direct-.
ing that no communications should be received from  instability of their government, did not then preforeign governments which did not address him in  vent him; and why are they to prevent him
this character. He also interfered in the internal now?  He negotiated with a government as unconcerns of Denmark, Sweden, Hamburgh, and  stable, and, baffled in that negotiation, he did not
Spain, in the way alluded to by Mr. Fox. Mr. Pitt scruple to open another at Lisle in the year
had said of him, a few months before, in the House  1797.  We have heard a very curious account
of Commons,  There is no reason, no ground, to fearof these negotiations this day and, as
that this magnnanimous prince will ever desert a                                           t  tnemarkson
cause in which he is so sincerely engaged." Hence      ight honorable gentleman has m- tin
Mr. Fox's sarcasm respecting the "magnanimous   phatically told us, an honest account of
Paul. But he did desert the allies, and make peace them. He says he has no scruple in avowing
with the French, about this time. He was proba- that he apprehended danger from the success of
bly insane, and was assassinated March 11th, 1801, his own efforts to procure a pacification, and
and succeeded by his son, the Emperor Alexander. that he was not displeased at its failure.  He




540                                     MR. FOX ON                                       r1800.
was sincere in his endeavors to treat, but he was lished a manifesto,: renewing, in the face of Eunot disappointed when they failed.  I wish ac- rope, the solemn declaration, that whenever the
curately to understand the right honorable gen- enemy should be disposed to enter on the work
tleman.  His declaration on the subject, then, I of a general pacification in a spirit of conoiliatake to be, that though sincere in his endeavors  tion and equity, nothing should be wanting on
to procure peace in 1797, yet he apprehended  their part to contribute to the accomplishment
greater danger from  accomplishing his object, of that great object."'9  And, accordingly, in
than from the continuance of war; and that he  the year 1797, notwithstanding this " incompatfelt this apprehension from  the comparative  ible principle," and with all the enormities of the
views of the probable state of peace and war at French on their heads, they opened a new negothat time.  I hope I state the right honorable  tiation at Lisle.  They did not wait for any regentleman correctly. I have no hesitation in  traction of this incompatible principle; they did
allowing the fact that a state of peace, immedi- not wait even till overtures were made to them;
ately after a war of such violence, must, in  but they solicited and renewed a negotiation
some respects, be a state of insecurity; but themselves.20  I do not blame them for this, sir;
does this not belong, in a certain degree, to all I say only that it is an argument against the aswars? and are we never to have peace, because  sertion of an "incompatible principle."  It is a
that peace may be insecure?  But there was  proof that they did not then think as the right
something, it seems, so peculiar in this war, and  honorable gentleman now  says they thought,
in the character and principles of the enemy, but that they yielded to the sentiments of the
that the right honorable gentleman thought a  nation, who were generally inclined to peace,
peace in 1797 would be comparatively more  against their own judgment; and, from a modangerous than war.  Why, then, did he treat?  tive which I shall come to presently, they had
I beg the attention of the House to this point. no hesitation, on account of the first rupture, to
He treated "because the unequivocal sense of  renew the negotiation. It was renewed at Lisle;
the people of England was declared to be in fa- and this the French broke off, after the Revoluvor of a negotiation." The right honorable gen- tion at Paris on the 4th of September, 1797.
Mr. Pittcom- tleman, therefore, confesses the truth, What was the conduct of ministers upon this
pelledtonego- that in 1797 the people were for occasion?  One would have thought, that with
tiate by the
voice ofthe  peace.  I thought so at the time, but the fresh insult at Lisle in their minds, with the
"'peopl.  you all recollect that, when I stated  recollection of their failure the year before at
it in my place, it was denied.  "True," minis- Paris, if it had been true that they found an in.
ters said, "you have procured petitions, but we  compatible principle, they would have talked a
have petitions also.  We all know  in what warlike language, and would have announced to
strange ways petitions may be procured, and  their country and to all Europe, that peace was
how little they deserve to be considered as the  not to be obtained; that they must throw away
sense of the people."  This was their language'the scabbard, and think only of the means ofconat the time; but now we find these petitions did  tinuing the contest.  No such thing.  They put
speak the sense of the people, and that it was on  forth a Declaration, in which they said that they
this side of the House only the sense of the peo- should look with anxious expectation for the mople was spoken. The majority spoke a contrary  ment when the government of France should
language!  It hence follows that the unequiv- show a disposition and spirit corresponding with
ocal sense of the people of England may be  their own; and renewing before all Europe the
spoken by the minority of this House, and that solemn declaration, that at the very moment when
it is not always by the test of numbers that an  the brilliant victory of Lord Duncan might have
honest decision is to be ascertained. This House  justified them  to demand more extravagant
decided against what the right honorable gentle- terms, they were willing, if the calamities of war
man knew to be the sense of the country; but could be closed, to conclude peace on the same
he himself acted upon that sense against the
vote of Parliament.                               19 There is here no inconsistency.'The "princiThe negotiation in 1796 went off, as myhon- pie" referred to was this, that the French would
Inconsistency orable and learned friend [Mr. Er- not treat, except on the ground of Ietainiz    all the
of Mr. Pitt in                                  tee eitoi of    yf other countries which they had incorpoaccountingfor skin as said,                     rated into their republic. This they said with partht egotia- Belgum   or, as the right honorable  ticular reference to a restoration of the Netherlands
tion.     gentleman asserts, upon a question of  to Austria. The English "manifesto" did at the
principle.  He negotiated to please the people, time say of this, "A pretension in itself so extravabut it was defeated on account of a " monstrous  gant could in no instance have been admitted, or
principle advanced by France, incompatible with  even listened to for a moment."-See Parliamentall negotiation."  This is now said.  Did the  ary History,vol. xxxii., p. 1437.
right honorable gentleman say so at the time?   2 Here, again, there was no inconsistency. Eary
Did he fairly and candidly inform the people of in 1797, Anstria had given up the contest, and ceded
the Netherlands to Franlbce. This removed the whole
England that they broke off the negotiation be- di lty whh     existed te preceding year. En
difficulty which existed the preceding year. Encause the French had urged a basis that it was gland did not in 1797 ask France to part with any
totally impossible for England at any time to  of her territory, and therefore there was no reason
grant?  No such thing.  On the contrary, when  for any "restriction of this incompatible principle,"
the negotiation broke of, they [the ministry] pub-  as preliminary to treating.




1800.]            THE REJECTION OF BONAPARTE'S OVERTURES.                                  541
moderate and equitable principles and terms  respectfully made by the Grand Monarque to
which they had before proposed. Such was their King William, to treat, which he had peremptodeclaration upon that occasion; and in the discus- rily, and in very irritating terms, refused; and
sions which we had upon it in this House, minis- that, upon this, the House of Commons had come
ters were explicit.  They said that, by that nego- forward, and with one voice declared their detiation, there had been given to the world what termination to stand by him, with their lives and
might be regarded as an unequivocal test of the  fortunes, in prosecuting the just and necessary
sincerity and disposition of a government toward  war.  Not a word like this; and yet the honorpeace or against it.  For those who refuse dis- able gentleman finds it exactly a parallel case;
cussion show that they are disinclined to pacifi- and a model for the House on this day to imitate.
cation; and it is therefore, they said, always to  I really think, sir, he might as well have taken
be considered as a test, that the party who re- any other address upon the journals, upon any
f'uses to negotiate is the party who is disinclined  other topic, as this address to King William. It
to peace.  This they themselves set up as the  would have been equally in point, and would
criterion.  Try them now, sir, by it.  An offer have equally served to show the honorable genis made them.  They rashly, and I think rudely, tleman's talent for reasoning.
refuse it.  Have they, or have they not, broken    Sir, I can not here overlook another instance
their own test?                                 of this honorable gentleman's candid Remarks on
But they say "they have not refused all dis- style of debating, and of his respect Mtr.cannings
Tile restoration cussion."  They have put a case; for Parliament.  He has found out, it DukeofBedof the Bourbons                                               ford.
a condition fs  They have expressed a wish for the  seems, that in former periods of our ford.
treating,  restoration of the house of Bourbon, history, and even in periods which have been deand have declared that to be an event which  nominated good times, intercepted letters have
would immediately remove every obstacle to ne- been published;~ and he reads fiom the gazette
gotiation.  Sir, as to the restoration of the house  instances of such publication.  Really, sir, if the
of Bourbon. if it shall be the wish of the people  honorable gentleman had pursued the profession
of France, I, for one, will be perfectly content to  to which he turned his thoughts when younger,
acquiesce.  I think the people of France, as well he would have learned that it was necessary to
as every other people, ought to have the govern- find cases a little more apposite.  And yet, full
ment which they like best, and the form of that of his triumph on this notable discovery, he has
government, or the persons who hold it in their chosen to indulge himself in speaking of a most
hands, should never be an obstacle with me to  respectable and a most honorable person as any
treat with the nation for peace, or to live with  that his country knows, and who is possessed of
them in amity.  But as an Englishman, sir, and  as sound an understanding as any man that I
actuated by English feelings, I surely can not have the good fortune to be acquainted with: in
wish for the restoration of the house of Bourbon  terms the most offensive and disgusting, on acto the Throne of France.  I hope that I am not count of words which he may be supposed to
a man to bear heavily upon any unfortunate fam- have said in another place.2t  He has spoken of
ily.  I feel for their situation; I respect their that noble person, and of his intellect, in terms
distresses; but as a friend of England, I can not which, were I disposed to retort, I might say,
wish for their restoration to the power which they  show  himself to be possessed of an intellect
abused.  I can not forget that the whole history  which would justify me in passing over in siof the last century is little more than an account lence any thing that comes from him.  Sir, the
of the wars and the calamities arising from the  noble person did not speak of the mere act of
restless ambition, the intrigues, and the perfidy  publishing the intercepted correspondence; and
of the house of Bourbon.                        the honorable gentleman's reference to the gaI can not discover, in any part of the labored  zettes of former periods is, therefore, not in point.
Reply to Ir. defense which has been set up for not The noble Duke complained of the manner in
Canning's ar- accepting the offer now  made by  which these intercepted letters had been pubthe addressto France, any argument to satisfy my  lished, not of the fact itself of their publication;
wiliam "It.  mind that ministers have not forfeit- for, in the introduction and notes to those letters,
ed the test which they held out as infallible in  the ribaldry is such, that they are not screened
1797.  An honorable gentleman [Mr. Canning] from  the execration of every honorable mind
thinks that Parliament should be eager only to  even by their extreme stupidity.  The honorable
approach the Throne with declarations of their gentleman [Mr. Canning] says, that he must treat
readiness and resolution to support his Majesty  with indifference the intellect of a man who can
in the further prosecution of the war without in- ascribe the present scarcity of corn to the war.
quiry; and he is delighted with an address, Sir, I think there is nothing either absurd or unwhich he has found upon the journals, to King  just in such an opinion.  Does not the war necWilliam, in which they pledged themselves to  essarily, by its magazines, and still more by its
support him in his efforts to resist the ambition  expeditions, increase consumption?  But when
of Louis XIV.  He thinks it quite astonishing    2 Mr. Canning had justified the publication of the
how much it is in point, and how perfectly it ap- intercepted correspondence  of  the French from
plies to the present occasion.  One would have  Egypt by the British government.
thought, sir, that in order to prove the applica- I2 This refers to the Duke of Bedford's speech in
tion, he would have shown that an offer had been  the House of Lords.




542                                       MR. FOX ON                                      [1800.
we learn that corn is at this very moment sold  nimity, he pretended to be a friend to negotiain France for less than half the price which it tion, though he did not wish for the success of
bears here, is it not fair to suppose that, but for that negotiation, but hoped only through that
the war and its prohibitions, a part of that grain  means he should bring the people to agree to
would be brought to this country, on account of  his new and solid system of finance.  I trust I
the high price which it would command, and  state the right honorable gentleman fairly.  I am
that, consequently, our scarcity would be reliev- sure that I mean to do so.  With these views,
ed from their abundance?  I speak, of course, then, what does he do?  Knowing that, contrary
only upon report; but I see that the prices quot- to his declarations in this House, the opinion of
ed in the French markets are less, by one half, the people of England was generally for peace,
than the prices in England.  There was noth- he enters into a negotiation, in which, as the
ing, therefore, very absurd in what fell from the  world believed at the time, and even until this
noble person; and I would really advise the hon- day, he completely failed.  No such thing, sir.
orable gentleman, when he speaks of persons dis- He completely succeeded!  For his object was not
tinguished for every virtue, to be a little more  to gain peace.  It was to gain over the people
guarded in his language.  I see no reason why  of this country to a " new and solid system  of
he and his friends should not leave to persons in  finance —that is, to the raising a great part of
another place, holding the same opinions as them- the supplies within the year, to the triple assessselves, the task of answering what may be thrown  ment, and to the tax upon income!  And how
out there.  Is not the phalanx sufficient?  It is did he gain them over?  By pretending to be a
no great compliment to their talents, considering  friend of peace, which he was not; and by opentheir number, that they can not be left to the  ing a negotiation which he secretly wished might
task of answering the few to whom they are op- not succeed!  The right honorable gentleman
posed; but perhaps the honorable gentleman has says that in all this he was honest and sincere.
too little to do in this House, and is to be sent He negotiated fairly, and would have obtained
there himself.  In truth, I see no reason why  the peace, if the French had shown a disposition
even he might not be sent, as well as some oth- correspondent to his own; but he rejoiced that
ers who have been raised to the peerage.23  But their conduct was such as to convince the peowhile he continues with us, I really think that pie of England of the necessity of concurring
the honorable gentleman will find full employ- with him  in the views which he had, and in
ment for all his talents in answering the argu- granting him  the supply which he thought esments which are urged in this House, without sential to their posture at the time.  Sir, I will
employing them in disparaging one of the finest not say that in all this he was not honest to his
understandings in this kingdom.                  own purpose, and that he has not been honest in
And now, sir, to return to the subject of the  his declarations and confessions this night; but
otives of Mr. negotiation in 1797.  It is, in my  I can not agree that he was honest to this House,
Pitt's eotia- mind, extremely material to attend  or honest to the people of this cozntry.  To this
to the account which the minister House it was not honest to make them countergives of his memorable negotiation of 1797; and  act the sense of the people, as he knew it to be
of his motives for entering into it.  In all ques- expressed in the petitions upon the table, nor
tions. of peace and war, he says, many circum- was it honest to the country to act in a disguise,
stances must necessarily enter into the considera- and to pursue a secret purpose unknown to them,
tion; and that they are not to be decided upon by  while affecting to take the road which they pointthe extremes.  The determination must be made  ed out.  I know not whether this may not be hon..
upon a balance and a comparison of the evils or esty in the political ethics of the right honorable
the advantages upon the one side and the other, gentleman; but I know that it would be called
and that one of the greatest considerations is that by a very different name in the common transof finance.  In 1797, the right honorable gentle- actions of society, and in the rules of morality
man confesses he found himself peculiarly em- established in private life.  I know of nothing
barrassed as to the resources for the war, if they  in the history of this country that it resembles,
were to be found in the old and usual way of the  except, perhaps, one of the most profligate perifunding system.  Now, though he thought, upon  ods-the reign of Charles II., when the sale of
his balance and comparison of considerations, Dunkirk might probably have been justified by
that the evils of war would be fewer than those  the same pretense.  That monarch also declared
of peace, yet they would only be so, provided  war against France, and did it to cover a negothat he could establish " a new and solid system  tiation by which, in his difficulties, he was to
of finance" in the place of the old and exhausted  gain a "solid system of finance."
funding system; and to accomplish this scheme,    But, sir, I meet the right honorable gentleman
it was necessary to have the unanimous assent on his own ground.  I say that you He oughtnow
and approbation of the people.  To procure una- ought to treat on the same principle to tre.toutoot
on which you treated in 1797, inll or- wi.slesoftlle
23 This sneer was founded on the fact that Mr. on w      yo tr           177         nation...  er to gain the cordial co-operation
Pitt, being in want of tthe means of patronage, had 
raised persons to the peerage, as a reward for polit- of the people.  We w   ant experience and the
ical services, to an extent which was considered  evidence of facts."  Ca  there be any evidence
discreditable to the ministry and degrading to the  of facts equal to that of a frank, open, and candid
HiLse of Lords.                                 negotiation.  Let us see whether Bonaparte wil!




1800.]            THE REJECTION  OF BONAPARTE'S OVERTURES.                                   543
display the same temper as his predecessors. If  lous?  In duels, indeed, we have often heard of
he shall do so, then you will confirm the people of  such language.  Two gentlemen go out and
England in their opinion of the necessity of con- fight, when, having discharged their pistols at
tinuing the war, and you will revive all the vigor one another, it is not unusual for one of them to
which you roused in 1797.  Or will you not do  say to the other, "Now I am satisfied.  I see
this until you have a reverse of fortune?  Will that you are a man of honor, and we are friends
you never treat but when you are in a situation  again."  There is something, by-the-by, ridicuof distress, and when you have occasion to im- lous, even here.  But between nations it is more
pose on the people?                             than ridiculous.  It is criminal.  It is a ground
But you say you have not refused to treat. which no principle can justify, and which is as
The restoration You have stated a case in which you  impracticable as it is impious.  That two naofthe Bourbons
is rea~ymae  will be ready immediately to enter tions should be set on to beat one another into
wil                  e qready.
e  n    into a negotiation, viz., the restora- friendship, is too abominable even for the fiction
tion of the house of Bourbon.  But you deny  of romance; but for a statesman seriously and
that this is a sine qua non; and in your nonsens- gravely to lay it down as a system upon which
ical language, which I do not understand, you  he means to act, is monstrous.  What can we
talk of " limited possibilities," which may induce  say of such a test as he means to put the French
you to treat without the restoration of the house  government to, but that it is hopeless?  It is in
of Bourbon.  But do you state what they are? the nature of war to inflame animosity; to exasNow, sir, I say, that if you put one case upon  perate, not to soothe; to widen, not to approxiwhich you declare that you are willing to treat mate.  So long as this is to be acted upon, I say,
immediately, and say that there are other possi- it is in vain to hope that we can have the evible cases which may induce you to treat here- dence which we require.
after, without mentioning what these possible    The right honorable gentleman, however,
cases are, you do state a sine qua non of imme- thinks otherwise; and he points out bnr. Pitt's four
diate treaty.  Suppose that I have an estate to  four distinct possible cases, besides inwi's leh
sell, and I say my demand is ol000 for it. For the re-establishment of the Bourbon    d trt
with Bonathat sum I will sell the estate immediately. To  family, in which he would agree to parte
be sure, there may be other terms upon which  treat with the French.
I may be willing to part with it; but I mention    (1.) "If Bonaparte shall conduct himself so as
nothing  of them.  The  1000 is the only con- to convince him that he has abandoned the prindition that I state at the time.  Will any gentle- ciples which were objectionable in his predeman assert that I do not make the Xf1000 the  cessors, and that he will be actuated by a moire
sine qua non of the immediate sale?  Thus you  moderate system."  I ask you, sir, if this is likesay the restoration of the Bourbons is not the only  ly to be ascertained in war? It is the nature of
possible ground; but you give no other.  This war not to allay, but to inflame the passions;
is your project.  Do you demand a counter proj- and it is not by the invective and abuse which
ect?  Do you follow your own rule?  Do you  have been thrown upon him and his government
not do the thing of which you complained in the  nor by the continued irritations which war is sure
enemy?  You seemed to be afraid of receiving  to give, that the virtues of moderation and foranother proposition; and, by confining yourselves bearance are to be nourished.
to this one point, you make it in fact, though not    (2.) " If, contrary to the expectations of minisin terms, your sine qua non.                    -ters, the people of France shall show a disposition
But the right honorable gentleman, in his to acquiesce in the government of Bonaparte.".idiculos to  speech, does what the official note  Does the right honorable gentleman mean to say,
look for " expe- avoids.  He finds there the conven- that because it is a usurpation on the part of the
rience" of Bona-.
parte's peace.. ient words,'experience and the ev- present chief, that therefore the people are not
keepingi,  idence of facts."  Upon these he likely to acquiesce in it?  I have not time, sir,
war.        goes into detail; and in order to  to discuss the question of this usurpation, or
convince the House that new  evidence is re- whether it is likely to be permanent; but I cerquired, he reverts to all the earliest acts and  tainly have not so good an opinion of the French,
crimes of the Revolution; to all the atrocities  nor of any people, as to believe that it will be
of all the governments that have passed away; short-lived, mzeerely because it was a usurpation,
and he contends that he must have experience  and because it is a system of military despotism.
that these foul crimes are repented of, and that Cromwell was a usurper; and in many points
a purer and a better system is adopted in France, there may be found a resemblance between him
by which he may be sure that they will be ca- and the present Chief Consul of France. There
pable of maintaining the relations of peace and  is no doubt but that, on several occasions of his
amity.  Sir, these are not conciliatory words; life, Cromwell's sincerity may be questioned,
nor is this a practicable ground to gain experi-  particularly in his self denying ordinance, in his
ence.  Does he think it possible that evidence  affected piety, and other things; but would it not
of a peaceable demeanor can be obtained in war? have been insanity in France and Spain to refuse
What does he mean to say to the French consul? to treat with him because he was a usurper or
"Until you shall, in war, behave yourself in a  wanted candor?  No, sir, these are not the maxpeaceable manner, I will not treat with you!"  ims by which governments are actuated. They
Is there not in this something extremely ridicu- do not inquire so much into the means by which




544                                     MR. FOX ON                                       [1800.
power may have been acquired, as into the fact the negotiation which he doos not now possess?
of where the power resides.  The people did  Is it quite sure; that when he finds himself safe
acquiesce in the government of Cromwell.  But in his seat, he will treat on the same terms as at
it may be said that the splendor of his talents, present, and that you will get a better peace
the vigor of his administration, the high tone  some time hence than you might reasonably hope
with which he spoke to foreign nations, the sue- to obtain at this moment? Will he not have one
cess of his arms, and the character which he  interest less to do it? and do you not overlook
gave to the English name, induced the nation to  a favorable occasion for a chance which is exacquiesce in his usurpation; and that we must ceedingly doubtful?  These are the consideranot try Bonaparte by his example.  Will it be  tions which I would urge to his Majesty's minsaid that Bonaparte is not a man of great abili- isters against the dangerous experiment of waitties?  Will it be said that he has not, by his vie- ing for the acquiescence of the people of France.
tories, thrown a splendor over even the violence    (3.) "If the allies of this country shall be less
of the Revolution, and that he does not conciliate  successful than they have every reason to expect
the French people by the high and lofty tone in  they will be, in stirring up the people of France
which he speaks to foreign nations?  Are not against Bonaparte, and in the further prosecution
the French, then, as likely as the English in the  of the war."  And,
case of Cromwell, to acquiesce in his govern-    (4.) "If the pressure of the war should be
ment?  If they should do so, the right honora- heavier upon us than it would be convenient for
ble gentleman may find that this possible predic- us to continue to bear."  These are the other
ament may fail him.  He may find that though  two possible emergencies in which the right honone power may make war, it requires two to  orable gentleman would treat even with Bonamake peace.  He may find that Bonaparte was parte.  Sir, I have often blamed the right honas insincere as himself in the proposition which  orable gentleman for being disingenuous and inhe made; and in his turn he may come forward  sincere. On the present occasion I certainly can
and say, "I have no occasion now for conceal- not charge him with any such thing.  He has
ment. It is true that, in the beginning of the year made to-night a most honest confession.  He is
1800, I offered to treat, not because I wished for open and candid. He tells Bonaparte fairly what
peace, but because the people of France wished  he has to expect.  "I mean," says he, "to do
for it; and besides, my old resources being ex- every thing in my power to raise up the people
hausted, and there being no means of carrying  of France against you; I have engaged a numon the war without'a new and solid system of ber of allies, and our combined efforts shall be
finance,' I pretended to treat, because I wished  used to excite insurrection and civil war in
to procure the unanimous assent of the French  France.  I will strive to murder you, or to get
people to this'new and solid system of finance.' you sent away.  If I succeed, well; but if I fail,
Did you think I was in earnest?  You were de- then I will treat with you.  My resources being
ceived.  I now  throw  off the mask.  I have  exhausted; even my'solid system  of finance'
gained my point, and I reject your offers with  having failed to supply me with the means of
scorn."24  Is it not a very possible case that he  keeping together my allies, and of feeding the
may use this language?  Is it not within the  discontents I have excited in France; then you
right honorable gentleman's knowledge of human  may expect to see me renounce my high tone,
nature?25  But even if this should not be the  my attachment to the house of Bourbon, my abcase, will not the very test which you require,. horrence of your crimes, my alarm at your printhe acquiescence of the people of France in his ciples; for then I shall be ready to own that, on
government, give him  an advantage-ground in  the balance and comparison of circumstances,... ____..___.___there will be less danger in concluding a peace
2a It is a curious fact that Mr. Fox, in putting  than in the continuance of war!"  Is this politthese words into the mouth of Bonaparte, hit pre- ical language for one state to hold to another?
cisely on the sentiments he entertained at this And what sort of peace does the right honorable
crisis. He says in his Memoirs, as dictated to Mon- gentleman expect to receive in that case? Does
tholon, "I had then need of war; a treaty of peace  he thinl that Bonaparte would grant to baffled
which should have derogated from that of Campo
which should have  derogated from that of Campo  insolence, to humiliated pride, to disappointment
Formio, and annulled the creations of Italy, would      e  imbecilit   t       se t s    i    e
have withered every imagination. Mr. Pitt's an-      o imbecility, the same  terms  which he
swer accordingly was impatiently expected. When  wold be ready to give now?  The right honit arrived, it filled me with a secret satisfaction. orable gentleman can not have forgotten what
His answer could not have been mnore favorable! he said on another occasion,
From that moment I foresaw that, with such im-            "Potuit qua plurima virtus
passioned antagonists, I would have no difficulty in   Esse, fait. Toto certatum est corpore regni."26
reaching the highest destinies."-Vol. i., 33, 34.                                   _
25 This was a "palpable hit." A few months be-      S   Virgil's   eid, ooxi., line 313. The
fore, Mr. Pitt had made a descent upon Holland,.        D
fore, Mr. Pitt had made a descent; upon Holland,  words are those of the Latin King in relation to his
which he declared, from "his knowledge of human  w   w      es.
nature," must be successful in rousing the Dutch
against their French rulers. As it proved a miser-    Valor has done its utmost: we have fought
able failure, he got many hints from Mr. Sheridan   With the embodied force of all the realm!
and Mr. Fox respecting "his knowledge of human    On a former occasion, Mr. Pitt had said that the
nature."                                        contest ought never to be given up, until England




1800.]           THE REJECTION  OF BONAPARTE'S OVERTURES.                                  545
He would then have to repeat his words, but supporting the minister in his negotiation for a
with a different application.  He would have to  solid system of finance, can now bring themselves
say, "All our efforts are vain. We have exhaust- to countenance his abandonment of the ground
ed our strength. Our designs are impracticable, he took, and to support him in refusing all negoand we must sue to you for peace."              tiation!  What will be said of gentlemen who
Sir, what is the question to-night?  We are  shall vote in this way, and yet feel, in their conAppealto the  called upon to support ministers in  sciences, that they would have, with infinitely
House, that they
andthewholen- refusing a frank, candid, and re- more readiness, voted the other?
tion desirepeace, spectful offer of negotiation, and to    Sir we have heard to-nit a great many most
and not a contin-                                  Sir,                nho-n         man y
uanceofthewar. countenance them in continuing the  acrimonious invectives against Bo- The military deswar.  Now I would put the question in another naparte, against all the course of patelns its cu.nway.  Suppose that ministers had been inclined  his conduct, and against the un- aw as ppliedto
to adopt the line of conduct which they pursued  principled manner in which  he Ireland.
in 1796 and 1797, and that to-night, instead of a  seized upon the reins of government.  I will not
question on a war address, it had been an ad- make his defense.  I think all this sort of invecdress to his Majesty to thank him for accepting  tive, which is used only to inflame the passions
the overture, and for opening a negotiation to  of this House and of the country, exceedingly
treat for peace: I ask the gentlemen opposite; ill timed, and very impolitic.  But I say I will
I appeal to the whole five hundred and fifty- not make his defense.  I am not sufficiently in
eight representatives of the people, to lay their possession of materials upon which to form  an
hands upon their hearts, and to say whether they  opinion on the character and conduct of this exwould not have cordially voted for such an ad- traordinary man.  On his arrival in France, he
dress.  Would they, or would they not?  Yes, found the government in a very unsettled state,
sir, if the address had breathed a spirit of peace, and the whole affairs of the Republic deranged,
your benches would have resounded with rejoic- crippled, and involved.  He thought it necessary
ings, and with praises of a measure that was to reform  the government; and he did reform
likely to bring back the blessings of tranquillity. it, just in the way in which a military man may
On the present occasion, then, I ask for the vote  be expected to carry on a reform.  He seized
of no gentlemen but of those who, in the secret on the whole authority for himself.  It will not
confession of their conscience, admit, at this in- be expected from  me that I should either apstant, while they hear me, that they would have  prove or apologize for such an act.  I am cercheerfully and heartily voted with the minister tainly not for reforming governments by such
for an address directly the reverse of the one pro- expedients  but how this House can be so vioposed.  If every such gentleman were to vote  lently indignant at the idea of military despotwith me, I should be this night in the greatest ism, is, I own, a little singular, when I see the
majority that ever I had the honor to vote with  composure with which they can observe it nearin this House.  I do not know that the right er home; nay, when I see them regard it as a
honorable gentleman would find, even on the  frame of government most peculiarly suited to
benches around him, a single individual who  the exercise of free opinion, on a subject the
would not vote with me.  I am sure he would  most important of any that can engage the atnot find many.  I do not know  that in this tention of a people.  Was it not the system
House I could single out the individual who  which was so happily and so advanltageously eswould think himself bound by consistency to  tablished of late, all over Ireland, and which
vote against the right honorable gentleman on  even now the government may, at its pleasure
an address for negotiation.  There may be some, proclaim over the whole of that kingdom? Are
but they are very few.  I do know, indeed, one  not the persons and property of the people left,
most honorable man in another place, whose pu- in many districts, at this moment, to the entire
rity and' integrity I respect, though I lament the  will of military commanders? and is not this
opinion he has formed on this subject, who would  held out as peculiarly proper and advantageous,
think himself bound, from the uniform  consist- at a time when the people of Ireland are freely,
ency of his life, to vote against an address for and with unbiased judgments, to discuss the
negotiation.  Earl Fitzwilliam  would, I verily  most interesting question of a legislative union?
believe, do so.  He would feel himself bound, Notwithstanding the existence of martial law, so
from the previous votes he has given, to declare  far do we think Ireland from  being enslaved,
his objection to all treaty.  But I own I do not that we presume it precisely the period and the
know more in either House of Parliament. There circumstances under which she may best declare
may be others, but I do not know them. What, her free opinion!  Now, really, sir, I can not
then, is the House of Commons come to, when, think that gentlemen, who talk in this way about
notwithstanding their support given to the right Ireland, can, with a good grace, rail at military
honorable gentleman in 1796 and 1797, on his despotism in France.
entering into negotiation; notwithstanding their    But, it seems, " Bonaparte has broken his
inward conviction that they would vote with him  oaths.  He has violated his oath of Charge against
this moment for the same measure; who, after fidelity to the Constitution of the Bnaparte, that
he had violated
third year."  Sir, I am not one of hisoaths to the
was compelled to adopt these words as her own. those who hold that any such oaths gove"rnent"
Mr. Fox now ingeniously gives them a new turn.   ought ever to be exacted.  They are seldom or
M M




546                                    MR. FOX ON                                       [1800.
ever of any effect; and I am  not for sporting  are beaten and unfortunate, to think of treating?
with a thing so sacred as an oath. I think it Oh! pity the condition of man, gracious Godi
would be good to lay aside all such oaths.  Who  and save us from such a system of malevolence,
ever heard that, in revolutions, the oath of fidel- in which all our old and venerated prejudices
ity to the former government was ever regard- are to be done away, and by which we are to be
ed, or even that, when violated, it was imputed  taught to consider war as the natural state of
to the persons as a crime?  In times of revo- man, and peace but as a dangerous and difficult
lution, men who take up arms are called rebels. extremity!
if they fail, they are adjudged to be traitors; but    Sir, this temper must be corrected.  It is a
who before ever heard of their being perjured? diabolical spirit, and would lead to an      dispo rOn the restoration of King Charles II., those  interminable war.  Our history is full tion to protract war
who had taken up arms for the commonwealth  of instances that, where we have over- condemned
were stigmatized as rebels and traitors, but not looked a proffered occasion to treat, we by history.
as men fbrsworn.  Was the Earl of Devonshire  have uniformly suffered by delay. At what time
charged with being perjured, on account of the  did we ever profit by obstinately persevering in
allegiance he had sworn to the house of Stuart, war?  We accepted at Ryswick the terms we
and the part he took in those struggles which  had refused five years before, and the same peace
preceded and brought about the Revolution?  which was concluded at Utrecht might have
The violation of oaths of allegiance was never been obtained at Gertruydenberg; and as to seimputed to the people of England, and will curity from the future machinations or ambition
never be imputed to any people.  But who  of the French, I ask you, what security you ever
brings up the question of oaths?  He who  had or could have.  Did the different treaties
setorQ o. Mr. strives to make twenty-four millions made with Louis XIV. serve to tie up his hands,
Pitt respeting of persons violate the oaths they have  to restrain his ambition, or to stifle his restless
taken to their present Constitution, spirit?  At what time, in old or in recent periand who desires to re-establish the house of  ods, could you safely repose on the honor, forBourbon by such violation of their vows.  I put bearance and moderation of the French governit so, sir, because, if the question of oaths be of ment?  Was there ever an idea of refusing to
the least consequence, it is equal on both sides! treat, because the peace might be afterward inHe who desires the whole people of France to  secure?  The peace of 1763 was not accompaperjure themselves, and who hopes for success nied with securities; and it was no sooner made,
in his project only upon their doing so, surely  than the French court began, as usual, its incan not make it a charge against Bonaparte  trigues.  And what security did the right honthat he has done the same!                     orable gentleman exact at the peace of 1783, in
"Ah! but Bonaparte has declared it as his which he was engaged?  Were we rendered se-!xetort in.  opinion, that the two governments of cure by that peace?  The right honorable gen-.apect to Bona- Great Britain and of France can not tleman knows well that, soon after that peace, the
parte's saying.hattFranceand exist together.  After the treaty of  French formed a plan, in conjunction with the.notexistto-  Campo Formio, he sent two confi- Dutch, of attacking our India possessions, of raist    dential persons, Berthier and Monge, ing up the native powers against us, and of drivtto the Directory, to say so in his name."  Well, ing us out of India; as they were more recently
an'd what is there in this absurd and puerile as- desirous of doing, only with this difference, that
*sertion,.if it were ever made?  Has not the right the cabinet of France formerly entered into this
honorable gentleman, in this House, said the  project in a moment of profound peace, and when
same thing g?  In'this, at least, they resemble  they conceived us to be lulled into a perfect seone another!  They have both made use of this curity.  After making the peace of 1783, the
assertion; and I believe that these two illustri- right honorable gentleman and his friends went
ous persons are the only two on earth who think  out, and I, among others, came into office. Supit!  Butlet us turn the tables.  We ought to  pose, sir, that we had taken up the jealousy upon
put ourselves at.times in the place of the enemy, which the right honorable gentleman now acts,
if we are desirous of really examining with can- and had refused to ratify the peace which he had
dor and fairness the dispute between us.  How  made. Suppose that we had said-No! France is
may they not interpret the speeches of ministers acting a perfidious part; we see no security for
and their friends,. in both houses of the British  England in this treaty; they want only a respite,
Parliament?  If we are to be told of the idle  in order to attack us again in an important part
speech of Berthier. and Monge, may they not of our dominions, and we ought not to confirm
also bring up speeches, in which it has not been  the treaty.  I ask you, would the right honoramerely hinted, but' broadly asserted, that " the ble gentleman have supported us in this refusal?
two Constitutions of England and France could  I say, that upon his present reasoning he ought.
not exist together?"  May not these offenses But I put it fairly to him, would he have supand charges be reciprocated without end? Are  ported us in refusing to ratify the treaty upon
we ever to go. on in,this miserable squabble  such a pretense?  He certainly ought not, and
about words?  Are we  1till, as we happen to be I am sure he would not; but the course of teasuccessful on the.one side or the other, to bring  soning which he now assumes would have justiup these impotent, accusations, insults. and prov- fled his taking such a ground. On the contrary,




1800.]            THE REJECTION  OF BONAPARTE'S OVERTURES.                                    547
security is a refinement upon jealousy.  You  secure this fame, the only species of fame, perhave security, the only security that you can  haps, that is worth acquiring?  Nay, granting
ever expect to get. It is the present interest of  that his soul may still burn with the thirst of
France to make peace.  She will keep it, if it military exploits, is it not likely that he is disbe her interest.  She will break it, if it be her posed to yield to the feelings of the French peointerest.  Such is the state of nations; and you  ple, and to consolidate his power by consulting
have nothing but your own vigilance for your their interests?  I have a right to argue in this
security."                                        way when suppositions of his insincerity are rea" It is not the interest of Bonaparte," it seems, soned upon on the other side.  Sir, these asperReplyastoBo- "sincerely to enter into a negotiation,  sions are, in truth, always idle, and even misntiaarte's'o  or, if he should even make peace, chievous.  I have been too long accustomed to
tives to contiue the war. sincerely to keep it."  But how are  heal imputations and calumnies thrown out upon
we to decide upon his sincerity?  By refusing  great and honorable characters, to be much into treat with him?  Surely, if we mean to dis- fluenced by them.  My honorable and learned
cover his sincerity, we ought to hear the propo- friend [Mr. Erskine] has paid this night a most
sitions which he desires to make.  "But peace  just, deserved, and eloquent tribute of applause
would'be unfriendly to his system  of military  to the memory of that great and unparalleled
despotism."  Sir, I hear a great deal about the  character, who is so recently lost to the world.27
short-lived nature of military despotism.  I wish  I must, like him, beg leave to dwell a moment
the history of the world would bear gentlemen  on the venerable GEORGE WASHINGTON, though
out in this description of it.  Was not the gov- I know that it is impossible for me to bestow
eminent erected by Augustus Cesar a military  any thing like adequate praise on a character
despotism? and yet it endured for six or seven  vhich gave us, more than any other human behundred years. Military despotism, unfortunate- ing, the example of a perfect man; yet, good,
ly, is too likely in its nature to be permanent, great, and unexampled as General Washington
and it is not true that it depends on the life of the  was, I can remember the time when he was not
first usurper. Though half of the Roman Emper- better spoken of in this House than Bonaparte
ors were murdered, yet the military despotism  is at present.  The right honorable gentleman
went on; and so it would be, I fear, in France. who opened this debate [lMr. Dundas] may reIf Bonaparte should disappear from the scene, to  member in what terms of disdain, of virulence,
make room, perhaps, for a Berthier, or any other e ren of contempt, General Washington was spokgeneral, what difference would that make in the  en of by gentlemen on that side of the House.2s
quality of French despotism, or in our relation  Does he not recollect with what marks of indigto the country?  We may as safely treat with  nation any member was stigmatized as an enea Bonaparte, or with any of his successors, be  my to his country who mentioned with common
they whom they may, as we could with a Louis respect the name of General Washington?  If
XVI., a Louis XVII., or a Louis XVIII. There  a negotiation had then been proposed to be openis no difference but in the name.  Where the  ed with that great man, what would have been
power essentially resides, thither we ought to go  said?  Would you treat with a rebel, a traitor!
for peace.                                       What an example would you not give by such
But, sir, if we are to reason on the fact, I an act!  I do not know whether the right honshould think that it is the interest of Bo- orable gentleman may not yet possess some of
reas.o to  naparte to make peace.  A  lover of  his old prejudices on the subject.  I hope not:
seek peae. military glory, as that general must I hope by this time we are all convinced that a
necessarily be, may he not think that his meas- republican government, like that of America,
ure of glory is full; that it may be tarnished by  may exist without danger or injury to social ora reverse of fortune, and can hardly be increased  der, or to established monarchies.  They have
by any new laurels?  He must feel that, in the  happily shown that they can maintain the relasituation to which he is now raised, he can no  tions of peace and amity with other states. They
longer depend on his own fortune, his own gen- have shown, too, that they are alive to the feelius, and his own talents, for a continuance of his ings of honor; but they do not lose sight of
success.  He must be under the necessity of  plain good sense and discretion.  They have not
employing other generals, whose misconduct or refused to negotiate with the French, and they
incapacity might endanger his power, or whose  have accordingly the hopes of a speedy terminatriumphs even might affect the interest which  tion of every difference,9 We cry up their conhe holds in the opinion of the French.  Peace,   27 The news of Washington's death, which took
then, would secure to him what he has achieved, place December 14tb, 1799, had just arrived in Enand fix the inconstancy of fortune. But this will gland.
not be his only motive. He must see that France    2 This hit was directed against Mr. Dundas, healso requires a respite-a breathing interval, to  cause he was one of Lord North's ministry, who
recruit her wasted strength.  To procure her had poured out this abuse upon Washington.
this respite, would be, perhaps, the attainment of    9 It is curious to observe how adroitly  r. Fox
turns back upon his opponent almost every argumore solid glory, as well as the means of acquir- ment he uses. Thus, in the present case, Mr. Pitt
ing more solid power, than any thing which he  had enumerated the Americans among those whom
can hope to gain from arms, and from the proud- the French had injured and insulted. Mr. Fox reest triumphs.  May he not, then, be zealous to  plies that the Americans did not for this reason ie



548                                       MR. FOX  ON                                        [1800.
duct, but we do not imitate it.  At the beginning  to deliver up their property; nor do I even know
of the struggle, we were told that the French  that they ought.  I doubt whether it would be
were setting up a set of wild and impracticable  the means of restoring tranquillity and order to
theories, and that we ought not to be misled by  a country, to attempt to divest a body of one
them; that they were phantoms with which we  million and a half of inhabitants, in order to recould not grapple.  Now we are told that we  instate a much smaller body.  I question the
must not treat, because, out of the lottery, Bona- policy, even if the thing were practicable; but
parte has drawn such a prize as military despot- I assert, that such a body of new  proprietors
ism. Is military despotism a theory? One would  forms an insurmountable barrier to the restorathink that that is one of the practical things  tion of the ancient order of things.  Never was
which ministers might understand, and to which  a revolution consolidated by a pledge so strong.
they would have no particular objection.  But    But, as if this were not of itself sufficient,
what is our present conduct founded on but a  Louis XVIII., from his retirement at Increased
theory, and that a most wild and ridiculous the-  Mittau, puts forth  a manifesto, in declaration of
ory?  For what are we fighting?   Not for a  which he assures the friends of his L     VI
principle; not for security; not for conquest; house that he is about to come back with all
but merely for an experiment and a speculation,  the powers that formerly belonged to his family.
to discover whether a gentleman at Paris may  He does not promise to the people a Constitunot turn out a better man than we now take him  tion which might tend to conciliate their hearts;
to be.                                            but, stating that he is to come with all the old
My honorable friend [Mr. Erskine] has been  regine, they would naturally attach to it its propDificulties  censured for an opinion which he gave,  er appendages of bastiles, lettres de ctchet. gain the way of and I think justly, that the change of belle, &c.;  and the noblesse, for whom this procthe return of
thl Bo ur   property ill France since the Revolu- lamation was peculiarly conceived, would also
bon'.    tion must form an almost insurmount- naturally feel that, if the monarch was to be reable barrier to the return of the ancient proprie-  stored to all his privileges, they surely were to
tors.: No such thing," says the right honorable  be reinstated in their estates without a compengentleman,' nothing can be more easy.  Prop-  sation to the purchasers.  Is this likely to make
erty is depreciated to such a rate, that the pur- the people wish for the restoration of royalty?
chasers would easily be brought to restore the  I have no doubt but there may be a number of.estates."  I think differently.  It is the charac-  Chouans in France, though I am persuaded that
ter of every such convulsion as that which has  little dependence is to be placed on their effrots.30
ravaged France, that an infinite and undescriba-  There may be a number of people dispersed over
ble load of misery is inflicted upon private fam- France, and particularly in certain provinces,
ilies.  The heart sickens at the recital of the  who may retain a degree of attachment to roysorrows which it engenders.  The Revolution  alty; how the government will contrive to comdid not imply, though it may have occasioned, a  promise with that spirit I know not. I suspect,
-total change of property; the restoration of the  however, that Bonaparte will try.  His efforts
Bourbons does imply it; and such is the differ- have been already turned to that object; and, if
ence.  There is no doubt but that if the noble  we may believe report, he has succeeded to a
families had foreseen the duration and the extent considerable degree.  He will naturally call to
of the evils which were to fall upon their heads, his recollection the precedent which the history
they would have taken a very different line of  of France itself will furnish.  The once formidaconduct; but they unfortunately flew from their ble insurrection of the Huguenots was completecountry.  The King and his advisers sought for-  ly stifled, and the party conciliated, by the policign aid, and a confederacy was formed to re- cy of Henry IV., who gave them such privileges,
store them by military force. As a means of re- and raised them so high in the government, as
sistino this combination, the estates of the fugi- to make some persons apprehend danger theretives were confiscated and sold.  However com- from to the unity of the empire.  Nor will the
passion may deplore their case, it can not be said  French be likely to forget the revocation of the
that the thing is unprecedented.  The people  edict; one of the memorable acts of the house
have always resorted to such means of defense. of Bourbon, which was never surpassed in atrocNow the question is, how this property is to be  ity, injustice, and impolicy, by any thing thai
got out of their hands.  If it be true, as I have  has disgraced Jacobinism.  If Bonaparte shall
heard it said, that the purchasers of national and  attempt with the Chouans some similar arrangeforfeited estates amount to one million and a half ment to that of Henry IV., who will say that he
of persons, I see no hopes of their being forced  is likely to fail?  He will meet with no great
obstacle to success from the influence which our
fuse to negotiate; but by showing their readiness  ministers have established with the chiefs, or in
to do so, had the hopes of a speedy termination of  the attachment and dependence which they have
their differences with France. In this he refers to
on our protection.  For what has the right honthe mission of Oliver Ellsworth, Chief Justice of  on   r protection.  For what has  the  right onthe United States, Patrick Henry, and W. V. MIur- orable gentleman told them, in stating the conray, in 1799, to settle terms of peace between
France and the United States. Their mission was    3 The Chouans were Royalists, particularly those
successful, and an amicable adjustment took place  on the Loire, who rose against the revolutionary
a few months after.                               government.




1800.]              THE REJECTION OF BONAPARTE'S OVERTURES.                                     549
tingencies in which he will treat with Bona-'  Where then, sir, is this war, which on every
parte?   He will excite a rebellion in France.: side is pregnant with such horrors, to
Peroration.
He will give support to the Chouans, if they can  be carried? Where is it to stop? Not
stand their ground; but he will not make com-j till we establish the house of Bourbon!  And
mon cause with them; for, unless they can de-  this you cherish the hope of doing, because you
pose Bonaparte, send him  into banishment, or have had a successful campaign. Why, sir, beexecute him, he will abandon the Chouans, and  fore this you have had a successful campaign.
treat with this very man, whom, at the same  The situation of the allies, with all they have
time, he describes as holding the reins and wield- gained, is surely not to be compared now  to
ing the powers of France for purposes of unex- what it was when you had taken Valenciennes,
ampled barbarity.                                 Quesnoy, Conde, &c., which induced some genSir, I wish the atrocities, of which we hear so  tlemen in this House to prepare themselves for a
Retort upon much, and which I abhor as much as  march to Paris.  With all that you have gainair. Pitt as  any man, were, indeed nexampled. ed, you surely will not say that the prospect is
practiced at I fear that they do not belong exclu-  brighter now  than it was then.  What have
Naples.   sively to the French.  When the right you gained but the recovery of a part of what
honorable gentleman speaks of the extraordinary  you before lost?  One campaign is successful
successes of the last campaign, he does not men- to you; another to them; and in this way, anition the horrors by which some of these success-  mated by the vindictive passions of revenge, haes were accompanied.  Naples, for instance, has  tred, and rancor, which are infinitely more flagibeen, among others, what is called delivered; and  tious, even, than those of ambition and the thirst
yet, if I am rightly informed, it has been stained  of power, you may go on forever; as, with such
and polluted by murders so ferocious, and by  black incentives, I see no end to human misery.
cruelties of every kind so abhorrent, that the    And all this without an intelligible motive.
heart shudders at the recital.  It has been said, All this because you may gain a better peace a
not only that the miserable victims of the rage  year or two hence!  So that we are called
and brutality of the fanatics were savagely mur- upon to go on merely as a speculation.  We
dered, but that, in many instances, their flesh  must keep Bonaparte for some time longer at
was eaten and devoured by the cannibals, who  war, as a state of probation.  Gracious God,
are the advocates and the instruments of social sir! is war a state of probation?  Is peace a
order!  Nay, England is not totally exempt rash system?   Is it dangerous for nations to
from reproach, if the rumors which are circula- live in amity with each other?  Are your vigited be true.  I will mention a fact, to give min- lance, your policy, your common powers of obisters the opportunity, if it be false, to wipe away  servation, to be extinguished by putting an end
the stain that it must otherwise affix on the Brit- to the horrors of war?  Can not this state of
ish name.  It is said, that a party of the repub-              s       b  g           a' inhabitant  of Naple  took shand property should be guaranteed, and that they
lican inhabitants of Naples tool shelter in the  should, at their own option, either be sent to Toulon
fortress of the Castel de Uovo.  They were be- or remain at Naples, without being molested either
sieged by a detachment from the royal army, to  in their persons or families. This capitulation was
whom they refused to surrender; but demanded  accepted; it was signed by the Cardinal, and the
that a British officer should be brought forward,  Russian and Turkish commanders, and, lastly, by
and to him they capitulated.  They made terms  Captain Foote, as commander of the British force.
with him under the sanction of the British name. About six-and-thirty hours afterward, Nelson arrived
with hi  une th  sntoofh s.             in the bay, with a force, which had joined him durIt was agreed that their persons and property  in the  ay, with a force, hic   a  joined  im duItwas agreed that their perso    an  r ing his cruise, consisting of seventeen sail of the line,
should be safe, and that they should be conveyed  with seventeen hundred troops on board, and the
to Toulon.  They were accordingly put on board  Prince Royal of Naples in the Admiral's ship. A
a vessel; but, before they sailed, their property  flag of truce was flying on the castles and on board
was confiscated, numbers of them  taken out, the Sea-horse. Nelson made a signal to annul the
thrown into dungeons, and some of them, I un- treaty, declaring that he would grant rebels no othderstand, notwithstanding the British guarantee,  er terms than those of unconditional submission.
actually executed!1                              The Cardinal objected to this; nor could all the arguments of Nelson, Sir W. Hamilton, and Lady
31 All this was literally true, and took place in  Hamilton, who took an active part in the conferthe summer of 1799. Lord Nelson was the officer ence, convince him that a treaty of such a nature,
referred to: he was led by his infatuated attach- solemnly concluded, could honorably be set aside.
ment to Lady Hamilton, the favorite of the Queen  He retired at last, silenced by Nelson's authority,
of Naples, into conduct which has left an indelible  but not convinced. Captain Foote was sent out
stain on his memory. After the retreat of the French  of the bay; and the garrisons, taken out of the casfrom Southern Italy, the leaders of the republican  ties under pretense of carrying the treaty into efgovernment, which had been organized at Naples, feet, ceree delivered over as rebels to the vengeance
were besieged in the castles of Uovo and Nuovo by  of the Sicilian court.-A deplorable transaction! A
the Cardinal Ruffo at the head of the Royalists. The  stain upon the memory of Nelson, and the honor of
remainder of the story will be given in the words  England! To palliate it would be in vain; to justof Mr. Southey, the biographer of Nelson. "They  ify it would be wicked: there is no alternative, for
[these castles] were strong places, and there was one who will not make himself a participator in
reason to apprehend that the French fleet might guilt, but to record the disgraceful story with sorrow
arrive to relieve them. Ruffo proposed to the gar- and with shame."-Life of Nelson inHarper's Famrison to capitulate, on condition that their persons  ily Library, vol. vi., 177-8.




550      MR. FOX  ON THE REJECTION  OF BONAPARTE'S OVERTURES.                           [1800.
probation be as well undergone without adding  ocally as heretofore.  But I will not go into the
to the catalogue of human sufferings?  "But internal state of this country. It is too afflictwe must pause!"  What! must the bowels of ing to the heart to see the strides which have
Great Britain be torn out-her best blood be been made by means of, and under the miseraspilled-her treasure wasted-that you may  ble pretext of this war, against liberty of every
make an experiment?  Put yourselves, oh! that kind, both of power of speech and of writing;
you would put yourselves in the field of battle, and to observe in another kingdom the rapid apand learn to judge of the sort of horrors that proaches to that military despotism  which we
you excite! In former wars a man might, at affect to make an argument against peace.  I
least, have some feeling, some interest, that know, sir, that public opinion, if it could be colserved to balance in his mind the impressions lected, would be for peace, as much now as in
-which a scene of carnage and of death must 1797; and that it is only by public opinion, and
inflict.  If a man had been present at the bat- not by a sense of their duty, or by the inclinatle of Blenheim, for instance, and had inquired  tion of their minds, that ministers will be brought,
the motive of the battle, there was not a soldier if ever, to give us peace.
engaged who could not have satisfied his curi-    I conclude, sir, with repeating what I said beosity, and even, perhaps, allayed his feelings. fore: I ask for no gentleman's vote who would
They were fighting, they knew, to repress the have reprobated the compliance of ministers
uncontrolled ambition of the Grand Monarch. with the proposition of the French government.
But if a man were present now at a field of I ask for no gentleman's support to-night who
slaughter, and were to inquire for what they  would have voted against ministers, if they had
were fighting-"Fighting!" would be the an- come down and proposed to enter into a negoswer; "they are not fighting; they are pans- tiation with the French.  But I have a right to
ing."  "Why is that man expiring?  Why is ask, and in honor, in consistency, in conscience,
that other writhing with agony?  What means I have a right to expect, the vote of every honthis implacable fury?"  The answer must be, orable gentleman who would have voted with
"You are quite wrong, sir, you deceive your- ministers in an address to his Majesty, diametself-they are not fighting-do not disturb them  rically opposite to the motion of this night.
-they are merely pausing!  This man is not
expiring with agony-that man is not dead-         These eloquent reasonings are said to have
he is only pausing!  Lord help you, sir! they  produced a powerful effect on the House, but
are not angry with one another; they have now  Mr. Pitt's political adherents could not desert
no cause of quarrel; but their country thinks him on a question of this nature.  Not to have
that there should be a pause.  All that you see, passed the address approving of his conduct,
sir, is nothing like fighting-there is no harm, would have been the severest censure, and it
nor cruelty, nor bloodshed in it whatever: it is was accordingly carried by a vote of 265 to 64.
nothing more than a political pause! It is mere-    Bonaparte made this the occasion of appeally to try an experiment-to see whether Bona- ing to a new  class of feelings among the
parte will not behave himself better than here- French.  Hitherto liberty had been the rallying
tofore; and in the mean time we have agreed  word in calling them to arms; the First Consul
to a pause, in pure friendship!"  And is this now addressed their sense of honor, and roused
the way, sir, that you are to show yourselves all by the appeal.  Russia had already withthe advocates of order?  You take up a system  drawn from the contest, leaving Austria as the
calculated to uncivilize the world-to destroy  only ally of England on the Continent.  Bonaorder-to trample on religion-to stifle in the parte instantly assembled his troops on the Rhine
heart, not merely the generosity of noble senti- and Alps; made his celebrated passage of the
ment, but the affections of social nature; and in  St. Bernard in the month of June; crushed the
the prosecution of this system, you spread ter- Austrian power in Italy by the battle of Marenror and devastation all around you.             go (June 17th, 1800); and concluded the camSir, I have done.  I have told you my opin- paign in forty days!  In Germany, the Austri
ion.  I think you ought to have given a civil, ans were again defeated by Moreau in the batclear, and explicit answer to the overture which  tie of Hohenlinden (Dec. 3d, 1800), and comwas fairly and handsomely made you.  If you pelled to sue for peace, which was concluded bewere desirous that the negotiation should have tween them and the French by Napoleon about
included all your allies, as the means of bring- a year after this debate, Feb. 9th, 1801.  Mr.
ing about a general peace, you should have told  Pitt resigned nine days after, chiefly (as became
Bonaparte so.  But I believe you were afraid afterward known) in consequence of a difference
of his agreeing to the proposal.  You took that with the King on the subject of Catholic Emaanmethod before.  Ay, but you say the people cipation.
were anxious for peace in 1797.  I say they    Mr. Addington [afterward Lord Sidmouth]
are friends to peace now; and I am  confident succeeded as minister, and in a short time
that you will one day acknowledge it.  Believe opened negotiations for peace, the preliminaries
me, they are friends to peace; although by the of which were signed Oct. 1st, 1801.  These
laws which you have made, restraining the ex- were followed by the treaty of Amiens, which
pression of the sense of the people, public opin- was concluded about six months after, March
ion can not now be heard as loudly and unequiv- 27th, 1802.




WILLIAM  PITT.
WILLIAM PITT, the younger, was born at Hayes, in Kent, on the 28th of May, 1759,
and was the second son of Lord Chatham and of Lady Hester Grenville, Countess of
Temple.  His constitution was so weak from infancy that he was never placed at a
public school, but pursued his studies as he was able, from time to time, under a private tutor, at his father's residence in the country.  After eight years spent in this
way, half of which time, however, was lost through ill health, he was sent, at the age
of fourteen, to the University of Cambridge; and so great had been his proficiency,
notwithstanding all his disadvantages, that, according to his tutor, Dr. Prettyman,
afterward Bishop of Lincoln, " in Latin authors he seldom met with difficulty; and it
was no uncommon thing for him to read into English six or eight pages of Thucydides
which he had not previously seen, without more than two or three mistakes, and
sometimes without even one." His ardor of mind and love of study may be inferred
from a letter written by his father at this time, which gives a beautiful view of the
familiarity and affection which always reigned in the intercourse of Lord Chatham
with his children. " Though I indulge with inexpressible delight the thought of your
returning health, I can not help being a little in pain lest you should make more
haste than good speed to be well.  You may, indeed, my sweet boy, better than any
one, practice this sage dictum [festina lente] without any risk of being thrown out (as
little James would say) in the chase of learning.  All you want at present is quiet;
with this, if your ardor to excel can be kept in till you are stronger, you will make
noise enough.  How happy the task, my noble, amiable boy, to caution you only
against pursuing too much all those liberal and praiseworthy things, to which less
happy natures are perpetually to be spurred and driven  I will not teaze you with
too long a lecture in favor of inaction and a competent stupidity-your two best tutors and companions at present.  You have time to spare: consider there is but the
Encyclopedia; and when you have mastered all that, what will remain? You will
want, like Alexander, another world to conquer! Your mamma joins me in every
word, and we know how much your affectionate mind can sacrifice to our earnest
and tender wishes.  Vive, vale, is the increasing prayer of your truly loving father.                                                             CHIATHAM."
But all these cautions were unavailing.  His constitution was so frail, and his
strength so rmuch reduced by the illness referred to, that during the first three years
of his college life he was never able to keep his terms with regularity. It was not
until the age of eighteen that he gained permanent health, and from that time onward few persons had greater powers of application to the most exhausting study or
business.  But though his early life at Cambridge seems to have been "one long disease," his quickness and accuracy of thought made up for every deficiency arising
from bodily weakness. His whole soul from boyhood had been absorbed in one idea
-that of becoming a distinguished orator; and when he heard, at the age of seven,
that his father had been raised to the peerage, he instantly exclaimed, " Then I must
take his place in the House of Commons."  To this point all his efforts were now
directed, with a zeal and constancy which knew of no limits but the weakness of
his frame, and which seemed almost to triumph over the infirmities of nature. His
studies at the University were continued nearly seven years, though with frequent




552                              WILLIAM PITT.
intervals of residence under his father's roof; and the reader will be interested to
know how the greatest of English orators trained his favorite son for the duties of
public life.
Three things seem to have occupied his time and attention for many years, viz.,
the classics, the mathematics, and the logic of Aristotle applied to the purposes of
debate.  His mode of translating the classics to his tutor was a peculiar one.  He
did not construe an author in the ordinary way, but after reading a passage of some
length in the original, he turned it at once into regular English sentences, aiming to
give the ideas with great exactness, and to express himself, at the same time, with
idiomatic accuracy and ease. Such a course was admirably adapted to the formation
of an English style, distinguished at once for copiousness, force, and elegance.  To
this early training Mr. Pitt always ascribed his extraordinary command of language,
which enabled him to give every idea its most felicitous expression, and to pour out
an unbroken stream of thought, hour after hour, without once hesitating for a word,
or recalling a phrase, or sinking for a moment into looseness or inaccuracy in the
structure of his sentences. One of the great English metaphysicians was spoken of
by Voltaire as " a reasoning machine," and the mind of Mr. Pitt might, in the same
way, be described as a fountain ever flowing forth in clear, expressive, and commanding diction. In most persons, such a mode of translating would have a tendency to
draw off the mind from the idiomatic forms of the original to those of our own language, but it was otherwise with him.  "He was a nice observer," says Dr. Prettyman, "of the different styles of the authors read, and alive to all their various and
characteristic excellences.  The quickness of his comprehension did not prevent close
and minute application.  When alone, he dwelt for hours upon striking passages of
an orator or historian, in noticing their turns of expression, marking their manner of
arranging a narrative, or of explaining the avowed or secret motives of action.  He
was in the habit of copying any eloquent passage, or any beautiful or forcible expression, which occurred in his reading."  The poets, in the mean time, had a large share
of his attention; his memory was stored with their finest passages; and few men ever
introduced a quotation in a more graceful manner, or with a closer adaptation to the
circumstances of the case.  "So anxious was he to be acquainted with every Greek
poet, that he read with me," says his tutor, " at his own request, the obscure and
generally uninteresting work of Lycophron, and with an ease, at first sight, which,
if I had not witnessed it, I should have considered beyond the compass of the human
intellect.  The almost intuitive quickness with which he saw the meaning of the
most difficult passages of the most difficult authors, made an impression on my nllind
which time can never efface.  I am persuaded that, if a play of Menander or Eschylus, or an ode of Pindar, had been suddenly found, he would have understood it
as soon as any professed scholar."  Dr. Prettyman adds, that there was scarcely a
Greek or Latin classical writer of any eminence, the whole of whose woCrks Mr. Pitt
had not read to him, in this thorough and discriminating manner, before the age of
twenty.
The mathematics, in the mean time, had their daily share of attention, being regularly intermingled with his classical studies.  Here he was equally successful, showing surprising promptitude and acuteness in mastering the greatest difficulties, and
especially in solving problems in algebra, trigonometry, &c.-an employment which,
though many consider it as dull and useless, is better fitted than almost any mental
exercise to give penetration, sagacity, and fixedness of thought, and to establish the
habit of never leaving a subject until all its intricacies are fully explored.  When we
remember the high standard of mathematical study at Cambridge, we learn with
surprise that, in addition to all his attainments in the classics, "he was master of
every thing usually known by young men who obtain the highest academical honors,




WILLIAM  PITT.                                553
and felt a great desire to fathom still farther the depths of the pure mathematics."
"When the connection of tutor and pupil was about to cease between us," says Dr.
Prettyman, " from his entering on the study of the law, he expressed a hope that he
should find leisure and opportunity to read Newton's Principia cbgain with me after
some summer circuit; and, in the later periods of his life, he frequently declared that
no portion of his time had been more usefully employed than that which had been
devoted to these studies, not merely from the new ideas and actual knowledge thus
acquired, but also on account of the improvement which his mind and understanding
had received from the habit of close attention and patient investigation."
In regard to dialectics, Dr. Prettyman gives us less information as to the course
pursued; but Mr. Pitt being asked by a friend how he had acquired his uncommon
talent for reply, answered at once that he owed it to the study of Aristotle's Logic
in early life, and the habit of applying its principles to all the discussions he met with
in the works he read and the debates he witnessed.  Dr. Prettyman thus describes
a mode of studying the classics, which opened to Mr. Pitt the widest scope for such
an exercise of his powers: " It was a favorite employment with him to compare opposite speeches on the same subject, and to examine how each speaker managed his
own side of the argument, or answered the reasoning of his opponent.  This may
properly be called a study peculiarly useful to the future lawyer or statesman. The
authors whom  he preferred for this purpose were Livy, Thucydides, and Sallust.
Upon these occasions his observations were often committed to paper, and furnished
a topic for conversation at our next meeting."  But he carried this practice still
farther. He spent much of his time at London during the sessions of Parliament, and
as he listened to the great speakers of the day, Burke, Fox, Sheridan, and others, he
did so, not to throw his mind on the swelling tide of their eloquence, not even to analyze their qualities as orators, and catch the excellences of each with a view to his
own improvement, but to see how he could refute the arguments on the one side, or
strengthen them on the other, as he differed or agreed with the speakers.  It was
this practice which enabled him to rise, at the end of a debate of ten or twelve hours,
extending over a vast variety of topics, and reply to the reasonings of every opponent
with such admirable dexterity and force, while he confirmed the positions of his
friends, and gave a systematic thoroughness to the whole discussion, such as few speakers in Parliament have ever been able to attain.
This severe training prepared Mr. Pitt to enter with ease and delight into the abstrusest questions in moral and political science.  Locke on the Human Understanding was his favorite author upon the science of mind; he soon mastered Smith's
Wealth of Nations, which was first published when he was a member of college; he
gave great attention to an able course of lectures by Dr. Halifax on the Civil Law;
and, in short, whatever subject he took up, he made it his chief endeavor to be deeply
grounded in its principles, rather than extensively acquainted with mere details.
"Multum haud multa" was his motto in pursuing these inquiries, and, indeed, in most
of his studies for life.  The same maxim gave a direction to his reading in English literature.  He had the finest parts of Shakspeare by heart.  He read the best historians with great care.  Middleton's Life of Cicero, and the political and historical
writings of Bolingbroke, were his favorite models in point of style; he studied Barrow's sermons, by the advice of his father, for copiousness of diction, and was intimately acquainted with the sacred Scriptures, not only as a guide of his faith and
practice, but, in the language of Spenser, as the true "well of English undefiled."
How far Lord Chatham  contributed by direct instruction to form the mind and
habits of his son, it is difficult now to say.  That he inspired him with his own lofty
and generous sentiments; that he set integrity, truth, and public spirit before him as
the best means of success even in politics; that he warned him against that fashion



554.                            WILLIAM  PITT.
able dissipation which has proved the ruin of half the young English nobility; that
he made him feel intensely the importance of character to a British statesman; that,
in short, he pursued a course directly opposite to that of Lord Holland with his favorite son, is obvious from what remains to us of his correspondence, and from the results
that appear in the early life of Mr. Pitt. But there is no evidence that he took any
active part in his intellectual training. Dr. Prettyman says " the only wish ever expressed by his Lordship relative to Mr. Pitt's studies, was that I would read Polybius
with him;" and we should naturally conclude, from the character of Lord Chatham,
and the confidence he had in the talents and industry of his son, that having settled
the general outline of his studies, he left his mind to its own free growth, subject
only to those occasional influences which would, of course, be felt when they met in
the intervals of collegiate study. Such, at least, is the only inference we can draw
from the statements contained in the biographies of the father and the son; from all
the letters between them which have come down to us; and especially from the course
which Lord Chatham pursued with his favorite nephew, Lord Camelford, as shown
in his correspondence afterward published. There must, therefore, have been an entire mistake in the statements of Coleridge on this subject. In a bitter, disparaging
sketch of Mr. Pitt, written in early life, under the influence of hostile feelings, he says:
" His father's rank, fame, political connections, and parental ambition were his mqold
-he was cast rather than grew.  A palpable election, a conscious predestination controlled the free agency and transfigured the individuality of his mind, and that which
he might have been was compelled into that which he was to be.  From his early
childhood, it was his father's custom to make him  stand upon a chair and declaim
before a large company, by which exercise, practiced so frequently, and continued for
so many years, he acquired a premature and unnatural dexterity in the combination
of words, which must, of necessity, have diverted his attention from present objects,
obscured his impressions, and deadened his genuine feelings."  This story of his declaiming from a chair is not alluded to either by Dr. Prettyman in his Life of Mr.
Pitt, or by Mr. Thackeray in his Memoirs of Lord Chatham.  That the boy sometimes recited the speeches of others in a circle of family friends is not improbable, for
it was at that time a very common practice in England; but if Coleridge meant
that Lord Chatham set a child, under fourteen years of age, to " declaim," or make
speeches of his own, " before a large company," and that Mr. Pitt thus " acquired
a premature and unnatural dexterity in the combination of words," productive of all
the evils stated, it is what few men would believe, except from  a desire to make
out some favorite theory.l Mr. Coleridge's theory (for he could do nothing without one) was intended to run dozwn Mr. Pitt as having " an education of words,"
which " destroys genius;" as " a being who had no feelings connected with man or
nature, no spontaneous impulses, no unbiased and desultory studies, nothing that
constitutes individuality of intellect, nothing that teaches brotherhood or affection."
So much for theory; we may learn the fact from the testimony of his tutor and of
his most intimate companions.  Dr. Prettyman says: "Mr. Pitt now began [at the
age of sixteen] to mix with other young men of his own age and station in life then
resident in Cambridge, and no one was ever more admired and beloved by his acquaintances and friends.  He was always the same person in company, abounding
in playful and quick repartee." Mr. Wilberforce, who became his most intimate
friend at the age of twenty, remarks: " He was the wittiest man I ever knew, and,
what was quite peculiar to himself, had at all times his wit under entire control.
1 In America the word declaim is often used for recite in the English sense of the term; i. e., to
pronounce the speech of another when committed to memory. But in England it is very rarely
used in this sense; and the context seems to show that such could not have been the meaning of
Coleridge.




WILLIAM  PITT.                                555
Others appeared struck by the unwonted association of brilliant images; but every
possible combination of ideas seemed always present to his mind, and he could at
once produce whatever he desired.  I was one of those who met to spend an evening in memory of Shakspeare, at the Boar's Head, East Cheap.  Many professed
wits were present, but Pitt was the most amusing of the party, and the readiest and
most apt in the required allusions. He entered with the same energy into all our
different amusements."
The truth is, Mr. Pitt had by nature a mind of such peculiar and unyielding materials, that Lord Chatham would have been wholly unable (whatever might be his
wishes) to mold or fashion it after any preconceived model of his own.  With some
general resemblance in a few points, it has rarely happened in the case of two individuals so highly gifted, and placed in such similar circumstances, that a son has been
so entirely unlike a father in all the leading traits of his intellectual character.  It
may interest the reader to dwell for a moment on some of the differences between
them, before we follow Mr. Pitt into the scenes of public life. Lord Chatham, with all
his splendid abilities, was still pre-eminently a man of feeling and impulse, governed
by the suggestions of an ardent imagination, hasty in his resolves, wanting in selfcommand, irregular and often changeable in his plans and purposes. Mr. Pitt, with
all his burning energy, was equally the man of intellect, deficient in imagination,
gifted with extraordinary powers of abstract reasoning, having all his faculties brought
into complete subjection to his will; so wary and circumspect in the midst of his
boldest schemes, that Mr. Fox declared "he had never caught him  tripping in a
single instance" during a twenty years' contest; inflexible in his determinations,
regular and symmetrical in the entire structure of his character. Both were lofty
and assuming, but these qualities in Lord Chatham were connected with a love of
display, with ceremonious manners notwithstanding the warmth of his affections,
and a singular delight in the forms of office and state; while Mr. Pitt had the severe
simplicity of one of the early Romans, with a coldness of address, as he advanced in
life, which was repulsive to every one except his most intimate friends.  Lord Chatham loved fame, and was influenced more than he would have been willing to acknowledge by a desire for popularity and a regard to the opinion of others.  Mr.
Pitt loved power: he cared but little for office except as it gave him command over
others. Without a particle of vanity, he had excessive pride; he despised popularity,
and looked with contempt on the vulgar, " among whom he included a large proportion of the peerage and commonalty of England."  Mr. Pitt had less genius than
his father, but greater strength of mind; and while the one swayed the feelings of
his countrymen by the vehemence of his own, the other guided their wills and formed
their purposes by the intense energy of his understanding.
Mr. Pitt lost his father in 1778, and being left in straitened circumstances, applied
himself to the law as affording the most direct means of support, and was called to
the bar on the 12th of June, 1780.  He rode the western circuit during that and
the next year, having causes put occasionally into his hands which he managed
with great skill and success, especially one which he argued before Judge Buller, in
a manner that awakened the admiration of the bar, and another before Lord Mansfield, on granting the writ of habeas cor)uts to a man charged with murder, in which
he received the warmest applause from that distinguished jurist.  He was a favorite
with his brethren of the circuit, one of whom remarks: "Among the lively men of
his own time of life, Pitt was always the most animated and convivial in the many
hours of leisure which occur to young men on circuit.  He joined all the little excursions to Southampton, Weymouth, and such parties of amusement as were habitually formed.  He was extremely popular.  His name and reputation for high acquirements at the University commanded the attention of his seniors.  His wit and




556                            WILLIAM  PITT.
good humor endeared him to the younger part of the bar. After he became minister
he continued to ask his old circuit intimates to dine with him, and his manners remained unchanged."
In January, 1781, he was returned as member of Parliament from Appleby, a
borough belonging to Sir James Lowther.  He immediately joined the Opposition under Burke and Fox, at a time when Lord North, besides the revolt of the American
colonies, was engaged in a war with France, Spain, and Holland.  His maiden speech
was delivered on the twenty-sixth of the next month, and being wholly unpremeditated, gave a surprising exhibition of the readiness and fertility of his mind. One of
Mr. Burke's bills on Economical Reform was under debate, and when Lord Nugent
rose to oppose it, Mr. Byng, a member from Middlesex, asked Mr. Pitt to come forward in reply. He partly assented, but afterward changed his mind, and determined not to speak.  Byng, who understood him otherwise, the moment Lord Nugent
sat down, called out " Pitt, Pitt," and the cry at once became general throughout the
House.  At first he declined; but finding that the House were bent on hearing him,
he rose with entire self-possession, took up the argument with all the dexterity and
force of a practiced debater, and threw over the whole a glow, an elegance, a richness of thought and fervor of emotion, which called forth a round of applause fiom
every quarter of the House.  Burke took him by the hand, declaring that he was
" not merely a chip of the old block, but the old block itself."  Fox carried him to
Brookes' when the House adjourned, and had him enrolled among the eZite of the
Whigs; and the nation felt that the mantle had fallen upon one who was already
qualified to go forth in "the spirit and power" of his illustrious predecessor.  He
spoke but twice that session; and at the close of it, as some one was remarking, " Pitt
promises to be one of the first speakers that was ever heard in Parliament," Mr.
Fox, who was passing at the moment, turned instantly round and replied, " -ie is so
already."  Thus, at the age of twenty-two, when most men are yet in the rudiments
of political science, and just commencing their first essays in oratory, he placed himself at a single bound in the foremost rank of English statesmen and orators, at the
proudest era of English eloquence.  What is still more wonderful, he became, not by
slow degrees, like Mr. Fox, but, as it were, by "inspiration" (in the language of Lord
Brougham), one of the most accomplished debacters in the British Parliament.
At the next session, commencing in November, 1781, Mr. Pitt entered into debate
on the broadest scale, and made the most strenuous exertions to put an end to the
American war.  The defeat of Cornwallis had rendered the contest absolutely hopeless; and he denounced it as one which'"wasted the blood and treasure of the kingdom without even a rational object."  But he avoided the error of Fox; he made
no personal attack on the King.  With that forecast which marked all his actions,
in opposing the favorite measure of his sovereign, he did nothing to wound his pride
or to rouse his resentment. He put the responsibility on his ministers, where the Constitution rests it, and inveighed against them as men, " who, by their fatal system, had
led the country, step by step, to the most calamitous and disgraceful situation to which
a once flourishing and glorious empire could possibly be reduced-a situation which
threatened the final dissolution of the state, if not prevented by timely, wise, and
vigorous efforts." A few days after, he again called forth a burst of admiration by one
of those classical allusions, united to the keenest sarcasm, with which his early productions were so often adorned.  In a speech on the army estimates, while commenting with great severity on a contradiction in the statements of Lord North and Lord
George Germaine, he saw the two (who were seated near each other) conversing
with great earnestness, while Welbore Ellis, Treasurer of the Navy, was interposing
between them as if to impart some seasonable information. Stopping in the middle
of a sentence, and turning the eyes of the whole House upon the group, he said, in a




WILLIAM  PITT.                                557
significant tone, "I will pause until the Nestor of the Treasury Bench shall settle
the difference between Agamemnon and Achilles."  The suddenness of the stroke,
and the idea especially of making Lord George an Achilles after the part he acted
at the battle of Minden, produced a roar of laughter throughout the House, which
was instantly followed by a tumult of applause. It was by such means that Mr.
Pitt always took care to repress any disposition to treat his remarks with levity or
disrespect.
At the end of a few weeks, Lord North was driven from office, and the Rockingham administration came into power, March 28, 1782, with Mr. Fox and Lord Shelburne as principal secretaries of state. Various stations, and among them one of
great emolument, the vice-treasurership of Ireland, were offered Mr. Pitt, but he declined them all, having resolved, with that lofty feeling which always marked his
character, never to take office until he could come in at once as a member of the
cabinet.
The Rockingham  ministry was terminated by the death of its chief, at the end
of thirteen weeks.  Lord Shelburne succeeded, and with him brought in Mr. Pitt as
Chancellor of the Exchequer and leader of the House of Commons. Such an event
had never before happened in the history of English politics.  The conduct of the
entire finances of the empire had hitherto been reserved for men of tried experience.
Godolphin, Oxford, Walpole, Pelham, Grenville, Townsend, and North, had risen by
slow degrees to this weighty and responsible office. Mr. Pitt alone received it at
once without passing through any subordinate station, at the age of twenty-three,
and the country hailed him with joy as worthy to take his father's place in the
management of the highest concerns of the empire.  Lord Shelburne now made
peace (October 30, 1782), on terms quite as favorable as could have been expected,
after the disgraceful results of Lord North's contest with America and France. But
it was already obvious that his Lordship, though head of the government, was not
master of the House of Commons.  Mr. Fox, who had seceded when the new ministry came in, held the balance of power between them and Lord North: some union
of parties was, therefore, indispensable, or the government could not go on, and Mr.
Pitt was commissioned to negotiate with Mr. Fox for a return to power.  Their in
terview was short. Fox instantly demanded whether, under the proposed arrangement, Lord Shelburne was still to remain prime minister. Pitt replied that nothing
else had ever been contemplated.  "I can not," said Fox, warmly, "ever consent to
hold office under his Lordship."  " And I certainly have not come here," replied Pitt,
"to betray Lord Shelburne." They parted, and never again met under a private
roof. From the entire contrariety of their habits and feelings, they could never have
acted except as political opponents. Fox now united with Lord North, and voted down
the ministry, as already mentioned, on the 17th of February, 1783.  Four days after,
Lord John Cavendish followed up the blow by moving a resolution involving a severe
censure upon ministers, for the terms on which they had concluded peace.  The debate was a long one, and Mr. Fox reserved himself for the close of the evening, obviously intending to overwhelm his young antagonist and put an end to the discussion
by the force and severity of his remarks.2   The moment he sat down, Mr. Pitt rose,
to the surprise of all, and grappled at once in argument with "the most accomplished
debater the world ever saw." Though imperfectly reported, his speech contains passages which he never surpassed in his long and brilliant career of eloquence. Some
of them will here be given, and the reader can not fail to admire the dignity with
which he faces his opponent, the compact energy of his defense touching the con2 Mr. Pitt was seriously indisposed during this debate, and, as Mr. Wilberforce states, was " actually holding Solomon's porch door (a portico behind the House) open while vomiting during
Fox's speech, to which he was to reply."




558                                   WILLIAM  PITT.
cessions made in the treaty, and the lofty spirit of self-assertion with which he turns
back the assault of Mr. Fox, and vindicates his conduct and his motives.
" Sir, revering as I do the great abilities of the honorable gentleman who spoke last, I lament,
in common with the House, when those abilities are misemployed, as on the present question, to
inflame the imagination and mislead the judgment.  I am told, sir,'he does not envy me the triumph of my situation on this day,' a sort of language which becomes the candor of that honorable
gentleman as ill as his present principles.  The triumphs of party, sir, with which this selr-appointed minister seems so highly elate, shall never seduce me into any inconsistency which the
busiest suspicion shall presume to glance at.  I will never engage in political enmities without
a public cause!  I will never forego such enmities -without the public approbation; nor will I be
questioned and cast off in the face of this House by one virtuouss and dissatisfiedfriend! 3  These,
sir, the sober and durable triumphs of reason over the weak and profligate inconsistencies of party
violence; these, sir, the steady triumphs of virtue over success itself, shall be mine, not only in
my present situation, but through every future condition of my life-triumphs which no length of
time shall diminish, which no change of principle shall ever sully."
Having dwelt at large on the disgraces and dangers of the country at the close of
the American war, Mr. Pitt now asks, " Could Lord Shelburne, thus surrounded with
scenes of ruin, affect to dictate the terms of peace?  Are these articles seriously compared with those of the peace of Paris in 1763?"   This leads him  to speak of the
elevated position in which the country was at that time left by his father, and fiom
this he passes to defend the concessions made by Lord Shelburne.
"I feel, sir, at this instant, how much I have been animated in my childhood by the recital of
England's victories.  I was taught, sir, by one whose memory I shall ever revere, that at the close
of a war far different, indeed, from this, she had dictated the terms of peace to submissive nations.
This, in which I have something more than a common interest, was the memorable era of England's
glory.  But that era has passed; she is under the awful and mortifying necessity of employing a
language which corresponds to her true condition: the visions of her power and pre-eminence are
passed away.
" We have acknowledged American independence.  That, sir, was a needless form: the incapacity of the noble Lord who conducted our affairs [Lord North]; the events of war; and even a vote
of this House, had already granted what it was impossible to withhold.
"We have ceded Florida.  We have obtained Providence and the Bahama Islands.
" We have ceded an extent of fishery on the coast of Newfoundland.  We have established an extensive right to the most valuable banks.
"We have restored St. Lucia and given eup Tobago.  We have regained Grenada, Dominica, St.
Kitts, Nevis, and Montserrat, and have wrested Jamaica from her impending danger.  In Africa
we have ceded Goree, the grave of our countrymen; and we possess Senegambia, the best and
most healthy settlement.
" We have likewise permitted his most Christian Majesty to repair his harbor of Dunkirk.  The
humiliating clause for its destruction was inserted, sir, after other wars than the past; and the immense expense attending its repair will still render the indulgence of no value to the French.
" In the East Indies, where alone we had power to dictate the terms of peace, we have restored
what was useless to ourselves, and scarcely tenable in a continuance of the war.
" But we have abandoned the American Loyalists to their implacable enemies. Little, sir, are those
unhappy men befriended by such language in this House; nor shall we give much assistance to
their cause, or add stability to the reciprocal confidence of the two states, if we already impute to
Congress a violence and injustice which decency forbids us to suspect.  Would a continuance of
the war have been justified on the single principle of assisting these unfortunate men? or would
a continuance of the war, if so justified, have procured them a more certain indemnity? Their
hopes must have been rendered desperate, indeed, by any additional distresses of Britain; those
hopes which are now revived by the timely aid of peace and reconciliation.
"These are the ruinous conditions to which this country, engaged with four powerful states, and
exhausted in all its resources, thought fit to subscribe for the dissolution of that alliance, and the
immediate enjoyment of peace.  Let us examine what is left with a manly and determined courage.
Let us strengthen ourselves against inveterate enemies. and reconciliate our ancient friends.  The
misfortunes of individuals and of kingdoms, wuhen laid open and examined with true wisdom, are mnore
than half redressed; and to this great object should be directed all the virtue and abilities of this
House.  Let us feel our calamities-let us bear them, too, like men!
3 This was one of Mr. Pitt's severest sarcasms.  Sir Cecil Wray, Mr. Powys, and others, who
had long been connected with Mr. Fox as political adherents and personal friends, had put to him
during this debate the most painful interrogatories respecting his coalition with Lord North, and
renounced all connection with him if that measure was consummated.




WILLIAM  PITT.                                       559
B' But, sir, I fear I have too long engaged your attention to no real purpose; and that the public
safety is this day risked, without a blush, by the malice and disappointment of faction.  The honorable gentleman who spoke last [Mr. Fox] has declared, with that sort of consistency that marks
his conduct,'Because he is prevented from prosecuting the noble Lord in the blue ribbon [Lord
North] to the satisfaction of public justice, he will heartily embrace him as his friend.'  So readily
does he reconcile extremes, and love the man whom he wishes to prosecute!  With the same spirit,
sir, I suppose he will cherish this peace, too-because he abhors it!"
We have here another instance of that keen and polished sarcasm which Mr. Pitt
had more perfectly at command than any orator in our language, and which enabled
him, as Charles Butler remarks, "to inflict a wound even in a single member of a
sentence, that could never be healed."   From this passing notice of Mr. Fox, he turns
to Lord Shelburne, for whom he had a personal attachment as a friend and adherent
of his father, and bestows upon him the following splendid eulogium:
" This noble Earl, like every other person eminent for ability, and acting in the first department
of a great state, is undoubtedly an object of envy to some, as well as of admiration to others.
The obloquy to which his capacity and situation have raised him, has been created and circulated
with equal meanness and address; but his merits are as much above my pa.negyric, as the arts to
which he owes his defamation are beneath my attention. When, stripped of his power and emoluments, he once more descends to private life without the invidious appendages of place, men will
see him through a different medium, and perceive in him qualities which richly entitle him to their
esteem.  That official superiority which at present irritates their feelings, and that capacity of conferring good offices on those he prefers, which all men are fond of possessing, will not then be any
obstacle to their making an impartial estimate of his character.  But notwithstanding a sincere
predilection for this nobleman, whom I am bound by every tie to treat with sentiments of deference
and regard, I am far from wishing him retained in power against the public approbation; and if his
removal can be innocently effected, if he can be compelled to resign without entailing all those mischiefs which seem to be involved in the resolution now moved, great as his zeal for his country
is, powerful as his abilities are, and earnest and assiduous as his endeavors have been to rescue the
British empire from the difficulties that oppress her, I am persuaded he will retire, firm in the dignity of his own mind, conscious of his having contributed to the public advantage, and, if not attended with the fulsome plaudits of a mob, possessed of that substantial and permanent satisfaction
which arises from the habitual approbation of an upright mind.  I know him well; and dismiss
him from the confidence of his sovereign and the business of the state when you please, to this
transcendent consolation he has a title, which no accident can invalidate or affect.  It is the glorious reward of doing well, of acting an honest and honorable part. By the difficulties he encountered on his accepting the reins of government, by the reduced state in which he found the nation,
and by the perpetual turbulence of those who thought his elevation effected at their own expense,
he has certainly earned it dearly; and with such a solid understanding, and so much goodness of
heart as stamp his character, he is in no danger of losing it."
Mr. Pitt next took up the Coalition, which had not yet assumed any definite shape,
and delighted the House with one of those sudden hits as to its going on to be consummated,which have always so peculiar a power in a large and promiscuous assembly.
" I repeat it, sir, it is not this treaty, it is the Earl of Shelburne alone whom the movers of this
question are desirous to wound.  This is the object which has raised this storm of faction; this is
the aim of the unnatural Coalition to which I have alluded.  If, however, the baneful alliance is not
already formed-if this ill-omened marriage is not already solemnized, I know a just and lawful
impediment-and, in the name of the public safety, I HERE FORBID THE BANS!"
Pausing for a moment during the applause which followed this bold image, he then
addressed himself to Mr. Fox with a proud consciousness of integrity, glancing at the
same time at the supposed motives of those, lately the bitterest enemies, who were
now transformed into bosom friends.
"My own share in the censure, pointed by the motion before the House against his Majesty's.
ministers, I will bear with fortitude, because my own heart tells me I have not acted wrong.  To
this monitor, which never did, and, I trust, never will deceive me, I shall confidently repair, as to
an adequate asylum from all clamor which interested faction can raise. I was not very eager to
come in, and shall have no great reluctance to go out, whenever the public are disposed to dismiss
me from their service.  It has been the great object of my short official existence to do the duties
of my station with all the ability and address in my power, and with a fidelity and honor which
should bear me up, and give me confidence, under every possible contingency or disappointment.




560                                   WILLIAM  PITT.
I can say, with sincerity, I never had a wish which did not terminate in the dearest interests of the
nation.  I will, at the same time, imitate the honorable gentleman's candor, and confess that I too
have my ambition.  High situation and great influence are desirable objects to most men, and objects which I am not ashamed to pursue-which I am even solicitous to possess, whenever they
can be acquired with honor and retained with dignity.  On these conditions, I am not less ambitious to be great and powerful than it is natural for a young man, with such brilliant examples before him, to be. But even these objects I am not beneath relinquishing, the moment my duty to
my country, my character, and my friends, renders such a sacrifice indispensable.  Then I hope
to retire, not disappointed, but triumphant; triumphant in the conviction that my talents, humble
as they are, have been earnestly, zealously, and strenuously employed, to the best of my apprehension, in promoting the truest welfare of my country; and that, however I may stand chargeable
with weakness of understanding or error of judgment, nothing can be imputed to me in my official
capacity which bears the most distant connection with an interested, a corrupt, or a dishonest intention.
" But it is not any part of my plan, when the time shall come that I quit my present station, to
threaten the repose of my country, and erect, like the honorable gentleman, a fortress aned a refuge
for disappointed ambition.  The self-created and self-appointed successors to the present administration have asserted, with much confidence, that this is likely to be the case.  I can assure them,
however, when they come from that side of the House to this, I will for one most cordially accept
the exchange.  The only desire I would indulge and cherish on the subject, is, that the service of
the public may be ably, disinterestedly, and faithfully performed. To those who feel for their country as I wish to do, and will strive to do, it matters little who are out or in; but it matters much
that her affairs be conducted with wisdom, with firmness, with dignity, and with credit.  Those
intrusted to my care I shall resign, let me hope, into hands much better qualified to do them justice than mine.  But I will not mimic the parade of the honorable gentleman in avowing an indiscriminate opposition to whoever may be appointed to succeed.  I will march out with no warlike,
no hostile, no menacing protestations; but hoping the new administration will have no other object in view than the real and substantial welfare of the community at large; that they will bring
with them into office those truly public and patriotic principles which they formerly held, but which
they abandoned in opposition; that they will save the state, and promote the great purposes of
public good, with as much steadiness, integrity, and solid advantage, as I am confident it must
one day appear the Earl of Shelburne and his colleagues have done. I promise them, beforehand,
my uniform and best support on every occasion, where I can honestly and conscientiously assist
them."
He had now  carried the House to the utmost point of interest and expectation.
Something more directly relating to himself was obviously yet to come; and it is not
wonderful that the ablest of the eloquent men before him, when they saw the perilous height to which he had raised his audience, felt he could never descend to his
own personal concerns without producing in the minds of his hearers a painful shock
and revulsion of feeling.  But no, his crowning triumph was yet to come.
" Unused as I am to the factions and jarring clamors of this day's debate, I look up to the independent part of the House, and to the public at large, if not for that impartial approbation which
my conduct deserves, at least for that acquittal from blame to which my innocence entitles me.
My earliest impressions were in favor of the noblest and most disinterested modes of serving the
public: these impressions are still dear, and will, I hope, remain forever dear to my heart: I will
cherish them as a legacy infinitely more valuable than the greatest inheritance.  On these principles alone I came into Parliament, and into place; and I now take the whole House to witness,
that I have not been under the necessity of contradicting one public declaration I have ever made.4
" I am, notwithstanding, at the disposal of this House, and with their decision, whatever it shall
be, I will cheerfully comply.  It is impossible to deprive me of those feelings which must always
result from the sincerity of my best endeavors to fulfill with integrity every official engagement.
You may take from me, sir, the privileges and emoluments of place, but you can not, and you shall
not, take from me those habitual and warm regards for the prosperity of Great Britain, which constitute the honor, the happiness, the pride of my life, and which, I trust, death alone can extinguish.
And, with this consolation, the loss of power, sir, and the loss of fortune, though I affect not to despise them, I hope I soon shall be able to forget."
Here he went on to quote the beautiful lines of Horace in respect to Fortune
(Odes, book iii.  Ode 29, line 53-6):
4 The reader can not have forgotten the declaration of Mr. Fox, made only a few months before,
that nothing could ever induce him to think of a coalition with Lord North, and that he was willing to be considered as infamous if he ever formed one. See page 445.




WILLIAM  PITT.                                   561
Laudo manentem; si celeres quatit
Pennas, resigno qua deditwhen the thought struck him that the next words, " et mea virtzte me involvo,"
would appear unbecoming if taken (as they might be) for a compliment to himself.
Mr. Wraxall, who was present, describes him  as instantly casting his eyes upon the
floor, while a momentary silence elapsed, which turned upon him the attention of the
whole House.  He drew his handkerchief from his pocket, passed it over his lips, and
then, recovering as it were from his temporary embarrassment, he struck his hand
with great force upon the table, and finished the sentence in the most emphatic
manner, omitting the words referred to:
Laudo manentem; si celeres quatit
Pennas, resigno que dedit, [et mea
Virtute me involve] probamque
Pauperiem sine dote quero.5
"The effect was electric; and the cheers with which his friends greeted him as he
sat down, were followed with that peculiar kind of buzz, which is a higher testimony
to oratorical merit than the noisier manifestations of applause.""
Lord North, in following Mr. Pitt that night, spoke of his eloquence as " amazing;"
and added, "It is no small presumption of my innocence that. I could hear his thun —
der without being dismayed, and even listen to it with a mixture of astonishment.
and delight."7 But the Coalition was too strong to be dissolved. The vote of censure was passed by a majority of seventeen, and the Earl of Shelburne resigned.
The King now sent for Mr. Pitt, and urged him, in the most pressing terms, to ac —
cept the office of prime minister; but, with that strength of judgment which neverdeserted him in the most flattering or the most adverse circumstances, he steadfastly
rejected the offer, satisfied that it would be impossible to resist the combined force,
of Lord North and Mr. Fox in the House. To gratify the King, however, while endeavoring to form  a ministry to his mind, Mr. Pitt remained in office for six weeks,
carrying on the government with a dignity of deportment, and an ease and dexterity
in the dispatch of business, which excited the admiration of all, and produced the
frequent remark, "there is no need of a ministry while Mr. Pitt is here."  In the
mean time, the King, though urged by repeated addresses from the House, continued
to shrink back from the Coalition; and it is now known that he seriously meditated
a retirement to Hanover, as the only means of relief from  the painful situation to
which he was reduced.  It was Thurlow that deterred him from so hazardous a step.
"Your Majesty may go to your Electoral dominions," said the Chancellor, bluntly;.
"nothing is easier; but you may not find it so easy to return when you grow tired
of staying there.  James II. did the same; youzr Mlajesty qnmst not follow his ex —
ample."  He therefore advised the King to submit with patience, assuring him that
the Coalition could not remain long in power without committing some error which,
5 While propitious, I praise her, and bless her glad stay;
But if, waving her light wings, she flies far away,
[Why, wrapped in my virtue], her gifts I resign
And honest, though poor, I shall never repine.
o More than twenty years after, Mr. Canning, while defending himself under circumstances:
somewhat similar, in respect to Catholic emancipation, began to quote the passage so finely turned by Pitt; but as he uttered the words "Laudo manentem," it suddenly occurred to him how
they had been used before, and he instantly varied them, in his graceful manner, saying, " or, rather,
to use the paraphrase of Dryden,"
"I can applaud her when she's kind;
But when she dances in the wind,
And shakes her wings, and will not stay,
I puff the prostitute away."
7 Age of Pitt and Fox, page 155.
N N




562                              WILLIAM PITT.
would lay them open to successful attack. The King saw the wisdom of his advice.
He permitted the Coalition ministry to be formed, April 2, 1783, but with an express reservation that he was to be understood as no way concerned in their measures.
Soon after the close of this session, Mr. Pitt visited France in company with Mr.
Wilberforce, and spent some months in studying the institutions of the country. He
was treated with great distinction; and, as Mr. Wilberforce states, " it was hinted to
him, through the intervention of Horace Walpole, that he would be an acceptable
suitor for the daughter of the celebrated Necker, afterward Madame De Stael. Necker is said to have offered to endow her with a fortune of ~14,000 a year." But he
declined the proposal, and remained unmarried to the end of life.8 With all the
diversity of his powers, there were two characters which Mr. Pitt would have been
quite unable to sustain-to play the part of the lover or the husband would have been
equally beyond his reach.
The measure foretold by Thurlow came earlier than was expected.  During the
first week of the next session (November 18th, 1783), Mr. Fox brought forward his
East Inzdiac Bill.  In opposing this scheme, Mr. Pitt spoke the sentiments of most
men in the kingdom.  The firmest Whigs, like Lord Camden, the most strenuous enemies of oppression, like Wilberforce, united with the supporters of the Crown and
the entire moneyed interest of the country to denounce it in the strongest terms. There
were two features which exposed the bill to this general reprobation.  First, it put
the civil and military government of India in the hands of Commissioners, appointed, not, as usual in such cases, by the Crown, but by Parliament.  Considering the
manner in which Fox came into office, this was calculated to awaken the very worst
suspicions.  It looked like a direct defiance of the sovereign-like a determination
on the part of the Coalitionists to make use betimes of their ascendency in Parliament, and establish themselves so firmly in power, through this immense increase of
patronage, that the King would be unable to remove them. As already stated in
the memoir of Mr. Fox, few men at the present day believe he had any such scheme
of desperate ambition. He was actuated, there is reason to think, by humane sentiment. He did not mean to have his plan crippled in its execution by the personal
animosity of the King, and he therefore gave to Parliament the first appointment of
the Commissioners for four years; and while he expected, no doubt, to add greatly
to the strength of his administration by these means, the idea of his aiming at an.imperiun iz imzperio, or " a perpetual dictatorship" over England, is now generally
discarded.  Still, the jealousy which prevailed was perfectly natural.  Mr. Fox had
made it for himself; and Mr. Pitt used it against him, only as the best men in the
kingdom believed it to be founded in truth.  Secondly, the bill stripped the Company
of.all their commercial rights, and placed their property in the hands of another
board of Commissioners.  This was a much more doubtful measure. " It was tantamount," as Lord Camden truly said, " to a commission of bankruptcy or a commission of lunacy against them; it pronounced them to be unable to proceed in their
trade, either from want of property or from want of mental capacity." Nothing
could justify it but the extremest necessity; and though Mr. Fox was convinced of
that necessity, he ought, in prudence at least, to have delayed such a measure until
the other part of his plan had been tried; until experience had shown that the
8 The reason which he was reported to have given, viz., that "he was married to his country,"
if not a mere jest, was probably, as Lord Brougham remarks, a fabrication of the day, like the
words (" Oh, my country!") which were represented to have been the last that he uttered on his
death-bed. " Such things," as his Lordship justly remarks, " were too theatrical for so great a man,
and of too vulgar a cast for so consummate a performer, had he stooped to play a part in such cir
cumstances."




WILLIAM PITT.                                 563
abuses in India were incapable of redress by a change of its civil and military government-that the Company were fit only to be treated as bankrupts or lunatics. It
is unnecessary to dwell on the means by which the East India Bill was defeated, and
the Coalition ministry driven from power. They have been detailed in the memoir
of Mr. Fox.  What share Mr. Pitt had in Lord Temple's communications with the
KEing has never been made known; but the course taken was regarded by all concerned as an extreme measure on the part of the Crown to repel an extreme measure
of Mr. Fox, which endangered the rights of the King and the balance of the Constitution.  The great body of the people gave it their sanction, and rejoiced in a step
which they would have resisted, in almost any other case, as an invasion of their
rights.
Mr. Pitt now came in as Prime Minister at the age of twenty-fouv.r (December 22d,
1783), under circumstances wholly without precedent in the history of English politics.  Against him was arrayed an overwhelming majority in the House, led on by
the most eloquent men of the age, inflamed by a sense of injury and disappointed
ambition.  So hopeless did his prospect appear, that a motion for a new writ to fill
his place for the borough of Appleby was received with a general shout of laughter.  In the contest which followed, and which turned the eyes of the whole empire
on the House of Commons for nearly three months, the young minister's situation
was not only trying beyond measure, in a political point of view, but, as Wraxall observes, "appeared at times to be not wholly exempt from  personal danger.  Fox
might be said, without exaggeration, to hold suspended over his head the severest
marks of the indignation of the offended House.  His removal from the King's presence and councils as an enemy of his country-his impeachment or his commitment
to the Tower-any or all of these propositions might, nay, might certainly have been
carried in moments of effervescence, when the passions of a popular assembly, inflamed by such a conductor as Fox, seemed to be ripe for any acts of violence."9 Under these circumstances, Mr. Pitt displayed a presence of mind, a skill and boldness
in repelling attack, a dexterity in turning the weapons of his adversaries against
themselves, and making the violence of their assault the very means of their final discomfiture, which we can not even now contemplate, as remote spectators of the scene,
without wonder and admiration.  Mr. Fox's first step was to demand, rather than request of the King, that Parliament should not be dissolved, intimating, in his speech
on the subject, that it would not be safe to adopt such a measure " merely to suit the
convenience of an ambitious young man."  Mr. Pitt, who had wisely determined to
fight the battle for a new Parliament in and through the present House, replied by
a friend (for he had not yet been re-elected as a member), that he had no designs of
this sort, and " that if any idea of proroguing or dissolving Parliament should be entertained any. where, Mr. Pitt would instantly resign."  To make himself still more
sure, Mr. Fox next moved a resolution, declaring " the payment of any public money
for services, voted in the present session, after Parliament should be prorogued or dissolved (if such events should take place before an act should have passed appropriating the supplies for such services), to be a high crime and misdemeanor." To this
Mr. Pitt made no objection, and the motion was carried by general consent.  These
things combined brought Mr. Pitt apparently to the feet of Mr. Fox. The majority
were not to be broken down by a new election, and if they stopped the supplies, he
had no longer the resource of proroguing Parliament, and using the money on hand
as absolutely necessary for continuing the government: he must resign, or bring
the country at once into a state of anarchy.  So certain did Mr. Fox consider the
result, that he said on the floor of the House, " To talk of the permanency of such
an administration would be only laughing at and insulting them;" and at the close
9 Historical Memoirs, vol. iv., p. 724.




564                              WILLIAM PITT.
of the same speech, he spoke of " the yozth of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and
the weakness incident to his early period of life, as the only possible excuse for his
temerity!"
The Mutiny Bill had been already delayed by Mr. Fox for a month, and the same
decisive step was soon after taken with the supplies.  Mr. Pitt was thus distinctly
warned of the inevitable consequences of his persisting in a refusal to resign, while
he was insulted for many weeks by one resolution after another, passed by large majorities, reflecting in the severest terms on the means by which he had gained power, and declaring that his ministry did not possess the confidence of the House or the
country.  As to the first point, he repelled with indignation the charge of having
come into office by indirect or unworthy means.  "I declare," said he, " that I came
up no back stacirs.  When my Sovereign was pleased to send for me, in order to know
whether I would accept of employment, I was compelled to go to the royal closet;
but I know of no secret influence.  My own integrity forms my protection against
such a concealed agent; and whenever I discover it, the House may rest assured I
will not remain one hour in the cabinet   I will neither have the 9meanness to act
upon advice given by others, nor the hypocrisy to pretend, when the measures of an
administration in which I occupy a place are censured, that they were not of my advising.  If'any fo'nrmer ministers are hurt by these charges, to themz be the sting.!~
Little did I conceive that I should ever be accused within these walls as the abettor or the tool of secret influence! The nature and the singularity of the imputation only render it the more contemptible.  This is the sole reply that I shall ever
deign to make.  The probity and rectitude of my private, as well as of my public
principles, will ever constitute my sources of action.  I never will be responsible for
measures not my own, nor condescend to become the instrument of any secret advisers whatever.  With respect to the questions put to me on the subject of a dissolution of Parliament, it does not become me to comment on the expressions composing the gracious answer of the sovereign, delivered by him from the Throne. Neither will I compromise the royal prerogative, nor bargain it away in the House of
Commons!"
The King, whose residence was then at Windsor, waited with deep emotion for a
daily account of the conflict going on in the House; and such was his anxiety during
part of the time, that hourly expresses were sent him with a report of the debates.
It was, indeed, more his battle than that of the ministry.  His correspondence shows
that he had resolved to stake every thing on the firmness of Mr. Pitt.  His honor as
a sovereign forbade the thought of his receiving back Lord North and Mr. Fox, after
the means'they were using to force themselves again into power: if Mr. Pitt sunk
in the conflict, it was the King's determination to sink with him.  After a night of
the greatest disaster, when the ministry had been five times beaten-twice on questions directly involving their continuance in office-his Majesty wrote to Mr. Pitt in
the following terms: " As to myself, I am perfectly composed, as I have the self-satisfaction of feeling that I have done my duty.  Though I think Mr. Pitt's day will be
fully taken up in considering with the other ministers what measures are best to be
adopted in the present crisis, yet, that no delay may arise from my absence, I shall
dine in town, and consequently be ready to see him in the evening, if he should think
that would be of utility.  At all events, I am  ready to take any step that may be
proposed to oppose this faction, and to struggle to the last period of my life.  But I
can never submit to throw myself into its power.  If they at the end succeed, nmy
line is a clear one, and to which I have fortitude enough to submit."  These words,
pointing directly to a withdrawal fiom  England (with the case of James II. in
10 Lord North felt this blow so keenly, that Wraxall says, he had never but once seen him so
much agitated during his whole parliamentary career.




W\TILLIAM PITT.                                  565
full view), if not to consequences even more fatal, must have wrought powerfully on
the mind of Mr. Pitt. It was not merely his love of office or scorn of being beaten
that nerved him with such energy for the conflict; it was sympathy and respect for
his Sovereign, and the hope of averting those terrible civil commotions which seemed
inevitable if Mr. Fox, at the head of the Commons, drove the King, supported by the
nobility, into the desperate measure contemplated."
As the contest went on, Mr. Pitt having been beaten on an East India Bill which
he introduced, Mr. Fox moved the same night for leave to bring in another of his own,
which he declared to be the same as his former one in all its essential principles. He
then turned to Mr. Pitt, and demanded to know whether the King would dissolve Parliament to prevent the passing of such a bill. All eyes were turned to the treasury
bench, and a scene ensued of the most exciting nature.  " Mr. Pitt," says the Parliamentary History, " sat still-the members on all sides calling upon him in vain to
rise.""  Sir Grey Cooper then broke out into some very severe remarks, and closed with
saying, that if the gentleman persisted in his silence, the House ought " to come to ca
r'esolution" on the subject.  " On Mr. Pitt's sitting still, the cry was very loud of
Move, move!" calling on Sir Grey to bring forward a resolution. Mr. Fox then made
some very cutting observations on "the sulky silence of the gentleman," his treating
the House with so little decency," &c., when "the House still called most vehemently
on Mr. Pitt to rise."  General Conway now came out with great warmth, and attacked the character and motives of ministers in the bitterest terms, declaring that
"the present ministry, originating in darkness and secrecy, maintained themselves by
artifice.  All their conduct was dark and intricate.  They existed by corrupltion, and
they were now about to dissolve Parliament, after sending their agents about the country to bribe men." Mr. Pitt now rose, not to answer the interrogatories put him, but
with a gall to order.  As Conway was advanced in years, Pitt treated him with re.
spect, but demanded that he should " specify the instances of corruption" charged;
and told him that " what he could not prove, he ought never to assert."  " No man,'
said he, in his loftiest tone, " shall draw me aside from the purpose which, on mature
deliberation, I have formed. Individual members have no right to call upon me for
replies to questions involving in them great public considerations. Nor is it incurnbent on me to answer interrogatories put in the harsh language that has been used."
Turning again to Conway, whose age ought to have taught him  more moderation,
he reproved his intemperance of language in a way which called forth a burst of
applause from the House, by quoting the noble reply of Scipio to Fabius, " Si nulla
alia re, modestia certe et temperando linguam adolescens senemn vicero!"3
Some of Mr. Fox's friends now became anxious for a compromise.  Among them
was Mr. Powys, who had been so scandalized by the Coalition and the East India
Bill, that he joined Mr. Pitt in opposing them, but went back to Fox the moment
he was dismissed  and Pitt was put in his place.  He now  urged a coalition between them as the only possible means of giving peace and harmony to the country.
1 The King's determination was again expressed in a letter to Mr. Pitt, written on the morning
of the day when Lord Effingham moved a resolution in the House of Lords, condemning the conduct of the majority in the Commons. " I trust," said he, " that the House pf Lords will this day
feel, that the hour is come for which the wisdom of our ancestors established that respectable corps
in the state, to prevent either the Crown or the Commons from encroaching on the rights of each
other. Indeed, should not the Lords boldly stand forth, this Constitution must soon be changed;
for if the two only remaining privileges of the Crown are infringed-that of negativing bills which
have passed both Houses of Parliament, and that of naming the ministers to be employed-I can
not but feel, as far as regards my person, that I can be no longer of utility to thlis country, nor can
with honor continue in this island."
12 See the report of this debate, vol. xxiv., 421-4.
13 Youth as I am, I will conquer the aged, if in nothing else, at least in modesty and command
over my tongue.




566                              WILLIAM PITT.
He proposed to remove the difficulty as to Lord North (whom Fox could not desert)
by raising him to the Upper House.  " I did not," said he, " approve of the coalition
between the late secretary [Mr. Fox] and the noble Lord. The ambition of the former was certainly laudable in itself, though he was not very delicate in the means
of its gratification; still the noble Lord must not be disgraced.  He shines, indeed,
no longer except with a borrowed light.  He is a man of whom I can not say laudandus; but ornandus, tollendcls."  His Lordship, with his accustomed suavity and
wit, in alluding to Powys' observation about his shining with " a borrowed light,"
observed, that " a classical expression had been applied to him, though with the difference of a monosyllable-non laudandus-sed ornandus, tollendus." " I hope," continued he, "tollenclus is not to be taken in the worst sense: it is not meant to kill
me! It is only intended I should be ornanclus-or, in vulgar English, kicked zup
stairs! But, sir, I have no inclination to be kicked up stairs.  I should be very unwilling to stand in the way of any political agreement which might be beneficial to
the country, but I will not go up to the House of Peers.  An acceptance of the peerage would place me in Agrippina's situation"'Je vois mles honneurs croitre, et tomlber mon credit.' "14
No one knew better than Lord North how to soften the asperity of debate by goodhumored pleasantry or elegant allusion.
A large number of country gentlemen had now become so anxious for a coalition
(which Fox himself proposed), that a meeting, attended by nearly seventy members
of the House, was held at St. Alban's Tavern, under the auspices of Powys and Mr.
Grovesnor of Chester.  On applying to the Duke of Portland, as head of the Opposition, they received for answer, that the only obstacle in the way was "Mr. Pitt's
being in office."  He was required to resign as preliminary to negotiation I The
King, though with great reluctance, consented to receive some of the Opposition " as
a respectable part of one [a ministry] on a broad basis," but insisted on " their giving
up the idea of having the administration in their own hands."  In accordance with
these views, Mr. Pitt refused to resign, and when afterward reproached by Mr. Powys
on the subject, said, " The honorable gentleman has talked of the fortress which I
occupy, and has declared that he did not wish me to march out with a halter about
my neck.  Sir, the only fortress that I know of, or desire ever to defend, is the fortress of the Constitution.  To preserve it, I will resist every attack and every seduction. With what regard, either to my own personal honor or to public principle,
could I change my armor, and meanly beg to be received as a volunteer under the
forces of the enemy?  But, sir, I have declared, again and again, only prove to me
that there is but a reasonable hope-show me even but the most distant prospect.that my resignation will at all contribute to restore peace to the country, and I will
instantly resign.  But, sir, I declare, at the same time, I will not resign as a preliminary to negotiation. I will not abandon this situation, in order to throw myself
on the mzecy of the right honorable gentleman.  He calls me now a nominal minister-the mere puppet of secret influence.  Sir, it is because I will not consent to
become a merely nominal minister of his creation-it is because I disdain to become
the puppet of that right honorable gentleman, that I will not resign. Neither shall
his contemptuous expressions provoke me to resignation.  My own honor and reputation I never will resign.  That I am now standing on the rotten ground of secret
influence I will not allow; nor yet will I quit my ground in order to put myself under the right honorable gentleman's protection-in order to accept of my nomination
at his hands-to become a poor, self-condemned, helpless, and unprofitable minister
in his train; a minister, perhaps, in some way serviceable to that right honorable
14 The line is from Racine's Britannicus (Act i., Scene 1):
I see my honors rise, my credit sink.




WILLIAM PITT.                               567
gentleman, but totally unserviceable to my King and to my country. If I have, indeed, submitted to become the puppet and minion of the Crown, why should he condescend to receive me into his band?"
It was in this speech that Mr. Pitt, with reference to Fox's boasts of the great
names that adorned the Opposition, broke forth into his splendid eulogium on Lord
Camden.  "Sir, I am not afraid to match the minority against the majority, either
on the score of independence, of property, of long hereditary honors, of knowledge of
the law and Constitution, of all that can give dignity to the peerage.  Mr. Speaker,
when I look round me, when I see near whom I am  standing (Lord Camden was
present at the debate), I am not afraid to place in the front of that battle-for at
that battle the noble peer was not afraid to buckle on his armor and march forth, as
if inspired with his youthful vigor, to the charge-I am not afraid to place foremost
that noble and illustrious peer-venerable as he is for his years-venerable for his
abilities-venerated throughout the country for his attachment to our glorious Constitution-high in honors-and possessing, as he does, in these tumultuous times, an
equanimity and dignity of mind, that render him infinitely superior to the wretched
party spirit with which the world may fancy us to be infected!"
In concluding his speech, Mr. Pitt thus defied Mr. Fox to stop the supplies. " The
right honorable gentleman tells you, sir, that he means not to stop the supplies again
to-night, but that he shall only postpone them occasionally.  He has stopped them
once, because the King did not listen to the voice of his Commons. He now ceases
to stop them, though the same cause does not cease to exist.  Now, sir, what is all
this but a mere bravado?-a bravado calculated to alarm the country, but totally
ineffectual to the object.  I grant, indeed, that if the money destined to pay the public creditors is voted, one great part of the mischief is avoided.  But, sir, let not this
House think it a small thing to stop the money for all public services.  Let us not
think that, while such prodigious sums of money flow into the public coffers without
being suffered to flow out again, the circulation of wealth in the country will not be
stopped, nor the public credit affected.  It has been said,' How is it possible that
Parliament should trust public money in the hands of those in whom they have expressly declared that they can not confide?' What, sir, is there any thing, then, in
vmy character so flagitious? Am I, the Chief Minister of the Treasury, so suspected
of alienating the public money to my own, or any other sinister purpose, that I am
not to be trusted with the ordinary issues?"  (A cry of No, no, from the Opposition.)
"Why, then, sir," he exclaimed, seizing on the admission with instant effect, " if they
renounce the imputation, let them also renounce the argzument. "
It was not without reason that Mr. Fox had been desirous of a compromise; the
whole country had begun to move "for Pitt anzl the King."  Addresses in favor
of the ministry now poured in fiom every part of the kingdom. London led the way,
and sent a deputation to Mr. Pitt's residence, in Berkeley Square, preceded by the City
Marshal and Sheriffs, to present him with the fieedom of the city in a gold box of
one hundred guineas in value, " as a mark of gratitude for, and approbation of, his
zeal and assiduity in supporting the legal prerogatives of the Crown, and the constitutional rights of the people."  Mr. Fox's majority now began to diminish, until, on
the 27th of February, it was reduced to seven.  On the 8th of March he made his
last great effort in a "Representation to the King," drawn up in powerful language,
containing reasons for the removal of ministers. So great was the anxiety to be present at this debate, that the gallery was filled to overflowing more than six hours before the House assembled.  The debate was opened by Mr. Fox's moving that this
Representation be entered on the records of the House; it continued till midnight, and
when the vote was taken he had only ooze majority!  Tremendous cheers now broke
forth from the Treasury benches: the Coalition was defeated; the Mutiny Bill was




568                                 WILLIAM PITT.
passed; Parliament was soon after dissolved; and the nation was called upon to decide, at the hustings, between Fox and Pitt.l5
The people ratified at the polls what they had declared in their addresses to the
King and ministry.  Never was there so complete a revolution in any House of Commons.  More than a hundred and sixty of Mr. Fox's friends lost their seats; and at
the opening of the new Parliament, May 18th, 1784, it might truly be said, in the
words of Lord Campbell, " No administration in England ever was in such a triumphant position as that of Mr. Pitt, when, after the opposition it had encountered, the
nation, applauding the choice of the Crown, declared in its favor, and the Coalition
leaders, with their immense talents, family interest, and former popularity, found difficulty to obtain seats in the House of Commons."'6   From this period for seventeen
years, and, after a short interval, during three years more, Mr. Pitt swayed the destinies of England under circumstances, for the most part, more perilous and appalling than have fallen to the lot of any British statesman in modern times.  As to his
leading measures, men differ now almost as much as during the heat of the contest,
in the judgment they pronounce between him and his great opponent. But there is
more candor in estimating the motives and intentions of both. Very few, at the present day, would call in question the honor, the integrity, or the sincere patriotism of
William Pitt. All, too, have come to feel that, in deciding on the conduct of public
men during the French Revolution, the question is not so much,' Who was in the
right,' as'Who was least in the wrong.'  Facts, also, are beginning to come out
through the diaries of such men as Mr. Wilberforce, Lord Malmesbury, &c., who knew
the secret history of the times, which put a new face upon many transactions, or on
the motives in which they originated; but half a century must still elapse before the
world will have the means of forming a full and impartial estimate of Mr. Pitt's administration. All that can here be attempted is a brief survey of his most important
measures, commencing with those of the eight years previous to the war with France,
and then touching lightly on the grounds and conduct of that fearful contest.  Reference will occasionally be made to the opinions of Lord Campbell in his Lives of
the Chancellors, not only because his judgments have been formed from the most
recent information, but because his views, when favorable to Mr. Pitt, may be relied
upon the more as coming from a strong political opponent.
The first measure of Mr. Pitt was a bill for the better government of India. It
differed from that of Mr. Fox chiefly in the two particulars mentioned above: it left
15 The reader may be interested to see the state of the vote at the several divisions which took
place during this contest. It was as follows:
January 12th, 232 to 193; majority 39.        February 18th, 208 to 196; majority 12.
"  196 to 142;    "   54.                 "    20th, 197 to 177;   "   20.
"   16th, 205 to 184;   "   21.              "      "  177 to 156;   "   21.
"   23d, 222 to 214;    "     8.             "    27th, 175 to 168;   "    7.
February 2d, 223 to 204;   "    19.            March   1st, 201 to 189;    "   12.
3d, 211 to 187;'   24.             "      5th, 171 to 162;    "    9.
16th, 186 to 157;   "   29.               "      8th, 191 to 190;    "    1.
It was the press, to a great extent, which carried Mr. Pitt triumphantly through this struggle.
The East India Company felt their existence to be staked on his success, and they spared no efforts
or expense to rouse the nation in his behalf. From the day Mr. Fox introduced his bill into the
House, a committee of the proprietors sat uninterruptedly at Leadenhall Street, for many weeks,
sounding the alarm throughout the kingdom; and from that time, down to his final defeat in the
general elections of 1784, they used every instrument in their power to defeat his designs. Among
other things, caricatures were employed with great effect, some of them very ingenious and laugh
able. One of them, called the Triumphant Entry of Carlo Khan, represented Fox in the splendid
costume of a Mogul emperor, seated on the body of an elephant, upon which was stuck the queer,
fat, good-humored face of Lord North, while Burke strutted in front as a trumpeter with his instru
ment in full blast, sounding the praises of the Great Man. (See peroration of his speech on the
East India Bill.)                                16 Lives of the Chancellors, vol. v., p. 566.




WILLIAM  PITT.                                   569
the commercial concerns of the Company in the hands of the Directors; and, instead
of the seven Commissioners of Mr. Fox, it established a Board of Control, appointed
by the Crown, whose members come in and go out with the ministry, and exercise
the government of India in conjunction with the Directors.  " The joint sway," says
Lord Campbell, " of the Court of Directors and the Board of Control being substituted
for the arbitrary rule of the " Seven Kings," our Eastern empire has been governed
with wisdom, with success, and with glory."17
Early in 1785, Mr. Pitt brought forward a plan of Reform  in Parliament.  On
this subject he had, from early life, entered with great warmth into the feelings of
his father, and had twice before (in 1782 and 1783) moved similar resolutions, supported by able speeches, though without success.  He now took it up as minister.
His plan was to disfranchise thirty-six decayed boroughs (making due compensation
to the owners), and transfer the representation, consisting of nearly a hundred members, to the counties and unrepresented large towns. He also proposed to extend the
right of voting in populous places to the inhabitants in general. Mr. Fox strenuously
resisted the proposed compensation, and the friends of reform being thus divided, Mr.
Pitt was beaten by a majority of 248 to 174.  As he never brought up the subject
again, he has been accused by some of insincerity; but we learn his true feelings
from  a record in the diary of Mr. Wilberforce: " At Pitt's all the day.  It (reform)
goes on well: sat up late chatting with Pitt, who has good hopes of the countrynoble and patriotic heart!  To town (next day)-House-Parliamentary Reformterribly disaplpointed and beat."R   It is not surprising that, after being defeated
three times, he should be in no haste to revive the subject again, especially as the
King was strongly opposed to the measure; nor does it show  any want of sincerity
in his early efforts, that he afterward changed his views as to the expediency of agitating the question.  Even Lord Brougham, with all his disposition to censure Mr.
Pitt, says, " the alarms raised by the French Revolution, and its cognate excitement
among ourselves, justified a reconsideration of the opinions originally entertained on
our parliamentary system, and might induce an honest alteration of them.""
At this time, also, Mr. Pitt proposed two measures which the reader may recollect
as denounced in bitter terms by Mr. Burke, in his speech on the Nabob of Arcot's
Debts.20  Neither of them  deserved these censures.  The first related to fees in the
public offices, and, instead of being designed " to draw some resource out of the crumbs
dropped from the trenchers of penury," was intended to abolish sinecures which, in
some cases, yielded ~16,000 a year.  The bill rwas passed almost unanimously, and
proved highly useful.  The other was intended to give Ireland the benefits of free
trade. Every one now sees that Mr. Pitt's plan was wise and salutary. Lord Campbell speaks of "the propositions for commercial union with Ireland, which do so much
honor to the memory of Mr. Pitt, and not only show that he was disposed to govern
that country with justice and liberality, but that, being the first disciple of Adam
Smith who had been in power, he thoroughly understood, and was resolved to carry
into effect, the principles of free trade.""1 He was defeated, however, partly through
the clamor raised by the English traders and manufacturers, and partly by the unfounded jealousy of the Irish.  Moore says, in his Life of Sheridan, " the acceptance
of the terms then proflered by the minister might have averted much of the evil of
which she [Ireland] was afterward the victim.""
In 1786, Mr. Pitt brought forward his celebrated plan for paying the national debt
17 Lives of the Chancellors, vol. v., p. 561.
18 Lord Campbell gives a letter from Lord Camden on this subject, which he says " affords strong
evidence of the Premier's sincerity."-Lives of the Chancellors, vol. v., p. 332.
19 Sketch of Pitt.-Statesmen of the Times of George III.         20 See page 332-3
21 Lives of the Chancellors, vol. v., p. 569.                     22 Vol. i., p. 231.




570                             WILLIAM PITT.
of ~239,000,000, by means of a Sinking Fund. The suggestion came fiom Dr. Price,
who offered three schemes to the ministry; and it has often been said that Mr. Pitt
" chose the worst."  True it is that on the other two the debt would have been paid
sooner, but they were more complicated, and required an annual outlay to begin with,
which Mr. Pitt clearly saw the country could never endure. He, therefore, chose the
plan which, though less expeditious, was the only one he deemed practicable. It
was founded on the fact that he had a surplus revenue of ~900,000 a year.  To
this ~100,000 might be added from taxes without burdening the country; and "this
sum of one million a year, improved at compound interest by being regularly invested
in public stocks, would, in twenty-eight years, amount to four millions a year at the
supposed interest of five per cent., a sum which would pay off one hundred millions of
three per cents." The. scheme was professedly founded on the continuance of peace.
While this remained, the surplus could be relied on without adding any new debt;
and, as the nations of Europe seemed tired of war after the exhausting contest from
which they had just escaped, Mr. Pitt not unnaturally hoped that England might enjoy so long a season of repose as to place her Sinking Fund on high and safe ground
before the occurrence of another war. But unfortunately, within seven years, there
commenced the most terrible conflict in which the country was ever engaged. The
surplus failed; and, though the form of a Sinking Fund was kept up, it became from
this time a mere bubble —paying a debt with one hand while borrowing with the
other.  This was not the Sinking Fund devised by Dr. Price and Mr, Pitt.  If the
peace in Europe had been as lasting then as since the fall of Bonaparte, and the
original plan had been faithfully carried out, the fund would probably by this time
have extinguished a large part, if not the whole, of the public debt.
Mr. Pitt's Commercial Treaty with France, in 1787, was the first step on the part
of England toward those enlarged principles of national intercourse which now so
generally prevail.  His armament against France, the same year, in behalf of Holland, was applauded by all; that against Spain, in 1790, was ultimately approved
by Mr. Fox;2 that against Russia, in 1791, was promptly and wisely given up (as
already stated) when the voice of the nation declared against it.2
The ground taken by Mr. Pitt on the exciting question of the Regency has already
been stated in the memoir of Mr. Fox;2 the measures he then proposed now form
an acknowledged part of the constitutional law on this subject.  His change of policy
in regard to the impeachment of Mr. Hastings was mentioned in the memoir of Mr.
Burke.2   Mr. Wilberforce always ascribed it to a growing conviction of Mr. Hastings'
guilt; but the personal considerations referred to in the memoir are believed by most
persons to have had a powerful influence with the ministry.
Mr. Pitt was a warm advocate of the immediate abolition of the slave trade, and
in 1792 made the most eloquent speech on this subject ever delivered in the House
of Commons.7  Lord Brougham speaks of him in the harshest terms for not making
this a ministerial question, and compelling his adherents to unite with him at once
in a vote for suppressing the traffic. It may be doubted, however, whether a great
moral question of this kind ought ever to be carried by mere force. Years of inquiry
and argument are often necessary to make the removal, even of enormous abuses,
either permanent or useful. The King and his whole family remained to the last,
strenuous opponents of the abolition of the slave trade.  Most of the nobility, for a
long time, had the same feelings; and nearly all the mercantile interest of the kingdom resisted it for many years with their utmost strength. Some of the ablest of
Mr. Pitt's colleagues were vehemently opposed to what they regarded as a rash and
impracticable scheme, while they professed a sincere desire for a gradual abolition
23 See page 508.                24 See page 501.                25 See page 451.
26 See page 223.                27 See page 579.




WILLIAM  PITT.                                571
of the traffic.  It certainly does honor to Mr. Pitt, that, under these circumstances,
he never wavered or shrunk back. He gave Mr. Wilberforce all the influence of his
personal and official character; he spoke and voted for immediate abolition.  If he
had gone farther, and attempted what Lord Brougham condemns him so bitterly for
not doing, he would probably have put an end at once to his ministry, without the
slightest advantage, and perhaps with serious detriment, to the cause he had espoused.
In 1791, it became the duty of Mr. Pitt to frame a new Constitution for Canada.
He did it upon wise and liberal principles. He forever took away the question whic h
led to the American war, that of taxing the colonies for the sake of revenue.  The
British Parliament now expressly relinquished the right of laying any taxes except
for the regulation of trade (to which the Americans were always ready to submit);
and, in order to guard this point more fully, Mr. Pitt provided that the proceeds even
of these taxes should go to the provincial assemblies, and not to the government at
home.  It was much for George III. to make such concessions.
The financial measures of Mr. Pitt, during the period under review, were highly
successful. He took the government at the end of Lord North's wars, with an unfunded debt of thirty millions sterling, and. a national income wholly unequal to the
expense of even a moderate peace establishment. There were large claims to be provided for in favor of the American Loyalists; there was a system of enormous fraud
in the collection of the public revenues to be searched out and collected; there were
permanent arrangements to be made for commercial intercourse with America and
some countries of Europe; and the vast concerns of India, all resting back on the
treasury at home, were to be reduced to order and placed on a new foundation. In
carrying out his plans, he had to fight his way at every step against the acutest and
most eloquent men of England; and he did it under the disadvantage of having no
common ground of argument on which to meet them, since they were ignorant of the
principles of Adam Smith, while the popular maxims and prejudices of the day were
all on their side. Within five years the debt was funded and reduced five millions
of pounds, notwithstanding the expense of two armaments, and other outlays to the
amount of six millions. An entire and most beneficial change was made in the manner of collecting the customs and auditing the public accounts, requiring more than
three thousand distinct resolutions of Parliament to carry the plan into effect.2?  Under this system, the public revenue went on gradually increasing, until early in 1792
he " felt justified in proposing a repeal of the most burdensome imposts, and an addition of ~400,000 to the annual million already appropriated as a Sinking Fund.
In respect, then, to the first eight years of Mr. Pitt's administration, it was not, perhaps, too much for Mr. Gibbon to say, that "in all his researches in ancient and
modern history, he had nowhere met with a parallel-with one who at so early a period of life had so important a trust reposed in him, which he had discharged with
so much credit to himself and advantage to the kingdom."
We now come to the course adopted by Mr. Pitt respecting the Revolution in
France and a war with that country.  This, as Lord Brougham remarks, " is the
main charge against him."  It is obvious that, whatever may have been his errors
on this subject, he had every possible motive to desire the continuance of peace. On
this depended all his plans of finance, and especially the success of his Sinking Fund,
to which he looked as the proudest memorial of his greatness as a statesman.  That
he did ardently desire it, no one doubts; and so sanguine were his expectations, that
he remarked in the House of Commons, about the middle of 1792, " England had
never a fairer prospect of a long continuance of peace.  I think we may confidently
reckon upon peace for ten years."  Mr. Burke had previously expressed similar views.
28 See Prettyman's Life of Pitt, vol. ii., p. 213; Belsham's Memoirs of the Reign of George III.,
vol. iv., p. 123; Wade's British History, p. 558.




572                             WILLIAM PITT.
England had no longer any thing to fear from her hereditary rival. " France," said
he, " in a political light, is to be considered as expunged out of the system of Europe." At this moment (July 25th, 1792) Austria and Prussia invaded France for
the avowed purpose of restoring Louis XVI. to all his rights as an absolute monarch.
It is unnecessary to say that this step kindled the fire which soon after wrapped the
whole of Europe in one general conflagration. But it is now known that England
had no privity or concern in this invasion.  On the contrary, Mr. Pitt declined all
communication with Austria on the subject, and declared to Prussia his unalterable
resolution to maintain neutrality and avoid all interference with the internal concerns of France.2   It is also known that, some months after, he endeavored to put a
stop to the contest, by "negotiating," in the words of Mr. Wilberforce, " with the
principal European powers for the purpose of obtaining a joint representation to
France, assuring her that if she would formally engage to keep within her own limits, and not molest her neighbors, she should be suffered to settle her own internal
government and constitution without interference."30  This negotiation was broken
off in the midst by the execution of Louis XVI., and Mr. Pitt thus failed in his efforts
to arrest the war on the Continent.
When the French drove out the Austrians and Prussians, they seized, in turn, on
the Austrian Netherlands, early in November, 1792. Here arose the first point of
collision between England and France.  The Republican rulers forced the passage
of the River Scheldt from the Netherlands down to the sea.  This river had been
closed, under the provisions of the treaty of Westphalia, for a century and a half, out
of regard to the rights of Holland, through which it flows, and England was bound
by treaty to defend those rights. A second point of collision was the French Decree
of Fraternity, passed November 19, 1792, by the National Assembly, declaring that
the French " would grant frategrnity and assistance to all those people who wish to
procure liberty, and charged the executive power to send orders to their generals to
give assistance to such people as have suffered, or are now sufiering, in the cause of
liberty." This was considered as a declaration of war against all the monarchies
of Europe, and a direct call upon their subjects to rise in rebellion. It was brought
home to England by the fact, that delegates from societies in London and elsewhere,
consisting of many thousands, were received at the bar of the French National Convention nine days after the publication of this decree, where they declared their intention to " adopt the French form of government, and establish a National Convention in Great Britain." The President of the Convention replied in very significant
terms: "Royalty in Europe is either destroyed or on the point of perishing; and the
Declaration of Rights placed by the side of thrones is a devouring fire which will
consume them. The festival which you have celebrated in honor of the French Rev
olution is the p2relude to the festival of nations."  There is no doubt that the French,
at this time, expected a revolution in England.
These aggressions and insults would have justified the English government in demanding ample reparation. But there was a difficulty as to the mode of negotiating.'When Louis XVI. was made a prisoner of the Convention by the events of August
10th, 1792, his government ceased, and Mr. Pitt recalled the English embassador
from Paris, and suspended the functions of M. Chauvelin, the French embassador at
London.  How, then, were the two countries to communicate?  This soon after became a practical question.  England began to arm, which she might reasonably do
under existing circumstances.  The French government instructed M. Chauvelin,
who remained at London, to demand whether this armament was directed against
France, tendering at the same time an explanation of the Decree of Fraternity as
29 See his statements on this subject, page 611.
30 See Life, page 125, Philadelphia edition. See, also, page 612 of this volume.




WILLIAM PITT.                                 573
not aimed at England, and proposing to negotiate in relation to the Scheldt. What
was Mr. Pitt now to do?  No one would expect him instantly to recognize the National Convention as dejjure the government of France. Mr. Fox proposed to treat
with them  as the government ce facto; but this is a distinction which has sprung
up chiefly since the French Revolution, and it is easy to see how strong a repugnance
George III. and most of the English must have felt to any recognition of the new
government, while they held their King as a prisoner, and were calling on the subjects of every other monarch in Europe to join with them in rebellion.  Mr. Pitt took
a middle course. He did not refuse to communicate with the French rulers, but he
declined to receive the paper of M. Chauvelin as " an official communication."  He
did, however, reply "under a form neither regular nor official," telling him, "If
France is really desirous of maintaining friendship and peace with England, she
must show herself disposed to renounce her views of' aggression and aggrandizement,
and confine herself within her own territory, without insulting other governments,
without disturbing their tranquillity, without violating their rights."  Within less
than a month the King of France was beheaded.  M. Chauvelin, whose functions
had been suspended during the imprisonment of Louis, was now dismissed and sent
out of the kingdom.; and seven days after, France declared war against England.
Such is an exact representation of the facts.  It is certainly to be regretted that Mr.
Pitt did not adopt the course recommended by Mr. Fox, and thus take from France
all pretense of putting him in the wrong. But in passing a sentence on his conduct
we are not to be influenced by our knowledge of the result. He acted under the
prevailing delusion that, even if war took place, it could not be severe or calamitous.
"It must certainly be ended," said he to a friend, " in one or two campaigns."  He
acted as most men act who feel strong, in dealing with those whom they consider as
weak.  He acted, also, under the belief (which subsequent events proved correct)
that the French were insincere in their disavowals, that they only wished to gain
time.  The French Minister of War is now understood to have said at this juncture,
"We have three hundred thousand men in arms, and we must make them march as
far away as their legs will carry them, or they will return and cut our throats."
From the moment of their triumph in the Austrian Netherlands, the policy of the
French government was war.  On the other hand, George III. and the great body
of the English people were equally bent on fighting.  " If a stop is not put to French
principles," said he, " there will not be a king left in Europe in a few years."31  The
only stop then thought of was to shut out these principles by war, and to put down
the authors of them as enemies of the human race.  "Had Mr. Pitt refused to go
to war," says a late writer, who was by no means friendly to his measures, " he
would have been driven from power by the united voice of king and people; and his
successor, whether Whig or Tory, would have been compelled to pursue the course
of policy which was only reluctantly followed by that celebrated statesman."32 The
war, therefore, was not Mr. Pitt's war; it was equally the war of the English and
of the French nation.
As to " French principles," which were an object of so much terror to the King,
they had, no doubt, to some extent, gained a foothold among the middling and lower
classes. Paine's Rights of Man, and other publications of a still more radical character, were widely circulated; and it has since been stated on high authority, that
"the soldiers were every where tampered with."  " You have a great estate," said one
of these radical reformers to General Lambton; "we shall soon divide it among us."
" You will presently spend it in liquor," replied the general, " and what will you do
then?"  "Why, then we will divide again'"
31 Nicholl's Recollections of George III., p. 400.
32 Wade's British History, p. 572.




574                             WILLIAM  PITT.
Between 1793 and 1795 very stringent measures were adopted for putting down
this spirit.  Acts of Parliament were passed, as already stated in the memoir of Mr.
Fox, suspending the Habeas Corpus Act, imposing severe restrictions on the holding
of political meetings, and giving a wider extent to the crime of treason. They were
designed, however, only as temporary measures, and were limited to three years.
Still, they brought great reproach on Mr. Pitt, though it now appears that they originated not with him, but with the followers of Mr. Burke, who had been recently brought
into the ministry. Lord Campbell, speaking of this period, says, " Now began that system of policy for the repression of French principles, which has caused the period in
which it prevailed to be designated, in the language of exaggeration,'the Reign of
Terror.'  I think the system was unwise, and that Lord Loughborough is chiefly answerable for it. I am afraid that, if he did not originate, he actively encouraged it,
and that he, as the organ of the alarmist party, forced it upon the reluctant Prime
Minister. Pitt had not only come forward in public life on the popular side, but I believe that his propensities continued liberal, and that, if he could have fulfilled his
wishes, he would have emancipated the Catholics he would have abolished slavery
— he would have established free trade-and he would have reformed the House of
Commons.  His regard for the liberty of the press he had evinced by carrying Fox's
Libel Bill by the influence of government, notwithstanding the furious opposition of
Lord Chancellor Thurlow.  He was likewise particularly adverse to any stringent
measures against reformers, being aware that, having himself very recently belonged
to that body, he would appear rather in an invidious light as the persecutor of his former associates.  But he found that he could not adhere to constitutional laws and
constitutional practices, without the disruption of his administration."33  During this
period, also, occurred those state trials, arising out of some wild attempts at parlia.
mentary reform, in which Erskine was so much distinguished.  Some reproach has
fallen upon Mr. Pitt for allowing them to go on.  It appears, however, from the statement of Lord Campbell, that " Lord Loughborough was the principal adviser of them.
He had surrendered himself to the wildest apprehensions of Burke, he feared that
any encouragement to parliamentary reform was tantamount to rebellion; and he
believed that general bloodshed would be saved by the sacrifice of a few individuals
t' e When the plan was first proposed of arresting the members of the Corresponding
Society, and proceeding capitally against them, it is said that Pitt, who had studied
the law, expressed some disapprobation of the notion of' constructive treason,' but
he did not like to rely upon the objection that the Duke of Richmond and himself
had supported similar doctrines, and no doubt in his heart he believed that, under
the pretense of parliamentary reform, deeper designs were now carried on. The Attorney and Solicitor General, being consulted by the Chancellor, gave an opinion that
the imputed conspiracy to change the form of government was a compassing of the
King's death within the meaning of the statute of Edward III.-and the King himself, upon this opinion, was eager for the prosecutions.  So in an evil hour an order
was made that they should be instituted, and warrants were signed for the arrest
of the supposed traitors."  "Happily, English juries," adds Lord Campbell, "and the
returning sober sense of the English people, at last saved public liberty from the great
peril to which it was then exposed."'' i " To the credit of George III., when the
whole subject was understood by him, he rejoiced in the acquittals, and, laying all the
blame on the Chancellor, he said,' You have got us into the wrong box, my Lord, you
have got us into the wrong box.  Constructive treason won't do, my Lord, constructive treason won't do.' "u
Mr. Pitt saw, within three years from the commencement of the war, how idle it
was to think of refusing to recognize the French Republic as forming part of the po-:$ Lives of the Chancellors, vol. vi., p. 254.        3 Id. ib., p. 266.




WILLIAM PITT.                                575
litical system of Europe.  She had extorted that recognition from all around her at
the point of the bayonet, and had nearly doubled her territory and dependencies at
the expense of her neighbors..? He therefore brought down a message from the King,
acknowledging her government as established under the Directory in October, 1795,
and in October, 1796, sent a plenipotentiary to Paris with proposals of peace. His
terms were highly liberal. He offered to restore the conquests he had made from
France, being all her rich colonies in the East and West Indies, receiving nothing in
return, and only asking for Austria, as the ally of England, a similar restoration of
the territory which had been wrested from her by the French.  This the Directory
refused, and, after a short negotiation, ordered the English embassador to quit Paris
in twenty-four hours.
The next year, 1797, was one of the darkest seasons that England had known lor
centuries.  In April, Austria was compelled to sue for peace, leaving the English to
carry on the contest single-handed; and at the moment when this intelligence arrived, a mutiny had broken out in the fleets both at the Nore and Spithead, more
extensive and threatening than has ever occurred in the English navy; while Ireland was on the brink of rebellion, and actually had deputies in France soliciting
the aid of her troops.  Never were the funds so low, even in the worst periods of the
American war.  These events were ushered in by the greatest calamity that can
befall a commercial people, a drain of specie arising from the operation of the war,
which endangered the whole banking system of the country.  Whether Mr. Pitt was
to blame or not for the causes which produced this drain, it is certain that his daring
resolution saved the country in this alarming crisis.  He issued an order of the Privy
Council, February 26th, 1797, requiring the Bank of England to suspend specie payments.  He might have avoided the personal hazard thus incurred by throwing the
responsibility on Parliament, which was then in session-the order, indeed, was generally considered as unconstitutional; but the case would not admit of delay, a
single night's debate on such a question might have destroyed all credit throughout
the kingdom.  Parliament and the country justified the course he took, while the
bankers in every part of the empire united to sustain him.  The mutiny was quelled
by a judicious union of firmness and concession; Ireland was held down for another
year; and G.reat Britain, instead of being plunged into the gulf of national and individual bankruptcy as predicted by Mr. Fox, was placed on a vantage ground, which
enabled her to sustain the pressure of the war without injury to her financial system.
It is not wonderful that the friends of Mr. Pitt were loud in their applause of" the
pilot that weathered the storm."
About the middle of the same year, July, 1797, Mr. Pitt renewed his proposals of
peace.  He sent Lord Malmesbury to Lisle, offering, as in the former case, to restore
all his conquests, and, as Austria was now out of the way, demanding nothing in return.  There were at this juncture two parties in the Directory, one for peace and
the other for war; and the negotiation changed its aspect, from time to time, during
the two months of its continuance, as the one or the other obtained the mastery. It
is a curious circumstance, showing the difficulties he had to encounter, that a similar
division existed in his own cabinet; so that among the " astounding disclosures"
made in Lord Malmesbury's diary, we find that it was necessary for his Lordship to
send two sets of dispatches every time he communicated with his government, one
of a more general nature to be read by Lord Loughborough and his associates, who
were bent on defeating the negotiation, and the other for Mr. Pitt, Lord Grenville,
and Mr. Dundas! The violent part of the Directory at last prevailed.  War became
the policy of the government, and Lord Malmesbury was dismissed.  The French
were to be deluded with new visions of conquest. Bonaparte was sent to subdue
Egypt, and thus open a pathway to India; and the whole of Hindostan, with its hund



576                              WILLIAM PITT.
red and fifty millions of inhabitants, was to become a tributary of the Republic.
Mr. Pitt laid the subject before Parliament, November 10th, 1797, in a masterly
speech, which is given in this collection. Parliament, without one dissenting voice
approved of his conduct, and united in the emphatic declaration, "We know that
great exertions are wanted; we are ready to make them; and are, at all events,
determined to stand or fall by the laws, liberties, and religion of our country." The
people came forward with that noble spirit and unanimity which has always distinguished the English in times of great peril, and subscribed fifteen hundred thousand pounds, not as a loan, but as a voluntary gift for carrying on the war.
The Directory lasted a little more than four years, and then yielded to the power
of Bonaparte, who usurped the government, and became First Consul in December,
1799.  He immediately proposed a peace, and it was now Mr. Pitt's turn to reject
the offer. Wounded by the insults which he had received in the two preceding negotiations, doubting whether the power of the First Consul would be at all more permanent than that of others who had gone before him, and convinced, at all events,
that he could not be sincere in his offer, since the genius and interests of Bonaparte
led only to war, Mr. Pitt declined to negotiate on the subject.  It appeared afterward,
as already stated, that Bonaparte did not wish for peace. When the question came
before. Parliament, February 3d, 1800, he delivered the third of his speeches contained in this volume. It is the most elaborate of all his efforts; and though worse
reported than the other two, so far as language is concerned (Mr. Canning, indeed,
says that Mr. Pitt suffered more in this respect than any orator of his day), it can
hardly be too much admired for its broad and luminous statements, the closeness of
its reasonings, and the fervor of its appeals.
In 1800, Mr. Pitt accomplished his favorite plan of a legislative union of Ireland
with Great Britain.  But he was unable to effect it without a distinct intimation to
the Roman Catholics that they should receive, as a reward for their acquiescence,
the boon of emancipation which they had been so long seeking. He did this without
the privity of the King, and knowing his scruples on the subject, but still with a firm
belief that his Majesty, in attaining so great an object, would yield those scruples to
the wishes of the most enlightened men in the kingdom.  But the moment he disclosed his plan to his colleagues, Lord Loughborough, says Lord Campbell, " set secretly to work, and composed a most elaborate and artful paper, showing forth the
dangers likely to arise from Mr. Pitt's plan, in a manner admirably calculated to
make an impression on the royal mind."  The King was thus fortified against the proposal before Mr. Pitt had time to present his reasons; and, adopting the course he
had taken with the East India Bill of Mr. Fox, declared at the levee, with a view
to have his words circulated, " that he should consider any person who voted for the
measure proposed by his minister as personally indisposed toward himself!"  Mr.
Pitt justly considered this as a direct exclusion from the public service, and so informed the cabinet, in February, 1801, having held the office of Prime Minister between sixteen and seventeen years. It was generally supposed at the time that he
retired with a view to open a more easy way for negotiating a peace with France.
He certainly desired peace, but the circumstances here stated were the true cause of
his withdrawing fiom the government.
Mr. Addington (afterward Lord Sidmouth) succeeded him, and Mr. Pitt gave the
new minister a cordial support.  Mr. Wilberforce, in his diary, says, " Pitt has really
behaved with a magnanimity unparalleled in a politician, and is wishing to form for
Addington the best and strongest possible administration."  He approved of the
peace; and again, when the rupture took place, he gave the declaration of war, May
18th, 1803, his warmest support. His speech on this occasion (which, through an
accident in the gallery, was never reported) is said by Lord Brougham to have "ex



WILLIAM  PITT.                              577
celled all his other performances in vehement and spirit-stirring declamation; and
this may be the more easily believed when we know that Mr. Fox, in his reply, said,'The orators of antiquity would have admired, probably would have envied it.' The
last half hour is described as having been one unbroken torrent of the most majestic
declamation."
Mr. Addington had a timidity and inertness which wholly unfitted him for carrying on the war.  The people were clamorous for a change of ministers, and Mr. Pitt
was again called to the head of affairs, May 12th, 1804.  Lord Brougham has reproached him for accepting office without insisting upon Catholic emancipation; but
his former step had thrown the King into a fit of derangement for nearly three weeks,
a new agitation of the subject might have produced the same result, and, as it was
now obvious that emancipation could never be granted during the life of George III.,
Mr. Pitt, surely, was not to exclude himself from office on a mere point of etiquette,:
without the slightest advantage to the cause.  He now formed his last great coalition against Bonaparte, but the battle of Austerlitz (December 2d, 1805) was a death'
blow to his hopes.  Worn out with care and anxiety, his health had been declining
for some months. On the 21st of January, 1806, the Bishop of Lincoln apprised him
that his end was approaching. Mr. Pitt heard him with perfect composure, and after
a few moments, rising as he spoke, and clasping his hands with the utmost fervor,
he exclaimed, "I throw myself entirely (laying a strong emphasis on the last word)upon the mercy of God through the merits of Christ."  He now arranged all his sec —
ular concerns with perfect calmness, and died at a quarter past four, Thursday morning, the 23d of January, 1806, in the forty-seventh year of his age.  He was buried
near his father in Westminster Abbey, and his debts, amounting to ~40,000, were
paid by the public.  Mr. Wilberforce, who knew him more intimately than any other
man, has given this testimony to his character: "Mr. Pitt had his foibles, and of
course they were not diminished by so long a continuance in office; but for a clear
and comprehensive view of the most complicated subject in all its relations; for that
fairness of mind which disposes a man to follow out, and, when overtaken, to recognize the truth; for magnanimity, which made him ready to change his measures.
when he thought the good of the country required it, though he knew he should be
charged with inconsistency on account of the change; for willingness to give a fair
hearing to all that could be urged against his own opinions, and to listen to the suggestions of men whose understandings he knew to be inferior to his own; for personal purity, disinterestedness, integrity, and love of country, I have never known his
equal.  His strictness in regard to truth was astonishing, considering the situation he,
so long filled."
In person, Mr. Pitt was tall and slender; his features were somewhat harsh, but
lighted up with intelligence by the flashes of his eye; his gesture was animated, but
devoid of grace; his articulation was remarkably full and clear, filling the largest
room with the volume of sound.  His manner of entering the House was strikingly
indicative of his absorption in the business before him. " From the instant he passed
the doorway," says Wraxall, " he advanced up the floor with a quick and firm step,.
his head erect and thrown back, looking neither to the right nor the left, nor favoring:
with a nod or a glance any of the individuals seated on either side, among whom'
many who possessed ~5000 a year would have been gratified even by so slight a
mark of attention."  Those who knew him best as a speaker expatiated with delight
on "the perfection of his arrangement, the comprehensiveness of his reasonings, the'
power of his sarcasm, the magnificence of his declamation, the majestic tone of his
voice, the legislative authority of his manner, and his felicitous observance of the
temper of his audience."  Mr. Canning has given the following sketch of his char.
acter, which will form an appropriate conclusion to this memoir.
Oo




578                              WILLIAM PITT.
" The character of this illustrious statesman early passed its ordeal. Scarcely had
he attained the age at which reflection commences, when Europe with astonishment
beheld him filling the first place in the councils of his country, and managing the
vast mass of its concerns with all the vigor and steadiness of the most matured wisdom.  Dignity.-strength-discretion-these were among the masterly qualities of
his mind at its first dawn.  He had been nurtured a statesman, and his knowledge
was of that kind which always lay ready for practical application.  Not dealing in
the subtleties of abstract politics, but moving in the slow, steady procession of reason,
his conceptions were reflective, and his views correct.  Habitually attentive to the
concerns of government, he spared no pains to acquaint himself with whatever was
connected, however minutely, with its prosperity. He was devoted to the state. Its
interests engrossed all his study and engaged all his care. It was the element alone
in which he seemed to live and move.  He allowed himself but little recreation from
his labors. His mind was always on its station, and its activity was unremitted.
"He did not hastily adopt a measure, nor hastily abandon it.  The plan struck
out by him for the preservation of Europe was the result of prophetic wisdom and
profound policy.  But, though defeated in many respects by the selfish ambition and
short-sighted imbecility of foreign powers-whose rulers were too venal or too weak
to follow the flight of that mind which would have taught them to outwing the
storm-the policy involved in it has still a secret operation on the conduct of surrounding states.  His plans were full of energy, and the principles which inspired
them looked beyond the consequences of the hour.
" He knew nothing of that timid and wavering cast of mind which dares not abide
by its own decision.  He never suffered popular prejudice or party clamor to turn
him aside from any measure which his deliberate judgment had adopted.  He had
a proud reliance on himself, and it was justified. Like the sturdy warrior leaning on
his own battle-ax, conscious where his strength lay, he did not readily look beyond it.
" As a debater in the House of Commons, his speeches were logical and argumentative.  If they did not often abound in the graces of metaphor, or sparkle with the
brilliancy of wit, they were always animated, elegant, and classical.  The strength
of his oratory was intrinsic; it presented the rich and abundant resource of a clear.discernment and a correct taste.  His speeches are stamped with inimitable marks
Oif originality.  When replying to his opponents, his readiness was not more conspic-,ueus than his energy.  He was always prompt and always dignified.  He could
-sometimes have recourse to the sportiveness of irony, but he did not often seek any.other aid than was to be derived from an arranged and extensive knowledge of his
subject.  This qualified him fully to discuss the arguments of others, and forcibly to.defend his own.  Thus armed, it was rarely in the power of his adversaries, mighty;as they were, to beat him fiom the field.  His eloquence, occasionally rapid, electric,
and vehement, was always chaste, winning, and persuasive-not awing into acqui-escence, but arguing into conviction.  His understanding was bold and comprehensive.  Nothing seemed too remote for its reach or too large for its grasp.
"Unallured by dissipation and unswayed by pleasure, he never sacrificed the national treasure to the one, or the national interest to the other.  To his unswerving
integrity the most authentic of all testimony is to be found in that unbounded public
confidence which followed him throughout the whole of his political career.
" Absorbed as he was in the pursuits of public life, he did not neglect to prepare
himself in silence for.that higher destination, which is at once the incentive and reward of human virtue.  His talents, superior and splendid as they were, never made
him forgetful.of that Eternal Wisdom from which they emanated. The faith and
fortitude of his last moments were affecting and exemplary."




SPEECH
OF MR. PITT ON THE ABOLITION OF THE SLAVE TRADE, DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, APRIL 2, 1792.
INTRODUCTION.
NUMEROUS petitions for the abolition of the African slave trade were presented to Parliament at the
session of 1787-8. On the 9th of May, 1788, Mr. Pitt, acting for Mr. Wilberforce. who was confined by
illness, moved that " the subject be taken up early the next session."  This was accordingly done on
the 19th of May, 1789, when Mr. Wilberforce laid open the enormities of this traffic in a speech of great
compass and power. So conclusive were his statements, that Mr. Pitt was prepared to carry through
the measure by an immediate vote; but yielded, at last, to a demand for the examination of witnesses
in behalf of the slave merchants, remarking, however, that "he could by no means submit to the ultimate
procrastination of so important a business."  Every artifice was now used to protract the inquiry. The
passions of the colonists were inflamed; the wealth and influence of the great commercial towns engaged
in the trade, Liverpool, Bristol, &c., were arrayed against.the measure; the revolution in St. Domingo,
and the insurrection in Dominica, furnished plausible arguments to alarm the timid; the speedy depopulation of the West India Islands, with the loss of seventy millions sterling of property, was urged as the
inevitable result; until the nation was staggered, and many well-wishers of the cause began to waver
in their opinions. Some of Mr. Pitt's warmest supporters were of this number, and especially Mr. Dundas, with whom it was impossible for him to break, so that he felt himself no longer able to make it a
ministerial question, or to insist on its being carried as a measure of the government. In the mean time,
Mr. Wilberforce and his friends were not idle. Evidence of the most conclusive kind was collected from
every quarter, and presented in so clear a light, as to relieve the public mind from the terrors which had
been thrown around the subject, and to give a full exhibition of the unparalleled atrocities of the traffic,
as then actually carried on.
Early in 1792, five hundred and seventeen petitions against the slave trade were laid before Parliament; and on the 2d of April, Mr. Wilberforce made a motion, supported by an able speech, for its i'm
mnediate suppression. After a protracted debate, Mr. Dundas rose, and, declaring himself to be in favor
of the ultimate extinction of the trade, pleaded for delay, insisting that the object aimed at by Mr. WVilberforce would be secured with far greater ease and certainty by a gradual than by an immediate abolition. Mr. Addington, the Speaker, followed him in the same strain. This called forth a reply fiom Mr.
Pitt in the speech before us, being one of the ablest pieces of mingled argument and eloquence which he
ever produced. He first took up the question of expediency, comparing the two schemes of gradual and
immediate abolition; and while he put down Mr. Dundas and Mr. Addington completely on every point,
he showed admirable tact in so doing it, as to leave no room for mortified feeling or personal resentment.
He then proceeded to his main ground, that of right.  "I now come to AFRICA! Why ought the slave
trade to be abolished?  Because it is incurable injustice. How much stronger, then, is the argument for
immediate than for gradual abolition!"  On this topic he put forth all his strength, exposing, in tones of
ofty and indignant eloquence, the complicated enormities of a system which had made the shores of Africa for centuries a scene of cruelty and bloodshed, and brought infamy on the character of Christian na.tions engaged in this guilty traffic. Mr. Wilberforce says in his Journal, "Windham, who has no love
for Pitt, tells me that Fox and Grey, with whom he walked home from this debate, agreed in thinking
Pitt's speech one of the most extraordinary displays of eloquence they had ever heard. For the last
twenty minutes he really seemed to be inspired."-P. 111.
SPEECH, &c.
Ma. SPEAKER,-At this hour of the morning  though it has produced a variety of new sugges[four o'clock], I am  afraid, sir, I am  too much  tions, has, upon the whole, contracted Gun  r
exhausted to enter so fully into the subject be- this question into a much narrower rowed by
fore the committee as I could wish; but if my  point than it was ever brought into be- tbe deb"t
bodily strength is in any degree equal to the task, fore.
I feel so strongly the magnitude of this question,    I'can not say that I quite agree with the right
that I am extremely earnest to deliver my senti- honorable gentleman over the way      g  ta
ments, which I rise to do with more satisfaction, [Mr. Fox], for I am far from deplor- tetrsde must
be suppressed.
because I now look forward to the issue of this ing all that has been said by my two bupp
business with considerable hope of success.        honorable friends [Mr. Dundas and Mr. AddingThe debate has this night taken a turn which, ton]. I rather rejoice that they have now brought




580                                      MR. PITT ON                                         [1792
this subject to a fair issue; that something, at ly by them.  If they can show that their propoleast, is already gained, and that the question has  sition of a gradual abolition is more likely than
taken altogether a new course this night.'  It is  ours to secure the object which we have in view;
true, a difference of opinion has been stated, and  that by proceeding gradually we shall arrive
has been urged with all the force of argument more speedily at our end. and attain it with more
that could be given to it. But permit me to say  certainty, than by a direct vote immediately to
that this difference has been urged upon princi-  abolish; if they can show to the satisfaction both
ples very far removed from  those which were  of myself and the committee, that our proposimaintained by the opponents of my honorable  tion has more the appearance of a speedy abolifriend [Mr. Wilberforce], when he first brought tion than the reality of it, undoubtedly they will
forward his motion.  There are very few  of  in this case make a convert of me, and my honthose who have spoken this night, who have not orable friend who moved the question.  They
thought it their duty to declare their full and  will make a convert of every man among us
entire concurrence with my honorable friend in  who looks to this (which I trust we all do) as a
promoting the abolition of the slave trade as  question not to be determined by theoretical printheir ultimate object.  However we may differ ciples or enthusiastic feelings, but considers the
as to the time and manner of it, we are agreed  practicability of the measure, aiming simply to
in the abolition itself; and my honorable friends  effect his object in the shortest time, and in the
have expressed their agreement in this sentiment surest possible manner.?  If, however, I shall be
with that sensibility upon the subject, which hu- able to show that our measure proceeds more
inanity does most undoubtedly require. I do not, directly to its object, and secures it with more
however, think they yet perceive what are the  certainty, and within a less distant period; and
necessary consequences of their own concession, that the slave trade will on our plan be abolishor follow  up their own principles to their just ed sooner than on theirs, may I not then hope
conclusion.                                        that my right honorable friends will be as ready
The point now in dispute between us is a dif- to adopt our proposition, as we should in the
The present ference merely as to the period of time  other case be willing to accede to theirs?
s.peyione at which the abolition of the slave trade    One of my right honorable fiiends has stated
oftinme.   ought to take place.  I therefore con- that an act passed here for the aboli- Prelimilnry
gratulate this House, the country, and the world, tion of the slave trade would not se- inquiry: Can
that this great point is gained.  That we may  cure its abolition.  Now, sir, I should abolition be
eOW consider this trade as having received its  be glad to know  why an act of the efotced?
condemnation; that its sentence is sealed; that British Legislature; enforced by all those sancthis curse of mankind is seen by the House in its  tions which we have undoubtedly the power and
true light; and that the greatest stigma on our the right to apply, is not to be effectual; at least,
national character which ever yet existed is  as to every material purpose?  Will not the exabout to be removed; and, sir, which is still more  ecutive power have the same appointment of the
important, that mankind, I trust, in general, are  officers and the courts of judicature, by which
now likely to be delivered from the greatest prac- all the causes relating to this subject must be
tical evil that has ever afflicted the human race;  tried, that it has in other cases? Will there not
from the severest and most extensive calamity  be the same system of law  by which we now
recorded in the history of the world!            maintain a monopoly of commerce? If the same
In proceeding to give my reasons for concur- law, sir, be applied to the prohibition of The iawl
Ground of ring with my honorable friend [Mr. Wil- the slave trade which is applied in the.r.  tin^
discussion. berforce] in his motion, I shall necessa-  case of other contraband  commerce, e.o"glh.
rily advert to those topics which my honorable  with all the same means of the country to back
friends near me [Dundas and Addington] have  it, I am  at a loss to know why the actual and
touched upon, and which they stated to be their  total abolition is not as likely to be effected in
motives for preferring a gradual, and, in some  this way, as by any plan or project of my hondegree, a distant abolition of the slave trade, to  orable friends, for bringing about a gradual terthe more immediate and direct measure now   mination of it.3  But my observation is extremeproposed to you.  Beginning as I do, with de- ly fortified by what fell from my honorable friend
daring that, in this respect, I differ completely  who spoke last. He has told you, sir. that if you
from my right honorable friends near me, I do    2 It is hardly necessary to remark how soon Mr.
not, however, mean to say that I differ as to one  Pitt enters (as in these three sentences) on one of
observation which has been pressed rather strong- those amplifications by which he was accustomed
to enforce his thoughts, presenting them in detail
It is one characteristic of Mr. Pitt to open a dis- under different aspects upon which the mind might
cussion by some striking remark of this kind-some  dwell.
difference between him and a preceding speaker,   3 Mr. Pitt was much accustomed to argue, as in
some distinction, &c., &c.-which gives him an op- these four sentences, by exhaustion —by taking all
portunity to state his ground with great clearness, the suppositions belonging to the case, and deducand to place the question on its true footing. This  ing the result. The turn which he next gives to
throws a light forward upon the entire course he  the argument, by makling Mr. Addington testify
has to traverse, and conduces greatly to that lumin- against himself, is an instance of the extraordinary
ous exposition of a subject for which he was so  sagacity for which he was distinguished in sifting
much celebrated.                                 I the arguments of others.




1792.]                  THE ABOLITION  OF THE SLAVE TRADE.                                      581
will have patience with it for a few years, the  disproportion of the sexes.  This, however, is a
Mr. Adding-  slave trade must drop of itself, from   disparity which existed in any mate- (2.) The diston'l argament the increasinr dearness of the com-  rial degree only in former years; it P"erty of the
sturned against                                         dere                      eas    sexes has
himself.    modity imported, and the increasing  is a disparity of which the slave trade ceased.
progress, on the other hand, of internal popula- has been itself the cause, which will gradually
tion. Is it true, then, that the importations are so  diminish as the slave trade diminishes, and must
expensive and disadvantageous already, that the  entirely cease if the trade shall be abolished;
internal population  is even now  becoming a  but which, nevertheless, is made the very plea
cheaper resource? I ask, then, if you leave to the  for its continuance.  I believe this disproportion
importer no means of importation but by smug-  of the sexes, taking the whole number of the islgling, and if, besides all the present disadvanta-  ands, Creole as well as imported Africans, the
ges, you load him with all the charges and haz- latter of whom occasion all the disproportion, is
ards of the smuggler, by taking care that the  not now by any means considerable.
laws against smuggling are in this case watch-    But, sir, I also showed that the great mortalfully and rigorously enforced, is there any dan- ity, which turned the balance so as (3) Abolition
ger of any considerable supply of fresh slaves  to make the deaths appear more nu-  n.uld.remnve
being poured into the islands through this chan-  merous than the births, arose too from  source of mor-'nel~~~~~~~~~~~~~?                       ~~~~~tahity, that
nel?  And is there any real ground of fear, be-  the imported Africans, who die in ex- nam.; tie im
cause a few slaves may have been smuggled in  traordinary numbers in the seasoning. ported negroe.
or out of the islands, that a bill will be useless  If, therefore, the importation of negroes should
and ineffectual on any such ground?  The ques-  cease, every one of the causes of mortality which
tion under these circumstances will not bear a  I have now stated would cease also; nor can I
dipute.                                           conceive any reason why the present number of
I. Perhaps, however, my honorable friends  laborers should not maintain itself in the West.^edAc m, d ay take up another ground, and say, Indies, except it be from some artificial cause,
" It is true your measure would shut some fault in the islands; such as the impolicy
out further importations more immediately; but of their governors, or the cruelty of the manawe do not mean to shut them  out immediately.  gers and officers whom  they employ.  I will
We think it right, on grounds of general expedi- not reiterate all that I said at that time, or go
ency, that they should not be immediately shut through island by island.  It is true there is a
out."  Let us, therefore, now come to this ques- difference in the ceded islands; and I state them
tion of the expediency of making the abolition dis- possibly to be, in some respects, an excepted
taut and gradual, rather than immediate.          case.  But we are not now to enter into the subThe argument of expediency, in my opinion,  ject of the mortality in clearing new lands.  It
like every other argument in this disquisition, is, sir, undoubtedly another question; themorwill not justify the continuance of the slave trade  tality here is ten-fold; neither is it to be considfor one unnecessary hour.  Supposing it to be  ered as the carrying on, but as the setting on
in our' power, which I have shown it is, to en-  foot a slave trade for the purpose of peopling the
force the prohibition fiom this present time, the  colony; a measure which I think will not now
expediency of doing it is to me so clear, that if  be maintained.  I therefore desire gentlemen to
I went on this principle alone, I should not feel tell me fairly, whether the period they look to
a moment's hesitation.  What is the argument is not now  arrived; whether, at this hour, the
Population of expediency stated on the other side?  West Indies may not be declared to have actualquestio.  It is doubted whether the deaths and  ly attained a state in which they can maintain
births in the islands are, as yet, so nearly equal their population?  And upon the answer I must
as to insure the keeping up a sufficient stock of  necessarily receive, I think I could safely rest
laborers.  In answer to this, I took the liberty  the whole of the question.
of mentioning in a former year what appeared         One honorable gentleman has rather ingenito me to be the state of population at that time. ously observed, that one or other of His opponents'
My observations were taken from  documents  these two assertions of ours must siec thi s
which we have reason to judge authentic, and  necessarily be false: that either the aside.
which carried on the face of them  the conclu- population must be decreasing, which we deny,
sions I then stated; they were the clear, simple, or, if the population is increasing, that the slaves
and obvious result of a careful examination which  must be perfectly well treated (this being the
mnade into this subject, and any gentleman who  cause of such population), which we deny also.
will take the same pains may arrive at the same  That the population is rather increasing than
degree of satisfaction.                           otherwise, and also that the general treatment
These calculations, however, applied to a pe- is by no means so good as it ought to be, are
(I.) nirtlisarnurg niod of time that is now four or five  both points which have been separately proved
teor qlv  lr to years past.  The births were then, by different evidences; nor are these two points
the deathls  in the general view of them, nearly  so entirely incompatible. The ill treatment must
equal to the deaths; and. as the state of popula- be very great, indeed, in order to diminish mation was shown, by a considerable retrospect, to  terially the population of any race of people.
be regularly increasing, an excess of births must, That it is not so extremely great as to do this,
before this time, have taken place.               I will admit.  I will even admit, if you please,
Another observation has been made as to the  that this charge may possibly have been some




582                                      MR. PITT  ON                                         [l79:
times exaggerated; and I certainly think that    And here let me add, that in proportion as
it applies less and less as we come nearer to the  you increase the happiness of these They have evpresent times.4                                    unfortunate beings, you will undoubt- elY.stbe.tBut let us see how this contradiction of ours, edly increase in effect the quantity of ten t'e' 
Dilermnla   as it is thought, really stands, and how  their labor also.  Gentlemen talk of slaves.
turned back the explanation of it will completely  the diminution of the labor of the islands!  I
on osettle our minds on the point in ques-  will venture to assert that, even if in consequence
tion.  Do the slaves diminish in numbers?  It of the abolition there were to be some decrease
can be nothing but ill treatment that causes the  in the number of hands, the quantity of work
diminution. This ill treatment the abolition must done, supposing the condition of the slaves to
and will restrain.  In this case, therefore, we  improve, would by no means diminish in the
ought to vote for the abolition.  On the other same proportion; perhaps would be far from dihand, do you choose to say that the slaves clear- minishing at all.  For if you restore to this dely increase in numbers?  Then you want no  graded race the true feelings of men; if you take
importations, and, in this case also, you may  them  out from  among the order of brutes, and
safely vote for the abolition.  Or, if you choose  place them on a level with the rest of the huto say, as the third and only other case which can  man species, they will then work with that enbe put, and which perhaps is the nearest to the  ergy which is natural to men, and their labor
truth, that the population is nearly stationary,  will be productive, in a thousand ways, above
and the treatment neither so bad nor so good as  what it has yet been; as the labor of a man is
it might be; then surely, sir, it will not be de-  always more productive than that of a mere
nied that this, of all others, is, on each of the two  brute.
grounds, the proper period for stopping farther    It generally happens that in every bad cause
supplies; for your population, which you own is  information arises out of the evidence This proved
already stationary, will thus be made undoubt-  of its defenders themselves, which fromt lt Sfar.
edly to increase from  the births, and the good  serves to expose in one part or other West Indians
treatment of your present slaves, which I am  the weakness of their defense.  It is tem
now  supposing is but very moderate, will be  the characteristic of such a cause, that if it be at
necessarily improved also by the same measure  all gone into, even by its own supporters, it is liof abolition.  I say, therefore, that these propo- able to be ruined by the contradictions in which
sitions, contradictory as they may be represent-  those who maintain it are forever involved.
ed, are in truth not at all inconsistent, but even    The committee of the Privy Council of Great
come in aid of each other, and lead to a conclu-  Britain sent over certain queries to the They testify,
that a slave
sion that is decisive.  And let it be always re-  West India islands, with a view of elu-      es tvice the
membered that, in this branch of my argument,  cidating the piesent subject; and they bori.g frilaI have only in view the well-being of the West particularly inquired whether the ne- self
Indies, and do not now ground any thing on the  groes had any days or hours allotted to them in
African part of the question.                     which they might work for themselves.  The
But, sir, I may carry these observations re- assemblies in their answers, with an air of great
(4.) An remain- specting the islands much farther. satisfaction, state the labor of the slaves to be
ins, difficulties
cal didouTlhtto It is within the power of the colo- moderate, and the West India system to be well
e erved by  nists, and it is then their indispensa-  calculated to promote the domestic happiness of
the colonial gov-    1ii      n     r         s
ernmenets.    ble duty to apply themselves to the  the slaves.  They add, "that proprietors are not
correction of those various abuses by which pop-  compelled by law to allow their slaves any part
ulation is restrained.  The most important con-  of the six working days of the week for themsequences may be expected to attend colonial selves, but that it is the general practice to alregulations for this purpose.  With the improve- low  them  one afternoon in every week out of
ment of internal population, the condition of ev- crop-time; which, with such hours as they choose
cry negro will improve also; his liberty will to work on Sundays, is time amply sufficient for
advance, or, at least, he will be approaching to  their own purposes."  Now, therefore, will the
a state of liberty.  Nor can you increase the  negroes, or I may rather say, do the negroes
happiness, or extend the freedom of the negro, work for their own emolument?  I beg the conwithout adding in an equal degree to the safe- mittee's attention to this point.  The Assembly
ty of the islands, and of all their inhabitants. of Grenada proceeds to state-I have their own
Thus, sir, in the place of slaves, who naturally  words for it, "that though the negroes are alhave an interest directly opposite to that of their lowed the afternoons of only one day in every
masters, and are therefore viewed by them  with  week, they will do as much work in that afteran eye of constant suspicion, you will create a  noon, when employed for their own benefit, as in
body of valuable citizens and subjects, forming a  the whole day when employed in their master's
part of the same community, having a common  service."
interest with their superiors in the security and    Now, sir, I will desire you to burn all my cal.
prosperity of the whole.                          culations; to disbelieve, if you please, This a decisive
M4r. Pitt's peculiar dexterity in reply is here  evey  ord I hae said    the present   rig teir
shown, in the ease with which he extricates him- state of population; nay, I will admit, condition.
self from this dilemma and turns it upon his oppo- for the sake of argument, that the numbers are
nent in the next paragraph,                       decreasing, and the productive labor at present




1792.]                   THE ABOLITION OF THE SLAVE TRADE.                                      583
insufficient for the cultivation of those countries;  soning.   Writers well versed in this subject
and I will then ask, whether the increase in  have even advised that, in order to re- (a.) The purchase of new
the quantity of labor which is reasonably to be  move the temptation which the slave,eroe freaom
expected from  the improved condition of the  trade offers to expend large sums in  aeri,', tendto
slaves is not, by the admission of the islands  this injudicious way, the door of im- platers.
themselves, by their admission not merely of an  portation should be shut.  This very plan we
argument but a fact, far more than sufficient to  now propose, the mischief of which is represented
counterbalance any decrease which can be ra- to be so great as to outweighso many other motionally apprehended from a defective state of  mentous considerations, has actually been recomtheir population?   Why, sir, a negro, if he  mended by some of the best authorities, as one
works for himself, and not for a master, will do  highly requisite to be adopted on the very prindouble work!  This is their own account.  If  ciple of advantage to the islands; not merely on
you will believe the planters, if you will believe  that principle of general and political advantage
the Legislature of the islands, the productive la-  on which I have already touched, but for the adbor of the colonies would, in case the negroes  vantage of the very individuals who would othworked as free laborers instead of slaves, be  erwise be most forward in purchasing slaves.
literally doubled.  Half the present laborers, on  On the part of the West Indies it is urged,
this supposition, would suffice for the whole cul-  " the planters are in debt: they are already distivation of our islands on the present scale!  I tressed; if you stop the slave trade, they will be
therefore confidently ask the House, whether, in  ruined."   Mr. Long, the celebrated historian
considering the whole of this question, we may  of Jamaica, recommends the stopping of impornot fairly look forward to an improvement in the  tations, as a receipt for enabling the plantations
condition of these unhappy and degraded beings; which are embarrassed to get out of debt.  I
not only as an event desirable on the ground of  will quote his words.  Speaking of the usurious
humanity and political prudence; but also as a  terms on which money is often borrowed for the
means of increasing, very considerably indeed, purchase of fresh slaves, he advises "the laying
even without any increasing population, the pro- a duty equal to a prohibition on all negroes imductivo industry of the islands?                  ported for the space of four or five years, except
When gentlemen are so nicely balancing the  for re-exportation."   "Such a law," he propast and future means of cultivating the planta-  ceeds to say, "would be attended with the foltions, let me request them to put this argument lowing good consequences.  It would put an
into the scale; and the more they consider it, the  immediate stop to these extortions.  It would
more will they be satisfied that both the solidity  enable the planter to retrieve his affairs by preof the principle which I have stated, and the  venting him  from  running in debt, either by
fact which I have just quoted, in the very words  renting or purchasing of negroes.  It would
of the Colonial Legislature, will bear me out in  render such recruits less necessary, by the reevery inference I have drawn.  I think they will doubled care he would be obliged to take of his
perceive, also, that it is the undeniable duty of  present stock, the preservation of their lives and
this House, on the grounds of true policy, imme-  health.  And, lastly, it would raise the value of
diately to sanction and carry into effect that sys-  negroes in the island.  A North American provtem  which insures these important advantages;  ince, by this prohibition alone for a few  years,
in addition to all those other inestimable bless-  from being deeply plunged in debt, has become
ings which follow in their train.                  independent, rich, and flourishing."  On this auIf, therefore, the argument of expediency, as  thority of Mr. Long' I rest the question, whether
Expediency de- applying to the West India islands, is  the prohibition of further importations is that
mads  tllis im. the test by which this question is to  rash, impolitic, and completely ruinous measure,
provement.   be tried, 1 trust I have now establish-  which it is so confidently declared to be with reed this proposition, namely, that whatever tends  spect to our West India plantations.
most speedily and effectually to meliorate the    I do not, however, mean, in thus treating this
condition of the slaves, is undoubtedly, on the  branch of the subject, absolutely to Indennification
ground of expediency, leaving justice out of the  exclude the question of indemnifica- notrefutsee,but
question, the main object to be pursued.           tion on the supposition of possible dis- be clearly made
That the immediate abolition of the slave  advantages affecting the West Indies out.
And therefore trade will most eminently have this  through the abolition of the slave trade.  But
dre sin r tlp effect, and that it is the only measure  when gentlemen set up a claim of compensation.lave trade.  from which this effect can in any con-  merely on those general allegations, which are
siderable degree be expected, are points to which  all that I have yet heard from them, I can only
I shall presently come; but before I enter upon  answer, let them produce their case in a distinct
them, let me notice one or two farther circum- and specific form; and if upon any practicable
stances.                                           or reasonable grounds it shall claim  consideraWe are told, and by respectable and well-in-  tion, it will then be time enough for Parliament
Otl erconsider- formed persons, that the purchase of  to decide upon it.
t the. sam    new negroes has been injurious in-    I now come to another circumstance of great
conclusion.   stead of profitable to the planters  weight, connected with this part of the question.
themselves  so large a proportion of these un- I mean the danger to which the islands are exhappy wretches being found to perish in the sea- posed from those negroes who are newly im



584                                       MR. PITT  ON                                        [1792.
ported.  This, sir, like the observation which  well as foreign enemies, is among the most prom(b.) Insurrec-  I lately made, is no mere speculation  inent and most forcible.  And here let're suppreE
tionstobedread- of ours; for here, again, I refer you  me apply to my two right honorable trde, therced chiefly fi'omn                                                                         fore, brings
imported ne-  to Mr. Long, the historian of Jamrai- friends, and ask them, whether in this,,o lzar
bornin tie 1 isl  ca.  He treats particularly of the  part of the argument they do not see but reat se.
ands.ri the is                                                                           curity to the
alds,      ldangers to be dreaded from the intro-  reason for immediate abolition? Why West Indies
duction of Coromantine negroes; an appellation  should you any longer import into those coununder which are comprised several descriptions  tries that which is the very seed of insurrection
of Africans obtained on the Gold Coast, whose  and rebellion?  Why should you persist in innative country is not exactly known, and who  troducing those latent principles of conflagraare purchased in a variety of markets, having  tion,which if they should once burst forth. may
been brought froml some distance inland.  With  annihilate in a single day the industry of a hunda view  of preventing insurrections, he advises red years?  Why will you subject yourselves,
that,' by laying a duty equal to a prohibition, no  with open eyes, to the evident and imminent
more of these Coromantines should be bought;"  risk of a calamity which may throw you back
and, after noticing one insurrection which hap- a whole century in your profits, in your cultivapened through their means, he tells you of an- tion, in your progress to the emancipation of
other in the following year, in which thirty-three  your slaves; and disappointing at once every
Coromantines, most of whom  had been newly  one of these golden expectations, may retard,
imported, suddenly rose, and in the space of an  not only the accomplishmlent of that happy syshour murdered and wounded no less than nine- temn  which I have attempted to describe, but.
teen white persons.                                may cut off even your opportunity of taking any
To the authority of Mr. Long, both in this  one introductory step?  Let us begin from this
and other parts of his work, I may add the re-  time!  Let us not commit these important intercorded opinion of the committee of the House of ests to any further hazard! Let us prosecute this
Assembly of Jamaica itself  who, in consequence  great object from this very hour!  Let us vote
of a rebellion among the slaves, were appointed  that the abolition of the slave trade shall be imto inquire into the best means of preventing fu- mediate, and not left to I know not what future
ture insurrections.   The committee reported, time or contingency!  Will my right honorable
" that the rebellion had originated  (like most friends answer for the safety of the islands duror all others) with the Coromantines;' and they  ing any imaginable intervening period?  Or do
proposed that a bill should be brought in " for they think that any little advantages of the kind
iaying a higher duty on the importation of these  which they state, can have any weight in that:
particular negroes," which was intended to oper- scale of expediency in which this great question
ate as a prohibition,                             ought undoubtedly to be tried.
But the danger is not confined to the impor-    Thus stated, and thus alone, sir, can it be
tation of Coromantines.   Mr. Long, carefully  truly stated, to what does the whole of Ar,ugnent
investigating as he does the causes of such fre- my right honorable friend's argument, su""ied p.
quent insurrections, particularly at Jamaica, ac- on the head of expediency, amount?  It amounts
counts for theni from the greatness of its general but to this: The colonies, on the one hand, would
importations.  "In two years and a. half;" says  have to struggle with some few difficulties and
he,': twenty-seven thousand negroes have been  disadvantages at the first, for the sake of obtainimportted."   "No wonder we have rebellions! ing on the other hand immediate security to
T'wenty-seven thousand  in two years and a  their leading interests; of insuring, sir, even
half!"  Why, sir, I believe that in some late  their own political existence; and for the sake
years there have been as many imported into  also of immediately commencing that system of
the same island within the same period!  Sure-  progressive  improvement in the condition  of
ly, sir, when gentlemen talk so vehemently of  slaves, which is necessary to raise them  fron
the safety of the islands, and charge us with be- the state of brutes to that of rational beings, but
ing so indifferent to it; when they speak of the  which never can begin until the instroduction of
calamities of St. Domingo, and of similar dan- these new, disaffected, and dangerous Africans into
gers impending over their own heads at the  the same gangs shall have been stopped.  If any
present hour, it ill becomes them to be the per- argument can in the slightest degree justify the
sons who are crying out for further importations. severity that is now so generally practiced in the
It ill becomes them to charge upon us the crime  treatment of the slaves, it must be the introducof stirring up insurrections-upon us who are  tion of these Africans.  It is the introduction of
only adopting the very principles which Mr. these Africans that renders all idea of emancipaLong-whieh in part even the Legislature of  tion for the present so chimerical, and the very
Jamaica itself laid down in the time of danger, mention of it so dreadful.  It is the introduction
with an avowed view to the prevention or any  of these Africans that keeps down the condition
such calamity.                                    of all plantation negroes.  Whatever system of
The House, I am sure, will easily believe it is  treatment is deemed necessary by the planters
no small satistaction to me, that among the many  to be adopted toward these new  Afticans, exarguments for prohibiting the slave trade which  tends itself to the other slaves also; instead,
crowd upon my mind, the security of our West therefore, of deferring the hour when you will
India possessions against internal commotions, as  finally put an end to importations, vainly pur



1792.]                    THE ABOLITION OF THE SLAVE TRADE.                                         585
posing that the condition of your present slaves  this be the case, in what a situation does my right
should previously be mended, you must, in the  honorable friend's argument place the Legislavery first instance, stop your importations, if you  ture of Britain?  What room  is left Th:.s llim
hope to introduce any rational or practicable  for their interference in the regulation..'n.tioi. ia
plan, either of gradual emancipation or present  of any part of our commerce?  It is plerpetity of
general improvement.                                scarcely possible to lay a duty on any.e..'y thin.g
II. Being now done with this question of expe-  one article which may not, when first taxation.
Claim Forpati- diency as affecting the islands, I come  imposed, be said in  some way to affect the
mtonial y/t'.  next to a proposition advanced by my  property of individuals, and even of some entire
right honorable friend [Mr. Dundas], which ap-  classes of the community.  If the laws respectpeared to intimate that, on account of some pat-  ing the slave trade imply a contract for its perrimonial rights of the West Indies, the prohibi-  petual continuance, I will venture to say, there
tion of the slave trade might be considered as  does not pass a year without some act equally
an invasion of their legal inheritance,             pledging the faith of Parliament to the perpetuNow, in answer to this proposition, I must  ating of some other branch of commerce.  In
make two or three remarks, which I think my  short, I repeat my observation, that no new tax
right honorable friend will find some considera-  can be imposed, much less can any prohibitory
ble difficulty in answering.                         duty be ever laid on any branch of trade that
I observe, then, that his argument, if it be  has before been regulated by Parliament, if this
(1.) As strong worth any thing, applies just as much  princi[le be once admitted.
against    gradUogl aT.ga;it to gradual as immediate abolition.  I   Before I refer to the acts of Parliament by
supnresif have no doubt, that at whatever pe-  which the public faith is said to be (3.) A pedge.fo
tle trallic.   riod he might be disposed to say the  pledged, let me remark, also, that a tlleperpetuityof
abolition  should actually take place, this de-  contract for the continuance of the being nj.inst,
tense will equally be set up; for it certainly is  slave trade must, on the principles wId o  invalid.
just as good an argument against an abolition  which I shall presently insist on, have been void,
seven or seventy years hence, as against an ab- even fiom the beginning; for if this trade is an
olition at this moment.  It supposes we have no  outrage upon justice, and only another name for
right whatever to stop the importations; and  fraud, robbery, and murder, will any man urge
even thoutgh the injury to our plantations, which  that the Legislature could possibly by any pledge
some gentlernen suppose to attend the measure  whatever incur the obligation of being a  aacesof immediate abolition, should be admitted grad-  sary, or, I may even say, a principal in the comually to lessen by the lapse of a few years, yet mission of such enormities, by sanctioning their
in point of principle the absence of all right of  continuance?  As well might an individual think
interference would remain the same.  My right  himself bound by a promise to commit an assashonorable friend, therefore, I am  sure will not sination.  I am  confident gentlemen must see
press an argument not less hostile to his propo-  that our proceeding on such grounds would insition than to ours.                                fringe all the principles of law, and subvert the
But let us investigate the foundation of this  very foundation of morality.
(2.) Thle lave objection, and I will commence what    Let us now see how far these acts themselves
the neaer'hll;   I have to say by putting a question  show that there is that sort of parlia- A 
Parlia.en.t.  to my right honorable friend.  It is  mentary pledge to continue the African lianeit texchiefly on the presumed ground of our being  slave trade.  The act of 23 George II.,med
bound by a parliamentary sanction heretofore  c. xxxi., is that by which we are supposed to be
given to the African slave trade, that this argu-  bound up by contract, to sanction ail those horment against the abolition is rested.  Does, then,  rois now so incontrovertibly proved.  How surmy right honorable friend, or does any man in  prised. then, sir, itust the House be to find that,
this House think, that the slave trade has re-  by a clause of their very act, some of these outceived any such parliamentary sanction as must  rages are expressly forbidden!  It says: "No
place it more out of the jurisdiction of the Leg-  commander or master of a ship trading to Africa.,
islature forever after, than the other branches  shall by fraud, force, or violence, or by any indiof our national commerce?  I ask, is there any  rect practice whatsoever, take on board ol carry
one regulation  of any part of our commerce,  away from the coast of Africa, any negro, or nawhich, if this argument be valid, may not equal-  tive of the said country, or commit any violence
ly be objected to. on the ground of its affecting  on the natives, to the prejudice of the said trade,
some man's patrimony, some man's property, or  and that every person so offending shall for evsome man's expectations?  Let it never be for-  ery such offense forfeit," &c. When it coimes to
gotten that the argument I aml canvassing would  the penalty, sorry arm I to say, that we see too
be just as strong if the possession affected were  close a resemblance to the West India lawI  which
small, and the possessors humble; for on every  inflicts the payment of s30 as the punishment for
principle of justice  the property of any single  murdering a negro.  The price of blood in Afindividual, or small number of individuals, is as  riea is.100, but even this penalty is enough to
sacred as that of the great body of West In- prove that the act at least does not sanction,
dians.  Jlstice ought to extend her protection  much less does it engage to perpetuate enormiwith rigid impartiality to the rich and to the  ties; and the whole trade has now been demonpoor. lo the powerful and to the humble.  If  strated to be a mass, a system of enormtities; of




586                                      MR. PITT  ON                                        [1792
enormities which incontrovertibly bid defiance  served for calm  consideration, as a matter dis
not only to this clause, but to every regulation  tinct from the present question.
which our ingenuity can devise and our power    I beg pardon for dwelling so long on the arcarry into effect.  Nothing can accomplish the  gument of expediency, and on the manner in
object of this clause but an extinction of the trade  which it affects the West Indies.  I have been
itself.                                           carried away by my own feelings on some of
But, sir, let us see what was the motive for these points into a greater length than T1 intendotie To carrying on the trade at all.  The pre- ed, especially considering how fully the subject
these n- amble of the act states it: " Whereas, has been already argued.  The result of all 1
a"tments' the trade to and from Africa is very ad-  have said is, that there exists no impediment, no
vantageous to Great Britain, and necessary for obstacle, no shadow of reasonable objection on
the supplying the plantations and colonies there-  the ground of pledged faith, or even on that of
unto belonging with a sufficient number of ne- national expediency, to the abolition of this trade.
groes at reasonable rates, and for that purpose  On the contrary, all the arguments drawn from
the said trade should be carried on,' &c. Here. those sources plead for it, and they plead much
then, we see what the Parliament had in view  more loudly, and much more strongly in every
when it passed this act; and I have clearly shown  part of the question, for an immediate than for
that not one of the occasions on which it grounded  a gradual abolition.
its proceedings now exists.  I may then plead,    III. But now, sir, I come to Africa.  That is
I think, the very act itself as an argument for the ground on which I rest, and here it injsticeoJ'
the abolition.  If it is shown that, instead of be- is that I say my right honorable friends t/te L"de.
ing "very advantageous" to Great Britain, this  do not carry their principles to their full extent.
trade is the most destructive that can well be  Why ought the slave trade to be abolished?
imagined to her interests; that it is the ruin of  Because it is incurable INJUSTICE!  How much
our seamen; that it stops the extension of our stronger, then, is the argument for immediate
manufactures; if it is proved, in the second place,  than gradual abolition!  By allowing it to conthat it is not now necessary for the " supplying  tinue even for one hour, do not my right honorour plantations with negroes;" if it is further able friends weaken-do not they desert, their
established that this traffic was from  the very  own argument of its injustice?  If on the ground
beginning contrary to the first principles of jus-  of injustice it ought to be abolished at last, why
tice, and consequently that a pledge for its con- ought it not now?  Why is injustice to be suftinuance, had one been attempted to be given, fered to remain for a single hour?  From what
must have been completely and absolutely void;  I hear without doors, it is evident that there is
where then, in this act of Parliament, is the con- a general conviction entertained of its being far
tract to be found by which Britain is bound, as  from just, and from  that very conviction of its
she is said to be, never to listen to her own true  injustice some men have been led, I fear, to the
interests, and to the cries of the natives of Afri- supposition that the slave trade never could have
ca?  Is it not clear that all argument, founded  been permitted to begin, but from  some strong
on the supposed pledged faith of Parliament, and irresistible necessity; a necessity, prof.
makes against those who employ it?  I refer however, which, if it was fancied to cessityunyou to the principles which obtain in other cases. exist at first, I have shown can not be
Every trade act shows undoubtedly that the Leg- thought by any man whatever to exist at presislature is used to pay a tender regard to all ent.  This plea of necessity, thus presumed, and
classes of the community.  But if for the sake of  presumed, as I suspect, fiom the circumstance of'i'Te snme,,o- moral duty, of national honor, or even  injustice itself, has caused a sort of acquiescence
tive justifies  of great political advantage. it is in the continuance of this evil.  Men have been
the suplprestion oft.e.  thought right, by authority of Parlia-  led to place it in the rank of those necessary evils
coave trade.
tad ment, to alter any long-established  which are supposed to be the lot of human creatsystem, Parliament is competent to do it.  The  uress and to be permitted to fall upon some counLegislature will undoubtedly be careful to sub- tries or individuals, rather than upon others, by
ject individuals to as little inconvenience as pos- that Being whose ways are inscrutable to us, and
sible  and if any peculiar hardship should arise  whose dispensations, it is conceived, we ought not
that can be distinctly stated and fairly pleaded, to look into.  The origin of evil is, indeed, a subthere will ever, I am sure, be a liberal feeling  ject beyond the reach of the human understandtoward them in the Legislature of this country, ing; and the permission of it by the Supreme
which is the guardian of all who live under its  Being, is a subject into which it belongs not to
protection.  On the present occasion, the most us to inquire.  But where the evil in question is
powerful considerations call upon us to abolish  a moral evil which a man can scrutinize, and
the slave trade; and if we refuse to attend to  where that moral evil has its origin with ourthem on the alleged ground of pledged faith and  selves, let us not imagine that we can clear our
contract, we shall depart as widely from  the  consciences by this general, not to say irreligious
practice of Parliament as from the path of moral and impious way of laying aside the question.
duty.  If, indeed, there is any case of hardship  If we reflect at all on this subject, we must see
which comes within the proper cognizance of  that every necessary evil supposes that some
Parliament, and calls for the exercise of its lib- other and greater evil would be incurred were it
erality-well!  But such a case must be re- removed.  I therefore desire to ask, what can




1792.]                  THE  ABOLITION  OF THE SLAVE TRADE.                                     587
be that greater evil which can be stated to over- intercourse to convey to them the means, and to
balance the one in question?  I know of no evil initiate them in the study of mutual destruction.
that ever has existed, nor can imagine any evil We give them just enough of the forms of justo exist. worse than the tearing of EIGHTY THOU- tice to enable them to add the pretext of legal triSAND PERSONS annually from  their native land, als to their other modes of perpetrating the most
by a combination of the most civilized nations  atrocious iniquity.  We give them  just enough
in the most enlightened quarter of the globe   of European improvements, to enable them  the
ktut more especially by that nation which calls  more effectually to turn Africa into a ravaged wilierself the most free and the most happy of them   derness.  Some evidences say that the Africans
dll. Even if these miserable beings were proved  are addicted to the practice of gambling; that
Guiltand dis- guilty of every crime before you take  they even sell their wives and children, and ulLonor o[' the
traneeven if them off, of which however not a sin- timately themselves.  Are these, then, the leel i! gle  proof is adduced, ought we to take  gitimate sources of slavery?  Shall we pretend
alt.      upon ourselves the office of execution- that we can thus acquire an honest right to exers?  And even if we condescend so far, still act the labor of these people?  Can we pretend
can we be justified in taking them, unless we  that we have a right to carry away to distant
have clear proof that they are criminals?        regions men of whom we know nothing by au
But if we go much farther; if we ourselves  thentic inquiry, and of whom there is every reaEnglish capital tempt them to sell their fellow creat- sonable presumption to think that those who sell
retly sed'i  lures to us, we may rest assured that them to us have no right to do so?  But the evil
ki'napping.  they will take care to provide by ev-  does not stop here.  I feel that there is not time
cry method, by kidnapping, by village-breaking,  for me to make all the remarks which the subject
by unjust wars, by iniquitous condemnations, by  deserves, and I refrain from attempting to enurendering Africa a scene of bloodshed and mise- merate half the dreadful consequences of this sysry, a supply of victims increasing in proportion  tern.  Do you think nothing of the ruin and the
to our demand.  Can we, then, hesitate in de- miseries in which so many other individuals, still
cidirlg whether the wars in Africa are their wars  remaining in Africa, are involved in consequence
or ours?  It was our arms in the River Came- of carrying off so many myriads of people?  Do
roon, put into the hands of the trader, that fur- you think nothing of their families which are
nished him with the means of pushing his trade; left behind; of the connections which are broand I have no more doubt that they are British  ken; of the friendships, attachments, and relaarms, put into the hands of Africans, which pro- tionships that are burst asunder?  Do you think
mote universal war and desolation, than I can  nothing of the miseries in consequence, that are
doubt their having done so in that individual in- felt from generation to generation; of the privastance.                                           tion of that happiness which might be commuI have shown how  great is the enormity of  nicated to them  by the introduction of civilizaHorrors of the this evil, even on the supposition that tion, and of mental and moral improvement? A
result.   vwe take only convicts and prisoners  happiness which you withhold from them so long
of war.  But take the subject in the other way;  as you permit the slave trade to continue. What
take it on the grounds stated by the right hon- do you yet know of the internal state of Africa?
orable gentleman over the way; and how does  You have carried on a trade to that quarter of
it stand?  Think of EIGHTY THOUSAND persons the globe fiom  this civilized and enlightened
carried away out of their country, by we know  country; but such a trade, that, instead of diffusnot wht  z means; for crimes imputed; for light ing either knowledge or wealth, it has been the
or inconsiderable faults; for debt, perhaps; for check to every laudable pursuit.  Instead of any
the crime of witchcraft; or a thousand other fair interchange of commodities; instead of conweak and scandalous pretexts!  Besides all the veying to them, from  this highly favored land,
fraud and kidnapping, the villainies and perfidy, any means of improvement, you carry with you
by which the slave trade is supplied.  Reflect that noxious plant by which every thing is withon these eighty thousand persons thus annually  ered and blasted; under whose shade nothingr
taken off!  There is something in the horror of  that is useful or profitable to Africa will ever
it, that surpasses all the bounds of imagination.  flourish or take root.  Long as that continent
Admitting that there exists in Africa something  has been known to navigators, the extreme line
like to courts of justice; yet what an office of  and boundaries of its coasts is all with which
humiliation and meanness is it in us, to take  Europe has yet become acquainted; while other
upon ourselves to carry into execution the par- countries in the same parallel of latitude, through
tial, the  cruel, iniquitous sentences of such  a happier system of intercourse, have reaped the
courts, as if we also were strangers to all re- blessings of a mutually beneficial commerce.
ligion, and to the first principles of justice.    But as to the whole interior of that continent,
But that country, it is said, has been in some  you are, by your own principles of commerce,
tso     deree civilized, and civilized by us. as yet entirely shut out.  Africa is known to you
glishcivilization It is said they have gained  some  only in its skirts.  Yet even there you are able
u"po Arica.   knowledge of the principles of jus- to itnLfse a poison that spreads its contagious eftice.  What, sir-, have they gained the principles  fects from one end of it to the other; -hich penof justice from us?  Is their civilization brought etrates to its very center, corrupting every part
about by us!  Yes, we give them enough of our to which it reaches.  You there subvert thu




588                                        MR. PITT ON                                             [1792.
whole order of nature; you aggravate  every  plea, refuse to desist from  bearing our part in
natural barbarity, and furnish to every man liv- the system which produces it.  You are not sure,
ing on that continent, motives for committimg, it is said, that other nations will give up the
under the name and pretext of commerce, acts  trade. if you should renounce it.  1 answer, if
of perpetual violence and perfidy against his  this trade is as criminal as it is asserted to be.
neighbor.                                             or if it has in it a thousandth part of the crinlThus, sir, has the perversion of British con-  inality, which I and others, after thorough invesEngland sllhou  merce carried misery instead of hap-  tigation of the subject, charge upon it, God f'!beegertore- piness to one whole quarter of the  bid that we should hesitate in determinino  to
move the guilt.
and siai.neof  globe.  False to the very principles  relinquish so iniquitous a traffic, even thoulgh it
this perversion I
ofr Ier comn   of trade, misguided in our policy, and  should be retained by other countries.  God fibrmerce.      unmindful of our duty, what aston-  bid, however, that we should fail to do our utishing-I had almost said, what irreparable mis-  most toward inducing other countries to abandon
chief, have we brought upon  that continent! a bloody commerce, which they have probably
How  shall we hope to obtain, if it be possible,  been, in a good measure, led by our example lo
forgiveness from Heaven for those enormous evils  pursue.  God forbid that we should be capable
we have committed, if we refuse to make use of  of wishing to arrogate to ourselves the glory of
those means which the mercy of Providence hath  being singular in renouncing it!
still reserved to us, for wiping away the guilt    I tremble at the thought of gentlemen's indulg
and shame with which we are now covered.  If  ing themselves in this argument;  an argument
we refuse even this degree of compensation; if,  as pernicious as it is futile.  "We are friends,"
knowing the miseries we have caused, we refuse  say they, " to humanity.   We are second to
even now to put a stop to them, how greatly ag-  none of you in our zeal for the good of Africa;
gravated will be the guilt of Great Britain! and  but the French will not abolish-the Dutch will
what a blot will these transactions forever be in  not abolish.  We wait, therefore, on prudential
the history of this country! Shall we, then, delay  principles, till they join us, or set us an example."
to repair these injuries, and to begin rendering        How, sir, is this enormous evil ever to be
justice to Africa?   Shall we not count the days  eradicated, if every nation is thus pru- England, a
and hours that are suffered to intervene, and to  dentially to wait till the concurrence of  i"ghlty,"'lY^
delay the accomplishment of such a work? Re-  all the world shall have been obtained? t'e..'..
fleet what an immense object is before you; what  Let me remark, too, that there is no nation in
an object for a nation to have in view, and to  Europe that has, on the one hand, plunged so,
have a prospect, under the favor of Providence,  deeply into this guilt as Britain; or that is so
of being now permitted to attain!  I think the  likely, on the other, to be looked up to as an exHoLuse will agree with me in cherishing the ar-  ample, if she should have the manliness to be
dent wish to enter without delay upon the meas-  the first in decidedly renouncing it.  But, sir,
ures necessary for these great ends; and I am   does not this argument apply a thousand times
sure that the immediate abolition of the slave  more strongly in a contrary way?   How much
trade is the first, the principal, the most indis-  more justly may other nations point to us, and say,
pensable act of policy, of duty, and of justice,      Why should we abolish the slave trade, when
that the Legislature of this country has to take,  Great Britain has not abolished?   Britain, free
if it is indeed their wish to secure those import-  as she is, just and honorable as she is, and deeply,
ant objects to which I have alluded, and which  also, involved as she is in this commerce above
we are bound to pursue by the most solemn ob-  all nations, not only has not abolished, but has
ligations.                                           refused to abolish.  She has investigated it well;
There is, however, one argument set up as a  she has gained the completest insight into its naRetittationoft  universal answer to every thing that ture and effects; she has collected volumes of evobjectionscc.
(i.) T'l t oilier can be urged on our side  whether  idence on every branch of the subject.  Her Sennations will not
nite in lolih- we address ourselves to the under-  ate has deliberated-has deliberated again and
ilg the tritae.  standings of our opponents, or to their  again; and what is the result?  She has gravely
hearts and consciences.  It is necessary I should  and solemnly determined to sanction the slave
remove this formidable objection; for, though  trade.  She sanctions it at least for a while —her
not often stated in distinct terms, I fear it is one  Legislature, therefore, it is plain, sees no ouilt in
which has a very wide influence.  The slave  it, and has thus furnished us with the strongest
trade system, it is supposed, has taken so deep  evidence that she can fur:nish-of the justice unroot in Africa, that it is absurd to think of its  questionably-and of the policy also, in a certain
being eradicated; and the abolition of that share  measure, and in certain cases at least, of permitof trade carried on by Great Britain, and es- ting this traffic to continue."
pecially if her example is not followed by other    This, sir, is the argument with which we furpowers, is likely to be of very little service.  nish the other nations of Europe, if Otller0.tiona
Give me leave to say, in reply to so dangerous  we again refuse to put an end to the may be expectan argument, that we ought to be extremely sure,  slave trade.  Instead, therefore, of   
indeed, of the assumption on which it rests, be-  imagining, that by choosing to presume on their
fore we venture to rely on its validity; before    5 This taking an opponent's agument "in the cowe decide that an evil which we ourselves con-  trary way," is one of Mr. Pitt's most characteristic
tribute to inflict is incurable.  and on that very  modes of confuting an antagonist.




1792.]                 THE ABOLITION  OF THE  SLAVE TRADE.                                      589
continuing it, we shall have exempted ourselves  the slave trade.  My honorable friend, however,
from guilt, and have transferred the whole crim- has told you that this boy had previously run
inality to them; let us rather reflect that, on the  away from his master three several times; that
very principle urged against us, we shall hence- the master had to pay his value, according to the
forth have to answer for their crimes, as well as  custom of the country, every time he was brought
our own.  We have strong reasons to believe  back; and that partly from anger at the boy for
that it depends upon us, whether other countries  running away so frequently, and partly to prewill persist in this bloody trade or not.  Already  vent a still farther repetition of the same cxwe have suffered one year to pass away, and  pense, he determined to put him to death. Such
now  the question is renewed, a proposition is was the explanation of the story given in the
made for gradual, with the view  of preventing  cross-examination.  This, sir, is the signal inimmediate abolition.  I know the difficulty that stance that has been dwelt upon of African barexists in attempting to reform long-established  barity.  This African, we admit, was unenlightabuses; and I know the danger arising from the  ened, and altogether barbarous; but let us now
argument in favor of delay, in the case of evils  ask, what would a civilized and enzlightenel West
which, nevertheless, are thought too enormous  Indian, or a body of West Indians, The westIndia
to be borne, when considered as perpetual. But have done in any case of a parallel plai,,e eqally
by proposing some other period than the pres- nature    I will quote you, sir, a law, some oftheir
ent, by prescribing some condition, by waiting  passed in the West Indies, in the
for some contingency, or by refusing to proceed  year 1722, which, in turning over the book I
till a thousand favorable circumstances unite to- happened just now  to cast my eye upon; by.gether; perhaps until we obtain the general con- which law, this very same crime of running
currence of Europe (a concurrence which I be- away, is, by the Legislature of the island, by the
lieve never yet took place at the commencement sgave and deliberate sentence of that enlightened
of any one improvement in policy or in morals), Legislature, pinished with death; and this, not
year after year escapes, and the most enormous  in the case only of the third offense, but even in
evils go unredressed.  We see this abundantly  the very first instance.  It is enacted, " that if
exemplified, not only in public, but in private life. any negro or other slave shall withdraw himself
Similar observations have been often applied to  from his master for the term  of six months; or
the case of personal reformation.  If you go into  any slave that was absent, shall not return withthe street, it is a chance but the first person who  in that time, it shall be adjudged felony, and everosses you is one,                               cry such person shall suffer death."   There is
Qui recte vivendi prorogat horam.6        another West India law, by which every negro's
We may wait; we may delay to cross the stream  hand is armed against his fellow-negroes, by his
belore us, till it has run down; but we shall wait being authorized  to kill a runaway slave, and
forever, for the river will still flow on, without even having a reward held out to him for doing
being  exhausted.  We shall be no nearer the  so.  Let the House now contrast the two cases.
olkIeet wihich  we profess to have in view, so longr
object which we profess to have in view. so long  Let them ask themselves which of the two exas the step, which alone can bring us to it, is not hiits t  greater barbarity?  Let them reflet,
taken.  Until the actual, the only remedy is ap-   ith a little candor and liberality, whether on:lied, ve ought neither to flatter ourselves that the ground of any of those facts, and loose insinwe have as yet thoroughly laid to heart the evil   tions a to the sacrifices to be met with in the
we affect to deplore; nor that there is as yet any  evidence, they can possibly reconcile to themreasonable assurance of its being brought to an  seves te excluding o  Africa from  all means
a.ctual termination.                              of civilization; whether they can possibly vote
It has also been occasionally urged, that there  for the continuance of the slave trade upon the
(2.) That thl  is something in the disposition and  principle that the Africans have shown themct2rican rac   natre of the Africans themseles elves to be a race of incorrigible barbari7ans.
i ed, bat are which renders all prospect of civili-    I hope, therefore, we shall hear no more of the
barism.    zation on that continent extremely  moral impossibility of civilizing the Res".rptinonof
unpromising.  "It has been known," says Mr. Africans, nor have our understand-  hethlerother
Frazer, in his evidence,'that a boy has been  ings and consciences again insulted, -',.."'
put to death who was refused to be purchased  by being called upon to sanction the ing the trade.
s a       slave."  This single story was deemed by  slave trade, until other nations shall have set the
example of abolishing it.  While  we have been
that gentleman a sufficient proof of the barbarity  example of aboliig it.  While   e  ae bee
h;f the Africans, and of the inutility of abolishing  deliberating upon the subject, one nation, not orT__is~ with theremindrdinarily taking the lead in politics, nor by any
6 This line, with the remainder of the passage as                  ^        b
means remarkable for the boldness of its coun.
referred to in the next sentence, is found in the i         detei           
Epistles of Horace, Book i., Epist. 2, lines 41-3:                ned on a graal abolition 
determination, indeed, which, since it permits for
ltusticas expectat dam defluat amnis, at ille
Labitur et labetur in omne volubilis rovum.     an unfortunate pattern for our imitation. France,
He who delays the hour of living well,            7 The country referred to was Denmark, which,
Stands like the rustic on a river's brink,     two years after the delivery of this speech (in 1794),
To see the stream run out; but on it flows,     made a law that the slave trade should cease at the
Aind still shall flow with current never ceasing.   end of ten years, i. e., in 1804.




590                                        MR. PITT  ON                                       [1792.
it is said, will take up the trade if werelinquish    Here, as in every other branch of this extensit.  What?  Is it supposed that in the present ive question, the argument of our adversaries
situation of St. Domingo, of an island which used  pleads against them; for surely, sir, the presto take three fourths of all the slaves required  ent deplorable state of Africa, especially when
by the colonies of France, she, of all countries, we reflect that her chief calamities are to be
will think of taking it up?  What countries re- ascribed to us, calls for our generous aid, rather
main?  The Portuguese, the Dutch, and the  than justifies any despair on our part of her reSpaniards.  Of those countries, let me declare  covery, and still less any further repetition of our
it is my opinion that, if they see us renounce the  injuries.
trade after full deliberation, they will not be dis-    I will not much longer fatigue the attention
posed, even on principles of policy, to rush fur- of the House; but this point has im- Argument From
ther into it. But I say more. How are they to  pressed itself so deeply on my mind, histoy as to
furnish the capital necessary for carrying it on?  that I must trouble the committee African ivilizaIf there is any aggravation of our guilt, in this  with a few  additional observations. ti.
wretched business, greater than another, it is that  Are we justified, I ask, on any theory, or by any
we have stooped to be the carriers of these mis- one instance to be found in the history of the
erable beings from Africa to the West Indies for  world, from  its very beginning to this day, in
all the other powers of Europe.  And now, sir, forming the supposition which I am  now cornif we retire from  the trade altogether, I ask,  bating?  Are we justified in supposing that the
where is that fund which is to be raised at once  particular practice which we encourage in Afby other nations, equal to the purchase of 30 or  rica, of men's selling each other for slaves, is
40,000 slaves?  A fund which, if we rate them   any symptom of a barbarism  that is incurable?
at E40 or o50 each, can not make a capital of  Are we justified in supposing that even the
less than a million and a half, or two millions of  practice of offering up human sacrifices proves
money.  From what branch of their commerce  a total incapacity for civilization?  I believe it
is it that these European nations will draw to-  will be found, and perhaps much more generally
gether a fund to feed this monster? to keep alive  than is supposed, that both the trade in slaves,
this. detestable commerce?  And even if they  and the still more savage custom  of offering
should make the attempt, will not that immense  human sacrifices, obtained  in former periods,
chasm, which must instantly be created in the  throughout many of those nations which now,
other parts of their trade, from which this vast by the blessings of Providence, and by a long
capital must be withdrawn in order to supply  progression of improvements, are advanced the
the slave trade, be filled up by yourselves? Will furthest in civilization.  I believe, sir, that, if
not these branches of commerce which they  we will reflect an instant, we shall find that
must leave, and from which they must withdraw  this observation comes directly home to our own
their industry and their capitals, in order to ap- selves; and that, on the same ground on which
ply them to the slave trade, be then taken up by  we now are disposed to proscribe Africa forever,
British merchants?  Will you not even in this  from all possibility of improvement, we ourselves
case find your capital flow into these deserted  might, in like manner, have been proscribed, and
channels?  Will not your capital be turned fiom  forever shut out from all the blessings which we
the slave trade to that natural and innocent cor- now enjoy.
merce from  which they must withdraw  their     There was a time, sir, which it may be fit
capitals in proportion as they take up the traffic  sometimes to revive in the remem- Englnd once
in the flesh and blood of their fellow creatures?  brance of our countrymen, when even poluted byIu.The committee sees, I trust, how little ground  human sacrifices are said to have been a:d an m'-tof
of objection to our proposition there is in this  offered in this island.  But I would sla.ve.
part of our adversaries' argument.                 especially observe on this day, for it is a case
Having now detained the House so long, all precisely in point, that the very practice of the
The civiliza- that I will further add shall be on that slave trade once prevailed among us.  Slaves,
tion of Africao
a leadingob important subject, the civilization of  as we may read in Henry's History of Great
mect ofisut   Africa, which I have already shown  Britain, were formerly an established article of
posed.    that I consider as the leading feature  our exports.  "Great numbers," he says, "were
in this question.  Grieved am  I to think that exported like cattle from the British coast, and
there should be a single person in this country, were to be seen exposed for sale in the Roman
much more that there should be a single mem- market."  It does not distinctly appear by what
her in the British Parliament, who can look on  means they were procured; but there was unthe present dark, uncultivated, and uncivilized  questionably no small resemblance, in this parstate of that continent as a ground for continuing  ticular point, between the case of our ancestors
the slave trade; as a ground not only for refusing  and that of the present wretched natives of Afto attempt the improvement of Africa, but even  rica; for the historian tells you that "adultery,
for hindering and intercepting every ray of light witchcraft, and debt, were probably some of the
which might otherwise break in upon her, as a  chief sources of supplying the Roman market
ground for refusing to her the common chance  with British slaves; that prisoners taken in war
and the common means with which other nations  were added to the number; and that there might
have been blessed, of emerging from their native  be among them  some unfortunate  gamesters
barbarism.                                          who, after having lost all their goods, at length




1792.]                  THE ABOLITION  OF THE SLAVE TRADE.                                       591
staked themselves, their wives, and their chil-  system which has becore the admiration of the
dren."   Every one of these sources of slavery  world.  From  all these blessings we must for.
has been stated, and almost precisely in the same  ever have been shut out, had there been any truth
terms, to be at this hour a source of slavery in  in those principles which some gentlemen have
Africa.  And these circumstances, sir, with a  not hesitated to lay down as applicable to the
solitary instance or two of human sacrifices, fur-  case of Africa.  Had those principles been true,
nish the alleged proofs that Africa labors under  we ourselves had languished to this hour in that
a natural incapacity for civilization; that it is  miserable state of ignorance, brutality, and degenthusiasm  and fanaticism to think that she can  radation, in which history proves our ancestry to
ever enjoy the knowledge and the morals of Eu-  have been immersed.  Had other nations adoptrope; that Providence never intended her to rise  ed these principles in their conduct toward us;
above a state of barbarism; that Providence has  had other nations applied to Great Britain the
irrevocably doomed her to be only a nursery for reasoning which some of the senators of this
slaves for us free and civilized Europeans.  Al- very island now  apply to Africa; ages might
low of this principle, as applied to Africa, and I have passed without our emerging from barbashould be. glad to know why it might not also  rism; and we who are enjoying the blessings of
have been applied to ancient and uncivilized  British civilization, of British laws, and British
Britain.  Why might not some Roman senator, liberty, might, at this hour, have been little sureasoning on the principles of some honorable  perior, either in morals, in knowledge, or refinegentlemen, and pointing to British barbarians, ment, to the rude inhabitants of the coast of
have predicted with equal boldness, "there is a  Guinea.
people that will never rise to civilization-there    If, then, we feel that this perpetual confinement
is a people destined never to be free —a people  in the fetters of brutal ignorance would Herdutyto
without the understanding necessary for the at-  have been the greatest calamity which b. toT Af
tainment of useful arts; depressed by the hand  could have befallen us; if we view with rica.
of Nature below the level of the human species;  gratitude and exultation the contrast between the.
and created to form  a supply of slaves for the  peculiar blessings we enjoy, and the wretchedness
rest of the world.". Might not this have been  of the ancient inhabitants of Britain; if we shudsaid, according to the principles which we now  der to think of the misery which would still have
hear stated, in all respects as fairly and as truly  overwhelmed us had Great Britain continued to
of Britain herself, at that period of her history,  the present times to be a mart for slaves to the
as it can now be said by us of the inhabitants of  more civilized nations of the world, through some
Africa?                                           cruel policy of theirs, GOD forbid that we should
We, sir, have long since emerged from bar-  any longer subject Africa to the same dreadful
Contrast of her barism.  We have almost forgotten  scourge, and preclude the light of knowledge,
tion, yet n.'   that we were once barbarians.  We  which has reached every other quarter of the
fg   int ersep-l are now raised to a situation which  globe, from having access to her coasts.
oa others barbarians.   exhibits a striking contrast to every      I trust we shall no longer continue this corncircumstance by which a Roman might have  rmerce, to the destruction of every im- Peroration: ancharacterized us, and by which we now charac- provement on that wide continent; ianting prosterize Africa.  There is, indeed, one thing want-  and shall not consider ourselves as cllargeoftlliu
ing to complete the contrast, and to clear us al-  conferring too great a boon, in restor- duty.
together fiom the imputation of acting even to  ing its inhabitants to the rank of human beings.
this hour as barbarians; for we continue to this  I trust we shall not think ourselves too liberal,
hour a barbarous traffic in slaves; we continue  if, by abolishing the slave trade, we give them
it even yet, in spite of all our great and undenia-  the same common chance of civilization with
ble pretensions to civilization.  We were once  other parts of the world, and that we shall now
as obscure among the nations of the earth, as  allow  to Africa the opportunity, the hope, the
savage in our manners, as debased in our mor- prospect of attaining to the same blessings which
als, as degraded in our understandings, as these  we ourselves, through the favorable dispensations
unhappy Africans are at present.  But in the  of Divine Providence, have been permitted, at a
lapse of a long series of years, by a progression  much more early period, to enjoy.  If we listen
slow, and for a time almost imperceptible, we  to the voice of reason and duty, and pursue this
have become rich in a variety of acquirements, night the line of conduct which they prescribe.
favored above measure in the gifts of Providence, some of us may live to see a reverse of that pieunrivaled  in  commerce, pre-eminent in  arts,  ture from  which we now  turn our eyes with
foremost in the pursuits of philosophy and sci- shame and regret.  We may live to behold the
ence, and established in all the blessings of civil natives of Africa engaged in the calm  occupa.society.  We are in the possession of peace, of  tions of industry, in the pursuits of a just and le.
happiness, and of liberty.  We are under the  gitimate commerce.  We may behold the beams
guidance of a mild and beneficent religion; and  of science and philosophy breaking in upon their
we are protected  by impartial laws, and the  land, which at some happy period in still later
purest administration of justice.  We are living  times may blaze with full luster; and joining
under a system  of government which our own  their influence to that of pure religion, may illuhappy experience leads us to pronounce the best minate and invigorate the most distant extremand wisest which has ever yet been framed; a  ities of that immense continent.  Then may we




592                                        MR. PITT  ON                                          [1792.
hope that even Africa, though last of all the quar-    I shall vote, sir, against the adjournment; and
ters of the globe, shall enjoy at length, in the even-  I shall also oppose to the utmost every proposiing of her days, those blessings which have de-  tion which in any way may tend either to prescended so plentifully upon us in a much earlier  vent, or even to postpone for an hour, the total
period of the world.  Then, also, will Europe, abolition of the slave trade: a measure which,
participating in her improvement and prosperity,  on all the various grounds which I have stated,
receive an ample recompense for the tardy kind-  we are bound, by the most pressing and indisness (if kindness it can be called) of no longer  pensable duty, to adopt.
hindering that continent from extricating herself
out of the darkness which, in other more fortunate regions, has been so much more speedily           So great was the impression made by this
dispelled.                                          speech, that nearly all the spectators present
-~Nos que ubi primus equis oriens afflavit an- supposed the vote would be carried almost by
helis;                                      acclamation.  But the private, pecuniary interIllic sera rubens accendit lumina vesper.s           ests which bore upon the House were too weighty
Then, sir, may be applied to Africa those  to be overcome, and Mr. Dundas' plan of a gradwords, originally used, indeed, with a different ual abolition had the preference by a majority of
view:                                                sixty-eight votes.  Mr. Dundas now brought forHis demum exactis                                ward his scheme in detail, which was passed by
Devenere locos leetos, et ammna vireta           a majority of nineteen, but the bill was lost in the
Fortunatorum nemorum, sedesque beatas,           House of Lords.  The subject came up, through
Largior hic campos JEther et lumine vestit       the indefatigable labors of Mr. Wilberforce, sesPurpuero:9                                       sion after session, until in 1806, after Mr. Pitt's
It is in this view, sir-it is an atonement for  death, a resolution was passed declaring  " that
our long and cruel injustice toward Africa, that the slave trade was inconsistent with justic:, huthe measure proposed by my honorable friend  manity, and sound policy, and that measures
most forcibly recommends itself to my mind. ought to be taken for its immediate abolition."
The great and happy change to be expected in  A bill I.o this effect was finally passed, February
the state of her inhabitants, is, of all the various  6th, 1807; and January 1st, 1808, was fixed
and important benefits of the abolition, in my es-  upon for the termination of the traffic on the part
timation, incomparably the most extensive and  of the English.
important.'0                                           America, in the mean time, had gone in advance
_~~ -~ -..- ___...._....    on this subject and stood foremost among the nap This passage is taken from Virgil's descriptio n,  f                              ppession of the
ticns in her measure, for the suppression of the
of the zodiac in his Georgics (book i., lines 030-0), slave t       In  1794  it was encted that no
and of the sun's progress through the constellations,                      
so that Morning rises on one side of the globe, while erson    the Uted States should fit ot ay  es
Eivening follows in slow succession on the other.  sel there for the purpose of carrying on any trafThis Mr. Pitt beautifully applies to the successive  fic in slaves to any foreign country, or for prorising of the light of science on the two continents  curing f     rom  any foreign country the inhabitants
of Europe and of Africa.                             thereof to be disposed of as slaves.  In 1800, it
On us, while early Dawn with panting steeds,    was enacted that it should be unlawful for any
Breathes at his rising, ruddy Eve for them         citizen of the United States to have aney property
Lights up her fires slow-coming.                   ile azey vessel employed  in transporting slaves
These words introduce Virgil's description of  from  one foreign country to another, or to serve
the Elysian fields in his region of departed spirits     oad any vessel so employed. In 1807 it was
(ineid, book vi., lines 637-41).                     enacted that after the first of January 1 808. no
These rites performed, they reach those happy fields,  slaves should be imported into the United States.
Gardens and groves, and seats of living joy,Gardens, and grzoves, and seats of living joy,       The slave trade was declared to be piracy by the
VWhere the pure ether spreads with wider sway,, a    b  t   Bii
And throws a purple light o'er all the plains.can Cngress i 820, and b  te B
Parliament in 1824.'1 The last four paragraphs of this speech, togeth-  Pliamen          4.
or with three others at the opening of the third head, theme in such cases was usually his country —what
But now. sir, I come to Africa," are specimens of  she had been, what she might be, what she ouglit
that lofty declamation with which Mr. Pitt so often  to accomplish. His amplifications are often in the
raised and delighted the feelings of the House. His  best manner of Cicero, adapted to modern times.




1797.]            THE RUPTURE OF NEGOTIATIONS WITH FRANCE.                                      593
SPEECH
OF MR. PITT ON THE RUPTURE OF NEGOTIATIONS WITH FRANCE, DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF
COMMONS, NOVEMBER 10, 1797.
INTRODUCTION.
FRANCE having declared war against Austria, April 20th, 1792, and against England, February 1st, 1793,
all the leading powers of Europe united with the latter, and the contest soon became general. At the
end of four years, the French had triumphed over their adversaries throughout the Continent; all the
allies of England were driven from the field, and the Spaniards and Dutch were forced to turn their arms
against her. The English, on the other hand, were every where victorious on the ocean, and had taken
all her colonies from France, some valuable islands in the West Indies from Spain, and the Cape of Good
Hope and the island of Ceylon from Holland, now the Batavian Republic.
But the internal condition of England made Mr. Pitt desirous of peace, and while his adversaries had!
nothing to restore, he had large possessions of theirs which he was willing to surrender as the price of a
general pacification. Accordingly, on the fourth of July, 1797, he opened negotiations with the French at
Lisle, through Lord Malmesbury, who had been sent the preceding year to Paris on the same mission,
though without success. There were two parties at this time in the French government-the one moderate, the other violent and extreme. Hence, in conducting the negotiation, there was a continual fluctuation and studied delay on the part of the French, until the violent party prevailed in the revolutionary
movement of September 4th, 1797, when they broke off the negotiation, twelve days after, in a rude and.
insulting manner. Mignet gives a solution of their conduct in his History of the French Revolution:;
"The Directory, at this time without money, without the support of a party at home, with no other aid;
than that of the army, and no other means of influence than a continuation of its victories, was not in a
condition to consent to a general peace. THar fwas necessary to its existence. An immense body of troops
could not be disbanded without danger."  The nation was therefore to be dazzled, and the army employed, by an expedition for the conquest of Egypt, as the high road to the English possessions in India
Jomini admits, in his History of the Wars of the Revolution, that "Europe was convinced, on this occasion at least, that the cabinet of St. James had evinced more moderation than a Directory whose proceedings were worthy of the days of Robespierre."
On the 24th of October, 1797, the King of England issued a "Declaration, respecting the Negotiation
for Peace with France," part of which will here be given, as a specimen of the noble and commanding
style of Mr. Pitt in his state papers.
"His MAJESTY directed his minister to repair to France furnished with the most ample powers, and'
instructed to communicate at once an explicit and detailed proposal and plan of peace, reduced into theshape of a regular treaty, just and moderate in its principles, embracing all the interests concerned, and
extending to every subject connected with the restoration of public tranquillity.
"To this proceeding, open and liberal beyond example, the conduct of his Majesty's enemies opposes.
the most striking contrast. From them no counter-project has ever yet been obtained; no statement of
the extent or nature of the conditions on which they would conclude any peace with these kingdoms.
Their pretensions have always been brought forward either as detached or as preliminary points, distinct
from the main object of negotiation, and accompanied in every instance with an express reserve of further and unexplained demands.
"The points which, in pursuance of this system, the plenipotentiaries of the enemy proposed for separate discussion in their first conferences with his Majesty's minister, were at once frivolous and offensive,
none of them productive of any solid advantage to France, but all calculated to raise new obstacles in the
way of peace. And to these demands was soon after added another, in its form unprecedented, in its
substance extravagant, and such as could only originate in the most determined and inveterate hostility.
The principle of mutual compensation (before expressly admitted by common consent as the just andi
equitable basis of negotiation) was now disclaimed; every idea of moderation or reason, every appearance of justice, was disregarded; and a concession was required from his Majesty's plenipotentiary, as,
a preliminary and indispensable condition of negotiation, which must at once have superseded all the
objects, and precluded all the means of treating. France, after incorporating with her own dominions so,
large a portion of her conquests, and affecting to have deprived herself, by her own internal regulations,.
of the power of alienating these valuable additions of territory, did not scruple to demand from his Majesty the absolute and unconditional surrender of all that the energy of his people, and the valor of his
fleets and armies, have conquered in the present war, either from France or from her allies. She required.
that the power of Great Britain should be confined within its former limits, at the very moment when,
her own dominion was extended to a degree almost unparalleled in history. She insisted that in proportion to the increase of danger the means of resistance should be diminished; and that his Majesty
P P




594                                     MR. PITT  ON                                         [1797.
should give up, without compensation, and into the hands of his enemies, the necessary defenses of his
possessions, and the future safeguards of his empire. Nor was even this demand brought forward as constituting the terms of peace, but the price of negotiation; as the condition on which alone his Majesty
was to be allowed to learn what further unexplained demands were still reserved, and to what greater
sacrifices these unprecedented concessions of honor and safety were to lead!
"To France, to Europe, and to the world, it must be manifest, that the French government (while they
persist in their present sentiments) leave his Majesty without an alternative, unless he were prepared to
surrender and sacrifice to the undisguised ambition of his enemies the honor of his crown and the safety
of his dominions. It must be manifest, that, insteadof showing, on their part, any inclination to meet his
Majesty's pacific overtures on any moderate terms, they have never brought themselves to state any
terms (however exorbitant) on which they were ready to conclude peace.  i " X f   The rupture
of the negotiation is not, therefore, to be ascribed to any pretensions (however inadmissible) urged as the
price of peace; not to any ultimate difference on terms, however exorbitant; but to the evident and
fixed determination of the enemy to prolong the contest, and to pursue, at all hazards, their hostile designs against the prosperity and safety of these kingdoms.
" While this determination continues to prevail, his Majesty's earnest wishes and endeavors to restore
peace to his subjects must be fruitless. But his sentiments remain unaltered. He looks with anxious
expectation to the moment when the government of France may show a disposition and spirit in any degree corresponding to his own. And he renews, even now, and before all Europe, the solemn declaration,
that, in spite of repeated provocations, and at the very moment when his claims have been strengthened
and confirmed by that fresh success which, by the blessing of Providence, has recently attended his arms,
he is yet ready (if the calamities of war can now be closed) to conclude peace on the same moderate and
equitable principles and terms which he has before proposed. The rejection of such terms must now,
more than ever, demonstrate the implacable animosity and insatiable ambition of those with whom he has
to contend, and to them alone must the future consequences of the prolongation of the war be ascribed.
" His Majesty has an anxious, but a sacred, indispensable duty to fulfill: he will discharge it with resolution, constancy, and firmness. Deeply as he must regret the continuance of a war, so destructive in its
progress, and so burdensome even in its success, he knows the character of the brave people whose interests and honor are intrusted to him. These it is the first object of his life to maintain; and he is conyinced that neither the resources nor the spirit of his kingdoms will be found inadequate to this arduous
contest, or unequal to the importance and value of the objects which are at stake. He trusts that the
favor of Providence, by which they have always hitherto been supported against all their enemies, will
be still extended to them; and that, under this protection, his faithful subjects, by a resolute and vigorous
application of the means which they possess, will be enabled to vindicate the independence of their
country, and to resist with just indignation the assumed superiority of an enemy, against whom they
have fought with the courage, and success, and glory of their ancestors, and who aims at nothing less
than to destroy at once whatever has contributed to the prosperity and greatness of the British empire;
all the channels of its industry, and all the sources of its power; its security from abroad, its tranquillity
at home; and, above all, that Constitution, on which alone depends the undisturbed enjoyment of its religion, laws, and liberties,"
This Declaration was laid before the House of Lords, November 8th, 1797, and an Address to the Throne
was passed without a single dissenting voice, approving of the course taken, and closing with these words:
"We know that great exertions are necessary; we are prepared to make them; and placing our firm
reliance on that Divine protection which has always hitherto been extended to us, we will support your
Majesty to the utmost, and stand or fall with our religion, laws, and liberties."  This address was sent
down to the Commons on the tenth, and every one supposed it would be adopted there with equal unanimity. But Sir John Sinclair, a well-meaning but weak man, who was apprehensive that the tone of
the Declaration might produce increased hostility among the French people, proposed a substitute, which
dwelt in feeble language on " the various calamities to which nations in a state of hostility were necessarily exposed;" " deplored the continuance of a war which had already occasioned such an expense of
treasure and of blood," and expressed a hope of "speedily renewing a negotiation so favorable to the
interests of humanity."  This substitute he proposed, while, with singular inconsistency, he condemned
the ministry for the anxiety they had shown to prevent the conference from being broken off, declmaing
himself "perfectly astonished at the mean and degrading manner in which ministers had carried on the
negotiation."  He was followed by Earl Temple, a young relative of Mr. Pitt, who, in a maiden speech,
took up the latter idea in a way perfectly consistent with his principles (which were those of Mr. Burke),
and carried it much further, condemning ministers for negotiating at all, and going back to the origin and
conduct of the war in a spirit which (if carried out) would have rendered it eternal.
Mr. Pitt, in his peculiar mode of giving a bold relief to his position at the opening of a speech, seized
on the opportunity thus presented, and placed himself at once at the middle point between these two
extremes; and after showing the extravagance of each, went on to state the measures by which he had
endeavored to obtain peace, in one of the finest specimens of luminous exposition, intermingled with impassioned feeling, to be found ia our language.




1797.1          THE RUPTURE OF NEGOTIATIONS WITH FRANCE.                                   595
SPEECH, &c.
SIR,-Having come to this House with the  the present frantic government of France-not
firm conviction that there never existed an oc- of the people of France, as the honorable barocasion when the unanimous concurrence of the  net unjustly stated; is it our business at that
House might be more justly expected than on a  moment to content ourselves with merely laproposal to agree in the sentiments contained in  menting in commonplace terms the calamities of
the address which has been read, I must con- war? and forgetting that it is part of the duty
fess myself considerably disappointed, in some  which, as representatives of the people, we owe
degree, even by the speech of my noble relation  to our government and our country, to state that
[Lord Temple], much as I rejoice in the testimo- the continuance of those evils upon ourselves,
ny wMich he has given of his talents and abilities, and upon France, too, is the fruit only of the
and still more by the speech of the honorable  conduct of the enemy, that it is to be imputed to
baronet [Sir John Sinclair], and by the amend- them, and not to us?
ment which he has moved.  I can not agree    Sir, the papers which were ordered to be laid
Mr. Pitt's posi- with the noble Lord in the extent to  on the table have been in every gen- The French
tion between  which he has stated his sentiments, tleman's hand, and on the materials government rethe extremes of                                                                     sponsible for
thetwopreced- that we ought to rejoice that peace  which they furnish we must be pre- the continuance
ing speakers.                                  opf the war.
was not made; much less, sir, can I pared to decide.  Can there be a 
feel desirous to accept on the part of myself, or doubt that all the evils of war, whatever may be
my colleagues, either from  my noble kinsman, their consequences, are to be imputed solely to
or any other person, the approbation which he  his Majesty's enemies?  Is there any man here
was pleased to express of the manner in which  prepared to deny that the delay in every stage of
we have concluded the negotiation-WE have  the negotiation, and its final rupture, are proved
not concluded the negotiation-the negotiation has  to be owing to the evasive conduct, the unwarbeen concluded by others.  We have not been  rantable pretensions, the inordinate ambition, and
suffered to continue it.  Our claim to merit, if  the implacable animosity of the enemy? I shall
we have any, our claim to the approbation of our shortly state what are the points (though it is
country, is, that we persisted in every attempt to  hardly necessary that I should state them, for they
conduct that negotiation to a pacific termination, speak loudly for themselves) on which I would
as long as our enemies left us not the prospect, rest that proposition.  But if there is a man who
but the chance or possibility of doing so, consist- doubts it, is it the honorable baronet?  Is it he
ently with our honor, our dignity, and our safety. who makes this amendment, leaving out every
We lament and deplore the disappointment of the  thing that is honorable to the character of his
sincere wishes which we felt, and of the earnest own country, and seeming to court some new
endeavors which we employed; yet we are far complaisance on the part of the French Directofrom suffering those sentiments to induce us to  ry?  The honorable baronet, who, as soon as he
adopt the unmanly line of conduct that has been  has stated the nature of his amendment, makes
recommended by the honorable baronet. This is the first part of his speech a charge against his
not the moment to dwell only on our disappoint-  Majesty's ministers, for even having commenced
ment, suppress our indignation, or to let our the negotiation in the manner and under the circourage, our constancy, and our determination  cumstances in which they did commence it-who
be buried in expressions of unmanly fear or un- makes his next charge their having persevered in
availing regret.  Between these two extremes  it, when violations of form and practice were init is that I trust our conduct is directed; and in  sisted upon in the earliest stage of it?  Does
calling upon the House to join in sentiments be- he discover that the French government, whom
tween those extremes, I do trust, that if we can  we have accused of insincerity, have been sinnot have the unanimous opinion, we shall have  cere from the beginning to the end of the negothe general and ready concurrence both of the  tiation?  Or, after having accused his Majesty's
House and of the country.                       ministers for commencing and persevering in it,
I. Sir, before I trouble the House (which I am  is the honorable baronet so afraid of being misrelininary  not desirous of doing at length) with a  construed into an idea of animosity against the
discussion: few points which I wish to recapitu- people of France, that he must disguise the truth
(1.) Sir John                                          of  DJ                          h
Sinclair's  late, let me first call to your minds the  -must do injustice to the character and cause of
amendment. general nature of the amendment which  his own country, and leave unexplained the cause
the honorable baronet has, under these circum- of the continuance of this great contest?  Let us
stances, thought fit to propose, and the general be prepared to probe that question to the bottom,
nature of the observations by which he intro- to form  our opinion upon it, and to render our
duced it.  He began with deploring the calam- conduct conformable to that opinion.  This I
ities of war, on the general topic that all war is conceive to be a manly conduct, and, especially
calamitous. Do I object to this sentiment? No. at such a moment. to be the indispensable duty
But is it our business, at a moment when we feel of the House.
that the continuance of that war is owing to the    But let not the honorable baronet imagine there
animosity, the implacable animosity of our ene- is any ground for his apprehension, that by adoptmy, to the inveterate and insatiable ambition of ing the language of the Address, which ascribes




596                                     MR. PITT ON                                      [1797.
the continuance of the war to the ambition of  the conduct of its rulers, but do not go the length
he Decla- the enemy, he will declare a system   of declaring that, aftel all this provocation, even
tion which as of endless animosity between the na- with the present rulers, all treaty is impracticasorts this, not         " "
calculatedto tions of Great Britain and France.  I ble.  Whether it is probable that, acting on the
ostiltyte  say directly the contrary.'  He who  principles upon which they have acquired their
Fmreng the  scruples to declare that in the pres- power, and while that power continues, they will
Ole.      ent moment the government of France  listen to any system of moderation or justice at
are acting as much in contradiction to the known  home or abroad, it is not now necessary to diswishes of the French nation as to the just pre- cuss.  But for one, I desire to express my cortensions and anxious wishes of the people of  dial concurrence in the sentiment. so pointedly
Great Britain-he who scruples to declare them  expressed in that passage of the Declaration in
[the government] the authors of this calamity-   which his Majesty, notwithstanding all the provdeprives us of the consolatory hope which we are  ocation he has received, and even after the recent
inclined to cherish of some future change of cir- successes which by the blessing of Providence
cumstances more favorable to our wishes.  It is have attended his arms, declares his readiness to
a melancholy spectacle, indeed, to see in any  adhere to the same moderate terms and princicountry, and on the ruin of any pretense of liber-  pies which he proposed at the time of our greatty, however nominal, shallow, or delusive a sys- est difficulties, and to conclude peace on that
ten of tyranny erected, the most galling, the most ground, if it can now be obtained, even with this
horrible, the most undisguised in all its parts and  very government.
attributes that has stained the page of history, or    I am sensible that while I am  endeavoring
disgraced the annals of the world.  But it would  to vindicate his Majesty's servants (2.) Erl Temn.
be much more unfortunate, if, when we see that against the charges of the honorable ple r""a".
the same cause carries desolation through France  baronet (which are sufficiently, however, refuted
which extends disquiet and fermentation through  by the early part of his own speech), I am inEurope-it would be worse, indeed, if we attrib- curring, in some degree, the censure of the nouted to the nation of France that which is to be at- ble Lord to whom I before alluded.  According
tributed only to the unwarranted and usurped au- to his principles and opinions, and of some few
thority which involves them in misery, and would, others in this country, it is matter of charge
if unresisted, involve Europe with them in one  against us, that we even harbor in our minds, at
common ruin and destruction.  Do we state this  this moment, a wish to conclude peace upon the
to be animosity on the part of the people of  terms which we think admissible with the presFrance?  Do we state this in order to raise up  ent rulers of France.  I am not one However small
an implacable spirit of animosity against that of those who can or will join in that hope, England
country?  Where is one word to that effect in  sentiment.  I have no difficulty inre- to be readyto
the declaration to which the honorable gentle- peating what I stated before, that in trenJat^en it
man has alluded?  He complains much of this  their present spirit, after what they with safety.,declaration, because it tends to perpetuate ani- have said, and still more, after what they have
mosity between two nations which one day or done, I can entertain little hope of so desirable an
other must be at peace-God grant that day  event.  I have no hesitation in avowing (for it,may be soon!  But what does that Declaration  would be idleness and hypocrisy to conceal it)
express upon the subject?  Does it express that that, for the sake of mankind in general, and to
because the present existing government of gratify those sentiments which can never be
France has acted as it has acted, we forego the  eradicated from the human heart, I should see
wish or renounce the hope that some new situa- with pleasure and satisfaction the termination of
tion may lead to happier consequences?  On the  a government whose conduct and whose origin is
contrary, his Majesty's language is distinctly  such as we have seen that of the government of
this:'While this determination continues to  France.  But that is not the object-that ought
prevail on the part of his enemies, his Majesty's not to be the principle of the war.  Whatever
earnest wishes and endeavors to restore peace to  wish I may entertain in my own heart, and whathis subjects must be fruitless, but his sentiments  ever opinion I may think it fair or manly to avow.
remain unaltered.  He looks with anxious ex- I have no difficulty in stating that, violent and
pectation to the moment when the government odious as is the character of that government, I
of France may show a temper and spirit in any  verily believe, in the present state of Europe,
degree corresponding with his own."  I wish to  that if we are not wanting to ourselves. if, by
know whether words can be found in the English  the blessing of Providence, our perseverance and
language which more expressly state the contra- our resources should enable us to make peace
ry sentiment to that which the honorable baron- with France upon terms in which we taint not
et imputes.  They not only disclaim animosity  our character, in which we do not abandon the
against the people of France in consequence of  sources of our wealth, the means of our strength,
This mode of turnig  an argunent round aud  the defense of what we already possess-if we
t This mode of turning an argument round and
presenting it with startling force under directly the maintai our equal pretentions and assert that
contrary aspect, has already been mentioned as a rank which we are entitled to hold among nastriking characteristic of Mr. Pitt. The ease and  tions-the moment peace can be obtained on
dexterity with which he does it are truly admira- such terms, be the form of government in France
ble.                                              what it may, peace is desirable, peace is then




1797.]           THE RUPTURE OF NEGOTIATIONS WITH FRANCE.                                  597
anxiously to be sought.  But unless it is at- drive England to the rupture.  They had not
tained on such terms, there is no extremity of strength enough to reject all negotiation, yet
war-there is no extremity of honorable contest they had strength enough to mix in every step
— that is not preferable to the name and pretense  those degradations and insults, those inconsistent
of peace, which must be, in reality, a disgraceful and unwarranted pretensions in points even of
capitulation, a base, an abject surrender of ev- subordinate importance, which reduced ministers
ery thing that constitutes the pride, the safety, to that option which I have described; but which
and happiness of England.2                      they decided in a way that has exposed them to
These, sir, are the sentiments of my mind on  the censure of the honorable baronet.  We chose
this leading point, and with these sentiments I rather to incur the blame of sacrificing punctilshape my conduct between the contending opin- ios (at some times essential) rather How met by
ions of the noble Lord and of the honorable bar- than afford the enemy an opportunity the BritishgovAnswer to Sir onet.  But there is one observation of of evading this plain question.  "Is ent
r'orfe or i-  the honorable baronet on which I must there any ground, and, if any, what, upon which
collsstency.  now more particularly remark.  He  you are ready to conclude?"  To that point it
has discovered that we state the Directory of was our duty to drive them.  We have driven
France to have been all along insincere, and  them  to that point.  They would tell us no
yet take merit for having commenced a negotia- terms, however exorbitant and unwarrantable,
tion which we ought never to have commenced  upon which they would be ready to make peace.
without being persuaded of their sincerity. This What would have been the honorable baronet's
supposed contradiction requires but a few words  expedient to avoid this embarrassment?  It
to explain it.  I believe that those who consti- would have been (as he has this day informed
tute the present government of France never us) an address which he had thought of moving
were sincere for a moment in the negotiation. in the last session, and which, indeed, I should
From  all the information I have obtained, and  have been less surprised had he moved, than if
from every conjecture I could form, I, for one, the House had concurred in it.  We would have
never was so duped as to believe themn sincere. moved that no project should be given Sir John SinBut I did believe, and I thought I knew, that in till the enemy were prepared to pre- clair's plan.
there was a prevailing wish for peace, and a  sent a counter-project.  If it was a great mispredominant sense of its necessity growing and  fortune that that address was not moved, I am
confirming itself in France, and founded on the  afraid some of the guilt belongs to me; because
most obvious and most pressing motives.  I did  the honorable baronet did suggest such an idea,
see a spirit of reviving moderation gradually  and I did with great sincerity and frankness tell
gaining ground, and opening a way to the hap- him  that, if he was really a friend to peace,
piest alterations in the general system  of that there was no motion he could make so little calcountry.  I did believe that the violence of that culated to promote that object; and I did prevail
portion of the executive government which, by  upon the honorable baronet to give up the intenthe late strange revolution of France, unhappily  tion.  If I am right in the supposition I have
for France itself and for the world, has gained  stated-if I am right in thinking that our great
the ascendency, would have been restrained with- object was to press France to this point, and to
in some bounds-that ambition must give way to  put the question, " If you have any terms to ofreason-that even frenzy itself must be controlled  fer, what are they?"-was there any one way
and governed by necessity.  These were the  by which we could make it so difficult for them
hopes and expectations I entertained. I did, not- to retain any pretense of a desire of peace as to
withstanding, feel that even from the outset, and  speak out ourselves, and call upon them  either
in every step of that negotiation, those who hap- for agreement, or for modification, or for some
pily had not yet the full power to cut it short in  other plan in their turn?  By not adopting the
the beginning-who dared not trust the public  honorable baronet's plan, we have put the queseye with the whole of their designs-who could  tion beyond dispute, whether peace was attainnot avow all their principles-unfortunately, nev- able at last, and whether our advances would or
ertheless, did retain from the beginning power would not be met on the part of France.  And
enough to control those who had a better dispo- I shall, to the latest hour of my life, rejoice that
sition, and to mix in every part of the negotia- we were fortunate enough to place this question (which they could not then abruptly break  tion in the light which defies the powers of misoff) whatever could impede, embarrass, and per- representation; in which no man can attempt
plex. in order to throw upon us, if possible, the to perplex it; and in which it presents itself this
odium of its failure.                           day for the decision of the House and of the naSir, the system of France is explained by the  tion, and calls upon every individual who has at
Conduct of the very objections that are made against stake the public happiness and his own, to dete rentp gov- our conduct. The violent party could  termine for himself whether this is or is not a
cr""ent.    not, as I have stated, at once break  crisis which requires his best exertions in the de.
off the treaty on their part, but they wished to fense of his country.
2 We have here one of those fine amplifications in   II. To show which, I shall now proceed, not
which Mr. Pitt was accustomed to enlarge and dwell withstanding the reproach which has been thrown
upon the more important parts of a subject, in order on our line of conduct, to show the system even
to deepen the impression.                       of obstinate forbearance, with which we endeav



598                                       MR. PITT  ON                                       [1797.
ored to overcome preliminary difficulties-the de-    His Majesty's answer was, that it was his deExposition of terminedresolution on our part to over- sire to adopt that mode only which was most
the ood"ctof look all minor obstacles, and to come  likely to accelerate the object in view; and the
the Frencht
government  to the real essence of discussion upon  powers of his plenipotentiary would apply to
as compared
with ttat of the terms of peace.  To show this, it either object, either preliminary or definitive.
the  glis. i not necessary to do more than to call They appeared content with his answer, but
to the recollection of the House the leading parts what was the next step?  In the simple form of
of the Declaration of his Majesty; I mean to leave  granting a passport for the minister, (3.) Gross inithat part of the subject, also, without the possibili- at the moment they were saying they propriety in the
passport they
ty of doubt or difference of opinion.  It is certain- preferred a definitive peace, because sent to the Enly true that, even previous to any of the circum- it was the most expeditious-in that glisl minister.
stances that related to the preliminary forms of  very passport, which in all former times has only
the negotiation, the prior conduct of France had  described the character of the minister, without
offered to any government that was not sincerely  entering into any thing relating to the terms or
and most anxiously bent upon peace, sufficient mode of negotiating-they insert a condition relground for the continuance of hostilities.  It is ative to his powers, and that inconsistent with
1.) Conducto true that, in the former negotiation at what his Majesty had explained to be the nature
the Frencth in  Paris, Lord Malmesbury was finally  of the powers he had intended to give, and with
the previous
negotiation of sent away, not upon a question of which they had apparently been satisfied. They
1796.      terms of peace-not upon a question  made it a passport not for a minister coming to
of the cession of European or Colonial posses- conclude peace generally, but applicable only to
sions, but upon the haughty demand of a pre- a definitive and separate peace.5
vious preliminary, which should give up every    This proceeding was in itself liable to the most
thing on the part of the allies; and which should  obvious objection.  But it is more important, as
leave them  afterward every thing to ask, or an instance to show how, in the simplest part of
rather to require.  It is true, it closed in nearly  the transaction, the untractable spirit of France
the same insulting manner as the second mission. discovered itself.  It throws light on the subseIt is true, too, that subsequent to that period, in  quent part of the transaction; and shows the inthe preliminaries concluded between the Emper- consistencies and contradictions of their successor and France, it was agreed to invite the allies ive pretensions.  As to the condition then made
of each party to a congress; which, however, in the passport for the first time, that the negowas never carried into execution.3  It was under tiation should be for a separate peace, his Majesty
these circumstances that his Majesty, in the  declared that he had no choice between a definiearnest desire of availing himself of that spirit tive and a preliminary treaty; but as to a separof moderation which had begun to show itself in  ate peace, his honor and good faith, with regard
France, determined to renew  those proposals  to his ally the Queen of Portugal, would not perwhich had been before slighted and rejected. mit it.  He, therefore, stated his unalterable deBut when this step was taken, what was the  termination to agree to no treaty in which Portconduct of those who have gained the ascenden- ugal should not be included; expressing, at the
cy in France?  On the first application to know  same time, his readiness that France should treat
(2.) The dicta- on what ground they were disposed  on the part of Holland and Spain.
torialtone from
thecommence to negotiate, wantonly, as will be    On this occasion, the good faith of this country..oot, as to the
nature of tht   shown by the sequel, and for nopur- prevailed.  The system of violence and Passport
negotiation.   pose but to prevent even the opening  despotism  was not then ripe, and there- changed.
of the conferences, they insisted upon a mode of  fore his Majesty's demand to treat for Portugal
negotiation very contrary to general usage and
negotiation very contrary to general usage and  at once for a definitive treaty."  See his Note in
convenience-contrary to the mode in which  Parliamentary History, vol. xxxiii., page 909.
they had terminated war with any of the bellig-   5 The passport addressed to the officers of the
erent powers, and directly contrary to any mode  French police was in the following words:
which they themselves afterward persisted in    "Allow to pass freely —, furnished with
following in this very negotiation with us! They  the full powers of his Britannic Majesty for the purbegan by saying they would receive no proposals  pose of negotiating, concluding, and signing a definfor prelisminaries, but that conferences should be  itive and separate treaty of peace with the French
held for the purpose of concluding at once a de- Republic."
Here the word separate was inserted in direct
fsnitive treaty.4                                 contravention of the arrangement between the two
governments, and was obviously intended to make
3 This was at Leoben, in April; 1797, when the  difficulty. England had agreed to negotiate for a depreliminaries of peace were settled between France  finitive, but not for a separate treaty; she could not
and Austria, which led to the treaty of Campo For- give up Portugal, which had long been under her
nio.                                              protection. The French Directory plainly designed
4 This refusal to discuss "the preliminaries of to draw Mr. Pitt into a dilemma: if he accepted the
peace," as proposed by Lord Grenville (in accord. passport, and afterward undertook to treat for Portance with established usage), was contained in the  ugal, the negotiation could be broken off on the
first note from the French minister. He put the ne- ground that he went beyond the terms established
gotiation on the ground of England's coming forward  by the passport; if he refused the passport, it was
immediately with her "overtures and proposals,"  easy to say he had broken off the negotiation when
and insisted that "negotiations should be set on foot acceded to by France.




1797.]            THE RUPTURE OF NEGOTIATIONS WITH FRANCE.                                         599
was acquiesced in by the Directory.  They, at his dominions furnish, any person better qualified
the same time, undertook to treat on their part to do justice to his sincere and benevolent desire
for their allies, Holland and Spain, as well as for  to promote the restoration of Peace, and his firm
themselves; though in the subsequent course of  and unalterable determination to maintain the
the negotiation, they pretended to be without dignity and honor of his kingdom.
sufficient power to treat for either.                  In spite of these obstacles and others more
I must here entreat the attention of the House  minute, the British plenipotentiary (5.) xchange of
(4.) Use of insult- to the next circumstance which oc- at length arrived at Lisle. The full powers, those of
ing language by                                 h                                          the French comthe Frellchasto curred.  When the firmness of his  powers were  transmitted  to  the missionersless
the Britishi gov-                                   eajesty, his anxious and sincere de-  ample than those
ternenlt ano- Majesty, his aniousandsince           respective governments, and were ofth English
bassador.    sire to terminate the horrors of war,  found unexceptionable; though the "    embasaor'
and his uniform  moderation overcame the vio- supposed defect of these full powers is, three
lence, and defeated the designs of the members  months after, alleged as a cause for the rupture
of the executive government of France, they had  of the negotiation!  And what is more remarkrecourse to another expedient, the most absurd, able, it did so happen that the French full powas well as the most unjustifiable.  They advert-  ers were, on the face of them, much more limited to the rupture of the former negotiation, as if  ed than ours; for they only enabled the commisthat rupture was to be imputed to his Majesty;  sioners of the Directory to act according to the
and this insinuation was accompanied with a per- instructions they were to receive from  time to
sonal reflection upon the minister who was sent time.  On this point it is not necessary now to
by his Majesty to treat on the part of this coun- dwell; but I desire the House to treasure it in
try.6  His Majesty, looking anxiously as he did  their memory, when we come to the question of
to the conclusion of peace, disdained to reply  pretense for the rupture of the negotiation.
otherwise than by observing that this was not a        Then, sir, I come to the point in which we
fit topic to be agitated at the moment of renew- have incurred the censure of the hon- (6.) The En-,                                                                            glish at once
ing a negotiation, and that the circumstances of  orable baronet, for delivering in on our ofered their
the transaction were well enough known to Eu- part a project.  To his opinion I do not project in a
lope and to the world.  And the result of this  subscribe, for the reasons that I stated drawn out.
negotiation has confirmed, what the former had  before.  But can there be a stronger proof of
sufficiently proved, that his Majesty could not his Majesty's sincerity than his waving so many
have selected, in the ample field of talents which  points important in themselves, rather than suf~___ _' _ _~~~__     _     __~   tfer the negotiation to be broken off?  What was
6 The following are the words which charge the  oU situation? We were to treat with
rupture of the preceding negotiation on the English:outset doig:
"The Directory requires that it shall be estab- I       rs             t                  (a) France delished as a principle, that each English packet-boatexpressed that they would treat only m        e a d
which shall have brought over either the plenipo-  definitively, and from  every part of
tentiary or a courier shall not be allowed to make  their conduct which preceded the meeting of
any stay."  "The Directory desires, at the same  our plenipotentiary and their commissioners, w,
time, that the couriers should not be sent too fre- might have expected that they would have been
quently; the frequent sending them having been one prepared to answer our project almost in twentyof the principal causes of the rupture of the preced-  four hours after it was delivered.  We stood
ing ntleg otictiotZ;"                              I with respect to France in this pre- (b) England had
Nothing more frivolous could be conceived of as a    c             had  nothing to as          toretD..                                      dicament —we had nothing to ask ceive fro..her
reason for such a rupture. Nothing of this kind was                                        enemy, but had
mentioned at the time. The French minister did in       them    The questiononly   as,  nplyto 
one instance inquire, whether it was necessary for how much we were to give of that willt tle w
Lord Malmesbury to send a courier to England every  which the valor of his Majesty's up.
time he received a communication from the Direct- arms had acquired from  them  and from  their
ory-a question which seems plainly to have been  allies.  In this situation, surely, we might have
designed as a taunt; and his Lordship coolly replied,  expected that, before we offered the price of
that he should do it " as often as the official commu- peace, they would at least have condescended to
nications made to him required special instructions."  say what were the sacrifices which they expectThe " personal reflection" on Lord Malinesbury 
The " personal reflection" on Loi-d Malmueshury ed us to make. But, sir, in this situation, what
was in the following words: "The Directory consents                  
that the negotiation shallbe opened by Lord Malmes- species of project was it that was presented by
bury. Anlother choice would, however, have appear-  his Majesty's minister?   A  project the most
ed to the Directory to augur more favorably for a  distinct, the most particular, the most conciliatospeedy conclusion of peace."  This was a gratui- ry and moderate, that ever constituted the first
tousinsult.  Lord Malmesbury was distinguished for  words spoken by any negotiator.  And yet of
his courteous deportment, and no complaint had been  this project what have we heard in the languase
made of him  by the French government. Even  of the French government?  What have we seen
Belsham, who was so rabid against Mr. Pitt and his  dispersed through all Europe, by tLat press in
friends, that Fox once said concerning his Memoirs   rance  hich knows no sentiments but what the
a-     France which knows no sentiments but what the
of the IReign of George III., "how can a man write
ofthe~eignof  eorgFrench police   dictates?  What have we seen
history in this way?" admits that his Lordship "was  French pole dictates?   What have we seen
uniformly mild and temperate, his manners polite  dispersed by that English press which knows no
and pleasing."-Vol. vi., page 322. It is plain the  other use of English liberty but servilely to re
Directory meant to force Mr. Pitt, by their treatment,  tail and transcribe French opinions?  We have
to break off the negotiation.                       been told that it was a project that refused to




600                                      MR. PITT ON                                      [1797.
embrace the terms of negotiation!  Gentlemen  and defeats.  To a power which had never sephave read the papers; how does that fact stand?  arately met the arms of this country by land, but
In the original project, we agreed to give up the  to carry the glory and prowess of the British
conquests we had made from  France and her name to a higher pitch; and to a country whose
allies, with certain exceptions.  For those ex-  commerce is unheard of; whose navy is annihiceptions a blank was left, in order to ascertain  lated; whose distress, confessed by themselves
whether France was desirous that the exceptions  (however it may be attempted to be dissembled
should be divided between her and her allies, or by their panegyrists in this or any other country),
whether she continued to insist upon a complete  is acknowledged by the sighs and groans of the
compensation, and left England to look for corn- people of France, and proved by the expostulapensation only to her allies.  France, zealous as tions and remonstrations occasioned by the vioshe pretends to be for her allies, had no difficulty  lent measures of its executive government-such
in authorizing her ministers to declare that she  was the situation in which we stood-such the
must retain every thing for-heiself.  This blank  situation of the enemy when we offered to make
The blanks for was then filled up; and it was then  those important concessions as the price of
English concessions, wlhen.fiiled distinctly stated how  little, out of  peace.  What was the situation of the allies of
ubetr stil  what we had, we demndeto             France?  From Spain-who, from the moment
ther negotiation. In one sense, it remains a blank still: she had deserted our cause and enlisted on the
we did not attempt to preclude France fiom any  part of the enemy, only added to the number of
other mode of filling it up; but while we stated  our conquests, and to her own indelible disgrace
the utmost extent of our own views, we left open  -we made claim of one island, the island of
to full explanation whatever points the govern- Trinidad-a claim not resting on the mere nament of France could desire.  We called upon  ked title of possession to counterbalance the genthem, and repeatedly solicited them  to state  eral European aggrandizement of France, but as
something as to the nature of the terms which  the price of something that we had to give, by
they proposed, if they objected to ours.  It was making good the title to the Spanish part of
thus left open to modification, alteration, or con- Saint Domingo, which Spain had ceded without
cession. But this is not the place, this is not the  right, and which cession could not be made withtime, in which I am  to discuss whether those  out our guarantee.  To Holland-having in our
terms, in all given circumstances, or in the cir- hands the whole means of their commerce, the
cumstances of that moment, were or were not whole source of their wealth-we offered to rethe ultimate terms upon which peace ought to  turn almost all that was valuable and lucrative
be accepted or rejected, if it was once brought to them, in the mere consideration of commerce.
to the point when an ultimatum could be judged  We desired, in return, to keep what to them, in
of.  I will not argue whether some greater con- a pecuniary point of view, would be only a burcession might not have been made with the cer- den [the Cape of Good Hope and the island of
tainty of peace, or whether the terms proposed  Ceylon]; in a political view worse than useless,
constituted an offer of peace upon more favora- because they had not the means to keep it-what
ble grounds for the enemy than his Majesty's  (had we granted it) would have been a sacrifice,
ministers could justify.  I argue not the one  not to them, but to France-what would in fuquestion or the other.  It would be inconsistent ture have enabled her to carry on her plan of
with the public interest and our duty, that we  subjugation against the eastern possessions of
should here state or discuss it.  All that I have  Holland itself, as well as against those of Great
to discuss is, whether the terms, upon the face  Britain.7  All that we asked was not indemnificaof them, appear honorable, open, frank, distinct, tion for what we had suffered, but the means of
sincere, and a pledge of moderation; and I leave  preserving our own possessions and the strength
it to the good sense of the House whether there  of our naval empire.  We did this at a time
can exist a difference of opinion upon this point. when our enemy was feeling the pressure of war;
Sir, what was it we offered to renounce to  and who looks at the question of peace without
(7.) Conces France?   In one word, all that we  some regard to the relative situation  of the
ioin offered had taken fiom them.  What did this  country with which you are contending?  Look,
by Engand. consist of?  The valuable, and almost then, at their trade; look at their means; look at
under all circumstances, the impregnable isl- the posture of their affairs; look at what we hold,
and of Martinique; various other West India  and at the means we have of defending ourselves,
possessions; Saint Lucia, Tobago, the French  and our enemy of resisting us, and tell me whethpart of Saint Domingo, the settlements of Pondi- er this offer was or was not a proof of sincerity,
cherry and Chandernagore; all the French fac- and a pledge of moderation.  Sir, I should be
tories and means of trade in the East Indies; and  ashamed of arguing it.  I confess I am apprethe islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon.  And  hensive we may have gone too far in the first
for what were these renunciations to be made?  proposals we made, rather than shown any backFor peace, and for peace only.  And to whom? wardness in the negotiation, but it is unnecessaTo a nation which had obtained from his Majes- ry to argue this point.
ty's dominions in Europe nothing in the course
of the war-which had never met our fleets but   7 The concessions offered by England were so
to add to the catalogue of our victories, and to  ample that all Europe, and even Mr. Belsham, pro.
swell the melancholy lists of their own captures  nounced them highly liberal.




1797.]            THE RUPTURE OF NEGOTIATIONS WITH FRANCE.                                       601
Our proposal was received and allowed by the  then to hear what they had further to ask!  Is
(8.) The French French plenipotentiaries, and trans-  it possible to suppose that such a thing could be
now insist on   mitted for the consideration of the  listened to by any country that was not prepared
the discussion
orprelinina-  Directory.  Months had elapsed in  to prostrate itself at the feet of France; and in
sending couriers weekly and daily  that abject posture to adore its conqueror, to sofrom  Paris to Lisle, and from  Lisle to Paris.  licit new insults, to submit to demands still more
They taught us to expect, fiom time to time, a  degrading and ignominious, and to cancel at
consideration of this subject, and an explicit an-  once the honor of the British name?  His Majswer to our project.  But the first attempt of the  esty had no hesitation in refusing to comply with
Directory to negotiate, after having received our  such insolent and unwarrantable demands. Here,
project, is worthy of remark.  They required  again, the House will see that the spirit of the
that we, whom they had summoned to a defiai- violent part of the French government which,
tive treaty, should stop and discuss preliminary  had the insolence to advance this proposition. had
points, which were to be settled without know- not acquired power and strength in that state of
ing whether, when we had agreed to them  all, the negotiation to adhere to it.  His Majesty's
we had advanced one inch.  We were to dis- explanations and remonstrances for a time precuss, (1) whether his Majesty would renounce  vailed; and an interval ensued in which we had
the title of King of France, a harmless feather at a hope that we were advancing to a pacification.
most in the crown of England.  We were to dis-  His Majesty's refusal of this demand was received
cuss, (2) whether we would restore those ships  by the French plenipotentiaries with assurances
taken at Toulon, the acquisition of valor, and  of a pacific disposition, was transmitted to their
which we were entitled upon every ground to  government, and was seconded by a continued
hold.  We were to discuss, (3) whether we  and repeated repetition of promises that a counwould renounce the mortgage which we might ter-project should be presented-pretending that
possess on the Netherlands, and which engaged  they were under the necessity of sending to
much of the honorable baronet's attention; but their allies an account of what passed, and that
it does so happen that what the honorable bar-  they were endeavoring to prevail on them to aconet considered as so important was of no im- cede to proposals for putting an end to the caportance at all; for a mortgage on the Nether- lamities of war-to terminate the calamities of
lands we have none, and consequently we have  that war into which those allies wereforced; in
none to renounce.  Therefore, upon that condi- which they were retained by France alone; and
tion, which they had no right to ask, and we had  in which they purchased nothing but sacrifices
no means of granting, we told them  the true  to France and misery to themselves.  We were
state of the case, and that it was not worth talk-  told, indeed, in a conference that followed, that
ing about.8                                        they had obtained an answer; but that not being
The next point which occurred is of a nature  sufficiently satisfactory, it was sent back to be
9.) The next which is difficult to dwell upon with-  considered!  This continued during the whole
demand the   out indignation.  We were waiting  period, until that dreadful catastrophe of the 4th
srrerender oaall u'In
the cqannests the fulfillment of a promise which had  of September, 1797.  Even after that event, the
made by Enand, as a pre- been made repeatedly, of delivering  same pretense was held out: they peremptorily
i.  to our embassador a counter-project,  promised the counter-project in four days; the
when they who had desired us to come for the  same pacific professions were renewed, and our
purpose of concluding a definitive treaty, propose  minister was assured that the change of circurmthat we should subscribe, as a sine qua nonprelim- stances in France should not be a bar to the painary, that we were ready, in the first instance,  cification.  Such was the uniform  language of
to consent to give up all that we had taken, and  the plenipotentiaries in the name of the govern_-__.........._. _._.__              ment-how it is proved by their actions, I have
8 It may be remarked as to the first of these pre- already stated to the House.  After this series
liminary points, that all the French kings for three
centuries had allowed this part-of the title of the  This extraordinary demand was made on the
English monarch ("King of France") to stand at ground (never mentioned or alluded to before) that
the head of treaties, and it was, therefore, certainly  "there exists in the public and secret treaties by
frivolous to raise any question about it. As to the  which the French Republic is bound to its allies,
second, touching the ships taken at Toulon, there  Spain and the Batavian Republic, articles by which
was more plausibility in the claim, because they  those powers respectively guarantee the territories
were given up on the condition of being "restored  possessed by each of them  before the war.  The
in the event of peace."  But they were given up by  French government, unable to detach itself from
French Royalists to create a diversion against the  these engagements, establishes as an idi.spelsablc
Republic, and the peace referred to was, therefore,  preliminary of the negotiation for the peace with
plainly a peace with the regal government, and not England, the consent of his Britannic Majesty to
with a revolutionary body like the Directory. The  the restitution of all the possessions which he occuthird preliminary related to a lien which England  pies, not only from the French Republic, but further
had on the hereditary possessions of Austria, as se- and formally, of those of Spain and of the Batavian
curity for certain loans made to the Emperor; and  Republic."  It is obvious that this was an afterthe Directory demanded to know whether the Aus- thought to impede the negotiation, and that France,
trian Netherlan]s (then incorporated into France) which overruled Spain and Holland at her will, had
were considered as subject to this lien. Mr. Pitt no difficulty on this subject except as she chose to
answered them as stated in the text.               make one.




602                                      MR. PITT ON                                     [1797.
of professions, what was the first step taken [by  or that such a negotiation was likely to lead to a
the French], to go on with the negotiation in  good end; all I can say is, that with Impossible for
England to
this spirit of conciliation?  Sir, the first step  such a man I will not argue.  I leave grant this.
was to renew (as his Majesty's Declaration has others to imagine what was likely to have been
well stated), in a shape still more offensive, the  the end of a negotiation in which it was to have
former inadmissible and rejected demand-the  been settled as a preliminary that you were to
rejection of which had been acquiesced in by  give up all that you have gained; and when, on
themselves two months before; and during all the side of your enemy, not a word was said of
which time we had been impatiently waiting  what he had to propose afterward.  They defor the performance of their promises. That de- mand of your embassador to show to them, not
(10.) They fin- mand was the same that I have al- only his powers, but also his instructions, before
Lord Ialme  ready stated in substance, that Lord  they explain a word of theirs; and they tell
bury that if he Malmesbury should explain to them  you, too, that you are never to expect to hear
has not power
to do this, le  not only his powers, but also his in- what their powers are, until you shall be ready
shall obtain it
from is ov-  structions; and they asked not for to accede to every thing which the Directory
en"ent^.    the formal extent of his power, which  may think fit to require.  This is certainly the
would give solidity to what he might conclude  substance of what they propose; and they tell
in the King's name, but they asked an irrevoca- you, also, that they are to carry on the negotiable pledge that he would consent to give up all tion from the instructions which their plenipotenthat we had taken from them and from their al- tiaries are to receive from  time to time from
lies without knowing how much more they had  them.  You are to have no power to instruct
afterward to ask!0  It is true, they endeavor- your embassador!  You are to show to the ened to convince Lord Malmesbury that, although  emy at once all you have in view!  And they
an avowal of his instructions was demanded, it will only tell you from time to time, as to them
would never be required that he should act upon  shall seem meet, what demands they shall make.
it-since there was a great difference between    It was thus it was attempted, on the part of the
knowing the extent of the powers of a minister French, to commence the negotiation. Recapitulaand insisting upon their exercise.  And here I In July, this demand was made to Lord tio""
would ask the honorable baronet whether he  Malmesbury.  He stated that his powers were
thinks if, in the first instance, we had given up  ample.  In answer to this, they went no farther
all to the French plenipotentiaries, they would  than to say that if he had no such power as what
have given it all back again to us?  Suppose I they required, he should send to England to obwas embassador from the French Directory, and  tain it. To which he replied, that he had not, nor
the honorable baronet was embassador from Great should he have it if he sent.  In this they acquiBritain, and I were to say to him, " Will you give  esce, and attempt to amuse us for two months.
up all you have gained; it would only be a hand- At the end of that time, the plenipotentiaries say
some thing in you as an Englishman, and no un- to Lord Malmesbury, not what they said before,
generous use shall be made of it?" would the  send to England for power to accede to propohonorable baronet expect me, as a French em- sals which you have already rejected; but go to
bassador, to say I am instructed, from  the good  England yourself for such powers, in order to
nature of the Directory, to say you have acted  obtain peace.
handsomely, and I now return what you have so    Such was the winding up of the negotiation.
generously given?  Should we not be called  Such was the way in which the prospect of peace
children and drivelers, if we could act in this has been disappointed by the conduct of France;
manner?  And, indeed, the French government and I must look upon the dismissal of Lord
could be nothing but children and drivelers if  Malmesbury as the last stage of the negotiation,
they could suppose that we should have acceded  because the undisguised insult by which it was
to such a proposal.  But they are bound, it pretended to be kept up for ten days after Lord
seems, by sacred treaties!  They are bound by  Malmesbury was sent away, was really below
immutable laws!  They are sworn, when they  comment.  You send him to ask for those powmake peace to return every thing to their allies! ers which you were told he had not, and in the reAnd who shall require of France, for the safety  fusal of which you acquiesced.  You have asked
of Europe, to depart from its own pretensions to  as a preliminary that which is monstrous and exhonor and independence?                        orbitant.  That preliminary you were told would
If any person can really suppose that this not be complied with, and yet the performance
country could have agreed to such a proposition, of that preliminary you made the sine qua non
conditions of his return!  Such was the last step
10 The words used were these: "There is a de- by which the French government has shown that
cree of the Directory, that in case Lord Malmesbury  it had feeling enough left to think it necessary to
shall declare himself not to have the necessary pow- search for soe pretext to color its proceedi-ns.
ers for agreeing to all the restitutions which the laws t they are such proceedings that      ee
and treaties which bind the French Republic make' *.e 
indispensable, he shall return in twenty:four hours to a e  n    e           l a       e  parhis court to ask for suficlient poswers."  As the Di- ticularly from the papers officially communicated
rectory knew the English could not grant this, cer- to the House.
tainly as a preliminarly, such a communication was    But here the subject does not rest.  If we look
a direct dismissal of Lord Malmesbury.          to the whole complexion of this transaction, the




1797.]           THE RUPTURE OF NEGOTIATIONS WITH FRANCE.                                       603
duplicity, the arrogance, and violence which has  stake is so small that would not be ready to
Arevolutionary  appeared in the course of the nego- sacrifice his life in the same cause.  If we look
otverntent, and tiation, if we take from thence our at it with a view to safety, this would be our
eople, responsi- opinion of its general result, we shall conduct.  But if we look at it upon the princiLlefortheiracts. be justifie                        i   ccuioni-not
for eiracts be justified in our conclusion-not pie of true honor, of the character which we
that the people of France-not that the whole  have to support, of the example which we have
government of France-but that part of the gov- to set to the other nations of Europe; if we view
ernment which had too much influence, and has  rightly the lot in which Providence has placed
now the whole ascendency, never was sincere-  us. and the contrast between ourselves and all
was determined to accept of no terms but such  the other countries in Europe, gratitude to that
as would make it neither durable nor safe; such  Providence should inspire us to make every efas could only be accepted by this country by a  fort in such a cause.  There may be danger;
surrender of all its interests, and by a sacrifice  but on the one side there is danger accompanied
of every pretension to the character of a great, a  with honor; on the other side, there is danger
powerful, or an independent nation.               with indelible shame and disgrace: upon such
This, sir, is inference no longer.  You have  an alternative, Englishmen will not hesitate.  I
They are di- their own open avowal.  You have  wish to disguise no part of my sentiments upon
the vertexist-S stated in the subsequent declaration  the grounds on which I put the issue of the conenrc of the   of France itself that it is not against test.  I ask, whether up to the principles I have
pire.      your commerce, that it is not against stated, we are prepared to act?  Having done
your wealth, it is not against your possessions in  so, my opinion is not altered: my hopes, howevthe East, or your colonies in the West, it is not er, are animated by the reflection that the means
against even the source of your maritime great- of our safety are in our own hands; for there
ness, it is not against any of the appendages of never was a period when we had more to enyour empire, but against the very essence of  courage us. In spite of heavy burdens, the radliberty, against the foundation of your independ- ical strength of the nation never showed itself
ence, against the citadel of your happiness, against more conspicuous; its revenue never exhibited
your Constitution itself, that their hostilities are  greater proofs of the wealth of the country; the
directed.  They have themselves announced and  same objects which constitute the blessings we
proclaimed the proposition, that what they mean  have to fight for, furnish us with the means of
to bring with their invading army is the genius  continuing them.  But it is not upon that point
of their liberty.  I desire no other word to ex- I rest.  There is one great resource, which 1
press the subversion of the British Constitution, trust will never abandon us, and which has shone
and the substitution of the most malignant and  forth in the English character, by which we have
fatal contrast-the annihilation of British liberty, preserved our existence and fame as a nation,
and the obliteration of every thing that has ren- which I trust we shall be determined never to
dered you a great, a flourishing, and a happy  abandon under any extremity; but shall join hand
people.                                            and heart in the solemn pledge that is proposed
This is what is at issue.  For this are we to  to us, and declare to his Majesty that we know
Isue now declare ourselves in a manner that dep- great exertions are lwanted; that we are prepared
before the recates the rage which our enemy will to make thefm; and are, at all events, determined
country.  not dissemble, and which will be little  to stand or fall by the LAWS, LIBERTIES, and
moved by our entreaty!  Under such circum- RELIGION of 010 country.
stances, are we ashamed or afraid to declare, in
a firm and manly tone, our resolution to defend
ourselves, or to speak the language of truth with    The  louse was completely electrified by this
the energy that belongs to Englishmen united  speech.  Sir John Sinclair, at the suggestion of
in such a cause?  Sir, I do not scruple, for one,  Mr. Wilberforce, withdrew  his motion for an
to say, If I knew nothizng by which I could state  amendment, and the Address was passed (as in
to myself a probability of the contest terminating  the House of Lords) without one dissenting voice.
in our favor, I would  maintain that the contest, The great body of the nation, with their characwith its worst chasnces, is preferable to an acqui- teristic energy in times of danger, rallied around
escence in such demands.                           King and Parliament. A subscription was raised
If I could look at this as a dry question of  of fifteen hundred thousand pounds sterling, as
Peroration: prudence; if I could calculate it upon  a voluntary donation to meet the increased extA1eal tr  the mere grounds of interest, I would  penses of the war; and Mr. Pitt was permitted
and tiei- say, if we love that degree of national so to modify his system  of taxation as to proall.     power which is necessary for the inde- duce a vast accession to the regular income of
pendence of the country and its safety; if we  the government.  This relieved him  fiom  his
regard domestic tranquillity, if we lool  at indi- main difficulty, and enabled him  to renew  the
vidual enjoyment from the highest to the mean-  contest with increased vigor.
est among us, there is not a man whose stake is    The Directory sent Bonaparte to invade Egypt
so great in the country that he ought to hesitate  early in 1798, and Turkey immediately declared
a moment in sacrificing any portion of it to op- war against France. Russia now entered eagerpose the violence of the enemy-nor is there, I  ly into the contest; and Austria, which had been
trusi; a man in this happy and free nation whose  negotiating with the French at Radstadt, since




604                                      MR. PITT  ON                                       (1800.
the treaty of Campo Formio, respecting the con- unpopular throughout France, but no party was
cerns of the German Empire, encouraged by the  strong enough to relieve the country From its aradvance of the Russians, again resorted to arms. rogance and rapacity, until Bonaparte suddenly
Thus was formed the third great confederacy  returned from Egypt, and, throwing himself on
against France, which was sustained by immense the army for support, usurped the government
subsidies furnished by Mr. Pitt out of the in- on the 9th of November, 1799.  A new Consticreased means now placed at his disposal. The tution was immediately formed, under which
scene of warfare at the close of 1798, and  Bonaparte was nominated First Consul for ten
throughout the year 1799, was extended over years, and this was adopted by a vote throughthe whole surface of Italy, along the banks of out France of 3,012,659 to 1562.  The new
the Rhine, amid the marshes and canals of Hol- government was inaugurated with great pomp
land, and among the lakes and mountains of on the 24th of December; 1799.  Bonaparte
Switzerland.  France, after gigantic efforts, lost made every effort to unite and pacify the peoall Italy, with the exception of Genoa, but re- pie; and with a view to present himself before
tained her borders upon the Rhine and the bar- Europe as governed by a spirit of moderation,
riers of the Alps.  Russia withdrew  from  the  he instantly dispatched a courier to England
contest in the autumn of 1799.                   with proposals for negotiating a peace.  This
The Directory had now  become extremely  brings us to the subject of the next speech.
S PEECH
OF MR. PITT ON AN ADDRESS TO THE THRONE APPROVING OF HIS REFUSAL TO NEGOTIATE
WITH BONAPARTE FOR A PEACE WITH FRANCE, DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS,
FEBRUARY 3, 1800.
INTRODUCTION.
ON the 25th of December, 1799, the day after he was inaugurated as First Consul of France, Bonaparte
addressed a letter to the Kilng of England, written with his own hand, and couched in the following terms:
"Called by the wishes of the French nation to occupy the first magistracy of the Republic, I think
it proper, on entering into office, to make a direct communication to your Majesty. The war which for
eight years has ravaged the four quarters of the world, must it be eternal? Are there no means of coming to an understanding? How can the two most enlightened nations of Europe, powerful and strong
beyond what their safety and independence require, sacrifice to ideas of vain greatness the benefits of
commerce, internal prosperity, and the happiness of families? How is it that they do not feel that
peace is of the first necessity as well as of the first glory? These sentiments can not be foreign to the
heart of your Majesty, who reigns over a free nation, and with the sole view of rendering it happy. Your
Majesty will only see in this overture my sincere desire to contribute efficaciously, for the second time,
to a general pacification, by a step speedy, entirely of confidence, and disengaged from those forms which,
necessary perhaps to disguise the dependence of weak states, prove only in those which are strong the
mutual desire of deceiving each other. France and England, by the abuse of their strength, may still
for a long time, to the misfortune of all nations, retard the period of their being exhausted. But I will
venture to say it, the fate of all civilized nations is attached to the termination of a war which involves
the whole world. Of your Majesty, &c.                                              BONAPARTE."
From the feelings expressed by Mr. Pitt in the preceding speech, we should naturally have expected
him to embrace this overture with promptitude, if not with eagerness. But the resentment which he
justly felt at the evasive and insulting conduct of the Directory during the last negotiation, seems wholly
to have changed his views, and he rejected the proposal in terms which were too much suited to awaken
a similar resentment in the new French rulers. The reply of Lord Grenville went back to the commencement of the war, declaring it to have been "an unprovoked attack" on the part of the French. It
assumed, that" this system continues to prevail," and that on the part of England "no defense but that
of open and steady hostility can be availing."  In reference to peace, it pointed to the restoration of the
Bourbons, as'the best and most natural pledge of its reality and permanence;" and while the En)glish
minister did not " claim to prescribe to France what shall be her form of government," he did say, us to
any ground of confidence in the one recently organized, "Unhappily no such security hitherto exists; no
sufficient evidence of the principles by which the new government will be directed; no reasonable ground
by which to judge of its stability."  The French minister, Talleyrand, replied to these remarks in a
pointed note, and Lord Grenville closed the correspondence in a letter reaffirming his former positions.
These communications were laid before the House of Commons, February 3d, 1800, when an Address
was proposed by Mr. Dundas, approving of the course taken by ministers. He was followed by Mr. Whitbread, Mr. Canning, and MLr. [afterward Lord] Erskine, who complained in strong terms of the uncourteous language used by Lord Grenville. Mr. Pitt then rose, and without making any defense on this
point, or touching directly upon the question, "Why should we not nowt treat?" took up the subject on
the broadest scale, going back to the origin of the war, the atrocities of the French in overrunning a




1800.]            HIS REFUSAL TO NEGOTIATE WITH BONAPARTE.                                      605
large part of Europe during the last ten years, the genius and spirit of the Revolution, the instability of
its successive governments, his motives for treating with such men on a former occasion, and the character ar':''-Is of Bonaparte from the commencement of his career as a military chieftain. This was the
most elaborate oration ever delivered by Mr. Pitt. Of the vast variety of facts brought forward or referred to, very few have ever been disputed; they are arranged in luminous order, and grow out of each
other in regular succession; they present a vivid and horrible picture of the miseries inflicted upon Europe by revolutionary France, while the provocations of her enemies are thrown entirely into the background.
It will interest the reader to compare this speech with the reply of Mr. Fox, in respect to the standpoint of the speaker. That of Mr. Fox was this, that peace is the natural state of human society, and
ought, therefore, to be made, unless there is clear evidence that the securities for its continuance are inadequate. Mr. Pitt's stand-point was this, that as the war existed, and sprung out of a system of perfidy
and violence unparalleled in the history of the world, it ought not to be ended except on strong and direct
evidence that there were adequate securities for the continuance of peace if made. The question was
whether the new government under Bonaparte offered those securities. But Mr. Pitt showed great dexterity in treating this government as merely a new phase of the Revolution, and thus bringing all the
atrocities of the past to bear on the question before the House. His speech was admirably adapted to a
people like the English, jealous of France as their hereditary rival, conscious of their resources, and prepared to consider a continuation of the contest, as the safest means of defending "their liberties, their
laws, and their most holy religion."
Some of the facts referred to in this speech have been already explained in connection with Mr. Fox's
reply on this subject, as given on a preceding page. For the convenience of the reader, however, these
explanations will, in a few instances, be given again.
SPEECH, &c.
SIn,  I am induced, at this period of the de- would, in any case, be impossible to separate the
bate, to offer my sentiments to the House, both  present discussion from the former crimes and
from an apprehension that at a later hour the at- atrocities of the French  Revolution; because
tention of the House must necessarily be exhaust- both the papers now on the table, and the whole
ed, and because the sentiment with which the hon- of the learned gentleman's argument, force upon
orable and learned gentleman [Mr. Erskine] be- our consideration the origin of the war, and all
gan his speech, and with which he has thought the material facts which have occurred during its
proper to conclude it, places the question pre- continuance.  The learned gentleman [Mr. Ercisely on that ground on which I am most desir- skine] has revived and retailed all those arguous of discussing it.  The learned gentleman  ments from his own pamphlet, which had before
seems to assume as the foundation of his reason- passed through thirty-seven or thirty-eight ediing, and as the great argument for immediate  tions in print, and now gives them to the House
treaty, that every effort to overturn the system  embellished by the graces of his personal delivof the French Revolution must be unavailing; ery.  The First Consul has also thought fit to
and that it would be not only imprudent, but al- revive and retail the chief arguments used by all
most impious to struggle longer against that or- the opposition speakers and all the opposition
der of things which, on I know not what princi- publishers in this country during the last seven
ple of predestination, he appears to consider as years.  And (what is still more material) the
immortal.  Little as I am inclined to accede to  question itself, which is now immediately at issue
this opinion, I am not sorry that the honorable -the question whether, under the present cirgentleman has contemplated the subject in this cumstances, there is such a prospect of security
serious view.  I do, indeed. consider the French  from any treaty with France as ought to induce
Revolution as the severest trial which the visita- us to negotiate, can not be properly decided upon
tion of Providence has ever yet inflicted upon the  without retracing, both from our own experience
nations of the earth; but I can not help reflecting, and from  that of other nations, the nature, the
with satisfaction, that this country, even under causes, and the magnitude of the danger against
such a trial, has not only been exempted from  which we have to guard, in order to judge of the
those calamities which have covered almost every  security which we ought to accept.
other part of Europe, but appears to have been    I say, then, that before any man can concur in
reserved as a refuge and asylum to those who  opinion with that learned gentleman; Threeopinions.
one of which
fled firom its persecution, as a barrier to oppose  before any man can think that the sub-,,st lie eld b.
its progress, and perhaps ultimately as an instru- stance of his Majesty's answer is any.tO'Fre
ment to deliver the world from the crimes and  other than the safety of the country gotiation.
miseries which have attended it.                  required; before any man can be of opinion that, to
Under this impression, I trust the House will the overtures made by the enemy, at such a time
Reasonsfordwell- forgive me, if I endeavor, as far as and under such circumstances, it would have been
tl he warf,athe I am able, to take a large and com- safe to return an answer concurring in the negotrocitiesofthe  prehensive view of this important tiation-he must come within one of the three folFirench Revolution.        question.   In doing so, I agree  lowing descriptions: He must either believe that
with my honorable friend [Mr. Canning] that it the French Revolution neither does now exhibit.




606                                      MR. PITT  ON                                        [1800.
nor has at any time exhibited such circumstances  ted that they since have violated all those prinof danger, arising out of the very nature of the  ciples; but it is alleged that they have done so
system, and the internal state and condition of  only in consequence of the provocation of other
France, as to leave to foreign powers no ade- powers.  One of the first of those provocations
quate ground of security in negotiation; or, sec- is stated to have consisted in the various outondly, he must be of opinion that the change  rages offered to their ministers, of which the exwhich has recently taken place has given that ample is said to have been set by the King of
security which, in the former stages of the Rev-  Great Britain in his conduct to M. Chauvelin.
olution, was wanting; or, thirdly, he must be  In answer to this supposition, it is only necesone who, believing that the danger exists, not un- sary to remark, that before the example was
dervaluing its extent nor mistaking its nature, given, before Austria and Prussia are supposed
nevertheless thinks, from his view of the present to have been thus encouraged to combine in a
pressure on the country, from  his view  of its  plan for the partition of France, that plan, if it
situation and its prospects, compared with the  ever existed at all, had existed and been acted
situation and prospects of its enemies, that we  upon for above eight months. France and Prusare, with our eyes open, bound to accept of in- sia had been at war eight months before the disadequate security for every thing that is valua- missal of M. Chauvelin.  So much for the accue
ble and sacred, rather than endure the pressure, racy of the statement.2
or incur the risk which would result fiom a far-    I have been hitherto commenting on the arther prolongation of the contest.'                guments contained in the Notes.  I Contradiction
In discussing the last of these questions, we  come now to those of the learned gen- of r. tErtkiine
shall be led to consider what inference is to be  tleman. I understand him to say that ofth ewar.
drawn from the circumstances and the result of  the dismissal of M. Chauvelin was the real cause,
our own negotiations in former periods of the  I do not say of the general war, but of the rupwar; whether, in the comparative state of this  ture between France and England; and the
country and France, we now see the same rea- learned gentleman states particularly that this
son for repeating our then unsuccessful experi- dismissal rendered all discussion of the points in
ments; or whether we have not thence derived  dispute impossible.  Now I desire to meet disthe lessons of experience, added to the deductions  tinctly every part of this assertion.  I maintain,
of reason, marking the inefficacy and danger of  on the contrary, that an opportunity was given
the very measures which are quoted to us as  for discussing every matter in dispute between
precedents for our adoption.                      France and Great Britain as fully as if a regular
I. Unwilling, sir, as I am to go into much de- and accredited French minister had been resiOrigin of tail on ground which has been so often  dent here; that the causes of war, which existed
e "war. trodden before; yet, when I find the learn- at the beginning, or arose during the course of
ed gentleman, after all the information which he  this discussion, were such as would have justified,
must have received, if he has read any of the    2 Mr. Erskine here observed that this was not the
answers to his work (however ignorant he might statement of his argument. Mr. Pitt replied that he
be when he wrote it) still giving the sanction of had not yet come to Mr. Erskine, but was speaking
his authority to the supposition that the order to  of the statement made by the French government
M. Chauvelin [French minister] to depart from  in their Note.  It can not be, however, that Mr.
this kingdom was the cause of the war between  Pitt ad that Note before him when he made these
tis kigo   was th  cas  o th  wa btenremarks. The passage referred to is in the followthis country and France, I do feel it necessary    g words:  As soon as the French Revolution had
to say a few words on that part of the subject.  broken out, almost all Europe entered into a league
Inaccuracy in dates seems to be a sort of fa- f  its destruction. The aggression was real long
Error in the tality common to all who have written  time before it was public. Internal resistance was
note of the  on that side of the question; for even  excited; its opponents were favorably received;
ernmelt.  the writer of the note to his Majesty  their extravagant declamations were supported; the
is not more correct, in this respect, than if he had  French nation was insulted in the person of its
taken his information only from the pamphlet of  agents; and England set particularly this example
the learned gentleman.  The House will recol-  by the dismissal of the minister accredited to her.,  n.^   n.~ ~ a   ~,,,  irk.      Filnally, Fralnce was, in fact, attacked in her indelect the first professions of the French Republic, Fina      ance, in      fact, attacked in her eni
a a     i  pendence, in her honor, and in her safety, long time
which are enumerated, ameratederated truly, in  before war was declared."-Parl. Hist., vol. xxxiv.,
that note.  They are tests of every thing which  p. 1201. It is obvious that the writer is here giving
would best recommend a government to the es-  a mere general summation of supposed wrongs,
teem and confidence of foreign powers, and the  without professing to arrange them in the exact orreverse of every thing which has been the sys- der of time. He does not say, as Mr. Pitt repretem  and practice of France now  for near ten  sents, that "one of thefirst of those provocations"
years.  It is there stated that their first princi-was the ill treatment of French ministers, of which
"the example was set by the King of Great Britples were love of peace, aversion to conquest,    "               do es nt  even metion  ustria or Prsand respect for the independence of other coun- sia, mch  ss oes   e speak of their being " en
tries.  In the same note it seems, indeed, admit- couraged to combine in a plan for the partition of
In distributing his opponents into these three  France," by " the example" referred to. And yet
classes, Mr. Pitt follows his usual course of opening  it.is only by assuming this that Mr. Pitt makes out
his speech with a striking statement which reaches  his argument, and then sneers at " the accuracy of
forward into the subsequent discussion.           the statement."




1800.]           HIS REFUSAL TO NEGOTIATE WITH BONAPARTE.                                       607
twenty times over, a declaration of war on the  removing out of this kingdom all foreigners suspart of this country; that all the explanations  pected of revolutionary principles.  Is it conon the part of France were evidently unsatisfac- tended that he was then less liable to the protory and inadmissible, and that M. Chauvelin had  visions of that act than any other individual forgiven in a peremptory ultimatum, declaring that eigner, whose conduct afforded to government
if these explanations were not received as suffi-  just ground of objection or suspicion?  Did his
cient, and if we did not immediately disarm, our conduct and connections here afford no such
refusal would be considered as a declaration of  ground? or will it be pretended that the bare
war.  After this followed that scene which no  act of refusing to receive fresh credentials from
man can even now speak of without horror, or an infant republic, not then acknowledged by
think of without indignation; that murder and  any one power of Europe, and in the very act
regicide from  which I was sorry to hear the  of heaping upon us injuries and insults, was of
learned gentleman date the beginning of the le- itself a cause of war? So far from it, that even
gal government of France.                         the very nations of Europe, whose wisdom  and
Having thus given in their ultimatum, they  moderation have been repeatedly extolled for
added, as a further demand (hile      maintaining neutrality, and preserving friendship
Gound of A. added as a further  we
Chauvelill's  were smarting under accumulated in- with the French Republic, remained for years
di.jiessisfacti. o'      juries, for which all satisfaction was subsequent to this period without receiving from
denied) that we should instantly receive M. it any accredited minister, or doing any one act
Chauvelin as their embassador, with new  ore- to acknowledge its political existence.
dentials, representing them  in the character    In answer to a representation from the belligwhich they had just derived from  the murder erent powers, in December, 1793, Arefusalto re
of their sovereign.  We replied, " he came here  Count Bernstorf, the minister of oglize the ient
as the representative of a sovereign whom you  Denmark, officially  declared  that gtes'd of hostil
have put to a cruel and illegal death; we have  "it was well known that the Na- of the French.
no satisfaction for the injuries we have received, tional Convention had appointed M. Grouville
no security from the danger with which we are  minister plenipotentiary at Denmark, but that it
threatened.  Under these circumstances we will was also well known that he had neither been
not receive your new credentials.  The former received nor acknowledged  in that quality."
credentials you have yourselves recalled by the  And as late as February, 1796, when the same
sacrifice of your King."                          minister was at length, for the first time, received
What, from that moment, was the situation of  in his official capacity, Count Bernstorff, in a pubsent out of M. Chauvelin?  He was reduced to the  lie note, assigned this reason for that change of
the country situation of a private individual, and was  conduct:   So long as no other than a revoluildividual. required to quit the kingdom under the  tionary government existed in France, his Majprovisions of the Alien Act, which, for the pur- esty could not acknowledge the minister of that
pose of securing domestic tranquillity, had re- government; but now that the French Constitucently invested his Majesty with the power of  tion is completely organized, and a regular gov~" -~~ -----               ~ -~- -~it ~ernment established in France, his Majesty's ob3 Here, again, Mr. Pitt founds his attack upon a  ligation ceases in that respect, and M. Grouville
mistake. Mr. Erskine, as reported in the Parlia- will therefore be acknowledged in the usual
mentary History, did not say "the beginning of le- form."  How  far the court of Denmark was
gal government," but "' when France cut off her justified in the opinion that a revolutionary govmost unfortunate monarch, and established her first. 
republic, she had an embassador at ci court."__  ernment then no longer existed in France, it is
republic,  she had an embassador at our coar-t." —
Vol. xxxiv., p. 1289. His language may have been    t nOW necessary to inquire; but whatever may
confused or obscure, but it is hardly conceivable that have been the fact in that respect, the principle
Mr. Erskine, through any haste or inadvertence, on which they acted is clear and intelligible, and
could have been betrayed into the absurdity of say- is a decisive instance in favor of the proposition
ing that there never was a legal government in  which I have maintained.
France until the 21st of January, 1793.              Is it, then, necessary to examine what were
Nor does Mr. Pitt appear to have understood Mr. the terms of that ultimatum with which Aggressions
Erskine more correctly when he represents hinm, a e resed to comply?          Acts of hos- orance
few sentences before, as affirming that the dismissal of M. Chauvelin "rendered all discussion of the  tty had been openly threatened against our lpoints in dispute inpossible."  No statement of this  lies  a hostility founded upon the assumption of
kind appears in the printed speech. He and his a right which would at once supersede the whole
friends only maintained that the treatment of this  law of nations.  The pretended right to open
gentleman, after the imprisonment and death of the Scheldt we discussed at the time. not so
Louis XVI., was so harsh and irritating as to defeat much on account of its immediate importance
all the objects of negotiation. It was a matter of  (though it was important both in a maritime and
public notoriety that informal communications did  comer     view) as on account of the general
pass between the two governments; but the agents       ri  i  the
of France were denied all public and accreditedprinciple           ich it ws fonded    O   the
character, an indignity (as Mr. Erskine and his  When the Austrians and Prussians, who invaded
friends maintained) which was tantamount to break- France under the Duke of Brunswick, were driven
ing off all friendly intercourse, and which threw  back, the French in return attacked the Austrian
upon England, in their view, the responsibility of Netherlands, and became masters of the country by
the war which followed.                            the battle of Jemappe, November 6th, 1792. They




608                                       MR. PITT ON                                        [1800,
same arbitrary notion they soon afterward dis-  their example, shown what they understood to
covered that sacred law of nature which made  be freedom; they had sealed their principles by
the Rhine and the Alps the legitimate bounda-  the deposition of their sovereign; they had apries of France, and assumed the power, which  plied them  to England by inviting and encourthey have affected to exercise through the whole  aging the addresses of those seditious and traitof the Revolution, of superseding, by a new code  orous societies, who, from the beginning, favored
of their own, all the recognized principles of the  their views, and who, encouraged by your forlaw of nations.  They were, in fact, actually ad- bearance, were  even then  publicly  avowing
vancing toward the republic of Holland, by rapid  French doctrines, and anticipating their success
strides, after the victory of Jemappe, and they  in this country-who were hailing the progress
had ordered their generals to pursue the Austri-  of those proceedings in France which led to the
an troops into any neutral country, thereby ex- murder of its King; they were even then lookplicitly avowing an intention of invading Holland. ing to the day when they should behold a NaThey had already shown their moderation and  tional Convention in England formed upon simiself-denial, by incorporating Belgium  with the  lar principles.7
French Republic.  These lovers of peace, who         And what were the explanations they offered
set out with a sworn aversion to conquest, and  on these different grounds of offense? Explanations
professions of respect for the independence of  As to Holland: they told you the of the Frenh.
other nations; who pretend that they departed  Scheldt was too insignificant for you to trouble
from  this system  only in consequence of your  yourselves about, and therefore it was to be deaggression, themselves, in time of peace, while  cided as they chose, in breach of positive treaty,
you were still confessedly neutral, without the  which they had themselves guaranteed, and which
pretense or shadow of provocation, wrested Sa- we, by our alliance, were bound to support.8  If,
voy from the King of Sardinia, and had proceed-  however, after the war was over, Belgium should
ed to incorporate it likewise with France.5 These  have consolidated its liberty (a term of which we
were their aggressions at this period, and more  sch p, a   t d       cii     w    h       -
thnthee    Te  ha i.su   -       1 u a  such people, and to defend citizens who have sufthan these.  They had issued a universal decla-  fered, and are now suffering, in the cause of liberration of war against all the thrones of Europe, ty."-Alison, vol. i., p. 592, third edition.
and they had, by their conduct, applied it partic-    The reader will see (in note 9) M. Chauvelin's
ularly and specifically to you.  They had passed  disclaimer in respect to this decree, of any intention
the decree of the 19th of November, 1792, pro- on the part of the French to "favor insurrections or
claiming the promise of French succor to all excite disturbance in any neutral or friendly country
nations who should manifest a wish to become  whatever"-"particularly Holland, so long as that
free;6 they had, by all their language as well as  power adheres to the principles of her neutrality.'
__Mr. Pitt, of course, had no confidence in the sinceriimmediately forced the passage of the Scheldt (the  ty of these declarations.
principal river of the country) down to the sea. This    7 Within ten days after the decree of November
had been closed for nearly one hundred and fifty  19th was passed, an English "Society for Constituyears, out of regard to the rights of Holland (through  tional Information" sent delegates to Paris, who prewhich it entered the ocean), under the provisions of  sented at the bar of the National Convention an adthe treaty of Westphalia (1648), which established  dress congratulating that body on "the glorious trlthe international relations of modern Europe. En- umph of liberty on the 10th of August," when the
gland, as the protector of Holland, justly complained  King was deposed. These delegates take upon
of this, chiefly, however, as Mr. Pitt remarks, on ac- them to predict " that, after the example given by
count of the general principle avowed by the French  France, revolutions will become easy. Reason is
of setting aside the provisions of the treaty of West- about to make a rapid progress; and it would not
phalia.                                            be extraordinary if, in a much less time than can be
5 Savoy had been invaded by the French in Sep- imagined, the French should send addresses of contember, 1792, on the ground that the King of Sar- gratulation to a National Convention in England."
dinia had united at Mantua with Austria and Spain  M. Gregoire, the President of the Convention, rein agreeing to march one hundred thousand troops  plied in a high-flown style, praising the English as
to the borders of France. See page 531. The peo- having afforded illustrious examples to the univerae.
pie united to a considerable extent with the French,  "The shades of Hampden and Sydney," said he,
and sent deputations from their clubs to Paris. On  "hover over your heads; and the moment without
the 27th of November, 1792, the National Conven- doubt approaches when the French will bring contion erected Savoy into an eighty-fourth department gratulations to the National Convention of Great
of France, in direct defiance of the existing Consti-  Britain. Generous Republicans! your appearance
tution, which interdicted any permanent extension  among us prepares a subject for history!"  The
of the territory.                                  French were egregiously deceived, no doubt, by
6 This celebrated decree was passed by the Na- these demonstrations of a comparatively small numtional Convention in the tumult of joy which fol- ber of individuals in England, and really expected
lowed the victory at Jemappe. They resolved to  great results. The English government had ceradopt in other countries the course taken in Savoy, tainly grounds of serious complaint against the Conand hence framed this document in the following  vention for receiving the deputation in this manner.
words:                                              8 Austria had endeavored, in 1784, to force the nav"The National Convention declare, in the name  igation of the Scheldt, but France had interfered and
of the French nation, they will grant fraternity and  guaranteed to Holland her exclusive right to the
assistance to all those people who wish to procure  lower part of that river. This guarantee England
liberty. And they charge the executive power to  was bound to maintain by a subsequent alliance
send orders to the generals to give assistance to  which she formed with Holland.




1800.]             HIS REFUSAL TO  NEGOTIATE  WITH  BONAPARTE.                                  609
now know the meaning, from the fate of every  admit these explanations, to be contented with
nation into which the arms of France have pen- the avowal, that France offered herself Still more vio.
etrated), then Belgium  and Holland might, if  as a general guarantee for every suc- Dtl decree i~
they pleased, settle the question of the Scheldt, by  cessihl revolution, and would interfere 1792.
separate negotiation between themselves.  With  only to sanction and confirm whatever the free
respect to aggrandizement, they assured us that and uninfluenced choice of the people might have
they would retain possession of Belgium by arms  decided, what were their orders to their generals
no longer than they should find it necessary to  on the same subject?  In the midst of these amthe purpose already stated, of consolidating its  icable explanations with you, came forth a deliberty.  And with respect to the decree of the  cree which I really believe must be effaced from
19th of November, 1792, applied as it was  the minds of gentlemen opposite to me, if they
pointedly to you, by all the intercourse I have  can prevail upon themselves for a moment to hint
stated with all the seditious and traitorous part of  even a doubt upon the origin of this quarrel, not
this country, and particularly by the speeches of  only as to this country, but as to all the nations
every leading man among them, they contented  of Europe with whom  France has been subsethemselves with asserting that the declaration  quently engaged in hostility.  I speak of the deconveyed no such meaning as was imputed to it, cree of the 15th of December, 1792.  This deand that, so far from  encouraging sedition, it cree, more even than all the previous transactions,
could apply only to countries where a great ma- amounted to a universal declaration of war against
jority of the people should have already declared  all thrones, and against all civilized governments.
itself in favor of a revolution: a supposition  It said, wherever the armies of France shall
which, as they asserted, necessarily implied a to- come (whether within countries then at war or
tal absence of all sedition.                       at peace is not distinguished), in all those counWhat would have been the effect of admitting  tries it shall be the first care of their generals to
ffectofadmit- this explanation? to suffer a nation,  introduce the principles and the practice of the
ting their ex-  and an armed nation, to preach to the  French Revolution   to demolish all privileged
planation of the
decree ofNo-  inhabitants of all the countries in the  orders, and every thing which obstructs the esvelr'er19.   world, that they  themselves were  tablishment of their new system.l0
slaves, and their rulers tyrants; to encourage and    If any doubt is entertained whither the armies
invite them to revolution, by a previous promise  of France were intended to come; if Extensive apof French support, to whatever might call itself  it is contended that they referred only plication of
a majority, or to whatever France might declare  to those nations with whom they were
to be so.  This was their explanation; and this, then at war, or with whom, in the course of this
they told you, was their ultimatum."              contest, they might be driven into war; let it be
But was this all?  Even at that very moment,  remembered that at this very moment they had
when they were endeavoring to induce you to  actually given orders to their generals to pursue
the Austrian army from the Netherlands into Hol9 The communication here spoken of as an ulti-       
matum was made through M. Chauvelin, December lad,  ith whom they were at that time in peace.
27, 1792, and contained the following words: " The  Or0 even if the construction contended for is adExecutive Council of the French Republic, thinking  mitted, let us see what would have been its apit a duty which they owe to the French nation not plication, let us look at the list of their aggresto leave it in a state of suspense into which it has  sions, which was read by my right honorable
been thrown by the late measures of the British  friend [Mr. Dundas] near me.  With whom have
government, have authorized him [M. Chauvelin] to  they  been at w       e the period of this decademand with openness, whether France ought to  ration?  With all the nations of Europe save two
consider England as a neutral or hostile power; at 
the same time being solicitous that  t the smallesteen  and Dena, and if not with these
doubt should exist respecting the disposition of, it is only because, with every provocation
France toward England, and of its desire to remain   t0 This decree was even more violent than Mr.
in peace."  In allusion to the decree of the 19th of  Pitt has here described. It required the French
November [for this decree see note 6], M. Chauvelin  generals, (1.) To proclaim wherever they marched
says, "that the French nation absolutely reject the  their armies the abolition of all existing feudal and
idea of that false interpretation by which it might manorial rights, together with all imposts, contribube supposed that the French Republic should favor tions, and tithes; (2.) To declare the sovereignty of
insurrections, or excite disturbance in any neutral the people, and the suppression of all existing auor fiiendly country whatever. In particular, they  thorities; (3.)To convoke the people for the establishdeclare in the most solemn manner, that France  ment of a provisional government; (4.) To place all
will not attack Holland so long as that power ad- the property of the Prince and his adherents, and
heres to the principles of her neutrality."  As to the  the property of all public bodies, both civil and relignavigation of the Scheldt, M. Chauvelin affirms it ious, under the safeguard of the French Republic;.
"to be a question of too little importance to be-made  (5.) To provide, as soon as possible, for the organizathe sole cause of a war, and that it could only be  tion of a free and popular form of government.-Ann.
used as a pretext for a premeditated aggression. Reg., vol. xxxiv., p. 155.
On this fatal supposition (he says) the French na-   There call be no doubt that the Convention at this
tion will accept war; but such a war would be the  time had extravagant notions of extending their
war not of the British nation, but of the British  principles of liberty by force. "A blind and groundministry against the French Republic; and of this less confidence," says Marshal St. Cyr, "had taken
he conjures them'well to consider the terrible re- possession of their minds; they thought only ofdesponsibility."                                    throning kings by their decrees."
QQ




610                                      MR. PITT  ON                                        [1800.
that could justify defensive war, those countries  quest."   Here is their love of peace; here is
have hitherto acquiesced in repeated violations of  their aversion to conquest; here is their respect
their rights, rather than recur to war for their for the independence of other nations!
vindication. Wherever their arms have been car-    It was then, after receiving such explanations
ried it will be a matter of short subsequent in- as these, after receiving the ultima- such the cirquiry to trace whether they have faithfully ap- tum  of France, and after M. Chauve- curstances un.
der which IM.
plied these principles.  If in terms, this decree is  lin's credentials had ceased, that he Chauetulin was
a denunciation of war against all governments;  was required to depart.  Even at country.
if in practice it has been applied against every  that period, I am  almost ashamed to record it,
one with which France has come into contact; we did not on our part shut the door against
what is it but the deliberate code of the French  other attempts to negotiate, but this transaction
Revolution, from the birth of the Republic, which  was immediately followed by the declaration of
has never once been departed fiom, which has  war, proceeding not from  England in vindicabeen enforced with unremitted rigor against all tion of her rights, but from France, as the comthe nations that have come into their power?      pletion of the injuries and insults they had offered.
If there could otherwise be any doubt whether  And on a war thus originating, can it be doubtesigned to the application of this decree was in- ed by an English House of Commons whether
be applied to tended to be universal, whether it ap- the aggression was on the part of this country
all nations.
plied to all nations, and to England  or of France? or whether the manifest aggresparticularly; there is one circumstance which  sion on the part of France was the result of any
alone would be decisive-that nearly at the same  thing but the principles which characterize the
period it was proposed [by M. Baraillon], in the  French Revolution?
National Convention, to declare expressly that    What, then, are the resources and subterfuges
the decree of November 19th was confined to the  by which those who agree with the learned gennations with whom they were then at war; and  tleman are prevented from  sinking under the
that proposal was rejected by a great majority, force of this simple statement of facts?   None
by that very Convention fiom whom we were de- but what are found in the insinuation contained
sired to receive these explanations as satisfactory.  in the note from France, that this country had,
Such, sir, was the nature of the system.  Let previous to the transactions to which I have reInstructions to us examine a little farther, whether it ferred, encouraged and supported the combinatheir general, was from the beginning intended to  tion of other powers directed against them.l
be acted upon in the extent which I have stated.   
At the very moment when their threats appeared         It is only an act of justice to remind the reader
to many little else than the ravings of madmen, that Mr. Erskine, at the commencement of Mr. Pitt's
they were digesting  and methodizing the means  speech, expressly disclaimed the ground here imof eeuin. acrl a i te  ha  a l  puted to him and his friends. See Note 2. Throughof execution as accurately as if they had actualyoreeen th ex tent to   ic they hav  since  out his speech, he based his position (whether it
ly foreseen the extent to which they have since  was a true or false one) on other grounds. He did
been able to realize their criminal projects. They  not claim that Mr. Pitt had acted in concert with
sat down coolly to devise the most regular and  Austria and Prussia in the declaration of Pilnitz, or
effectual mode of making the application of this  in any of their other measures previous to the sussystem the current business of the day, and in- pension of M. Chauvelin's functions as French mincorporating it with the general orders of their ister. And Mr. Fox, in his reply to the speech be-,army  for (will the House believe it!) this con- foe      admitted that England had maintained her
firmation of the decree of November 19th >-as  neutrality down to that time. See page 532. But
y an e s..   c   they insisted that, after the imprisonment of Louis
accompanied by an exposition  and commentary   XVI. (August 10th, 1792), France was not treated.addressed to the general of every army of France,  "as a civilized nation'-the English minister was
-containing a schedule as coolly conceived, and as ordered to leave Paris-M. Chauvelin's powers were.methodically reduced, as any by which the most suspended; and when Mr. Fox moved, December
quiet business of a justice of peace, or the most 15th, 1792, "that a minister be sent to Paris to treat,regular routine of any department of state in this  with those persons who provisionally exercise the
country could be conducted.  Each commander  executive government of France" (thus avoiding a
was furnished with one general blank formula of  ecognition of tlel  as a government), Mr. Pitt rer fr al te ntio     th  w      T    fused. See Parl. Hist., vol. xxx., p. 80. They afa letter for all the nations of the world!  The.tfat ni t    wfirmed that the tone of Lord Grenville, in his subsepeople of France to the people of -, Greet- quent informal communications with M. Chauvelin,
~ing, "We are come to expel your tyrants."  was harsh and irritating — that England ought to
Even this was not all  one of the articles of the  have come fralkly forward and negotiated as to her
dlecree of the fifteenth of December was express- grievances in respect to the opening of the Scheldt,
ly,' that those who should show themselves so  the decree of November the 19th, the speech of M..brutish and so enamored of their chains as to re- Gregoire, &c., stating explicitly what would satisfy:fuse the restoration of their rights, to renounce    -that she ougl especially to have accepted the
liberty and equality, or to preserve, recall, or treateitio    ged  o;  ler by Louis XVI. and the
French National Assembly early in 1792. See niote
with their prince or privileged orders, were not to Ir. Noxns speecl, page 53e. They affl e;l  that.entitled to the distinction which France, in other  there was at least a p2ossibility that in this way the
cases, had justly established between government war might have been prevented-that, at all events,
"and people; and that such a people ought to be  England was bound to have made the trial before
treated according to the rigor of war, and of con-  she commenced arming against France-that if she




1800.]             HIS REFUSAL TO NEGOTIATE WITH BONAPARTE.                                     611
Upon this part of the subject, the proofs which  our peace establishment in the year 1791, and
Facts showing contradict such an insinuation are in-  continued to the subsequent year, is a fact from
the hostile intention'  f   numerable.  In the first place, the  which the inference is indisputable; a fact which,
France.     evidence of dates; in the second  I am  afraid, shows not only that we were not
place, the admission of all the different parties  waiting for the occasion of war, but that, in our
in France; of the fiiends of Brissot, charging on  partiality for a pacific system, we had indulged
Robespierre the war with this country, and of  ourselves in a fond and credulous security, which
the friends of Robespierre charging it on Bris-  wisdom and discretion would not have dictated.
sot, but both acquitting England; the testimo-  In addition to every other proof, it is singular
nies of the French government during the whole  enough that, in a decree, on the eve of a declainterval, since the declaration of Pilnitz and the  ration of war on the part of France, it is expresspretended treaty of Pavia; the first of which  ly stated, as for the first time, that England was
had not the slightest relation to any project of  then departing fiom  that system  of neutrality
partition  or dismemberment; the second  of which she had hitherto observed.
which I firmly believe to be an absolute fabrica-    But, sir, I will not rest merely on these testition and forgery, and in neither of which, even  monies or arguments, however strong Direct proof
as they are represented, any reason has been as- and decisive.  I assert distinctly and  that England
signed for believing that this country had any  positively, and I have the documents tion with Austria and Prussia
share.  Even M. Talleyrand himself was sent in my hand to prove it, that from the on their first atby the constitutional king of the French, after middle of the year 1791, upon the lacltonFrance.
the period when that concert which is now  first rumor of any measure taken by the Emperor
charged must have existed, if it existed at all, of Germany, and till late in the year 1792, we
with a letter from the King of France, expressly  not only were no parties to any of the projects
thanking his Majesty for the neutrality which he  imputed to the Emperor, but, from the political
had uniformly observed.12  The same fact is con- circumstances in which we stood with relation to
firmed by the concurring evidence of every per- that court, we wholly declined all communications
son who knew any thing of the plans of the King  with him on the subject of France.  To Prussia,
of Sweden in 1791  the only sovereign who, I  with whom we were in connection, and still more
believe, at that time meditated any hostile meas- decisively to Holland, with whom we were in
ures against France,  and whose utmost hopes  close and intimate correspondence, we uniformly
were expressly stated to be, that England would  stated our unalterable resolution to maintain neunot oppose his intended expedition; by all those, trality, and avoid interference in the internal afalso, who knew any thing of the conduct of the  fairs of France, as long as France should refrain
Emperor or the King of Prussia; by the clear  from hostile measures against us and our allies.
and decisive testimony of M. Chauvelin himself  No minister of England had any authority to treat
in his dispatches from hence to the French gov- with foreign states, even provisionally, for any
ernment, since published by their authority; by  warlike concert, till after the battle of Jemappe;
every thing which has occurred since the war  till a period subsequent to the repeated provocaby the publications of Dumourier; by the publi- tions which had been offered to us, and subsecations of Brissot; by the facts that have since  quent particularly to the decree of fraternity of
come to light in America, with respect to the  the 19th of November; even then, to what obmission of M. Genet, which show that hostility  ject was it that the concert which we wished to
against this country was decided on by France  establish, was to be directed?  If we had then
long before the period when M. Chauvelin was  rightly cast the true character of the French
sent from hence -3 besides this, the reduction of  Revolution, I can not now deny that we should
have been better justified in a very different conhad done so, and failed through the violent councils  duct.  But it is material to the present argument
of the French Assembly, she would have stood  to declare what that conduct actually was, beblameless before the world in the contest that fol- cause it is of itself sufficient to confute all the prelowed-that, having neglected to do so, she was  texts by which the advocates of France have so
justly to be considered as in part, at least, the au- long labored to perplex the question of agresthor of the war; and that Mr. Pitt, at all events, had  so
n0o right to go back to these questions, and the sub-                          __
sequent atrocities of the French, as a reason for re- cial system, by declaring that their vessels shall not
futsing now to negotiate.                         be received in the ports of the contracting parties."
12 This was at the time when the mediation was  The last clause was pointed particularly against En
requested, which has just been spoken of in the pre- gland. Whether Mr. Pitt referred to any thing beceding note.                                      yond the disclosures in these instructions is uncer13 In Genet's secret instructions (which he pub- tain. The instructions themselves prove but little,
lished at a later period), it is stated that France had  for they were drawn up January 4th, 1793, only three
a particular interest in acting efficiently against En- weeks before Chauvelin was sent out of England,
gland; and America was, if possible, to be drawn  and five months after his functions as minister were
into the contest. As a preliminary step, the Aner- suspended. Mr. Pitt had, perhaps, forgotten the
ican government were to be induced to unite with  dates when he said "long before the period when
France in a league, " to befriend the empire of lib- M. Chauvelin was sent hence;",or perhaps he fairly
erty wherever it can be extended-to guarantee the  inferred that a systematic attack of this kind upon
sovereignty of the people-and to punish those pow- England, through her commerce, must have taken a
ers who keep up an exclusive colonial and cornnmer- Iconsiderable time in its preparation.




612                                      MR. PITT  ON                                        [1800.
At that period Russia had at length conceived, provocations, to preserve peace, on any terms
r n  as well as ourselves a natural and  consistent with our safety  or whether any senGround taken inal               a. 
acommunica- just alarm for the balance of Europe, timent could now be suggested which would have
tion to Russia.                                                             n
and applied to us to learn our senti- more plainly marked our moderation, forbearance,
ments on the subject.  In our answer to this ap- and sincerity'?  In saying this I am  not chalplication we imparted to Russia the principles  lenging the applause and approbation of my counupon which we then acted, and we communi- try, because I must now confess that we were too
cated this answer to Prussia, with whom we were  slow in anticipating that danger of which we had,
connected in defensive alliance.   I will state  perhaps, even then sufficient experience, though
shortly the leading part of those principles.  A  far short, indeed, of that which we now possess,
dispatch was sent from  Lord Grenville to his and that we might even then have seen, what
Majesty's minister in Russia, dated the 29th of  facts have since but too incontestably proved, that
December, 1792, stating a desire to have an ex- nothing but vigorous and open hostility can afford
planation set on foot on the subject of the war complete and adequate security against revoluwith France. I will read the material parts of it. tionary principles, while they retain a proportion
" The two leading points on which such ex- of power sufficient to furnish the means of war.
planation will naturally turn are the line of con-    II. I will enlarge no farther on the origin of
duct to be followed previous to the commence- the war.  I have read and detailed Atrocities oftle
ment of hostilities, and with a view, if possible, to you a system which was in itself Frenclh i carryto avert them; and the nature and amount of the  a declaration of war against all na- revolutionary
forces which the powers engaged in this concert tions, which was so intended, and system.
might be enabled to use, supposing such extrem- which has been so applied, which has been exities to be unavoidable.                          emplified in the extreme peril and hazard of al"With respect to the first, it appears, on the  most all who for a moment have trusted to treaty,
whole, subject, however, to future consideration  and which has not at this hour overwhelmed Euand discussion with the other powers, that the  rope in one indiscriminate mass of ruin, only bemost advisable step to be taken would be, that cause we have not indulged, to a fatal extremity,
sufficient explanation should be had with the  that disposition which we have, however, inpowers at war with France, in order to enable  dulged too far; because we have not consented
those not hitherto engaged in the war to propose  to trust to profession and compromise, rather than
to that country terms of peace.   That these  to our own valor and exertion, for security against
terms should be the withdrawing  their arms  a system, from whichwe never shall be delivered
within the limits of the French territoryi the  till either the principle is extinguished, or till its
abandoning their conquests, the rescinding any  strength is exhausted.
acts injurious to the sovereignty or rights of any    I might, sir, if I found it necessary, enter into
other nations, and the giving, in some public and much detail upon this part of the subject; Extent or
unequivocal manner, a pledge of their intention  but at present I only beg leave to ex- thesubjet.
no longer to foment troubles or to excite disturb- press my readiness at any time to enter upon it,
ances against other governments.  In return for when either my own strength or the patience of
these stipulations, the different powers of Europe  the House will admit of it; but I say, without
who should be parties to this measure might en- distinction, against every nation in Europe, and
gage to abandon all measures, or views of hostili- against some out of Europe, the principle has
ty against France, or interference in their internal been faithfully applied.  You can not look at the
affairs, and to maintain a correspondence and in- map of Europe, and lay your hand upon that
tercourse of amity with the existing powers in  country against which France has not either dethat country, with whom  such a treaty may be  elared an open and aggressive war, or violated
concluded.  If, as the result of this proposal so  some positive treaty, or broken some recognized
made by the powers acting in concert, these  principle of the law of nations.
terms should not be accepted by France, or be-    This subject may be divided into various peing accepted, should not be satisfactorily per- riods.  There were some acts of hos- Aggreeions of
formed, the different powers might then engage  tility committed previous to the war F.rn.spnthemselves to each other to enter into active  with this country, and very little, in- triesor''  er
measures for the purpose of obtaining the ends in  deed, subsequent to that declaration, glnd.
view; and it may be considered whether, in such  which abjured the love of conquest.  The attack
case, they might not reasonably look to some in- upon the papal state, by the seizure of Avignon,
demnity for the expenses and hazards to which  in 1791, was accompanied with specimens of all
they would necessarily be exposed."               the vile arts and perfidy that ever disgraced a
The dispatch then proceeded to the second  revolution. Avignon was separated from its lawpoint, that of the forces to be employed, on which  ful sovereign, with whom not even the pretense
it is unnecessary now to speak.                   of quarrel existed, and forcibly incorporated in
Now, sir, I would really ask any person who  the tyranny of one and indivisible France."  The
has been from the beginning the most desirous 
has  een from the beginning  the m t dsirs          This city with the adjoining province, lying on
of avoiding hostilities, whether it is possible to  the Rhone, in the south of France, had been for more
conceive any measure to be adopted in the situ- than four centuries the property of the papal govation in which we then stood which could more  ernment. For seventy years (from 1305 to 1377) it
evidently demonstrate our desire, after repeated  was the residence of the popes, and was afterward




1800.]             HIS REFUSAL TO NEGOTIATE WITH BONAPARTE.                                        613
same system  led, in the same year, to an aggres-    In  the  subsequent discussions, which  took
sion against the whole German empire, by the  place in 1792, and which embraced at Sow by
seizure of Porentrui, part of the dominions of the  the same time all the other points of subsequent
Bishop of Basle.  Afterward, in 1792, unpre-  jealousy which had arisen between the
ceded by any declaration of war, or any cause  two countries, the Declaration of Pilnitz was reof hostility, and in direct violation of the solemn  ferred to, and explained on the part of Austria
pledge to abstain from conquest, they made war  in a manner precisely conformable to what I have
against the King of Sardinia, by the seizure of  now stated.  The amicable explanations which
Savoy, for the purpose of incorporating it, in like  took place, both on this subject and on all the
manner, with France.  In the same year, they  matters in dispute, will be found in the official
had proceeded to the declaration of war against correspondence between the two courts, which
Austria, against Prussia, and against the German  has been made public; and it will be found, also,
empire, in which they have been justified only  that as long as the negotiation continued to be
on the ground of a rooted hostility, combination, conducted through M. Delessart, then minister
and league of sovereigns, for the dismemberment for foreign affairs, there was a great prospect
of France.  I say that some of the documents,  that those discussions would be amicably termbrought to support this pretense are spurious  inated; but it is notorious, and has since been
and false.  I say that even in those that are not clearly proved on the authority of Brissot himso, there is not one word to prove the charge  self, that the violent party in France considered
principally relied upon, that of an intention to  such an issue of the negotiation as likely to be
effect the dismemberment of France, or to im-  fatal to their projects, and thought, to use his
pose upon it, by force, any particular Constitu-  own words, that " war was necessary to consoltion.  I say that, as far as we have been able to  idate the Revolution."  For the express purpose
Imlort oftle trace what passed at Pilnitz, the Dec-  of producing the war, they excited a popular
Decl rition  laration there signed referred to the  tumult in Paris; they insisted upon and obtained
of Pilnitz.
imprisonment of Louis XVI., its imme-  the dismissal of M. Delessart.  A new minister
diate view was to effect his deliverance, if a con-  was appointed in his room, the tone of the negocert sufficiently extensive could be formed with  tiation was immediately changed, and an ultiother sovereigns for that purpose.  It left the  matum was sent to the Emperor, similar to that
internal state of France to be decided by the  which was afterward sent to this country, affordKing restored to his liberty, with the free con-  ing him  no satisfaction on his just grounds of
sent of the states of his kingdom, and it did not complaint, and requiring him, under those circontain one word relative to the dismemberment cumstances, to disarm. The first events of the
of France.'5                                         contest proved how much more France was pre~governed  y a vice-legate.  The National Assembly  pared for war than Austria,16 and afford a strong
governed by a vice-legate. The National Assembly.         p
confirmation   of the proposition which I maintain,
seized it in 1790, and at the close of the next year                                           
annexed it to the French Republic.
1 Mr. Erskine and his friends did not maintain  of the French.  Then and in that case, their said
that the Declaration of Pilnitz was aimed at "the  Majesties are decided to act quickly and with one
dismemberment of France," and yet they considered  accord with the forces necessary to obtain the comit as a just ground of her declaring war against Aus-  mon end proposed. In the mean time they will give
tria. "It was," said Mr. Fox in his reply to this  suitable orders to their troops, that they may be
speech, " a declaration of an intention on the part of  ready to put themselves in motion." —Alison's Hist.
the great powers of Germany, to interfere in the in- of Europe, vol. i., p. 574, third edition.
ternal affairs of France for the purpose of re ulating    The reader will observe that Mr. Pitt has inserted
the government against the opinion of the people. in his statement one very important clause not to be
This, though not a plan for the partition of France, found in this document, viz.: "it left the internal
was in the eye of reason and common sense an ag- state of France to be decided by the King restored
0gession against France."  The Declaration was in  to his liberty, with the free consent of the states of his
the following words, and was given to the Count kingdom."  He also omitted one important clause,
d'Artois, brother of Louis XVI., in August, 1791, for viz., that this should be done "in a manner equally
the purpose of being used to combine the other suitable to the rights of sovereigns and the welfare
powers of Europe against the existing French gov- of the French."  "Of sovereigns" —not of the King
ernment:                                            of France alone-clearly indicating that monarchical
" His Majesty the Emperor, and his Majesty the  power in Europe was to be effectually provided for,
King of Prussia, having heard the desires and rep-  and thus opening the way for other monarchs to inresentations of Monsieur and of his royal highness  terfere in deciding on the proper adjustment of the
the Count d'Artois, declare jointly that they reeard  internal affairs of France.
the situation in which his Majesty the King of'6 This shows the rashness and ignorance with
France actually is as an object of common interest which the allies rushed into the war. All the royal
to all the sovereigns of Europe. They hope that troops of France were infected with the spirit of the
this concern can not fail to be acknowledged by the  Revolution. Bonaparte, in his exile, speaking of
powers whose assistance is claimed; and that in  this subject, said, "It was neither the volunteers nor
consequence-they will not refuse to employ jointly  the recruits who saved the Republic; it was the one
with their said Majesties the most efficacious means, hundred and eighty thousand old troops of the monin proportion to their forces, to place the King of  archy and the discharged veterans whom the RevoIErance in a state to settle itn the most perfect liberty  lution impelled to the frontiers. Part of the recruits
the foundations of a monarchical government, equal- deserted, part died, a small portion only remained.
ly suitable to the rights of sovereigns and the wvelfare  who, in process of time, formed good soldiers."




614                                        MR. PITT  ON                                      [1800.
that no offensive intention was entertained on the  trolled in the Mediterranean, and (while our
part of the latter power.                         fleets were yet unarmed) threatening destruction
War was then declared against Austria, a war to all the coast of Italy.
Reasons for  which I state to be a war of aggres-    It was not till a considerably later period that
Prussia's unit-     s         o                  on the other
iPrg^ith Aus- sion on the part of France.  The  almost all the other nations of Europe and the other
tria.      King of Prussia had declared that he  found themselves equally involved in  Italian states
should consider war against the Emperor or em- actual hostility; but it is not a little material to
pire as war against himself.  He had declared  the whole of my argument, compared with the
that, as a coestate of the empire, he was determ- statement of the learned gentleman, and with
ined to defend their rights; that, as an ally of  that contained in the French note, to examine at
the Emperor, he would support him  to the ut- wlat period this hostility extended itself.  It
most against any attack; and that, for the sake  extended itself, in the course of 1796, to the
of his own dominions, he felt himself called upon  states of Italy which had hitherto been exemptto resist the progress of French principles, and  ed from it.  In 1797 it had ended in the destructo maintain the balance of power in Europe. tion of most of them; it had ended in the virtual
With this notice before them, France declared  deposition of the King of Sardinia; it had ended
war upon the Emperor, and the war with Prus- in the conversion of Genoa and Tuscany into
sia was the necessary consequence of this ag- democratic republics; it had ended in the revogression, both against the Emperor and the em- lution of Venice, in the violation of treaties with
pire.                                             the new  Venetian Republic; and, finally, in
The war against the King of Sardinia follows transferring that very republic, the creature and
Caseof next.  The declaration of that war was vassal of France, to the dominion of Austria.
Sardinia. the seizure of Savoy by an invading army    I observe from the gestures of some honorable
-and  on what ground?  On that which has  gentlemen that they think we are pre-  eply asto
been stated already.  They had found out, by  cluded from the use of any argument Austria's resome liglt of nature, that the Rhine and the  founded on this last transaction.  I from te
Alps were the natural limits of France.  Upon  already hear them saying that it was
that ground Savoy was seized; and Savoy was  as criminal in Austria to receive as it was in
also incorporated with France.                    France to give.  I am far from defending or palHere finishes the history of the wars in which  liating the conduct of Austria upon this occasion.
Sa  France was engaged antecedent to the war But because Austria, unable at last to contend
with Great Britain, with Holland, and with  with the arms of France, was forced to accept
Spain.  With respect to Spain, we have seen  an unjust and insufficient indemnification for the
nothing which leads us to suspect that either at- conquests France had made from it, are we to
tachment to religion, or the ties of consanguini- be debarred from  stating what, on the part of
ty, or regard to the ancient system  of Europe, France, was not merely an unjust acquisition,
was likely to induce that court to connect itself  but an act of the grossest and most aggravated
in offensive war against France.  The war was perfidy and cruelty, and one of the most striking
evidently and incontestably begun by France  specimens of that system  which has been uniagainst Spain.                                    formly and indiscriminately applied to all the
The case of Holland is so fresh in every man's  countries which France has had within its grasp?
Holland anld recollection, and so connected with the  This only can be said in vindication of France
Portu"gal  immediate causes of the war with this  (and it is still more a vindication of Austria) that,
country, that it can not require one word of ob- practically speaking, if there is any part of this
servation.  What shall I say, then, on the case  transaction for which Venice itself has reason to
of Portugal?  I can not, indeed, say that France  be grateful, it can only be for the permission to
ever declared war against that country.  I can  exchange the embraces of French fraternity for
hardly say even that she ever made war, but she  what is called the despotism of Vienna.l7
required them to make a treaty of peace, as if    Let these facts and these dates be compared
they had been at war; she obliged them to pur- with what we have heard. The hon- Attack on Mr.
chase that treaty; she broke it as soon as it was orable gentleman has told us, and the Erskine as if
purchased; and she had originally no other author of the note from France has the French agground of complaint than this, that Portugal had  told us also, that all the French con- gresions.
performed, though  inadequately, the engagements of its ancient defensive alliance with this   17 Austria, being worsted in the contest, made
country in the character of an auxiliary-a con- peace with the French in 1797, and, as a recompense
duct which can not of itself make any power a  for her sacrifices, and for leaving the German states
principal in a war.                               on the Rhine at the mercy of the conqueror, received
I have now enumerated all the nations at war Venice and the adjacent territory, which had just
at that period, with the exception only of been seized, under circumstances of great perfidy
ples, Naples.  It can hardly be necessary to  and violence, by the French. Alison, with all his
Napes   It the rec   cn hrtdl  bue nhecssar   partiality for the allies, says of this transaction, "It
call to the recollection of the House the charac-      
is darker in atrocity than the partition of Poland, and
teristic feature of revolutionary principles which   as only excited less indignation in subsequent
was shown, even at this early period, in the per- years because it was attended with no heroism or
sonal insult offered to the King of Naples; by the  dignity in the vanquished."-Vol. iii., p. 276, third
commander of a French squadron riding uncon- edition.




1800.]           HIS REFUSAL TO NEGOTIATE WITH BONAPARTE.                                    615
quests were produced by the operations of the  practiced against the other countries of Europe.
allies.  It was, when they were pressed on all The House will recollect that, in the year 1796,
sides, when their own territory was in danger, when all these horrors in. Italy were beginning,
when their own independence was in question, which are the strongest illustrations of the genwhen the confederacy appeared too strong, it eral character of the French Revolution, we had
was then they used the means with which their begun that negotiation to which the learned genpower and their courage furnished them, and, tleman has referred. England then The oferof En"attacked upon all sides, they carried every  possessed numerous conquests. En- gland to restore
where their defensive arms."  I do not wish to  gland, though not having at that conquests as the
price of peace,
nisrepresent the learned gentleman, but I un- time had the advantage of three of rejected by
derstood him to speak of this sentiment with ap- her most splendid victories, England France.
probation.  The sentiment itself is this, that if a  even then appeared undisputed mistress of the
nation is unjustly attacked in any one quarter by  sea.  England, having then engrossed the whole
others, she can not stop to consider by whom, wealth of the colonial world; England, having
but must find means of strength in other quar- lost nothing of its original possessions; England
ters, no matter where; and is justified in attack- then comes forward, proposing a general peace,
ing, in her turn, those with whom she is at peace, and offering-what? offering the surrender of all
and from whom she has received no species of that it had acquired, in order to obtain-what?
provocation.  Sir, I hope I have already proved, Not the dismemberment, not the partition of anin a great measure, that no such attack was  cient France, but the return of a part of those
made upon France; but, if it was made, I main- conquests, no one of which could be retained,
tain that the whole ground on which that argu- but in direct contradiction to that original and
ment is founded can not be tolerated.  In the  solemn pledge which is now referred to as the
name of the laws of nature and nations, in the  proof of the just and moderate disposition of the
name of every thing that is sacred and honora- French Republic.  Yet even this offer was not
ble, I demur to that plea; and I tell that honora- sufficient to procure peace, or to arrest the progble and learned gentleman that he would do well ress of France in her defensive operations against
to look again into the law of nations before he  other unoffending countries!
ventures to come to this House to give the sane-    From the pages, however, of the learned gention of his authority to so dreadful and execrable  tleman's pamphlet (which, after all its Answer to Mr.
a system.'8                                      editions, is now fiesher in his memo- ethe s"ause
I certainly understood this to be distinctly the  ry than in that of any other person in`which ter^minTbe note ofthle tenor of the learned gentleman's ar- this House or in the country), he is tiationof1796.
Freclh govern- gument, but as he tells me he did  furnished with an argument, on the result of the
mert, at least,
ju.stified those not use it, I take it for granted he did  negotiation, on which he appears confidently to
atrocities  not intend to use it.  I rejoice that rely.  He maintains that the single point on
he did not; but at least, then, I have a right to  which the negotiation was broken off was the
expect that the learned gentleman should now  question of the possession of the Austrian Nethtransfer to the French note some of the indigna- erlands, and that it is, therefore, on that ground
tion which he has hitherto lavished upon the  only that the war has, since that time, been condeclarations of this country.  This principle, tinned.  When this subject was before under
which the  learned  gentleman disclaims, the  discussion; I stated, and I shall state again (notFrench note avows; and I contend, without the  withstanding the learned gentleman's accusation
fear of contradiction, it is the principle upon  of my having endeavored to shift the question
which France has uniformly acted.  But while  from its true point), that the question then at isthe learned gentleman disclaims this proposition, sue was not whether the Netherlands should in
he certainly will admit that he has himself as- fact be restored; though even on that question
serted, and maintained in the whole course of  I am not (like the learned gentleman) unpreparhis argument, that the pressure of the war upon  ed to give any opinion. I am ready to say, that
France imposed upon her the necessity of those  to leave that territory in the possession of France
exertions which produced most of the enormities  would be obviously dangerous to the interests of
of the Revolution, and most of the enormities  this country, and is inconsistent with the policy
11 Mr. Erskine here said across the House that which it has unitbrmly pursued at eve    eriod
he had never maintained any such proposition. His  i whih it hs concerned itself in the general
line of argument was certainly a very different one, system of the continent.  But it was not on the
as will be seen from the passage of his speech al- decision of this question of expediency and poliludedto. "Was it imagined that a powerful nation, cy, tht ththe issue of the negotiation then turned.
so surrounded, would act merely on the defensive, What was required of us by France was, not
or that, in the midst of a revolution which the con- merely that we should acquiesce in her retaining
federacy of nations had rendered terrible, the rights the Netherlands, but that, as a prelimiary to all
of nations would be respected? No; we gave the eaty, and before entering upon the discussion
different French governments, by our conduct, apsee-                         t
text for jealousy of every other European state, and,f terms e should recognize the principle that
in a maonner, goaded them on to the accomplishment whatever France, in time of war, had annexed to
of all the conquests which had since been the sub- the Republic must remain inseparable forever,
ject of jest lanentation and complaint." - Parl. and could not become the subject of negotiation.
Hist., vol. xxxiv., p. 1291.                     I say that, in refusing such a preliminary, we




616                                    MR. PITT ON                                       [1800.
were only resisting the claim of France to arro- ately subsequent to this period. She had spurned
gcate to itself the power of controlling, by its at the offers of Great Britain; she had Co nuctof
own separate and municipal acts, the rights and  reduced her continental enemies to the Franceafter
interests of other countries, and molding, at its necessity of accepting a precarious refusalof
discretion, a new and general code of the law of  peace; she had  (in spite of those i'eae.
nations.                                        pledges repeatedly made and uniformly violated)
In reviewing the issue of this negotiation, it surrounded herself by new conquests on every
is important to observe that France, part of her frontier but one. That one ToSwitzerSubsequent    portant to oserve                                                    ne.
conductof who began by abjuring a love of con- was Switzerland.  The first effect of  "od.
rance quest, was desired to give up nothing  being relieved from the war with Austria, of be-!f her own, not even to give up all that she had  ing secured against all fears of continental invaconquered; that it was offered to her to receive  sion on the ancient territory of France, was their
back all that had been conquered from her  and  unprovoked attack against this unoffending and
when she rejected the negotiation for peace upon  devoted country.  This was one of the scenes
these grounds, are we then to be told of the un- which satisfied even those who were the most
relenting hostility of the combined powers, for incredulous that France had thrown off the mask.
which France was to revenge itself upon other    f i indeed she had ever worn it."  It collected,
countries, and which is to justify the subversion  in one view, many of the characteristic features
of every established government, and the destruc- of that revolutionary system which I have endeavtion of property, religion, and domestic comfort, ored to trace-the perfidy which alone renderfrom one end of Italy to the other? Such was the ed their arms successful-the pretexts of which
effect of the war against Modena, against Genoa, they availed themselves to produce division and
against Tuscany, against Venice, against Rome, prepare the entrance of Jacobinism in that counand against Naples, all of which she engaged in, try-the proposal of armistice, one of the known
or prosecuted, subsequent to this very period.    and regular engines of the Revolution, which
After this, in the year 1797, Austria had made  was, as usual, the immediate preltlde to military
Elandre  peace; England and its ally, Portugal execution, attended with cruelty and barbarity,
enved the  (from whom we could expect little act- of which there are few examples. All these are
oer in 77 ive assistance, but whom we felt it our known to the world. The country they attacked
duty to defend), alone remained in the war.  In  was one which had long been the faithful ally
that situation, under the pressure of necessity, of France, which, instead of giving cause of jealwhich I shall not disguise, we made another at- ousy to any other power, had been for ages protempt to negotiate.  In 1797, Prussia, Spain, verbial for the simplicity and innocence of its
Austria, Naples, having successively made peace, manners, and which had acquired and preserved
the princes of Italy having been destroyed, France  the esteem of all the nations of Europe; which
having surrounded itself, in almost every part in  had almost, by the common consent of mankind,
which it is not surrounded by the sea, with rev- been exempted from  the sound of war, and
olutionary republics, England made another offer marked out as a land of Goshen, safe and unof a different nature.  It was not now a demand  touched in the midst of surrounding calamities.
that France should restore any thing.  Austria    Look, then, at the fate of Switzerland, at the
having made a peace upon her own terms, En- circumstances which led to its destruction.  Add
gland had nothing to require with regard to her this instance to the catalogue of aggression
allies, she asked no restitution of the dominions against all Europe, and then tell me whether
added to France in Europe. So far from retain- the system I have described has not been proseing any thing French out of Europe, we freely  cuted with an unrelenting spirit, which can not
offered them all, demanding only, as a poor corn- be subdued in adversity, which can not be appensation, to retain a part of what we had ac- peased in prosperity, which neither solemn proquired by arms from  Holland, then identified  fessions, nor the general law of nations: nor the
with France. This proposal also, sir, was proud- obligation of treaties (whether previous to the
ly refused, in a way which the learned gentle- Revolution or subsequent to it), could restrain
man himself has not attempted to justify, indeed  from  the subversion of every state into which,
of which he has spoken with detestation. I wish, either by force or fraud, their arms could penesince he has not finally abjured his duty in this  trate.  Then tell me, whether the disasters of
House, that that detestation had been stated ear- Europe are to be charged upon the provocation
lier; that he had mixed his own voice with the  of this country and its allies, or on the inherent
general voice of his country on the result of that principle of the French Revolution, of which the
negotiation.0                                   natural result produced so much misery and carLet us look at the conduct of France immedi- nage in France, and carried desolation and terror over so large a portion of the world.
20 The following was the occasion of this severe    Si mch as I have now stated, I have not fin
blow. When France broke off the negotiations of ihedthe          e.  Ame
1797, and Mr. Pitt brought the subject before the                  c        a al        To America.
House in the speech already given in this collection, as  uch as Switzerland, perhaps, conMr. Erskine and his friends did not attend. They  tributed to that change which has taken place in
condemned the conduct of France, and had no wish  the minds of those who were originally partial to
to oppose the Address, but had not the magnanimity  the principles of the French government.  The
to appear in their places and vote for it.      hostility against America followed a long course




1800.]            HIS REFUSAL TO NEGOTIATE WITH BONAPARTE.                                       61.7
of neutrality adhered to under the strongest prov-  was one and a principal cause of this unparal
ocations, or rather of repeated compliances to  leled outrage; but another, and an equally subFrance, with which we might well have been  stantial cause (as appears by their own statedissatisfied.  It was on the face of it unjust and  ments) was the division and partition of the terriwanton; and it was accompanied by those in- tories of what they thought a falling power.  It
stances of sordid corruption which shocked and  is impossible to dismiss this subject without obdisgusted even the enthusiastic admirers of rev-  serving that this attack against Egypt was acolutionary purity, and threw a new light on the  companied by an attack upon the British posses
genius of revolutionary government.21              sions in India, made on true revolutionary prinAfter this, it remains only shortly to remind gen- ciples.  In Europe, the propagation of the prinTo Malta  tlemen of the aggression against Egypt, ciples of France had uniformly prepared the way
and Egypt not omitting, however, to notice the cap-  for the progress of its arms.  To India, the lovture of Malta in the way to Egypt.  Inconsid-  ers of peace had sent the messengers of Jacobinerable as i'll; island may be thought, compared  ism, for the purpose of inculcating war in those
with the scenes we have witnessed, let it be re- distant regions on Jacobin principles, and of
membered that it is an island of which the gov- formaing Jacobin clubs, which they actually sucernment had long been recognized by every state  ceeded in establishing; and which in most reof Europe, against which France pretended no  spects resembled the European model, but which
cause of war, and whose independence was as  were distinguished by this peculiarity, that they
dear to itself and as sacred as that of any coun- were required to swear in one breath hatred to
try in Europe.  It was in fact not unimportant, tyranny, the love of liberty, and the destruction
from  its local situation to the other powers of  of all kings and sovereigns, except the good and
Europe; but in proportion as any man may di- faithful ally of the French Republic. Citizen Tipminish its importance, the instance will only  poo!3
serve the more to illustrate and confirm  the    III. What, then, was the nature of this system?
proposition which I have maintained.  The all-. Was it any thing but what I have Genius and spirsearching eye of the French Revolution looks to  stated it to be? an insatiable love of vofltutiorery
every part of Europe, and every quarter of the  aggrandizement, an implacable spir- systetm.
world, in which can be found an object either of  it of destruction against all the civil and religious
acquisition or plunder.  Nothing is too great for institutions of every country.  This is the first
the temerity of its ambition, nothing too small or moving and acting spirit of the French Revoluinsignificant for the grasp of its rapacity. From   tion; this is the spirit which animated it at its
hence  Bonaparte and his army proceeded to  birth, and this is the spirit which will not desert
Egypt.  The attack was made, pretenses were  it till the moment of its dissolution, " which grew
held out to the natives of that country in the  with its growth, which strengthened with its
name of the French King, whom they had mur- strength,' but which has not abated under its
dered.  They pretended to have the approbation  misfortunes, nor declined in its decay.  It has
of the Grand Seignior, whose territories they were  been invariably the same in every period, operviolating; their project was carried on under the  ating more or less, according as accident or cirprofession of a zeal for Mohammedanism; it was  cumstances might assist it; but it has been incarried on by proclaiming that France had been  herent in the Revolution in all its stages; it has
reconciled to the Mussulman faith, had abjured  equally belonged to Brissot, to Robespierre, to
that of Christianity, or, as he in his impious lan-  Tallien, to Reubel, to Barras, and to every one
guage termed it, of the sect of the Messiah.2      of the leaders of the Directory, but to none more
The only plea which they have since held out than to Bonaparte, in whom now all their powIndiafinally to color this atrocious invasion of a  ers are united.  What are its characters?   Can
aimed at.  neutral and friendly territory, is that it it be accident that produced them?  No, it is
was the road to attack the English power in In-  only from the alliance of the most horrid princidia.  It is most unquestionably true that this  pies, with the most horrid means, that such miseries could have been brought upon Europe.  It
21 All this was emphatically true. France preyed  is this paradox which we must always keep in
on the commerce of America in the most wanton  mind when we are discussing any question relamanner, and when redress was asked in 1797, large     ees of  te  Fench  e                    tio 
-   tive to the effects of the French Revolution.
bribes for the officers of the government (~50,000 
sterling) were directly demanded of the American  Groanng under every    ree of miser, the 
tlbassadors, besides some millions of money for the  tm of its own cimes,  and as I once before expublic service. But America continued to negotiate; pressed in this House, asking pardon of God and
and a few months after Bonaparte became First of man for the miseries which it has brought
Consul, an amicable adjustment was effected.
22 In his proclamation to the inhabitants of Cairo,   23 Tippoo Saib "the despot of Mysore," was the
December 28th, 1798, Bonaparte says (addressing  son and successor of the celebrated Hyder All, and
the teachers in the mosques): "Instruct the people, was in the closest alliance with the French. Bar.
that since the world has existed it was written, that, ruel affirms, in his History of Jacobinism, that French
after having destroyed the enemies of Islamism (Mo- emissaries from Pondicherry formed secret societies
hammedanism), azd destroyed the cross, I should  among the nations of India for the propagation of
come from the farthest part of the west to fulfill the  their principles; and Mr. Pitt humorously adds an
task which was imposed upon me."-Annual Reg-  exception made in favor of Citizen Tippoo, in adister, vol. xl., p. 265.                           ministering their oaths.




618                                      MR. PITT  ON                                         [1800
upon itself and others, France still retains (while  from probing this great question to the bottom;
it has neither left means of comfort, nor almost and from  examining, without ceremony or disof subsistence to its own inhabitants) new and  guise, whether the change which has recently takunexampled means of annoyance and destruction  en place in France is sufficient now to give secuagainst all the other powers of Europe.            rity, not against a common danger, but against
Its first fundamental principle was to bribe the  such a danger as that which I have described?
Its leading poor against the rich, by proposing to    IV. In examining this part of the subject, let
principles- transfer into new hands, on the delusive  it be remembered that there is one Itabi
Instability ofitS
notion of equality, and in breach of every prin- other characteristic of the French successive govciple of justice, the whole property of the coun-  Revolution as striking as its dreadful
try.  The practical application of this principle  and destructive principles: I mean the instabilwas to devote the whole of that property to in- ity of its government, which has been of itself
discriminate plunder, and to make it the founda- sufficient to destroy all reliance, if any such retion of a revolutionary system  of finance, pro- liance could at any time have been placed on
luctive in proportion to the misery and desola- the good faith of any of its rulers.  Such has
tion which it created.  It has been accompanied  been the incredible rapidity with which the revby an unwearied spirit of proselytism, diffusing  olutions in France have succeeded each other,
itself over all the nations of the earth: a spirit that I believe the names of those who have sucwhich can apply itself to all circumstances and  cessively exercised absolute power, under the
all situations, which can furnish a list of griev-  pretense of liberty, are to be numbered by the
ances, and hold out a promise of redress equally  years of the Revolution, and by each of the new
to all nations; which inspired the teachers of  Constitutions; which, under the same pretense,
French liberty with the hope of alike recom- has in its turn been imposed by force on France:
mending themselves to those who live under the  all of which alike were founded upon principles
feudal code of the German empire; to the va- which professed to be universal, and was intendrious states of Italy, under all their different in- ed to be established and perpetuated among all
stitutions; to the old republicans of Holland, and  the nations of the earth.  Each of these will be
to the new republicans of America; to the Cath-  found, upon an average, to have had about two
olic of Ireland, whom it was to deliver from Prot-  years as the period of its duration.
estant usurpation; to the Protestant of Switz-    Under this revolutionary system, accompanied
erland, whom it was to deliver from  popish su- with this perpetual fluctuation and change, both
perstkion; and to the Mussulman of Egypt, whom  in the form  of the government and in the perit was to deliver from  Christian persecution; to  sons of the rulers, what is the security which
the remote Indian, blindly bigoted to his ancient has hitherto existed, and what new  security is
institutions; and to the natives of Great Britain,  now offered?  Before an answer is given to this
enjoying the perfection of practical freedom, and  question, let me sum  up the history of all the
justly attached to their Constitution, from  the  revolutionary governments of France, and of
joint result of habit, of reason, and of experience. their characters in relation to other powers, in
The last and distinguishing feature is a perfidy  words more emphatical than any which I could
which nothing can bind, which no tie of treaty,  use-the memorable words pronounced, on the
no sense of the principles generally received  eve of this last Constitution, by the orator24 who
among nations, no obligation, human or divine, was selected to report to an assembly, surroundcan restrain.  Thus qualified, thus armed for de- ed by a file of grenadiers, the new form  of libstruction, the genius of the French Revolution  erty which it was destined to enjoy under the
marched forth, the terror and dismay of the  auspices of General Bonaparte.  From  this reworld.  Every nation has in its turn been the  porter, the mouth and organ of the new governwitness, many have been the victims of its prin- ment, we learn this important lesson: " It is
ciples; and it is left for us to decide whether we  easy to conceive why peace was not concluded
will compromise with such a danger, while we  before the establishment of the constitutional govhave yet resources to supply the sinews of war, eminent.  The only government which then exwhile the heart and spirit of the country is yet isted described itself as revolutionary; it was,
unbroken, and while we have the means of call-  in fact, only the tyranny of a few men who were
ing forth and supporting a powerful co-operation  soon overthrown by others, and it consequently
in Europe.                                         presented no stability of principles or of views,
Much more might be said on this part of the  no security either with respect to men or with
subject; but if what I have said already is a faith-  respect to things.
ful, though only an imperfect sketch of those ex-    "It should seem  that that stability and that
cesses and outrages which even history itself  security ought to have existed from the estabwill hereafter be unable fully to represent and  lishment, and as the effect of the constitutional
record, and a just representation of the principle  system; and yet they did not exist more, perand source from which they originated, will any  haps even less, than they had done before.  In
man say that we ought to accept a precarious se- truth, we did make some partial treaties; we
curity against so tremendous a danger?  Much               _
more-will he pretend, after the experience of    24 Vide the speech of Boulay de la Meathe in the
all that has passed in the different stages of the  Council of Five Hundred, at St. Cloud, 19th BruFrench Revolution, that we ought to be deterred  maire (9th November), 1799.




1800.]           HIS REFUSAL TO NEGOTIATE WITH BONAPARTE.                                   61f
signed a continental peace, and a general con. arms into a soldier, not for the defense of his own
gress was held to confirm it; but these treaties, country; but for the sake of carrying the war
these diplomatic conferences, appear to have  into the country of the enemy; if we had seen
been the source of a new war, more inveterate  all the subordinate instruments of Jacobin power
and more bloody than before.                    subsisting in their full force, and retaining (to
"Before the 18th Fructidor (4th September)  use the French phrase) all their original organof the fifth year, the French government exhib- ization; and had then observed this single change
ited to foreign nations so uncertain an existence  in the conduct of their affairs, that there was now
that they refused to treat with it.  After this  one man, with no rival to thwart his measures,
great event, the whole power was absorbed in  no colleague to divide his powers, no council to
the Directory; the legislative body can hardly  control his operations, no liberty of speaking or
be said to have existed; treaties of peace were  writing, no expression of public opinion to check
broken, and war carried every where, without or influence his conduct; under such circumthat body having any share in those measures. stances, should we be wrong to pause, or wait
The same Directory, after having intimidated all for the evidence of facts and experience, before
Europe, and destroyed, at its pleasure, several we consented to trust our safety to the forbeargovernments, neither knowing  how  to make  ance of a single man, in such a situation, and to
peace or war, or how  even to establish itself, relinquish those means of defense which have
was overturned by a breath, on the 13th Prairial hitherto carried us safe through all the storms
(18th June), to make room for other men, influ- of the Revolution? if we were to ask what are
enced perhaps by different views, or who might the principles and character of this stranger, to
be governed by different principles.            whom fortune has suddenly committed the con"Judging, then, only from notorious facts, the  cerns of a great and powerful nation?
French government must be considered as ex-    But is this the actual state of the present queshibiting nothing fixed, neither in respect to men  tion?  Are we talking of a stranger Characterof
or to things."  Iere, then, is the picture, down  of whom we have heard nothing? No, Bonaparte.
to the period of the last revolution, of the state  sir: we have heard of him; we, and Europe,
of France under all its successive governments! and the world, have heard both of him and of the
V. Having taken a view of what it was, let us satellites by whom  he is surrounded, and it is
Character of  now examine what it is. In the first impossible to discuss fairly the propriety of any
the system un- place, we see, as has been truly stat- answer which could be returned to his overtures
der the.                                   conssul- 7ai
ateof ona-  ed, a change in the description and  of negotiation without taking into consideration
porte     form of the sovereign authority.  A  the inferences to be drawn from  his personal
supreme power is placed at the head of this nom- character and conduct.  I know it is the fashion
inal republic, with a more open avowal of mili- with some gentlemen to represent any reference
tary despotism than at any former period; with  to topics of this nature as invidious and irritaa more open and undisguised abandonment of the  ting; but the truth is, that they rise unavoidably
names and pretenses under which that despotism  out of the very nature of the question.  Would
long attempted to conceal itself.  The different it have been possible for ministers to discharge
institutions, republican in their form and appear- their duty, in offering their advice to their soverance, which were before the instruments of that eign, either for accepting or declining negotiadespotism, are now annihilated; they have given  tion, without taking into their account the reliway to the absolute power of one man, concen- ance to be placed on the disposition and the
trating in himself all the authority of the state, principles of the person on whose disposition and
and differing from other monarchs only in this, principles the security to be obtained by treaty
that (as my honorable friend [Mr. Canning] truly  must, in the present circumstances, principally
stated it) he wields a sword instead of a scepter. depend? Or would they act honestly or candidly
What, then, is the confidence we are to derive  toward Parliament and toward the country if,
either from the frame of the government, or from  having been guided by these considerations, they
the character and past conduct of the person who  forbore to state, publicly and distinctly, the real
is now the absolute ruler of France?           grounds which have influenced their decision;
Had we seen a man of whom we had no pre- and if, from  a false delicacy and groundless tivious knowledge suddenly invested with the sov- midity, they purposely declined an examination
ereign authority of the country; invested with  of a point, the most essential toward enabling
the power of taxation, with the power of the  Parliament to form  a just determination on so
sword, the power of war and peace, the unlim- important a subject?
ited power of commanding the resources, of dis-    What opinion, then, are we led to form of tihe
posing of the lives and fortunes of every man in  pretensions of the Consul to those partic- His pr,
France; if we had seen at the same moment all ular qualities for which, in the official ioa.ls.
the inferior machinery of the Revolution, which, note, his personal character is represented to us
under the variety of successive shocks, had kept as the surest pledge of peace?  We are told this
the system in motion, still remaining entire, all is his second attempt at general pacification.
that, by requisition and plunder, had given act- Let us see, for a moment, how his attempt has
ivity to the revolutionary system of finance, and  been conducted. There is, indeed, as the learned
had furnished the means of creating an army, gentleman has said, a word in the first declaraby converting every man who was of age to bear tion which refers to general peace, and which




620                                     MR. PITT ON                                      [1800.
states this to be the second time in which the  his own.  When the Constitution of the third
Consul has endeavored to accomplish that object. year was established under Barras, that ConstiWe thought fit, for the reasons which have been  tution was imposed by the arms of Bonaparte,
assigned, to decline altogether the proposal of  then commanding the army of the triumvirate in
treating, under the present circumstances, but Paris. To that Constitution he then swore fidelwe, at the same time, expressly stated that, ity.  How often he has repeated the same oath
whenever the moment for treaty should arrive,  I know not, but twice, at least, we know that he
we would in no case treat but in conjunction  has not only repeated it himself, but tendered it
with our allies.  Our general refusal to negoti- to others, under circumstances too striking not
ate at the present moment does not prevent the  to be stated.
Consul from  renewing his overtures; but are    Sir, the House can not have forgotten the
they renewed for the purpose of general pacifi- Revolution of the 4th of September, His support of
cation? Though he had hinted at general peace  which produced the dismissal of Lord ty in theDiin the terms of his first note; though we had  Malmesbury from Lisle.  How was rectory.
shown by our answer that we deemed negotia- that revolution procured?  It was procured
tion, even for general peace, at this moment in- chiefly by the promise of Bonaparte, in the name
admissible; though we added that, even at any  of his army, decidedly to support the Directory
future period, we would treat only in conjunction  in those measures which led to the infiingement
with our allies, what was the proposal contained  and violation of every thing that the authors of
in his last note?  To treat for a separate peace  the Constitution of 1795, or its adherents, could
between Great Britain and France.               consider as fundamental, and which established
Such was the second attempt to effect general a system  of despotism inferior only to that now
Hisformer con  pacification-a proposal for a separl   realized in his own person. Immediately before
duct toward  ate treaty with Great Britain. What this event, in the midst of the desolation and
E""glatd   had been the first?  The conclusion  bloodshed of Italy, he had received the sacred
of a separate treaty with Austria; and there are  present of new banners from the Directory; he
two anecdotes connected with the conclusion of delivered them to his army with this exhortation:
this treaty, which are sufficient to illustrate the  "Let us swear, fellow-soldiers, by the manes of
disposition of this pacificator of Europe.  This the patriots who have died by our side, eternal
very treaty of Campo Formio was ostentatiously  hatred to the enemies of the Constitution of the
professed to be concluded with the Emperor for third year."  That very Constitution which he
the purpose of enabling Bonaparte to take the  soon after enabled the Directory to violate, and
command of the army of England, and to dictate  which, at the head of his grenadiers, he has now
a separate peace with this country on the banks  finally destroyed.  Sir, that oath was again reof the Thames.25  But there is this additional newed, in the midst of that very scene to which
circumstance, singular beyond all conception, I have last referred; the oath of fidelity to the
considering that we are now  referred to the  Constitution of the third year was administered
treaty of Campo Formio as a proof of the per- to all the members of the Assembly then sitting,
sonal disposition of the Consul to general peace. under the terror of the bayonet, as the solemn
He sent his two confidential and chosen friends, preparation for the business of the day; and the
Berthier and Monge, charged to communicate to  morning was ushered in with swearing attachthe Directory this treaty of Campo Formio; to  ment to the Constitution, that the evening might
announce to them that one enemy was humbled, close with its destruction.
that the war with Austria was terminated, and,    If we carry our views out of France, and look
therefore, that now was the moment to prosecute  at the dreadful catalogue of all the His perfidy and
their operations against this country; they used  breaches of treaty, all the acts of per- iolenetoward
ah t  hih    a sol  per-ltsed statrs of
on this occasion the memorable words,   The  fidy at which I have only glanced, Ita'.
kingdom of Great Britain and the French Re- and which are precisely commensurate with the
public can not exist together."'  This, I say, was number of treaties which the Republic have made
the solemn declaration of the deputies and em-  (for I have sought in vain for any one which it has
bassadors of Bonaparte himself, offering to the  made and which it has not broken), if we trace
Directory the first-fruits of this first attempt at the history of them all from the beginning of the
general pacification.                           Revolution to the present time, or if we select
So much for his disposition toward general pa- those which have been accompanied by the most
His violation  cification.  Let us look next at the  atrocious cruelty, and marked the most strongly
dn tovre- part he has taken in                  withnt     the characteristic features of the Revoluments.    stages of the French Revolution, and  tion, the name of Bonaparte will be found allied
let us then judge whether we are to look to him  to more of them than that of any other that can
as the security against revolutionary principles. be handed down in the history of the crimes and
Let us determine what reliance we can place t miseries of the last ten years.  His name will be
on his engagements with other countries, when  recorded with the horrors committed in Italy, in
we see how he has observed his engagements to  the memorable campaign of 1796 and 1797, in
25 At that time (1797) the French threatened to  the Milanese, in Genoa, in Modena, in Tuscany,
invade Great Britain, and had collected for this pur- in Rome and in Venice.
pose large bodies of troops on the sea-coast, under    His entrance into Lombardy was announced
the name of the Army of England.                by a solemn proclamation, issued on the 27th of




1800.]            HIS REFUSAL TO  NEGOTIATE WITH  BONAPARTE.                                   621
April, 1796, which terminated with these words: Republic and the Grand Duke of Tuscany in the
" Nations of Italy! the French army is preceding year, and in breach of a positive promcome to break your chains, the French  ise given only a few days before, the French army
are the friends of the people in every country; forcibly took possession of Leghorn, for the puryour religion, your property, your customs, shall pose of seizing the British property which was
be respected."  This was followed by a second  deposited there and confiscating it as prize; and
proclamation, dated from  Milan 20th of May, shortly after, when Bonaparte agreed to evacuand signed " Bonaparte," in these terms: "Re-  ate Leghorn, in return for the evacuation of the
spect for property and personal security.  Re- island of Elba, which was in possession of the
spect for the religion of countries, these are the  British troops, he insisted upon a separate article.
sentiments of the government of the French Re- by which, in addition to the plunder before obpublic and of the army of Italy.  The French  tained, by the infraction of the law of nations, it
victorious, consider the nations of Lombardy as was stipulated that the Grand Duke should pay
their brothers."  In testimony of this fraternity,  the expense which the French had incurred by
and to fulfill the solemn pledge of respecting  this invasion of his territory.
property, this very proclamation imposed on the    In the proceedings toward Genoa we shall find
Milanese a provisional contribution to the amount not only a continuance of the same system  Geo
of twenty millions of livres, or near one million  of extortion and plunder, in violation of the
sterling, and successive exactions were afterward  solemn pledge contained in the proclamations allevied on that single state to the amount, in the  ready referred to, but a striking instance of the
whole, of near six millions sterling.  The regard  revolutionary means employed for the destruction
to religion and to the customs of the country  of independent governments.  A French miniswas manifested with the same scrupulous fidelity.  ter was at that time resident at Genoa, which was
The churches were given up to indiscriminate  acknowledged by France to be in a state of neuplunder.  Every religious and charitable fund, trality and fiiendship  in breach of this neutralievery public treasure, was confiscated.  The  ty Bonaparte began, in the year 1796, with the decountry was made the scene of every species of  mand of a loan.  He afterward; from the month of
disorder and rapine.  The priests, the establish-  September, required and enforced the payment of
ed form of worship, all the objects of religious  a monthly subsidy, to the amount which he thought
reverence, were openly insulted by the French  proper to stipulate.  These exactions were actroops; at Pavia, particularly, the tomb of St. companied by repeated assurances and protestaAugustin, which the inhabitants were accustomed  tions of friendship; they were followed, in May,
to view with peculiar veneration, was mutilated  1797, by a conspiracy against the government,
and defaced; this last provocation having roused  fomented by the emissaries of the French embasthe resentment of the people, they flew to arms, sy, and conducted by the partisans of France, ensurrounded the French garrison and took them   couraged, and afterward protected by the French
prisoners, but carefully abstained from  offering  minister.  The conspirators failed in their first
any violence to a single soldier.  In revenge for attempt.  Overpowered by the courage and volthis conduct, Bonaparte, then on his march to the  untary exertions of the inhabitants, their force
Mincio, suddenly returned, collected his troops, was dispersed, and many of their number were
and carried the extremity of military execution  arrested.  Bonaparte instantly considered the deover the country.  He burned the town of Benas- feat of the conspirators as an act of aggression
co, and massacred eight hundred of its inhabit- against the French Republic; he dispatched an
ants; he marched to Pavia, took it by storm, and  aid-de-camp with an order to the Senate of this
delivered it over to general plunder, and pub- independent state; first, to release all the French
lished, at the same moment, a proclamation, of  who were detained; secondly, to punish those
the 26th of May, ordering his troops to shoot all who had arrested them; thirdly, to declare that
those who had not laid down their arms and tak- they had no share in the insurrection; and fourthen an oath of obedience, and to burn every vil- ly, to disarm  the people.  Several French prislage where the tocsin should be sounded, and to  oners were immediately released, and a proclaput its inhabitants to death.                     mation was preparing to disarm the inhabitants,
The  transactions with Modena were on a  when, by a second note, Bonaparte required the
loena. smaller scale, but in the same character. arrest of the three inquisitors of state, and immeBonaparte began by signing a treaty, by  diate alterations in the Constitution. He accom\vhich the Duke of Modena was to pay twelve  panied this with an order to the French minister
millions of livres, and neutrality was promised  to quit Genoa, if his commands were not immedihim in return; this was soon followed by the per- ately carried into execution; at the same moment
sonal arrest of the Duke, and by a fresh extortion  his troops entered the territory of the Republic,
of two hundred thousand sequins.  After this he  and shortly after, the councils, intimidated and
was permitted, on the payment of a farther sum, overpowered, abdicated their functions.  Three
to sign another treaty, called a convention de  deputies were then sent to Bonaparte to receive
serete, which of course was only the prelude to  from him a new Constitution. On the 6th of June,
the repetition of similar exactions.              after the conferences at Montebello, he signed a
Nearly at the same period, in violation of the  convention, or rather issued a decree, by which
rights of neutrality and of the treaty which  he fixed the new form of their government; he
*' had been concluded between the French  himself named provisionally all the members who




622                                     MR. PITT ON                                       [1800.
were to compose it, and he required the payment fidence may cement that friendship which has
of seven millions of livres as the price of the  so long united the two nations.  Faithful in the
subversion of their Constitution and their inde- path of honor as in that of victory, the French
pendence.  These transactions require but one  soldier is terrible only to the enemies of his libshort comment. It is to be found in the official erty and his government."-BONAPARTE.
account given of them at Paris; which is in these    This proclamation was followed by exactions
memorable words: " General Bonaparte has pur-  similar to those which were practiced against
sued the only line of conduct which could be al- Genoa, by the renewal of similar professions of
lowed in the representative of a nation which has  friendship and the use of similar means to excite
supported the war only to procure the solemn ac- insurrection.  At length, in the spring of 1797,
knowledgment of the right of nations, to change  occasion was taken from disturbances thus exthe form of their government.  He contributed  cited, to forge in the name of the Venetian govnothing toward the revolution of Genoa, but he  ernment, a proclamation hostile to France, and
seized the first moment to acknowledge the new  this proceeding was made the ground for militagovernment, as soon as he saw  that it was the  ry execution against the country, and for effectresult of the wishes of the people."26           ing by force the subversion of its ancient governIt is unnecessary to dwell on the wanton at- ment and the establishment of the democratic
tacks against Rome, under the direction of forms of the French Revolution.  This revoluBonaparte himself in the year 1796, and in  tion was sealed by a treaty, signed in May, 1797,
the beginning of 1797, which terminated first by  between Bonaparte and commissioners appointthe treaty of Tolentino concluded by Bonaparte, ed on the part of the new and revolutionary govin which, by enormous sacrifices, the Pope was  ernment of Venice.  By the second and third
allowed to purchase the acknowledgment of his  secret articles of this treaty, Venice agreed to
authority as a sovereign prince; and secondly, by  give as a ransom, to secure itself against all
the violation of that very treaty, and the subver- further exactions or demands, the sum of three
sion of the papal authority by Joseph Bonaparte, millions of livres in money, the value of three
the brother and the agent of the general, and the  millions more in articles of naval supply, and
minister of the French Republic to the Holy See. three ships of the line; and it received in return
A transaction accompanied by outrages and in- the assurances of the friendship and support of
suits toward the pious and venerable Pontiff, in  the French Republic. Immediately after the sigspite of the sanctity of his age and the unsullied  nature of this treaty, the arsenal, the library, and
purity of his character, which even to a Protest- the palace of St. Marc were ransacked and plunant seem hardly short of the guilt of sacrilege.   dered, and heavy additional contributions were
But of all the disgusting and tragical scenes  imposed upon its inhabitants.  And, in not more
v  which took place in Italy in the course of  than four months afterward, this very republic
the period I am describing, those which  of Venice, united by alliance to France, the
passed at Venice are perhaps the most striking  creature of Bonaparte himself, from  wholm it
and the most characteristic.  In May, 1796, the  had received the present of French liberty; was
French army, under Bonaparte, in the full tide  by the same Bonaparte transferred, under the
of its success against the Austrians, first ap- treaty of Campo Formio, to " that iron yoke of
proached the territories of this republic, which  the proud house of 3Justria,:' to deliver it from
from the commencement of the war had observed  which he had represented in his first proclamaa rigid neutrality.  Their entrance on these ter- tion to be the great object of all his operations.
ritories was, as usual, accompanied by a solemn    Sir, all this is followed by the memorable exproclamation in the name of their general, "Bo- pedition into Egypt, which I mention, His conduct
naparte to the republic of Venice."  "It is to  not merely because it forms a principal in E"yt.
deliver the finest country in Europe from the  article in the catalogue of those acts of violence
iron yoke of the proud house of  Austria, that the  and perfidy in which Bonaparte has been enFrench army has braved obstacles the most diffi- gaged; not merely because it was an enterprise
cult to surmount.  Victory in union with justice  peculiarly his own, of which he was himself the
has crowned its efforts.  The wreck of the en- planner, the executor, and the betrayer; but
emy's army has retired behind the Mincio. The  chiefly because when from thence he retires to a
French army, in order to follow them, passes  different scene to take possession of a new throne,
over the territory of the republic of Venice; but from which he is to speak upon an equality with
it will never forget that ancient friendship unites  the kings and governors of Europe, he leaves bethe two republics.  Religion, government, cus- hind him, at the moment of his departure, a spectoms, and property shall be respected.  That imen, which can not be mistaken, of his princithe people may be without apprehension, the  ples of negotiation.  The intercepted correspondmost severe discipline shall be maintained.  All ence which has been alluded to in this debate.
that may be provided for the army shall be faith- seems to afford the strongest ground to believe
fiully paid for in money.  The general-in-chief  that his offers to the Turkish government to evacengages the officers of the republic of Venice, uate Egypt were made solely with a view  to
the magistrates, and the priests, to make known  gain time; that the ratification of any treaty on
these sentiments to the people, in order that con- this subject was to be delayed with the view of
finally eluding its performance, if any change of
26 Redacteur Officiel, June 30, 1797.     circumstances favorable to the French should oc



1800.]           HIS REFUSAL TO NEGOTIATE WITH  BONAPARTE.                                  623
cur in the interval.  But whatever gentlemen  He is a stranger, a foreigner, and a usurper.
may think of the intention with which these offers He unites in his own person every thing that a
were made, there will at least be no question  pure republican must detest; every thing that an
with respect to the credit due to those professions enraged Jacobin has abjured; every thing that a
by which he endeavored to prove in Egypt his sincere and faithful royalist must feel as an insult.
pacific dispositions.  He expressly enjoins his If he is opposed at any time in his career, what is
successor strongly and steadily to insist, in all his his appeal?  He appeals to his fortune; in other
intercourse with the Turks, that he came to  words, to his army and his sword.  Placing, then,
Egypt with no hostile design, and that he never his whole reliance upon military support, can he
meant to keep possession of the country; while, afford to let his military renown pass away, to let
on the opposite page of the same instructions, he  his laurels wither, to let the memory of his trophies
states in the most unequivocal manner his regret sink in obscurity?  Is it certain that, with his
at the discomfiture of his favorite project of col- army confined within France, and restrained from
onizing Egypt, and of maintaining it as a terri- inroads upon her neighbors, that he can maintain,
torial acquisition.  Now, sir, if in any note ad- at his devotion, a force sufficiently numerous to
dressed to the Grand Vizier or the Sultan, Bona- support his power?  Having no object but the
parte had claimed credit for the sincerity of his possession of absolute dominion, no passion but
professions, that he came to Egypt with no view  military glory, is it to be reckoned as certain that
hostile to Turkey, and solely for the purpose of he can feel such an interest in permanent peace
molesting the British interests, is there any one as would justify us in laying down our arms, reargument now used to induce us to believe his ducing our expense, and relinquishing our means
present professions to us, which might not have of security, on the faith of his engagements? Do
been equally urged on that occasion? Would not we believe that, after the conclusion of peace, he
those professions have been equally supported by  would not still sigh over the lost trophies of
solemn asseveration, by the same reference which  Egypt, wrested from him by the celebrated vicis now made to personal character, with this sin- tory of Aboukir, and the brilliant exertions of
gle difference, that they would have then had one that heroic band of British seamen, whose influinstance less of hypocrisy and falsehood, which  ence and example rendered the Turkish troops
we have since had occasion to trace in this very  invincible at Acre?  Can he forget that the eftransaction?                                   feet of these exploits enabled Austria and RusIt is unnecessary to say more with respect to  sia, in one campaign, to recover from France all
He may hae the credit due to his professions, or the  which she had acquired by his victories, to dismotives to  reliance to be placed on his general solve the charm, which for a time fascinated
negotiate,
character.  But it will, perhaps, be  Europe, and to show that their generals, conargued that whatever may be his character, or tending in a just cause, could efface even by their
whatever has been his past conduct, he has now  success and their military glory, the most dazan interest in making and observing peace. That zling triumphs of his victorious and desolating
he has an interest in making peace is at best but ambition?
a doubtful proposition, and that he has an interest    Can we believe, with these impressions on his
in preserving it is still more uncertain.  That it mind, that if, after a year, eighteen would have
is his interest to negotiate, I do not indeed deny. months, or two years of peace had th strongest
It is his interest, above all, to engage this country  elapsed, he should be tempted by the blreak a peace
in separate negotiation, in order to loosen and  appearance of fresh insurrection in 
dissolve the whole system of the confederacy on  Ireland, encouraged by renewed and unrestrained
the continent, to palsy at once the arms of Rus- communication with France, and fomented by the
sia, or of Austria, or of any other country that fresh infusion of Jacobin principles; if we were
might look to you for support; and then either to  at such a moment without a fleet to watch the
break off his separate treaty, or if he should have  ports of France, or to guard the coasts of Ireland,
concluded it, to apply the lesson which is taught without a disposable army, or an embodied miliin his school of policy in Egypt; and to revive tia, capable of supplying a speedy and adequate
at his pleasure those claims of indemnification  re-enforcement, and that he had suddenly the
which may have been reserved to some happier pe- means of transporting thither a body of twenty
riod.7                                          or thirty thousand French troops; can we believe
This is precisely the interest which he has in  that, at such a moment, his ambition and vindicbutnoneto negotiation.  But on what grounds are  tive spirit would be restrained by the recollecemake pece. we to be convinced that he has an in- tion of engagements or the obligation of treaty?
terest in concluding and observing a solid and  Or if, in some new crisis of difficulty and danger
permanent pacification?  Under all the circum- to the Ottoman empire, with no British navy in
stances of his personal character, and his newly  the Mediterranean, no confederacy formed, no
acquired power, what other security has he for force collected to support it, an opportunity
retaining that power but the sword?  His hold  should present itself for resuming the abandoned
upon France is the sword, and he has no other. expedition to Egypt, for renewing the avowed
Is he connected with the soil, or with the habits, and favorite project of conquering and colonizing
the affections, or the prejudices of the country? that rich and fertile country, and of opening the.-.-..._.._...-..........._~__~_        way to wound some of the vital interests of En27 Vide intercepted correspondence from Egypt.  gland, and to plunder the treasures of the East.




624                                     MR. PITT ON                                      [1800.
in order to fill the bankrupt coffers of France?  world.  Through all the stages of the RevoluWould it be the interest of Bonaparte, under tion, military force has governed, and public
such circumstances, or his principles, his mod- opinion has scarcely been heard.  But still 1
eration, his love of peace, his aversion to con- consider this as only an exception from a generquest, and his regard for the independence of  al truth.  I still believe that in every civilized
other nations-would it be all or any of these  country, not enslaved by a Jacobin faction, pubthat would secure us against an attempt which  lie opinion is the only sure support of any govwould leave us only the option of submitting  ernment.  I believe this with the more satisfacwithout a struggle to certain loss and disgrace, tion, from a conviction that, if this contest is hapor of renewing the contest which we had prema- pily terminated, the established governments of
turely terminated, without allies, without prep- Europe will stand upon that rock firmer than
aration, with diminished means, and with in- ever; and, whatever may be the defects of any
creased difficulty and hazard?                 particular Constitution, those who live under it
Hitherto I have spoken only of the reliance  will prefer its continuance to the experiment of
So evidenceof which we can place on the profes- changes which may plunge them in the unfathtle stability of sions, the character, and the conduct omable abyss of revolution, or extricate them
liS power.   of the present First Consul; but it from it only to expose them  to the terrors of
remains to consider the stability of his power. military despotism. And to apply this to France,
The Revolution has been marked throughout by  I see no reason to believe that the present usurpa rapid succession of new depositaries of pub- ation will be more permanent than any other
lie authority, each supplanting its predecessor. military despotism which has been established by
What grounds have we to believe that this new  the same means, and with the same defiance of
usurpation, more odious and more undisguised  public opinion.
than all that preceded it, will be more durable?    What, then, is the inference I draw from  all
Is it that we rely on the particular provisions  that I have now stated?  Is it that All these facts
contained in the code of the pretended Constitu- we will in no case treat with Bona- all fr delay
tion, which was proclaimed as accepted by the  parte?  I say no such thing.  But I evidence.
French people as soon as the garrison of Paris  say, as has been said in the answer returned to the
declared their determination to exterminate all French note, that we ought to wait for " expeits enemies, and before any of its articles could  rience and the evidence of facts" before we are
even be known to half the country, whose con- convinced that such a treaty is admissible. The
sent was required for its establishment?       circumstances I have stated would well justify
I will not pretend to inquire deeply into the  us if we should be slow in being convinced; but
His new Consti- nature and effects of a Constitution  on a question of peace and war, every thing deilitare"tepst which can hardly be regarded but pends upon degree and upon comparison.  If.
ism.        as a farce and a mockery. If, how- on the one hand, there should be an appearance
ever, it could be supposed that its provisions  that the policy of France is at length guided by
were to have any effect, it seems equally adapt- different maxims from those which have hitherto
ed to two purposes, that of giving to its founder, prevailed; if we should hereafter see signs of
for a time, an absolute and uncontrolled author- stability in the government which are not now
ity, and that of laying the certain foundation of  to be traced; if the progress of the allied army
disunion and discord, which, if they once prevail, should not call forth such a Spirit in France as
must render the exercise of all the authority un- to make it probable that the act of the country
der the Constitution impossible, and leave no  itself will destroy the system  now prevailing;
appeal but to the sword.                        if the danger, the difficulty, the risk of continuIs, then: military despotism that which we are  ing the contest should increase, while the hope
ot nle accustomed to consider as a stable  of complete ultimate success should be diminof all kinds of form of government?  In all ages of ished; all these, in their due place, are considI'ower.    the world it has been attended with  erations which, with myself and, I can answer
the least stability to the persons who exercised  for it, with every one of my colleagues, will have
it, and with the most rapid succession of changes their just weight.  But at present these considand revolutions.  In the outset of the French  erations all operate one way; at present there is
Revolution, its advocates boasted that it furnished  nothing from which we can presage a favorable
a security forever, not to France only, but to all disposition to change in the French councils.
countries in the world, against military despot- There is the greatest reason to rely on powerful
ism; that the force of standing armies was vain  co-operation from our allies; there are the stronand delusive; that no artificial power could re- gest marks of a disposition in the interior of
sist public opinion; and that it was upon the  France to active resistance against this new tyrfoundation of public opinion alone that any gov- anny; and there is every ground to believe, on
ernment could stand.  I believe that in this in- reviewing our situation and that of the enemy,
stance, as in every other, the progress of the  that, if we are ultimately disappointed of that
French Revolution has belied its professions; but, complete success which we are at present entiso far from its being a proof of the prevalence  tied to hope, the continuance of the contest, inof public opinion against military force, it is, in- stead of making our situation comparatively
stead of the proof, the strongest exception from  worse, will have made it comparatively better.
that doctrine which appears in the history of the    If, then, I am asked how long are we to per



1800.]            HIS REFUSAL TO  NEGOTIATE WITH  BONAPARTE.                                     625
severe in the war, I can only say that no period  anticipate, that the restoration of monarchy unNo definite can be accurately assigned. Consider-  der such circumstances is impracticable?
period can ing the importance of obtaining com-    The learned gentleman has, indeed, told us
plete security for the objects for which  that almost every man now possessed Inquiry whethwe contend, we ought not to be discouraged too  of property in France must necessa- erthe chantes
soon; but on the contrary, considering the im- rily be interested in resisting such a France would
portance of not impairing and exhausting the  change, and that therefore it never   rve'tin t'fthee
radical strength of the country, there are lim- can be effected.28  If that single con-  ourb""ts.
its beyond which we ought not to persist, and  sideration were conclusive against the possibility
which we can determine only by estimating and  of a change, for the same reason the Revolution
comparing fairly, from  time to time, the de- itself, by which the whole property of the coungree of security to be obtained by treaty, and  try was taken from its ancient possessors, could
the risk and disadvantage of continuing the con- never have taken place.  But though I deny it
test.                                              to be an insuperable obstacle, I admit it to be a
But, sir, there  are some gentlemen in the  point of considerable delicacy and difficulty.  It
The object is House who seem to consider it already  is not, indeed, for us to discuss minutely what
Oltle   certain that the ultimate success to  arrangement might be formed on this point to
tpon France. which I am  looking is unattainable.  conciliate and unite opposite interests. ButwhoThey suppose us contending only for the resto- ever considers the precarious tenure and depre —
ration of the French monarchy, which they be- ciated value of lands held under the revolution-.
lieve to be impracticable, and deny to be desira- ry title, and the low price for which they have,
ble for this country.  We have been asked in  generally been obtained, will think it, perhaps,.
the course of this debate: Do you think you can  not impossible that an ample compensation might
impose monarchy upon France, against the will be made to the bulk of the present possessors,.
of the nation?  I never thought it, I never hoped  both for the purchase-money they have paid and 
it, I never wished it.  I have thought, I have  for the actual value of what they now enjoy; and,:
hoped, I have wished, that the time might come  that the ancient proprietors might be reinstated
when the effect of the arms of the allies might in the possession of their former rights, with only
so far overpower the military force, which keeps  such a temporary sacrifice as reasonable men.
France in bondage, as to give vent and scope to  would willingly make to obtain so essential an.
the thoughts and actions of its inhabitants. We  object.
have, indeed, already seen abundant proof of    The honorable and learned gentleman, how —
what is the disposition of a large part of the  ever, has supported his reasoning on HitatMr.Ercountry; we have seen almost through the whole  this part of the subject, by an argu- rise oftlree
of the Revolutithe he western provinces of France  ment which he undoubtedly considers p1" ten tC
deluged with the blood of its inhabitants, obsti-  as  unanswerable-a  reference  to fnndt, d
nately contending for their ancient laws and re- what would be his own conduct in similar cir-.
ligion. We have recently seen, in the revival of  cumstances; and he tells us that every landed
that war, fresh proof of the zeal which still ani- proprietor in France must support the present
mates those countries in the same cause. These  order of things in that country from  the same
efforts (I state it distinctly, and there are those  motive that he and every proprietor of three per
near me who can bear witness to the truth of  cent. stock would join in the defense of the Conthe assertion) were not produced by any instiga-  stitution of Great Britain. I must do the learned
tion from  hence; they were the effects of a  gentleman the justice to believe that the habits
rooted sentiment prevailing through all those  of his profession must supply him  with betterprovinces forced into action by the " law of the  and nobler motives for defending a Constitution,
hostages" and the other tyrannical measures of  which he has had so much occasion to study and
the Directory, at the moment when we were  examine, than any he can derive from the value'
endeavoring to discourage so hazardous an en-  of his proportion, however large, of three per
terprise.  If, under such circumstances, we find  cents, even supposing them  to continue to in —
them giving proofs of their unalterable persever-  crease in price as rapidly as they have done dur-.
ance in their principles; if there is every reason  ing the last three years, in which the security
to believe that the same disposition prevails in  and prosperity of the country has been estabmany other extensive provinces of France; if  lished by following a system  directly opposite'
every party appears at length equally wearied  to the counsels of the learned gentleman and his.
and disappointed with all the successive changes  friends.
which the Revolution has produced; if the ques-    The learned gentleman's illustration, howev-.
tion is no longer between monarchy, and even  er, though it fails with respect to himself, is hapthe pretense and name of liberty, but between 
the ancient line of hereditary princes on the one    28 Al immense amount of confiscated property had
hand, and a military tyrant, a foreign usurper, passed into new hands during the Revolution. Mr..
Erskine had correctly argued that if this was to be
on the other; if the armies of that usurper are
onX the other; if the armies  of that usurr ae  restored to the former proprietors, nearly all France&
likely to find sufficient occupation on the front- had the strongest motives to resist the return of theiers, and to be forced at length to leave the inte- Bourbons. The obstacle plainly would have been
rior of the country at liberty to manifest its real insurmountable; and when they did return in 1814,
feeling and disposition; what reason have we to  nothing of this kind was attempted.
R




626                                     MR. PITT ON                                          [1800.
pily and aptly applied to the state of France;  penditure of its government.  Suppose, then, the
and the low and let us see what inference it fur- heir of the house of Bourbon reinstated on the
tateof the nishes with respect to the probable at- throne, he will have sufficient occupation in enFrench
funds.    tachment of moneyed men to the contin-  deavoring, if possible, to heal the wounds, and
uance of the revolutionary system, as well as  gradually to repair the losses of ten years of
with respect to the general state of public credit civil convulsion; to reanimate the drooping cornin that country.  I do not, indeed, know  that merce, to rekindle the industry, to replace the
there exists precisely any fund of three per cents  capital, and to revive the manufactures of the
in France, to furnish a test for the patriotism   country. Under such circumstances, there must
and public spirit of the lovers of French liberty. probably be a considerable interval before such
But there is another fund which may equally  a monarch, whatever may be his views, can posanswer our purpose.  The capital of three per sess the power which can make him formidable
cent. stock which formerly existed in France  to Europe; but while the system of the Revoluhas undergone a whimsical operation, similar to  tion continues, the case is quite different.  It is
many other expedients of finance which we have  true, indeed, that even the gigantic and unnatuseen in the course of the Revolution.  This was  ral means by which that Revolution has been
performed by a decree which, as they termed it, supported are so far impaired; the influence of
republicantized their debt; that is, in other words, its principles and the terror of its arms so far
struck off at once two thirds of the capital, and  weakened; and its power of action so much conleft the proprietors to take their chance for the  tracted and circumscribed, that against the empayment of interest on the remainder.  This  bodied force of Europe, prosecuting a vigorous
remnant was afterward converted into the pres- war, we may justly hope that the remnant and
cnt five per cent. stock. I had the curiosity very  wreck of this system can not long oppose an eflately to inquire what price it bore in the mark-  fectual resistance.
et, and I was told that the price had somewhat    But, supposing the confederacy of Europe prerisen from confidence in the new  government,  maturely dissolved; supposing our ar- But the power
and was actually as high as seventeen.  I really  mies disbanded, our fleets laid up in of Bonaparte
in the event of
at first supposed that my informer meant seven-  our harbors, our exertions relaxed, apremature
peace, miglit be
teen years purchase for every pound of inter-  and our means of precaution and de- terribly enest. and I began to be almost jealous of revolu- fense relinquished; do we believe  ~loyd.
tionary  credit; but I soon found that he liter- that the revolutionary power, with this rest and
ally meant seventeen pounds for every hundred  breathing time given it to recover from  the
pounds capital stock of five per cent., that is a  pressure under which it is now sinking, possesstiitle, miore than three and a half years' purchase. ing still the means of calling suddenly and vio-:,o'much for the value of revolutionary proper-  lently into action whatever is the remaining
ty, and for the attachment with which it must physical force of France, under the guidance of
inspire its possessors toward the system of gov- military despotism; do we believe that this revernment,to which that value is to be ascribed!   olutionary power, the terror of which is now beOn the question, sir, how far the restoration  ginning to vanish, will not again prove formidaeosirable-  of the French monarchy, if practicable,  ble to Europe?   Can we forget that in the ten.reto..f the is desirable, I shall not think it neces- years in which that power has subsisted, it has
iourbons,  sry to say much   Can it be supposed  brought more misery on surrounding nations,
to be indifferent to us or to the world, whether  and produced more acts of aggression, cruelty,
the throne of France is to be filled by a Prince  perfidy, and enormous ambition than  can be
of the house of Bourbon, or by him whose prin- traced in the history of France for the centuries
eiples and conduct I have endeavored to devel-  which have elapsed since the foundation of its
op?  Is it nothing, with a view to influence and  monarchy, including all the wars which, in the
example, whether the fortune of this last adven- course of that period, have been waged by any
turer in the lottery of revolutions shall appear  of those sovereigns, whose projects of aggrandto be permanent?  Is it nothing whether a sys- izement and violations of treaty afford a constant
tem shall be sanctioned which confirms, by one  theme of general reproach against the ancient
of its fundamental articles, that general transfer  government of France?  And if not, can we
of property from its ancient and lawful possess-  hesitate whether we have the best prospect of
ors, which holds out one of the most terrible ex- permanent peace, the best security for the indeamples of national injustice, and which has fur- pendence and safety of Europe from the restoranished the great source of revolutionary finance  tion of the lawful government, or from the conand revolutionary strength against all the pow- tinuance of revolutionary power in the hands of
ers of Europe?                                    Bonaparte?
In the exhausted and impoverished state of    In compromise and treaty with such a power,'Theyco ldnot, France, it seems for a time impossi- placed in such hands as now exercise No security
if restored, be  ble that any system but that of rob-  it, and retaining the same means of ltp.ee wtll)e
formidable to                                                                            him wvill be perthe rest of Eu- bery and confiscation, any thing but annoyance which it now possesses, I.manent.
rope.      the continued torture, which can be  see little hope of permanent security.  I see no
applied only by the engines of the Revolution,  possibility at this moment of such a peace as
can extort from its ruined inhabitants more than  would justify that liberal intercourse which is
the means of supporting in peace the yearly ex- the essence of real amity  no chance of termin



.800.]           HIS REFUSAL TO NEGOTIATE WITH BONAPARTE.                                  627
ating the expenses or the anxieties of war, or of  public opinion.  Such a concurrence in the strong
restoring to us any of the advantages of estab- and vigorous measures necessary for the purpose
lished tranquillity; and, as a sincere lover of  could not then be expected, but from satisfying
peace, I can not be content with its nominal at- the country, by the strongest and most decided
tainment.  I must be desirous of pursuing that proofs, that peace, on terms in any degree admissystem which promises to attain, in the end, the  sible, was unattainable.
permanent enjoyment of its solid and substantial    Under this impression, we thought it our duty
blessings for this country and for Europe.  As to attempt negotiation, not from the The,egotaa sincere lover of peace, I will not sacrifice it sanguine hope. even at that time, that tiot ho.1...
by grasping at the shadow when the reality is its result could afford us complete se- produced tlll
not substantially within my reach.              curity, but from  the persuasion that ~stl^tis E:Cur igitur pacem  nolo?  Quia infida est, the danger arising from peace, under gland.
quia periculosa, quia esse non potest.g9        such circumstances, was less than that of conIf, sir, in all that I have now  offered to the  tinuing the war with precarious and inadequate
House, I have succeeded in establishing the means.  The result of those negotiations proved
proposition that the system of the French Rev- that the enemy would be satisfied with nothing
olution has been such as to afford to foreign  less than the sacrifice of the honor and independpowers no adequate ground for security in ne- ence of the country.  From  this conviction, a
gotiation, and that the change which has recent- spirit and enthusiasm was excited in the nation
ly taken place has not yet afforded that security; which produced the efforts to which we are inif I have laid before you a just statement of the  debted for the subsequent change in our situanature and extent of the danger with which we  tion.  Having witnessed that happy change,
have been threatened, it would remain only  having observed the increasing prosperity and
shortly to consider whether there is any thing in  security of the country from that period, seeing
the circumstances of the present moment to in- how much more satisfactory our prospects now
duce us to accept a security confessedly inade- are than any which we could then have derived
quate against a danger of such a description.    from the successful result of negotiation, I have
It will be necessary here to say a few words not scrupled to declare that I consider the rupture
on the subject on which gentlemen  of the negotiation, on the part of the enemy, as
Mr. Pitt's rea-                     n,   a
80os forn tPgti. have been so fond of dwelling, I a fortunate circumstance for the country.  But
ating in 1755-7.
ting -    mean our former negotiations, and  because these are my sentiments at this time,
particularly that at Lisle, in 1797.  I am de- after reviewing what has since passed, does it
sirous of stating frankly and openly the true  follow that we were at that time insincere in
motives which induced me to concur in then rec- endeavoring to obtain peace? The learned genommending negotiation; and I will leave it to the  tleman, indeed, assumes that we were, and he
House and to the country to judge whether our even makes a concession, of which I desire not
conduct at that time was inconsistent with the to claim the benefit. He is willing to admit that,
principles by which we are guided at present. on our principles and our view of the subject, inThat revolutionary policy which I have endeav-  sincerity would have been justifiable.  I know,
ored to describe, that gigantic system  of prodi- sir, no plea that would justify those who are
gality and bloodshed by which the efforts of intrusted with the conduct of public affairs in
France were supported, and which counts for holding out to Parliament and to the nation one
nothing the lives and the property of a nation, object, while they were, in fact, pursuing anhad at that period driven us to exertions which  other.  I did, in fact, believe, at the moment,
had, in a great measure, exhausted the ordinary  the conclusion of peace, if it could have been obmeans of defraying our immense expenditure, tained, to be preferable to the continuance of the
and had led many of those who were the most war under its increasing risks and difficulties.
convinced of the original justice and necessity  I therefore wished for peace; I sincerely labored
of the war, and of the danger of Jacobin princi- for peace.  Our endeavors were frustrated by
ples, to doubt the possibility of persisting in it, the act of the enemy.  If, then, the circumstantill complete and adequate security could be ob- ces are since changed; if what passed at that
tained.  There seemed, too, much reason to be- period has afforded a proof that the object we
iieve that, without some new measure to check  aimed at was unattainable; and if all that has
the rapid accumulation of debt, we could no  passed since has proved that, provided peace had
longer trust to the stability of that funding sys- been then made, it could not have been durable,
ter by which the nation had been enabled to  are we bound to repeat the same experiment,
support the expense of all the different wars in  when every reason against it is strengthened by
which we have engaged in the course of the  subsequent experience, and when the inducepresent century.  In order to continue our ex- ments which led to it at that time have ceased
ertions with vigor, it became necessary that a  to exist?
new and solid system of finance should be estab-    When we consider the resources and the spirit
lished, such as could not be rendered effectual of the country, can any man doubt that Peroration.
but by the general and decided concurrence of if adequate security is not now to be Increaseof
29 Why, then, am I against peace? Because it obtained by treaty, we have the means
is faithless, because it is dangerous, because it can  of prosecuting the contest without material diffinot be maintained.                              culty or danger, and with a reasonable prospect




628     MR. PITT ON HIS REFUSAL TO NEGOTIATE WITH  BONAPARTE.  [1800.
of completely attaining our object?  I will not first occasion may call forth into a flame-if, I
dwell on the improved state of public credit, on  say, sir, this comparison be just, I feel myself authe continually increasing amount, in spite of ex- thorized to conclude from it, not that we are entraordinary temporary burdens, of our permanent titled to consider ourselves certain of ultimate
revenue, on the yearly accession of wealth to an  success, not that we are to suppose ourselves exextent unprecedented even in the most flourish-  empted from the unforeseen vicissitudes of war;
ing times of peace, which we are deriving, in the  but that, considering the value of the object for
midst of war, from our extended and flourishing  which we are contending, the means for supportcommerce; on the progressive improvement and  ing the contest, and the probable course of hugrowth of our manufactures; on the proofs which  man events, we should be inexcusable, if at this
we see on all sides of the uninterrupted accumu- moment we were to relinquish the struggle on
lation of productive capital; and on the active ex- any grounds short of entire and complete secuertion of every branch of national industry which  rity; that from perseverance in our efforts under
can tend to support and augment the population, such circumstances, we have the fairest reason
the riches, and the power of the country?      to expect the full attainment of our object; but
As little need I recall the attention of the  that at all events, even if we are disappointed in
Recent House to the additional means of action  our more sanguine hopes, we are more likely to
"ict'ies. which We have derived from  the great gain than to lose by the continuation of the conaugmentation of our disposable military force, test; that every month to which it is continued,
the continued triumphs of our powerful and vic- even if it should not in its effects lead to the final
torious navy, and the events which, in the course  destruction of the Jacobin system, must tend so
of the last two years, have raised the military  far to weaken and exhaust it, as to give us at
ardor and military glory of the country to a  least a greater comparative security in any termheight unexampled in any period of our history. ination of the war; that, on all these grounds,
In addition to these grounds of reliance on our this is not the moment at which it is consistent
Skill and valor own strength and exertions, we have  with our interest or our duty to listen to any proofour allies.  seen the consummate skill and valor posals of negotiation with the present ruler of
of the arms of our allies proved by that series of France; but that we are not, therefore, pledged
unexampled success in the course of the last cam- to any uznalterable determination as to our future
paign, and we have every reason to expect a co- conduct; that in this we must be regulated by
operation on the continent, even to a greater ex- the course of events; and that it will be the duty
tent, in the course of the present year. If we con- of his Majesty's ministers from time to time to
pare this view of our own situation with every  adapt their measures to any variation of circumthing we can observe of the state and condition of stances, to consider how far the effects of the
our enemy-if we can trace him laboring under military operations of the allies or of the internal
equal difficulty in finding men to recruit his army, disposition of France correspond with our present
or money to pay it-if we know that in the course  expectations; and, on a view of the whole, to
of the last year the most rigorous efforts of military  compare the difficulties or risks which may arise
Exhausted state conscription were scarcely sufficient in the prosecution of the contest with the prosoftlie French. to replace to the Frenci armies, at pect of ultimate success, or of the degree of adthe end of the campaign, the numbers which  vantage to be derived from  its further continuthey had lost in the course of it-if we have seen  ance, and to be governed by the result of all these
that that force, then in possession of advantages considerations in the opinion and advice which
which it has since lost, was unable to contend  they may offer to their sovereign.
with the efforts of the combined armies-if we
know that, even while supported by the plunder
of all the countries which they had overrun, those    Notwithstanding the deep impression made by
armies were reduced, by the confession of their  Mr. Fox in reply, the address was carried by a
commanders, to the extremity of distress, and  vote of 265 to 64.  The result, however, paindestitute not only of the principal articles of fully disappointed the expectations of Mr. Pitt.
military supply, but almost of the necessaries of  It seemed to be his fate, throughout the war, to
life-if we see them  now  driven back within  be deceived on the two points dwelt upon in his
their own frontiers, and confined within a coun- peroration, viz., the skill and valor of his allies
try whose own resources have long since been  and the exhausted state of the French.  The
proclaimed by their successive governments to  former were uniformly out-generaled and defeatbe unequal either to paying or maintaining them  ed, while the latter grew  continually in spirit
-if we observe that since the last revolution  and resources.  The reader will see at the conno one substantial or effectual measure has been  elusion of Mr. Fox's speech in reply to this, a
adopted to remedy the intolerable disorder of their slight sketch of the events which followed during
finances, and to supply the deficiency of their the two subsequent years-the entire discomfit-,credit and resources-if we see through large  ure of the allies, their withdrawal from the con-,and populous districts of France, either open war test, the resignation of Mr. Pitt, and the conclu.
levied against the present usurpation, or evident sion of the peace of Amiens in 1802, to the great
miarks of disunion and distraction, which the  joy of the English.




LORD ERSKINE.
TIOMAS ERSKINE, youngest son of the Earl of Buchan, was born at Edinburgh, on
the 10th day of January, 1750.  The family had once been eminent for rank and
wealth; but their ample patrimony being gradually wasted, the income of their estates was at last reduced to two hundred pounds a year.  To conceal their poverty,
they removed to the capital from an old castle, which was all that was left of their
wide domains; and " in a small and ill-furnished room in an upper flat, or story,
of a lofty house in the old town of Edinburgh, first saw the light the Honorable
Thomas Erskine, the future defender of Stockdale, and Lord Chancellor of Great
Britain."
Young Erskine displayed in very early life that quickness of intellect and joyous
hilarity of spirits for which he was so remarkable throughout his professional career.
He was kept for some years at the High School of Edinburgh, and then removed to the
University of St. Andrew's, where he spent less than a year.  His early education
was, therefore, extremely limited.  He had but little knowledge of Latin, and none
of Greek.1 In the rudiments of English literature, however, he was uncommonly
well instructed for one of his age.  He profited greatly by conversation with his
mother, who was a woman of uncommon strength of mind, and owed much of the
daring energy of his character to her example and instructions.  Being accustomed,
notwithstanding the poverty of the family, to associate from childhood with persons of
high rank and breeding, he early acquired that freedom and nobleness of manner for
which he was so much distinguished in after life. He was the favorite of all who
knew him-of his masters, his school-mates, and the families in which he visited.
Full of fun and frolic, with a lively fancy, ready wit, and unbounded self-reliance, he
found his chief delight in society; and probably laid the foundation, at this early period, of those extraordinary powers of conversation to which he was greatly indebted
for his subsequent success.  He was one of the few who seem to have gained by being left chiefly to themselves in their early years.  If he had less learning, he had
more freedom and boldness; and when the time arrived for his entering into the conflicts of the bar, it is not surprising that, with high native talent, extraordinary capacity for application, and a self-confidence amounting to absolute egotism, he was
able to put forth his powers, under the impulse of strong motive, with prodigious effect, and to make himself, without any preparatory training, one of the most ready
and eloquent speakers of the age.
Hie showed a great desire from  boyhood to be fitted for one of the learned professions, and had even then his dreams of distinction in eloquence; but the poverty
of his father forbade the attempt. i'At the age of fourteen, he was placed as a midshipman in the navy, and was commended to the particular care of his captain by
Lord Mansfield, who took a lively interest in the Buchan family.  He now spent
four years in visiting various parts of the globe, particularly the W7est Indies and the
coast of North America.  He was often on shore; and it was probably on one of
1 Lord Brougham speaks of him as having " hardly any access to the beauties of Attic eloquence,
whether in prose or verse;" but Lord Campbell goes farther, and says, " he learned little of Greek
beyond the alphabet."




630                             LORD ERSKINE.
these occasions that he witnessed that meeting of an Indian chief with the governor
of a British colony, which he described so graphically in his defense of Stockdale,
and made the starting-point of one of the noblest bursts of eloquence in our language.
At the end of four years he returned to England; the ship was paid off, and he
was cast without employment on the world.  At this moment of deep perplexity
his father died, leaving him but a scanty pittance for his support. After consulting
with his friends, he saw no course but to try his fortune in the army; and accordingly he spent the whole of his little patrimony in purchasing an ensign's commission in the Royals, or First Regiment of Foot.  The regiment remained for some
years at home, and was quartered, from time to time, in different provincial towns.
Erskine, with his habitual buoyancy of spirits, mingled in the best society of the
places where he was stationed, and attracted great attention by the elegance of his
manners and the brilliancy of his conversation. He at last became entangled with
an affair of the heart; and was married in April, 1770, at the age of twenty, to a
lady of respectable family, though without fortune-the daughter of Daniel Moore.
Esq., member of Parliament for Marlow.
This rash step would to most persons have been the certain precursor of poverty
and ruin; but in his case it was a fortunate one. It served to balance his mind, to
check his natural volatility, to impress him  with a sense of new obligations and
higher duties.  The regiment was ordered to Minorca, where he spent two years in
almost uninterrupted leisure. In the society of his wife, he now entered on the systematic study of English literature, and probably no two years were ever better spent
for the purposes of mental culture.  As a preparation for his future efforts in oratory,
they were invaluable.  In addition to his reading in prose, he devoted himself with
great ardor to the study of Milton and Shakspeare.  A large part of the former he
committed to memory, and became so familiar with the latter, that " he could almost, like Porson, have held conversations on all subjects for days together in the
phrases of the great English dramatist." Here he acquired that fine choice of words,
that rich and varied imagery, that sense of harmony in the structure of his sentences,
that boldness of thought and magnificence of expression, for which he was afterward
so much distinguished.  It may also be remarked, that there are passages in both
these writers which are the exact counterpart of the finest eloquence of the ancients.
The speeches, in the second book of the Paradise Lost, have all the condensed energy
and burning force of expression which belong to the great Athenian orator. The
speech of Brutus, in Shakspeare's Julius Caesar, has all the stern majesty of Roman
eloquence. That of Anthony over the dead body of Caesar is a matchless exhibition
of the art and dexterity of insinuation which characterized the genius of the Greeks.
It is not in regard to poetry alone that we may say of these great masters,
Hither, as to a fountain,
Other suns repair, and in their urns
Draw golden light.
In respect to eloquence, also, to use the words of Johnson, slightly varied, he who
would excel in this noblest of arts must give his days and nights to the study of
Milton and Shakspeare.
In the year 1772 the regiment returned to England, and the young ensign obtained
a furlough of six months. Most of this time he spent in the best society of London;
and Boswell speaks of Johnson and himself as dining, April 6, 1772, with " a young
officer in the regimentals of the Scots Royals, who talked with a vivacity, fluency,
and precision which attracted particular attention."  It was Erskine, who, with his
characteristic boldness, entered at once into a literary discussion with Johnson, disputing his views on the comparative merits of Fielding and Richardson in a manner which rather gained him the favor of the great English moralist.




LORD ERSKINE.                                 63.1
At the end of six years from his entering the army, when he had reached the rank
of Lieutenant, the attention of Erskine was by mere accident directed to the bar.
Being stationed, during the summer of 1774, in a country town where the Assizes
were held, he rambled one day into court; and Lord Mansfield, who presided, having
noticed his uniform, was led to inquire his name.  Finding that it was the boy whom
he had aided ten years before in going to sea, he invited him to a seat on the bench,
briefly stating the principal points of the case, and showing him other civilities which
were peculiarly gratifying under such circumstances.  Ersline listened with the
liveliest interest.  The counsel were considered skillful and eloquent; but it often
occurred to him, in the course of the argument on both sides, how much more clearly
and forcibly he could have presented certain points and urged them on the minds of
the jury.  "And why not be a lawyer?" was the thought which instantly forced
itself on his mind.  "Why not carry out the early aspirations of boyhood?"  Any
one of a less sanguine temperament would have felt the attempt to be hopeless,
burdened as he was with a young and growing family, and wholly destitute of any
means of subsistence except his commission, which must, of course, be relinquished
if he entered on the study of the law.  But Erskine's whole life was one of daring
enterprise. The very difficulty of an undertaking seemed only to impel him forward
with greater eagerness. Being invited to dinner by Lord Mansfield, who was delighted with his conversational powers, he brought out at the close of the evening
the question which was already beating at his heart, " Is it impossible for me to become a lawyer?" Mansfield, who admired his talents and spirit, did not utterly discourage him, and this was enough for one of his sanguine temperament. He consulted his mother, who had the same habit of looking on the bright side of things,
and who perfectly understood the force of his character, and found to his delight that
she was almost as eager as he was to see him  enter on the undertaking.  He accordingly became a member of Lincoln's Inn, about the middle of 1775.  His term
of legal study might be materially abridged by his taking a degree at one of the universities, and to this he was entitled, as son of a nobleman, without passing an examination, if he kept his regular terms.  He therefore became a member of Trinity
College, Cambridge, early in 1776, paying no attention whatever to the studies of
the place, and contriving, at the same time, to keep his terms at Lincoln's Inn.  He
still retained his office in the army as a means of support, having obtained leave of
absence for six months, and at the end of this time sold out his commission and husbanded his resources to the utmost.  He lived in a small village just out of London;
and Reynolds, the comic writer, says, in his " Life and Times," " The young student resided in small lodgings near my father's villa at Hampstead, and openly avowed
that he lived on cow-beef, because he could not afford any of a superior quality; he
dressed shabbily, and expressed the greatest gratitude to Mr. Harris for occasional
free admissions to Covent Garden, and used boastingly to exclaim to my father.
"Thank fortune, out of my own family, I don't know a Lord."  In July, 1778, he
was called to the bar, and according to all ordinary experience of the profession in
London, he had reason to expect a delay of some years before his business would support his family.
But the early life of Erskine was full of singular adventure. Not long after his
call to the bar, he was dining with a friend, and happened to speak of a, Captain
Baillie, whose case at that time awakened great interest in the public mind. As
Lieutenant Governor of Greenwich Hospital, Baillie had discovered enormous abuses
in the management of the institution (which was used for political purposes), and had
publicly charged them on Lord Sandwich, First Lord of the Admiralty. For this
he was prosecuted on a charge of a libel, at the instance of Sandwich, who kept, however, behind the scenes to avoid any opportunity of bringing him  before the court




632                             LORD ERSKINE.
on the merits of the case.  As the trial was soon to come on, Erskine remarked on
this conduct at table with great severity, not knowing that Baillie was present as
one of the guests.  The captain was delighted with what he heard; and learning
that his volunteer advocate was a young lawyer, as yet without business, who had
himself been a sailor, declared to a friend that he should at least have one brief. Accordingly, Erskine's first retainer of a guinea was put into his hands the next day,
and it never occurred to him but that he was the only counsel in the case.  As the
trial approached, however, he found there were four distinguished advocates before
him, and he also found they had so little hope of success, that they advised Baillie,
at a consultation, to pay the costs, and in this way escape trial, as the prosecutors
had kindly proposed.  Erskine alone dissented.  "  y advice, gentlemen," said he,
" may savor more of my former profession than my present, but I am  against consenting."  "You are the man for me," said Baillie, hugging the young advocate in
his arms;" I will never give up."
The case came on before Lord Mansfield in the afternoon of November 23d, 1778.
The senior counsel of Baillie consumed the time till late in the evening, in showing
cause why the rule should be dismissed; and no one expecting Erskine to come forward, the case was adjourned until the next day.  The court was crowded in the
morning, as the Solicitor General was expected to speak in support of the rule, and,
just as Lord Mansfield was about to call upon him  to proceed, Erskine rose, unknown to nearly every individual in the room  except his Lordship, and said, in a
mild but firm tone, " My Lord, I am  likewise counsel for the author of this supposed libel, * * * and when a British subject is brought before a court of justice only
for having ventured to attack abuses which owe their continuance to the danger of
attacking them, *    e I can not relinquish the privilege of doing justice to such
merit, I will not give up even my share of the honor of repelling and exposing so
odious a prosecution."  The whole audience was hushed into a pin-fall silence, and
he then went on to ask in regard to his client, "WTho is he?  What was his duty?
WVhat has he written?  To whom has he written? and what motive induced him
to twrite?"  Taking these inquiries as the heads of his speech, he went on, in brief
but eloquent terms, to show that Baillie, as Lieutenant Governor of the Hospital,
was bound in duty to expose the abuses of the institution-that he had written nothing on the subject but what was undeniably true-that he had written it for the information of the Governors of the Hospital, who ought to be informed on such a subject-and that his only motive in writing had been the protection of those who had
lost their limbs and periled their lives in fighting the battles of their country. In
closing, he turned from Captain Baillie to the First Lord of the Admiralty, " Indeed,
Lord Sandwich," said he, " has in my mind —"  [Mansfield here reminded him that
Lord Sandwich was not before the court, when Erskine, borne away by his feelings,
instantly broke forth]," I know he is not formally before the court, but for that very
reason I will bring him before the court!  He has placed these men [the prosecutors] in the front of the battle, in hopes to escape under their shelter; but I will not
join in the battle with them; their vices, though screwed up to the highest pitch of
human depravity, are not of dignity enough to vindicate the combat with me. I will
drag him  to light, who is the dark mover behind this scene of iniquity.  I assert,
that the Earl of Sandwich has but one road to escape out of this business without
pollution and disgrace, and that is, by publicly disavowing the acts of the prosecutors, and restoring Captain Baillie to his command.  If he does this, then his offense
will be no more than the too common one of having suffered his own personal interest to prevail over his public duty, in placing his voters in the hospital.  But if, on
the contrary, he continues to protect the prosecutors, in spite of the evidence of their
guilt, which has excited the abhorrence of the numerous audience that crowd this




LORD ERSKINE.                                 633
court; if he keeps this injured man sus2pended, or dares to turn that suspension
into a remzoval, I shall then not scruple to declcare him an accomplice in their guilt,
a shameless oppressor, a disgrace to his rank, and a traitor to his trust."      *
"FINE AND IMPRISONMENT! The man deserves a palace instead of a prison who
prevents the palace, built by the public bounty of his country, from being converted
into a dungeon, and who sacrifices his own security to the interests of humanity and
virtue."  Considering all the circumstances of the case, it is not surprising that Lord
Campbell should pronounce this " the most wonderful forensic effort which we have
in our annals." It is hardly necessary to say that the decision was for the defendant;
the rule was dismissed with costs.
Never did a single case so completely make the fortune of any individual.  Erskine entered Westminster Hall that morning not only in extreme poverty, but with
no reasonable prospect of an adequate subsistence for years.  He left it a rich man.
He received thirty retainers from attorneys who were present, it is said, while retiring from the hall.  Not only was his ambition gratified, but the comfort and independence of those whose happiness he had staked on his success as a lawyer were
secured for life. Some one asked him, at a later period, how he dared to face Lord
Mansfield so boldly on a point where he was clearly out of order, when he beautifully replied, "I thought of my children as plucking me by the robe, and saying,'Now, father, is the time to get us bread.'" His business went on rapidly increasing, until he had an annual income of ~12,000.
The next year he added to his reputation by a masterly defense of Admiral Keppel before a court-martial at Portsmouth. His experience in naval aflairs recommended him for this service, and he performed it with unabated zeal for thirteen days, which
were spent in examining witnesses and arguing points of order, after which he wrote
out the speech which the Admiral read to the court.  This was followed by a
unanimous verdict of acquittal; and so strongly did Keppel feel the value of the
Young advocate's services, that he addressed him a note in token of his gratitude containing a present of a thousand pounds, adding, "I shall ever rejoice in this commencement of a friendship2 which I hope daily to improve."  Erskine, with the boyish hilarity which always marked his character, hastened to the villa of the Reynoldses, and, displaying his bank-notes, exclaimed, "Voila the non-suit of cow-beef, my
good friends."
He came into the House five years after, in November, 1783, as a supporter of
the Coalition ministry of Mr. Fox and Lord North.  Nearly all the lawyers being on
the other side, great reliance was placed on his services by the friends of the new
government. But they were sorely disappointed. His habits were not suited to parliamentary debate.  His understanding was eminently a legal one  he wanted the
stimulus and encouragement of a listening court and jury; and was embarrassed by
the presence of sneering opponents ready to treat him with personal indignity.  His
vanity now turned to his disadvantage, and put him in the power of his antagonists.
When he commenced his maiden speech, says Mr. Croly, in his Life of George IV.,
" Mr. Pitt, evidently intending to reply, sat with pen and paper in his hand, prepared
to catch the arguments of his formidable adversary. He wrote a word or two, Erskine proceeded; but, with every additional sentence, Pitt's attention to the paper
relaxed, his look became more careless, and he obviously began to think the orator
less and less worthy of his attention. At length, while every eye in the House was
fixed upon him, with a contemptuous smile he dashed the pen through the paper,
and flung them  on the floor.  Erskine never recovered from this expression of disdain; his voice faltered, he struggled through the remainder of his speech, and sank
into his seat dispirited and shorn of his fame."  Sheridan remarked to him at a later
period, " I'll tell you how it happens, Erskine; you are cfraid of Pitt, and that is the




634                             LORD ERSKINE.
flabby part of your character."  There was too much truth in the remark.  Erskine
could bear any thing but contempt. He recovered himself, however, at a later period of life, and made quite a number of very able and eloquent speeches; in fact,
he would have stood high as a parliamentary orator, if he had not so completely
outshone himself by the brilliancy of his efforts in Westminster Hall.
" As an advocate in the forum," says Lord Campbell, " I hold him to be without
an equal in ancient or modern times."  What is rare in one of so brilliant a genius,
he had no less power with the court than with the jury.  It was remarked of him,
as of Scarlett, that " he had invented a machine by the secret use of which, in court,
he could make the head of a judge nod assent to his propositions; whereas his rivals, who tried to pirate it, always made the same head move from side to side." He
was certainly not a profound lawyer, as the result of original investigation; his short
period of study rendered this impossible. But he had the power of availing himself
more completely than almost any man that ever lived, of the knowledge collected for
his use by others.  His speech on the Rights of Juries, in the case of the Dean of
St. Asaph, is universally admitted to show " a depth of learning which would have
done honor to Selden or Hale;" and so completely had he thrown his mind into the
case, and made himself master of what black-letter lawyers spent months in searching out as the materials of his brief, that he poured forth all this learning, in his argument before the court, with the freshness and precision of one who had spent his
life in such researches. He always, indeed, grasped a cause so firmly, that he
never forgot a principle or a decision, an analogy or a fact which made for his client,
while he showed infinite dexterity in avoiding the difficulties of his case, and turni31g to his own advantage the unexpected disclosures which sometimes come out in
the progress of a trial. Nothing could be more incorrect than the idea of some, that
Erskine owed his success chiefly to the warmth and brilliancy of his genius.  The
dryest special pleader never managed a cause with greater caution.  Even in his
Indian Chief, in the case of Stockdale (p. 696), a passage which verges more toward
poetry than any thing in our eloquence, he was still, as a writer in the Edinburgh
Review remarks, "feeling his way every step he took."  His boldness was equal to
his caution. In his defense of the liberty of the press, and of the rights of the subject when assailed by the doctrine of constructive treason, he had some of the severest conflicts with the court which any advocate was ever called to maintain. When
the jury, in the case of the Dean of St. Asaph, brought in their verdict, " Guilty of publishing only," which would have the effect of clearing the defendant, Justice Buller,
who presided, acting on the principle then held by the court, considered it beyond
their province to make this addition, and determined they should withdraw it.  Erskine, on the other hand, seized upon the word the moment it was uttered, and demanded to have it recorded.  After some sparring between him and the court, he
put the question to the foreman, " Is the word only to stand as a part of the verdict?"
" Certainly," was the reply.  " Then I insist it shall be recorded," says Erskine.
" The verdict," says Buller, " must be misunderstood: let me understand the jury."
"The jury," replied Erskine, " do understand their verdict."  Buller. " Sir, I will
not be interrupted."  E rscine. " I stand here as an advocate for a brother citizen,
and I desire the word only may be recorded."  Buller. " SIT DOWN, SIR.  REMEM
BER YOUR DUTY, OR I SHALL BE OBLIGED TO PROCEED IN ANOTHER MANNER."
Er$skine. " YOUR LORDSHIP MAY PROCEED IN WHAT MANNER YOU THINK FIT; I KNOW
MY DUTY AS WELL AS YOUR LORDSHIP KNOWS YOURS.  I SHALL NOT ALTER MY CONDUCT."  The spirit of the judge sunk before the firmness of the advocate; no attempt
was made to carry the threat into execution.
It was this mixture of boldness and caution, it was the keen sagacity and severe
logic of Erskine, which laid the foundation of his unrivaled power over a jury.  It




LORD ERSKINE.                                 635
was owing to these qualities that, when he threw into his argument all the strength
of his ardent feelings, and all that beauty and richness of illustration which his glowing fancy supplied, no one ever suspected him of wishing to play upon their passions;
the appeal was still so entirely to their intellect, that the jury gave him their sympathies without hesitation or reserve. And if he seemed to digress for a moment
firom the line of his reasoning, as he sometimes did for the sake of relieving the minds
Qf his auditors, he still showed the same sagacity in turning even this to the furtherance of his argument, for he always brought back with him from these excursions
some weighty truth which he had gathered by the way, and which served to give 
a new and startling force to the urgency of his appeal.  To these qualities he added'
a good-humored cheerfulness in the most difficult cases, which put him on the best
terms with the court and jury. They wished him to succeed, even when they had
made up their minds that he must fail.  It is easy to see the advantage he thus
gained.  Sometimes, under his management, the worst cause seemed wholly to
change its aspect; as in the case of Hadfeld (given below), in which Kenyon, who
presided, showed himself at first to be strongly prejudiced against the prisoner, but
had his views so entirely changed that, at the close of Erskine's argument, he took
the extraordinary step of recommending to the Attorney General not to proceed in
the case, but to allow an immediate acquittal.  Only one trait more will be added
to his character as an advocate. He was uniformly kind to the younger members
of the profession.  He was the last man on earth to injure or depress a rival. When
Sir James Mackintosh made his celebrated defense in the case of Peltier-a case
which he might naturally expect, from his superior age and devotion to a free press,
would have been committed to his care-he showed no mean jealousy; he attended
the trial, and, before retiring to bed that night, addressed a note to the young advocate expressing his warmest admiration of the defense, as "one of the most splendid
monuments of genius, learning, and eloquence."
Nine of Mr. Erskine's ablest arguments are given in this collection.  It is unnecessary here to dwell upon their merits or the circumstances out of which they sprung:
these are detailed at large in the Introductions which precede the speeches.  The
writer would only urge upon the general student in oratory not to pass over, as be]onging exclusively to the lawyer, the four great arguments of Erskine in the cases
of Lord George Gordon, of the Dean of St. Asaph, of Hardy, and of Hadfield.  The
technical terms are briefly explained in notes, so that no embarrassment need arise
from this cause. As specimens of acute and powerful reasoning, enlivened occasionally by glowing eloquence, they are among the finest efforts of genius in our language.  Nothing can be more useful to our young orators of any profession, than to
make themselves perfectly acquainted with these admirable specimens of reasoning,
whatever toil it may cost them.  Such productions, as Johnson said of a similar
class of writings, " are bark and steel to the mind."
Mr. Erskine, as already mentioned, came into Parliament in 1783, as the friend
and supporter of Mr. Fox. He adhered to him in all his reverses, and at last shared
in his success.  When Lord Grenville and Mr. Fox came into power in 1806, Erskine was appointed Lord Chancellor, thus verifying a prediction which he made
twenty-seven years before, just after he was called to the bar, and which (for he wtas
inclined to be superstitious) he probably ascribed to some supernatural agency.
"Willie," said he to his friend William Adam, after a long silence, as they were riding together over a blasted heath between Lewes and Guilford, in 1779, " Willie, the
time will come when I shall be Lord Chancellor, and the Star of the Thistle shall
blaze on my bosom!"  His dream was now accomplished.  But the office of Lord
Chancellor was one to which he was very little suited. All his practice had lain in
another direction; he was wholly unacquainted, with the laws of property, so essen



636                             LORD ERSKINE.
tial to the decision of cases in chancery; and "the doctrines which prevail in the
courts of equity," as Sir Samuel Romilly remarked, "were to him  almost like the
laws of a foreign country." He had always thrown contempt upon proceedings in
these courts; and was sometimes taunted with his pathetic appeal to Lord Kenyon,
when recommending that his client should apply to chancery for redress: " Would
your Lordship send a dog you loved there?"  Still, he endeavored to gain what
information he could on the subject at his period of life, and said humorously to Romilly, who excelled in this knowledge of these proceedings, " You must make me a
chancellor now, that I may afterward make you one."  Though he added no honor
to the office, he did not disgrace it.  None of his decisions except one were ever
called in question, and that was affirmed by the House of Lords. He presided with
dignity, and when he retired from office, as he did at the end of thirteen months,
Sir Arthur Pigot addressed him in the name of the bar, expressing " their grateful
sense of the kindness shown them while he presided."
The remainder of Erskine's life was saddened by poverty, and unworthy of his
early fame.  The usages of the profession forbade his returning to the bar; the pension on which he retired was small; the property he had gained was wasted in
speculations; and his early sense of character was unhappily lost, to some extent, in
the general wreck of his fortunes.  He died on a visit to Scotland, at Almondell, the
residence of his sister-in-law, on the 17th of November, 1823, in the seventy-third
year of his age.
The oratory of Erskine owed much of its impressiveness to his admirable delivery.
He was of the medium height, with a slender but finely-turned figure, animated and
graceful in gesture, with a voice somewhat shrill but beautifully modulated, a countenance beaming with emotion, and an eye of piercing keenness and power.  " Juries," in the words of Lord Brougham, "have declared that they felt it impossible
to remove their looks from him, when he had riveted, and, as it were, fascinated
them by his first glance; and it used to be a common remark of men who observed
his motions, that they resembled those of a blood-horse; as light, as limber, as much
betokening strength and speed, as free from all gross superfluity or encumbrance."
His style was chaste, forcible, and harmonious, a model of graceful variety, without the slightest mannerism or straining after effect.  His rhythmus was beautiful;
that of the passage containing his Indian Chief is surpassed by nothing of the kind
in our language.  His sentences were sometimes too long-a fault which arose from
the closeness and continuity of his thought.
The exordium with which Erskine introduced a speech was always natural, ingenious, and highly appropriate; none of our orators have equaled him in this respect.
The arrangement of the matter which followed was highly felicitous; and he had
this peculiarity, which gave great unity and force to his arguments, that " he proposed," in the words of another, " a great leading principle, to which all his efforts
were referable and subsidiary-which ran through the whole of his address, governing and elucidating every part. As the principle was a true one, whatever might
be its application to that particular case, it gave to his whole speech an air of honesty and sincerity which it was difficult to resist."'
2 The Rev. Dr. Emmons, one of the acutest reasoners among the divines of New England, was accustomed (as the writer is directly informed) to read the Massachusetts Reports as they came out,
for the pleasure and benefit they afforded him as specimens of powerful reasoning. Would not our
young divines find similar benefit from the study of great legal arguments like these of Erskine?




SPEECH
OF MR. ERSKINE IN BEHALF OF LORD GEORGE GORDON WHEN INDICTED FOR HIGH TREASON,
DELIVERED BEFORE THE COURT OF THE KING'S BENCH, FEBRUARY 5,1781.
INTRODUCTION.
LORD GEORGE GORDON, a member of the House of Commons, was a young Scottish nobleman of weak
intellect and enthusiastic feelings. He had been chosen president of the Protestant Association, whose
object was to procure the repeal of Sir George Saville's bill il favor of the Catholics.' In this capacity,
he directed the association to meet him in St. George's Fields, and proceed thence to the Parliament
House with a petition for the repeal of the bill. Accordingly, about forty thousand persons of the middling
classes assembled on Friday, the 2d of June, 1780, and, after forming a procession, moved forward till
they blocked up all the avenues to the House of Commons. They had no arms of any kind, and were
most of them orderly in their conduct, though individuals among them insulted some members of both
Houses who were passing into the building, requiring them to put blue cockades on their hats, and to cry
"No Popery!"
Lord George presented the petition, but the House refused to consider it at that time, by a vote of 192
to 6. The multitude now became disorderly, and after the House adjourned, bodies of men proceeded
to demolish the Catholic chapels at the residences of the foreign ministers. From this moment the whole
affair changed its character. Desperate men, many of them thieves and robbers, took the lead. Not only
were Catholic chapels set on fire, but the London prisons were broken open and destroyed; thirty-six
fires were blazing at one time during the night; the town was for some days completely in the power
of the multitude; Lord Mansfield's house was destroyed; the breweries and distilleries were broken
open, and the mob became infuriated with liquor; and for a period there was reason to apprehend that
the whole of the metropolis might be made one general scene of conflagration. The military were at last
called in from the country, and, after a severe conflict, the mob was put down; but not until nearly five
hundred persons had been killed or wounded, exclusive of those who perished from the effects of intoxication.
The government had been taken by surprise: no adequate provision was made to guard against violence; and, as the riots went on, all authority for a time seemed to be paralyzed or extinct. When ordler
was at last restored, the magistrates, as is common with those who have neglected their duty, endeavored
to throw the blame on others-they resolved to make Lord George Gordon their scapegoat. He was accordingly arraigned for high treason; and such was the excitement of the public mind, such the eagerness to have some one punished, that he was in imminent danger of being made the victim of public
resentment. It was happy for him that, in addition to Mr. (afterward Lord) Kenyon, his senior counsel,
a man of sound mind, but wholly destitute of eloquence, he had chosen Mr. Erskine, as a Scotchman, to
aid in his defense. It was the means probably of saving his life.
The Attorney General opened the case in behalf of the Crown, contending (1.) That the prisoner, in assembling the multitude round the two Houses of Parliament, was guilty of high treason, if he did so with
a view to overawe and intimidate the Legislature, and enforce his purposes by numbers and violence (a
doctrine fully confirmed by the court); and (2.), That the overt acts proved might be fairly const-red into
such a design, and were the only evidence by which a traitorous intention, in such a case, could be shown.
When the evidence for the Crown was received, Mr. Kenyon addressed the jury in behalf of Lord George
Gordon, but in a manner so inefficient that, when he sat down, "the friends of Lord George were in an
agony of apprehension."  According to the usual practice, Mr. Erskine should now have followed, before
the examination of his client's witnesses. But he adroitly changed the order, claiming as a privilege of
the prisoner (for which he adduced a precedent) to have the evidence in his favor received at once. His
object was, by meeting the evidence of the Crown with that of Lord George's witnesses as early as pos.
sible, to open a way for being heard with more favor by the jury, and of commenting upon the evidence on
both sides as compared together. The Rev. Mr. Middleton, a member of the Protestant Association,
swore that he had watched the prisoner's conduct, and that he appeared to be always actuated b: the
greatest loyalty to the King and attachment to the Constitution-that his speeches at the meetillns of
the association, at Coachmakers' Hall, never contained an expression tending directly or indirectly to a
repeal of the bill by.force-that he desired the people not even to carry sticks in the procession, and
begged that riotous persons might be delivered to the constables. Mr. Evans, an eminent surgeon, declared that he saw Lord George Gordon in the center of one of the divisions in St. George's Fields, and
that it appeared from his conduct and expressions that he wished and endeavored to prevent all disorder.
The reader has already seen Mr. Burke's admirable exposition of the reasons for Sir George Saville's
bill, in his speech at Bristol, pages 299-310.




638                                      MR. ERSKINE                                         [1781.
This was confirmed by others; and it was proved by decisive evidence that the bulk of the people round
the Parliament House and in the lobby were not members of the Association, but idlers, vagabonds, and
pickpockets, who had thrust themselves in; so that the persons who insulted the members were of a totally
different class from those who formed the original procession. The Earl of Lonsdale swore that he took
the prisoner home from the House in his carriage; that great multitudes surrounded Lord George, inquiring the fate of the petition; that he answered it was uncertain, and earnestly entreated them to retire
to their homes and be quiet.
The evidence was not closed until after midnight, when Mr. Erskine addressed the jury in the following speech. Lord Campbell says of it, " Regularly trained to the profession of the law-having practiced
thirty years at the bar-having been Attorney General above seven years-having been present at many
trials for high treason, and having conducted several myself-I again peruse, with increased astonishment
and delight, the speech delivered on this occasion by him, who had recently thrown aside the scarlet uniform of a subaltern in the army, which he had substituted for the blue jacket of a midshipman, thrust
upon him while he was a school-boy. Here I find not only great acuteness, powerful reasoning, enthusiastic zeal, and burning eloquence, but the most masterly view ever given of the English law of high treason, the foundation of all our liberties."-Lives of the Chancellors, vol. vi., page 408.
SPEECH, &e.
GENTLEMEN OF THE JURY,-Mr. Kenyon hav-  experience, to the highest rank in his profession,
Exordium:   ing informed the court that we pro-  has spoken of with that distrust and diffidence
ountif.vor  pose to call no other witnesses, it is  which becomes every Christian in a cause of
ience in favor   t call no other             it                      every.
of the prisoner. now my duty to address myself to you  blood.  If Mr. Kenyon has such feelings, think
as counsel for the noble prisoner at the bar, the  what mine must be.  Alas! gentlemen, who am
whole evidence being closed.  I use the word  I?  A young man of little experience, unused to
closed, because it certainly is not finished, since  the bar of criminal courts, and sinking under the
I have been obliged to leave the seat in which I  dreadful consciousness of my defects.  I have,
sat, to disentangle myself from the volumes of  however, this consolation, that no ignorance nor
men's names, which lay there under my feet, inattention on my part can possibly prevent you
whose testimony, had it been necessary for the  from seeing, under the direction of the Judges,
defense, would have confirmed all the facts that that the Crown has established no case of treason.
are already in evidence before you.l                  Gentlemen, I did expect that the Attorney
Gentlemen, I feel myself entitled to expect,  General, in opening a great and sol- Transition:
Indulgence due both from you and from the court, the  emn state prosecution, would have at i.sth"e dw
to the speaker. greatest indulgence and attention. I  least indulged the advocates for the of treson.
am, indeed, a greater object of your compassion  prisoner with his notions on the law, as applied
than even my noble friend whom I am defending.  to the case before you, in less general terms.
He rests secure in conscious innocence, and in the  It is very common, indeed, in little civil actions,
well-placed assurance that it can suffer no stain in  to make such obscure introductions by way of
your hands.  Notso with ME. Istand before you  trap.  But in criminal cases it is unusual and
a troubled, I am afraid a guilty man, in having  unbecoming; because the right of the Crown to
presumed to accept of the awful task which I am   reply, even where no witnesses are called by the
now called upon to perform-a task which my  prisoner, gives it thereby the advantage of relearned friend who spoke before me, though he  plying, without having given scope for observahas justly risen, by extraordinary capacity and  tions on the principles of the opening, with which
--     ____- _____-  the reply must be consistent.
l Mr. Erskine shows great dexterity in turning a    One observation he has, however, made on the
slight circumstance at the opening of his speech,  subject, in the truth of which I heart- Greatness of
into a means of impressing the jury from the firstme of which the cri"
with a sense of his client's innocence. He had sat        conc    i
thus far in the front row, with large files of papes  the noble person at your bar stands accused, is
at his feet, but he now stepped back to obtain great-  the ve   highest and most atrocious that a memer freedom of movement; and this he represents as  ber of civil life can possibly commit; because it
done to escape from "the volumes of men's names"  is not, like all other crimes, merely an injury to
who stood ready to confirm the evidence in favor of  society from the breach of some of its reciprocal
Lorld Gordon! So the next paraglaph, though in form  relations, but is an attempt utterly to dissolve and
a plea for indulgence to himself as a young speaker, destroy society altogether.
is in fact the strongest possible assumption of the    In nothing, therefore, is the wisdom and justice
prisoner's innocence, since the guilt referred to con- of our laws so strongly and eminently Hence it i m
sisted in his venturing to endanger, by his inexpe-                                      exctly defined
rience, the cause of one who stood secure himself  manifested as in the rigid, accurate,' in conscious innocence."  There is hardly any    2 The reader can not fail to remark how admirathing for which Mr. Erskine deserves more to be  bly one thought grows out of another in the transistudied, than his thus making every circumstance  tion, all of theml important and all preparing the mind
conspire to produce the desired impression. All is so  to be deeply interested in the discussion of the subeasy and natural, that men never think of it as the  ject to which it leads, the nature of high treason.
result of design or premeditation, and here lies his  The same characteristic runs throughout the whole
consummate skill as an advocate.                   speech.




1781.]                 IN  BEHALF OF LORD  GEORGE GORDON.                                   639
cautious, explicit, unequivocal definition of what    (1.) To compass or imagine the death of the
shall constitute this high offense.  For, high  King: such imagination or purpose of the mind
treason consisting in the breach and dissolution  (visible only to its great Author) being maniof that allegiance which binds society together, fested by some open act; an institution obviously
if it were left ambiguous, uncertain, or undefined, directed, not only to the security of his natural
11 the other laws established for the personal se- person, but to the stability of the government;
eurity of the subject would be utterly useless; since the life of the Prince is so interwoven with
since this offense, which, from its nature, is so  the Constitution of the state, that an attempt to
capable of being created and judged of by the  destroy the one is justly held to be rebellious
rules of political expediency on the spur of the  conspiracy against the other.
occasion, would be a rod at will to bruise the    (2.) (which is the crime charged in the indictmost virtuous members of the community, when- ment) To levy war against him in his realn: a
ever virtue might become troublesome or obnox- term that one would think could require no exions to a bad government.                       planation, nor admit of any ambiguous construcInjuries to the persons and properties of our tion, among men who are willing to read laws
Aptetee  neighbors, considered as individuals, according to the plain signification of the lanof tyranny if  which are the subjects of all other guage in which they are written; but which has,
overstrained.
criminal prosecutions, are not only  nevertheless, been an abundant source of that
capable of greater precision, but the powers of constructive cavil which this sacred and valuathe state can be but rarely interested in strain- ble act was made expressly to prevent.  The
ing them beyond their legal interpretation.  But real meaning of this branch of it, as it is hotif treason, where the government is directly of- toned in policy, reason, and justice; as it is orfended, were left to the judgment of its ministers, dained in plain unambiguous words; as it is conwithout any boundaries-nay, without the most firmed by the precedents of justice, and illustrated
broad, distinct, and inviolable boundaries marked  by the writings of the great lights of the law in
out by the law-there could be no public free- different ages of our history, I shall, before I sit
dom.  The condition of an Englishman would be  down, impress upon your minds as a safe, unerno better than a slave's at the foot of a Sultan; ring standard by which to measure the evidence
since there is little difference whether a man dies you have heard.  At present I shall only say, that
by the stroke of a saber, without the forms of a far and wide as judicial decisions have strained
trial, or by the most pompous ceremonies ofjus- the construction of levying war beyond the wartice, if the crime could be made at pleasure by  rant of the statute, to the discontent of some of
the state to fit the fact that was to be tried. the greatest ornaments of the profession, they
Would to God, gentlemen of the jury, that this  hurt not me.  As a citizen I may disapprove of
were an observation of theory alone, and that the  them, but as advocate for the noble person at
page of our history was not blotted with so many  your bar, I need not impeach their authority. For
melancholy, disgraceful proofs of its truth! But none of them have said more than this, " that war
these proofs, melancholy and disgraceful as they  may be levied against the King in his realm, not
are, have become glorious monuments of the  only by an insurrection to change or to destroy
wisdom of our fathers, and ought to be a theme  the fundamental Constitution of the government
of rejoicing and emulation to us.  For, from the  itself by rebellious war; but, by the same war, to
mischiefs constantly arising to the state fiom ev- endeavor to suppress the execution of the laws it
ery extension of the ancient law of treason, the  has enacted, or to violate and overbear the proancient law of treason has been always restored, tection they afford, not to individuals (which is a
and the Constitution at different periods washed  private wrong), but to any general class or declean; though, unhappily, with the blood of op- scription of the community, by premeditated open
pressed and innocent men.                        acts of violence, hostility, andfobrce."
I. When I speak of the ancient law of treason,    Gentlemen, I repeat these words, and call solHigh treason I mean the venerable statute of King  emnly on the judges to attend to what Criterion of
defined.    Edward the Third, on which the in- I say, and to contradict me if I mis- hlightreason.
dictment you are now trying is framed-a stat- take the law, " By premeditated open acts of vioute made, as its preamble sets forth, for the more  lence, hostility, and force," nothing equivocal,
precise definition of this crime, which has not, nothing ambiguous, no intimidations or overawby the common law, been sufficiently explained; ings, which signify nothing precise or certain (beand consisting of different and distinct members, cause what frightens one man or set of men may
the plain unextended letter of which was thought have no effect upon another), but that which
to be a sufficient protection to the person and  compels and coerces-open violence and force.
honor of the Sovereign, and an adequate security    Gentlemen, this is not only the whole text; but
to the laws committed to his execution.  I shall I submit it to the learned judges, under whose
mention only two of the number, the others not correction I am happy to speak, an accurate exbeing in the remotest degree applicable to the
being in the remotest degree applicable to the  facts qf the case, as they were afterward to come
present accusation.                              out in evidence. The points made most prominent
3 In this statement of the law of treason, perfectly  are the points he had occasion afterward to use.
fai? and accurate as it is, there is one thing which  Thus the jury were prepared, without knowing it,
marks the consummate skill of Mr. Erskine. He  to look at the evidence under aspects favorable to
shapes it throughout with a distinct reference to the, the prisoner.




640                                    MR. ERSKINE                                        [1781.
planation of the statute of treason, as far as it re- less he has levied war against the King in his
lates to the present subject, taken in its utmost realm, contrary to the plain letter, spirit, and inextent of judicial construction; and which you  tention of the act of the twenty-fifth of Edward
can not but see, not only in its letter, but in its  the Third-to be extended by no new or occamost strained signification, is confined to acts  sional construction, to be strained by no fancied
which immediately, openly, and unambiguously  analogies, to be measured by no rules of politicstrike at the very root and being of government. al expediency, to be judged of by no theory, to
and not to any other offenses, however injurious  be determined by the wisdom  of no individual,
to its peace.                                    however wise, but to be expounded by the simSuch were the boundaries of high treason  pie, genuine letter of the law.
All attempts to marked out in the reign of Edward  Gentlemen, the only overt act charged in the
hade btee cime the Third; and as often as the vices  indictment, is the assembling the mul- Te prisoner
ly repressed.  of bad princes, assisted by weak sub- titude, which we all of us remember responsible on.
ly for the osis.
missive Parliaments, extended state offenses be- went up with the petition of the As- inal object of
yond the strict letter of that act, so often the vir- sociated Protestants, on the second th"essemblaoe.
tue of better princes and wiser Parliaments  day of last June.  In addressing myself to a hubrought them  back again.  A long list of new  mane and sensible jury of Englishmen, sitting in
treasons, accumulated in the wretched reign of  judgment on the life of a fellow-citizen, more
Richard the Second, from which (to use the lan- especially under the direction of a court so filled
guage of the act that repealed them) "no man  as this is, I trust I need not remind you that the
knew what to do or say for doubt of the pains of purposes of that multitude, as originally assemdeath,' were swept away in the first year of  bled on that day, and the purposes and acts of
Henry the Fourth, his successor; and many more, him who assembled them, are the sole objects
which had again sprung up in the following dis- of investigation.  All the dismal consequences
tracted arbitrary reigns, putting tumults and riots  which followed, and which naturally link themon a footing with armed rebellion, were again lev- selves with this subject in the firmest minds,
eled in the first year of Queen Mary, and the stat- must be altogether cut off, and abstracted from
ute of Edward made once more the standard of your attention, further than the evidence wartreasons. The acts, indeed, for securing his pres- rants their admission.  If the evidence had been
ent Majesty's illustrious House from the machi- co-extensive with these consequences; if it had
nations of those very Papists, who are now  so  been proved that the same multitude, under the
highly in favor, have, since that time, been added  direction of Lord George Gordon, had afterward
to the list.  But these not being applicable to the  attacked the Bank, biroke open the prisons, and
present case, the ancient statute is still our only  set London in a conflagration, I should not now
guide; which is so plain and simple in its object, be addressing you. Do me the justice to believe
so explicit and correct in its terms, as to leave no  that I am neither so foolish as to imagine I could
room for intrinsic error; and the wisdom of its have defended him, nor so profligate to wish it
authors has shut the door against all extension  if I could.  But when it has appeared, not only
of its plain letter; declaring, in the very body of by the evidence in the cause, but by the evidence
the act itself, that nothing out of that plain letter  of the thing itself-by the issues of life, which
should be brought within the pale of treason by  may be called the evidence of Heaven-that
inference or construction, but that, if any such  these dreadful events were either entirely uncases happened, they should be referred to the  connected with the assembling of that multitude
Parliament.                                      to attend the petition of the Protestants, or, at
This wise restriction has been the subject of the very worst, the unforeseen, undesigned. unThese restric- much just eulogium by all the most abetted, and deeply regretted consequences of
by theie st celebrated writers on the criminal it, I confess the seriousness and solemnity of this
authority.    law  of England.  Lord Coke says  trial sink and dwindle away. Only abstract from
the Parliament that made it was on that account your minds all that misfortune, accident, and
called Benedictum, or Blessed; and the learned  the wickedness of others have brought upon
and virtuous Judge Hale, a bitter enemy and op- the scene, and the cause requires no advocate.
poser of constructive treason, speaks of this sa- When I say that it requires no advocate, I mean
cred institution with that enthusiasm  which it that it requires no argument to screen it from
can not but inspire in the breast of every lover the guilt of treason.  For though I am perfectly
of the just privileges of mankind.               convinced of the purity of my noble friend's inGentlemen, in these mild days, when juries  tentions, yet I am not bound to defend his pruDefisitio ap- are so free and judges so independent, dence, nor to set it up as a pattern for imitation;
plied to the  perhaps all these observations might since you are not trying him for imprudence, for
prese.t case.
p e   have been spared as unnecessary. But indiscreet zeal, or for want of foresight and prethey can do no harm; and this history of treason, caution, but for a deliberate and malicious preso honorable to England, can not (even imper- determination to overpower the laws and governfectly as I have given it) be unpleasant to En- ment of his country, by hostile, rebellious force.
glishmen.  At all events, it can not be thought    The indictment, therefore, first charges that
an inapplicable introduction to saying that Lord  the multitude assembled on the 2d Thleindictment
George Gordon, who stands before you indicted  of June "were armed and arrayed thles elat
for that crime, is not, can not be guilty of it, un- in a warlike manner; which, indeed, armed.




1781.]                 IN BEHALF OF LORD GEORGE GORDON.                                    641
if it had omitted to charge, we should not have  on his followers, in person, to the avowed detroubled you with any defense at all, because no  struction of all the rest.  There could, therefore,
judgment could have been given on so defective  be no doubt of his purpose and intention, nor any
an indictment.  For the statute never meant to  great doubt that the perpetrationofsuch purpose
put an unarmed assembly of citizens on a footing  was, from its generality, high treason, if perpewith armed rebellion; and the crime, whatever trated by such a force as distinguishes a felonious
it is, must always appear on the record to war- riot from  a treasonable levying of war.5  The
rant the judgment of the court.                 principal doubt, therefore, in that case was,
It is certainly true that it has been held to be  whether such an unarmed, riotous force was war.
whIatco  sti matter of evidence, and dependent on  within the meaning of the statute; and on that
twhates nrmigc eremstaosp
ud.i    ciestances, what numbers, or spe- point very learned men have differed; nor shall'war.    cies of equipment and order, though  I attempt to decide between them, because in
not the regular equipment and order of soldiers, this one point they all agree.  Gentlemen, I beshall constitute an army, so as to maintain the  seech you to attend to me here.  I say on this
averment in the indictment of a warlike array; point they all agree, that it is the intention of
and, likewise, what kind of violence, though not assembling them which forms the guilt of treapointed at the King's person, or the existence  son.  I will give you the words of high authorof the government, shall be construed to be war ity, the learned Foster, whose private opinions
against the King.  But as it has never yet been  will, no doubt, be pressed upon you as a doctrine
maintained in argument, in any court of the  and law, and which, if taken together, as all
kingdom, or even speculated upon in theory, opinions ought to be, and not extracted in smugthat a multitude, without either weapons offens- gled sentences to serve a shallow trick, I am
ive or defensive of any sort or kind, and yet not contented to consider as authority.
supplying the want of them by such acts of vio-    That great judge, immediately after supportlence as multitudes sufficiently great can achieve  ing the case of Damaree, as a levy- The intention
without them, was a hostile army within the  ing war within the statute, against contitutes the
statute; as it has never been asserted by the  the opinion of Hale in a similar case, crie.
wildest adventurer in constructive treason, that namely, the destruction of bawdy-houses,5 which
a multitude, armed with nothing, threatening  happened in his time, says, " The true criterion,
nothing, and doing nothing, was an army levy- therefore, seems to be-Quo animo did the parties
ing war; I am entitled to say that the evidence  assemble?-with what intention did they meet?"
does not support the first charge in the indict- On that issue, then, in which I am supported
ment; but that, on the contrary, it is manifestly  by the whole body of the criminal law of England,
false — false in the knowledge of the Crown, concerning which there are no practical precewhich prosecutes it-false in the knowledge of dents of the courts that clash, nor even abstract
every man in London, who was not bed-ridden  opinions of the closet that differ, I come forth
on Friday the 2d of June, and who saw  the  with boldness to meet the Crown.  For, even
peaceable demeanor of the Associated Protest- supposing that peaceable multitude-though not
ants.                                          hostilely arrayed-though without one species of
But you will hear, no doubt, from the Solicit- weapon among then —though assembled withCaseoDa r General (for they have saved all out plot or disguise by a public advertisement,
reeinapplica- their intelligence for the reply) that exhorting, nay, commanding peace, and inviting
ble.      fury supplies arms; furor armna mi- the magistrates to be present to restore it, if
istrat; and the case of Damaree4 will, I sup- broken-though composed of thousands who are
pose, be referred to; where the people assem- now standing around you, unimpeached and unbled had no banners or arms, but only clubs and  reproved, yet who are all principals in treason,
bludgeons: yet the ringleader, who led them on  if such assembly was treason; supposing, I say,.
to mischief, was adjudged to be guilty of high  this multitude to be, nevertheless, an army withtreason for levying war.  This judgment it is in the statute, still the great question would renot my purpose to impeach, for I have no time  main behind, on which the guilt or innocence of
for digression to points that do not press upon  the accused must singly depend, and which it is
me. In the case of Damaree, the mob, though  your exclusive province to determine, namely,
not regularly armed, were provided with such  whether they were assembled by my noble client'weapons as best suited their mischievous designs. for the traitorous purpose charged in the indict —
Their designs were, besides, open and avowed, ment?  For war must not only be levied, but it
and all the mischief was done that could have  must be levied against the King in his realm; i..
been accomplished, if they had been in the com- e., either directly against his person to alter the
pletest armor. They burned. Dissentingmeeting-  Constitution of the government, of which he is
houses protected by law, and Damaree was tak- the head, or to suppress the laws committed to
en at their head, in flagrante delicto [in the crime  his execution by rebellious force. You must find
itself], with a torch in his hand, not only in the that Lord George Gordon assembled these men
very act of destroying one of them, but leading     To constitute a treasonable levying of war there
In this case, a mob assembled for the purpose must be an insurrection; there must be force accomof destroying all the Protestant Dissenting meeting-  panying that insurrection; and it must be for an
houses, and actually pulled down two.-8 State Tri- object of a general nature. Regina v. Frost, 9 Carals, 218. Foster, 208.                         rington and Payne, 129.         6 1 Hale, 13
Ss




042                                   MR. ERSKINE                                        [1781.
with that traitoroas intention. You must find not    Here an immense multitude was, beyond all
merely a riotous, illegal petitioning-not a tu- doubt, assembled on the second of These principles
multuous, indecent importunity to influence Par- June.  But whether HE that assem- aplied to tepri
liament, not the compulsion of motive, from see- bled them be guilty of high treason, o.'er
ing so great a body of people united in sentiment of a high misdemeanor, or only of a breach of
and clamorous supplication -but the absolute, the act of King Charles the Second7 against tuunequivocal compulsion of force, from the hostile  multuous petitioning (if such an act still exists),
acts of numbers united in rebellious conspiracy  depends wholly upon the evidence of his purpose
and arms.                                       in assembling them, to be gathered by you, and
This is the issue you are to try, for crimes of by you alone, fromt the whole tenor of his conall denominations consist wholly in the purpose  duct; and to be gathered, not by inference, or
of the human will producing the act.  "Actus probability, or reasonable presumption, but, in
non facit reum nisi mens sit rea."  The act does the words of the act, provably; that is, in the
not constitute guilt, unless the mind be guilty. full, unerring force of demonstration.  You are
This is the great text from  which the whole  called, upon your oaths, to say, not whether Lord
moral of penal justice is deduced.  It stands at George Gordon assembled the multitudes in the
the top of the criminal page, throughout all the  place charged in the indictment, for that is not
volumes of our humane and sensible laws, and  denied; but whether it appears, by the facts proLord Chief Justice Coke, whose chapter on this  duced in evidence for the Crown when confrontcrime is the most authoritative and masterly of  ed with the proofs which we have laid before
all his valuable works, ends almost every sen- you, that he assembled them  in hostile array
tence with an emphatical repetition of it.      and with a hostile mind, to take the laws into
The indictment must charge an open act, be- his own hands by main force, and to dissolve the
The intention  cause the purpose of the mind, which  Constitution of the government, unless his petitmraitoust pd is the object of trial, can only be  tion should be listened to by Parliament.
some open act. known by actions.  Or, again to use    That is your exclusive province to determine.
the words of Foster, who has ably and accurate- The court can only tell you what acts the law,
ly expressed it, "the traitorous purpose is the  in its general theory, holds to be high treason,
treason; the overt act, the means made use of  on the general assumption that such acts proto effectuate the intentions of the heart."  But ceed from traitorous purposes.  But they must
why should I borrow the language of Foster, or leave it to your decision, and to yours alone,
of any other man, when the language of the in- whether the acts proved appear, in the present
dictment itself is lying before our eyes?  What instance, under all the circumstances, to have
does it say?  Does it directly charge the overt arisen from the causes which form the essence
act as in itself constituting the crime?  No; it of this high crime.
charges that the prisoner "maliciously and trai-    Gentlemen, you have now heard the law of
torously did compass, imagine, and intend to  treason; first, in the abstract, and sec- surnmation.
raise and levy war and rebellion against the  ondly, as it applies to the general featKizng;" this is the malice prepense of treason; ures of the case; and you have heard it with as
and that to fulfill and bring to effect such traitor- much sincerity as if I had addressed you upon
ous compassings and intentions, he did, on the  my oath from the bench where the judges sit.
day mentioned in the indictment, actually assem- I declare to you solemnly, in the presence of
ble them, and levy war and rebellion against the  that great Being at whose bar we must all hereKing.  Thus the law, which is made to correct after appear, that I have used no one art of an
and punish the wickedness of the heart, and not advocate, but have acted the plain unaffected part
the unconscious deeds of the body, goes up to  of a Christian man, instructing the consciences
the fountain of human agency, and arraigns the  of his fellow-citizens to do justice.  If I have
lurking mischief of the soul, dragging it to light deceived you on this subject, I am  myself deby the evidence of open acts. The hostile mind  ceived; and if I am misled through ignorance,
is the crime; and, therefore, unless the matters  my ignorance is incurable, for I have spared no
that are in evidence before you do, beyond all                    __doubt or possibility of error, convince you that   7 By 13 Car. II., st. 1, c. 5, passed in consequence'y~...   of the tumults on the opening of the memorable Parthe prisoner is a determined traitor it his hea~rt, liament of 1640, it is provided that no petition to the
he is not guilty.                               King or either House of Parliament, for any alteraIt is the same principle which creates all the  tion in Church or State, shall be signed by above
The same is various degrees of homicide, from that twenty persons, unless the matter thereof be ap
iudee of h   which is excusable to the malignant proved by three justices of the peace, or the major
er crines.  guilt of murder. The fact is the same  part of the grand jury in the county; and in Lonin all. The death of the man is the imputed  don by the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Common
crime; but the inrtelntion makes all the differ- Council: nor shall ally petition be presented by
more than ten persons at a time. But under these
ence; and he who killed him is pronounced a regulations, it is declared by the Bill of Rights, 1
murderer-a simple felon-or only an unfortu- W. and M., st. 2, c. 2, that the subject hath a right
nate man, as the circumstances, by which his to petition. Lord Mansfield told the jury that the
mind has been deciphered to the jury,, show it to  court were clearly of opinion that this statute, 13
have been cankered by deliberate wickedness, Car. II., was not in any degree affected by the Bill
or stirred up by sudden passions.               of Rights, but was still in force. Dougl., 571.




1781.]                  IN BEHALF OF LORD GEORGE GORDON.                                        643
pains to understand it.  I am not stiff in opin-    It is not my purpose to recall to your minds
ions; but before I change any of those that I  the fatal effects which bigotry has, in former
have given you to-day, 1 must see some direct days, produced in this island.  I will not follow
monument of justice that contradicts them.  For  the example the Crown has set me, by making
the law of England pays no respect to theories, an attack upon your passions, on subjects foreign
however ingenious, or to authors, however wise; to the object before you. I will not call your atand therefore, unless you hear me refuted by a  tention from those flames, kindled by a villainous
series of direct precedents, and not by vague  banditti (which they have thought fit. in defiance
doctrine, if you wiish to sleep in peace, follow me. of evidence, to introduce), by bringing before
II. And now the most important part of our your eyes the more cruel flames, in which the
The evidence task begins, namely, the application  bodies of our expiring, meek; patient, Christian
rogt"itothetot of            the doctrines  have  fathers were, little more than a century ago,
principles.   laid down. For trial is nothing more  consuming in Smithfield.  I will not call up from
than the reference of facts to a certain rule of  the graves of martyrs all the precious holy blood
action, and a long recapitulation of them  only  that has been spilled in this land, to save its estabserves to distract and perplex the memory, with-  lished government and its reformed religion from
out enlightening the judgment, unless the great the secret villainy and the open force of Papists.
standard principle by which they are to be meas-  The cause does not stand in need even of such
ured is fixed, and rooted in the mind.  When  honest arts; and I feel my heart too big voluntathat is done (which I am confident has been done  rily to recite such scenes, when I reflect that
by you), every thing worthy of observation falls  some of my own, and my best and dearest pronaturally into its place, and the result is safe and  genitors, from  whom  I glory to be descended,
certain.                                          ended their innocent lives in prisons and in exGentlemen, it is already in proof before you  ile, only because they were Protestants.
Reasens of (indeed it is now a matter of history),    Gentlemen, whether the great lights of scitionston   that an act of Parliament passed in the  ence and of commerce; which, since Theselaws very
Catholics. session of 1778, for the repeal of cer-  those disgraceful times, have illu-''ddenlyrepealed by Sir George
tain restrictions, which the policy of our ances- minated- Europe, may, by dispelling Saville's bill.
tors had imposed upon the Roman Catholic re- these shocking prejudices, have rendered the Paligion, to prevent its extension, and to render its  pists of this day as safe and trusty subjects as
limited toleration harmless; restrictions, imposed  those who conform to the national religion estabnot because our ancestors took upon them  to  lished by law, I shall not take upon me to determpronounce that faith to be offensive to God, but ine.  It is wholly unconnected with the presbecause it was incompatible with good faith to  ent inquiry. We are not trying a question either
man-being utterly inconsistent with allegiance  of divinity or civil policy; and I shall, therefore,
to a Protestant government, from their oaths and  not enter at all into the motives or merits of the
obligations, to which it gave them  not only a  act that produced the Protestant petition to Parrelease, but a crown of glory, as the reward of  liament.  It was certainly introduced by pertreachery and treason.                            sons who can not be named by any good citizen
It was, indeed, with astonishment that I heard  without affection and respect.9   But this I will
the Attorney General stigmatize those wise reg- say, without fear of contradiction, that it was
ulations of our patriot ancestors with the title of  sudden and unexpected; that it passed with unfactious and cruel impositions on the consciences  common precipitation, considering the magniand liberties of their fellow-citizens.  Gentle- tude of the object; that it underwent no discusmen, they were, at the time, wise and salutary  sion; and that the heads of the Church, the conregulations; regulations to which this country  stitutional guardians of the national religion,
owes its freedom, and his Majesty his crown-a  were never consulted upon it.  Under such circrown which he wears under the strict entail of  cumstances, it is no wonder that many sincere
professing and protecting that religion which  Protestants were alarmed; and they had a right
they were made to repress; and which I know  to spread their apprehensions.  It is the privimy noble friend at the bar joins with me, and  lege and the duty of all the subjects of England
with all good men, in wishing that he and his  to watch over their religious and civil liberties,
posterity may wear foreve r.                      in order to enforce his next leading thought; name8 After the strong statements of Burke respecting  ly, that the Protestant Association originated in justthis law (see p. 299), the reader will be surprised at ifiable feelings, a point which was important to the
these assertions ofMr. Erskine. He was probably in- defense of his client. This mode of shaping one
fluenced by his feelings as a Scotchman whose ances-'part of his speech to prepare the way for and suptors had been cruelly persecuted by the Catholics. port of another, is one of the most admirable qualiTwenty-six years after, when Lord Chancellor, he  ties of Mr. Erskine, and is worthy of being studied
was opposed to allowing Catholic officers in England  with great attention by the young orator.
to hold commissions in the army, as they had been    9 The bill was brought in by Sir George Saville,
permitted to do in Ireland since 1793; declaring that and supported, among others, by Mr. Dunning, Mr.
on this subject he thought "religiously and morally  Thurlow, and Lord Beauchamp, and passed into an
exactly as the King did."  He here gives great act without any opposition in the House of:Comprominence to his views of the original necessity of mons, and with very slight opposition in the Lords,
the law, confirming them by pointed references in the  and the King was known to have been favorable
next paragraph to the persecuting spirit of Popery, to it.




644                                    MR. ERSKINE                                       [1781.
and to approach either their representatives or which he had not been a witness.  He was at
the Throne with their fears and their complaints  Newgate, the Fleet, at Langdale's, and at Cole-a privilege which has been bought with the  man Street; at the Sardinian Embassador's, and
dearest blood of our ancestors, and which is con- in Great Queen Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields.
firmed to us by law, as our ancient birth-right What took him  to Coachmakers' Hall?  He
and inheritance.                                went there, as he told us, to watch their proSoon after the repeal of the act, the Protest-  ceedings, because he expected no good from
origin and  ant Association began, and, from small them; and to justify his prophecy of evil, he said,
desin of the   o e    g     dover       g       on'xtenbyd    oe  Enasaearly'Pr1t.nt beginnings, extended over England and  on his examination by the Crown, that, as early
Association. Scotland.  A deed of association was  as December, he had heard some alarmino resigned, by all legal means to oppose the growth  publican language.  What language did he reof Popery; and which of the advocates for the  member? i"Why, that the Lord Advocate of
Crown will stand up and say that such an union  Scotland was called only Harry Dundas!" Findwas illegal?  Their union was perfectly consti- ing this too ridiculous for so grave an occasion,
tutional; there was no obligation of secrecy; he endeavored to put some Words about the
their transactions were all public; a committee  breach of the King's coronation oathl~ into the
was appointed for regularity and correspondence; prisoner's mouth, as proceeding from  himself;
and circular letters were sent to all the dignita- which it is notorious he read out of an old Scotch
ries of the Church, inviting them  to join with  book, published near a century ago, on the abdithem in the protection of the national religion.   cation of King James the Second.
All this happened before Lord George Gordon    Attend to his cross-examination. He was sure
was a member of, or the most distantly connect- he had seen Lord George Gordon at Greenwood's
ed with it; for it was not till November, 1779, room in January; but when Mr. Kenyon, who
that the London Association made him an offer knew Lord George had never been there, advised
of their chair, by a unanimous resolution, corn- him  to recollect himself, he desired to consult
municated to him, unsought and unexpected, in  his notes.  First, he is positively sure, from his
a public letter, signed by the secretary in the  memory, that he had seen him there: then he
name of the whole body; and from that'day, to  says, he can not trust his memory without referr Geo  the day he was committed to the Tow- ring to his papers.  On looking at them, they
Gordon as ts er, I will lead him by the hand in your contradict him; and he then confesses that he
president
perfect!'   view, that you may see there is no  never saw Lord George Gordon at Greenwood's
blaneless  blame in him.  Though all his be- room in January, when his note was taken, nor
havior was unreserved and public, and though  at any other time.  But why did he take notes?
watched by wicked men for purposes of venge-'He said it was because he foresaw what would
ance, the Crown has totally failed in giving it happen.  How fortunate the Crown is, gentlesuch a context as can justify, in the mind of any  nmen, to have such friends to collect evidence by
reasonable man, the conclusion it seeks to estab- anticipation! When did he begin to take notes?
lish.                                           He said, on the 21st of February, which was the
This will fully appear hereafter; but let us  first time he had been alarmed at'what he had
mintin  first attend to the evidence on the part seen and heard, although, not a minute before,
Examination  ~                                                                                I
ofevidencefbr of the Crown.                     he had been reading a note taken at Greenwood's
the Crown.
The first witness to support this room  in January, and had sworn that he had
prosecution is,                         ~       attended their meetings, from  apprehensions of
William Hay —a bankrupt in fortune he ac- consequences, as early as December.
knowledges himself to be, and I am afraid he is    Mr. Kenyon, who now saw him bewildered' in
a bankrupt in conscience.  Such a scene of il- a maze of falsehood, and suspecting his notes to
pudent, ridiculous inconsistency would have ut- have been a villainous fabrication to give the show
terly destroyed his credibility in the most trifling  of correctness to his evidence, attackled him with
civil suit; and I am, therefore, almost ashamed  a shrewdness for which he was wholly unpreto remind you of his evidence, when I reflect pared.  You remember the witness had said that
that you will never suffer it to glance across  he always took notes when he attended any meetyour minds on this solemn occasion.             ings where he expected their deliberations might
This man, whom I may now, without offense  be attended with dangerous consequences.  Give
or slander, point out to you as a dark Popish  me one instance," says Mr. Kenyon  "'in the
spy, who attended the meetings of the London  whole course of your life, where you ever took
Association to pervert their harmless purposes, notes before."   Poor Mr. Hay was thunderconscious that the discovery of his character struck; the sweat ran down his face, and his
would invalidate all his testimony, endeavored at countenance bespoke despair-not recollection:
first to conceal the activity of his zeal, by deny- " Sir, I must have an instance; tell me when and
ing that he had seen any of the destructive  where?"  Gentlemen, it was now too late; some
scenes imputed to the Protestants.  Yet, almost instance he was obliged to give, and, as it was
in the same breath, it came out, by his own con- evident to every body that he had one still to
fession, that there was hardly a place, public or choose, I think he might have chosen a better.
private, where riot had erected her standard, in  " He had taken notes at the General Assembly of
which he had not been; nor a house, prison, or   10 Hay swore that Lord Gordon had declared that
chapel, that was destroyed, to the demolition of  the King had broken his coronation oath.




1781.]                 IN BEHALF OF LORD  GEORGE GORDON.                                     645
the Church of Scotland, six-and-twenty years be- House of Commons.  What took him  there?
fore!!"  What! did he apprehend dangerous  He thought himself in danger; and therefore,
consequences from the deliberations of the grave  says Mr. Kenyon, you thrust yourself voluntarily
elders of the Kirk?  Were they levying war into the very center of danger.  That would not
against the King?  At last, when he is called  do.  Then he had a particular friend,'whom he
upon to say to whom he communicated the in- knew to be in the lobby, and whom he apprehendtelligence he had collected; the spy stood con- ed to be in danger.  "Sir, who was that particfessed indeed.  At first he refused to tell, saying  ular friend?  Out with it.  Give us his name inhe was his friend, and that he was not obliged to  stantly."  All in confusion again.  Not a word
give him. up; and when forced at last to speak, it to say for himself; and the name of this person
came out to be Mr. Butler, a gentleman univer- who had the honor of Mr. Hay's friendship, will
sally known, and who, from what I know of him, probably remain a secret forever.'2
I may be sure never employed him, or any other    It may be asked, are these circumstances maspy, because he is a man every way respectable, terial? and the answer is obvious: they are
but who certainly is not only a Papist, but the  material; because, when you see a witness runperson who was employed in all their proceed- ning into every hole and corner of falsehood, and,
ings, to obtain the late indulgences from Parlia- as fast as he is made to bolt out of one, taking
ment.l He said Mr. Butler was his particular cover in another, you will never give credit to
fiiend, yet professed himself ignorant of his re- what that man relates, as to any possible matter
ligion.  I am  sure he could not be desired to  which is to affect the life or reputation of a felconceal it.  Mr. Butler makes no secret of his low-citizen accused before you.  God forbid that
religion.  It is no reproach to any man who lives you should.  I might, therefore, get rid of this
the life he does.  But Mr. Hay thought it of wretch altogether without making a single remoment to his own credit in the cause, that he  marlk on that part of his testimony which bears
himself might be thought a Protestant, uncon- upon the issue you are trying; but the Crown
nected with Papists, and not a Popish spy.       shall have the full benefit of it all.  I will deSo ambitious, indeed, was the miscreant of  fraud it of nothing he has said.  Notwithstandbeing useful in this odious character, through ev- ing all his folly and wickedness, let us for the
ery stage of the cause, that, after staying a little  present take it to be true, and see what it amounts
in St. George's Fields, he ran home to his own  to.  What is it he states to have paSsed at Coachhouse in St. Dunstan's church-yard, and got upon  makers' Hall?  That Lord George Gordon dethe leads, where he swore he saw the very same sired the multitude to behave with unanimity and
nman carrying the very same flag he had seen in  firmness, as the Scotch had done.  Gentlemen,
the fields.  Gentlemen, whether the petitioners there is no manner of doubt that the Scotch beemployed the same standard-man through the  haved with unanimity and firmness in resistingf
whole course of their peaceable procession is cer- the relaxation of the penal laws against Papists,
tainly totally immaterial to the cause, but the cir- and that by that unanimity and firmness they
cumstance is material to show the wickedness of succeeded;3 but it was by the constitutional
the man.  "How," says Mr. Kenyon, " do you  unanimity and firmness of the great body of the
know that it was the same person you saw in  people of Scotland whose example Lord George
the fields?  Were you acquainted with him?"  Gordon recommended, and not by the riots and
" No."  " How then?"   "Why, he looked like  burning which they attempted to prove had been
a brewer's servant."  Like a brewer's servant! committed in Edinburgh in 1778.
"What, were they not all in their Sunday's    I will tell you myself, gentlemen, as one of the
clothes?"   "Oh! yes, they were all in their people of Scotland, that there then existed, and
Sunday's clothes."  " Was the man with the flag  still exist, eighty-five societies of Protestants, who
then alone in the dress of his trade?"   " No."  have been, and still are, uniformly firm in oppos" Then how do you know he was a brewer's serv- ing every change in that system  of laws estabalnt?"  Poor Mr. Hay! —nothing but sweat and  lished to secure the Revolution; and Parliament
confusion again!  At last, after a hesitation, gave way in Scotland to their united voice, and
which every body thought would have ended in  not to the fire-brands of the rabble. It is the duty
his runhing out of court, he said, " he knew him  of Parliament to listen to the voice of the people,
to be a brewer's servant, because there was somne- for they are the servants of the people.  And
thing particular in the cut of his coat, the cut of  when the Constitution of church or state is behis breeches, and the cut of his stockings!"    lieved, whether truly or falsely, to be in danger,
You see, gentlemen, by what strange means I hope there never will be wanting men (notvillainy is detected.  Perhaps he might have es- withstanding the proceedings of to-day) to desire
caped from. me, but he sunk under that shrewd- the' people to persevere and be firm. Gentlemen,
ness and sagacity, which ability, without long  has the Crown proved that the Protestant brethhabits, does not provide.  Gentlemen, you will ren of the London Association fired''the massnot, I am sure, forget, whenever you see a man       2 Nothing could be finer than the way in which'abo.                                              1 Nothng could bwoe fineere  theethe waiy in which
about whose apparel there it' any thing particu- Mr. Erskine sifts this evidence and detects its falselar, to set him down for a brewer's servant,      hood.
Mr. Hay afterward went to the lobby of the    13 The violent popular opposition manifested to.
ward the proposed act extending the Roman Cath-' Mr. Charles Butler, author of the Reminiscences.  olic Relief Bill to Scotland, caused it to be abandoned.




646                                     MR. ERSKINE                                        [1781.
houses in Scotland or acted in rebellious opposi- supplications, and you will meet with redress-from
tion to law, so as to entitle it to wrest the pris- a mild and gracious King, who will recommend
oner's expressions into an excitation of rebellion  it to his ministers to repeal it."  Good God! if
against the state, or of violence against the prop- they were to wait till the King, whether from
erties of English Papists, by setting up their firm- benevolence or fear, should direct his minister to
ness as an example?  Certainly not.  They have  influence the proceedings of Parliament, how
not even proved the naked fact of such violences, does it square with the charge of instant coercion
though such proof would have called for no resist- or intimidation of the House of Commons?  If
ance; since to make it bear as rebellious advice  the multitude were assembled with the premedto the Protestant Association of London, it must itated design of producing immediate repeal by
have been first shown that such acts had been  terror or arms, is it possible to suppose that their
perpetrated or encouraged by the Protestant so- leader would desire them to be quiet, and refer
cieties in the North.                            them to those qualities of the Prince, which, howWho has dared to say this?  No man.  The  ever eminently they might belong to him, never
rabble in Scotland certainly did that which has  could be exerted on subjects in rebellion to his
since been done by the rabble in England, to the  authority?  In what a labyrinth of nonsense and
disgrace and reproach of both countries.  But in  contradiction do men involve themselves, when,
neither country was there found one man of char- forsaking the rules of evidence, they would draw
acter or condition, of any description, who abet- conclusions from words in contradiction to lanted such enormities, nor any man, high or low, guage and in defiance of common sense?
of any of the Associated Protestants, here or there,    The next witness that is called to you by the
who were either convicted, tried, or taken on sus- Crown is Mr. Metcalf.  He was not in the lobby,
picion.                                           but speaks only to the meeting in Coachmakers'
As to what this man heard on the 29th of  Hall, on the 29th of May, and in St. George's
May, it was nothing more than the proposition  Fields.  He says that at the former, Lord George
of going up in a body to St. George's Fields to  reminded them that the Scotch had succeeded by
consider how the petition should be presented, their unanimity-and hoped that no one who had
with the same exhortations to firmness as before. signed the petition would be ashamed or afraid
The resolution made on the motion has been read, to show himself in the cause; that he was ready
and when I come to state the evidence on the  to go to the gallows for it; that he would not
part of my noble friend, I will show you the im- present the petition of a lukewarm people; that
possibility of supporting any criminal inference  he desired them to come to St. George's Fields,
from what Mr. Hay afterward puts in his mouth  distinguished with blue cockades, and that they
in the lobby, even taking it to be true.  I wish  should be marshaled in four divisions.  Then he
here to be accurate [looking on a card on which  speaks to having seen them  in the fields in the
he had taken down his words].  He says:   Lord  order which has been described; and Lord George
George desired them to continue steadfastly to  Gordon in a coach surrounded by a vast conadhere to so good a cause as theirs was; prom- course of people, with blue ribbons, forming like
ised to persevere in it himself, and hoped, though  soldiers, but was not near enough to hear wheththere was little expectation at present from the  er the prisoner spoke to them or not.  Such is
House of Commons that they would meet with  Mr. Metcalf's evidence; and after the attention
redress from their mild and g'racious Sovereign, you have honored me with, and which I shall have
who, no doubt, would recommend it to his min- occasion so often to ask again on the same subisters to repeal it."  This was all he heard, and  ject, I shall trouble you with but one observation.
I will show you how this wicked man himself (if  namely, that it can not, without absurdity, be supany belief is to be given to him) entirely over- posed that if the assembly at Coachmakers' Hall
turns and brings to the ground the evidence of  had been such conspirators as they are repreMr. Bowen,l4 on which the Crown rests singly  sented, their doors would have been open to
for the proof of words which are more difficult to  strangers, like this witness, to come in to report
explain.  Gentlemen, was this the language of  their proceedings.
rebellion?. If a multitude were at the gates of    The next witness is Mr. Anstruther,' who
the House of Commons to command and insist on  speaks to the language and deportment of the
a repeal of this law, why encourage their hopes  noble prisoner, both at Coachmakers' Hall, on
by reminding them that they had a mild and gra- the 29th of May, and afterward on the 2d of
cious Sovereign?  If war was levying against June, in the lobby of the House of Commons. It
him, there was no occasion for his mildness and  will be granted to me, I am sure, even by the
graciousness.  If he had said, t Be firm and per- advocates of the Crown, that this gentleman, not
severe, we shall meet with redress from the pru-  only from the clearness and consistency of his
dence of the Sovereign," it might have borne a  testimony, but from his rank and character in the
different construction; because, whether he was  world, is infinitely more worthy of credit than
gracious or severe, his prudence might lead him  Mr. Hay, who went before him.  And from the
to submit to the necessity of the tines.  The  circumstances of irritation and confusion under
words sworn to were, therefore, perfectly clear which the Rev. Mr. Bowen confessed himself to
and unambiguous-" Persevere in your zeal and  have heard and seen, what he told you he heard
14 The Chaplain of the House of Commons.      15 This gentleman was a member of Parliament.




1781.]                 IN BEHALF OF LORD  GEORGE GORDON.                                     647
and saw, I may likewise assert, without any of- authorized either the court or its law servants to
fense to the reverend gentleman, and without tell you so?  Or can it be decently maintained
drawing any parallel between their credits, that that Parliament was so weak or infamous as to
where their accounts of this transaction differ, the  yield to a wretched mob of vagabonds at Edinpreference is due to the former.  Mr. Anstruther burgh what it has since refused to the earnest
very properly prefaced his evidence with this prayers of a hundred'thousand Protestants of
declaration:   I do not mean to speak accurately  London?  No, gentlemen of the jury, Parliato words; it is impossible to recollect them  at ment was not, I hope, so abandoned.  But the
this distance of time."  I believe I have used his ministers knew that the Protestants of Scotland
very expression, and such expression it well be- were to a man abhorrent of that law. And though
came him to use in a case of blood.  But words, they never held out resistance, if government
even if they could be accurately remembered, are  should be disposed to cram it down their throats
to be admitted with great reserve and caution, by force, yet such violence to the united sentiwhen the purpose of the speaker is to be meas- ments of a whole people appeared to be a measured by them.  They are transient and fleeting; ure so obnoxious, so dangerous, and withal so
frequently the effect of a sudden transport, easi- unreasonable, that it was wisely and judiciously
ly misunderstood, and often unconsciously mis- dropped, to satisfy the general wishes of the narepresented.  It may be the fate of the most in- tion, and not to avert the vengeance of those low
nocent language to appear ambiguous, or even  incendiaries whose misdeeds have rather been
malignant, when related in mutilated, detached  talked of than proved.
passages, by people to whom it is not addressed,    Thus, gentlemen, the exculpation of Lord
and who know nothing of the previous design  George's conduct on the 29th of May is suffieither of the speaker or of those to whom  he  ciently established by the very evidence on which
spoke.  Mr. Anstruther says that he heard Lord  the Crown asks you to convict him.  For, in
George Gordon desire the petitioners to meet him  recommending temperance and firmness after the
on the Friday following, in St. George's Fields, example of Scotland, you can not be justified in
and that if there were fewer than twenty thou- pronouncing that he meant more than the firmsand people, he would not present the petition, ness of the grave and respectable people in that
as it would not be of consequence enough; and  country, to whose constitutional firmness the
that he recommended to them the example of the  Legislature had before acceded, instead of brandScotch, who, by their firmness, had carried their ing it with the title of rebellion; and who, in my
point.                                           mind, deserve thanks from the King for temperGentlemen, I have already admitted that they  ately and firmly resisting every innovation which
dia by firmness carry it.  But has Mr. Anstru- they conceived to be dangerous to the national
ther attempted to state any one expression that religion, independently of which his Majesty
fell from the prisoner to justify the positive, un- (without a new limitation by Parliament) has no
erring conclusion, or even the presumption, that more title to the crown than I have.
the firmness of the Scotch Protestants, by which    Such, gentlemen, is the whole amount of all
the point was carried in Scotland, was the re- my noble friend's previous communication with
sistance and riots of the rabble?  No, gentle- the petitioners, whom he afterward assembled to
men; he singly states the words, as he heard  consider how their petition should be presented.
them in the hall on the 29th, and all that he aft- This is all, not only that men of credit can tell
erward speaks to in the lobby, repels so harsh  you on the part of the prosecution, but all that
and dangerous a construction. The words sworn  even the worst vagabond who ever appeared in
to at Coachmakers' Hall are, "that he recom- a court-the very scum  of the earth-thought
mended temperance and firmness."  Gentlemen, himself safe in saying, upon oath, on the present
if his motives are to be judged by words, for occasion.  Indeed, gentlemen, when I consider
Heaven's sake let these words carry their popu- my noble friend's situation, his open, unreserved
lar meaning in language. Is it to be presumed, temper, and his warm  and animated zeal for a
without proof, that a man means one thing be- cause which rendered him obnoxious to so many
cause he says antother?  Does the exhortation  wicked men-speaking daily and publicly to
to temperance and firmness apply most naturally  mixed multitudes of friends and foes, on a subto the constitutional resistance of the Protestants ject which affected his passions-I confess I am
of Scotland, or to the outrages of ruffians who  astonished that no other expressions than those
pulled down the houses of their neighbors?  Is  in evidence before you have found their way into
it possible, with decency, to say, in a court of  this court.  That they have not found their way
justice, that the recommendation of temperance  is surely a most satisfactory proof that there was
is the excitation to villainy and frenzy?  But the  nothing in his heart which even youthful zeal
words, it seems, are to be construed, not from  could magnify into guilt, or that want of caution
their own signification, but from that which fol- could betray.
lows them, viz., "by that the Scotch carried       Gentlemen, Mr. Anstruther's evidence, when
their point."  Gentlemen, is it in evidence be- he speaks of the lobby of the House of Commons.
fore you that by rebellion the Scotch carried  is very much to be attended to.  He says, "I
their point? or that the indulgences to Papists  saw  Lord George leaning over the gallery,"
were not extended to Scotland because the rab- which position, joined with what he mentioned
ble had opposed their extension? Has the Crown  of his talking with the chaplain, marks the time,




b48;            MR. ERSKINE                                      [178I
and casts a strong doubt on Bowen's testimony, speaks of them in such a manner, as, so far from
which.you will find stands, in this only material conveying the hostile idea, which he seemed sufpart of it, single and unsupported.'"I then  ficiently desirous to convey, tends directly to
heard him," continues Mr. Anstruther, "tell wipe off the dark hints and insinuations which
them they had been called a mob in the House, have been made to supply the place of proof
and that peace-officers had been sent to disperse  upon that subject-a subject which should not
them (peaceable petitioners); but that by stead- have been touched on without the fullest support
iness and firmness they might carry their point; of evidence, and where nothing but the most unas he had no doubt his Majesty, who was a gra- equivocal evidence ought to have been received.
cious prince, would send to his ministers to re- He says, " his Lordship began by bidding them
peal the act, when he heard his subjects were  be quiet, peaceable, and steady —not "'steady"
coming up for miles round, and wishing its re- alone; though, if that had been the expression,
peal."  How  coming up?  In rebellion and singly by itself, I should not be afraid to meet
arms to compel it?  No! all is still put on the it; but, " Be quiet, PEACEABLE, arnd steady."'
graciousness of the Sovereign, in listening to the  Gentlemen, I am indifferent what other expresunanimous wishes of his people.  If the multi- sions of dubious interpretation are mixed with
tude then assembled had been brought together these.  For you are trying whether my noble
to intimidate the House by their firmness, or to  friend came to the House of Commons with a
coerce it by their numbers, it was ridiculous to  decidedly hostile mind; and as I shall, on the
look forward to the King's influence over it, recapitulation of our own evidence, trace him in
when the collection of future multitudes should  your view, without spot or stain, down to the very
induce him to employ it.  The expressions were moment when the imputed words were spoken,
therefore quite unambiguous; nor could malice you will hardly forsake the whole innocent conitself have suggested another construction of text of his behavior, and torture your inventions
them, were it not for the fact that the House was to collect the blackest system  of guilt, starting
at that time surrounded, not by the petitioners, up in a moment, without being previously conwhom the noble prisoner had assembled, but by  certed, or afterward carried into execution.
a mob who had mixed with them, and who,    First, what are the words by which you are
therefore, when addressed by him, were instant- to be convinced that the Legislature was to be
ly set down as his followers.  He thought he frightened into compliance, and to be coerced it
was addressing the sober members of the asso- terror should fail?  " Be quiet, peaceable, and
ciation, who, by steadiness and perseverance, steady; you are a good people; yours is a good
could understand nothing more than perseverance  cause: his Majesty is a gracious monarch, and
in that conduct he had antecedently prescribed, when he hears that all his people, ten miles
as steadiness signifies a uniformity, not a change  round, are collecting, he will send to his minisof conduct; and I defy the Crown to find out a ters to repeal the act."  By what rules of consingle expression, from the day he took the chair struction can such an address to unarmed, deat the association to the day I am  speaking of, fenseless men be tortured into treasonable guilt.?
that justifies any other construction of steadiness It is impossible to do it without pronouncing,
and firmness than that which I put upon it be- even in the total absence of all proof of fraud or
fore.                                           deceit in the speaker, that quiet signifies tumu1lt
What would be the feelings of our venerable  and uproar, and that peace signifies war and reancestors, who framed the statute of treasons bellion.
to prevent their children being drawn into the    I have before observed that it was most imsnares of death, unless provably convicted by  portant for you to remember that, with this exovert acts, if they could hear us disputing whetl.- hortation to quiet and confidence in the Kinig,
er it was treason to desire harmless, unarmed  the evidence of all the other witnesses closed.
men to be firm  and of good heart, and to trust Even Mr. Anstruther, who was a long time aftto the graciousness of their King?             erward in the lobby, heard nothing further; so
Here Mr. Anstruther closes his evidence, that if Mr. Bowen had been out of the case altowhich leads me to Mr. Bowen, who is the only  gether, what would the amount have been?
man-I beseech you, gentlemen of the jury, to  Why, simply, that Lord George Gordon, having
attend to this circumstance-Mr. Bowen is the assembled an unarmed, inoffensive multitude in
only man who has attempted, directly or indi- St. George's Fields, to present a petition to Parrectly, to say that Lord George Gordon uttered  liament, and finding them becoming tumultuous,
a syllable to the multitude in the lobby concern- to the discontent of Parliament and the discredit
ing the destruction of the mass-houses in Scot- of the cause, desired them not to give it up, but
land.  Not one of the Crown's witnesses; not to continue to show their zeal for the legal obeven the wretched, abandoned Hay, who was ject in which they were engaged; to manifest
kept, as he said, in the lobby the whole after- that zeal quietly andpeaceably, and not to despair
noon, from anxiety for his pretended friend, has of success; since, though the House was not
ever glanced at any expression resembling it. disposed to listen to it, they had a gracious SovThey all finish with the expectation which he  ereign, who would second the wishes of his pcoheld out, from  a mild and gracious Sovereign. ple. This is the sum and substance of the whole.
Mr. Bowen alone goes on further, and speaks of They were not, even by any one ambiguous exthe successful riots of the Scotch   But he  pression, encouraged to trust to their numbers, as




1781.]                   IN  BEHALF OF LORD  GEORGE  GORDON.                                     649
sufficient to overawe the House, or to  their    I IMr. Bowen, therefore, had ended here, I cal
strength to compel it. or to the prudence of th6  hardly conceive such a construction could be destate in yielding to necessity, but to the indulgl  cently hazarded consistent with the testimony of
ence of the King, in compliance with the wishes  the witnesses we have called.  How much less,
of his people.  Mr. Bowen, however, thinks  when, after the dark insinuations which such exproper to proceed; and I beg that you will at- pressions might otherwise have been argued to
tend to the sequel of his evidence.  He stands  convey, the very same person, on whose veracity
single in all the rest that he says, which might or memory they are only to be believed, and who
entitle me to ask you absolutely to reject it. But must be credited or discredited in toto, takes out
1 have no objection to your believing every word  the sting himself by giving them such an immediof it, if you can: because, if inconsistencies prove  ate context and conclusion as renders the proposi
any thing, they prove that there was nothing of  tion ridiculous, which his evidence is brought forthat deliberation in the prisoner's expressions  ward to establish; for he says that Lord George
which can justify the inference of guilt. I mean  Gordon instantly afterward addressed himself
to be correct as to his words [looking at his  thus: " Beware of evil-minded persons who may
words which he had noted dozn].  He says "that mix among you and do mischief, the blame of
Lord George told the people that an attempt had  which will be imputed to you."
been made to introduce the bill into Scotland,    Gentlemen, if you reflect on the slander which
and that they had no redress till the mass-houses  I told you fell upon the Protestants in Scotland
were pulled down. That Lord Weymouth'l then  by the acts of the rabble there, I am  sure you
sent official assurances that it should not be ex-  will see the words are capable of an easy explatended to them."   Gentlemen, why is Mr. Bow-  nation.  But as Mr. Bowen concluded with tellen called by the Crown to tell you this?  The  ing you that he heard them in the midst of noise
reason is plain: because the Crown, conscious  and confusion, and as I can only take them from
that it could make no case of treason from the  him, I shall not make an attempt to collect them
rest of the evidence, in sober judgment of law; into one consistent discourse, so as to give them
aware that it had proved no purpose or act of  a decided meaning in favor of my client, because
force against the House of Commons, to give  I have repeatedly told you that words imperfectly
countenance to the accusation, much less to war-  heard and partially related can not be so reconrant a conviction, found it necessary to hold up  ciled.  But this I will say-that he must be a rufthe noble prisoner as the wicked and cruel au- fian, and not a lawyer, who would dare to tell an
thor of all those calamities in which every man's  English jury that such ambiguous words, hemmed
passions might be supposed to come in to assist closely in between others not only innocent but
his judgment to decide.  They thelefore made  meritorious, are to be adopted to constitute guilt,
him speak in enigmas tothe multitude: not tell-  by rejecting both introduction and sequel, with
ing them to do mischief in order to succeed, but which they are absolutely irreconcilable and inthat by mischief in Scotland success' had been  consistent: For if ambiguous words, when coupled
obtained.                                          with actions, decipher the mind of the actor, so as
But were the mischiefs themselves that did  to establish the presumption of guilt, will not such
happen here of a sort to support such a conclu-  as are plainly innocent and unambiguous go as
sion?  Can any man living, for instance, believe  far to repel such presumption?  Is innocence
that Lord George Gordon could possibly have  more difficult of proof than the most malignant
excited the mob to destroy the house of that great wickedness?  Gentlemen, I see your minds reand venerable magistrate, who has presided so  volt at such shocking propositions.  I beseech
long in this high tribunal that the oldest of us do  you to forgive me.  I am afraid that my zeal has
not remember him  with any other impression  led me to offer observations which I ought in justhan the awful form and figure of justice: a mag- tice to have believed every honest mind would
istrate who had always been the friend of the  suggest to itself with pain and abhorrence withProtestant Dissenters against the ill-timed jeal- out being illustrated and enforced.
ousies of the Establishment-his countryman, too    I now come more minutely to the evidence on
-and, without adverting to the partiality not the part of the prisoner.
unjustly imputed to men of that country, a man    I before told you that it was not till November,
of whom  any country might be proud?   No, 1779, when the Protestant Associa- Exa.inationof
gentlemen, it is not credible that a man of noble  tion was already fully established, tl eidene for
birth and liberal education (unless agitated by  that Lord George Gordon was elect- t           e
the most implacable personal resentment which  ed President by the unanimous voice of the whole
is not imputed to the prisoner) could possibly con- body, unlooked for and unsolicited.  It is surely
sent to the burning of the house of Lord Mans-  not an immaterial circumstance that at the very
field.7                                            first meeting where his Lordship presided, a dutiful and respectful petition, the same which was
16 Then Secretary for the Southern Departet.  aterard pesente to Paiament ws ead and
17 This reference to Lord Mansfield, then seated    r
on the bench as presiding judge at the age of eighty- oved  of a peon whi, so far fom 
six, is not only appropriate and beautiful in itself,  taing any thing threatening or offensive, conbut, as managed by Mr. Erskine, forms' a'most con- wentout of his case for an illustration or a picture
vincing proof in favor of Lord George Goridon. This  which refieshed the mind, but he brought back with
was one of Mr. Erskine's excellences, that he never him an a'gr',,ment.




650                                     MR. ERSKINE                                       [1781.
veyed not a very oblique reflection upon the be-  death, retailing scraps of sentences which they
navior of the people in Scotland.  It states, that had heard by thrusting themselves, from curiosi
as England and that country were now one, and  ty, into places where their business did not lead
as official assurances had been given that the law  them. ignorant of the views and tempers of both
should not pass there, they hoped the peaceable and  speakers and hearers, attending only to a part,
constitutional deportment of the English Protest-  and, perhaps innocently, misrepresenting that
ants would entitle them  to the approbation of  part, from not having heard the whole.
Parliament.                                        The witnesses for the Crown all tell you that
It appears by the evidence of Mr. Erasmus Lord George said he would not go up with the
Middleton,ls a very respectable clergyman, and  petition unless he was attended by twenty thou.
one of the committee of the Association, that a  sand people who had signed it.  There they
meeting had been held on the 4th of May, at think proper to stop, as if he had said nothing
which Lord George was not present; that at that further  leaving you to say to yourselves, what
meeting a motion had been made for going up  possible purpose could he have in assembling
with the petition in a body, but which not being  such a multitude on the very day the House was
regularly put from the chair, no resolution was to receive the petition?  Why should he urge it,
come to upon it; and that it was likewise agreed  when the committee had before thought it inexon. but in the same irregular manner, that there  pedient?  And why should he refuse to present
should be no other public meeting previous to the  it unless so attended?  Hear what Mr. Middlepresenting the petition. That this last resolution  ton says.  He tells you that my noble friend inoccasioned great discontent, and that Lord George  formed the petitioners that if it was decided they
was applied to by a large and respectable num- were not to attend to consider how their petition
her of the Association to call another meeting, should be presented, he would with the greatest
to consider of the most prudent and respectful pleasure go up with it alone.  But that, if it was
method of presenting their petition: but it ap- resolved they should attend it in person, he expears that, before he complied with their request, pected twenty thousand at the least should meet
he consulted with the committee on the propriety  him in St. George's Fields, for that otherwise the
of compliance, who all agreeing to it except the  petition would be considered as a forgery; it havSecretary, his Lordship advertised the meeting  ing been thrown out in the House and elsewhere
which was afterward held on the 29th of May. that the repeal of the bill was not the serious
The meeting was, therefore, the act of the whole wish of the people at large, and that the petition
Association.  As to the original difference be- was a mere list of names on parchment, and not
tween my noble friend and the committee on the  of men in sentiment.  Mr. Middleton added, that
expediency of the measure, it is totally immate-  Lord George adverted to the same objections
rial; since Mr. Middleton, who was one of the  having been made to many other petitions, and
number who differed from  him  on that subject he, therefore, expressed an anxiety to show Par(and whose evidence is, therefore, infinitely more  liament how many were actually interested in its
to be relied on), told you that his whole deport- success, which he reasonably thought would be
ment was so clear and unequivocal, as to. entitle  a strong inducement to the House to listen to it.
him to assure you on his most solemn oath, that The language imputed to him falls in most nathe in his conscience believed his views were per- urally with this purpose: " I wish Parliament to
fectly constitutional and pure.  This most re- see who and what you are; dress yourselves in
spectable clergyman further swears that he at- your best clothes"-which Mr. Hay (who, I suptended all the previous meetings of the society, pose, had been reading the indictment) thought
from  the day the prisoner became President to  it would be better to call " ARRAY YOunRSELVES.
the day in question; and that, knowing they were  He desired that not a stick should be seen among
objects of much jealousy and malice, he watched  them, and that, if any man insulted another, or
his behavior with anxiety, lest his zeal should  was guilty of any breach of the peace, he was to
furnish matter for misrepresentation; but that he  be given up to the magistrates.  Mr. Attorney
never heard an expression escape him  which  General, to persuade you that this was all color
marked a disposition to violate the duty and sub- and deceit, says, " How was a magistrate to face
ordination of a subject, or which could lead any  forty  thousand men?  How were offenders in
man to believe that his objects were different such a multitude to be amenable to the civil
from the avowed and legal objects of the Asso- power?"  What a shameful perversion of a plain,
ciation.  We could have examined thousands to  peaceable purpose!  To be sure, if the multitude
the same fact, for, as I told you when I began to  had been assembled to resist the magistrate, ofspeak, I was obliged to leave my place to disen- fenders could not be secured.  But they themcumber myself from their names.                  selves were ordered to apprehend all offenders
This evidence of Mr. Middleton's as to the  among them, and to deliver them  up to justice.
29th of May, must, I should think, convince ev- They themselves were to surrender their fellows
ery man how dangerous and unjust it is in wit- to civil authority if they offended.
nesses, however perfect their memories, or how-    But it seems that Lord George ought to have
ever great their veracity, to come into a criminal' foreseen that so great a multitude The prisoner
court, where a man is standing for his life or could not be collected without mis- canntbecen
chief.  Gentlemen, we are not try- condemningtie
8 The first witness called for the prisoner.. ing whether he might or ought to  overnment
igwehr3 h                   zmihorogtogorne.




1781.]                 IN BEHALF OF LORD  GEORGE GORDON.                                   651
have foreseen mischief; but whether he wickedly  in decency, to be silent.  I see the effect thiscirand traitorously preconcerted and designed it. cumstance has upon you, and I know I am war.
But if he be an object of censure for not foresee- ranted in my assertion of the fact.  If I am not,
ing it, what shall we say to GOVERNMENT, that why did not the Attorney General produce the
took no step to prevent it, that issued no procla- record of some convictions, and compare it with
mation, warning the people of the danger and  the list?  I thank them, therefore, for the preillegality of such an assembly?  If a peaceable  cious compilation, which, though they did not
multitude, with a petition in their hands, be an  produce, they can not stand up and deny.
army, and if the noise and confusion inseparable      Solomon [Job] says, " Oh that mine adversary
from  numbers, though without violence or the.had written a book!"  My adversary has writpurpose of violence, constitute war, what shall be  ten a book, and out of it I am entitled to prosaid of that GOVEaRNMENT which remained from  nounce, that it can not again be decently assertTuesday to Friday, knowing that an army was ed that Lord George Gordon, in exhorting an incollecting to levy war by public advertisement. nocent and unimpeached multitude to be peaceyet had not a single soldier, no, nor even a con- able and quiet, was exciting them  to violence
stable, to protect the state?                  against the state.
Gentlemen, I come forth to do that for gov-    What is the evidence, then, on which this conernment which its own servant, the Attorney  nection with the mob is to be proved? Only that
General, has not done.  I come forth to rescue it they had blue cockades.2~  Are you or am I anfrom the eternal infamy which would fall upon its swerable for every man who wears a blue cockhead, if the language of its own advocate were  ade?  If a man commits murder in my livery
to be believed.  But government has an unan- or in yours, without command, counsel, or conswerable defense.  It neither did nor could pos- sent, is the murder ours? In all cumulative, consibly enter into the head of any man in authority  structive treasons, you are to judge from the
to prophesy-human wisdom  could not divine  tenor of a man's behavior, not from crooked and
that wicked and desperate men, taking advant- disjointed parts of it.  " Nemo repente fuit turage of the occasion which, perhaps, an impru- pissimus."tl  No man can possibly be guilty of
dent zeal for religion had produced, would dis- this crime by a sudden impulse of the mind, as
honor the cause of all religions, by the.disgrace- he may of some others; and, certainly, Lord
ful acts which followed.                        George Gordon stands upon the evidence at
Why, then, is it to be said that Lord George  Coachmakers' Hall as pure and white as snow.
Gordon is a traitor, who, without proof of any  He stands so upon the evidence of a man who
hostile purpose to the government of his coun- had differed with him as to the expediency of
try, only did not foresee what no body else foresaw  his conduct, yet who swears that from the time
-what those people whose business it is to fore- he took the chair till the period which is the subsee every danger that threatens the state, and to  ject of inquiry, there was no blame in him.
avert it by the interference of magistracy, though    You, therefore, are bound as Christian men
they could not but read the advertisement, neither to believe that, when he came to St. George's
did nor could possibly apprehend?19            Fields that morning, he did not come there with
How are these observations attempted to be  the hostile purpose of repealing a law by reanswered?  Only by asserting, with- bellion.
pretense ofde- out evidence or even reasonable ar-    But still it seems all his behavior at Coachception on the
partof the   gument, that all this was color and  makers' Hall was color and deceit.  Let us see,
prisoner.    deceit.  Gentlemen, I again say that therefore, whether this body of men, when asit is scandalous and reproachful, and not to be  sembled, answered the description of that which
justified by any duty which can possibly belong  I have stated to be the purpose of him who asto an advocate at the bar of an English court of  sembled them.' Were they a multitude arrayed
justice, to declare, without any proof or attempt for terror or force?  On the contrary, you have
at proof, that all a man's expressions, however heard, upon the evidence of men whose veracity
peaceable, however quiet, however constitution- is not to be impeached, that they were sober,
al, however loyal, are all fraud and'villainy. decent, quiet, peaceable tradesmen; that they
Look, gentlemen, to the issues of life, which I were all of the better sort; all well-dressed and
before called the evidence of Heaven: I call well-behaved; and that there was not a man
them so still.  Truly may I call them so, when, among them who had any one weapon, offensive
out of a book compiled by the Crown from the  or defensive.  Sir Philip Jennings Clerke2 tells
petition in the House of Commons, and contain-                    -
ii(g the names of all who signed it, and which   20 The members of the Association, at the meetwas printed in order to prevent any of that num- g  f St. George's Fields, were distinguished by
ber being summoned upon the jury to try this  wearing cockades, on which were inscribed the
words " No Popery!"
indictment, not one criminal or even a suspected              Ppr
indictment:,ot one criminal, Io eve~ a suspected 7 21 No one has ever at once reached the extreme
name is to be found, among this defamed host of  point of wickedness.
petitioners!                                     22 This gentleman, in giving evidence on behalf
After this, gentlemen, I think the Crown ought, of the prisoner, deposed to the peaceable behavior
19 This was the great turning-point of the case, of the members of the Association, who formed the
and it would have been impossible to state it in  original procession to carry up the petition, and
more simple or more powerful terms.             whom he distinguished from the mob which after




652                                      MR. ERSKINE                                         [1781
you, he went into the Fields; that he drove  office, I would not accept of it on the terms of
through them, talked to many individuals among  being obliged to produce against a fellow-citizen
them, who all told him that it was not their wish  that which I have been witness to this day. For
to persecute the Papists, but that they were  Mr. Attorney General perfectly well knew the
alarmed at the progress of their religion from  innocent and laudable motive with Vaper given by
their schools.  Sir Philip further told you, that which the protection was given, that te prisoner to
he never saw a more peaceable multitude:in his  he exhibited as an evidence of guilt;5 proiom being
life; and it appears upon the oaths of all who  yet it was produced to insinuate that burne
were present,'3 that Lord George Gordon went Lord George Gordon, knowing himself to be the
round among them, desiring peace and quietness. ruler of those villains, set himself up as a savior
Mark his conduct, when he heard from Mr. from their fury.  We called Lord Stormont tc
Evans24 that a low, riotous set of people were  explain this matter to you, who told you that
assembled in Palace Yard. Mr. Evans, being a  Lord  George  Gordon  came  to  Buckingham
member of the Protestant Association, and being  House, and begged to see the King, saying, he
desirous that nothing bad might happen from  might be of great use in quelling the riots; and
the assembly, went in his carriage with Mr.  can there be on earth a greater proof of conSpinage to St. George's Fields, to inform Lord  scious innocence? For it he had been the wickGeorge that there were such people assembled  ed mover of them, would he have gone to the
(probably Papists), who were determined to do  King to have confessed it, by offering to recall
mischief.  The moment he told him of what he  his followers from the mischiefs he had provoked?
heard, whatever his original plan might have  No! But since, notwithstanding a public protest
been, he instantly changed it on seeing the im- issued by himself and the Association, reviling
propriety of it. " Do you intend," said Mr. Ev- the authors of mischief, the Protestant cause was
ans, "to carry tp all these men with the petition  still made the pretext, he thought his public exto the House of Commons?"  "Oh no! no! not ertions might be useful, as they might tend to
by any means; I do not mean to carry them all remove the prejudices which wicked men had
up."   "Will you give me leave," said Mr. Ev- diffused.  The King thought so likewise, and
ans, "to go round to the different divisions, and  therefore (as appears by Lord Stormont) refused
tell the people it is not your Lordship's purpose?"  to see Lord George till he had given the test of
He answered, "By all means."  And Mr. Evans his loyalty by such exertions.  But sure I am,
accordingly went. but it was impossible to guide  our gracious sovereign meant no trap for innosuch a number of people, peaceable as they were. cence, nor ever recommended it as such to his
They were all desirous to go forward; and Lord  servants.
George was at last obliged to leave the Fields,    Lord George's language was simply this:
exhausted with heat and fatigue, beseeching  " The multitude pretend to be perpetrating these
them to be peaceable and quiet.  Mrs. Whiting-  acts, under the authority of the Protestant petiham  set him down at the House of Commons;  tion; I assure your Majesty they are not the
and at the very time that he thus left them  in  Protestant Association, and I shall be glad to be
perfect harmony and good order, it appears, by  of any service in suppressing them."  I say, BY
the evidence of Sir Philip Jennings Clerke, that GoD, that man is a ruffian who shall, after this,
Palace Yard was in an uproar, filled with mis- presume to build upon such honest, artless conchievous boys and the lowest dregs of the peo- duct, as an evidence of guilt.26  Gentlemen, if
pie. 
2 A witness, of the name of Richard Pond, called
Gentlemen, I have all along told you that the.              )  
Gentlemen, I have all along told you that the  in support of the prosecution, had sworn that, hearCrown was aware that it had no case of treason, inr his house was about to be pulled down, he apwithout connecting the noble prisoner with con-  plied to the prisoner for protection, and in consesequences, which it was in some luck to find ad- quence received the following document signed by
vocates to state, without proof to support it.  I him: "All true friends to Protestants, I hope, will
can only speak for myself, that, small as my  be particular, and do no injury to the property of
chance is (as times go) of ever arriving at high  any true Protestant, as I am well assured the ploprietor of this house is a staunch and worthy friend
ward assembled tumultuously about the House of  to the cause.-G. GoRDON."
Commons.                                            26 The effect produced on the jury and spectators
23 Sir James Lowther, another of the prisoner's  by this sudden burst of feeling, is represented by
witnesses, proved that Lord George Gordon and Sir  eye-witnesses to have been such as to baffle all
Philip Jennings Clerke accompanied him in his car- powers of description. It was wholly unpremediriage from the House, and the former entreated the  tated, the instantaneous result of that sympathy
multitudes collected to disperse quietly to their which exists between a successful speaker and his
homes.                                            audience. In uttering this appeal to his Maker, Mr.
24 A surgeon, who also was examined for the'de- Erskine's tone was one of awe and deep reverence,
fense, and deposed that he saw Lord George Gor- without the slightest approach toward the profane
don in the midst of one of the companies in St. use of the words, but giving them all the solemnity
George's Fields, and that it appeared his wish at of a judicial oath. The magic of his eye, gesture,
that time, from his conduct and expressions, that, to  and countenance beaming with emotion, completed
prevent all disorder, he should not be attended by  the impression, and made it irresistible. It was a
the multitude across Westminster Bridge. This  thing which no man could do but once in his life.
gentleman's evidence was confirmed by that of oth- Mr. Erskine attempted it again in the House of
er witnesses.                                     Commons, and utterly failed.




1781.]                 IN BEHALF OF LORD  GEORGE GORDON.                                    653
Lord George Gordon had been guilty of high  whole of it together; to reflect on all you have
treason (as is assumed to-day) in the face of the  heard concerning him; to trace him  in youi
whole Parliament, how are all its members to  recollection through every part of the transacdefend themselves from the misprision27 of suf- tion; and, considering it with one manly, liberal
fering such a person to go at large and to ap- view, to ask your own honest hearts, whether
proach his sovereign?  The man who conceals you can say that this noble and unfortunate
the perpetration of treason is himself a traitor; youth is a wicked and deliberate traitor, who
but they are all perfectly safe, for nobody thought deserves by your verdict to suffer a shameful and
of treason till fears arising from another quarter ignominious death, which will stain the ancient
bewildered their senses.  The King, therefore, honors of his house forever.
and his servants, very wisely accepted his prom-    The crime which the Crown would have fixed
ise of assistance, and he flew with honest zeal to  upon him  is, that he assembled the Protestant
fulfill it.  Sir Philip Jennings Clerke tells you  Association round the House of Commons, not
that he made use of every expression which it merely to influence and persuade Parliament by
was possible for a man in such circumstances to  the earnestness of their supplications, but actu'
employ.  He begged them, for God's sake, to  ally to coerce it by hostile, rebellious force; that,
disperse and go home; declared his hope that finding himself disappointed in the success of
the petition would be granted, but that rioting  that coercion, he afterward incited his followers
was not the way to effect it.  Sir Philip said he  to abolish the legal indulgences to Papists, which
felt himself bound, without being particularly  the object of the petition was to repeal, by the
asked, to say every thing he could in protection  burning of their houses of worship, and the deof an injured and innocent man, and repeated  struction of their property, which ended, at last,
again, that there was not an art which the pris- in a general attack on the property of all orders
oner could possibly make use of, that he did not of men, religious and civil, on the public treaszealously employ; but that it was all invain. ures of the nation, and on the very being of the'I began," says he, "to tremble for myself, government.8
when Lord George read the resolution of the    To support a charge of so atrocious and unHouse, which was hostile to them, and said their natural a complexion, the laws of the most arbipetition would not be taken into consideration  trary nations would require the most incontrotill they were quiet."  But did he say, "'there- vertible proof.  Either the villain must have
fore go on to burn and destroy?"  On the con- been taken in the overt act of wickedness, or, if
trary, he helped to pen that motion, and read it he worked in secret upon others, his guilt must
to the multitude, as one which he himself hahad    ve been brought out by the discovery of a conapproved.  After this he went into the coach  spiracy, or by the consistent tenor of criminality.
with Sheriff Pugh, in the city; and there it was, The very worst inquisitor that ever dealt in blood
in the presence of the very magistrate whom he  would vindicate the torture, by plausibility at
was assisting to keep the peace, that he publicly  least, and by the semblance of truth.
signed the protection which has'been read in    What evidence, then, will a jury of Englishevidence against himl; although Mr. Fisher, who  men expect from the servants of the Crown of
now  stands in my presence, confessed in the  England, before they deliver up a brother accused
Privy Council that he himself had granted sim- before them  to ignominy and death?  What
ilar protections to various people —yet he was dis- proof will their consciences require? What will
missed, as having done nothing but his duty.     their plain and manly understandings accept of?
This is the plain and simple truth; and for What does the immemorial custom  of their fathis just obedience to his Majesty's request, do  thers, and the written law of this land, warrant
the King's servants come to-day into his court, them in demanding?  Nothing less, in any case
where he is supposed in person to sit, to turn of blood, than the clearest and most unequivocal
that obedience into the crime of high treason, conviction of guilt. But in this case the Act has
and to ask you to put him to death for it.      not even trusted to the humanity and justice of
Gentlemen, you have now  heard, upon the  our general law, but has said, in plain, rough,
solemn oaths of honest, disinterested  expressive terms-provably; that is, says Lord
Recapitulation.
men, a faithful history of the conduct Coke, not upon coectral presmpti     or 
of Lord George Gordon, from the day that he  ferences, or strains of wit, but upon direct and
became a member of the Protestant Association  plain proof.  "For the King, Lords, and Comto the day that he was committed a prisoner to  mons," continues that great lawyer, "did not
the Tower.  And I have no doubt, from the at- use the word probably, for then a common argutention with which I have been honored from the  ment might have served, but provably, which
beginning, that you have still kept in your minds signifies the highest force of demonstration."
the principles to which I entreated you would  And what evidence, gentlemen of the jury, does
apply it, and that you havemneasured it by that the Crown offer to you in compliance with these
standard.    sound and sacred doctrines of justice?  A few
You have, therefore, only to look back to the           the tie of the interference of the military,
27 Misprision of treason consists in the bare knowl- the mob had attacked the Pay Office, and were atedge and concealment of treason,without any degree  tempting to break into the Bank; and, to aid the
of assent thereto, for ainy assent makes the party a  work of the incendiaries, a large party had been
prlicipal traitor.-Blackstone's Comm., iv, 120.  sent to cut the pipes of the New River.




654                                   MR. ERSKINE                                      [1781.
broken, interrupted, disjointed words, without retired to bed, where he lay unconscious that
context or connection-uttered by the speaker ruffians. were ruining him by their disorders in
in agitation and heat-heard, by those who relate  the night-that on Monday he published an adthem to you, in the midst of tumult and confu- vertisement, reviling the authors of the riots;
sion —and even those words, mutilated as they  and, as the Protestant cause had been wickedly
are, in direct opposition to, and inconsistent with  made the pretext for them, solemnly enjoined all
repeated and earnest declarations delivered at who wished well to it to be obedient to the laws
the very same time and on the very same occa- (nor has the Crown even attempted to prove
sion, related to you by a much greater number that he had either given, or that he afterward
of persons, and absolutely incompatible with the gave secret instructions in opposition to that
whole tenor of his conduct.  Which of us all, public admonition)-that he afterward begged
gentlemen, would be safe, standing at the bar an audience to receive the King's commandsof God or man, if we were not to be judged by  that he waited on the ministers-that he attendthe regular current of our lives and conversa- ed his duty in Parliament-and when the multitions, but by detached and unguarded expres- tude (among whom there was not a man of the
sions, picked out by malice, and recorded, with- associated Protestants) again assembled on the
out context or circumstances, against us?  Yet Tuesday, under pretense of the Protestant cause,
such is the only evidence on which the Crown  he offered his services, and read a resolution of
asks you to dip your hands, and to stain your the House to them, accompanied with every exconsciences, in the innocent blood of the noble  postulation which a zeal for peace could possibly
and unfortunate youth who stands before you-  inspire-that he afterward, in pursuance of the
on the single evidence of the words you have  King's direction, attended the magistrates in
heard from their witnesses (for of what but words their duty; honestly and honorably exerting all
have you heard?), which, even if they had stood  his powers to quell the fury of the multitude; a
uncontroverted by the proofs that have swallowed  conduct which, to the dishonor of the Crown, has
them up, or unexplained by circumstances which  been scandalously turned against him, by crimdestroy their malignity, could not, at the very  inating him with protections granted publicly in
worst, amount in law to more than a breach of the coach of the Sheriff of London, whom he was
the Act against tumultuous petitioning (if such  assisting in his office of magistracy; although
an act still exists); since the worst malice of protections of a similar nature were, to the
his enemies has not been able to bring up one knowledge of the whole Privy Council, granted
single witness to say that he ever directed, coun- by Mr. Fisher himself, who now stands in my
tenanced, or approved rebellious force against the  presence unaccused and unreproved, but who, if
Legislature of this country.  It is, therefore, a the Crown that summoned him durst have called
matter of astonishment to me that men can keep  him, would have dispersed to their confusion the
the natural color in their cheeks when they ask  slightest imputation of guilt.
for human life, even on the Crown's original    What, then, has produced this trial for high
case, though the prisoner had made no defense. treason, or given' it, when produced; cause of the
But will they still continue to ask for it after the seriousness and solemnity it wears? prosecution,
what they have heard?  I will just remind the  What but the inversion of all justice, by judging
Solicitor General, before he begins his reply, from consequences, instead of from causes and dewhat matter he has to encounter.  He has to  signs? What but the artful manner in which the
encounter this: That the going up in a body  Crown has endeavored to blend the petitioning
was not even originated by Lord George, but by  in a body, and the zeal with which an animated
others in his absence-that when proposed by  disposition conducted it, with the melancholy
him officially as chairman, it was adopted by the  crimes that followed? crimes which the shamewhole Association, and consequently was their ful indolence of our magistrates-which the toact as much as his-that it was adopted, not in  tal extinction of all police and government sufa conclave, but with open doors, and the resolu- fered to be committed in broad day, and in the
tion published to all the world  that it was delirium of drunkenness, by an unarmed banditti,
known, of course, to the ministers and magis- without a head-without plan or object-and
trates of the country, who did not even signify  without a'refuge from the instant gripe of justo him, or to any body else, its illegality or dan- tice: a banditti with whom the associated Protger-that decency and peace were enjoined and  estants and their president had no manner of
commanded-that the regularity of the proces- connection, and whose cause they overturned.
sion, and those badges of distinction, which are  dishonored, and ruined.
now cruelly turned into the charge of an hostile    How unchristian, then, is it to attempt, witharray against him, were expressly and publicly  out evidence, to infect the imaginations of men
directed for the preservation of peace and the  who are sworn, dispassionately and disinterestprevention of tumult-that while the House was edly, to try the. trivial offense of assembling a
deliberating, he repeatedly entreated them to be- multitude with a petition to repeal a law (which
have with decency and peace, and to retire to  has happened so often in all our memories), by
their houses, though he knew not that he was blending it with the fatal catastrophe, on which
speaking to the enemies of his cause-that when  every man's mind may be supposed to retain
they at last dispersed, no man thought or imag- some degree of irritation!  0 fie! 0 fie!  Is
ined that treason had been committed-that he  the intellectual seat of justice to be thus impious



1784.]                         ON THE RIGHTS OF JURIES.                                         655
ly shaken?  Are your benevolent propensities found who could even attempt to save his own
to be thus disappointed and abused?  Do they  life by the plausible promise of giving evidence
wish you, while you are listening to the evidence, to-day.
to connect it with unforeseen consequences, in    What can overturn  such a proof as this?
spite of reason and truth?  Is it their object to  Surely a good man might, without superstition;
hang the millstone of prejudice around his inno- believe that such a union of events was somecent neck to sink him?  If therebe such men, thing more than natural, and that a Divine Provmay Heaven forgive them for the. attempt, and  idence was watchful for the. protection of innoinspire you with fortitude and wisdom  to dis- cence and truth.
charge your duty with calm, steady, and reflect-    I may now, therefore, relieve you from  the
ing minds!                                        pain of hearing me any longer, and be myself
Gentlemen, I have no manner of doubt that relieved from speaking on a subject which agiP ou will.29  I am sure you can not but tates and distresses me.  Since Lord George
see, notwithstanding my great inability, Gordon stands clear of every hostile act or purincreased by a perturbation of mind -(arising, pose against the Legislature of his country, or
thank God! from no dishonest cause), that there the properties of his fellow-subjects-since the
has been not only no evidence on the part of the  whole tenor of his conduct repels the belief of
Crown to fix the guilt of the late commotions the traitorous intention charged by the indictupon the prisoner, but that, on the contrary, we  ment-my task is finished.  I shall make no
have been able to resist the probability, I might address to your passions.  I will not remind you
almost say the possibility of the charge, not only  of the long and rigorous imprisonment he has
by living witnesses, whom we only ceased to call suffered; I will not speak to you of his great
because the trial would never have ended, but by  youth, of his illustrious birth, and of his uniformthe evidence of all the blood that has paid the  ly animated and generous zeal in Parliament for
forfeit of that guilt already;  an evidence that I the Constitution of his country.  Such topics
will take upon me to say is the strongest and  might be useful in the balance of a doubtful case;
most unanswerable which the combination of yet, even then, I should have trusted to the honnatural events ever brought together since the  est hearts of Englishmen to have felt them withbeginning of the world for the deliverance of the  out excitation.  At present, the plain and rigid
oppressed: since, in the late numerous trials for rules of justice and truth are sufficient to entitle
acts of violence and depredation, though con- me to your verdict.
ducted by the ablest servants of the Crown, with
a laudable eye to the investigation of the subject    The jury, after being charged by Lord Manswhich now  engages us, no one fact appeared  field, withdrew at three o'clock in the morning,
which showed any plan, any object, any leader; and speedily returned with the verdict -  NOT
since, out of forty-four thousand persons who  GUILTY.  The decision was satisfactory, in a
signed the petition of the Protestants, not one high degree, to all reflecting men.  Even those
was to be found among those who were convict- who considered his conduct as deeply criminal,
ed, tried, or even apprehended on suspicion  and  felt with Dr. Johnson: " I am  glad Lord George
since, out of all the felons who were let loose  Gordon: has escaped, rather than a precedent
from prisons, and who assisted in the destruction  should be established of hanging a man for conof our property, not a single wretch was to be structive treason."
S P E ECH
OF MR. ERSKINE ON THE RIGHTS OF JURIES, DELIVERED BEFORE THE COURT OF KING'S BENCH,
IN THE CASE OF THE:DEAN OF ASAPH, NOVEMBER 15, 1784.
INTRODUCTION.
SIR WILLIAM JONES, just before he went to India in 1783, wrote a small tract in favor of Parliamentary Reform, entitled a "Dialogue between a Gentleman and a Farmer," which was published by his
brother-in-law Dr. Shipley, dean of St. Asaph, with an advertisement stating his reasons for so doing.
Though harmless in its tendency, it gave umbrage to some high Tories of the neighborhood, and the
Dean was indicted, at their instance, for printing a seditious libel. The trial came on at Shrewsbury,
August 6th, 1784, and Mr. Bearcroft, counsel for the prosecution, satisfied that no English jury would
ever find it a libel (as the court, in fact, afterward declared there was nothing in it illegal) took the
29 This peroration is remarkable forthe quiet and  of a perfect understanding between him  and the
subdued tone which reigns throughout it.  A less i jury, that the verdict of acquittal was already made
skillful advocate would have closed with a powerful j up in their minds, so that any appeal to their feelappeal to the feelings of the jury. But Mr. Erskiine, I ings would be wholly out of place. His allusion to
with that quick instinct which enabled him to read  the providence of God as watching over the innothe emotions of men in their countenances, saw that  cent, beautifully coincides with this sentiment; and
his cause was gained. He chose, therefore, to j in his closing sentence he does not ask a decision
throw over his concluding remarks the appearance  in his favor, but takes it as a matter of course.




656                                      MR. ERSKINE                                         [1784
ground that this was no question for them to decide-that they were bound to find the defendant guilty
if they believed he had caused it to be published, and that it was "of and concerning- the King and his
government"-leaving him to move the court in arrest of judgment, or to bring a writ of error if its sentiments and language were claimed to beinnocent. Mr. Erskine, for the defendant, argued the question
to the jury on the supposition of their having a right to judge whether it was a libel or not. But Mr.
Justice Buller charged the jury in accordance with the claim of Mr. Bearcroft, telling them, as Lord
Mansfield had done in the case of Woodfalli that they must; bring in the defendant guilty if they were
satisfied he had published the tract, leaving the question whether it was libelous or not for the court to
decide. The jury, however, gave their verdict " guilty of publishing only," which would have been tan.
tamount to an acquittal. But the Judge having objected strongly to this finding, the jury withdrew, and
returned with a verdict, " Guilty of publishing, but whether a libel or not we do not find."
In Michaelmas term following, November 8th, 1784, Mr. Erskine moved for a new trial on the ground
of misdirection on the part of the judge. A rule nisi having been granted, the case came on for argument on the 15th, when he made the following speech. Lord Campbell says, " Erskine's addresses to
the court in moving, and afterward in supporting his rule, display beyond all comparison the most perfeet union of argument and eloquence ever exhibited in Westminster Hall. He laid down five propositions most logically framed and connected-which, if tre, completely established his case-and he supported them with a depth of learning which would have done ionor to Selden or Hale, while he was
animated by an enthusiasm which was peculiarly his own. Though appealing to judges who heard him
with aversion or indifference, he was as spirited as if the decision had depended on a favorable jury,
whose feelings were entirely under his control. So thoroughly had he mastered the subject, and so clear
did he make it, that he captivated alike old black-letter lawyers and statesmen of taste and refinement."
-Lives of the Lord Chanzcellors, vol. vi., 433-4.
The following are the five propositions mentioned by Lord Campbell, which had been previously delivered to the judges in nearly the same terms:
I. "That when a bill of indictment is found, or an information filed, charging any crime or misdemeanor
known to the law of England, and the party accused puts himself upon the country by pleading the general issue-Not Guilty; the jury are GENERALLY charged with his deliverance from that cRIIME, and not
SPECIALLY from thefact orfacts, in the commission of which the indictment or information charges the crime
to consist; much less from any single fact, to the exclusion of others charged upon the same record."
II. " That no act, which the law in its general theory holds to be criminal constitutes in itself a crime,
abstracted from the mischievous intention of the actor; and that the intention (even where it becomes a
simple inference of legal reason from a fact established) may and ought to be collected by the JURY,
with the Judge's assistance; because the act charged, though established as a fact in a trial on the general issue, does not necessarily and unavoidably establish the criminal intention by any abstract conclusion of law-the establishment of the fact being still no more than full evidence of the crime, but not the crime
itself; unless the jury render it so themselves, by referring it voluntarily to the court by special verdict."
III. "That the case of a libel forms no legal exception to the general principles which govern the trial
of all other crimes; that the argument for the difference, namely, because the whole charge [in the prose.
cution for a libel] always appears on the record-is false in fact, and that, even if true, it would form no
substantial difference in law."
IV. "That where a writing indicted as a libel neither contains, nor is averred by the indictment to contain, any slander of an individual (so as to fall within those rules of law which protect personal reputation), but whose criminality is charged to consist (as in the present instance) in its tendency to stir up
general discontent-the trial of such an indictment neither involves, nor can in its obvious nature involve,
any abstract question of law for the judgment of a court, but must wholly depend upon the judgment of
the jury on the tendency of the writing itself to produce such consequences, when connected with all the
circumstances which attended its publication."
V. " That in all cases where the mischievous intention (which is agreed to be the essence of the crime)
can not be collected by simple inference from the fact charged, because the defendant goes into evidence
to rebut such inference, the intention then becomes a pure, unmixed question of fact, for the consideration of the jury."
This speech has a peculiar interest for the lawyer, but the general reader will be amply repaid for
giving it the closest attention. The young orator of any profession will find the study of.it one of the
best means of mental discipline, and will rise from the perusal of it with increased admiration of Lord
Erskine as a logician and an orator.
SPEECH, &c.
I AM now to have the honor to address myself rule for a new trial. Much of my argument, acto your Lordship in support of the rule granted  cording to his notion, points another way; whethto me by the court upon Monday last; which, er its direction be true, or its force adequate to
as Mr. Bearcroft has truly said, and seemed to  the object, it is now my business to show.
mark the observation with peculiar emphasis, is a    In rising to speak at this time; I feel all the




1784.]                         ON THE RIGHTS OF JURIES.                                      657
advantage conferred by the reply over those  sition to the plain understanding of the world,
Necessity ofa whose arguments are to be answered; neither do nor were intended to con- Restatement
der of rgu-  but I feel a disadvantage likewise, vey any other sentiment than this, ofthesepropent   which must suggest itself to every in- namely, that in all cases where the
telligent mind.  In following the objections of  law either directs or permits a person accused
so many learned persons, offered under different of a crime to throw himself upon a jury for dearrangements upon a subject so complicated and  liverance, by pleading generally that he is not
comprehensive, there is much danger of being  guilty; the JURs, thus legally appealed to, may
drawn from  that method and order which can  deliver him  from  the accusation by a general
alone fasten conviction upon unwilling minds, or verdict of acquittal founded (as in common sense
drive them  from  the shelter which ingenuity  it evidently must be) upon an INVESTIGATION as
never fails to find in the labyrinth of a desultory  general and comprehensive as the charge itself
discourse. The sense of that danger, and my own  from which it is a general deliverance.
inability to struggle against it, led me originally    Having said this, I freely confess to the court
to deliver up to the court certain written and  that I am much at a loss for any fur- The recent lim
maturely considered PROPOSITIONS, from the es- ther illustration of my subject, be- rights of"jurie..s
tablishment of which I resolved not to depart, cause I can not find any matter by a departure
nor to be removed, either in substance or in or- which it might be further illustrated, usage.
der, in any stage of the proceedings, and by  so clear or so indisputable, either in fact or in,
which I must therefore this day unquestionably  law, as the very proposition itself upon which,
stand or fall.                                   this trial has been brought into question. LookPursuing this system, I am vulnerable two  ing back upon the ancient Constitution, and exOnly two pos- ways, and in two ways only.  Either amining with painful research the original jurisedin its  it must be shown that my propositions dictions of the country, I am utterly at a loss to
force.    are not valid in law, or, admitting  imagine from what sources these novel limitatheir validity, that the learned judge's charge to tions of the rights of juries are derived.  Even 
the jury at Shrewsbury was not repugnant to  the bar is not yet trained to the discipline of
them: there can be no other possible objections maintaining them. My learned friend Mr. Bear- 
to my application for a new trial.  My duty to- croft' solemnly abjures them.  He repeats to-day
day is, therefore, obvious and simple: it is, first, what he avowed at the trial, and is even jealous
to re-maintain those propositions, and then to  of the imputation of having meant less than he
show that the charge delivered to the jury at expressed. For, when speaking this Concession of
Shrewsbury was founded upon the absolute de- morning of the right of the jury to opposing counnial and reprobation of them.                    judge of the whole charge, your Lord1. I begin, therefore, by saying again, in my  ship corrected his expression, by telling him he
First Prop- own original words, That when a bill meant the power, and not the right; he caught
ositio-    of indictment is found, or an informa- instantly at your words, disavowed your expiation filed, charging any crime or misdemeanor nation, and, with a consistency which does him
known to the law of England, and the party ac- honor, declared his adherence to his original ad-.cused puts himself upon the country by pleading  mission in its full and obvious extent.  "I did
the general issue-not guilty; the jury are GEN- not mean," said he, "merely to acknowledge
ERALLY charged with his deliverance from that that the jury have the power, for their power
crime, and not SPECIALLY from the fact orfacts, nobody ever doubted.  If a judge was to tell
in the commission of which the indictment or in- them  they had it not, they would only have to
formation charges the crime to consist; much  laugh at him, and convince him of his error, by
less from any single fact, to the exclusion of oth- finding a GENERAL verdict, which must be reers charged upon the same record.                corded: I meant, therefore, to consider it as a
II. That no act, which the law in its general right, as an important privilege, and of great
S'ecod   theory holds to be criminal, constitutes  value to the Constitution."  Thus Mr. Bearcroft
P^sposition. in itself a crime, abstracted from  the  and I are perfectly agreed; I never contended
mischievous intention of the actor; and that the  for more than he has voluntarily conceded.  i
intention (even where it becomes a simple infer- have now his express authority for repeating, in
ence of legal reasons from a fact or facts estab- my own former words, that the jury have not'lished), may and ought to be collected by the  merely the power to acquit, upon a view of the
JURY, with the judge's assistance; because the  whole charge, without control or punishment,
act charged, though established as a fact in a trial and without the possibility of their acquittal beon the general issue, does not necessarily and  ing annulled by any other authority; but that
unavoidably establish the criminal intention by  they have a constitutional, legal right to do it.;
any abstract conclusion of the law: the estab- a right fit to be exercised; and intended, by the
lishment of the fact being still no more than full wise founders of the government, to be a protecevidence of the crime, but not the crime itself; tion to the lives and liberties of Englishmen,
unless the jury render it so themselves, by refer- against the encroachments and perversions of
ring it voluntarily to the court by special verdict. authority in the hands of fixed magistrates.
These two propositions, though worded with    But this candid admission on the part of Mr.
cautious precision, and in technical language, to
prevent the subtlety of legal disputation in oppo-' One of the counsel for the prosecution.
T




658                                      MR. ERSKINE                                         [1784.
Bearcroft, though very honorable to himself, is I no further than to summon the jurors, to compel
The court hv  of no importance to me; since, from  their attendance, ministerially to regulate their
ing expressed  what has already fallen from  your  proceedings, and to enforce their decisions. And
another opinion, their atten- Lordship, I am not to expect a rat-  even where he was specially empowered by the
tion claimed  ification of it from  the court; it is  King's writ of jslicies3 to proceed in causes of
therefore my duty to establish it.  I feel all the  superior value, no judicial authority was thereby
importance of.my subject, and nothing shall lead  conferred upon himself, but only a more enlarged
me to-day to go out of it.  I claim all the atten- jurisdiction ON THE JURORs, who were to try
tion of the court, and the right to state every  the cause mentioned in the writ.  It is true that
authority which applies, in my judgment, to the  the sheriff can not now intermeddle in pleas of
argument, without being supposed to introduce  the Crown; but with this exception, which brings
them for other purposes than my duty to my cli- no restrictions on juries, these jurisdictions reent and the Constitution of my country warrants  main untouched at this day: intricacies of propand approves.                                     erty have introduced other forms of proceeding,
It is not very usual, in an English court of  but the Constitution is the same.
The rigt of  justice, to be driven back to the ear-    This popular judicature was not confined to
jury to decide liest history and original elements of  particular districts, or to inferior suits (3.) The King's
nell usacts in the Constitution, in order to estab- and misdemeanors, but pervaded the iomr the Moor   p   lish the cas,  first principles which mark  whole legal Constitution.  For, when sqeror.
pleof Eglish  and distinguish English law: they  the Conqueror, to increase the influence of his
jurisprudence.      t
are always assumed, and, like ax-  crown, erected that great superintending court
ioms in science, are made the foundations of  of justice in his own palace to receive appeals
reasoning without being proved.  Of this sort criminal and civil from every court in the kingour ancestors, for many centuries, must have  dom, and placed at the head of it the capitalis
conceived the right of an English jury to decide  justiciarisus totius Ainglie [Chief Justiciary of'all
upon every question which the forms of the law  England], of whose original authority the Chief
submitted to their final decision; since, though  Justice of this court is but a partial and feeble
they have immemorially exercised that supreme  emanation: even that great magistrate was in
jurisdiction, we find no trace in any of the an- the Aula Regis [King's Court] merely ministerial;
cient books of its ever being brought into ques- every one of the King's tenants, who owed him
tion.  It is but as yesterday, when compared  service in right of a baroqy, had a seat and a voice
with the age of the law itself, that judges, un- in that high tribunal; and the office of justiciar
warranted by any former judgments of their  was but to record and to enforce their judgpredecessors, without any new commission from   ments.4
the Crown, or enlargement of judicial authority    In the reign of King Edward the First, when
from the Legislature, have sought to fasten a  this great office was abolished, and the (4.)TheHo
limitation upon the rights and privileges of ju- present courts at Westminster estab- o( Lords as a
r-ors, totally unknown in ancient times, and pal-  lished by a distribution of its powers, court
-pably destructive of the very end and object of  the barons preserved that supreme superintend~ctheir institution.                               ing jurisdiction which never belonged to the Jus-'No fact, my Lord, is of more easy demonstra-  ticiar, but to themnselves only as the jurors in the,tion; for the history and laws of a free country  King's Court-a jurisdiction which, when nobillie open, even to vulgar inspection.              ity, from  being territorial and feudal, became
During the whole Saxon era, and even long  personal and honorary, was assumed and exer(.L) The low- after the establishment of the Norman    The Writ of Justicies was a writ directed to
btS       government, the whole administration  the sheriff in some special cases, byvirtue of which
sand Leet.   of justice, criminal and civil, was in  he might hold plea of debt in his county court for a
the hands of the people, without the control or large sum, whereas, by his ordinary power, he was
intervention of any judicial authority, delegated  limited to sums under forty shillings.
to fixed magistrates by the Crown.  The ten-    4 The King's Court was composed of the Chief
-ants of every manor administered civil justice to  Justiciary, the Chancellor, the Constable, Marshal,
-one another in the Court Baron of their Lord: Chamberlain, Steward, and Treasurer, with any oth-.>. ~  T 4   ers whom the King m1ight appoint. The Court of.aand their crimes were judged of in the Leet,  ev-      wh     he  ing  igh a ppoint. The Court of
Exchequer, in which all revenue matters were trans-,ery suitor of the manor giving his voice as a JU- acted, formed a branch of this court. The Chief
ror, and the steward being only the registrar,  Justiciary was the greatest subject in England: be-and not the judge.                                sides presiding in the King's Court, and in the ExOn appeals from these domestic jurisdictions chequer, he was originally, by virtue of his office,
2) The Coun to the county court, and to the tourn  the Regent of the kingdom during the absence of
ty and ShlerifB (circuit) of the sheriff, or in suits and  the Sovereign.
-Cour.      prosecutions originally commenced in    5 Though Edward settled the jurisdiction of the
eir of t,  te srifs a rity e      d  several courts, the separation of the Exchequer first,
either of them, the sheriff's authority extended  ward the Comon  Pleas, from the  ing'
and afterward the Common Pleas, from the King's
Court, took place long before. The detachment of
2 The Court Baron belonged more particularly to  the latter had its beginning, in Madox's opinion, as
a manor, and the Court Leet to a hundred, which  early as in the reign of Richard the First; but it was
was the smallest civil division in Saxon times.-See  completely established by the Magna Charta of 17
Jacobs's Law Dictionary.                          John, and then first made stationary at Westminster.




1784.]                         ON THE RIGHTS OF JURIES.                                         6b)J
cised by the peers of England, who, without any      My Lord, this important truth is no discovery
delegation of judicial authority from the Crown, or assertion of mine, but is to be found This distinction
form to this day the supreme and final court of  in every book of the law: Whether we confirmed by
English law, judging in the last resort for the  go up to the most ancient authorities, Blackstooe,
whole kingdom, and sitting upon the lives of the  or appeal to the writings of men of our own times,
peerage, in their ancient and genuine character, we meet with it alike in the most emphatical lanas the pares of one another.6                     guage.  Mr. Justice Blackstone, by no means
When the courts at Westminster were estab- biased toward democratical government, having
Witlthleadvance lished in their present forms, and  in the third volume of his Commentaries explaino ctiomerceat tioe when the civilization and commerce  ed the excellence of the trial by jury in civil
ircdges of the toa  of the nation had introduced more  cases, expresses himself thus (vol. iv., p. 349)
property,   intricate questions of justice, theju-' But it holds much stronger in criminal cases,
dicial authority in civil cases could not but en- since, in times of difficulty and danger, more is
large its bounds.  The rules of property in a  to be apprehended from the violence and partialcultivated state of society became by degrees be- ity of judges appointed by the Crown, in suits beyond the compass of the unlettered multitude, tween the King and the subject, than in disputes
and with certain well-known restrictions undoubt- between one individual and another, to settle the
edly fell to the judges; yet more, perhaps, from  boundaries of private property.  Our law has,
necessity than by consent, as all judicial proceed- therefore, wisely placed this strong and two-fold
ings were artfully held in the Norman language, barrier of a presentment and trial by jury beto which the people were strangers.7   Of these  tween the liberties of the people and the prerogachanges in judicature, immemorial custom, and  tive of the Crown.  Without this barrier, justices
the acquiescence of the Legislature, are the evi- of oyer and terminer named by the Crown might,
dence which establish  the jurisdiction of the  as in France or in Turkey, imprison, dispatch, or
courts on the true principle of English law, and  exile any man that was obnoxious to government,
measure the extent of it by their ancient prac- by an instant declaration that such was their will
tice.                                             and pleasure.  So that the liberties of England
But no such evidence is to be found of the least can not but subsist so long as this palladium rebut not incases relinquishment or abridgment of pop- mains sacred and inviolate, not only from all open
ofcrimes.    ular judicature, in cases of crimes; on  attacks, which none will be so hardy as to make,
the contrary, every page of our history is filled  but also from all secret machinations which may
with the struggles of our ancestors for its pres- sap and undermine it."
ervation.                                            But this remark, though it derives new force
The law of property changes with new objects, in being adopted by so great an auReasonsfortle and becomes intricate as it extends  thority, was no more an original in      yBrto
distinction.  its dominion; but crimes must ever  Mr. Justice Blackstone than in me: the institube of the same easy investigation.  They consist tion and authority of juries is to be found in Bracwholly in intention, and the more they are mul- ton, who wrote about five hundred years before
tiplied by the policy of those who govern, the  him.  " The curia [court] and the pares [jury],"
more absolutely the public freedom depends upon  says he, " were necessarily the judges in all cathe people's preserving the entire administration  ses of life, limb, crime, and disherison of the heir
of criminal justice to themselves.  In a question  in capite.  The King could not decide, for then
of property between two private individuals, the  he would have been both prosecutor and judge;
Crown can have no possible interest in preferring  neither could his justices, for they represent him."'
the one to the other; but it may have an interest    Notwithstanding  all this, the learned judge
in crushing both of them together, in defiance of  [Mr. Buller] was pleased to say at Furtherevidence
every principle of humanity and justice, if they  the trial, that there was no differ- ofan entire disshould put themselves forward in a contention for ence between cevil and criminal ca- ciriland criminal
public liberty, against a government seeking to  ses.s  I say, on the contrary, inde- cases.
emancipate itself from the dominion of the laws. pendent of these authorities, that there is not,
No man in the least acquainted with the history  even to vulgar observation, the remotest similiof nations or of his own country, can refuse to  tude between them.
acknowledge, that if the administration of crim-      In his charge to the jury, in the case of the Dean
inal justice were left in the hands of the Crown  of St. Asaph, Mr. Justice Buller had said, "The law
or its deputies, no greater freedom could possibly  acts equally and justly, as the pamphlet itself states:
exist than government might choose to tolerate  it is equal between the prosecutor and defendant;
from the convenience or policy of the day.         and whatever appears upon the record is not for our
~ —~~~~~__~_ _______ _  _~ ~         decision here, but may be the subject of future con6 During a trial before the House of Peers, every  sideration in the court out of which the record comes:
peer present on the trial has always been judge both  and afterward, if either party thinks fit, they have a
of the law and the fact. Hence no special verdict right to carry it to the dernier sesort, and have the
can be given on the trial of a peer.               opinion of the House of Lords upon it; and, therefore,
7 All pleadings were, by order of William  the  that has been the uniform and established answer,
Conqueror, conducted in Norman-French. By act not only in criminal but civil cases.  The law is the
36 Edward III., cap. 15 (A. D. 1363), the use of the  same in both, and there is not a gentleman 1rotund
French language in legal proceedings was abol- this table mwho does not know that is the constant and
ished.                                             unif orm anszwer s  hich is given in such cases."




660                                     MR. ERSKINE                                        [1784.
There are four capital distinctions between  thejudges.  By this arrangement, no power was
prosecutions for crimes and civil actions, every  ever given to the july, by an issue joined before
one of which deserves consideration:             them, but when a right of decision, as compreFirst, in the jurisdiction necessary to found the  hensive as the issue, went along with it.  If a decharge.                                          fendant in such civil actions pleaded the general
Secondly, in the manner of the defendant's  issue instead ofa special plea, aiming at a general
pleading it.                                     deliverance from the charge, by showing his jus 
Thirdly, in the authority of the verdict which  tification to the jury at the trial, the court pro.
discharges him.                                  tected its own jurisdiction, by refusing all eviFourthly, in the independence and security of dence of the facts on which such justification was
the jury from all the consequences in giving it.  founded.  The extension of the general issue be(1.) As to the first, it is unnecessary to remind  yond its ancient limits, and in deviation from its
Jurisdiction. your Lordships that, in a civil case, the  true principle, has, indeed, introduced some conparty who conceives himself aggrieved  fusion into this simple and harmonious system 
states his complaint to the court-avails him- but the law is substantially the same.  No man,
self at his own pleasure of its process-compels  at this day, in any of those actions where the anan answer from the defendant by its authority-   cient forms of our jurisprudence are still wisely
or, taking the charge pro confesso against him on  preserved, can possibly get at the opinion of a jury
his default, is entitled to final judgment and exe- upon any question not intended by the Constitucution for his debt, without any interposition of a  tion for their decision.  In actions of debt, detjury.  But in criminal cases it is otherwise; the  inue, breach of covenant, trespass, or replevin, the
court has no cognizance of them, without leave  defendant can only submit the mere fact to the
from the people forming a grand inquest.  If a  jury, the law must be pleaded to the court.  If.
man were to commit a capital offense in the face  dreading the opinion of the judges, he conceals his
of all the judges of England, their united author- justification under the cover of a general plea,
ity could not put him upon his trial.  They could  in hopes of a more favorable construction of his
file no complaint against him, even upon the rec- defense at the trial, its very existence can never
ords of the supreme criminal court, but could  even come within the knowledge of the jurors.
only commit him for safe custody, which is equal- Every legal defense must arise out of the facts 
ly competent to every common justice of the  and the authority of the judge is interposed to
peace.  The grand jury alone could arraign him, prevent their appearing before a tribunal which,
and in their discretion might likewise finally dis- in such cases, has no competent jurisdiction over
charge him, by throwing out the bill, the names  them.
of all your Lordships as witnesses on the back of    By imposing this necessity of pleading every
it.  If it shall be said that this exclusive power legal justification to the court, and by this exof the grand jury does not extend to lesser mis- elusion of all evidence on the trial beyond the nedemeanors, which may be prosecuted by inform- gation of the fact, the courts indisputably intendation; I answer, that for that very reason it be- ed to establish, and did in fact effectually secure,
comes doubly necessary to preserve the power of the judicial authority over legal questions from
the other jury which is left.  In the rules of  all encroachment or violation.  And it is impospleading, there is no distinction between capital sible to find a reason in law or in common sense,
and lesser offenses; and the defendant's plea of why the same boundaries between the fact and
not guilty (which universally prevails as the le- the law should not have been at the same time
gal answer to every information or indictment, as  extended to criminal cases by the same rules of
opposed to special pleas to the court in civil ac- pleading, if the jurisdiction of the jury had been
tions), and the necessity imposed upon the Crown  designed to be limited to the fact, as in civil acto join the general issue, are absolutely decis- tions.
ive of the present question [i. e., as to jurisdic-    But no such boundary was ever made or attion].                                           tempted-on the contrary, every person but never
(2.) Every lawyer must admit that the rules  charged with any crime by an indict- incriminal
Manner ofthe of pleading were originally establish- iment or information has been in all cases.
pleading. This ed to mark and to preserve the dis- times, from the Norman Conquest to this hour,
lafro teju- tinct jurisdictions of the courtand the  not only permitted, but even bound, to throw
ry i civi cases jury, by a separation of the law from  himself upon his country for deliverance, by the
the fact, wherever they were intended to be sep- general plea of "Not guilty," and may submit
arated.  A person charged with owing a debt, his whole defense to the jury, whether it be at
or having committed a trespass, &c., &c., if he  negation of the fact or a justification of it in law.
could not deny the facts on which the actions  The judge has no authority, as in a civil case,
were founded, was obliged to submit his justifica-  to refuse such evidence at the trial as out of the
tion for matter of law by a special plea to the  issue, and as coarm  non judice [not before the
court upon the record; to which plea the plain- judge]-an authority which in common sense he
tiff might demurt,9 and submit the legal merits to  certainly would have, if the jury had no higher
9 I. e., might allege that, admitting the facts, the  jurisdiction in the one case than in the other.
justification set up is not sufficient in law, which  The general plea thus sanctioned by immemowould be a question for the decision of the court, rial custom, so blends the law and the fact toand not of the jury.                             gether, as to be inseparable but by the voluntary




1784.]                          ON THE RIGHTS OF JURIES.                                       661
act of the jury in finding a special verdict."M The  civil cases which I have laid before you, how can
general investigation of the whole charge is, it be seriously contended, not merely  ecaulati
therefore, before them; and although the defend- that there is no difference, but that ofthe points of
ant admits the fact laid in the information or in- there is any the remotest similarity tweeciviland
dictment, he nevertheless, under his general plea, between them?  In the one case, the cr""inal aes.
gives evidence of others which are collateral, re- power of accusation begins from  the court  in
ferring them to the judgment of the jury as a  the other, from the people only, forming a grand
legal excuse or justification, and receives from   jury.  In the one, the defendant must plead a
their verdict a complete, general, and conclusive  special justification, the merits of which can only
deliverance.  Mr. Justice  Blackstone, in the  be decided by the judges; in the other, he may
fourth volume of his Commentaries, page 339, throw himself for general deliverance upon his
says: "The traitorous or felonious intent are  country.  In the first, the court may award a
the points and very gist of the indictment, and  new trial, if the verdict for the defendant be conmust be answered directly by the general nega- trary to the evidence or the law; in the last, it
tive,' Not guilty;' and the jury will take notice  is conclusive and unalterable.  And, to crown
of any defensive matter, and give their verdict the whole, the King never had that process of
accordingly, as effectually as if it were specially  attaint which belonged to the meanest of his
pleaded."   This, therefore, says Sir Matthew   subjects.
Hale, in his Pleas of the Crown, page 258. is,    When these things are attentively considered,
upon all accounts, the most advantageous plea  I might ask those who are still dis- G ne  infer
for the defendant: " It would be a most unhap- posed to deny the right of the jury to le.ceas to the
py case for the judge himself, if the prisoner's  investigate the whole charge, whether in criminal
fate depended upon his directions-unhappy also  such a solecism can be conceived to'SeS
for the prisoner; for if the judge's opinion must exist in any human government, much less in
rule the verdict, the trial by jury would be use- the most refined and exalted in the world, as
less."                                            that a power of supreme judicature should be
(3 and 4.) My Lord, the conclusive operation  conferred [on the jury] at random by the blind
Tile authloit  of the verdict when given [in a crim- forms of the law, where no right was intended
of the verdict, inal case], and the security ofthe jury  to pass with it, and which was upon no occaand the protectionof the jury front all consequences in giving it, sion and under no circumstance to be exercisedingivingit   render the contrast between criminal which, though exerted notwithstanding in every
and civil cases striking and complete.  No new   age and in a thousand instances to the confusion
trial can be granted, as in a civil action.  Your  and discomfiture of fixed magistracy, should nevLordships, however you may disapprove of the  er be checked by authority, but should continue
acquittal, have no authority to award one; for  on, from century to century, the revered guardithere is no precedent of any such upon record; an of liberty and of life, arresting the arm of the
and the discretion of the court is circumscribed  most headstrong government in the worst of
by the law.  Neither can the jurors be attainted  times; without any power in the Crown or its
by the Crown."  In Bushel's case, Vaughan's  judges to touch, without its consent, the meanReports, page 146, that learned and excellent est wretch in the kingdom, or even to ask the
judge expressed himself thus: " There is no  reason and principle of the verdict which acquits
case in all the law of an attaint for the King, him.  That such a system  should prevail in a
nor any opinion but that of Thyrning's, 10th of  country like England, without either the original
Henry IV., title Attaint, 60 and 64, for which  institution or the acquiescing sanction of the Legthere is no warrant in law, though there be oth- islature, is impossible.  Believe me, my Lord,
er specious authority against it, touched by none  no talents can reconcile, no authority can sanction
that have argued this case."                      such an absurdity: the comnmon sense of the world
Lord Mansfield. To be sure it is so.           revolts at it.
Mr. Erskine. Since that is clear, my Lord,    Having established this important right in the
I shall not trouble the court further upon it. In-  jury, beyond all possibility of cavil or viewsof Jlsdeed, I have not been able to find any one au-  controversy, I will now  show  your tice Foster
thority for such an attaint, but a dictum in Fitz-  Lordships that its existence is not merely conherbert's Natura Brevium, page 107; and on  sistent with the theory of the law, but is illusthe other hand, the doctrine of Bushel's case is trated and confirmed by the universal practice
expressly agreed to in very modern times: vide  of all judges; not even excepting Mr. Justice
Lord Raymond's Reports, vol. i., page 469.         Foster himself, whose writings have been cited
If, then, your Lordships reflect but for a mo- in support of the contrary opinion.  How a man
ment upon this comparative view of criminal and  expresses his abstract ideas is of but little importance when an appeal can be made to his plain
10 A special verdict is one in which the jury find  directions to others, and to his own particular
only the facts, and leave the law to be decided by  conduct: but even none of his expressions, when
the court.' An attaint is a writ to inquire whether a jury  properly  considered  and  understood, militate
of twelve men gave a false verdict (Finch, 484), that against my potion.
so the judgment following thereupon may be re-    In his justly celebrated book on the Criminal
versed, and the jury punished. Very few instances  Law, page 256, he expresses himself thus: " The
-r attaints appear later than the sixteenth century. construction which the law  putteth upon fact




662                                     MR. ERSKINE                                          [1784
STATED AND AGREED OR FOUND by a jury, is. in  they are well advised will, always find a general
all cases undoubtedly the proper province of the verdict conformably to such directions.
court."   Now, if the adversary is disposed to    This is likewise consistent with my position.
stop here, though the author never intended he  If the law be clear, we may presume that the
His doctrine,  should, as is evident from the rest of  judge states it clearly to the jury; and if he
theoter ide, the sentence, yet I am willing to stop  does, undoubtedly the jury, if they are well adrelates proper- with him, and to take it as a sbstan-  vised,  ill find according  to such  directions.
verdicts.    tive proposition; for the slightest at-  For they have not a capricious discretion to make
tention must discover that it is not repugnant to  law  at their pleasure, but are bound in conany thing which I have said.  Facts stated and  science, as well as judges are, to find it truly;
agreed, or facts found by a jury (which amount and, generally speaking, the learning of the judge
to the same thing), constitute a special verdict;  who presides at the trial affords them  a safe
and who ever supposed that the law upon a spe- support and direction.
cial verdict was not the province of the court?    The same practice of judges in stating the
Where, in a trial upon a general issue, the par-  law  to the jury, as applied to the Cas i Lord
ties choose to agree upon facts and to state them, particular case before them, ap- Raymo.nd sholvr
or the jury choose voluntarily to find them with- pears likewise in the case of the the rightof decid
out drawing the legal conclusion themselves, King against Oneby, 2d Lord Ray- ing at tthe le..
who ever denied that in such instances the court mond, page 1494.  " On the trial the judge diis to draw  it?   That Foster meant nothing  rects the jury thus:'If you believe such and
more than that the court was to judge of the  such witnesses who have sworn to such and such
law, when the jury thus voluntarily prays its as- facts, the killing of the deceased appears to be with
sistance by special verdict, is evident from  his malice prepense; but if you do not believe them,
words which follow, for he immediately goes on  then you ought to find him guilty of manslaughto say: " In cases of doubt and real difficulty, it is ter; and the jury may, if they think proper, give
therefore commonly recommnended to the jury to  a general verdict of murder or manslaughter:
state facts and circumstances in a special verdict."  but if they decline giving a general verdict, and
But neither here, nor in any other part of his  will find the facts specially, the court is then to
works, is it said or insinuated that they are bound  form their judgment from the facts found, whethto do so, but at their own free discretion.  In- er the defendant be guilty or not guilty, that is,
deed, the very term recommended admits the con- whether the act was done with malice and detrary, and requires no commentary.  I am sure  liberation or not.' "   Surely language can exI shall never dispute the wisdom or expediency  press nothing more plainly or unequivocally,
of such a recommendation in those cases of doubt, than that, where "the general issue" is pleaded
because the more I am contending for the exist- to an indictment, the law and the fact are both
ence of such an important right, the less it would  before the jury; and that the former can never
become me to be the advocate of rashness and  be separated from  the latter, for the judgment
precipitation in the exercise of it.  It is no de- of the court, unless by their orwn spontaneous act
nial of jurisdiction to tell the greatest magistrate  For the words are, " if they decline giving a gen
upon earth to take good counsel in cases of real eral verdict, and will find the facts specially, the
doubt and difficulty.  Judges upon trials, whose  court is then to form  their judgment from  the
authority to state the law is indisputable, often  facts found."  So that, after a general issue
refer it to be more solemnly argued before the  joined, the authority of the court only commencourt.  And this court itself often holds a meet- ces when the jury chooses to decline the decising of the twelve judges before it decides on a  ion of the law by a general verdict-the right
point upon its own records, of which the others  of declining which legal determination, is a privhave confessed no cognizance till it comes before  ilege conferred on them by the statute of Westthem  by the writ of error of one of the parties.  minster 2d, and by no means a restriction of
These instances are monuments of wisdom, in- their powers.
tegrity, and discretion; but they do not bear, in    But another very important view of the subthe remotest degree, upon jurisdiction.  The  ject remains behind. Supposing Ihadeplto rsphere of jurisdiction is measured by what may  failed in establishing that contrast be- gumenet ofJusor may not be decided by any given tribunal tween criminal and civil cases, which tice Buler.
with legal effect, not by the rectitude or error  is now too clear not only to require, but even to
of the decision.  If the jury, according to these  justify another observation, the argument would
authorities, may determine the whole matter by  lose nothing by the failure.  The similarity betheir verdict, and if the verdict, when given, is  tween criminal and civil cases derives all its
not only final and unalterable, but must be en- application to the argument from  the learned
forced by the authority of the judges, and exe-  judge's supposition, that the jurisdiction of the
cuted, if resisted, by the- whole power of the  jury over the law was never contended for in the
state-upon what principle of government or latter, and consequently, on a principle of equalreason can it be argued not to be law?  That ity, could not be supported in the former-where.
the jury are in this exact predicament is con- as I do contend for it, and can incontestably es
fessed by Foster, for he concludes with saying  tablish it in both.  This application of the arguthat when the law is clear, the jury, under the di- ment is plain from the words of the charge: " If
rection of the court, in point of law may, and if  the jury could find the law, it would undoubtedly




1784.]                            ON  THE RIGHTS  OF JURIES.                                        663
hold in civil cases as well as criminal; but was  these words it should appear that the jurisdiction
it ever supposed that a jury was competent to say  of the jury over the law, when it came before
the operation of a fine, or a recovery, or a war-  them  on the general issue, was so vested in them
ranty, which are mere questions of law?"1           by the Constitution, that the exercise of it in all
To this question I answer, that the competen-  cases had been considered to be compulsory upon
cy of the jury in such cases is contended for to  them, and that this was a legislative relief from
the full extent of my principle, both by Lyttle-  that compulsion in the case of an assize of diston and by Coke.  They can not, indeed, decide  seizin.  It is equally plain, from  the remaining
upon them de plano [in the abstract, or aside from   words of the act, that their jurisdiction remained
the facts], which, as Vaughan truly says, is un- as before: " Sed si sponte velint dicere quod disintelligible, because an unemixed question of law   seisina est vel non, admittatur eorwm veredictumo
can by no possibility come before them for decis- sub suo peeric'ulo.''14
ion.  But whenever (which very often happens)    But the most material observation upon this
the operation of a fine, a recovery, a warranty, statute, as applicable to the present subject, is,
or any other record or conveyance known to the  that the terror of the attaint from which it was
law of England comes forward, mixed with the  passed  to relieve  them, having  (as has been
fact on the general issue, the jury have then most shown) no existence in cases of crime, the act
unquestionably a right to determine it.  And  only extended to relieve the jury, at their discrewhat is more, no other authority possibly can;  tion, from finding the law in civil actions.  Conbecause, when the general issue is permitted by  sequently, it is only from  custom, and not from
law, these questions can not appear on the rec-  positive law, that they are not even compellable to
ord for the judgment of the court, and although  give a general verdict involving a judgment of
it can grant a new trial, yet the same question  law on every criminal trial.
must ultimately be determined by another jury.    These principles and authorities certainly esThis is not only self-evident to every lawyer, but, tablish, that it is the duty of the judge, General conclusiort as to
as I said, is expressly laid down by Lyttleton in  on every trial where the general issue thedty oftle
the 368th section: "Also in such case where  is pleaded, to give to the jury his opin- jiltge and t"he
right of the
the inquest may give their verdict at large, if  ion on the law as applied to the case jrn.
they will take upon them  the knowledge of the  before them; and that they inust find a general
law upon the matter, they may give their verdict verdict, comprehending a judgment of law, ungenerally as it is put in their charge; as in the  less they choose to refer it specially to the court.
case aforesaid they may well say that the lessor    But we are here in a case where it is condid not disseize the lessee, if they will."   Coke,  tended that the duty of the judge is Yetthe judge,
ill his commentary on this action, confirms Lyt-  the direct contrary of this; that he is in this case, vio
tleton, saying that in doubtful cases they should  to give no opinion at all to the jury and tlese rights,
and still defind specially for fear of an attaint.  And it is  upon the law as applied to the case mands a general
plain that the statute of Westminster the 2d was  before them; that they likewise are ve"dic't
made either to give or to confirm the right of the  to refrain from all consideration of it, and yet that
jury to find the matter specially, leaving their  the very same general verdict, comprehending
jurisdiction over the law as it stood by the com- both fact and law, is to be given by them  as if
mon law.  The words of the statute of West-  the whole legal matter had been summed up by
minster 2d, chapter 30th, are, " Ordinatum  est the one, and found by the other.
quodjustitiarii ad assisas capiendas assignati, NON     I confess I have no organs to comprehend the
COMPrELLANT juratores dicere precise si sit dissei-  principle on which such a practice proceeds.  I
sina vel non;  dumniodo voluerint dicere veritatemn  contended for nothing more at the trial than the
facti et petere auxiliumjzustitiariorum."13'  From   very practice recommended by Foster and Lord' Afine was an amicable composition (originally  Ravmon.   I addressed myself to the jury upon
of an actual, and afterward of a fictitious suit) adopt-  the law with all possible respect and deference,
ed principally as a mode of putting an end (finis) to  and, indeed, with very marked personal attention
all controversies respecting certain tenures or es-  to the learned judge.  So far from urging the jury
tates. A common, recovery was a judgment recov- dogmatically to think for themselves without his
ered in a fictitious suit, and its principal use was to  constitutional assistance, I called for his opinion on
enable a tenant in tail to bar not only the estate  the question of libel.  I said that if he should tell
tail, but also all remainders over, and to acquire an       distinctly the paper indicted was libelous,
absolute estate in fee simple. Fines and recoveries  th- he pape ndted was libelous,
are now  abolished by 3 and 4 Win. IV., c. 74, and  tough I should not admit that they were bound
more simple modes of assurance employed to effect   t all events             to      it if they felt it to
their objects. A qarctrawty was a covenant real an- be innocent, yet I was ready to agree that they
nexed to lands, whereby the grantor of the estate, ought not to go against the charge without great
for himself and his heirs, did warrant and secure to  consideration; but that if he should shut himself
the grantee the estate so granted, and covenanted                              __
to yield other lands and tenements equal to the val- aid of the court.-A disseizin is the act of wrongfulue of the estate granted, in case of the grantee be- ly depriving a person of land or certain other kinds
ing evicted,                                         of property, of which he was actually seized or in
13 Be it enacted, that the justices for holding the  possession.
assizes shall not compel the jury to say decisively    4 But if they choose to say of their own accord,
whether there is a disseizin or not, provided they  that there is or is not a disseizin, let their verdict be
are willing to find the truth of the  fact, and ask the  received at their own risk.




664                                     MR. ERSKTNE                                       L1784.
up in silence, giving no opinion at all upon the  conception of authority is equally void: my ap-.
criminality of the paper, from which alone any  plication ought, therefore, to stand or fall by the
guilt could be fastened on the publisher, and  charge itself, upon which I disclaim all disingenshould narrow their consideration to the publica- uous caviling.  I am  certainly bound to show
tion, I entered my protest against their finding a  that, from the general result of it, fairly and libverdict affixing the epithet of guilty to the mere  erally interpreted, the jury could not conceive
fact of publishing a paper, the guilt of which had  that they had any right to extend their considernot been investigated.  If, after this address to  ation beyond the bare fact of publication, so as to
the jury, the learned judge had told them that in  acquit the defendant by a judgment on the legalhis opinion the paper was a libel, but still leav- ity of the Dialogue, or the honesty of the intention
ing it to their judgments, and likewise the defend- in publishing it.
ant's evidence to their consideration, had further    In order to understand the learned judge's ditold them  that he thought it did not exculpate  rection, it must be recollected that it Proofthattihe
the publication; and if in consequence of such  was addressed to them in answer to undel-stoo tlio
directions the jury had found a verdict for the  me, who had contended for nothing coutltait
Crown, I should never have made my present more than that these two considera- iftheyft..b d the
motion for a new  trial; because I should have  tions ought to rule the verdict; and it tion.
considered such a verdict of " guilty" as founded  will be seen that the charge, on the contrary, not
upon the opinion of the jury on the whole matter only excluded both of them by general inference,
as left to their consideration, and must have  but by expressions, arguments, and illustrations
sought my remedy by arrest of judgment on the  the most studiously selected to convey that exrecord.                                          elusion, and to render it binding on the conBut the learned judge took a directly contrary  sciences of the jury.  After telling them, in the
course.  He gave no opinion at all on the guilt very beginning of his charge, that the single
or innocence of the paper; he took no notice of  question for their decision was, whether the dethe defendant's evidence of intention; he told the  fendant had published the pamphlet, he declared
jury, in the most explicit terms, that neither the  to them that it was not even allowed to him, as the
one nor the other was within their jurisdiction. judge trying the cause, to say whether it was or
Upon the mere fact of publication, he directed a  was not a libel; for that if he should say it was
general verdict comprehending the epithet of no libel, and they, following his direction, should
guilty, after having expressly withdrawn from  acquit the defendant, they would thereby deprive
the jury every consideration of the merits of the  the prosecutor of his writ of error upon the recpaper published or the intention of the publisher, ord, which was one of his dearest birthrights.
from which it is admitted on all hands the guilt The law, he said, was equal between He told tlen
of publication could alone have any existence.   the prosecutor and the defendant; that tat equality
My motion is, therefore, founded upon this ob- a verdict of acquittal would close the parties forbade
G o vious and simple principlethat the  matter forever, depriving him of his t
tion fr a new defendant has had, in fact, NO TRIAL) appeal; and that whatever, therefore, was upon
having been found guilty without any  the record was not for their decision, but might
investigation of his guilt, and without any power be carried, at the pleasure of either party, to the
left to the jury to take cognizance of his inno- House of Lords.  Surely, language could not
cence.  I undertake to show that the jury could  convey a limitation upon the right of the jury
not possibly conceive or believe, from the judge's  over the question of libel, or the intention of the
charge, that they had any jurisdiction to acquit publisher, more positive or more universal.  It
him, however they might have been impressed  was positive, inasmuch as it held out to them
even with the merit of the publication, or con- that such a jurisdiction could not be entertained
vinced of his meritorious intention in publishing  without injustice.  It was universal, because the
it.  Nay, what is worse, while the learned judge  principle had no special application to the partotally deprived them  of their whole jurisdiction  ticular circumstances of that trial; but subjectover the question of libel, and the defendant's se- ed every defendant, upon every prosecution for
ditious intention, he, at the same time, directed  a libel, to an inevitable conviction on the mere
a general verdict of guilty, which comprehend- proof of publishing any thing, though both judge
ed a judgment upon both!                        and jury might be convinced that the thing pubWhen I put this construction on the learned  lished was innocent, and even meritorious.
Founded on the judge's direction, I found myself    My Lord, I make this commentary without the
plottmpotort of
tahlejodte't  wholly on the language in which it hazard of contradiction from any man E,.:t of this.
It.arge.   was communicated; and it will be  whose reason is not disordered.  For
iio answer to such construction that no such re- if the prosecutor, in every case, has a birthright
straint was meant to be conveyed by it.  If the  by law to have the question of libel left open
learned judge's intentions were even the direct upon the record, which it can only be by a vercontrary of his expressions, yet if, in consequence  diet of conviction on the single fact of publishing 
of that which was expressed, though not intended, no legal right can at the same time exist in the
the jury were abridged of a jurisdiction which be-  jury to shut out that question by a verdict of aclonged to them by law, and in the exercise of  quittal founded upon the merits of the publicawhich the defendant had an interest, he is equally  tion, or the innocent mind of the publisher.
a sufferer, and the verdict given under such mis- Rights that are repugnant and contradictory can




1784.]                          ON  THE RIGHTS OF JURIES.                                       665
not be coexistent.  The jury can never have a  of Lords, with the assistance of the twelve judges
constitutional right to do an act beneficial to the  of England, were gravely assembled to determdefendant which, when done, deprives the pros- ine whether he had been guilty of any crime.  I
ecutor of a right which the same Constitution has  do not mention this case as hard or rigorous on
vested in him.  No right can belong to one per- Mr. Home as an individual-it is the general
son, the exercise of which, in every instance, must course of practice; but surely that practice ought
necessarily work a wrong to another.  If the  to put an end to this argument of equality beprosecutor of a libel has, in every instance, the  tween prosecutor and prisoner!  It is adding inprivilege to try the merits of his prosecution be- suit to injury, to tell an innocent man who is in
fore the judges, the jury can have no right, in  a dungeon, pending his writ of error, and of whose
any instance, to preclude his appeal to them, by  innocence both judge and jury were convinced at
a general verdict for the defendant.               the trial, that he is in equal scales with his prosThe jury, therefore, from  this part of the  ecutor, who is at large, because he has an opporcharge, must necessarily have felt themselves ab- tunity of deciding, after the expiration of his punsolutely limited (I might say even in their pow- ishment, that the prosecution had been unfounded
ers) to the fact of publication; because the high- and his sufferings unjust.  By parity of reasonest restraint upon good men is to convince them  ing, a prisoner in a capital case might be hanged
that they can not break loose from it without in- in the mean time, for the benefit of equal justice,
justice; and the power of a good subject is nev- leaving his executors to fight the battle out with
er more effectually destroyed than when he is his prosecutor upon the record, through every
made to believe that the exercise of it will be a  court in the kingdom; by which at last his atbreach of his duty to the public, and a violation  tainder might be reversed, and the blood of his
of the laws of his country.                        posterity remain uncorrupted.  What justice can
But since equal justice between the prosecutor be more impartial or equal?
Thrteneand the defendant is the pretense for    So much for this right of the prosecutor of a
of equalityex- this abridgment of jurisdiction, let us libel to compel a jury, in every case, generally to
amined.
examine a little how it is affected by  convict a defendant on the fact of publication, or
it.  Do the prosecutor and the defendant really  to find a special verdict-a right unheard of bestand upon an equal footing by this mode of pro- fore since the birth of the Constitution-not even
ceeding?  With what decency this can be al- founded upon any equality in fact, even if such a
leged, I leave those to answer who know that it shocking parity could exist in law, and not even
is only by the indulgence of Mr. Bearcroft, of  contended to exist in any other case, where pricounsel for the prosecution, that my reverend cli- vate men become the prosecutors of crimes for
ent is not at this moment in prison, while we are  the ends of public justice.  It can have, gendiscussing this notable equality!15  Besides, my  erally speaking, no existence in any prosecution
Lord, the judgment of this court, though not final for felony; because the general description of the
in the Constitution, and therefore not binding on  crime in such indictments, for the most part,
the prosecutor, is absolutely conclusive on the  shuts out the legal question in the particular indefendant.  If your Lordships pronounce the rec- stance from appearing on the record.  For the
ord to contain no libel, and arrest the judgment same reason, it can have no place even in appeals
on the verdict, the prosecutor may carry it to the  of death, &c., the only cases where prosecutors
House of Lords, and, pending his writ of error, appear as the revengers of their own private
it remains untouched by your Lordship's decis- wrongs, and not as the representatives of the
ion.  But if judgment be against the defendant, Crown.
it is only at the discretion of the Crown (as it is    The learned judge proceeded next to establish
said), and not of right, that he can prosecute any  the same universal limitation upon the Tie judge also
writ of error at all.  And even if he finds no ob- power of the jury, from  the history tlat established
struction in that quarter, it is but at the best an  of different trials, and the practice of predentsonappeal for the benefit of public liberty, from which  former judges who presided at them; the lere queshe himself can have no personal benefit; for the  and while I am complaining of what ti oll
writ of error being no supersedeas, the punish-  I conceive to be injustice, I must take care not
ment is inflicted on him in the mean time.  In  to be unjust myself.  I certainly do not, not ever
the case of Mr. Horne,l6 this court imprisoned  did, consider the learned judge's misdirection in
him for publishing a libel upon its own judgment, his charge to be peculiar to himself.  It was only
pending his appeal from its justice; and he had  the resistance of the defendant's evidence, and
suffered the utmost rigor which the law imposed  what passed after the jury returned into court
upon him as a criminal, at the time that the House  with the verdict, that I ever considered to be a
-~__~__~ -_ ~ ~- ~-_   ~             departure from all precedents.  The rest had un15 Lord Mansfield ordered the Dean to be commit- doubtedly the sanction of several modern cases;
ted to prison on the motion for the new trial, and  and I wish  therefore, to be distinctly undersaid he had no discretion to suffer him to be at large,    t. stood that I partly found my motion for a new
without consent, after his appearance in court, on..  
conviction.  Upon which, Mr. Bearcroft gave his  trial in opposition  to these  decisions.  It is my
consent that the Dean should remain at large upon  duty to speak with deference of all the judgments
bail.                                              of this court; and I feel an additional respect for
16 Afterward Mr. Horne Tooke. For the circum- some of those I am about to combat, because they
stances of that case, see note 28 of this speech.  are your Lordship's; but, comparing them with




666                                     MR. ERSKINE                                       [1784.
the judgments of your predecessors for ages, it is needless to comment on these expressions,
which is the highest evidence of English law, I for the jury were likewise told by the learned
must be forgiven if I presume to question their  judge [Buller] himself that, if they believed the
authority.                                       fact of publication, they were bound to find the
My Lord, it is necessary that I should take  defendant guilty; and it will hardly be contended
Discussior of notice of some of them  as they occur that a man has a right to refrain from doing that
precedents.  in the learned judge's charge.  For, which he is bound to do.
although he is not responsible for the rectitude of    Mr. Cowper, as counsel for the prosecution
those precedents which he only cited in support [against the Dean of St. Asaph] took Explanation of
of it, yet the defendant is unquestionably entitled  upon him to explain what was meant the doctrine by
to a new trial, if their principles are not ratified  by this expression; and I seek for no the prosecuby the court; for whenever the learned judge  other construction: "The  learned tio".
cited precedents to warrant the limitation on the  judge," said he, " did not mean to deny the right
province of the jury imposed by his own author- of the jury, but only to convey that there was a
ity, it was such an adoption of the doctrines they  religious and moral obligation upon them to re
contained as made them a rule to the jury in their frain from  the exercise of it."   Now-if the
decision.                                        principle which imposed that obligation had been
First, then, the learned judge, to overturn my  alleged to be special, applying only to the partic(l.) Lorda ans- argument with the jury for their ju- ular case of the Dean of St. Asaph, and consefield'decisions. risdiction over the whole charge, op- quently consistent with the right of the jury to a
posed your Lordship's established practice for more enlarged jurisdiction in other instanceseight-and-twenty years; and the weight of this  telling the jury that they were bound to convict,
great authority was increased by the general on proof of publication, might be plausibly conmanner in which it was stated; for I find no ex- strued into a recommendation to refrain from the
pressions of your Lordship's, in any of the report- exercise of their right in that case, and not to a
ed cases, which go the length contended for.  I general denial of its existence.  But the moment
find the practice, indeed; fully warranted by them; it is recollected that the principle which bound
but I do not meet with the principle, which can  them was not particular to the instance, but abalone vindicate that practice, fairly and distinctly  stract and universal, binding alike in every prosavowed.                                          ecution for a libel, it requires no logic to proThe learned judge then referred to the charge  nounce the expression to be an absolute, un('2.) Lord Ray- of Chief Justice Raymond, in the case  equivocal, and universal denial of the right.
mond's.    of the King and Franklin, in which the  Common sense tells every man that to speak of
universal limitation contended for is, indeed, laid  a person's right to do a thing, which yet, in evdown, not only in the most unequivocal expres- ery possible instance where it might be exerted
sions, but the ancient jurisdiction of juries, rest- he is religiously and morally bound not to exert,
ing upon all the authorities I have cited, treated  is not even sophistry, but downright vulgar nonas a ridiculous notion which had been just taken  sense.  But the jury were not only limited by
up, a little before the year 1731, and which no  these modern precedents, which certainly have
man living had ever dreamed of before.  The  an existence, but were, in my mind, limited with
learned judge observed, that Lord Raymond stat- still greater effect by the learned judge's declaed to the jury on Franklin's trial that there were  ration, that some of those ancient authorities on
three questions: the first was, the fact of pub- which I had principally relied for the establishlishing the "Craftsman;" secondly, whether the  ment of their jurisdiction, had not merely been
averments in the information were true; but that overruled, but were altogether inapplicable.  I
the third; viz., whether it was a libel, was merely  particularly observed how much ground I lost
a question of law, with which the jury had noth- with the jury, when they were told fiom  the
ing to do, as had been then of late thought by  bench that even in Bushel's case, on which I had
some people who ought to have known better. so greatly depended, the very reverse of my docThis direction of Lord Raymond's was fully rat- trine had been expressly established-the court
ified and adopted in all its extent, and given to  having said unanimously in that case, according
the jury on the present trial, with several others  to the learned judge's statement, that if the jury
of the same import, as an unerring guide for their be asked what the law is, they can not say, and
conduct.  And surely human ingenuity could not having likewise ratified in express terms the
frame a more abstract and universal limitation  maxim, Ad qucestioner  legis tnon respon.dent juupon their right to acquit the defendant by a gen-.atores.l7
eral verdict; for Lord Raymond's expressions    My Lord, this declaration from  the bench,
amount to an absolute denial of the right of the  w hich I confess not a little staggered    h' ce
jury to find the defendant not guilty, if the publi- and surprised me, rendered it my du- misstated by
cation and innuendos are proved.  " Libel or no  ty to look again into Vaughan, where Justi Bullr
libel, is a question of law, with which you, the  Bushel's case is reported. I have performed that
jury, have nothing to do."  How, then, can they  duty. and now take upon me positively to say
have any right to give a general verdict consist-  that the words of Lord Chief Justice Vaughan,
ently with this declaration?   Can any man in  which the learned judge considered as a judge
his senses collect that he has a right to decide__
on that with which he has nothing to do?  But    1 The jury do not decide the question of law.




1784.1                         ON THE RIGHTS OF JURIES.                                      667
ment of the court, denying the jurisdiction of the  viz., that Bushel did acquit against the direction
jury over the law, where a general issue is joined  of the court in matter of law, are unintelligible,
before them, were, on the contrary, made use of  and, as applied to the case, impossible. The jury
by that learned and excellent person to expose  could not be asked, in the abstract, what was the
the fallacy of such a misapplication of the max- law; they could not have an issue of the law
im alluded to by the counsel against Bushel; de- joined before them; they could not be sworn to
daring that it had no reference to any case where  try it.  Ad questionem legis non respondent jslthe law and the fact were incorporated by the  ratores; therefore, to say literally and de plano
plea of not guilty, and confirming the right of  that the jury found the law against the judge's
the jury to find the law upon every such issue, in  direction, is absurd.  They could not be in a sitterms the most emphatical and expressive. This uation to find it-an unmixed question of law
is manifest from the whole report.               could not be before them-the judge could not
Bushel, one of the jurors on the trial of Penn  give any positive directions of law  upon the
Staterentof and Mead, had been committed by the  trial, for the law can only arise out of facts, and
the case.   court for finding the defendant not guil- the judge can not know what the facts are till
ty, against the direction of the court in matter of the jury have given their verdict.  Therelaw; and being brought before the court of Cor- fore," continued the Chief Justice, "let us take
mon Pleas by habeas corpus, this cause of corn- off this vail and color of words, which make a
mitment appeared upon the face of the return to  show of being something, but are in fact nothing;
the writ.  It was contended by the counsel let us get rid of the fallacy of applying a maxagainst Bushel, upon the authority of this max- im, which truly describes the jurisdiction of the
im. that the commitment was legal, since it ap- courts over issues of law, to destroy the jurisdicpeared by the return that Bushel had taken upon  tion of jurors, in cases  where law and fact are
him to find the law against the direction of the  blended together upon a trial; since, if the jury
judge, and had been, therefore, legally impris- at the trial are bound to receive the law from
oned for that contempt.  It was upon that occa- the judge, every one sees that it is a mere mocksion that Chief Justice Vaughan, with the con- ery, and of no use in determining right and
currence of the whole court, repeated the max- wrong."
im, Ad questionem legis non respondent juratores,    This is the plain common sense of the arguas cited by the counsel for the Crown, but de- ment; and it is impossible to suggest a distincnied the application of it to impose any restraint tion between its application to Bushel's case and
upon jurors trying any crime upon the general to the present, except that the right of imprisonissue.  His language is too remarkable to be for- ing the jurors was there contended for, in order
gotten, and too plain to be misunderstood. Tak- to enforce obedience to the directions of the
ing the words of the return to the habeas corpus, judge.  But this distinction, if it deserves the
viz., " That the jury did acquit against the direc- name, though held up by Mr. Bearcroft as very
tion of the court in matter of law"-'   " These  important, is a distinction without a difference.
words," said this great lawyer, "taken literally  For if, according to Vaughan, the free agency
and de plano, are insignificant and unintelligible; of the jury over the whole charge, uncontrolled
for no issue can be joined of matter of law; no  by the judge's direction, constitutes the whole
jury can be charged with the trial of matter of  of that ancient mode of trial, it signifies nothing
law barely.  No evidence ever was or can be  by what means that free agency is destroyed;
given to a jury of what is law or not; nor any  whether by the imprisonment of conscience or
oath given to a jury to try matter of law alone; of body; by the operation of their virtues or of
nor can any attaint lie for such a false oath. their fears. Whether they decline exerting their
Therefore we must take off this vail and color of jurisdiction, from being told that the exertion of
words, which make a show of being something, it is a contempt of religious and moral order, or
but are in fact nothing; for if the meaning of  a contempt of the court punishable by imprisonthese words,' Finding against the direction of  ment, their jurisdiction is equally taken away.
the court in matter of lat,' be, that if the judge,    My Lord, I should be very sorry improperly
having heard the evidence given in court (for he  to waste the time of the court; but I Restatement:
knows no other), shall tell the jury, upon this ev- can not help repeating once again, hle de eant
idence, that the law is for the plaintiff or the de- that if, in consequence of the learned trial.
fendant, and they, under the pain of fine and im- judge's directions, the jury, from  a just deferprisonment, are to find accordingly, every one  ence to learning and authority, from a nice and
sees that the jury is but a troublesome delay, modest sense of duty, felt themselves not at libgreat charge, and of no use in determining right erty to deliver the defendant from the whole inand wrong; which were a strange and new-found  dictment, HE HAS NOT BEEN TRIED.  Because.
conclusion, after a trial so celebrated for many  though he was entitled by law to plead generhundreds of years in this country."              ally that he was not guilty, though he did, in fact,
Lord Chief Justice Vaughan's argument is, plead it accordingly, and went down to trial upon
Vaughln's therefore, plainly this: Adverting to the  it, the jury have not been permitted to try that
aragment. arguments of the counsel, he says,' You  issue, but have been directed to find, at all events,
talk of the maxim ad qucestionem legis non re- a general verdict of guilty, with a positive inspondent juratores, but it has no sort of applica-  junction not to investigate the guilt, or even to
tion to your subject. The words of your return, listen to any evidence of innocence.




668                                   IMIt. ERSKINE                                       [1784.
My Lord, I can not help contrasting this trial ferences of opinion between the judges of EnArgument    with that of Colonel Gordon's but a  gland, nor to pronounce which of them is wrong;
against Justice
aglner1t Bart  few sessions past in London.  I had  but since they are contradictory and inconsistent,
Eytr  cision   in my hand but this moment an ac- I may hazard the assertion that they can not
Gordon.    curate note of Mr. Baron Eyre's  both be right.  The authorities which I have
charge to the jury on that occasion; but I will cited, and the general sense of mankind which
not detain the court by looking for it among my  settles every thing else, must determine the rest.
papers, because I believe I can correctly repeat    My Lord, I come now to a very important
the substance of it.                             part of the case, untouched, I believe, before in
Lord Mansfield. The case of the King against any of the arguments on this occasion.
Cosmo Gordon?                                     I mean to contend that the learned judge's
Mr. Erskine. Yes, my Lord: Colonel Gordon  charge to the jury can not be sup- JusticeBuller
Statement was indicted for the murder of General ported even upon its own principles. wrongin i;s
of the case.                                                                          charge, even
c   Thomas, whom he had killed in a duel, For, supposing the court to be of opin- on his own
and the question was whether, if the jury were  ion that all I have said in opposition principles.
satisfied of that fact, the prisoner was to be con- to these principles is inconclusive, and that the
victed of murder?  That was, according to Fos- question of libel, and the intention of the pubter, as much a question of law as libel or no li- lisher, were properly withdrawn from  the conbel, but Mr. Baron Eyre did not, therefore, feel sideration of the jury, still I think I can make it
himself at liberty to withdraw it from the jury. appear that such a judgment would only render
After stating (greatly to his honor) the hard con- the misdirection more palpable and striking.
dition of the prisoner, who was brought to trial    I may safely assume that the learned judge
for life in a case where the positive law and the  must have meant to direct the jury Every verdict
prevailing manners of the times were so strongly  either to find a general or a special sevei oter
in opposition to one another, that he was afraid  verdict; or, to speak more generally, "pecial.
the punishment of individuals would never be  that one of these two verdicts must be the obable to beat down an offense so sanctioned, he  ject of every charge; because I venture to afaddressed the jury nearly in these words: " Nev- firm that neither the records of the courts, the
ertheless, gentlemen, I am bound to declare to  reports of their proceedings, nor the writings of
you what the law is as applied to this case, in  lawyers. furnish any account of a third.  There
all the different views in which it can be consid- can be no middle verdict between both; the jury
ered by you upon the evidence. Of this law and  must either try the whole issue generally, or find
of the facts as you shall find them, your verdict the facts specially, referring the legal conclusion
must be compounded; and I persuade myself that to the court.
it will be such an one as to give satisfaction to    I may affirm, with certainty, that the general
your own consciences."                           verdict ex vi termizi is universally as Every general
Now, if Mr. Baron Eyre, instead of telling the  comprehensive as the issue, and that, exensive
jury that a duel, however fair and honorably  consequently, such a verdict on an with the issle.
fought, was murder by the law of England, and, indictment, upon the general issue " not guilty,"
leaving them to find a general verdict under that universally and unavoidably involves a judgment
direction, had said to them, that whether such a  of law  as well as fact, because the charge
duel was murder or manslaughter, was a ques- comprehends both, and the verdict, as has been
tion with which neither he nor they had any  said, is coextensive with it.  Both Coke and
thing to do, and on which he should, therefore, Lyttleton give this precise definition of a general
deliver no opinion, and had directed them to find  verdict; for they both say, that if the jury will
that the prisoner was guilty of killing the de- find the law, they may do it by a general verceased in a deliberate duel, telling them that the  diet, which is ever as large as the issue. If this
court would settle the rest, that would have been  be so, it follows by necessary consequence that
directly consonant to the case of the Dean of St. if the judge means to direct the jury to find genAsaph's.  By this direction the prisoner would  erally against a defendant, he must leave to their
have been in the hands of the court, and the  consideration every thing which goes to the conjudges, not the jury, would have decided upon  stitution of such a general verdict, and is therethe life of Colonel Gordon.                      fore bound to permit them  to come to, and to
But the two learned judges differ most essen- direct them  how to form, that general concluDif  tially indeed.  Mr. Baron Eyre con- sion from  the law  and the fact, which is inbetween Ere ceives himself bound in duty to state  volved in the term " guilty."  For it is ridicude the law as applied to the particular lous to say that guilty is a fact; it is a conclufacts, and to leave it to the jury.  Mr. Justice  sion of law from a fact, and therefore can have
Buller says he is not bound, nor even allowed so  no place in a special verdict, where the legal
to state or apply it, and withdraws it entirely  conclusion is by the court.
from their consideration.  Mr. Baron Eyre tells    In this case the defendant is charged, not with
the jury that their verdict is to be compounded  having published this pamphlet, but The issue in this
rose vas not the
of the fact and the law.  Mr. Justice Buller, on  with  having  published a certain mere castof pubthe contrary, that it is to be confined to the fact false, scandalous, and wicked libel, oing sowit a
only, the law being the exclusive province of the  with a seditious and libelous inten- libelous intent.
court.  My Lord, it is not for me to settle dif- tion. He pleads that he is not guilty in manner




1784.]                         ON THE RIGHTS OF JURIES.                                      669
and form as he is accused; which plea is admit- court.  Yet, instead of directing them to make
ted on all hands to be a denial of the whole  that fact the subject of a special verdict, he decharge, and consequently does not merely put in  sires them in the same breath to find a general
issue the fact of publishing the pamphlet, but one-to draw the conclusion without any attenthe truth of the whole indictment, that is, the  tion to the premises; to pronounce a verdict
publication of the libel set forth in it, with the  which, upon the face of the record, includes a
intention charged by it.  When this issue comes  judgment upon their oaths that the paper is a
lown for trial, the jury must either find the  libel, and that the publisher's intentions in pubwhole charge or a part of it; and admitting, for lishing it were wicked and seditious, although
argument' sake, that the judge has a right to  neither the one nor the other made any part of
dictate either of these two courses, he is un- their consideration!  My Lord, such a verdict
doubtedly bound in law to make his direction to  is a monster in law, without precedent in former
the jury conformable to the one or the other. times, or root in the Constitution.  If it be true,
If he means to confine the jury to the fact of  on the principle of the charge itself, that the fact
publishing, considering the guilt of the defend- of publication was all that the jury were to find.
ant to be a legal conclusion for the court to  and all that was necessary to establish the dedraw from that fact, specially found on the ree- fendant's guilt-if the thing published be a libel,
ord, he ought to direct the jury to find that fact why was not that fact found, like all other facts,
without affixing the epithet of "guilty" to the  upon special verdicts?  Why was an epithet;
finding.  But if he will have a general verdict which is a legal conclusion from the fact, extortof: guilty," which involves a judgment of law  ed from a jury who were restrained from forlmas well as fact, he must leave the law  to the  ing it themselves?  The verdict must be taken
consideration of the jury.  For when the word  to be general or special: if general, it has found
" guilty" is pronounced by them, it is so well the whole issue without a coextensive examinaunderstood to comprehend every thing charged  tion: if special, the word "guilty," which is a
by the indictment, that the associate or his clerk  conclusion from  facts, can have no place in it.
instantly records that the defendant is guilty " in  Either this word "guilty" is operative, or unesmanner and form as he is accused"-that is, not sential; an epithet of substance, or of form.  It
simply that he has published the pamphlet con- is impossible to controvert that proposition, and
tained in the indictment, but that he is guilty of  I give the gentlemen their choice of the alternapublishing the libel with the wicked intentions tive.  If they admit it to be operative and of
charged on him by the record.                    real substance-or, to speak more plainly, that
Now, if this effect of a general verdict of  the fact of publication found specially, without
Efectofa gen. "gutilty" is reflected on for a mo- the epithet of "guilty," would have been an imalverdictfa ment, the illegality of directing one  perfect verdict, inconclusive of the defendant's
case.      upon the bare fact of publishing, will guilt, and on which no judgment could have folappear in the most glaring colors. The learned  lowed-then it is impossible to deny that the dejudge says to the jury, " Whether this be a libel fendant has suffered injustice.  For such an adis not for your consideration. I can give no opin- mission confesses that a criminal conclusion from
ion on that subject without injustice to the pros- a fact has been obtained from the jury, without
ecutor; and as to what Mr. Jones swore'8 con- permitting them to exercise that judgment which
cerning the defendant's motives for the publica- might have led them  to a conclusion of innotion, that is likewise not before you  for if you  cence; and that the word " guilty" has been obare satisfied in point of fact that the defendant tained from them  at the trial as a mere matter
published this pamphlet, you are bound to find  of form, although the verdict without it, stating
him guilty."  Why GUILTY, my Lord, when the  only the fact of publication which they were diconsideration of guilt is withdrawn?  He con- rected to find, to which they thoughtthe finding
fines the jury to the finding of a fact, and enjoins alone enlarged, and beyond which they had nevthem to leave the legal conclusion from it to the  er enlarged their inquiry, would have been an
absolute verdict of acquittal.  If, on the other
^Mi. E~dward Jones was called for the defense, hand, to avoid this insuperable objection to the
and deposed that he was a member of the Flintshire har   the w                             to 
Committee; that it was intended by them to print              od "gulty" is to be reduced to a
the Dialogue in Welsh; that the Dean said lie had  mere word of form  and it is to be contended
received the pamphlet so late from Sir William  that the fact of publication, found specially,
Jones that he had not had time to read it; that he  would have been tantamount; be it so.  Let the
told the Dean that he had collected the opinions of verdict be so recorded; let the word " guilty"
gentlemen, which were, that it might do harm; and  be expunged from it, and I instantly sit down.
that, thereupon, the Dean told him that he was I trouble your Lordships no further. I withdraw
obliged to him for his information; that he should  my motion for a new trial, and I will maintain
be sorry to publish any thing that tended to sedi-in arrest of judgment, that the Dean is not contion; and it was for that reason that it was not pub- victed.  But if this is not conceded to me, and
lished in Welsh. He further stated that it was not        But    th        o  o    ed to  e, 
till after the Dialogue had been spoken of in very  th  word "ilty   though argued to be but
opprobrious terms, and the Dean's character reflect- form, and though, as such, obtained from  the
ed on, that the Dean stated he felt bound to show  jury, is still preserved upon the record, and
that it was not seditious, and therefore determined  made use of against the defendant as substance.
to publish it.                                  it will then become us (independently of all eon



b70                                      MR. ERSKINE                                          [1784.
siderations as lawyers) to consider a little how   stated upon the verdict would have been fully
that argument is to be made consistent with the  sufficient, in the absence of a legal defense, to
honor of gentlemen; or that fairness of dealing  have warranted the judge to have directed, and
which can not but have place wherever justice is  the jury to have given a general verdict of gui!administered.                                      ty, comprehending the intention which constitutes
But in order to establish that the word " guil- the crime; but that to warrant the bench, which
The word guilty ty" is a word of essential substance;  is ignorant of every thing at the trial, to presume
u}owt riot to be
oenofmereform that the verdict would have been im- that intention, and thereupon to pronounce judgfYcoudppoSte" perfect without it; and that, there- ment on the record, the jury must not merely
special verdict. fore: the defendant suffers by its in- find full evidence of the crime, but such facts as
sertion; I undertake to show  your Lordship, compose its legal definition.  This wise princiupon every principle and authority of law, that ple is supported by authorities which are perfectif the fact of publication (which is all that was ly familiar.
left to the jury) had been found by special ver-    If, in action of trover,t2 the plaintiff proves
diet, no judgment could have been given on it. property in himself, possession in the Pll
My Lord, I will try this by taking the fullest defendant, and a demand and refusal of speciaiver
finding which the facts in evidence could possibly  of the thing charged to be converted  dirt.
have warranted.  Supposing, then, for instance,  this evidence unanswered is full proof of a conthat the jury had found that the defendant pub- version; and if the defendant could not show to
lished the paper according to the tenor of the in- the jury why he had refused to deliver the plaindictment; that it was written of and concerning  tiff's property on a legal demand of it, the judge
the King and his government; and that the innu- would direct them to find him guilty of the conendoes were likewise as averred, K. meaning the  version.  But on the same facts found by spepresent King, and P. the present Parliament of  cial verdict, no judgment could be given by the
Great Britain; on such a finding, no judgment court.  The judges would say,: If the special
could have been given by the court, even if the  verdict contains the whole of the evidence given
record had contained a complete charge of a li- at the trial, the jury should have found the debel.  No principle is more unquestionable, than  fendant guilty; for the conversion was fully
that to warrant any judgment upon a special proved; but we can not declare these facts to
verdict, the court which can presume nothing  amount to a conversion, for the defendant's inthat is not visible on the record, must see suffi- tention was a fact which the jury should have
cient matter upon the face of it, which, if taken  found from  the evidence, over which we have
to be true, is conclusive of the defendant's guilt. no jurisdiction."  So, in the case put by Lord
They must be able to say, " If this record be true,  Coke-I believe in his first Institute 115-if a
the defendant can not be innocent of the crime  modus is found to have existed beyond memory
which it charges on him."  But from the facts  till within thirty years before the trial, the court
of such a verdict the court could arrive at no such  can not, upon such facts found by special verdict,
legitimate conclusion; for it is admitted on all pronounce against the MODUS;22 but any one of
hands, and, indeed, expressly laid down by your your Lordships would tell the jury, that upon
Lordship, in the case of the King against Wood- such evidence they were warranted in finding
fall, that the publication even of a libel is not con-  against it.  In all cases of prescription, the uniclusive evidence of guilt; for that the defendant versal practice of judges is to direct juries, by
may give evidence of an innocent publication.l9   analogy to the statute of limitations, to decide
Looking, therefore, upon a record containing  against incorporeal rights, which for many years
a good indictment of a libel, and a  have been relinquished: but such modern relintherefore, essen' verdict finding that the defendant quishments, if stated upon the record by special
tialto conviction published it, but without the epithet verdict, would in no instance warrant ajudgment
of " guilty," the court could not pronounce that against any prescription.  The prin- Priipe 
he published it with the malicious intention which  ciple of the difference is obvious and wlich the diais the essence of the crime.0   They could not universal.  The court looking at arec- tinction rets.
say what might have passed at the trial; for any
thing that appeared to them, he might have giv-        Trover is an action which    y be maitained
en such evidence of innocent motive, necesity  by any person who has either an absolute or special
en such evidence of innocent motive, necessity,
omite mou, t, property in goods, for recovering the value of such
or mistake, as might have amounted to excuse  goods from another, who having, or being supposed
or justification.  They would say that the facts to have, obtained possession of such goods by lawful
means, has wrongfully converted them to his own use.
19 Lord Mansfield's words were, "There may be    22 A modus decimandi [mode of taking tithes],
cases where the fact of the publication even of a libel, commonly called a modus only, is where there is, by
may be justified, or excused as lawful or innocent; custom, a particular manner of tithing allowed, diffor no fact which is not criminal, even though the  ferent from the general law of taking tithes in kind,
paper be a libel, can amount to a publication of  which are the actual tenth part of the annual inwhich a defendant ought to be found guilty.       crease. By 2 and 3 Wm. IV., c. 100, the time re20 A libel is defined to be a malicious defamation  quired to establish a modus is now much shortened;
expressed in printing, or writing, or by signs and  but previously to this act, a modus, to be good, must
pictures, &c., tending to injure the reputation of an- have been proved to have existed from the time of
other, and thereby exposing such person to public  legal memory, that is, from the first year of Richard
hatred, contempt, or ridicule,                     the First, A.D. 1189.




1784.]                        ON THE RIGHTS OF JURIES.                                      671
ord can presume nothing; it has nothing to do  saw under duress]; but he might see him under
with reasonable probabilities, but is to establish  duress, and not know he was under duress  it
legal certainties by its judgments.  Every crime  was answered that, seeing him under duress, ev
is, like every other complex idea, capable of a  idently means, he knew  he was under duress.
legal definition.  If all the component parts  But, says the court,' We can not take things by
which go to its formation are put as facts upon  inference in this manner; h,s seeing is but evithe record, the court can pronounce the perpe- dence of his knowledge of these things; and,
trator of them a criminal; but if any of them are  therefore, the jury, if the fact would have borne
wanting, it is a chasm in fact, and can not be sup- it, should have found that Huggins knew he was
Decided il Hg. plied.  Wherever intention goes to  there without his consent; which not being done,
gise's caseithat the essence of the charge, it must be we can not intend these things nor infer them;
whIenever inten- 
tiol enters ito found by the jury-it must be either we must judge of facts, and not from the evithe ciarge it is
involved in tle conprehended under the word guilty  dence of facts;" and cited Kelynge, 78; that
verdictofguit  in the general verdict, or specifical- whether a man be aiding and abetting a murder
ly found as a fact by the special verdict.  This is matter of fact, and ought to be expressly found
was solemnly decided by the court in Huggins's  by a jury.
case, in 2d Lord Raymond, 1581, which was a    The application of these last principles and
special verdict of murder from the Old Bailey. authorities to the case before the court        
It was an indictment against John Huggins and  is obvious and simple.  The criminal plied to this
James Barnes, for the murder of Edward Arrne. intention is a fact, and must be found ca
The indictment charged that Barnes made an as- by the jury; and that finding can only be exsault upon Edward Arne, being in the custody  pressed upon the record by the general verdict
of the other prisoner Huggins, and detained him  of guilty which comprehends it, or by the special
for six weeks in a room newly built over the com- enumeration of such facts as do not merely amount
mon sewer of the prison, where he languished  to evidence of, but which completely and concluand died; the indictment further charged, that sively constitute the crime.  But it has been
Barnes and Huggins well knew that the room  shown, and is indeed admitted, that the publicawas unwholesome and dangerous; the indict- tion of a libel is onlyprimafacie evidence of the
ment then charged that the prisoner Huggins, complex charge in the indictment, and not such
of his malice aforethought, was present, aiding  a fact as amounts in itself, when specially stated,
and abetting Barnes to commit the murder afore- to conclusive guilt.  For, as the judges can not
said.  This was the substance of the indictment.  tell how the criminal inference from the fact of
The special verdict found that Huggins was  publishing a libel, might have been rebutted at
warden of the Fleet by letters patent; that the  the trial; no judgment can follow from a special
other prisoner Barnes was servant to Huggins, finding that the defendant published the paper indeputy in the care of all the prisoners, and of  dieted, according to the tenor laid in the indictthe deceased, a prisoner there.  That the pris- ment.  It follows from this, that if the jury had
oner Barnes, on the 7th of September, put the  only found the fact of publication (which was all
deceased Arne in a room over the common sew- that was left to them) without affixing the epithet
er, which had been newly built, knowing it to be  of guilty (which could only be legally affixed by
newly built and damp, and situated as laid in the  an investigation not permitted to them); a venire
indictment; and that, fifteen days before the pris-  facias de novo [a writ for a new trial] must have
oner's death, HUGGINS likewise well knew that the  been awarded because of the uncertainty of the
room was new built, damp, and situated as laid. verdict as to the criminal intention: Whereas, it
They found that, fifteen days before the death of  will now be argued, that if the court shall hold
the prisoner. Huggins was present in the room, the Dialogue to be a libel, the defendant is fully
and saw him there under duress of imprisonment, convicted; because the verdict does not merely
but then and there turned away, and Barnes  find that he PUBLISHED, which is a finding conlocked the door, and that from that time till his sistent with innocence, but finds him GUILTY of
death the deceased remained locked up.           publishing, which is a finding of the criminal pubIt was argued before the twelve judges, in  lieation charged by the indictment.
Sergeants' Inn, whether Huggins was guilty of    My Lord, how I shall be able to defend my inmurder.  It was agreed that he was not answer- nocent client against such an argument,  eext
able criminally, for the act of his deputy, and  I am not prepared to say.  I feel all injustice of
could not be guilty, unless the criminal intention  the weight of it; but that feeling sure- suc a case.
was brought personally home to himself.  And  ly entitles me to greater attention, when I comit is remarkable how strongly the judges required  plain of that which subjects him to it, without the
the fact of knowledge and malice to be stated on  warrant of the law.   It is the weight of such an
the face of the verdict, as opposed to evidence of  argument that entitles me to a new trial; for the
intention, and inference from a fact.            Dean of St. Asaph is not only found guilty, withThe court said, "It is chiefly relied on that out any investigation of his guilt by the jury, but
Huggins was present in the room, and saw Arne  without that question being even open to your
sub duritie imprisonamenti, et se avertit [under Lordships on the record!  Upon the record the
du-ress of imprisonment, and turned away]; but court can only say the Dialogue is, or is not, a
he might be present, and not know all the cir- libel; but if it should pronounce it to be one, the
ciumstances; the.words are VIDIT sub duritie [he criminal intention of the defendant in publishing




672                                      MR. ERSKTNE                                         [1784.
it is taken for granted by the word guilty; al- record, however libelous when taken by itself,
though it has not only not been tried, but evi- was not intended to convey the meaning which
dently appears, from the verdict itself, not to have  the words indicted import in language, when sepbeen found bythejury. Theirverdictis, "Guilty  arated from  the general scope of the writing.
of publishing; but whether a libel or not, they  But upon the principle contended for, they could
do not find."  And it is, therefore, impossible to  not acquit the defendant upon any such opinion,
say that they can have found a criminal motive in  for that would be to take upon them the prohibpublishing a paper, on the criminality of which  ited question of libel, which is said to be matter
they have formed no judgment.  Printing and  of law for the Court.
publishing that which is legal, contains in it no    My learned friend, Mr. Bearcroft, appealed to
crime.  The guilt must arise from  the publica- his audience with an air of triumph, RepJy to Mr.
tion of a libel; and there is, therefore, a palpa- whether any sober man could believe Bearcoft.
ble repugnancy on the face of the verdict itself, that an English jury, in the case I put from Alwvhich first finds the Dean guilty of publishing, gernon Sidney, would convict a defendant of puband then renders the finding a nullity by pro- lishing the Bible, should the Crown indict a memnouncing ignorance in the jury whether the thing  ber of a verse which was blasphemous in itself
published comprehends any guilt!                 if separated from the context.23  My Lord, if my
To conclude this part of the subject, the epi- friend had attended to me, he would have found
thet of guilty-as I set out with at first-must that, in considering such supposition as an abeither be taken to be substance or form.  If it be  surdity, he was only repeating my own words! I
substance, and, as such, conclusive of the crim- never supposed that a jury would act so wickedinal intention of the publisher, should the thing  ly, or so absurdly, in a case where the principle
published be hereafter adjudged to be a libel, I  contended for by my friend Mr. Bearcroft carask a new trial, because the defendant's guilt in  ried so palpable a face of injustice, as in the inthat respect has been found without having been  stance which I selected to expose it; and which
tried; if, on the other hand, the word GUILTY is 1, therefore, selected to show that there were
admitted to be but a word of form, then let it be  cases in which the supporters of the doctrine
expunged, and I am not hurt by the verdict.        were ashamed of it, and obliged to deny its opIII. Having now established, according to my  eration.  For it is impossible to deny If the jury can
Third Poposi- first two Propositions, that the jury  that, if the jury can look at the con- view of tie,,es
Remrnaksonthle upon every general issue, joined in a  text, in the case put by Sidney, and o tiebwrk
distinction set  criminal case, have a constitutional acquit the defendant on the melits of tiprincileo
up to rebut this     case, ~v                      acquit the defendant    the mei ts of tie.ppos.g
doctrine.  jurisdiction over the whole charge; I the thing published, they may do it counsel.
am next, in support of my Third, to contend, That in cases which will directly operate against the
the case of a libel forms no legal exception to  principle he seems to support.  This will appear
the general principles which govern the trial from other instances, where the injustice is equal,
of all other crimes; that the argument for the  but not equally striking.  Suppose the Crown
difference, namely, because the whole charge [in  were to select some passages from Locke upon
a prosecution for a libel] always appears on the  government; as, for instance, "that there is no
record-is false in fact, and that, even if true, it difference between the King and the Constable,
would form no substantial difference in law.      when either of them exceeds his authority."  That
As to the first, I still maintain that the whole  assertion, under certain circumstances, if taken
(1.)Thledisti.c- case does by no means necessarily  by itself, without the context, might be highly
iion false in fact                                s
-pti oinlayof appear on the record.  The Crown  seditious, and the question, therefore, would be,
a publactiony                        plica tai on t he                            prhoap
nopybecatiict  may indict part of the publication, quo animo it was written.  Perhaps the real
ed.        which may bear a criminal construc-  meaning of the sentence might not be discoveration when separated from  the context, and the  ble by the immediate context without a view of
context omitted having no place in the indict-  the whole chapter-perhaps of the whole book.
ment, the defendant can neither demur to it, nor  Therefore-to do justice to the defendant, upon
arrest the judgment after a verdict of guilty; be- the very principle by which Mr. Bearcroft, in
cause the court is absolutely circumscribed by  answering Sidney's case, can alone acquit the
wnat appears on the record, and the record con- publisher of his Bible-the jury must look into
tains a legal charge of a libel.                    23 The case supposed a bookseller having publishI maintain, likewise, that: according to the  ed the Bible, and being indicted thus, "That, intendii thedefendant principles adopted upon this trial, he  ing to promote atheism  and irreligion, he had blascotlrd seuf th  is equally shut out from  such de-  phemously printed and published the following false
woulddohlimno fense before the jury.  For though  and profane libel-'There is no God;'" and, in movifaron Juicstic  he may read the explanatory con- ing for the rule Nisi, Mr. Erskine argued, that conplis.      text in evidence, yet he can derive  sistently with the principles which governed the
no advantage from  reading it, if they are tied  judge, in the Dean of St. Asaph's case, the court
tJ  n "I-    -I   c  vi ~ ^'  ^   ++ would in such a case forbid the jury looking at the
down to find him guilty of publishing the matter      l ill sh a ase forbid th      y ooing at the
context, by which it would appear that the wolrds
which is contained in the indictment, however  context; by which it would appear that the words
which is contained mi  the indlitment, however formed part only of a verse in the Psalms, "Thle fool
its innocence may be established by a view of  hath said in his heart, there is no God," and would
the whole work.  The only operation which, direct them only to consider the faect, whether the
looking at the context, it can have upon a jury, defendant published the words last in the indictis to convince them  that the matter upon the Iment.




1784.]                        ON THE RIGHTS OF JURIES.                                     673
the whole Essay on Government, and form ajudg-  God," the jury, on the principle contended for,
ment of the design of the author, and the mean- would be restrained from the same judgment of
ing of his work.                                its legality, and must convict of blasphemy on
Lord lMansfield. To be sure, they may judge  the fact of publishing, leaving the question of
from the whole work.                            libel untouched on the record.
Mr. Erskine. And what is this, my Lord, but    If, in the same manner, only part of this very
For if so,  determining the question of libel which  dialogue had been indicted instead of
they may-....Application
quiin any  is denied to-day?  For if a jury may  the whole, it is said, even by your Lord- to the presand allcases. acquit the publisher of any part of Mr. ship, that the jury might have read the  t...~
Locke on Government, from a judgment arising  context, and then, notwithstanding the fact of
out of a view of the whole book, though there  publishing, might have collected from the whole
be no innuendoes24 to be filled up as facts in the  its abstract and speculative nature, and have acindictmlent, what is it that bound the jury to con- quitted the defendant upon that judgment of it.
vict the Dean of St. Asaph, as the publisher of  And yet it is contended that they have no right
Sir William Jones's Dialogue, on the bare fact of  to form the same judgment of it upon the prespublication, without the right of saying that his ent occasion, although the whole be before them
observations, as well as Mr. Locke's, were spec- upon the face of the indictment, but are bound
ulative, abstract, and legal?                   to convict the defendant upon the fact of pubi
Lord Mansfield. They certainly may, in all lishing, notwithstanding they should have c me
cases, go into the whole context.               to the same judgment of its legality, which it is.
Mr. Erskine. And why may they go into the  admitted they might have come to on trying an
context?  Clearly, my Lord, to enable them to  indictment for the publication of a part t t Real-.
form a correct judgment of the meaning of the  ly, my Lord, the absurdities and gross departures
part indicted, even though no particular meaning  from reason, which must be hazarded to. support
be submitted to them by averments in the indict- this doctrine, are endless.
ment.  And, therefore, the very permission to    The criminality of the paper is said to be a
look at the context for such a purpose (where  question of law, yet the meaning of it, Abs
there are no innuendoes to be filled up by them  from which alone the legal interpreta- stillfurther
as facts) is a plausible admission of all I am con- tion can arise, is admitted to be a ques- exPosed.
tending for, namely, the right of the jury to judge  tion of fact I  If the text be so perplexed and duof the merits of the paper, and the intention of  bious as to require innuendoes to explain, to point
its author.                                     out and to apply obscure expression or conBut it is said, that though a jury have a right struction, the jury alone, as judges of fact, are
Absrdityofay- to decide that a paper, criminal as to interpret and to say what sentiments the au —
ing that they can far as it appears on the record, is, thor must have meant to convey by his writing.
not acquit beause the whole nevertheless, legal when explained  Yet, if the writing be so plain and intelligible
woridited. by the whole work of which it is a  as to require no averments of its meaning, it
part; yet that they shall have no right to say  then becomes so obscure and mysterious as to
that the whole work itself, if it happens to be all be a question of law, and beyond the reach of
indicted, is innocent and legal. This proposition, the very same men, who, but a moment before,
my Lord, upon the bare stating of it, seems too  were interpreters for the judges; and though its
preposterous to be seriously entertained; yet object be most obviously peaceable, and its authere is no alternative between maintaining it in  thor innocent, they are bound to say, upon their
its full extent, and abandoning the whole argu- oaths, that it is wicked and seditious, and the
ment. If the defendant is indicted for publish- publisher of it guilty!  As a question of fact,
ing part of the verse in the Psalms, " There is the jury are to try the real sense and construcno God," it is asserted that the jury may look at tion of the words indicted, by comparing them
the context, and, seeing that the whole verse did  with the context; and yet, if that context itself,
not maintain that blasphemous proposition, but which affords the comparison, makes part of the
only that the fool had said so in his heart, may  indictment, the whole becomes a question of law,
acquit the defendant upon a judgment that it is and they are then bound down to convict the
no libel to impute such imagination to a fool; defendant on the fact of publishing it, without
but if the whole verse had been indicted, name- any jurisdiction over the meaning!  To comly, "The fool has said in his heart, There is no  plete the juggle, the intention of the publisher
may likewise be shown as a fact by the evidence
2 By an innuendo in indictments and other plead- of any extrinsic circumstances, such as the conings is meant an explanation of something supposed  text, to explain the writing, or the circumstances
to be implied in what is published or given to the  of mistake or ignorance under which it was pub
world. In the legal sense, it is a statement of the lished; and yet, in the same breath the intention
covert meaning contained in some word, phrase, &c. is prnounced to be an inference of law from the
Thus, in an action against a man for the words "He
is a thief," if, in any previous part of the record, the    t  of publication, which the jury can not exwords had been charged to have been spoken of clude, but which must depend upon the future
and concerning the plaintiff, in any subsequent part judgment of the court!
the defendant's meaning in the use of the word    But the danger of this system is no less obvi"He." in "He is a thief," may be explained by in- ous than its absurdity.  I do not believe that its
nuendo, " thereby meaning the said plaintiff."  authors ever thought of inflicting death upon EnU -U




'- 4                                    MR. ERSKINE                                       [1784
glishmen, without the interposition of a jury; yet scale against an obscure individual, the freedom
The dangerequal its establishment would unquestion- of the press is at an end.  For how can it be
to tle absurdity, ably extend to annihilate the sub- said that the press is free because every thing
as shown in a sup- 
posed prosecu-  stance of that trial in every prose- may be published without a previous license, if
tion for treason.  cution for high treason, where the  the publisher of the most meritorious work which
publication of any writing was laid as the overt the united powers of genius and patriotism ever
act.  I illustrated this by a case, when I moved  gave to the world may be prosecuted by informlfor a rule, and called upon my friends for an an- ation of the King's Attorney General, without
swer to it; but no notice has been taken of it by  the consent of the grand jury-may be conany of them.  This was just what I expected: victed by the petty jury, on the mere fact of
when a convincing answer can not be found to  publishing (who, indeed, without perjuring theman objection, those who understand controversy  selves, must on this system  inevitably convict
never give strength to it by a weak one. I said, him), and must then depend upon judges, who
and I again repeat, that if an indictment charges may be the supporters of the very administration
that a defendant did traitorously intend, compass, whose measures are questioned by the defendand imagine the death of the King, and, in order ant, and who must, therefore, either give judgto carry such treason into execution, published ment against him or against themselves.
a paper, which it sets out literatim on the face    To all this Mr. Bearcroft shortly answers, Are
of the record, the principle which is laid down  you not in the hands of the same Tle case is difto-day would subject that person to the pains judges, with respect to your proper- dretentts for
of death by the single authority of the judges, ty, and even to your life, when spe- ot ercrimes.
without leaving any thing to the jury, but the  cial verdicts are found in murder, felony, and
bare fact of publishing the paper.  For if that treason?  In these cases do prisoners run any
fact were proved, and the defendant called no  hazard from  the application of the law by the
witnesses, the judge who tried him  would be  judges, to the facts found by the juries?  Where
warranted, nay bound in duty by the principle  can you possibly be safer?
in question, to say to the jury, " Gentlemen, the    My Lord, this is an argument which I can
overt act of treason charged upon the defendant answer without indelicacy or offense, because
is the publication of this paper, intending to com- your Lordship's mind is much too liberal to suppass the death of the King; the fact is proved, pose that I insult the court by general observaand you are, therefore, bound to convict him: the  tions on the principles of our legal government.
treasonable intention is an inference of law from  However safe we might be, or might think ourthe act of publishing; and if the thing published  selves, the Constitution never intended to invest
does not, upon a future examination, intrinsically  judges with a discretion which can not be tried
support that inference, the court will arrest the  and measured by the plain and palpable standard
judgment, and your verdict will not affect the  of law; and in all the cases put by Mr. Bearcroft,
prisoner."                                       no such loose discretion is exercised as must be
My Lord, I will rest my whole argument upon  entertained by a judgment on a seditious libel,
The two cases the analogy between these two cases, and therefore the cases are not parallel.
compared.   and give up every objection to the    On a special verdict for murder, the life of the
doctrine when applied to the one, if, upon the  prisoner does not depend upon the religious,
strictest examination, it shall not be found to ap- moral, or philosophical ideas of the judges, con.
ply equally to the other.  If the seditious inten- cerning the nature of homicide.  No; prece.
tion be an inference of law, from the fact of pub- dents are searched for, and if he is condemned
lishing the paper which this indictment charges  at all, he is judged exactly by the same rules as
to be a libel, is not the treasonable intention  others have been judged by before him.  His
equally an inference from the fact of publishing  conduct is brought to a precise, clear, intelligible.that paper, which the other indictment charges  standard, and cautiously measured by it; it is the
ito be an overt act of treason?  In the one case, law, therefore, and not the judge, which condemns
-as in the other, the writing or publication of a him.  It is the same in all indictments or civil
paper is the whole charge; and the substance  actions for slander upon individuals.
of the paper so written or published makes all    Reputation is a personal right of the subject
the difference between the two offenses.  If that -indeed, the most valuable of any-and it is,
substance be matter of law where it is a seditious therefore, secured by law, and all injuries to it
libel, it must be matter of law where it is an act clearly ascertained.  Whatever slander hurts a
of treason; and if, because it is law, the jury  man in his trade-subjects him to danger of life,
are excluded from judging it in the one instance, liberty, or loss of property-or tends to render
their judgment must suffer an equal abridgment him infamous-is the subject of an action, and,
in the other.                                    in some instances, of an indictment.05  But in all
The consequence is obvious.  If the jury, by  these cases where the maluzs animus is found by
Tire detrine con- an appeal to their consciences, are  the jury, the judges are in like manner a safe
tended for by the
Crown puts the  to be thus limited in the free exer- repository of the legal consequence; because
press i te hands else of that right which was given   25 The general rule is, that wherever an action
of the judges.   them  by the Constitution, to be a  will lie for slander, without laying special damages,
protection against judicial authority, where the  an indictment will lie for the same words, if reduced
weight and majesty of the crown is put into the to writing and published.




1784.]                          ON THE RIGHTS OF JURIES.                                        675
such libels may be brought to a well-known  politicians, as moralists, as philosophers, or as listandard of strict and positive law: they leave no  censers of the press; but they would have no rediscretion in the judges.  The determination of  semblance to the judgments of an English court
what words, when written or spoken of another, ofjusticej because it could have no warrant from
are actionable, or the subject of an indictment,  the act of your predecessors, nor afford any precleaves no more latitude to a court sitting in judg- edent to your successors.
ment on the record, than a question of title does    But all these objections are perfectly removed,
in a special verdict in ejectment.                when the seditious tendency of a pa- Transitionltothe
But I beseech your Lordship to consider by  per is considered as a question of fourth proposi
what rule the legality or illegality of this Dia- fact.  We are then relieved from the ges of adopting
logue is to be decided by the court as a question  absurdity of legal discussion, sepaof law upon the record.  Mr. Bearcroft has ad- rated from all the facts from which alone the law
mitted in the most unequivocal terms-what, in- can arise.  The jury can do what (as I observed
deed, it was impossible for him to deny-that ev- before) your Lordships can not do in judging by
ery part of it, when viewed in the abstract, was  the record-they can examine by evidence all
legal; but he says, there is a great distinction to  those circumstances that tend to establish the sebe taken between speculation and exhortation, ditious tendency of the paper, from which the
and that it is this latter which makes it a libel. court is shut out-they may know themselves, or
I readily acede to the truth of the observation; it may be proved before them, that it has excited
but how your Lordship is to determine that dif- sedition already-they may collect from witnessference as a question of law, is past my compre- es that it has been widely circulated and sedihension.  For if the Dialogue, in its phrase and  tiously understood-or, if the prosecution (as is
composition, be general, and its libelous tenden- wisest) precedes these consequences, and the reacy arises from the purpose of the writer to raise  soning must be a priori, surely gentlemen living
discontent by a seditious application of legal doc- in the country are much better judges than your
trines, that purpose is surely a question of fact, Lordship, what has or has not a tendency to disif ever there was one, and must, therefore, be  turb the neighborhood in which they live, and
distinctly averred in the indictment, to give the  that very neighborhood is the forum  of criminal
cognizance of it as a fact to the jury, without trial.
which no libel can possibly appear upon the rec-    If they know that the subject of the paper is
ord.  This is well known to be the only office of the topic that agitates the country around them
the innuendo; because the judges can presume  -if they see danger in that agitation, and have
nothing which the strictest rules of grammar do  reason to think that the publisher must have innot warrant them to collect intrinsically from the  tended it-they say he is guilty.  If, on the
writing itself.                                   other hand, they consider the paper to be legal,
Circumscribed by the record, your Lordship  and enlightened in principle, likely to promote a
can form no judgment of the tendency of this Di- spirit of activity and liberty in times when the
alogue to excite sedition by any thing but the  activity of such a spirit is essential to the public
mere words.  You must look at it as if it was an  safety, and have reason to believe it to be writold manuscript dug out of the ruins of Hercula-  ten and published in that spirit, they say, as they
neum.  You collect nothing from the time when, ought to do, that the writer or the publisher is not
or the circumstances under which, it was pub- guilty.  Whereas your Lordships' judgment upon
lished-the person by whom, and those among  the language of the record must ever be in the
whom, it was circulated.  Yet these may ren- pure abstract; operating blindly and'indiscrimder a paper, at one time and under some circum- inately upon all times, circumstances, and intensances, dangerously wicked and seditious, which, tions; making no distinction between the gloriat another time and under different circumstan-  ous attempts of a Sidney or a Russell, struggling
ces, might be innocent and highly meritorious. If  against the terrors of despotism under the Stuarts,
puzzled by a task so inconsistent with the real and those desperate adventurers of the year fortysense and spirit of judicature, your Lordship  five, who libeled the person, and excited rebellshould spurn the fetters of the record, and, judg- ion against the mild and gracious government of
ing with the reason rather than the infirmities of  our late excellent sovereign King George the
men, should take into your consideration the state  Second.
of men's minds on the subject of equal represent-    My Lord, if the independent gentlemen of Enation at this moment, and the great disposition of  gland are thus better qualified to decide The jury as
the present times to revolution in government-   from  cause of knowledge, it is no of- lihely as the
if, reading the record with these impressions, your  fense to the court to say that they are cide ith
Lordships should be led to a judgment not war-  full as likely to decide with impartial justice
ranted by an abstract consideration of the record  justice as judges appointed by the Crown. Your
-then, besides that such a judgment would be  Lordships have but a life interest in the public
founded on facts not in evidence before the court, property, but they have an inheritance in it for
and not within its jurisdiction if they were, let me  their children.  Their landed property depends
further remind your Lordships'that, even if those  upon the security of the government, and no man
objections to the premises were removed, the con- who wantonly attacks it can hope or expect to esclusion would be no conclusion of law.  Your de- cape from the selfish lenity of ajury.  On the first
cision on the subject might be very sagacious as  principles of human action they must lean heavily




6'76                                    MR. ERSKINE                                          [1784.
against him.  It is only when the pride of En- should be; but it is nothing more.  The arrest
glishmen is insulted by such doctrines as I am   of judgment which follows after a verdict of
opposing to-day, that they may be betrayed into  guilty for publishing a writing, which, on inspeca verdict delivering the guilty, rather than sur- tion of the record, exhibits to the court no sperender the rights by which alone innocence in  cific offense against the law, is no impeachment of
the day of danger can be protected.               my doctrine.  I never denied such a jurisdiction
IV. I venture, therefore, to say, in support of  to the court.  My position is, that no man shall
Fourth P,,p. one of my original Propositions, That be punished for the criminal breach of any law,
Woition.  where a writing indicted as a libel until a jury of his equals have pronounced him
neither contains, nor is averred by the indictment guilty in mind as well as in act..Jctus non fato contain, any slander of an individual, so as to  cit reum nisi snens sit rea.26
fall within those rules of law which protect per-    But I never asserted that a jury had the powsonal reputation, but whose criminality is charg-  er to make criminal law, as well as to adminised to consist, as in the present instance, in its tend-  ter it; and, therefore, it is clear that they can not
ency to stir up general discontent-the trial of  deliver over a man to punishment, if it appears
such an indictment neither involves, nor can in  by the record of his accusation-which it is the
its obvious nature involve, any abstract question  office of judicature to examine-that he has not
of law  for the judgment of a court, but must omffended against any positive law; because, howwholly depend upon the judgment of the jury on  ever criminal he may have been'in his disposithe tendency of the writing itself to produce such  tion, which is a fact established by the verdict,
consequences, when connected with all the cir- yet statute and precedents can alone decide what
cumstances which attended its publication.        is by law an indictable offense.
It is unnecessary to push this part of the ar-    If for instance, a man were charged by an in-'rhis proposi-  gument further, because I have heard  dictment with having held a discourse in words
titeno one a nothing from the bar against the po- highly seditious, and were found guilty by the
rectlytoreftute. sition which it maintains.  None of  jury, it is evident that it is the' province of the
the gentlemen have, to my recollection, given the  court to arrest that judgment.  Why? Because,
court any one single reason, good or bad, why  though the jury have found that he spoke the
the tendency of a paper to stir up discontent  words as laid in the indictment, with the sediagainst government, separated from  all the cir- tious intention charged upon him, which they,
cumstances which are ever shut out from the rec- and they only, could find; yet, as the words are
ord, ought to be considered as an abstract ques-  not pulishable by indictment, as when committed
tion of law.  They have not told us where we are  to writing, the court could not pronounce judgto find any matter in the books to enable us to ar- ment.  The declaration of the jury, that the degue such questions before the court, or where  fendant was guilty in manner and form  as acyour Lordships yourselves are to find a rule for  cused, could evidently never warrant a judgment,
your judgments on such subjects.  I confess that if the accusation itself contained no charge of
to me it looks more like legislation or arbitrary  an offense against the law.
power'than English judicature.  If the court can     In the same manner, if a butcher were indictsay this is a criminal writing  not because we  ed for privately putting a sheep to causeless and
know that mischief was intended by its author, unnecessary torture in the exercise of his trade,
or is even contained in itself, but because fools, but not in public view, so as to be productive of
believing the one and the other, may do mischief  evil example, and the jury should find him guilty,
in their folly-the suppression of such writings,  I am afraid no judgment could follow; because,
under particular circumstances, may be wise pol- though done nalo animo, yet neither statute nor
icy in a state; but upon what principle it can be  precedent have, perhaps, determined it to be an
criminal law in England, to be settled in the ab- indictable offense; it would be difficult to draw
stract by judges, I confess with humility that I the line.  An indictment would not lie for every
have no organs to understand.                     inhuman neglect of the sufferings of the smallest
Mr. Leycester [counsel for the Crown] felt the  innocent animals which Providence has subjected
difficulty of maintaining such a prop- to us:
Answer to an                      n
indiectattempt osition by any argument of law, and   "Yet the poor beetle which we tread upon,
at retftation.  therefore had recourse to an argu-     In corporeal suffering feels a pang as great
ment of fact.  " If," says my learned friend,          As when a giant dies."
" what is or is not a seditious libel, be not a ques-    A thousand othe instances might be brought
-tion of law for the court, but of fact for the jury,  of acts base and immoral, and prejudicial in their
upon what principle do defendants, found guilty  consequences, which are yet not indictable by
of such libels by a general verdict, defeat the  law.
judgment for error on the record; and what is    In the case of the King against Brewer, in
still more in point, upon what principle does Mr. Cowper's Reports, it was held that knowingly
Erskine himself, if he fails in his present motion, exposing to sale and selling gold under sterling
mean to ask your Lordships to arrest this very  for standard gold is not indictable; because the
judgment by saying that the Dialogue is not a  act refers to goldsmiths only, and private cheatlibel?"
My Lord, the observation is very ingenious,   26 It is not the act which makes a man guilty, but
and God knows the argument requires that it the intention.




1784.]                          ON THE RIGHTS OF JURIES.                                        677
ing is not a common-law offense.27  Here, too, did the present Chancellor [Lord Thurlow], then
the declaration of the jury that the defendant is  Attorney. General, content himself with saying
guilty in manner and form as accused, does not that he had proved the publication, and that the
change the nature of the accusation.  The ver-  criminal quality of the paper which raised the
diet does not go beyond the charge; and if the  legal inference of guilt against the defendant,
charge be invalid in law, the verdict must be in- was matter for the court?  No, my Lord; he
valid also. All these cases, therefore, and many  went at great length into its dangerous and persimilar ones which might be put, are clearly  nicious tendency, and applied himself with skill
consistent with my principle.  I do not seek to  and ability to the understandings and the conerect jurors into legislators or judges.  There  sciences of the jurors.  This instance is in itself
must be a rule of action in every society, which  decisive of his opinion.  That great magistrate
it is the duty of the Legislature to create, and  could not have acted thus upon the principle conof judicature to expound when created.  I only  tended for to-day.  He never was an idle de.
support their right to determine guilt or inno- claimer: close and masculine argument is the
cence where the crime charged is blended by the  characteristic of his understanding.
general issue with the intention of the criminal;    The character and talents of the late Lord
more especially when the quality of the act it- Chief Justice De Grey no less entitle me to infer
self, even independent of that intention, is not his opinion from  his uniform  conduct.  In all
measurable by any precise principle or precedent such prosecutions, while he was in office, he
of law, but is inseparably connected with the  held the same language to juries; and particutime when, the place where, and the circum- larly in the case of the King against Woodfallt~
stances under which the defendant acted.           -to use the expression of a celebrated writer
My Lord, in considering libels of this nature,  on the occasion [Junius]-" he tortured his facPro cutingof- as opposed to slander on individuals, ulties for more than an hour, to convince them
ficers do commonly act on  to be mere questions of fact, or, at that Junius's letter was a libel."30
the principle of all events, to contain matter fit for    The opinions of another Crown lawyer, who
eo their aorg-  the determination of the jury, I am  has since passed through the first offices of the
jury.      supported not only by the general law, and filled them with the highest reputation,
practice of courts, but even of those very prac- I am  not driven to collect alone from  his lanticers themselves, who, in prosecuting for the  guage as an Attorney General, because he carCrown, have maintained the contrary doctrine. ned them  with him to the seat of justice.  Yet
Your Lordships will, I am persuaded, admit that one case is too remarkable to be omitted. Lord
the general practice of the profession-more es-  Camden, prosecuting Dr. Shebbeare, told the
pecially of the very heads of it, prosecuting too, jury that he did not desire their verdict upon any
for the public-is strong evidence of the law. other principle than their solemn conviction of
Nttorneys-general have seldom entertained such  the truth of the information, which charged the
t jealousy of the King's judges in state prosecu- defendant with a wicked design to alienate the
tions as to lead them to make presents of juris- hearts of the subjects of this country from their
diction to juries, which did not belong to them  king upon the throne.
of right by the Constitution of the country. Nei-    To complete the account: my learned friend
ther can it be supposed that men in high office  Mr. Bearcroft, though last, not least in favor,
and of great experience should in every instance, upon this very occasion, spoke above an hour to
though differing from each other in temper, char- the jury at Shrewsbury, to convince them of the
acter, and talents, uniformly fall into the same  libelous tendency of the Dialogue, which soon
absurdity of declaiming to juries upon topics to- afterward the learned judge desired them wholly
tally irrelevant, when no such inconsistency is to dismiss from  their consideration, as matter
found to disfigure the professional conduct of the  with which they had no concern! The real fact
same men in other cases.  Yet I may appeal to                                   -
your Lordship's recollection, without having re- Information," and eager for celebrity, moved, at a
course to the state trials, whether, upon every  meeting of that society, "That a subscription be
prosecution for a seditious libel within living  raised for the widows, orphans, and aged parents
memory, the Attorney General has not uniformlyof their American fellow-subjects, who, preferring
memory, the Attorney General has not uniformly
mly  death to slavery, were, for this reason only, tzurstated such writings at length to the jury, point-   ed by the  ings troops at Lexigt     and Coned out their seditious tendency which rendered  cord, on the 19th of April. 1775."  The sum of ~100
them  criminal, and exerted all his povers to  was voted, and Mr. Home took on himself the reconvince them  of their illegality, as the very  sponsibility of signing the order for transmitting it to
point on which their verdict for the Crown was  Dr. Franklin; in consequence of which he was prosto be founded.                                    ecuted, and sentenced to pay ~200, to be imprisonOn the trial of Mr. Home, for publishing an  ed one year, and to find securities for three.
OCases n advertisement in favor of the widowrs of    29 Woodfall, the printer, was prosecuted in 1770
Cases in advertisement in favor of the widows of f  t  p cation of the celebrated Letter of Ju.
point those American subjects who had been.   X.   
for the publication of the celebrated Letter of Juit.   those American g'sujectr s  who had  been * nius to the King. On the trial before Lord Mansmurdered by the King's troops at Lexington,23 field, in consequence of his Lordship's direction to
27 Bat cheating has since been made a statuta- the jury, excluding from them the question of the
ble offense, particularly by 7 and 8 Geo. IV.     letter being a libel or not, a verdict was returned
28 Mr. Homne (afterward Hore Tooke), in 1775, of" Guilty of printing and publishing only."
being a member of the "Society for Constitutional   3 See the Preface to "Junius's Letters."




678                                    MR. ERSKINE                                        [1784.
is that the doctrine is too absurd to be acted  he was just going to direct them to find the bishupon-too distorted in principle to admit of con- ops not guilty, when in came my Lord Presisistency in practice.  It is contraband in law, dent (such sort of witnesses were, no doubt, aland can only be smuggled by those who intro- ways at hand when wanted), who proved the
duce it.  It requires great'talents and great ad- delivery to his Majesty.  "Therefore," contindress to hide its deformity; in vulgar hands it ued the Chief Justice, "if you believe it was the
becomes contemptible.                           same petition, it is a publication sufficient, and
Having supported the rights of juries, by the  we must, therefore, come to inquire whether it
Practiceof uniform practice of Crown lawyers, let be a libel." He then gave his reasons for thinking
the courts. us now examine the question of author- it within the case de libellis famosis [defamatory
ity, and see how this court itself, and its judges, libels], and concluded by saying to the jury, "In
have acted upon trials for libels in former times; short, I must give you my opinion: I do take it
for, according to Lord Raymond, in Franklin's  to be a libel; if my brothers have any thing to
case,31 as cited by Mr. Justice Buller, at Shrews- say to it, I suppose they will deliver their opinbury, the principle I am supporting had, it seems, ion."  What opinion? not that the jury had no
been only broached about the year 1731, by  jurisdiction to judge of the matter, but an opinsome men of party spirit, and then, too, for the  ion for the express purpose of enabling them to
very first time.  My Lord, such an observation  give that judgment which the law required at
in the mouth of Lord Raymond proves how dan- their hands.
gerous it is to take up as doctrine every thing    Mr. Justice Holloway then followed the Chief
flung out at Nisi Prius; above all, upon subjects  Justice; and so pointedly was the question of
which engage the passions and interests of gov- libel or no libel, and not the publication, the only
ernment. The most solemn and important trials matter which remained in doubt, and which the
with which history makes us acquainted, dis- jury, with the assistance of the court, were to
cussed, too, at the bar of this court, when filled. decide upon, that when the learned judge went
with judges the most devoted to the Crown, af- into the facts which had been in evidence, the
ford the most decisive contradiction to such an  Chief Justice said to him, " Look you; by-theunfounded and unguarded assertion.               way, brother, I did not ask you to sum  up the
In the famous case of the seven bishops,32 the  evidence, but only to deliver your opinion to the
ase of the   question of libel or no libel was held  jury, whether it be a libel or no."  The Chief
seven bishops. unanimously by the Court of King's  Justice's remark, though it proves my position,
Bench trying the cause at the bar, to be matter was, however, very unnecessary; for, but a mofor the consideration and determination of the  ment before, Mr. Justice Holloway had declared
jury; and the bishops' petition to the King, he did not think it was a libel, but, addressing
which was the subject of the information, was himself to the jury, had said, " It is left to you,
accordingly delivered to them, when they with- gentlemen.^
drew to consider of their verdict.                 Mr. Justice Powell, who likewise gavehis opin
Thinking this case decisive, I cited it at the  ion that it was no libel, said to the jury, "But the
trial, and the answer it received from Mr. Bear- matter of it is before you, and I leave the issue of it
croft was, that it had no relation to the point in  to God and your own consciences."  And so little
dispute between us, for that the bishops were  was it in the idea of any one of the court that the
acquitted, not upon the question of libel, but be- jury ought to found their verdict solely upon the
cause the delivery of the petition to the King  evidence of the publication, without attending to
was held to be no publication.                   the criminality or innocence of the petition, that
I was not a little surprised at this statement, the Chief Justice himself consented, on their withbut my turn of speaking was then past. Fortu- drawing from the bar, that they should carry with
nately, to-day it is my privilege to speak last, them all the materials for coming to a judgment
and I have now lying before me the fifth volume  as comprehensive as the charge; and, indeed, exof the State Trials, where the case of the bish- pressly directed that the information, the libel, the
ops is printed, and where it appears that the  declarations under the great seal, and even the
publication was expressly proved-that nothing  statute book, should be delivered to them.
turned upon it in the judgment of the court, and    The happy issue of this memorable trial, in
that the charge turned wholly upon the question  the acquittal of the bishops by the jury, exercisof libel, which was expressly left to the jury by  ing jurisdiction over the whole charge, freely
every one of the judges.  Lord Chief Justice  granted to them as legal, even by King James's
Wright, in summing up the evidence, told them  judges, is admitted by two of the gentlemen [for
that a question had at first arisen about the pub- the Crown] to have prepared and forwarded the
lication, it being insisted on that the delivery of glorious era of the Revolution.  Mr. Bower, in
the petition to the King had not been proved; particular, spoke with singular enthusiasm  conthat the court was of the same opinion; and that cerning this verdict, choosing-for reasons suffi31 See andd, p. 666.                           ciently obvious-to ascribe it to a special mira32     tted to the Tower by James II., A.D.  cle wrought for the safety of the nation, rather
1688, and prosecuted for petitioning the King against thn to the right lodged in the jury to save it by
their being required to promulgate his second dec- its laws and Constitution!
laration of indulgence in favor of the Roman Catho-    My learned friend, finding his argument like
lies.                                           nothing upon the earth, was obliged to ascend




1784.]                        ON THE RIGHTS OF JURIES.                                      679
to heaven to support it.  Having admitted that For it is very necessary for all governments that
Mr.Bower on the jury not only acted like just men  the people should have a good opinion of it; and
the case ofthe toward the bishops, but as patriot cit- nothing can be worse to any government than to
izens toward their country, and not endeavor to procure animosities as to the manbeing able, without the surrender of his whole  agement of it; this has always been looked upon
argument, to allow either their public spirit or as a crime, and no government can be safe withtheir private justice to have been consonant to  out it be punished."
the laws, he is driven to make them the instru-    Having made these observations, did the Chief
ments of divine Providence to bring good out of Justice tell the jury that whether the publication
evil; and holds them up as men inspired by God  in question fell within that principle, so as to be
to perjure themselves in the administration of  a libel on government was a matter of law for
justice, in order, by-the-by, to defeat the effects the court, with which they had no concern?
of that wretched system of judicature, which he  Quite the contrary: he considered the seditious
is defending to-day as the Constitution of En- tendency of the paper as a question for their sole
gland! For if the King's judges could have de- determination, saying to them,
cided the petition to be a libel, the Stuarts might    " Now  you are to consider whether these
yet have been on the throne.                     words I have read to you do not tend to beget
My Lord, this is an argument of a priest, not an ill opinion of the administration of governof a lawyer; and even if faith, and not law, were  ment; to tell us that those that are employed
to govern the question, I should be as far from  know nothing of the matter, and those that do
subscribing to it as a religious opinion.  No man  know are not employed.  Men are not adapted
believes more firmly than I do, that God governs to offices, but offices to men, out of a particular
the whole universe by the gracious dispensations regard to their interest, and not to their fitness for
of his providence, and that all the nations of the  the places. This is the purport of these papers."
earth rise and fall at his command; but, then,    In citing the words of judges in judicature, I
this wonderful system is carried on by the nat- have a right to suppose their discourse comparison
ural, though, to us, the often hidden, relation be- to be pertinent and relevant, and that, of autoritie"s
tween effects and causes, which wisdom adjusted  when they state the defendant's answer to the
from the beginning, and which foreknowledge at charge, and make remarks on it, they mean that
the same time rendered sufficient, without dis- the jury should exercise a judgment under their
turbing either the laws of nature or of civil soci- direction. This is the practice we must certainly
ety.  The prosperity and greatness of empires impute to Lord Holt, if we do him the justice to
ever depended, and ever must depend, upon the  suppose that he meant to convey the sentiments
use their inhabitants make of their reason in de- which he expressed.  So that, when we come to
vising wise laws, and the spirit and virtue with  sum up this case, I do not find myself so far bewhich they watch over their just execution;  hind the learned gentleman, even in point of exand it is impious to suppose that men who have  press authority; putting all reason, and the analmade no provision for their own happiness or se- ogies of law which unite to support me, wholly
curity in their attention to their government, are  out of the question.  There is Court of King's
to be saved by the interposition of Heaven in turn- Bench against Court of King's Bench   Chief
ing the hearts of their tyrants to protect them.   Justice Wright against Chief Justice Leei and
But if every case in which judges have left Lord Holt against Lord Raymond.  As to living
Chief Justice the question of libel to juries in oppo- authorities, it would be invidious to class them;
rose of iot  sition to law. is to be consid~red as a
-f c^l- sition to law  is to be considered as a  but it is a point on which I am satisfied myself,
In.       miracle, England may vie with Pales- and on which the world will be satisfied likewise,
tine; and Lord Chief Justice Holt steps next if ever it comes to be a question.33
into view as an apostle; for that great judge, in    But even if I should be mistaken in that parTutchin's case, left the question of libel to the  ticular, I can not consent implicitly to receive
jury, in the most unambiguous terms.  After any doctrine as the law of England, though prosumming up the evidence of writing and pub- nounced to be such by magistrates the most relishing, he said to them as follows: "You have  spectable, if I find it to be in direct violation of
now heard the evidence, and you are to consider the very first principles of English judicature.
whether Mr. Tutchin be guilty.  They say they  The great jurisdictions of the country are unalare innocent papers, and no libels; and they say  terable except by Parliament, and, until they are
nothing is a libel but what reflects upon some  changed by that authority, they ought to remain
particular person.  But this is a very strange  sacred: the judges have no power over them.
doctrine-to say it is not a libel reflecting on  What parliamentary abridgment has been made
the government, endeavoring to possess the peo- upon the rights of juries since the trial of the
pie, that the government is maladministered by  bishops, or since Tutchin's case, when they were
corrupt persons, that are employed in such or fully recognized by this court?  None.  Lord
such stations, either in the navy or army.  To  Raymond and Lord Chief Justice Lee ought,
say that corrupt officers are appointed to admin- therefore, to have looked there-to their predeister affairs, is certainly a reflection on the gov- cessors-for the law, instead of setting up a new
ernment.  If people should not be called to ac- one for their successors.
count for possessing the people with an ill opinion    33 Lord Camden is the one here opposed to Mansof the government, no government can subsist. field.




680                                    MR. ERSKINE                                           [1784.
But supposing the court should deny the le- stands good, till answered by the defendant: it
gality of all these propositions, or, admitting their  must stand till contradicted or explained; and if
legality, should resist the  conclusions I have  not contradicted, explained, or exculpated, becomes
drawn from them: then I have recourse to my  tantamount to conclusive, when the defendant calls
last proposition, in which I am  supported even  no witnesses."
by all those authorities, on which the learned       Mr. Justice Aston said, " Prim   faJcie evijudge relies for the doctrines contained in his  dence not answered, is sufficient to ground a vercharge; to wit:                                   diet upon: if the defendant had a sufficient exV. "That, in all cases where the mischievous  cuse, he might have proved it at the trial: his
Fifth Popo. intention, which is agreed to be the es- having neglected it where there was no surprise,
s"itioz.  sence of the crime, can not be collected  is no ground for a new one."  Mr. Justice Willes
by simple inference from the fact charged, be- and Mr. Justice Ashurst agreedl upon those excause the defendant goes into evidence to rebut press principles.
such inference, the intention then becomes a pure    These cases declare the law, beyond ali conunmixed question of fact, for the consideration of  troversy, to be, that publication, even of a libel,
the jury."                                        is no conclusive proof of guilt, but only prima
I said the authorities of the King against facie evidence of it till answered; and that, if
Authorities Woodfall and Almon were with me.  In  the defendant can show that his intention was not
he propo the first, which is reported in fifth Bur- criminal, he completely rebuts the inference arissition.   row, your Lordship expressed yourself ing from the publication; because, though it rethus: "Where an act, in itself indifferent, becomes  mains true that he published, yet, according to
criminal when done with a particular intent, there  your Lordship's express words, it is not such a
the intent must be proved and found.  But where  publication of which a defendant ought to be found
the act itself is unlawful, as in the case of a libel, guilty. Apply Mr. Justice Buller's summing up
the PROOF of justification or excuse lies on the  to this law, and it does not require even a legal
defendant; and in failure thereof, the law implies apprehension to distinguish the repugnancy.
a criminal intent."  Most luminously expressed       The advertisement was proved to convince the
to convey this sentiment, namely, that when a  jury of the Dean's motive for publishing; Mr.
man publishes a libel, and has nothing to say for Jones's testimony went strongly to aid it;31 and
himself-no explanation or exculpation-a crim- the evidence to character, though not sufficient
inal intention need not be proved.  I freely ad- in itself, was admissible to be thrown into the
mit that it need not; it is an inference of common  scale.  But not only no part of this was left to
sense, not of law.  But the publication of a libel the jury, but the whole of it was expressly redoes not exclusively show criminal intent, but is  moved from their consideration, although, in the
only an implication of law, in failure of the de- cases of Woodfall and Almon, it was as expresssendant's proof. Your Lordship immediately aft- ly laid down to be within their cognizance, and a
erward, in the same case, explained this further. complete answer to the charge, if satisfactory, to
" There may be cases where the publication may  the minds of the jurors.
be justified or excused as lawful or innocent; FOR   In support of the learned judge's charge,
NO FACT WHICH IS NOT CRIMINAL, though the pa- there can be, therefore, but the two Only twoarguper BE A LIBEL, can amount to SUCH a publica- arguments, which 1 stated on moving mFJtn i efaBu   r
tion of which a defendant ought to be found  for the rule.  Either that the defend- ler's "argo.
guilty."  But no question of that kind arose at ant's evidence, namely, the advertisement-Mr.
the trial, that is, at the trial of Woodfall. Why?  Jones's evidence in confirmation of its being bona
Your Lordship immediately explained why —Be-  fide-and the evidence to character, to strengthcause the defendant called no witnesses;" express-  en that construction-were not sufficient proof
ly saying, that the publication of a libel is not in  that the Dean believed the publication meritoriitself a crime, unless the intent be criminal; and  ous, and published it in vindication of his honest
that it is not merely in mitigation of punishment,  intentions; or else that, even admitting it to esbut that such a publication does not warrant a  tablish that fact, it did not amount to such an
verdict of guilty.                                 exculpation as to be evidence on Not Guilty, so
In the case of the King against Almon, a  as to warrant a verdict.  I still give the learned
magazine, containing one of Junius's letters, was  judge the choice of the alternative.
sold at Almon's shop: there was proof of that    As to the first, namely, whether it showed
sale at the trial.  Mr. Almon called no witness-  honest intention in point of fact, that Remarks on
es, and was found guilty.  To found a motion  was a question for the jury.  If the te first.
for a new trial, an affidavit was offered from Mr. learned judge had thought it was not sufficient
Almon that he was not privy to the sale, nor evidence to warrant the jury's believing that the
knew his name was inserted as a publisher; and  Dean's motives were such as he had declared
that this practice of booksellers being inserted as  them, I conceive he should have given his opinpublishers by their correspondents, without no- ion of it as a point of evidence, and left it there.
tice, was common in the trade.                    I can not condescend to go further; it would be
Your Lordship said, " Sale of a book in a book- ridiculous to argue a self-evident proposition.
seller's shop, is prim  facie evidence of publica-    As to the second, namely, that even if the
tion by the master, and the publication of a libel                                    -
is prima facie evidence of criminal intent: it          4 For Mr. Jones's testimony, see note 18.




1784.]                         ON THE RIGHTS OF JURIES.                                      681
jury had believed, fiom the evidence, that the  that the defendant did not believe it to be illegal,
Remarks on Dean's intention was wholly innocent, and did not publish it with the seditious purpose
the second. it would not have warranted them in  charged by the indictment, he is not guilty upon
acquitting, and, therefore, should not have been  any principle or authority of law, and would have
left to them upon Not Guilty.  That argument been acquitted even in the Star Chamber; for it
can never be supported. For if the jury had de- was held by that court, in Lambe's case, in the
dlared, "We find that the Dean published this  eighth year of King James the First, as reported
pamphlet; whether a libel or not, we do not find: by Lord Coke, who then presided in it, that evand we find further, that, believing it in his con- ery one who should be convicted of a libel must
science to be meritorious and innocent, he, bona  be the writer or contriver, or a malicious publishfide, published it with the prefixed advertisement, er, knowing it to be a libel.
as a vindication of his character from the reproach    This case of Lambe being of too high authorof seditious intentions, and not to excite sedition:"  ity to be opposed, and too much in Mr. Bower's atit is impossible to say, without ridicule, that on  point to be passed over, Mr. Bower tfPt t ev'adeo
such a special verdict the court could have pro- endeavors to avoid its force by giving Lambe's case.
nounced a criminal judgment.                     it a new construction of his own: He says, that
Then why was the consideration of that evi- not knowing a writing to be a libel, in the sense
dence, by which those facts might have been  of that case, means, not knowing the contents of
found, withdrawn  from  the jury, after they  the thing published; as by conveying papers
brought in a verdict guilty of publishing ONLY, sealed up, or having a sermon and a libel, and
which, in the King against Woodfall, was simply  delivering one by mistake for the other.  In such
said not to negative the criminal intention, be- cases, he says, ignorantiafacti excusat, because
cause the defendant called no witnesses?  Why  the mind does not go with the act; sed ignorandid the learned judge confine his inquiries to the  tia legis non excusat;35 and, therefore, if the party
innuendoes, and finding them  agreed in, direct knows the contents of the paper which he pubthe epithet of guilty, without asking the jury if lishes, his mind goes with the act of publication,
they believed the defendant's evidence to rebut though he does not find out anything criminal, and
the criminal inference?  Some of them positive- he is bound to abide by the legal consequences.
ly meant to negative the criminal inference by    This is to make criminality depend upon the
adding the word only, and all would have done  consciousness of an act, and not upon Reply: Intenit. if they had thought themselves at liberty to  the knowledge of its quality, which t essetute f
enter upon that evidence.  But they were told  would involve lunatics and children in tie crimle.
expressly that they had nothing to do with the  all the penalties of criminal law; for whatever
consideration of that evidence, which, if believed, they do is attended with consciousness, though
would have warranted that verdict.  The con- their understanding does not reach to the conclusion is evident; if they had a right to consider sciousness of offense.  The publication of a libel,
it, and their consideration might have produced  not believing it to be one after having read it, is
such a verdict, and if such a verdict would have  a much more favorable case than publishing it
been an acquittal, it must be a misdirection.    unread by mistake; the one, nine times in ten, is
"Butt," says Mr. Bower, " if this advertise-  a culpable negligence, which is no excuse at all.
Answer to Mr. ment prefixed to the publication, by  For a man can not throw papers about the world
Bower astothe which the Dean professed his innocent without reading them, and afterward say he did
dver ent intention in publishing it, should have  not know their contents were criminal.  But if
been left to the jury as evidence of that intention, a man reads a paper, and not believing it to conto found an acquittal on, even taking the Dia- tain any thing seditious, having collected nothing
logue to be a libel, no man could ever be con- of that tendency himself, publishes it among his
victed of publishing any thing, however danger- neighbors as an innocent and useful work, he can
ous; for he would only have to tack an adver- not be convicted as a criminal publisher.  How
tisement to it by way of preface, professing the  he is to convince the jury that his purpose was
excellence of its principles and the sincerity of innocent, though the thing published be a libel,
its motives, and his defense would be complete."  must depend upon circumstances-and these cirMy Lord, I never contended for any such posi- cumstances he may, on the authority of all the
tion.  If a man of education, like the Dean, were  cases, ancient and modern, lay before the jury in
to publish a writing so palpably libelous that no  evidence; because, if he can establish the innoignorance or misapprehension imputable to such  cence of his mind, he negatives the very gist of
a person could prevent his discovering the mis- the indictment.
chievous design of the author, no jury would be-    "In all crimes," says Lord Hale, in his Pleas
lieve such an advertisement to be bona fide, and  of the Crown, " the intention is the principal conwould, therefore, be bound in conscience to reject sideration; it is the mind that makes the taking
it, as if it had no existence.  The effect of such  of another's goods to be felony, or a bare tresevidence must be to convince the jury of the de- pass only: it is impossible to prescribe all the
fendant's purity of mind, and must, therefore, de-   Thildada   "oac  a  
-a; This old adage, " Ignorance of a fact may expend upon the nature of the writing itself, and   use,t ntf law," proceeds on the principle that
all the circumstances attending its publication. men are bound to know the law of their country, but
If, upon reading the paper, and considering the  not every fact that may be connected with their
whole of the evidence, they have reason to think  conduct and actions.




682                                      MR. ERSKINE                                         [1784.
circumstances evidencing a felonious intent, or  from it, that every student knows it is as applithe contrary; but the same must be left to the  cable to all other cases. But people are resolved,
attentive consideration of judge andjury: where- from. some fatality or other, to distort every prinin the best rule is, in dubiis, rather to incline to  ciple of law into nonsense, when they come to
acquittal than conviction."                        apply it to printing; as if none of the rules and
In the same work, he says, " By the statute of  maxims which regulate all the transactions of
Philip and Mary, touching importation of coin  society had any reference to it.
counterfeit of foreign money, it must, to make it    If a man, rising in his sleep, walks into a
treason, be with the intent to utter and make  china shop, and breaks every thing about him,
payment of the same; and the intent in this case  his being asleep is a complete answer to an inmay be tried and found by circumstances of  dictment for a trespass; but he must answer in
FACT, by words, letters, and a thousand evi- an action for every thing he has broken.
deuces besides the bare doing of the fact."          If the proprietor of the York coach, though
This principle is illustrated by frequent prac-  asleep in his bed at that city, has a drunken
tice, where the intention is found by the jury as servant on the box at London, who drives over
a fact in a special verdict.  It occurred, not my leg and breaks it, he is responsible to me in
above a year ago, at East Grinstead, on an indict- damages for the accident; but I can not indict
ment for burglary, before Mr. Justice Ashurst, him  as the criminal author of my misfortune.
where I was myself counsel for the prisoner. It What distinction can be more obvious and simwas clear upon the evidence that he had broken  ple?
into the house by force, in the night, but I con-    Let us only, then, extend these principles,
tended that it appeared from proof that he had  which were never disputed in other criminal
broken and entered with an intent to rescue his  cases, to the crime of publishing a libel; and let
goods, which had been seized that day by the offi- us, at the same time, allow to the jury, as our
cers of excise; which rescue, though a capital fel- forefathers did before us, the same jurisdiction
ony by modern statute, was but a trespass, temp. in that instance which we agree in rejoicing to
Henry VIII., and consequently not a burglary.   allow them in all others, and the system of EnbMr. Justice Ashurst saved this point of law, glish law will be wise, harmonious, and complete.
which the twelve judges afterward determined    My Lord, I have now finished my argument,
for the prisoner.  But in order to create the point having answered the several objections Peroration.
n.  G   ~'       ~ ~       -<   Peroration.
of law, it was necessary that the prisoner's in- to my five original propositions, and estention should be ascertained as a fact; and, for tablished them by all the principles and authorithis purpose, the learned judge directed the jury  ties which appear to me to apply, or to be necto tell him with what intention they found that essary for their support.  In this process I have
the prisoner broke and entered the house, which  been unavoidably led into a length not more inthey did by answering, " To rescue his goods,"  convenient to the court than to myself, and have
which verdict was recorded.                       been obliged to question several judgments which
In the same manner, in the case of the King  had been before questioned and confirmed.
against Pierce, at the Old Bailey, the intention    They, however, who may be disposed to cen.
was found by the jury as a fact in the special sure me for the zeal which has animated me in
verdict.  The prisoner, having hired a horse and  this cause, will at least, I hope, have the candor
afterward sold him, was indicted for felony; to give me credit for the sincerity of my intenbut the judges, doubting whether it was more  tions.  It is surely not my interest to stir up opthan a fraud, unless he originally hired him in- position to the decided authorities of the court in
tending to sell him, recommended it to the jury  which I practice.  With a seat here within the
to find a special verdict, comprehending their  bar, at my time of life, and looking no further
judgment of his intention, from  the evidence. than myself, I should have been contented with
Here the quality of the act depended on the in- the law as I found it, and have considered how
tention, which intention it was held to be the  little might be said with decency, rather than
exclusive province of the jury to determine, be-  how much; but feeling as I have ever done upon
fore the judges could give the act any legal de- the subject, it was impossible I should act othernomination.                                       wise.  It was the first command and counsel to
My Lord, I am ashamed to have cited so many  my youth, always to do what my conscience told
The error arises authorities to establish the first ele- me to be my duty, and to leave the consequences
from confounding civilarnd  ments of the law; but it has been  to God. I shall carry with me the memory, and,
criminalcases.  my fate to find them disputed. The  I hope, the practice, of this parental lesson to
whole mistake arises from confounding criminal the grave.  I have hitherto followed it, and have
with civil cases.  If a printer's servant, without no reason to complain that the adherence to it
his master's consent or privity, inserts a slander-  has been even a temporal sacrifice: I have tound
ous article against me in his newspaper, I ought it, on the contrary, the road to prosperity and
not in justice to indict him; and if I do, the jury  wealth, and shall point it out as such to my chilon such proof should acquit him; but it is no  dren.  It is impossible, in this country, to hurt
defense against an action, for he is responsible to  an honest man; but even if it were possible, I
me civiliter for the damage which I have sustained  should little deserve that title, if I could, upon
from the newspaper, which is his property.  Is  any principle, have consented to tamper or temthere any thing new in this principle?  So far  porize with a question which involves, in its de.




1789.]                          IN  BEHALF OF STOCKDALE.                                        683
termination and its consequences, the liberty of  of libel or no libel was one for the judges alone
the press, and, in that liberty, the very existence  to decide-thus putting the liberty of the press
of every part of the public freedom.               beyond the reach of a jury, in the hands of the
court.  The public mind became greatly agitated on the subject.  Mr. Erskine's argument
Notwithstanding this powerful argument, the  was written out and widely circulated; and a
court, through Lord Mansfield, gave a unani- way was thus prepared for a declaratory law,
mous decision in favor of Justice Buller's doc- affirming the right of the jury "to give their
trine, and discharged the rule for a new trial.36 verdict on the whole matter in issue," and orderBut they afterward allowed an arrest of judg- ing that'they shall not be required or directed
ment, finding, on examination, that there was by the court to find the defendant or defendants
nothing illegal in the Dialogue.  Mr. Erskine, guilty merely on the proof of the publication by
referring to the subject in his speech on the trial such  defendant or defendants, of the papers
of Paine, said: " I ventured to maintain this very  charged to be a libel."  Mr. Fox introduced a
right of a jury over questions of libel before a  bill to this effect into the House of Commons, in
noble and revered magistrate of the most exalt- 1791.  When passed there, it was once defeated
ed understanding, and the most uncorrupted in- and again resisted by Thurlow, Kenyon, Bathtegrity.  He treated me, not with contempt, in- urst, and all the judges in the House of Lords,
deed, for of that his nature was incapable; but but was finally passed, June 1st, 1792, chiefly
he put me aside with indulgence, as you do a  through the exertions of Lord  Camden.  "I
child when it is lisping its prattle out of season."  have said," says the distinguished jurist already
At the present day, however, most lawyers agree  mentioned, "and I still think, that this great conin the opinion expressed by Lord Campbell, that stitutional triumph is mainly to be ascribed to
the doctrine of Mansfield, though it had obtained  Lord CAMDEN, who had been fighting in the
in the courts for a century, was a departure from  cause for half a century, and uttered his last
the original principles of the English common  words in the House of Lords in its support: but
law on this subject.                               without the invaluable assistance of ERSIINE,
The decision now  made, confirming that in  as counsel of the Dean of St. Asaph, the Star
the case of Woodfall, was considered as finally  Chamber might have been re-established in this
establishing the fatal principle, that the question  country."
SPEECH
OF MR. ERSKINE IN BEHALF OF JOHN STOCKDALE WHEN TRIED FOR A LIBEL ON THE HOUSE
OF COMMONS, DELIVERED BEFORE THE COURT OF KING'S BENCH, DECEMBER 9,1789.
INTRODUCTION.
MR. STOCKDALE was a London bookseller, who published a pamphlet, written by a Scottish clergyman
named Logan, while the trial of Warren Hastings was going on, reflecting severely on the House of
Commons for their proceedings therein. Mr. Fox, one of the managers of the impeachment, brought this
publication before the House, as impugning the motives of those who had proposed the trial, and moved
that the Attorney General be directed to prosecute the author and publisher of the pamphlet for a libel
on the Commons. The fact of publication was admitted, and the case, therefore, turned on the true nature
of the crime alleged.
In this speech Mr. Erskine has stated, with admirable precision and force, the great principles involved
in the law of libel: namely, that every composition of this kind is to be taken as a whole, and not judged
of by detached passages; that if its general spirit and intention are good, it is not to be punished for hasty
or rash expressions thrown off in the heat of discussion, and which might even amount to libels when considered by themselves; that the interests of society demand great freedom in canvassing the measures
of government; and that if a publication is decent in its language and peaceable in its import, much indulgence ought to be shown toward its author, when his real design is to discuss the subject, and not to
bring contempt on the government-though in doing so he may be led, by the strength of his feelils, to
transcend the bounds of candor and propriety.
6 It is curious that so accurate a man as Lord.         For Sir Philip well knows
Mansfield should have made so entire a mistake             That his innuendoes
upon one point embraced in his decision. In main-          Will serve him no longer
taining that, from  the time of the Revolution of          In verse or in prose;
1688, the doctrine of Justice Buller had been uni-   For twelve honest men have decided the cause,
versally received and acknowledged he quoted the    Wiho are judges offact, though not judges of laws.
following lines from a ballad by Mr. Pulteney con- Now it happens that the last line was written and
cerning Sir Philip Yorke, the Attorney General, to ubised ths by Pulteney il the Craftsman:
prove that even "the popular party, in those days,
had no idea of assuming that the jury had a right   Who are judges alike of the facts and the LAWS!
to determine upon a question of law."             -See Erskcine's Speeches, vol. i., p. 216, New York.




684                                     MR. ERSKINE                                         [1789.
This is universally considered the finest of Mr. Erskine's speeches, " whether we regard the wonderful
skill with which the argument is conducted-the soundness of the principles laid down, and their happy
application to the case-the exquisite fancy with which they are embellished and illustrated-or the
powerful and touching language in which they are conveyed. It is justly regarded by all English lawyers as a consummate specimen of the art of addressing a jury-as a standard, a sort of precedent for
treating cases of libel, by keeping which in his eye a man may hope to succeed in special pleading his
client's case within its principle, who is destitute of the talent required even to comprehend the other and
higher merits of his original. By these merits it is recommended to lovers of pure diction-of copious and
animated description-of lively, picturesque, and fanciful illustration-of all that constitutes, if we may so
speak, the poetry of eloquence."-Edinburgh Reviewo, vol. xvi., p. 109.
SPEECH, &c.
GENTLEMEN OF THE JURY,-Mr. Stockdale, General, in concession to my propositions, and
Extraordinary who is brought as a criminal before  confirmed by the higher authority of the court,
confidencere- you for the publication of this book, namely, that every information or indictment
posed in the
speaker bythe has, by employing me as his advocate, must contain such a description of the crime that,
defendat.  reposed what must appear to many    First, the defendant may know what crime it
an extraordinary degree of confidence; since, is which he is called upon to answer.
although he well knows that I am  personally    Secondly, the jury may appear to be warrantconnected in friendship with most of those whose  ed in their conclusion of guilty or not guilty.
conduct and opinions are principally arraigned    And, thirdly, the court may see such a preby its author,l he nevertheless commits to my  cise and definite transgression upon the record,
hands his defense and justification.              as to be able to apply the punishment which juFrom  a trust apparently so delicate and sin- dicial discretion may dictate, or which positive
This created by gular, vanity is but too apt to whis- law may inflict.
ftheirnr     per an application to some fancied    It was admitted also to follow as a mere corbar.       merit of one's own; but it is proper, ollary from these propositions, that where an infor the honor of the English bar, that the world  formation charges a writing to be composed or
should know that such things happen to all of us published of and concerning the Commons of Great
daily, and of course; and that the defendant, Britain, with an intent to bring that body into
without any knowledge of me, or any confidence  scandal and disgrace with the public, the author
that was personal, was only not afraid to follow  can not be brought within the scope of such a
up an accidental retainer, from  the knowledge charge, unless the jury, on examination and conmhe has of the general character of the profession. parison of the whole matter written or published,
Happy, indeed, is it for this country that, what- shall be satisfied that the particular passages
ever interested divisions may characterize other charged as criminal, when explained by the conplaces, of which I may have occasion to speak  text, and considered as part of one entire work,
to-day, however the counsels of the highest de- were meant and intended by the author to vilify
partments of the state may be occasionally dis- the House of Commons as a BODY, and were
tracted by personal considerations, they never written of and concerning them IN PARLIAMENT
enter these walls to disturb the administration  ASSEMBLED.
of justice.  Whatever may be our public prin-    These principles being settled, we are now to
ciples, or the private habits of our lives, they  see what the present information is.
never cast even a shade across the path of our    It charges that the defendant —'unlawfully,
hllatimpartial- professional duties.  If this be the  wickedly, and maliciously devising, con- Tle crime
ity, tlen, may  characteristic even of the bar of an  triving, and intending to asperse, scan- charged.
we not expect
ortlhecourtand English court of justice, what sacred  dalize, and vilify the Commons of Great Britain
Jury?      impartiality may not every man ex- in Parliament assembled; and most wickedly
pect from its jurors and its bench?              and audaciously to represent their proceedings
As, from the indulgence which the court was as corrupt and unjust, and to make it believed
Admitted prin- yesterday pleased to give to my in- and thought as if the Commons of Great Britain
ciples applica- disposition, this information was not in Parliament assembled were a most wicked,
ble to the canse.
proceeded on when you were attend- tyrannical, base, and corrupt set of persons, and
ing to try it, it is probable you were not alto- to bring them into disgrace with the publicgether inattentive to what passed at the trial of the defendant published -  What?  Not those
the other indictment, prosecuted also by the  latter ends of sentences which the Attorney GenHouse of Commons.  Without, therefore, a re- eral has read from his brief, as if they had folstatement of the same principles, and a similar lowed one another in order in this book.  Not
quotation of authorities to support them, I need  those scraps and tails of passages which are
only remind you of the law  applicable to this patched together upon this record, and prosubject, as it was then admitted by the Attorney  nounced in one breath, as if they existed without
1 Mhr. Erskine was not only a meat admirer of intermediate matter in the same page, and withMr. Burke, buthewas in the constant habit of refer-  ut context any where.  No!  This is not the
ring to his productions in terms of the highest ad- accusation, even mutilated as it is; for the inmiration.                                        formation charges that, with intention to vili/j




1789.]                      IN BEHALF OF STOCKDALE.                                         685
the House of Commons, the defendant published  first give you the publication as it is charged
the whole book, describing it on the record by  upon the record, and presented by the Attorney
its title: "A Review  of the Principal Charges  General in opening the case for the Crown; and
against Warren Hastings, Esq., late Governor I will then, by reading the interjacent matter,
General of Bengal:" in which, among other which is studiously kept out of view, convince
things, the matter particularly selected is to be  you of its true interpretation.
found.2                                            The information, beginning with the first page
Your inquiry, therefore, is not confined to this, of the book, charges as a libel upon the House
Question forwhether the defendant published those  of Commons the following sentence: " The House
the jury to  selected parts of it; and whether, look- of Commons has now given its final decision with
e   ing at them  as they are distorted by  regard to the merits and demerits of Mr. Hastthe information, they carry, in fair construction, ings.  The Grand Inquest of England have dethe sense and meaning which the innuendoes put livered their charges, and preferred their imupon them; but whether the author of the entire  peachment; their allegations are referred to
work-I say the author, since, if he could de- proof; and from the appeal to the collective wisfend himself, the publisher unquestionably can-  dom and justice of the nation in the supreme triwhether the author wrote the volume which I bunal of the kingdom, the question comes to be
hold in my hand, as a free, manly, bon6 fide dis- determined whether Mr. Hastings be guilty or
quisition of criminal charges against his fellow- not guilty?"
citizen.  Or whether the long, eloquent discus-    It is but fair, however, to admit that this first
sion of them, which fills so many pages, was a  sentence, which the most ingenious malice can
mere cloak and cover for the introduction of the  not torture into a criminal construction, is chargsupposed scandal imputed to the selected passa- ed by the information rather as introductory to
ges; the mind of the writer all along being in- what is made to follow it than as libelous in ittent on traducing the House of Commons, and  self.  For the Attorney General, from this intronot on fairly answering their charges against ductory passage in the first page, goes on at a
Mr. Hastings?  This, gentlemen, is the princi- leap to page thirteenth, and reads-almost withpal matter for your consideration.  And there- out a stop, as if it immediately followed the othfore, if, after you shall have taken the book itself  er-this sentence: " What credit can we give
into the chamber which will be provided for you, to multiplied and accumulated charges, when we
and shall have read the whole of it with impar- find that they originate from  misrepresentation
tial attention-if, after the performance of this  and falsehood?"
duty, you can return here, and with clear con-    From  these two passages thus standing tosciences pronounce upon your oaths that the im- gether, without the intervenient matter which
pression made upon you by these pages is, that occupies thirteen pages, one would imagine that
the author wrote them  with the wicked, sedi- -instead of investigating the probability or imtious, and corrupt intentions charged by the in- probability of the guilt imputed to Mr. Hastings
formation-you have then my full permission to  -instead of carefully examining the charges of
find the defendant guilty.  But if, on the other the Commons, and the defense of them  which
hand, the general tenor of the composition shall had been delivered before them, or which was
impress you with respect for the author, and  preparing for the Lords-the author had immepoint him out to you as a man mistaken, perhaps, diately, and in a moment after stating the mere
himself, but not seeking to deceive others-if  fact of the impeachment, decided that the act of
every line of the work shall present to you an  the Commons originated from misrepresentation
intelligent, animated mind, glowing with a Chris- and falsehood.
tian compassion toward a fellow-man, whom he    Gentlemen, in the same manner a vail is cast
believed to be innocent, and with a patriot zeal over all that is written in the next seven pages;
for the liberty of his country, which he consid- for, knowing that the context would help to the
ered as wounded through tle sides of an op- true  construction, not only of the passages
pressed fellow-citizen-if this shall be the im- charged before, but of those in the sequel of this
pression on your consciences and understandings, information, the Attorney General, aware that it
when you are called upon to deliver your ver- would convince every man who read it that there
diet-then hear from me that you not only work  was no intention in the author to calumniate the
private injustice, but break up the press of En- House of Commons, passes over, by another leap,
gland, and surrender her rights and liberties for- to page twenty; and in the same manner, withever, if you convict the defendant.              out drawing his breath, and as if it directly folGentlemen, to enable you to form a true judg- lowed the two former sentences in the first and
Charge made  ment of the meaning of this book and  thirteenth pages. reads from  page twentieth:
pt.sa.ge.tdg of the intention of its author, and to  " An impeachment of error in judgment with
omittingthe in- expose the miserable juggle that is regard to the quantum of a fine, and for an intervening mat-                                       n o                   a  n 
ter.       played off in the information, by the  tention that never was executed and never
combination of sentences which, in the work it- known to the offending party, characterizes a triself, having no bearing upon one another, I will bunal of inquisition rather than a Court of Par2 The principal parts selected by the Attorney  liament.
General are specified and commented on by Mr. Er-    From this passage, by another vault, he leaps
skiue in a subsequent part of this speech.       over one-and-thirty pages more, to page fifty



686                                    MR. ERSKINE                                       [1789.
one, where he reads the following sentence,    The Commons of Great Britain, in Parliament
which he mainly relies on, and upon which I assembled, had accused Mr. Hastings, (1.)Character
shall by-and-by trouble you with some observa- as Governor General of'Bengal, of high ud conduct of
I~n ~      the House  in
tions: "Thirteen of them passed in the House  crimes and misdemeanors  and their impeaching Mr.
of Commons, not only without investigation, but jurisdiction, for that high porpose of Hastigs.
without being read; and the votes were given  national justice, was unquestionably competent.
without inquiry, argument, or conviction.  A  But it is proper you should know the nature of
majority had determined to impeach; opposite  this inquisitorial capacity. The Commons, in votparties met each other, and'jostled in the dark, ing an impeachment, may be compared to a grand
to perplex the political drama, and bring the  jury finding a bill of indictment for the Crown.
hero to a tragic catastrophe.'                  Neither the one nor the other can be supposed
From thence, deriving new vigor from every  to proceed but upon the matter which is brought
exertion, he makes his last grand stride over before them; neither of them can find guilt withforty-four pages more, almost to the end of the  out accusation, nor the truth of accusation withbook, charging a sentence in the ninety-fifth  out evidence.  When, therefore, we speak of the
page.                                            "accuser," or "accusers," of a person indicted
So that out of a volume of one hundred and ten  for any crime, although the grand jury are the
Any book might pages, the defendant is only charged  accusers inform, by giving effect to the accusacovcteo er-  ith a few scattered fragments of  tion, yet, in common parlance, we do not consider
ror.       sentences, picked out of three or four. them as the responsible authors of the prosecuOut of a work consisting of about two thousand  tion.  If I were to write of a most wicked infive hundred and thirty lines, of manly, spirited  dictment, found against an innocent man, which
eloquence, only forty or fifty lines are culled  was preparing for trial, nobody who read it would
from different parts of it, and artfully put togeth- conceive I meant to stigmatize the grand jury
er, so as to rear up a libel, out of a false context, that found the bill  but it would be inquired imby a supposed connection of sentences with one  mediately, who was the prosecutor, and who were
another. which are not only entirely independ- the witnesses on the back of it?  In the same
ent, but which, when compared with their ante- manner, I mean to contend, that if this book is
cedents, bear a totally different construction. In  read with only common attention, the whole
this manner, the greatest works upon govern- scope of it will be discovered to be this: That,
ment, the most excellent books of science, the  in the opinion of the author, Mr. Hastings had
sacred Scriptures themselves, might be distort- been accused of maladministration in India, from
ed into libels, by forsaking the general context, the heat and spleen of political divisions in Parand hanging a meaning upon selected parts. liament, and not from any zeal for national honor
Thus, as in the text put by Algernon Sidney, or justice; that the impeachment did not origin" The fool hath said in his heart, there is no  ate from government, but from a faction banded
God," the Attorney General, on the principle of against it, which, by misrepresentation and viothe present proceeding against this pamphlet, lence, had fastened it on an unwilling House of
might indict the publisher of the Bible for bias- Commons; that, prepossessed with this sentimenl
phemously denying the existence of heaven, in  (which, however unfounded, makes no part of the
printing, "There is no God," for these words present business, since the publisher is not called
alone, without the context, would be selected by  before you for defaming individual members of
the information, and the Bible, like this book, the Commons, but for a contempt of the Commons
would be underscored to meet it. Nor could the  as a body), the author pursues the charges, ardefendant, in such a case, have any possible de- tide by article; enters into a warm and animated
fense, unless the jury were permitted to see, by  vindication of Mr. Hastings, by regular answers
the book itself, that the verse, instead of denying  to each of them; and that, as far as the mind and
the existence of the Divinity, only imputed that soul of a man can be visible, I might almost say
imagination to afool.                            embodied in his writings, his intention throughGentlemen, having now gone through the At- out the whole volume appears to have been to
preliininry torney General's reading, the book shall charge with injustice the private accusers of Mr.
coonsi dera  presently come forward and speak for Hastings, and not the House of Commons as a
tions before
taking up  itself.  But before I can venture to lay  body; which undoubtedly rather reluctantly gave
the book.  it before you, it is proper to call your way to, than heartily adopted the impeachment.
attention to how matters stood at the time of its  This will be found to be the palpable scope of
publication: without which the author's meaning  the book; and no man who can read English,
and intention can not possibly be understood.3    and who, at the same time, will have the candor
and common sense to take up his impressions
3 One of the most admirable things in this defense  fron wht is written in it, insted of bringing his
was the introduction of this preliminary matter. Be- 
fore comparing the book with the charges, Mr. Er- description of the trial, and of the talent arrayed
skine here brings forward the character sustained  against his client in Westminster Hall.
by the Commons, and the error they committed in    4 This distinction between the individual oppoallowing the charges against Hastings to be pub- nents of Mr. Hastings and the House to which they
lished to the world. He thus shows the necessity  belonged, was one of the turning-points of the case,
of some defense on the part of the accused. He  and was used by Mr. Erskine with great effect when
next awakens sympathy in his favor by a powerful he came to commlent on the pamphlet.




1789.]                         IN BEHALF OF STOCKDALE.                                     687
own along with him to the reading of it, can pos- dure the publication of their records.  A prossibly understand it otherwise.                  ecutor of an indictment would be attached for
But it may be said, that admitting this to be such a publication; and, upon the same principle,
(.) The House the scope and design of the author, a defendant would be punished for anticipating
p"ovoke t   what right had he to canvass the  the justice of his country, by the publication of
in the charges merits of an accusation upon the rec- his defense, the public being no party to it, until!guainst Hastis to be pub- ords of the Commons, more espe- the tribunal appointed for its determination be
I'.e   cially while it was in the course of open for its decision.
legal procedure?  This, I confess, might have    Gentlemen, you have a right to take judicial
been a serious question, but the Commons, as notice of these matters, without the These things,?prosecutors of this information, seem  to have  proof of them  by witnesses.  For tllouh not in
waived or forfeited their right to ask it. Before  jurors may not only, without evi- p-operly before
they sent the Attorney General into this place, dehne, found their verdicts on facts t~ie-r
to punish the publication of answers to their that are notorious, but upon what they know pricharges, they should have recollected that their vately themselves, after revealing it upon oath to
own want of circumspection in the maintenance  one another.  Therefore, you are always to reof their privileges, and in the protection of per- member that this book was written when the
sons accused before them, had given to the pub- charges against Mr. Hastings, to which it is an
lie the charges themselves, which should have  answer, were, to the knowledge of the Commons
been confined to their own journals.  The course  (for we can not presume our watchmen to have
and practice of Parliament might warrant the  been asleep), publicly hawked about in every
printing of them for the use of their own mem- pamphlet, magazine, and newspaper in the kingbers; but there the publication should have stop- dom.  You well know with what a curious apped, and all further progress been resisted by  petite these charges were devoured by the whole
authority.  If they were resolved to consider public, interesting as they were, not only from
answers to their charges as a contempt of their their importance, but from  the merit of their
privileges, and to punish the publication of them  composition; certainly not so intended bv the
by such severe prosecutions, it would have well honorable and excellent composer to oppress the
become them  to have begun first with those  accused, but because the commonest subjects
printers who, by publishing the charges them- swell into eloquence under the touch of his subselves throughout the whole kingdom, or rather lime genius.  Thus, by the remissness of the
throughout the whole civilized world, were an- Commons, who are now the prosecutors of this
ticipating the passions and judgments of the pub- information, a subject of England, who was not
lie against a subject of England upon his trial, even charged with contumacious resistance to
so as to make the publication of answers to them  authority, much less a proclaimed outlaw, and
not merely a privilege, but a debt and duty to  therefore fully entitled to every protection which
humanity and justice.  The Commons of Great the customs and statutes of the kingdom hold out
Britain claimed and exercised the privileges of  for the protection of British liberty, saw himself
questioning the innocence of Mr. Hastings by  pierced with the arrows of thousands and ten
their impeachment: but as, however questioned, thousands of libels.
it was still to be presumed and protected, until    Gentlemen, before I venture to lay the book
guilt was established by a judgment, he whom  before you, it must be yet further remembered
they had accused had an equal claim upon their  (for the fact is equally notorious) that under these
justice, to guard him  from prejudice and mis- inauspicious circumstances the trial of Mr. Hastrepresentation until the hour of trial.        ings at the bar of the Lords had actually comHad the Commons, therefore, by the exercise  menced long before its publication.
Such a pro- of their high, necessary, and legal priv-    There the most august and striking spectacle
trryto a- ileges, kept the public aloof from all was daily exhibited which the world (3.) Desciption
dicial usage. canvass of their proceedings, by an  ever witnessed. A vast stage ofjus- of the trial.
early punishment of printers, who, without re- tice was erected, awful from its high authority,
serve or secrecy, had sent out the charges into the  splendid from  its illustrious dignity, venerable
world from a thousand presses in every form of  from the learning and wisdom of its judges, cappublication, they would have then stood upon  tivating and affecting from the mighty concourse
ground to-day from whence no argument of pol- of all ranks and conditions which daily flocked
icy or justice could have removed them; because  into it, as into a theater of pleasure. There, when
nothing can be more incompatible with either the whole public mind was at once awed and
than appeals to the many upon subjects of judi- softened to the impression of every human affeccature, which, by common consent, a few are ap- tion, there appeared, day after day, one after anpointed to determine, and which must be determ- other, men of the most powerful and exalted talined by facts and principles, which the multitude  ents, eclipsing by their accusing eloquence the
have neither leisure nor knowledge to investigate. most boasted harangues of antiquity; rousing the
But then, let it be remembered that it is for those  pride of national resentment by the boldest inwho have the authority to accuse and punish, to  vectives against broken faith and violated treaties,
set the example of, and to enforce this reserve, and shaking the bosom with alternate pity and
which is so necessary for the ends of justice. horror by the most glowing pictures of insulted
Courts of law, therefore, in England, never en- nature and humanity; ever animated and ener



688                                    MR. ERSKINE                                      [1789
getic, from  the love of fame, which is the inhe- when the charges against Mr. Hastings were, by
rent passion of genius; firm  and indefatigable, the implied consent of the Commons, Question for
from a strong prepossession of the justice of their in every hand, and on every table-  th, jury to decide in view of
cause.                                         when, by their managers, the light- thesefacts.
Gentlemen, when the author sat down to write  ning of eloquence was incessantly consuming
the book now before you, all this terrible, un- him, and flashing in the eyes of the public-when
ceasing, exhaustless artillery of warm  zeal, every man was with perfect impunity saying, and
matchless vigor of understanding, consuming  writing, and publishing, just what he pleased of
and devouring eloquence, united with the high- the supposed plunderer and devastator of nations
est dignity, was daily, and without prospect of -would it have been criminal in Mr. Hastings
conclusion, pouring forth upon one private unpro- himself to have reminded the public that he was
tected man, who was bound to hear it, in the face a native of this free land, entitled to the common
of the whole people of England, with reverential protection of her justice, and that he had a de
submission and silence. I do not complain of this, fense, in his turn, to offer to them, the outlines of
as I did of the publication of the charges, be- which he implored them, in the mean time, to recause it is what the law allowed and sanctioned  ceive as an antidote to the unlimited and unpunin the course of a public trial. But when it is re- ished poison in circulation against him?  THIS
membered that we are not angels, but weak, fal- is, without color or exaggeration, the true queslible men, and that even the noble judges of that tion you are to decide.  For I assert, without
high tribunal are clothed beneath their ermines the hazard of contradiction, that if Mr. Hastings
with the common infirmities of man's nature, it himself could have stood justified or excused in
will bring us all to a proper temper for consider- your eyes for publishing this volume in his own
ing the book itself, which will in a few moments defense, the author, if he wrote it bona fide to debe laid before you.  But first, let me once more fend him, must stand equally excused and justilemind you, that it was under all these circum- fled; and if the author be justified, the publisher
stances, and amid the blaze of passion and prej- can not be criminal, unless you have evidence that
udice, which the scene I have been endeavoring  it was published by him, with a different spirit
flintly to describe to you might be supposed likely  and intention from those in which it was written.
to produce, that the author, whose name I will The question, therefore, is correctly what I just
now give to you, sat down to compose the book  now stated it to be: Could Mr. Hastings have
which is prosecuted to-day as a libel.         been condemned to infamy for writing this book?
The history of it is very short and natural.   Gentlemen, I tremble with indignation, to be
The Rev. Mr. Logan, minister of the Gospel driven to put such a question in En- Ground or
Origin ofthe at Leith, in Scotland, a clergyman of the gland.  Shall it be endured, that a sub- the defense.
I lplllet.  purest morals, and, as you will see by- ject of this country (instead of being arraigned
and-by, of very superior talents, well acquainted  and tried for some single act in her ordinary
with the human character, and knowing the dif- courts, where the accusation, as soon, at least, as
ficulty of bringing back public opinion after it is it is made public, is followed within a few hours
settled on any subject, took a warm, unbought, by the decision) may be impeached by the Conunsolicited interest in the situation of Mr. Hast- mons for the transactions of twenty years-that
ings, and determined, if possible, to arrest and  the accusation shall spread as wide as the region
suspend the public judgment concerning him. of letters-that the accused shall stand, day after
He felt for the situation of a fellow-citizen ex- day, and year after year, as a spectacle before the
posed to a trial which, whether right or wrong, public, which shall be kept in a perpetual state
is undoubtedly a severe one-a trial certainly not of inflammation against him; yet that he shall
confined to a few criminal acts like those we are  not, without the severest penalties, be permitted
accustomed to, but comprehending the transac- to submit any thing to the judgment of mankind
tions of a whole life, and the complicated policies in his defense?  If this be law  (which it is for
of numerous and distant nations-a trial which  you to-day to decide), such a man has NO TRIAL!
had neither visible limits to its duration,5 bounds That great hall, built by our fathers for English
to its expense, nor circumscribed compass for the  justice, is no longer a court, but an altar; and
grasp of memory or understanding-a trial which  an Englishman, instead of being judged in it by
had, therefore, broke loose from the common form  GOD AND HIS COUNTRY, IS A VICTIM AND A SACof decision, and had become the universal topic RIFICE!*
of discussion in the world, superseding not only    You will carefully remember that I am  not
every other grave pursuit, but every fashionable
dissipation.                                      6 In the next paragraph Mr. Erskine shows that
Gentlemen, the question you have, therefore, peculiar caution which he always maintained in his
to try upon all this matter is extremely simple  boldest flights.  H  istantly comes bac  to the
It is neither more nor less than this: At a time rights of the House, and the propriety with which
the managers had conducted. He thus took care to
s The trial began 13th February, 1788, and was impress his hearers, in his most impassioned passaprotracted until 23, April, 1795 (occupying one ges, with the feeling that all he said was in the exhundred and forty-eight days), when Mr. Hastings ercise of the severest judgment-that he was never
was acquitted by a large majority on every separate  borne away by mere emotion in his most fervent aparticle charged against him.  The costs of the de- peals. This gave great weight to his more glowing
fense amounted to ~76,080.                     passages.




i789.]                        IN BEHALF OF STOCKDALE.                                       689
2resuming to question either the right or duty of  but it would be the surrender of the very princithe Commons of Great Britain to impeach; nei- pie on which alone the liberty of the English
ther am I arraigning the propriety of their se- press can stand; and I shall never defend any
lecting, as they have done, the most extraordina- man from a temporary imprisonment by the perry persons for ability which the age has produced, manent loss of my own liberty, and the ruin of
to manage their impeachment.  Much less am I my country. I mean, therefore, to submit to you:
censuring the managers themselves, charged with  that though you should find a few lines in page
the conduct of it before the Lords, who are un- thirteen or twenty-one; a few more in page fiftydoubtedly bound, by their duty to the House and  one, and some others in other places; containing
to the public, to expatiate upon the crimes of the  expressions bearing on the House of Commons,
persons whom they had accused.  None of these  even as a body, which, if written as independent
points are questioned by me, nor are in this place  paragraphs by themselves, would be indefensible
questionable.  I only desire to have  libels, yet, that you have a right to pass them
Rca~pitulat it decided whethero if the Commons    v' it decided whether, if the Commons, over in judgment, provided the substance clearly
when national expediency happens to call in their appears to be a bonat fide conclusion, arising from
judgment for an impeachment, shall, instead of the honest investigation of a subject which it:
keeping it on their own records, and carrying it was lawful to investigate, and the questionaKLe
with due solemnity to the Peers for trial, permit expressions, the visible effusion of a zealous tem- 
it, without censure and punishment, to be sold like  per, engaged in an honorable and legal pursuit.
a common newspaper in the shop of my client, After this preparation, I am not afraid to lay theso crowded with their own members that no plain  book in its genuine state before you.
man, without privilege of Parliament, can hope    The pamphlet begins thus: "The House of
even for a sight of the fire in the winter's day, Commons has now given its final decis- comments,
every man buying it, reading it, and commenting  ion with regard to the merits and de- thereon.
upon it-the gentleman himself who is the ob- merits of Mr. Hastings.  The Grand Inquest of
ject of it, or his friend in his absence, may not, England have delivered their charges, and pre —
without stepping beyond the bounds of English  ferred their impeachment; their allegations are
freedom, put a copy of what is thus published into  referred to proof; and, from  the appeal to the
his pocket, and send back to the very same shop  collective wisdom  and justice of the nation in.
for publication a bona fide, rational, able answer the supreme tribunal of the kingdom, the questo it, in order that the bane and antidote may  tion comes to be determined, whether Mr. Hastcirculate together, and the public be kept straight ings be guilty or not guilty?"
till the day of decision.  If you think, gentlemen,    Now if, immediately after what I have just
that this common duty of self-preservation to the  read to you —which is the first part charged by
accused himself, which nature writes as a law  the information-the author had said, "Will acupon the hearts of even savages and brutes, is cusations, built on such a baseless fabric, preposnevertheless too high a privilege to be enjoyed by  sess the public in favor of the impeachment?
an impeached and suffering Englishman; or if  What credit can we give to multiplied and acyou think it beyond the offices of humanity and  cumulated charges, when we find that they origjustice, when brought home to the hand of a  inate from  misrepresentation and falsehood?"
brother or a friend, you will say so by your ver- every man would have been justified in prodict of guilty; the decision will then be yours; nouncing that he was attacking the House of
and the consolation mine, that I have labored to  Commons; because the groundless accusations
avert it.  A very small part of the misery which  mentioned in the second sentence could have noe
will follow from  it is likely to light upon me; reference but to the House itself mentioned by
the rest will be divided among yourselves andyour name in the first and only sentence which pre
children.                                        ceded it.
Gentlemen, I observe plainly and with infinite    But, gentlemen, to your astonishment I will
Transition to an satisfaction, that you are shocked and  now  read what intervenes between these two
examinationof offended at my even supposing it passages.  From  this you will see, beyond a
the pamphlet.  possible you should pronounce such  possibility of doubt, that the author never meant
a detestable judgment; and that you only require  to calumniate the House of Commons, but to
of me to make out to your satisfaction, as I prom- say that the accusations of Mr. Hastings before
ised, that the real scope and object of this book  the whole House grew out of a Committee of
is a b.na fide defense of Mr. Hastings, and not a  Secrecy established some years before, and was
cloak and cover for scandal on the House of Com- afterward brought forward by the spleen of primons.  I engage to do this, and I engage for vate enemies and a faction in the government.
nothing more.  I shall make an open, manly de- This will appear not only from the grammatical
fense.  I mean to torture no expressions from  construction of the words, but from what is bettheir natural constructions, to dispute no innuen- ter than words, from the meaning which a per —
does on the record, should any of them have a  son writing as a friend of Mr. Hastings must be
fair application; nor to conceal from your notice  supposed to have intended to convey.  Why
any unguarded, intemperate expressions, which  should such a friend attack the House of Corn.
may, perhaps, be found to chequer the vigorous  mons?  Will any man gravely tell me that the
and animated career of the work.  Such a con- House of Commons, as a body, ever wished to.
duct might, by accident, shelter the defendant; impeach Mr. Hastings?  Do we not all know
x




o90                                    MR. ERSKINE                                        [1789
that they constantly hung back from it, and hard- their being the authors of twenty volumes in foly knew where they were, or what to do when  lio, which will remain a secret to all posterity,
they found themselves entangled with it?  My  as nobody will ever read them.  The same conlearned friend, the Attorney General, is a mem- struction is equally plain from what immediately
ber of this Assembly: perhaps he may tell you  follows: " The report of the Committee of Secrecy
by-and-by what HE thought of it, and whether he  also states that the happiness of the native inhabever marked any disposition in the majority of  itants of India has been deeply affected, their conthe Commons hostile to Mr. Hastings.  But why  fidence in English faith and lenity shaken and imshould I distress my friend by the question? the  paired, and the character of this nation wantonly
fact is sufficiently notorious; and what I am go- and wickedly degraded."
ing to read from the book itself —which is left    Here, again, you are grossly misled by the
out in the information —is too plain for contro- omission of nearly twenty-one pages.  For the
versy.                                           author, though he is here speaking of this com"Whatever may be the event of the impeach- mittee by name, which brought forward the
ment, the proper exercise of such power is a  charges to the notice of the House, and which
valuable privilege of the British Constitution, a  he continues to do onward to the next selected
formidable guardian of the public liberty and  paragraph, yet, by arbitrarily sinking the whole
the dignity of the nation.  The only danger is, context, he is taken to be speaking to the House
that, from the influence of faction, and the awe as a body, when, in the passage next charged by
which is annexed to great names, they may be the information, he reproaches the accusers of Mr.
prompted to determine before they inquire, and to  Hastings; although, so far is he from considerpronounce judgment'without examination."       ing them as the House of Commons, that in the
Here is the clue to the whole pamphlet. The  very same page he speaks of the articles as the
author trusts to, and respects, the House of Com- charges not even of the committee, but of Mr.
mons, but is afraid their mature and just exam- Burke alone, the most active and intelligent memination may be disturbed by faction. Now, does ber of that body, having been circulated in India
he mean government by faction? Does he mean  by a relation of that gentleman: " The charges
the majority of the Commons by faction? Will of Mr. Burke have been carried to Calcutta, and
the House, which is the prosecutor here, sane- carefully circulated in India."
tion that application of the phrase; or will the    Now  if we were considering these passages
Attorney General admit the majority to be the  of the work as calumniating a body of gentlemen,
true innuendo of faction?  I wish he would; I many of whom I must be supposed highly to reshould then have gained something at least by  spect, or as reflecting upon my worthy friend
this extraordinary debate.  But I have no ex- whose name I have mentioned, it would give rise
wectation of the sort; such a concession would  to a totally different inquiry, which it is neither
be too great a sacrifice to any prosecution, at a  my duty nor yours to agitate.  But surely, the
time when every thing is considered as faction  more that consideration obtrudes itself upon us,
that disturbs the repose of the minister in Par- the more clearly it demonstrates that the author's
liament.  But, indeed, gentlemen, some things whole direction was against the individual accus-:are too plain for argument.  The author cer- ers of Mr. Hastings, and not against the House
tainly means my friends, who, whatever qualifi- of Commons, which merely trusted to the matter
cations may belong to them, must be contented  they had collected.
with the appellation of faction, while they op-    Although, from a caution which my situation
pose the minister in the House of Commons; dictates, as representing another, I have thought
but the House having given this meaning to the  it my duty thus to point out to you the real inphrase of faction for its own purposes, can not tention of the author, as it appears by the fair
in decency change the interpretation, in order to  construction of the work, yet I protest, that in my
convict my client.  I take that to be beyond the  own apprehension it is very immaterial whether
privilege of Parliament.                         he speaks of the committee or of the House, proThe same bearing upon individual members vided you shall think the whole volume a bona
of the Commons, and not on the Commons as a  fide defense of Mr. Hastings.  This is the great
body, is obvious throughout. Thus, after saying, point I am, by all my observations, endeavoring
in page ninth, that the East India Company had  to establish, and which, I think, no man who reads
thanked Mr. Hastings for his meritorious serv- the following short passages can doubt. Very inices-which is unquestionably true-he adds, telligent persons have, indeed, considered them,
" that mankind would abide by their deliberate  if founded in facts, to render every other amplidecision, rather than by the intemperate asser- fication unnecessary.  The first of them  is as
tion of a committee."                           follows: "It was known at that time that Mr.
This he writes after the impeachment was  Hastings had not only descended from a public
found by the Commons at large.  But he takes  to a private station, but that he was persecuted
no account of their proceedings; imputing the
whole to the original committeeg  that is the  In 1782, the committees having made their reports,
whole to the original committee —that is, the  wi  w     e en    voluminous, Mr. Dundas
CommitteeA oa    c,       which were exceedingly voluminous, Mr. Dundas,
Committee of Scecrcy-sp  called, I suppose, from  the chairman of the Secret Committee, moved no
7 The Secret Committee and the Select Commit- less than one hundred and eleven resolutions, and
tee for inquiring into the general management of the  concluded with a censure on the conduct of Warren
state of affairs in India were first appointed in 1781. Hastings.




1789.]                         IN  BEHALF OF STOCKDALE.                                       691
with accusations and impeachments.  But none  spoiler, with tears and imprecations.  It was not
of these sufferisg millions have sent their com- by the eloquence of the orator, but by the cries
plaints to this country; not a sigh nor a groan  and tears of the miserable, that Cicero prevailed
has been wafted from India to Britain.  On the  in that illustrious cause.  Verres fled from the
contrary, testimonies the most honorable to the  oaths of his accusers and their witnesses, and not
character and merit of Mr. Hastings have been  from the voice of Tully.  To preserve the fame
transmitted by those very princes whom he has  of his eloquence, he composed his five celebrated
been supposed to have loaded with the deepest speeches, but they were never delivered against
injuries."                                       the criminal, because he had fled from the city,
Here, gentlemen, we must be permitted to  appalled with the sight of the persecuted and the
pause together a little; for, in examining wheth- oppressed. It may be said that the cases of Sicer these pages were written as an honest answer ily and India are widely different; perhaps they
to the charges of the Commons, or as a prosti- may be; whether they are or not, is foreign to
tuted defense of a notorious criminal, whom the  my purpose.  I am not bound to deny the possiwriter believed to be guilty, truth becomes ma- bility of answers to such questions; I am only
terial at every step.  For if, in any instance, he  vindicating the right to ask them.9
be detected of a willful misrepresentation, he is    Gentlemen, the author, in the other passage
no longer an object of your attention,           which I marked out to your attention, goes on
Will the Attorney General proceed, then, to  thus: " Lord Cornwallis and Sir John MacpherColnparison   detect the hypocrisy of our author, by  son, his successors in office, have given the same
p                                               3f the case of  t ei
Hastitn with giving us some details of the proofs voluntary tribute of approbation to his measures
that of velres. by which these personal enormities  as Governor General of India.  A letter from the
have been established, and which the writer must former, dated the 10th of August, 1786, gives
be supposed to have been acquainted with?  I the following account of our dominions in Asia:
ask this as the defender of Mr. Stockdale, not of'The native inhabitants of this kingdom are the
Mr. Hastings, with whom I have no concern.  I happiest and best protected subjects in India; our
am sorry, indeed, to be so often obliged to repeat native allies and tributaries confide in our prothis protest; but I really feel myself embarrassed  tection; the country powers are aspiring to the
with those repeated coincidences of defense which  friendship of the English; and from the King of
thicken on me as I advance, and which were, no  Tidore, toward New Guinea, to Timur Shah, on
doubt, overlooked by the Commons when they di- the banks of the Indus, there is not a state that
rected this interlocutory inquiry into his conduct. has not lately given us proofs of confidence and
I ask, then, as counsel for Mr. Stockdale, wheth- respect.'"
er, when a great state criminal is brought for    Still pursuing the same test of sincerity, let us
justice at an immense expense to the public, examine this defensive allegation.
accused of the most oppressive cruelties, and    Will the Attorney General say that he does
charged with the robbery of princes and the de- not believe such a letter from  Lord Cornwallis
struction of nations, it is not open to any one to  ever existed?  No: for he knows that it is as
ask, Who are his accusers?  What are the sour- authentic as any document from India upon the
ces and the authorities of these shocking corn- table of the House of Commons.  What, then,
plaints?  Where are the embassadors or memo- is the letter?  " The native inhabitants of this
rials of those princes whose revenues he has  kingdom, says Lord Cornwallis (writing from the
plundered?  Where are the witnesses for those  very spot), are the happiest and best protected
unhappy men in whose persons the rights of hu- subjects in India," &c., &c., &c. The inhabitants
manity have been violated?  How deeply buried  of this kingdom!  Of what kingdom?  Of the
is the blood of the innocent, that it does not rise  very kingdom which Mr. Hastings has just reup in retributive judgment to confound the guilty! turned from governing for thirteen years, and for
These, surely, are questions which, when a fel- the misgovernment and desolation of which he
low-citizen is upon a long, painful, and expensive  stands every day as a criminal, or rather as a
trial, humanity has a right to propose; which the  spectacle, before us.  This is matter for serious
plain sense of the most unlettered man may be  reflection, and fully entitles the author to put the
expected to dictate, and which all history must question which immediately follows: " Does this
provoke from the more enlightened. When Cic- authentic account of the administration of Mr.
ERO impeached VERRESs before the great tribu- Hastings, and of the state of India, correspond
nal of Rome, of similar cruelties and depredations with the gloomy picture of despotism and despair
in her provinces, the Roman people were not left drawn by the Committee of Secrecy?"
to such inquiries.  All Sicily surrounded the Fo-    Had that picture been even drawn by the
rum, demanding justice upon her plunderer and  House of Commons itself, he would have been
8 Verres, as praetor and governor of Sicily, was    9 This passage was probably suggested by one in
guilty of such extortion and oppression, that the  Mr. Sheridan's speech on the Begum Charge (page
Sicilian people brought an accusation against him  409), where he is showing the difficulties under
in the Senate, and Cicero conducted the impeach- which the Managers labored in procuring their eviment. Verres was defended by Hortensius, the  dence. Nothing could be happier than Mr. Erskine's
celebrated Roman orator; but, aware of the justice  application of the case of Verres to illustrate the
of the accusation, he left Rome without waiting the  point-nothing more vivid than his picture of the
result.                                          scene.




692                                    MR. ERSKINE                                       [1789
fully justified in asking this question; but you  the rank of Zemindar.  About four years after
observe it has no bearing on it; the last words not the death of Bulwart Sing, the Governor General
only entirely destroy that interpretation, but also  and council of Bengal obtained the sovereignty
the meaning of the very next passage, which is paramount of the province of Benares.  On the
selected by the information as criminal, namely, transfer of this sovereignty the governor and
" What credit can we give to multiplied and ac- council proposed a new grant to Cheyte Sing,
cumulated charges, when we find that they orig- confirming his former privileges, and conferring
inate from misrepresentation and falsehood?"    upon him the addition of the sovereign rights of
This passage, which is charged as a libel on  the Mint, and the powers of criminal justice with
the Commons, when thus compared with its im- regard to life and death.  He was then recogmediate antecedent, can bear but one construe- nized by the Company as one of their Zemindars:
tion.  It is impossible to contend that it charges  a tributary subject, or feudatory vassal, of the
misrepresentation on the House that found the  British empire in Hindostan. The feudal system,
impeachment, but upon the Committee of Secre- which was formerly supposed to be peculiar to
cy just before adverted to, who were supposed to  our Gothic ancestors, has always prevailed in the
have selected the matter, and brought it before  East.  In every description of that form of govthe whole House for judgment.                   ernment, notwithstanding accidental variations,
I do not mean, as I have often told you, to vin- there are two associations expressed or underdicate any calumny on that honorable committee, stood; one for internal security, the other for ex
or upon any individual of it, any more than upon  ternal defense.  The King or Nabob confers prothe Commons at large; BUT THE DEFENDANT is tection on the feudatory baron as tributary prince,
NOT CHARGED BY THIS INFORMATION WITH ANY  oni condition of an annual revenue in the time of
SUCH OFFENSES.,                             peace, and of military service, partly commutaLet me here pause once more to ask you, ble for money, in the time of war.  The feudal
whether the book in its genuine state, as far as incidents in the Middle Ages in Europe, the fine
we have advanced in it, makes the same impres- paid to the superior on marriage, wardship, relief,
sion on your minds now as when it was first read  &c., correspond to the annual tribute in Asia.
to you in detached passages; and whether, if I Military service in war, and extraordinary aids
were to tear off the first part of it which I hold  in the event of extraordinary emergencies, were
in my hand, and give it to you as an entire work, common to both."
the first and last passages, which have been se-    "When the Governor General of Bengal, in
leoted as libels on the Commons, would now ap- 1778, made an extraordinary demand on the
pear to be so, when blended with the interjacent Zemindar of Benares for five' lacks of rupees,
parts?  I do not ask your answer; I shall have  the British empire, in that part of the world,
it in your verdict.  The question is only put to  was surrounded with enemies which threatened
direct your attention in pursuing the remainder its destruction.  In 1779, a general confederacy
of the volume to this main point-Is IT AN HON- was formed among the great powers of HindosEST, SERIOUS DEFENSE?  For this purpose, and  tan for the expulsion of the English from their
as an example for all others, I will read the au- Asiatic dominions. At this crisis the expectation
thor's entire answer to the first article of charge  of a French armament augmented the general caconcerning Cheyte Sing, the Zemindar of Bena- lamities of the country. Mr. Hastings is charged
res, and leave it to your impartial judgments to  by the committee with making his first demand
determine whether it be a mere cloak and cover under the false pretense that hostilities had comfor the slander imputed by the information to the  menced with France. Such an insidious attempt
concluding sentence of it, which is the only part to pervert a meritorious action into a crime is
attacked; or whether, on the contrary, that con- new, even in the history of impeachments.  On
elusion itself, when embodied with what goes  the 7th of July, 1778, Mr. Hastings received
before it, does not stand explained and justified? private intelligence from an English merchant
" The first article of impeachment," continues  at Cairo, that war had been declared, by Great
Case of   our author, "is concerning  Cheyte  Britain on the 23d of March, and by France on
CheyteSin. Sing, the Zemindar of Benares.  Bul- the 30th of April.  Upon this intelligence, conwart Sing, the father of this Rajah, was merely an  sidered as authentic, it was determined to attack
aurnil, or farmer and collector of the revenues for all the French settlements in India. The informSujah ul Dowlah, Nabob of Oude, and Vizier of ation was afterward found to be premature; but
the Mogul empire.  When, on the decease of his in the latter end of August a secret dispatch was
father, Cheyte Sing was confirmed in the office  received from England, authorizing and appointof collector for the Vizier, he paid E200,000 as ing Mr. Hastings to take the measures which he
a gift, or nuzzeranah, and an additional rent of had already adopted in the preceding month.
c~30,000 per annum."                            The Directors and the Board of Control have
" As the father was no more than an aumil expressed their approbation of this transaction
[agent], the son succeeded only to his rights and  by liberally rewarding Mr. Baldwyn, the merpretensions.  But by a sunnud [decree] granted  chant, for sending the earliest intelligence he
to him by the Nabob Sujah Dowlah in Septem- could procure to Bengal. It was two days after
her, 1773, through the influence of Mr. Hast- Mr. Hastings's information of the French war,
ings, he acquired a legal title to property in the  that he formed the resolution of exacting the
land, and was raised from the office of aumnil to  five lacks of rupees from Cheyte Sing, and would




1789.]                       IN BEHALF OF STOCKDALE.                                       693
have made similar exactions from all the depend- who is brought to what he thinks a just con:cluencies of the company in India, had they been  sion in argument, which, perhaps, becomes offensin the same circumstances. The fact is, that ive in proportion to its truth.  Truth is undoubtthe great Zemindars of Bengal pay as much to  edly no warrant for writing what is reproachful
government as their lands can afford.  Cheyte  of any private man. If a member of society lives
Sing's collections were above fifty lacks, and his within the law, then, if he offends, it is against
rent not twenty-four."                          God alone, and man has nothing to do with him;
" The right of calling for extraordinary aids and if he transgress the laws, the libeler should
and military service in times of danger being  arraign him before them, instead of presuming to
universally established in India, as it was form- try him himself.  But as to writings on general
erly in Europe during the feudal times, the sub- subjects, which are not charged as an infringesequent conduct of Mr. Hastings is explained  ment on the rights of individuals, but as of a seand vindicated.  The Governor General and  ditious tendency, it is far otherwise.  When, in
Council of Bengal having made a demand upon the progress either of legislation or of high naa tributary Zemindar for three successive years, tional justice in Parliament, they who are amenand that demand having been resisted by their able to no law  are supposed to have adopted,
vassal, they are justified in his punishment. The through mistake or error, a principle which, if
necessities of the company, in consequence of drawn into precedent, might be dangerous to the
the critical situation of their affairs in 1781, public, I shall not admit it to be a libel in the
calling for a high fine-the ability of the Ze- course of a legal and bona fide publication, to
mindar, who possessed near two crores of ru- state that such a principle had in fact been
pees in money and jewels, to pay the sum re- adopted.  The people of England are not to be
quired-his backwardness to comply with the  kept in the dark touching the proceedings of
demands of his superiors-his disaffection to the their own representatives.  Let us, therefore,
English interest, and desire of revolt, which  coolly examine this supposed offense, and see
even then began to appear, and were afterward  what it amounts to.
conspicuous, fully justify Mr. Hastings in every    First, was not the conduct of the right honorsubsequent step of his conduct.  In the whole  able gentleman, whose name is here mentioned,
of his proceedings, it is manifest that he had not exactly what it is represented?  Will the Atearly formed a design hostile to the Zemindar, torney General, who was present in the House
but was regulated by events which he could  of Commons, say that it was not?  Did not the
neither foresee nor control.  When the necessa- minister vindicate Mr. Hastings in what he had
ry measures which he had taken for supporting  done,l0 and was not his consent to that article of
the authority of the company, by punishing a the impeachment founded on the intention only
refractory vassal, were thwarted and defeated  of levying a fine on the Zemindar for the service
by the barbarous massacre of the British troops, of the state, beyond the quantum which he, the
and the rebellion of Cheyte Sing, the appeal was minister, thought reasonable?  What else is this
made to arms, an unavoidable revolution took  but an impeachment of error in judgment in the
place in Benares, and the Zemindar became the  quantum of a fine?
author of his own destruction."                   So much for the first part of the sentence,
Here follows the concluding passage, which  which, regarding Mr. Pitt only, is foreign to our
is arraigned by the information                 purpose.  And as to the last part of it, which
" The decision of the House of Commons on  imputes the sentiments of the minister to the
this charge against Mr. Hastings is one of the Imajority that followed him with their votes on
most singular to be met with in the annals of the question, that appears to me to be giving
Parliament.  The minister, who was followed  handsome credit to the majority for having votby the majority, vindicated him in every thing  ed from conviction, and not from courtesy to the
that he had done, and found him blamable only for minister.  To have supposed otherwise, I dare
what he intended to do; justified every step of  not say, would have been a more natural libel,
his conduct, and only criminated his proposed  but it would certainly have been a greater one.
intention of converting the crimes of the Zemin- The sum and substance, therefore, of the paradar to the benefit of the state, by a fine of fifty  graph is only this —that an impeachment for an
lacks of rupees.  An impeachment of error in  error in judgment is not consistent with the thejudgment with regard to the quantum  of a fine, ory or the practice of the English government.
and for an intention that never was executed, So say I. I say, without reserve, speaking mereand never known to the offending party, charac- ly in the abstract, and not meaning to decide
terizes a tribunal of inquisition rather than a  upon the merits of Mr. Hastings's cause, that an
court of Parliament."                           impeachment for an error in judgment is contraGentlemen, I am ready to admit that this sen- ry to the whole spirit of English criminal justice,
timent might have been expressed in language  which, though not binding on the House of Commore reserved and guarded; but you will look  mions, ought to be a guide to its proceedings. I
to the sentiment itself, rather than to its dress-   say that the extraordinary jurisdiction of impeachto the mind of the writer, and not to the blunt-'o Mr. Pitt expressed his opinion that, admitting
ness with which he may happen to express it. the right of Mr. Hastings to tax the Zemindar, his
It is obviously the language of a warm man, en- general conduct in the business had been unnecesraged in the honest defense of his friend, and  sarily severe.




694                                   MR. ERSKINE                                        [1789.
ment ought never to be assumed to expose error impeachments have been adopted for a higher exor to scourge misfortune, but to hold up a terri- ample than a prosecution in the ordinary courts,
ble example to corruption and willful abuse of  but surely never for a different example.  The
authority by extra legal pains.  If public men  matter, therefore, in the offensive paragraph is
are always punished with due severity when the not only an indisputable truth,'but a truth in
source of their misconduct appears to have been  the propagation of which we are all deeply conselfishly corrupt and criminal, the public can  cerned.
never suffer when their errors are treated with    Whether Mr. Hastings, in the particular ingentleness.  From such protection to the mag- stance, acted from corruption or from zeal for his
istrate, no man can think lightly of the charge  employers, is what I have nothing to do with; it
of magistracy itself, when he sees, by the lan- is to be decided in judgment; my duty stops with
guage of the saving judgment, that the only title  wishing him, as I do, an honorable deliverance.
to it is an honest and zealous intention.  If at Whether the minister or the Commons meant to
this moment, gentlemen, or indeed in any other found this article of the impeachment on mere
in the whole course of our history, the people of  error, without corruption, is likewise foreign to
England were to call upon every man in this im- the purpose.  The author could only judge from
peaching House of Commons who had given his what was said and done on the occasion.  He
voice on public questions, or acted in authority, only sought to guard the principle, which is a
civil or military, to answer for the issues of our common interest, and the rights of Mr. Hastings
councils and our wars, and if honest single in- under it.  He was, therefore, justified in publishtentions for the public service were refused as ing that an impeachment, founded in error in
answers to impeachments, we should have many  judgment, was, to all intents and purposes, illerelations to mourn for, and many friends to de- gal, unconstitutional, and unjust.
plore.  For my own part, gentlemen, I feel, I    Gentlemen, it is now time for us to return again
hope, for my country as much as any man that to the work under examination. The author havinhabits it; but I would rather see it fall, and be  ing discussed the whole of the first article through
buried in its ruins, than lend my voice to wound  so many pages, without even the imputation of an
any minister, or other responsible person, how- incorrect or intemperate expression, except in the
ever unfortunate, who had fairly followed the  concluding passage (the meaning of which I trust
lights of his understanding and the dictates of his I have explained), goes on with the same earnest
conscience for their preservation.              disposition to the discussion of the second charge
Gentlemen, this is no theory of mine; it is respecting the princesses of Oude, which occupies
the language of English law, and the protection  eighteen pages, not one syllable of which the Atwhich it affords to every man in office, from the  torney General has read, and on which there is not
highest to the lowest trust of government.  In  even a glance at the House of Commons.  The
no one instance that can be named, foreign or whole of this answer is, indeed, so far from bedomestic, did the Court of King's Bench ever in- ing a mere cloak for the introduction of slander,
terpose its extraordinary jurisdiction, by inform- that I aver it to be one of the most masterly
ation, against any magistrate for the widest de- pieces of writing I ever read in my life.  From
parture from  the rule of his duty, without the  thence he goes on to the charge of contracts and
plainest and clearest proof of correuption.  To  salaries, which occupiesfive pages more, in which
every such application, not so supported, the con- there is not a glance at the House of Commons, nor
stant answer has been, Go to a grand jury with  a word read by the Attorney General.  Ie aftyour complaint.  God forbid that a magistrate  erward defends Mr. Hastings against the charges
should suffer from an error in judgment, if his respecting the opium contracts. Not a glance at
purpose was honestly to discharge his trust. We  the House of Commons; not a word by the Attorcan not stop the ordinary course of justice; but ney General.  And, in short, in this manner he
wherever the court has a discretion, such a mag- goes on with the others, to the end of the book.
istrate is entitled to its protection.  I appeal to    Now, is it possible for any human being to bethe noble judge, and to every man who hears me, lieve that a man, having no other intention than to
for the truth and universality of this position. vilify the House of Commons (as this information
And it would be a strange solecism, indeed, to  charges), should yet keep his mind thus fixed and
assert that, in a case where the supreme court settled as the needle to the pole, upon the serious
of criminal justice in the nation would refuse to  merits of Mr. Hastings's defense, without ever
interpose an extraordinary though a legal juris- straying into matter even questionable, except in
diction, on the principle that the ordinary exe- the two or three selected parts out of two or
cution of the laws should never be exceeded, but three hundred pages?  This is a forbearance
for the punishment of malignant guilt, the Com- which could not have existed, if calumny and
mons, in their higher capacity, growing out of  detraction had been the malignant objects which
the same Constitution, should reject that princi- led him  to the inquiry and publication.  The
pie, and stretch them still further by a jurisdic- whole fallacy, therefore, arises from holding up
tion still more eccentric.  Many impeachments  to view a few detached passages, and carefully
have taken place, because the law could not ade- concealing the general tenor of the book.
quately punish the objects of them; but who ever    Having now finished most, if not all of these
heard of one being set on foot because the lav, critical observations, which it has been my duty
upon principle, would not punish them?  Many  to make upon this unfair mode of prosecution, it is




1789.]                        IN BEHALF OF STOCKDALE.                                      695
but a tribute of common justice to the Attorney  the first object of his attention, and that, under
General (and which my personal regard for him  his administration, it has been safe and prospermakes it more pleasant to pay), that none of my  ous; if it be true that the security and preservacommentaries reflect in the most distant manner tion of our possessions and revenues in Asia were
upon him; nor upon the Solicitor for the Crown, marked out to him as the great leading principle
who sits near me, who is a person of the most of his government, and that those possessions and
correct honor; far from it.  The Attorney Gen- revenues, amid unexampled dangers, have been
eral having orders to prosecute, in consequence  secured and preserved; then a question may be
of the address of the House to his Majesty, had  unaccountably mixed with your consideration,
no choice in the mode-no means at all of keep- much beyond the consequence of the present
ing the prosecutors before you in countenance, but prosecution, involving, perhaps, the merit of the
by the course which has been pursued.  But so impeachment itself which gave it birth-a quesfar has he been from enlisting into the cause those  tion which the Commons, as prosecutors of Mr.
prejudices, which it is not difficult to slide into a  Hastings, should, in common prudence, have
business originating from such exalted authority, avoided; unless, regretting the unwieldy length
he has honorably guarded you against them i of their proceedings against him, they wish to afpressing, indeed, severely upon my client with  ford him the opportunity of this strange anomathe weight of his ability, but not with the glare  lous defense.  For, although I am  neither his.and trappings of his high office.               counsel, nor desire to have any thing to do with
Gentlemen, I wish that my strength would en- his guilt or innocence: yet, in the collateral deable me to convince you of the author's single- fense of my client, I am driven to state matter
ness of intention, and of the merit and ability of which may be considered by many as hostile to
his work, by reading the whole that remains of the impeachment.  For if our dependencies have
it.  But my voice is already nearly exhausted; been secured, and their interests promoted, I am
i am sorry my client should be a sufferer by my  driven, in the defense of my client, to remark, that
infirmity.  One passage, however, is too striking  it is mad and preposterous to bring to the standand important to be passed over; the rest I must ard of justice and humanity the exercise of a dotrust to your private examination.  The author minion founded upon violence and terror. It may
having discussed all the charges, article by arti- and nmst be true that Mr. Hastings has repeatcle, sums them all up with this striking appeal to  edly offended against the rights and privileges of
his readers:                                    Asiatic government, if he was the faithful deputy
" The authentic statement of facts which has of a power which could not maintain itself for an
been given, and the arguments which have been  hour without trampling upon both.  He may and
employed, are, I think, sufficient to vindicate the  must have offended against the laws of God and
character and conduct of Mr. Hastings, even on  nature, if he was the faithful viceroy of an emthe maxims of European policy.  When he was pire wrested in blood from the people to whom
appointed Governor General of Bengal, he was  God and nature had given it.  He may and must
invested with a discretionary power to promote have preserved that unjust dominion over timorthe interests of the India Company, and of the  ous and abject nations by a terrifying, overbearBritish empire in that quarter of the globe. The  ing, insulting superiority, if he was the faithful
general instructions sent to him from his constit- administrator of your government, which, having
uents were,' That in all your deliberations and  no root in consent or affection-no foundation in
resolutions, you make the safety and prosperity  similarity of interests-no support from any one
of Bengal your principal object, and fix your at- principle which cements men together in society,
tention on the security of the possessions and rev- could only be upheld by alternate stratagem and
enues of the company.'  His superior genius force.  The unhappy people of India, feeble and
sometimes acted in the spirit, rather than com- effeminate as they are from the softness of their
plied Nwith the letter of the law; but he discharged  climate, and subdued and broken as they have
the trust, and preserved the empire committed to  been by the knavery and strength of civilization,
his care, in the same way, and with greater still occasionally start up in all the vigor and insplendor and success than any of his predecessors telligence of insulted nature.  To be governed
in office; his departure from India was marked  at all, they must be governed with a rod of iron;
with the lamentations of the natives and the grat- and our empire in the East would, long since,
itude of his countrymen; and, on his return to  have been lost to Great Britain, if civil skill and
England, he received the cordial congratulations  military prowess had not united their efforts to
of that numerous and respectable society, whose  support an authority-which Heaven never gave
interests he had promoted, and whose dominions -by means which it never can sanction.s
he had protected and extended."
Gentlemen of the jury-if this be a willfully   1' Mr. Hastings was unquestionably guilty of nearCollateraldcense false account of the instructions giv-ly all the acts charged upon him by Mr. Burke. Still
of ir. IHastings. en to Mr. Hastings for his govern-it was felt by the court, and at last by the public at.astn    fr his o - large, that great allowance ought to be made for him
ment, and of his conduct under the, te author  when it was remembered that he completely restorand publisher of this defense deserves the sever- ed the finances of the country, which he found in the
est punishment, for a mercenary imposition on  utmost disorder; that he established the British emthe public.  But if it be true that he was direct- pire in India on a firm basis, at a time when, under
ed to make the safety and prosperity of Bengal a less energetic government than his own, it would




696                                     MR. ERSKINE                                         [1789.
Gentlemen, I think I can observe that you are  for money, whatever may be the necessity for
touched with this way of considering the subject, taking it.3  All these things must ever be ocand I can account for it.  I have not been con- curring.  But under the pressure of such considering it through the cold medium  of books, stant difficulties, so dangerous to national honor,
but have been speaking of man and his nature, it might be better, perhaps, to think of effectually
and of human dominion, from what I have seen  securing it altogether, by recalling our troops
of them myself among reluctant nations submit- and our merchants, and abandoning our Oriental
ting to our authority.  I know what they feel, empire.  Until this be done, neither religion nor
and how such feelings can alone be repressed. philosophy can be pressed very far into the aid
I have heard them in my youth from a naked  of reformation and punishment.  If England,
ThE Indian savage, in the indignant character of a  from a lust of ambition and dominion, will insist
Chief'   prince surrounded by his subjects, ad- on maintaining despotic rule over distant and
dressing the governor of a British colony, hold- hostile nations, beyond all comparison more nuing a bundle of sticks in his hand, as the notes merous and extended than herself, and gives
of his unlettered eloquence.  "Who is it," said  commission to her viceroys to govern them with
the jealous ruler over the desert, encroached  no other instructions than to preserve them, and
upon by the restless foot of English adventure-   to secure permanently their revenues, with what
" who is it that causes this river to rise in the  color of consistency or reason can she place herhigh mountains, and to empty itself into the  self in the moral chair, and affect to be shocked
ocean?  Who is it that causes to blow the loud  at the execution of her own orders; adverting
winds of winter, and that calms them  again in  to the exact measure of wickedness and injussummer?  Who is it that rears up the shade of  tice necessary to their execution, and complainthose lofty forests, and blasts them  with the  ing only of the excess as the immorality, considquick lightning at his pleasure? The same Be- ering her authority as a dispensation for breaking who gave to you a country on the other side  ing the commands of God, and the breach of
of the waters, and gave ours to us; and by this  them  as only punishable when contrary to the
title we will defend it," said the warrior, throwing  ordinances of man?
down his tomahawk upon the ground. and rais-    Such a proceeding, gentlemen, begets serious
ing the war-sound of his nation.  These are the  reflection.  It would be better, perhaps, for the
feelings of subjugated man all round the globe; masters and the servants of all such governments
and depend upon it, nothing but fear will control to join in supplication, that the great Author of
where it is vain to look for affection.~'         violated humanity may not confound them  toThese reflections are the only antidotes to  gether in one common judgment.
those anathemas of superhuman eloquence which        Gentlemen, I find, as I said before, I have not
have lately shaken these walls that surround us, sufficient strength to go on with the remaining
but which it unaccountably falls to my province, parts of the book.  I hope, however, that notwhether I will or no, a little to stem the torrent withstanding my omissions, you are now  comof, by reminding you that you have a mighty  pletely satisfied that, whatever errors or misconsway in Asia, which can not be maintained by  ceptions may have misled the writer of these
the finer sympathies of life, or the practice of its pages, the justification of a person whom he becharities and affections.  What will they do for lieved to be innocent, and whose accusers had
you when surrounded by two hundred thousand  themselves appealed to the public, was the sinmen with artillery, cavalry, and elephants, call- gle object of his contemplation.  If I have sucing upon you for their dominions which you have  ceeded in that object, every purpose which I had
robbed them of?  Justice may, no doubt, in such  in addressing you has been answered.
a case forbid the levying of a fine to pay a re-    It only now  remains to remind you that anvolting soldiery; a treaty may stand in the way  other consideration has been strong- If tle wr.iter
of increasing a tribute to keep up the very ex- ly pressed upon you, and, no doubt, was honest il.
istence of the government; and delicacy for will be insisted on in reply.  You will he olght not
to be punished
women may forbid all entrance into a Zenana  be told that the matters which I have for anocca- ~  ----—.- ~   been justifyino as legal. and even mer- sion" excess.
inevitably have fallen altogether; and, in addition to.     ^     
f itorious, have therefore not been made the subthis, he was constantly pressed by the Directors of itoousf have thereore  not been made the subthe East India Company for remittances of money,  et of complaint; and that whatever intrinsic
which could only be extorted by oppression. Al- merit parts of the book may be supposed or even
though his government was arbitrary, yet it was  admitted to possess, such merit can afford no
popular among the natives, being milder and more  justification to the selected passages, some of
just than that of their own princes; while he him- which, even with the context, carry the meaning
self was respected for the unusual regard which he  charged by the information, and which are indepaid to native prejudices and customs, and his pat- cent animadversions on authority. To this I
ionage of literature and the fine arts.' The reader will be struck with the rapid flow of       a                        s    o 
the rhythmus in this speech of the Indian chief, so  the application of any one of the innuendoes),
admirably corresponding in its iambic structure  that if you are firmly persuaded of the siglewith the character of the speaker. It should be  ness and purity of the author's intentions, you
read aloud in connection with a correspondent pas-                             _
sage of Mr. Grattan, already remarked upon for its   13 See introduction to Mr. Sheridan's speech, p.
slow and majestic movement. See page 390.         405-6.




1789.]                          IN BEHALF OF STOCKDALE.                                         697
are not bound to subject him to infamy, because, which you had exchanged for the banners of
in the zealous career of a just and animated  Freedom.
composition, he happens to have tripped with    If it be asked where the line to this indulgence
his pen into an intemperate expression in one or and impunity is to be drawn, the an- General prin
two instances of a long work.  If this severe  swer is easy. The liberty of the press, libetotil^ e
duty were binding on your consciences, the lib- on general subjects, comprehends and press.
erty of the press would be an empty sound, and  implies as much strict observance of positive law
no man could venture to write on any subject, as is consistent with perfect purity of intention,
however pure his purpose, without an attorney  and equal and useful society.  What that latiat one elbow and a counsel at the other.          tude is, can not be promulgated in the abstract,
From  minds thus subdued by the terrors of  but must be judged of in the particular instance,
Evils oftoo punishment, there could issue no works  and consequently, upon this occasion, must be
strition   of genius to expand the empire of hu- judged of by you, without forming any possible
thepress.  man reason, nor any masterly composi- precedent for any other case; and where can
tions on the general nature of government, by  the judgment be possibly so safe as with the
the help of which the great commonwealths of  members of that society which alone can suffer,
mankind  have  founded  their establishments;  if the writing is calculated to do mischief to the
much less any of those useful applications of  public?  You must, therefore, try the book by
them  to critical conjunctures, by which, from  that criterion, and say whether the publication
time to time, our own Constitution, by the exer- was premature and offensive, or, in other words,
tion of patriot citizens, has been brought back to  whether the publisher is bound to have suppressits standard.  Under such terrors, all the great ed it until the public ear was anticipated and
lights of science and civilization must be extin- abused, and every avenue to the human heart or
guished; for men can not communicate their free  understanding secured and blocked up?  I see
thoughts to one another with a lash held over around me those by whom, by-and-by, Mr. Hasttheir heads.  It is the nature of every thing that ings will be most ably and eloquently defendis great and useful, both in the animate and in- ed;5 but I am sorry to remind my friends that,
animate world, to be wild and irregular, and we  but for the right of suspending the public judgmust be contented to take them with the alloys  ment concerning him  till their season of exerwhich belong to them, or live without them. tion comes round, the tongues of angels would
Genius breaks from the fetters of criticism, but be insufficient for the task.
its wanderings are sanctioned by its majesty and     Gentlemen, I hope I have now performed my
wisdom when it advances in its path: subject it to  duty to my client: I sincerely hope that I have;
the critic, and you tame it into dullness. Mighty  for, certainly, if ever there was a man pulled the
rivers break down their banks in the winter, other way by his interests and affections-if ever
sweeping away to death the flocks which are  there was a man who should have trembled at
fattened on the soil that they fertilize in the sum- the situation in which I have been placed on this
mer: the few  may be saved by embankments  occasion, it is myself, who not only love, honor,
from drowning, but the flock must perish for hun- and respect, but whose future hopes and preferger. Tempests occasionally shake our dwellings  ments are linked, from free choice, with those
and dissipate our commerce; but they scourge  who, from the mistakes of the author, are treatbefore them  the lazy elements, which without ed with great severity and injustice.  These are
them  would stagnate into pestilence.4  In like  strong retardments; but I have been urged on
manner, Liberty herself, the last and best gift of  to activity by considerations which can never be
God to his creatures, must be taken just as she  inconsistent with honorable attachments, either
is: you might pare her down into bashful reg-  in the political or social world-the love of jusularity, and shape her into a perfect model of  tice and of liberty, and a zeal for the Constitusevere, scrupulous law, but she would then be  tion of my country, which is the inheritance of
Liberty no longer; and you must be content our posterity, of the public, and of the world.
to die under the lash of this inexorable justice  These are the motives which have animated me
___ __ _ _____  _____   __. in defense of this person, who is an entire stran14 This is one of the finest amplifications in En- ger to me-whose shop I never go to-and the
glish oratory, beautiful in itself, justified by the im- author of whose publication, as well as M'r. Hastportance of the subject which it enforces, and ad- ings, who is the object of it, I never spoke to in
mirably suited to produce the designed impression. my life.
The seminal idea was probably suggested by a re-    One word moe, gentlemen, and I have done.
mark of Burke, whose writings Mr. Erskine inces- Every human tribunal ought to take A reard to hu
santly studied. " It is the natqre of all zgeataess care to administer justice, as we look nfrailty to
ot to be exact."-See page 252. We see in this  hereafter to have justice administered administering
case, how a man of genius may borrow from anoth-to ourselves.  Upon                      justice.
er, without detracting in the least from the fresh-       eA            
ness and originality with which his ideas are ex- hch the Attorney General prays sentence upon
pressed and applied. At the presentday, there can  my client-God have mercy upon us!  Instead
be very little of that originality which presents an  of standing before him  in judgment with the
idea for the first time. All that can be expected is,...           __.
that we make it our own, and apply it to new pur-    s Mr. Law (afterward Lord Ellenborough), Mr
poses.                                            Plumer, and Mr. Dallas.




698                                      MR. ERSKiNE                                         [1793.
hopes and consolations of Christians, we must by which whole families have been rendered uncall upon the mountains to cover us; for which  happy during life, by aspersions, cruel, scandalof us can present, for omniscient examination, a  ous, and unjust.  Let such libelers remember
pure, unspotted, and faultless course?  But I  that no one of my principles of defense can, at
humbly expect that the benevolent Author of our  any time or upon any occasion, ever apply to
being will judge us as I have been pointing out shield T'HEM  from  punishment; because such
for your example. Holding up the great volume  conduct is not only an infringement of the rights
of our lives in his hands, and regarding the gen- of men, as they are defined by strict law, but is
eral scope of them; if he discovers benevolence, absolutely incompatible with honor, honesty, or
charity, and good-will to man beating in the  mistaken good intention.  On such men let the
heart, where he alone can look; if he finds that Attorney General bring forth all the artillery of
our conduct, though often forced out of the path  his office, and the thanks and blessings of the
by our infirmities, has been in general well di- whole public will follow him.  But this is a torected; his all-searching eye will assuredly nev-  tally different case. Whatever private calumny
er pursue us into those little corners of our lives, may mark this work, it has not been made the
much less will his justice select them for punish- subject of complaint, and we have therefore notbment, without the general context of our exist- ing to do with that, nor any right to consider it.
ence, by which faults may be sometimes found  We are trying whether the public could have
to have grown out of virtues, and very many of  been considered as offended and endangered if
our heaviest offenses to have been grafted by hu-  Mr. Hastings himself, in whose place the author
man imperfection upon the best and kindest of  and publisher have a right to put themselves,
our affections.  No, gentlemen, believe me, this  had, under all the circumstances which have been
is not the course of divine justice, or there is no  considered, composed and published the volume
truth in the Gospels of Heaven.  If the general under examination.  That question can not, in
tenor of a man's conduct be such as I have rep-  common sense, be any thing resembling a ques
resented it, he may walk through the shadow of  tion of LAW, but is a pure question of FACT, to be
death, with all his faults about him, with as much  decided on the principles which I have humbly
cheerfulness as in the common paths of life; be- recommended. I, therefore, ask of the court that
cause he knows that, instead of a stern accuser  the book itself may now  be delivered to you.
to expose before the Author of his nature those  Read it with attention, and as you shall find it,
Frail passages which, like the scored matter in  pronounce your verdict.
the book before you, checkers the volume of the
brightest and best-spent life, his mercy will obscure them  from  the eye of his purity, and our    This trial took place before the passing of Mr
repentance blot them out forever.                  Fox's Libel Bill; and Lord Kenyon charged the
All this would, I admit, be perfectly foreign  jury that they were not to consider whether the
and irrelevant, if you were sitting here in a case  pamphlet was libelous, but simply whether it had
of property between man and man, where a strict been published by the defendant.  Under these
rule of law must operate, or there would be an  circumstances, they spent two hours in deliberaend of civil life and society.  It would be equal- tion, but finally broke through the instructions of
ly foreign, and still more irrelevant, if applied to  the court, and found the defendant NOT GUILTY,
those shameful attacks upon private reputation  thus anticipating the rights soon after secured to
which are the bane and disgrace of the press; juries by an act of Parliament.
SPEECH
OF MR. ERSKINE IN BEHALF OF JOHN FROST, WHEN INDICTED FOR UTTERING SEDITIOUS WORDS,
DELIVERED BEFORE THE COURT OF KING'S BENCH, MARCH, 1793.
INTRODUCTION.
THIS was the first trial under what has been called the "Reign of Terror."  Mr. Frost was a London
attorney of eminence, who had just returned from a visit to France, at that time under the government
of the Convention, and hastening toward the revolutionary crisis. He dined with an agricultural society
at a coffee-house, on the 6th of November, 1792. On his coming down fiom the private room, where he
had been dining, into the public coffee-room, between nine and ten in the evening, he was addressed by
a person of the name of Yatman, Who, knowing Mr. Frost, and that he had just returned from the continent, said to him, "Well, how do they go on in France?" Upon which Mr. Fract, who was much heated
with wine, exclaimed, "I am for equality, and no King."  Mr. Yatman replied, " What! no King in this
country?" and Mr. Frost then repeated, "Yes, no King; there ought to be no King."  And it was for the
use of this language, and for nothing beyond this, that the indictment was preferred.
SPEECH, &c.
GENTLEMEN OF TIE JURY,-I rise to address  sider myself entitled, not only for the defendant
you under circumstances so peculiar, that I con- arraigned before you, but personally for myself,




1793.]                             IN  BEHALF OF FROST.                                         699
to the utmost indulgence of the court.  I came  be, in any shape, before you; and that upon the
down this morning with no other notice of the  trial of this indictment, supported only by the eviduty cast upon me in this cause, nor any other  dence you have heard, the words must be judged
direction for the premeditation necessary to its  of as if spoken by any man or woman in the kingperformance, than that which I have ever con-  dom, at any time from the Norman Conquest to
sidered to be the safest and the best-namely,  the moment I am addressing you.
the records of the court, as they are entered here    I admit, indeed, that the particular time in
for trial, where, for the ends ofjustice, the charge  which words are spoken, or acts com- If these were
must always appear with the most accurate pre-  mitted, may  most essentially alter connecte'd with
cision, that the accused may know what crime  their quality  and construction, and should itave
been included
he is called upon to answer, and his counsel how  give to expressions or conduct, which in the indictEmbsarrasnment he may defend him. Finding, there-  in another season might have been ment
arising from the fore, upon the record which arraigns innocent, or at least indifferent, the highest and
Crown having                                          os
traveled out of the defendant, asimple, unqualified  most enormous guilt. But, for that very reason,
charge of seditious words, unconnect- the supposed particularity of the present times,
ed, and uncomplicated with any extrinsic events, as applicable to the matter before you, is absoI little imagined that the conduct of my client lutely shut out from  your consideration-shut
was to receive its color and construction from   out upon the plainest and most obvious principle
the present state of France, or rather of all Eu-  of justice and law; because, wherever time or
rope, as affecting the condition of England.  I  occasion mix with an act, affect its quality, and
little dreamed that the 6th of November (which,  constitute or enhance its criminality, they then
reading the indictment, I had a right to consider  become an essential part of the misdemeanor itlike any other day in the calendar) was to turn  self, and must consequently be charged as such
out an epoch in this country (for so it is styled in  upon the record.  I plainly discover I have his
the argument); and that, instead of having to  Lordship's assent to this proposition.  If, theredeal with idle, thoughtless words, uttered over fore, the Crown had considered this cause originwine, through the passage of a coffee-house, with  ally in the serious light in which it considers it
whatever at any time might belong to them, I  to-day, it has wholly mistaken its course.  If it
was to meet a charge of which I had no notice  had considered the government of France as actor conception, and to find the loose dialogue, ively engaged in the encouragement of disaffecwhich, even upon the face of the record itself. tion to the monarchy of England, and that her
exhibits nothing more than a casual sudden con- newly-erected republic was set up by her as the
versation, exalted to an accusation of the most great type for imitation and example here; if it
premeditated, serious, and alarming  nature-   had considered that numbers, and even classes
verging upon high treason itself, by its connec- of our countrymen, were ripe for disaffection, if
tion with the most hostile purposes to the state,  not for rebellion; and that the defendant, as an
and assuming a shape still more interesting from   emissary of France, had spoken the words with
its dangerous connection with certain mysterious  the premeditated design of undermining our govconspiracies, which, in confederacy with French  ernment-this situation of things might and ought
republicans, threaten, it seems, the Constitution of  to have been put as facts upon the record, and as
our once happy country.                            facts established by evidence, instead of resting,
Gentlemen, I confess myself much unprepared  as they do to-day, upon assertion.  By such a
Unjust to involve for a discussion of this nature, and  course the crime, indeed, would have become of
tecaseotee wt  a little disconcerted at being so. the magnitude represented; but, on the other
French politics.  For although, as I have said, I had  hand, as the conviction could only have followed
no notice from  the record that the politics of  from the proof, the defendant, upon the evidence
Europe were to be the subject of discourse, yet of to-day, must have an hour ago been acquitted.
experience ought to have taught me to expect Not a syllable has been proved of any emissaries
it; for what act of government has, for a long  from France to debauch our monarchical princitime past, been carried on by any other means?  ples; not even an insinuation in evidence that, if
When. or where has been the debate, or what has  there were any such, the defendant was one of
been the object of authority, in which the affairs  them; not a syllable of proof, either directly or
of France have not taken the lead?  The affairs  indirectly, that the condition of the country, when
of France have, indeed:become the common stalk- the words were uttered. differed from its ordinary
ing-horse for all state purposes.  I know  the  condition in times of prosperity and peace.  It
honor of my learned friend,t too well to impute to  is, therefore, a new and most compendious mode
him" the introduction of them  for any improper  of justice, that the facts which wholly constitute,
or dishonorable purpose.  I am sure he connects  or, at all events, lift up the dignity and danger
them in his own mind with the subject, and thinks  of the offense, should not be charged upon record.
them legally before you: I am bound to think so, because they could not be proved, but are to be takbecause the general tenor of his address to you  en for granted in the argument, so as to produce
has been manly and candid.  But I assert that the same effect upon the trial and in the punishneither the actual condition of France, nor the  ment, as if they had been actually chargecd and
supposed condition of this country, are, or can  completely established.  If the affairs of Fralnce.
____    as they are supposed to affect this country,  ladl
The Attorney General, Sir A. Macdonald.       been  introduced without a warrant from  tie




700                                   MR. ERSKINE                                        [1793
charge or the evidence, I should have been whol- country, were, for no other crime than their perly silent concerning them; but as they have been  severance in those sentiments which certain peralready mixed with the subject, in a manner so  sons had originated and abandoned,3 to be given
eloquent and affecting as, too probably, to have up to the licentious pens and tongues of hired
made a strong impression, it becomes my duty to  defamation; to be stabbed in the dark by anonyendeavor at least to remove it.                 mous accusations; and to be held out to England
The late revolutions in France have been rep- and to the whole world, as conspiring, under the
Vieexpd resented to you as not only ruinous auspices of cut-throats, to overturn every thing
by the counsel to their authors, and to the inhabit- sacred in religion, and venerable in the ancient
ants of that country, but as likely to  government of our country.  Certain it is, that
shake and disturb the principles of this and all the whole system  of government, of which the
other governments.  You have been told, that business we are now engaged in is no mean specthough the English people are generally well af- imen, came upon the public with the suddenness
fected to their government-ninety-nine out of of a clap of thunder, without one act to give it
one hundred, upon Mr. Attorney General's own  foundation, from the very moment that notice was
statement-yet that wicked and designing men  given of a motion in' Parliament to reform the
have long been laboring to overturn it; that noth- representation of the people.   Long, long, being short of the wise and spirited exertions of fore that time the " Rights of Man," and other
the present government (of which this prosecu- books, though not complained of, had been writtion is, it seems, one of the instances) have hith- ten; equally long before it, the addresses to the
erto averted, or can continue to avert, the dan- French government, which have created such a
gerous contagion which misrule and anarchy are  panic, had existed; but as there is a "give and
spreading over the world; that bodies of English- take" in this world, they passed unregarded.
men, forgetting their duty to their own country  Leave but the practical corruptions, and they are
and its Constitution, have congratulated the Con- contented to wink at the speculations of theorists,
vention of France upon the formation of their and the compliments of public-spirited civility.
monstrous government; and that the conduct of But the moment the national attention was awakthe defendant must be considered as a part of a  ened to look at things in practice, and to seek to
deep-laid system of disaffection, which threatens reform corruptions at home, from that moment,
the establishments of this kingdom.             as at the ringing of a bell, the whole hive began
Gentlemen, this state of things having no sup- to swarm, and every man in his turn has been
These things not port whatever from any evidence be- stung.
efore the jury  fore you, and resting only upon opin-    This, gentlemen, is the real state of the case,
in evidence.
ion, I have an equal right to mine; and I am so far from pushing the ob- The defendant
having the same means of observation with other servation beyond its bearing for the clarted witIMr.
people of what passes in the world; and as I have  defense of a client, that I am ready to Pitt as a friend
a very clear one upon this subject, I will give it admit Mr. Frost, in his conduct, has aly reform.
you in a, few words.                            not been wholly invulnerable, and that, in some
I am  of opinion, then, that there is not the  measure, he has brought this prosecution upon
Erkine  smallest foundation for the alarm which  himself. Gentlemen, Mr. Frost must forgive me,
views direct- has been so industriously propagated; if I take the liberty to say that, with the best inthe. in this I am so far from being singu- tentions in the world, he formerly pushed his oblar, that I verily believe the authors of it are servations and conduct respecting government
themselves privately of the same way of think- further than many would be disposed to follow
ing.  But it was convenient for certain persons,2 him. I can not disguise or conceal from you, that
who had changed their principles, to find some  I find his name in this green-book, as associated
plausible pretext for changing them.  It was with Mr. Pitt and the Duke of Richmond, at the
convenient for those who, when out of power, Thatched House Tavern, in St. James's Street.5
had endeavored to lead the public mind to the ne- I.find him, also, the correspondent of the former;
cessity of reforming the corruptions of our own  and that I discover in their publications on the
government, to find any reasons for their contin- structure and conduct of the House of Commons,
nance and confirmation, when they operate as expressions which, however merited, and in my
engines to support themselves in the exercise of  "  In allusion to Mr. Pitt's altered opinions as to
powers which were only odious when in other parliamentary reform.
hands.  For this honorable purpose, the sober, re- 4  Mr. Charles Grey, at the request of the Society
fleeting, and temperate character of the English  of "The Friends of the People," on the 30th April,
nation was to be represented as fermenting into  1792, gave notice of his intention to bring forward,
sedition, and into an insane contempt for the re-i the ensuing session, a motion to this effect.
vered institutions of their ancestors.  For this  M. Erskine read the minute (in Mr. Pitt's own
honorabl pu s, te w t m e      handwriting) of a meeting of members of Parliament,
honorable purpose. the wisest men-the most emand of members of several committees of counties
inent for virtue-the most splendid in talents-  and cities, held at the Thatched House Tavern, at
the most independent for rank and property in the  which Mr. Frost was present, on the 18th of May,
1782, and at which resolutions were passed in ap2 Among the principal were Mr. Burke, the Prince probation of Mr. Pitt's motion, on the 7th of May preof Wales, the Duke of Portland, and Lords Spencer, vious, on the subject of the representation of the
Mansfield, Fitzwilliam, and Loughborough.      people in Parliament.




1793.]                            IN  BEHALF OF FROST.                                          701
opinion commendable, would now be considered,  ject of prosecution-not the prosecution of my
not merely as intemperate and unguarded, but learned friend-not the prosecution of the Atas highly criminal.6                               torney General-not the prosecution of his MajGentlemen, the fashion of this world speedily  esty; but the prosecution of Mr. Yatman, who
Reasons for is passeth away.  We find these glori-  wishes to show you his great loyalty to the state
nowbeingpros- ous restorers of equal representation  and Constitution, which were in danger of falling.
ecated.
determined, as ministers, that, so far  had it not been for the drugs of this worthy
from every man being an elector, the metropolis  apothecary.
of the kingdom should have no election at all;    With regard to the new government of France
but should submit to the power, or to the softer  since the subject has been introduced, Iemarks onthe
allurements, of the Crown.  Certain it is, that,  all I can say of it is this. that the good French Revolu
for a short season, Mr. Frost being engaged pro- or evil of it belongs to themselves. ti'n
fessionally as agent for the government candidate,  They had a right, like every other people upon
did not (indeed, he could not) oppose this incon- earth, to change their government; the system
sistency between the doctrine and practice of his  destroyed was a system  disgraceful to free and
friends; and in this interregnum of public spirit, rational beings; and if they have neither substihe was, in the opinion of government, a perfect tuted, nor shall hereafter substitute, a better in
patriot, a faithful friend to the British Constitu-  its stead, they must eat the bitter fruits of their
tion.  As a member of the law, he was, there-  own errors and crimes.  As to the horrors which
fore, trusted with government business in matters  now disfigure and desolate that fine country, all
of revenue, and was, in short, what all the friends  good men must undoubtedly agree in condemnof government, of course, are, the best and most ing and deploring them, but they may differ, nevapproved —to save words, he was like the rest of ertheless, in deciphering their causes.  Men to
them, just what he should be.  But the election  the full as wise as those who pretend to be wiser
being over, and, with it, professional agency, and  than Providence, and stronger than the order of
Mr. Frost, as he lawfully might, continuing to hold  things, may, perhaps, reflect that a great fabric
his former opinions (which were still avowed and  of unwarrantable power and corruption could not
gloried in, though not acted on, by his ancient fall to the ground without a mighty convulsionfriends), he, unfortunately, did not change them  that the agitation must ever be in proportion to
the other day, when they were thrown off by  the surface agitated-that the passions and errors
others.  On the contrary, he rather seems to  inseparable from  humanity must heighten and
have taken fire with the prospect of reducing  swell the confusion; and that, perhaps, the crimes
them  to practice; and being, as I have shown  and ambition of other nations, under the mask of
you,'bred in a school which took the lead in bold- self-defense and humanity, may have contributed
ness of remonstrance of all other reformers.be- not a little to aggravate them-may have tended
fore or since, he fell, in the heat and levity of  to imbitter the spirits and to multiply the evils
wine, into expressions which have no correspond- which they condemn-to increase the misrule and
ence with his sober judgment; which would have  anarchy which they seek to disembroil, and in the
been passed over or laughed at in you or me, but end to endanger their own governments, which
which, coming from him, were never to be for- by carnage and bloodshed, instead of by peace,
given by government.  This is the genuine his-  improvement, and wise administration, they protory of his offense.  For this he is to be the sub- fess to protect from the contagion of revolution.....   ____As to the part which bodies of men in England
The following are copies of Mr. Pitt's letters:   have ten thouh it    ht i some
"Lincoln's Inn, Friday, May 10th..it miht, in some and the feelings; DEAR SI,-I am extremely sorry that I was not instances, be imprudent and irregular, it had awaken
at home when you and the other gentlemen from et I see nothing to condemn, or to e              an
the Westminster Committee did me the honor to  support, the declamation which we daily hear
call.                                              upon the subject.  The congratulations7 of En"May I beg the favor of you to express that I am  glishmen were directed to the fall of corrupt and
truly happy to find that the motion of Tuesday last despotic power in France, and were animated by
has the approbation of such zealous friends to the, wish of a milder and freer government-happublic, and to assure the committee that my exer-       fo  that country  and safer for this.  They
tions shall never be wanting in support of a imeas-                a                             
are, which I agree with thee in thtinking essentially  e                         when           
necessary to the independence    of Parliameent a snd that peae with  England, and  when no law was,
liberty of the people. -                           therefore, broken by the expression of opinion or
"I have the honor to be, with great respect and  satisfaction.  They were not congratulations on
esteem, sir, your most obedient and most humble  the murders which have since been committed.
servant,'V. PITT.   nor on the desolations which have since over"John Frost, Esq., Percy Street."                spread so large a portion of the earth, neither
a Lincoln's Inn, May 12th,      were they traitorous to the government of this
SIR,-I have received the favor of your note, and   --                __    _____.____
shall be proud to receive the honor intended me by    7 Mr. Erskine alluded to the addresses sent from
the gentlemen of the Middlesex Committee, at the  several political societies in England to the French
time you mention.                                  National Assembly, which, in the expressions of
"I am, with great regard, sir, your most humble  their warm approbation of the new government esservant,                             WV. PITT.   tablished in France, bordered closely on sedition
"John Frost, Esq., Percy Street."                against the English government.




702                                    MR. ERSKINE                                        [1793.
country.  This we may safely take in trust, since  the government; he the said defendant, his aforenot one of them, even in the rage of prosecution, said wicked contrivances and intentions to conhas been brought before a criminal court.  For plete, perfect, and render effectual, on the 6th
myself, I never joined in any of these addresses, day of November," spoke the words imputed to
but what I have delivered concerning them is all him by the Crown.  This is the indictment, and
I have been able to discover  and government it- it is drawn with a precision which marks the true
self, as far as evidence extends, has not been  principle of English criminal law.  It does not
more successful. I would, therefore, recommend  merely charge the speaking of the words, leaving
it to his Majesty's servants, to attend to the re-  the wicked intention to be supplied and collected
flections of an eloquent writer [Mr. Burke] at by necessary and unavoidable inference, because
present high in their confidence and esteem, who  such inference may or may not follow from the
has admirably exposed the danger and injustice  words themselves, according to circumstances,
of general accusations.: This way of proscrib-  which the evidence alone can disclose. It charges
ing the citizens by denominations and general therefore the wicked intention as a fact, Iltois
descriptions, dignified by the name of reason of and as constituting the very essence of essen.tial to
state, and security for Constitutions and common- the crime, stating, as it must state, to
wealths, is nothing better at bottom than the mis- apprise the defendant of the crime alleged against
erable invention of an ungenerous ambition, which  him, the overt act, by which such malicious purwould fain hold the sacred trust of power, with- pose was displayed, and by which he sought to
out any of the virtues or energies that give a ti- render it effectual.  No man can be criminal
tie to it; a receipt of policy, made up of a detest- without a criminal intention-  actuts non facit
able compound of malice, cowardice, and sloth.  reum nisi mens sit rea.9  God alone can look.into
They would govern men against their will; but the heart, and man, could he look into it, has no
in that government would be discharged from the  jurisdiction over it, until society is disturbed by
exercise of vigilance, providence, and fortitude; its actions; but the criminal mind being the source
and, therefore, that they may sleep on their watch, of all criminality, the law seeks only to punish acconsent to take some one division of the society  tions which it can trace to evil disposition -it
into partnership of the tyranny over the rest. pities ourl errors and mistakes-  makes allowBut let government, in whatever form it may be, ances for our passions, and scourges only our
comprehend the whole of its justice, and restrain  crimes.
the suspicious by its vigilance; let it keep watch    Gentlemen, my learned friend the Attorney
and ward; let it discover by its sagacity, and  General, in the conclusion of his ad- Concessio so. 
punish by its firmness, all delinquency against its dress to you, did more than ratify the counsel for
power, whenever it exists in the overt acts, and  these propositions. With a liberality
then it will be as safe as God and nature intend- and candor very honorable to himself, and highly
ed it should be.  Crimes are the acts of individ- advantageous to the public which he represents,
uals, and not of denominations; and, therefore, he said to you, that if the expressions charged
arbitrarily to class men under general descrip- upon the defendant should turn out, in your opintions, in order to proscribe and punish them in  ion, to be unadvised and unguarded, arising on
the lumnp for a presumed delinquency, of which, the sudden, and unconnected with previous bad
perhaps, but a part-perhaps none at all-are  intention, he should not even insist upon the
guilty, is, indeed, a compendious method, and  strictness of the ]aw, whatever it might be, nor
saves a world of trouble about proof; but such a  ask a verdict, but such as between man and man,
method, instead of being law, is an act of unnat- acting upon moral and candid feelings, ought to
ural rebellion against the legal dominion of rea- be asked and expected.  These were the sugson and justice; and a vice, in any Constitution  gestions of his own just and manly disposition,
that entertains it, which at one time or other will and he confirmed them by the authority of Mr.
certainly bring on its ruin.""                   Justice Foster, whose works are so deservedly
Gentlemen: let us now  address ourselves to  celebrated.  But judging of my unfortunate cliCrime charged the cause, disembarrassed by foreign  ent, not from his own charity, but from the false
upon the de-  considerations; let us examine what information of others, he puts a construction upon
eondant.    the charge upon the record is, and see  an expression of this great author which destroys
how it is supported by the proofs.  For, unless  much of the intended effect of his doctrine-a
the whole indictment, or some one count of it, be  doctrine which I will myself read again to you,
in form and substance supported by the evidence, and by the right interpretation of which I desire
the defendant must be acquitted, however in  the defendant may stand or fall.  In the passage
other respects you may be dissatisfied with his  read to you, Foster says, " As to mere words,
imprudence and indiscretion.  The indictment they differ widely from  writings in point of real
charges, "That the defendant being a person of malignity and proper evidence; they are often
an impious, depraved, seditious disposition, and  the effect of mere heat of blood, which in some
maliciously intending to disturb the peace of the  natures. otherwise well disposed, carrieth the
kingdom; to bring our most serene Sovereign  man beyond the bounds of prudence; they are
into hatred and contempt with all the subjects of  always liable to great misconstruction, from the
the realm, and to excite them to discontent against...               ___.__
9 This act does not make a man guilty without the
Mr. Burke's speech at Bristol. See page 308.  intention.




1793.]                              IN  BEHALF OF FROST.                                        703
ignorance or inattention of the hearers, and too  conviction upon any other footing. Surely, then,
often from  a motive truly criminal."   Foster  it was open to the Crown, upon every principle
afterward goes on to contrast such loose words, of common sense, to have proved the previous
" not relative to any act or design," for so he ex- malice by all previous discourses and previous
presses himself, with " words of advice and per- conduct connected with the accusation.  And yet,
suasion in contemplation of some traitorous pur- after having wholly and absolutely failed in this
pose actually on foot or intended, and in prosecu- most important part of the proof, we are gravely
tion of it."   Comparing this rule of judgment told that the Crown having failed in the alffirawith the evidence given, one would have expect- tive, we must set about establishing the negative!
ed a consent to the most favorable judgment-   for that otherwise we are not within the pale ol
one would have almost considered the quotation  protection of the very first and paramount prinas a tacit consent to an acquittal.  But Mr. At- ciples of the law and government of the country!
torney General, still looking through the false    Having disposed of this stumbling-block in the
medium of other men's prejudices, lays hold of  way of sound and indulgent judgment. we may
the words "otherwise well disposed," and in- now venture to examine this mighty offense as
grafts upon them this most extraordinary requi- it is proved by the witnesses for the Crown, supModeofrevad- sition.  Show me, he says, that Mr. posing the facts neither to have been misstated
ing the coInge-     oei  w   d                                                        exaggerated.
quence of this Frost is otherwise well disposed.  Let from misapprehension, nor willfully exaggerated.
concession.   him bring himself within the meaning   Mr. Frost, the defendant, a gentleman who,
of Foster, and then I consent that he shall have  upon the evidence, stands wholly unimpeached
the fullest benefit of his indulgent principle of  of any design against the public peace, Evidence
judgment.  Good God, gentlemen, are we in an  or any indisposition to the Constitution 3,;it the
English court of justice?  Are we sitting in  of the kingdom, appears to have dined examined.
judgment before the Chief Justice of England,  at the tavern over the Percy coffee-house.  This
with the assistance of a jury of Englishmen?  he did not with a company met upon any politAnd am I in such a presence to be called upon  ical occasion, good or evil, but, as has been adto prove the good disposition of my client, before  mitted in the opening, with a society for the enI can be entitled to the protection of those rules  couragement of agriculture, consisting of most
of evidence which apply equally to the just and  reputable and inoffensive persons, neither talking
to the unjust, and by which an evil disposition  nor thinking about government, or its concerns:
must be proved before it shall even be suspect- so much for the preface to this dangerous coned?  I came here to resist and to deny the ex- spiracy.  The company did not retire till the
istence of legitimate and credible proof of disloy- bottle had made many merry circles; and it apalty and disaffection; and am I to be called upon  pears, upon the evidence for the Crown, that Mr.
to prove that my client has not been, nor is, dis- Frost, to say the least, had drunk very fieely.
loyal or disaffected? Are we to be deafened with  But was it with the evil intention imputed to
panegyrics upon the English Constitution, and yet him  that he went into this coffee-house to cirto be deprived of its first and distinguishing feat- culate his opinions, and to give effect to designs
nre, that innocence is to be presumed until guilt he had premeditated?  He could not possibly
be established?  Of what avail is that sacred  go home without passing-through it; for it is
maxim, if; upon the bare assertion and imputa- proved that there was no other passage into the
tion of guilt, a man may be deprived of a rule of  street from the room where he had dined.  But
evidence, the suggestion of wisdom and human- having got there by accident, did he even then
ity, as if the rule applied only to those who need  stop by design, and collect an audience to scatter
no protection, and who were never accused? If  sedition?  So far from it, that Mr. Yatman, the
Mr. Frost, by any previous overt acts, by which  very witness against him, admits that he interalone any disposition, good or evil, can be proved, rupted him  as hie passed in silence toward the
had shown a disposition leading to the offense in  street, and fastened the subject of France upon
question, it was evidence for the Crown.  Mr. him.  Every word which passed (for the whole
Wood,'~ whose learning is unquestionable, un-  is charged upon the very record as a dialogue
doubtedly thought so, when, with the view  of  with this witness) was in answer to his entrapcrimination, he asked where Mr. Frost had been  ping questions, introduced with the familiarity
before the time in question, for he is much too  of a very old acquaintance, and in a sort of bancorrect to have put an irregular and illegal ques- ter, too, which gave a turn to the conversation
tion in a criminal case: I must, therefore, sup- that renders it ridiculous, as well as wicked,
pose his right to ask it appeared to him  quite  to convert it into a serious plan of mischief:
clear and established, and I have no doubt that it " Well," says Mr. Yatman, "well, Mr. Equality,
was so.  Why, then, did he not go on and follow  so you have been in France-when The defendant's
it up, by asking what he had done in France-  did you arrive?  I suppose you are lradto refer
what declarations he had made there-or what for equality, and no Kings?"    0 nO tto England.
part he proposed to act here, upon his return?  yes," says Mr. Frost, "certainly I am for equalThe charge upon the record is, that the words  ity; I am for no Kings."  Now, beyond all queswere uttered with malice and premeditation;  tion, when this answer was made, whether in
and Mr. Attorney General properly disclaims a  jest or in earnest, whether when drunk or sob_.........................  ----   er, it neither had, nor could have, the remotest
0 One of the counsel for the prosecution.    relation to England or its government.  France




704                                    MR. ERSKINE                                      [1793
had just abolished its new Constitution of mon- ( of justice?  Thank God, the world lives very
archy, and set up a republic.  She was at that differently, or it would not be worth living in.
moment divided and in civil confusion on the sub- There are moments when jarring opinions may
ject; the question, therefore, and the answer, as be given without inconsistency - when Truth
they applied to France, were sensible and rele- herself may be sported with without the breach
vant; but to England or to English affairs they  of veracity-and where well-imagined nonsense
had not (except in the ensnaring sequel) the re- is not only superior to, but is the very index to
motest application. Had Yatman, therefore, end- wit and wisdom. I might safely assert-taking,
ed here, the conversation would have ended, and  too, for the standard of my assertion the most
Mr. Frost would have been the next moment in  honorably correct and enlightened societies in
the street.  But still the question is forced upon  the kingdom-that if malignant spies were prophim, and he is asked, "What! no Kings in En- erly posted, scarcely a dinner would end without
gland?" although his first answer had no con- a duel and an indictment.
nection with England; the question, therefore,    When I came down this morning, and found,
was self-evidently a snare, to which he answered, contrary to my expectation, that we Illustration from
" No Kings in England;" which seemed to be all were to be stuffed into this misera- case supposed.
that was wanted, for in a moment every thing  ble hole in the wall,ll to consume our constituwas confusion and uproar.  Mr. Frost, who had  tions: suppose I had muttered along through
neither delivered nor meant to deliver any seri- the gloomy passages —" What, is this cursed trious opinion concerning government, and finding  al of Hastings going on again?  Are we to have
himself injuriously set upon, wished, as was most no respite?  Are we to die of the asthma in this
natural, to explain himself, by stating to those damned corner?  I wish to God that the roof
around him what I have been just stating to you. would come down and abate the impeachment,
But all in vain; they were in pursuit of the im- Lords, Commons, and all together."   Such a
mortal fame of the very business we are engaged  wish, proceeding from  the mind, would be des
in at this moment, and were resolved to hold their perate wickedness, and the serious expression of
advantage. His voice was immediately drowned  it a high and criminal contempt of Parliament.
by the clamors of insult and brutality; he was Perhaps the bare utterance of such words, even
baited on all sides like a bull, and left the coffee- without meaning, would be irreverent and foolish.
house without the possibility of being heard either But still, if such expressions had been gravely
in explanation or defense.  An indictment was imputed to me as the result of a malignant mind,
immediately preferred against him, and from that seeking the destruction of the Lords and Conmoment the public ear has been grossly and  mons of England, how would they have been
wickedly abused upon the subject, his character treated in the House of Commons on a motion for
shamefully calumniated, and his cause prejudged  my expulsion? How! The witness would have
before the day of trial.                        been laughed out of the House before he had half
Gentlemen it is impossible for me to form any  finished his evidence, and would have been voted
Toaccuse under other judgment of the impression  to be too great a blockhead to deserve a worse
sucldcirc.mstan- which such a proceeding altogether character.  Many things are, indeed, wrong and
of'alltlunancon- is likely to make upon your minds, reprehensible, that neither do nor can become the
f'delce.  but from that which it makes upon  objects of criminal justice, because the happiness
my own. In the first place, is society to be pro- and security of social life, which are the very
tected by the breach of those confidences, and in  end and object of all law and justice, forbid the
the destruction of that security and tranquillity  communication of them; because the spirit of a
which constitute its very essence every where, but gentleman, which is the most refined morality,
which, till of late, most emphatically character- either shuts men's ears against what should not
ized the life of an Englishman?  Is government be heard, or closes their lips with the sacred seal
to derive dignity and safety by means which ren- of honor.
der it impossible for any man who has the least    This tacit but well-understood and delightful
spark of honor to step forward to serve it?  Is compact of social life is perfectly con- Society in no
the time come when obedience to the law and  sistent with its safety.  The security dange from lib.
correctness of conduct are not a sufficient pro- of free governments, and the unsus- subject.
tection to the subject, but that he must measure  pecting confidence of every man who lives under
his steps, select his expressions, and adjust his them, are not only compatible, but inseparable.
very looks in the most common and private in- It is easy to distinguish where the public duty
tercourses of life?  Must an English gentleman  calls for the violation of the private one. Crim
in future fill his wine by a measure, lest, in the inal intention, but not indecent levities-not even
openness of his soul, and while believing his grave opinions unconnected with conduct, are to
neighbors are joining with him in that happy  be exposed to the magistrate; and when men
relaxation and freedom of thought which is the  (which happens but seldom), without the honor or
prime blessing of life, he should find his charac- the sense to make the due distinctions, force comter blasted, and his person in a prison?  Does plaints upon governments which they can neither
any man put such constraint upon himself in the  approve of nor refuse to act upon, it becomes the
most private moment of his life, that he would be
contented to have his loosest and lightest words    1 The King's Bench sat in the small Court of Conrecorded, and set in array against him in a court mon Pleas.




1793.]                           IN BEHALF OF FROST.                                       705
office of juries-as it is yours to-day-to draw  ets without a warrant founded upon complaint.
the true line in their judgments, measuring men's  Constructed by man to regulate human infirmiconduct by the safe standards of human life and  ties, and not by God to guard the purity of angels,
experience.                                     it leaves to us our thoughts, our opinions, and
Gentlemen, the misery and disgrace of society, our conversations, and punishes only overt acts
under the lash of informers, running before the  of contempt and disobedience to her authority.
lw and hunting men through the privacies of    Gentlemen, this is not the specious phrase of
Domestic life, is described by a celebrated speak- an advocate for his client; it is notidece of t
er [Mr. Burke] with such force and beauty of  even my exposition of the spirit of from the provi
eloquence, that I will close my observations on  our Constitution; but it is the phrase sis of lw.
this part of the subject by repeating what can  and letter of the law itself.  In the most critical
not, I am persuaded, be uttered among English- conjunctures of our history, when government
men without sinking deep into their hearts: "A  was legislating for its own existence and conmercenary informer knows no distinction. Under tinuance, it never overstepped this wise moderasuch a system, the obnoxious people are slaves, tion.  To give stability to establishments, it ocnot only to the government, but they live at the  casionally bridled opinions concerning them, but
mercy of every individual; they are at once the  its punishments, though sanguinary, laid no snares
slaves of the whole community and ot every part for thoughtless life, and took no man by surprise.
of it; and the worst and most unmerciful men are    Of this the act of Queen Anne,13 which made
those on whose goodness they must depend.  In  it high treason to deny the right of Parliament
this situation men not only shrink fiom the frowns to alter the succession, is a striking example.
of a stern magistrate, but are obliged to fly from  The hereditary descent of the Crown had been
their very species.  The seeds of destruction are  recently broken at the Revolution by a minority
sown in civil intercourse, and in social habitudes. of the nation, with the aid of a foreign force, and
The blood of wholesome kindred is infected. a new inheritance had been created by the auTheir tables and beds are surrounded with snares. thority of the new establishment, which had but
All the means given by Providence to make life  just established itself.  Queen Anne's title, and
safe and comfortable are perverted into instru- the peaceable settlement of the kingdom under
ments of terror and torment.  This species of it, depended wholly upon the constitutional powuniversal subserviency, that makes the very serv- er of Parliament to make this change.  The suant who waits behind your chair the arbiter of perstitions of the world and reverence for anyour life and fortune, has such a tendency to de- tiquity, which  deserves a better name, were
grade and abase mankind, and to deprive them  against this power and the use which had been
of that assured and liberal state of mind which  made of it; the dethroned King of England was
alone can make us what we ought to be, that I living in hostile state at our very doors, supportvow to God, I would sooner bring myself to put ed by a powerful monarch at the head of a rival
a man to immediate death for opinions I disliked, nation-and our own kingdom itself full of facand so to get rid of the man and his opinions at tious plots and conspiracies, which soon after
once, than to fiet him  with a feverish being, showed themselves in open rebellion.
tainted with the jail distemper of a contagious    If ever, therefore, there was a season when a
servitude, to keep him above ground, an anima- narrow jealousy could have been excusable in a
ted mass of putrefaction, corrupted himself, and  government-if ever there was a time when the
corrupting all about him."'2                    sacrifice of some private liberty to common seIf these sentiments apply so justly to the rep- curity would have been prudent in a people, it
Allprivate es. robation of persecution for opinions was it such a conjuncture.  Yet mark the repionage pecul- -even for opinions which the laws, serve of the crown, and the prudence of our anE.isl iattt however absurdly, inhibit-for opin- cestors in the wording of the statute. Although
tions.      ions though certainly and maturely en- the denial of the right of Parliament to alter the
tertained-though publicly professed, and though  succession was tantamount to the denial of all
followed up by corresponding conduct; how ir- legitimate authority in the kingdom, and might
resistibly do they devote to contempt and exe- be considered as a sort of abjuration to the laws,
oration all eaves-dropping attacks upon loose con- yet the statute looked at the nature of man, and
versations, casual or convivial, more especially  to the private security of individuals in society,
when proceeding from persons conforming to all while it sought to support the public society
the religious and civil institutions of the state, itself.  It did not, therefore, dog men into tavunsupported by general and avowed profession, erns and coffee-houses, nor lurk for them at corand not merely unconnected with conduct, but ners, nor watch for them  in their domestic enscarcely attended with recollection or conscious-  joyments.  The act provides, " That every perness!  Such a vexatious system of inquisition, son who should maliciously, advisedly, and dithe disturber of household peace, began and end- rectly, by writing or printing, affirm that the
ed with the Star Chamber.  The venerable law  Queen was not the rightful Queen of these
of England never knew it.  Her noble, dignified, realms, or that the Pretender had any right or
and humane policy soars above the little irregu- title to the Crown, or that any other person had
larities of our lives, and disdains to enter our clos- any right or title, otherwise than according to
12 See Mr. Burke's speech at Bristol, page 301.:` Sixth Anne. c. 7.
Yy




706                                    MR. ERSKINE                                       [1793.
the acts passed since the Revolution for settling  of Foster, are transient and fleeting, upon a
the succession, or that the Legislature hath not footing with deliberate conduct, that the criminsufficient authority to make laws for limiting the  ating letter of the law itself interposes the check,
succession, should be guilty of high treason, and  and excludes the danger of a rash judgment, by
suffer as a traitor;" and then enacts, "That if  curiously selecting from the whole circle of lanany person shall maliciously, and directly, by  guage an expression which can not be mistaken;
prchingng, teaching, or advised speaking, declare  for nothing said upon the sudden, without the
and maintain the same, he shall incur the penal- evidence of a context, and sequel in thought or
ties of a pramunire."                           conduct, can in common sense deserve the title
"I will make a short observation or two,"  of advised speaking.  Try the matter before you
Remarks says Foster, "on the act.  First. The  upon the principle of the statute of Queen Anne,
ofFoster. positions condemned by them had as di- and examine it with the caution of Foster.
rect a tendency to involve these nations in the    Supposing, then, that instead of the words immiseries of an intestine war, to incite her Maj- puted by this record, the defendant, Application of
esty's subjects to withdraw their allegiance from  coming half drunk through this coffee- tlese princ
her, and to deprive her of her crown and royal house, had, in his conversation with present cse.
dignity, as any general doctrine, any declaration  Yatman, denied the right of Parliament to alter
not relative to actions or designs, could possibly  the succession, could he have been adjudged to
have; and yet in the case of bare words, posi- suffer death for high treason under the statute of
tions of this dangerous tendency, though main-  Queen Anne?  Reason and humanity equally
tained maliciously, advisedly, and directly, and  revolt at the position, and yet the decision asked
even in the solemnities of preaching and teach- from you is precisely that decision.  For if you
ing, are not considered as overt acts of treason. could not have found [his language] " advised
" Secondly. In no case can a man be argued  speaking" to bring it within that statute of treainto the penalties of the act by inferences and  son, so neither can you find it as the necessary eviconclusions drawn from what he hath affirmed; dence of the intention charged by the present inthe criminal position must be directly maintained  dictment, which intention constitutes the misdeto bring him within the compass of the act.      meaner.
"Thirdly. Nor will every rash, hasty, or un-    If any thing were wanting to confirm  these
guarded expression, owing, perhaps, to natural principles of the law and the commentaries of its
warmth, or thrown out in the heat of disputation, ablest judges, as applicable to words-it is in anrender any person criminal within the act; the  other way emphatically furnished by the instance
criminal doctrine must be maintained  nalicious- before us.  In the zeal of these coffee-house polly and advisedly."                              iticians to preserve the defendant's expressions,
IHIe afterward adds, " Seditious writings are  they were instantly to be put down in writing,
permanent things, and if published, they scatter and signed by the persons present.  Yet the pathe poison far and wide.  They are acts of de- per read by Colonel Bullock,14 and written, as he
liberation, capable of satisfactory proof, and not tells you, at the very moment with that intention,
ordinarily liable to misconstruction; at least, contains hardly a single word, from  the beginthey are submitted to the judgment of the court, ning to the end of it, either in meaning or expres-;naked and undisguised, as they came out of the  sion, the same as has been related by the witness-,author's hands.  Words are transient and fleet- es.  It sinks, in the first place, the questions put
ing as the wind; the poison they scatter is, at to the defendant, and the whole dialogue, which
the worst, confined to the narrow circle of a few  is the best clue to the business, and records,
hearers; they are frequently the effect of a sud-  " that Mr. Frost came into the coffee-house and.den transport, easily misunderstood, and often  declared," an expression which he never used, and
misreported."                                    which wears the color of deliberation, " that he
Gentlemen, these distinctions, like all the die- wished to see equality prevail in this country,"
rincipes  tates of sound policy, are as obvious another expression, which it is now agreed en all
founded in the  to reason as they are salutary in  hands he never uttered, and which conveys a very
natureofetling.' practice.  What a man writes that different idea fiom saying, in answer to an imis criminal and pernicious, and what he disser- pertinent or taunting question, " Oh yes, I am for
inates when written, is conclusive of his purpose. equality." I impute nothing at all to Colonel
iHe manifestly must have deliberated on what he  Bullock, who did not appear to me to give his'wrote, and the distribution is. also an act of de- evidence unfairly-he read his paper as he wrote.
liberation. Intention in such cases is not, there- But this is the very strength of my observation:
fore, matter of legal proof, but of reasonable inference, unless the accused, by proof on his side,   14 The paper was as follows: "Percy coffeecan rebut what reason must otherwise infer: house, 6th of November, 1792. We, the undermen.
since he who writes to others undoubtedly seeks tioned, do hereby certify that at about 10 o'clock
to bring over other minds to assimilate with his  this evening, Mr. John Frost came into this coffeeroom, and did then and in our presence openly deown.'So he who advisedly speaks to others upon  r        ad did the  ad iour pres
eclare that he wished to see equality prevail in this
momentous subjects, may  e presmed to have  country, and no King, in a loud and factious way;
the same intention.  Yet so frail is memory-so  and upon being asked whether he meant that there
imperfect are our natures-so dangerous would  should be no King in this country, he answered
it be to place words, which, to use the language'Yes.'"  The paper was not signed.




1793.]                             IN  BEHALF OF FROST.                                        707
for suppose the case had not come for months to  suspected quarter, when it is pronounced by pertrial, the other witnesses (and honestly too) might sons enjoying every honor from the Crown, and
have let their memories lean on the written evi- treating the people upon all occasions with susdence, and thus you would have been trying, and  picion and contempt.  The three estates of the
perhaps condemning the defendant for speaking  kingdom  are co-ordinate, all alike representing
words, stripped too of their explanatory concom- the dignity, and jointly executing the authority
itants, which it stands confessed at this moment of the nation; yet all our loyalty seems to be
were never spoken at all.                         wasted upon one of them.  How happens it else
Gentlemen, the disposition which has of late  that we are so exquisitely sensible, so tremblingPernicious in- prevailed to depart from  the wise  ly alive to every attack upon the Crown or the
ciatisonss for the moderation of our laws and Consti-  nobles that surround it, yet so completely careless
prpose  in tution, under the pretext, or fom the  of what regards the once respected and awful
such cases.   zeal of preserving them, and which  Commons of Great Britain?
has been the parent of so many prosecutions, is    If Mr. Frost had gone into every coffee-house,
an awful monument of human weakness.  These  from Charing Cross to the Exchange, prevailingtendS
associators to prosecute, who keep watch of late  lamenting the dangers of popular gov- subjet,
upon our words and upon our looks, are associa-  ernment, reprobating the peevishness their danger.
ted, it seems, to preserve our excellent Constitu-  of opposition in Parliament, and wishing, in the
tion from the contagion of France, where an ar- most advised terms, that we could look up to the
bitrary and tyrannous democracy, under the col- throne and its excellent ministers alone for quiet
or of popular freedom, destroys all the securities  and comfortable government, do you think that
and blessings of life.  But how does it destroy  we should have had an indictment?  I ask paythem?  How, but by the very means that these  don for the supposition; I can discover that you
new  partners of executive power would them-  are laughing at me for its absurdity.  Indeed, I
selves employ, if we would let them-by inflict-  might ask you whether it is not the notorious
ing, from a mistaken and barbarous state neces- language of the highest men, in and out of Parsity, the severest punishments for offenses never liament, to justify the alienation of the popular
defined by the law-by inflicting them upon sus- part of the government from the spirit and prinpicion instead of evidence, and in the blind, furi- ciple of its trust and office, and to prognosticate
ous, and indiscriminate zeal of persecution, in- the very ruin and downfall of England, from a
stead of by the administration of a sober and im- free and uncorrupted representation of the great
partial jurisprudence.  Subtracting the horrors  body of the people?  I solemnly declare to you,
of invading armies which France can not help, that I think the whole of this system leads inevwhat other mischief has she inflicted upon her- itably to the dangers we seek to avert.  It diself?  From what has she suffered but from this  vides the higher and the lower classes of the
undisciplined and cruel spirit of accusation and  nation into adverse parties, instead of uniting and
rash judgment?  A spirit that will look at noth-  compounding them into one harmonious whole.
ing dispassionately, and which; though proceeding  It embitters the people against authority, which,
from a zeal and enthusiasm for the most part hon- when they are made to feel and know  is but
est and sincere, is, nevertheless, as pernicious as  their own security, they must, from the very nathe wicked fury of demons when it is loosened from  ture of man, unite to support and cherish.  I do
the sober dominion of slow and deliberate justice.  not believe that there is any set of men to be
What is it that has lately united all hearts and  named in England-I might say, that I do not
voices in lamentation?  What but these judicial know  an individual who seriously wishes to
executions, which we have a right to style mur- touch the Crown, or any branch of our excellent
der, when we see the ax falling, and the prison  Constitution; and when we hear peevish and
closing upon the genuine expressions of the in- disrespectful expressions concerning any of its
offensive heart-sometimes for private letters to  functions, depend upon it, it proceeds from some
friends, unconnected with conduct or intention-   practical variance between its theory and its
sometimes for momentary exclamations in favor  practice.  These variances are the fatal springs
of royalty, or some other denomination of govern-  of disorder,and disgust.  They lost America,.
ment different from that which is established.    and in that unfortunate separation laid the founThese are the miseries of France, the unhap-  dation of all that we have to fear; yet, instead
py attendants upon revolution; and united as we  of treading back our steps, we seek recovery in
all are in deploring them, upon what principle  the system  which brought us into peril.  Let
of common sense shall we vex and terrify the  government in England always take care tsubjects of our own country in the very bosom  make its administration correspond with the true
of peace, and disgust them with the government, spirit of our genuine Constitution, and nothing
which we wish them to cherish, by unusual, ir- will ever endanger it.  Let it seek to maintain
ritating, and degrading prosecutions?             its corruptions by severity and coercion, and neiIndeed, I am very sorry to say that we hear  ther laws nor arms will support it.  These are
of late too much of the excellence of the British  my sentiments; and I advise you, however ungovernment, and feel but too little of its benefits.  popular they may be at this moment, to consider
They, too, who pronounce its panegyrics, are  them before you repel them.
those who alone prevent the entire public from       If the defendant, among others, has judged
acceding to them.  The eulogium comes from a  too lightly of the advantages of our government.




708                                      MR. ERSKINE                                          [1794.
reform  his errors by a beneficial experience of  moments-that all his words and actions, even
them.  Above all, let him feel its excellence to- in the most thoughtless passages of his life, are
day in its beneficence; let him compare in his fit for the inspection of God and man, he will be
trial the condition of an English subject with  the fittest person to take the lead in a judgment
that of a citizen of France, which he is supposed  of "Guilty," and the properest foreman to dein theory to prefer.  These are the true crite- liver it with good faith and firmness to the court.
rions by which, in the long run, individuals and    I know the privilege that belongs to the Atnations become affectionate to governments, or torney General to reply to all that has been said:
revolt against them.  Men are neither to be but perhaps, as I have called no witnesses, he
talked nor written into the belief of happiness  may think it a privilege to be waived.  It is,
and security when they do not practically feel however, pleasant to recollect, that if it should
them, nor talked or written out of them  when  be exercised, even with his superior talents, his
they are in the full enjoyment of their blessings: honor and candor will guard it from abuse.
but if you condemn the defendant upon this sort
of evidence, depend upon it, he must have his
adherents, and, as far as that goes, I must be one    The Attorney General having exercised his
of them.                                           privilege of reply, Lord Kenyon summed up;
Gentlemen, I will detain you no longer, being  and the jury, after a consultation of an hour and
Peroration: satisfied to leave you, as conscientious  a half, returned a verdict of " Guilty."   Mr.
Let him that
i6without si men, to judge the defendant as you  Frost was sentenced to be imprisoned in Newamongtyst yourselves would be judged; and if  gate six months, to stand one hour in the pillory,
stone.    there be any among you who can say  and to be struck off the roll of attorneys, whereto the rest that he has no weak or inconsiderate  by he was ruined for life.
SPEECH
OF MR. ERSKINE FOR MR. BINGHAM ON A TRIAL FOR ADULTERY, DELIVERED IN THE COURT
OF KING'S BENCH, FEBRUARY 24, 1794.
INTRODUCTION.
THIS was almost the only case in which Mr. Erskine ever appeared as counsel for the defendant in a
trial of this kind. All his sympathies and feelings were with the bereaved party; and so fervid were hia
appeals on such occasions, that in many instances he gained an amount of damages which swept the entire property of the defendant.
But the circumstances of this case were so peculiar, that Mr. Erskine felt himself authorized to appear
for the defense. Mr. Bingham, afterward the Earl of Lucan, had formed an early attachment for Lady
Elizabeth Fauconberg, which was warmly reciprocated by the latter. They were engaged to be married, and had the expectation of an early union, when the match was broken off by her parents in favor
of Mr. Howard, afterward the Duke of Norfolk, and she was compelled to marry one whom she regarded
with disgust and even abhorrence. She bore him a son within sixteen months after their marriage;
but her affections continued to be passionately fixed on Mr. Bingham (who had at first avoided her society); a renewed intercourse gradually sprung up between them; her husband naturally became alienated
by the growing hostility of her feelings; and after mutual upbraidings, she left him at the end of four years,
and eloped with Mr. Bingham. It was certainly proper that they should now be divorced, especially as
she was expected to give birth speedily to a child by the latter; but through a singular anomaly in the
English laws, a divorce could be obtained only by Mr. Howard's bringing an action in dainages against
Mr. Bingham for depriving him of "the comfort and society of his wife!"
Mr. Erskine's management of the case was truly admirable. The entire simplicity with which he conmmnences-his disclaimer of all idea of being eloquent, or of making any address to the feelings of the jury
-the dry detail of dates with which he enters on the facts of the case, so perfectly suited to do away all
suspicion on that subject-his pointed exposure of the opposing counsel's statements without evidence to
support them-the vivid picture which he brings before the mind of the ill-fated daughter "given up to
the plaintiff by the infatuation of parents, and stretched upon her bridal bed as upon a rack"-the bold
burst of passion with which he exclaims, "Mr. Howard was never married"-" he was himself the se-,dulcer"-"imagine my client to be plaintif, and what damages are you not prepared to give him, and yet;
hIe is here as defendant!"-the solemn lessons for the nobility which he deduces from the case, so instructive in themselves, and so peculiarly adapted to strengthen his cause-every thing, in short, conspires to loake this speech, though brief, one of the most perfect exhibitions of power over the mlinds ol'
a jury, to be found in the eloquence of our language.
SPEEC H, &c.
GENTLEMEN OF THE  JuIY, —My learned  address from  me, as counsel for the defendant..friend, as counsel for,the plaintiff, has bespoke an  which you must not, I assure you, expect to hear.




1794.]                       IN BEHALF OF MR. BINGHAM.                                      709
He has thought it right (partly in courtesy to me,    Now, to show you how little disposed I am to
None of the el- as I am willing to believe, and in part work upon you by any thing but by Statement of
oquence to be ho
expected which for the purposes of his cause) that proof; to convince you how little de- the case
toue,,PPlag  you should suppose you are to be ad- sirous I am to practice the arts of speech as my
predicted.    dressed with eloquence which I nev- only artillery in this cause, I will begin with a few
er possessed, and which, if I did, I should be in- plain dates, and, as you have pens in your hands,
capable at this moment of exerting; because the I will thank you to write them down. I shall bemost eloquent man, in order to exert his elo- gin with stating to you what my cause is, and shall
quence, must have his mind free from embarrass- then prove it-not by myself, but by witnesses.
ment on the occasion on which he is to speak-      The parties were married on the 24th of April,
I am not in that condition.  My learned friend  1789.  The child that has been spok- Marriageof
has expressed himself as the friend of the plain- en of, and in terms which gave me great the parties,
and birth of
tiff's family.  He does not regard that family  satisfaction, as the admitted son of the their childi
more than I do; and I stand in the same predic- plaintiff, blessed with the affection of his parent,
ament toward my own honorable client and his and whom the noble person to whom he may berelations.  I know him and them, and because I come heir can look upon without any unpleasant
Forbidden by know them, I regard them also: my  reflection-that child was born on the 12th of
the embarrann.   rassment.
ing situation of embarrassment, however, only arises August, 1791.  Take that date, and my learned
tle speaker.  at being obliged to discuss this ques- friend's admission, that this child must have been
tion in a public court of justice, because, could  the child of Mr. Howard; an admission which
it have been the subject of private reference, I could not have been rationally or consistently
should have felt none at all in being called upon  made, but upon the implied admission that no ilto settle it.                                   licit connection had existed previously by which
Gentlemen, my embarrassment is abundantly  its existence might have been referred to the deincreased, when I see present a noble person, fendant.  On this subject, therefore, the plaintiff
high, very high in rank in this kingdom, but not must be silent. He can not say the parental mind
higher in rank than he is in my estimation: I has been wrung; he can not say hereafter, "No
speak of the noble Duke of Norfolk, who most soN OF MINE sucCCEEDING  i —he can say none of
undoubtedly must feel not a little at being obliged  these things.  This child was born on the 12th
to come here as a witness for the defendant in  of August, 1791, and as Mr. Howard is admitthe cause of a plaintiff so nearly allied to him- ted to be the author of its existence (which he
self.  I am persuaded no man can have so little  must have been, if at all, in 1790), I have a right
sensibility, as not to feel that a person in my sit- to say that, during all that interval, this gentlenation must be greatly embarrassed in discuss- man could not have had the least reasonable cause;ng a question of this nature before such an  of complaint against Mr. Bingham.  His jealousy
acdience, and between such parties as I have  must, of course, have begun after that period;
described.                                      for, had there been grounds for it before, there
Gentlemen, my learned friend desired you  could be no sense in the admission of his counErrorofthen.p- would take care not to suffer argu- sel, nor any foundation for that parental consolaposing counsel
in giving testi- ment, or observation, or eloquence to  tion which was brought forward in the very front
mny without be called into the field, to detach your of the cause.
oath.      attention from  the evidence in the    The next dry date is, therefore, the 24th of
cause, upon which alone you ought to decide; I July, 1793; and I put it to his Lord- TilneofIrs.
wish my learned friend, at the moment he gave  ship, that there is no manner of evi- Howard's
you that caution, had not himself given testimony  dence which can be pressed into this elop
of a fact to which he stood the solitary witness. cause previous to that time.  Let me next disI wish he had not introduced his otwnl evidence, embarrass the cause from  another assertion of
without the ordinary ceremony of being sworn. my learned friend, namely. that a divorce can
I will not follow his example.  I will not tell not take place before the birth of thisrrorofopyou what I know from the conversation of my  child; and that, if the child happens posing counsel
a to divorce,
client, nor give evidence of what I know myself. to be a son, which is one contingency a   
My learned friend tells you that nothing can ex- -and if the child so born does not die, which is
ceed the agony of mind his client has suffered, another contingency-and if the noble Duke dies
and that no words can describe his adoration of without issue, which is a third contingency-then
the lady he has lost: these most material points this child might inherit the honors of the house
of the cause rest, however, altogether on the sin- of Norfolk.  That I deny.  My recent experigle, unsupported, unsworn evidence of the coUN- ence tells me the contrary.  In a case where
SEL for the plaintiff.  No RELATION has been  Mr. Stewart, a gentleman of Ireland, stood in a
called upon to confirm them, though we are told  similar predicament, the Lords and Commons of
that the whole house of Fauconberg, Bellasyse, England not only passed an Act of Divorce beand Norfolk are in the avenues of the court, tween him and his lady, but, on finding there was
ready, it seems, to be called at my discretion: no access on the part of the husband, and that the
and yet my learned friend is himself the only  child was not his, they bastardized the issue.
witness; though the facts (and most material    What, then, remains in this cause?  Gentlefacts, indeed, they would have been) might have
been proved by so many illustrious persons.               i Macbeth. Act iii., Scene 2




710                                    MR. ERSKINE                                       [1794.
men, there remains only this: In what manner,  pathies of their offspring, and all the sweet, deTrue point when you have heard my evidence (for lightful relations of social existence.  While the
at isue.  this is a cause which, like all others, curtains, therefore, are yet closed upon this bridal
must stand upon evidence), the plaintiff shall be  scene, your imaginations will naturally represent
able to prove, what I have the noble judge's  to you this charming woman endeavoring to conauthority for saying he must prove, namely, the ceal sensations which modesty forbids the sex,
loss of the comfort and society of his wife, by the however enamored, too openly to reveal, wishseduction of the defendant.  THAT is the very  ing, beyond adequate expression, what she must
gist of the action. The loss of her affection, and  not even attempt to express, and seemingly reof domestic happiness, are the only legal founda- sisting what she burns to enjoy.
tions of his complaint.                           Alas, gentlemen! you must now prepare to see
Now, before any thing can be lost, it must have  in the room of this a scene of horror Tela  pr
existed; before any thing can be taken away from  and of sorrow. You must prepare to vious engagea man, he must have had it; before the seduction  see a noble lady, whose birth surely ingrepugn.a.ce
of a woman's affections from her husband can take  required no further illustration; who to the marriage.
place, he must have possessed her affections.    had been courted to marriage before she ever
Gentlemen, my friend, Mr. Mingay, acknowl- heard even her husband's name; and whose afRp.resenta-  edges this to be the law, and he shapes fections were irretrievably bestowed upon, and
tions ofoppos- his case accordingly. He represents  pledged to, my honorable and unfortunate client;
C'his client, a branch of a most illustri- you must behold her given up to the plaintiff by
ous house, as casting the eyes of affection upon  the infatuation of parents, and stretched upon this
a disengaged woman, and of rank equal to, or, at bridal-bed as upon a rack; torn from the arms
least, suitable to his own.  He states a marriage  of a beloved and impassioned youth, himself of
of mutual affection, and endeavors to show that noble birth, only to secure the honors of a higher
this young couple, with all the ardor of love, flew  title; a legal victim on the altar of Heraldry.
into each other's embraces.  He shows a child.    Gentlemen, this is no high coloring for the
the fruit of that affection, and finishes with intro- purposes of a cause; no words of an advocate
ducing the seductive adulterer coming to disturb  can go beyond the plain, unadorned effect of the
~all this happiness, and to destroy the blessings  evidence.  I will prove to you that when she
which he describes. He exhibits the defendant prepared to retire to her chamber she threw het
coming with all the rashness and impetuosity of desponding arms around the neck of her confiyouth, careless of the consequences, and thinking  dential attendant, and wept upon her as a crimof nothing but how he could indulge his own lust- inal preparing for execution.  I will prove to
ful appetite at the expense of another man's hon- you that she met her bridegroom with sighs and
or; while the unhappy husband is represented  tears-the sighs and tears of afflicted love foi
as watching with anxiety over his beloved wife, Mr. Bingham, and of rooted aversion to her husanxious to secure her affections, and on his guard  band.  I think I almost hear her addressing him
to preserve her virtue. Gentlemen, if such a case, in the language of the poetor any thing resembling it, is established, I shall               "I tell thee, Howard,
leave the defendant to whatever measure of dam-   Such hearts as ours were never pair'd above:
ages you choose, in your resentment, to inflict.    Il-suited to each other; join'd, not matched;
In order, therefore, to examine this matter (and    Some sullen influerce, a foe to both,
rue state I shall support every syllable that I ut- as wught this fatal marriae to undo us.'t acts. ater with    most           uncontro-   Mark but the frame and temper of our minds,
of facts.   ter with the most precise and uncontro-..
How very much wd differ. Ev'n this day,
vertible proofs), I will begin with drawing up the    That fills thee with such ecstasy and transport,
curtains of this blessed marriage-bed, whose joys   To me brings nothing that should make me bless it,
are supposed to have been nipped in the bud by    To think it better than the day before,
the defendant's adulterous seduction.             Or any other in the course of time,
Nothing, certainly, is more delightful to the    That duly took its turn, and was forgotten."
human fancy than the possession of a beautiful    Gentlemen, this was not the sudden burst of
woman in the prime of health and youthful pas- youthful disappointment, but the fixed and set.
sion; it is beyond all doubt the highest enjoyment tled habit of a mind deserving of a happier fate
which God, in his benevolence, and for the wisest I shall prove that she frequently spent her nights
purposes, has bestowed upon his own image.  I upon a couch, in her own apartments, dissolved
reverence, as I ought, that mysterious union of in tears; that she frequently declared to her
mind and body which, while it continues our spe- woman that she would rather go to Newgate
cies, is the source of all our affections; which  than to Mr. Howard's bed; and it will appear,
builds up and dignifies the condition of human life; by his own confession, that for months subsequent
which binds the husband to the wife by ties more  to the marriage she obstinately refused him the
indissoluble than laws can possibly create, and  privileges of a husband.
which, by the reciprocal endearments arising    To all this, it will be said by the plaintiff's
from a mutual passion, a mutual interest, and a  counsel (as it has, indeed, been hint- Mr. Bingina i.
mutual honor, lays the foundation of that parent- ed already), that disgust and aliena-   ssetheseal affection which dies in the brutes with the ne- tion from her husband could not but der
cessities of nature, but which reflects back again  be expected; but that it arose from her affection
upon the human parents the unspeakable sym- for Mr. Bingham.  Be it so, gentlemen. I read



1794.]                       IN BEHALF OF MR. BINGHAM.                                     711
ily admit, that if Mr. Bingham's acquaintance  the way, and in the ardors of mutual love, and in
with the lady had commenced subsequent to the  the simplicities of rural life, let them lay the founmarriage, the argument would be irresistible, and  dation of a vigorous race of men, firm  in their
the criminal conclusion against him unanswera- bodies, and moral from early habits; and instead
ble. But has Mr. Howard a right to instruct his of wasting their fortunes and their strength in the
counsel to charge my honorable client with se- tasteless circles of debauchery, let them light up
duction, when he himselfwas the SEDUCER? My  their magnificent and hospitable halls to the genlearned friend deprecates the power of what he  try and peasantry of the country, extending the
terms my pathetic eloquence. Alas, gentlemen! consolations of wealth and influence to the poor.
if I possessed it, the occasion forbids its exertion, Let them but do this; and, instead of those danbecause Mr. Bingham has only to defend himself  gerous and distracting divisions between the difand can not demand damages from Mr. Howard  ferent ranks of life, and those jealousies of the
for depriving him of what was his by a title su- multitude so often blindly painted as big with deperior to any law which man has a moral right struction, we should see our country as one large
to make.  Mr. Howard was NEVER MARRIED! and harmonious family, which can never be acGod and nature forbid the bans of such a marriage. complished amid vice and corruption, by wars or
If, therefore, Mr. Bingham this day could have, treaties, by informations ex officio for libels, or by
by me, addressed to you his wrongs in the char- any of the tricks and artifices of the state.2
acter of a plaintiff demanding reparation, what Would to God this system had been followed in
damages might I not have asked for him; and, the instance before us!  Surely the noble house
without the aid of this imputed eloquence, what of Fauconberg needed no further il- Their applicadamages might I not have expected?             lustration; nor the still nobler house tiontotlliscas.
I would have brought before you a noble youth, of Howard, with blood enough to have inoculated
who had fixed his affections upon one of the most half the kingdom.  I desire to be understood to
beautiful of her sex, and who enjoyed hers in re- make these observations as general moral reflecturn.  I would have shown you their suitable  tions, and not personally to the families in quescondition; I would have painted the expectation  tion; least of all to the noble house of Norfolk,
of an honorable union; and would have conclud- the head of which is now present; since no man,
ed by showing her to you in the arms of another, in my opinion, has more at heart the liberty of
by the legal prostitution of parental choice in the  the subject and the honor of our country.
teeth of affection; with child by a rival, and only    Having shown the feeble expectation of hapreclaimed at last, after so cruel and so afflicting  piness from this marriage, the next Nothingdoneby
a divorce, with her freshest charms despoiled, point to be considered is this: Did Mprodc agtlel
and her very morals in a manner impeached, by  Mr. Bingham take advantage of that alienation.
asserting the purity and virtue of her original circumstance to increase the disunion?  I anand spotless choice.  Good God! imagine my  swer, No. I will prove to you that he conducted
client to be PLAINTIFF, and what damages are himself with a moderation and restraint, and with
you not prepared to give him? and yet he is a command over his passions, which I confess I
here as DEFENDANT, and damages are demanded  did not expect to find, and which in young men
against HIS.  Oh, monstrous conclusion!         is not to be expected.  I shall prove to you, by
Gentlemen, considering my client as perfectly  Mr. Greville, that, on this marriage taking place
safe under these circumstances, I may spare a  with the betrothed object of his affections, he
moment to render this cause beneficial to the  went away a desponding man.  His health depublic.                                         dined; he retired into the country to restore it;
It involves in it an awful lesson; and more in- and it will appear that for months afterward he
structive lessons are taught in courts of justice  never saw this lady until by mere accident he
than the Church is able to inculcate.  Morals met her. And then, so far was he from endeavorcome in the cold abstract from pulpits; but men  ing to renew his connection with her, that she
smart under them practically when we lawyers came home in tears, and said he frowned at her
are the preachers.                              as he passed.  This I shall prove to you by the
Let the aristocracy of England, which trem- evidence in the cause.
Adm.noitionsto bles so much for itself, take heed to    Gentlemen, that is not all. It will appear that,
the aristocracy its own,security.  Let the nobles of  when he returned to town, he took no manner of
ofEngland arisin outof such England, if they mean to preserve  notice of her; and that her unhappiness was befacts.     that pre-eminence which, in some  yond all power of expression.  How, indeed,
shape or other, must exist in every social com- could it be otherwise, after the account I have
munity, take care to support it by aiming at that given you of the marriage?  I shall prove, bewhich is creative, and alone creative, of real su- sides, by a gentleman who married one of the
periority.  Instead of matching themselves to  daughters of a person to whom this country is
supply wealth, to be again idly squandered in  deeply indebted for his eminent and meritorious
debauching excesses, or to round the quarters of service [Marquis Cornwallis], that, from her uta family shield; instead of continuing their names ter reluctance to her husband, although in every
and honors in cold and alienated embraces, amid  respect honorable and correct in his manners and
the enervating rounds of shallow dissipation, let   2 This was during the progress of those oppressive
them live as their fathers of old lived before them. state trials in which Mr. Erskine was so largely enLet them marry as affection and prudence lead  gaged.




712                                     MR. ERSKINE                                       [1794.
behavior, he was not allowed even the privileges  union, was interrupted by a previous act of his
of a husband, for months after the marriage.  own.  In that hour of separation, I am persuaded
This I mentioned to you before, and only now  he never considered Mr. Bingham as an object
repeat it in the statement of the proofs.  Noth- of resentment or reproach.  He was the author
ing better, indeed, could be expected.  Who can  of his own misfortunes, and I can conceive him
control the will of a mismatched, disappointed  to have exclaimed, in the language of the poet,
woman?  Who can restrain or direct her pas- as they parted,
sions?  I beg leave to assure Mr. Howard (and               "Elizabeth  ever loved me.
I hope he will believe me when I say it), that I  Let no man, after me, a woman wed       [brings
think his conduct toward this lady was just such  Whose heart he knows he has not; though she
as might have been expected from  a husband  A mine of gold, a kingdom, for her dowry.
who saw himself to be the object of disgust to the  Flor let her seem, like the night's shadowy queen,
woman he had chosen for his wife, and it is with  Cold and contemplative-he can not trust her:
this view only that I shall call a gentleman to say  Se  ay, she will, bring shame nd sorrow  n  im
]how Mr. Howard spoke of this supposed, but, in  The worst of sorrows, and the worst of shames."
my mind, impossible object of his adoration.    You have, therefore, before you, gentlemen,
How, indeed, is it possible to adore a woman  two young men of fashion, both of The.uit leceswhen you know her affections are riveted to an- noble families, and in the flower of  yd tY ebTiut
other?  It is unnatural!  A man may have that youth: the proceedings, though not,otlrnethadtnaappetite which is common to the brutes, and too  collusive, can not possibly be vindic- ge.
indelicate to be described; but he can never re- tive; they are indispensably preliminary to the
tain an affection which is returned with detesta- dissolution of an inauspicious marriage, which
tion.  Lady Elizabeth, I understand, was, at one never should have existed.  Mr. Howard may,
Exasperationof time, going out in a phaeton: "'There  then, profit by a useful though an unpleasant exr. Howar    he goes," said Mr. Howard; "God  perience, and be happier with a woman whose
duct.      damn her-I wish she may break her mind he may find disengaged; while the parents
neck; I should take care how I got another."  of the rising generation, taking warning from the
This may seem unfeeling behavior; but in Mr. lesson which the business of the day so forcibly
Howard's situation, gentlemen. it was the most teaches, may avert from  their families, and the
natural thing in the world, for they cordially hated  public, that bitterness of disunion, which, while
one another. At last, however, the period arrived  human nature continues to be itself, will ever be
when this scene of discord became insupportable, produced to the end of time, from  similar conand nothing could exceed the generosity and  junctures.
manly feeling of the noble person (the Duke of    Gentlemen, I have endeavored so to conduct
Norfolk), whose name I have been obliged to use  this cause as to offend no man.  I have At leastthe
in the course of this cause, in his interference to  guarded against every expression which damages
should be
effect that separation which is falsely imputed to  could inflict unnecessary pain; and, in merely
Mr. Bingham.  He felt so much commiseration  doing so, I know that I have not only nominal"
for this unhappy lady, that he wrote to her in the  served my client's interests, but truly representmost affecting style.  I believe I have got a let- ed his honorable and manly disposition.  As the
ter from  his Grace to Lady Elizabeth, dated  case before you can not be considered by any
Sunderland, July the 27th, that is, three days reasonable man as an occasion for damages, I
after their separation; but before he knew it had  might here properly conclude.  Yet, that I may
actually taken place: it was written in conse- omit nothing which might apply to any possiquence of one received from Mr. Howard upon  ble view of the subject, I will close by remindthe subject.  Among other things he says, " I  ing you that my client is a member of a numersincerely feel for you."  Now if the Duke had  ous family; that, though Lord Lucan's fortune
not known at that time that Mr. Bingham had  is considerable, his rank calls for a correspond.
her earliest and legitimate affections, she could  ing equipage and expense; he has other chilnot have been an object of that pity which she re- dren-one already married to an illustrious noceived.  She was, indeed, an object of the sin- bleman, another yet to be married to some man
cerest pity; and the sum and substance of this  who must be happy indeed if he shall know her
mighty seduction will turn out to be no more  value.  Mr. Bingham, therefore, is a man of no
ithan this, that she was affectionately received by  fortune; but the heir only of, I trust, a very disMr. Bingham after the final period of volunta- tant expectation.  Under all these circumstaniry separation.  At four o'clock this miserable  ces, it is but fair to believe that Mr. Howard
couple had parted by consent, and  comes here for the reasons I have assigned, and
the chaise was not ordered till she  not to take money out of the pocket of Mr.
might be considered as a single woman by the  Bingham to put into his own.  You will, there-:abandonment of her husband.  Had this separa- fore, consider, gentlemen, whether it would be
tion been legal and formal, I should have applied  creditable for you to offer what it would be disto his Lordship, upon the most unquestionable  graceful for Mr. Howard to receive.:authorities, to nonsuit the plaintiff; for this action
being founded upon the loss of the wife's socie-    So completely had Mr. Erskine borne away
ty, it must necessarily fall to the ground if it ap- the minds of the jury by this speech, that as
pears that the society, though not the marriage  some of them afterward stated, they had resolved




1794.]                            IN  BEHALF OF HARDY.                                         713
to bring in a verdict for the defendant, with  macy to be renewed which led to such deploraheavy damages to be paid him by the plaintiff! ble consequences-that he was liable to render
And even when the judge reminded them, in his a compensation to the plaintiff under these circharge, that no blame could be imputed to Mr. cumstances-and that they could not be justified
Howard, who was left in total ignorance of the  in affixing a brand upon the latter by giving
previous engagement-that his wife's vows at the trifling damages-still they gave him  but five
altar ought to have been respected by Mr. Bing- hundred pounds, when the sum usually awarded,
ham, not only at first, but to the end-that the  at that time, between persons of a wealthy condefendant ought never to have allowed an inti- dition, was from tel to fifteen thousand pounds.
SPEECH
OF MR. ERSKINE IN BEHALF OF THOMAS HARDY WHEN INDICTED FOR HIGH TREASON, DELIV.
ERED BEFORE THE COURT OF KING'S BENCH, NOVEMBER 1,1794.
INTRODUCTION.
THOMAS HARDY was a shoemaker in London, and secretary of the "London Corresponding Society,"
whose professed object was to promote parliamentary reform-having branch societies in most parts of
the kingdom. Rash and inflammatory speeches were undoubtedly made at the meetings of these associations, and many things contained in their letters among themselves, and their addresses to the public,
were highly objectionable.  "The grand object of these associations," says Mr. Belsham, who probably
was well acquainted with their designs, " was unquestionably to effect a reform in Parliament upon the
visionary, if not pernicious principles of the Duke of Richmond-universal suffrage and annual election.
They contained a considerable proportion of concealed republicans, converts to the novel and extravagant
doctrine of Paine; and there can be no doubt but that these people hoped, and perhaps in the height of
their enthusiasm believed, that a radical reform in Parliament upon democratic principles would eventually lead to the establishment of a democratic government."  Still, it is generally understood that the bulk
of the members were attached to the Constitution.
The government became alarmed at their proceedings, and instead of prosecuting for a misdemeanor
those who could be proved to have used seditious language, they unhappily determined, at the instance
of Lord Loughborough, to indict Hardy, Home Tooke, and ten others for high treason.
The act laid hold of was that of proposing a National Convention, avowedly for the purpose of promoting parliamentary reform; but the government maintained that the real design was to use the convention, if assembled, as an instrument of changing the government. The indictment, therefore, alleged,
1. That Hardy and the others, in calling this convention, did conspire to excite insurrection, subvert and
alter the Legislature, depose the King, and "bring and put our said Lord the King to death."
2. The overt acts charged were attempting to induce persons, through the press, and by letters and
speeches, to send delegates to a convention called for the above-mentioned purposes; and also the preparation of a few pikes in some populous places, which, as the parties concerned maintained, were provided as a defense against illegal attacks.
The case was opened on Tuesday, the 28th of October, 1794, by a speech from the Attorney General, Sir
John Scott [afterward Lord Eldon], of nine hours in length. Never before had a trial for treason occupied
more than one day; but in this instance the court sat during an entire week until after midnight, commencing every morning at eight o'clock. The Crown occupied the whole time, till after midnight Friday
evening, with evidence against the prisoner; and Mr. Erskine then begged an adjournment to a somewhat
later hour than usual the next day, that he might have time to look over his papers and make ready for the
defense. To this the court objected as an improper delay of the jury, and proposed that the prisoner's
witnesses should be examined while Mr. Erskine was preparing his reply. The following dialogue then
ensued: ErskiTne. " I should be sorry to put the jury to any inconvenience; I do not shrink from my duty,
but I assure your Lordship that during the week I have been nearly without natural rest, and that my
physical strength is quite exhausted."  Eyre, C. J. " What is it you ask for?"  Erskzine. " As I stated before, the Attorney General found it necessary to consume nine hours; I shall not consume half that time
if I have an opportunity of doing that which I humbly request of the court."  Eyre, C. J. "We have offered you an expedient, neither of you say whether you accept it?" Mr. Gibbs, the other counsel for
the prisoner, spurned the proposal, and Mr. Erskine requested an adjournment until twelve the next day,
as essential to the fair defense of one who was on trial for his life. The Chief Justice, with apparent reluctance, agreed to eleven. Erskine. "I should be glad if your Lordships would allow another hou:-."
Eyre, C. J. "I feel so much for the situation of the jury, that, on their account, I can not think of it."
Erskine. "My Lord, I never was placed in such a situation in the whole course of ny practice before;
however, I will try to do my duty."  Jury. "My Lord, we are extremely willing to allow Mr. Erskine
another hour, if your Lordship thinks proper."  Eyre, C. J. " As the jury ask it for you, I will not refuse
you."




714                                     MR. ERSKINE                                         [1794.
" Cheered by this good omen," says Lord Campbell, "Erskine went home, and, after a short repose,
arranged the materials of' a speech which will last forever.' He began at two o'clock on Saturday afternoon, and spoke seven hours-a period that seemed very short to his hearers, and in reality was so, considering the subjects he had to deal with, and the constitutional learning, powerful reasoning, the wit,
and the eloquence which he condensed into it. This wonderful performance must be studied as a whole
by all who are capable of understanding its merits; for the enunciation of principles is so connected with
the inferences to be drawn from the evidence, and there is such an artful, though seemingly natural succession of topics, to call for the pity and the indignation of the jury-to captivate their affections and to
convince their understandings-that the full beauty of detached passages can not be properly appreciated."
SPEECH, &c.
GENTLEMEN OF THE JURY,-Before I proceed  have occasion to reflect a little upon its probable
Thauko to tie to the performance of the momentous causes; but, waiting a season for such reflections,
jury for their duty which is at length cast upon me, let us first consider what the evil is which has
indlgence    I desire, in the first place, to return  been so feelingly lamented as having fallen on
my thanks to the judges for the indulgence I have  that unhappy country.  It is, that under the doreceived in the opportunity of addressing you at minion of a barbarous state necessity, every prothis later period of the day than the ordinary sit- tection of law is abrogated and destroyed.  It
ting of the court, when I have had the refresh- is, that no man can say, under such a system of
ment which nature but too much required, and a  alarm and terror, that his life, his liberty, his repfew hours' retirement, to arrange a little in my  utation, or any one human blessing, is secure to
mind that immense matter, the result of which I him for a moment.  It is, that if accused of fedmust now endeavor to lay before you.  I have to  eralism, or moderatism, or incivism, or of whatthank you, also, gentlemen, for the very conde- ever else the changing fashions and factions of
scending and obliging manner in which you so  the day shall have lifted up into high treason
readily consented to this accommodation.  The  against the state, he must see his friends, his
sourt could only speak for itself: referring me to  family, and the light of heaven no more: the acyou, whose rest and comfort had been so long in- cusation and the sentence being the same, folterrupted.  I shall always remember your kind- lowing one another as the thunder pursues the
ness.                                            flash.  Such has been the state of EnglandBefore I advance to the regular consideration  such is the state of France; and how. then, since
The praises be-  of this great cause, either as it re- they are introduced to you for application, ought
Ctitution lare gards the evidence or the law, I they, in reason and sobriety, to be applied?  If
merited only as wish first to put aside all that I find  this prosecution has been commenced (as is asit secures equal
ntnd impartial  in the speech of my learned friend, serted) to avert from Great Britain the calamijustice.    the Attorney General, which is ei- ties incident to civil confusion, leading in its isther collateral to the merits, or in which I can  sues to the deplorable condition of France, I call
agree with him.  First, then, IN THE NAME OF  upon you, gentlemen, to avert such calamity from
THE  PRISONER, and speaking his sentiments, falling upon my client, and, through his side, upon
which are well known to be my own also, I con- yourselves and upon our country.  Let not him
cur in the eulogium which you have heard upon  suffer under vague expositions of tyrannical laws,
the Constitution of our wise forefathers. But be- more tyrannically executed. Let not him be hulfore this eulogium  can have any just or useful ried away to predoomed execution, from an honapplication, we ought to reflect upon what it is est enthusiasm for the public safety.  I ask for
which entitles this Constitution to the praise so  him a trial by this applauded Constitution of our
justly bestowed upon it.  To say nothing at country.  I call upon you to administer the law
present of its most essential excellence, or rath- to him, according to our own wholesome instier the very soul of it, viz., the share the people  tutions, by its strict and rigid letter.  However
ought to have in their government, by a pure rep- you may eventually disapprove of any part of his
resentation, for the assertion of which the pris- conduct, or, viewing it through a false medium,
oner stands arraigned as a traitor before you-  may think it even wicked, I claim for him, as a
what is it that distinguishes the government of  subject of England, that the law shall decide upon
England from  the most despotic monarchies? its criminal denomination. I protest, in his name,
What but the security which the subject enjoys against all appeals to speculations concerning
in a trial and judgment by his equals; rendered  consequences, when the law commands us to look
doubly secure as being part of a system of law  only to intentions.  If the state be threatened
which no expediency can warp, and which no with evils, let Parliament administer a prospectpower can abuse with impunity.                    ive remedy, but let the prisoner hold his life unThe Attorney General's second preliminary  der the law."
The evils of the observation I equally agree to.  I  Nothing could be more admirable than the turn
French ~.Ievolu.-                                   I Nothing could be more admirable than the turn
tion a warning  anxiously wish with him  that you  given in this exordium  to the remarks of the Atnot to stretch the may bear in memory the               GnalThe
lwtOsteijtt   m aanarch y  torney General. The prisoner and his eleven cor
of private righlt  which is desolating France.  Be- panions were in great danger of being sacrificed to
fore I sit down, I may, perhaps, in my turn, the dread of French principles. The jury, though




1794.]                             IN  BEHALF OF HARDY.                                          715
Gentlemen, I ask this solemnly of the court,  power, and government thereof."  This is the
whose justice I am  persuaded will afford it to  first and great leading overt act in the indictme.  I ask it more emphatically of you, the  ment.  And you observe that it is not charged
jury, who are called upon your oaths to make a  as being treason substantively and in itself, but
true deliverance of your countryman from this  only as it is committed in pursuance of the treacharge.  But lastly, and chiefly, I implore it of  son against the King's person, antecedently inlHim in whose hands are all the issues of life-   puted.  For the charge is not, that the prisoners
whose humane and merciful eye expands itself  conspired to assemble a convention to depose the
over all the transactions of mankind; at whose  King, but that they conspired and compassed his
command nations rise and fall, and are regener- death, and that, in order to accomplish that wickated; without whom not a sparrow falleth to the  ed and detestable purpose (i. e., in order to fulground-I implore it of God himself, that He will fill the traitorous intention of the mind against
fill your minds with the spirit of justice and of  his life), they conspired to assemble a convention
truth, so that you may be able to find your way  with a view to depose him.2  The same observthrough the labyrinth of matter laid before you-   ation applies alike to all the other counts or overt
a labyrinth in which no man's life was ever be- acts upon the record, which manifestly, indeed,
fore involved in the annals of British trial, nor, lean upon the establishment of the first for their
indeed, in the whole history of human justice or support.  They charge the publication of differinjustice.                                         ent writings, and the provision of arms, not as
Gentlemen, the first thing in order is to look  distinct offenses, but as acts done to excite to the
The indict- at the indictment itself; of the whole of  assembling of the same convention, and to main"men.    which, or of some integral part, the  tain it when assembled; but, above all, and which
prisoner must be found guilty, or be wholly dis-  must never be forgotten, because they also unicharged from guilt.                                formly charge these different acts as committed
The indictment charges that the prisoners did  in fulfillment of the same traitorous purpose, TO
Crime alleged. maliciously and traitorously conspire, BRING TlE IKING TO DEATH.  You will, thereto bring aboit compass, and imagine, " to bring and  fore, have three distinct matters for considerate2        peut our Lord the Kingtodeath." And  tion upon this trial; First. What share (if any)
King.      that to fulfill, perfect, and bring to  the prisoner had, in concert with others, in aseffect their most evil and wicked purpose (that sembling any convention, or meeting of subjects
is to say, of bringing and putting the King to  within this kingdom; Second. What were the acts
death), "they  met, conspired, consulted, and  to be done by this convention when assembled;
agreed among themselves, and other false trait-  and, Third. What was the view, purpose, and
ors unknown, to cause and procure a convention  intention of those who projected its existence
to be assembled within the kingdom, with intent"  This third consideration, indeed, comprehends, or
(I am reading the very words of the indictment,  rather precedes and swallows up the other two.
which I entreat you to follow in the notes you  Because, before it can be material to decide upon
have been taking with such honest perseverance) the views of the convention, as pointed to the sub-" with intent, and in order that the persons so  version of the rule and order of the King's politassembled at such convention, should and might ical authority (even if such views could be astraitorously, and in defiance of the authority, and  cribed to it, and brou-ght home even personally to
against the will of Parliament, subvert and alter, the prisoner), we shall have to examine whether
and cause to be subverted and altered, the Legis-  that criminal conspiracy against the established
lature, rule, and government of the country, and  order of the community was hatched and engento depose the King from  the royal state, title, dered by a wicked contemplation to destroy the
___________ ~ -~             znatural life and person of the King, and whether
gentlemen of high intelligence and respectability,  the acts charged and established by the evidence
were zealous adherents of the ministry, and com- were done in pursuance and in fulfillment of the
mitted to the support of their measures as members  same traitorous purpose.
of the Loyal Associations of the metropolis. Most    Gentlemen, this view of the subject is not only
of the evidence for the Crown had been previously  correct    t self-evident.  The subpublished, and undoubtedly read by the jury under                                         Further proof
version of the King's political govern- that this is the
circumstances calculated to produce the worst im-.                             n        cime alleged.
pressions on their minds. The subject had been nent, and all conspiracies to subvert
brought before Parliament by Mr. Pitt. The case it, are crimes of great magnitude and enormity,
had been prejudged; a conspiracy had been charged  which the law is open to punish; but neither of
on the prisoner and his companions by an act of          -     _.       _____ __
Parliament; and the Habeas Corpus Act had act-   2 Here Mr. Erskine takes his first stand, and gives
ually been suspended through fear of this conspira- us the foundation of the entire legal argument which
cy! Under these circumstances, it seemed hardly  follows. There were two kinds of treason-one the
possible for any jury to give the prisoner a fair hear-  " compassing the King's death," and the other "levying. This accounts for the extreme anxiety mani- ing war to depose him."  Now the indictment had
fested by Mr. Erskine throughout the whole of this  charged the fo-mer on the prisoner; and although it
speech. The lives of eleven others besides the pris- had also mentioned the latter, this became subomdioner were suspended on the issue of this one argu- nate to the former; so that the thing to be proved
ment  These considerations will induce the read-  against the prisoners was, that in the alleged coner to follow Mr. Erskine, with unwonted interest, spiracy they directly intended to destroy the natural
through all the windings of this intricate case.   life of the King.




716                                     MR. ERSKINE                                         1794.
them are the crimes before you.  The prisoner is death, or, in other words, the traitorous intention
not charged with a conspiracy against the King's  to destroy his natural existence, is itconsistsintl;e
political government, but against his natural life. the treason, and not the overt acts, ite toln tod
He is not accused of having merely taken steps to  which are only laid as manifestations ral lie.
depose him from his authority, but with having  of the traitorous intention; or, in other words, as
(lone so with the intention to bring him to death. evidence competent to be left to a jury to prove it
It is the act with the specific intention, and not -that no conspiracy to levy war against the
the act alone, which constitutes the charge. The  King, nor any conspiracy against his regal charact of conspiring to depose the King may, in- acter or capacity, is a good overt act of condeed, be evidence, according to circumstances, of  passing his death, unless some force be exerted,
an intention to destroy his natural existence; but or in contemplation, against the King's person
never, as a proposition of law, can it constitute  and that such force, so exerted or in contemplathe intention itself.  Where an act is done in  tion, is not substantively the treason of compasspursuance of an intention, surely the intention  ing, but only competent in point of law to estabmust first exist; a man can not do a thing in ful- lish it, if the jury, by the verdict of guilty, draw
fillment of an intention, unless his mind first con- that conclusion of fact from the evidence of the
ceives that intention.  The doing of an act, or overt act.
the pursuit of a system of conduct, which leads    Thirdly, that the charge in the indictment, of
in probable consequences to the death of the  compassing the King's death, is not Theexistenceof
King, may legally (if any such be before you) af- laid as legal inducement or introduc-.fact to be i" n
fect the consideration of the traitorous purpose  tion, to follow as a legal inference  erret by the 
charged by the record; and I am not afraid of from the establishment of the overt ov.ert actanot
not a deduction
trusting you with the evidence.  How far any  act, but is laid as an averment of A of law.
given act, or course of acting, independent of in- FACT; and, as such, the very gist of the indicttention, may lead probably or inevitably to any  ment, to be affirmed or negatived by the verdict
natural or political consequence, is what we have  of Guilty or Not guilty.3
no concern with.  These may be curious ques-    It will not (I am persuaded) be suspected by
tions of casuistry or politics; but it is wickedness  the Attorney General, or by the court, The doctrines of
and folly to declare that consequences unconnect-  that I am about to support these doe- grte,,,a liotir
ed even with intention or consciousness, shall be  trines by opposing my own judgment notcontroverted
synonymous in law with the traitorous mind, al- to the authoritative writings of the tions.
though the traitorous mind alone is arraigned, as venerable and excellent Lord Hale, whose memconstituting the crime.                          cry will live in this country, and throughout the
I. Gentlemen, the first question consequently  enlightened world, as long as the administraPaot Flist:  for consideration, and to which I must, tion of pure justice shall exist.  Neither do I
Teilawoftrea therefore, earnestly implore  the  at- wish to oppose any thing which is to be found in
ttis cse.    tention of the court, is this-WHAT  the other learned authorities principally relied
IS TzHE LAW  UPON THIS MOMENTOUS SUBJECT? upon by the Crown, because all my positions are
And recollecting that I am invested with no au- perfectly consistent with a right interpretation
thority, I shall not presume to offer you any thing  of them; and because, even were it otherwise, I
of my own.  Nothing shall proceed from myself could not expect successfully to oppose them by
upon this part of the inquiry, but that which is  any reasonings of my own, which can have no
merely introductory, and necessary to the under- weight, but as they shall be found at once constanding of the authorities on which I mean to  sistent with acknowledged authorities, and with
rely for the establishment of doctrines, not less  the established principles of the English law. I
essential to the general liberties of England, than  can do this with the greater security, because my
to the particular consideration which constitutes  respectable and learned friend, the Attorney Genour present duty.                                eral, has not cited cases which have been the disFirst, then, I maintain, that that branch of the  grace of this country in former times, nor asked
(I.)Thetreason statute 25th of Edward the Third, you to sanction by your judgment those bloody
i qs.otion di- which declares it to be high treason, murders, which are recorded by them as acts of
rected against
tte.. atural life   when a man doth compass or im-  English justice; but, as might be expected of an
agide the death of the King, of his  honorable man, his expositions of the law (though
lady the Queen, or of his eldest son and h ei," 
was intended to guard, by a higher sanction than    3 The statement contained in these three proposifelony, the NATURAL LIVES of the King, Queen, tions, if admitted, overthrew at once the entire arand Prince; and that no act, therefore (either gunent of the Attorney General as to the question
inchoate or consummate), of resistance to, or of law. He had blended, as it were, the two kinds
rebellion against, the King's regal capacity, of treason mentioned in the preceding note. He
amounts to high treason of compass       his deathinsisted that its       h for him to prove that
unless where they can be charged upon the in- the prisoner's acts amounted to a "levying of war"
dictment, and proved to the satisfaction of the  aginst th     g's government, and that this,by the
intendmeft of law, was a compassing of his death.
jury at the trial, as overt acts committed by the  Mr. Erine shows that,  a       compassing  of his death.
prisoner, in fulfillment of a traitorous intention to  as a question of fact" Did he aim to destroy the
destroy the King's natural life.                 King's natural life."  This question he lavs on the
Secondly, that the compassing the King's  consciences of the jury.




1794.]                           IN  BEHALF OF HARDY.                                      717
I think them  frequently erroneous) are drawn  ous intention against his NATURAL LIFE; and that
from the same sources, which I look up to for doc- nothing short of your firm belief of that detestatrines so very different.  I find, indeed, through- ble intention, from overt acts which you find him
out the whole range of authorities (I mean those  to have committed, can justify his conviction.
which the Attorney General has properly con- That I may keep my word with you in building
sidered as deserving that name and character) my argument upon nothing of my own, I hope
very little contradiction.  As far as I can dis- my friend Mr. Gibbs [his associate in the decover, much more entanglement has arisen from  fense] will have the goodness to call me back
now and then a tripping in the expression, than  if he finds me wandering from my engagement,
from any difference of sentiment among eminent that I may proceed step by step upon the most
and virtuous judges, who have either examined  venerable and acknowledged authorities of the
or sat in judgment upon this momentous subject.4  law.
Gentlemen, before I pursue the course I have    In this process I shall begin with Lord Hale,
A very wide field prescribed to myself, I desire most who opens this important subject by  vidence from
of argumentpen- distinctly to be understood, that in  stating the reason of passing the stat- authorities:
ed by the peculiar                                                                   Lord Hae.
circumstances of my own judgment the mnost suc- ute of the twenty-fifth of Edward the
the case.    cessful argument that a conspiracy  Third, on which the indictment is founded. Lord
to depose the King does not necessarily establish  Hale says, in his Pleas of the Crown (vol. i., page
the treason charged upon this record, is totally  82), that "'at common law there was a great
beside any possible judgment that you can have  latitude used in raising offenses to the crime and
to form  upon the evidence before you.  The  punishment of treason, by way of interpretation
truth is, throughout the whole volumes [of evi- and arbitrary  construction, which brought in
dence] that have been read, I can trace nothing  great uncertainty and confusion.  Thus, acthat even points to the imagination of such a  croaching (i. e., encroaching on) royal power,
conspiracy; and, consequently, the doctrines of  was a usual charge of treason anciently, though
Coke, Hale, and Foster, on the subject of high  a very uncertain charge; so that no man could
treason, might equally be detailed in any other tell what it was, or what defense to make to it."
trial that has ever been proceeded upon in this Lord Hale then goes on to state various instanplace.  But, gentlemen, I stand in a fearful and  ces of vexation and cruelty, and concludes with
delicate situation.  As a supposed attack upon  this striking observation: "By these and the
the King's civil authority has been transmuted, like instances that might be given, it appears
by construction, into a murderous conspiracy  how arbitrary and u.ncertail the law of treason
against his natural person, in the same manner, was before the statute of twenty-fifth of Edward
and by the same arguments, a conspiracy to  the Third, whereby it came to pass that almost
overturn that civil authority by direct force has every offense that was, or seemed to be, a breach
again been assimilated, by further construction, of the faith and allegiance due to the King, was
to a design to undermine monarchy by changes by construction, consequence, and interpretation,
wrought through public opinion, enlarging grad- raised into the offense of high treason.'  This is
ually into universal will; so that I can admit no  the lamentation of the great Hale upon the state
false proposition, however aside I may think it of this country previous to the passing of the
from rational application.  For as there is a con- statute, which, he says, was passed as a remestructive compassing, so also there is construct- dial law, to put an end to them. And Lord Coke,
ive deposing; and I can not, therefore, possibly  considering it in the same light, says, in his third
know what either of them is separately, nor how  Institute, page 2, " The Parliament which passthe one may be argued to involve the other. ed this statute was called (as it well deserved)
There are, besides, many prisoners whose cases  Parliamentuzn Benedictnm; and the like honor
are behind, and whose lives may be involved in  was given to it by the different statutes which
your present deliberation; their names have been  from time to time brought back treasons to its
already stigmatized, and their conduct arraigned  standard, all agreeing in magnifying and extollin the evidence you have heard, as a part of the  ing this blessed act."  Now this statute, which
conspiracy.  It is these considerations which  has obtained the panegyric of these great men,
drive me into so large a field of argument, be- whom the Chief Justice in his charge looked up
cause, by sufficiently ascertaining the law in the  to for light and for example, and whom the Atoutset, they who are yet looking up to it for pro- torney General takes also for his guide, would
tection may not be brought into peril.          very little have deserved the high eulogium beGentlemen, I now proceed to establish, that a  stowed upon it, if, though avowedly passed to
compassing of the death of the King, withinthe  destroy uncertainty in criminal justice, and to
twenty-fifth of Edward the Third, which is the  beat down the arbitrary constructions of judges;
charge against the prisoner, consists in a traitor- lamented by Hale as disfiguring and dishonoring the law, it had, nevertheless, been so wordHere Mr. Erskine throws out, in passing, a ref-^                                         un
erence to the explanation which he intends to give  e  as to gie bit t      nt           d unof the apparent contradiction of the books to his po-  ates instead of destroyin  the old ones.
sitions as here laid above. Nothing is more remark- It would but ill have entitled itself to the deable than the dexterity with which he thus prepares  nomination of a blessed statute, if it had not, ir
the way for what is coming, and makes his speeches  its enacting letter, which professed to remove
a compacted system of thoughlt.                 doubts, and to ascertain the law, made use of




718                                     MR. ERSKINE                                       [1794.
expressions the best known and understood; and  the anomaly of the offense, which exists wholly
it will be found, accordingly, that it cautiously  in the INTENTION, and not in the overt act, redid so.                                          quired the preservation of the form of the indictIn selecting the expression of COMPASSING  ment.  It is surely impossible to read this comMeaningoftile THE DEATH, it employed a term  of  mentary of Foster without seeing the true purordt corn- the most fixed and appropriate sig- pose of the statute.  The common law had aning's de.ath." nification in the language of English  ciently considered, even in the case of a fellowlaw, which not only no judge or counsel, but subject, the malignant intention to destroy, as
which no attorney or attorney's clerk, could  equivalent to the act itself.  But that noble spirit
misunderstand; because, in former ages, before  of humanity which pervades the whole system of
the statute compassing the death of any man  our jurisprudence, had, before the time of King
had been a felony, and what had amounted to  Edward the Third, eat out and destroyed this rule,
such compassing, had been settled in a thousand  too rigorous in its general application; but, as
instances.  To establish this, and to show also, Foster truly observes in the passage I have read,
by no reasoning of mine, that the term  " corn- " This rule, too rigorous in the case of the subject,
passing the death'" was intended by the statute, the statute of treasons retained in the case of the
when applied to the King, as high treason, to  King, and retained also the very expression used
have the same signification as it had obtained in  by the law when compassing the death of a subthe law when applied to the subject as a felony, ject was felony."
I shall refer to Mr. Justice Foster, and even to    The statute, therefore, being expressly made
a passage cited by the Attorney General him- to remove doubts, and accurately to The com,nol
self, which speaks so unequivocally and unan- define treason, adopted the ancient ex- lav ose o rtle
swerably for itself as to mock all commentary. pression of the common law, as appli- its in.arinagin
"The ancient writers," says Foster, " in treat- cable to felonious homicide, meaning'he statute.
ing of felonious homicide, considered the feloni- that the life of the Sovereign should remain an
ous intention manifested by plain facts, in the  exception, and that voluntas pro facto, the wicksame light, in point of guilt, as homicide itself. ed intention for the deed itself (as it regarded his
The rule was, voluntas reputatur profacto;5 and  sacred life), should continue for the rule; and,
while this rule prevailed, the nature of the of- therefore, says Foster, the statute, meaning to
fense was expressed by the term compassing the retain the law which was before general, redeath.  This rule has been long laid aside as too  tained also the expression.  It appears to me,
rigorous in the case of common persons.  But therefore, incontrovertible, not only by the words
in the case of the King, Queen, and Prince, the  of the statute itself, but upon the authority of
statute of treasons has, with great propriety, Foster, which I shall follow up by that of Lord
retained it in its full extent and vigor; and, in  Coke and Hale (contradicted by no syllable in
describing the offense, has likewise retained the  their works, as I shall demonstrate), that the statancient mode of expression, when a man doth  ute, as it regarded the security of the King's life,'compass or imagine the death of our Lord the  did not mean to enact a new security never known
King,' &c., and thereof be upon sufficient proof, to the common law in other cases; but meant to
provablement, attainted of open deed, by people  suffer a common law rule, which formerly existof his condition: the words of the statute de- ed universally, which was precisely known, but
scriptive of the offense, must, therefore, be strict-  which was too severe in common cases, to rely pursued in every indictment for this species  main as an exception in favor of the King's seof treason.  It must charge that the defendant curity.  I do, therefore, positively maintain, not
did traitorously compass and imagine the King's  as advocate merely, but in my own person, that,
death; and then go on and charge the several within the letter and meaning of the Nothing acorn
acts made use of by the prisoner to effectuate  statute, nothing can be a compassing p a.sig tlle
his traitorous purpose.  For'the compassing  the death of the King that would not,  hilchwould not
the King's death' is the treason, and the overt in ancient times, have been a felony towar a fen
acts are charged as the neans made use of to  in the case of a subject.  For other- suject.
effectuate the intentions and imaginations of the  wise Foster and Coke, as will be seen, are very
heart.  And, therefore, in the case of the regi- incorrect when they say the statute retained the
cides, the indictment charged that they did trait- old law, and the appropriate word to express it;
orously compass and imagine the death of the  for if it went beyond it, it would, on the contrary,
King, and the cutting off the head was laid as have been a new rule unknown to the common
the overt act, and the person who was supposed  law, enacted for the first time, for the preservato have given the mortal stroke was convicted  tion of the King'slife. Unquestionably, the Legon the same indictment."                         islature might have made such a rule; but we are
This concluding instance, though at first view  not inquiring what it might have enacted, but
it may appear ridiculous, is well selected as an  what it has enacted.  But I ought to ask pardon
illustration.  Because, though in that case there  for having relapsed into any argument of my own
could be no possible doubt of the intention, since  upon this subject, when the authorities are more
the act of a deliberate execution involves, in com- express to the purpose than any language I can
mon sense, the intention to destroy life, yet still use.  For Mr. Justice Foster himself expressly
— ~~~~ —— ~~- — says-Discourse 1st, of High Treason, p. 207.
The will is taken for the deed.       " All the words descriptive of the offense, name



1794.]'              IN BEHALF OF HARDY.                                         719
ly,'If a man doth compass or imagine, and there- ing letter, yet Lord Hale says, in his Pleas of the
of be attainted of open deed,' are plainly borrowed  Crown, page 83, that " things were Lord Hale on
from the common law, and therefore must bear so carried by parties and factions, in,,fe crime of
the same construction they did at common law."  the succeeding reign of Richard the treason.
Is this distinct?  I will read it to you again:  Second, that this statute was but little observed' All the words descriptive of the offense, name- but as this or that party got the better.  So the
ly,' If a man doth compass or imagine, and there-  crime of' high treason was in a manner arbitraof be attainted of open deed,' are plainly borrowed  rily imposed and adjudged to the disadvantage of
from the common law, and therefore must bear the party that was to be judged; which, by vathe same construction they did at common law."  rious vicissitudes and revolutions, mischiefed all
Gentlemen, Mr. Justice Foster is by no means  parties, first and last, and left a great unsettledSae   singular in his doctrine.  Lord Coke, ness and unquietness in the minds of the people,
maintained by the oracle of the law, and the best or- and was one of the occasions of the unhappiness
Lord Coke.  acle that one can consult, when stand- of that King.'
ing for a prisoner charged with treason, as he    " All this mischief was produced by the statwas the highest prerogative lawyer that ever ex- ute of the 21st of Richard the Second, Act of Richisted, maintains the same doctrine.  Even he, which enacted, That every man that ardsecod.
even Coke, the infamous prosecutor of Raleigh,6 compasseth or pursueth the death of the King, or
whose character with posterity, as an Attorney  to depose him, or to render up his homage liege,
General, my worthy and honorable friend would  or he that raiseth people, and rideth against the
disdain to hold, to be author of all his valuable  King, to make war within his realm, and of that
works; yet even this very Lord Coke himself be duly attainted and adjudged, shall be adjudged
holds precisely the same language with Foster. a traitor, of high treason against the Crown."
For, in his commentary on this statute, in his    "This," says Lord Hale, "was a great snare
3d Institute, p. 5, when he comes to the words, to the subject, insomuch that the statute, 1st of
"Doth compass," he says, "Let us see, first, Henry Fourth, which repealed it, recited that no
what the compassing the death of a subject was  man knew how he ought to behave himself, to do,
before the making of this statute, when voltntas speak, or say, for doubt of such pains of treason;
reputabatur pro facto."  Now what is the plain  and, therefore, wholly to remove the prejudice
English of this?  The commentator says, " I am  which might come to the King's subjects, the statgoing to instruct you, the student, who are to  ute 1st of Henry the Fourth, chap. 10, was made,
learn from  me the law  of England, what is a  which brought back treason to the standard of
compassing of the death of the King.  But that the 25th of Edward the Third."
I can not do but by first carrying you to look into    Now if we look to this statute of Richard the
what was the compassing the death of a subject Second, which produced such mischiefs, tet
at the ancient common law; because the statute  what are they? As far as it re-enacted the
having made a compassing, as applied to the  treason of compassing the King's death, and levyKing, the crime of high treason, which, at com- ing war, it only re-enacted the statute of Edward
mon law, was felony in the case of a subject, it is theThird. But it went beyond it by the loose conimpossible to define the one without looking back  struction of compassing to depose the King, and
to the records which illustrate the other."  This raising the people, and riding to make war, or a
is so directly the train of Lord Coke's reasoning, compassing to depose him-terms new to the
that, in his own singularly precise style of com- common law.  The actual levying of force to
mentating, he immediately lays before his reader imprison or depose the King, was already and
a variety of instances from the ancient records and  properly high treason, within the second branch
year books, of compassing the subject's death. of the statute.  So that this statute of Richard
And what are they?  Not acts wholly collateral the Second enlarged only the crime of compassto attacks upon life, dogmatically laid down by  ing, making it extend to a compassing to impristhe law from speculations upon probable or pos- on or depose, which are the great objects of an
sible consequences; but assaults with intent to  actual levying of war, and putting a compassing
murder; conspiracies to waylay the person with  to levy war on a footing with the actual levying
the same intention; and other murderous machi- it.  It seems, therefore, most astonishing that
nations.  These were [the] only compassings be- any judge could be supposed to have decided, a?
fore the statute against the subject's life; and  an abstract rule of law, that a compassing to imthe extension of the expression was never heard  prison or depose the King was high treason, subof in the law, till introduced by the craft of polit- stantively, without a previous compassing of his
ical judges when it became applicable to crimes  death.  For it was made so by this statute, 21st
against the state.                               of Richard the Second, and reprobated, stigmaHere, again, I desire to appeal to the highest tized, and repealed by the statute 1st of Henry
authorities for this source of constructive treason. the Fourth, chap. 10, "And so little effect," says
Although the statute of Edward the Third had  Mr. Justice Blackstone, "have over-violent laws
expressly directed that nothing should be de- to prevent any crime, that, within two years after
dared to be treason but cases within its enact- this new law of treason respecting imprisonment
and deposing, this very prince was both deposed
6 See page 277 for his abusive treatment of  and murdered."
Raleigh.                                           Gentlemen, this distinction, made by the hu.




720                                       MR. ERSKINE                                         [1794.
mane statute of Edward the Third, between trea-    Gentlemen, the act of Henry the Fourth was
Reasons forthe son against the King's natural life, scarcely made when it shared the same But tle stat
d"tin'tti, of  and rebellion against his civil author- fate with the venerable law which it utedisregardEdward llI.  ity, and which the act of Richard the  restored. Nobody regarded it. It was  d
Second, for a season, broke down, is founded in  borne down by factions, and, in those days, there
wise and sound policy.  A successful attack may  were no judges, as there are now, to hold firm
be made upon the King's person by the maligni- the balance of justice amid the storms of state.
ty of an individual, without the combination of  Men could not then. as the prisoner can to-day,
extended conspiracy, or the exertions of rebell- look up for protection to magistrates independent
ious force; the law, therefore, justly stands upon  of the Crown,8 and awfully accountable in charthe watch to crush the first overt manifestation  acter to an enlightened world.  As fast as arbiof so evil and detestable a purpose. Considering  trary constructions were abolished by one statute,
the life of the chief magistrate as infinitely im- unprincipledjudges began to build them up again,
portant to the public security, it does not wait till they were beat down by another. To recount
for the possible consummation of a crime, which  their strange treasons would be tiresome and disrequires neither time, combination, nor force to  gusting; but their system of construction, in the
accomplish, but considers the traitorous purpose  teeth of positive law, may be well illustrated by
as a consummated treason.  But the wise and  two lines from Popehumane policy of our forefathers extended the          "Destroy  is fib and sophistry in vain,
severity of the rule, voluntass prlofacto, no further   The creature's at his dirty work again."
than they were thus impelled and justified by the
necessity.  And, therefore, an intention to levy      Ti       em, boh jiial and parliamentary,
war and rebellion, not consummated, however  became, indeed, so intolerable in the  - tatte i
manifested by the most overt acts of conspiracy, teoval between the reign of Henry the M    te tl ")
was not declared to be treason, and upon the  Fourth,  and that of Philip and Mry,9  tayr
plainest principle in the world, namely, that the  that it produced, in the first year of the latt
King's REGAL capacity, guarded by all the force           the most remarkable statute that ever
and authority of the state, could not, like his NAT- passed in Enland,   epealing not only all forURAL existence, be overthrown or endangered          er statutes upon the subject ecept that of
existates    Thnced bubjet exsp that           of
in a moment, by the first machinations of the  Edward the  Third, but also stigmatizing, upol
traitorous mind of an individual, or even by the  the records of Parliament, the albitrary construcunarmed conspiracy of numbers, and, therefore,  ions of judges, and limiting them, in all times.
this humane and exalted institution, measuring  to every letter of the statute.  I will read to vo
the sanctions of criminal justice by the standard         Coke's commentary upon the subject.  In
of civil necessity, thought it sufficient to scourge  his third Institute, page 23, he says, "Before the
and dissipate unarmed conspirators by a less vin-act of te 25th of Edward the Third, so many
dictive proceeding.                                treasons had been made and declared, and in
These new treasons were, however, at length  such sort penned, as not only the ignorant and
This extension all happily swept away on the acces-unlealned people, but also learned and expert
done ssay sitl sion of King Henry the Fourth, which
by Henry iv. brought the law back to the standard  of his auditors, but he does it only to gather a strikof Edward the Third.  And, indeed, in review-  ing general truth, which, in returnin g, he applies
f  theda hi   f  ~this. high   f ed, isn,  with new force to the case in hand.
ing the history of this highly favored island, it is    s At the recommendation of George III., soon after
most beautiful, and, at the same time, highly en- his accession, the judges were made independent of
couraging to observe by what an extraordinary  the Crown, by holding their offices for life at a cerconcurrence of circumstances, under the super- tain fixed salary.
intendence of a benevolent Providence, the liber-    9 Among the new treasos created during this inties of our country have been established.  Amid  terval, particularly in the reign of Henry VIII., may
the convulsions arisin( from the maddest ambi- be reckoned the following: namely, clipping money,
tion and injustice, and while the state was altern- breaing prison or rescue when the prisoner is corn
^."..c~ ~~,~'mitted for treason, burning houses to extort mnonev,
ately departing from its poise on one side, and on                            houses to etort mon
stealing of cattle by Welshlmen, counterfeiting forthe other the great rights of mankind were still ei       n, wfl poisoning, execrtions against the
insensibly taking root and flourishing.  Though                    p     i      e      s n
insensibly taing root and  ourishig.  Tho h  King, calling him opprobrious names by public writsometimes monarchy threatened to lay them pros- ilg, counterfeiting the sign manual or signet, refustrate, though aristocracy occasionally undermined  ing to abjure the Pope, deflowering, or marrying
them, and democracy, in her turn, rashly tram-  without the royal license any of the King's children,
pled on them, yet they have ever come safely  sisters, aunts, nephews, or nieces, bare solicitation
round at last.  This awful and sublime contem-  of the chastity of the queen or princess, or advances
plation should teach us to bear with one another  made by themselves, marrying with the King by a
woman not a virgin, without previously discovering
when our opinions do not quite coincide; extract-       hm  h  pvi       unchate life, judging or believing final harmony from  the inevitable differen- in   (manifested  by an overt act) the King to have
ing (manifested by an overt act) the King to have
ces which ever did, and ever must, exist among  been lawfilly married to Anne of Cleve, derogating
men. 7from the King's royal style and title, impugning his
supremacy, assembling riotously to the number of
7 This is one of the many instances in which Mr. twelve, and not dispersing on proclamation.
Erskine digresses for a moment to relieve the minds  i  1 Mary, stat. 1, c. i.




1794.]                           IN BEHALF OF HARDY.                                       721
men, were trapped and snared, *  * so as the    But, gentlemen, the most important part of
mischief before Edward the Third, of the uncer- Lord Coke's commentary on this statute is yet
tainty of what was treason and what not, became  behind, which I shall presently read to you, and
so frequent and dangerous, as that the safest and  to which I implore your most earnest attention.
surest remedy was, by this excellent act of Mary, I will show you by it, that the unfortunate man,
to abrogate and repeal all but [except] only such  whose innocence I am  defending, is arraigned
as are specified and expressed in this statute of before you of high treason, upon evidence not
Edward the Third. By which law the safety of  only wholly repugnant to this particular statute,
both the King and of the subject, and the preser- but such as never yet was heard of in England
vation of the common weal, were wisely and suf- upon any capital trial; evidence which, even with
ficiently provided for, and in such certainty that all the attention you have given to it, I defy any
nihil relicturn est arbitrio judicis.t          one of you, at this moment, to say of what it conThe whole evil, indeed, to be remedied and sists; evidence, which (since it must be called
Intent and avoided, by the act of Queen Mary, was by that name) I tremble for my boldness in pretmatningf  the arbitrium judicis, or judicial con- suming to stand up for the life of a man, when I
of Mary.  struction beyond the letter of the stat- am conscious that I am incapable of understanding
ute.  The statute [of Edward III.] itself was from it, even what acts are imputed to him; eviperfect, and was restored in its full vigor; and dence, which has consumed four days in the readto suppose, therefore, that when an act was ex- ing; not in reading the acts of the prisoner, but
pressly made, because judges had built treasons the unconnected writings of men unknown to one
by constructions beyond the law, they were to  another, upon a hundred different subjects; evibe left, consistently with their duty, to go on dence, the very listening to which has deprived
building again, is to impute a folly to the Leg- me of the sleep which nature requires; which
islature which never yet was imputed to the  has filled my mind with unremitting distress and
framers of this admirable statute.  But this ab- agitation, and which, from its discordant, unconsurd idea is expressly excluded, not merely by  nected nature, has suffered me to reap no advantthe statute, according to its plain interpretation, age from  the indulgence, which I began with
but according to the direct authority of Lord  thanking you for; but which, on the contrary, has
Coke himself, in his commentary upon it.  For almost set my brain on fire, with the vain endeavhe goes on to say, " Two things are to be ob- or of collecting my thoughts upon a subject never
served: first, that the word expressed, in the designed for any rational course of thinking.t2
statute of Mary, excludes all implications or in-    Let us, therefore, see how  the unexampled
ferences whatsoever; secondly, that no former condition I am  placed in falls in with Remarksof
attainder, judgment, precedent, resolution, or Lord Coke upon this subject, whose au- Lord Coke
opinion of judges, or justices, of high treason, thority is appealed to by the Crown itself; and
other than such as are specified and expressed  let us go home and burn our books if they are to
in the statute of Edward the Third, are to be blazon forth the law by eulogium, and accuratefollowed or drawn into example. For the words ly to define its protector, which yet the subject
be plain and direct; that from henceforth no act, is to be totally cut off from, when, even under the
deed, or offense shall be taken, had, deemed, or sanction of these very authors, he stands upon his
adjudged to be high treason, but only such as are  trial for his existence.  Lord Coke says, in the
declared and expressed in the said act of the 25th  same Commentary, page 12, that the statute had
of Edward the Third, any act of Parliament or not only accurately defined the charge, but the
statute after 25th of Edward the Third, or any  nature of the proof on which alone a man shall
other declaration or matter, to the contrary not- be attainted of any of the branches of high trea'
withstanding."                                  son.  " It is to be observed," says he, " that the
Gentlemen, if the letter of the statute of Mary, word in the act of Edward the Third is proven
shown by its when coupled with Lord Coke's corm- blement; that is, upon direct and manifest proof;
preamble   mentary, required further illustration, not upon conjectural presumptions, or inferences
it would amply receive it from the PREAMBLE,  or strains of wit, but upon good and sufficient
which ought to be engraved on the heart of ev- proof.  And herein the adverb provably hath a
ery man who loves the King, or who is called to great force, and signifieth a direct plain proof,
any share in his councils; for, as Lord Coke ob- which word the Lords and Commons in Parliaserves in the same commentary: It truly recites ment did use, for that the offense of treasonwas
that " the state of a King standeth and consisteth more assured by the love and favor of the    12 We have here one of those sallies of feeling
subjects toward their Sovereign, than in the dread  which sometimes occur in the midst of Erskine's arand fear of laws, made with rigorous and extreme guments. An immense mass of evidence in the
punishment; and that laws, justly made for the  shape of correspondence had been brought forward
preservation of the common weal, without ex- by the Crown, for the purpose of showing, among
treme punishment or penalty, are more often and other things, the treasonable designs of another so
pand obeyed, than 3ciety, called the "Constitutional Society," and that
for the most part better kept and obeyed, than  the "London Corresponding Society," of which larlaws and statutes made with extreme punish- dy was the secretary, was closely connectedwith it,
ment."                                          and advocated the same principles. No wonder that
" Nothing was left to the arbitrary decision of the Erskine spoke with impatience of such a mode of
judge.                                          aiming at the lives of men.
Z 7




722                                    MR. ERSKINE                                       [1794.
so heinous, and was so heavily and severely pun- and precise evidence, and deciding upon no inished, as none other the like, and therefore the  tention that does not result with equal clearness
offender must be provably attainted, which words from the fact.  This is the universal demand of
are as forcible as upon direct and manifest proof. justice in every case, criminal or civil.  How
Note, the word is not probably, for then commune  much more, then, in this, when the judgment is
argumentum might have served, but the word is every moment in danger of being swept away'provably be attainted.' "                      into the fathomless abyss of a thousand volumes;
Nothing can be so curiously and tautologously  where there is no anchorage for the understandlabored as this commentary, of even that great ing; where no reach of thought can look round
prerogative lawyer Lord Coke, upon this single  in order to compare their points, nor any memoword in the statute.  And it manifestly shows ry be capacious enough to retain even the imthat, so far from its being the spirit and princi- perfect relation that can be collected from them!
ple of the law of England, to loosen the construe-    Gentlemen, my mind is the more deeply affect.
tion of this statute, and to adopt rules of con- ed with this consideration by a very Illustrationfrom
struction and proof, unusual in trials for other recent example in that monstrous tiPfv'sarrea
crimes, on the contrary, the Legislature did not phenomenon which, under the name Hastings.
even leave it to the judges to apply the ordinary  of a trial, has driven us out of Westminster Hall
rules of legal proof to trials under it, but admon- for a large portion of my professional life.  No
ished them to do justice in that respect in the very  man is less disposed than I am to speak lightly
body of the statute.                            of great state prosecutions, which bind to their
Lord Hale treads in the same path with Lord  duty those who have no other superiors, nor any
Coke, and concludes this part of the subject by  other control; last of all am I capable of even
the following most remarkable passage (vol. i., glancing a censure against those who have led
chap. xi., 86):                                to or conducted the impeachment, because I re" Now, although the crime of high treason is spect and love many of them, and know them to
Remarks of the greatest crime against faith, duty, be among the best and wisest men in the nation.
Lord Hale. and human society, and brings with it I know them, indeed, so well, as to be persuaded
the greatest and most fatal dangers to the gov- that, could they have foreseen the vast field it
ernment, peace, and happiness of a kingdom or was to open, and the length of time it was to
state; and, therefore, is deservedly branded with  occupy, they never would have engaged in it.13
the highest ignominy, and subjected to the great- For I defy any man, not illuminated by the Diest penalties that the laws can inflict; it appears, vine Spirit, to say, with the precision and cerfirst, how necessary it was that there should be tainty of an English judge deciding upon evisome known, fixed, settled boundary for this great dence before him, that Mr. Hastings is guilty or
crime of treason, and of what great importance  not guilty!-for who knows what is before him,
~the statute of 25th of Edward the Third was, in  or what is not?  Many have carried what they
-order to that end. Second, how dangerous it is to knew to their graves, and the living have lived
depart from the letter of that statute, and to mul- long enough to forget it.  Indeed, I pray God;tiply and enhance crimes into treason by ambigu- that such another proceeding may never exist in
-ous and general words, such as accroaching royal England; because I consider it as a dishonor to
power, subverting fundamental laws, and the like. the Constitution, and that it brings, by its examAnd third, how dangerous it is by construction  ple, insecurity into the administration of justice.
and analogy, to make treasons where the letter Every man in civilized society has a right to
of thelaw has not done it.  For such a method  hold his life, liberty, property, and reputation,
admits of no limits or bounds, but runs as far and under plain laws that can be well understood
as wide as the wit and invention of accusers, and  and is entitled to have some limited specific part
the detestation of persons accused, will carry  of his conduct compared and examined by their
men."                                           standard.  But he ought not for seven years, no,
Surely, the admonition of this supereminent nor for seven days, to stand as a criminal before
liatin of judge ought to sink deep into the heart the highest human tribunal, until judgment is
them to the  of every judge, and of every juryman, bewildered and confounded, to come at last, perpresentcae. who is called to administer justice un- haps, to defend himself, broken down with fader this statute; above all, in the times and un- tigue and dispirited with anxiety, which, indeed,
der the peculiar circumstances which assemble  is my own condition at this moment, who am
us in this place. Honorable men, feeling, as they  only stating the case of another.  What, then,
ought, for the safety of.government, and the tran- must be the condition of the unfortunate person
quillity of the country, and naturally indignant whom you are trying?
against those who are supposed to have brought    The next great question is, how the admoni-,hem into peril, ought, for that very cause, to  tions of these great writers are to be reconciled
proceed with more abundant caution, lest they  
should be surprised by. their iresentments or their   13 It was the good fortune of Mr. Erskine to remedy, in his own person, the evil thus complained of,
fears. They ought to advance, in the udgments when he presided as Chancellor on the trial of Lord
they form, by slow  and.trembling steps; they  Melville. He insisted that the House of Lords
ought even to fall back and look at every thing  should sit daily, like every other criminal tribunal,
again, lest-a false light should deceive them, ad- till the verdict was delivered; and thus completed
mitting no. fact but upon the foundation of clear the case in fourteen days.




1794.]                              IN  BEHALF OF HARDY.                                         723
with what is undoubtedly to be found in other  by the prisoner to effect his traitorous purpose;
The foregoing parts of their works.14  I think, then,  and as this rule was too frequently departed
ontiled withl   I do not go too far, when I say that from, the statute of the seventh of King Willwhat the satohn    e oi ery5
riters        oght to be the inh clination of every  iaml5 enacted, for the benefit of the prisoner,
elsewhere said. person's mind who is considering the  that no evidence should ever be given of any
meaning of any writer (particularly if he be a  overt act not charged in the indictment.l6  The
person of superior learning and intelligence), to  charge, therefore, of the overt acts in the indictreconcile as much as possible all he says upon  ment, is the notice (enacted by statute to be
any subject, and not to adopt such a construction  given to the prisoner for his protection) of the
as necessarily raises up one part in direct oppo- means by which the Crown is to submit to the
sition to another.  The law itself, indeed, adopts  jury the existence of the traitorous purpose,
this sound rule of judgment in the examination  which is the crime alleged against him, and in
of every matter which is laid before it for a  pursuance of which traitorous purpose the overt
sound construction; and the judges, therefore,  acts must also be charged to have been commitare bound by duty, as well as reason, to adopt it. ted. Whatever, therefore, is relevant Thesereasons
It appears to me, then, that the only ambigui-  or competent evidence to be received ove'rt at cth
The key to this ty which arises, or can possibly arise, in support of the traitorous intention, stitutes the
is the shey n theis    w                                                                  eiti or cn  gerce of
giveto  they in the examination of the great au- is a legal overt act; and what acts the crime.
prase overt act. thorities, and in the comparison of  are competent to that purpose is (as in all other
them  with themselves, or with one another, is  cases) matter of law for the judges. But whethfrom not rightly understanding the meaning of  er, after the overt acts are received upon the
the term  OVERT ACT as applied to this species  record as competent, and are established by
of treason.  The moment you get right upon the  proof upon the trial, they be sufficient or insuftrue meaning and signification of this expression, ficient, in the particular instance, to convince the
the curtain is drawn up, and all is light and cer-  jury of the traitorous compassing or intention,
tainty.                                            is a mere matter of fact, which, from  its very
Gentlemen, an overt act of the high treason  nature, can be reduced to no other standard than
Dreaning of charged upon this record, I take, with  that which each man's own conscience and unthe plrase. great submission to the court, to be  derstanding erects in his mind as the arbiter of
plainly  and simply this:  The  high treason  his judgment.  This doctrine is by no means
charged is the compassing or imagining (in other new, nor peculiar to high treason.  It pervades
words, the intending or designing) the death of  the whole law, and may be well il- Thuls it belong
the King-I mean his natural death-which be- lustrated in a memorable case lately to te jur tat
ing a hidden operation of the mind, an "overt decided upon writ of error in the evidence.
act" is any thing which legally proves the ex-  House of Lords, and which must be in the memistence of such traitorous design and intention. ory of all the judges now present who took a
I say, then, that the design against the King's  part in its decision.  There the question was,
natural life is the high treason under the first whether, upon the establishment of a number of
branch of the statute; and whatever is evidence facts by legal evidence, the defendant had knowlthat may be legally laid before a jury to judge  edge of a fact, the knowing of which would
of the traitorous intention, is a legal overt act; leave him without defense.  To draw that quesbecause an overt act is nothing but legal evidence  tion from the jury to the judges, I demurred to
embodied upon the record.                          the evidence, saying, that though each part of it
The charge of compassing being a charge of  was legally admitted, it was for the law, by the
easons for intention, which, without a manifesta- mouth of the judges, to pronounce whether this
speecifing  tion by conduct, no human tribunal fact of knowledge could legally be inferred from
could try, the statute requires, by its  it.  But the'Lords, with the assent of all the
very letter (but without which letter reason  judges, decided, to my perfect satisfaction, that
must have presumed): that the intention to cut such a demurrer to the evidence was irregular
off the sovereign should be manifested by an  and invalid; that the province of the jury over
open act.  And as a prisoner charged with an  the effect of evidence ought not to be so transintention could have no notice how  to defend  ferred to the judges, and converted into matter
himself without the  charge of actions from   of law; that what was relevant evidence to come
whence the intention was to be imputed to him; before a jury was the province of the court, but
it was always the practice, according to the  that the conclusion to be drawn from admissible
sound principles of English law, to state upon  evidence was the unalienable province of the
the face of the indictment the overt act, which  country.
the Crown charges, as the means made use of           To apply that reasoning to the case before us.
The matter to be inquired of here is the fact of
14 Mr. Erskine here comLies to the second great  the secprisoner's intention, as, in the case I have just
vision of his legal argument. It is really an answer_                  
to the argument of the Attorney General, though in   15 7 and 8 William III.. c. iii., s. 8.
another form. His object is to show how the au-   16 That is, any overt act amounting to a distinct,
thorities adduced by the Crown could be reconciled  independent charge. But if an overt act, not charged
with his preceding statement of the law. This te  in the indictment, amount to a direct proof of any
does witl an ingenuity and force which can not fail other overt act which is charged, it may be given in
to interest the reader.                            evidence to prove such overt act.




-724                                    MR. ERSKINE                                        [1794
cited, it was the fact of the defendant's knowledge.  fore high prerogative judges, and under circumSo the jury are The charge of a conspiracy to depose  stances when, in any country but England, theil,here to decide the King is, therefore, laid before you  trial would have been a mockery, or their execuWhether the
acts charged  to establish that intention.  Its cor- tion have been awarded without even the forms'were aimed at
tlie efaturallife petency to be laid before you for that of trial; yet in England, that sacred liberty which
of thire Kine. 
ftheK'"  purpose is not disputed.  I am only  has forever adorned the Constitution, refused to
contending (with all reason and authority on my  sacrifice to zeal or enthusiasm  either the sub-.side) that it is to be submitted to your conscien- stance or the forms of justice.  Hear views of,ess and understandings, whether, even if you be- what the Chief Baron pronounced upon Lor"d H"'a
lieved the overt act, you believe also that it pro- that occasion:'These persons are to be pro.
ceeded from a traitorous machination against the  ceeded with according to the laws of the land,
life of the King.  I am only contending that these  and I shall speak nothing to you but what are'two beliefs must coincide to establish a verdict of the words of the law. By the statute of Edward
guilty.17  I am not contending that, under [cer- the Third, it is made high treason to compass
tain] circumstances, a conspiracy to depose the  and imagine the death of the King: in no case
King, and to annihilate his regal capacity, may  else imagination or compassing, without an actnotbe strong and satisfactory evidence of the in- ual effect, is punishable by law."   He then
tention to destroy his life-I only contend that in  speaks of the sacred life of the King, and, speak-'this, as in every other instance, it is for YOU to  ing of the treason, says, " The treason consists
collect or not to collect this treason against the  in the wicked imagination which is not apparent;
King's life, according to the result of your con- but when this poison swells out of the heart, and
scientious belief and judgment, from the acts of  breaks forth into action, in that case it is high
the prisoner laid before you, and that the estab- treason.  Then, what is an overt act of an imlishment of the overt act, even if it were estab- agination, or compassing of the King's death?:'ished. does not establish the treason against the  Truly it is any thing which shows what the im-:Kings life by a consequence of law.  On the con- agination of the heart is.":trary, I affirm that the overt act, though punish-    Indeed, gentlemen, the proposition is so clear
able in another shape as an independent crime, that one gets confounded in the argu- Further eviis adead letter upon this record, unless you be- ment from  the very simplicity of it. potr' tTtis
lieve, exercising your exclusive jurisdiction over But still I stand in a situation which I plriciple.
the facts laid before you, that it was committed  am determined, at all events, to fulfill to the utin accomplishment of the treason against THE  most; and I shall, therefore, not leave the matter
NATURAL LIFE OF THE KING.                        upon these authorities, but will bring it down to
Gentlemen, this particular crime of compass- our own times, repeating my challenge to have
Peculiarnature ing theKing's death is so complete an  one single authority produced in contradiction.
of thiscrme. anomaly,being wholly seated inuncon- Lord Coke, in his 3d Institute, pages 11 and 12,
summated intention, that the law can not depart says, " The indictment must charge that the pris-'from describing it according to its real essence, oner traitorously compassed and imagined the
even when it is followed by his death.  A man  death and destruction of the King."   He says,
-can not be indicted for killing the King, as was  too, " There must be a compassing or imagina.
settled in the case of the Regicides of Charles I., tion; for an act without compassing, intent, of'after long consultation among all the judges. It imagination, is not within the Act, as appeareth'was held that the very words of the statute must by the express letter thereof: Et actZus non facit
be pursued; and that, although the King was reum nisi mens sit rea."  Nothing in language
actually mutrdered, the prisoners who destroyed  can more clearly illustrate my proposition. The
him could not be charged with the act itself, as indictment, like every other indictment, must
thigh treason, but with the " compassing" of his  charge  distinctly and specifically the crime.
death-the very act of the executioner in behead- That charge must, therefore, be in the very
ing him being only laid as the " overt act" upon the  words of the statute which creates the crime-,record. There, though the overt act was so con- the crime created by the statute, not being the
nected with, as to be even inseparable from the  perpetration of any act, but being, in the rigor-'traitorous intention, yet they were not confound- ous severity of the law, the very contemplation,
-ed because of the effect of the precedent in dis- intention, and contrivance of a purpose directed'similar cases. And although the Regicides came  to an act. That contemplation, purpose, and conto be tried immediately on the restoration of the  trivance must be found to exist, without which,
King, in the dayspring of his authority, and be- says Lord Coke, there can be no compassing; and
as the intention of the mind can not be investi17 This was the great point on which Erskine  gated without the investigation of conduct, the
rested his hopes of success. If he could fasten this  overt act is required by the statute, and must be
responsibility on the jury, and make them act under laid in the indictment and proved.  It follows
it, be felt that his cause was safe. But the danger, that upon the clear princiwas. that, adopting the Attorney General's princi-;ples, they might consider " the writing of letters,"  ples of the English law, every act may be laid as'&c., mentioned by Lord Hale, as tending ultimatelyan overt act of compassing the King's death.'to subvert the monarchy, and thus be led to a ver- which may be reasonably considered to be rele-'diet of guilty. Hence the intense earnestness with  vant and competent to manifest that intention.
which he goes on to argue this point.            For were it otherwise, it would be shutting out




1794.]                            IN BEHALF OF HARDY.                                        725.
from the view of the jury certain conduct of the  suing his purpose with: that.foreknowledge, the
prisoner, which might, according to circumstan-  intention to produce the consequence may be
ces, serve to manifest the criminal intention of fairly imputed.  But then all this is matter of
his mind.  Hence, as more than one overt act fact for the jury from the evidence, not matter of
may be laid, and even overt acts of different lawfor the court, further than it is the privilege.
kinds, though not in themselves substantively  and duty of the judge to direct the attention of
treason, the judges [in the case of the Regicides] the jury to the evidence, and to state the law as,
appear to have been justified in law, when they  it may result from the different views the jury,
ruled them to be overt acts of compassing the  may entertain of the facts,  And if such acts
death of the King.  For, they are such acts as could not be laid as overt acts, they could not be
before the statute of King William  (which re- offered in evidence; and if they could not be ofquired that the indictment should charge all overt fered in evidence, the mind of the prisoner, which.
acts) would have been held to be relevant proof-  it was the object of the trial to lay open as a clue
of which relevancy of proof thejudges are tojudge  to his intention, would be shut up and concealed,
as matter of law-and, therefore, being relevant from the jury, whenever the death of the Soverproof, must also be relevant matter of charge, eign was sought by circuitous but obvious means,
because nothing can be relevantly charged which  instead of by a direct and murderous machina-.
may not also be relevantly admitted to proof. tion.  But when they are thus submitted, a&
These observations explain, to the meanest ca- matter of charge and evidence, to prove the;
pacity, in what sense Lord Coke must be under- traitorous purpose which is the crime, the secue
stood, when he says, on the very same page, that rity of the King and of the subject is equally pro"A preparation to depose the King, and to take  vided for.  All the matter which has a relevant:
the King by force and strong hand, until he has cy to the crime is chargeable and provable, not
yielded to certain demands, is a sufficient overt substantively to raise from their establishment a
act to prove the compassing of the King's death."  legal inference, but to raise a presumption infact4
He does not say, as a proposition of law, that he  capable of being weighed by the jury, with al}
who prepares to seize the King, compasseth his the circumstances of the transaction, as offered
death; but that a preparation to seize him is a  to the Crown and the prisoner.  And it is the"
sufficient overt act to prove the compassing; and  province of the jury finally to say-not what was.
he directly gives the reason, "Because of the  the possible or the probable consequence of the
strong tendency it has to that end."  This latter overt act laid in the indictment, but whether it
sentence destroys all ambiguity.s  I perfectly  has brought them  to a safe and conscientious
agree with Lord Coke, and I think every judge  judgment of the guilt of the prisoner, i. e., of his,
would so decide, upon the general principles of guilt in compassing the death of the King, which,
law and evidence, without any resort to his au- is the treason charged in the indictment.  Lord
thority for it; and for this plain and obvious rea- Hale is if possible, more direct and explicit upon
son: The judges who are by law to decide upon  the subject.  He says, page 107, " The Lord al
the relevancy or competency of the proof, in ev- words'compass' or'imagine' are of a
cry matter, criminal and civil, have immemori- great latitude; they refer to the purpose or deally sanctioned the indispensable necessity of sign of the mind or will, though the purpose or
charging the traitorous intention as the crime, design takes not effect.  But compassing or imbefore it was required by the statute of King  agining singly of itself, is an internal act, and,
William.  As the crime is in its nature invisible  without something to manifest it, could not posand inscrutable, until manifested by such conduct sibly fall under any judicial cognizance but of
as in the eye of reason is indicative of the inten- God alone; and therefore this statute requires
tion, which constitutes the crime; no overt act such an overt act as may render the compassing:
is, therefore, held to be sufficient to give jurisdic- or imagining capable of a trial and sentence by
tion, even to a jury to draw the inference in fact human judicatures."  Now, can any man possiof the traitorous purpose, but such acts from  bly derive from such a writing (proceeding, too,
whence it may be reasonably inferred.  And, from an author of the character of Lord Hale),
therefore, as the restraint and imprisonment of a  that an overt act of compassing might, in his:
prince has a greater tendency to his destruction  judgment, be an act committed inadvertently.
than in the case of a private man, such conspir- without the intention?  Can any man gather
acies are admitted to be laid as overt acts, upon  from it, that a man, by falling into bad company,
this principle-that if a man does an act from  can be drawn in to be guilty of this species of.
whence either an inevitable or a mainly probable  treason by rash conduct, while the love of his
consequence may be expected to follow, much  Sovereign was glowing in his bosom?   Can
more if he persists deliberately in a course of there be any particular acts which can entitle a
conduct, leading certainly or probably to any  judge or counsel to pronounce, as a matter of
given consequence, it is reasonable to believe  law, what another man intends? or that what a
that he foresaw such consequence, and by pur- man intends is not a matter of fact?  Is there
"s Mr. Erskine had quoted from Lord Coke on~ a any man that will meet the matter fairly, and adpreceding page in support of his views respecting  vance and support that naked proposition!  At
high treason (p. 718), and he here gives his prom- all events, it is certainly not a proposition to be
ised reconciliation of Coke's statements, which had  dealt with publicly, because the man whose mind
appeared contradictory.                          is capable even of conceiving it should be treas



726                                      MR. ERSKINE                                         [1794.
ured up in a museum, and exhibited there as a  ters for the execution thereof," i. e., for the exec
curiosity, for money.                             cution of that destruction of the King which they
Gentlemen, all I am asking, however, from my  have meditated, " this is an overt act within the
summingupon argument, and I defy any power of  statute."  Surely the meaning of all this is selfthis point with
ah incidental  reason upon earth to move me from   evident.  If the intention be against the King's
ppeal to the  it, is this-that the prisoner being  life, though the conspiracy does not immediately
felings of the                                                                dm
ury.       charged with intending the King's  and directly point to his death, yet still the overt
death, You are to find whether this charge be  act will be sufficient, if it be something which has
founded or unfounded.  I say, therefore, put upon  so direct a tendency to that end, as to be compethe record what else you will-prove what you  tent rational evidence of the intention to obtain
will-read these books over and over again-   it.  But the instances given by Lord Hale himand let us stand here a year and a day in dis- self furnish the best illustration: " If men concoursing concerning them — still the question  spire to imprison the King by force and a strong
must return at last to what You, and YOU ONLY, hand until he has yielded to certain demands, and
can resolve-Is he guilty of that base, detestable for that purpose gather company or write letters,
intention to destroy the King?  NOT whether you  that is an overt act to prove the compassing the
incline to believe that he is guilty; NOT whether  King's death, as it was held in Lord Cobham's
you suspect, nor whether it be probable; NOT  case by all the judges."20  In this sentence Lord
whether he may be GUILTY; no, but that PROV- Hale does not depart from that precision which
ABLY HE IS GUILTY.  If you can say this upon  so eminently distinguishes all his writings.  He
the evidence, it is your duty to say so, and you  does not say that if men conspire to imprison the
may, with a tranquil conscience, return to your  King until he yields to certain demands, and for
families; though, by your judgment, the unhappy  that purpose to do so and so, this is high treason
object of it must return no more to his.  Alas! No, nor even an overt act of high treason, though
gentlemen, what do I say? HE has no family to  he might in legal language correctly have said
return to.  The affectionate partner of his life  so.  But, to prevent the possibility of confoundhas already fallen a victim  to the surprise and  ing the treason with matter which may be legalhorror which attended the scene now transact-  ly charged as relevant to the proof of it, he foling. But let that melancholy reflection pass. It lows Lord Coke's expression, in the third Instishould not, perhaps, have been introduced-it tute, and says, " This is an overt act to prove the
certainly ought to have no effect upon you who  compassing of the King's death."  And as if by
are to judge upon your oaths.  I do not stand  this mode of expression he had not done enough
here to desire you to commit perjury from con- to keep the ideas asunder, and from  abundant
passion; but at the same time, my earnestness  regard for the rights and liberties of the subject,
may be forgiven, since it proceeds from a veak- he immediately adds, " But, then, there must be
ness common to us all.  I claim  no merit with  an overt act to prove that conspiracy; and then
the prisoner for my zeal; it proceeds from a self- that overt act to prove such design, is an overt
ish principle inherent in the human heart-I am  act to prove the compassing of the death of the
counsel, gentlemen, for myself.  In every word  King."  The language of this sentence labors in
I utter, I feel that I am pleading for the safety  the ear from the excessive caution of the writer.
of my own life, for the lives of my children after  Afraid that his reader should jump too fast to his
me, for the happiness of my country, and for the  conclusion upon a subject of such awful moment,
universal condition of civil society throughout the  he pulls him back after he has read that a conworld.19                                           spiracy to imprison the King is an overt act to
But let us return to the subject, and pursue  prove the compassing of his death; and says to
Return to Lord the doctrine of Lord Hale upon the  him, But recollect that there must be an overt
Hale's views of
an overtct ina true interpretation of the term overt act to prove, in the first place, that conspiracy
caseofompa-ng   act, as applicable to this branch of  to imprison the King, and even then that intendeath.      treason.  Lord Hale says, and I do  tion to imprison him so manifested by the overt
beseech most earnestly the attention of the court act is but in its turn an overt act to prove the
and jury to this passage —"If men conspire the  compassing or intention to destroy the King.
death of the King, and thereupon provide weap-  Nor does the great and benevolent Hale rest
ons, or send letters, this is an overt act within  even here, but after this almost tedious perspicuthe statute."  Take this to pieces, and what does  ity, he begins the next sentence with this fresh
it amount to?  " If men conspire the death of the    20 Lor Cobham took part in the rash conspiracy
King," that is the first thing, viz., the intention,  of Raleigh against James I., A.D. 1604. He was
"and thereupon," that is, in pursuance of that tried and convicted, and condemned to death, but
wicked intention, " provide weapons, or send let- subsequently pardoned.
It will occur at once to the reader that this pas19 There was consummate skill when Mr. Erskine  sage in Lord Hale was the strong-hold of the Atthus glanced at the death of Mrs. Hardy, in seeming  torney General. The " writing of letters" to call the
almost to condemn himself for doing so, since this  convention was the great thing charged in the presplaced him before the jury as one who did not seek  ent case. Mr. Erskine, therefore, delayed the conto work on their passions. The turn he next gives  sideration of this passage from Hale till he had got
the thought is peculiarly fine-he was speaking for out his doctrine strongly fiom Coke, and showed its
himself-forhis children-for the world-and he was  reasons. Then he takes up Lord Hale and gives a
therefore bound to express these feelings.         decisive answer.




1194.]                            IN  BEHALF OF HARDY.                                       727
caution and limitation, "But then this must be in-  formally charged the overt act to be committed
tended of a conspiracy forcibly to detain and im- in order to effectuate the traitorous purpose. Noprison the King."  What, then, is a conspiracy  body ever denied this proposition; and the presforcibly to imprison the King?   Surely it can  ent indictment is framed accordingly.  Now, it
require no explanation: it can only be a direct is needless to say, that if the benignity of the
machination to seize and detain his PERSON by  general law requires this precision in the indictrebellious force.  Will this expression be satis- ment, the proof must be correspondingly precise,
fled by a conspiracy to seize speculatively upon  otherwise the subject would derive no benefit from
his authority by the publication of pamphlets, the strictness of the indictment.  That strictness
which, by the inculcation of republican princi-  can have no other meaning in law or common
ples, may. in the eventual circulation of a course  sense, than the protection of the prisoner; for if;
of years, perhaps in a course of centuries, in this  though the indictment must directly charge a
King's time, or in the time of a remote success- breach of the very LETTER of the statute, the
or, debauch men's minds from the English Con- prisoner could, nevertheless, be convicted by evstitution; and, by the destruction of monarchy, idence not amounting to a breach of the LETTER
involve the life of the Monarch? Will any man  then the strictness of the indictment would not
say that this is what the law means by a conspir- only be no protection to the prisoner, but a direct
acy against the King's government, supposing  violation of the first principles of justice, criminal
even that a conspiracy against his government and civil, which call universally for the proof of
were synonymous with a design upon his life?  all material averments in every legal proceeding.
Can any case be produced where a person has  But Mr. Justice Foster expressly adverts to the
been found guilty of high treason, under this  necessary severity of proof, as well as of charge.
branch of the statute, where no war has been  He says, " although a case is brought within the
actually levied, unless where the conspiracy has reason of a penal statute, and within the mischief
been a forcible invasion of the King's personal to be prevented, yet, if it does not come within
liberty or security?  I do not mean to say that the unequivocal letter, the benignity of the law
a conspiracy to levy war may not, in many in- interposeth."  If the law, then, be thus severe
stances, be laid as an overt act of compassing  in the interpretation of every penal proceeding,
the King's death, because the war may be medi- even down to an action for the killing of a hare
ately or immediately pointed distinctly to his de- or a partridge, are its constructions only to be
struction or captivity; and, as Lord Hale truly  enlarged and extended as to the statute of high
says, " small is the distance between the prisons  treason, although the single object of passing it
and graves of princes."  But multiply the instan- was to guard against constructions?
ces as you will, still the principle presents itself.    Gentlemen, the reason of the thing is so palThe truth of this very maxim. built upon expe- pably and invincibly in favor of this The Attorney
rience, renders an overt act of this description  analogy, that it never met with a di- it, though lie
rational and competent evidence to be left to a  rect opposition.  The Attorney Gen- iomntrliafts
jury of a design against the King's life.  But it eral himself distinctly admits it, in one ward.
does not, therefore, change the nature of the  part of his address to you, though he seems to
crime. nor warrant any court to declare the  deny it in another.  I hope that when I state one
Dvert act to be legally and conclusively indicative  part of his speech to be in diametrical opposition
of the traitorous intention.  For if this be once  to another, he will not suppose that I attribute
admitted to be law, and the jury are bound to find  the inconsistency to any defect either in his unthe treason upon their belief of the existence of  derstanding or his heart.  Far from  it-they
the overt act, the trial by the country is at an  arise, I am convinced, from some of the authorend, and the judges are armed with an arbitrary, ities not being sufficiently understood.
uncontrollable dominion over the lives and liber-    In the beginning of his speech, he admits that
ties of the nation,                              the evidence must be satisfactory and convincing
Gentlemen, I will now  proceed to show you  as to the intention; but in the latter part he
These doctrines that the doctrines which I am insist- seems, as it were, to take off the effect of that
blon3 to the  ing on have been held by all the great admission.  I wish to give you the very words.
oflaw.     judges of this country, in even the  I took them down at the time; and if I do not state
worst of times; and that they are, besides, not at them correctly, I desire to be corrected.  " I most
all peculiar to the case of high treason, but per-  distinctly disavow," said my honorable friend,
vade the whole system of the criminal law.  Mr.  " every case of construction.  I most distinctly
Justice Foster, so justly celebrated for his writ- disavow any like case of treason not within the
ings, lays down the rule thus: It may be laid  letter of the statute.  I most distinctly disavow
down as a general rule, that " indictments found- cumulative treason.  I most distinctly disavow
ed upon penal statutes, especially the most penal, enhancing guilt by parity of reason.  The quesmust pursue the statute so as to bring the party  tion undoubtedly is, whether the proof be full and
within it."  And this general rule is so express-  satisfactory to your reasons and consciences, that
ly allowed to have place in high treason, that it is the prisoner is guilty of the treason of compass —
admitted, on all hands, that an indictment would  ing the King's death."  Gentlemen, I hope that.
be radically and incurably bad, unless it charged  this will always with equal honor be admitted..
the compassing of the King's death as the lead- Now, let us see how the rest of the learned gen.
ing and fundamental averment, and unless it tleman's speech falls in with this.  For he goes




728                                    MR. ERSKINE                                       [1794.
on to say, that it is by no means necessary that which, though it might lead eventually and specthe distinct, specific intention should pre-exist the  ulatively to the King's death, might not be foreovert act.  " If the overt act," says he, " be de- seen or designed by those who conspired together.
iiberately committed, it is a compassing."  But The conspiracy was not directed to an event
how so, if the intention be admitted to be the  probably leading to another and a different one,
treason?  What benefit is obtained by the rigor- and from the happening of which second, a third,
ons demand of the statute, that the compassing of still different, might be engendered, which third
the King's death shall be charged by the indict- might again lead, in its consequences; to a fourth
ment as the crime, if a crime different, or short state of things, which might, in the revolution
of it, can be substituted for it in the proof?  And  of events, bring on the death of the King, though
how can the statute of Richard the Second be  never compassed or imagined.  Friend's consaid to be repealed, which made it high treason  spiracy, on the contrary, had for its direct and
to compass to depose the King, independently of immediate object the restoration of the Pretender
intention upon his life, if the law shall declare, to the throne, by the junction of foreign and renotwithstanding the repeal, that they are synon- bellious force.  In my opinion (and I am not
ymous terms, and that the one conclusively in- more disposed than others to push things beyond
volves the other?                              their mark in the administration of criminal jusGentlemen, if we examine the most prominent tice), Sir John Friend, if the evidence against
Mr. Erskine's cases which have come in judgment him  found credit with the jury, could have no
doctrine, confirmed by the before judges of the most unquestion- possible defense; since the evidence went directstate Trials. able authority, and, after the Consti- ly to prove the dispatch of Charnock to France,
tution had become fixed, you will find every thing  under his direction, to invite the French King to
that I have been saying to you justified and con- bring over the Pretender into England, and to
firmed.                                         place him on the throne.  The intention, thereThe first great state trial, after the Revolution, fore, of Sir John Friend to cut off King William
Case of ir  was the case of Sir John Friend, a  was a clear inference from the overt act in quesJohn Friend. conspirator in the assassination plot.2' tion.  It was not an inference of law for the
Sir John Friend was indicted for compassing and  court, but of fact for the jury, under the guidimagining the death of King William. The overt ance of plain common sense; because the conacts charged and principally relied on, were, sequence of the Pretender's regaining the throne
first, the sending Mr. Charnock into France to  must have been the attainder of King William
King James, to desire him to persuade the French  by act of Parliament.  Some gentlemen seem to
King to send forces over to Great Britain, to  look as if they thought not; but I should be glad
levy war against, and to depose the King, and  to hear the position contradicted.  I repeat, that
that Mr. Charnock was actually sent; and, see- if the Pretender had been restored as King of
ondly, the preparing men to be levied to form a  England, the legal consequence would have been,
corps to assist in the restoration of the Pretend-  that King William would have been a traitor and
er,2 and the expulsion of King William, of which  a usurper, and subject as such to be tried at
Sir John Friend was to be the colonel.  In this  the Old Bailey, or wherever else the King, who
Difference be- case, if the proofs were not to be  took his place, thought fit to bring him to judgandeotincae  wholly discredited, and the overt acts  ment.  From  these premises, therefore, there
undertrial.   were consequently established, they  could be no difficulty of inferring the intention.
went rationally to convince the mind of every  If, then, a case ever existed where, from the clearman of the pre-existing intention to destroy the  ness of the inference, the province of the jury
King.  The conspiracy was not to do an act might have been overlooked, and the overt act
confounded with the treason, it was in the in21 In 1695, the year after the death of Queen Mary, stance of Friend; but so far was this from being
which event it was considered would considerably  the case, that you will find, on the contrary, evweaken the authority of the King (William III.), ery thing I have been saying to you, since I beseveral of the Jacobites conspired to seize his per- gan to address you, summed up and confirmed
son, and convey him to France, and, in case of re-     that most eminent maistrate, Lod Chief J
sistance, to assassinate him; and messengers were         w   pr        at that trial.
sent to St. Germain, where James II. was then         o   w    pri              i
staying, under the protection of the French gov-  He begins thus: " Gentlemen of the Jury,
ernment, to demand a commission for the purpose  look ye, the treason that is mentioned in the in(which was, however, refused), and to make arrange- dictment is conspiring, compassing, and imagin
ments for a descent upon England. The principal ing the death of the King.  To prove the conparties connected with this conspiracy were, the  spiracy and design of the King's death, two prinEarl of Aylesbury, Lord Montgomery, Sir John Fen- cipal overt acts are insisted on."  He does not
wick, Sir John Friend, Captain Charnock, Captain  consider the overt act of conspiracy and consultPorter, and Mr. Goodman.
Porter, and Mr. Goodman.                        ation to be the treason, but evidence (as it un22 Mr. Erskine departs from general usage in givv   doubtedly was in that case) to prove the coming James II. the name of the Pretender. After his
death, in 1701, his son, the Chevalier de St. George, passing the death.  The Chief Justice then states
assumed the title of James III.; and as this was a  the two overt acts above mentioned, and sums
mere pretense, without legal right, in the view of  up the evidence for and against the prisoner, and
the English nation, he was stigmatized with the  leaves the intention to the jury as matter of fact.
title of Pretender.                             For it is not till afterward that he comes to an



1794.]                             IN  BEHALF OF HARDY.                                         729
swer the prisoner's objection in point of law, as  is to be levied; such a conspiracy and consultathe Chief Justice in terms puts it-" There is an-  tion to levy war for the bringing this to pass"
other thing," said Lord Chief Justice Holt, " he  (that is, for bringing the King's death to pass)
did insist upon, and that is matter of law."  The  "is an overt act of high treason.  So that, genstatute 25th Edward the Third was read, which  lemen, as to that objection which he [Friend]
is the great statute about treason, and that does  makes, in point of law, it is of no force, if there
contain divers species of treason, and declares  be evidence sufficient to convince you that he
what shall be treason: one treason is the corn- did conspire to levy war for such an end."  And
passing and imagining the death of the King; he concludes by again leaving the intention exanother is the levying war.  "Now," says he, pressly to the jury.
-(i. e., Friend), " here is no war actually levied;    It is the end, therefore, for which the war is
and a bare conspiracy to levy war does not come  to be levied, and not the conspiracy The doctrine
within the law against treason."  To pause here  to do any act, which the law consid- established by
a little: Friend's argument was this, Whatever ers as a levying of war, that consti- John Friend.
my intentions might be-whatever my object of  tutes an overt act of treason against the King's
levying war might have been-whatever might life.  The most rebellious movements toward a
have been my design to levy it-however the  reform in government, not directed against the
destruction of the King might have been effected IKing's person, will not, according to Lord Holt,
by my conspiracy, if it had gone on-and how- support the charge before you.  I might surever it mniht have been my intention that it round the House of Commons with fifty thousand
should, it is not treason within the 25th of Ed- men, for the express purpose of forcing them, by
ward the Third.  To which Holt replied, a little  duress, to repeal any law that is offensive to me,
incorrectly in language, but i ight ill substance: or to pass a bill for altering elections, without be" Now for that I must tell you, if there be only  ing a possible object of this prosecution.  Under
a conspiracy to levy war, it is not tr'eason;: that the other branch of the statute, I might, indeed,
is, it is not a substantive treason: it is not a  be convicted of levying war, but not of compasstreason in the abstract.: But if the design and  ing the King's death; and if I only conspired and
conspiracy be either to kill the King, or to le- meditated this rising to repeal laws by rebellion,
pose him, or imprison him, or put any force  I could be convicted of nothing but a high misor restraint upon him" (i. e. personal restraint dlrieanor.  I would give my friends the case
by force), "and the way of effecting these pur- upon a special verdict, and let them hang me if
poses is by levying a war, there the conspir- they could.  How  much more might I give it
acy and consultation, to levy w tar foli thaLt pur- them if the conspiracy imputed was not to effect
pose, is high treason, though no war be levied; a reform by violence, but, as in the case before
for such consultation and conlspiracy is an overt us, by pamphlets alnd speeches, which might proact proving the colnpassing the death of the  duce universal suffrage, which universal suffrage
King."   But what sort of war is it, the bare  might eat out and destroy aristocracy, which deconspiracy to levy which is an overt act to prove  struction might lead to the fall of monarchy, and,
a design against the King's life, thouclh no war in the end, to the death of the King.  Gentlebe actually levied?  Gentlemen, Lord Holt him- men, if the cause were not too serious, I should
self illustrates this matter so clearly, tha.t if I liken it to the play with which we amuse our
had any thing at stake short of the honor and life  children: this is the cow with the crumpled horn,
of the prisoner, I might sit down as soon as I had  which gored the dog, that worried the cat, that
read it; for if one did not know it to be an ex- ate the rat, &c., ending in " the house which Jack
tract from an ancient trial, one would say it was built."  I do, therefore, maintain, upon the exadmirably and accurately written for the present press authority of Lord Holt, that, to convict a
purpose. It is a sort of prophetic bitd's-eye view  prisoner charged with this treason, it is absoluteof what we are engaged in at this moment: ly necessary that you should be satisfied of his
"There may be war levied" (continues Lord Holt intention against the King's life, as charged in
in Friend's case) "without any design upon the  the indictment; and that no design against the
King's person, which, if actually levied, is high  King's government will even be a legal overt act
treason; though purposing and designing  such  to be left to a jury as the evidence of such an ina levying of war is not so.  As, for example:  tention (much less the substantive and consumif persons do assemble themselves, and act with  mate treason), unless the conspiracy be directly
force, in opposition to some law, and hope there- pointed against the person of the King.
by to get it repealed; this is a levying war, and    The case of Lord George Gordon is opposed
treason, though the purposing and designing of  to this as a high and modern decision; Case of Lord
it is not so.  So when they endeavored, in great and the Attorney General descended, George Godon.
numbers, with force, to make reformation of their indeed, to a very humble and lowly authority,
own heads, without pursuing the methods of the  when he sought to maintain his argument by my
law, that is a levying war, but the purpose and  own speech as counsel for that unfortunate perdesigning is not so.  But if there be, as I told  son.2   The passage of it alluded to lies at this
you, a purpose and design to destroy the King,   23 Sir John Scott, in opening the case, had read a
and" (not or to depose him, but and to depose  passage from this speech, in a triumphant tone, as
him) "to depose him  from his throne, which is if confirming his views in respect to treason from the
proposed and designed to be effected by war that  lips of Mr. Erskine himself.




730                                     MR. ERSKINE                                       [1794
moment before me; and I shall repeat it and re- trary, for he knew all that was to be known, that
maintain it to-day. But let it first be recollected  as substantive crimes they never had been blendthat Lord George Gordon was not indicted for ed.  I will read his own words.  " There are
compassing or imagining the King's death, un- two kinds of levying war-one against the perder the first branch of the statute, but for levying  son of the King, to imprison, to dethrone, or to
war under the second. It never, indeed, entered  kill him, or to make him change measures, or reinto the conception of any man living, that such  move counselors; the other, which is said to be
an indictment could have been maintained or at- levied against the majesty of the King, or, in othtempted against him.  I appeal to one of your er words, against him in his regal capacity, as
Lordships now present, for whose learning and  when a multitude rise and assemble to attain by
capacity I have the greatest and highest respect, force and violence any object of a general public
and who sat upon that trial, that it was not in- nature; that is levying war against the majesty
sinuated from the bar, much less adjudged by the  of the King; and most reasonably so held, because
court, that the evidence had any bearing upon  it tends to dissolve all the bonds of society, to dethe first branch of treason.  I know that I may  stroy property, and to overturn government; and
safely appeal to Mr. Justice Buller for the truth  by force of arms to restrain the King from reignof this assertion; and nothing, surely, in the pas- ing according to law."  But then observe, gensage from my address to the jury has the remot- tlemen, the war must be actually levied; and here,
est allusion to assimilate a conspiracy against the  again, I appeal to Mr. Justice Buller, for the
King's government (collateral to his person) with  words of Lord Mansfield, expressly referring for
a treason against his life. My words were: " To  what he said to the authority of Lord Holt, in Sir
compass or imagine the death of the King; such  John Friend's case already cited: " Lord Chief
imagination, or purpose of the mind, visible only  Justice Holt, in Sir John Friend's case, says,'If
to its great Author, being manifested by some  persons do assemble themselves and act with
open act; an institution obviously directed, not force, in opposition to some law which they think
only to the security of his natural person, but to  inconvenient, and hope thereby to get it repealed,
the stability of the government; the life of the  this is a levying war, and treason.' In the presPrince being so interwoven with the Constitution  ent case [Gordon's] it don't rest upon an impliof the state, that an attempt to destroy the one is cation that they hoped by opposition to a law to
justly held to be a rebellious conspiracy against get it repealed; but the prosecution proceeds
the other. "                                     upon the direct ground, that the object was, by
What is this but to say that the King's sacred  force and violence, to compel the Legislature to
Explanationof life is guarded by higher sanctions repeal a law; and, therefore, without any doubt,
Mpeech ines than the ordinary laws, because of its  I tell you the joint opinion of us all, that if this
case.      more inseparable connection with the  multitude assembled with intent, by acts of force
public security, and that an attempt to destroy  and violence, to compel the Legislature to repeal
it is, therefore, made treason against the state. a law, it is high treason."
But the Attorney General is, I am sure, too cor-    Let these words of Lord Mansfield be taken
rect in his logic to say that the converse of the  down, and then show me the man, let It sustains
proposition is, therefore, maintained, and that an  his rank and capacity be what they in thEgrkond
attack upon the King's authority, without design  may, who can remove me from  the i enowtake.
upon his person, is affirmed by the same expres- foundation on which I stand, when I maintain
sion to be treason against his life.  His correct that a conspiracy to levy war for the objects of
and enlarged mind is incapable of such confusion  reformation is not only not the high treason
of ideas.                                        charged by this indictment when not directly
But it is time to quit what fell from me upon  pointed against the King's person, but that even
this occasion, in order to examine the judgment the actual levying it would not amount to the
of the court, and to clothe myself with the au- constitution of the crime.  But this is the least
thority of that great and venerable magistrate, material part of Lord Mansfield's judgment, as
whose memory will always be dear to me, not applicable to the present question; for he exonly from the great services he rendered to his  pressly considers the intention of the prisoner,
country in the administration of her justice, but whatever be the act of treason alleged against
on account of the personal regard and reverence  him, to be all in all.  So far from holding the
I had for him when living.                       probable, or even inevitable, consequence of the
Lord Mansfield, in delivering the law to the  thing done as constituting the quality of the act,
Lord Mans-  jury upon Lord George Gordon's trial he pronounces them to be nothing as separated
field'siarge (I appeal to the trial itself, and to Mr. from the criminal design to produce them. Lord
Justice Buller, now present, who agreed in the  George Gordon assembled an immense multitude
judgment), expressly distinguished between the  around the House of Commons; a system  so
safety provided for the King's natural person, by  opposite to that of the persons accused before
the first branch of the statute, and the security  this commission, that it appears from  the eviof his executive power under the second.  That dence they would not even allow a man to come
great judge never had an idea that the natural among them, because he had been Lord George's
person of the King and the majesty of the King  attorney.  The Lords and Commons were absowere the same thing, nor that the treasons against lutely blockaded in the chambers of Parliament:
them were synonymous; he knew, on the con- and if control was the intention of the prisoner




1794.]                            IN BEHALF OF HARDY.                                        731
[Gordon], it must be wholly immaterial what    "Upon these two points, which you will call
were the deliberations that were to be controlled;  your attention to, depends the fate of this trial;
whether it was the continuance of Roman Cath-  for if either the multitude had no such intent, or
olics under penal laws, the repeal of the Septen-  supposing they had, if the prisoner was no cause,
nial Act, or a total change of the structure of  did not excite, and took no part in conducting,
the House of Commons, that was the object of  counseling, or fomenting the insurrection, the
violence, the attack upon the Legislature of the  prisoner ought to be acquitted; and there is no
country would have been the same.  That the pretense that he personally concurred in any act
multitude were actually assembled round the  of violence."
Houses, and brought there by the prisoner, it    I therefore consider the case of Lord George
was impossible for me, as his counsel, even to  Gordon as a direct authority in my favor.
think of denying; nor that their tumultuous pro-    To show that a conspiracy to depose the King,
ceedings were not in effect productive of great independently of ulterior intention comments on a
intimidation, and even danger, to the Lords and  against his life, is high treason with- caespposed by
Commons, in the exercise of their authority; in the statute, the Attorney General General.
neither did I venture to question the law, that next supposes that traitors had conspired to dethe assembling the multitude for that purpose  pose King William, but still to preserve him as
was levying war within the statute.  Upon these  Stadtholder in Holland, and asks whether that
facts, therefore, applied to the doctrines we have  conspiracy would not be a compassing his death.
heard upon this trial, there would have been  To that question I answer, that it would not have
nothing in Lord George Gordon's case to try; been a compassing the death of King William,
he must have been instantly, without controver- provided the conspirators could have convinced
sy, convicted.  But Lord Mansfield did not say  the jury that their firm  and bona fide intention
to the jury (according to the doctrines that have  was to proceed no further, and that, under that
been broached here), that if they found the mul- belief and impression, the jury (as they lawfully
titude, assembled by the prisoner, were in fact might) had negatived, by their finding, the fact
palpably intimidating and controlling the Parlia- of the intention against the King's natural existment in the exercise of their functions, he was ence.  I have no doubt at all that, upon such a
guilty of high treason, whatever his intentions finding, no judgment of treason could be promight have been.  He did not tell them that the  nounced; but the difficulty would be to meet with
inevitable consequence of assembling a hundred  a jury who, upon the bare evidence of such a conthousand people round the Legislature, being a  spiracy, would find such a verdict.  There might
control on their proceedings, was therefore a  be possible circumstances to justify such a negalevying war; though collected from folly and  tive of the intention, but they must come from the
rashness, without the intention of violence or prisoner.  In such a case the Crown would rest
control.  If this had been the doctrine of Lord  upon the conspiracy to depose, which would be
Mansfield, there would, as I said before, have  primc facie and cogent evidence of the compassbeen nothing to try; for I admitted, in terms, ing, and leave the hard task of rebutting it on the
that his conduct was the extremity of rashness, defendant-I say the hard task, because the case
and totally inconsistent with his rank in the  put is of a direct rebellious force, acting against
country, and his station as a member of the  the King; not only abrogating his authority, but
House of Commons.  But the venerable magis- imprisoning, and expelling his person from the
trate never for a moment lost sight of the grand  kingdom.  I am not seeking to abuse the reasons
ruling principle of criminal justice, that crimes and consciences of juries in the examination of
have no seat but in the  mind; and upon the facts, but am only resisting the confounding them
prisoner's intention, and upon his intention alone, with arbitrary propositions of law.
he expressly left the whole matter to the jury,    Gentlemen, I hope I have now a right to conwith the following directions, which I shall read  sider that the existence of high treason summing up
verbatim from the trial:                          harged against the unfortunate man of this" ead.'Having premised these several propositions before you, is a   ratter of fact for yoer considerand principles, the subject-matter for your con- ation upon the evidence.  To establish this point
sideration naturally resolves itself into two points. has been the scope of all that you have been list"First. Whether this multitude did assemble  ening to with so much indulgence and patience.
and commit acts of violence, with intent to ter- It was my intention to have further supported
rify and compel the Legislature to repeal the  myself by a great many authorities, which I have
act called Sir George Saville's.  If upon this  been laboriously extracting from  the different
point your opinion should be in the negative, books of the law; but I find I must pause here,
that makes an end of the whole, and the prison- lest I consume my strength in this preliminary
er ought to be acquitted.  But if your opinion  part of the case, and leave the rest defective.
should be that the intent of this multitude, and    Gentlemen, the persons named in the indictthe violence they committed, was to force a re- ment are charged with a conspiracy to prt Second;
peal, there arises a second point-               subvert the rule, order, and govern- Sol case of
" Whether the prisoner at the bar incited, en- ment of this country; and it is materi- tion,efforts to
procure a recouraged, promoted, or assisted in raising this in- al that you should observe most partic- orom in Parliasurrection, and the terror they carried with them, ularly the means by which it alleges met.
with the INTENT of forcing a repeal of this law.  this purpose was to be accomplished. The charge




732                                      MR. ERSKINE                                          [1794.
is not of a conspiracy to hold the convention in  object only is the grammatical sense of the great
Scotland, which was actually held there; nor of  body of the written evidence.  It rests, therefore,
the part they took in its actual proceedings; but with the Crown, to show by legal proof that this
the overt act, to which all the others are subsid- ostensible purpose, and the whole mass of correiary and subordinate, is a supposed conspiracy to  spondence upon the table, was only a cloak to conCall of a con  hold a convention in England, which  ceal a hidden machination, to subvert by force the
vention for this never in fact was held.  Consequent-  entire authorities of the kingdom, and to assume
purpose.    ly, all the vast load of matter which  them to themselves.  Whether a reform of Parit has been decided you should hear, that does  liament be a wise or an unwise expedient; whethnot immediately connect itself with the charge in  er, if it were accomplished, it would ultimately
question, is only laid' before you-as the court be attended with benefits, or dangers, to the
has repeatedly expressed it-to prove that, in  country, I will not undertake to investigate, and
point of fact, such proceedings were had, the  for this plain reason, because it is wholly foreign
quality of which is for your judgment.24  So far, to the subject before us.  But when we are tryand so far only, as they can be connected with  ing the integrity of men's intentions, and are exthe prisoner, and the act which he stands charged  amining whether their complaints of defects in
with, are they left to you, as evidence of the in-  the representation of the House of Commons be
tention with which the holding of the second  bona fide, or only a mere stalking-horse for treaconvention [that in England] was projected.        son and rebellion, it becomes a most essential inTHIS INTENTION is, therefore, the whole cause.  quiry, whether they be the first who have utThe charge is not the agreement to hold a con-  tered these complaints-whether they have takvention-which it is notorious, self-evident, and  en up notions for the first time, which never oceven admitted that they intended to hold-but  curred to others; and whether, in lThe plan,rparliathe agreement to hold it for the purpose alleged,  seeking to interfere practically in an no lo^.ilti,, iut
of assuming all the authority of the state, and in  alteration of the Constitution, they 9i;titldlin, te
fulfillment of the main intention against the life  have manifested, by the novelty of til countlr,.
of the Kingr.  Unless, therefore, you can collect their conduct, a spirit inconsistent with affection
this double intention from the evidence before you, for the government, and subversive of its authorthe indictment is not maintained.                  ity.  Gentlemen, I confess for one (tor I think
Gentlemen, the charge being of a conspiracy,  the safest way of defending a person for his life
The acts charged which, if made out in point of fact, before an enlightened tribunal, is to defend him
as a conspiracy  involved b   all controversy,                                                  an
wereot ort involved beyond all controversy, and  ingenuously), I confess for one, that if the defects
oonTealed, but within the certain knowledge of the  in the Constitution of Parliament, which are the
world.       conspirators, the lives of every soul subject of the writings, and the foundation of all
that was engaged in it; the first observation  the proceedings before you, had never occurred
which I shall make to you (because in reason it to other persons at other times, or, if not new,
ought to precede all others) is, that every act they had only existed in the history of former
done by the prisoners, and every sentence written  conspiracies, I should be afraid you would susby them, in the remotest degree connected with  pect, at least, that the authors of them were plotthe charge, or offered in evidence to support it, ters of mischief.  In such a case I should natwere done and written in the public face of the  urally expect that you would ask yourselves this
world.  The transactions which constitute the  question-Why should it occur to the prisoner at
whole body of the proof, were not those of a day, the bar, and to a few others, in the year 1794,
but in regular series for two years together.  immediately after an important revolution in anThey were not the peculiar transaction of the  other country, to find fault, on a sudden, with a
prisoners, but of immense bodies of the King's  Constitution which had endured for ages, without
subjects, in various parts of the kingdom, assem- the imputation of defect, and which no good subbled without the smallest reserve, and giving to  ject had ever thought of touching with the busy
the public, through the channel of the daily news- hand of reformation?  I candidly admit that such
papers, a minute and regular journal of their  a question would occur to the mind of every reawhole proceedings.  Not a syllable have we  sonable man, and could admit no favorable anheard read, in the week's imprisonment we have  swer.  But surely this admission entitles me, on
suffered, that we had not all of us read for months  the other hand, to the concession, that if, in comand months before the prosecution was heard of; paring their writings, and examining their conand which, if we are not sufficiently satiated, we  duct with the writings and conduct of the best
may read again upon the file of every coffee-house  and most unsuspected persons in the best and
in the kingdom.  It is admitted distinctly by the  most unsuspected times, we find them  treading
Crown, that a reform in the House of Commons  in the paths which have distinguished their highis the ostensible purpose of all the proceedings  est superiors; if we find them only exposing the
laid before you, and that the attainment of that same defects, and pursuing the same or similar
courses for their removal-it would be the height
24 In other words, the court had admitted the ev- of wickedness and injustice to torture exresof wickedness and injustice to torture expresidence as to the Scottish convention (which occu-                     co        in 
pied so much time, as the reader will see hereafter),  slon, and pervert cn t ito t       n ad    e
merely as showing that the prisoners were previ-  bellion, which had recently lifted up others to  he
ously in a state of mind which might lead to treason  love of the nation, to the confidence of the Sovin the proposed English convention.                ereign, and to all the honors of the state.  The




1794.]                            IN  BEHALF OF HARDY.                                          733
natural justness of this reasoning is so obvious, though perhaps erroneous, conclusions drawn
that we have only to examine into the fact. Con- from the actual condition of our affairs, namely,
sidering, then, under what auspices the prisoners  that without a speedy and essential reform  in
are brought before you, it may be fit that I should  Parliament (and there my opinion goes along
set out with reminding you that the great Earl with him) the very being of the country, as a
of Chatham began and established the fame and  great nation, would be lost.  This plan of the
glory of his life upon the very cause25 which my  Duke of Richmond was the grand main-spring of
unfortunate clients were engaged in, and that he  every proceeding we have to deal with.  You
left it as an inheritance to the present minister  have had a great number of loose conversations
of the Crown, as the foundation of his fame and  reported from societies, on which no reliance can
glory after him.26  His fame and glory were, ac- be had.  Sometimes they have been garbled by
cordingly, raised upon it, and if the Crown's evi- spies, sometimes misrepresented by ignorance;
dence had been carried as far back as it might and even, if correct, have frequently been the
have'been (for the institution of only one of the  extravagances of unknown individuals, not even
two London Societies is before us), you would  uttered in the presence of the prisoner, and tohave found that the Constitutional Society owed  tally unconnected with any design.  For whenits earliest credit with the country, if not its very  ever their proceedings are appealed to, and their
birth, to the labor of the present minister,27 and  real object examined by living members of them,'its professed principles to his Grace the Duke of  brought before you by the Crown, to testify them
Richmond, high also in his Majesty's present under the most solemn obligations of truth, they
councils,'6 whose plan of reform has been clear- appear to have been following, in form  and in
ly established by the whole body of the written  substance, the plans adopted within our memoevidence, and by every witness examined for the  ries, not only by the Duke of Richmond, but by
Crown, to have been the type and model of all hundreds of the most eminent men in the kingthe societies in the supposed conspiracy, and  dom.
uniformly acted upon in form and in substance        The Duke of Richmond formally published his
by the prisoner before you, up to the very period  plan of reform  in the year 1780, in Influence of the
of his confinement.                                a letter to Lieutenant Colonel Shar- Donkd'sf ieV
Gentlemen, the Duke of Richmond's plan was  man,3o who was at that time practi- upon reland.
Due o        universal suffiage and annual Parlia-  cally employed upon the same object in Ireland.
mond'spl.n of ments; and urged, too, with a bold-  This is a most material part of the case, because
reform.
ness which, when the comparison  you are desired to believe that the terms CONcomes to be made, will leave in the back-ground  VENTION and DELEGATES, and the holding the
the strongest figures in the writings on the table. one, and sending the other, were all collected
I do not say this sarcastically.  I mean to speak  from what had recently happened in France, and
with the greatest respect of his Grace, both with  were meant as the formal introduction of her reregard to the wisdom  and integrity of his con- publican Constitution. But they who desire you
duct; for although I have always thought in pol- to believe all this, do not believe it themselves;
itics with the illustrious person [Mr. Fox] whose  because they know certainly-and it has, indeed,
letter was read to you, although I think with Mr. already been proved by their own witnessesFox that annual Parliaments and universal suf- that conventions of reformers were held in Irefrage would be nothing like an improvement in  land, and delegates regularly sent to them, while
the Constitution; yet I confess that I find it easi- France was under the dominion of her ancient
er to say so than to answer the Duke of Rich-  government.  They knew full well that Colonel
mond's arguments on the subject.  I must say, Sharman, to whom  the Duke's letter was adalso, speaking of his Grace from a long personal dressed, was, at that very moment, supporting a
knowledge, which began when I was counsel for convention in Ireland, at the head of ten thousand
his relation, Lord Keppel,29 that, independently  men in arms, for the defense of their country,
of his illustrious rank, which secures him against without any commission from the King any more
the imputation of trifling with its existence, he is than poor Franklow had, who is now in Newgate
a person of an enlarged understanding, of extens- for regimenting sixty. These volunteers assertive reading, and of much reflection.  His book  ed and saved the liberties of Ireland; and the
can not, therefore, be considered as the effusion  King would, at this day, have had no more subof rashness and folly, but as the well-weighed  jects in Ireland than he now has in America, if
they had been treated as traitors to the govern-'5 See remarks of Lord Chatham, page 105, on the  ment.  It was never imputed to Colonel Shar-'necessity of parliamentary reform.                man and the volunteers that they were in rebell26 Mr. Pitt, who, on his first entry on political life, ion.  Yet they had arms in their hands, which
strenuously advocated parliamentary reform.        -
27 See note in trial of Frost, page 700.           30 In this letter, and also in an address to the coun2s Maister General of the Ordnance.              ty of Sussex, the Duke asserted that it was vain for
29 In the early part of the year 1779, Mr. Erskine  the people to look to the House of Commons for reappeared as counsel for Admiral Keppel, who was  dress; that they could find it only in themselves;
tried by a court-martial on charges preferred against that they ought to assert their right, and not to dehim by Sir Hugh Palliser, respecting his conduct in  sist till they should have established a House of
the partial and unsatisfactory action with the French  Commons truly representing every man in the kingfleet off Ushant, and honorably acquitted.         dolm.




734                                     MR. ERSKINE                                        [1794.
the prisoners never dreamed of having; while a  convinced that the only way to make them feel
grand general convention was actually sitting  that they are really concerned in the business is
under their auspices at the Royal Exchange of  to contend for their full, clear, and indisputable
Dublin, attended by regular delegates from all rights of universal representation."  Now, how
the counties in Ireland.3   And who were these  does this doctrine apply to the defense of the
delegates?  I will presently tear off their names  prisoner?  I maintain that it has the most defrom this paper, and hand it to you. They were  cisive application; because this book has been
the greatest, the best, and proudest names in Ire- put into the hands of the Crown witnesses, who
land; men who had the wisdom to reflect (before  have one and all of them recognized it, and deit was too late for reflection) that greatness is not  lared it to have been, bona fide, the plan which
to be supported by tilting at inferiors, till, by the  they pursued.
separation of the higher from  the lower orders    But are the Crown's witnesses worthy of credof mankind, every distinction is swept away in  it?  If they are not, let us return All the witnesses
the tempest of revolution; but in the happy har- home, since there is no evidence at ofathe Cro, 
prove that the
monization of the whole community-by confer- all, and the cause is over.  All the accused acted on
the principles of
ring upon the people their rights-sure of re- guilt, if any there be, proceeds from  the uke of
ceiving the auspicious return of affection, and of their testimony.  If they are not to Richmond.
insuring the stability of the government, which  be believed, they have proved nothing; since the
is erected upon that just and natural basis. Gen- Crown can not force upon you that part of the
tlemen, they who put this tortured construction  evidence which suits its purpose, and ask you to
on conventions and delegates, know also that re- reject the other which does not. The witnesses
peated meetings of reforming societies, both in  are either entirely credible, or undeserving of all
England and Scotland, had assumed about the  credit, and I have no interest in the alternative.
same time the style of conventions, and had been  This is precisely the state of the cause.  For,
attended by regular delegates, long before the  with regard to all the evidence that is written,
phrase had, or could have, any existence in  let it never be forgotten, that it is not upon me
France; and that upon the very model of these  to defend my clients against it, but for the Crown
former associations a formal convention was act- to extract from it the materials of accusation.
ually sitting at Edinburgh, with the Lord Chief  They do not contend that the treason is upon the
Baron of Scotland in the chair, for promoting a  surface of it, but in the latent intention; which
reform  in Parliament, at the very moment the  intention must, therefore, be supported by exScotch convention, following its example, as- trinsic proof; but which is, nevertheless, directly
sumed that title.                                negatived and beat down by every witness they
To return to this letter of the Duke of Rich- have called, leaving them nothing but commentmond: It was written to Colonel Sharman, in an- aries and criticisms against both fact and lanswer to a letter to his Grace, desiring to know his guage, to which, for the present, I shall content
plan of reform, which he accordingly. communi- myself with replying in the authoritative lancated by the letter which is in evidence.  This  guage of the court, in the earliest stage of their
plan was neither more nor less than that adopted  proceedings. [Charge of Chief Justice Eyre to
by the prisoners, of surrounding Parliament (un- the grand jury.]
willing to reform its own corruptions), not by      "If there be ground to consider the professed
armed men, or by importunate multitudes, but purpose of any of these associations Thisisnotto
by the still and universal voice of a whole peo-  (a reform  in Parliament) as mere be treated as a
mere pretext,
ple claiming their known and unalienable rights. color, and as a pretext held out in without deci
This is so precisely the plan of the Duke of Rich- order to cover deeper designs-de- sie proof
mond, that I have almost borrowed his expres- signs against the whole Constitution and govsions.  His Grace says, "The lesser reform has  ernment of the country-the case of those embeen attempted with every possible advantage in  barked in such designs is that which I have alits favor; not only from the zealous support of  ready considered.  Whether this be so or not, is
the advocates for a more effectual one, but from  mere matter of fact; as to which I shall only
the assistance of men of great weight, both in and  remind you, that an inquiry into a charge of this
out of power. But with all these temperaments  nature, which undertakes to make out that the
and helps, it has failed.  Not one proselyte has  ostensible purpose is a mere vail, under which is
been gained from  corruption, nor has the least concealed a traitorous conspiracy, requires cool
ray of hope been held out from any quarter that and deliberate examination, and the most attenthe House of Commons was inclined to adopt any  tive consideration; and that the result should be
other mode of reform.  The weight of corruption  perfectly clear and satisfactory.  In the affairs
has crushed this more gentle, as it would have  of common life, no man is justified in imputing
defeated any more efficacious plan in the same  to another a meaning contrary to what he himcircumstances.  From that quarter, therefore, I self expresses, but upon the fullest evidence."
have nothing to hope.  IT is FROM THE PEOPLE  To this (though it requires nothing to support
AT LARGE THAT I EXPECT ANY GOOD; and I am  it, either in reason or authority) I desire to add
31 The origin and history of the volunteer forces the direction of Lord Chief Justice Holt to the
in Ireland has already been stated. See page 296. jury, on the trial of Sir William Perkyns:3
At a later period,a national convention was held at
Dublin under their auspices.                       32 Sir William Perkyns was a violent Jacobite,




1794.]                           IN BEHIALF OF HARDY.                                      735
" Gentlemen, it is not fit that there should be  harmony, which has been lost, may be restoredany strained or forced construction put upon a  that all England may reunite in the bonds of
man's actions when he is tried for his life. You  love and affection-and that, when the court is
ought to have a full and satisfactory evidence  broken up by the acquittal of the prisoners, all
that he is guilty, before you pronounce him so."  heart-burnings and animosities may cease; that,
In this assimilation of the writings of the so- while yet we work in the light, we may try how
cieties to the writings of the Duke of Richmond  we can save our country by a common effort;
and others, I do not forget that it has been truly  and that, instead of shamelessly setting one half
said by the Lord Chief Justice, in the course of of society against the other by the force of armed
this very cause, that ten or twenty men's com- associations and the terrors of courts of justice,
mitting crimes furnishes no defense for other our spirits and our strength may be combined in
men in committing them.  Certainly it does not, the glorious cause of our country.  By this, I do
and I fly to no such sanctuary.  But in trying  not mean in the cause of the present war,34 which
the prisoner's intentions, and the intentions of I protest against as unjust, calamitous, and dethose with whom he associated and acted, if I can  structive; but this is not the place for such a
show them  to be only insisting upon the same  subject-I only advert to it to prevent mistake
principles that have distinguished the most emi- or misrepresentation.
nent men for wisdom and virtue in the country, it    The history and character of the English House
will not be very easy to declaim or argue them  of Commons was formerly thus described by Mr.
into the pains of death, while our bosoms are  Burke: " The House of Commons was supposed
glowing with admiration at the works of those  originally to be no part of the standing governvery persons [Burke, &c.] who would condemn  ment of this country, but was considered as a conthem.                                           trol issuing immediately from  the people, and
Gentlemen, it has been too much the fashion  speedily to be resolved into the mass from whence
Mr. Burke's  of late to overlook the genuine source  it arose: in this respect it was in the higher part
ing rthe  of all human authority, but more es- of government what juries are in the lower.
ofc co.m.sta
ocommons. pecially totally to forget the charac- The capacity of a magistrate being transitory,
ter of the British House of Commons as a rep- and that of a citizen permanent, the latter capacresentative of the people.  Whether this has ity, it was hoped, would, of course, preponderate
arisen from that Assembly's having itself forgot- in all discussions, not only between the people
ten it, would be indecent for me to inquire into  and the standing authority of the Crown, but beor to insinuate.  But I shall preface the author- tween the people and the fleeting authority of the
ities which I mean to collect in support of the  House of Commons itself.  It was hoped that,
prisoner, with the opinion on that subject of a being of a middle nature, between subject and
truly celebrated writer,33 whom I wish to speak  government, they would feel, with a more tender
of with great respect; I should, indeed, be  and a nearer interest, every thing that concerned
ashamed, particularly at this moment, to name  the people, than the other remoter and more perhim invidiously, while he is bending beneath the  manent parts of Legislature.
pressure of a domestic misfortune, which no man    " Whatever alterations time and the necessary
out of his own family laments more sincerely  accommodation of business may have introduced,
than I do.  No difference of opinion can ever this character can never be sustained, unless the
make me forget to acknowledge the sublimity  House of Commons shall be made to bear some
of his genius, the vast reach of his understanding, stamp of the actual disposition of the people at
and his universal acquaintance with the histories large; it would (among public misfortunes) be an
and constitutions of nations.  I also disavow the evil more natural and tolerable, that the House
introduction of these writings, with the view of  of Commons should be infected with every epiinvolving the author in any apparent inconsisten- demical frenzy of the people, as this would indicies, which would tend, indeed, to defeat rather cate some consanguinity, some sympathy of nathan to advance my purpose.  I stand here to- ture with their constituents, than that they should,
day to claim at your hands a fair and charitable  in all cases, be wholly untouched by the opinions
interpretation of human conduct, and I shall not and feelings of the people out of doors.  By this
set out with giving an example of uncharitable- want of sympathy they would cease to be a House
ness.  A man may have reason to change his of Commons.
opinions, or perhaps the defect may be in myself,    "The virtue, spirit, and essence of a House
who collect that they are changed.  I leave it to  of Commons consists in its being the express imGod to judge of the heart-my wish is that age of the feelings of the nation.  It was not inChristian charity may prevail-that the public  stituted to be a control upon the people, as of late
it has been taught, by a doctrine of the most perand a party not only in the conspiracy for the res- nicions tendency, but as a controlfor the people."
toration of James, mentioned ante, p. 728, note, but    He then goes on to say, that to give a technicalso in a plot for the assassination of King William,l shape, a oo   ss, ad datio    ta ot
on the road between Richmond and Turnham Green.,                                     ution of teni
The plot was discovered through some of the under- to       opinion,   the true office Ho   n
lings, who were to aid in the attempt on the King'rs of a House of Commons.  Mr. Burke  os
life, and Sir William Perkyns was tried for treason, is unquestionably correct.  The control upon the
and executed at Tyburn.                          34 The war with France consequent on the execu33 Mr. Burke, whose son was at the point of death. tion of Louis XVI.




736                                      MR. ERSKINE                                         [1794.
people is the King's majesty, and the hereditary  much more strength and far less odium, under
privileges of the Peers; the balance of the State  the name of influence. This influence, which opis the controlfor the people upon both, in the  erated without noise and violence; which conexistence of the House of Commons.  But how  verted the very antagonist into the instrument
can that control exist for the people, unless they  of power; which contained in itself a perpetual
have the actual election of the House of Coin- principle of growth and renovation; and which
mons, which, it is most notorious, they have not?  the distresses and the prosperity of the country
I hold in my hand a state of the representation  equally tended to augment, was an admirable subwhich, if the thing were not otherwise notorious, stitute for a prerogative which, being only the
I would prove to have been lately offered in proof  offspring of antiquated prejudices, had molded
to the House of Commons, by an honorable friend  in its original stamina irresistible principles of
of mine now present,35 whose motion I had the  decay and dissolution."
honor to second, where it appeared that twelve       What is this but saying that the House of
thousand people return near a majority of the  Commons is a settled and scandalous abuse fastHouse of Commons, and those, again, under the  ened upon the people, instead of being an antagcontrol of about two hundred.  But though these  onist power for their protection; an odious infacts were admitted, all redress, and even dis- strument of power in the hands of the Crown,
cussion, was refused.  What ought to be said of  instead of a popular balance against it?  Did
a House of Commons that so conducts itself, it is  Mr. Burke mean that the prerogative of the
not for me to pronounce.  I will appeal, there-  Crown, properly understood and exercised, was
fore, to Mr. Burke, who says, "that a House of  an antiquated prejudice?  Certainly not, because
Commons, which in all disputes between the peo- his attachment to a properly balanced monarchy
pie and administration presumes against the peo- is notorious. Why, then, is it to be fastened upon
pie, which punishes their disorders, but refuses  the prisoners, that they stigmatize monarchy,
even to inquire into their provocations, is an un- when they also exclaim only against its corrupnatural, monstrous state of things in the Consti-  tions?  In the same manner, when he speaks of
tution."                                           the abuses of Parliament, would it be fair to Mr.
But this is nothing.  Mr. Burke goes on aft- Burke to argue, from the strict legal meaning of
Stio    erward to give a more full description  the expression, that he included, in the censure
anguage of of Parliament, and in stronger language  on Parliament, the King's person, or maiesty,
MSr. Burke,   the                                                                             jesty,
(let the Solicitor Genera16 take it down  which is part of the Parliament?  In examining
for his reply) than any that has been employed  the work of an author you must collect the sense
by those who are to be tried at present as con-  of his expressions from the subject he is discussspirators against its existence.  I read the pas- ing; and if he is writing of the House of Corn.
sage, to warn you against considering hard words  mons as it affects the structure and efficacy of
against the House of Commons as decisive evi- the government, you ought to understand the
dence of treason against the King.  The passage  word Parliament so as to meet the sense and obis in a well-known work, called "Thoughts on  vious meaning of the writer.  Why, then, is this
the Causes of the present Discontents;" and such  common justice refused to others?  Why is the
discontents will always be present while their  word Parliament to be taken in its strictest and
causes continue.  The word present will apply  least obvious sense against a poor shoemaker
just as well now, and much better than to the  [Hardy], or any plain tradesman at a Sheffield
time [1770] when the honorable gentleman wrote: club, while it is interpreted in its popular, though
his book; for we are now in the heart and bohw-  less correct acceptation, in the works of the
els of another war, and groaning under its addi-i most distinguished scholar of the age?  Add to
tional burdens.  I shall, therefore, leave it to the  this, that the cases are not at all similar.  Mr.
learned gentleman who is to reply, to show us  Burke uses the word Parliament throughout,
what has happened since our author wrote, which  when he is speaking of the House of Commons,
renders the Parliament less liable to the same ob- without any concomitant words which convey an
servations now.                                    explanation, but the sense of his subject; where"It must be always the wish of an unconsti-  as Parliament is fastened upon the prisoner as
tutional statesman, that a House of Commons, meaning something beyond the House of Coinwho are entirely dependent upon him, should have  mons, when it can have no possible meaning beevery right of the people entirely dependent upon  yond it; since from the beginning to the end it
their pleasure.  For it was soon discovered that  is joined with the words " representation of the
the forms of a free, and the ends of an arbitrary  people"-" the representation of the people in
government, were things not altogether incom-  Parliament."  Does not this most palpably mean
patible.                                           the House of Commons, when we know that the
"The power of the Crown,' almost dead and  people have no representation in either of the
rotten as prerogative, has grown up anew, with  other branches of the government.
A letter has been read in evidence fiom Mr.
35 Mr. (afterward Lord) Grey, who brought for-                                          
3   ~  f    p'  i'    F i~no  Hardy to Mr. Fox, where he says Evidence that
ward a motion for reform, in the session of 1792, Hdy to M. Fox,   hee  he  as Ede
in consequence of the resolution of the Society    their of ject was universal represent- Gre', and othi
Friends of the People, of which he and Mr. Erskine  ation.  Did Mr. Fox suppose, when   T'tl'  -
were nmembers.                                    he received this letter, that it was or.itntiig:6 8ir John Mitford, afterward Lord Redesdale.   from a nest of republicans, clamoring government.




1794.]                            IN  BEHALF OF HARDY.                                     737
publicly for a universal representative Constitu- ment."   Here the word Parliament and the
tion like that of France?  If he had, would he  abuses belonging to it are put in express oppohave sent the answer he did, and agreed to pre-  sition to the monarchy, and can not, therefore,
s.ent their petition?  They wrote also to the So- comprehend it; the distempers of Parliament,
ciety of the Friends of the People, and invited  then, are objects of serious apprehension and rethem to send delegates to the convention.37  The  dress.  What distempers?  Not of this or that
Attorney General, who has made honorable and  year, but the habitual distempers of Parliament.
candid mention of that body, will not suppose that And then follows the nature of the remedy,
it would have contented itself with refusing the  which shows that the prisoners are not singular
invitation in terms of cordiality and regard, if, in thinking that it is by THE VOICE OF THE PEOwith all the knowledge they had of their transac- PLE ONLY that Parliament can be corrected. "It
tions, they had conceived themselves to have been  is not in Parliament alone," says Mr. Burke,
invited to the formation of a body which was to' that the remedy for parliamentary disorders
overrule and extinguish all the authorities of the  can be completed; and hardly, indeed, can it bestate.  Yet, upon the perversion of these two  gin there.  Until a confidence in government is
terms, Parliament and Convention, against their re-established, the people ought to be excited to
natural interpretation, against a similar use of a more strict and detailed attention to the conthem by others, and against the solemn explana- duct of their representatives. Standards forjudgtion of them by the Crown's own witness, this ing more systematically upon their conduct ought
whole fabric of terror and accusation stands for to be settled in the meetings of counties and corits support.  Letters, it seems, written to other porations, and frequent and correct lists of the
people, are to be better understood by the gen- voters in all important questions ought to be protlemen round this table, who never saw them till cured. By such means something may be done."
months after they were written, than by those to    It was the same sense of the impossibility of a
whom  they were addressed and sent; and no  reform in Parliament, without a general expresright interpretation, forsooth, is to be expected  sion of the wishes of the people, that dictated the
from writings when pursued in their regular se- Duke of Richmond's letter: all the petitions in,
ries, but they are to be made distinct by binding  178038 had been rejected by Parliament.  This
them  up in a large volume, alongside of others made the Duke of Richmond exclaim, that from
totally unconnected with them, and the very ex- that quarter no redress was to be expected, and'
istence of whose authors was unknown to one that from the people alone he expected any good;
another.                                        and he, therefore, expressly invited them to claim
I will now, gentlemen, resume the reading of and to assert an equal representation as their inOter language another part of Mr. Burke, and a pret- dubitable and unalienable birth-right-how to asot'Ir. Burke. ty account it is of this same Parlia- sert their rights, when Parliament had already rement: " They who will not conform  their con- fused them without even the hope, as the Duke exduct to the public good, and can not support it pressed it, of listening to them any more. Could
by the prerogative of the Crown, have adopted  the people's rights, under such circumstances,
a new plan.  They have totally abandoned the  be asserted without rebellion?  Certainly they
shattered and old-fashioned fortress of preroga- might; for rebellion is, when bands of men.withtive, and made a lodgment in the strong-hold of in a state oppose themselves by violence to the
Parliament itself.  If they have any evil design  general will, as expressed or implied by the pub —
to which there is no ordinary legal power com- lie authority; but the sense of a whole people.
mensurate, they bring it into Parliament. There peaceably collected, and operating by its natural
the whole is executed from the beginning to the  and certain effect upon the public councils, is not
end; and the power of obtaining their object ab- rebellion, but is paramount to, and the parent of,
solute, and the safety in the proceeding perfect; authority itself.
no rules to confine, nor after-reckonings to terri-    Gentlemen, I am neither vindicating nor speak —:y. For Parliament can not, with any great pro- ing the language of inflammation or Thie true rempriety, punish others for things in which they  discontent. I shallspeak nothing that tent isto ac
themselves have been accomplices.  Thus its  can disturb the order of the state-I k^edfth'
control upon the executory power is lost."      am full of devotion to its dignity and peolle.
This is a proposition universal. It is not that tranquillity, and would not for worlds let fall an'
the popular control was lost under this or that expression in this or in any other place that could:
administration, but generally that the people have  lead to disturbance or disorder. But for that vmeny
no control in the House of Commons.  Let any  reason I speak with firmness of THE RIGHTS OF'
man stand up and say that he disbelieves this to  THE PEOPLE, and am anxious for the redress of'
be the case; I believe he would find nobody to  their complaints, because I believe a system of'
believe him.  Mr. Burke pursues the subject attention to them to be a far better security andJ
thus:' The distempers of monarchy were the  establishment of every part of the government,.
great subjects of apprehension and redress in the  than those that are employed to preserve. them.
last century-  in this. the distempers of Parlia-.._......  ____.....-_....____..........-. —......-..-....      38 In that year Parliamzenzt was overwhelmed with
"7 This society was composed of some of the first innumerable petitions on the subject of the increasnobility and gentry of the kingdom-such as Lord  inginfluence of the Crown, the abuse of prerogative,
Grey, Lord John Russell, &c.                    and the rights of the people.
A A A




738                                   MR. ERSKINE                                        [1794.
The state and government of a country rest for Attorney General has remarked upon this protheir support on the great body of the people; ceeding at Sheffield (and whatever falls from a
and I hope never to hear it repeated in any court person of his rank and just estimation, deserves
of justice, that peaceably to convene the people  great attention)-he has remarked that it is quite
upon the subject of their own privileges can lead  apparent they had resolved not topetition.  They
to the destruction of the King — they are the had certainly resolved not at that season to petiKing's worst enemies who hold this language. tion, and that seems the utmost which can be
It is a most dangerous principle that the Crown  maintained from  the evidence.  But supposing
is in jeopardy if the people are acquainted with  they had negatived the measure altogether, is
their rights, and that the collecting them togeth- there no way by which the people may actively
er, to consider of them, leads inevitably to the  associate for the purposes of a reform in Parliadestruction of the Sovereign.  Do these gentle- ment, but to consider of a petition to the House
men mean to say that the King sits upon his of Commons?  Might they not legally assemble
throne without the consent, and in defiance of to consider the state of their liberties, and the
the wishes, of the great body of his people, and  conduct of their representatives?  Might they
that he is kept upon it by a few individuals who not legally form conventions or meetings (for the
call themselves his friends, in exclusion of the name is just nothing) to adjust a plan of rational
rest of his subjects?  Has the King's inherit- union for a wise choice of representatives when
ance no deeper or wider roots than this?  Yes, Parliament should be dissolved?  May not the
gentlemen, it has-it stands upon the love of the  people meet to consider their interests preparapeople, who consider their own inheritance to be tory to, and independently of, a petition for any
supported by the King's constitutional authority. specific object?  My friend seems to consides
This is the true prop of the Throne; and the love the House of Commons as a substantive and perof every people upon earth will forever uphold a  manent part of the Constitution.  He seems to
government founded, as ours is, upon reason and  forget that the Parliament dies a natural death;
consent, as long as government shall be itself that the people then re-enter into their rights, and
attentive to'the'general interests which are the that the exercise of them is the most important
foundations and the ends of all human authority. duty that can belong to social man.  How are
Let us banish, then, these unworthy and impol- such duties to be exercised with effect, on moitic fears of an unrestrained and an enlightened  mentous occasions, but by concert and communpeople; let us not tremble at the rights of man, ion?  May not the people, assembled in their
but, by giving to men their rights, secure their elective districts, resolve to trust no longer those.affections; and, through their affections, their by whom they have been betrayed?  May they,sbedience.  Let us not broach the dangerous not resolve to vote for no man who contributed
doctrine that the rights of Kings and of men are by his voice to this calamitous war, which has
incompatible.  Our government at the Revolu- thrown such grievous and unnecessary burdens
tion began upon their harmonious incorporation; upon them?  May they not say, " We will not
and Mr. Locke defended King William's title  vote for those who deny we are their constitu-.upon no' other principle than the rights of man. ents, nor for those who question our clear and
fIt is from  the revered work of Mr. Locke, and  natural right to be equally represented?" Since.not from the Revolution in France, that one of it is illegal to carry up petitions, and unwise to
the papers in the evidence, the most stigmatized, transact any public business attended by multi-:most obviously flowed. For it is proved that Mr. tudes, because it tends to tumult and disorder,
Yorke held in his hand Mr. Locke upon Govern- may they not, for that very reason, depute, as, ment, when he delivered his speech on the Castle  they have done, the most trusty of their societies
Hillat Sheffield,39 and that he expatiated largely  to meet with one another to consider, without the
upon, it.  Well, indeed, might the witnesses say  specific object of petitions, how they may claim,.he expatiated largely, for there are many well- by means which are constitutional, their impreselected passages taken verbatim from the book; scriptible rights?
-and here, in justice to Mr. White,40 let me notice    And here I must advert to an argument em-.the fair,,and honorable manner in which, in the ployed by the Attorney General, that Reply tothe,,absence of the clerk, he read this extraordinary  the views of the societies toward uni- Attorne Gsel.
performance.  He delivered it not merely with  versal suffrage carried in themselves inguniversal.:distinctness, but in a manner so impressive, that (however sought to be effected) an ou rage.
I believe every man in court was affected by it. implied force upon Parliament.  For that, sup-.Gentlemen, I am not driven to defend every  posing by invading it with the vast pressure, not
Tll language expression.  Some of them  are im- of the public arm, but of the public sentiment of,:harged not al- proper undoubtedly, rash, and inflam- the nation, the influence of which upon that as-.ways proper; 
butneitherlan- matory; but I see nothing in the sembly is admitted ought to be weighty, it could
guage nor acts
ndicate evil in- whole taken together, even if it were  have prevailed upon the Commons to carry up a
tentiols.  connected with the prisoner, that goes bill to the King for universal representation and
at all to an evil purpose in the writer.  But Mr. annual Parliaments, his Majesty was bound to
39 Mr. Yorke was a member of the London Corre- reject it; and could not, without a breach of his
sponding Society, and was appointed a delegate from  coronation oath, consent to pass it into an act. I
that society to similar societies at Sheffield and other can not conceive where my friend met with this
places.         40 The Solicitor to the Treasury. law, or what he can possibly mean by asserting




1794.]                           IN BEHALF OF HARDY.                                       739
that the King can not, consistently with his cor- stand amazed at, and every one must confess
onation oath, consent to any law that can be  needs a remedy."
stated or imagined, presented to him as the act        Salus populi suprema lex, is certainly so just
of the two Houses of Parliament.  He could not, and fundamental a rule, that he who sincerely
indeed, consent to a bill sent up to him framed  follows it can not dangerously err.  If, thereby a convention of delegates assuming legislative  fore, the executive, who has the power of confunctions.  If my friend could have proved that voking the legislative, observing rather the true
the societies, sitting as a Parliament, had sent up  proportion, than fashion of representation, regusuch a bill to his Majesty, I should have thought lates, not by old custom, but by true reason, the
the prisoner, as a member of such a Parliament, number of members in all places that have a
was at least in a different situation from that in  right to be distinctly represented, which no part
which he stands at present.  But as this is not of the people, however incorporated, can pretend
one of the chimeras whose existence is contended  to, but in proportion to the assistance which it
for, I return back to ask upon what authority it affords to the public, it can not be judged to
is maintained, that universal representation and  have set up a new  legislative, but to have reannual Parliaments could not be consented to by  stored the old and true one, and to have rectified
the King, in conformity to the wishes of the other the disorders which succession of time had insensbranches of the Legislature.  On the contrary, ibly, as well as inevitably, introduced; for it beone of the greatest men that this country ever saw, ing the interest as well as intention of the people
considered universal representation to be such an  to have fair and equal representation, whoever
inherent part of the Constitution, as that the King  brings it nearest to that, is an undoubted friend
himself might grant it by his prerogative, even  to, and establisher of, the government, and can
without the Lords and Commons-and I had  not miss the consent and approbation of the comnever heard the position denied upon any other munity; prerogative being nothing but a power,
footing than the Union with Scotland.  But be in the hands of the Prince, to provide for the pubthat as it may, it is enough for my purpose that lie good, in such cases, which, depending upon
the maxim, that the King might grant universal unforeseen and uncertain occurrences, certain
representation, as a right before inherent in the  and unalterable laws could not safely direct;
whole people to be represented, stands upon the  whatsoever shall be done manifestly for the good
authority of Mr. Locke, the man, next to Sir of the people, and the establishing the governIsaac Newton, of the greatest strength of under- ment upon its true foundations, is, and always
standing that England, perhaps, ever had; high, will be, just prerogative.  Whatsoever can not
too, in the favor of King William, and enjoying  but be acknowledged to be of advantage to the
one of the most exalted offices in the state.41 society, and people in general, upon just and
Mr. Locke says, book ii., c. xiii., sect. 157 and  lasting measures, will always. when done, justify
158: "Things of this world are in so constant itself; and whenever the people shall choose their
views of a flux, that nothing remains long in the  representatives upon just and undeniably equal
Ir. Locke. same state.  Thus people, riches, trade, measures, suitable to the original frame of the
power, change their stations, flourishing mighty  government, it can not be doubted to be the will
cities come to ruin, and prove, in time, neglected  and act of the society, whoever permitted or
desolate corners, while other unfrequented places caused them so to do."  But as the very idea of
grow into populous countries, filled with wealth  universal suffrage seems now to be considered
and inhabitants.  But things not always chang- not only to be dangerous to, but absolutely deing equally, and private interest often keeping up  structive of, monarchy, you certainly ought to be
customs and privileges, when the reasons of them  reminded that the book which I have been readare ceased, it often comes to pass, that in gov- ing, and which my friend kindly gives me a note
ernments, where part of the legislative consists to remind you of, was written by its immortal
of representatives chosen by the people, that, in  author in defense of King William's title to the
tract of time, this representation becomes very  Crown;, and when Dr. Sacheverel ventured to
unequal and disproportionate to the reasons it was  broach those doctrines of power and non-resistat first established upon.  To what gross absurd- ance, which, under the same establishments, have
ities the following of custom, when reason has now become so unaccountably popular, he was
left it, may lead, we may be satisfied when we  impeached43 by the people's representatives for
see the bare name of a town of which there re- denying their rights, which had been asserted and
mains not so much as the ruins, where scarce so  established at the glorious era of the Revolution.
much housing as a sheep-cote, or more inhabitants'tan a shepherd, is to be found, sends as  up to the passing of the Reform Bill, in 1832, when
many representatives to the grand assembly of the borough was disfranchised, Old Sarum was replaw-makers, as a whole county, numerous in resented in Parliament.
people and powerful in riches.42  This strangers    A. D. 1709. Bei  foun guilty, he was pib.. __..-___.-..___-.._  ited from preaching for three years, and his two ser
4 He was one of the Commissioners of Trade and  mons. which had given so much offense, were ordered
Plantations.                                    to be burned by the common hangman. The famous
42 Mr. Locke alluded to Old Sarum, in Wiltshire. decree passed in the Convocation of the University
in which a few fragments of foundation-walls are the of Oxford, assertint the absolute authority and inonly traces of a town ever having existed. It was defeasible right of princes, was also ordered to be,
totally deserted in the reign of Henry VIII.; but yet, I in like manner, committed to the flames.




740                                    MR. ERSKINE                                       [1794.
Gentlemen, if I were to go through all the  public office, as a proof of the publicity of their
Pare Thid:  matter which I have collected upon  proceeding, and the sense they entertained of
Examination                                                              th is and objests
of the evidenc this subject, or which obtrudes itself  their innocence.4'  For the views and objects
for te Crown. upon my mind, from common read- of the society, we must look to the institution
ing in a thousand directions, my strength would  itself. which you are, indeed, desired to look at
fail long before my duty was fulfilled.  I had  by the Crown; for their intentions are not convery little when I came into court, and I have  sidered as deceptions in this instance, but as
abundantly less already; I must, therefore, man- plainly revealed by the very writing itself.
age what remains to the best advantage.  I pro-    Gentlemen, there was a sort of silence in the
ceed, therefore, to take a view of such parts of  court-I do not say an affected one, for Motto of
the evidence as appear to me to be the most ma- I mean no possible offense to any one —'"he "ciet
terial for the proper understanding of the case. I  but there seemed to be an effect expected from
have had no opportunity of considering it, but in  beginning, not with the address itself, but with
the interval which the indulgence of the court the very bold motto to it, though in verse:
and your own has afforded me, and that has been  "Unbless'd by virtue, government a league
for a very few hours this morning.  But it oc-   Becomes, a circling junto of the great
curred to me, that the best use I could make of    To rob by law; Religion mild, a yoke
the time given to me was, if possible, to disem-   To tame the stooping soul, a trick of state
broil this chaos  to throw  out of view  every    To mask their rapine, and to share the prey...Without it, what are Senates, but a face
thing irrelevant, which only tended to bring    Of consultation deep and reason free,
Of consultation deep and reason free,
chaos back again; to take what remained in or-   While the determined voice and heart are sold?
der of time; to select certain stages and rest-   What, boasted freedom, but a sounding name?
ing-places; to review the effect of the transac-   And what election, but a market vile,
tions, as brought before us, and then to see how    Of slaves self-barter'd?"
the written evidence is explained by the testi-    I almost fancy I heard them say to me, "What
mony of the witnesses who have been examined. think you of that to set out with? Show me the
The origin of the Constitutional Society not parallel of that."  Gentlemen, I am  sorry, for
I.) Londo  having been laid in evidence before  the credit of the age we live in, to answer, that
Corresoln- you, the first thing, -oth in point of  it is difficult to find the parallel, because the age
date, and as applying to show the ob- affords no such poet as he who wrote it.  These
jects of the different bodies, is the original ad- are the words of THOMsoN; and it is under the
dress and resolution of the London Correspond-  banners of his proverbial benevolence that these
ing Society on its first institution, and when it men are supposed to be engaging in plans of
first began to correspond with the other, which  anarchy and murder-under the banners of that
had formerly ranked among its members so  great and good man, whose figure you may still
niany illustrious persons.4   Before we look to  see in the venerable shades of Hagley, placed
the matter of this [latter] institution, let us rec- there by the virtuous, accomplished, and publicoliect that the objects of it were given without spirited Lyttelton: the very poem, too, written
reserve to the public, as containing the princi- under the auspices of his Majesty's royal father,
ples of the [former] association.  And I may be- when heir-apparent to the Crown of Great Britgin with demanding, whether ithe annals of this ain, nay, within the very walls of Carlton House,
country, or, indeed, tle universal history of man- which afforded an asylum  to matchless worth
kind, afford an assistance of a ylot and conspiracy  and genius in the person of this great poet.  It
voluntarily given up in its very infancy to gov- was under the roof of A PRINCE OF WALES that
ernment, and the whole public; and of which-to  the poem of LIBERTY was written; and what
avoid the very thing that has happened, the ar- better return could be given to a Prince for his
raignment of conduct at a future period, and the  protection, than to blazon, in immortal numbers.
imputation of secrecy where no secret was in- the only sure title to the Crown he was to wear
tended-a regular notice by letter was left with  -THE FREEDOM  OF THE PEOPLE OF GREAT
the Secretary of State, and a receipt taken at the  BRITAIN?  And it is to be assumed, forsooth, in
i Previous to the formatio-n of the London Cor the year 1794, that the unfortunate prisoner be-. Previous to the formation of the London Cor    e y    w    p.  t           a,.
responding Society, there existed another called the fore you was plotting treason and rebellion, beSocity for Constitutional Information. This was cause, with a taste and feeling beyond his humfounded by some of the most distinguished Whigs  ble station, his first proceeding was ushered into
of the kingdom. Soon after the commencement of  view under the hallowed sanction of this admithe French Revolution, it was joined by Home  rable person, the friend and the defender of the
Tooke and others of more radical views, and many  British Constitution; whose countrymen are preof its original members left it. This society took  paring at this moment (ay my name descend
the lead in sending a deputation to the National                             posterty ) to do hono
among themn to the latest posterity!) to do honor
Convention of France, an act which was highly ceu-    
sured as derogatory to the English governmen tohisimmortalmemory. Pardonme,gentlemen,
They also passed a vote of thanks to Thomas Paine  for this desultory digression-I must express my.
for his work entitled the Rights of Man. Much of  self as the current of my mind will carry me.4
the evidence in the present case was intended to                  __  -       _
identify the Corresponding Society with the Con-    5 This was done by the Corresponding Society,
stitutional Society, and thus to load Hardy with the  partly, no doubt, in the spirit of bravado.
odium of their proceedings.                       46 Thomson was born at Ednam in Scotland, and




1794.]                           IN BEHALF OF HARDY.                                        741
If we look at the whole of the institution itself, been considered as an infamous libeler and traThe object of it exactly corresponds with the plan  ducer, and deservedly hooted out of civilized life.
t     of the Duke of Richmond, as express-  Why, then, are different constructions to be put
plan of the   ed in the letters to Colonel Sharman, upon similar transactions?  Why is every thing
mon.d.     and to the High Sheriff of Sussex. to be held up as bona fide when the example is
This plan they propose to follow, in a public ad- set, and mala fide when it is followed?  Why
dress to the nation, and all their resolutions are  have I not as good a claim to take credit for
framed for its accomplishment; and I desire to  honest purpose in the poor man I am defending,
know in what they have departed from  either, against whom not a contumelious expression has
and what they have done which has not been  been proved, as when we find the same expresdone before, without blame or censure, in the  sions in the months of the Duke of Richmond or
pursuance of the same object.  I am not speak- Mr. Burke?  I ask nothing more from this obing of the libels they may have written, which  servation, than that a sober judgment may be
the law is open to punish, but what part of their pronounced from  the quality of the acts which
conduct has, as applicable to the subject in ques- can be fairly established; each individual standtion, been unprecedented?  I have at this mo- ing responsible only for his own conduct, instead
In proposing a ment in my eye an honorable friend  of having our imaginations tainted with cant
they tadl hig  of mine, and a distinguished member phrases, and a farrago of writings and speeches,
althorities.   of the House of Commons [Mr. Fox], for which the prisoner is not responsible, and for
who, within my own remembrance, I believe in  which the authors, if they be criminal, are liable
1780, sat publicly at Guildhall, with many others, to be brought to justice.
some of them magistrates of the city, as a conven-    But it will be said, gentlemen, that all the con
tion of delegates for the same objects.  And what stitutional privileges of the people Prejudice aainst
is still more in point, just before the convention  are conceded-that their existence these latter conventions because
began to meet at Edinburgh, whose proceedings  was never denied or invaded-and they speakof the
have been so much relied on, there was a con- that their right to petition and to rights of man
vention regularly assembled, attended by dele- meet for the expression of their complaints,
gates from all the counties of Scotland, for the  founded or unfounded, was never called in quesexpress and avowed purpose of altering the con- tion.  These, it will be said, are the rights of
stitution of Parliament-not by rebellion, but by  subjects-but that "the rights of man" are what
the same means employed by the prisoner. The  alarms them. Every man is considered as a traitLord Chief Baron of Scotland sat in the chair, and  or who talks about the rights of man; but this
was assisted by some of the first men in that coun- bugbear stands upon the same perversion with
try, and, among others, by an honorable person  its fellows.
to whom I am nearly allied, who is at the very    The rights of man are the foundation of all
head of the bar in Scotland, and most avowedly  government, and to secure them is the Defense of
attached to the law and the Constitution.4      only reason of men's submitting to be the ph,."a.
These gentlemen, whose good intentions nev- governed.  It shall not be fastened upon the unFirtscottisl er fell into suspicion, had presented a  fortunate prisoner at the bar, nor upon any other
convention,  petition for the alteration of election  man, that because these natural rights were aslaws, which the House of Commons had rejected, serted in France, by the destruction of a governand on the spur of that very rejection they met in  ment which oppressed and subverted them-a
a convention at Edinburgh, in 1793.  The style  process happily effected here by slow and imperof their first meeting was " A Convention of Del- ceptible improvements-that, therefore, they can
egates, chosen from the counties of Scotland,for only be so asserted in England, where the govaltering and amending the laws concerning Elec- ernment, through a gradation of improvement, is
tions"-not for considering how they might be  well calculated to protect them.  We are, fortubest amended-not for petitioning Parliament to  nately, not driven in this country to the terrible alamend them, but for altering and amending the  ternatives which were the unhappy lot of France,
election laws.  The proceedings of these meet- because we have had a happier destiny in the
inegs were regularly published, and I will prove  forms of a free Constitution. This, indeed, is the
that their first resolution, as I have read it to you, express language of many of the papers before
was brought up to London, and delivered to the  you that have been complained of-especially of
editor of the Morning Chronicle, by Sir Thomas  one alluded to by the Attorney General, as havDundas, lately created a peer of Great Britain, ing been written by a gentleman with whom t
and paid for by him as a public advertisement. am particularly acquainted. And though in that
Now, suppose any man had imputed treason or spirited composition there are, perhaps, some exsedition to these honorable persons, what would  pressions proceeding from warmth which he may
have been the consequence?  He would have  not desire me critically to justify, yet I will ven— __          _     _ ___ -----—. —----     ture to affirm, from my own personal knowledge,
an association was formed at this time, of which Er-                                    honestly
skine was a member, to erect a monument to his                                    
memory in his native village. This was finally ac- publc-spirited and zealously devoted to the Concomplished at an expense of ~300.               stitution of King, Lords. and Commons, than the
7 The Honorable Henry Erskine, Mr. Erskine's honorable gentleman I allude to [Felix Vaughan,
brother, then Dean of the Faculty of Advocates, at Esq., barrister-at-law]: it is thephrase, therefore,
Edinbulrgh.                                     and not the sentiment expressed by it, that can




742                                     MR. ERSKINE                                       [1794.
alone give justifiable offense.  It is, it seems. a  was charged by the Bill of Rights to consist in
new phrase commencing in revolutions, and nev-  cruel and infamous trials, in the packing of juer used before in discussing the rights of British  ries, and in disarming the people, whose arms are
subjects, and, therefore, can only be applied in  their unalienable refuge against oppression. But
the sense of those who framed it.  But this is so  did the people of England assemble to make this
far from being the truth, that the very phrase  declaration?  No! because it was unnecessary.
sticks in my memory, from  the memorable ap- The sense of the people, against a corrupt and
plication of it to the rights of subjects, under this  scandalous government, dissolved it, by almost
and every other establishment, by a gentleman  the ordinary forms by which the old government
whom you will not suspect of using it in any oth- itself was administered.  King William sent his
er sense.  The rights of man were considered  writs to those who had sat in the former Parliaby Mr. Burke, at the time that the great uproar ment; but will any man, therefore, tell me that
was made upon a supposed invasion of the East that Parliament re-organized the government
India Company's charter, to be the foundation of, without the will of the people? and that it was
and paramount to, all the laws and ordinances of not their consent which entailed on King Willa state. The ministry, you may remember, were  iam a particular inheritance, to be enjoyed under
turned out for Mr. Fox's India Bill,48 which their the dominion of the law?
opponents termed an attack upon the chartered    Gentlemen, it was the denial of these princirights of man, or, in other words, upon the abuses  ples, asserted at the Revolution in En-  aie's book
supported by a monopoly in trade.  Hear the  gland, that brought forward the author called forth by
sentiments of Mr. Burke, when the natural and  of the "Rights of Man," and stirred constitutioalo
chartered rights of men are brought into contest. up this controversy which has given principles.
Mr. Burke, in his speech in the House of Com- such alarm to government.  But for this, the litmons, expressed himself thus: "The first objec- erary labors of Mr. Paine had closed.  He astion is, that the bill is an attack on the chartered  serts it himself in his book, and every body knows
rights of men.  As to this objection, I must ob- it.  It was not the French Revolution, but Mr.
serve that the phrase, " the chartered rights of  Burke's Reflections upon it, followed up by anmen," is full of affectation, and very unusual in  other work on the same subject, as it regarded
the discussion of privileges conferred by charters  things in England, which brought forward Mr.
of the present description. But it is not difficult Paine, and which rendered his works so much
to discover what end that ambiguous mode of  the object of attention in this country.  Mr.
expression, so often reiterated, is meant to an- Burke denied positively the very foundation upon
swer.                                            which the Revolution of 1688 must stand for its
" The rights of men, that is to say, the natural support, namely, the right of the people to change
Mr. Burke on rights of mankind, are, indeed, sacred  their government; and he asserted, in the teeth
this subject. things; and if any public measure is of his Majesty's title to the Crown, that no such
proved mischievously to affect them, the objec- right in the people existed.  This is the true histion ought to be fatal to that measure, even if no  tory of the Second Part of the " Rights of Man."
charter at all could be set up against it.  And  The First Part had little more aspect to this
if these natural rights are further affirmed and  country than to Japan; it asserted the right of
declared by express covenants, clearly defined  the people of France to act as they had acted,
and secured against chicane, power, and author-  but there was little which pointed to it as an exity, by written instruments and positive engage- ample for England.  There had been a despotic
ments, they are in a still better condition: they  authority in France, which the people had thrown
then partake not only of the sanctity of the ob- down, and Mr. Burke seemed to question their
ject so secured, but of that solemn public faith  right to do so.  Mr. Paine maintained the conitself, which secures an object of such import- trary in his answer; and, having imbibed the
ance.  Indeed, this formal recognition, by the  principles of republican government during the
sovereign power, of an original right in the sub- American Revolution, he mixed with the controject, can never be subverted but by rooting up  versy many coarse and harsh remarks upon monthe holding radical principles of government, and  archy, as established even in England, or in any
even of society itself."                         possible form.  But this was collateral to the
The Duke of Richmond, also, in his public let-  great object of his work, which was to maintain
Due of Ric- ter to the High Sheriff of Sussex, rests  the right of the people to choose their governmond on the  the rights of the people of England  ment. This was the right which was questioned,
same subject.
e s  upon the same horrible and damnable  and the assertion of it was most interesting to
principle of the rights of man.  Let gentlemen, many who were most strenuously attached to the
therefore, take care they do not pull down the  English government.  For men may assert the
very authority which they come here to support. right of every people to choose their government,
Let them  remember that his Majesty's family  without seeking to destroy their own.  This acwas called to the throne upon the very principle  counts for many expressions imputed to the unthat the ancient kings of this country had viola- fortunate prisoners, which I have often uttered
ted these sacred trusts. Let them recollect, too, myself, and shall continue to utter every day of
in what the violation was charged to consist: it my life, and call upon the spies of government to
record them.  I will say any where, without fear
48 See ants, page 313.              -nay, I will say here, where I stand, that an at



1794.]                           IN BEHALF OF HARDY.                                        743
tempt to interfere, by despotic combination and  it was their private design to rip up monarchy
violence, with any government which a people  by the roots, and place democracy in its stead?
choose to give to themselves, whether it be good  Now hear the answer, from whence it is inferred'
or evil, is an oppression and subversion of the  that this last is their intention.. They begin their
natural and inalienable rights of man; and though  answer with recapitulating the demand of their
the government of this country should counte-  correspondent, as regularly as a tradesman, who.,
nance such a system, it would not only be still has had an order for goods, recapitulates the
legal for me to express my detestation of it, as I order, that there may be no ambiguity in the refhere deliberately express it, but it would become  erence or application of the reply, and then they
my interest and my duty.  For if combinations say, as to the objects they have in view,. they reof despotism can accomplish such a purpose, who  fer them to their addresses.  " You will thereby
shall tell me what other nation shall not be the  see that we mean to disseminate political knowlprey of their ambition?  Upon the very princi- edge, and thereby engage the judicious part of
ple of denying to a people the right of governing  the nation to demand the recovery of their lost
themselves, how  are we to resist the French,  rights in annual Parliaments;. the numbers of
should they attempt by violence to fasten their these Parliaments owing their election. to ungovernment upon us?  Or what inducement boughtsuffrages.?   They then desire them tobe
would there be for resistance to preserve laws  careful to avoid all dispute,. and say to! them,
which are not, it seems, our own, but which are  " Put monarchy, democracy, and even, religion
unalterably imposed upon us?  The very argu- quite aside;" and " let your endeavors go to inment strikes, as with a palsy, the arm and vigor crease the numbers of those who desire a fulliand
of the nation.  I hold dear the privileges I am  equal representation of aihe people, and leave to
contending for, not as privileges hostile to the  a Parliament, so chosen,. to reform all existing
Constitution, but as necessary for its preserva- abuses; and if they don't answer, at the, year's
tion; and if the French were to intrude by force  end, you may choose others in their stead;' The
upon the government of our own free choice, I Attorney General says this is lamely expressed.
should leave these papers, and return to a pro- I, on the other hand, say that it is net only not
fession that, perhaps, I better understand.     lamely expressed, but anxiously worded&to put an
The next evidence relied on, after the institu- end to dangerous speculations. Leave all theories
(2 ) Letter of tion of the Corresponding Society, is a  undiscussed; do not perplex yourselves with, aborwerlad  letter written to them from Norwich,  stract questions of government; endeavor praem
reply.    dated the 11th of November, 1792, tically to get honest representatives; and if they
with the answer, dated the 26th of the same  deceive you-then, what? —bring on a revolumonth.  It is asserted that this correspondence  tion?  No! Choose others in their stead'!  They
shows they aimed at nothing less than the total refer, also, to their Address, which lay before'
destruction of the monarchy, and that they, there- their correspondent, which Address expresses itfore, vail their intention under covert and anmbig- self thus: "Laying aside all claim to originality,
uous language.  I think, on the other hand, and I we claim no other merit than that of reconsidershall continue to think so, as long as I am capa- ing and verifying what has already been urged
ble of thought, that it was impossible for words in our common cause by the Duke of Richmond.
to convey more clearly the explicit avowal of and Mr. Pitt, and their then honest party.'"
their original plan for a constitutional reform in    When the language of the letter, which' isthe House of Commons.  This letter from Nor- branded as ambiguous [by the counsel Pretense that
wich. after congratulating the Corresponding So- for the Crown], thus stares them in the reflangrers wa
ciety on its institution, asks several questions aris- face as an undeniable answer to the a mere cover..
ing out of the proceedings of other societies in  charge, they then have recourse to the old refuge
different parts of the kingdom, which they profess  of mala fides; all this, they say, is but a cover'
not thoroughly to understand.                   for hidden treason.  But I ask you, gentlemen,
The Sheffield people (they observe) seemed at in the name of God, and as fair and honest men;
first determined to support the Duke of Rich- what reason upon earth there is to suppose that
mond's plan only, but that they had afterward  the writers of this letter did not mean what they
observed a disposition in them to a more moder- expressed?  Are you to presume, in a court of
ate plan of reform proposed by the Friends of the  justice, and upon a trial for life, that men write
People in London; while the Manchester people, with duplicity in their most confidential correby addressing Mr. Paine (whom  the Norwich  spondence, even to those with whom  they are
people had not addressed), seemed to be intent confederated?  Let it be recollected, also, that
on republican principles only.  They [the Nor- if this correspondence was calculated for decepwich people], therefore, put a question, not at all tion, the deception must have been understood
of distrust or suspicion, but bonai fid, if ever and agreed upon by all parties concerned-for
there was good faith between men, whether the  otherwise you have a conspiracy among persons
Corresponding Society meant to be satisfied with  who are at cross purposes with one another-cotthe plan of the Duke of Richmond? or whether sequently, the conspiracy, if this be a branch of
~' __ - ___       ~         __ ~    ~~~~~~~~~~~it, is a conspiracy of thousands and ten thousandsu
49 The reader is' already aware that Mr. Erskine  from one end of the kingdom to the other, who
had served successively in the navy and army, before  are all guilty, if any of the prisoners are guilty.
studying for the law.                           Upward of forty thousand persons, upon the low



744                                    MR. ERSKINE                                        [1794.
est calculation, must alike be liable to the pains  limited by my instructions, and have not advanced
and penalties of the law, and hold their lives as  a single step upon your journey to convict me.
tenants at will of the ministers of the Crown. In  The instructions to Skirving have been read, and
whatever aspect, therefore, this prosecution is speak for themselves; they are strictly legal, and
regarded, new difficulties and new uncertainties  pursue the avowed object of the society; and it
and terrors surround it.                         will be for the Solicitor General to point out, in
The next. thing in order which we have to look  his reply, any counter or secret instructions, or
(3.) The second at, is the convention at Edinburgh. any collateral conduct, contradictory of the good
Edinburgh Con- It appears that a letter had been  faith with which they were written.  The ineo.  written by Mr. Skirving, ~ who was structions are in these words: "The delegates
connected with reformers in Scotland, proceed- are instructed, on the part of this society, to ased avowedly upon the Duke of Richmond's plan, sist in bringing forward and supporting any conproposing that there should be a convention from  stitutional measure for procuring a real reprethe societies assembled at Edinburgh.  Now  sentation of the Commons of Great Britain."
you will recollect, in the opening, that the At- What do you say, gentlemen, to this language?
torney General considered all the great original How are men to express themselves who desire
sin of this conspiracy and treason to have orig- a constitutional reform?   The object and the
inated with the societies in London; that the  mode of effecting it were equally legal.  This
country societies were only tools in their hands, is most obvious from the conduct of the Parliaand that the Edinburgh Convention was the cor- ment of Ireland, acting under directions from
mencement of their projects.  And yet'it plainly  England; they passed the Convention Bill, and
n.  appears that this convention origin- made it only a misdemeanor, knowing that, by
Did not origin-                                                               v
ate in London ated from neither of the London so- the law as it stood, it was no misdemeanor at all.
cieties, but had its beginning at Ed- Whether this statement may meet with the apinburgh, where, just before, a convention had  probation of others, I care not; I know the fact
been sitting for the reform in Parliament, attend- to be so, and I maintain that you can not prove
ed by the principal persons in Scotland.  And, upon the convention which met at Edinburgh,
surely, without adverting to the nationality so  and which is charged to-day with high treason,
peculiar to the people of that country, it is not one thousandth part of what, at last, worked up
at all suspicious that, since they were to hold a  government in Ireland to the pitch of voting it a.
meeting for similar objects, they should make use  misdemeanor.
of the same style for their association; and that    Gentlemen, I am not vindicating any thing that
their deputies should be called delegates, when  can promote disorder in the country, Laws rendered,lelegates had attended the other convention from  but I am maintaining that the worst clnbtrtion tIe
all the counties, and whom they were every day  possible disorder that can fall upon worst ofevils.
looking at in their streets, in the course of the  a country is, when subjects are deprived of the
very same year that Skirving wrote his letter on  sanction of clear and unambiguous laws.  It'
the subject.  The views of the Corresponding  wrong is committed, let punishment follow acSociety, as they regarded this convention, and  cording to the measure of that wrong.  If men
rhe prisoners consequently the views of the prison- are turbulent, let them  be visited by the laws
o ritsdoingsbe er, must be collected from the writ- according to the measure of their turbulency.
except as they ten instructions to the delegates, un- If they write libels upon government, let them
instructed their
delegates,   less they can be falsified by matter be punished according to the quality of those
which is collateral.  If I constitute an agent, I libels.  But you must not, and will not, because
am bound by what he does, but always with this the stability of the monarchy is an important
limitation-for what he does within the scope of concern to the nation, confound the nature and
his agency.  If I constitute an agent to buy  distinctions of crimes, and pronounce that the
horses for me, and he commits high treason, it life of the Sovereign has been invaded, because
will not, I hope, be argued, that I am  to be  the privileges of the people have been, perhaps,
hanged.  If I constitute an agent for any busi- irregularly and hotly asserted.  You will not, to
ness that can be stated, and he goes beyond his give security to government, repeal the most
instructions, he must answer for himself beyond  sacred laws instituted for our protection, and
their limits; for beyond them he is not my rep- which are, indeed, the only consideration for our
resentative.  The acts done, therefore, at the  submitting at all to government.  If the plain
Scotch Convention, whatever may be their qual- letter of the statute of Edward III. applies to the
ity, are evidence to show that, in point of fact, a  conduct of the prisoners, let it, in God's name, be
certain number of people got together, and did  applied; but let neither their conduct, nor the
any thing you choose to call illegal.  But, as far law that is to judge it, be tortured by construeas it concerns me, if I am not present, you are  tion; nor suffer the transaction, from  whence
you are to form a dispassionate conclusion of in50 The Secretary to the Edinburgh Convention. tenti   to be manified by scandalous epithets
He, together with Maurice Margaret and Joseph                            
n;        nor overwhelmed in an undistinguishable mass
Gerald (two of the London delegates), was arrested   od                                    
at Edinburgh, in 1794, for sedition: all of them were  of  atte, n which  ou may be lost and be
found guilty, and sentenced to fourteen years' trans- dered, having missed the only parts which could
portation. All his papers were seized by the mag- have furnished a clue to a just or rational judgistrate at the same time.                        ment.




1794.]                           IN BEHALF OF HARDY.                                        745
Gentlemen, this religious regard for the liber- to them, when it is plain, if this evidence can conViews ofDr. ty of the subject against constructive  vict of high treason, that no man can be said to
John"on.   treason is well illustrated by Dr. John- have a life which is his own?  For how can he
son, the great author of our English Dictionary, possibly know by what engines it may be snared,
a man remarkable for his love of order, and for or from what unknown sources it may be attacked
high principles of government, but who had the  and overpowered?  Such a monstrous precedent
wisdom to know that the great end of govern- would be as ruinous to the King as to his subment, in all its forms, is the security of liberty  jects.  We are in a crisis of our affairs, which,
and life under the law.  This man, of masculine  putting justice out of the question, calls in sound
mind, though disgusted at the disorder which  policy for the greatest prudence and moderation.
Lord George Gordon created, felt a triumph in  At a time when other nations are disposed to
his acquittal, and exclaimed, as we learn from  subvert their establishments, let it be our wisdom
Mr. Boswell, "I hate Lord George Gordon, but I to make the subject feel the practical benefits of
am glad he was not convicted of this constructive  our own: let us seek to bring good out of evil.
treason; for though I hate him, I love my coun- The distracted inhabitants of the world will fly
try and myself."  This extraordinary man no  to us for sanctuary, driven out of their countries
doubt remembered, with Lord Hale, that, when  from the dreadful consequences of not attending
the law  is broken down, injustice knows no  to seasonable reforms in government-victims to
bounds, but runs as far as the wit and invention  the folly of suffering corruptions to continue till
of accusers, or the detestation of persons accused, the whole fabric of society is dissolved and tumwill carry it.  You will pardon this almost per- bles into ruin.  Landing upon our shores, they
petual recurrence to these considerations; but will feel the blessing of security, and they will
the present is a season when I have a right to  discover in what it consists. They will read this
call upon you by every thing sacred in humanity  trial, and their hearts will palpitate at your deand justice-by every principle which ought to  cision. They will say to one another-and their
influence the heart of man, to consider the situ- voices will reach to the ends of the earth-" May
ation in which I stand before you.  I stand here  the Constitution of England endure forever! the
H p   for a poor, unknown, unprotected in- sacred and yet remaining sanctuary for the opteprisoner's dividual, charged with a design to  pressed!  Here, and here only, the lot of man is
subvert the government of the coun- cast in security! What though authority, estabtry and the dearest rights of its inhabitants-a lished for the ends of justice, may lift itself up
charge which has collected against him a force  against it!  What though the House of Consufficient to crush to pieces any private man. mons itself should make an exparte declaration of
The whole weight of the Crown presses upon  guilt! What though every species of art should
him; Parliament has been sitting upon ex parte be employed to entangle the opinions of the peoevidence for months together; and rank and  ple, which in other countries would be inevitable
property is associated, from one end of the king- destruction; yet, in England, in enlightened Endom to the other, to avert the supposed conse- gland, all this will not pluck a hair from the head
quences of the treason.5'  I am making no com- of innocence.  The jury will still look steadfastplaint of this.  But surely it is an awful sum- ly to the law, as the great polar star, to direct
mons to impartial attention; surely it excuses them in their course. As prudent men, they will
me for so often calling upon your integrity and  set no example of disorder, nor pronounce a verfirmness to do equal justice between the Crown, diet of censure on authority, or of approbation
so supported, and an unhappy prisoner, so un- or disapprobation beyond their judicial province;
protected.                                      but, on the other hand, they will make no politGentlemen, I declare that I am utterly aston- ical sacrifice, but deliver a plain, honest man from
Motives for in- ished, on looking at the clock, to find the toils of injustice." When your verdict is propartital ustc  how long I have been speaking; and  nounced, this will be the judgment of the world;
crisis    that, agitated and distressed as I am, and if any among ourselves are alienated in their
I have yet strength enough remaining for the  affections to government, nothing will be so likeremainder of my duty. At every peril to my  lytoreclaimthem. They will say, Whatever we
health it shall be exerted; for even if this cause  have lost of our control in Parliament, we have
should miscarry, I know I shall have justice done  yet a sheet-anchor remaining to hold the vessel
me for the honesty of my intentions.  But what of the state amid contending storms.  We have
is that to the public and posterity?  What is it still, thank God, a sound administration of justice
~~- ~ -      ~      -_____________  _  secured to us, in the independence of the judges,
51 The following are the facts here referred to. On  in the rights of enlightened juries, and in the inthe 12th of April, 1794, the King sent a message to  tegrity of the bar-ready at all times, and upon
Parliament announcing the existence of seditious every possible occasion, whatever may be the
societies. The prisoners were arrested, and the  consequences to themselves, to stand forward in
Habeas Corpus Act was suspended on the 24th of      n              n                     
the same month. The papers found on the prem- 
ises of Hardy and others were published by way of brought for judgment before the laws of the
vindication, and the subject was long under discus- country.
sion in Parliament. Loyal associations to support    To return to this Scotch convention.  Their
the government were formed, in the mean time, in  papers were all seized by government.  What
various places.                                 their proceedings were, they best know; we can




746                                     MR. ERSKINE                                        [1794
only see what parts they choose to show us. But contrary was never imputed to him.  If his book
Nothing trea- from what we have seen, does any man  had been written in pursuance of the design of
sonable in the seriousl believe that this meeting at force and rebellion, with which it is now sought
convention. Edinburgh meant to assume and to  to be connected, he would, like the prisoners,
maintain by force all the functions and authorities  have been charged with an overt act of high treaof the state? Is the thing within the compass of  son; but such a proceeding was never thought
human belief?  If a man were offere a dukedom  of.  Mr. Paine was indicted [in 1792] for a misand twenty thousand pounds a year for trying to  demeanor, and the misdemeanor was argued to
believe it, he might.say he believed it-as what consist not in the falsehood that a nation has nc
will not man say for gold and honors?-but he right to choose or alter its government, but in
never, in fact, could believe that this Edinburgh  seditiously exciting the nation, without cause, to
meeting was a Parliament for Great Britain. exercise that right.  A  learned Lord  [Lord
How, indeed, could he, from the proceedings of  Chief Baron Macdonald] now on this bench. ada few peaceable, unarmed men, discussing, in a  dressed the jury as Attorney General upon this
constitutional manner, the means of obtaining a principle.  His language was this: " The quesreform in Parliament; and who, to maintain the  tion is not what the people have a right to do, for
club, or whatever you choose to call it, col- the people are, undoubtedly, the foundation and
lected a little money from people who were well origin of all government.  But the charge is, for
disposed to the cause; a few shillings one day, seditiously calling upon the people, without cause
and perhaps as many pence another?  I think, or reason, to exercise a right which would be seas far as I could reckon it up, when the report dition, supposing the right to be in them; for
from this great committee of supply was read to  though the people might have a right to do the
you, I counted that there had been raised, in the  thing suggested, and though they are not excitfirst session of this Parliament, fifteen pounds, ed to the doing it by force and rebellion, yet, as
from  which, indeed, you must deduct two bad  the suggestion goes to unsettle the state, the propshillings, which are literally noticed in the ac- agation of such doctrines is seditious."  There
count.  Is it to be endured, gentlemen, that men  is no other way, undoubtedly, of describing that
should gravely say, that this body assumed to it- charge.  I am not here entering into the appliself the offices of Parliament? that a few harm- cation of it to Mr. Paine, whose counsel I was,
less people, who sat, as they profess, to obtain a  and who has been tried already.  To say that
full representation of the people, were themselves, the people have a right to change their governeven in their own imaginations, the complete rep- ment, is, indeed, a truism.  Every body knows
resentation which they sought for? Why should  it, and they exercised the right [in 1688], otherthey sit from  day to day to consider how they  wise the King could not have had his establishmight obtain what they had already got?  If  ment among us. If, therefore, I stir up individtheir object was a universal representation of the  uals to oppose by force the general will, seated
whole people, how is it credible they could sup- in the government, it may be trea- itis nottreapose that universal representation to -exist in  son; but to induce changes in a gov-,ntggPtostse
themselves-in the representatives of a few so- ernment, by exposing to a whole na- government.
cieties, instituted to obtain it for the country at tion its errors and imperfections, can have no
large?  If they were themselves the nation, why  bearing  upon such an offense.  The utmost
should the language of every resolution be, that which can be made of it is a misdemeanor, and
reason ought to be their grand engine for the ac- that, too, depending wholly upon the judgment
complishment of their object, and should be di- which the jury may:form of the intention of the
rected to convince the nation to speak to Parlia- writer.  The courts for a long time, indeed, asment in a voice that must be heard?  The prop- sumed to themselves the province of deciding
osition, therefore, is too gross to cram down the  upon this intention, as a matter of law, concluthroats of the English people, and this is the pris- sively inferring it from the act of publication. I
oner's security. Here, again, he feels the advant- say the courts assumed it, though it was not the
age of our fiee administration of justice.  This  doctrine of Lord Mansfield, but handed down to
proposition, on which so much depends, is not to  him  from  the precedents of judges before his
be reasoned out on parchment, to be delivered  time.  But even in that case, though the publiprivately to magistrates for private judgment. cation was the crime, not, as in this case, the
No.  He has the privilege of appealing loud (as intention, and though the quality of the thing
he now appeals by me) to an enlightened assem- charged, when not rebutted by evidence for the
bly, full of eyes, and ears, and intelligence, where  defendant, had so long been considered to be a
speaking to a jury is, in a manner, speaking to a  legal inference, vet the Legislature, to support
nation at large, and flying for sanctuary to its  the province of the jury, and in tenderness for
universal justice.                               liberty, has lately altered the law upon this imGentlemen, the very work of Mr. Paine, under portant subject.P  If, therefore, we were not asthe banners of which this supposed re- sembled, as we are, to consider of the existence
principles they bellion was set on foot, refutes the  of high treason against the King's life, but only
oppoed to io- charge it is brought forward to sup- of a misdemeanor for seditiously disturbing his
lence.    port. -Mr. Paine, in his preface, and
throughout his whole book, reprobates the use of   52 See the concluding remarks on Mr. Erskine's
force against the most evil governments, and the  speech upon the rights of juries, page 683.




1794.]                             IN  BEHALF OF HARDY.                                         747
title and establishment, by the proceedings for a  lenges to their jurors, and other irregularities
reform in Parliament, I should think the Crown,  were introduced, so as to be the subject of comupon the very principle which, under the libel plaint in the House of Commons.
law, must now govern such a trial, quite as dis-    Gentlemen, in what I am  saying I am  not
tant from  its mark.  Because, in my opinion,  standing up to vindicate all that was Apology for the
there is no way by which his Majesty's title can  published during these proceedings, war.th ofte
more firmly be secured, or by which (above all, more especially those things which the Edinburgh
in our times) its permanency can be better estab- were written in consequence of the tried and senlished: than by promoting a more full and equal trials I have just alluded to.54  But ten"ed.
representation of the people, by peaceable means; allowance must be made for a state of heat and
and by what other means has it been sought, in  irritation.  They saw men whom they believed
this instance, to be promoted?                    to be persecuted for what they believed to be inGentlemen, when the members of this conven- nocent.  They saw them the victims of sentenThe conduct of tion were seized, did they attempt re- ces which many would consider as equivalent to.
when brokent, sistance?  Did they insist upon their  if not worse than, judgment of treason —senup, shows that privileges as subjects under the laws, tences which, at all events, had never existed
violence was
not intended.  or as a Parliament enacting laws for before, and such as I believe never will again
others?  If they had said or done any thing to  with impunity.  But since I am on the subject
give color to such an idea, there needed no spies  of intention, I shall conduct myself with the same
to convict them.  The Crown could have given  moderation which I have been prescribing.  I
ample indemnity for evidence from among them-  will cast no aspersions, but shall content myself
selves.  The societies consisted of thousands and  with lamenting that these judgments were prothousands of persons, some of whom, upon any  ductive of consequences which rarely follow from
calculation of human nature, might have been  authority discreetly exercised.  How easy is it,
produced.  The delegates who attended the  then, to dispose of as much of the evidence as
meetings could not be supposed to have met consumed half a day in the anathemas against
with a different intention from  those who sent the Scotch judges! It appears that they came to
them; and if the answer to that be, that the con-  various resolutions concerning them; some good,
stituents are involved in the guilt of their repre- some bad, and all of them  irregular.  Among
sentatives, we get back to the monstrous position  others, they compare them to Jefferies, and wish
which I observed you before to shrink back from, that they who imitate his example may meet
with visible horror, when I stated it; namely, the  his fate.  What then?  Irreverent expressions
involving in the fate and consequence of this sin- against judges are not acts of high t'eason! If
gle trial every man who corresponded with these  they had assembled round the Court of Justiciasocieties, or who, as a member of societies in any  ry, and hanged them  in the execution of their
part of the kingdom, consented to the meeting  offices, it would not have been treason within
which was assembled, or which was in prospect. the statute.  I am  no advocate for disrespect
But I thank God I have nothing to fear from such  to judges, and think that it is dangerous to the
hydras, when I see before me such just and hon- public order; but, putting aside the insult upon
orable men to hold the balance of justice.         the judges now in authority, the reprobation of
Gentlemen, the dissolution of this Parliament  Jefferies is no libel, but an awful and useful mespeaks as strong a language as its conduct when  mento to wicked men.  Lord Chief Justice Jefsitting. How was it dissolved?  Whenthemag-  feries denied the privilege of English Defense of
istrates entered, Mr. Skirving was in the chair, law to an innocent man.  He refused in respectt
which he refused to leave.  He considered and  it to Sir Thomas Armstrong,56 who in Jefiries.
asserted his conduct to be legal, and therefore  vain pleaded in bar of his outlawry that he was
informed the magistrate he must exercise his  out of the realm when he was exacted (an obauthority, that the dispersion might appear to be 
involuntary, and that the subject, disturbed in his   64 The London Societies took a deep interest in
rights, might be entitled to his remedy.  The  Slkirving and the other Scottish reformers, who had
magistrate on this took Mr. Skirvino by the  been condemned to transportation for fourteen years
shoulder who immediately obeyed; the chair  to Botany Bay. They spoke of this in strong terms
s.hou ldr. wi i l  o d  tof indignation, as it deserved, and this was now
was quitted in a moment, and this great Parlia- made their crime.
ment broken up!  What was the effect of all   55 The legality of the sentence in the case of these
this proceeding at the time, when whatever be- men, as well as of Muir and Palmer, has been called
longed to it must have been best understood?  in question; it being maintained by many that outWere any of the parties indicted for high trea- lawry without transportation was all that the law
son?  Were they indicted even for a breach of  allowed.
the peace in holding the convention?  None of    56 Sir Thomas Armstrong was seized in Holland
these things.  The law of Scotland, arbitrary as  for having been engaged i Monout's cospiacy
Zn   -,                                   - i.against James II. in 1685; and as it was apprehendit is, was to be disturbed to find a name for their  ag  t Jaes I. in 1;  d as t was apprehend
ed that sufficient evidence could not be procured to
offense,53 and the rules of trial to be violated, to obtain a verdict against him even from the subservoonvict them.  They were denied their chal- ient juries of that time, he was condemned and executed without a trial, under the pretense that he
53 They were indicted for leasing making, by  was not entitled to claim one, as he had not surrenwhich was meant stirring up sedition,              dered himself after outlawry.




748                                    MR. ERSKINE                                       [1794.
jection so clear that it was lately taken for grant- utmost confidence that I ask you a few  plain
ed in the case of Mr. Purefoy).  The daughter questions, arising out of the whole of these
of this unfortunate person, a lady of honor and  Scotch proceedings.  In the first place, then, do
quality, came publicly into court to supplicate  you believe it to be possible that, if these men
for her father, and what were the effects of her had really projected the convention as a traitor.
supplications, and of the law in the mouth of the  ous usurpation of the authorities of Parliament,
prisoner?  "Sir Thomas Armstrong," said Jef- they would have invited the Friends of the Peoferies, "you may amuse yourself as much as you  pie, in Frith Street, to assist them, when they
please with the idea of your innocence, but you  knew that this society was determined not to
are to be hanged next Friday;" and upon the  seek the reform of the Constitution but by means
natural exclamation of a daughter at this horri- that were constitutional, and from whom  they
ble outrage against her parent, he said, " Take  could neither hope for support nor concealment
that woman out of court;" which she answered  of evil purposes?  I ask you, next, if their obby a prayer that God Almighty's judgments  jects had been traitorous, would they have given
might light upon him.  Gentlemen, they did  them, without disguise or color, to the public and
light upon him; and when, after his death, which  to the government in every common newspaper?
speedily followed this transaction, the matter was  And yet it is so far from being a charge against
brought before the House of Commons, under that them  that they concealed their objects by hyglorious Revolution which is asserted through- pocrisy or guarded conduct, that I have been
out the proceedings before you, the judgment driven to admit the justice of the complaint
against Sir Thomas Armstrong was declared to  against them, for unnecessary inflammation and
be a murder under color of justice!  Sir Robert exaggeration.  I ask you, further, whether, if
Sawyer, the Attorney General, was expelled the  the proceedings thus published and exaggerated
House of Commons for his misdemeanor in re- had appeared to government, who knew every
fusing the writ of error; and the executors of  thing belonging to them, in the light they repJefferies were commanded to make compensa- resent them to you to-day, they could possibly
tion to the widow and the daughter of the de- have slept over them with such complete indifceased.  These are great monuments of justice; ference and silence?  For it is notorious that
and although I by no means approve of harsh ex- after this convention had been held at Edinpressions against authority which tend to weaken  burgh; after: in short, every thing had been said,
the holdings of society, yet let us not go beyond  written, and transacted, on which I am now comthe mark in our restraints, nor suppose that men  menting, and after Mr. Paine's book had been
are dangerously disaffected to the government, for above a year in universal circulation-ay,
because they feel a sort of pride and exultation  up to the very day when Mr. Grey gave notice,
in events which constitute the dignity and glory  in the House of Commons, of the intention of the
of their country.                               Friends of the People for a reform  in ParliaGentlemen, this resentment against the pro- ment, there was not even a single indictment on
The treatment ceedings of the courts in Scotland was the file for a misdemeanor; but, from that mooftheScottish not confined to those who were the ment, when it was seen that the cause was not
reformers very
Renerallycon- objects of them. It was not confined  beat down or abandoned, the Proclamation made
em""'d.    even to the friends of a reform in Par- its appearance, and all the proceedings that folliament.  A benevolent public, in both parts of  lowed had their birth.  I ask you, lastly, gentlethe island, joined them in the complaint; and a  men, whether it be in human nature, that a few
gentleman of great moderation. and a most unprotected men, conscious, in their own minds,
inveterate enemy to parliamentary reform, as that they had been engaged and detected in a
thinking it not an improvement of the govern- detestable rebellion to cut off the King, to dement, but nevertheless a lover of his country and  stroy the administration of justice, and to subits insulted justice, made the convictions of the  vert the whole fabric of the government, should
delegates the subject of a public inquiry.  I turn round upon their country, whose ruin they
speak of my friend Mr. William  Adam. who  had projected, and whose most obvious justice
brought these judgments of the Scotch judges attached on them, complaining, forsooth, that
before the House of Commons, arraigned them  their delegates, taken by magistrates in the very
as contrary to law, and proposed to reverse them  act of high treason, had been harshly and illeby the authority of Parliament. Let it not, then, gally interrupted in a meritorious proceeding'
be matter of wonder that these poor men, who  The history of mankind never furnished an inwere the immediate victims of this injustice, and  stance, nor ever will, of such extravagant, prewho saw  their brethren expelled from  their posterous, and unnatural conduct! No, no, gencountry by an unprecedented and questionable  tlemen.  All their hot blood was owing to their
judgment, should feel like men on the subject. firm persuasion, dictated by conscious innocencee
and express themselves as they felt.           that the conduct of their delegates had been leGentlemen, amid the various distresses and em- gal, and might be vindicated against the magisProof from the barrassments which attend my pres- trates who obstructed them. In that they might
accus tlofatt  ent situation, it is a great consolation  be mistaken; I am  not arguing that point at
refo~rm byt that I have  nared, flom the begin- present. If they ale hereafter indicted for a
intended.    ning, your vigilant attention and your misdemeanor, and I am counsel in that cause, I
capacity to understand; it is, therefore, with the  will then tell you what I think of it.  Sufficient




1794.]                             IN  BEHALF OF HARDY.                                         749
unto the cay is the good or evil thereof.  It is  feel to the very soul for a nation beset by the
sufficient for the present one, that the legality or  sword of despots, and yet be a lover of his own
illegality of the business has no relation to the  country and its Constitution.
crime that it is imputed to the prisoner.             Gentlemen, the same celebrated person, of
The next matter that is alleged against the  whom I have had occasion to speak Mr. Burkepub(4.) The send- authors of the Scotch Convention, and  so frequently, is the best and bright- licly expresed
isg ofdelegates the societies which supported it, is  est illustration of this truth.  Mr. witi the Amerto France by                                                                              cans though in
the two Lon- their having sent addresses of friend-  Burke, indeed, went a great deal fur- arms against
don societies.                                                                            Enland.
ship  to the Convention of France.  ther than requires to be pressed into England
These addresses are considered to be a decisive  the present argument. He maintained the cause
proof of republican combination, verging closely  of justice and of truth against all the perverted
in themselves upon an overt act of treason. Gen- authority and rash violence of his country, and
tlemen, if the dates of these addresses are attend-  expressed the feelings of a Christian and a paed to, which come no lower down than Novem- triot in the very heat of the American warher, 1792, we have only.to lament that they were  boldly holding forth our victories as defeats, and
but the acts of private subjects, and that they  our successes as calamities and disgraces.  "It
were not sanctioned by the state itself.  The  is not instantly,"' said Mr. Burke, "that I can be
France  s  French nation, about that period, un- brought to rejoice when I hear of the slaughter
then at peace der their new Constitution, or under  and captivity of long lists of those names which
it England. their new anarchy-call it which you  have been familiar to my ears from my infancy,
will-were, nevertheless, most anxiously desir-  and to rejoice that they have fallen under the
ous of maintaining peace with this country.  But sword of strangers, whose barbarous appellations
the King was advised to withdraw his embassa- I scarcely know how to pronounce.  The glory
dor from France, upon the approaching catastro-  acquired at the White Plains by Colonel Rhalle
phe of its most unfortunate Prince-an event has no charnls for me; and I fairly acknowledge
which. however to be deplored, was no justifia-  that I have not yet learned to delight in finding
ble cause of offense to Great Britain.  France  Fort Knyphausen in the heart of the British dodesired nothing but the regeneration of her own  minions."'57  If this had been said or written by
government; and if she mistook the road to her Mr. Yorke at Sheffield, or by any other member
prosperity, what was that to us?  But it was  of these societies, heated with wine at the Globe
alleged against her in Parliament, that she had  Tavern, it would have been trumpeted forth as
introduced spies among us, and held correspond- decisive evidence of a rebellious spirit, rejoicing
ence with disaffected persons. for the destruction  in the downfall of his country.  Yet the great
of our Constitution. This was the charge of our  author, from  whose writings I have borrowed.
minister, and it was, therefore, considered just and  approved himself to be the friend of this nation
necessary, for the safety of the country, to hold  at that calamitous crisis, and had it pleased God
France at arm's length, and to avoid the very  to open the understandings of our rulers, his wiscontagion of contact with her at the risk of war. dom might have averted the storms that are now
But, gentlemen, this charge against France was thickening around us.  We must not, therefore,
thought by many to be supported by no better be too severe in our strictures upon the opinions
proofs than those against the prisoner.  In the  and feelings of men as they regard such mighty
public correspondence of the embassador from   public questions.  The interests of a nation may
the Fiench King, and upon his death, as minis-  often be one thing, and the interests of its govter fiom the Convention, with his Majesty's Sec-  ernmont another; but the interests of those who
retary of State, documents which lie upon the  hold government for the hour is at all times dif-'table of the House of Commons, and which may  ferent from  either.  At the time many of the
be made evidence in the cause, the executive  papers before you were circulated on  tllers may
couneil repelled with indignation all the imputa-  the subject of the war with France, li.vessilSnar
tions, which to this very hour are held out as the  many of the best and wisest men in ing the French
without any
vindications of quarrel.  "If there be such per- this kingdom  began to be driven by treasonable desons in England," says Monsieur Chauvelin,' has  our situation to these melancholy re- sign
not England laws to punish them?  France dis- flections. Thousands of persons, the most firmly
avows them -  such men are not Frenchmen.'   attached to the principles of our Constitution, and
The same correspondence conveys the most sol-  who never were members of any of these socieemn assurances of friendship down to the very  ties, considered, and still consider, Great Britain
year 1792, a period subsequent to all the corre-  as the aggressor against France.  They considspondence and addresses complained of. Wheth-  ered, and still consider, that she had a right to
er these assurances were faithful, or otherwise —_                        _
whether it would have been prudent to have de        57 See Mr. Burke's letter to the Sheriff of Bristol.
pended on them1 or other ise —whether the ewa   Colonel Rhalle was a Hessian officer, who distinw.de s  aibem -or.nadvisabe, are questin oe   r.guished himself at the battle of White Plains, in
was advisable or unadvisable, are questions over
November, 1776. A few days after, General Knypwhich we have no jurisdiction.  I only desire to  hasen, a Geran office in the British service, led
blring to your recollection, that a man may be a  the way in attacking Fort Washington, on the Hudfriend to the rights of humanity and to the im-  son, a little above New York; and from this circumprescriptible rights of social man,  which is now  stance, piQbably. his name was given to the fort by
a term of derision and contempt-that he may  the British while it remained in their possession




750                                     MR. ERSKINE                                       [1794.
choose a government for herself, and that it was  which the present juncture of affairs seems to
contrary to the first principles of justice, and, if  require.
possible, still more repugnant to the genius of our    "The London Corresponding Society conceives
own free Constitution, to combine with despots  that the moment is arrived when a full and exfor her destruction.  And who knows but that plicit declaration is necessary from all the friends
the external pressure upon France may have  of freedom-whether the late illegal and unheardbeen the cause of that unheard-of state of socie- of prosecutions and sentences'5 shall determine us
ty which we complain of?  Who knows wheth- to abandon our cause, or shall excite us to purer, driven as she has been to exertions beyond the  sue a radical reform, with an ardor proportioned
ordinary vigor of a nation, she has not thus gained  to the magnitude of the object, and with a zeal
that unnatural and giant strength which threat-  as distinguished on our own parts as the treachens the authors of it with perdition?  These are  ery of others in the same glorious cause is notomelancholy considerations, but they may reason- rious.  The Society for Constitutional Informaably and, at all events, lawfully be entertained. tion is, therefore, required to determine whether
We owe obedience to government in our actions, or no they will be ready, when called upon, to
but surely our-opinions are fiee.                act in conjunction with this and other societies
Gentlemen, pursuing the order of time, we are  to obtain a fair representation of the people(5.) Proposal arrived at length at the proposition to  whether they concur with us in seeing the netioLn COEn- hold another convention, which, with  cessity of a speedy convention, for the purpose
gland.    the supposed support of it by force, are  of obtaining, in a constitutional and legal method,
the only overt acts of high treason charged upon  a redress of those grievances under which we at
this record. For, strange as it may appear, there  present labor, and which can only be effectually
is no charge whatever before you of any one of  removed by a full and fair representation of the
those acts or writings, the evidence of which con- people of Great Britain.  The London Corresumed so many days in reading, and which has spending Society can not but remind their friends
already nearly consumed my strength in only  that the present crisis demands all the prudence,
passing them  in review before you.  If every  unanimity, and vigor, that may or can be exertline and letter of all the writings I have been  ed by MEN and BRITONS; nor do they doubt but
commenting upon were admitted to be traitorous  that manly firmness and consistency will finally,
machinations, and if the convention in Scotland  and they believe shortly, terminate in the full acwas an open rebellion, it is conceded to be for- complishment of all their wishes.
eign to the present purpose, unless as such crim-    I am, fellow-citizen,
inality in them might show the views and objects        "(In my humble measure),
of the persons engaged in them.  On that prin-               "A friend to the rights of man,
ciple only the court has over and over again de-    "(Signed)          T. HARDY, Secretary."
cided the evidence of them to be admissible; and         
They then resolve that there is no security for
on the same principle I have illustrated them in   the  cnnne of any right but in equality vf
the continuance of any right but in equality i6f
their order as they happened, that I might leadt in e               y o       t-        ridiculous
)   n.   laws-not in equality of property —the ridiculous
the prisoner in your view up to the very point        ear b                              ed into
and moment when the treason is supposed to  inJ            onthe contrary throughout every part
have burst forth into the overt act for which he                                         y  
of the proceedings, and most emphatically in Mr.
is arraigned before you.
is arraigned beforeh you.      ~             Yorke's speech (so much relied on), the benefiThe transaction respecting this second conven-l
The transaction respecting this second conven- cial subordinations of society, the security of
All~ te..e.so. tion, which constitutes the principals
All tile treaso  ton, which constitutes the prpl, ploperty, and the prosperity of the landed and
tobe found here, or more properly, the only overt act poera
if lty wihere.        cin      the n  commercial interests, are held forth as the very
in the indictment, lies in the narro- objects to be attained by the reform in the repest compass, and is clouded with no ambiguity. I      tation   hich they souht for
admit freely every act which is imputed to the      n  eai            this fi   moving toward a sprisoner, and listen not so much with fear as with   nd convention, the first thing to be  T seoectoftli
curiosity and wonder to the treason sought to be  considered is what reason tere isas te sme as
connected with it.                                                                   oftheformer
from the letter I have just read to convention,
You will recollect, that the first motion toward  woich was Coe 
youI or from any thing that appears fessedlynot treardyletter the holding of a second convention  YOU                son   able
Hardy's letter o  it      a l     o e            to have led to it, to suppose that a no.
tional S  origiet            ter to the prison- i  different sort of convention was projected from
er from a country correspondent, in  that [at Edinburgh] which had been before aswhich the legality of the former was vindicated, sembled and dispersed.  The letter says, anlother
and its dispersion lamented.  This letter was
and its dispersion lamented.  This letter was British Convention, and it describes the same obanswered on the 27th of March, 1794, and was      
j te  ects as the first.  Compare all the papers for
read to you in the Crown's evidence i            the calling this e second convention with those for
words:                                           assembling the first, and you will find no differ-CITtN,- I am  dir        marech 2 1794by. Lon ence, except that they mixed with them extra.
"CITIZEN,  I am  directed bv the London
Corresponding Society to transmit the follow- nenus and libelous matter arising obviously from
the irritation produced by the sailing of the transing resolutions to the Society for Constitutional   t.
Information, and to request the sentiments of  port w     tr brere  c                  t 
that society respecting the important measures    5 Those of Muir and others, mentioned above.




1794.]                           IN BEHALF OF HARDY.                                       751
These papers have already been considered, and  was thrown out.  These gentlemen met at the
separated, as they ought to be, from the charge. house of Mr. Thelwall, on the 11th of April,
I will now  lay before you all the remaining  1794, and there published the resolutions already
oference be- operations of this formidable conspir  commented on, in conformity with the general
Conference be-o t             h.s f.              pins.                irtween the two acy, up to the prisoner's imprisonment objects of the two societies, expressed in the letsocieties.   in the Tower. Mr. Hardy having re- ter of the 27th of March, and agreed to continue
ceived the letter just adverted to regarding a  to meet on Mondays and Thursdays for further
second convention, the Corresponding Society  conference on the subject.  The first Monday
wrote the letter of the 27th of March, and which  was the 14th of April, of which we Difficulty of
was found in his handwriting, and is published  have heard so much, and no meeting bringing it about.
in the first Report, page 11.  This letter, in- was held on that day.  The first Thursday was
closing the resolutions they had come to upon the  the 17th of April, but there was no meeting; the
subject, was considered by the Constitutional So- 21st of April was the second Monday, but there
Jiety on the next day, the 28th of March, the  was still no meeting; the 24th of April was the
ordinary day for their meeting, when they sent second Thursday, when the five of the Correan answer to the Corresponding Society, inform- sponding Society attended,, but, nobody coming
ing them that they had received their communi- to meet them from the other, nothing, of course,
cation-that they heartily concurred with them  was transacted.  On Monday, the 28th of April,
in the objects they had in view, and invited them  three weeks after their first appointment, this.
to send a delegation of their members to confer bloody and impatient band of conspirators, seewith them on the subject.                       ing that a Convention Bill was in projection, and
Now what were the objects they concurred in, that Hessians were landing on our coasts, at last
Tleobjectsof  and what was to be the subject of assembled themselves; and now we come to the
theircoiference. conference between the societies by  point of action.59  Gentlemen, they met; they
their delegates?  Look at the letter, which dis- shook hands with each other; they Actutlreset.
tinctly expresses its objects and the means by  talked over the news and the pleasures
which they sought to effect them.  Had these  of the day; they wished one another a good evenpoor men (too numerous to meet all together, ing, and retired to their homes: it is in vain to
and therefore renewing the cause of parliament- hide it, they certainly did all these things. The
ary reform by delegation from the societies) any  same alsarming scene was repeated on the three
reason to suppose that they were involving them- following days of meeting, and on Monday, May
selves in the pains of treason, and that they were  the 12th, would, but for the vigilance of governcompassing the King's death, when they were ment, have probably again taken place; but on
redeeming (as they thought) his authority from  that day Mr. Hardy was arrested, his papers
probable downfall and ruin?  Had treason been  seized, and the conspiracy which pervaded this
imputed to the delegates before?  Had the im- devoted country was dragged into the face of
agining the death of the King ever been sus- day.  To be serious, gentlemen, you have literpected by any body?  Or, when they were pros- ally the whole of it before you in the meetings I
ecuted for misdemeanors, was the prosecution  have just stated; in which you find ten gentleconsidered as an indulgence conferred upon men  men, appointed by two peaceable societies, conwhose lives had been forfeited?  Andis it to be versing upon the subject of a constitutional reendured, then, in this free land-made free, too, form in Parliament, publishing the result of their
by the virtue of our forefathers, who placed the deliberations, without any other arms than one
King upon his throne to maintain this freedom-  supper-knife; which, when I come to the subject
that forty or fifty thousand people, in the differ- of arms, I will in form lay before you.  Yet for
ent parts of the kingdom, assembling in their lit- this, and for this alone, you are asked to devote
tie societies to spread useful knowledge, and to  the prisoner before you, and his unfortunate asdiffuse the principles of liberty-which the more sociates, to the pains and penalties of death; and
widely they are spread, the surer is the condition  not to death alone, but to the eternal stigma and
of our free government-are in a moment, with- infamy of having conceived the detestable and
out warning, without any law or principle to horrible design of dissolving the government of
warrant it, and without precedent or example, to
59 A body of Hessian troops were landed on the
be branded as traitors, and to be decimated asy, in 1794, in readiness
Isle of Wight, from Germany, in 1794, in readiness
victims for punishment!  The Constitutional So- for a projected expedition against France. The Op.
ciety having answered the letter of the 27th of position insisted that such an introduction of foreign
March, in the manner I stated to you, commit- troops, without the consent of Parliament, was illetees from each of the two societies were appoint- gal; but the motions declaratory of the illegality of
ed to confer together.  The Constitutional So- the proceedings were negatived, and Mr. Pitt refused
ciety appointed Mr. Joyce, Mr. Kidd, Mr. War- to countenance a Bill of Indemnity. This, though
die, and Mr. Holcroft, all indicted; and Mr. well intended by Mr. Pitt, was an unfortunate measSharpe, the celebrated engraver, not indicted, ure. Many considered it as designed to put down
butexamined as a witness by the Crown.  Five free discussion by force. The great evil was, that
~but         ~~examined as a wit gave an opening for rash men to mislead the peowere appointed by the Corresponding Society to ple, and represent these troops as called in to enmeet these gentlemen; namely, Mr. Baxter, Mr. slave them. There is reason to believe that this
Moore, Mr. Thelwall, and Mr. Hodgson, all in- was one main reason why some were induced to
dieted, and Mr. Lovatt, against whom the kill prepare pikes and other weapons.




752                                    MR. ERSKINE                                       [1794.
their country, and of striking at the life of their idence I shall state in its place, seems to be a
Sovereign, who had never given offense to them, plain, blunt, honest man, and, by-the-by, which
nor to any of his subjects.                     must never be forgotten of any of them, the
Gentlemen, as a conspiracy of this formidable  Crown's witness.  I am  not interested in the
No mention of extension, which had no less for its veracity of any of them; for (what I have frerrests first   object than the sudden annihilation  quently remarked) the Crown must take them
took place.   of all the existing authorities of the  for better for worse: it must support each witcountry, and of every thing that supported them, ness, and the whole body of its evidence throughcould not be even gravely stated to have an ex- out.  If you do not believe the whole of what is
istence, without contemplation of force to give it proved by a witness, what confidence can you
effect, it was absolutely necessary to impress have in part of it, or what part can you select to
upon the public mind, and to establish by formal confide in?  If you are deceived in part, who
evidence upon the present occasion, that such a  shall measure the boundaries of the deception?
force was actually in preparation.  This most This man says he was at first for universal sufimportant and indispensable part of the cause  frage-Mr. Yorke had persuaded him, from all
was attended with insurmountable difficulties, the books, that it was the best-but that he aftnot only from  its being unfounded in fact, but crward saw reason to think otherwise, and was
because it had been expressly negatived by the  not for going the length of the Duke of Richwhole conduct of government. For, although the  mond; but that all the other Sheffield people
motions of all these societies had been watched  were for the Duke's plan-a fact confirmed by
for two years together-though spies had regu- the cross-examination of every one of the witlarly attended, and collected regular journals of nesses.  You have, therefore, positively and distheir proceedings, yet when the first report was tinctly, upon the universal authority of the evifinished, and the Habeas Corpus Act suspended  dence of the Crown, the people of Sheffield, who
upon the foundation of the facts contained in it, are charged as at the head of a republican conthere was not to be found, from one end of it to  spiracy, proved to be associated on the very printhe other, even the insinuation of arms.  I be- ciples which, at different times, have distinguishlieve that this circumstance made a great im- ed the most eminent persons in this kingdom;
pression upon all the thinking, dispassionate part and the charge made upon them. with regard to
ot the public, and that the materials of the first arms, is cleared up by the same universal testireport were thought to furnish but a slender ar- mony.
gument to support such a total eclipse of liberty.    You recollect that, at a meeting held upon the
No wonder, then, that the discovery of a pike, in  Castle-hill, there were two parties in   re. for the
the interval between the two reports, should have  the country; and it is material to at- preparation of
these pikes.
been highly estimated.  I mean no reflections tend to what these two parties were.
upon government, and only state the matter as a In consequence of the King's proclamation,6 a
man of great wit very publicly reported it.  He  great number of honorable, zealous persons, who
said that the discoverer, when he first beheld the  had been led by a thousand artifices to believe
long-looked-for pike, was transported beyond him- that there was a just cause of alarm in the counself with enthusiasm and delight, and that he hung  try, took very extraordinary steps for support of
over the rusty instrument with all the raptures  the magistracy.  The publicans were directed
of a fond mother, who embraces her first-born  not to entertain persons who were friendly to a
infant, " and thanks her God for all her travail reform of Parliament; and alarms of change and
past.'                                          of revolution pervaded the country, which beIn consequence of this discovery, whoever came greater and greater as our ears were
(ti.)Prepara- might have the merit of it, and what- hourly assailed with the successive calamities
tieofpikes. ever the discoverer might have felt of France.  Others saw  things in an opposite
Sheffield re- upon it, persons were sent by govern- light, and considered that these calamities were
r.    mlent (and properly sent) into all cor- made the pretext for extinguishing British libuers of the kingdom, to investigate the extent of erty.  Heart-burnings arose between the two
the mischief.  The fruit of this inquiry has been  parties; and some-I am afraid a great manylaid before you, and I pledge myself to sum up  wickedly or ignorantly interposed in a quarrel
the evidence which you have had upon the sub- which zeal had begun. The societies were disject, not by parts, or by general observations, but turbed in their meetings, and even the private
il the same manner as the court itself must sum  dwellings of many of their members were illeit up to you, when it lays the whole body of the  gally violated.  It appears by the very evidence
w1oof with fidelity before you.  Notwithstanding  to the Crown, by which the cause must stand or
all the declamations upon French anarchy, I think  fall, that many of the friends of reform were dai-' may safely assert that it has been distinctly  ly insulted, their houses threatened to be pulled
proved by the evidence that the Sheffield people    
were fo   representation in a British      6 This proclamation was issued on the 21st of
were for universal represenMay, 1792, and was directed against seditious meetHouse of Commons.  This appears to have been                              Z I
House of Commons.  This appears to have been  igs and publications. In support of this proclamathe general sentiment, with the exception of one  tion, associations were formed in many places to
witness, whose testimony makes the truth and  sustain the government, and the magistrates took
bona-fides of the sentiments far more striking: the  very stringent measures, which were in some inwitness I allude to (George Widdison), whose ev- stances hasty and irritating.




1794.]                            IN  BEHALF OF HARDY.                                       753
down, and their peaceable meetings beset by pre- might provide pikes for themselves, in the same
tended magistrates; without the process of the  manner that Davison was recommending, through
law. These proceedings naturally suggested the  Hardy, to the people of London.  Now what folpropriety of having arms for self-defense, the first lowed upon the prisoner's receiving this letter?
and most unquestionable privilege of man, in or It is in evidence by this very Moody, to whom
out of society, and expressly provided for by the  the answer was to be sent, and who was examined
very letter of English law.  It was ingeniously  as a witness by the Crown, that he never received
put by the learned counsel, in the examination  any antswer to the letter; and, although there was
of a witness, that it was complained of among  a universal seizure of papers, no such letter, nor
themr  that very little was sufficient to obtain a  any other, appeared to have been written.  And,
warrant from some magistrates, and that, there- what is more, the letter to Norwich, from Davifore, it was as well to be provided for those who  son, inclosed in his letter to Hardy, was never formight have warrants as for those who had none. warded, but was found in his custody when he
Gentlemen, I am too much exhausted to pursue  was arrested, three weeks afterward, folded up in
or argue such a difference, even if it existed upon  the other, and unopened, as he received it. Good
the evidence.  If the societies in question (how- God! what is become of the humane sanctuary
ever mistakenly) considered their meetings to be  of English justice?  Where is the sense and
legal, and the warrants to disturb them to be be- meaning of the term provably in the statute of
yond the authority of the magistrate to grant, King Edward, if such evidence can be received
they had a right, at the peril of the legal conse- against an English subject on a trial for his life?
quences, to stand upon their defense; and it is If a man writes a letter to me about pikes, or
no transgression of the law, much less high trea- about any thing else, can I help it?  And is it
son against the King, to resist his officers when  evidence (except to acquit me of suspicion) when
they pass the bounds of their authority. So much  it appears that nothing is done upon it?  Mr.
for the general evidence of arms; and the first Hardy never before corresponded with Davison.
Letter from   and last time that even the name of  -he never desired him to write to him-how,
posiff tl, H.ar the prisoner is connected with the  indeed, could he desire him, when his very exist- 
tio of pike i subject, is by a letter he received from  ence was unknown to him?  He never returned
Londol.    a person of the name of Davison.  I  an answer-he never forwarded the inclosed toam anxious that this part of the case should be  Norwich; he never even communicated the letterdistinctly understood, and I will, therefore, bring  itself to his own society, although he was its secback this letter to your attention.  The letter is retary, which showed he considered it as the unas follows:                                      authorized officious correspondence of a private
man; he never acted upon it at all, nor appears to
a FELLOW-CITIZEN,~ The barefaced aristoc- have regarded it as dangerous or important, since
racy of the present administration has made it he neither destroyed no concealed it   Gentlenecessary that we should be prepared to act on  me, I declare I       hardly know in what language to
the defensive, against any attack they may com- expess my astonishment, that the Crown can ask
mand their newly-armed minions to make upon  you to shed the blood of the man at the bar upoa n
us.  A plan has been hit upon, and, if encour-  uch foundations.  Yet this is the whole of the 
aged sufficiently, will, no doubt, have the effect written  evidence  concerning arms  for the re —
of furnishing a quantity of pikes to the patriots, mainder of the plot rests for its foundation upon
great enough to make them formidable.  The  the parole evidence, the whole of which I shall
blades are made of steel, tempered and polished  pursue with precision, and not suffer a link of the
after an approved form.  They may be fixedinto  chainto pass unexamined.
any shafts (but fir ones are recommended) of the    William CamagTe was the first witness.  He
girt of the accompanying hoops at the top end,      ore that the Sheffield societies wre 
and about an inch lmore at the bottom.           frequently insulted, and threatened to respect to the
"The blades and hoops (more than which can  be dispersed  so that th           e pepin fepon
not properly be sent to any great distance) will  eneral thought it necessary to defend c"mge.
be charged one shillingu.  Money to be sent with  themselves against illegal attacks.  The justices.
the orders.                                      having officiously intruded themselves into their
"As  the institution is in its infancy, immedi-  peaceable and legal meetings, they thought they
ate encourageHment  is necessary.                had a right to be armed; but they did not claim.
"Orders may be sent to the Secretary of the           n
" Orders may be sent to the Secretary of the  this right under the law of nature, or by theoriesSheffield Constitutional Society.  [Struck out.]  of government, but as ENGLISH SUBJECTS, under
Sheffield, April 24 1794" RICIARD DAVISON.    the government of ENGLAND; for they say in;
-Sheffield, April 24, 1794."
their paper, which has been read by the Crown,
Gentlemen, you must recollect (for if it should  that would condemn them, that they were enHardy did not escape you, it might make a great titled by the "BILL of RIGHTS" to be armed..
reply to the  difference) that Davison directs the  Gentlemen, they state their title truly. Thepreletter.   answer to this letter to be sent to Rob- amble of that statute enumerates the offenses of
ert Moody at Sheffield, to prevent post-office sus- King James the Second; among the chief of
picion; and that he also incloses in it a similar which was his causing his subjects to be disone which Mr. Hardy was to forward to Nor- armed, and then our ancestors claim this violaw'ich, in order that the society at that place  ted right as their indefeasible inheritance.  Let
B    B




754                                     MR. ERSKINE                                       [1794.
us, therefore. be cautious how we rush to the  the London societies, wrote the letter to Hardy,
conclusion that men are plotting treason against "of his own head," as the witness expressed it,
the King, because they are asserting a right, the  and that he, Widdison, made the pike-shafts, to
violation of which has been adjudged against a  the number of a dozen and a half.  Davison, he
King to be treason against the people.  And let said, was his customer.  He told him that peous not suppose that English subjects are a ban- pie began to think themselves in danger, and he
ditti, for preparing to defend their legal liberties therefore made the handles of the pikes for sale,
with pikes, because pikes may have been acci- to the number of a dozen and a half, and one likedentally employed in another country to destroy  wise for himself, without conceiving that he ofboth liberty and law.  Camage says he was fended against any law.  "I love the King,"' said
spoken to by this Davison about three dozen of Widdison, "as much as any man, and all that
pikes. What then?  He is the Crown's witness, I associated with did the same.  I would not
whom they offer to you as the witness of truth; have stayed with them  if they had not.  Mr.
and he started with horror at the idea of violence, Yorke often told me privately, that he was for
and spoke with visible reverence for the King: universal representation-and so were we allsaying, God forbid that he should touch him; THE DUI E OF RICHMOND'S PLAN WAS OUR ONLY
but he, nevertheless, had a pike for himself. In- OBJECT."  This was the witness who was shown
deed, the manliness with which he avowed it the Duke's letter, and spoke to it as being circugave an additional strength to his evidence. " No lated, and as the very creed of the societies. This
doubt," says he, "I had a pike, but I would not evidence shows, beyond all doubt, the genuine
have remained an hour a member of the society, sentiments of these people, because it consists of
if I had heard a syllable that it was in the con- their most confidential communications with one
templation of any body to employ pikes or any  another; and the only answer, therefore, that
other arms against the King or the government. can possibly be given to it is, that the witnesses
We meant to petition Parliament, through the  who deliver it are imposing upon the court. But
means of the Convention of Edinburgh, thinking  this-as I have wearied you with reiteratingthat the House of Commons would listen to this the Crown can not say.  For, in that case, their
expression of the general sentiments of the peo- whole proof falls to the ground together, since it
pie; for it had been thrown out, he said, in Par- is only from  the same witnesses that the very
liament, that the people did not desire it them- existence of these pikes and their handles comes
selves."                                         before us; and, if you suspect their evidence in
Mr. Broomhead, whose evidence I have al- part, for the reasons already given, it must be in
Broomlead. ready commented upon, a sedate, plain, toto rejected.  My friend is so good as to furnish
sensible man, spoke also of his affection  me with this further observation: that Widdison.W the government, and of the insults and threats  said he had often heard those who call themselves,wsich had been offered to the people of Sheffield. aristocrats say, that if an invasion of the country
He.says, " I heard of arms on the Castle-hill, but should take place, they would begin with destroyit,is fit this should be distinctly explained.  A  ing their enemies at home, that they might be
~wicked hand-bill, to provoke and terrify the mul- unanimous in the defense of their country.
rtitude, had been thrown about the town in the    John Hill was next called.  He is a cutler,,night, which caused agitation in the minds of the  and was employed by Davison to make the  H.
people:;:,and it was then spoken of as being the  blades for the pikes.  He saw  the letter
right of every individual to have arms for defense; which was sent to Hardy, and knew that it was
but there'was no idea ever started of resisting, sent, lest there should be the same call for decmuch less of attacking the government.  I nev- fense in London against illegal attacks upon the
er heard of:such a thing.  I fear God," said the  societies-for that at Sheffield they were daily
witness,'" and honor the King; and would not insulted, and that the opposite party came to his
have consented to send a delegate to Edinburgh  own house, fired muskets under the door, and
but for peaceable and legal purposes."           threatened to pull it down. He swears that they
The;next,evidence upon the subject of arms were, to a man, faithful to the King,,nd that the
iddisonis what is proved by Widdison, to which  reform proposed was in the Commons House of
I beg your particular attention, because, Parliament.
If there be any reliance upon his testimony, it puts    John Edwards was called, further to connect
an end to every criminal imputation upon Davi- the prisoner with the combination of force. Edwards.
-on) through whom, in the strange manner al- But so far from establishing it, he swore,
-eady observed upon, Hardy could alone be crim- upon his cross-examination, that his only reason.mated.  This man, Widdison, who was both a  for going to Hardy's was, that he wanted a pike
turner and a hair-dresser, and who dressed Davi- for his own defense, without connection with Dason's hair, and was his most intimate acquaint- vison or with Sheffield, and without concert or
ance, gives you an account of their most confi- correspondence with any body.  He had heard,
dential conversations upon the subject of the  he said, of the violences at Sheffield, and of the
pikes, when it is impossible that they could be  pikes that had been made there for defense; that
imposing upon one another!  He declares upon  Hardy, on his application, showed him the letter,
his solemn oath that Davison, without even the  which, as has appeared, he never showed to any
knowledge or authority of the Sheffield society, other person.  This is the whole sum and subthinking that the same insults might be offered to  stance of the evidence which applies to the charge




1794 ]                             IN  BEHALF OF HARDY.                                      755
of pikes, after the closest investigation, under the  make us what we ought to be, that I avow to God,
sanction, and by the aid of Parliament itself.  It I would sooner bring myself to put a man to imis evidence which, so far from  establishing the  mediate death for opinions I disliked, and so to
fact, would have been a satisfactory answer to  get rid of the man and his opinions at once, than
almost any testimony by which such a fact could  to fret him with a feverish being, tainted with the
have been supported; for in this unparalleled  jail distemper of a contagious servitude, to keep
proceeding, the prisoner's counsel is driven by  him above ground, an animated mass of putrefachis duty to dwell upon the detail of the Crown's  tion, corrupted himself, and corrupting all about
proofs, because the whole body of it is the com- him.:6'
pletest answer to the indictment which even a    Gentlemen, let me bring to your recollection
free choice itself could have selected.  It is fur- the deportment of the first of this tribe, Alexander
ther worthy of your attention, that as far as the  Mr. Alexander-who could not in half
evidence proceeds from these plain, natural sour- an hour even tell where he had lived, or why he
ces, which the Crown was driven to for the nec- had left his master.  Does any man believe that
essary foundation of the proceedings before you, he had forgotten these most recent transactions
it has been simple, uniform, natural, and consist- of his life?  Certainly not-but his history would
ent.  Whenever a different complexion was to  have undone his credit, and must, therefore, be
be given to it, it was only through the medium  concealed.  He had lived with a linen-draper,
of spies and informers, and of men, independent- whose address we could scarcely get from him,
ly of their infamous trade, of the most abandoned  and they had parted because they had words.
and profligate characters.                       What were the words?  We were not to be told
Before I advert to what has been sworn by this that.  He then went to a Mr. Killerby's, who
Testimonyof description of persons, I will give you  agreed with him at twenty-five guineas a year.
gvesrnent. wholesome caution concerning them, Why did he not stay there?  He was obliged,
f"rmers.    and, having no eloquence of my own to  it seems, to give up this lucrative agreement, beenforce it, I will give it to you in the language  cause he was obliged to attend here as a witness.
of the same gentleman whose works are always  Gentlemen, Mr. Killerby lives only in Holborn;
seasonable, when moral or political lessons are  and was he obliged to give up a permanent ento be rendered delightful.  Look, then, at the  gagement with a tradesman in Holborn, because
picture of society, as Mr. Burke has drawn it, he was obliged to be absent at the Old Bailey for
under the dominion of spies and informers.  I five minutes in one single day?  I asked him if
say, under their dominion, for a resort to spies he had told Mr. White, the Solicitor for the
may, on occasions, be justifiable, and their evi- Treasury, who would not have been so cruel as
dence, when confirmed, may deserve implicit to deprive a man of his bread, by keeping him
credit.  But I say under the dominion of spies upon attendance which might have been avoided
and informers, because the case of the Crown  by a particular notice.  The thing spoke for itmust stand alone upon their evidence, and upon  self-he had never told Mr. White.  But had he
their evidence, not only unconfirmed, but in di- ever told Mr. Killerby?  For how else could he
rect contradiction to every witness not an inform- know that his place was inconsistent with his ener or a spy, and in a case, too, where the truth, gagement upon this trial?  No, he had never
Mr. urke in whatever it is, lies within the knowl- told him!  How, then, did he collect that his
respect to  edge of forty or fifty thousand people. place was inconsistent with his duty here? This
8"e'. cMr. Burke says -I believe I can re- question never received any answer.  You saw
member it without reference to the book-         how he dealt with it, and how he stood stammer"A mercenary informer knows no distinction. ing, not daring to lift up his countenance in any
Under such a system, the obnoxious people are  direction-confused-disconcerted-and conslaves, not only to the government, but they live  founded.
at the mercy of every individual; they are at    Driven from the accusation upon the subject
once the slaves of the whole community, and of of pikes, and even from the very col- (7.)Stry about
every part of it; and the worst and most unmer- or of accusation, and knowing that knives.
ciful men are those on whose goodness they most nothing was to be done without the. Groves.
depend.                                          proof of arms, we have got this miserable, soli"In this situation men not only shrink fiom the  tary knife, held up to us as the engine which was
frowns of a stern magistrate, but are obliged to  to destroy the Constitution of this country; and
fly from their very species. The seeds of destruc-  Mr. Groves, an Old Bailey solicitor, employed as
tion are sown in civil intercourse and in social a spy upon the occasion, has been selected to give
habitudes. The blood of wholesome kindred is in- probability to this monstrous absurdity, by his refected.  The tables and beds are surrounded with  spectable evidence.  I understand that this same
snares.  All the means given by Providence to  gentleman has carried his system  of spying to
make life safe and comfortable, are perverted into  such a pitch as to practice it since this unfortuinstruments of terror and torment. This species nate man has been standing a prisoner before
of universal subserviency that makes the very serv- you, proffering himself, as a friend, to the comr
ant who waits behind your chair the arbiter of your mittee preparing his defense, that he might dislife and fortune, has such a tendency to degrade  cover to the Crown the materials by which he
and abuse mankind, and to deprive them of that 
assured and liberal state of mind which alone can        6I See speech at Bristol, page 301.




756                                      MR. ERSKINE                                         [1794.
meant to defend his life.  I state this only from  ever (Hardy in the interval having become acreport, and I hope in God I am mistaken; for quainted with Franklow), Williams called to buy
human nature starts back appalled from  such  a pair of shoes, and then Hardy, recollecting his
atrocity, and shrinks and trembles at the very  former application, referred him  to Franklow.
statement of it.  But as to the perjury of this  who had in the most public manner raised the
miscreant, it will appear palpable beyond all forty men, who were called the Loyal Lambeth
question, and he shall answer for it in due sea- Association.  So that; in order to give this trans.
son.  He tells you he attended at Chalk Farm;6  action any bearing upon the charge, it became
and that there, forsooth, among about seven or necessary to consider Franklow's association as
eight thousand people, he saw two or three per- an armed conspiracy against the governmentsons with knives.  He might, I should think, have  though the forty people who composed it were
seen many more, as hardly any man goes with- collected by public advertisement-though they
out a knife of some sort in his pocket.  He  were enrolled under public articles-and though
asked, however, it seems, where they got these  Franklow himself, as appears from the evidence,
knives, and was directed to Green, a hair-dress-  attended publicly at the Globe Tavern in his
er, who deals besides in cutlery; and according-  uniform, while the cartouch-boxes and the other
ly this notable Mr. Groves went (as he told us) accoutrements of these secret conspirators lay
to Green's, and asked to purchase a knife; when  openly upon his shop-board, exposed to the open
Green, in answer to him, said, " Speak low, for my  view of all his customers and neighbors!  This
wife is a damned aristocrat."  This answer was  story, therefore, is not less contemptible than that
sworn to by the wretch, to give you the idea that which you must have all heard concerning Mr.
Green, who had the knives to sell, was conscious  Walker, whom I went to defend at Lancaster,
that he kept them for an illegal and wicked pur-  where that respectable gentleman was brought
pose, and that they were not to be sold in public. to trial upon such a trumped-up charge, supThe door, he says, being ajar, the man desired  ported by the solitary evidence of one Dunn, a
him to speak low, from whence he would have  most infamous witness.63  But what was the end
you understand that it was because this aristo-  of that prosecution?  I recollect it to the honor
cratic wife was within hearing. This, gentlemen, of my friend, Mr. Law, who conducted it for the
3s the testimony of Groves; and Green himself is  Crown, who, knowing that there were persons
called as the next witness, and called by whom?  whose passions were agitated upon these subjects
Not by me-I know  nothing of him, he is the  at that moment, and that many persons had enCrown's own witness.  He is called to confirm  rolled themselves in societies to resist conspiratrdited Groves's evidence.  But not being a  cies against the government, behaved in a most.Greeo, wo soldl spy, he declared solemnly upon his  manful and honorable manner-in a manner, intle knives.    oath (and I can confirm his evidence  deed, which the public ought to know, and which
by several respectable people) that the knives in  I hope it never will forget.  He would not even
question lie constantly, and lay then, in his open  put me upon my challenges to such persons, but
shop-window, in what is called the show-glass,  withdrew them from the panel; and when he saw
where cutlers, like other tradesmen, expose their the complexion of the affair, from the contradicware to public view; and that the knives difflr tion of the infamous witness whose testimony supin nothing from others publicly sold in the Strand, ported it, he honorably gave up the cause.
and every other street in London; that he be-    Gentlemen, the evidence of Lynam  does not
spoke them from a rider, who came round for or- require the same contradiction which fell
ders in the usual way-that he sold only fourteen  upon Mr. Groves, because it destroys it-  nan
in all, and that they were made up in little pack- self by its own intrinsic inconsistency.  I could
ets, one of which Mr. Hardy had, who was to  not, indeed, if it were to save my life, undertake.choose one for himself, but four more were found  to state it to you.  It lasted, I think, about six or
in his possession, because he was arrested before  seven hours, but I have marked, under different
Green had an opportunity of sending for them.   parts of it, passages so grossly contradictory,
Gentlemen, I think the pikes and knives are  matter so impossible, so inconsistent with any
(8.) Story about now  completely disposed of.  But course of conduct, that it will be sufficient to
guns.       something was said also about guns; bring these parts to your view, to destroy all the
let us, therefore, see what that amounts to.  It rest.  But let us first examine in what manner
appears that Mr. Hardy was applied to by Sam- this matter, such as it is, was recorded.  He prouel Williams, a gun-engraver, who was not even  fessed to speak fiom  notes, yet I observed him
a member of any society, and who asked him if  frequently looking up to the ceiling while he was
he knew any body who wanted a gun.  Hardy  speaking.  When I said to him, Are you now
said he did not; and undoubtedly, upon the  speaking from a note?  Have you got any note
Crown's own showing, it must be taken for of what you are now  saying?  He answered,
granted that if at that time he had been ac-  " Oh no; this is from recollection."  Good God
quainted with any plan of arming, he would have       Mr. Walker, of Manchester, with some others,
given a different answer, and would have jumped  was indicted. in 1794, at the Lancaster Assizes, for
at the offer,  About a fortnight afterward, how-  a conspiracy to overthrow the government. The
prosecution depended on the evidence of an inform62 A place in the country, a little out of London, er of the name of Dunn, who was afterward convict.
where a meeting of the reformers was held.        ed of perjury at the very same Assizes.




1794.]                            IN BEHALF OF HARDY.                                        757
Almighty! Recollection mixing itself with notes turned upon him, he was hanged by his employin a case of high treason!  He did not even take  ers.  This man Watt read from a paper designs
down the words; nay, to do the man justice, he to be accomplished, but which he never intended
did not even affect to have taken the words, but to attempt, and the success of which he knew to
only the substance, as he himself expressed it. be visionary.  To suppose that Great Britain
Oh, excellent evidence!  The substance of words could have been destroyed by such a rebel as
taken down by a spy, and supplied, when defect- Watt, would be, as Dr. Johnson says, " to expect
ive, by his memory!  But I must not call him a  that a great city might be drowned by the overspy; for it seems he took them bona fide as a del- flowing of its kennels."  But whatever might be
egate, and yet bona fide as an informer.  What the peril of Watt's conspiracy, what had Hardy
a happy combination of fidelity! faithful to serve, to do with it?  The people with Watt were five
and faithful to betray! correct to record for the  or six persons, wholly unknown to Hardy, and
business of the society, and correct to dissolve  not members of any society of which Mr. Hardy
and to punish it!  What, after all, do the notes was a member.  I vow to God, therefore, that I
amount to?  I will advert to the parts I alluded  can not express what I feel, when I am obliged
to.  They were, it seems. to go to Frith Street, to  to state the evidence by which he is sought to be
sign the declaration of the Friends of the Liberty  affected.  A letter, namely, the circular letter
of the Press, which lay there already signed by  signed by Hardy, for calling another convention,
between twenty and thirty members of the House  is shown to George Ross, who says he received
of Commons, and many other respectable and op- it from  one Stock, who belonged to a society
ulent men; and then they were to begin civil con- which met in Nicholson Street, in Edinburgh, and
fusion, and the King's head and Mr. Pitt's were  that he sent it to Perth, Strathaven, and Paisley,
to be placed on Temple Bar! Immediately after and other places in Scotland.  The single, unwhich, we find them  resolving unanimously to  connected evidence of this public letter, finding
thank Mr. Wharton for his speech to support the  its way into Scotland, is made the foundation of
glorious Revolution of 1688, which supports the  letting in the whole evidence which hanged Watt,
very throne that was to be destroyed! which  against Hardy, who never knew him!  Governsame speech they were to circulate in thousands, ment hanged its own spy in Scotland upon that
for the use of the societies throughout the king- evidence, and it may be sufficient evidence for
dom.  Such incoherent, impossible matter, pro- that purpose.  I will not argue the case of a
ceeding from such a source, is unworthy of all dead man, and, above all, of such a man; but I
further concern,                                 will say, that too much money was spent upon
Thus driven out of every thing which relates this performance, as I think it cost government
(9.) Atrocious  to arms, and from every other mat- about fifty thousand pounds.  M'Ewen says that
charge against
Hardy, touching ter which can possibly attach upon  Watt read from a paper to a committee of six or
wteatt  of  life, they have recourse to an expe- seven people, of which he, the witness, was a
dient which I declare fills my mind with horror member, that gentlemen residing in the country
and terror.  It is this: The Corresponding So- were not to leave their habitations under pain
ciety had, you recollect, two years before, sent of death; that an attack was to be made in the
delegates to Scotland, with specific instructions  manner you remember, and that the Lord Juspeacefully to pursue a parliamentary reform. tice Clerk and the Judges were to be cut off by
When the convention which they were sent to  these men in buckram-and then an address was
was dispersed, they sent no others, for they were to be sent to the King, desiring him to dismiss
arrested when only considering of the propriety  his ministers and put an end to the war, or he
of another convention.  It happened that Mr. might expect bad consequences.  WHAT Is ALL
Hardy was the secretary during the period of  THIS TO MR. HARDY?  How is it possible to afthese Scotch proceedings, and the letters, conse- feet him with any part of this? Hear the sequel,
quently, written by him, during that period, were  and then judge for yourselves.  Mr. Watt said
all official letters from a large body, circulated  (that is, the man who is hanged, said), after readby him in point of form.  When the proposition  ing the paper, that he, Watt, wished to correspond
took place for calling a second convention, Mr. with Mr. Hardy in a safe manner! So that, beHardy continued to be secretary, and in that cause a ruffian and scoundrel, whom I never saw
character signed the circular letter read in the  or heard of, chooses, at the distance of four hundcourse of the evidence, which appears to have  red miles, to say, that he wishes to correspond
found its way, in the course of circulation, into  with me, I am to be involved in the guilt of his
Scotland.  This single circumstance has been  actions!  It is not proved or insinuated, that Mr.
admitted as the foundation of receiving in evi- Hardy ever saw, or heard of, or knew that such
dence against the prisoner a long transaction, men were in being as Watt or Downie; nor is it
imputed to one Watt, at Edinburgh, whose very  proved, or asserted, that any letter was, in fact,
existence was unknown to Hardy.  This Watt written by either of them'to Hardy, or to any
had been employed by government as a spy, but other person.  No such letter has been found in
at last caught a Tartar in his spyship; for, in  his possession, nor a trace of any connection beendeavoring to urge innocent men to a project tween them and any member of any English sowhich never entered into their imaginations, he  ciety.  The truth, I believe, is, that nothing was
was obliged to show himself ready to do what intended by Watt but to entrap others to obtain
he recommended to others; and the tables being  a reward for himself, and he has been amply and




758                                    MR. ERSKINE                                       [1794
justly rewarded.  Gentlemen, I desire to be un- you, the jury, whose province it is to judge of
derstood to be making no attacks upon govern- its existence: it must be believed by Recapitulation
ment.  I have wished throughout the whole  you to have existed in point of fact. ofprinciples.
cause that good intentions may be imputed to it, Before you can adjudge a FACT, you must believe
but I really confess that it requires some ingenu- it-not suspect it; or imagine it, or fancy it-but
ity for government to account for the original BELIEVE it.  And it is impossible to impress the
existence of all this history, and its subsequent human mind with such a reasonable and certain
application to the present trial. They went down  belief as is necessary to be impressed, before a
to Scotland after the arrest of the prisoners, in  Christian man can adjudge his neighbor to the
order, I suppose, that we might be taught the  smallest penalty, much less to the pains of death,
law of high treason by the Lord Justice Clerk  without having such evidence as a reasonable
of Edinburgh, and that there should be a sort of mind will accept of, as the infallible test of truth.
rehearsal to teach the people of England to ad- And what is that evidence?  Neither more nor
minister English laws.  For, after all this ex- less than that which the Constitution has estabpense and preparation, no man was put upon his lished in the courts for the general administration
trial, or even arraigned under the special com- of justice-namely, that the evidence convinces
mission in Scotland, but these two men-one for the jury, beyond all reasonable doubt, that the
reading this paper, and the other for not dissent- criminal intention, constituting the crime, existed
ing from it when it was read-and, with regard  in the mind of the man upon trial, and waTJ the
to this last unfortunate person, the Crown thought main-spring of his conduct.  I ne rules of eviit indecent (as it would, indeed, have been inde- dence, as they are settled by law, and adopted
cent and scandalous) to execute the law upon  in its general administraLiol., arc not o lte overhim.  A gentleman upon his jury said, he would  ruled or tampered -with.  They are iounded in
die rather than convict Downie without a recom- the charities of relii'on,:In the pL;loscrphy of na.
mendation of mercy, and he was only brought ture, in the i uths of history, and in the experiover to join in the verdict under the idea that he  ence of canmlrn liie; and whoever ventures rash.
would not be executed, and, accordingly, he has ly to dtepeit fomn them, let him remember that
not suffered execution.  If Downie, then, was an  it -,ill be meted to him in the same measure, and
object of mercy, or rather of justice, though he  that both God and man will judge him  accordwas in the very room with Watt, and heard di,- I ngly.
tinctly the proposition, upon what possible,- Jund J  These are arguments addressed to your reacan they demand the life of the prisone: at the sons and consciences, not to be shak- No precedent,
bar, on account of a connection wit:h the a;ry  en in upright minds by any precedent, t se't aside
same individual, though he never co-,iesponded  for no precedents can sanctify injus- plies
with him, nor saw him, nor hrard. of'im —to  tice.  If they could, every human right would
whose very being he was ar utter rxanger?      long ago have been extinct upon the earth.  If
Gentlemen, it is impcasiby. for me to know  the state trials in bad times are to be searched
Apea to what impressi n rilis observation makes for precedents, what murders may you not comr
ite justice upon you, or tipon the courti but I de- mit?  What law of humanity may you not tram.
ity of the  lare I dam. deeply impressed with the  ple upon?  What rule of justice may you nol
J'nry'    application oi it.  How is a man to de- violate?  What maxim of wise policy may you
fend himself argainst such implications of guilt? not abrogate and confound? If precedents in bad
Which of us a i would be safe, standing at the  times are to be implicitly followed, why should
bar of God or man, if he were even to answer we have heard any evidence at all? You might
for all his o-n expressions, without taking upon  have convicted without any evidence, for many
him the crimes or rashnesses of others?  This have been so convicted, and in this manner morpoor man has, indeed, none of his own to answer dered, even by acts of Parliament.  If precedents
for.  Yet how can he stand safely in judgment in bad times are to be followed, why should the
before you, if, in a season of alarm and agitation, Lords and Commons have investigated these
with the whole pressure of government upon him, charges, and the Crown have put them into this
your minds are to be distracted with criminating  course of judicial trial, since, without such a trial,
materials brought from so many quarters, and of and even after an acquittal upon one, they might
an extent which mocks all power of discrimina- have attainted all the prisoners by act of Parliation?  I am conscious that I have not adverted  ment?  They did so in the case of Lord Strafto the thousandth part of them.  Yet I am sink- ford.  There are precedents, therefore, for all
ing under fatigue and weakness; I am at this such things.  But such precedents as could not
moment scarcely able to stand up while I am  for a moment survive the times of madness and
speaking to you, deprived, as I have been, for distraction which gave them birth-precedents
nights together, of every thing that deserves the  which, as soon as the spurs of the occasions were
name of rest, repose, or comfort.  I, therefore, blunted, were repealed, and execrated even by
hasten, while yet I may be able, to remind you  Parliaments which (little as I may think of the
once again of the great principle into which all present) ought not to be compared with it; ParI have been saying resolves itself.             liaments sitting in the darkness of former times
Gentlemen, my whole argument, then, amounts -in the night of freedom-before the principles
to no more than this, that before the crime of  of government were developed, and before the
compassing THE KING'S DEATH can be found by  Constitution became fixed.  The last of these




1794.]                            IN  BEHALF OF HARDY.                                        759
precedents, and all the proceedings upon it, were  Burgundy. How was this people dealt by? All
ordered to be taken off the file and burned, to the  who were only contending for their own rights
intent that the same might no longer be visible  and privileges, were supposed to be, of course,
in after ages-an order dictated, no doubt, by a  disaffected to the Emperor.  They were handed
pious tenderness for national honor, and meant over to courts constituted for the emergency, as
as a charitable covering for the crimes of our fa- this is, and the Emperor marched his army
thers.  But it was a sin against posterity -it through the country till all was peace-but such
was a treason against society; for, instead of  peace as there is in Vesuvius or ZEtna, the very
commanding them  to be burned, they should  moment before they vomit forth their lava, and
rather have directed them to be blazoned in large  roll their conflagrations over the devoted habitaletters upon the walls of our courts of justice, tions of mankind. When the French approached,
that, like the characters deciphered by the proph- the fatal effects were suddenly seen of a governet of God to the Eastern tyrant, they might en- ment of constraint and terror: the well-affected
large and blacken in your sights, to terrify you  were dispirited, and the disaffected inflamed into
from acts of injustice.                           fury.64  At that moment, the Archduchess fled
In times when the whole habitable earth is in  from  Brussels, and the Duke of Saxe-Teschen
Motives forad- a state of change and fluctuation-   was sent express to offer the joyeuse entree so
stricg to the  when deserts are  starting up into  long petitioned for in vain.  But the season of
the law.   civilized empires around you; and  concession was past, the storm blew from every
when men, no longer slaves to the prejudices of  quarter, and the throne of Brabant departed forparticular countries, much less to the abuses of  ever from the house of Burgundy.  Gentlemen,
particular governments, enlist themselves, like the  I venture to affirm that, with other counsels, this
citizens of an enlightened world, into whatever fatal prelude to the last revolution in that councommunities their civil liberties may be best pro- try might have been averted.  If the Emperor
tected-it never can be for the advantage of this  had been advised to make the concessions of juscountry to prove that the strict, unextended let- tice and affection to his people, they would have
ter of her laws is no security to its inhabitants. risen in a mass to maintain their Prince's authorOn.the contrary, when so dangerous a lure is ity, interwoven with their own liberties; and the
every where held out to emigration, it will be  French, the giants of modern times, would, like
found to be the wisest policy of Great Britain to  the giants of antiquity, have been trampled in the
set up her happy Constitution-the strict letter mire of their own ambition.
of her guardian laws, and the proud condition of    In the same manner, a far more splendid and
equal freedom, which her highest and her lowest important crown passed away from  AuthorityofMr.
subjects ought equally to enjoy-it will be her his Majesty's illustrious brow —THE Bfurkicilaor
wisest policy to set up these first of human bless- IMPERIAL CROWN OF AMERICA. The the people.
ings against those charms of change and novelty  people of that country, too, for a long season, conwhich the varying condition of the world is hour- tended as subjects, and often with irregularity and
ly displaying, and which may deeply affect the  turbulence, for what they felt to be their rights;
population and prosperity of our country.  In  and oh, gentlemen! that the inspiring and immortimes when the subordination to authority is said  tal eloquence of that man, whose name I have so
to be every where but little felt, it will be found  often mentioned, had then been heard with effect!
to be the wisest policy of Great Britain to instill What was his language to this country when she
into the governed an almost superstitious rever- sought to lay burdens on America, not to support
ence for the strict security of the laws; which, the dignity of the Crown, or for the increase of
from  their equality of principle, beget no jeal- national revenue, but to raise a fund for the purousies or discontent; which, from  their equal pose of corruption; a fund for maintaining those
administration, can seldom work injustice; and  tribes of hireling skip-jacks, which Mr. Tooke so
which, from the reverence growing out of their  well contrasted with the hereditary nobility of
mildness and antiquity, acquire a stability in the  England?  Though America would not bear
habits and affections of men far beyond the force  this imposition, she would have borne any useful
of civil obligation-whereas, severe penalties and  or constitutional burden to support the parent
arbitrary constructions of laws intended for se- state.
curity, lay the foundations of alienation from ev-    " For that service-for all service," said Mr.
ery human government, and have been the cause  Burke, " whether of revenue, trade, or empire,
of all the calamities that have come, and are com- my trust is in her interest in the British Constiing upon the earth.                               tution.  My hold of the colonies is in the close
Gentlemen, what we read of in books makes  affection which  grows from  common names,
Argumentagainst but a faint impression upon us co- from kindred blood, from similar privileges and
using violence   pared to what we see passing under  equal protection.  These are ties which, though
with the people
derived foom   n the our  the living world.  I re- light as air, are as strong as links of iron.  Let
Netherlando.     eyes in   living world.
Ne d  member the people of another coun- the colonies always keep the idea of their civil
try, in like manner, contending for a renovation  rights associated with your governments, they
of their Constitution, sometimes illegally and tur- will cling and grapple to you, and no force under
bulently, but still devoted to an honest end.  I    64 This refers to the invasion of the Netheilands
myself saw the people of Brabant so contending  by the armies of the French Republic after the batfor the ancient Constitution of the good Duke of  tie of Jemappe, in 1792.




760                                     MR. ERSKINE                                     [1794.
heaven will be of power to tear them from their as it may be found necessary or convenient for
allegiance.  But let it be once understood that you to hear upon the subject, that the views of
your government may be one thing, and their the societies were what I have alleged them to
privileges another; that these two things may  be-that whatever irregularities or indiscretions
exist without any mutual relation; the cement is they might have committed, their purposes were
gone; the cohesion is loosened; and every thing  honest; and that Mr. Hardy's, above all other
hastens to decay and dissolution.  As long as men, can be established to have been so. I have,
you have the wisdom to keep the sovereign au- indeed, an honorable gentleman [Mr. Francisl in
thority of this country as the sanctuary of liberty, my eye at this moment, to be called hereafter as
the sacred temple consecrated to our common  a witness, who being desirous, ini his place as a
faith, wherever the chosen race and sons of En- member of Parliament, to promote an inquiry
gland worship freedom, they will turn their faces into the seditious practices complained of, Mr.
toward you.  The more they multiply, the more  Hardy offered himself voluntarily to come forfriends you will have; the more ardently they  ward, proffered a sight of all the papers, which
love liberty, the more perfect will be their obe- were afterward seized in his custody, and tendience.  Slavery they can have any where.  It dered every possible assistance to give satisfaction
is a weed that grows in every soil.  They may  to the laws of his country, if found to be offendhave it from Spain, they may have it from Prus- ed.  I will show, likewise, his character to be
sia.  But until you become lost to all feeling of religious, temperate, humane, and moderate, and
your true interest and your natural dignity, free- his uniform conduct all that can belong to a good
dom they can have from none but you.  This is subject and an honest man.  When you have
the commodity of price, of which you have the mo- heard this evidence, it will, beyond all doubt, connopoly.  This is the true act of navigation, which  firm you in coming to the conclusion which, at
binds to you the commerce of the colonies, and, such great length (for which I entreat your parthrough them, secures to you the wealth of the  don), I have been endeavoring to support.
world.  Is it not the same virtue which does every thing for us here in England?  Do you im-    As Mr. Erskine drew near to the close of this
agine, then, that it is the Land-tax Act which  speech, his voice failed him, so that for the last
raises your revenue? that it is the annual vote in  ten minutes he could only speak in a whisper,
the Committee of Supply which gives you your leaning on the table for support.  The impresarmy? or that it is the Mutiny Bill which in- sion made upon his audience, as they hung with
spires it with bravery and discipline?   No! breathless anxiety on his lips, while he stood besurely no!  It is the love of the people, it is fore them in this exhausted state, is said to have
their attachment to their government, from the  been more thrilling and profound than at any pesense of the deep stake they have in such a glo- riod of his long professional career.
rious institution, which gives you your army and    The moment he ended, the hall was filled with
your navy, and infuses into both that liberal obe- acclamations, which were taken up and repeatdience, without which your army would be a  ed by the vast multitudes that surrounded the
base rabble, and your navy nothing but rotten  building and blocked up the streets.  Erskine
timber."                                        made a noble use of his popularity.  Recovering
Gentlemen, to conclude —my fervent wish is, his voice, he went out and addressed the crowd,
Perortion. that we may not conjure up a spirit to  exhorting them to maintain order and confide in
destroy ourselves, nor set the example  the justice of their country.  He then requested
here of what in another country we deplore. Let them to disperse and retire to their own holies
us cherish the old and venerable laws of our fore- and within a few  minutes, they were all gone,
fathers.  Let our judicial administration be strict leaving the streets to a stillness like that of midand pure; and let the jury of the land preserve  night.
the life of a fellow-subject, who only asks it from  On Monday morning, the evidence for the
them upon the same terms under which they hold  prisoner was received, after which Mr. Gibbs
their own lives, and all that is dear to them and  summed up in his defense, and the Solicitor Gentheir posterity forever.  Let me repeat the wish  eral, Sir John Mitford, closed in behalf of the
with which I began my address to you, and which  Crown.  The jury were out three hours, and reproceeds from the very bottom of my heart. May  turned with a verdict of NOT GUILTY.
it please God, who is the Author of all mercies    As the other cases stood on the same ground,
to mankind, whose providence, I am persuaded, it was supposed the government would stop here.
guides and superintends the transactions of the  But they determined to make one more effort, by
world, and whose guardian spirit has forever hov- arraigning Horne Tooke, the celebrated philoloered over this prosperous island, to direct and  gist.  Tooke was then nearly sixty years old,
fortify your judgments.  I am aware I have not with a frame broken down by disease, but having
acquitted myself to the unfortunate man who has all the self-confidence of his early days, when he
put his trust in me, in the manner I could have  entered the lists with Junius.  Mr. Erskine was
wished; yet I am unable to proceed any further; his counsel; but he wrote a note from prison, sayexhausted in spirit and in strength, but confident ing that, in addition to this, he was determined to
in the expectation of justice.  There is one thing  speak in his own defense.  He had done so three
more, however, that (if I can) I must state to you, years before, in his suit with Mr. Fox; and he
namely, that I will show, by as many witnesses thus began his address to the jury: " Gentlemen,




1797.]                          ON  PAINE'S AGE  OF REASON.                                         761
there are here three parties to be considered  be just; to do that which is'ordered!"  It is
-you, Mr. Fox, and myself.  As for the judge  wonderful that Mr. Erskine was able to keep
and the crier, they are sent here to preserve or-  Tooke from  being hanged, when he went on,
der, and they are both well paid for their trou-  throughout the whole cause, examining witnessble."   Mr. Erskine, remembering the past, an-  es, and making remarks in the same spirit.  But
swered Tooke's note proposing to speak, by sim-  the case of Hardy had decided the principle, and
ply saying, " You'll be hanged if you do;" to  Tooke was acquitted.  The other prisoners were
which Tooke instantly replied, " I'll be hanged if  thus saved.
I don't," and went on to keep his word!  When         Mr. Erskine's prediction proved correct when
arraigned for trial, and asked, " By whom will he told the jury that indulgence to the prisoners
you be tried?" he looked round some seconds on  in this case would be found the best way to check
the court in a significant manner, and exclaimed, a factious spirit among the people.  " The ver"I would be tried by God and my country! diet of acquittal," says the editor of his speeches,
BUT —"   He then asked liberty to sit with his  "instead of giving encouragement to whatever
counsel; and the court, on consultation, granted  spirit of sedition may have existed at that period,
it as " an indulgence to his age."   " My Lord,"  produced a universal spirit of content and confisaid he, "if I were judge, the word indulgence  dence in the people.  Nothing, indeed, could
should never issue from my lips.  My Lord, you  more properly excite such sentiments than so
have no indulgence to show; you are bound to  memorable a proof of safety under the laws."
SPEECH
OF MR. ERSKINE AGAINST THOMAS WILLIAMS FOR THE PUBLICATION OF PAINE'S AGE OF REA.
SON, BEFORE LORD KENYON AND A SPECIAL JURY, ON THE 24th OF JULY, 1797.
INTRODUCTION.
WILLIAMS was a bookseller of infamous character in London, and was prosecuted by the Society for
the Suppression of Vice and Immorality, for publishing Paine's abusive attack on Christianity entitled
the Age of Reason. Mr. Erskine was counsel for the prosecution, and opened the case. The plea set up
by the defendant was, that such an attack was no crime against the government; and Mr. Erskine's remarks were, therefore, directed chiefly to one point, viz., that "the Christian religion is the very foundation of the laws of the land." He draws the line with great clearness and precision between a legitimate inquiry into the evidences of our religion, and a scurrilous and insulting attack on its institutions,
calculated to destroy the influence of all religious belief upon the minds of men, and to set them free from
the restraints of conscience, the obligations of an oath, and all the other bonds which unite society together. This speech contains a fuller exhibition than any other, of Mr. Erskine's powers of declamation in
the best sense of the term~-of lofty and glowing amplification on subjects calculated to awaken sublime
sentiments, and thus to enforce the argument out of which it springs.
SPEECH, &c.
GENTLEMEN OF THE JURY,-The charge of not only be men capable, from their education, of
blasphemy, which is put upon the record against forming an enlightened judgment, but that their
the printer of this publication, is not an accusa- situations should be such as to bring them withtion of the servants of the Crown, but comes be- in the full view  of their enlightened country, to
fore you sanctioned by the oaths of a grand jury  which, in character and inestimation, they were
of the country.  It stood for trial upon a former in their own turns to be responsible.
Reasons for de- day; but it happening, as it frequent-    Not having the honor, gentlemen, to be sworn
tillthejuryorig- ly does, without any imputation on  for the King, as one of his counsel, it No invasion ininully summon- the gentlemen named in the panel, has fallen much oftener to my lot to tende onf the
ed could take                                                                               liberty of the
up the case.   that a sufficient number did not ap- defend indictments for libels, than to pros".
pear to constitute a full special jury, I thought it assist in the prosecution of them.  But I feel no
my duty to withdraw the cause from  trial till I embarrassment from  that recollection, since I
could have the opportunity, which is now open to  shall not be found to-day to express a sentiment
me, of addressing myself to you, who were orig- or to utter an expression, inconsistent with those
inally appointed to try it.  I pursued this course, invaluable principles for which I have uniformly
however, from no jealousy of the common juries  contended in the defense of others.  Nothing that
appointed by the laws for the ordinary service of  I have ever said, either professionally or personthe court, since my whole life has been one con- ally, for the liberty of the press, do I mean to
tinued experience of their virtues, but because I deny, to contradict, or counteract.  On the conthought it of great importance that those who  trary, I desire to preface the discourse I have to
were to decide upon a cause so very momentous  make to you, with reminding you that it is your
to the public should have the highest possible  most solemn duty to take care it suffers no injury
qualifications for the decision.  That they should  in your hands.  A free and unlicensed press, in




762                                      MR. ERSKINE                                         [1797
the just and legal sense of the expression, has led  flections of my riper years and understanding.
to all the blessings, both of religion and govern-  It forms at this moment the great consolation of
ment. which Great Britain, or any part of the  a life which, as a shadow, must pass away; and
world, at this moment enjoys, and is calculated  without it, indeed, I should consider my long
still further to advance mankind to higher de- course of health and prosperity; perhaps too long
grees of civilization and happiness.  But this  and uninterrupted to be good for any man, only
freedom, like every other, must be limited to be  as the dust which the wind scatters, and rather
enjoyed, and, like every human advantage, may  as a snare than as a blessing.  Much, however,
be defeated by its abuse.                         as I wish to support the authority of the ScripGentlemen, the defendant stands indicted for tures, from a reasoned consideration of them, I
Naturethe having published this book, which I have  shall repress that subject for the present.  But
proposed de only read from the obligations of profes- if the defense shall be as I have suspected, to
tense.    sional duty, and which I rose from the  bring them  at all into argument or question, I
reading of with astonishment and disgust. Stand- shall then fulfill a duty which I owe not only to
ing here with all the privileges belonging to the  the court, as counsel for the prosecution, but to
highest counsel for the Crown, I shall be entitled  the public, to state what I feel and know  conto reply to any defense that shall be made for the  cerning the evidences of that religion which is
publication. I shall wait with patience till I hear reviled without being examined, and denied withit.  Indeed, if I were to anticipate the defense  out being understood.
which I hear and read of, it would be defaming,    I am well aware that by the communications
by anticipation, the learned counsel who is to  of a free press, all the errors of man- u sean importmake it.  For if I am to collect it, even from   kind, from age to age, have been dis- arceofa free
a formal notice given to the prosecutors in the  sipated and dispelled; and I recollect pr e.'
course of the proceedings, I have to expect that,  that the world, under the banners of reformed
instead of a defense conducted according to the  Christianity, has struggled through persecution
rules and principles of English law and justice,  to the noble eminence on which it stands at this
the foundation of all our laws, and the sanctions  moment, shedding the blessings of humanity and
of all our justice, are to be struck at and insult-  science upon the nations of the earth.  It may
ed.  What is the force of that jurisdiction which  be asked by what means the Reformation would
enables the court to sit in judgment?  What but have been effected if the books of the reformers
the oath which his Lordship as well as yourselves  had been suppressed, and the errors of condemned
have sworn upon the Gospel to fulfill.  Yet in  and exploded superstitions had been supported as
A denialofthat the King's Court, where his Majesty  unquestionable by the state, founded upon those
0o which the  is himself also sworn to administer very superstitions formerly, as it is at present,
system of the  the justice of England in the King's  upon the doctrines of the Established Church? oi
iogdom est.'Court, who receives his high author-  how, upon such principles, any reformation, civil
ity under a solemn oath to maintain the Christian  or religious, can in future be effected?  The soreligion, as it is promulgated by God in the Holy  lution is easy.  Let us examine what are the
Scriptures, I am  nevertheless called upon, as  genuine principles of the liberty of the press, as
counsel for the prosecution, to produce a certain  they regard writings upon general subjects, unbook described in lhe indictment to be the Holy  connected with the personal reputations of priBible.  No man deserves to be upon the rolls of  vate men, which are wholly foreign to the presthe court who dares, as an attorney, to put his  ent inquiry.  They are full of simplicity, and are
name to such a notice.  It is an insult to the au- brought as near perfection by the law of England
thority and dignity of the court of which he is an  as, perhaps, is consistent with any of the frail inofficeri since it seems to call in question the very  stitutions of mankind.
foundations of its jurisdiction.  If this is to be the    Although every community nmust establish suspirit and temper of the defense; if, as I collect preme authorities, founded upon fixed Principles
from that array of books which are spread upon  principles, and must give high powers thPeJomo
the benches behind me, this publication is to be  to magistrates to administer laws for tle press in
vindicated by an attack on all the truths which  the preservation of the government it- and religious.
the Christian religion promulgates to mankind, self, and for the security of those who are to be
let it be remembered that such an argument was  protected by it; yet, as infallibility and perfection
neither suggested nor justified by any thing said  belong neither to human establishments nor to
by me on the part of the prosecution.  In this  human individuals, it ought to be the policy of
stage of the proceedings, I shall call for reverence  all free establishments, as it is most peculiarly
to the sacred Scriptures, not from  their merits, the principle of our own Constitution, to permit
unbounded as they are, but from their authority  the most unbounded freedom  of discussion, even
in a Christian country; not from the obligations  by detecting errors in the Constitution or adminof conscience, but from the rules of law.  For  istration of the very government itself, so as that
my own part, gentlemen, I have been ever deep-  decorum is observed which every state must exly devoted to the truths of Christianity, and my  act from its subjects, and which imposes no refirm belief in the Holy Gospel is by no means  straint upon any intellectual composition, fairly.
owing to the prejudices of education, though I  honestly, and decently addressed to the conscienwas religiously educated by the best of parents,  ces and understandings of men.  Upon this prinbut arises from the fullest and most continued re- ciple I have an unquestionable right -  a right




1797.]                          ON  PAINE'S AGE OF REASON.                                      763
which the best subjects have exercised-to ex-  to suffer, and which soon would be borne down
amine the principles and structure of the Consti- by insolence and disobedience, if they did.
tution, and by fair, manly reasoning, to question     The same principle pervades the whole system
the practice of its administrators.  I have a right of the law, not merely in its abstract Istatio
to consider and to point out errors in the one or theory, but in its daily and most ap- fron parallel
in the other; and not merely to reason upon their  plauded practice.  The intercourse be- case.'
existence, but to consider the means of their ref- tween the sexes, and which, properly regulated,
ormation.  By such free, well-intentioned, mod- not only continues, but humanizes and adorns our
est, and dignified communication of sentiments  natures, is the foundation of all the thousand roand opinions all nations have been gradually im- mances, plays, and novels which are in the hands
proved, and milder laws and purer religions have  of every body.  Some of them  lead to the conbeen established.  The same principles which  firmation of every virtuous principle; others,
vindicate civil contentions, honestly directed, ex- though with the same profession, address the imtend their protection to the sharpest controversies agination in a manner to lead the passions into
on religious faiths. This rational and legal course  dangerous excesses.  But though the law does
of improvement was recognized and ratified by  not nicely discriminate the various shades which
Lord Kenyon as the law of England, in a late  distinguish these works from one another, so as
trial at Guildhall, when he looked back with grat- that it suffers many to pass, through its liberal
itude to the labors of the reformers, as the fount- spirit, that upon principle might be suppressed,
ains of our religious emancipation, and of the  would it or does it tolerate, or does any decent
civil blessings that followed in their train.  The  man contend that it ought to pass by unpunished,
English Constitution, indeed, does not stop short libels of the most shameless obscenity, manifestin the toleration of religious opinions, but liber- ly pointed to debauch innocence, and to blast and
ally extends it topractice. It permits every man, poison the morals of the rising generation? This
even publicly, to worship God according to his is only another illustration to demonstrate the obown conscience, though in marked dissent from  vious distinction between the works of an author
the national establishment, so as he professes the  who fairly exercises the powers of his mind in
geqneral faith, which is the sanction of all our investigating doctrinal points in the religion of any
moral duties, and the only pledge of our submis- country, and him who attacks the rational existsion to the system which constitutes a state.  Is ence of every religion, and brands with absurdinot this system  of freedom  of controversy and  ty and folly the state which sanctions, and the
freedom  of worship, sufficient for all the pur- obedient tools who cherish, the delusion.  But
poses of human happiness and improvement? this publication appears to me to be as mischievand will it be necessary for either that the law  ous and cruel in its probable effects, as it is manshould hold out indemnity to those who wholly  ifestly illegal in its principles; because it strikes
abjure and revile the government of their coun- at the best, sometimes, alas! the only refuge and
try, or the religion on which it rests for its foun- consolation amid the distresses and  mp ne o
dation?                                            afflictions of the world.  The poor religious consolations to perI expect to hear, in answer to what I am now  and humble, whom it affects to pity, sons in poverty
Distiction be- saying, much that will offend me. My  may be stabbed to the heart by it. andllion.
tween legiti-  learned friend, from the difficulties of  They have more occasion for firm hopes beyond
mote inquiry.Id scilriloYus his situation, which I know, from ex- the grave than those who have greater comforts
e.    perience, how to feel for very sincere-  to render life delightful.  I can conceive a disly, may be driven to advance propositions which  tressed, but virtuous man, surrounded by chilit may be my duty, with much freedom to reply to; dren, looking up to him for bread when he has
and the law will sanction that freedom.  But will none to give them, sinking under the last day's
not the ends of justice be completely answered by  labor, and unequal to the next, yet still looking
the right to point out the errors of his discourse  up with confidence to the hour when all tears
in terms that are decent and calculated to expose  shall be wiped from the eyes of affliction, bearits defects? or will any argument suffer, or will ing the burden laid upon him by a mysterious
public justice be impeded, because neither private  Providence which he adores, and looking forward
honor and justice, nor public decorum, would en- with exultation to the revealed promises of his
dure my telling ny very learned friend that he  Creator, when he shall be greater than the greatwas a fool, a liar, and a scoundrel, in the face of  est, and happier than the happiest of mankind.
the court, because I differed from him in argu- What a change in such a mind might be wrought
ment or opinion?  This is just the distinction be- by such a merciless publication?   Gentlemen,
tween a book of free legal controversy and the  whether these remarks are the overcharged decbook which I am arraigning before you. Every  lamations of an accusing counsel, or the just reman has a legal right to investigate, with modesty  flections of a man anxious for the public freedom,
and decency, controversial points of the Christian  which is best secured by the morals of a nation,
religion; but no man, consistently with a law  will be best settled by an appeal to the passages
which only exists under its sanctions, has a right in the work, that are selected in the indictment
not only broadly to deny its very existence, but for your consideration and judgment.  You are
to pour forth a shocking and insulting invective, at liberty to connect them  with every context
which the lowest establishments in the grada- and sequel, and to bestow upon them the mildest
tions of civil authority ought not to be permitted  interpretation.   [Here Mr. Erskine read and




764                                      MR. ERSKINE                                          [1797.
commented upon several of the selected passa- it was philosophy.  Not those visionary and arroges.]                                              gant assumptions which too often usurp its name,
Gentlemen, it would be useless and disgust-  but philosophy resting upon the basis of matheThe book sub. ing to enumerate the other passages  matics, which, like figures, can not lie. Newton,
fversiofthe within the scope of the indictment, who carried the line and rule to the utmost bargovernment.  How  any man can rationally vindi-  riers of creation, and explored the principles ly
cate the publication of such a book, in a country  which, no doubt, all created matter is held tcwhere the Christian religion is the very founda- gether and exists.  But this extraordinary man;
tion of the law of the land, I am totally at a loss  in the mighty reach of his mind, overlooked, perto conceive, and have no wish to discuss.  How  haps, the errors which a minuter investigation
is a tribunal, whose whole jurisdiction is founded  of the created things on this earth might have
upon the solemn belief and practice of what is taught him of the essence of his Creator.  What
denied as falsehood, and reprobated as impiety, shall then be said of the great Mr. Boyle,  oyle
to deal with such an anomalous defense? Upon  who looked into thle organic structure of all
what principle is it even offered to the court,  matter, even to the brute inanimate substances
whose authority is contemned and mocked at?  which the foot treads on.  Such a man may be
If the religion proposed to be called in question  supposed to have been equally qualified with Mr.
is not previously adopted in belief, and solemnly  Paine, to " look through nature, up to nature's
acted upon, what authority has the court to pass  God."  Yet the result of all his contemplation
any judgment at all of acquittal or condemna- was the most confirmed and devout belief in all
tion?  Why am I now, or upon any other occa- which the other holds in contempt as despicable
sion, to submit to your Lordship's authority?  and driveling superstition.  But this error might,
Why am I now, or at any time, to address twelve, perhaps, arise from a want of due attention to the
of my equals, as I am now addressing you, with  foundations of human judgment, and the structure
reverence and submission?  Under what sane- of that understanding which God has given us for
tion are the witnesses to give their evidence,  the investigation of truth.  Let that question be
without which there can be no trial?   Under  answered by Mr. Locke, who was to the
what obligations can I call upon you, the jury,  highest pitch of devotion and adoration a
representing your country. to-administer justice?  Christian.  Mr. Locke, whose office was to deSurely upon no other than that you are sworn to  feet the errors of thinking, by going up to the
administer it under the oaths you have taken. fountains of thought; and to direct into the proper
The whole judicial fabric, from the King's sov- track of reasoning the devious mind of man, by
ereign authority to the lowest office of magistra- showing him its whole process, from the first percy, has no other foundation.  The whole is built, ceptions of sense to the last conclusions of ratioboth in form and substance, upon the same oath  cination; putting a rein, besides, upon false opinof' every one of its ministers, to do justice,' as ion, by practical rules for the conduct of human
God shall help them hereafter.."   What God? and  judgment.
what hereafter?  That God, undoubtedly, who    But these men were only deep thinkers, and
has commanded Kings to rule, and judges to de- lived in their closets, unaccustomed to the traffic
cree with justice; who has said to witnesses, not of the world, and to the laws which practically
by the voice of nature, but in revealed command- regulate  mankind.  Gentlemen, in the place
ments, " thou shalt not bear false witness againist where you now sit to administer the justice of
thy neighbor;" and who has enforced obedience  this great country, above a century ago the nevto them  by the revelation of the unutterable  er-to-be-forgotten Sir Matthew  Hale pre- Hale.
blessings which shall attend their observances, sided, whose faith in Christianity is an exand the awful punishments which shall await alted commentary upon its truth and reason, and
upon their transgressions.                         whose life was a glorious example of its fruits in
But it seems this course of reason, and the  manl; administering human justice with a wisDMr. paine com- time and the person are at last ar- dom and purity drawn from the pure fountain of
pared wt thtIe rved that are to dissipate the errors  the Christian dispensation, which has been, and
Christianity.   which have overspread the past gen-  will be, in all ages, a subject of the highest reverations of ignorance!  The believers in Chris-  erence and admiration.
tianity are many, but it belongs to the few that    But it is said by Mr. Paine that the Christian
are wise to correct their credulity!  Belief is an  fable is but the tale of the more an- Pretense that
act of reason; and superior reason may, there-  cient superstitions of the world, and Cheiti'ianit i
oty a  myth 
fore, dictate to the weak.  In running the mind  may be easily detected by a proper earlier times.
along the numerous list of sincere and devout understanding of the mythologies of the heathens.
Christians, I can not help lamenting that New-  Did Milton understand those mythologies?  Was
ton had not lived to this day, to have had his shal- he less versed than Mr. Paine in the superstitions
lowness filled up with this new flood of light. But of the world?  No: they were the subject of his
the subject is too awful for irony.  I will speak  immortal song; and though shut out from all reewtoplainly  and  directly.   Newton was a  currence to them, he poured them forth from the
Christian!  Newton, whose mind burst stores of a memory rich with all that man ever
forth from the fetters cast by nature upon our knew, and laid them  in their order as the illusfinite conceptions; Newton, whose science was  tration of that real and exalted faith, the unquestruth, and the foundation of whose knowledge of  tionable  source of that fervid genius, which




1797.]                         ON  PAINE'S AGE OF REASON.                                        765
cast a sort of shade upon all the other works of      Gentlemen, there is but one consideration more,
man:                                               which I can not possibly omit, beTendency of
He pass'd the bounds of flaming space,        cause, I confess, it affects me very the book todeWhere angels tremble while they gaze;         deeply. Mr. Paine has written large- order, so that
He saw, till, blasted with excess of light,   ly on public liberty and government; defoutil itHe clos'd his eyes in endless night!         and this last performance has, on that refuge from its
But it was the light of the body only that was  account, been more widely circulated,
extinguished; "the celestial light shone inward,"  and principally among those who attached themand enabled him to "justify the ways of God to  selves from principle to his former works.  This
man."   The result of his thinking was, neverthe- circumstance renders a public attack upon all re..
less, not the same as Mr. Paine's.  The mysteri- vealed religion, from such a writer, infinitely more
ous incarnation of our blessed Savior, which the  dangerous.  The religious and moral sense of' Age of Reason" blasphemes in words so whol- the people of Great Britain is the great anchor
ly unfit for the mouth of a Christian, or for the  which alone can hold the vessel of the state
ear of a court of justice, that I dare not and will amid the storms which agitate the world.  If I
not give them utterance, Milton made the grand  could believe, for a moment, that the mass of the
conclusion of PARADISE LOST, the rest of his fin- people were to be debauched from the principles
ished labors, and the ultimate hope, expectation,  of religion, which form the true basis of that huand glory of the world:                            manity, charity, and benevolence that has been
A Vir gign is his mother, but his sire             so long the national characteristic, instead of mixThe power of the Most High: he shall ascend        ing myself, as I sometimes have done, in politicThe throne hereditary, and bound his reign         al reformations, I would rather retire to the utWith earth's wide bounds, his glory with the heav- termost corners of the earth to avoid their agitaens.                                        tion; and would bear, not only the imperfections
The immortal poet having thus put into the  and abuses complained of in our own wise estabmouth of the angel the prophecy of man's re- lishment, but even the worst government that ever
demption, follows it with that solemn and beauti- existed in the world, rather than go to the work
ful admonition, addressed in the poem to our great of reformation with a multitude set fiee from all
First Parent, but intended as an address to his  the charities of Christianity, who had no sense of
posterity through all generations:                 God's existence but from  Mr. Paine's observation of nature, which the mass of mankind have
This having learned, thou hast attained the sum       n          v
This having  learned, thou hast attained the sum   no leisure to contemplate; nor any belief of future
Of wisdom: hope no higher, though all the stars    r         a                
Thou knew'st by name, and all th' ethereal powers, ie lrids and punishments to animate the good
All secrets of the deep, all Nature's works,       n        t    loous pursuit of human happiness, nor
Or works of God in heaven, air, earth, or sea,     to deter the wicked from  destroying it even in
And all the riches of this world enjoy'st,         its birth.  But I know the people of England betAnd all the rule one empire; only add              ter.  They are a religious people; and, with the
Deeds to thy knowledge answerable, add faith,      blessing of God, as far as it is in my power, I will
Add virtue, patience, temperance; add love,        lend my aid to keep them so.  I have no objecBy name to come call'd Charity, the soul                                         extended discussions
tions to the freest and most extended discussions
Of all the rest: then wilt thou not be loth
To leave this Paradise, but shalt possess          upon doctrinal points of the Christian religion
A paradise within thee, happier far.               a, thogh t  le of England does not permit it
I do not dread the reasoned arguments of DeThus you find all that is great, or wise, or  ists against the existence of Christianity itself,
splendid, or illustrious among created beings-   because, as was said by its divine author, if it is
all the minds gifted beyond ordinary nature, if not of God, it will stand.  An intellectual book, howinspired by their universal Author for the ad-  ever erroneous, addressed to the intellectual world
vancement and dignity of the world, though di- upon so profound and complicated a subject, can
vided by distant ages, and by the clashing opin-  never work the mischief which this indictment is
ions distinguishing them  from  one another, yet calculated to repress.  Such works will only emjoining, as it were, in one sublime chorus to eel- ploy the minds of men enlightened by study in
sbrate the truths of Christianity, and laying upon  a deeper investigation of a subject well worthy
its holy altars the never-fading offerings of their  of their profound and continued contemplation.
immortal wisdom.                                   The powers of the mind are given for human imAgainst all this concurring testimony, we find  provement in the progress of human existence.
ulityf suddenly, from Mr. Paine, that the Bible  The changes produced by such reciprocations of
the New  teaches nothing but "lies, obscenity,  lights and intelligences are certain in their proTestomen.     i tehes       uth o
cruelty, and injustice."  Did the author  gressions, and make their way imperceptibly, as
or publisher ever read the sermon of Christ upon  conviction comes upon the world, by the final
the Mount, in which the great principles of our  and irresistible power of truth.  If Christianity
faith and duty are summed up?  Let us all but be founded in falsehood, let us become Deists in
read and practice it, and lies, obscenity, cruelty, this manner, and I am contented.  But this book
and injustice, and all human wickedness, would be  hath no such object and no such capacity; it
banished from the world.                           presents no arguments to the wise and enlight-_. -_ —-       ened.  On the contrary, it treats the faith and
Grey's Ode on the Progress of Poetry.       opinions of the wisest with the most shocking




766                                     MR. ERSKINE                                       [1800.
contempt, and stirs up men without the advant- commonwealth of greatness has the bald religion
ages of learning or sober thinking to a total dis- of nature ever established?  We see, on the conbelief of every thing hitherto held sacred, and, trary, the nations that have no other light than
consequently, to a rejection of all the laws and  that of nature to direct them, sunk in barbarism
ordinances of the state, which stand only upon  or slaves to arbitrary governments; while, since
the assumption of their truth.                   the Christian era, the great career of the world
Gentlemen, I can not conclude without ex- has been slowly, but clearly, advancing lighter
Peroration:  pressing the deepest regret at all at- at every step, from the awful prophecies of the
Thl friends of tacks upon the Christian religion by  Gospel, and leading, I trust, in the end, to unisllould bethe  authors who profess to promote the  versal and eternal happiness.  Each generation
last persons to
attack Chris-  civil liberties of the world.  For un- of mankind can see but a few revolving links of
tr"o"'i.   der what other auspices than Chris- this mighty and mysterious chain; but, by doing
tianity have the lost and subverted liberties of our several duties in our allotted stations, we are
mankind in former ages been reasserted?  By  sure that we are fulfilling the purposes of our
what zeal, but the warm  zeal of devout Chris- existence.  You, I trust, will fulfill yours this
tians, have English liberties been redeemed and  day!
consecrated?  Under what other sanctions, even
in our own days, have liberty and happiness been
extending and spreading to the uttermost corners    The jury found a verdict of Guilty, without
of the earth?  What work of civilization, what retiring from their seats.
SPEECH
OF MR. ERSKINE IN BEHALF OF JAMES HADFIELD, WHEN INDICTED FOR HIGH TREASON, DELIVERED BEFORE THE COURT OF KING'S BENCH, JUNE 26, 1800.
INTRODUCTION.
JAMES HADFIELD was an invalid soldier of the British army, and was indicted for firing a pistol at the
King in the Drury Lane Theater. He was defended on the ground that he acted under a strong delusion,
producing a settled insanity on one subject, while he appeared entirely rational upon every other. Lord
Campbell says this " was Erskine's last, and perhaps his greatest display of genius in defending a party
prosecuted by the Crown. It is now, and ever will be, studied by medical men for its philosophic views
of mental disease-by lawyers for its admirable distinctions as to the degree of alienation of mind which
will exempt from final responsibility-by logicians for its severe and connected reasoning; and by all
lovers of genuine eloquence for its touching appeals to human feeling."-Lives of the Chancellors, vol.
vi., page 520.
SPEECH, &c.
GENTLEMEN OF THE JURY,-The scene which  subjects, YET NOT A HAIR OF THE HEAD OF THE
we are engaged in, and the duty which I am not SuPPosED ASSASSIN WAS TOUCHED.  In this unmerely privileged, but appointed by the authority  paralleled scene of calm  forbearance, the King
of the court to perform, exhibits to the whole civ- himself; though he stood first in personal interest
ilized world a perpetual monument of our national and feeling, as well as in command, was a sinjustice.                                         gular and fortunate example. The least appearThe transaction, indeed, in every part of it, as ance of emotion on the part of that august perTie peculiarity it stands recorded in the evidence al- sonage must unavoidably have produced a scene
oftieproceed- ready before us, places our country, quite different, and far less honorable than the
inginacaselike
tnis.aillonorto and its government, and its inhabit- court is now  witnessing.  But his Majesty reEnglisjstice ants, upon the highest pinnacle of hu- mained unmoved, and the person apparently ofman elevation.  It appears that, upon the 15th  fending was only secured, without injury or reday of May last, his Majesty, after a reign of proach, for the business of this day.
forty years, not merely in sovereign power, but    Gentlemen, I agree with the Attorney Generspontaneously in the very hearts of his people, al (indeed, there can be no possible Greaterprotec
was openly shot at (or to all appearance shot at) doubt) that if the same pistol had been  s"saiol.atlloe
in a public theater [Drury Lane], in the center maliciously fired by the prisoner, in King than of
of his capital, and amid the loyal plaudits of his the same theater, at the meanest man dividual.
This~ -..~ ~~~~ —------ within its walls, he would have been brought to
This is, perhaps, the most felicitous of Mr. Er- immediate trial, and, if guilty, to immediate cxeskine's exordiums. It turns upon a fact highly grat- ction   He  ould have heard the charge against
ifying to the minds of an English jury, and leading. e  
directly to the great thought which needed to be                                    indict t was
urged at the outset, viz., that no regard for the read uponhis arraignment. He would havebeen
King's safety should lead to any hasty or prejudiced judgments. The same thought is admirably    2 Sir John Mitford, afterward Lord Redesdale, and
introduced in a different connection at the close.    Lord Chancellor of Ireland.




1800.]                           IN  BEHALF OF HADFIELD.                                        767
a stranger to the names, and even to the exist- the judges, are the children.  It is fit, on that
ence, of those who were to sit in judgment upon  account, that there should be a solemn pause behim, and of those who were to be the witnesses  lore we rush to judgment; and what can be a
against him.  But upon the charge of even this  more sublime spectacle of justice than to see a
murderous attack upon the King himself, he is  statutable disqualification of a whole nation for a
covered all over with the armor of the law. He  limited period, a fifteen days' quarantine before
has been provided with counsel by the King's trial, lest the mind should be subject to the conown judges, and not of their choice, but of his tagion of partial affections!
own.3  He has had a copy of the indictment ten       From a prisoner so protected by the benevodays before his trial.4  He has had the names, lence of our institutions, the utmost The obligations
descriptions, and abodes of all the jurors returned  good faith would, on his part, be due implose' bythis
to the court; and the highest privilege of per-  to the public if he had consciousness the counsel for
emptory challenges derived from, and safely di- and reason to reflect upon the obliga- the priso"er.
rected by that indulgence."  He has had the  tion.  The duty, therefore, devolves on mne; and,
same description of every witness who could be  upon my honor, it shall be fulfilled.  I will emreceived to accuse him; and there must at this  ploy no artifices of speech.  I claim  only the
hour be twice the testimony against him which  strictest protection of the law  for the unhappy
would be legally competent to establish his guilt man before you.  I should, indeed, be ashamed
on a similar prosecution by [in behalf of] the  if I were to say any thing of the rule in the abmeanest and most helpless of mankind.              stract by which he is to be judged, which I did
Gentlemen, when this melancholy catastrophe  not honestly feel; I am sorry, therefore, that the
Difficultatfirst happened, and the prisoner was ar- subject is so difficult to handle with brevity and
view, to see the                                               Ide ii
realson of thi  raigned for trial, I remember to have  precision.  Indeed, if it could be brought to a
difference-    said to some now present, that it was, clear and simple criterion, which could admit of
at first view, difficult to bring those indulgent ex- a dry admission or contradiction, there might be
ceptions to the general rules of trial within the  very little difference, perhaps none at all, between
principle which dictated them to our humane an- the Attorney General and myself, upon the princestors in cases of treasons against the political ciples which ought to govern your verdict.  But
government, or of rebellious conspiracy against this is not possible, and I am, therefore, under the
the person of the King.  In these cases, the pas- necessity of submitting to you, and to the judges,
sions and interests of great bodies of powerful for their direction (and at greater length than I
men being engaged and agitated, a counterpoise  wish), how I understand this difficult and mobecame necessary to give composure and impar-  mentous subject.
tiality to criminal tribunals; but a mere murder-    The law, as it regards this most unfortunate
ous attack upon the King's person, not at all con- infirmity of the human mind, like the Tie Iawon ti
nected with his political character, seemed a case  law in all its branches, aims at the ut- siubjct,eito be ranged and dealt with like a similar attack  most degree of precision; but there inits applicaupon any private man.                              are some subjects, as I have just obBut the wisdom of the law is greater than any  served to you, and the present is one of them,
Thaltreason man's wisdom; how much more, there-  upon which it is extremely difficult to be precise.
assigned.  fore, than mine!  An attack upon the  The general principle is clear, but the applicaKing is considered to be parricide against the  tion is most difficult.
state, and the jury and the witnesses, and even      It is agreed by all jurists, and is established by
_.. ____________- __     - the law of this and every other coun-'rieexerciseof
3 By 7 Will. III., cap. 3, sec. 1, a person charged  try, that it is the  RASON OF MAN which,"toth esenwith high treason is allowed to make his defense by  makes him accountable for his actions; ence ofcrime.
counsel, not exceeding two in number, to be selected  and that the deprivation of reason acquits him of
by himself and assigned to him by the court; and by  crime.  This principle is indisputable; yet so
sec. 2 of the same statute, no person shall be con- fearfully and wonderfully are we made, so infinvicted of high treason but upon the oaths of two law- itely subtle is the spiritual part of our being, so
Tfl witnesses, unless he shall willingly, and without difficult is it to trace with accuracy the effect of
violence, confess the same.                       diseased intellect upon human action, that I may
4 The statute 7 Anne, cap. 21, directs that all per- appeal to all who hear me, whether there are
sons indicted for high treason shall have a copy of                              whh                s
the indictment, together with a list of the witnesses   causes moe    cult,  or which, indeed, so
to be produced against them on the trial, and of the   fte  confound the learning of the judges themjurors impanneled, with their professions and places  selves, as when insanity, or the effects and conof abode respectively, delivered to them ten days be- sequences of insanity, become the subjects of lefore trial, and in the presence of two or more wit- gal consideration and judgment.  I shall pursue
nesses. But now, by 39 and 40 Geo. III., cap. 93, the subject as the Attorney General has properly
and 5 and 6 Vict., cap. 51, the proceedings in trials  discussed it.  I shall consider insanity, as it anfor high treason in compassing the death or bodily  nus a man's dominion over property, as it disharm of the Queen are assimilated to those in trials    v,                   i 
for murder.                                        solves his contracts, and  other acts, which other5On atrialforhigh treason, the prisoner is allowed ie would be binding, and as it takes away his
aperemptory challenge of thirty-five jurors; that is, responsibility for crimes.  If I could draw  the
one under the number of three fulljuries. This is the  line in a moment between these two views of the
effect of 1 and 2 Philip and Mary, cap. 10, sec. 7.    subject, I am sure the judges will do me the jus



768                                      MR. ERSKINE                                          [1800
tice to believe that I would fairly and candidly     Nothing, gentlemen, can be more accurately
do so; but great difficulties press upon my mind, nor more humanely expressed; but Marked distine
which oblige me to take a different course.       the application of the rule is often "tionbetwen
I agree with the Attorney General, that the  most difficult.  I am bound, besides, inl cases.
t is ot nlere law, in neither civil nor criminal cases, to admit that there is a wide distinction between
weakness of Will measure the degrees of men's un- civil and criminal cases. If, in the former, a man
inind butdeprivation of  derstandings.  A weak man, however  appears, upon the evidence, to be non compos menreason, wstnro
peratesasan much below the ordinary standard of  tis, the law avoids his act, though it can not be'xcuse.    human intellect, is not only responsi- traced or connected with the morbid imagination
ble for crimes, but is bound by his contracts, and  which constitutes his disease, and which may be
may exercise dominion over his property.  Sir extremely partial in its influence upon conduct;
Joseph Jekyll, in the Duchess of Cleveland's but to deliver a man from responsibility for crimes,
case, took the clear, legal distinction, when he  above all, for crimes of great atrocity and wicksaid, " The lavw  will not measure the sizes of  edness, I am by no means prepared to apply this
men's capacities, so as they be compos mentis."   rule, however well established when property
Lord Coke, in speaking of the expression non  only is concerned.
rd Coke. compos mentis, says, " Many times (as    In the very recent instance of Mr. Greenwood
here) the Latin word expresses the true  (which must be fresh in his Lordship's This 
sense, and calleth him not aenzs, demens, furi- recollection), the rule in civil cases tllecaseof
osus, lunaticus, fatuus, steltus, or the like, for non  was considered to be settled.  That G"ewod.
compos mentis is the most sure and legal."  He  gentleman, while insane, took up an idea that a
then says, " Non compos mentis is of four sorts: most affectionate brother had administered poison
tirst, ideota [an idiot], which from his nativity, by  to him.  Indeed, it was the prominent feature of
a perpetual infirmity, is non compos mentis; see- his insanity.  In a few months he recovered his
ondly, he that by sickness, grief, or other acci- senses. He returned to his profession as an advodent, wholly loses his memory and understand- cate; was sound and eminent in his practice, and
ing; thirdly, a lunatic that hath sometimes his  in all respects a most intelligent and useful memunderstanding, and sometimes not; aliquando  ber of society; but he could never dislodge from
saudet lucidis intervallis [has sometimes lucid in- his mind the morbid delusion which disturbed it;
tervals]; and, therefore, he is called non compos and under the pressure, no doubt, of that diseased
mentis so long as he hath not understanding."    prepossession, he disinherited his brother.  The
But notwithstanding the precision with which  cause to avoid this will was tried here.  We are
this great author points out the different kinds of  not now upon the evidence, but upon the princithis unhappy malady, the nature of his work, in  pie adopted as the law.  The noble and learned
this part of it: did not open to any illustration  judge, who presides upon this trial, and who prewhich it can now be useful to consider.  In his sided upon that, told the jury, that if they befourth Institute he is more particular; but the  lieved Mr. Greenwood, when he made the will,
admirable work of Lord Chief Justice Hale, in  to have been insane, the will could not be supwhich he refers to Lord Coke's pleas of the  ported, whether it had disinherited his brother or
Crown, renders all other authorities unnecessary. not; that the act, no doubt, strongly confirmed
Lord Hale says, "There is a partial insani- the existence of the false idea which, if believed
Lord Hale. ty of mind, and a total insanity.  The  by the jury to amount to madness, would equally
former is either in respect to things, have affected his testament, if the brother, instead
quoad hoc vel illud insanire [to be insane as to  of being disinherited, had been in his grave; and
this or that].  Some persons that have a compe-  that. on the other hand, if the unfounded notion
tent use of reason in respect of some subjects, did not amount to madness, its influence could
are yet under a particular dementia [deprivation  not vacate the devise.   This principle of law
of reason] in respect of some particular discours- appears to be sound and reasonable, as it applies
es, subjects, or applications; or else it is partial to civil cases, from the extreme difficulty of tracin respect of degrees; and this is the condition  ing with precision the secret motions of a mind,
of very many, especially melancholy persons, deprived by disease of its soundness and strength.
who for the most part discover their defect in ex-    Whenever, therefore, a person may be considcessive fears and griefs, and yet are not wholly  ered non compos mentis, all his civil acts are void,
destitute of the use of reason; and this partial whether they can be referred or not, to the morinsanity seems not to excuse thenl in the com- bid impulse of his malady, or even though, to
mitting of any offense for its matter capital. For, all visible appearances, totally separated from it.
doubtless, most persons that are felons of them- But I agree with Mr. Justice Tracey, that it is
selves and others, are under a degree of partial not every man of an idle, frantic appearance and
insanity when they commit these offenses.  It behavior, who is to be considered as a lunatic,
is very difficult to define the invisible line that either as it regards obligations or crimes; but
divides perfect and partial insanity; but it must that he must appear to the jury to be non compos
rest upon circumstances duly to be weighed and  mentis, in the legal acceptation of the term; and
considered both by judge and jury, lest on the one  that, not at any anterior period, which can have
side there be a kind of inhumanity toward the    6 The jury in that case found for the will; but
defects of human nature; or, on the other side,  after a contrary verdict in the Common Pleas, a
too great an indulgence given to great crimes."  compromise took place.




1800.]                           IN BEHALF OF HADFIELD.                                        769
no bearing upon any case whatsoever, but at the  of their UNDERSTANDINGS, in the Attorney Genmoment when the contract was entered into, or  eral's seeming sense of that expression.  But
the crime committed.                               these cases are not only extremely rare, but
The Attorney General, standing undoubtedly  never can become the subjects of judicial diffiNatureofthe  upon the most revered authorities of  culty.  There can be but one judgment coninsanity which the law, has laid it down that to pro- cerning them.  In other cases, reason is not
operates as an tect a man from criminal responsibili-  driven from  her seat, but distraction sits down
excuse.    ty, there must be a TOTAL deprivation  upon it along with her, holds her, trembling,
of memory and understanding.  I admit that this  upon it, and frightens her from her propriety.7
is the very expression used, both by Lord Coke  Such patients are victims to delusions of the
and by Lord Hale; but the true interpretation  most alarming description, which so overpower
of it deserves the utmost attention and consider-  the faculties, and usurp so firmly the place of
ation of the court.  If a total deprivation of  realities, as not to be dislodged and shaken by the
memory was intended by these great lawyers to  organs of perception and sense: in such cases
be taken in the literal sense of the words; if it the images frequently vary, but in the same subwas meant, that, to protect a man from punish-  ject are generally of the same terrific character.
ment, he must be in such a state of prostrated  Here, too, no judicial difficulties can present
intellect as not to know his name, nor his con- themselves; for who could balance upon the
dition, nor his relation toward others-that if a  judgment to be pronounced in cases of such exhusband, he should not know he was married; treme disease?  Another class, branching out
or, if a father, could not remember that he had  into almost infinite subdivisions, under which,
children, nor know the road to his house, nor indeed, the former, and every case of insanity,
his property in it-then no such madness ever may be classed, is, where the delusions are not
Not mere existed in the world.  It is IDIocY alone  of that frightful character, but infinitely various'idi'   - which places a man in this helpless con- and often extremely circumscribed; yet where
dition; where, from  an original mal-organiza- imagination (within the bounds of the malady)
tion, there is the human frame alone without the  still holds the most uncontrollable dominion over
human capacity; and which, indeed, meets the  reality and fact.  These are the cases which
very definition of Lord Hale himself, when, re- frequently mock the wisdom of the wisest in juferring to Fitzherbert, he says, "Idiocy, or fa- dicial trials; because such persons often reason
tuity a nativitate, vel dementia naturalis, is such  with a subtlety which puts in the shade the ora one as described by Fitzherbert, who knows  dinary conceptions of mankind.  Their conclunot to tell twenty shillings, nor knows his own  sions are just, and frequently profound; but the
age, or who was his father."  But in all the  premises from  which they reason, when within
cases which have filled Westminster Hall with  the range of the malady, are uniformly falsethe most complicated considerations-the luna- not false from any defect of knowledge or judgtics, and other insane persons who have been the  ment, but because a delusive image, the insepasubjects of them, have not only had memory, in  rable companion of real insanity, is thrust upon
my sense of the expression-they have not only  the subjugated understanding, incapable of rehad the most perfect knowledge and recollec- sistance, because unconscious of attack.
tions of all the relations they stood in toward      Delusion, therefore, where there is no frenzy
others, and of the acts and circumstances of  or raving madness, is the true char- This delusion
their lives, but have, in general, been remarka- acter of insanity.  Where it can not al cases be dible for subtlety and acuteness.  Defects in their be predicated of a man standing for etho eteul
But a permanent reasonings have seldom been trace-  life or death for a crime, he ought fl act.
detesion of soane
as.ot making    able-the disease consisting in the  not, in my opinion, to be acquitted; and if courts
real wichare  delusive sources of thought; all of law were to be governed by any other princinot so.     their deductions within the scope of  pie, every departure from sober, rational conduct
the malady being founded upon the immovable  would be an emancipation from criminal justice.
assumption of matters as realities, either without I shall place my claim to your verdict upon no
any foundation whatsoever, or so distorted and  such dangerous foundation.  I must convince
disfigured by fancy as to be almost nearly the  you, not only that the unhappy prisoner was a
same thing as their creation. It is true, indeed, lunatic, within my own definition of lunacy, but
that in some, perhaps in many cases, the human  that the act in question was the immediate, unmind is stormed in its citadel, and laid prostrate  qualified offspring of the disease.  In civil cases,
under the stroke of frenzy; these unhappy suf- as I have already said, the law avoids every act
ferers, however, are not so much considered, by  of the lunatic during the period of the lunacy,
physicians, as maniacs, but to be in a state of  although the delusion may be extremely circumdelirium as'if from fever.  There, indeed, all.the  scribed; although the mind may be quite sound
ideas are overwhelmed-for reason is not mere- in all that is not within the shades of the very
lv disturbed, but driven wholly from  her seat. partial eclipse; and although the act to be avoidSuch unhappy patients are unconscious, there-    7         Ad frights the isle from her propriety.-Othelfore, except at short intervals, even of external lo, act ii., sc. 3. The reader can not fail to remark
objects; or, at least, are wholly incapable of con-  the strength and beauty of the images used here,
sidering their relations.  Such persons, and such  and in other passages above and below to describe
persons alone (except idiots), are wholly deprived  the different kinds of madness.
Cc 




770                                    MR. ERSKINE                                        [1800.
ed can in no way be connected with the influ-  that every person who listened to his conversaence of the insanity-but to deliver a lunatic  tion, and observed his deportment upon his apfrom responsibility to criminal justice, above all prehension, must have given precisely the eviin a case of such atrocity as the present, the re- dence delivered by his Royal Highness the Duke
lation between the disease and the act should be  of York, and that nothing like insanity appeared
apparent.  Where the connection is doubtful, to those who examined him.  But what then?
the judgment should certainly be most indulgent, I conceive, gentlemen, that I am  more in the
from the great difficulty of diving into the secret habit of examination than either that illustrious
sources of a disordered mind; but still, I think  person or the witnesses from whom  you have
that, as a doctrine of law, the delusion and the  heard this account.  Yet I well re- Sir cse
act should be connected.                         member (indeed, I never can forget it),
You perceive, therefore, gentlemen, that the  that since the noble and learned Judge has preThe doctrine  prisoner, in naming me for his coun- sided in this court, I examined, for the greater
ttveryti     sel, has not obtained the assistance  part of a day, in this very place, an unfortunate
this subject.  of a person who is disposed to carry  gentleman, who had indicted a most affectionate
the doctrine of insanity in his defense so far as brother, together with the keeper of a mad-house
even books would warrant me in carrying it. at Hoxton [Dr. Sims], for having imprisoned him
Some of the cases —that of Lord Ferrers, for in- as a lunatic, while, according to his evidence,
stance-which I shall consider hereafter, as dis- he was in his perfect senses. I was, unfortunatetinguished from the present-would not, in my  ly, not instructed in what his lunacy consisted,
mind, bear the shadow of an argument, as a de- although my instructions left me no doubt of the
fense against an indictment for murder.  I can  fact; but, not having the clue, he completely
not allow the protection of insanity to a man  foiled me in every attempt to expose his infirmwho only exhibits violent passions and malig- ity.  You may believe that I left no means unnant resentments, acting upon real circumstances: employed which long experience dictated, but
who is impelled to evil by no morbid delusions; without the smallest effect.  The day was wastbut who proceeds upon the ordinary perceptions  ed, and the prosecutor, by the most affecting hisof the mind.  I can not consider such a man as tory of unmerited suffering, appeared to the judge
falling within the protection which the law gives, and jury. and to a humane English audience, as
and is bound to give, to those whom it has pleased  the victim of the most wanton and barbarous opGod, for mysterious causes, to visit with this most pression.  At last Dr. Sims came into court, who
afflicting calamity.                             had been prevented, by business, from an earlier
He alone can be so emancipated, whose dis- attendance, and whose name, by-the-by, I obPrinciple ease (call it what you will) consists, not serve to-day in the list of the witnesses for the
restated. merely in seeing with a prejudiced eye, Crown.  From Dr. Sims I soon learned that the
or with odd and absurd particularities, differing, very man whom I had been above an hour exin many respects, from  the contemplations of  amining, and with every possible effort which
sober sense, upon the actual existence of things; counsel are so much in the habit of exerting, bebut he only, whose reasoning and corresponding  lieved himself to be the Lord and Savior of masnconduct, though governed by the ordinary die- kind; not merely at the time of his confinement,
tates of reason, proceed upon something which  which was alone necessary for my defense, but
has no foundation or existence.                  during the whole time that he had been triumphGentlemen, it has pleased God so to visit the  ing over every attempt to surprise him  in the
Suc was the unhappy man before you; to shake his  concealment of his disease!  I then affected to
insanityofttie reason in its citadel; to cause him to  lament the indecency of my ignorant examinabuild up as realities the mostimpossi-  tion, when he expressed his forgiveness, and
ble phantoms of the mind, and to be impelled by  said, with the utmost gravity and emphasis in
them  as motives irresistible: the whole fabric  the face of the whole court, "I AM TIHE CIR-IST 
being nothing but the unhappy vision of his dis- and so the cause ended.  Gentlemen, this is not
ease-existing nowhere else-having no founda- the only instance of the power of concealing this
tion whatsoever in the very nature of things.    malady.  I could consume the day if I were to
Gentlemen, it has been stated by the Attorney  enumerate them; but there is one so extremely
He bd the full General, and established by evidence  remarkable, that I can not help stating it.
pissensio-s a  which I at in no condition to con-    Being engaged to attend the assizes at Chesersubjects.  tradict, nor have, indeed, any interest ter upon a question of lunacy, and hav- Anotler simiin contradicting, that, when the prisoner bought ing been told that there had been a h". c..e.
the pistol which he discharged at or toward his  memorable case tried before Lord Mansfield in
Majesty, he was well acquainted with the nature  this place, I was anxious to procure a report of
and use of it; that, as a soldier, he could not but it.  From that great man himself (who, within
know, that in his hands it was a sure instrument these walls, will ever be reverenced, being then
of death; that, when he bought the gunpowder, retired, in his extreme old age, to his seat near
he knew it would prepare the pistol for its use; London, in my own neighborhood) I obtained the
that, when he went to the playhouse, he knew  following account of it: " A man of the name
he was going there, and knew every thing con- of Wood," said Lord Mansfield,' had indicted
nected with the scene, as perfectly as any other Dr. Monro for keeping him as a prisoner (I beperson.  I freely admit all this: I admit, also, lieve in the same mad-house at Hoxton) when




1800.]                            IN  BEHALF OF HADFIELD.                                        771
he was sane.  He underwent the most severe  to the overthrow of the whole of the evidence
examination by the defendant's counsel without  (admitting, at the same time, the truth of it), by
exposing  his complaint; but Dr. Battye, hav- which the prisoner's case can alone be encouning come upon the bench by me, and having de- tered.
sired me to ask him what was become of the    But it is said that whatever delusions may
PRINCESS whom  he had corresponded with in  overshadow  the mind, every person This delusio
cherry-juice, he showed in a moment what he  ought to be responsible for crimes m.ay exst i,
cases where the
was.  He answered, that there was nothing at twho has the knowledge of good and subjectof it can
all in that, because, having been (as every body  evil. I think I can presently convince tween rigiht a.l.
knew) imprisoned in a high tower, and being de- you, that there is something too gen- wrong.
barred the use of ink, he had no other means of  eral in this mode of considering the subject; and
correspondence but by writing his letters in cher-  you do not, therefore, find any such proposition
ry-juice, and throwing them into the river which  in the language of the celebrated writer alluded
surrounded the tower, where the Princess re- to by the Attorney General in his speech.  Let
ceived them in a boat. There existed, of course, me suppose that the character of an insane deluno tower, no imprisonment, no writing in cher- sion consisted in the belief that some given perry-juice, no river, no boat; but the whole the in- son was any brute animal, or an inanimate being
veterate phantom  of a morbid imagination.  I  (and such cases have existed), and that upon the
immediately," continued Lord Mansfield, " di- trial of such a lunatic for murder, you firmly,
rected Dr. Monro to be acquitted. But this man, upon your oaths, were convinced, upon the unWood, being a merchant in Philpot Lane, and  contradicted evidence of a hundred persons, that
having been carried through the City in his way  he believed the man he had destroyed to have
to the mad-house, he indicted Dr. Monro over been a potter's vessel.  Suppose it was quite imagain, for the trespass and imprisonment in Lon-  possible to doubt that fact, althoug0 lo all other
don, knowing that he had lost his cause by speak- intents and piurposes he was sane; conversing.
ing of the Princess at Westminster. And such,"  reasoning, and acting, as men not in any manner
said Lord Mansfield, "is the extraordinary sub- tainted with insanity, converse, and reason, and
tlety and cunning of madmen, that whenhe was  conduct themselves.  Let me suppose further,
cross-examined on the trial in London, as he had  that he believed the man whom he destroyed, but
successfully been before, in order to expose his  whom he destroyed as a potter's vessel, to be the
madness, all the ingenuity of the bar, and all the  property of another; and that he had malice
authority of the court, could not make him say  against such supposed person, and that he meant
a syllable upon that topic, which had put an end  to injure him, knowing the act he was doing to
to the indictment before, although he still had  be malicious and injurious, and that, in short, he
the same indelible impression upon his mind, as had full knowledge of all the principles of good and
he signified to those who were near him; but,  evil.  Yet it would be possible to convict such a
conscious that the delusion had occasioned his  person of murder, if, from  the influence of his
defeat at Westminster, he obstinately persisted  disease, he was ignorant of the relation he stood
in holding it back.'8I in to the man he had destroyed, and was utterly
Now, gentlemen, let us look to the applica- unconscious that he had struck at the life of a huApplication of tion of these cases.  I am not exam- man being.  I only put this case, and many oththese.cseto ining, for the present, whether either ers might be brought as examples to illustrate'question.    of these persons ought to have been  that the knowledge of good and evil is too genacquitted, if they had stood in the place of the  eral a description.
prisoner now before you.  That is quite a dis-    I really think, however, that the Attorney Gentinct consideration, which we shall come to here- eral and myself do not, in substance,',ese princiafter.  The direct application of them  is only  very materially differ.   From  the plessubstantially admitted by
this, that if I bring before you such evidence of whole of his most able speech, taken the Attorney
the prisoner's insanity as, if believed to have real- together, his meaning may, I think,   e.
ly existed, shall, in the opinion of the court, as  be thus collected; that where the act which is
the rule for your verdict in point of law, be suf- criminal, is done under the dominion of malicious
ficient for his deliverance, then that you ought mischief and wicked intention, although such innot to be shaken in giving full credit to such ev- sanity might exist in a corner of the mind, as
idence, notwithstanding the report of those who  might avoid the acts of the delinquent as a lunawere present at his apprehension, who describe  tic in a civil case, yet that he ought not to be
him as discovein   no smpto    hatever of men-  protected, if malicious mischief, and not insanity,
tal incapacity or disorder.  For I have shown  had impelled him  to the act for which he was
you that insane persons fiequently appear in the  criminally to answer; because, in such a case, the
utmost state of ability and composure, even in  act might be justly ascribed to malignant motives,
the highest paroxysms of insanity, except when  and not to the dominion of disease.  I am not
frenzy is the characteristic of the disease.  In  disposed to dispute such a proposition, in a. case
this respect, the cases I have cited to you have  which would apply to it. and I can well conceive
the most decided application, because they apply  such cases may exist.  The question, therefore,
~- " — ~ ~~~~_____________-   which you will have to try, is this:
8 The evidence at Westminster was then proved  Whether, when this unhappy man dis- tion befiae tihe
against him by the short-hand writer.              charged the pistol in a direction which jul




772                                    MR. ERSKINE                                      [1800.
convinced, and ought to convince, every person  saw the emotion which overpowered him when
that it was pointed at the person of the King, he  the illustrious person now in court His attachment
meditated mischief and violence to his Majesty, took his seat upon the bench. Can you.,    t
or whether he came to the theater (which it is my  then believe, from the evidence, for I ing officer.
purpose to establish) under the dominion of the  do not ask you to judge as physiognomists, or to
most melancholy insanity that ever degraded and  give the rein to compassionate fancy; but can
overpowered the faculties of man.  I admit that there be any doubt that it was the generous emowhen he bought the pistol, and the gunpowder tion of the mind, on seeing the Prince, under
to load it, and when he loaded it, and came with  whom he had served with so much bravery and
it to the theater, and lastly, when he discharged  honor?  Every man, certainly, must judge for
it; every one of these acts would be overt acts himself.  I am  counsel, not a witness, in the
of compassing the King's death, if at all or any  cause.  But it is a most striking circumstance,
of these periods he was actuated by that mind  as you find from  the Crown's evidence, that
and intention, which would have constituted mur- when he was dragged through the orchestra under
der in the case of an individual, supposing the the stage, and charged with an act for which he
individual had been actually killed.  I admit, considered his life as forfeited, he addressed the
also, that the mischievous, and, in this case, trait- Duke of York with the same enthusiasm which
orous intention must be inferred from all these  has marked the demeanor I am adverting to. Mr.
acts, unless I can rebut the inferences by proof. Richardson, who showed no disposition in his evIf I were to fire a pistol toward you, gentlemen, idence to help the prisoner, but who spoke with
where you are now sitting, the act would un- the calmness and circumspection of truth; and
doubtedly infer the malice.  The whole proof, who had no idea that the person he was examintherefore, is undoubtedly cast upon ME.        ing was a lunatic, has given you the account of
In every case of treason, or murder, which are the burst of affection on his first seeing the Duke
Wasthemotive precisely the same, except that the  of York, against whose father and sovereign he
ofthe prisoner unconsummated intention in the case  was supposed to have had the consciousness of
lusion of the   of the King is the same as the act- treason.  The King himself, whom he was supkd desced ual murder of a private man, the jury  posed to have so malignantly attacked, never had
must impute to the person whom they condemn  a more gallant, loyal, or suffering soldier.  His
by their verdict, the motive which constitutes the  gallantry and loyalty will be proved; his suffercrime.  And your province to-day will, there- ings speak for themselves.
fore, be to decide whether the prisoner, when    About five miles from Lisle, upon the attack
he did the act, was under the uncontrollable do- made on the British army, this un- His ounds.
minion of insanity, and was impelled to it by a fortunate soldier was in the fifteenth
morbid delusion; or whether it was the act of a light dragoons, in the thickest of the ranks, exman who, though occasionally mad, or even at posing his life for his Prince, whom he is supthe time not perfectly collected, was yet not act- posed to-day to have sought to murder.  The
uated by the disease, but by the suggestion of a  first wound he received is most materially conwicked and malignant disposition.              nected with the subject we are considering; you
I admit, therefore, freely, that if, after you have  may see the effect of it now.9  The point of a
heard the evidence which I hasten to lay before  sword was impelled against him with all the force
you, of the state of the prisoner's mind, and close  of a man urging his horse in battle.  When the
up to the very time of this catastrophe, you shall court put the prisoner under my protection, I
still not feel yourselves clearly justified in negativ- thought it my duty to bring Mr. Cline to inspect
ing the wicked motives imputed by this indict- him in Newgate.  It will appear by the evidence
ment, I shall leave you in the hands of the learned  of that excellent and conscientious person, who
judges to declare to you the law of the land, and  is known to be one of the first anatomists in the
shall not seek to place society in a state of un- world, that from  this wound one of two things
certainty by any appeal addressed only to your must have happened: either, that by the immecompassion.  I am  appointed by the court to  diate operation of surgery the displaced part of
claim for the prisoner the full protection of the  the skull must have been taken away, or been
law, but not to misrepresent it in his protection. forced inward on the brain.  The second stroke,
Gentlemen, the facts of this melancholy case  also, speaks for itself: you may now see its eflie within a narrow compass.                    fects.  [Here Mr. Erskine touched the head of
The unfortunate person before you was a  the prisoner.]  He was cut across allthe nerves
Early life of soldier.  He became so, I believe, in  which give sensibility and animation to the body,
the prisoner. the year 1793-and is now  about and his head hung down almost dissevered, until
twenty-nine years of age.  He served in Flan- by the act of surgery it was placed in the posiders, under the Duke of York, as appears by his tion you now see it.  But thus, almost destroyRoyal Highness's evidence; and being a most ed, he still recollected his duty, and continued to
approved soldier, he was one of those singled out maintain the glory of his country, when a sword
as an orderly man to attend upon the person of divided the membrane of his neck where it termthe Commander-in-Chief.  You have been wit-  inates in the head; yet he still kept his place,
nesses, gentlemen, to the calmness with which
the prisoner has sitten in his place during the tri-   9 Mr. Erskine put his hand to the prisoners head,
al.  There was but one exception to it.  You  who stood by him at the bar of the court.




1800.]                          IN BEHALF OF HADFIELD.                                    773
though his helmet had been thrown off by the  imperious voice of Heaven, he wished that by the
blow  which I secondly described, when by an- appearance of crime his life might be taken away
other sword he was cut into the very brain-you from him by others.  This bewildered, extravamay now see its membrane uncovered. Mr. Cline gant species of madness appeared immediately
will tell you that he examined these wounds, and  after his wounds, on his first entering the hoshe can better describe them. I have myself seen  pital; and on the very same account he was disthem, but am no surgeon; from his evidence you  charged from the army on his return to England,
will have to consider their consequences.  It which the Attorney General very honorably and
may be said that many soldiers receive grievous candidly seemed to intimate.
wounds without their producing insanity.  So    To proceed with the proofs of his insanity
they may, undoubtedly; but we are upon thefact. down to the very period of his sup- Manifested in
There was a discussion the other day, whether posed guilt.  This unfortunate man destteymitt
a man who had been seemingly hurt by a fall be- before you is the father of an infant Owl child.
yond remedy could get up and walk.  The peo- of eight months; and I have no doubt, that if the
ple around said it was impossible; but he did get boy had been brought into court (but this is a
up and walk, and so there was an end to the im- grave place for the consideration of justice, and
possibility. The effects of the prisoner's wounds not a theater for stage effect)-I say, I have no
were known by the immediate event of insanity, doubt whatever, that if this poor infant had been
and Mr. Cline will tell you that it would have brought into court, you would have seen the unbeen strange, indeed, if any other event had fol- happy father wrung with all the emotions of palowed. We are not here upon a case of insanity  rental affection.  Yet, upon the Tuesday prearising from the spiritual part of man, as it may  ceding the Thursday when he went to the playbe affected by hereditary taint, by intemperance, house, you will find his disease still urging him
or by violent passions, the operations of which are forward, with the impression that the time was
various and uncertain; but we have to deal with  come when he must be destroyed for the benefit
a species of insanity more resembling what has of mankind; and in the confusion, or, rather, debeen described as idiocy, proceeding from orig- lirium of this wild conception, he came to the
inal malorganization.  There the disease is, from  bed of the mother, who had this infant in her
its very nature, incurable; and so where a man  arms, and endeavored to dash out its brains
(like the prisoner) has become insane from vio- against the wall.  The family was alarmed;
lence to the brain, which permanently affects its and the neighbors being called in, the child was,
structure, however such a man may appear oc- with difficulty, rescued from the unhappy parent,
casionally to others, his disease is immovable. who, in his madness, would have destroyed it.
If the prisoner, therefore, were to live a thousand    Now let me, for a moment, suppose that he
years, he never could recover from  the conse- had succeeded in the accomplishment Comprison of
quence of that day.                            of his insane purpose: and the ques- his feelings at
that time and
But this is not all.  Another blow was still tion had been, whether he was guilty whleihe fired
aimed at him, which he held up his arm to avoid, of murder.  Surely, the affection for at the King.
when his hand was cut into the bone.  It is an  this infant, up to the very moment of his distractafflicting subject, gentlemen, and better to be ed violence, would have been conclusive in his
spoken of by those who understand it; and, to  favor.  But not more so than his loyalty to the
and all further description, he was then thrust King, and his attachment to the Duke of York,
almost through and through the body with a as applicable to the case before us; yet at that
bayonet, and left in a ditch among the slain,  very period, even of extreme distraction, he conHe was afterward carried to a hospital, where versed as rationally on all other subjects as he
he was known by his tongue to one of his coun- did with the Duke of York at the theater.  The
trymen, who will be examined as a witness, who prisoner knew perfectly that he was the husband
found him, not merely as a wounded soldier de- of the woman and the father of the child.  The
prived of the powers of his body, but bereft of tears of' affection ran down his face at the very
his senses forever.                            moment that he was about to accomplish its deHe was affected from the very beginning with  struction.  During the whole of this scene of
Themadness that species of madness which, from  horror, he was not at all deprived of memory, in
thatfollowed. violent agitation, fills the mind with  the Attorney General's sense of the expression;
the most inconceivable imaginations, wholly un- he could have communicated, at that moment,
fitting it for all dealing with human affairs, ac- every circumstance of his past life, and every
cording to the sober estimate and standard of rea- thing connected with his present condition, exson.  He imagined that he had constant inter- cept only the quality of the act he was meditating.
course with the Almighty Author of all things; In that, he was under the overruling dominion
that the world was coming to a conclusion; and  of a morbid imagination, and conceived that he
e peclir that, like our blessed Savior, he was to  was acting against the dictates of nature in obenatur.eof te sacrifice himself for its salvation.  So  dience to the superior commands of Heaven,
der which ke obstinately did this morbid image con- which had told him, that the moment he was.    tinue, that you will be convinced he dead, and the infant with him, all nature was to
went to the theater to perform, as he imagined, be changed, and all mankind were to be redeemthat blessed sacrifice; and, because he would not ed by his dissolution.  There was not an idea
be guilty of suicide, though called upon by the  in his mind, from the beginning to the end, of




774                                      MR. ERSKINE                                          [18)0.
the destruction of the King.  On the contrary, he  taking his undoubted insanity into consideration,
always maintained his loyalty-lamented that he  because it is his unquestionable insanity which
could not go again to fight his battles in the field: alone stamps the effusions of his mind with sinand it will be proved, that only a few days be- cerity and truth.
fore the period in question, being present when    The idea which had impressed itself, but in
a song was sung, indecent; as it regarded the  most confused images, upon this un- Hefelt it necperson and condition of his Majesty, he left the  fortunate man, was, that he must be esoely to do
something
room with loud expressions of indignation, and  destroyed, but ought not to destroy which wouold
lead to his heimmediately sang "God save the King," with  himself.   He once had the idea of ingputtodeath
all the enthusiasm  of an old soldier, who had  firing over the King's carriage in the j"tt~callj.
bled in the service of his country.                street; but then he imagined he should be imI confess to you, gentlemen, that this last cir- mediately killed, which was not the mode of pro-.His prevailing cumstance, which may, to some, ap- pitiation for the world.  And as our Savior, beloyatv on, f pear insignificant, is, in my mind, fore his passion, had gone into the garden to
ptistrongest most m   omentous testimony.  For if  pray, this fallen and afflicted being, after he had
case.     this man had been in the habit of as- taken the infant out of bed to destroy it, returnsociating with persons inimical to the govern- ed also to the garden, saying, as he afterward
tnient of our country, so that mischief might have  said to the Duke of York, "that all was not over
been fairly argued to have mixed itself with  -that a great work was to be finished;" and
madness (which, by-the-by, it frequently does);  there he remained in prayer, the victim of the
if it could in any way have been collected that, same melancholy visitation.
from his disorder, more easily inflamed and work-    Gentlemen, these are the facts, freed from even
sed upon, he had been led away by disaffected  the possibility of artifice or disguise; Comparison o.f
persons to become the instrument of wickedness; because the testimony to support them ti"'ha o sorl
if it could have been established that such had  willbe beyond all doubt. In contem- Ferrero.
been his companions and his habits, I should have  plating the law of the country, and the preceneen ashamed to lift up my voice in his defense. dents of its justice to which they must be applied,
I should have felt that, however his mind might I find nothing to challenge or question.  I aphave been weak and disordered, yet if his under- prove of them throughout.  I subscribe to all that
standing sufficiently existed to be methodically  is written by Lord Hale.  I agree with all the
acted upon as an instrument of malice, I could  authorities cited by the Attorney General, from
not have asked for an acquittal.  But you find, Lord Coke; but above all, I do most cordially
on the contrary, in the case before you, that. not- agree in the instance of convictions by which he
wvithstanding the opportunity which the Crown  illustrated them  in his able address.l~  I have
has had, and which, upon all such occasions, it now lying before me the case of Earl Ferrers:
justly employs to detect treason, either against unquestionably there could not be a shadow of
the person of the King or against his govern-  doubt, and none appears to have been entertainment, not one witness has been able to fix upon  ed, of his guilt.  I wish, indeed, nothing more
the prisoner before you any one companion, of  than to contrast the two cases; and so far am I
even a doubtful description, or any one expres- from  disputing either the principle of that consion from  which disloyalty could be inferred,  demnation, or the evidence that was the foundawhile the whole history of his life repels the im- tion of it, that I invite you to examine whether
putation.  His courage in defense of the King  any two instances in the whole body of the crimand his dominions, and his affection for his son, inal law are more diametrically opposite to each
in such unanswerable evidence, all speak aloud  other than the case of Earl Ferrers aMd that now
against the presumption that he went to the the- before you.  Lord Ferrers was divorced from his
ater with a mischievous intention.                 wife by act of Parliament; and a person of the
To recur again to the evidence of Mr. Rich- name of Johnsdn, who had been his steward, had
Peculiarity of ardson, who delivered most honorable  taken part with the lady in that proceeding, and
temptigls l e and impartial testimony.  I certainly  had conducted the bus      ine  incarying the act
King's life.   am obliged to admit, that what a pris- through the two Houses.  Lord Ferrers conseoner says for himself, when coupled at the very  quently wished to turn him out of a farm which
time with an overt act of wickedness, is no evi- he occupied under him; but his estate being in
dence whatever to alter the obvious quality of the  trust, Johnson was supported by the trustees in
act he has committed. If, for instance, I, who am   his possession.  There were, also, some differennow addressing you, had fired the same pistol to- ces respecting coal-mines; and in consequence
ward the box of the King, and, having been  of both transactions, Lord Ferrers took up the
dragged under the orchestra and secured for crim- most violent resentment against him.  Let me
inal justice, I had said that I had no intention to
kill the King, but was weary of my life, and meant   10 The reader will remark, that in the cases which
to be condetned as guilty; would any man, who  Mr. Erskine goes on to consider, the statement of the
facts is not only clear and beautiful in itself, but is
was not himself insane, consider that as a de- shaped throughout with aparticular reference to the
fense?  Certainly not: because it would be with-  case of Hadfield, so as to bring out the points of conout the whole foundation of the prisoner's previous trast in strong relief, and thus open the way for the
condition, part of which it is even difficult to ap- distinctions which follow. This hind of?, p~r^rnfatinri
ply closely and directly by strict evidence, without is one of Mr. Erskine's greatest excellence.




1800.]                          IN BEHALF OF HADFIELD.                                       775
here observe, gentlemen, that this was not a re- ruin his country; and although he appeared from
sentment founded upon any illusion; not a resent- the evidence to be a man of most wild and turment forced upon a distempered mind by falla- bulent manners, yet the people round Guildford,
cious images, but depending upon actual circum- who knew him; did not, in general, consider him
stances and real facts; and, acting like any other to be insane.  His counsel could not show that
man under the influence of malignant passions, any morbid delusion had ever overshadowed his
he repeatedly declared that he would be revenged  understanding.  They could not show, as I shall,
on Mr. Johnson, particularly for the part he had  that just before he shot at Lord Onslow, he had
taken in depriving him of a contract respecting  endeavored to destroy his own beloved child. It
the mines.                                       was a case of human resentment.
Now, suppose Lord Ferrers could have showed    I might instance, also, the case of Oliver, who
that no difference with Mr. Johnson had ever ex- was indicted for the murder of Mr.Wood, Witlltlat
isted regarding his wife at all-that Mr. Johnson  a potter, in Staffordshire. Mr.Wood had  ofOliver.
had never been his steward-and that he had  refused his daughter to this man in marriage. My
only, from  delusion, believed so when his situa- friend, Mr. Milles, was counsel for him at the astion in life was quite different.  Suppose, further, sizes.  He had been employed as a surgeon and
that an illusive imagination had alone suggested  apothecary by the father, who forbid him his
to him that he had been thwarted by Johnson in  house, and desired him to bring in his bill for payhis contract for these coal-mines, there never ment; when, in the agony of disappointment, and
having been any contract at all for coal-mines — brooding over the injury he had suffered, on his
in short, that the whole basis of his enmity was being admitted to Mr. Wood to receive payment,
without any foundation in nature, and had been  he shot him upon the spot.  The trial occupied
shown to have been a morbid image imperiously  great part of the day; yet, for my own part, I
fastened upon his mind.  Such a case as that can not conceive that there was any thing in the
would have exhibited a character of insanity in  case for a jury to deliberate on.  He was a man
Lord Ferrers extremely different from  that in  acting upon existing facts, and upon human rewhich it was presented by the evidence to his sentments connected with them.  He was at the
peers.  Before them, he only appeared as a man  very time carrying on his business, which reof turbulent passions, whose mind was disturbed  quired learning and reflection, and, indeed, a
by no fallacious images of things without exist- reach of mind beyond the ordinary standard, beence; whose quarrel with Johnson was founded  ing trusted by all who knew him as a practitioner
upon no illusions, but upon existing facts; whose  in medicine.  Neither did he go to Mr. Wood's.
resentment proceeded to the fatal consummation  under the influence of illusion; but he went to
with all the ordinary indications of mischief and  destroy the life of a man who was placed exactly
malice; and who conducted his own defense with  in the circumstances which the mind of the crimthe greatest dexterity and skill.  WHo, THEN, inal represented him. Hewentto executevengeCOULD DOUBT THAT LORD FERRERS WAS A MUR- ance on him for refusing his daughter. In such a
DERER?  When the act was done, he said, "'I case there might, no doubt, be passion approacham glad I have done it.  He was a villain, and  ing to frenzy; but there wanted that characterI am revenged."  But when he afterward saw  istic of madness to emancipate him from criminal
that the wound was probably mortal, and that it justice.
involved consequences fatal to himself, he desired    There was another instance of this description
the surgeon to take all possible care of his patient; in the case of a most unhappy woman, with that of
and, conscious of his crime, kept at bay the men  who was tried, in Essex, for the mur- the murederer
who came with arms to arrest him: showing, der of Mr. Errington, who had seduced rington.
from the beginning to the end, nothing that does and abandoned her and the children she had borne
not generally accompany the crime for which he  to him.  It must be a consolation to those who
was condemned.  He was proved, to be sure, to  prosecuted her, that she was acquitted, as she is
be a man subject to unreasonable prejudices, ad- at this time in a most undoubted and deplorable
dicted to absurd practices, and agitated by violent state of insanity.  But I confess, if I had been
passions.  But the act was not done under the  upon the jury who tried her, I should have endominion of uncontrollable disease; and wheth- tertained great doubts and difficulties; for, aler the mischief and malice were substantive, or though the unhappy woman had before exhibited
marked in the mind of a man whose passions  strong marks of insanity, arising from grief land
bordered upon, or even amounted to insanity, it disappointment, yet she acted upon facts and cirdid not convince the Lords that, under all the  cumstances which had an existence, and which'
circumstances of the case, he was not a fit object were calculated, upon the ordinary princ.;pes of
of criminal justice.                             human action, to produce the most violent resentIn the same manner, Arnold, who shot at Lord  ment.  Mr. Errington having just cast her off,
Withthatof Onslow, and who was tried at Kingston  and married another woman, or' taken his under
Arnold.   soon after the Black Act passed on the  his protection, her jealousy was excited to such
accession of George I. Lord Onslow having been  a pitch as occasionally to overpower her undervery vigilant as a magistrate in suppressing clubs, standing; but when she went to Mr. Errington's
which were supposed to be set on foot to disturb  house, where she shot him, she went with the exthe new  government, Arnold  had frequently  press and deliberate purpose of shooting himr
been heard to declare that Lord Onslow would  That fact was unquestionable.  She went tb




776                                    MR. ERSKINE                                      [1800.
with a resentment long rankling in her bosom, there to be enthroned together.  His mind, in
bottomed on an existing foundation.  She did not short, was overpowered and overwhelmed with
act under a delusion, that he had deserted her distraction.
when he had not, but took revenge upon him for    The charge against the prisoner is the overt
an actual desertion.  But still the jury, in the  act of compassing the death of the Casereviewed
humane consideration of her sufferings, pro- King, in firing a pistol at his Majes-,nd its leading
points prenounced the insanity to be predominant over re- ty-an act which only differs from  sented.
sentment, and they acquitted her.              murder, inasmuch as the bare compassing is
But let me suppose (which would liken it to  equal to the accomplishment of the malignant
the case before us) that she had never cohabited  purpose; and it will be your office, under the adwith Mr. Errington; that she never had had  vice of the judge, to decide by your verdict to
children by him; and, consequently, that he nei- which of the two impulses of the mind you refer
ther had, nor could possibly have deserted or in- the act in question.  You will have to decide,
jured her.  Let me suppose, in short, that she whether you attribute it wholly to mischief and
had never seen him in her life, but that her re- malice, or wholly to insanity, or to the one mixsentment had been founded on the morbid delu- ing itself with the other.  If you find it attribsion that Mr. Errington, who had never seen her, utable to mischief and malice only, LET THE MAN
had been the author of all her wrongs and sor- DIE.  The law demands his death for the public
rows; and that, under that diseased impression, safety.  If you consider it as conscious malice
she had shot him.  If that had been the case, and mischief mixing itself with insanity, I leave
gentlemen, she would have been acquitted upon  him in the hands of the court, to say how he is
the opening, and no judge would have sat to try  to be dealt with; it is a question too difficult fo)
such a cause.  The act itself would have been  me.  I do not stand here to disturb the order of.
decisively characteristic of madness, because, be- society, or to bring confusion upon my country
ing founded upon nothing existing, it could not But if you find that the act was committed whol
have proceeded from malice, which the law re- ly under the dominion of insanity; if you are satquires to be charged and proved, in every case  isfied that he went to the theater contemplating
of murder, as the foundation of a conviction.   his own destruction only; and that, when he fired
Let us now recur to the cause we are engaged  the pistol, he did not maliciously aim at the perApplication in and examine it upon those principles son of the King-you will then be bound, even
to the case by which I am ready to stand or fall, in  upon the principle which the Attorney General
in the judgment of the court.  You have  himself humanely and honorably stated to you,
a man before you who will appear, upon the  to acquit this most unhappy prisoner.
evidence, to have received those almost deadly    If, in bringing these considerations hereafter to
<^wounds which I described to you, producing the  the standard of the evidence, any doubts should
iinmmediate and immovable effects which the em- occur to you on the subject, the question for
iaent surgeon, whose name I have mentioned, your decision will then be, which of the two al-..wil prove that they could not but have produced. ternatives is the most probable-a duty which
Itvwill appear that, from that period, he was vis- you will perform in the exercise of that reason,itedby the severest paroxysms of madness, and  of which, for wise purposes, it has pleased God
rwas -repeatedly confined with all the coercion  to deprive the unfortunate man whom you are
which it is necessary to practice upon lunatics; trying.  Your sound understandings will easily
yet, what is quite decisive against the imputation  enable you to distinguish infirmities, which are
of treason against the person of the King, his misfortunes, from motives, which are crimes. Beloyalty, ever forsook him.  Sane or insane, it fore the day ends, the evidence will be decisive
was his very characteristic to love his Sovereign  upon this subject.
and his country, although the delusions which    There is, however, another consideration,
distracted.-him were sometimes, in other respects, which I ought distinctly to present No o-idelice of:as contradictory as they were violent.         to you; because I think that more  rftiln th
Of this inconsistency, there was a most strik- turns upon it than any other view of seized.
Strikingin-;iln instance on only the Tuesday be- the subject; namely, whether the prisoner's destances of the fore the Thursday in question, when  fense can be impeached for artifice or fraud.  I
us'ion.    it will be proved that he went to see  admit, that if, at the moment when he was apone Truelet, who had been committed by the  prehended, there can be fairly imputed to him
Duke of Portland as a lunatic.  This man had  any pretense or counterfeit of insanity, it would
taken up an idea that our Savior's second ad- taint the whole case, and leave him without provent, and the dissolution of all human beings, tection.  But for such a suspicion there is not
were at hand; and conversed in this strain of even a shadow of foundation.  It is repelled by
madness.  This mixing itself with the insane  the whole history and character-of his disease, as
delusion of the prisoner, he immediately broke  well as of his life, independent of it.  If you
out upon the subject of his own propitiation and  were trying a man, under the Black Act, for
sacrifice for mankind, although only the day be- shooting at another, and there was a doubt upon
fore he had exclaimed that the Virgin Mary was the question of malice, would it not be importa whore; that Christ was a bastard; that God  ant, or rather decisive evidence, that the priswas a thief; and that he and this Truelet were  oner had no resentment against the prosecutor;
to live with him at White Conduit House, and  but that, on the contrary, he was a man whom




1800.]                         IN  BEHALF OF HADFIELD.                                     777
he had always loved and served?  Now the pris- prisoner at the bar, whose life and death are in
oner was maimed, cut down, and destroyed, in  the balance, that he should be judged rigidly by
the service of the King.                        the evidence and the law.  I have made no apGentlemen, another reflection presses very  peal to your passions —you have no right to exPeroration: The strongly on my mind, which I find it ercise them.  This is not even a case in which,
King's life has  difiult to suppress                  prisoer                  te
never been    difficult to suppress. In every state  if the prisoner be found guilty, the royal mercy
ed at amid all  there are political differences and  should be counseled to interfere.  He is either
the imputed excesses ofreform. parties, and individuals disaffected  an accountable being, or not accountable.  If he
to the system of government under which they  was unconscious of the mischief he was engaged
live as subjects.  There are not many such, I in, the law is a corollary, and he is not guilty.
trust, in this country.  But whether there are  But if, when the evidence closes, you think he
many or any of such persons, there is one cir- was conscious, and maliciously meditated the
cumstance which has peculiarly distinguished  treason he is charged with, it is impossible to
his Majesty's life and reign, and which is in  conceive a crime more vile and detestable; and
itself as a host in the prisoner's defense, since, I should consider the King's life to be ill attendamid all the treasons and all the seditions which  ed to, indeed, if not protected by the full vigor
have been charged on reformers of government of the laws, which are watchful over the securias conspiracies to disturb it, no hand or voice  ty of the meanest of his subjects.  It is a most
has been lifted up against the person of the King. important consideration, both as it regards the
There have, indeed, been unhappy lunatics who, prisoner, and the community of which he is a
fiom ideas too often mixing themselves with in- member.  Gentlemen, I leave it with you.
sanity, have intruded themselves into the palace,
but no malicious attack has ever been made upon    Lord Kenyon, who presided at the trial, apthe King to be settled by a trial.  His Majesty's peared, it is said, much prejudiced against the
character and conduct have been a safer shield  prisoner while the evidence for the Crown was
than guards, or than laws.  Gentlemen, I wish  taken.  But when Mr. Erskine had stated the
to continue to that sacred life that best of all principle upon which he grounded his defense,
securities.  I seek to continue it under that pro- and when his Lordship found that the facts came
tection where it has been so long protected. up to the case opened for the prisoner, he delivWe are not to do evil that good may come of it; ered to the Attorney General the opinion of the
we are not to stretch the laws to hedge round  court, that the case should not be proceeded in.
the life of the King with a greater security than  A verdict of acquittal was, therefore, given, withthat which the Divine Providence has so happily  out any reply for the Crown, and the prisoner
realized.                                       was placed in confinement at Bedlam.  He rePerhaps there is no principle of religion more mained there to an extreme old age, perfectly
It is safest when  strongly inculcated by the sacred  rational on most subjects, but liable to strong deg.uarded by impar- serintus  than that beautiful and
tiljfutiewiL'r   scriptures than that beautiful and  lusions, which rendered it unsafe to discharge
ort excited feel-  encouraging lesson of our Savior him.
of zeai.     himself upon confidence in the Di-   In consequence of the attack of Hadfield upon
vine protection: " Take no heed for your life, George III., the peculiar provisions of the laws,
what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, or referred to by Mr. Erskine in his exordium, were
wherewithal ye shall be clothed; but seek ye changed.  Though he assigned very ingenious
first the kingdom  of God, and all these things reasons for giving to a person who attempted the
shall be added unto you."  By which it is un- life of the King greater advantages as to trial,
doubtedly not intended that we are to disregard  and as to the degree of evidence by which the
the conservation of life, or to neglect the means change was to be established, than were granted
necessary for its sustentation; nor that we are  in the case of a similar attempt on a subject, it
to be careless of whatever may contribute to our was generally felt that this was neither wise nor
comfort and happiness; but that we should be safe.  Hence the statute 39 and 40, George III.,
contented to receive them as they are given to  c. 93, was passed, by which it is enacted, that
us, and not seek them in the violation of the rule  in all cases of high treason, in compassing or
%nd order appointed for the government of the imagining the death of the King, and of misworld.  On this principle, nothing can more tend  prision of such treason, where the overt act of
to the security of his Majesty and his govern- such treason shall be alleged in the indictment
ment, than the scene which this day exhibits in  to be the assassination of the King, or a direct
the calm, humane, and impartial administration  attempt against his life or person, the person acof justice; and if, in my part of this solemn du- cused shall be indicted and tried in the same manty, I have in any manner trespassed upon the  ner in every respect, and upon the like evidence,
just security provided for the public happiness, I as if he was charged with murder, but the judgwish to be corrected.  I declare to you, solemn- ment and execution shall be the same as in other
ly, that my only aim has been to secure for the  cases of high treason.




778                                     MR. ERSKINE                                         [1802.
SPEECH
OF MR. ERSKINE FOR TIE REV. GEORGE MARKHAM AGAINST JOHN FAWCETT, ESQ., FOR CRIIM
INAL CONVERSATION WITH HIS WIFE, DELIVERED BEFORE THE DEPUTY SHERIFF OF MIDDLE
SEX AND A SPECIAL JURY, MAY 4,1802, ON AN INQUISITION OF DAMAGES.
INTRODUCTION.
WITH all the varied abilities of Mr. Erskine, there was nothing in which he was thought so much to
excel as the management of cases of adultery. He was almost uniformly retained for the complainant;
and some of the most thrilling strains of his eloquence were on this subject. He obtained greater damages than any other advocate in England; and some even complained that, with Kenyon on the bench
and Erskine at the bar, the judgments of juries in such cases became absolutely vindictive.
In the present instance, there was no room for denial or exculpation, and the case went by default. It
was, therefore, simply a hearing as to the amount of damages; and was referred by the court to a special
jury, convened by the Under Sheriff in a private room at the King's Arms Tavern, Westminster. Eloquence, under such circumstances, would seem to be almost out of the question; and Mr. Erskine, therefore, entered on the subject in the quiet manner of a private individual conversing with a few old ac
quaintances in a parlor of their own dwellings. But he instantly passed to a topic always interesting to
an Englishman, the peculiar character of an English jury; and touched their pride by the suggestionone which runs throughout the whole speech-that the defendant, dreading the exposure of a public trial,
had thrust the jury aside into a private room to cover his crimes for money. He then lays open the facts
of the case in a narration of uncommon simplicity and beauty; dwells on the peculiarly aggravating circumstances which attended it; and takes the ground, that afull recompense (so far as money could give it)
ought to be made to the plaintiff for the loss and suffering he had sustained. The damages were laid at
~20,000, a sum more than double the defendant's entire property. Still Mr. Erskine contends that these
damages ought to be awarded in full, as an act of simple justice to Mr. Markham, and as a warning to
others for the protection of families in the intimacy of private friendship. On this last topic, he presents
considerations founded on the structure of society, which are worthy of so fervent an admirer and student
of Mr. Burke.
It is a striking fact, that on so hackneyed a theme, necessarily involving a limited range of considerations, Mr. Erskine has nothing commonplace-no strained expressions, no extravagant sensibility, no
clap-trap of any kind. In such a case, a man often shows his ability quite as much by what he does not
say, as by what he does say; and we find Mr. Erskine here, as every where else, a perfect model of a
business speaker, keeping his exuberant powers of fancy, sentiment, and pathos in the strictest subordination to the realities of his case.
SPEECH, &c.
MR. SHERIFF, AND GENTLEMEN OF THE JURY, subjects of England that they judge one another.
-In representing the unfortunate gentleman who  It is to be recollected that, although we are in
has sustained the injury which has been stated  this private room, all the sanctions of justice are
to you by my learned friend, Mr. Holroyd, who  present.  It makes no manner of difference,
opened the pleadings, I feel one great satisfac- whether I address you in the presence of the
tion-a satisfaction founded, as I conceive, on a  under sheriff, your respectable chairman, or with
sentiment perfectly constitutional.  I am about the assistance of the highest magistrate of the
character  to address myself to men whom I PER- state.
"andcc    SONALLY KNOW; to men, honorable in irThe defendant has, on this occasion, suffered
stances or  SONALLY  ENOW   to menf  ionolause in
the jury.  their lives, moral, judicious; and capa- judgment by default: other adulterers Objt of the
ble of correctly estimating the injuries they are  have done so before him.  Some have defendant in
called upon to condemn in their character of ju- done so under the idea that, by suffer- case togo by
rors. THIS, gentlemen, is the only country in the  ing judgment against them, they had deault.
world where there is such a tribunal as the one  retired from the public eye-fiom the awful presbefore which I am now to speak; for, however ence of the judge; and that they came into a
in other countries such institutions as our own  corner where there was not such an assembly of
may have been set up of late, it is only by that persons to witness their misconduct, and where it
maturity which it requires ages to give to gov- was to be canvassed before persons who might be
ernments-by that progressive wisdom which has less qualified to judge the case to be addressed to
slowly ripened the Constitution of our country-  them.
that it is possible there can exist such a body of    It is not long, however, since such persons
mien as YOU are.  It is the great privilege of the  have had an opportunity of judging how ninch




1802.]                        IN BEHALF OF MR. MARKHAM.                                          779
they were mistaken in this respect. The larg-  the defendant had been bred together at WestHis probable est damages, in cases of adultery, have  minster School; and in my mind it is Their intimacy
mistake.   been given in this place. By this place, still more affecting, when I reflect i early life. 
I do not mean the particular room in which we  what it is which has given to that school so much
are now assembled, but under inquisitions direct- rank, respect, and illustration.  It has derived its
ed to the sheriff'; and the instances to which I al- highest advantages from the reverend father of
lude are of modern, and, indeed, recent date.      the unfortunate gentleman whom I represent.1
Gentlemen, after all the experience I have  It was the School of Westminster which gave
Transition:   had, I feel myself, I confess, consid- birth to that learning which afterward presided
Painful nature erably embarrassed in what manner  over it, and advanced its character.  However
of the subject
to be present- to address you. There are some sub- some men may be disposed to speak or write
ed.         jects that harass and overwhelm the  concerning public schools, I take upon me to say
mind of man. There are some kinds of distresses  they are among the wisest of our institutions.
one knows not how to deal with.  It is impossi- Whoever looks at the national character of the
ble to contemplate the situation of the plaintiff  English people, and compares it with that of all
without being disqualified, in some degree, to  the other nations upon the earth, will be driven
represent it to others with effect.  It is no less  to impute it to that reciprocation of ideas and
impossible for you, gentlemen, to receive on a  sentiments which fill and fructify the mind in the
sudden the impressions which have been long in  early period of youth, and to the affectionate symmy mind, without feeling overpowered with sen- pathies and friendships which rise up in the husations which, after all, had better be absent, man heart before it is deadened or perverted by
when men are called upon, in the exercise of  the interests and corruptions of the world. These
duty, to pronounce a legal judgment.               youthful attachments are proverbial, and, indeed,
The plaintiff is the third son of his Grace the  few instances have occurred of any breaches of
Narration  Archbishop of York, a clergyman of  them; because a man, before he can depart from. Markham's the Church of Englannd; presented, the obligations they impose, must have forsaken
institution in  in the year 1791, to the living of  every principle of virtue, and every sentiment of
Stokeley, in Yorkshire; and now, by  manly honor. When, therefore, the plaintiff found
his Majesty's favor, Dean of the Cathedral of  his old school-fellow and companion settled in his
York.  He married, in the year 1789, Miss Sut- neighborhood, he immediately considered him as
ton, the daughter of Sir Richard Sutton, Bart., of  his brother.  Indeed, he might well consider him
Norwood, in Yorkshire, a lady of great beauty and  as a brother, since, after having been at Westaccomplishments, most virtuously educated, and  minster, they were again thrown together in the
who, but for the crime of the defendant, which  same college at Oxford; so that the friendship
assembles you here, would, as she has expressed  they had formed in their youth became cemented
it herself, have been the happiest of womankind.  and consolidated upon their first entrance into
This gentleman having been presented, in 1791, the world.  It is no wonder, thereby his father, to this living, where, I understand, fore, that when the defendant came confidence and
there had been no resident rector for forty years, down to settle in the neighborhood of tion olhis
set an example to the Church and to the public, the plaintiff; he should be attracted  "ried.
which was peculiarly virtuous in a man circum- toward him by the impulse of his former attachstanced as he was; for, if there can be any per- ment.  He recommended him to the Lord Lieuson more likely than another to protect himself  tenant of the county, and, being himself a magissecurely with privileges and indulgences, it might trate, he procured him a share in the magistracy.
be supposed to be the son of the metropolitan of  He introduced him to the respectable circle of his
the province.  This gentleman, however, did not acquaintances.  He invited him to his house, and
avail himself of the advantage of his birth and  cherished him there as a friend.  It is this which
station. Although he was a very young man, he  renders the business of to-day most affecting, as
devoted himself entirely to the sacred duties of  it regards the plaintiff, and wicked in the exhis profession; at a large expense he repaired  treme, as it relates to the defendant, because the
the rectory-house for the reception of his family, confidences of friendship conferred the opportunias if it had been his own patrimony; while, in his ties of seduction.  The plaintiff had no pleasures
extensive improvements, he adopted only those  or affections beyond the sphere of his domestic
arrangements which were calculated to lay the  life; and except in his occasional residences at
foundation of an innocent and peaceful life.  He  York, which were but for short periods, and at a
had married this lady, and entertained no other very inconsiderable distance from his home, he
thoughts than that of cheerfully devoting himself  constantly reposed in the bosom of his family. I
to all the duties, public and private, which his  believe it will be impossible for my learned friend
situation called upon him to perform.              to invade his character: on the contrary, he will
About this time, or soon afterward, the deMr. Fawcett's fendant became the purchaser of an
removal into                                         I Dr. Markham, afterward Archbishop of York,
the same neig state th e neighborhood of Stoke- was for some years at the head of the Westminster
hbrhaaod.    ley, and, by such purchase, an inhab- School, and was so rhuch distinguished for his learnitant of that part of the country, and the neigh- ing and his tact in drawing out the abilities of his
bor of this unfortunate gentleman.  It is a most pupils, that he was chosen to be private tutor of the
aflecting circumstance, that the plaintiff  and  Prince of Wales and his brother the Duke of York.




780                                     MR. ERSKINE                                         [1802.
be found to have been a pattern of conjugal and   quences of his crime, and what verdict you will
parental affection.                               pronounce against him.  You are placed, thereMr. Fawcett being thus settled in the neigh- fore, in a situation most momentous to the pubMr. Fawett's borhood, and thus *received by Mr. lie.  You have a duty to discharge, the result of
abuse of that Markham as his friend and compan- which not only deeply affects the present generconfidence to.
the purposes ion, it is needless to say he could har- ation, but which remotest posterity will contemosedu. bor no suspicion that the defendant plate to your honor or dishonor.  On your verwas meditating the seduction of his wife; there  diet it depends whether persons of the descriptioqi
was nothing, indeed, in his conduct, or in the  of the defendant, who have cast off all respect
conduct of the unfortunate lady, that could ad- for religion, who laugh at morality, when it is
minister any cause of jealousy to the most guard-  opposed to the gratification of their passions, and
ed or suspicious temper.  Yet, dreadful to relate, who are careless of the injuries they inflict upon
and it is, indeed, the bitterest evil of which the  others, shall continue their impious and destructplaintiff has to complain, a criminal intercourse, ive course with impunity.  On your verdict it
for nearly five years before the discovery of the  depends whether such men, looking to the proconnection, had most probably taken place.        ceedings of courts of justice, shall be able to say
I will leave you to consider what must have  to themselves, that there are certain limits bePeculiar ag- been the feelings of such a husband, yond which the damages of juries are not to pass.
gravation of
rte misery  upon the fatal discovery that his wife,  On your verdict it depends whether men of large
into which  and such a wife, had conducted her-  fortunes shall be able to adopt this kind of reathe plaintiff
is plunged. self in a manner that not merely de- soning to spur them  on in the career of their
prived him of her comfort and society, but placed  lusts: " There are many chances that I may not
him in a situation too horrible to be described. be discovered at all; there are chances that, if I
If a man without children is suddenly cut off by  am discovered, I may not be the object of legal inan adulterer from all the comforts and happiness  quiry —and supposing I should, there are certain
of marriage, the discovery of his condition is  damages, beyond which a jury can not go.  They
happiness itself when compared with that to  may be large, but still within a certain compass.
which the plaintiff is reduced.  When children,  If I can not pay them myself, thee may be perby a woman, lost forever to the husband, by the  sons belonging to myfamily who will pily my sitarts of the adulterer, are begotten in the unsus- uation: somehow or other the money nmay he raised,
pected days of virtue and happiness, there re- and I may be delivered from the consequences of
mains a consolation; mixed, indeed, with the  my crime."  I TRUST THE VERDICT OF THIS DAY
most painful reflections, yet a consolation still. WILL SHOW MEN WHO REASON THUS THAT THEY
But what is the plaintiff's situation?  He does ARE MISTAKEN.
not know at what time this heavy calamity fell    The action for adultery, like every other action,
upon him-he is tortured with the most afflict- is to be considered according to the The suffering
ing of all human sensations.  When he looks at extent of the injury which the per- pevery ecase t
the children, whom  he is by law bound to pro- son complaining to a court of justice fll comP1ensS
tect and provide for, and from whose existence  has received.  If he has received an jury sustained.
he ought to receive the delightful return which  injury, or sustained a loss that can be estimated
the union of instinct and reason has provided for directly in money, there is then no other medium
the continuation  of the world, he knows not of redress, but in moneys numbered according to
whether he is lavishing his fondness and affection  the extent of the proof.  I apprehend it will not
upon his own children, or upon the seed of a vil- be even stated by the counsel for the defendant,
lain sown in the bed of his honor and his delight. that if a person has sustained a loss, and can
He starts back with horror, when, instead of see- show it is to any given extent, he is not entitled
ing his own image reflected from  their infant to the full measure of it in damages.  If a man
features, he thinks he sees the destroyer of his  destroys my house or furniture, or deprives me
happiness-a midnight robber introduced into his  of a chattel, I have a right, beyond all manner
house, under professions of friendship and broth- of doubt, to recover their corresponding values in
erhood-a plunderer, not in the repositories of money, and it is no answer to me to say that he
his treasure, which may be supplied, or lived  who has deprived me of the advantage I before
without, " but there where he had garnered up his  possessed is in no situation to render me satishopes, where either he must live or bear no life."2 faction.  A verdict pronounced upon such a prinIn this situation, the plaintiff brings his case  ciple, in any of the cases I have alluded to, would
Duty ofrt eury before you, and the defendant at- be set aside by the court, and a new trial awardto the plaintiff  tempts no manner of defense.  He  ed.  It would be a direct breach of the oaths of
a'd to the publih in assessing  admits his guilt-he renders it un-  jurors, if, impressed with a firm conviction that a.    necessary for me to go into any proof  plaintiff had received damages to a given amount,
of it; and the only question, therefore, that re- they retired from  their duty, because they felt
mains, is for you to say what shall be the conse- commiseration for a defendant, even in a case
2 But there, where I had garnered up my heart,  where he might be worthy of compassion from
Where either I must live, or bear no life,    the   ury being unpremeditated and  nadvert
The fountain from the which my current runs,   ent.
Or else dries up; to be discarded thence!      But there are other wrongs which can not be
Othello, Act iv., Sc. 9.   estimated in money:




1802.]                      IN BEHALF OF MR. MARKHAM.                                      78i
You cannot minister to a mind diseased.3    affections were the solace of his life; that for
You can not redress a man who is wronged be- nothing the world could bestow in the shape of
If money can not yond the possibility of redress: the  riches or honors would he have bartered one
wrong theaward law has no means of restoring to  moment's comfort in the bosom of his family, he
ought, for tis  him what he has lost.  God him- shows you a wrong that no money can compenvery reason, to be
nost ample.   self, as he has constituted human  sate. Nevertheless, if the injury is only mensuranature,-has no means of alleviating such an inju- ble in money, and if you are sworn to make upon
ry as the one I have brought before you.  While  your oaths a pecuniary compensation, though I
the sensibilities, affections, and feelings he has can conceive that the damages when given to
given to man remain, it is impossible to heal a  the extent of the declaration, and you can give
wound which strikes so deep into the soul. When  no more, may fall short of what your consciences
you have given to a plaintiff in damages, all that would have dictated, yet I am utterly at a loss
figures can number, it is as nothing; he goes away  to comprehend upon what principle they can be
hanging down his head in sorrow, accompanied  lessened.  But then comes the defendant's counby his wretched family, dispirited and dejected. sel, and says, "It is true that the injury can not
Nevertheless, the law has given a civil action for be compensated by the sum which the plaintiff
adultery, and, strange to say, it has given noth- has demanded; but you will consider the miseing else.  The law  commands that the injury  ries my client must suffer, if you make him the
shall be compensated (as far as it is practicable) object of a severe verdict. You must, therefore,
IN MONEY, because courts of Civil Justice have no  regard him with compassion; though I am ready
other means of compensation THAN money; and  to admit the plaintiff is to be compensated fdr
the only question, therefore, and which you upon  the injury he has received.
your oaths are to decide, is this: has the plaint-    Here, then, Lord Kenyon's doctrine deserves
iff sustained an injury up to the extent which he consideration.      He who will miti- Damages not to
has complained of? Will twenty thousand pounds  gate damages below the fair esti- bemitigated
place him in the same condition of comfort and  mate of the wrong which he has cause sihown by
happiness that he enjoyed before the adultery, and  committed, must do it upon some the defedant.
which the adulterer has deprived him of?  You  principle which the policy of the law will supknow that it will not.  Ask your own hearts the  port."
question, and you will receive the same answer.    Let me, then, examine, whether the defendant
I should be glad to know, then, upon what prin- is in a situation which entitles him to No sucl cause
ciple, as it regards the private justice, which the  have the damages against him miti- in this case.
plaintiff has a right to, or upon what principle, gated, when private justice to the injured party
as the example of that justice affects the public  calls upon you to give them  TO THE UTMOST
and the remotest generations of mankind, you can  FARTHING. The question will be, on what prinreduce this demand even in a single farthing.    ciple of mitigation he can stand before you.  I
This is a doctrine which has been frequently  had occasion, not a great while ago, to remark
Views of   countenanced by the noble and learned  to a jury, that the wholesome institutions of the
as to aount Lord [Lord Kenyon] who lately pre- civilized world came seasonably in aid of the
f damages. sided in the Court of King's Bench; dispensations of Providence for our well-being
but his Lordship's reasoning on the subject has in the world.  If I were to ask, what it is that
been much misunderstood, and frequently mis- prevents the prevalence of the crime of incest,
represented.  The noble Lord is supposed to by taking away those otherwise natural impulses,
have said, that although a plaintiff may not have from the promiscuous gratification of which we
sustained an injury by adultery to a given amount, should become like the beasts of the field, and
yet that large damages, for the sake of public  lose all the intellectual endearments which are
example, should be given.  He never said any  at once the pride and the happiness of man?
such thing.  He said that which law and morals What is it that renders our houses On the contrary,
dictated to him, and which will support his rep- pure and our families innocent?  It the severest
guards necessautation as long as law and morals have a foot- is that, by the wise institutions of all ry to protect soing in the world.  He said that every plaintiff  civilized nations, there is placed a cthleclosest lntihad a right to recover damages up to the extent kind of guard against the human macy.
of the injury he had received, and that public ex- passions, in that sense of impropriety and dishonample stood in the way of showing favor to an  or, which the law has raised up, and impressed
adulterer, by reducing the damages below the  with almost the force of a second nature.  This
sum which the jury would otherwise consider as wise and politic restraint beats down, by the
the lowest compensation for the wrong.  If the  habits of the mind, even a propensity to incestuplaintiff shows you that he was a most affection- ous commerce, and opposes those inclinations
ate husband  that his parental and conjugal which nature, for wise purposes, has implanted
—.__ _~..... _. -----  in our breasts at the approach of the other sex.
3 Canst thou not minister to a mnind diseased,       
Cukst thou ot ministemr to a mind diseased,  It holds the mind in chains against the seducPluck from the memory a rooted sorrow,.    
Raze out the written troubles of the brain,  tions of beauty.  It -is a moral feeling in perRaze out the written troubles of the brain,
And with some sweet oblivious antidote       petual opposition to human infirmity.  It is like
Cleanse the stiffed bosom of that perilous stuff  an angel from heaven placed to guard us from
Which weighs upon the heart?                 propensities which are evil.  It is that warning
Macbeth, Act v., Sc. 3.   voice, gentlemen, which enables you to embrace




782                                    MR. ERSKINE                                       [1802.
your daughter, however lovely, without feeling- such reflections, he had innumerable difficulties
that you are of a different sex.  It is that which  and obstacles to contend with.  He could not
enables you, in the same manner, to live familiarly  but hear, in the first refusals of this unhappy
with your nearest female relations, without those  lady, every thing to awaken conscience, and
desires which are natural to man.               even to excite horror.  In the arguments he
Next to the tie of blood (if not, indeed, before must have employed to seduce her from her duty,
Application of it) is the sacred and spontaneous re- he could not but recollect and willfully trample
the rinciplef lation of friendship.  The man who  upon his own.  He was a year engaged in the
friendship.   comes under the roof of a married  pursuit; he resorted repeatedly to his shameful
friend, ought to be under the dominion of the purpose, and advanced to it at such intervals of
same moral restraint; and, thank God, generally  time and distance, as entitle me to say, that he
is so, from the operation of the causes which I determined in cold blood to enjoy a future and
have described.  Though not insensible to the  momentary gratification, at the expense of every
charms of female beauty, he receives its impres- principle of honor which is held sacred among
sions under an habitual reserve, which honor im- gentlemen, even where no laws interpose their
poses.  Hope is the parent of desire, and honor obligations or restraints.
tells him he must not hope.  Loose thoughts    I call upon you, therefore, gentlemen of the
may arise, but they are rebuked and dissipated: jury, to consider well this case-for Ajury the chief
"'Evil into the mind of God or man            it is your office to keep human life  ndiciatsyin of
May come and go, so unapproved, and leave    in tone; your verdict must decide cases.
No spot or blame behind."-iMilton.           whether such a case can be indulgently considGentlemen, I trouble you with these reflec- ered, without tearing asunder the bonds which
tions, that you may be able properly to appre- unite society together.
ciate the guilt of the defendant, and to show      Gentlemen, I am  not preaching a religion
you, that you are not in a case where large al- which men can scarcely practice. I
lowances are to be made for the ordinary infirmi- am not affecting a severity of morals in the present
ties of our imperfect natures.  When a man beyond the standard of those whom I instance.
does wrong in the heat of sudden passion-as, am accustomed to respect, and with whom I assofor instance, when, upon receiving an affront, he ciate in common life.  I am not making a stalkrushes into immediate violence, even to the dep- ing-horse of adultery, to excite exaggerated senrivation of life, the humanity of the law classes timent.  This is not the case of a gentleman
his offense among the lower degrees of homi- meeting a handsome woman in a public street or
cide; it supposes the crime to have been com- in a place of public amusement; where, finding
mitted before the mind had time to parley with  the coast clear for his addresses, without interitself. But is the criminal act of such a person, ruption from those who should interrupt, he finds
Abuse of  however disastrous may be the conse- himself engaged (probably the successor of anfre"dlefrbY  quence, to be compared with that of  other) in a vain and transitory intrigue.  It is
ant.     the defendant?  Invited into the house not the case of him who, night after night, falls
of a friend-received with the open arms of af- in with the wife of another, to whom  he is a
fection, as if the same parents had given them  stranger, in the boxes of a theater, or other rebirth and bred them-in THIS situation, this most sorts of pleasure, inviting admirers by indecent
monstrous and wicked defendant deliberately  dress and deportment, unattended by any thing
perpetrated his crime; and, shocking to relate, which bespeaks the affectionate wife and mother
not only continued the appearances of friendship  of many children.  Such connections may be of
after he had violated its most sacred obligations, evil example; but I am not here to reform pubbut continued them as a cloak to the barbarous lie manners, but to demand private justice.  It is
repetitions of his offense-writing letters of re- impossible to assimilate the sort of cases I have
gard, while, perhaps, he was the father of the  alluded to, which ever will be occasionally oclast child, whom his injured friend and compan- curring, with this atrocious invasion of household
ion was embracing and cherishing as his own! peace-this portentous disregard of every thing
What protection can such conduct possibly re- held sacred among men, good or evil. Nothing,
ceive from the humane consideration of the law  indeed, can be more affecting than even to be
for sudden and violent passions?  A passion for called upon to state the evidence I must bring
a woman is progressive; it does not, like anger, before you.  I can scarcely pronounce to you
gain an uncontrolled ascendency in a moment, that the victim of the defendant's lust was the
nor is a modest matron to be seduced in a day. mother of nine children, seven of them females
Such a crime can not, therefore, be committed  and infants, unconscious of their unhappy condiunder the resistless dominion of sudden infirmi- tion, deprived of their natural guardian, separaty; it must be deliberately, willfully, and.wickedly  ted from her forever, and entering the world with
committed.  The defendant could not possibly  a dark cloud hanging over them.  But it is not
have incurred the guilt of this adultery without in the descending line alone that the happiness
often passing through his mind (for he had the  of this worthy family is invaded.  It hurts me to
education and principles of a gentleman) the  call before you the venerable progenitor of both
very topics I have been insisting upon before you  the father and the children, who has risen by exfor his condemnation.  Instead of being sudden- traordinary learning and piety to his eminent rank
ly impelled toward mischief, without leisure for in the Church; and who, instead of receiving,




1802.]                      IN BEHALF OF MR. MARKHAM.                                     783
unmixed and undisturbed, the best consolation  Why does he come here for money? Thank God,
of age, in counting up the number of his de- gentlemen, IT IS NOT MY FAULT.  I. 
scendants, carrying down the name and honor of take honor to myself, that I was one exertions to
his house to future times, may be forced to turn  of those who endeavored to put an end  crminalT faside his face from some of them that bring to his to this species of action, by the adop- fense.
remembrance the wrongs which now  oppress tion of a more salutary course of proceeding.
him, and which it is his duty to forget, because  I take honor to myself, that I was one of those
it is his, otherwise impossible, duty to forgive  who supported in Parliament the adoption of a
them.                                           law to pursue such outrages with the terrors of
Gentlemen, if I make out this case by evi- criminal justice.  I thought then, and I shall alit is one almost dence (and if I do not, forget every  ways think, that every act malum in se directly
withut parlle thing you have heard, and reproach  injurious to an individual, and most pernicious in
in.te hintory of
sucl offenses. me for having abused your honest its consequences to society, should be considered
feelings), I have established a claim for damages to be a misdemeanor. Indeed, I know of no oththat has no parallel in the annals of fashionable  er definition of the term. The Legislature, howadultery.  It is rather like the entrance of Sin  ever, thought otherwise, and I bow to its decisand Death into this lower world.  The undone ion; but the business of this day may produce
pair were living like our first parents in Para- some changes of opinion on the subject. I never
dise, till this demon saw and envied their happy  meant that every adultery was to be similarly
condition.  Like them, they were in a moment considered. Undoubtedly, there are cases where
cast down from the pinnacle of human happiness it is comparatively venial, and judges would not
into the very lowest abyss of sorrow and despair. overlook the distinctions.  I am not a pretender
In one point, indeed, the resemblance does not to any extraordinary purity. My severity is conhold, which, while it aggravates the crime, re- fined to cases in which there can be but one sendoubles the sense of suffering.  It was not from  timent among men of honor, as to the offense,
an enemy, but from a friend, that this evil pro- though they may differ in the mode and measure
ceeded.  I have just had put into my hand a of its correction.
quotation from the Psalms upon this subject, full   It is this difference of sentiment, gentlemen,
of that unaffected simplicity which so strikingly  that I am alone afraid of.  I fear you Dangerous
characterizes the sublime and sacred poet:     may think there is a sort of limitation of mitigting
"It is not an open enemy that hath done me in verdicts, and that you may look to dgeS in
this dishonor, for then I could have borne it.    precedents for the amount of damages, kind.
" Neither was it mine adversary that did mag- though you can find no precedent for the magninify himself against me; for then, peradventure, tude of the crime; but you might as well abolish
I would have hid myself from him.              the action altogether, as lay down a principle
" But it was even thou, my companion, my  which limits the consequences of adultery to
guide, mine own familiar friend."              what it may be convenient for the adulterer to
This is not the language of counsel, but the  pay.  By the adoption of such a principle, or by
inspired language of truth.  I ask you solemnly, any mitigation of severity, arising even from an
upon your honors and your oaths, if you would  insufficient reprobation of it, you unbar the sancexchange the plaintiff's former situation for his tuary of domestic happiness, and establish a sort
present, for a hundred times the compensation  of license for debauchery, to be sued out like othhe requires at your hands.  I am addressing my- er licenses, at its price.  A man has only to put
self to affectionate husbands and to the fathers of money into his pocket, according to his degree
beloved children.  Suppose I were to say to you, and fortune, and he may then debauch the wife
There is twenty thousand pounds for you: em- or daughter of his best friend, at the expense he
brace your wife for the last time, and the child  chooses to go to. He has only to say to himself,
that leans upon her bosom and smiles upon you  what Iago says to Roderigo in the play,
-retire from your house, and make way for the,  "1'1. ~ v"   ~ ~~ rPut money in thy purse —go to —put money in thy
adulterer-wander about an object for the hand        pu.4
of scorn to point its slow and moving finger atthink no more of the happiness and tranquillity    Persons of immense fortunes might, in this
of your former state-I have destroyed them for- way, deprive the best men in the country of their
ever. But never mind-don't make yourself un- domestic satisfactions, with what to them might
easy-here is a draft upon my banker, it will be  be considered as impunity. The most abandoned
paid at sight-there is no better man in the city. profligate might say to himself. or to other profliI can see you think I am mocking you, gentle- gates, "I have suffered judgment by default-let
men, and well you may; but it is the very pith  them send down their deputy-sheriff to the King's
and marrow of this cause.  It is impossible to  Arms Tavern; I shall be concealed from the eye
put the argument in mitigation of damages in  of the public-I have drawn upon my banker for
plain English, without talking such a language, the utmost damages, and I have as much more to
as appears little better than an insult to your un- spare to-morrow, if I can find another woman
derstandings, dress it up as you will.         whom I would choose to enjoy at such a price."
But it may be asked-if no money can be an  In this manner I have seena rich delinquent, too
adequate, or, indeed, any compensation, why is
Mr. Markham  a plaintiff in a CIVIL ACTION?  Othello, Act i., Scene 3.




784                  MR. ERSKINE IN BEHALF OF MR. MARKHAM.                                   [1802.
lightly fined by courts of criminal justice, throw  tice of Christianity shall overspread the face of
down his bank-notes to the officers, and retire  the earth.
with a deportment, not of contrition, but con-    Gentlemen, as to us, WE have nothing to wait
tempt.                                            for.  We have long been in the center of light.
For these reasons, gentlemen, I expect from   We have a true religion and a free government,
you to-day the full measure of damages demand- AND YOU ARE THE PILLARS AND SUPPORTERS OF
ed by the plaintiff.  Having given such a ver- BOTH.
diet, you will retire with a monitor within con-    I have nothing further to add, except that,
firming that you have done right; you will retire  since the defendant committed the in- Duty of a jury
in sight of an approving public, and an approv- jury complained of, he has sold his inEngland,
ing Heaven.  Depend upon it, the world can not estate, and is preparing to remove stitutions have
be held together without morals; nor can morals  into some other country.  Be it so.  erised and
maintain their station in the human heart without Let him remove; but YOU will have rvered.
religion, which is the corner-stone of the fabric of to pronounce the penalty of his return.  It is for
human virtue.                                     You to declare whether such a person is worthy
We have lately had a most striking proof of  to be a member of our community.  But if the
Peroration:  this sublime and consoling truth in  feebleness of your jurisdiction, or a commiseratti.t.s (includ-   one result, at least, of the Revolution  tion which destroys the exercise of it, shall shel-'naerrige" )  which has astonished and shaken the  ter such a criminal from the consequences of his
France.    earth.  Though a false philosophy  crimes, individual security is gone, and the rights
was permitted,for a season, to raise up her vain  of the public are unprotected.  Whether this be
fantastic front, and to trample down the Christian  our condition or not, I shall know by your verestablishments and institutions, yet, on a sudden,  diet.
God said, "Let there be light, and there was 
light."  The altars of religion were restored-       The jury gave c7000 damages-being the
not purged, indeed, of human errors and super- full amount of the defendant's property.  The
stitions, not reformed in the just sense of refor- money could not be collected, as Mr. Fawcett
mation; yet the Christian religion is still re-es- had fled the country; but the verdict operated
tablished-leading on to further reformation;  as a sentence of perpetual banishment against
fulfilling the hope, that the doctrines and prac- him.




MR. CURRAN.
JOHN PHILPOT CURRAN was born at Newmarket, an obscure village in the northwest corner of the county of Cork, Ireland, on the 24th of July, 1750.  The family
was in low circumstances, his father being seneschal, or collector of rents, to a gentleman of small property in the neighborhood.  He was a man, however, of vigorous intellect, and acquirements above his station; while his wife was distinguished for that
bold, irregular strength of mind, that exuberance of imagination and warmth of feeling, which were so strikingly manifested in the character of her favorite son.
The peculiar position of his father brought the boy, from early life, into contact
with persons of every class, both high and low; and he thus gained that perfect
knowledge of the mind and heart of his countrymen, and that kindling sympathy
with their feelings, which gave him more power over an Irish jury than any other
man ever possessed.  Though sent early to school, his chief delight was in societyin fun, frolic, mimicry, and wild adventure.  The country fairs, which were frequent
in his native village, were his especial delight; and, as he moved in the crowded
streets, among the cattle and the pigs, the horse-dealers and frieze-dealers, the matchmakers and the peddlers, he had his full share of the life, and sport, and contention
of the scene.  He was a regular attendant on dances and wakes; and dwelt with
the deepest interest on the old traditions about the unfinished palace of Kanturk, in
the neighborhood, or listened to the stories concerning the rapparees of King William's wars, or to " the strains of the piper as he blew the wild notes to which Alister M'Donnel marched to battle at Knocknanois, and the wilder ones in which the
women mourned over his corse."  Every thing conspired from his earliest years to
give him freedom and versatility of mind; to call forth the keenest sagacity as to
character and motives; to produce a quick sense of the ridiculous; to cherish that
passionate strength of feeling which expressed itself equally in tears and laughter;
to make him, at once, of reality and imagination " all compact."
When he was about fourteen years old, as he was rolling marbles one morning,
and playing his tricks in the ball-alley, he attracted the notice of an elderly gentleman who was passing by.  It was the Rev. Mr. Boyse, a clergyman of the Church
of England, who held the rectorship of the parish. The family of Curran were attendants on his ministry, and he had heard much of the brightness and promise of
the boy.  He invited him to his house, and was so much pleased with his frank and
hearty conversation, that he offered at once to instruct him in the classics, with a
view to his entering Trinity College, Dublin. Young Curran was ready for any thing
that could gratify his curiosity. He removed to the Rectory; he devoted himself to
study, though with occasional outbreaks of his love of fun and frolic; he made such
proficiency that, within three years, he fairly outran his patron's ability to teach him;
he was then removed by Mr. Boyse to a school at Middleton, and supported partly
at his expense; and was prepared for the University in 1769, at the age of nineteen.
Here he studied the classics especially, with great ardor, perfecting himself so fully
both in the Latin and Greek languages, that he could read them with ease and pleasure throughout life. His exertions were rewarded by honors and emoluments which
very nearly provided for his support while in college; and he carried with him into
life an enthusiasm  for these studies which never subsided, amid all the multiplied
cares of business and politics. For a long time he read Homer once every year;
D DD




786                                MR. CURRAN.
Mr. Phillips speaks of seeing him, late in life, on board a Holyhead packet in a storm,
absorbed in the Eneid, while every one around was deadly sick; and in the last
journey he ever took, Horace and Virgil were still, as in early life, his traveling companions. He was also distinguished at college for his love of metaphysical inquiries
and subtle disquisition. He showed great ingenuity in the discussion of subjects;
and his companions were so much struck with his dexterity and force on a certain
occasion, that they declared, with one consent, that " the bar, and the bar alone, was
the proper profession for the talents of which he had that day given such striking
proof."  " He accepted the omen," says his son, " and never after repented of his
decision."1
Having completed his college course, and qualified himself for the degree of Master of Arts, in 1773, he removed to London, and commenced the study of the law in
the Middle Temple.  Here he was supported in part by a wealthy friend, but his
life in London was " a hard one."  He spent his mornings, as he states, " in reading
even to exhaustion," and the rest of the day in the more congenial pursuits of literature, and especially in unremitted efforts to perfect himself as a speaker.  His voice
was bad, and his articulation so hasty and confused, that he went among his schoolfellows by the name of " stuttering Jack Curran."  His manner was awkward, his
gesture constrained and meaningless, and his whole appearance calculated only to
produce laughter, notwithstanding the evidence he gave of superior abilities. All
these faults he overcame by severe and patient labor.  Constantly on the watch
against bad habits, he practiced daily before a glass, reciting passages from Shakspeare, Junius, and the best English orators.  He frequented the debating societies,
which then abounded in London; and though mortified at first by repeated failures,
and ridiculed by one of his opponents as " Orator Mum," he surmounted every difficulty.  " He turned his shrill and stumbling brogue," says one of his fiiends, " into
a flexible, sustained, and finely-modulated voice.; his action became free and forcible;,he acquired perfect readiness in thinking on his legs;" he put down every opponent.sby the mingled force of his argument and wit, and was at last crowned with the
ruiversal applause of the society, and invited by the president to an entertainment
in their behalf.  Well might one of his biographers say, " His oratorical training
was as severe as any Greek ever underwent."
Mr. -Curran married during his residence in London, with but little accession to his
fortune, and, returning soon after to Ireland, commenced the practice of the law in
Dublin,:at the close of 1775.  He soon rose into business, because he could not do
without.it; verifying the remark of Lord Eldon, that some barristers succeed by
great talents, some by high connections, some by miracle, but the great majority by
commencing without a shilling."  Within four years, he gained an established rep-:utation and a lucrative practice; and at this time, 1779, he united with Mr. Yelverton, afterward Lord Avonmore, in forming a Society, called " The Monks of the
Order of St. Patrick," embracing a large part of the wit, literature, eloquence, and
public virtue of the -metropolis of Ireland.  From the title familiarly given its members of the " Monks ofthe Screw," it has been supposed by many to have been chiefly
a.drinking-club.  So.far was this from being the case, that, by an express regulation,
every thing stronger than beer was excluded from the meeting.  "It was a union,"
1 Mr. Curran's feelings toward Mr. Boyse, who sent him to College, were expressed in a story he
once told at his own table. "Thirty-five years after," said he, "returning one day from court, I
found an old gentleman seated in my drawing-room, with his feet on each side of the marble chimney-piece, and an air of being perfectly at home. He turned-it was my friend of the ball-alley! I
could not help bursting into tears.' You are right, sir, you are right! The chimney-piece is yours,
the pictures are yours, the house is yours: you gave mne all-my friend, my father!' He went
with me to Parliament, and I saw the tears glistening in his eyes when he saw his poor little Jackey
rise to answer a Right Honorable. He is gone, sir. This is his wine-let us drink his health!"




MR. CURRAN.                                    787
says one acquainted with its proceedings, " of strong minds, brought together like
electric clouds by affinity, and flashing as they joined. They met, and shone, and
warmed-they had great passions and generous accomplishments, and, like all that
was then good in Ireland; they were heaving for want of freedom."  Nearly thirty
years after, when the angry politics of the day had thrown Lord Avonmore and his
friend into hostile parties, so that they were no longer on speaking terms, Mr. Curran adverted to the meetings of this society in arguing a case before Lord Avonmore,
as Chief Baron of the Exchequer, in a manner which was deeply interesting to those
who witnessed it. After delicately alluding to his Lordship, as differing from the
Chief Justice of England on a point of law, and as having "derived his ideas
from the purest fountains of Athens and Rome," Mr. Curran expressed his hope that
such would be the decision of the court, embracing as it did members of the so( iety
referred to.  " And this soothing hope," said he, " I draw from the dearest and tenderest recollections of my life-from the remembrance of those Attic nights, and those
refections of the gods, which we have spent with those admired, and respected, and
beloved companions who have gone before us; over whose ashes the most precious
tears of Ireland have been shed.  [Here Lord Avonmore became so much affected
that he could not refrain from tears.] Yes, my good Lord, I see you do not forget
them.  I see their sacred forms passing in sad review before your memory.  I see
your pained and softened fancy recalling those happy meetings, where the innocent
enjoyment of social mirth became expanded into the nobler warmth of social virtue,
and the horizon of the board became enlarged into the horizon of man-where the
swelling heart conceived and communicated the pure and generous purpose-where
my slenderer and younger taper imbibed its borrowed light from the more matured
and redundant fountain of yours.  Yes, my Lord, we can remember those nights
without any other regret than that they can never more return; for,
" We spent them not in toys, or lust, or wine,
But search of deep philosophy,
Wit, eloquence, and poesy,
Arts which I loved-for they, my friend, were thine."-COWLEY.2
The space allowed to this sketch will not permit any minute detail of Mr. Curran's labors at the bar or in public life.  Nor was there any thing in either which
calls for an extended notice.  He was a member of the Irish House of Commons fiom
1783 to 1797, and entered warmly into the cause of emancipation and reform; but
he was never distinguished as a parliamentary orator.  His education was forensic;
his feelings and habits fitted him  pre-eminently to act on the minds of a jury, and
for more than twenty years he had an unrivaled mastery over the Irish bar.  His
speeches at state trials arising out of the United Irish conspiracy, were the most
splendid efforts of his genius.  He condemned insurrection; but he felt that the
people had been goaded to madness by the oppression of the government, and for
nearly six years he tasked every effort of his being to save the victims of misguided
and unsuccessful resistance.  He did it at the hazard of his life.  As he drove to
town at this period from his residence in a neighboring village, he was in daily expectation of being shot at.  The court-room was crowded with troops during some of
the trials, with a view, it was believed, of intimidating the jury or the advocates of
the prisoners.  " What's that?" exclaimed Mr. Curran, as a clash of arms was
heard from the soldiery at the close of one of his bold denunciations of the course
2 Lord Avonmore, in whose breast political resentment was easily subdued by the same noble
tenderness of feeling which distinguished Charles J. Fox upon a more celebrated occasion, could
not withstand this appeal to his heart. The moment the court rose, his Lordship sent for his friend,
and threw himself into his arms, declaring that unworthy artifices had been used to separate them
and that they should never succeed in future.




788                              MR. CURRAN.
pursued by the government.  Some who stood near him  seemed, from their looks
and gestures, about to offer him personal violence, when he fixed his eye sternly upon
them, and added, "You may assassinate, but you shall not intimidate me!"
" They were not mere clients for whom  he pleaded," says his biographer, " they
were friends for whose safety he would have coined his blood; they were patriots
who had striven by means which he thought desperate or unsuited to himself for the
freedom of their country.  He came in the spirit of love and mercy, inspired by
genius and commissioned by Heaven to walk on the waters with these patriots, and
lend them his hand when they were sinking.  He pleaded for some who, nevertheless, were slaughtered; but was his pleading therefore in vain? Did he not convert
many a shaken conscience, sustain many a frightened soul? Did he not keep the
life of genius, if not of hope, in the country? Did he not help to terrify the government into the compromise which they so ill kept? He did all this, and more.  His
speeches will ever remain less as models of eloquence than as examples of patriotism
and undying exhortations to justice and liberty."
I n 1803 there was another attempt at insurrection, which Mr. Curran regarded
with very different emotions.  It was that of Robert Emmett.  Whatever we may
think of the motives or the genius of this extraordinary young man, there can be but
one opinion of the enterprise in which he was engaged.  It was, from the first, rash
and hopeless.  He was just from college, with no character throughout the country
to give him authority as a leader, and no experience in the conduct of affairs; hasty
in his judgments, obstinate to an extreme in his resolves, and fatally deceived by
-weak or false advisers. The moment he began to move, the ground sunk under him.
" His attempt," as remarked by a friend of his principles, " had not the dignity of
even partial success, and did a vast injury to the country."  To Mr. Curran it wa.s
peculiarly afflictive, because it commenced with the murder of his old friend, Lord
Chief Justice Kilwarden, in the streets of Dublin.  In addition to this, Emmett had
won the affections of Sarah Curran without the knowledge of her father; a correspondence between them was found among his papers; and Mr. Curran was thus
brought under the suspicions of the government, was compelled to undergo the interrogatories of the Privy Council, and had the pain of being laid under obligations
to the generosity of the Attorney General, while his character was exposed to obloquy,
and the cause he had espoused subjected to the basest imputations from his political
opponents.  It is not, therefore, surprising that he refused to defend Emmett-defense was, indeed, impossible-or even to see him.  Nor, perhaps, is it surprising that
his feelings continued to be so much wounded, at Sarah's clandestine engagement
and its results, as to make her home an unhappy one; so that she left his house,
married without love, and carried her broken heart to an early grave in a foreign
land.3 To complete his wretchedness, Mr. Curran, through the villainy of a friend,
was called to suffer the severest calamity which a husband can ever endure.
The remaining events of his life can be briefly told. On the accession of the
Whigs to power, under Lord Grenville, in 1806, he was appointed Master of the
Rolls.  But the bench was not his place.  He was but poorly fitted for its duties;
and, though he discharged them with a moderate degree of ability, it was always
with reluctance. To assuage the melancholy which now preyed upon him, he carried his former habits of conviviality to a still greater extent.  He surrounded him-'self with gay companions, especially at his dinner-table; "and when roused," says
one of his biographers, " he used to run over jokes of every kind, good, bad, and indifferent.  No epigram too delicate, no mimicry too broad, no pun too little, and no
metaphor too bold for him.  He wanted to be happy, and to make others so, and
rattled away for mere enjoyment.  These afternoon dinner sittings were seldom proSee Washington [rving's story of the Broken Heart, in his Sketch Book.




MR. CURRAN.                               789
longed very late; but they made up in vehemence what they wanted in duration."
But his health failed him, and in 1814 he resigned the Mastership of the Rolls.
He now traveled, spending most of his time in England, but occasionally visiting
Paris and other places on the Continent. In the spring of 1817, while dining with
his friend, Thomas Moore, he had a slight attack of paralysis. His physician ordered
him at once to the south of Europe; and, to arrange his affairs, he went over to Ireland for the last time.  He returned to London, and was attacked with apoplexy,
of which he died, after lingering a few days, on the 14th of October, 1817.
Mr. Curran was short of stature, with a swarthy complexion, and " an eye that
glowed like a live coal."  His countenance was singularly expressive; and, as he
stood before a jury, he not only read their hearts with a searching glance, but he
gave them back his own, in all the fluctuations of his feelings, from laughter to tears.
His gesture was bold and impassioned; his articulation was uncommonly distinct
and deliberate; the modulations of his voice were varied in a high degree, and perfectly suited to the widest range of his eloquence.
His power lay in the variety and strength of his emotions. He delighted a jury by
his wit; he turned the court-room into a scene of the broadest farce by his humor,
mimicry, or fun; he made it " a place of tears," by a tenderness and pathos which
subdued every heart; he poured out his invective like a stream of lava, and inflamed
the minds of his countrymen almost to madness by the recital of their wrongs. His
rich and powerful imagination furnished the materials for these appeals, and his instinctive knowledge of the heart taught him how to use them with unfailing success.
He relied greatly for effect on his power of painting to the eye; and the actual condition of the country for months during the insurrection, and after it, furnished terrific pictures for his pencil. Speaking of the ignorance which prevailed in England
as to the treatment of the Irish, he said, " If you wished to convey to the mind of
an English matron the horrors of that period, when, in defiance of the remonstrances
of the ever-to-be-lamented Abercromby, our poor people were surrendered to the brutality of the soldiery by the authority of the state, you would vainly attempt to give
her a general picture of lust, and rapine, and murder, and conflagration.  By endeavoring to comprehend every thing, you would convey nothing. When the father
of poetry wishes to portray the movements of contending armies and an embattled
field, he exemplifies, he does not describe. So should your story to her keep clear of
generalities.  You should take a cottage, and place the affrighted mother with her
orphan daughters at the door, the paleness of death in her face, and more than its
agonies in her heart-her aching heart, her anxious ear struggling through the mist
of closing day to catch the approaches of desolation and dishonor. The ruffian gang
arrives-the feast of plunder begins-the cup of madness kindles in its circulationthe wandering glances of the ravisher become concentrated upon the shrinking and
devoted victim. You need not dilate-you need not expatiate; the unpolluted matron to whom you tell the story of horror beseeches you not to proceed; she presses her
child to her heart-she drowns it in her tears-her fancy catches more than an angel's
tongue could describe; at a single view she takes in the whole miserable succession
of force, of profanation, of despair, of death. So it is in the question before us."
The faults of Mr. Curran arose from the same source as his excellences.  They
lay chiefly on the side of excess; intense expressions, strained imagery, overwrought
passion, and descriptions carried out into too great minuteness of circumstance. But
he spoke for the people; the power he sought was over the Irish mind; and, in such
a case, the cautious logic and the Attic taste of Erskine, just so far as they existed,
would only have weakened the effect. There are but few parts of our country where
Curran would,be.a safe model for the bar; but our mass meetings will be swayed
most powerfully by an eloquence conceived in the spirit of the great Irish Orator.




SPEECH
OF MR. CURRAN IN BEHALF OF AB.CHIBALD HAMILTON ROWAN WHEN INDICTED FOR THE PUBLICATION OF A SEDITIOUS LIBEL, DELIVERED JANUARY 29, 1794.
INTRODUCTION.
MR. ROWAN was a gentleman of wealth and respectability in Dublin, who acted as secretary of the
Society of United Irishmen for that city. Associations under this name were now taking the place of the
Irish Volunteers,1 who ten years before had so powerful an influence on the politics of Ireland. Their
original object was to promote Catholic emancipation and a reform in Parliament. The society to which
Mr. Rowan belonged was one of the earliest, and the views of its members, as stated by the son and bi.
ographer of Curran, "did not extend beyond a constitutional reform."  It should not be confounded with
the subsequent associations which, under the same title, aimed at a revolution.
In 1792, the government issued a proclamation against seditious associations, which was no doubt directed against the United Irishmen. The chairman of the Dublin Society, Dr. Drennan, drew up a reply
addressed to the Volunteers of Ireland, and Mr. Rowan signed it as secretary. Its language was vehemlent and unguarded. " Citizen soldiers, to arms! Take up the shield of freedom and the pledge of peace
-peace, the motive and end of your virtuous institution. War, an occasional duty, should never be your
occupation; every man should become a soldier in defense of his rights."  The best construction that
could be put on such language, was that Ireland was again to be converted into a camp, as in 1780, for
the sake of showing England that her rights and interests must not be trifled with. The construction put
upon it by the government was that of a summons to prepare for insurrection, and it is not improbable
that the feelings of Drennan would have led him to such a result. But Mr. Rowan, as stated by Charles
Phillips, had no such intentions. "He was a man of the kindest nature, with a touch of the romantic.
Never was there a man less capable of crime, or more likely to commit an indiscretion. He never thought
of himself, but if he saw toward another even the semblance of oppression, at all cost and at all hazard
he stood forth to redress or to resist it. He was no mere political adventurer; he was a man of large
possessions; the interests of Ireland and his own were identified."  He signed this address, but he never gave it circulation; the man who did distribute it, and who greatly resembled Mr. Rowan, was named
Willis, and was never indicted.
Drennan and Rowan were brought before the Court of King's Bench for a seditious libel, not by a presentment of the grand jury, but by an information of the Attorney General. The former was acquitted
on a mere point of form; the trial of the latter gave rise to this speech. In justice to Mr. Curran, one
thing should be remembered in perusing it. Mr. Rowan had given directions that his counsel should aim
not so much to obtain his acquittal as to defend his principles. This accounts for the want of that close
argument on the exact point at issue, which has been the chief objection to this speech. Its true title
would be, A Vindication of Mr. Rowan's'motives, of the Irish Volunteers, of a Free Press, and of Catholic Emancipation.
SPEECH, &c.
GENTLEMEN OF THE JURY,-When I consider most respected families of our country-himself
Causes ofem- the period at which this prosecution is the only individual of that family-I may almost
in enteringn brought forward; when I behold the  say of that country, who can look to that possithe defense. extraordinary safeguard of armed sol- ble fate with unconcern?  Feeling, as I do, all
diers, resorted to, no doubt, for the preservation  these impressions, it is in the honest simplicity
of peace and order; when I catch, as I can not of my heart I speak, when I say that I never rose
but do, the throb of public anxiety, which beats in a court of justice with so much embarrassment
from  one end to the other of this hall; when I as upon this occasion.
reflect on what may be the fate of a man of the    If, gentlemen, I could entertain a hope of findmost beloved personal character, of one of the  ing refuge for the disconcertion of my Orl.y resource
mind in the perfect composure of yours; in the ci aor
For an account of this corps, see note 5 to Mr.  f I cold suppose   o fury
Burke's speech previous to the Bristol election, pagei  ssitude     s of hua   eets  w hih he 
296, and the Memoir of Mr. Grattan, page 383.     csstudes of human events, which have been
2 Alluding to aguard of soldiers which was broughttated or alluded to, cold leave your judgments
into court just at the opening of the trial. Mr. Cur- undisturbed and your hearts at ease, I know 1
ran, in alluding to this fact, very naturally shaped  should form a most erroneous opinion of your
his exordium into a beautiful resemblance to that of  character. I entertain no such chimerical hopes;
Cicero, in his oration for Milo.                  I form no such unworthy opinions; I expect not




1794.]                 MR. CURRAN IN  BEHALF OF MR. ROWAN.                                      791
that your hearts can be more at ease than my  and preferred to come forward in the ungracious
own; I have no right to expect it; but I have a  form of ex officio information.
right to call upon you in the name of your coun-    If such bill had been sent up and found, Mr.
try, in the name of the living God, of whose eter- Rowan would have been tried at the Backwardners
nal justice you are now administering that por- next commission; but a speedy trial or""e roto
tion which dwells with us on this side of the  was not the wish of his prosecutors. trial.
grave, to discharge your breasts, as far as you  An information was filed, and when he expected
are able, of every bias of prejudice or passion; to be tried upon it, an error, it seems, was disthat if my client is guilty of the offense charged  covered in the record.  Mr. Rowan offered to
upon him, you may give tranquillity to the pub- wave it, or consent to any amendment desired.
lie by a firm verdict of conviction; or if he is in- No.  That proposal could not be accepted.  A
nocent, by as firm a verdict of acquittal; and that trial must have followed.  That information,
you will do this in defiance of the paltry artifices  therefore, was withdrawn, and a new one filed;
and senseless clamors that have been resorted to  that is, in fact, a third prosecution was instituted
in order to bring him to his trial with anticipated  upon the same charge.  This last was filed on
conviction.  And, gentlemen, I feel an additional the eighth day of last July.  Gentlemen, these
necessity of thus conjuring you to be upon your facts can not fail of a due impression upon you.
guard, from  the able and imposing  statement You will find a material part of your inquiry
which you have just heard on the part of the  must be, whether Mr. Rowan is pursued as a
prosecution.  I know  well the virtues and the  criminal or hunted down as a victim.  It is not,
talents of the excellent person who conducts that therefore, by insinuation or circuity, but it is
prosecution; I know how  much he would dis- boldly and directly that I assert, that oppression
dain to impose upon you by the trappings of of- has been intended and practiced upon him; and
fice; but I also know how easily we mistake the  by those facts which I have stated I am warrantlodgment which character and eloquence can  ed in the assertion.
make upon our feelings, for those impressions    His demand, his entreaty to be tried was rethat reason, and fact, and proof, only ought to  fused; and why? A hue and cry was The design was
work upon our understandings.                     to be raised against him; the sword toir itlprejPerhaps, gentlemen, I shall act not unwisely  was to be suspended over his head; dice.
in waving any further observation of this sort, some time was necessary for the public mind to
and giving your minds an opportunity of grow- become heated by the circulation of artful claming cool and resuming themselves, by coming to  ors of anarchy and rebellion; those same clama calm  and uncolored statement of mere facts, ors which, with more probability, and not more
premising only to you that I have it in the strict-  success, had been circulated before through Enest injunction from my client to defend him upon  gland and Scotland.  In this country the causes
facts and evidence only, and to avail myself of  and the swiftness of their progress were as obno technical artifice or subtilty that could with- vious, as their folly has since become to every
draw his cause from  the test of that inquiry  man of the smallest observation.  I have been
which it is your province to exercise, and to  stopped myself with, "Good God, sir, have you
which only he wishes to be indebted for an ac- heard the news?"  No, sir, what?  "Why one
quittal.                                           French emissary was seen traveling through
In the month of December, 1792, Mr. Rowan  Connaught in a post-chaise, and scattering from
Preliminary  was arrested on an information charg- the windows as he passed, little doses of politiremardips  ing him with the offense for which he  cal poison, made up in square bits of paper; anMr. Rowan  is now on his trial.  He was taken be- other was actually surprised in the fact of seducin the early.tages of the fore an honorable personage now  on  ing our good people fiom  their allegiance, by
prostio. that bench, and admitted to bail.  He  discourses upon the indivisibility of French robremained a considerable time in this city, solicit- bery and massacre, which he preached in the
ing the threatened prosecution, and offering him- French language to a congregation of Irish peasself to a fair trial by a jury of his country; but ants!"
it was not then thought fit to yield to that solic-    Such are the bugbears and spectres to be raised
itation; nor has it now been thought proper to  to warrant the sacrifice of whatever little public
prosecute him in the ordinary way, by sending  spirit may remain among us; but time has also
up a bill of indictment to a grand jury. I do not detected the imposture of these Cock-lane apmean by this to say that informations ex officio  paritions, and you can not now, with your eyes
are always oppressive or unjust; but I can not open, give a verdict without asking your conbut observe to you, that when a petty jury is  sciences this question: Is this a fair and honest
called upon to try a charge not previously found  precaution?  Is it brought forward with the sin-.
by the grand inquest, and supported by the na-  gle view of vindicating public justice, and proked assertion only of the King's prosecutor, the  moting public good?
accusation labors under a weakness of probabili-    And here let me remind you that you are not.
ty which it is difficult to assist. If the charge had  convened to try the guilt of a libel Diflerenceb
no cause of dreading the light; if it was likely to  affecting the personal character of  libelro lrnT
find the sanction of a grand jury, it is not easy  any private man. I know no case in frel'est remark
to account why it deserted the more usual, the  which a jury ought to be more severe  rent.
more popular, and the more constitutional mode, than when personal calumny is conveyed throughi




792                                    MR. CURRAN                                        [1794.
a vehicle, which ought to be consecrated to pub- tions of this extent would have been deemed imlic information; neither, on the other hand, can  proper to a jury; happily for these countries, the
I conceive any case in which the firmness and  Legislature of each has lately changed, or, perthe caution of ajury should be more exerted than  haps, to speak more properly, revived and rewhen a subject is prosecuted for a libel on the stored the law respecting trials of this kind.3  For
state.  The peculiarity of the British Constitu- the space of thirty or forty years, a usage had
tion (to which, in its fullest extent, we have an  prevailed in Westminster Hall, by which the
undoubted right, however distant we may be  judges assumed to themselves the decision of the
from the actual enjoyment), and in which it sur- question, whether libel or not.  But the learnpasses every known government in Europe, is ed counsel for the prosecution are now  obliged
this, that its only professed object is the general to admit that this is a question for the jury only
good, and its only foundation the general will. to decide.  You will naturally listen with re
Hence the people have a right, acknowledged  spect to the opinion of the court, but you will re'
from  time immemorial, fortified by a pile of  ceive it as matter of advice, not as matter of
statutes, and authenticated by a revolution that law; and you will give it credit, not from any
speaks louder than them  all, to see whether adventitious circumstances of authority, but mereabuses have been committed, and whether their ly so far as it meets the concurrence of your
properties and their liberties have been attended  own understandings.
to as they ought to be.  This is a kind of sub-    Give me leave, now, to state to you the charge
ject which I feel myself overawed when I ap- as it stands upon the record: It is, Clarge against
proach.  There are certain fundamental princi- that Mr. Rowan,   being a person of a Mr. Row"n.
ples which nothing but necessity should expose  wicked and turbulent disposition, and maliciousto a public examination.  They are pillars, the  ly designing and intending to excite and diffuse
depth of whose foundation you can not explore  among the subjects of this realm of Ireland, diswithout endangering their strength; but let it contents, jealousies, and suspicions of our Lord
be recollected that the discussion of such topics the King and his government, and disaffection and
should not be condemned in me, nor visited upon  disloyalty to the person and government of our
my client.  The blame, if any there be, should  said Lord the King, and to raise very dangerous
rest only with those who have forced them into  seditions and tumults within this kingdom of Iret  d   discussion.  I say, therefore, it is the  land and to draw the government of this kingofremark on  right of the people to keep an eter- dom  into great scandal, infamy, and disgrace;
their rulers then
righltofth peo. nal watch upon the conduct of their and to incite the subjects of our said Lord the
pie,      rulers; and in order to that, the free- King to attempt, by force and violence, and with
dom of the press has been cherished by the law  arms, to make alterations in the government,
of England.  In private defamation, let it never state, and Constitution of this kingdom; and to
be tolerated; in wicked and wanton aspersion incite his Majesty's said subjects to tumult and
upon a good and honest administration, let it nev- anarchy, and to overturn the established Constierbe supported; not that a good government can  tution of this kingdom, and to overawe and inbe exposed to danger by groundless accusation, timidate the Legislature of this kingdom  by
but because a bad government is sure to find in  armed force," did " maliciously and seditiously"
the detected falsehood of a licentious press a se- publish the paper in question.
curity and a credit which it could never other-    Gentlemen, without any observation of mine,
wise obtain,                                    you must see that this information Three thingsmust
I have said that a good government can not be contains a direct charge upon Mr. combieh to au
what,then, endangered-I sayso again; for wheth- Rowan; namely, that he did, with victiol.
govrntmnt er it be good or bad, can never depend  the intents set forth in the information, publish
ofIreland? upon assertion; the question is decided  this paper, so that here you have, in fact, two or
by simple inspection-to try the tree, look at its three questions for your decision: first, the matfruit; to judge of the government, look at the  ter of fact of the publication; namely, Did Mr.
people.  What is the fruit of good government?  Rowan publish that paper?  If Mr. Rowan did
"The virtue and happiness of the people."  Do  not, in fact, publish that paper, you have no
four millions of people in this country gather longer any question on which to employ your
those fruits from that government, to whose in- minds.  If you think that he was, in fact, the
jured purity, to whose spotless virtue and viola- publisher, then, and not till then, arises the great
ted honor, this seditious and atrocious libeler is and important subject to which your judgments
to be immolated upon the altar of the Constitu- must be directed.  And that comes shortly and
tion?  To you, gentlemen of that jury, who are  simply to this, is the paper a libel; and did he
bound by the most sacred obligation to your publish it with the intent charged in the informcountry and your God, to speak nothing but the  ation?  But whatever you may think of the ab.
truth, I put the question-Do they gather these  stract question, whether the paper be libelous or
fruits? are they orderly, industrious, religious, and  not, and of which paper it has not even been incontented? do you find them free from bigotry  sinuated that he is the author, there can be no
and ignorance, those inseparable concomitants of ground for a verdict against him, unless you also
systematic oppression? or, to try them by a test as are persuaded that what he did was done with a
unerring as any of the former, are they united?'The period has now elapsed in which considera-         3 Alluding to Mr. Fox's Libel Bill.




1794.]                         IN BEHALF OF MR. ROWAN.                                      793
criminal design.  I wish, gentlemen, to simpli- one question to you: Do you think the assemfy, and not to perplex; I, therefore, say again, bling of that glorious band of patri- Their formation
if these three circumstances conspire-that he  ots was an insurrection?  Do you not a seditious
published it, that it was a libel, and that it was think the invitation to that assemr- act.
published with the purposes alleged in the in- bling would have been sedition?  They came
formation, you ought unquestionably to find him  under no commission but the call of their country;
guilty; if, on the other hand, you do not find that unauthorized and unsanctioned, except by public
all these circumstances concurred; if you can  emergency and public danger.  I ask, was that
not, upon your oaths, say that he published it, if meeting an insurrection or not?  I put another
it be not in your opinion a libel, and if he did not question: If any man had then published a call
publish it with the intention alleged; I say, upon  on that body, and stated that war was declared
the failure of any one of these points, my client against the state-that the regular troops were
is entitled, in justice, and upon your oaths, to a withdrawn-that our coasts were hovered round
verdict of acquittal.                           by the ships of the enemy-that the moment was
Gentlemen, Mr. Attorney General has thought approaching when the unprotected feebleness of
pictedi  proper to direct your attention to the  age and sex, when the sanctity of habitation,
cussed in meet- state and circumstances of public af- would be disregarded and profaned by the brutal'rig the charge.
(I.) The Volun- fairs at the time of this transaction; ferocity of a rude invader: if any man had then said'ersofIreland' let me also make a few retrospective  to them, " Leave your industry for a while. that
observations on a period at which he has but you may return to it again, and come forth in arms
slightly glanced; I speak of the events which took  for the public defense." I put this question holdly
place before the close of the American war. to you, gentlemen.  It is not the case of the VolYou know, gentlemen, that France had espoused  unteers of that day; it is the case of my client at
the cause of America, and we became thereby  this hour, which I put to you.  Would that call
engaged in war with that nation.  Heu nescia  have been then pronounced in a court I not, then th,
mens hominum futuri!4  Little did that ill-fated  of justice, or by a jury on their oaths, call ol them to
Monarch know  that he was forming the first a criminal and seditious invitation to again, not sedi
causes of those disastrous events that were to end  insurrection?  If it would not have ton"
in the subversion of his throne, in the slaughter been so then, upon what principle can it be so
of his family, and the deluging of his country  now?  What is the force and perfection of the
with the blood of his people.  You can not but law?  It is the permanency of the law; it is, that
remember, that at a time when we had scarce- whenever the fact is the same, the law is also
ly a regular soldier for our defense; when the  the same; it is, that the law remains a written,
old and the young were alarmed and terrified  monumented, and recorded letter, to pronounce
with the apprehension of invasion, Providence  the same decision upon the same facts, whenever
seemed to have worked a sort of miracle in our they shall arise.  I will not affect to conceal it;
favor.  You saw  a band of armed men come  you know  there has been an artful, ungrateful,
forth at the great call of nature, of honor, and  and blasphemous clamor raised against these iltheir country.  You saw  men of the greatest lustrious characters, the saviors of the kingdom
wealth and rank; you saw  every class of the of Ireland.  Having mentioned this, let me read
community give up its members, and send them  a few words of the paper alleged to be criminal:
armed into the field, to protect the public and  " You first took up arms to protect your country
private tranquillity of Ireland.  It is impossible  from. foreign enemies, and from domestic disturbfor any man to turn back to that period without ance.  For the same purposes, it now becomes
reviving those sentiments of tenderness and grat- necessary that you should resume them."
itude which then beat in the public bosom; to    I should be the last in the world to impute any
recollect amid what applause, what tears, what want of candor to the right honorable Tlis call made
prayers, what benedictions, they walked forth  gentleman who has stated the case notlse, ld cerp,
among spectators, agitated by the mingled sen- on behalf of the prosecution; but he ganization.
sations of terror and reliance, of danger and pro- has certainly fallen into a mistake, which, if not
tection, imploring the blessings of Heaven upon  explained, might be highly injurious to my client.
their heads, and its conquest upon their swords. He supposed that this publication was not adThat illustrious, and adored, and abused body of dressed to the old Volunteers, but to new combimen, stood forward and assumed the title which, nations of them, formed upon new principles, and
I trust, the ingratitude of their country will nev- actuated by different motives.  You have the
er blot from its history, " THE VOLUNTEERS O   words to which this construction is imputed upon
IRELAND."  the record; the meaning of his mind can be colGive me leave, now, with great respect, to put lected only from those words which he has made._______ ______ _  ~use of to convey it.  The guilt imputable to him
4 The passage is from the Eneid of Virgil, book  can only be inferred from the meaning ascribax., line 501, and relates to Turnus, and his bringing  ble to those words.  Let his meaning then be
down upon himself the calamities which at last over- fairly collected by resorting to them.  Is there a
took him.                                       foundation to suppose that this address was diNescia mens hominum fati sortisque futurse.    rected to any such body of men as has been callSuch are the minds of men!      ed a banditti, with what justice, it is unnecessaUnconscious of their fate and coming fortune.  ry to inquire, and not to the old Volunteers?  As




794-                                   MR. CURRAN                                       [1794.
to the sneer at the word citizen soldiers, I should  stated by the Attorney General, and most truly,
feel that I was treating a very respected friend  that the most gloomy apprehensions were enterwith an insidious and unmerited unkindness, if I tained by the whole country. " You Volunteers
affected to expose it by any gravity of refutation. of Ireland, are therefore summoned to arms at
I may, however, be permitted to observe, that the instance of government, as well as by the rethose who are supposed to have disgraced this  sponsibility attached to your character, and the
expression by adopting it, have taken it from the  permanent obligations of your institution."  I
idea of the British Constitution, " that no man, am free to confess, if any man assuming the libin becoming a soldier, ceases to be a citizen."  erty of a British subject, to question public topWould to God, all enemies as they are, that that ics, should, under the mask of that privilege, pubunfortunate people had borrowed more from that lish a proclamation inviting the profligate and
sacred source of liberty and virtue; and would  seditious, those in want and those in despair, to
to God, for the sake of humanity, that they had  rise up in arms to overawe the Legislature, to
preserved even the little they did borrow.  If  rob us of whatever portion of the blessings of a
even there could be an objection to that appella- free government we possess, I know of no offense
tion, it must have been strongest when it was involving g.eater enormity.  But that, gentlefirst assumed."  To that period the writer man- men, is the question you are to try.  If my cliifestly alludes; he addresses those who first took  ent acted with an honest mind and fair intention,
up arms: " You first took up arms to protect your and having, as he believed, the authority of govcountry from foreign enemies and from domestic  ernment to support him in the idea that danger
disturbance.  For the same purposes, it is now  was to be apprehended, did apply to that body
necessary that you should resume them."  Is of so known and so revered a character, calling
this applicable to those who had never taken up  upon them by their former honor, the principle
arms before?  "A proclamation," says this pa- of their glorious institution, and the great stake
per, " has been issued in England, for embody- they possessed in their country; if he interposed,
ing the militia, and a proclamation has been is- not upon a fictitious pretext, but a real belief of
sued by the Lord Lieutenant and Council in Ire- actual and imminent danger, and that their armland for repressing all seditious associations. In  ing at that critical moment was necessary to their
consequence of both these proclamations, it is country, his intention was not only innocent, but
reasonable to apprehend danger from abroad and  highly meritorious.  It is a question, gentlemen,
danger at home."  God help us; from the situ- upon which you only can decide; it is for you
ation of Europe at that time, we were threaten-  to say whether it was criminal in the defendant
ed with too probable danger from abroad, and  to be so misled, and whether he is to fall a sacI am afraid it was not without foundation that rifice to the prosecution of that government by
we were told our having something to dread at which he was so deceived.  I say, again, gentlehome.                                           men, you can look only to his own words as the
I find much abuse has been lavished on the dis- interpreter of his meaning, and to the state and
It wasjustflied respect with which the proclamation  circumstances of his country, as he was made to
btiePJono'   is treated in that part of the paper believe them, as the clue to his intention.  The
goernment.  alleged to be a libel.  To that my  case, then, gentlemen, is shortly and simply this:
answer for my client is short; I do conceive it a man of the first family, and fortune, and charcompetent to a British subject-if he thinks that acter, and property among you, reads a proclaa proclamation has issued for the purpose of mation, stating the country to be in danger from
raising false terrors, I hold it to be not only the  abroad and at home, and thus alarmed -- thus,
privilege, but the duty of a citizen to set his upon authority of the prosecutor, alarmed, apcountrymen right with respect to such misrep- plies to that august body, before whose awful
resented danger; and until a proclamation in  presence sedition must vanish and insurrection
this country shall have the force of law, the rea- disappear.  You must surrender, I hesitate not
son and grounds of it are surely, at least, ques- to say it, your oaths to unfounded assertion, if
tionable by the people.  Nay, I will go further; you can submit to say that such an act of such
if an actual law had received the sanction of the  a man, so warranted, is a wicked and seditious
three estates, if it be exceptionable in any mat- libel  If he was a dupe, let me ask you who
ter, it is warrantable to any man in the commu-  was the impostor?  I blush and I shrink with
nity to state, in a becoming manner, his ideas shame and detestation from  that meanness of
upon it.  And I should be at a loss to know, if dupery, and servile complaisance, which could
the positive laws of Great Britain are thus ques- make that dupe a victim to the accusation of that
tionable, upon what ground the proclamation of  impostor.
an Irish government should not be open to the    You perceive, gentlemen, that I am going into
animadversion of an Irish subject.             the merits of this publication, before I apply myWhatever be the motive, or from  whatever self to the question which is first in order oftime,
It was made with quarter it arises, says this paper, namely, whether the publication, in point of fact,
honestintentionr. "alarm has arisen."  Gentlemen, is to be ascribed to Mr. Rowan or not.  I have
do you not know that to be the fact?  It has been  been unintentionally led into this violation of order. I should effect no purpose of either brevity
5 The old volunteers often used the phrase "citi- or clearness, by returning to the more methodizen soldiers."                                  cal course of observation. I have been naturally




1794.]                         IN BEHALF OF MR. ROWAN.                                       795
drawn from it by the superior importance of the  this place.  We would, therefore, caution every
topic I am upon, namely, the merit of the publi- honest man, who has really the welfare of the
cation in question.                              nation at heart, to avoid being led away by the
This publication, if ascribable at all to Mr. prostituted clamors of those who live on the sourRowan, contains four distinct subjects. The first ces of' corruption.  We pity the fears of the timthe invitation to the Volunteers to arm.  Upon  orous; and we are totally unconcerned respectthat I have already observed; but those that ing the false alarms of the venal.
remain are surely of much importance, and no    "We view with concern the frequency of wars.
doubt are prosecuted as equally criminal.  The  We are persuaded that the interests of the poor
paper next states the necessity of a reform  in  can never be promoted by accession of territory,
Parliament; it states, thirdly, the necessity of an  when bought at the expense of their labor and
emancipation of the Catholic inhabitants of Ire- blood; and we must say, in the language of a
land; and, as necessary to the achievement of all celebrated author,' We, who are only the peothese objects, does, fourthly, state the necessity  ple, but who pay for wars with our substance and
of a general delegated convention of the people. our blood, will not cease to tell Kings,' or governIt has been alleged that Mr. Rowan intended  ments,'that to them alone wars are profitable;
(2.)Parlianett- by this publication to excite the sub- that the true and just conquests are those which
Te freert ds- jects of this country to effect an al- each makes at home by comforting the peasantcussion of this teration in the form of your Constitu- ry, by promoting agriculture and manufactures,
in Engltnd.  tion.  And here, gentlemen, perhaps by multiplying men, and the other productions of
you may not be unwilling to follow a little further nature; that then it is that kings may call themthan Mr. Attorney General has done, the idea of selves the image of God, whose will is perpetua late prosecution in Great Britain upon the sub- ally directed to the creation of new beings.  If
ject of a public libel.  It is with peculiar fond- they continue to make us fight and kill one anness I look to that country for solid principles of  other, in uniform, we will continue to write and
constitutional liberty and judicial example. You  speak until nations shall be cured of this folly.'
have been pressed in no small degree with the  We are certain our present heavy burdens are
manner in which this publication marks the dif- owing, in a great measure, to cruel and impolitic
ferent orders of our Constitution, and comments  wars; and therefore we will do all on our part,
upon them. Let me show you what boldness of  as peaceable citizens who have the good of the
animadversion on such topics is thought justifia- community at heart, to enlighten each other, and
ble in the British nation, and by a British jury. protest against them.
I have in my hand the report of the trial of the    " The present state of the representation of the
printers of the Morning Chronicle for a supposed  people calls for the particular attention of every
libel against the state, and of their acquittal: let man who has humanity sufficient to feel for the
me read to you some passages from  that publi- honor and happiness of his country; to the decation, which a jury of Englishmen were in vain  fects and corruptions of which we are inclined
called upon to brand with the name of libel.    to attribute unnecessary wars, oppressive taxes,
" Claiming it as our indefeasible right to asso- &c.  We think it a deplorable case when the
Extracts fiom the ciate together, in a peaceable and  poor must support a corruption, which is calcuMoruingChronicle. friendly manner, for the communi- lated to oppress them; when the laborer must
cation of thoughts, the formation of opinions, and  give his money to afford the means of preventing
to promote the general happiness, we think it un- him having a voice in its disposal; when the lownecessary to offer any apology for inviting you  er classes may say, " We give you our money,
to join us in this manly and benevolent pursuit. for which we have toiled and sweated, and which
The necessity of the inhabitants of every com- would save our families from cold and hunger;
munity endeavoring to procure a true knowledge  but we think it more hard that there is nobody
of their rights, their duties, and their interests, whom we have delegated to see that it is not imwill not be denied, except by those who are the  properly and wickedly spent.  We have none to
slaves of prejudice, or interested in the continu- watch over our interests. The rich only are repation of abuses.  As men who wish to aspire to  resented.
the title of fieemen, we totally deny the wisdom   "An equal and uncorrupt representation would,
and the humanity of che advice, to approach the  we are persuaded, save us from heavy expenses,
defects of government with' pious awe and trem- and deliver us from many oppressions. We will,
bling solicitude.' What better doctrine could the  therefore, do our duty to procure this reform
Pope or the tyrants of Europe desire? We think, which appears to us of the utmost importance.
therefore, that the cause of truth and justice can    " In short, we see with the most lively connever be hurt by temperate and honest discus- cern an army of placemen, pensioners, &c., fightsions; and that cause which will not bear such  ing in the cause of corruption and prejudice, and
a scrutiny must be systematically or practically  spreading the contagion far and wide.
bad.  We are sensible that those who are not    "We see with equal sensibility the present
friends to the general good, have attempted to  outcry against reforms, and a proclamation (tendinflame the public mind with the cry of'Dan- ing to cramp the liberty of the press, and discredit
ger,' whenever men have associated for discuss- the true friends of the people) receiving the suping the principles of government; and we have  port of numbers of our countrymen.
little doubt but such conduct will be pursued in    " We see burdens multiplied, the lower classes




796                                    MR. CURRAN                                        [1794.
sinking into poverty, disgrace, and excesses, and  offender shall be amenable?  Without it, where
the means of those shocking abuses increased  is the ear to hear, or the heart to feel, or the
for the purpose of revenue.                     hand to redress their sufferings?  Shall they be
We ask ourselves,'Are we in England?' found, let me ask you, in the accursed bands of
Have our forefathers fought, bled, and conquered  imps and minions that bask in their disgrace,
for liberty?  And did they not think that the  and fatten upon their spoils, and flourish upon
fruits of their patriotism would be more abund- their ruin?  But let me not put this to you as
ant in peace, plenty, and happiness?           a merely speculative question.  It is a plain
" Is the condition of the poor never to be im- question of fact: rely upon it, physical man is
proved?                                         every where the same; it is only the various' Great Britain must have arrived at the high- operations of moral causes that gives variety to
est degree of national happiness and prosperity, the social or individual character and condition.
and our situation must be too good to be mend- How otherwise happens it that modern slavery
ed, or the present outcry against reforms and  looks quietly at the despot, on the very spot where
improvements is inhuman and criminal.  But we  Leonidas expired? The answer is easy; Sparta
hope our condition will be speedily improved, has not changed her climate, but she has lost that
and to obtain so desirable a good is the object government which her liberty could not survive.
of our present association: a union founded on    I call you, therefore, to the plain question of
principles of benevolence and humanity; dis- fact.  This paper recommends a re- Hreland
claiming all connection with riots and disorder, form in Parliament: I put that ques- such a repbut firm in our purpose, and warm in our affec- tion to your consciences; do you think re"setation?
tions for liberty,                              it needs that reform?  I put it boldly and fairly
"Lastly, we invite the friends of freedom  to you; do you think the people of Ireland are
throughout Great Britain to form similar socie- represented as they ought to be?  Do you hesties, and to act with unanimity and firmness, till itate for an answer?  If you do, let me remind
the people be too wise to be imposed upon, and  you that, until the last year, three millions of
their influence in the government be commensu- your countrymen have, by the express letter of
rate with their dignity and importance.  Then  the law, been excluded from the reality of actushall toe be free and happy."  Such, gentlemen,. al, and even from the phantom of virtual repreis the language which a subject of Great Britain  sentation.  Shall we, then, be told that this is
thinks himself warranted to hold, and upon such  only the affirmation of a wicked and seditious
language has the corroborating sanction of a  incendiary?  If you do not feel the mockery of
British jury been stamped by a verdict of ac- such a charge, look at your country; in what
quittal.  Such was the honest and manly free- state do you find it?  Is it in a state of trandom of publication; in a country, too, where the  quillity and general satisfaction?  These are
complaint of abuses has not half the foundation  traces by which good are ever to be distinit has here.  I said I loved to look to England  guished from bad governments, without any very
for principles of judicial example; I can not but minute inquiry or speculative refinement.  Do
say to you, that it depends on your spirit wheth- you feel that a veneration for the law, a pious
er I shall look to it hereafter with sympathy or and humble attachment to the Constitution, form
with shame.                                    the political morality of the people?  Do you
Be pleased  now, gentlemen, to  consider find that comfort and competency among your
The motives  whether the statement of the imper- people which are always to be found where a
o the acused fection in your representation has been  government is mild and moderate, where taxes
and patriotic. made with a desire of inflaming an  are imposed by a body who have an interest in
attack upon the public tranquillity, or with an  treating the poorer orders with compassion, and
honest purpose of procuring a remedy for an  preventing the weight of taxation from pressing
actually existing grievance. It is impossible not sore upon them?
to revert to the situation of the times; and let    Gentlemen, I mean not to impeach the state
me remind you, that whatever observations of  of your representation; I am not say- The question
this kind I am  compelled thus to make in a  ing that it is defective, or that it ought aproer'cone
court of justice, the uttering of them  in this to be altered or amended; nor is this ation.
place is not imputable to my client, but to the  a place for me to say whether I think that three
necessity of defense imposed upon him by this millions of the inhabitants of a country whose
extraordinary prosecution.                      whole number is but four, ought to be admitted
Gentlemen, the representation of your people  to any efficient situation in the state.  It may
importance of is the vital principle of their political be said, and truly, that these are not questions'ail. reprselnt- existence. Without it they are dead, for either of us directly to decide; but you can,tio rf thle  or they live only to servitude; without not refuse them some passing consideration at
liament.    it there are two estates acting upon  least, when you remember that on this subject
and against the third, instead of acting in co-op- the real question for your decision is, whether
eration with it; without it, if the people are op- the allegation of a defect in your Constitution is
pressed by their judges, where is -the tribunal to  so utterly unfounded and false, that you can aswhich their judges can be amenable?  Without cribe it only to the malice and perverseness of
it, if they are trampled upon and plundered by  a wicked mind, and not to the innocent mistake
a minister, where is the tribunal to which the  of an ordinary understanding; whether it may




1794.]                          IN BEHALF OF MR. ROWAN.                                      797
nrt be mistake; whether it can be only sedi- voice of your country."  I ask you, gentlemen.
tion.                                            do you think, as honest men, anxious for the pubAnd here, gentlemen, I own I can not but re- lie tranquillity, conscious that there are wounds
Parliament gret that one of our countrymen should  not yet completely cicatrized, that you ought to
arselves n- be criminally pursued for asserting the  speak this language at this time, to men who are
sideringit. necessity of a reform, at the very mo- too much disposed to think that in this very
ment when that necessity seems admitted by the  emancipation they have been saved from  their
Parliament itself; that this unhappy reform shall, own Parliament by the humanity of their Soverat the same moment, be a subject of legislative  eign?  Or, do you wish to prepare them for the
discussion and criminal prosecution.  Far am I revocation  of these improvident concessions?
from imputing any sinister design to the virtue  Do you think it wise or humane, at this moment,
or wisdom  of our government; but who can  to insult them, by sticking up in a pillory the
avoid feeling the deplorable impression that must man who dared to stand forth their advocate? I
be made on the public mind, when the demand  put it to your oaths, do you think that a blessing
for that reform is answered by a criminal inform- of that kind, that a victory obtained by justice
ation! I am the more forcibly impressed by this over bigotry and oppression, should have a stigconsideration, when I consider that when this ma cast upon it by an ignominious sentence upon
information was first put on the file, the subject men bold and honest enough to propose that
was transiently mentioned in the House of Com- measure; to propose the redeeming of religion
mons.  Some circumstances retarded the prog- from the abuses of the Church —the reclaiming
ress of the inquiry there, and the progress of the  of three millions of men from bondage, and givinformation was equally retarded here.  On the  ing liberty to all who had a right to demand it
first day of this session, you all know, that sub- — giving, I say, in the so much censured words
ject was again brought forward in the House of  of this paper, "UNIVERSAL EMANCIPATION!"  I
Commons, and, as if they had slept together, this speak in the spirit of the British law, which
prosecution was also revived in the Court of  makes liberty commensurate with, and insepaKing's Bench, and that before a jury taken from  rable from, the British soil-which proclaims,
a panel partly composed of those very members  even to the stranger and the sojourner, the moof Parliament who, in the House of Commons, ment he sets his foot upon British earth, that the
must debate upon this subject as a measure of  ground on which he treads is holy, and consepublic advantage, which they are here called  crated by the genius of UNIVERRSAL ElIANCIPAupon to consider as a public crime.6             TION.  No matter in what language his doom
This paper, gentlemen, insists upon the neces- may have been pronounced; no matter what
(3.) Catholic sity of emancipating the Catholics of complexion incompatible with freedom an Indian
emancipation. Ireland, and that is charged as a part or an African sun may have burned upon him;
of the libel.  If they had kept this prosecution  no matter in what disastrous battle his liberty
impending for another year, how much would re- may have been cloven down; no matter with
main for a jury to decide upon, I should be at a  what solemnities he may have been devoted upon
loss to discover.  It seems as if the progress of' the altar of slavery; the first moment he touchpublic reformation was eating away the ground  es the sacred soil of Britain, the altar and the
of the prosecution.  Since the commencement of god sink together in the dust; his soul walks
the prosecution, this part of the libel has unluck- abroad in her own majesty; his body swells beily received the sanction of the Legislature. In  yond the measure of his chains that burst from
that interval, our Catholic brethren have obtain- around him, and he stands redeemed, regenerated,
ed that admission which, it seems, it was a libel and disenthralled, by the irresistible genius of
to propose.7  In what way to account for this, I UNIVERSAL EMANCIPATION.s
am really at a loss.  Have any alarms been oc-    [Here Mr. Curran was interrupted by a sudcasioned by the emancipation of our Catholic  den burst of applause from the court and hall.
brethren?  Has the bigoted malignity of any in- After some time, silence was restored by the audividuals been crushed?  Or, has the stability  thority of Lord Clonmel, who acknowledged the
of the government, or has that of the country  pleasure which he himself felt at the brilliant disbeen weakened?  Or, are one million of subjects play of professional talent, but disapproved of any
stronger than three millions?  Do you think that intemperate expressions of applause in a court
the benefit they received should be poisoned by  of justice.  Mr. Curran then proceeded:]
the stings of vengeance?  If you think so, you    Gentlemen, I am not such a fool as to ascribe
must say to them, " You have demanded your any effusion of this sort to any merit it not the inemancipation, and you have got it; but we abhor of mine.  It is the mighty theme, dividual, but
the cause, that
your persons, we are outraged at your success; and not the inconsiderable advocate, de andsestrong
and we will stigmatize, by a criminal prosecu- that can excite interest in the hear- "tate"'ent
tion, the relief which you have obtained from the  er.  What you hear is but the testimony which
6 The jury was taken from a panel containing the    s The origin of this fine passage may be traced to
names of a number of members of Parliament.      the following lines of Cowper:
7 In 1793, after the prosecution was commenced, a    Slaves can not breathe in England; if their lungs
bill passed the Irish Parliament giving the right of    Receive our air, that moment they are free;
suffrage to Catholics, and conferring a large part of    They touch our country, and their shackles fall.
the rights and privileges desired.                                                Task, book ii.




798                                     MR. CURRAN                                       [1794
nature bears to her own character; it is the ef- one goes no further back than the year 1784.  If
fusion of her gratitude to that Power which  it required additional confirmation, I should state
stamped that character.  And, gentlemen, per- the case of the invaded American, and the subjumit me to say, that if my client had occasion to  gated Indian, to prove that the policy of England
defend his cause by any mad or drunken appeals  has ever been to govern her connections more as
to extravagance or licentiousness, I trust in God, colonies than allies; and it must be owing to the
I stand in that situation, that, humble as I am, he  great spirit, indeed, of Ireland, if she shall conwould not have resorted to me to be his advocate. tinue free.  Rely upon it, she will ever have to
I was not recommended to his choice by any  hold her course against an adverse current; rely
connection of principle or party, or even private  upon it, if the popular spring does not continue
friendship. and, saying this, I cal not but add, firm  and elastic, a short interval of debilitated
that I consider not to be acquainted with such a  nerve and broken force will send you down the
man as Mr. Rowan a want of personal good for- stream again, and reconsign you to the condition
tune.  Gentlemen, upon this great subject of re- of a province.
form  and emancipation, there is a latitude and    If such should become the fate of your Conboldness of remark, justifiable in the people, and stitution, ask yourselves what must be Ireland kept
necessary to the defense of Mr. Rowan, for which  the motive of your government?  It is don andb
governed by
the habits of professional studies, and technical easier to govern a province by a fac- a action.
adherence to established forms, have rendered me  tion, than to govern a co-ordinate country by co
unfit.  It is, however, my duty, standing here as ordinate means.  I do not say it is now, but it
his advocate, to make some few observations to  will be always thought easiest by the managers
you, which I conceive to be material,           of the day, to govern the Irish nation by the
Gentlemen, you are sitting in a country that agency of such a faction, as long as this counnterest has a right to the British Constitu- try shall be found willing to let her connection
The interests of.
England and Ire- tion, and which is bound by an in- with Great Britain be preserved only by her own
)an inseparable. dissoluble union with the Briish na- degradation.  In such na precaious and wretched
tion.  If you were now even at liberty to debate  state of things, if it shall ever be found to exist,
upon that subject-if you even were not by the  the true friend of Irish liberty and British con.
most solemn compacts, founded upon the author- nection will see that the only means of saving
ity of your ancestors and of yourselves, bound to  both must be, as Lord Chatham expressed it,
that alliance, and had an election now to make. "the infusion of new health and blood into the
in the present unhappy state of Europe-if you  Constitution."  He will see how deep a stake
had heretofore been a stranger to Great Britain, each country has in the liberty of the other; he
you would now say, we will enter into society  will see what a bulwark he adds to the common
and union with you:                             cause, by giving England a co-ordinate and coCommune periculum,          interested ally, instead of an oppressed, enfeeUna salus ambobus erit.9              bled, and suspected dependent; he will see how
But to accomplish that union, let me tell you, grossly the credulity of Britain is abused by those
you must learn to become like the English peo- who make her believe that her solid interest is
pie: it is vain to say you will protect their free- promoted by our depression; he will see the desdom, if you abandonyour own. Thepillar whose  perate precipice to which she approaches, by
base has no foundation can give no support to the  such a conduct, and, with an animated and gendome under which its head is placed; and if you  erous piety, he will labor to avert her danger.
profess to give England that assistance which  But, gentlemen of the jury, what is likely to be
you refuse to yourselves, she will laugh at your his fte?  The inteest of the Sovereign must be
folly, and despise your meanness and insincerity. forever the interest of his people, becaue his inLet us follow this a little further; I know you  terest lives beyond his life; it must live in his
ts    fwill interpret what I say with the can- fame-it must live in the tenderness of his solicDisposition toerpret wa I
gland to de- dor in which it is spoken. England is itude for an unborn posterity-it must live in that
press the other  dbm
parts of the   marked by a natural avarice of free- heart-attaching bond, by which millions of men
empire     dom, which she is studious to engross have united the destinies of themselves and their
and accumulate, but most unwilling to impart, children with his, and call him by the endearing
whether from  any necessity of her policy, or appellation of King and father of his people.
from her weakness, or from her pride, I will not    But what can be the interest of such a governpresume to say; but that so is the fact, you need  ment as I have described?  Not the interest of
not look to the East or to the West-you need  the King, not the interest of the people; but the
only look to yourselves.  In order to confirm that sordid interest of the hour; the interest in deobservation, I would appeal to what fell from the  ceiving the one, and in oppressing and deformlearned counsel for the Crown, that notwithstand-ig the other; the interest of unpunished rapine
ing the alliance subsisting for two centuries past, and unmerited favor; that odious and abject inbetween the two countries, the date of liberty in rest that prompts them  to extinguish public
spirit in punishment or in bribe; and to pursue
9  To both alike one danger and one safety.   every man even to death who has sense to see,
The words are those of sEneas, addressed to his and integrity and firmness enough to abhor and
father as he was bearing him from Troy.-~Eneid, to oppose them.  What, therefore, I say, gentlebook ii., 709-10.                               men, will be the fate of the man who embarks




1794.]                          IN BEHALF OF MR. ROWAN.                                      799
in an enterprise of so much difficulty and danger?  gestion of a mind anxious for the public good, I
I will not answer it.  Upon that hazard has my  must confess, gentlemen, I do not know in what
client put every thing that can be dear to man: part of the British Constitution to find the prinhis fame, his fortune, his person, his liberty, and  ciple of his criminality.
his children; but with what event your verdict    But, gentlemen, be pleased further to consider
only can answer, and to that I refer your coun- that he can not be understood to put Theirreference
try.                                             the fact on which he argues on the to the case of
Gentlemen, there is a fourth point remaining. authority of his assertion.  The con- En"land.
(4.) Call ofa Says this paper, "for both these pur- dition of Ireland was as open to the observation
convention. poses, it appears necessary that pro- of every other man as to that of Mr. Rowan.
vincial conventions should assemble preparatory  What, then, does this part of the publication
to the convention of the Protestant people. The  amount to?  In my mind, simply to this: "the
delegates of the Catholic body are not justified in  nature of oppression in all countries is such that,
communicating with individuals, or even bodies  although it may be borne to a certain degree, it
of an inferior authority, and therefore an assem- can not be borne beyond that degree.  You find
bly of a similar nature and organization is nec- it exemplified in Great Britain.  You find the
essary to establish an intercourse of sentinient, a  people of England patient to a certain point;
uniformity of conduct, a united cause, and a unit-  but patient no longer.  That infatuated moned nation.  If a convention on the one part does arch James II. experienced this.  The time did
not soon follow, and is not connected with that come when the measure of popular suffering and
on the other, the common cause will split into  popular patience was full; when a single drop
partial interests; the people will relax into inat- was sufficient to make the waters of bitterness
tention and inertness; the union of affection and  to overflow.  I think this measure in Ireland is
exertion will dissolve, and too probably some lo- brimful at present.  I think the state of reprecal insurrection, instigated by the malignity of our sentation of the people in Parliament is a grievcommon enemy, may commit the character and  ance.  I think the utter exclusion of three millrisk the tranquillity of the island, which can be  ions of people is a grievance of that kind that the
obviated only by the influence of an assembly  people are not likely long to endure; and the conarising from, and assimilated with the people, tinuation of which may plunge the country into
and whose spirit may be, as it were, knit with  that state of despair which wrongs exasperated
the soul of the nation —unless the sense of the  by perseverance never fail to produce."  But to
Protestant people be, on their part, as fairly col- whom  is even this language addressed?  Not
lected and as judiciously directed, unless individ- to the body of the people, on whose temper and
ual exertion consolidates into collective strength, moderation, if once excited, perhaps not much
unless the particles unite into one mass, we may  confidence could be placed; but to that authoriperhaps serve some person or some party for a  tative body whose influence and power would
little, but the public not at all.  The nation is  have restrained the excesses of the irritable and
neither insolent, nor rebellious, nor seditious. tumultuous; and for that purpose expressly does
While it knows its rights, it is unwilling to man- this publication address the Volunteers.  "We
ifest its powers.  It would rather supplicate ad- are told that we are in danger.  I call upon you,
ministration  to anticipate revolution by well- the great constitutional saviors of Ireland, to detimed reform, and to save their country in mercy  fend the country to which you have given politto themselves."                                  ical existence; and use whatever sanction your
Gentlemen, it is with something more than  great name, your sacred  character, and the
True import common reverence, it is with a species weight you have in the community, must give
oftle wolds. of terror, that I am obliged to tread this you to repress wicked designs, if any there are."
ground.  But what is the idea put in the stron-    "We feel ourselves strong.  The people are
gest point of view. "We are willing not to man- always strong.  The public chains can only be
ifest our powers, but to supplicate administration  riveted by the public hands.  Look to those deto anticipate revolution, that the Legislature may  voted regions of southern despotism. Behold the
save the country in mercy to itself."            expiring victim on his knees, presenting the javLet me suggest to you, gentlemen, that there  elin reeking with his blood to the ferocious moni    are some circumstances which have  ster who returns it into his heart.  Call not that
No guilt in
them iftlie mo- happened in the history of this coun- monster the tyrant.  He is no more than the exe was riglt, try, that may better serve as a com- ecutioner of that inhuman tyranny which the peoment upon this part of the case than any I can  ple practice upon themselves, and of which he is
make.  I am  not bound to defend Mr. Rowan  only reserved to be a later victim than the wretch
as to the truth or wisdom of the opinions he may  he has sent before.  Look to a nearer country,
have formed.  But if he did really conceive the  where the sanguinary characters are more legisituation of the country to be such that the not re- ble; whence you almost hear the groans of death
dressing her grievances might lead to a convul- and torture. Do you ascribe the rapine and mursion, and of such an opinion not even Mr. Row- der of France to the few names that we are exan is answerable here for the wisdom, much less  ecrating here? or do you not see that it is the
shall I insinuate any idea of my own upon so aw- frenzy of an infuriated multitude abusing its own
ful a subject; but if he did so conceive the fact strength, and practicing those hideous abominato be: and acted from the fair and honest sug- tions upon itself.  Against the violence of this




800                                     MR. CURRAN                                       [1794.
strength let your virtue and influence be our safe- in 1782, met by delegation; they framed a plan
guard."                                          of parliamentary reform; they presented it to the
What criminality, gentlemen of the jury, can  representative wisdom of the nation.  It was not
Not designedto you find in this? What at any time? received; but no man ever dreamed that it was
create, but pre- But I ask you, particularly at this mo- not the undoubted right of the subject to assemvent disturb-      non   ri
anceinIreland. mentous period, what guilt can you  ble in that manner.  They assembled, by delefind in it?  My client saw the scene of horror gation, at Dungannon; and to show the idea then
and blood which covers almost the face of Eu- entertained of the legality of their public conrope.  He feared that causes, which he thought duet, that same body of Volunteers was thanked
similar, might produce similar effects; and he  by both Houses of Parliament, and their deleseeks to avert those dangers by calling the unit- gates most graciously received at the Throne.
ed virtue and tried moderation of the country into  The other day you had delegated representatives
a state of strength and vigilance.  Yet this is the  for the Catholics of Ireland, publicly elected by
conduct which the prosecution of this day seeks the members of that persuasion, and sitting in
to stigmatize; and this is the language for which  convention in the heart of your capital, carrying
this paper is reprobated to-day, as tending to turn  on an actual treaty with the existing governthe hearts of the people against their Sovereign, ment, and under the eye of your own Parliaand inviting them to overturn the Constitution.   ment, which was then assembled; you have seen
Let us now, gentlemen, consider the conclud- the delegates from  that convention carry the
Te rigt o   ing part of this publication.  It rec- complaints of their grievances to the foot of the
iolidingconven- ommends a meeting of the people to  throne, from whence they brought back to that
ftinns implied in
tueright of pe- deliberate on constitutional methods convention the auspicious tidings of that redress
tition.    of redressing grievances.  Upon this  which they had been refused at home.
subject I am inclined to suspect that I have in    Such, gentlemen, have been the means of popmy youth taken up crude ideas, not founded, per- ular communication and discussion, which, until
haps, in law; but I did imagine that when the  the last session, have been deemed legal in this
Bill of Rights restored the right of petitioning for country, as, happily for the sister kingdom, they
the redress of grievances, it was understood that are yet considered there.
the people might boldly state among themselves    I do not complain of this act as any infraction
that grievances did exist; that they might law- of popular liberty; I should not think Under this
fully assemble themselves in such a manner as it becoming in me to express any com- law the f.cothey might deem most orderly and decorous.  I plaint against a law, when once be- press donbly
thought I had collected it from the greatest lu- come such.  I observe only, that one important.
minaries of the law.  The power of petitioning  mode of popular deliberation is thereby taken
seemed to me to imply the right of assembling  utterly away, and you are reduced to a situation
for the purpose of deliberation. The law requir- in which you never stood before.  You are living a petition to be presented by a limited num- ing in a country where the Constitution is rightber, seemed to me to admit that the petition  ly stated to be only ten years old-where the
might be prepared by any number whatever, people have not the ordinary rudiments of eduprovided, in doing so, they did not commit any  cation.  It is a melancholy story that the lower
breach or violation of the public peace.  I know  orders of the people here have less means of bethat there has been a law passed in the  ing enlightened than the same class of people in
A recent law
hasforbidden Irish Parliament of last year which  any other country. If there be no means left by
it.      may bring my former opinion into a  which public measures can be canvassed, what
merited want of authority.  That law declares, will be the consequence?  Where the press is
"that no body of men may delegate a power to  free, and discussion unrestrained, the mind, by
any similar number, to act, think, or petition for the collision of intercourse, gets rid of its own
them!"  If that law had not passed, I should  asperities; a sort of insensible perspiration takes
have thought that the assembling by a delegated  place in the body politic, by which those acriconvention was recommended, in order to avoid  monies, which would otherwise fester and inthe tumult and disorder of a promiscuous assem- flame, are quietly dissolved and dissipated. But
bly of the whole mass of the people.  I should  now, if any aggregate assembly shall meet, they
have conceived, before that act, that any law to  are censured; if a printer publishes their resoabridge the orderly appointment of the few to  lutions, he is punished: rightly, to be sure, in
consult for the interest of the many, and thus both cases, for it has been lately done.  If the
force the many to consult by themselves, or not people say, let us not create tumult, but meet in
at all, would in fact be a law not to restrain, but delegation, they can not do it; if they are anxto promote insurrection. But that law has spok- ious to promote parliamentary reform  in that
en, and my error must stand corrected. Of this, way, they can not do it; the law of the last sesButMr.Rowau however, let me remind you.  You  sion has, for the first time, declared such meetnot to be tried are to try this part of the publication  ings to be a crime. What then remains?  The
by tht tw   by what the law was then: not by  liberty of the press only-that sacred palladium
what it is now.  How  was it understood until which no influence, no power, no minister, no
last session of Parliament?  You had both in  government, which nothing but the depravity, or
England and Ireland. for the last ten years, these  folly, or corruption of a jury, can ever destroy.
delegated meetings.  The Volunteers of Ireland,    And what calamities are the people saved




1794.]                          IN  BEHALF OF MR. ROWAN.                                        801
from, by having public communication left open    In that awful moment of a nation's travail, of
Benefits to  to them?  I will tell you, gentlemen, the last gasp of tyranny and the first breath of
telgfverna what they are saved from, and what freedom, how  pregnant is the example!  The
free press  the government is saved from; I will press extinguished, the people enslaved, and the
tell you, also, to what both are exposed by shut-  prince undone.  As the advocate of society,
ting up that communication.  In one case, sedi- therefore-of peace-of domestic liberty-and
tion speaks aloud and walks abroad; the dema- the lasting union of the two countries-I congogue goes forth; the public eye is upon him  jure you to guard the liberty of the press, that
he frets his busy hour upon the stage; but soon  great sentinel of the state, that grand detector
either weariness, or bribe, or punishment, or dis- of public imposture; guard it, because, when it
appointment, bears him down, or drives him of, sinks, there sinks with it, in one common grave,
and he appears no more. In the other case, how  the liberty of the subject and the security of the
does the work of sedition go forward?  Night Crown.
after night the muffled rebel steals forth in the    Gentlemen, I am  glad that this question has
dark, and casts another and another brand upon  not been brought forward earlier; I Recentpanic
the pile, to which, when the hour of fatal matu- rejoice for the sake of the court, of the in the sister
island. and its
rity shall arrive, he will apply the torch.  If you  jury, and of the public repose, that disgraceful
doubt of the horrid consequence of suppressing  this question has not been brought C"nseqences.
the effusion even of individual discontent, look  forward till now.  In Great Britain, analogous
to those enslaved countries where the protection  circumstances have taken place.  At the comof despotism  is supposed to be secured by such  mencement of that unfortunate war which has
restraints.  Even the person of the despot there  deluged Europe with blood, the spirit of the Enis never in safety.  Neither the fears of the des- glish people was tremblingly alive to the terror
pot nor the machinations of the slave have any  of French principles; at that moment of general
slumber-the one anticipating the moment of  paroxysm, to accuse was to convict.  The danperil, the other watching the opportunity of ag-  ger looked larger to the public eye, from  the
gression.  The fatal crisis is equally a surprise  misty region through which it was surveyed.
upon both: the decisive instant is precipitated  We measure inaccessible heights by the shadwithout warning-by folly on the one side, or ows which they project, where the lowness and
by frenzy on the other; and there is no notice  the distance of the light form the length of the
of the treason till the traitor acts.  In those un- shade.
fortunate countries-one can not read it without    There is a sort of aspiring and adventurous
horror-there are officers whose province it is credulity which disdains assenting to obvious
to have the water which is to be drunk by their truths, and delights in catching at the improbarulers sealed up in bottles, lest some wretched  bility of circumstances, as its best ground of
miscreant should throw poison into the draught. faith. To what other cause, gentlemen, can you
But, gentlemen, if you wish for a nearer and  ascribe that, in the wise, the reflecting, and the
Illustration from more interesting example, you have  philosophic nation of Great Britain, a printer has
English history. it in the history of your own revolu- been found guilty of a libel, for publishing those
tion.  You have it at that memorable period, resolutions, to which the present minister of that
when the Monarch [James II.] found a servile  kingdom had actually subscribed his name? To
acquiescence in the ministers of his folly-when  what other cause can you ascribe, what in my
the liberty of the press was trodden under foot-   mind is still more astonishing, in such a country
when venal sheriffs returned packed juries, to  as Scotland, a nation cast in the happy medium
carry into effect those fatal conspiracies of the  between the spiritless acquiescence of submissfew against the many-when the devoted bench- ive poverty, and the sturdy credulity of pames of public justice were filled by some of those  pered wealth; cool and ardent, adventurous and
foundlings of fortune who, overwhelmed in the  persevering; winging her eagle flight against
torrent of corruption at an early period, lay at the blaze of every science, with an eye that nevthe bottom like drowned bodies while soundness  er winks, and a wing that never tires; crowned
or sanity remained in them; but at length, be- as she is with the spoils of every art, and decked
coming buoyant by putrefaction, they rose as  with the wreath of every muse; from  the deep,
they rotted, and floated to the surface of the  and scrutinizing researches of her Hume, to the
polluted stream, where they were drifted along, sweet and simple, but not less sublime and pathe objects of terror, and contagion, and abomin- thetic morality of her Burns-how, from  the
ation.t0                                          bosom of a country like that, genius and character, and talents, should be banished to a distant.
10 It may not be ungratifying to hear the manner barbarous soil; condemned to pine under thein which this passage was suggested to the speak- horrid communion of vulgar vice and base-born
er's mind. A day or two before Mr. Rowan's trial, profliacv, for twice the period that ordinary
one of Mr. Curran's friends showed him a letter that                  to the continuance of human
he had received from Bengal, in which the writer, li         Bt I  il  ot fther  pres any iea
after mentioning the Hindoo custom of throwing the                                  p     a 
dead into the Ganges, added, that he was then upon  ed bench, recollected this fact, and applied it as
the banks of that river, and that, as he wrote, he  above.-Life of Cur'an, by his Son, vol. i., p. 316.
could see several bodies floating down its stream.     Alluding to the banishment of the Scotch ReThe orator, shortly after, while describing a corrupt- formers, Muir, Palmer, &c.
E: EE




802                                     MR. CURRAN                                        [1794.
that is painful to me, and I am  sure must be  that Mr. Rowan did by this publication (suppospainful to you.  I will only say, you have now  ing it to be his) recommend, under the No leveling
an example of which neither England nor Scot- name of equality, a general, indiscrim- contained in
land had the advantage.  You have the exam- inate assumption of public rule by tleAddress.
ple of the panic, the infatuation, and the contri- every the meanest person in the state.  Low as
Irisry  tion of both. It is now for you to de- we are in point of public information, there is
ought to profit cide whether you will profit by their not, I believe, any man, who thinks for a moy these errors experience of idle panic and idle re- ment, that does not know  that all which the
gret, or whether you merely prefer to palliate a  great body of the people of any country can
servile imitation of their frailty, by a paltry af- have from any government, is a fair encouragefectation of their repentance.  It is now for you  ment to their industry, and protection for the
to show that you are not carried away by the  fruits of their labor.  And there is scarcely any
same hectic delusions, to acts of which no tears man, I believe, who does not know that if a peocan wash away the consequences or the indeli- ple could become so silly as to abandon their
ble reproach.                                   stations in society, under pretense of governing
Gentlemen, I have been warning you by in- themselves, they would become the dupes and
They ought als  stances of public intellect suspended  the victims of their own folly. But does this pubto be influenced or obscured; let me rather excite  lication recommend any such infatuated abandonby a more recent
change of feeling you by the example of that intellect ment, or any such desperate assumption? I will
in Englan.    recovered and restored.  In that read the words which relate to that subject.
case which Mr. Attorney General has cited him- " By liberty we never understood unlimited freeself, I mean that of the trial of Lambert in En- dom, nor by equality the leveling of property or
gland, is there a topic of invective against con- destruction of subordination."  I ask you with
stituted authorities, is there a topic of abuse  what justice, upon what principle of common
against every department of British government sense, you can charge a man with the publicathat you do not find in the most glowing and  tion of sentiments the very reverse of what his
unqualified terms in that publication, for which  words avow; and that, when there is no collatthe printer of it was prosecuted, and acquitted  eral evidence, where there is no foundation whatby an English jury? See, too, what a difference  ever, save those very words, by which his meanthere is between the case of a man publishing  ing can be ascertained? or, if you do adopt an
his own opinion of facts, thinking that he is arbitrary principle of imputing to him your meanbound by duty to hazard the promulgation of  ing instead of his own, what publication can be
them, and without the remotest hope of any per- guiltless or safe?  It is a sort of accusation that
sonal advantage, and that of a man who makes I am ashamed and sorry to see introduced in a
publieation his trade.  And saying this, let me  court acting on the principles of the British Connot be misunderstood; it is not my province to  stitution.
enter into any abstract defense of the opinions    In the bitterness of reproach it was said, " out
of any'man upon public subjects.  I do not af- of thine own mouth will I condemn thee." From
firmatively state to you that these grievances, the severity of justice I demand no more.  See
which this paper supposes, do in fact exist; yet I if, in the words that have been spoken, you can
can not but say that the movers of this prosecution  find matter to acquit or to condemn.  "By libhave forced that question upon you. Their mo- erty we never understood unlimited freedom, nor
tives and their merits, like those of all accusers, by equality the leveling of property, nor the deare put in issue before you; and I need not tell you  struction of subordination.  This is a calumny
how strongly the motive and merits of any inform- invented by that faction, or that gang, which
cr ought to influence the fate of his accusation.   misrepresents the King to the people, and the
I agree most implicitly with Mr. Attorney  people to the King; traduces one half of the naMr. Rowan an-  General that nothing can be more  tion to cajole the other; and, by keeping up disawerable only for criminal than an attempt to work  trust and division, wishes to continue, the proud
hisintentions, not
farhiserrorsof a change in the government by  arbitrators of the fortune and fate of Ireland."
jud'ment,   armed force, and I entreat that the  Here you find that meaning disclaimed as a calcourt will not suffer any expression of mine to  umny, which is artfully imputed as a crime.
be considered as giving encouragement or de-    I say, therefore, gentlemen of the jury, as to
fense to any design to excite disaffection, to  the four parts into which the publica-ecapitulation.
overawe or to overturn the government.  But I tion must be divided, I answer thus: 
put my client's case upon another ground.  If  It calls upon the Volunteers.  Consider the time,
he was led into an opinion of grievances where  the danger, the authority of the prosecutors themthere were none; if he thought there ought to  selves for believing that danger to exist; the
be a reform where none was necessary, he is an- high character, the known moderation, the apswerable only for his intention.  He can be an- proved loyalty of that venerable institution; the
swerable to you in the same way only that he is similarity of the circumstances between'he peanswerable to that God before whom the accuser, riod at which they are summoned to take arms,
the accused, and the judge must appear togeth- and that in which they have been called upon to
er; that is, not for the clearness of his under- reassume them.  Upon this simple ground, genstanding, but for the purity of his heart.      tlemen, you will decide whether this part of the
Gentlemen, Mr. Attorney General has said  publication was libelous and criminal, or not.




1794.]                        IN BEHALF OF MR. ROWAN.                                    803
As to reform, I could wish to have said noth- acter.  Who he is I know not.  I know not the
ing upon it.  I believe I have said enough.  If  man; but his credit is impeached. Mr. Blake
he thought the state required it, he acted like an  was called; he said he knew him.  I asked him,
honest man.  For the rectitude of the opinion  "Do you think, sir, that Mr. Lyster is or is not a
he was not answerable.  He discharged his duty  man deserving credit upon his oath?"  If you
in telling the country that he thought so.    find a verdict of conviction, it can be only upon
As to the emancipation of the Catholics, I can  the credit of Mr. Lyster.  What said Mr. Blake?
not but say that Mr. Attorney General did very  Did he tell you that he believed he was a man
wisely in keeping clear of that.  Yet, gentle- to be believed upon his oath?  He did not atmen, I need not tell you how important a figure tempt to say that he was.  The best he could
it was intended to make upon the scene, though, say was, that he would hesitate.  Do you believe
from unlucky accidents, it has become necessary  Blake?  Have you the same opinion of Lyster's
to expunge it during the rehearsal.            testimony that Mr. Blake has?  Do you know
Of the concluding part of this publication, the  Lyster?  If you do know him, and know that he
Convention which it recommends, I have spoken  is credible, your knowledge should not be shakalready.  I wish not to trouble you with saying  en by the doubts of any man.  But if you do not
more upon it. I feel that I have already tres- know him, you must take his credit from  an
passed much upon your patience.  In truth, upon  unimpeached witness, swearing that he' would
a subject embracing such a variety of topics, a hesitate to believe him.
rigid observance either of conciseness or arrange-   In my mind there is a circumstance of the
ment could, perhaps, scarcely be expected.  It strongest nature that came out from
A strong ciris, however, with pleasure I feel I am drawing  Lyster on the table.'2  I am aware that cumsta ce
to a close, and that only one question remains, to  a very respectable man, if impeached against"hi,
which I beg your attention.                    by surprise, may not be ready prepared to repel
Whatever, gentlemen, may be your opinion of a wanton calumny by contrary testimony.  But
Want of evi-  the meaning of this publication, there  was Lyster unapprised of this attack upon him?
dence to bring
home the pbl  yet remains a great point for you to  What said he?  "I knew that you had Blake to
li6ation of the decide upon; namely, whether, in  examine against me.  You have brought him
Rowan.       point of fact, this publication be im- here for that purpose."  He knew the very witputable to Mr. Rowan or not; whether he did  ness that was to be produced against him; he
publish it or not.  And two witnesses are call- knew that his credit was impeached, and yet he
ed to that fact, one of the name of Lyster, and  produced no person to support that credit. What
the other of the name of Morton.  You must said Mr. Smyth? "From my knowledge of him,
have observed that Morton gave no evidence  I would not believe him upon his oath."
upon which that paper could even have been    Mr. dttorney General. I beg pardon, but I
read; he produced no paper; he identified no must set Mr. Curran right.  Mr. Lyster said
paper; so that in point of law, there was no ev- he heard Blake would be here, but not in time
idence to be given to a jury; and, therefore, it to prepare himself.
turns entirely upon the evidence of the other wit-    Mr. Curran. But what said Mrs. Hatchell?
ness.  He has stated that he went to a public Was the production of that witness a surprise
meeting, in a place where there was a gallery  upon Mr. Lyster? her cross-examination shows
crowded with spectators; and that he there got the fact to be the contrary.  The learned couna printed paper, the same which'has been read  sel, you see, was perfectly apprised of a chain
to you.                                        of private circumstances, to which he pointed his
I know you are well acquainted with the fact questions.  Did he know these circumstances by
e it that the credit of every witness must inspiration?  No; they could come only from
ness, and le be considered by, and rest with the  Lyster himself. I insist, therefore, the gentleman
impeache.  jury.  They are the sovereign judges knew his character was to be impeached; his
of that circumstance; and I will not insult your counsel knew it; and not a single witness has been
feelings by insisting on the caution with which  produced to support it.  Then consider, gentleyou should watch the testimony of a witness that men, upon what ground you can find a verdict of
seeks to affect the liberty, or property, or char- conviction against my client, when the only witness
acter of your fellow-citizens. Under what cir- produced to the fact of publication is impeached,
cumstances does this evidence come before you?  without even an attempt to defend his character.
The witness says he has got a commission in the  Many hundreds, he said, were at that meeting;
army by the interest of a lady, from a person  why not produce one of them to swear to the fact
then high in administration.  He told you that of such a meeting?  One he has ventured to
he made a memorandum upon the back of that name; but he was certainly very safe in naming
paper, it being his general custom, when he got a person who, he has told you, is not in the kingsuch papers to make an endorsement upon them; dom, and could not, therefore, be called to conthat he did this from mere fancy; that he had no  front him.
intention of giving any evidence on the subject;    Gentlemen, let me suggest another observahe took it with no such view.                  tion or two.  If still you have any doubt as to
There is something whimsical enough in this   12 In the Irish courts the witness gives his testiComments on curious story. Put his credit upon the  mony seated in a chair, on a raised platform called
his testimony. positive evidence adduced to his char- the table.




804                                     MR. CURRAN                                        [1794.
the guilt or innocence of the defendant, give me  has an Irish jury done this deed?  The moment
Argument de- leave to suggest to you what circum- he ceases to be regarded as a criminal, he berived from the
char'ceroft'c e stances you ought to consider in or- comes of necessity an accuser. And, let me ask
accused.   der to found your verdict,  You  you, what can your most zealous defenders be
should consider the character of the person ac- prepared to answer to such a charge?  When
cused, and in this your task is easy.  I will ven- your sentence shall have sent him forth to that
ture to say there is not a man in this nation  stage [the pillory] which guilt alone can render
more known than the gentleman who is the sub- infamous, let me tell you he will not be like a
ject of this prosecution, not only by the part he  little statue upon a mighty pedestal, diminishing
has taken in public concerns, and which he has  by elevation.  But he will stand a striking al;d
taken in common with many, but still more so  imposing object upon a monument, which, if it
by that extraordinary sympathy for human af- does not, and it can not, record the atrocity of
fliction which, I am  sorry to think, he shares  his crime, must record the atrocity of his convicwith so small a number.  There is not a day  tion.  And upon this subject credit me when I
that you hear the cries of your starving manu- say that I am still more anxious for you than I
facturers in your streets, that you do not also  can possibly be for him.  I can not but feel the
see the advocate of their sufferings.  That you  peculiarity of your situation.  Not the jury of
do not see his honest and manly figure, with un- his own choice, which the law  of England alcovered head soliciting for their relief, searching  lows, but which ours refuses,'4 collected in that
the frozen heart of charity for every string that box by a person certainly no friend to Mr. Rowcan be touched by compassion, and urging the  an, certainly not very deeply interested in giving
force of every argument and every motive, save  him a very impartial jury.  Feeling this, as I
that which his modesty suppresses; the author- am persuaded you do, you can not be surprised,
ity of his own generous example.  Or, if you see  however you may be distressed at the mournful
him  not there, you may trace his steps to the  presage with which an anxious public is led to
private abode of disease, and famine, and despair; fear the worst from your possible determination.
the messenger of Heaven, bearing with him food, But I will not, for the justice and honor of our
and medicine, and consolation.  Are these the  common country, suffer my mind to be borne
materials of which anarchy and public rapine  away by such melancholy anticipations.  I will
are to be formed?  Is this the man on whom to  not relinquish the confidence that this day will
fasten the abominable charge of goading on a  be the period of his sufferings; and however
frantic populace to mutiny and bloodshed?  Is merciless he has been hitherto pursued, that
this the man likely to apostatize from every prin- your verdict will send him home to the arms of
ciple that can bind him to the state, his birth, his his family and the wishes of his country.  But
property, his education, his character, and his if, which Heaven forbid, it hath still been unforchildren?  Let me tell you, gentlemen of the  tunately determined that, because he has not
jury, if you agree with his prosecutors in thinking  bent to power and authority, because he would
that there ought to be a sacrifice of such a man, not bow down before the golden calf and woron such an occasion, and upon the credit of such  ship it, he is to be bound and cast into the furevidence, you are to convict him —never did you, nace; I do trust in God that there is a redeemnever can you give a sentence, consigning any  ing spirit in the Constitution which will be seen
man to public punishment with less danger to to walk with the sufferer through the flames, and
his person or to his fame; for where could the  to preserve him unhurt by the conflagration.
hireling be found to fling contumely or ingratitude at his head, whose private distress he had    At the conclusion of this speech, there was
not labored to alleviate, or whose public condi- another universal burst of applause, throughout
tion he had not labored to improve.              the court and hall, for some minutes, which was
I can not, however, avoid adverting to a cir- again silenced by the interference of Lord ClonPeroration:  cumstance that distinguishes the case  mel. " Mr. Curran," says Charles Phillips,' used
Mr.Rowanif of Mr. Rowan from  that of a late  to relate a ludicrous incident which attended his
CmutSuferin sacrifice in a neighboring kingdom.'3  departure fiom  court after the trial.  His path
Ireland.  The severer law of that country, it was instantly beset by the populace, who were
seems, and happy for them  that it should, ena- bent on chairing him. He implored-he entreatbles them to remove fiom their sight the victim  ed-all in vain.  At length, assuming an air of
of their infatuation.  The more merciful spirit authority, he addressed those nearest to him: " I
of our law deprives you of that consolation.  His desire, gentlemen, that you will desist."  " I laid
sufferings must remain forever before your eyes great emphasis," says Curran, " on the word'dea continual call upon your shame and your re- sist,' and put on my best suit of dignity.  Howmorse. But those sufferings will do more; they  ever, my next neighbor, a gigantic, brawny chairwill not rest satisfied with your unavailing con- man, eyeing me with a somewhat contemptuous
trition, they will challenge the great and para- affection, from  top to toe, bellowed out to his
mount inquest of society.  The man will be  companion,'Arrah, blood and turf! Pat, don't
weighed against the charge, the witness, and the..
sentence; and impartial justice will demand, why    14 In making up the jury, Mr. Rowan was not al__- ___- --— ~~-~~-~            lowed the same right of challenging which is enjoyt3 Alluding to the banishment of Muir, Palmer, &c. ed in England.




1797.]                       IN  BEHALF OF MR. FINNERTY.                                        805
mind the little crachur; here, pitch him up this  Mr. Rowan was sentenced to pay c500, and to
minute upon my showlder.'  Pat did as he was be imprisoned two years.  Within a short time,
desired; the'little crachur' was carried, nolens however, he escaped from prison and fled to
volens, to his carriage, and drawn home by an  America, where he remained for many years,
applauding populace."                              but finally returned to Ireland and had all further
The jury brought in a verdict of Guilty, and 1 punishment remitted.
SPEECH
OF MR. CURRAN IN BEHALF OF PETER FINNERTY WHEN INDICTED FOR A LIBEL, DELIVERED BE.
FORE JUSTICE DOWNS IN THE COMMISSION COURT, DECEMBER 22, 1797.
INTRODUCTION.
MR. FINNERTY was the printer of a newspaper published at Dublin called the Press, and was indicted
for publishing a severe letter, signed MARCUs, addressed to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, in reference
to the execution of William Or.
Orr was a farmer of the Presbyterian sect-a man of pious, gentle, and gallant character, greatly respected and beloved in the county of Antrim, where he lived. He was prosecuted for administering ar
oath to a United Irishman, and for so doing was condemned to death!  Some of the jury made an affidavit,
immediately after the trial, that they acted under intimidation in convicting him, and that spirits were in.
troduced into the jury room. It was likewise ascertained that the principal witness against Orr was a
man of infamous character, whose word could not be relied on. These things were certified to the Lord
Lieutenant with a view to Orr's being pardoned. He was accordingly respited to allow time for consideration; a second, and then a third respite was granted, and the feeling became general that his pardon
was secured; when, to the astonishment and horror of the public, he was hanged at the expiration of
seven days, surrounded by large bodies of troops collected to overawe the people. He died with great
calmness, leaving a written declaration of his entire innocence.
The public indignation was now universal. Medals were struck and circulated bearing the inscription, " Remember Orr;" his name became a watch-word even in England; Mr. Fox spoke of him as a
martyr; and the toast, "The ministers in Orr's place," was often heard in both countries. The letters
of MARCUS expressed the general sentiment of the people respecting his execution; and this was thought
by the government a favorable opportunity for crushing Finnerty's paper, in which it was published-the
only remaining paper in Ireland which had not been bought out or broken down by the government.' Mr. Curran's address to the jury in this case," says his son, "must be considered, if not the finest, at
least the most surprising specimen of his oratorical powers. He had no time for preparation; it was not
till a few minutes before the case commenced that his brief was handed him. During the progress of the
trial, he had occasion to speak at unusual length to questions of law that arose upon the evidence, so that
his speech to the jury could necessarily be no other than a sudden, extemporaneous effusion; and it was,
perhaps, a secret, and not unjustifiable, feeling of pride at having so acquitted himself upon such an
emergency that inclined his own mind to prefer it to any of his other efforts."
SPEECH, &c.
[Mr. Curran, after a few observations on the  counsel for the Crown would have gone directly
right of the jury under the Libel Bill of Mr. to the proof of this allegation.  But he has not
Fox, proceeded thus:]                            done so; he has gone to a most extraordinary
And now, gentlemen, let us come to the im- length, indeed, of preliminary observation, and
emakste mediate subject of the trial, as it is an allusion to facts, and sometimes an assertion
extraneous mat- brought before you by the charge  of facts, at which, I own, I was astonished, until
by the ouse in   the indictment, to which it ought I saw the drift of these allusions and assertions.
oby thle cunsel in the indictment,
or the Crown. to have been confined; and also, as Whether you have been fairly dealt with by him,
it is presented to you by the statement of the  or are now honestly dealt with by me, you must
learned counsel who has taken a much wider be judges.  He has been pleased to His insin.ations
range than the mere limits of the accusation, say that this prosecution is brought gantthgand has endeavored to force upon your consider- against this letter signed MARCUS, the newspaper
ation extraneous and irrelevant facts, for reasons  merely as a part of what he calls a pieoit.lt,.lainwhich it is my duty to explain.  The indictment system  of  ttack upon governmentd of.
states simply that Mr. Finnerty has published a  by the paper called the Press.  As to this I will
false and scandalous libel upon the Lord Lieu- only ask you whether you are fairly dealt with?
tenant of Ireland, tending to bring his govern- Whether it is fair treatment to men upon their
ment into disrepute, and to alienate the affec- oaths, to insinuate to them, that the general chartions of the people; and one would have expect- acter of a newspaper (and that general character
ed that, without stating any other matter, the  founded merely upon the assertion of the prose



806                                   MR. CURRAN                                        [1797.
cutor) is to have any influence upon their minds  their departed ancestors?  Do you read that
when they are to judge of a particular publica- Elizabeth directed any of those state prosecution?  I will only ask you what men you must tions against the libels which the divines of her
be supposed to be when it is thought that even  time had written against her Catholic sister; or
in a court of justice, and with the eyes of the na- against the other libels which the same gentletion upon you, you can be the dupes of that trite  men had written against her Protestant father?
and exploded expedient, so scandalous of late in  No, gentlemen, we read of no such thing; but
this country, of raising a vulgar and mercenary  we know she did bring forward a prosecution
cry against whatever man or whatever principle  from  motives of personal resentment, and we
it is thought necessary to put down; and I shall know that a jury was found time-serving and
therefore merely leave it to your own pride to  mean enough to give a verdict which she was
suggest upon what foundation it could be hoped  ashamed to carry into effect!
that a senseless clamor of that kind could be    I said the learned counsel drew you back to
echoed back by the yell of a jury upon their the times that have been marked by these miseroaths.  I trust you see that this has nothing to  able conflicts. I see you turn your thoughts to the
do with the question.                           reign of the second James.  I see you turn your
Gentlemen of the jury, other matters have been  eyes to those pages of governmental abandonHis pretense of mentioned, which I must repeat for ment, of popular degradation, of expiring liberty,
motete lier- the same purpose-that of showing  of merciless and sanguinary persecution; to that
tysfithepress you that they have nothing to do with  miserable period, in which the fallen and abject
tion.     the question.  The learned counsel state of man might have been almost an arguhas been pleased to say, that he comes forward  ment in the mouth of the atheist and blasphemer
in this prosecution as the real advocate for the  against the existence of an all-just and an allliberty of the press, and to protect a mild and  wise First Cause; if the glorious era of the Revmerciful government from its licentiousness; and  olution that followed it had not refuted the imhe has been pleased to add, that the Constitution  pious inference, by showing that if man descends,
can never be lost while its freedom remains, and  it is not in his own proper motion;2 that it is with
that its licentiousness alone can destroy that free- labor and with pain, and that he can continue to
dom.  As to that, gentlemen, he might as well sink only until: by the force and pressure of the
have said that there is only one mortal disease  descent, the spring of his immortal faculties acof which a man can die. I can die the death in- quires that recuperative energy and effort that
flicted by tyranny; and when he comes forward  hurries him as many miles aloft.  He sinks but
to extinguish this paper in the ruin of the printer to rise again.  It is at that period that the state
by a state prosecution, in order to prevent its dy- seeks for shelter in the destruction of the press;
ing of licentiousness, you must judge how can- it is in a period like that that the tyrant prepares
didly he is treating you, both in the fact and in  for the attack upon the people, by destroying the
the reasoning.  Is it in Ireland, gentlemen, that liberty of the press; by taking away that shield
we are told licentiousness is the only disease that of wisdom and of virtue, behind which the people
can be mortal to the press?  Has he heard of  are invulnerable, inwhose pure and polished connothing else that has been fatal to the freedom  ivex, ere the lifted blow has fallen, he beholds
of publication?  I know not whether the printer his own image, and is turned into stone.  It is
of the Northern Star may have heard of such  at those periods that the honest man dares not
things in his captivity, but I know that his wife  speak, because truth is too dreadful to be told;
and children are well apprised that a press may  it is then humanity has no ears, because humanbe destroyed in the open day, not by its own li- ity has no tongue.  It is then the proud man
centiousness, but by the licentiousness of a mili- scorns to speak, but like a physician baffled by
tary force.  As to the sincerity of the declara- the wayward excesses of a dying patient, retires
Proof from facts tion that the state has prosecuted in  indignantly from the bed of an unhappy wretch,
tlat govern,   order to assert the freedom  of the  whose ear is too fastidious to bear the sound of
ments prosecute
forverydifferent press, it starts a train of thought, of  wholesome advice, whose palate is too debauched
rea0sns.   melancholy retrospect and direful to bear the salutary bitter of the medicine that
prospect, to which I did not think the learned  might redeem him; and therefore leaves him to
counsel would have wished to commit your the felonious piety of the slaves that talk to him
minds. It leads you naturally to reflect at what of life, and strip him before he is cold.
times, from what motives, and with what conse-    I do not care, gentlemen, to exhaust too much
quences the government has displayed its patri- of your attention by following this subject through
otism by prosecutions of this sort.  As to the  the last century with much minuteness; but the
motives, does history give you a single instance  facts are too recent in your minds not to show
in which the state has been provoked to these
conflicts, except by the fear of truth, and by the                of Moloch in Milton's Paradise
love of vengeance?                              Lost, book ii.:
love of vengeance?  Have you ever seen te           In our proper motion we ascend
rulers of any country bring forward a prosecu-       Up to our native seat; descent and fall
tion from motives of filial piety, for libels upon   To us are adverse.
The Northern Star was a paper published in    3 The allusion here is to the shield of Minerva,
Belfast, which was broken down and destroyed by  having the head of Medusa in its center, which
the government in the way here referred to.     turned the beholder into stone.




1797.]                    IN  BEHALF OF MR. FINNERTY.                                       807
you that the liberty of the press and the liberty  of the informer; that a respite was therefore
of the people sink and rise together, and that sent once, and twice, and thrice, to give time, as
the liberty of speaking and the liberty of acting  Mr. Attorney General has stated, for his Excelhave shared exactly the same fate.  You must lency to consider whether mercy could be extendhave observed in England that their fate has been  ed to him or not; and that, with a knowledge of
the same in the successive vicissitudes of their all these circumstances, his Excellency did finallate depression; and sorry I am to add that this  ly determine that mercy should not be extended
country has exhibited a melancholy proofof their to him, and that he was accordingly executed
inseparable destiny, through the various and fur- upon that verdict.
ther stages of deterioration down to the period     Of this publication, which the indictment
of their final extinction  when the Constitution  charges to be false and seditious, That letter does
has given place to the sword, and the only print-  Mr. Attorney General is pleased to not, as pretended
er in Ireland who dares to speak for the people  say that the design of it is to bring Genleral, reflect
is now in the dock.                              the courts of justice into contempt. the judgesinthat
Gentlemen, the learned counsel has made the  As to this point of fact, gentlemen, case"
The preceding real subject of this prosecution so  I    beg to set you right.  To the administration of
demre lre' -  small a part ofhis statement, and has  justice, so far as it relates to the judges, this
sary by the   led you into so wide a range, certainly  publication has not even an allusion in any part
course of the'
prosecuting at- as necessary to the object, as inappli- mentioned in this indictment.  It relates to a de..
torney.    cable to the subject of this prosecu- partment of justice that can not begin until the
tion, that I trust you will think me excusable in  duty of the judge is closed.  Sorry should I be
somewhat following his example.  Glad am I to  that, with respect to this unfortunate man, any
find that I have the authority of the same example  censure should be flung on those judges who
for coming at last to the subject of this trial.  I presided at his trial, with the mildness and temagree with the learned counsel that the charge  per that became them, upon so awful an occamade against the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland is sion as the trial of life and death.  Sure am I,'that of having grossly and inhumanly abused the  that if they had been charged with inhumanity
royal prerogative of mercy, of which the King is or injustice, and if they had condescended at all
only the trustee for the benefit of the people. to prosecute the reviler, they would not have
The facts are not controverted.  It has been as- come forward in the face of the public to say,
serted that their truth or falsehood is indifferent, as has been said this day, that it was immaterial
and they are shortly these, as they appear in this  whether the charge was true or not.  Sure I
publication.                                     am, their first object would have been to show
William Orr was indicted for having adminis- that it was false; and ready, should I have been
Narrationof  tered the oath of a United Irishman. an eye-witness of the fact, to have discharged
the facts which Every man now knows what that the debt of ancient friendship, of private respect,
gave rise to the
letter of Iar- oath is; that it is simply an engage- and of public duty, and upon my oath, to have
cu   ment, first, to promote a brotherhood  repelled the falsehood of such an imputation.
of affection among men of all religious distinc- Upon this subject, gentlemen, the presence of
tions; secondly, to labor for the attainment of a  those venerable judges restrains what I might
parliamentary reform; and, thirdly, an obligation  otherwise have said, nor should I have named
of secrecy, which was added to it when the con- them at all if I had not been forced to do so,
vention law made it criminal and punishable to  and merely to undeceive you, if you have been
meet by any public delegation for that purpose. made to believe their characters to have any
After remaining upward of a year in jail, Mr. community of cause whatever with the Lord
Orr was brought to his trial; was prosecuted by  Lieutenant of Ireland.  To him alone it is conthe state; was sworn against by a common in- fined, and against him the charge is It was directed
former by the name of Wheatley, who himself  made, as strongly, I suppose, as the tholy  agLinst
had taken the obligation, and was convicted  writer could find words to express it, tenant.
under the Insurrection Act, which makes the  "that the Viceroy of Ireland has cruelly abused
administering such an obligation felony of death. the prerogative of royal mercy, in suffering a
The jury recommended Mr. Orr to mercy.  The  man under such circumstances to perish like a
judge, with a humanity becoming his character, common malefactor."  For this Mr. Attorney
transmitted the recommendation to the noble  General calls for your conviction as a false and
prosecutor in this case [the Lord Lieutenant]. scandalous libel, and after stating himself every
Three of the jurors made solemn affidavit in  fact that I have repeated to you, either from his
court that liquor had been conveyed into their statement or from the evidence, he tells you that
box; that they were brutally threatened by some  you ought to find it false, though he almost in
of their fellow-jurors with capital prosecution if  words admits that it is not false, and has resistthey did not find the prisoner guilty; and that, ed the admission of the evidence by which we
under the impression of those threats, and worn  offered to prove every word of it to be true.
down by watching and intoxication, they had    And here, gentlemen, give me leave to remind
given a verdict of guilty against him, though they  you of the parties before you. The trav- Parties in
believed him, in their conscience, to be innocent. erser4 is a printer, who follows that pro- this case.
That further inquiries were made, which ended    4 The name of traverser is usually given to the
in a discovery of the infamous life and character defendant in the Irish courts.




808                                     MR. CURRAN                                       [1797.
fession for bread, and who at a time of great is wisely suffered to pass by the state, from a
public misery and terror, when the people are consciousness that it would be vain to oppose it;
restrained by law from debating under any dele- a consciousness confirmed by the event of every
gated form; when the few constituents that we  incautious experiment.  It is suffered to pass
have are prevented by force from  meeting in  from a conviction that, in a court of justice al
their own persons to deliberate or to petition; least, the bulwarks of the Constitution will not
when every other newspaper in Ireland is put be surrendered to the state, and that the intenddown by force, or purchased by the administration  ed victim, whether clothed in the humble guise
(though here, gentlemen, perhaps I ought to beg  of honest industry, or decked in the honors of
your pardon for stating without authority, I rec- genius, and virtue, and philosophy; whether a
ol!ect, when we attempted to examine as to the  Hardy or a Tooke will find certain protection
number of newspapers in the pay of the Castle, in the honesty and spirit of an English jury.
that the evidence was objected to), at a season    But, gentlemen, I suppose Mr. Attorney will
like this, Mr. Finnerty has had the courage, per- scarcely wish to carry his doctrine What are the
haps the folly, to print the publication in ques- altogether so far.  Indeed, I remem- Attorney Genterl's -iews as
tion, from no motive under heaven of malice or ber, he declared himself a most zeal- to'tie ights of
vengeance, but in the mere duty which he owes ous advocate for the liberty of the the prs?
to his family and to the public.  His prosecutor press.  I may, therefore, even according to him,
is the King's minister in Ireland.  In that char- presume to make some observations on the conThe conduct of the acter does the learned gentleman  duct of the existing government.  I should wish
Lord Lieutenant a                                       1i
fairuroundofant. mean to say that his conduct is to know how far he supposes it to extend.  Is it
im version.  not a fair subject of public observ- to the composition of lampoons and madrigals,
ation?  Where does he find his authority for to be sung down the grates by ragged balladthat in the law or practice of the sister country? mongers, to kitchen maids and footmen?  I will
Have the virtues, or the exalted station, or the not suppose that he means to confine it to those
general love of his people preserved the sacred  ebullitions of Billingsgate, to those cataracts of
person even of the royal master of the prosecu- ribaldry and scurrility that are daily spouting
tor from the asperity and the intemperance of  upon the miseries of our wretched fellow-sufferpublic censure, unfounded as it ever must be, ers, and the unavailing efforts of those who have
with any personal respect to his Majesty, jus- vainly labored in their cause.   I will not suptice, or truth?  Have the gigantic abilities of pose that he confines it to the poetic license of
Mr. Pitt, have the more gigantic talents of his a birth-day ode.  The laureate would not use
great antagonist, Mr. Fox, protected either of such language! in which case I do entirely
them from the insolent familiarity, and, for aught agree with him, that the truth or the falsehood is
I know, the injustice with which writers have  as perfectly immaterial to the law as it is to the
treated them?  What latitude of invective has laureate, as perfectly unrestrained by the law of
Boldness of the King's minister escaped upon the the land as it is by any law of decency, or shame,
English  writ-'
er i ths   subject of the present  ar?  Is there  or modesty, or decorum.  But as to the privrespect.   an epithet of contumely or of reproach, ilege of censure or blame, I am sorry that the
that hatred or that fancy could suggest, that are  learned gentleman has not favored you with his
not publicly lavished upon him?  Do you not notion of the liberty of the press. Suppose an Irish
find the words, "advocate of despotism-robber viceroy acts " a very little absurdly."  May the
of the public treasure-murderer of the King's press venture to be " respectfully comical upon
subjects-debaucher of the public morality-   that absurdity?"  The learned counsel does not,
degrader of the Constitution-tarnisher of the  at least in terms, give a negative to that.  But
British empire,"' by frequency of use lose all let me treat you honestly, and go fiurther, to a
meaning whatsoever, and dwindling into terms, more material point.  Suppose an Irish viceroy
not of any peculiar reproach, but of ordinary  does an act that brings scandal upon his master
appellation?  And why, gentlemen, is this per- that fills the mind of a reasonable man with the
mitted in that country?  I will tell you why. fear of approaching despotism; that leaves no
Reasonsfmr Because in that country they are yet hope to the people of preserving themselves and
itsbeingper. wise enough to see that the measures their children from chains, but in common conof the state are the proper subjects for federacy for common safety.  What is an honest
the freedom of the press; that the principles re- man in that case to do?  I am sorry the right
lating to personal slander do not apply to rulers  honorable advocate for the liberty of the press
or to ministers; that to publish an attack upon  has not told you his opinion, at least in any exa public minister, without any regard to truth, press words.  I will, therefore, venture to give
but merely because of its tendency to a breach  you my humbler thoughts upon the subject.
of the peace, would be ridiculous in the extreme.    I think an honest man ought to tell the people
What breach of the peace, gentlemen, I pray  frankly and boldly of their peril, and, I state entof
you, is it in such a case?  Is it the tendency of  must say, I can imagine no villainy t "ose ights.
such publications to provoke Mr. Pitt, or Mr. greater than that of his holding a traitorous siDundas, to break the head of the writer, if they  lence at such a crisis, except the villainy and
should happen to meet him?  No, gentlemen.   5 Mr. Curran here refers to the abuse poured out
In that country this freedom  is exercised, be- by the government papers in Ireland against the
cause the people feel it to be their right, and it friends of reform.




1797.]                       IN BEHALF OF MR. FINNERTY.                                   809
baseness of prosecuting him, or of finding him    With the profoundest respect, permit me humguilty for such an honest discharge of his pub- bly to defend his Excellency, even Bt o.ghs not
lic duty.  And I found myself on the known  against his own opinion.  The guilt the press to
principle of the Revolution of England, namely, of this publication, he is pleased to tell te trut
that the Crown itself may be abdicated by cer- think, consists in this, that it tends to insurrectain abuses of the trust reposed, and that there  tion.  Upon what can such a fear be supported?
are possible excesses of arbitrary power, which  After the multitudes which have perished in this
it is not only the right, but the bounden duty of unhappy nation within the last three years, and
every honest man to resist at the risk of his for- which has been borne with a patience unparalleltune and his life.  Now, gentlemen, if this rea- ed in the story of nations, can any man suppose
soning be admitted, and it can not be denied, if that the fate of a single individual could lead to
there be any possible event in which the people  resistance or insurrection?  But suppose that it
are obliged to look only to themselves, and are  might, what ought to be the conduct of an honjustified in doing so, can you be so absurd as to  est man?  Should it not be to apprise the govsay that it is lawful to the people to act upon it ernment and the country of the approaching danwhen it unfortunately does arrive; but that it is ger?  Should it not be to say to the viceroy,
criminal in any man to tell them that the miser-  "You will drive the people to madness if you
able event has actually arrived, or is imminently  persevere in such bloody counsels; you will alapproaching?  Far am I, gentlemen, from insin- ienate the Irish nation; you will distract the
uating that (extreme as it is) our misery has been  common force; and you will invite the common
matured into any deplorable crisis of this kind, enemy."  Should not an honest man say to the
from which I pray that the Almighty God may  people, " the measure of your affliction is great,
forever preserve us.  But I am putting my prin- but you need not resort for remedy to any desciple upon the strongest ground, and most favor- perate expedients. If the King's minister is deable to my opponents; namely, that it never can  fective in humanity or wisdom, his royal master
be criminal to say any thing of the government and your beloved sovereign is abounding in both."
but what is false; and I put this in the extreme, At such a moment, can you be so senseless as
in order to demonstrate to you a fortiori, that not to feel that any one of you ought to hold such
the privilege of speaking truth to the people, language, or is it possible you could be so infatwhich holds in the last extremity, must also ob- uated as to punish the man who was honest
tain in every stage of inferior importance; and  enough to hold it?  Or is it possible that you
that however a court may have decided before  could bring yourselves to say to your country,
the late act [the Libel Act of Mr. Fox] that the  that at such a season the press ought to sleep
truth was immaterial in case of libel, that since  upon its post, or to act like the perfidious watchthat act no honest jury can be governed by such  man on his round that sees the villain wrenching
a principle.                                   the door, or the flames bursting from  the winBe pleased now, gentlemen, to consider the  dows, while the inhabitant is wrapped in sleep,
The Attorney  grounds upon which this publication  and cries out, " Past five o'clock; the morning
Gei"erl char'ges is called a libel, and criminal.  Mr. is fair, and all well!"
statement    Attorney teis you it tends to excite    On this part of the case I shall only put one
knolledges to  sedition and insurrection.  Let me  question to you.  I do not affect to Woule it ave
be true.   again remind you that the truth of  say that it is similar in all its points; teelalibe trut
this charge is not denied by the noble prosecutor. I do not affect to compare the hum- respecting the
What is it, then, that tends to excite sedition and  ble fortunes of Orr with the sainted sell and Sydinsurrection?  "The act that is charged upon  names of Russell or of Sydney; still "y?
the prosecutor, and is not attempted to be de- less am I willing to find any likeness between the
nied."  And, gracious God! gentlemen of the  present period and the year 1683.  But I will
jury, is the public statement of the King's rep- put a question to you completely parallel in prinresentative this?  " I have done a deed that ciple. When that unhappy and misguided Monmust fill the mind of every feeling or thinking  arch had shed the sacred blood which their noman with horror and indignation, that must alien- ble hearts had matured into a fit cement of
ate every man that knows it, from the King's  revolution, if any honest Englishman had been
government, and endanger the separation of this  brought to trial for daring to proclaim  to the
distracted empire; the traverser has had the guilt world his abhorrence of such a deed, what would
of publishing this fact, which I myself acknowl- you have thought of the English jury that could
edge, and I pray you to find him  guilty."  Is  have said, "We know in our hearts that what
this the case which the Lord Lieutenant of Ire- he said was true and honest; but we will say,
land brings forward?  Is this the principle for upon our oaths, that it was false and criminal;
which he ventures, at a dreadful crisis like the  and we will, by that base subserviency, add anpresent, to contend in a court of justice?  Is this  other item to the catalogue of public wrongs, and
the picture which he wishes to hold out of him- another argument for the necessity of an appeal
self, to the justice and humanity of his own coun- to Heaven for redress.
trymen?  Is this the history which he wishes to    Gentlemen, I am perfectly aware that what I
be read by the poor Irishman of the south and  say may be easily misconstrued; but if you listen
of the north, by the sister nation, and the con- to me with the same fairness that I address you,
mon enemy.                                      I can not be misunderstood.  When I show you




810                                      MR. CURRAN                                          [1797.
the full extent of your political rights and reme-  wherever the propriety of the exercise of it apThe present  dies; when I answer those slander-  pears, it is equally a matter of right.  He would
case is farrtomr ers of British liberty who degrade the  have the press all fierceness to the people, and
calling for the
application of Monarch into a despot, who degrade  all sycophancy to power; he would have it concples in t eir the steadfastness of law into the way- si.der the mad and phrenetic depopulations of auflexte"nt.   wardness of will; when I show you  thority like the awful and inscrutable dispensathe inestimable stores of political wealth so dear- tions of Providence, and say to the unfeeling and
ly acquired by our ancestors, and so solemnly be- despotic spoiler. in the blasphemed and insulted
queathed; and when I show you how much of  language of religious resignation, " the Lord hath
that precious inheritance has yet survived all the  given, and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be
prodigality of their posterity,'I am far from say- the name of the Lord!"
ing that 1 stand in need of it all upon the present    But let me condense the generality of the
occasion.  No, gentlemen, far, indeed, am I from  learned gentleman's invective into ques- Te e
such a sentiment.  No man more deeply than  tions that you can conceive.  Does he ingof this
myself deplores the present melancholy state of  mean that the air of this publication is ch'rge.
our unhappy country.  Neither does any man  rustic and uncourtly?  Does he mean that when
more fervently wish for the return of peace and  Marcus presumed to ascend the steps of the castranquillity through the natural channels of mer- tle, and to address the Viceroy, he did not turn
cy and of justice.  I have seen too much of force  out his toes as he ought to have done?  But,
and of violence, to hope much good from the con- gentlemen, you are not a jury of dancing-mastinuance of them on one side, or retaliation from  ters.  Or does the learned gentleman mean that
another.  I have seen too much of late ofpoliti- the language is coarse and vulgar?  If this be
cal rebuilding, not to have observed that to de- his complaint, my client has but a poor advocate.
molish is not the shortest way to repair.  It is I do not pretend to be a mighty grammnarian, or
with pain and anguish that 1 should search for a formidable critic; but I would beg leave to
the miserable right of breaking ancient ties, or suggest to you in serious humility, that a FREE
going in quest of new  relations or untried ad- PRESS can be supported only by the ardor of men
ventures.  No, gentlemen, the case of my client who feel the prompting sting of real or supposed
rests not upon these sad privileges of despair. capacity; who write from the enthusiasm of virI trust that as to the fact, namely, the intention  tue or the ambition of praise, and over whom,
of exciting insurrection, you must see it can not if you exercise the rigor of grammatical censorbe found in this publication; that it is the mere  ship, you will inspire them  with as mean an
idle, unsupported imputation of malice, or panic  opinion of your integrity as your wisdom, and
or falsehood.  And that as to the law, so far has  inevitably drive them  from  their post; and if
he been from transgressing the limits of the Con- you do, rely upon it, you will reduce the spirit
stitution, that whole regions lie between him and  of publication, and with it the press of this counthose limits which he has not trod; and which  try, to what it for a long interval has been, the
I pray to Heaven it may never be necessary for register of births, and fairs, and funerals, and the
any of us to tread.                               general abuse of the people and their friends.
Gentlemen, Mr. Attorney General has been          But, gentlemen, in order to bring this charge
Examinationof pleased to open another battery upon  of insolence and vulgarity to the test,,Te cllrge
the clargethat this publication, which I do trust I let me ask you whether you know of hro,-illlttothe
Marcus  was in-                                                                          test of flets.
solentand'ul. shall silence, unless I flatter myself  any language which could have ade-       ct
gar.       too much in supposing that hitherto  quately described the idea of mercy denied where
my resistance has not been utterly unsuccessful.  it ought to have been granted, or of any phrase
He abuses it for the foul and insolent familiarity  vigorous enough to convey the indignation which
of its address.  I do clearly understand his idea; an honest man would have felt upon such a subhe considers the freedom of the press to be the  ject?  Let me beg of you for a moment to suplicense of offering that paltry adulation which no  pose that any one of you had been the writer of
man ought to stoop to utter or to hear; he sup- this very severe expostulation with the Viceroy,
poses the freedom  of the press ought to be like  and that you had been the witness of the whole
the freedom  of a King's jester, who, instead of  progress of this never-to-be-forgotten catastrophe.
reproving the faults of which majesty ought to  Let me suppose that you had known the charge
be ashamed, is base and cunning enough, under upon which Mr. Orr was apprehended, the charge
the mask of servile and adulatory censure, to  of abjuring that bigotry which had torn and disstroke down and pamper those vices of which it graced his country; of pledging himself to restore
is foolish enough to be vain.  He would not the people of his country to their place in the
have the press presume to tell the Viceroy that Constitution; and of binding himself never to be
the prerogative of mercy is a trust for the bene- the betrayer of his fellow-laborers in that enterfit of the subject, and not a gaudy feather stuck  prise-that you had seen him upon that charge
in the diadem to shake in the wind, and by the  removed fiom his industry, and confined in a jail
waving of the gaudy plumage to amuse the van- -that through the slow and lingering progress
ity of the wearer.  He would not have it say to  of twelve tedious months you had seen hirn conhim that the discretion of the Crown, as to mer- fined in a dungeon, shut out from  the comon
cy, is like the discretion of a court of justice as to  use of air and of his own limbs-that day after
law, and that in the one case as well as the other, day you had marked the unhappy captive, cheer



1797.]                         IN  BEHALF OF MR. FINNERTY.                                      811
ed by no sound but the cries of his family, or the  suffering could vibrate, no voice of integrity or
clanking of his chains; that you had seen him at honor could speak-let me honestly tell you, 1
last brought to his trial-that you had seen the  should have scorned to fling my hand across it
vile and perjured informer deposing against his  I should have left it to a fitter minstrel.  If I do
life-that you had seen the drunken, and worn-  not, therefore, grossly err in my opinion of you,
out, and terrified jury give in a verdict of death  I could use no language upon such a subject as
-that you had seen the same jury, when their  this that must not lag behind the rapidity of your
returning sobriety had brought back their con-  feelings, and that would not disgrace those feelsciences, prostrate themselves before the human-  ings if it attempted to describe them.
ity of the bench, and pray that the mercy of the    Gentlemen, I am  not unconscious that the
Crown might save their characters from the re- learned counsel for the Crown seem- Tie way in
proach of an involuntary crime, their consciences  ed to address you with a confidence whnl,' t Atfrom  the torture of eternal self-condemnation,  of a very different kind; he seemed expected this
and their souls from the indelible stain of inno- to expect a kind and respectful sym- treated.)
cent blood.                                       pathy from you with the feelings of the castle,
Let me suppose that you had seen the respite  and the griefs of chided authority.  Perhaps,
given, and that contrite and honest recommenda- gentlemen, he may know you better than I do.
tion transmitted to that seat where mercy was  If he does, he has spoken to you as he ought.
presumed to dwell    that new and before un- He has been right in telling you that if the repheard of crimes are discovered against the in- robation of this writer is weak, it is because his
former-that the royal mercy seems to relent,  genius could not make it stronger; he has been
and that a new respite is sent to the prisoner-   right in telling you that his language has not been
that time is taken, as the learned counsel for the  braided and festooned as elegantly as it might;
Crown has expressed it, to see whether mercy  that he has not pinched the miserable plaits
could be extended or not!-that after that period  of his phraseology, nor placed his patches and
of lingering deliberation passed, a third respite  feathers with that correctness of millinery which
is transmitted-that the unhappy captive himself  became so exalted a person.  If you agree with
feels the cheering hope of being restored to a  him, gentlemen of the jury, if you think that the
family that he had adored, to a character that man who ventures at the hazard of his own life,
he had never stained, and to a country that he  to rescue from the deep, " the drowned honor of
had ever loved-that you had seen his wife and  his country,"7 must not presume upon the guilty
children upon their knees, giving those tears to  familiarity of plucking it up by the locks, I have
gratitude which their locked and frozen hearts  no more to say.  Do a courteous thing.  Upright
could not give to anguish and despair, and im- and honest jurors, find a civil and obliging verploring the blessings of eternal Providence upon  diet against the printer!  And when you have
his head, who had graciously spared the father, done so, march through the ranks of your fellowand restored him to his children-that you had  citizens to your own homes, and bear their looks
seen the olive branch sent into his little ark, but as ye pass along.  Retire to the bosom  of your
no sign that the waters had subsided.              families and your children, and when you are
"Alas!        presiding over the morality of the parental board,
Nor wife, nor children more shall he behold,    tell those infants, who are to be the future men
Nor friends, nor sacred home!"6               of Ireland, the history of this day.  Form  their
No seraph mercy unbars his dungeon, and leads  young minds by your precepts, and confirm those
him forth to light and life, but the minister of  precepts by your own example; teach them how
death hurries him to the scene of suffering and  discreetly allegiance may be perjured on the taof shame, where, unmoved by the hostile array  ble, or loyalty be forsworn in the jury box. And
of artillery and armed men, collected together  when you have done so, tell them  the story of
to secure, or to insult, or to disturb him, he dies  Orr.  Tell them of his captivity, of his children,
with a solemn declaration of his innocence, and  of his hopes, of his disappointments, of his courutters his last breath in a prayer for the liberty  age, and of his death; and when you find your
of his country!  Let me now ask you, if any of  little hearers hanging upon your lips, when you
you had addressed the public ear upon so foul see their eyes overflow with sympathy and sorand monstrous a subject, in what language would  row, and their young hearts bursting with the
you have conveyed the feelings of horror and  pangs of anticipated orphanage, tell them  that
indignation?  Would you have stooped to the  You had the boldness and the injustice to stiglmsameanness of qualified complaint? would you  tize the man who had dared to publish the transhave been mean enough? but I entreat your  action!
forgiveness, I do not think meanly of you.  Had      Gentlemen, I believe I told you before that the
I thought so meanly of you, I could not suffer  conduct of the viceroy was a small The object of
my mind to commune with you as it has done. part, indeed, of the subject of this tri- tis..es;crution
my  to  you                                      reoches fhr beHad I thought you that base and vile instrument,  al.  If the vindication of his mere yond tihevindiattuned by hope and by fear, into discord and  personal character had been, as it Lord Lieutenfalsehood, from whose vulgar string no groan of  ought to have been, the sole object ant
6 See Thomson's description, in his Winter, of a    7 " And pluck up drowned honor by the locks."
man perishing in a snow-storm.                       Shakspeare's 1st Part of Henry IV., Act I., Sc. 4.




812                                      MR. CURRAN                                        [1797.
of this prosecution, I should have felt the most subject I do not enter; but you can not yourrespectful regret at seeing a person of his high  selves forget that the conciliatory Thesevere
consideration come forward in a court of public  measures of the former noble Lord tmeaLo eu.
justice in one and the same breath to admit the  had produced an almost miraculous tenant.
truth, and to demand the punishment of a publi- unanimity in this country; and much do I regret,
cation like the present; to prevent the chance he  and sure I am that it is not without pain you can
might have had of such an accusation being dis- reflect how unfortunately the conduct of his sucbelieved, and by a prosecution like this, to give  cessor has terminated.  His intentions might
to the passing stricture of a newspaper, that life, have been the best.  I neither know them  nor
and body, and action, and reality, that proves it condemn them; but their terrible effects you can
to all mankind, and makes the record of it indel- not be blind to.  Every new act of coercion has
ible.  Even as it is, I do own I feel the utmost been followed by some new symptom of disconconcern that his name should have been soiled  tent, and every new attack provoked some new
by being mixed in a question of which it is the  paroxysm of resentment or some new combinamere pretext and scape-goat.   Mr. Attorney  tion of resistance.  In this deplorable state of
was too wise to state to you the real question, or affairs, convulsed and distracted within, and menthe object which he wished to be answered by  aced by a most formidable enemy from without,
your verdict.  Do you remember that he was  it was thought that public safety might be found
pleased to say that this publication was a base  in union and conciliation, and repeated applicaand foul misrepresentation of the virtue and wis- tions were made to the Parliament of this kingdom of the government, and a false and audacious  dom for a calm inquiry into the complaints of the
statement to the world, that the King's govern- people.  These applications were made in vain.
ment in Ireland was base enough to pay inform- Impressed by the same motives, Mr. Fox brought
ers for taking away the lives of the people?  the same subject before the Commons of'England,
When I heard this statement to-day, I doubted  and ventured to ascribe the perilous state of Irewhether you were aware of its tendency or not. land to the severity of its government.  Even
It is now necessary that I should explain it to  his stupendous abilities, excited by the liveliest
you more at large.                               sympathy with our sufferings, and animated by
You can not be ignorant of the great conflict the most ardent zeal to restore the strength with
eonte bf etween prerogative and privilege  the union of the empire, were repeatedly exerted
tle government which hath convulsed the country for  without success.  The fact of dis- The discontent
crttedn
and the people. the last fifteen years.  When I say  content was denied; the fact of co- Ilusbeet p-d
privilege, you can not suppose that I mean the  ercion was denied; and the conse- i" d"enied.
privileges of the House of Commons; I mean the  quence was, the coercion became more implacprivileges of the people.  You are no strangers  able, and the discontent more threatening and
to the various modes by which the people labor- irreconcilable.  A similar application was made,
ed to approach their object.  Delegations, con- in the beginning of this session, in the Peers of
ventions, renonstrances, resolutions, petitions to  Great Britain, by our illustrious countryman,
the Parliament, petitions to the Throne.  It Lord Moira, of whom I do not wonder that my
might not be decorous in this place to state to  learned friend should have observed how much
you with any sharpness the various modes of re- virtue can fling pedigree into the shade, or how
sistance that were employed on the other side. much the transient honor of a body inherited
But you all of you seem  old enough to remem- from man is obscured by the luster of an intelher the variety of acts of Parliament that have  lect derived from God.  He, after being an eyebeen made, by which the people were deprived, witness of this country, presented the miserable
session after session, of what they had supposed  picture of what he had seen; and, to the astonto be the known and established fundamentals of ishment of every man in Ireland, the existence
the Constitution; the right of public debate, the  of those facts was ventured to be denied.  The
right of public petition, the right of bail, the right conduct of the present Viceroy was justified and
of trial, the right of arms for self-defense; until applauded; and the necessityof continuing that
at last even the relics of popular privilege be- conduct was insisted upon as the only means of
came superseded by military force; the press ex- preserving the Constitution, the peace, and the
tinguished; and the state found its last intrench- prosperity of Ireland.  The moment the learned
ment in the grave of the Constitution.  As little  counsel had talked of this publication as a false
can you be strangers to the tremendous confed- statement of the conduct of the government and
erations of hundreds of thousands of our coun- the condition of the people, no man could be at
trymen, of the nature and the objects of which  a loss to see that that awful question which had
such a variety of opinions have been propagated  been dismissed from  the Commons of Ireland,
and entertained.8                                 and from the Lords and Commons of Great BritThe writer of this letter has presumed to cen- ain, is now brought forward to be tried by a side
sure the recall of Lord Fitzwilliam as well as  wind, and in a collateral way, by a criminal prosthe measures of the present Viceroy.  Into this  ecution.
s Mr. Curran here refers to the societies of United  I tell you, therefore, gentlemen of the jury, it
Irishmen, which were formed every where thiough- i not with respect to Mr. Orr that your verdict
out the land just in proportion as the restrictions  is now  sought.  You are called upon, on your
took place which are enumerated above,           oaths, to say that the government is wise and mer



1797.]                        IN  BEHALF OF MR. FINNERTY.                                       813
ciful; that the people are prosperous and happy; rid miscreants who avowed upon their oaths that
The chiefob-  that military law ought to be  con- they had come from  the very seat of governjectofrtle    tinued; that the British Constitution  ment, from  the Castle, where they had been
prosecution is
to obtain a dec- could not, with safety, be restored to  worked upon by the fear of death and the hopes
laration in favor ofthe gov- this country; and that the statements  of compensation to give evidence against their
ernment.    of a contrary import by your advo- fellows-[I speak ofthe well-known fact] that the
cates in either country were libelous and false. mild and wholesome counsels of this government
I tell you these are the questions; and I ask you, are holden over these catacombs of living death;
can you have the front to give the expected an- where the wretch that is buried a man lies till his
swer in the face of a community who know the  heart has time to fester and dissolve, and is then
country as well as you do?  Let me ask you  dug up a witness.
how you could reconcile with such a verdict the    Is this fancy, or is it fact?  Have you not seen
jails, the tenders, the gibbets, the conflagrations,  him after his resurrection from that The aea
the murders, the proclamations that we hear of  tomb; after having been dug out of ofthe informer
every day in the streets, and see every day in the  the region of death and corruption,
country.   What are the processions of the  make his appearance upon the table, the living
learned counsel himself, circuit after circuit?  image of life and of death, and the supreme arbiter
Merciful God, what is the state of Ireland, and  of both?  Have you not marked, when he enterwhere shall you find the wretched inhabitant of  ed, how the stormy wave of the multitude retired
this land!  You may find him, perhaps, in a jail, at his approach?  Have you not marked how
the only place of security, I had almost said of  the human heart bowed to the supremacy of his
ordinary habitation; you may see him flying, by  power in the undissembled homage of deferenthe conflagration of his own dwelling; or you  tial horror?  How his glance, like the lightning
may find his bones bleaching on the green fields  of heaven, seemed to rive the body of the acof his country; or he may be found tossing upon  cused and mark it for the grave, while his voice
the surface of the ocean, and mingling his groans  warned the devoted wretch of woe and death-a
with those tempests, less savage than his perse- death which no innocence can escape, no art
cutors, that drift him to a returnless distance from  elude, no force resist, no antidote prevent. There
his family and his home.  And yet, with these  was an antidote-a juror's oath-but even that
facts ringing in the ears, and staring in the face  adamantine chain, which bound the integrity of
of the prosecutor, you are called upon to say, on  man to the throne of eternal justice, is solved
your oaths, that these facts do not exist.  You  and melted in the breath that issues from  the
are called upon, in defiance of shame, of truth, of  informer's mnouth.  Conscience swings from her
honor, to deny the sufferings under which you  mooring, and the appalled and affrighted juror
groan, and to flatter the persecution that tramples  consults his own safety in the surrender of the
you under foot.                                   victim:
But the learned gentleman is further pleased              - Et qume sibi quisque timebat,
lo l- to say that the traverser has charged     Unius in miseri exitium conversa tulere.'0
tion that inform- the government with the encourage-    Gentlemen, I feel 1 must have tired your paers are not employed by the  ment of informers. This, gentlemen, tience, but I have been forced into this Peroration
executive.    is another small fact that you are to  length by the prosecutor, who has Not wonderful
deny at the hazard of your souls, and upon the  thought fit to introduce those extra- erme.t sgeek
solemnity of your oaths.  You are upon your ordinary topics, and to bring a ques- dioOryte
oaths to say to the sister country, that the gov- tion of mere politics to trial, under verdict of a
ajfoy; but no
ernment of Ireland uses no such abominable in- the form  of a criminal prosecution. jury can thus
struments of destruction as informers.  Let me  I can not say I am surprised that this cover it.
ask you honestly, what do you feel, when in my  has been done, or that you should be solicited by
hearing, when in the face of this audience, you  the same inducements and from the same motives,
are called upon to give a verdict that every man  as if your verdict was a vote of approbation.  I
of us, and every man of you, knows by the testi- do not wonder that the government of Ireland
mony of his own eyes to be utterly and absolute- should stand appalled at the state to which we
ly false?  I speak not now of the public procla- are reduced.  I wonder not that they should start
mation of informers, with a promise of secrecy  at the public voice, and labor to stifle or to conand of extravagant reward.  I speak not of the  tradict it. I wonder not that at this arduous crisis,
fate of those horrid wretches who have been so  when the very existence of the empire is at stake,
often transferred from the table to the dock, and  when its strongest and most precious limb is not
from the dock to the pillory; I speak of what girt with the sword for battle, but pressed by the
your own eyes have seen day after day, during  tourniquet for amputation; when they find the
the course of this commission, from  the box  coldness of death already begun in those extremwhere you are now sitting-the number of hor- ities where it never ends, that they are terrified
9 There were many government witnesses at this  at what they have done, and wish to say to the
time, who so obviously perjured themselves in  eir     iig parties of that empire, "they can not
testimony, that they were taken immediately to the
criminal's box (the dock), and thence, on conviction, to And thus what each was dreading for himself,
to the pillory, where they were sentenced to stand    On the devoted head of one poor wretch
for their perjuries.                                 They turned.- Virgil's,Eneid, book ii., line 130.




814                                    MR. CURRAN                                        [1804
say that we did it."  I wonder not that they  tie failings of the press.  Let me, therefore, reshould consider their conduct as no immaterial mind you, that though the day may soon come
question for a court of criminal jurisdiction, and  when our ashes shall be scattered before the
wish anxiously, as on an inquest of blood, for the winds of heaven, the memory of what you do can
kind acquittal of a friendly jury.  I wonder not not die.  It will carry down to your posterity
that they should wish to close the chasm  they  your honor or your shame.  In the presence, and
have opened by flinging you into the abyss.  But in the name of that ever-living God, I do there
trust me, my countrymen, you might perish in it, fore conjure you to reflect that you have your
but you could not close it.  Trust me, if it is yet characters, your consciences, that you have also
possible to close it, it can be done only by truth  the character, perhaps the ultimate destiny, of
and honor.  Trust me, that such an effect could your country in your hands. In that awful name:
no more be wrought by the sacrifice of a jury  I do conjure you to have mercy upon your counthan by the sacrifice of Orr.  As a state meas- try and upon yourselves, and so to judge now as
ure, the one would be as unwise and unavailing  you will hereafter be judged; and I do now subas the other.  But while you are yet upon the mit the fate of my client, and of that country
brink, while you are yetvisible, let me, before we which we yet have in common to your disposal.
part, remind you once more of your awful situation.  The law upon this subject gives you supreme dominion.  Hope not for much assistance    Mr. Finnerty was found guilty by the jury,
from his Lordship.  On such occasions, perhaps, and was brought up for sentence the following
the duty of the court is to be cold and neutral. day.  He stated that he had been taken to AlI can not but admire the dignity he has support- derman Alexander's office, and there threatened
ed during this trial; I am  grateful for his pa- with public whipping if he did not give up the
tience.  But let me tell you it is not his prov- name of the author of MARCus.  He refused to
ince to fan the sacred flame of patriotism in the  do it, and was sentenced to stand in the pillory
jury box.  As he has borne with the little ex- one hour, and be imprisoned two years, which
travagances of the law, do you bear with the lit- punishment he suffered.
SPEEC H
OF MR. CURRAN AGAINST THE MARQUESS OF HEADFORT FOR ADULTERY WITH THE WIFE OF
THE REV. CHARLES MASSY, BEFORE BARON SMITH AND A SPECIAL JURY, DELIVERED JULY 27,
1804.
INTRODUCTION.
THE Rev. CHARrES MASSY, son of Sir Hugh Massy, Bart., was a clergyman of the Church of England, and was married to Miss Rosslewyn, a lady of extraordinary beauty, in 1796. By her he had one
son. In 1803, the Marquess of'Headfort, an officer in the army, was quartered in the neighborhood with
his regiment, and was received to the hospitalities of Mr. Massy's house. As the Marquess was more
than fifty years of age, Mr. Massy had no suspicions of any evil design on the part of his guest, and admitted him to the most familiar intercourse with his family. The occasion was laid hold of for seducing
Mrs. Massy, who eloped with the Marquess on the Sunday after Christmas, while her husband was performing service in his own church.
The damages were laid at ~40,000. All the facts of the case were admitted, and the only thing urged
for the defendant in mitigation of damages was that Mr. Massy had brought this calamity on himself by
allowing his wife to associate too freely with the Marquess. It gave a melancholy interest to Mr. Cur.
ran's speech that he had himself suffered the same injury under the same circumstances, and that the
defense of the man who had injured him was precisely the same. Mr. Curran was, therefore, arguing
his own cause in defending his client against these imputations, and exposing the guilt of the seducer.
SPEE CH, &c.
NEVER, so clearly as in the present instance, sity, rather than election.  You have seen it, in
Power ofjust have I observed that safeguard ofjus- the learned advocate who has preceded me, most
te"indsof^ e tice which Providence has placed in  peculiarly and strikingly illustrated.  You have
men.      the nature of man.  Such is the im- seen even his great talents, perhaps the first in
perious dominion with which truth and reason  any country, languishing under a cause too weak
wave their scepter over the human intellect, that to carry him, and too heavy to be carried by him.
no solicitation, however artful, no talent. howev- He was forced to dismiss his natural candor and
er commanding, can reduce it from  its allegi- sincerity, and, having no merits in his case, to
ance.  In proportion to the humility of our sub- substitute the dignity of his own manner, the remission to its rule, do we rise into some faint  sources of his own ingenuity, over the overemulation of that ineffable and presiding divinity, whelming difficulties with which he was surwhose characteristic attribute it is to be coerced  rounded.  Wretched client! unhappy advocate!
and bound by the inexorable laws of its own na- x What a combination do you form!  But such is
ture, so as to be all-wise and all-just from neces- the condition of guilt —its commission mean and




1804.]                 AGAINST THE MARQUESS OF HEADFORT.                                   815
tremulous-its defense artificial and insincere-   more dangerous-to make his guilt more odious
its prosecution candid and simple-its condem- -to make the injury to the plaintiff more grievnation dignified and austere.  Such has been the  ous, because more conspicuous?  I affect no levdefendant's guilt-such his defense-such shall eling familiarity, when I speak of persons in the
be my address, and such, I trust, your verdict.  higher ranks of society.  Distinctions of orders
The learned counsel has told you that this un- are necessary, and I always feel disposed to treat
The reparation fortunate woman is not to be estima- them with respect.  But when it is my duty to
demanded.   ted at forty thousand pounds.  Fatal speak of the crimes by which they are degraded,
and unquestionable is the truth of this assertion. I am not so fastidious as to shrink from their conAlas! gentlemen, she is no longer worth any  tact, when to touch them is essential to their disthing-faded, fallen, degraded, and disgraced, section.  In this action, the condition, the conshe is worth less than nothing.  But it is for the  duct, and circumstances of the party are justly
honor, the hope, the expectation, the tenderness, and peculiarly the objects of your consideration.
and the comforts that have been blasted by the Who are the parties?  The plaintiff, Conditionof
defendant, and have fled forever, that you are to  young, amiable, of family and edu- parties in the
remunerate the plaintiff, by the punishment of cation.  Of the generous disinterest- present ae.
the defendant.  It is not her present value which  edness of his heart, you can form  an opinion,
you are to weigh-but it is her value at that even from the evidence of the defendant, that he
time, when she sat basking in a husband's love, declined an alliance which would have added to
with the blessing of Heaven on her head, and its his fortune and consideration, and which he repurity in her heart.  When she sat among her jected for an unportioned union with his present
family, and administered the morality of the pa- wife.  She, too, at that time young, beautiful,
rental board-estimate that past value-compare  and accomplished; and feeling her affection for
it with its present deplorable diminution-and it her husband increase, in proportion as she remay lead you to form some judgment of the se- membered the ardor of his love, and the sinceriverity of the injury and the extent of the coin- ty of his sacrifice.  Look now to the defendant!
pensation.                                     I blush to name him!  I blush to name a rank
The learned counsel has told you, you ought which he has tarnished, and a patent that he
The jury ought to be cautious, because your verdict has worse than canceled.  High in the armyb their sensi- can not be set aside for excess.  The  high in the state-the hereditary counselor of the
bilities in the  assertion is just, but has he treated  King-of wealth incalculable-and to this last I
damages they
give.     you fairly by its application?  His advert with an indignant and contemptuous satiscause would not allow him to be fair-for why  faction, because, as the only instrument of his guilt
is the rule adopted in this single action?  Be- and shame, it will be the means of his punishment,
cause, this being peculiarly an injury to the most and the source of compensation for his guilt.
susceptible of all human feelings-it leaves the    But let me call your attention distinctly to the
injury of the husband to be ascertained by the  questions you have to consider.  The The defendant'
sensibility of the jury; and does not presume to  first is the fact of guilt.  Is this no- guilt acknowlmeasure the justice of their determination by the  ble Lord guilty?  His counsel knew edged
cold and chilly exercise of its own discretion. In  too well how they would have mortified his vanany other action, it is easy to calculate.  If a ity, had they given the smallest reason to doubt
tradesman's arm is cut off, you can measure the  the splendor of his achievement.  Against any
loss which he has sustained; but the wound of such humiliating suspicion, he had taken the most
feeling and the agony of the heart can not be studious precaution by the publicity of the exjudged by any standard with which I am  ac- ploit.  And here in this court, and before you,
quainted. You are, therefore, unfairly dealt with, and in the face of the country, has he the unparwhen you are called on to appreciate the present alleled effrontery of disdaining to resort even to
suffering of the husband by the present guilt, de- a confession of innocence.  His guilt established,
linquency, and degradation of his wife.  As well your next question is the damages you should
might you, if called on to give compensation to  give.  You have been told that the amount of
a man for the murder of his dearest friend-to  the damages should depend on circumstances.
find the measure of his injury by weighing the  You will consider these circumstances, whether
ashes of the dead.  But it is not, gentlemen of of aggravation or mitigation.  His learned counthe jury, by weighing the ashes of the dead, that sel contend that the plaintiff has been the author
you would estimate the loss of the survivor.    of his own suffering, and ought to receive no
The learned counsel has referred you to other compensation for the ill consequences of his own
moof  cases and other countries for instan- conduct.  In what part of the evidence do you
damages given ces of moderate verdicts.  I can refer find any foundation for that assertion?  He ininothercases. you to some authentic instances ofjust dulged her, it seems, in dress.  Generous and
ones.  In the next county, 615,000 against a  attached, he probably indulged her in that point
subaltern officer.  In Travers and M'Carthy, beyond his means; and the defendant now impu~5000 against a servant.  In Tighe against dently calls on you to find an excuse for the adulJones, ~10,000 against a man not worth a shil- terer, in the fondness and liberality of the husband.
ling. What, then, ought to be the rule, where    But you have been told that the husband conrank, and power, and wealth, and station have nived.  Odious and impudent aggravation of incombined to render the example of his crime  jury-to add calumny to insult, and outrage to




816                                     MR. CURRAN                                         [1804.
The rete dishonor.  From  whom, but a man  noble Lord to pass his threshold as his guest.
that Mr. Massy hackneyed in the paths of shame and  Now the charge which this noble Lord builds or
r atleastbeen vice -from whom, but from a man  this indiscretion is, "Thou fool! thou hast conindiscreet    having no compunctions in his own  fidence in my honor, and that was a guilty inbreast to restrain him, could you expect such  discretion-thou simpleton, thou thoughtest that
brutal disregard for the feelings of others? From   an admitted and cherished guest would have rewhom, but the cold-blooded, veteran seducer-   spected the laws of honor and hospitality, and
from  what, but from  the exhausted mind, the  thy indiscretion was guilt.  Thou thoughtest
habitual community with shame-from  what, that he would have shrunk from the meanness
but the habitual contempt of virtue and of man, and barbarity of requiting kindness with treachcould you have expected the arrogance, the bar- ery, and thy indiscretion was guilt."
barity, and folly of so foul, because so false an im-    Gentlemen, what horrid alternative in the
putation?  He should have reflected, and have  treatment of wives would such rea- Thrle lneess.ar
blushed, before he suffered so vile a topic of de- soning recommend? Are they to be,oa'ilittig
tense to have passed his lips.  But, ere you con- immured by worse than Eastern bar- this detellse.
demn, let him have the benefit of the excuse, if  barity?  Are their principles to be depraved,
the excuse be true.  You must have observed  their passions sublimated, every finer motive of
how his counsel fluttered and vibrated between  action  extinguished  by the inevitable consewhat they called connivance and injudicious con- quences of thus treating them like slaves?  Or
fidence; and how, in affecting to distinguish, is a liberal and generous confidence in them to
they have confounded them  both together.  If  be the passport of the adulterer, and the justifithe plaintiff has connived, I freely say to you, do  cation of his crime?
not reward the wretch who has prostituted his    Honorably but fatally for his own repose, he
wife and surrendered his own honor-do not was neither jealous, suspicious, nor Mr. Massy did recompensate the pander of his own shame, and  cruel.  He treated the defendant pose coilidece.
the willing instrument of his own infamy.  But with the confidence of a friend, and his wife with
as there is no sum so low to which such a de- the tenderness of a husband.  He did leave to
tense, if true, ought not to reduce your verdict, the noble Marquess the physical possibility of
so neither is any so high to which such a charge  committing against him the greatest crime which
ought not to inflame it, if such a charge be false. can be perpetrated against a being of an amiaWhere is the single fact in this case on which  ble heart and refined education.  In the middle
Not onefcet the remotest suspicion of connivance  of the day, at the moment of divine worship,
tojustify this can be hung?  Odiously has the de- when the miserable husband was on his knees,
pretnse.   fendant endeavored to make the soft- directing the prayers and thanksgiving of his
est and most amiable feelings of the heart the  congregation to their God, that moment did the
pretext of his slanderous imputations.  An an- remorseless adulterer choose to carry off the decient and respectable prelate, the husband of his  luded victim from her husband-from her child
wife's sister, was chained down to the bed of  -from her character-fiom her happiness-as
sickness, perhaps to the bed of death.  In that if not content to leave his crime confined to its
distressing situation, my client suffered that wife  miserable aggravations, unless he also gave it a
to be the bearer of consolation to the bosom of  cast and color of factitious sacrilege and impiety.
her sister-he had not the heart to refuse her-   Oh! how happy had it been when he arrived at
and the softness of his nature is now charged on  the bank of the river with the ill-fated fugitive,
him as a crime!  He is now insolently told that ere yet he had committed her to that boat, of
he connived at his dishonor, and that he ought to  which, like the fabled bark of Styx, the exile
have foreseen that the mansion of sickness and  was eternal-how  happy at that moment, so
of sorrow would have been made the scene of  teeming with misery and with shame, spposed reassignation and of guilt.  On this charge of con- if you, my Lord, had met him, and wit tia"
nivance I will not further weary you, or exhaust could have accosted him in the char- Mnarques.
myself-I will add nothing more, than that it is acter of that good genius which had abandoned
as false as it is impudent; that in the evidence, him.  How impressively might you have pleadit has not a color of support; and that by your ed the cause of the father, of the child, of the
verdict you should mark it with reprobation. mother, and even of the worthless defendant
The other subject, namely, that he was indis- himself.  You would have said, "Is this the recreet in his confidence, does, I think, call for quital that you are about to make for the respect,
some discussion-for I trust you see that I affect and kindness, and confidence in your honor?
not any address to your passions by which you  Can you deliberately expose this young man in
may be led away from the subject.  I presume  the bloom of life, with all his hopes yet before
merely to separate the parts of this affecting  him?  Can you expose him, a wretched outcast
case, and to lay them item by item before you, from society, to the scorn of a merciless world?
with the coldness of detail, and not with any color-  Can you set him  adrift upon the tempestuous
ing or display of fiction or of fancy.  Honorable  ocean of his own passions, at this early season
to himself was his unsuspecting confidence; fatal when they are most headstrong; and can you
must we admit it to have been, when we look to  cut him out from the moorings of those domesthe abuse committed upon it; but where was the  tic obligations, by whose cable he might ride at
guilt of this indiscretion?  He did admit this  safety from their turbulence?  Think, if you can




1804.]               AGAINST THE MARQUESS OF HEADFORT.                                  817
conceive it, what a powerful influence arises ingratitude, in mercy to her, weigh well the con
from the sense of home, from the sacred religion  fidence she can place in your future justice and
of the hearth in quelling the passions, in re- honor.  At that future time, much nearer than
claiming the wanderings, in correcting the dis- you think, by what topics can her cause be pleadorders of the human heart.  Do not cruelly take  ed to a sated appetite, to a heart that repels her,
from  him the protection of these attachments. to a just judgment, in which she never could have
But if you have no pity for the father, have mer- been valued or respected?  Here is not the case
cy, at least, upon his innocent and helpless child. of an unmarried woman, with whom a rure and
Do not condemn him to an education scandalous  generous friendship may insensibly have ripened
or neglected.  Do not strike him into that most into a more serious attachment, until at last her
dreadful of all human conditions, the orphanage  heart became too deeply pledged to be reasthat springs not from the grave, that falls not sumed. If so circumstanced, without any husfrom the hand of Providence or the stroke of band to betray, or child to desert, or motive to
death; but comes before its time, anticipated  restrain, except what related solely to herself,
and inflicted by the remorseless cruelty of pa- her anxiety for your happiness made her overlook
rental guilt.'"  For the poor victim herself, not every other consideration, and commit her desyet immolated, while yet balancing upon the  tiny to your honor; in such a case (the stronpivot of her destiny, your heart could not be gest and the highest that man's imagination can
cold, nor your tongue be wordless.  You would  suppose), in which you, at least, could see nothhave said to him, "Pause, my Lord, while there  ing but the most noble and disinterested sacriis yet a moment for reflection.  What are your flee; in which you could find nothing but what
motives, what your views, what your prospects, claimed from you the most kind and exalted senfrom  what you are about to do?  You are a timent of tenderness, and devotion, and respect.
married man, the husband of the most amiable  and in which the most fastidious rigor would find
and respectable of women; you can not look to  so much more subject for sympathy than blamethe chance of marrying this wretched fugitive. let me ask you, could you, even in that case, anBetween you and such an event there are two  swer for your own justice and gratitude?  I do
sepulchers to pass.  What are your induce- not allude to the long and pitiful catalogue of
ments?  Is it love, think you?  No.  Do not paltry adventures, in which, it seems, your time
give that name to any attraction you can find in  has been employed-the coarse and vulgar sucthe faded refuse of a violated bed.  Love is a cession of casual connections, joyless, loveless.
noble and generous passion; it can be founded  and unendeared.  But do you not find upon your
only on a pure and ardent friendship, on an ex- memory some trace of an engagement of the
alted respect, on an implicit confidence in its character I have sketched?  Has not your sense
object. Search your heart; examine your judg- of what you would owe in such a case, and to
ment.  Do you find the semblance of any one such a woman, been at least once put to the test
of these sentiments to bind you to her?  What of experiment?  Has it not once, at least, hapcould degrade a mind to which nature or educa- pened that such a woman, with all the resolution
tion had given port or stature, or character, into  of strong faith, flung her youth, her hope, her
a friendship for her? Could you repose upon her beauty, her talent, upon your bosom, weighed you
faith?  Look in her face, my Lord: she is at against the world, which she found but a feather
this moment giving you the violation of the in the scale, and took you as an equivalent?
most sacred of human obligations as the pledge  How did you then acquit yourself?  Did you
of her fidelity.  She is giving you the most ir- prove yourself worthy of the sacred trust reposed
refragable proof that as she is deserting her in you?  Did your spirit so associate with hers
husband for you, so she would without scruple  as to leave her no room to regret the splendid
abandon you for another.  Do you anticipate  and disinterested sacrifice she had made?  Did
any pleasure you might feel in the possible her soul find a pillow in the tenderness of yours.
event of your becoming the parents of a corn- and a support in its firmness?  Did you preserve
mon child?  She is at this moment proving to  her high in her own consciousness, proud in your
you that she is as dead to the sense of parental admiration and friendship, and happy in your alas of conjugal obligation, and that she would  fection?  You might have so acted (and the
abandon your offspring to-morrow with the same man that was worthy of her would have perished
facility with which she now deserts her own. rather than not so act) as to make her delighted
Look then at her conduct as it is, as the world  with having confided so sacred a trust to his honmust behold it, blackened by every aggravation  or.  Did you so act?  Did she feel that, howthat can make it either odious or contemptible, ever precious to your heart, she was still more
and unrelieved by a single circumstance of mit- exalted and honored in your reverence and reigation that could palliate its guilt or retrieve it spect?  Or did she find you coarse and paltry.
from abhorrence.                               fluttering and unpurposed, unfeeling and ungrate" Mean, however, and degraded as this woman  ful?  You found her a fair and blushing flower,
must be, she will still (if you take her with you) its beauty and its fragrance bathed in the dews
have strong and heavy claims upon you.  The    1 This reference to a previous elopement of anforce of such claims does certainly depend upon  other with the Marquess, and his desertion of her,
circumstances.  Before, therefore, you expose  must have operated with great force on the minds
her fate to the dreadful risk of your caprice or of the jury.
F F




818                                    MR. CURRAN                                        [1804.
of heaven.  Did you so tenderly transplant it as  that, I will only say, gentlemen of the jury, do
to preserve that beauty and fragrance unim- not give this vain boaster a pretext for saying
paired?  Or did you so rudely cut it as to inter- that if the husband connived in the offense, the
rupt its nutriment, to waste its sweetness, to  jury also connived in the reparation.
blast its beauty, to bow down its faded and sick-    But he has pressed another curious topic upon
ly head?  And did you at last fling it, like'a you.  After the plaintiff had cause The pretense
loathsome weed, away?'  If, then, to such a  to suspect his designs, and the likeli- tht lr..Iaswoman, so clothed with every title that could en- hood of their being fatally successful, fectlyjudiCious when he
noble, and exalt, and endear her to the heart of  he did not then act precisely as he suspected
man, you could be cruelly and capriciously defi- ought.  Gracious God, what an ar- " 
cient, how can a wretched fugitive like this, in  gument for him to dare to advance!  It is sayevery point her contrast, hope to find you just? ing thus to him, " I abused your confidence, your
Send her, then, away.  Send her back to her hospitality; I laid a base plan for the seduction
home, to her child, to her husband, to herself."   of the wile of your bosom; I succeeded at last,
Alas, there was none to hold such language to  so as to throw in upon you that most dreadful
Theconductof this noble defendant; he did not hold  of all suspicions to a man fondly attached, proud
i the Melope  it to himself.  But he paraded his of his wife's honor, and tremblingly alive to his
lent.      despicable prize in his own carriage, own; that you were possibly a dupe to the conwith his own retinue, his own servants.  This fidence in the wife as much as in the guest.  In
veteran Paris hawked his enamored Helen, from  this so pitiable distress, which I myself had stuthis western quarter of the island, to a sea-port in  diously and deliberately contrived for you-bethe eastern, crowned with the acclamations of a  tween hope and fear, and doubt and love, and
senseless and grinning rabble, glorying and de- jealousy and shame; one moment shrinking from
lighted, no doubt, in the leering and scoffing ad- the cruelty of your suspicion, the next fired with
miration of grooms, and hostlers, and waiters: as indignation at the facility and credulity of your
he passed.  In this odious contempt of every per- acquittal —in this labyrinth of doubt, in this
sonal feeling, of public opinion, of common hu- frenzy of suffering, you were not collected and
manity, did he parade this woman to the sea- composed.  You did not act as you might have
port, whence he transported his precious cargo  done if I had not worked you to madness; and
to a country where her example may be less  upon that very madness which I have inflicted
mischievous than in her own; where I agree  upon you, upon the very completion of my guilt
with my learned colleague in heartily wishing  and of your misery, I will build my defense.
he may remain with her forever.  We are too  You will not act critically right, and therefore
poor, too simple, too unadvanced a country for are unworthy of compensation."  Gentlemen,
the example of such achievements.  When the  can you be dead to the remorseless atrocity of
relaxation of morals is the natural growth and  such a defense!  And shall not your honest ver-.eoasequence of the great progress of arts and  diet mark it as it deserves?'wealth, it is accompanied by a refinement that    But let me go a little further; let me ask you,:makes it less gross and shocking.  But for such  for I confess I have no distinct idea of Te di
ipalliations we are at least a century too young. what should be the conduct of a bus- scuty of his
ml    advise you, therefore, most earnest- band so placed, and who is to act crit- situation.
-Publim    Iadi                  mo     rnls
requireexern- ly to rebuke this budding mischief, ically right.  Shall he lock her up or turn her
plary damage. by letting the wholesome vigor and  out?  Or enlarge or abridge her liberty of actchastisement of a liberal verdict speak what you  ing as she pleases?  Oh, dreadful Areopagus of.think of its enormity.  In every point of view  the tea-table!  How  formidable thy inquests,
in which I can look at the subject, I see you  how  tremendous thy condemnations!  In the
are called upon to give a verdict of bold, and  first case, he is brutal and barbarous-an odious,juist, and indignant, and exemplary compensa- Eastern despot.  In the next, What i turn an in-,tion.  The injury of the plaintiff demands it from  nocent woman out of his house, without evidence
your justice.  The delinquency of the defendant or proof, but merely because he is vile and mean
provokes it by its enormity.  The rank on which  enough to suspect the wife of his bosom, and the
he has relied for impunity calls upon you to tell mother of his child!  Between these extremes,
him that crime does not ascend to the rank of  what intermediate degree is he to adopt?  I put
the perpetrator, but the perpetrator sinks from  this question to you, do you at this moment, unhis rank and descends to the level of his delin- influenced by any passion, as you now are, but.quency.  The style and mode of his defense is a  cool and collected, and uninterested as you must
gross aggravation of his conduct, and a gross in- be, do you see clearly this proper and exact line
suit upon you.  Look upon the different subjects  which the plaintiff should have pursued? I much
of his defense as you ought, and let him profit question if you do.  But if you did or could, must
by them as he deserves.  Vainly presumptuous you not say that he was the last man from whom:upon his rank, he wishes to overawe you by the  you should expect the coolness to discover or
despicable consideration.  He next resorts to a  the steadiness to pursue it?  And yet this is the
cruel aspersion upon the character of the unhap- outrageous and insolent defense that is put forpy plaintiff, whom he had already wounded be- ward to you.  My miserable client, when his
yond the possibility of reparation, He has ven- brain was on fire, and every fiend of hell was let
tured to charge him with connivance.  As to  loose upon his heart, he should then, it seems,




1804.]                AGAINST THE MARQUESS OF HEADFORT.                                    819
have placed himself before his mirror, he should  ish him in his tender point, but you will weaken
have taught the stream of agony to flow deco-  him  in his strong one-his money.  We have
rously down his forehead.  He should have corn- heard much of this noble Lord's wealth, and much
posed his features to harmony, he should have  of his exploits, but not much of his accomplishwrithed with grace and groaned in melody.       ments or his wit.  I know not that his verses
But look farther to this noble defendant and  have soared even to the poet's corner.  I have
The pretense  his honorable defense: the wretch- heard it said that an ass laden with gold could
yatn Moraea  ed woman is to be successively the  find his way through the gate of the strongest
ay encourag e
attentions,   victim  of seduction and of slander. city.  But, gentlemen, lighten the load upon his
She, it seems, received  marked  attentions. back, and you will completely curtail the misHere, I confess, I felt myself not a little at a  chievous faculty of a grave animal, whose moloss.  The witnesses could not describe what mentum lies not in his agility, but his weight;
these marked attentions were or are. They con- not in the quantity of motion, but the quantity
sisted not, if you believe the witness that swore  of his matter.
to them, in any personal approach or contact    There is another ground on which you are
whatsoever, nor in any unwarrantable topics of  called upon to give most liberal dam- Large damagea
discourse.  Of what materials, then, were they  ages, and that has been laid by the engtop be giu
composed?  Why, it seems, a gentleman had the unfeeling vanity of the defendant. def~,aot' o1,
insolenoe at table to propose to her a glass of  This business has been marked by crime. 
wine, and she, O most abandoned lady! instead  the most elaborate publicity.  It is very clear
of flying, like an angry parrot, at his head, and  that he has been allured by the glory of the chase,
besmirching and bescratching him for his inso- and not the value of the game.  The poor oblence; tamely and basely replies, " Port. sir, if you  ject of his pursuit could be of no value to him,
please."  But, gentlemen, why do I advert to  or he could not have so wantonly, and cruelly,
this folly, this nonsense?  Not, surely, to vindi- and unnecessarily abused her.  He might easicate from censure the mostinnocent and the most ly have kept this unhappy intercourse an undelightful intercourse of social kindness, of harm- suspected secret.  Even if he wished for her
less and cheerful courtesy; "where virtue is, elopement, he might easily have so contrived it
these are most virtuous."  But I am soliciting  that the place of her retreat would be profoundyour attention and your feeling to the mean and  ly undiscoverable.  Yet, though even the exodious aggravation-to the unblushing and re- pense (a point so tender to his delicate sensibilmorseless barbarity of falsely  aspersing the  ity) of concealing could not be a one fortieth of
wretched woman he had undone.  One good he  the cost of publishing her, his vanity decided him
has done, he has disclosed to you the point in  in favor of glory and publicity.  By that election
which he can feel; for how imperious must that he has in fact put forward the Irish nation, and
avarice be which could resort to so vile an ex- its character, so often and so variously calumnipedient of frugality?  Yes, I will say that, with  ated, upon its trial before the tribunal of the
the common feelings of a man, he would have  empire; and your verdict will this day decide,
rather suffered his X30,000 a year to go as corn- whether an Irish jury can feel with justice and
pensation to the plaintiff than saved a shilling of  spirit upon a subject that involves conjugal affecit by so vile an expedient of economy.  He tion and comfort, domestic honor and reposewould rather have starved with her in a jail, he the certainty of issue-the weight of public opinwould rather have sunk with her into the ocean, ion-the gilded and presumptuous criminality of
than have so vilified her-than have so degraded  overweening rank and station.  I doubt not but
himself.                                        he is at this moment reclined on a silken sofa,
But it seems, gentlemen, and, indeed, you have  anticipating that submissive and modest verdict
Thoe frst time  been told, that long as the course of  by which you will lean gently on his errors; and
the Marquess  his gallantries has been (and he has expecting, from your patriotism, no doubt, that
for 8uciioii-  grown gray in the service), it is the you will think again and again before you conduct.: first time he has been called upon for demn any great portion of the immense revenue
damages.  To how many might it have been  of a great absentee to be detained in the nation
fortunate if he had not that impunity to boast? that produced it, instead of being transmitted, as
Your verdict will, I trust, put an end to that en- it ought, to be expended in the splendor of anothcouragement to guilt that is built upon impunity. er country.  He is now probably waiting for the
The devil, it seems, has saved the noble Mar- arrival of the report of this day, which I underquess harmless in the past; but your verdict stand a famous note-taker has been sent hither
will tell him the term  of that indemnity is ex- to collect.  (Let not the gentleman be disturbpired, that his old friend and banker has no more  ed.)  Gentlemen, let me assure you it is more,
effects in his hands, and that if he draws any  much more the trial of you, than of' the noble
more upon him, he must pay his own bills him- Marquess, of which this imported recorder is at
self.  You will do much good by doing so.  You  this moment collecting the materials. Tihe kild ouremay not enlighten his conscience nor touch his His noble employer is now expecting It'tl"ifi tri'
heart, but his frugality will understand the hint. a report to the following  effect:'Bla.r.,s.'. y
It will adopt the prudence of age, and deter him  " Such a day came on to be tried at exlpet.
from pursuits in which, though he may be insens- Ennis, by a special jury, the cause of Charles
ible of shame, he will not be regardless of ex- Massy against the most noble the Marquess of
pense.  Ynu will do more, you will not only pun- Headfort.  It appeared that the plaintiff's wife




820           MR. CURRAN AGAINST THE MARQUESS OF HEADFORT.                                   [1804.
was young, beautiful, and captivating.  The  strongest indignation and abhorrence at this odiplaintiff himself a person fond of this beautiful ous conduct of the defendant, when I Peroration:
creature to distraction, and both doting on their consider the deplorable condition to Tle ihjlly do.ne
to the paintiff
child; but the noble Marquess approached her; which he has reduced the plaintiff; ald tle protee
the plume of glory nodded on his head.  Not and perhaps the still more deplor- etyareboth to
the Goddess Minerva, but the Goddess Venus able one that he has in prospect be- bear.        ingd..ed. n
had lighted upon his casque,'the fire that nev- fore him.  What a progress has he ges'
er tires-such as many a lady gay had been daz- to travel through before he can attain the peace
zled with before.'  At the first advance she  and tranquillity which he has lost?  How like
trembled, at the second she struck to the re- the wounds of the body are those of the mind!
doubted son of Mars and pupil of Venus.  The  I-How burning the fever!  How painful the supjury saw it was not his fault (it was an Irish  puration!  How slow, how hesitating, how rejury); they felt compassion for the tenderness of  lapsing the process to convalescence! Through
the mother's heart, and for the warmth of the  what a variety of suffering, what new scenes and
lover's passion.  The jury saw on the one side a  changes, must my unhappy client pass, ere he can
young, entertaining gallant, on the other a beau- reattain, should he ever reattain, that health of
teous creature, of charms irresistible. They rec- soul of which he has been despoiled by the cold
ollected that Jupiter had been always successful and deliberate machinations of this praticed and
in his amours, although Vulcan had not always  gilded seducer?  If, instead of drawing upon his
escaped some awkward accidents.  The jury  incalculable wealth for a scanty retribution, you
was composed of fathers, brothers, husbands-  were to stop the progress of his despicable
but they had not the vulgar jealousy that views  achievements by reducing him to actual poverlittle things of that sort with rigor; and wishing  ty, you could not even so punish him beyond the
to assimilate their country in every respect to  scope of his offense, nor reprise the plaintiff beEngland, now that they are united to it, they, yond the measure of his suffering.  Let me relike English gentlemen, returned to their box with  mind you that in this action the law  not only
a verdict ofsixpence damages and sixpence costs."  empowers you, but that its policy commands you
Let this be sent to England.  I promise you your to consider the public example, as well as the
odious secret will not be kept better than that individual injury, when you adjust the amount
of the wretched Mrs. Massy.  There is not a  of your verdict.  I confess I am  most anxious
bawdy chronicle in London in which the epi- that you should acquit yourselves worthily upon
taph which you would have written on yourselves  this important occasion.  I am addressing you as
will not be published, and our enemies will de- fathers, husbands, brothers.  I am anxious that a
light in the spectacle of our precocious depravi- feeling of those high relations should enter into,
ty, in seeing that we can be rotten before we are  and give dignity to your verdict.  But I confess
ripe.  I do not suppose it, I do not, can not, it, Ifeel a ten-foldsolicitude when Iremember that
will not, believe it.  I will not harrow up my- I am addressing you as my countrymen, as Irishself with the anticipated apprehension.           men, whose characters as jurors, as gentlemen,
There is another consideration, gentlemen,  must find either honor or degradation in the reLarge damages which I think most imperiously de- suit of your decision.  Small as must be the disdue for tel   mands even a vindictive award of ex- tributive share of that national estimation that can
pitality.  emplary damages, and that is the  belong to so unimportant an individual as myself,
breach of hospitality.  To us peculiarly does it yet do I own I am tremblirlgly solicitous for its
belong to avenge the violation of its altar. The  fate.  Perhaps it appears of more value to me
hospitality of other countries is a matter of ne- because it is embarked on the same bottom with
cessity or convention; in savage nations of the  yours; perhaps the community of peril, of comfirst, in polished of the latter; but the hospi- mon safety, or common wreck gives a consetality of an Irishman is not the running account quence to my share of the risk, which I could not
of posted and legered courtesies, as in other  be vain enough to give it. if it were not raised to
countries; it springs, like all his qualities, his  it by that mutuality.  But why stoop to think at
faults, his virtues-directly from his heart. The  all of myself, when I know that you, gentlemen of
heart of an Irishman is by nature bold, and he  the jury, when I know that our country itself are
confides; it is tender, and he loves; it is gener- my clients on this day, and must abide the alternous, and he gives; it is social, and he is hospi- ative of honor or of infamy, as you shall decide.
table.  This sacrilegious intruder has profaned  But I will not despond; I will not dare to despond.
the religion of that sacred altar so elevated in  I have every trust, and hope, and confidence in
our worship, so precious to our devotion; and it you.  And to that hope I will add my most feris our privilege to avenge the crime.  You must vent prayer to the God of all truth and justice, so
either pull down the altar and abolish the wor-  to raise, and enlighten, and fortify your minds,
ship, or you must preserve its sanctity unde- that you may so decide as to preserve to your..
based.  There is no alternative between the uni- selves while you live, the most delightful of all
versal exclusion of all mankind from your thresh-  recollections, that of acting justly, and to trainsold, and the most rigorous punishment of him   mit to your children the most precious of all inwho is admitted and betrays.  This defendant heritances, the memory of your virtue.
has been so trusted, has so betrayed, and you
ought to make him a most signal example.            The damages were fixed by the jury at ten
Gentlemen, I am the more disposed to feel the  thousand pounds.




SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH.
JAMES MACKINTOSH was the son of a captain in the British army, and was born
at Aldourie, near Inverness, in Scotland, on the 24th of October, 1765. He was very
early remarkable for his love of reading, making it his constant employment, whether
at home or abroad, and being accustomed, when a mere child, to take his book and
dinner with him into the wild hills around his father's residence, where he gave up
the whole day in some secluded nook to his favorite employment.
At the age of ten, he was sent to a boarding-school at a small town called Fortrose, where he soon made such proficiency in his studies that "the name of Jamie
Mackintosh was synonymous, all over the country side, with a prodigy of learning."
He early assisted his instructor in teaching the younger boys, and before he reached
his thirteenth year, he showed a singular love of politics and extemporaneous speaking.  "It was at this period," says his instructor, the Reverend Mr. Wood, " that
Fox and North made such brilliant harangues on the American war. Jamie espoused
the cause of liberty, and called himself a Whig; and such was his influence among,his school-fellows, that he prevailed on some of the older ones, instead of playing at
ball, and such out-of-door recreations, to join him in the school-room during the hours
of play, and assist at debates in what they called the Houzse of Commons, on the political events of the day. When Jamie ascended the rostrum, he harangued until
his soprano voice failed him. One day he was Fox, another Burke, or some leading
member of the Opposition; and when no one ventured to reply to his arguments, he
would change sides for the present, personate North, and endeavor to combat what
he conceived to be the strongest parts of his own speech.  When I found out this
singular amusement of the boys," adds Mr. Wood, " I had the curiosity to listen when
Jamie was on his legs. I was greatly surprised and delighted with his eloquence in
the character of Fox, against some supposed or real measure of the minister. His
voice, though feeble, was musical, and his arguments so forcible that they would
have done credit to many an adult."
At the age of fifteen he was placed at King's College, Aberdeen, and at once
showed his predilection for those abstract inquiries in which he spent so large a part
of his life. Though a mere boy, his favorite books were Priestley's Institutes of Natural and Revealed Religion, Beattie on Truth, and Warburton's Divine Legation,
which last delighted him, as he stated in after life, more than any book he ever read.
He soon after made the acquaintance of Robert Hall, then a student at Aberdeen,
who was deeply interested in the same pursuits, and though both were diligent in
their classical studies, they gave their most strenuous and unwearied labors to a joint
improvement in philosophy.  They read together; they sat side by side at lecture;
they were constant companions in their daily walks. In the classics, they united in
reading much of Xenophon and Herodotus, and more of Plato; and so far did they
carry it, says the biographer of Hall, that, " exciting the admiration of some and
the envy of others, it was not unusual for their class-fellows to point at them and
say,' There go Plato and Herodotus!' But the arena in which they most frequently
met was that of morals xnd metaphysics. After having sharpened their weapons by
reading, they often repaired to the spacious sands on the sea-shore, and, still more
frequently, to the picturesque scenery on the banks of the Don, above the old town,




622                       SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH.
to discuss with eagerness the various subjects to which their attention had been directed.  There was scarcely an important position in Berkeley's Minute Philosopher,
in Butler's Analogy, or in Edwards on the Will, over which they had not thus debated with the utmost intensity.  Night after night, nay, month after month, they
met only to study or dispute, yet no unkindly feeling ensued. The process seemed
rather, like blows in the welding of iron, to knit them more closely together." From
this union of their studies, and the discussions which ensued, Sir James afterward
declared himself to have "learned more than from all the books he ever read;"
while Mr. Hall expressed his opinion throughout life, that Sir James "had an intellect more like that of Bacon than any person of modern times."
Having taken his degree of Bachelor of Arts at the age of nineteen, Mr. Mackintosh repaired to Edinburgh in 1784, and commenced the study of medicine. Here
he was soon received as a member of the Speculative Society, an association for debate which then exerted a powerful influence over the University, and was the
means of training some of the most distinguished speakers which Scotland has ever
produced. In this exciting atmosphere, his early passion for extemporaneous speaking, in connection with his subsequent habits of debate, gained the complete ascendency; so that, although his medical studies were not wholly neglected, a large part
of his time was given to those miscellaneous subjects which would furnish topics for
the Society, and that desultory reading and speculation in which he always delighted.
After four years spent at Edinburgh, Mr. Mackintosh went to London in 1788,
with a view to medical practice, but found no immediate prospect of business, and
but little encouragement for the future. His father died about this time, leaving
him a very scanty patrimony; and, as he married soon after, without adding to his
property, he was driven, like Burke in early life, to the public press for the means
of support. He wrote from the first with uncommon force and elegance, and was
thus introduced to the acquaintance of some distinguished literary men, chiefly of
the extreme Whig party.  He was much in the society of Horne Tooke, and found
great delight in the rich, lively, and sarcastic conversation of that extraordinary man;
while Tooke, though jealous, and sparing of praise, was so struck with his talents
for argument, that he declared him "a very formidable adversary across a table."
He now took to the study of the law in connection with his labors for the press, and
never, probably, were his exertions greater or better directed than at this time, or
more conducive to his intellectual improvement. Desultory reading and speculation
without any definite object, were the bane of his life; but he was now held to his
daily task, and, under the pressure of want, the encouragement of his friends, and
the kindling delight which he felt in high literary excellence, he was daily forming
those habits of rich and powerful composition for which he was afterward so much
distinguished.
In 1791 he published his first great work, the "Vindicim Gallicre," or "Defense
of the French Revolution against the accusations of the Right Honorable Edmund
Burke."  It was a daring attempt for a young man of twenty-six to enter the lists
with such an opponent, celebrated beyond any man of the age for his powers as a
writer, and regarded as an oracle by nearly all among the middling and higher classes, who looked with horror and dismay at the Revolution which this unknown adventurer came forward to defend.  Not to have failed utterly in such an attempt
was no mean praise.  But he did more.  He brought to the work an honest and
dauntless enthusiasm; a large stock of legal and constitutional learning; a style
which, though inferior in richness to that of his great antagonist, was not only elegant and expressive, but often keen and trenchant; and his success was far beyond
his most sanguine expectations.  Three editions were called for in rapid succession;
Mr. Fox quoted the work with applause in the House of Commons; and even Mr




SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH.                              823
Burke, who had been treated by Mr. Mackintosh with the respect due to his great
talents, spoke of its spirit and execution in the kindest terms. Mr. Canning, who
was accustomed, at that period, to treat every thing that favored the Revolution with
ridicule or contempt, told a friend that he read the book, on its first coming out, " with
as much admiration as he had ever felt."
The Revolution turned out very differently, in most respects, from what Mr. Mackintosh had hoped, and he saw reason to change some of the opinions expressed in
this work.  He afterward made the acquaintance of Mr. Burke, and remarked, in a
letter to him, about four years after, " For a time I was seduced by what I thought
liberty, and ventured to oppose, without ever ceasing to venerate, that writer who
had nourished my understanding with the most wholesome principles of political
wisdom. Since that time a melancholy experience has undeceived me on many subjects in which I was then the dupe of my own enthusiasm. I can not say (and you
would despise me if I dissembled) that I can even now assent to all your opinions on
the present politics of Europe.'  But I can with truth affirm  that I subscribe to
your general principles, and am prepared to shed my blood in defense of the laws
and Constitution of my country."2
In the latter part of 1795, Mr. Mackintosh was called to the bar, and in 1799 he
formed the plan of giving lectures on the Law of Nature and of Nations.  The subject was peculiarly suited to his philosophical cast of mind, and had long occupied
his attention. Being in want of a hall for the purpose, he asked the Benchers of
Lincoln's Inn to grant him the use of theirs; and when some demur was made on
account of the sentiments expressed in his Vindicise Gallice, he printed the Introductory Lecture as a prospectus of the course. It was truly and beautifully said by
Thomas Campbell, " If Mackintosh had published nothing else than this Discourse,
he would have left a perfect monument of his intellectual strength and symmetry;
and even supposing that essay had been recovered only imperfect and mutilated-if
but a score of its consecutive sentences could be shown, they would bear a testimony
to his genius as decided as the bust of Theseus bears to Grecian art among the Elgin marbles."  The Lord Chancellor [Loughborough], ashamed of the delay among
the Benchers, interposed decisively, and procured the use of the hall; and the Prime
Minister, Mr. Pitt, " always liberally inclined," as one of his opponents in politics has
described him, wrote a private letter to Mr. Mackintosh, saying, " The plan you have
marked out appears to me to promise more useful instruction and just reasoning on
the principles of government than I have ever met with in any treatise on the subject." The lectures now went forward, and Lincoln's Inn Hall was daily filled with
an auditory such as never before met on a similar occasion. Lawyers, members of
Parliament, men of letters, and gentlemen from the country, crowded the seats; and
the Lord Chancellor, who, from a pressure of public business, was unable to attend,
received a full report of each lecture in writing, and was loud in their praise.
In such a course of lectures the name of Grotius could not fail to have a prominent place, and the reader will be delighted with the following sketch of his character, which has rarely, if ever, been equaled by any thing of the kind in our language.
" So great is the uncertainty of posthumous reputation, and so liable is the fame, even of the
greatest men, to be obscured by those new fashions of thinking and writing which succeed each
1 Mr. Mackintosh here refers to Mr. Burke's views respecting the war with France, which he
openly condemned in opposition to Mr. Burke; nor did he ever agree with him on a number of
points mentioned in the sketch of Mr. Burke in this volume, p. 231. His change consisted mainly
in withdrawing his defense of the Revolution as actually conducted, and agreeing with Mr. Burke
that the nation was not prepared for liberty.
2 When Mr. Mackicsh visited Paris during the peace of Amiens, some of the French literati to
whom he was introduced complimented him on his defense of their Revolution. " Gentlemen,"
said he, in reply, " since that time you have entirely refuted me!" 




824                            SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH.
other so rapidly among polished nations, that Grotius, who filled so large a space in the eyes of
his cotemporaries, is now, perhaps, known to some of my readers only by name. Yet, if we fairly
estimate both his endowments and his virtues, we may justly consider him as one of the most
memorable men who have done honor to modern times.  He combined the discharge of the most
important duties of active and public life with the attainment of that exact and various learning
which is generally the portion only of the recluse student. He was distinguished as an advocate
and a magistrate, and he composed the most valuable works on the law of his own country.  He
was almost equally celebrated as a historian, a scholar, a poet, and a divine; a disinterested statesman, a philosophical lawyer, a patriot who united moderation with firmness, and a theologian who
was taught candor by his learning. Unmerited exile did not damp his patriotism; the bitterness
of controversy did not extinguish his charity. The sagacity of his numerous and fierce adversaries could not discover a blot on his character; and in the midst of all the hard trials and galling
provocations of a turbulent political life, he never once deserted his friends when they were unfortunate, nor insulted his enemies when they were weak. In times of the most furious civil and religious faction he preserved his name unspotted, and he knew how to reconcile fidelity to his cwn
party with moderation toward his opponents."
The Introductory Lecture closed in the following beautiful manner:
"I know not whether a philosopher ought to confess that, in his inquiries after truth, he is
biased by any consideration, even by the love of virtue; but I, who conceive that a real philosopher ought to regard truth itself chiefly on account of its subserviency to the happiness of mankind, am not ashamed to confess that I shall feel a great consolation at the conclusion of these lectures if, by a wide survey and an exact examination of the conditions and relations of human nature, I shall have confirmed but one individual in the conviction that justice is the permanent interest of all men, and of all commonwealths.  To discover one new link of that eternal chain, by
which the Author of the universe has bound together the happiness and the duty of his creatures,
and indissolubly fastened their interests to each other, would fill my heart with more pleasure than
all the fame with which the most ingenious paradox ever crowned the most ingenious sophist."
Mr. Mackintosh now  devoted himself to his profession with the most flattering
prospects of success; but his thoughts were soon after directed to a judicial station,
either in Trinidad or India, which he had the prospect of obtaining, and which he
considered as more suited to his habits and cast of mind.  While this matter was
pending, he made his celebrated speech in favor of M. Peltier, which is given in this
collection.  The case was a singular one.  Peltier was a French royalist, who resided in London, and published a newspaper in the French language, in which he
spoke with great severity of Bonaparte, then First Consul of France.  It would seem
hardly possible that a man like Bonaparte could feel the slightest annoyance at such
attacks; but it is said to have been the weak point in his character, and that he
was foolishly sensitive on this subject. At all events, as the two countries were
then at peace, he made a formal demand of the English ministry to punish Peltier
for " a libel on a friendly government." A prosecution was accordingly commenced,
and Mr. Mackintosh, in defending Peltier, was brought into the same dilemma with
that of Demosthenes in his Oration for the Crown.  Equity was on his side, but the
law was against him; and his only hope (as in the case of Demosthenes) was that
of pre-occupying the minds of the jury with a sense of national honor and public justice, and bearing them  so completely away by the fervor of his eloquence, as to obtain a verdict of acquittal from their feelings, without regard to the strict demands
~of law.  His theme was the freedom  of the English prress-its right and duty to
comment on the crimes of the proudest tyrants; and he maintained (with great appearance of truth) that the real object of Bonaparte, after destroying every vestige
of free discussion throughout the Continent, was to silence the press of England as
to his conduct and designs.  He told the jury, after dwelling on the extinction of the
liberty of the press abroad, " One asylum of free discussion is still inviolate. There
is still one spot in Europe where man can freely exercise his reason on the most important concerns of society-where he can boldly publish his judgment on the acts
of the proudest and most powerful tyrants.  The press of England is still free.  It is
guarded by the free Constitution of our forefathers; it is guarded by the hearts and
arms of Englishmen; and I trust I may venture to say, that if it be to fall, it will




SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH.                              825
fall only under the ruins of the British empire.  It is an awful consideration, gentlemen: every other monument of European liberty has perished: that ancient fabric, which has been gradually reared by the wisdom and virtue of our fathers, still
stands, It stands (thanks be to God!) solid and entire; but it stands alone, and it
stands amid ruins."  Still, as the law was, the jury felt bound to convict Peltier.
We have hardly any thing in our eloquence conceived in a finer spirit, or carried
out in a loftier tone of sentiment and feeling, than the appeals made in this oration.
It would have been just as sure to succeed before an Athenian tribunal, as that of
Demosthenes to fail in an English court of law.  Lord Erskine was present during
its delivery, and before going to bed addressed the following note to Mr. Mackintosh:
" DEAR SIR,-I can not shake off from my nerves the effect of your powerful and
most wonderful speech, which so completely disqualifies you for Trinidad or India.
I could not help saying to myself, as you were speaking,' 0 terranm illam beatam
quce hunzc vir'um  acciperit, hanc ingratam  si ejicerit, miseram si amiserit.'3  I
perfectly approve the verdict, but the manner in which you opposed it I shall always
consider as one of the most splendid monuments of genius, literature, and eloquence.
"Yours ever,            T. ERSKINE."
When the speech was published, Mr. Mackintosh sent a copy to his friend Robert
Hall, and soon after received a letter, containing, among other things, the following
passage: "Accept my best thanks for the trial of Peltier, which I read, so far as
your part in it is concerned, with the highest delight and instruction. I speak my
sincere sentiments when I say, it is the most extraordinary assemblage of whatever
is most refined in address, profound in political and moral speculation, and masterly
in eloquence, which it has ever been my lot to read in the English language."
A few months after, Mr. Mackintosh was appointed Recorder of Bombay, and at
the same time received the honors of knighthood.  He arrived in India about the
middle of 1804, and spent eight years in that country, devoting all the time he could
gain from the duties of the bench to the more congenial pursuits of literature. He
wrote several interesting pieces during this period, and particularly a sketch of Mr.
Fox's character, which will be found below, and which has always been regarded as
one of the best delineations ever given of that distinguished statesman.  His appointment to India was, on the whole, injurious to his intellectual growth. He needed
beyond most men to be kept steadily at work, under the impulse of great objects and
strong motives urging him to the utmost exertion of his powers. Had he remained
at the bar, he might have surpassed Erskine in learning, and rivaled him in skill as
an advocate, while his depth and amplitude of thought would have furnished the
richest materials for every occasion that admitted of eloquence. But he now relapsed
into his old habits of desultory reading and ingenious speculation. He projected a
number of great works, and labored irregularly in collecting materials; but his
health sunk under the enervating effects of the climate, and he returned to England
at the end of eight years, disappointed in his expectations and depressed in spirit,
bringing with him a vast amount of matter for books which were never to be completed.
So highly were his talents appreciated, that immediately after his return in 1812,
he was offered a seat in the House of Commons by the government, and also by his
old Whig friends. He chose the latter, and continued true to liberal principles to
the end of his days.
3 The words are taken from the peroration of Cicero's oration for Milo, in which he deplores the
exile which must befall his client if he loses his cause.
Happy the land that shall receive him! Ungrateful the country that shall cast him out! miserable if she finally lose him!




826                       SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH.
In 1818 he was appointed Professor of Law and of General Politics at Haileybury
College, an institution designed to prepare young men for the service of the East
India Company.  His lectures embraced a course of four years, extending through
four months of each year.  He endeared himself greatly to his pupils by his kind
and conciliating manners, while his extraordinary learning, and the high reputation
he had with the public, made him the object of their respect and veneration. This
situation he held nine years, and resigned it in 1827. During all this time he took
an active part in politics, entering warmly into every important debate in Parliament, and writing numerous articles for the Edinburgh Review. He also wrote, in
1829, a Dissertation on the Progress of Ethical Philosophy, which was first published
as a supplement to the Encyclopedia Britannica, and soon after printed in an 8vo
volume by itself. To these he added, in the three subsequent years, several volumes
of an abridged history of England, and a work on the Revolution of 1688, which was
published after his death. Under the administration of Earl Grey, he was appointed
a member of the Board of Control, and took an active part in the great struggle for
parliamentary reform.
As a speaker in Parliament he was instructive rather -than bold and exciting. His
residence in India had so debilitated his constitution, and his habits of speculation
had so completely gained the ascendency, that he never spoke with that lofty enthusiasm and fervor of emotion which distinguished his defense of Peltier. He had,
says an able cotemporary, " perhaps more than any man of his time, that mitis sapientia which formed the distinguishing characteristic of the illustrious friend of
Cicero, and which wins its way into the heart, while it at once enlightens and satisfies the understanding." He died on the 30th of May, 1832, in the sixty-seventh year
of his age, perhaps more regretted and less envied than any public man of his age.




SPEECH
OF MR. MACKINTOSH IN BEHALF OF JEAN PELTIER WHEN TRIED FOR A LIBEL ON NkPOLEON
BONAPARTE, DELIVERED IN THE COURT OF KING'S BENCH, FEBRUARY 21, 1803.
INTRODUCTION.
THE leading circumstances of this trial have been already stated in the preceding memoir.
In 1802, Mr. Peltier commenced a French newspaper in London, designed to expose the ambiguous
conduct of Bonaparte, who, though only First Consul in name, was assuming the power and dignity of
the regal office. Hence he called his paper L'AMBIGU, and put on the frontispiece the figure of a sphynx
(emblematic of mystery), with a head which strikingly resembled that of Bonaparte, wearing a crown
Its pages were filled with instances of the despotism of the First Consul, some violent and some ridicu
lous, and hence he also called it "Varietbs atroces et amusantes."  It was characterized, on the whole,
by great bitterness, one of the numbers containing an ode, written in the name of Chenier-so distinguished at once for his talents and his Jacobin principles-which directly hinted at the assassination of
Bonaparte. In another, there was an intimation of the same kind in a short poem from a Dutch patriot.
A third contained a parody on a speech in Sallust, that of Lepidus against Sylla, which was plainly
pointed at the First Consul as having assumed the Dictatorship.
These things gave so much annoyance to Bonaparte, that he actually demanded of the English government to send Peltier out of the kingdom;l and when this was refused, he insisted, as France was
then at peace with England, that Mr. Peltier should be prosecuted by the English Attorney General for
" a libel on a friendly government!"  Upon this subject, the laws of England were strict even to severity.
Convictions had been frequent in past times; and only four years before, John Vint had been sentenced to
an imprisonment of six months and a fine of one hundred pounds, for using the following words respecting
the conduct of the Czar of Russia: "The Emperor Paul is rendering himself obnoxious to his subjects by
various acts of tyranny, and ridiculous in the eyes of Europe by his inconsistency. He has lately passed
an edict to prohibit the exportation of deals and other naval stores. In consequence of this ill-judged
law, a hundred sail of vessels are likely to return to this c-usntry without freight." When these harmless words had been visited with such a penalty, it was impossible for the government to avoid taking up
the case of Peltier, and he was accordingly brought before the Court of King's Bench, Lord Ellenborough
presiding, by an information from the Attorney General, M':..-ercival, afterward Prime Minister.
It was a singular spectacle for the English government to appear as prosecutor of a poor French Royalist for bitter words about Bonaparte, when the Prime Minister of England had so lately poured out
against him one of the most terrible invectives ever uttered by human lips. But the First Consul held
them firmly to the execution of their laws; and when the trial came on, two Frenchofficers of high rank
made their appearance in the court room, and took their seats by the jury-box, directly in front of the
counsel for the C'rowon and prisoner!
Mr. Percival opened the case in a mild and gentlemanly address, insisting on the three points mentioned above, and reminded the jury that as Bonaparte was head of a government now at peace with
England, he was entitled to the protection of her laws. Mr. Mackintosh followed in the speech before us.
Without directly alluding to the presence of the French officers, he took the ground that the real object
of this prosecution was to break down the only remaining free press in Europe; and appealed to the jury
for its protection, with a compass and richness of thought, a grandeur of sentiment, and an impassioned
warmth of feeling, such as no court, either in ancient or modern times, had ever witnessed.
SPEECH, &c.
GENTLEMEN OF THE JURY,-The time is now  no more than justice in supposing that in this
come for me to address you in behalf of the un- place, and on this occasion, where I exercise the
fortunate gentleman who is the defendant on this  functions of an inferior minister of justice, an inrecord.                                            ferior minister, indeed, but a minister of justice
I must begin with observing, that though I still, I am incapable of lending my- No indecorum
know myself too well to ascribe to any thing but self to the passions of any client, t.a'rdlteHad
to the kindness and good nature of my learned  and that I will not make the pro- of a government
at peace with
friend, the  Attorney  General, the unmerited  ceedings of this court subservient to England.
praises which he has been pleased to bestow on  any political purpose.  Whatever is respected
me, yet, I will venture to say, he has done me by the laws and government of my country shall,
in this place, be respected by me.  In consider1See Howell's State Trials, vol. xxviii., p. 566.   ing matters that deeply interest the quiet, the




828                                  MR. MACKINTOSH                                         [1803
safety, and the liberty of all mankind, it is impos- ing Royalists deemed incompatible with their consible for me not to feel warmly and strongly;  sciences, with their dearest attachments, and their
but I shall make an effort to control my feelings  most sacred duties.  Among these last is Mr.
however painful that effort may be, and where I  Peltier.  I do not presume to blame those who
can not speak out but at the risk of offending  submitted, and I trust you will not judge harshly
either sincerity or prudence, I shall labor to con- of those who refused.  You will not think unfatain myself and be silent.                        vorably of a man who stands before you as the
I can not but feel, gentlemen, how much I stand  voluntary victim of his loyalty and honor.  If a
Still te defense  in need of your favorable attention  revolution (which God avert) were to drive us into
of the accused   and indulgence. The charge which  exile, and to cast us on a foreign shore, we should
demands a frank
and fearllsstate- I have to defend is surrounded with  expect, at least, to be pardoned by generous men,
ment of tletruth, the most invidious topics of discus- for stubborn loyalty, and unseasonable fidelity to
sion; but they are not of my seeking. The case  the laws and government of our fathers.
and the topics which are inseparable from it are    This unfortunate gentleman had devoted a
brought here by the prosecutor.   Here I find  great part of his life to literature. The publisher of
them, and here it is my duty to deal with them, It was the amusement and ornament paper fr iwsas the interests of Mr. Peltier seem to me to re- of his better days.  Since his own support.
quire.  He, by his choice and confidence, has ruin and the desolation of his country, he has been
cast on me a very arduous duty, which I could  compelled to employ it as a means of support.
not decline, and which I can still less betray. For the last ten years he has been engaged in a
He has a right to expect from me a faithful, a  variety of publications of considerable importzealous, and a fearless defense; and this his just ance; but since the peace, he has desisted from
expectation, according to the measure of my  serious political discussion, and confined himself
humble abilities, shall be fulfilled.  I have said  to the obscure journal which is now before you;
a fearless defense.  Perhaps that word was un- the least calculated, surely, of any publication
necessary in the place where I now stand.  In- that ever issued from  the press, to rouse the
trepidity in the discharge of professional duty is alarms of the most jealous government; which
so common a quality at the English bar, that it will not be read in England, because His work incahas, thank God, long ceased to be a matter of  it is not written in our language; pabsig^ofet ing
boast or praise.  If it had been otherwise, gen- which can not be read in France, be- ijury t the
tlemen, if the bar could have been silenced or cause its entry into that country is meint.
overawed by power, I may presume to say that prohibited by a power whose mandates are not
an English jury would not this day have been  very supinely enforced, nor often evaded with immet to administer justice. Perhaps I need scarce  punity; which can have no other object than that
say that my defense shall be fearless, in a )lace  of amusing the companions of the author's prinwhere fear never entered any heart but that of  ciples and misfortunes, by pleasantries and sara criminal.  But you will pardon me for having  casms on their victorious enemies.  There is, insaid so much when you consider who the real deed, gentlemen, one remarkable circumstance
parties before you are.                          in this unfortunate publication; it is the only, or
I. Gentlemen, the real prosecutor is the mas- almost the only journal which still dares to esPat First:  ter of the greatest empire the civil- pouse the cause of that royal and illustrious famPreliminary  ized world ever saw.  The defendant ily, which but fourteen years ago was flattered
considerations:                                                           I 
Parties in the  is a defenseless, proscribed exile. He  by every press and guarded by every tribunal in
present ase.  is a French Royalist, who fled from  Europe.  Even the court in which we are met
his country in the autumn of 1792, at the period  affords an example of the vicissitudes of their forof that memorable and awful emigration when  tune.  My learned friend has reminded you that
all the proprietors and magistrates of the great- the last prosecution tried in this place, at the inest civilized country of Europe were driven from  stance of a French government, was for a libel
their homes by the daggers of assassins; when  on that magnanimous princess, who has since
our shores were covered, as with the wreck of a  been butchered in sight of her palace.
great tempest, with old men, and women, and    I do not make these observations with any
children, and ministers of religion, who fled from   purpose of questioning the general prin- Linble, nevthe ferocity of their countrymen as before an  ciples which have been laid down by'be tpr.oec,
army of invading barbarians.                      my learned friend.  I must admit his ted for liel.
The greatest part oftheseunfortunate exiles, of right to bring before you those who libel any
those, I mean, who have been spared by the sword, government recognized by his Majesty, and at
who have survived the effect of pestilential cli- peace with the British empire.  I admit that,
mates or broken hearts, have been since permit- whether such a government be of yesterday, or
ted to revisit their country.  Though despoiled  a thousand years old; whether it be a crude and
of their all, they have eagerly embraced even the  bloody usurpation, or the most ancient, just, and
sad privilege of being suffered to die in their na- paternal authority upon earth, we are here equaltive land.                                       ly bound, by his Majesty's recognition, to protect
Even this miserable indulgence was to be pur- it against libelous attacks.2  I admit that if, durThledefendanta chased by compliances, by declara-   2 The reader will at once see Mr. Mackintosh's
timofloyl   tions of allegiance to the new gov- motive in making the extreme concessions which
and honor.   ernment, which some of these suffer- follow  as to Clarendon and others.  Principles




1803.]                     ON  THE  TRIAL  OF JEAN  PELTIER.                                    829
ing our usurpation, Lord Clarendon had published  oughly convinced than I am  that my learned
his history at Paris, or the Marquess of Mont-  friend, Mr. Attorney General, will never degrade
rose his verses on the murder of his sovereign,  his excellent character; that he will never disor Mr. Cowley his Discourse on Cromwell's  grace his high magistracy by mean compliances,
Government, and if the English embassador had  by an immoderate and unconscientious exercise
complained, the President De Moll, or any other  of power; yet I am. convinced, by circumstances,
of the great magistrates who then adorned the  which I shall now abstain from discussing, that
Parliament of Paris, however reluctantly, pain-  I am to consider this as the first of a long series
fully, and indignantly, might have been compelled  of conflicts between the greatest power in the
to have condemned these illustrious men to the  world and the only free press now remaining in
punishment of libelers.  I say this only for the  Europe.  Gentlemen, this distinction of the Ensake of bespeaking a favorable attention from   glish press is new; it is a proud and melancholy
your generosity, and compassion to what will be  distinction.  Before the great earthquake of the
feebly urged in behalf of my unfortunate client,  French Revolution had swallowed up all the
who has sacrificed his fortune, his hopes, his con-  asylums of free discussion on the Continent, we
nections, his country, to his conscience; who  enjoyed that privilege, indeed, more fully than
seems marked out for destruction in this his last others; but we did not enjoy it exclusively.  In
asylum.                                            great monarchies, the press has always been conThat he still enjoys the security of this asylum,  sidered as too formidable an engine to be intrustThe defend- that he has not been sacrificed to the  ed to unlicensed individuals.  But in other Conant hitherto resentment of his powerful enemies, is tinental countries, either by the laws of the state,
protected by
the govern- perhaps owing to the firmness of the  or by long habits of liberality and tol- Freedom of
K' ing's government. If that be the fact,  eration in magistrates, a liberty of dis- discussion in
gentlemen; if his Majesty's ministers have re- cussion has been enjoyed, perhaps suf- states onthe
sisted applications to expel this unfortunate gen- ficient for most useful purposes.  It  otin
tleman from  England, I should publicly thank  existed, in fact, where it was not protected by
them  for their firmness, if it were not unseemly  law; and the wise and generous connivance of
and improper to suppose that they could have  governments was daily more and more secured
acted otherwise-to thank an English govern- by the growing civilization of their subjects.  In
ment for not violating the most sacred duties of  Holland, in Switzerland, in the imperial towns of
hospitality; for not bringing indelible disgrace  Germany, the press was either legally or pracon their country.3                                tically free.  Holland and Switzerland are no
But be that as it may, gentlemen, he now  more; and since the commencement of this prosHe now lookso comes before you, perfectly satisfied  ecution, fifty imperial towns have been erased
o pratnetlis  that an English jury is the most re- from the list of independent states by one dash
jury.     freshing prospect that the eye of ac- of the pen.  Three or four still preserve a precused innocence ever met in a human tribunal;  carious and trembling existence.  I will not say
and he feels with me the most fervent gratitude  by what compliances they must purchase its conto the Protector of empires that, surrounded as  tinuance.  I will not insult the feebleness of
we are with the ruins of principalities and pow- states, whose unmerited fall I do most bitterly
ers, we still continue to meet together, after the  deplore.5
manner of our fathers, to administer justice in    These governments were in many respects
this her ancient sanctuary.                        one of the most interesting parts of the Position of
II. There is another point of view in which  ancient system  of Europe.  Unfortu- those states,
Poat Second: this case seems to me to merit your  nately for the repose of mankind, great flience of
The real ques- most serious attention.  I consider it states are compelled, by regard to their pthreirss
tion at issue.                                                                         ei ton the nlarger
The preserva- as the first of a long series of conflicts  own safety, to consider the military spir- poer".
tion of a free
pressin Eu- between the greatest power in the It and martial habits of their people as one of the
rope.     world and the only free press remain-  main objects of their policy.  Frequent hostiliing in Europe.   No man living is more thor- ties seem almost the necessary condition of their
greatness; and, without being great, they can
which reach so far, and involve such consequences, notlong remain safe.  Smalle states exempted
must be often set aside, and he hoped to induce the  fr   this cruel necessity-a hard condition of
jury to do so in the present instance.             greatness, a bitter satire on human nature-de3 What is here stated hypothetically, Mr. Peltier voted themselves to the arts of peace, to the culafterward declared to be the fact. Bonaparte had  tivation of literature, and the improvement of
directly demanded of the government to banish Pel- reason.  They became places of refuge for firee
tier, and he was saved only by the firmness of min- and fearless discussion; they were the impartial
isters. An intimation of this fact was designed to
touch the pride of the jury when called upon to car- prosecute effectually in English courts, what might
ry out the demands of the First Consul.            not have been the result?
4 It was not for mere effect that Mr. Mackintosh     The digression which follows, touching the smallput his cause on this high ground. He had recent-  er states of Europe, is not only beautiful in itself,
ly returned from Paris, and was perfectly satisfied  and conceived in a fine spirit of philosophy, but prethat Bonaparte intended to break down all discus- pares the way for coming back, with increased force
sion which might weaken his power. If the peace  and interest, to the press of England as the only reof Amiens had continued for ten years, and he could  maining instrument of free discussion in Europe.




830                                   MR. MACKINTOSH                                        [1803.
spectators and judges of the various contests of  sion which has shaken the uttermost corners of
ambition which from time to time disturbed the  the earth.  They are destroyedi and gone forquiet of the world.  They thus became peculiar- ever.
ly qualified to be the organs of that public opin-    One asylum of free discussion is still inviolate.
ion which converted Europe into a great repub- There is still one spot in Europe The liberty of
the press now
lie, with laws which mitigated, though they could  where man can freely exercise his confined to Enot extinguish ambition; and with moral tribu- reason on the most important con-   asylum in Eunals to which even the most despotic sovereigns  cerns of society, where he can bold- rope.
were amenable.  If wars of aggrandizement ly publish his judgment on the acts of the proudwere undertaken, their authors were arraigned  est and most powerful tyrants.  The press of
in the face of Europe.  If acts of internal tyran- England is still free.  It is guarded by the free
ny were perpetrated, they resounded from  a  Constitution of our forefathers.  It is guarded
thousand presses throughout all civilized coun- by the hearts and arms of Englishmen, and I trust
tries.  Princes on whose will there were no le- I may venture to say that if it be to fall, it will
gal checks, thus found a moral restraint which  fall only under the ruins of the British empire.
the most powerful of them could not brave with    It is an awful consideration, gentlemen.  Evabsolute impunity.  They acted before a vast ery other monument of European liberty has
audience, to whose applause or condemnation  perished.  That ancient fabric which has been
they could not be utterly indifferent.  The very  gradually reared by the wisdom  and virtue of
constitution of human nature, the unalterable  our fathers still stands.  It stands, thanks be to
laws of the mind of man, against which all re-  God! solid and entire; but it stands alone, and
bellion is fruitless, subjected the proudest tyrants  it stands amid ruins.
to this control.  No elevation of power, no de-    In these extraordinary circumstances, I repeat
pravity, however consummate, no innocence, that I must consider this as the first tteent
however spotless, can render man wholly inde- of a long series of conflicts between ofthequespendent of the praise or blame of his fellow-men. the greatest power in the world and tonti
These governments were, in other respects, the only free press remaining in Europe.  And
The security  one of the most beautiful and inter- I trust that you will consider yourselves as the
onehf tle.mst esting parts of our ancient system. advanced guard of liberty, as having this day to
tinrhg istfctr  The perfect security of such inconsid- fight the first battle of free discussion against
of Europe.   erable and feeble states, their undis- the most formidable enemy that it ever encounturbed tranquillity amid the wars and conquests  tered.  You will therefore excuse me, if, on so
that surrounded them, attested, beyond any other important an occasion, I remind you, at more
part of the European system, the moderation, the  length than is usual, of those general principles
justice, the civilization to which Christian Eu- of law and policy on this subject which have been
rope had reached in modern times.  Their weak- handed down to us by our ancestors.
ness was protected only by the habitual rever-    III. Those who slowly built up the fabric of
ence for justice, which, during a long series of  our laws never attempted any thing Pat. Third:
Tile law  in reages, had grown up in Christendom.  This was so absurd as to define, by any precise  pect to politin
the only fortification which defended them against rule, the obscure and shifting bound- cl libels.
those mighty monarchs to whom they offered so  aries which divide libel from history or discuseasy a prey.  And till the French Revolution, sion.  It is a subject which, from its nature, adthis was sufficient.  Consider, for instance, the  mits neither rules nor definitions.  The same
situation of the Republic of Geneva.  Think of  words may be perfectly innocent in one case, and
her defenseless position, in the very jaws of  most mischievous and libelous in another.  A
France; but think also of her undisturbed se- change of circumstances, oftenappar- Necesariy vacurity, of her profound quiet, of the brilliant sue- ently slight, is sufficient to make the rible in its ap.
cess with which she applied to industry and lit- whole difference.  These changes, cording to the
erature, while Louis XIV. was pouring his myr- which may be as numerous as the oftitle cse and
iads into Italy before her gates.  Call to mind, variety of human intentions and con- of the ti nes.
if ages crowded into years have not effaced them   ditions, can never be foreseen nor comprehended
from your memory, that happy period, when we  under any legal definitions, and the framers of
scarcely dreamed more of the subjugation of the  our law have never attempted to subject them to
feeblest republic of Europe than of the conquest such definitions.  They left such ridiculous atof her mightiest empire; and tell me, if you can  tempts to those who call themselves philosophers,
imagine a spectacle more beautiful to the moral but who have, in fact, proved themselves most
eye, or a more striking proof of progress in the  grossly and stupidly ignorant of that philosophy
noblest principles of true civilization.         which is conversant with human affairs.
These feeble states-these monuments of the    The principles of the. law of England on the
Alloflthem   justice of Europe —the asylum  of  subject of political libel are few  and Lible to benow n.iga-o i                and of               ime,         tre severe
ted, andteir peace, of industry, and ofliterature    simple, and they are rnecessarily so a'nd ppress
press eslaved,. the organs of public reason-the ref- broad, that, without a habitually mild tet to te
uge of oppressed innocence and persecuted truth, administration of justice, they might letter.
have perished with those ancient principles which  encroach materially on the liberty of political
were their sole guardians and protectors.  They  discussion.  Every publication which is intendhave been swallowed up by that fearful convul- ed to vilify either our own government or the




1803.]                     ON  THE TRIAL OF JEAN  PELTIER.                                      831
government of any foreign state in amity with         There are other matters, gentlemen, to which
this kingdom, is, by the law of England, a libel. I am desirous of particularly calling Peculiar inducef pro- To protect political discussion from   your attention.  These are the cir- ments for EnMeans of pro-                                                                           gland nto admit
tection against the danger to which it would be ex-  cumstances in the condition of this an exposure of
this severity..                                                                          wrongs committ posed by these wide principles, if  country which have induced our an- ted in other
they were severely and literally enforced, our an- cestors, at all times, to handle with  untries.
cestors trusted to various securities-some grow- more than ordinary tenderness that branch of
ing out of the law and Constitution, and others  the liberty of discussion which is applied to the
arising from the character of those public officers  conduct of foreign states.  The relation of this
whom the Constitution had formed, and to whom   kingdom to the commonwealth of Europe is so
its administration is committed.  They trusted, peculiar, that no history, I think, furnishes a par(a) In the  in the first place, to the moderation of  allel to it.  From  the moment in which we
ca racterof the legal officers ofthe Crown, educa- abandoned all projects of continental aggrancutingoi-  ted in the maxims and imbued with  dizement, we could have no interest respecting
cer".     the spirit of a free government; con- the state of the Continent but the interests of natrolled by the superintending power of Parlia-  tional safety and of commercial prosperity.  The
ment, and peculiarly watched in all political paramount interest of every state-that which
prosecutions by the reasonable and wholesome  comprehends every other-is security.  And the
jealousy of their fellow-subjects.  And I am   security of Great Britain requires (a) Her security
bound to admit that, since the glorious era of the  nothing on the Continent but the depends on the
maintenance of
Revolution [1688], making due allowance for uniform  observance of justice.  It justice throughthe frailties, the faults, and the occasional vices  requires nothing but the inviolabil- outEu"op.
of men, they have, upon the whole, not been dis- ity of ancient boundaries and the sacredness of
appointed.  I know  that in the hands of my  ancient possessions, which, on these subjects, is
learned friend that trust will never be abused. but another form  of words for justice.  A naBut, above all, they confided in the moderation  tion which is herself shut out from the possihiland good sense of juries, popular in their origin, ity of continental aggrandizement can have no
(b) And still popular in their feelings, popular in  interest but that of preventing such aggrandizemore in the                                                                     n
sound judg- their very prejudices, taken from  the  ment in others.  We can have no interest of
feeln nd   mass of the people, and immediately  safety but the preventing of those encroachments
tle jury.   returning to that mass again.  By  which, by their immediate effects, or by their exthese checks and temperaments they hoped that ample, may be dangerous to ourselves.  We can
they should sufficiently repress malignant libels, have no interest of ambition respecting the Conwithout endangering that freedom  of inquiry  tinent.  So that neither our real, nor even our
which is the first security of a free state.  They  apparent interests, can ever be at variance with
knew that the offense of a political libel is of a  justice.
very peculiar nature, and differing in the most    As to commercial prosperity, it is, indeed, a
important particulars from all other crimes.  In  secondary, but it is still a very im- (b)Hercommerall other cases, the most severe execution of law  portant branch of our national inter- cia prosperity.
can only spread terror among the guilty; but in  ests, and it requires nothing on the continent of
political libels it inspires even the innocent with  Europe but the miaintenance of peace, as far as
Peculiar evils fear.  This striking peculiarity arises  the paramount interest of security will allow.6
ofseverity in from the same circumstances which    Whatever ignorant or prejudiced men mayafolitical li-  make it impossible to define the limits  firm, no war was ever gainful to a commercial
els.      of libel and innocent discussion; which           -____
make it impossible for a man of the purest and    6 It hardly need be mentioned that a feeling pre.
most honorable mind to be always perfectly cer- vailed on'Change that " the acquittal of Peltier would
tain whether he be within the territory of fair be considered in France as tantamount to a declaraargument and honest narrative, or whether he  tion of war."  This feeling the jury were very like.
may not have unwittingly overstepped the faint ly to entertain, and while Mr. Mackintosh could not
and varying line which bounds them.  But, gen-allde to it in direct terms, it was his object to attemen, I will go further.   This is the only of-  tack it indirectly, and set it aside. Hence he goes
ense where severe and frequent punishments not on to expatiate in beautiful language, and with great
fense where severe and frequent punishments not.  
ingenuity and truth, on the importance of peace to
only intimidate the innocent, but deter men fromthe commercial prosperity of England. This cointhe most meritorious acts, and from rendering the  cidence with the feelings of the jury as mercantile
most important services to their country.  They  men would naturally give him their confidence; and
indispose and disqualify men for the discharge  he then leads them on to see that peace is best proof the most sacred duties which they owe to  moted, on the whole, by maintaining the cause of pomankind.  To inform the public on the conduct litical justice throughout Europe; that entire fieeof those who administer public affairs requires  dom of remark on the partof t   English press is
couraoe and conscious security.  It is always  favorable to this object; and that the policy of Enc. o.      1...'~r         gland has never been to purchase peace by withan invidious and obnoxious office; but it is often  holdin  her writers fro  the feest expression of
the moldsin he r writers fi'ol the fip eest expression of
the most necessary of all public duties.  If it is  their opinions respecting the crimes of other governnot done boldly, it can not be done effectually, ments. Considered in this light, the reader will see
and it is not from writers trembling under the  in the passage which follows an admirable instance
uplifted scourge that we are to hope for it.      of rhetorical skill.




832                                   MR. MACKINTOSH                                       [1803.
nation.  Losses may be less in some, and in- preliminary, either to detach England from the
idependent cidental profits may arise in others. common cause or to destroy her.  It seems as
on the peace  But no such profits ever formed an  if all the conspirators against the independence
and prosperity
of other na-   adequate compensation for the waste  of nations might have sufficiently Itaids England
ti.."..    of capital and industry which all wars taught other states that England is ailenghenamust produce.  Next to peace, our commercial their natural guardian and protector; tionsofgblicsgreatness depends chiefly on the affluence and  that she alone has no interest but their tice.
prosperity of our neighbors.  A commercial na- preservation, that her safety is interwoven with
tion has, indeed, the same interest in the wealth  their own.  When vast projects of aggrandizeof her neighbors that a tradesman has in the  ment are manifested, when schemes of criminal
wealth of his customers.  The prosperity of  ambition are carried into effect, the day of battle
England has been chiefly owing to the general is fast approaching for England.  Her free govprogress of civilized nations in the arts and im- ernment can not engage in dangerous wars withprovements of social life.  Not an acre of land  out the hearty and affectionate support of her
has been brought into cultivation in the wilds of  people.  A state thus situated can not without
Siberia or on the shores of the Mississippi which  the utmost peril silence those public discussions
has not widened the market for English industry. which are to point the popular indignation against
It is nourished by the progressive prosperity of those who must soon be enemies.  In domestic
the world, and it amply repays all that it has re- dissensions, it may sometimes be the supposed
ceived.  It can only be employed in spreading  interest of government to overawe the press.
civilization and enjoyment over the earth; and  But it never can be even their apparent interest
by the unchangeable laws of nature, in spite of  when the danger is purely foreign.  A King of
the impotent tricks of government, it is now  England who, in such circumstances, should conpartly applied to revive the industry of those very  spire against the free press of this country, would
nations who are the loudest in their senseless  undermine the foundations of his own throne; he
clamors against its pretended mischiefs.  If the  would silence the trumpet which is to call his
blind and barbarous project of destroying English  people round his standard.
prosperity could be accomplished, it could have    Our ancestors never thought it their policy to
no other effect than that of completely beggar-  avert the resentment of foreign ty- Never her poli
ing the very countries who now stupidly ascribe  rants by enjoining English writers to cy to ceck antheir own poverty to our wealth.                 contain and repress their just abhor- on foreign desUnder these circumstances, gentlemen, it be- rence of the criminal enterprises of potis.
And thes are  came the obvious policy of the king- ambition.  This great and gallant nation, which
peon.oted by   dom  a policy in unison               fute                              ain
pexpn'gted,   dom, a policy      unison with the  has fought in the front of every battle against the
tins ofambi-  maxims of a free government, to  oppressors of Europe, has sometimes inspired
abroad.     consider with great indulgence even  fear, but, thank God, she has never felt it. We
the boldest animadversions of our political writ- know that they are our real, and must soon bears on the ambitious projects of foreign states.   come our declared foes.  We know that there
Bold, and sometimes indiscreet as these ani- can be no cordial amity between the natural enmadversions might be, they had, at emies and the independence of nations.  We have
sure rouses to least, the effect of warning the peo- never adopted the cowardly and short- She has never
resisnce.   pie of their danger, and of rousing  sighted policy of silencing our press, sacrificed her
pee national spirit
the national indignation against those encroach-  of breaking the spirit and palsying the for an uncerments which England has almost always been  hearts of our people for the sake of a tain eace.
compelled in the end to resist by arms.  Seldom, hollow and precarious truce.  We have never
indeed, has she been allowed to wait till a prov- been base enough to purchase a short respite
ident regard to her own safety should compel her fiom hostilities by sacrificing the first means of
to take up arms in defense of others.  For as it defense; the means ot rousing the public spirit
was said by a great orator of antiquity that no  of the people, and directing it against the eneman ever was the enemy of the republic who had  mies of their country and of Europe.8
not first declared war against him, so I may say,    Gentlemen, the public spirit of a people, by
with truth, that no man ever meditated the sub- which I mean the whole body of National spirit
jugation of Europe who did not consider the de- those affections which unites men's ofstrengtthto a
struction or the corruption of England as the first hearts to the commonwealth, is in state.
condition of his success.7  If you examine history, you will find that no such project was ever    8 Here Mr. Mackintosh reaches the point aimed at
formed in which it was not deemed a necessary  in the last three paragraphs, viz., that the jury must
_ ________________~ —— ~~~?                ~not sacrifice Mr. Pettier to propitiate Bonaparte, and
7 The words are those of Cicero in his second ora- adds force to his admonition by reminding them of
tion against Anthony, " Quonam meo fato, Patres  what was becoming daily more manifest, that the
Conscripti, fieri dicam, ut nemo, his annis viginti, peace of Amiens was only " a hollow and precarious
reipublice fuerit hostis, qui non bellum eodem tem- truce."  Sooner, probably, than he expected-only
pore mihi quoque indixerit?"  How has it hap- seventeen days after-the King sent a message to
pened, Conscript Fathers, that no one has come out Parliament which showed that war was inevitable.
as an enemy of the republic, for these last twenty  It accordingly commenced May 18, 1803. The noble
years, who did not at the same time declare war passage which follows as to the means of cherishing
against me?                                     national spirit was, therefore, peculiarly appropriate.




1803.]                    ON THE TRIAL OF JEAN  PELTIER.                                   833
various countries composed of various elements, not mean to attack historical narrative. He has
and depends on a great variety of causes.  In  told you that he does not mean to attack political
this country, I may venture to say that it mainly  discussion.  He has told you, also, that he does
depends on the vigor of the popular parts and  not consider every intemperate word into which
principles of our government, and that the spirit a writer, fairly engaged in narration or reasonof liberty is one of its most important elements. ing, might be betrayed, as a fit subject for prosPerhaps it may depend less on those advantages  ecution.  The essence of the crime of libel conof a free government, which are most highly es- sists in the malignant mind which the publicatimated by calm reason, than upon those parts tion proves, and from which it flows.  A jury
of it which delight the imagination, and flatter must be convinced, before they find a man guilty
the just and natural pride of mankind.  Among  of libel, that his intention was to, libel, not to
these we are certainly not to forget the political state facts which he believed to be true, or rearights which are not uniformlywithheld from the sonings which he thought just.   My learned
lowest classes, and the continual appeal made to  friend has told you that the liberty of history inthem in public discussion, upon the greatest in- eludes the right of publishing those observations
terests of the state.  These are undoubtedly  which occur to intelligent men when they conamong the circumstances which endear to En- sider the affairs of the world; and I think he
glishmen their government and their country, will not deny that it includes also the right of
and animate their zeal for that glorious institu- expressing those sentiments which all good men
tion which confers on the meanest of them a sort feel on the contemplation of extraordinary examof distinction and nobility unknown to the most pies of depravity or excellence.
illustrious slaves, who tremble at the frown of a    One more privilege of the historian, which
tyrant.  Whoever were unwarily and rashly to  the Attorney General has not named, First Ground:
abolish or narrow these privileges, which it must but to which his principles extend, ld histo,;ally
be owned are liable to great abuse, and to very  it is now my duty to claim  on be- s,'itotlisr nt
specious objections, might perhaps discover too  half of my client; I mean the right liable.
late that he had been dismantling his country. of republishing, historically, those documents,
Of whatever elements public spirit is composed, whatever their original malignity may be, which
it is always and every where the chief defensive  display the character and unfold the intentions
principle of a state.  It is perfectly distinct from  of governments, or factions, or individuals.  I
courage.  Perhaps no nation, certainly no Eu- think my learned friend will not deny that a.
ropean nation, ever perished from  an inferi- historical compiler may innocently republish in
ority of courage.  And undoubtedly no consid- England the most insolent and outrageous dec —
erable nation was ever subdued in which the  laration of war ever published against his Majpublic affections were sound and vigorous.  It is esty by a foreign government.  The intention
public spirit which binds together the dispersed  of the original author was to vilify and degrade
courage of individuals and fastens it to the com- his Majesty's government; but the intention of
monwealth.  It is, therefore, as I have said, the  the compiler is only to gratify curiosity, or, perchief defensive principle of every country.  Of haps, to rouse just indignation against the calumThat spirit de- all the stimulants which arouse it into  niator whose production he republishes.  His,
pendent onpre- action, the most powerful among us intention is not libelous —his republication isdo of thle   is certainly the press; and it can not therefore not a libel.  Suppose this to be the.
press.     be restrained or weakened without case with Mr. Peltier.  Suppose him  to have
imminent danger that the national spirit may  republished libels with a merely historical inlanguish, and that the people may act with less tention.  In that case it can not be pretended
zeal and affection for their country in the hour that he is more a libeler than my learned friend,
of its danger.                                  Mr. Abbott [junior counsel for the Crown, afterThese principles, gentlemen, are not new-  ward Lord Tenterden], who read these supposed
they are genuine old English principles.  And  libels to you when he opened the pleadings.
though in our days they have been disgraced  Mr. Abbott republished them  to you, that you
and abused by ruffians and fanatics, they are in  might know and judge of them-Mr. Peltier, on.
themselves as just and sound as they are liberal; the supposition I have made, also republished
and they are the only principles on which a free  them, that the public might know and judge of
state can be safely governed.  These principles them.
I have adopted since I first learned the use of    You already know that the general plan of
reason, and I think I shall abandon them  only  Mr. Peltier's publication was to give His paper was
with life.                                      a picture of the cabals and intrigues, pose the farc
IV. On these principles I aml now to call your of the hopes and projects of French and to holn
PartF oettlh: attention to the libel with which this factions.  It is undoubtedly a nat- forth their lln.
Explasation           gentlemangcage and feel.
pad defense  unfortunate gentlemanis charged.  I ural, and necessary part of this plan ings.
tir's puebla-  heartily rejoice that I concur with the  to republish all the serious and ludicrous pieces
tions.    greatest part of what has been said  which these factions circulate against each other.
by my learned friend, Mr. Attorney General, The ode ascribed to Chenier or Ginguene I do
who has done honor even to his character by  really believe to have been written at Paris, to
the generous and liberal principles which he  have been circulated there, to have been there
has laid down.  He has told you that he does attributed to some one of these writers, to have
G G




834                                  MR,. MACKINTOSH                                      [1803.
been sent to England as their work, and as such  and Poitiers-the garter which was worn by
to have been republished by Mr. Peltier.  But Henry the Great and by Gustavus Adolphus.
I am not sure that I have evidence to convince  which might now be worn by the hero who, on
you of the truth of this.  Suppose that I have  the shores of Syria [Sir Sydney Smith]-the annot; will my learned friend say that my client cient theater of English chivalry-has revived
must necessarily be convicted?  I, on the con- the renown of English valor and of English hutrary, contend that it is for my learned friend to  manity-that unsullied garter which a detestable
show that it is not a historical republication. libeler dares to say is to be paid as the price of
Such it professes to be, and that profession it is murder.
for him to disprove.  The profession may indeed    If I had now to defend an English publisher
be "a mask;" but it is for my friend to pluck  for the republication of that abominable libel,
off the mask, and expose the libeler, before he  what must I have said in his defense?  I must
calls upon you for a verdict of guilty.          have told you that it was originally published by
If the general lawfulness of such republications  the French government in their official gazette;
Such an expo- be denied, then I must ask Mr. At- that it was republished by the English editor to
een permitted torney General to account for the long  gratify the natural curiosity, perhaps to rouse
in England.  impunity which English newspapers the just resentment of his English readers.  I
have enjoyed.  I must request him to tell you  should have contended, and, I trust, with success,
why they have been suffired to republish all the  that his republication of a libel was not libelous;
atrocious, official and unofficial libels which have  that it was lawful, that it was laudable.  All
been published against his Majesty for the last that would be important, at least all that would
ten years, by the Brissots, the Marats, the Dan- be essential in such a defense, I now state to
tons, the Robespierres, the Barreres, the Talliens, you on behalf of Mr. Peltier; and if an English
the Reubells, the Merlins, the Barrases, and all newspaper may safely republish the libels of the
that long line of bloody tyrants who oppressed  French government against his Majesty, I shall
their own country and insulted every other which  leave you to judge whether Mr. Peltier, in similar
they had not the power to rob.  What must be  circumstances, may not with equal safety repubthe answer?  That the English publishers were  lish the libels of Chenier against the First Consul.
either innocent, if their motive was to gratify  On the one hand, you have the assurances of Mr.
curiosity, or praiseworthy, if their intention was  Peltier in the context that this ode is merely a
to rouse indignation against the calumniators of  republication-you have also the general plan of
their country.  If any other answer be made, I his work, with which such a republication is permust remind my friend of a most sacred part of  fectly consistent.  On the other hand, you have
his duty-the duty of protecting the honest fame  only the suspicions of Mr. Attorney General that
of those who are absent in the service of their this ode is an original production of the defendcountry.  Within these few days we have seen, ant.
in every newspaper in England, a publication,    But supposing that you should think it his
called the Report of Colonel Sebastiani, in which  production, and that you should also Secnd Oround:
a gallant British  officer [General Stuart] is think it a libel, even in that event, If.le rote sa-.
charged with writing letters to procure assas- which I can not anticipate, I am not pose the prinsination.  The publishers of that infamous re- left without a defense.  The ques- Jacobin, ie is
port are not, and will not be prosecuted, because  tion will still be open, "Is it a libel not liable.
their intention is not to libel General Stuart. on Bonaparte, or is it a libel on Chenier or GinOn any other principle, why have all our news- guene?"  This is not an information for a libel
papers been suffered to circulate that most atro- on Chenier; and if you should think that this ode
cious of all libels against the King and people  was produced by Mr. Peltier, and ascribed by
of England, which purports to be translated from  him  to Chenier, for the sake of covering that
the Moniteur of the ninth of August, 1802-a li- writer with the odium of Jacobinism, the defend-.bel against a Prince who has passed through a  ant is entitled to your verdict of not guilty.  Or
factious and stormy reign of forty-three years, if you should believe that it is ascribed to Jaco-.without a single imputation on his personal char- binical writers for the sake of satirizing a French
acter; against a people who have passed through  Jacobinical faction, you must also, in that case,
the severest trials of national virtue with unim- acquit him.  Butler puts seditious and immoral
paired glory-who alone in the world can boast language into the mouth of rebels and fanatics;
of mutinies without murder, of triumphant mobs but Hudibras is not for that reason a libel on
without massacre, of bloodless revolutions, and  morality or government.  Swift, in the most exof civil.wars unstained by a single assassination. quisite piece of irony in the world (his argument
That most impudent and malignant libel which  against the abolition of Christianity), uses the
charges such a King of such a people, not only  language of those shallow, atheistical coxcombs
with having hired assassins, but with being so  whom his satire was intended to scourge.  The
shameless, so lost to all sense of character, as to  scheme of his irony required some levity and
have bestowed on these assassins, if their murder-  even some profaneness of language.  But noous projects'bhad succeeded, the highest badges  body was ever so dull as to doubt whether Swift
of public honor, the rewards reserved for states-  meant to satirize Atheism or religion.  In the
men;and heroes-the order of the Garter-the  same manner, Mr. Peltier, when he wrote a satorder whiohkwas founded by the heroes of Cressy  ire on French Jacobinism, was compelled to as



1803.]                     ON THE TRIAL OF JEAN  PELTIER.                                    835
cribe to Jacobins a Jacobinical hatred of govern- fatal errors.  These errors produced atrocious
When writin ment.  He was obliged, by dramatic  crimes.  A mild and feeble monarchy was sucn ode ifnthe' propriety, to put into their mouths  ceeded by bloody anarchy, which very shortly
nier, he must those anarchical maxims which are  gave birth to military despotism.  France, in a
express the
sentiments of complained of in his ode.  But it few years, described the whole circle of human
a Jacobin.   will be said, these incitements to in- society.
surrection are here directed against the author-    All this was in the order of nature.  When
ity of Bonaparte.  This proves nothing, because  every principle of authority and civil The crimes of
they must have been so directed, if the ode were  discipline, when every principle which the Revolution
prepared the
a satire on Jacobinism.  French Jacobins must enables some men to command, and way for a miliinveigh against Bonaparte, because he exercises  disposes others to obey, was extirpa- taydespotism.
the powers of government.  The satirist who  ted from the mind by atrocious theories, and still
attacks them  must transcribe their sentiments more atrocious examples; when every old instiand adopt their language.                        tution was trampled down with contumely, and
I do not mean to say, gentlemen, that Mr. Pel- every new institution covered in its cradle with
tier feels any affection, or professes any alle- blood; when the principle of property itself, the
giance to Bonaparte.  If I were to say so, he  sheet-anchor of society, was annihilated; when
would disown me.  He would disdain to pur- in the persons of the new possessors, whom the
chase an acquittal by the profession of sentiments poverty of language obliges us to call propriewhich he disclaims and abhors.  Not to love  tors, it was contaminated in its source by robBonaparte is no crime.  The question is not bery and murder, and it became separated from
whether Mr. Peltier loves or hates the First Con- that education and those manners, from that gensul, but whether he has put revolutionary ]an- eral presumption of superior knowledge and more
guage into the mouth of Jacobins with a view to  scrupulous probity which form  its only liberal
paint their incorrigible turbulence, and to exhibit titles to respect; when the people were taught
the fruits of Jacobinical revolutions to the de- to despise every thing old, and compelled to detestation of mankind.                            test every thing new, there remained only one
Now, gentlemen, we can not give a probable  principle strong enough to hold society together,
Proof that te answer to this question without pre- a principle utterly incompatible, indeed, with libspoke not his viously examining two or three ques- erty and unfriendly to civilization itself, a tyranbut those of' tions, on which the answer to the first nical and barbarous principle; but in that mismust very much depend.  Is there a  erable condition of human affairs, a refuge from
faction in France which breathes the spirit, and  still more intolerable evils.  I mean the princiLine of ar is likely to employ the language of this ple of military power which gains strength from
gussent.  ode? Does it perfectly accordwith their that confusion and bloodshed in which all the
character and views?  Is it utterly irreconcil- other elements of society are dissolved, and
able with the feelings, opinions, and wishes of which, in these terrible extremities, is the ceMr. Peltier? If these questions can be answered  ment that preserves it from total destruction.
in the affirmative, then I think you must agree    Under such circumstances, Bonaparte usurped
with me that Mr. Peltier does not in this ode the supreme power in France. I say Bonaparte's
speak his own sentiments, that he does not here  usurped, because an illegal assump- usurpation of
vent his own resentment against Bonaparte; but tion of power is a usurpation.  But t  etism.
that he personates a Jacobin, and adopts his lan- usurpation in its strongest moral sense, is scarceguage for the sake of satirizing his principles.  ly applicable to a period of lawless and savage.
These questions, gentlemen, lead me to those  anarchy.  The guilt of military usurpation, in
political discussions which, generally speaking, truth, belongs to the author of those confusions
are in a court of justice odious and disgusting. which sooner or later give birth to such a usurpHere, however, they are necessary, and I shall ation.
consider them only as far as the necessities of    Thus, to use the words of the historian: " By
this cause require.                              recent as well as all ancient example, it became
Gentlemen, the French Revolution-I must evident that illegal violence, with whatever pre(n) French pause after I have uttered words which  tenses it may be covered, and whatever object it
Revolution, present such an overwhelming idea. may pursue, must inevitably end at last in the
of Jaobin- But I have not now to engage in an  arbitrary and despotic government of a single
"   enterprise so far beyond my force as person."l~  But though the government of Bothat of examining and judging that tremendous naparte has silenced the revolutionary But the Jao.e
Revolution.  I have only to consider the char- factions, it has not and it can not have bin spirit still
acter of the factions which it must have left be- extinguished them.  No human pow- remains.
hind it.                                         er could reimpress upon the minds of men all
The French Revolution began with great and  those sentiments and opinions which the sophistry
and anarchy of fourteen years had obliterated.
9 As Mr. Mackintosh had written in favor of the  a   achy o frtee   ears ha   bterate.
French Revolution at its early stages, and changed  A faction must exist  hich breathes the spirit
his views as he saw  its progress and inevitable  of the ode now before you.
tendency, he is throughout this speech the more ex-    It is, I know, not the spirit of the quiet and
plicit in expressing his abhorrence of its principles
and its results.                                    0 Hume's History of England, vol. vii., p. 220.




-36                                   MR. MACKINTOSH                                         [1803.
submissive majority of the French people. They                     "The unconquerable will,
rot among the have always rather suffered than act-     And study of revenge, ilmortal hate.""
common peo  ed in the Revolution.  Completely  They leave the luxuries of servitude to the mean
quietly submit- exhausted by the calamities through  and dastardly hypocrites, to the Belials and Marmted.       which they have passed, they yield  mons of the infernal faction.  They pursue their
to any power which gives them repose.  There  old end of tyranny under their old pretext of
is indeed, a degree of oppression which rouses  liberty.  The recollection of their unbounded
rn n to resistance; but there is another and  power renders every inferior condition irksome
a greater, which wholly subdues and unmans  and vapid; and their former atrocities form, if I
them. It is remarkable that Robespierre him- may so speak, a sort of moral destiny which irself was safe till he attacked his own accom- resistibly impels them to the perpetration of new
plices.  The spirit of men of virtue was broken  crimes.  They have no place left for penitence
and there was no vigor of character left to de- on earth.  They labor under the most awful prostroy him, but in those daring ruffians who were  scription of opinion that ever was pronounced
the sharers of his tyranny.                       against human beings.  They have cut down evAs for the wretched populace who were made  cry bridge by which they could retreat into the
the blind and senseless instrument of  society of men.  Awakened fiom  their dreams
They are stupidly ignorant so many crimes, whose frenzy can  of Democracy, the noise subsided that deafened
on the subject, now be reviewed by a good mind with  their ears to the voice of humanity; the film fallscarce any moral sentiment but that of compas- en from  their eyes which hid from  them  the
sion; that miserable multitude of beings, scarce- blackness of their own deeds; haunted by the
ly human, have already fallen into a brutish for- memory of their inexpiable guilt; condemned
getfulness of the very atrocities which they them-  daily to look on the faces of those whom  their
selves perpetrated.  They have already forgot- hands made widows and orphans, they are goadten all the acts of their drunken fury.  If you ask  ed and scourged by these recal furies, and hurone of them, Who destroyed that magnificent ried into the tumult of new crimes, which will
monument of religion and art? or who perpe- drown the cries of remorse, or, if they be too detrated that massacre? they stupidly answer, praved for remorse, will silence the curses of
the Jacobins! though he who gives the answer mankind."'  Tyrannical power is their only refwas probably one of these Jacobins himself; so  uge from the just vengeance of their fellow-creatthat a traveler, ignorant of French history, might ures.  Murder is their only means of usurping
suppose the Jacobins to be the name of some  power.  They have no taste, no occupation, no
Tartar horde who, after laying waste France for pursuit but power and blood.  If their hands are
ten years, were at last expelled by the native in- tied, they must at least have the luxury of inurhabitants.  They have passed from  senseless derous projects.  They have drunk too deeply of
rage to stupid quiet.  Their delirium is followed  human blood ever to relinquish their cannibal
by lethargy.                                      appetite.
In a word, gentlemen, the great body of the        Such a faction exists in France.  It is numernwd trained to people of France have been severely  ous; it is powerful; and it has a prin- Their numbier
subjection.  trained in those convulsions and pro- ciple of fidelity stronger than any that greatin France.
scriptions which are the school of slavery. They  ever held together a society.  They are banded
are capable of no mutinous, and even of no bold  together by despair of forgiveness, by the unanziand manly political sentiments.  And if this ode  nmous detestation of mnaonkinld.  They are now
professed to paint their opinions, itwould be a most contained by a severe and stern government.
unfaithful picture.  But it is otherwise with those  But they still meditate the renewal of insurrecwrho have been the actors and leaders in the scene  tion and massacre; and they are prepared to reof blood.  It is otherwise with the numerous new the worst and most atrocious of their crimes,
agents of the most indefatigable, searching, mul- that crime against posterity and against human
tiform, and omnipresent tyranny that ever existed, nature itself, that crime of which the latest genwhich pervaded every class of society which had  erations of mankind may feel the fatal conseministers and victims in every village in France. quences-the crime of degrading and prostitutSome of them, indeed, the basest of the race, ing the sacred name of liberty."3
ome, espe-   the sophists, the rhetors, the poet-    1 Milton's Paradise Lost, book ii.
callyteard laureates of murd, who were cuel          12 The furies in ancient mythology were considertheirservicesto only fiom cowardice and calculating  ed as " hunters of men," who pursued the guilty as
egover. selfishness, are perfectly willing to  they fled before them, whether into retirement or the
transfer their venal pens to any government that crowded scenes of life, and inflicted upon them the
does not disdain their infamous support.  These  just punishment of their crimes.
men, Republicans from servility, who published          There is a depth of thought, a power of colbi
rhetorical panegyrics on massacre, and who re- natiol, ad a glow of eloquence in this description
of the French Jacobins, which Burke alone could
duced plunder to a system of ethics, are as ready   aveequaled. There is also a startling air of para.
But otherastiil to preach slavery as anarchy.  But dox in saving that these faithless villains were unit
retain the fierc- th e more daring, I had amhost said,
etpii      the  ore daring, I ha  almost said, ed by   a principle of fidelity stronger than any that
iacobir daria            n, In
Jacbinlsm.  ^thy, more respectable ruffians, can  ever held a society together."  The thought flashes
not so easily bend their heads under the yoke. across the mind, What can that principle ble? and
These fierce spirits have not lost                 the next sentence gives a complete answer: " They




1803.]                     ON  THE TRIAL OF JEAN  PELTIER.                                    837
I must own, that however paradoxical it may  sions of a most deplorable separation, displayed
They re more appear, I should almost think not the humanity as well as valor which, I trust I
respectable
thanl thir fel- worse, but more meanly of them if it may say, they inherited from their forefathers.
iow i who have were otherwise.  I must then think    Nor do I mean by the use of the word " Rejoined the goverlinent.    them  destitute of that which I will publican" to confound this execra- Nor does a Re
not call courage, because that is the name of a  ble faction with all those who, in the P    bl,"ant o,
virtue; but of that ferocious energy which alone  liberty of private speculation, may adapted to the
rescues ruffians from contempt.  If they were  prefer a Republican form of govern- of Europe.
destitute of that which is the heroism of mur- ment.  I own that, after much reflection, I am
derers, they would be the lowest as well as the  not able to conceive an error more gross thanmost abominable of beings.                        that of those who believe in the possibility of
It is impossible to conceive any thing more  erecting a republic in any of the old monarchical
despicable than wretches who, after hectoring  countries of Europe, who believe that in such
and bullying over their meek and blameless  countries an elective supreme magistracy can
sovereign and his defenseless family, whom they  produce any thing but a succession of stern tyrkept so long in a dungeon trembling for their annies and bloody civil wars.  It is a supposiexistence-whom they put to death by a slow  tion which is belied by all experience, and which
torture of three years. after playing the Repub- betrays the greatest ignorance of the first prinlican and the tyrannicide to women and chil- ciples of the constitution of society.  It is an
dren; become the supple and fawning slaves of  error which has a false appearance of superiorthe first government that knows how to wield  ity over vulgar prejudice; it is, therefore, too apt
the scourge with a firm hand.                    to be attended with the most criminal rashness
I have used the word Republican because it is and presumption, and too easy to be inflamed
n no seote  the name by which this atrocious fac- into the most immoral and anti-social fanaticism.
are they true tion describes itself. The assumption  But as long as it remains a mere quiescent erRepoi. of that name is one of their crimes. ror, it is not the proper subject of moral disapThey are no more Republicans than Royalists. probation.
They are the common enemies of all human so-    If then, gentlemen, such a faction, falsely callciety.  God forbid that by the use of that word  ing itself Republican, exists in France, But su,.Jac.
I should be supposed to reflect on the members  let us considerwhether this ode speaks France, iav'
of those respectable Republican communities  their sentiments, describes their char- ing  elgle
which did exist in Europe before the French  acter,agrees with their views.  Try- ode writtefin
Revolution.   That Revolution has spared many  ing it by the principle I have stated, clhenier.
monarchies, but it has spared no republic within  I think you will have no difficulty in concluding
the sphere of its destructive energy.  One re- that it is agreeable to the general plan of this
public only now exists in the world-a republic  publication to give a historical and satirical view
of English blood, which was originally composed  of the Brutuses and brutes of the republic-of
of Republican societies, under the protection of  those who assumed and disgraced the name
a monarchy, which had, therefore, no great and  of Brutus,14 and who, under that name, sat as
perilous change in their internal constitution to  judges in their mock tribunals, with pistolss in
effect; and of which, I speak it with pleasure  their girdles, to anticipate the office of the exeand pride, the inhabitants, even in the convul- cutioner on those unfortunate men whom they
treated as rebels, for resistance to Robespierre
are banded together by despair of forgiveness, by  ad Coutho
the unanimous detestation of mankind." Demosthe-        ouon.
nes sometimes uses paradox to rouse the attention       now  come to show you that this ode can
of his hearers, but he has no instance of it equal to  not represent the opinions of Mr. (b) These feelthis.                                             Peltier.  He is a French Royalist. ings havenothing in common
Madame De Stael, in her' Ten Years of Exile,"  He has devoted his talents to the withtlose of
thus speaks of this passage. "It was during this  cause of his King.  For that cause "r. Peltier.
stormy period of my existence that I received the  he has sacrificed his fortune and hazarded his
speech of Mr. Mackintosh; and there read his de- life.  For that cause he is proscribed and exiled
scription of a Jacobin, who had made himself an ob- fro  his country.  I could easily conceive powject of terror during the Revolution to children,
omen and old me  and who was now  erful topics of Royalist invective against Bonawomen, and old men, and who was now bending
himself double under the rod of the Corsican, who arte; and if Mr. Peltier had called upon French
tears firom him, even to the last atom, that liberty  men by the memory of St. Louis and Henry the
for which he pretended to have taken arms. This  Great, by the memory of that illustrious family
morceau of the finest eloquence touched me to my  which reigned over them for seven centuries, and
very soul; it is the privilege of superior writers  with whom all their martial renown and literary
sometimes unwittingly to solace the unfortunate in  glory are so closely connected  if he had adall countries and at all times. France was in a state ed tem by the spotless ne of that Lois
of such complete silence around me, that this voice, XVI te 
which suddenly responded to my soul, seemed to                          i                   
me to come douwn frolm heaven —it canef-o   a land  scarce a man in France can now pronounce but
me to come down from heaven-it came from a land
of liberty!"                                     in the tone of pity and veneration; if he had thus
She afterward translated the whole speech into  called upon them to change their useless regret
French, and thus made it widely known on the Con-  1   Citizen Brutus, president of the Military Conltinent.                                           mission, at Marseilles, in January, 1794.




838                                 MR. MACKINTOSH                                    [1803.
and their barren pity into generous and active  and to punish those who delivered you from them.
indignation; if he had reproached the conquer- I exhort you to reverence the den of these banors of Europe with the disgrace of being the  ditti as'the sanctuary of the laws,' and to laslaves of an upstart stranger; if he had brought ment the day in which this intolerable nuisance
before their minds the contrast between their was abated as'an unfortunate day.'  Last of
country under her ancient monarch-the source  all, I exhort you once more to follow that deand model of refinement in manners and taste-  plorable chimera-the first lure that led you to
and since their expulsion the scourge and the  destruction-the sovereignty of the peopleopprobrium  of humanity; if he had exhorted  though I know, and you have bitterly felt, that
them to drive out their ignoble tyrants and to re- you never were so much slaves in fact as since
store their native sovereign; I should then have you have been sovereigns in theory!"
recognized the voice of a Royalist.  I should    Let me ask, Mr. Attorney General, whether,
have recognized language that must have flowed  upon his supposition, I have not given you a
from the heart of Mr. Peltier, and I should have faithful translation of this ode; and I think I
been compelled to acknowledge that it was point- may safely repeat that if this be the language
ed against Bonaparte.                         of a Royalist addressed to Royalists, it must be
These, or such as these, must have been the the production of a lunatic. But on my supposiThe senti-  topics of a Royalist, if he had published  tion, every thing is natural and consistent.  You
dmets of that an invective against the First Consul. have the sentiments and language of a Jacobin.
ode would be
nonsense in  But instead of these or similar topics, It is therefore probable, if you take it as a histhe mouth of
Mr. Peltieras what have we in this ode?  On the torical republication of a Jacobin piece.  It is
a Royaist.  supposition that it is the invective of just, if you take it as a satirical representation
a Royalist, how is it to be reconciled to common  of Jacobin opinions and projects.
sense?  What purpose is it to serve?  To    Perhaps it will be said that this is the producwhom is it addressed?  To what interests does tion of a Royalist writer, who as- Equally nonit appeal?  What passions is it to rouse?  If it sumes a Republican disguise to serve are supposed
be addressed to Royalists, then I request, gen-  Royalist purposes; but if my learn- to t.ke asJcobeadressdtoRoyaiststhenIreuest g l obin dress to
tiemen, that you will carefully read it, and tell ed friend chooses that supposition, I pdropnteo he
me whether, on that supposition, it can be any  think an equal absurdity returns upon Royalist.
thing but the ravings of insanity, and whether a him in another shape.  We must, then, suppose
commission of lunacy be not a proceeding more  it to be intended to excite Republican discontent
fitted to the author's case than a conviction for and insurrection against Bonaparte.  It must,
a libel.  On that supposition, I ask you whether then, be taken as addressed to Republicans.
it does not amount in substance to such an ad- Would Mr. Peltier in that case have disclosed
dress as the following?  "Frenchmen, Royal- his name as the publisher?  Would he not much
ists, I do not call upon you to avenge the nlur- rather have circulated the ode in the name of
der of your innocent Sovereign, the butchery of  Chenier, without prefixing his own, which was
your relations and friends, the disgrace and  more than sufficient to warn his Jacobinical
oppression of your country! I call upon you  readers against all his counsels and exhortations.
by the hereditary right of Barras, transmitted  If he had circulated it under the name of Chenier
through a long series of ages, by the beneficent only, he would, indeed, have hung out Republicgovernment of Merlin and Reubell, those worthy  an colors; but by prefixing his own, he appears
successors of Charlemagne, whose authority was without disguise.  You must suppose him then
as mild as it was lawful-I call upon you to re- to say: " Republicans! I, your mortal enemy for
venge on Bonaparte the despotism of that Direc- fourteen years, whom you have robbed of his all,
tory who condemned the far greater part of your- whom you have forbidden to revisit his country
selves to beggary and exile, who covered France  under pain of death, who, from the beginning of
with Bastiles and scaffolds; who doomed the  the Revolution, unceasingly poured ridicule upon
most respectable remaining members of their your follies, and exposed your crimes to detescommunity-the Pichegrues, the Barbe Marbois, tation, who in the cause of my unhappy Soverthe Barthelemis-to a lingering death in the pes- eign braved your daggers for three years, and
tilential wilds of Guiana.  I call upon you to  who escaped almost by miracle from your assasavenge on Bonaparte the cause of those councils sins in September, who has since been constantof five hundred or of two hundred, of elders or ly employed in warning other nations by your
of youngsters, those disgusting and nauseous example, and in collecting the evidence upon
mockeries of representative assemblies-those  which history will pronounce yourcondemnation;
miserable councils which sycophant sophists had  I, who at this moment deliberately choose exile
converted into machines for fabricating decrees  and honorable poverty, rather than give the
of proscription and confiscation, which not only  slightest mark of external compliance with your
proscribed unborn thousands, but, by a refine- abominable institutions; I, your most irreconcilment and innovation in rapine, visited the sins able and indefatigable enemy, offer you counsel
of the children upon the fathers, and beggared  which you know can only be a snare into which I
parents, not for the offenses, but for the misfor- expect you to fall, though by the mere publication
tunes of their sons.  I call upon you to restore  of my name I have sufficiently forewarned you
this Directory and these councils, and all this that I can have no aim but that of your destruchorrible profanation of the name of a republic, tion."




1803.]                     ON THE TRIAL OF JEAN PELTIER.                                     839
I ask you again, gentlemen, is this common  venture to appeal to all those who know any
The ode was, sense?  Is it not as clear, from the  thing of the political circles of Paris, whether
therefore, ei-  name of the author, that it is not ad- such contrasts between France and England as
ther written by
tleTier or de- dressed to Jacobins, as, from the con- that which I have read to you be not the most
signed to expose his senti- tents of the publication, that it is not favorite topics of the opponents of Bonaparte.
ment.      addressed to Royalists?  It may be  But in the very next stanza,
the genuine work of Chenier, for the topics are            Cependant, encore afflig6e
such as he would employ.  It may be a satire               Par l'odieuse heredite,
on Jacobinism, for the language is well adapt-             Londres de titres surchargee,
ed to such a composition.  But it can not be a             Londres n'a pas l'Egalit6.16
Royalist's invective against Bonaparte, intended You see, that though they are forced to surrenby him to stir up either Royalists or Republic- der an unwilling tribute to our liberty, they can
ans to the destruction of the First Consul.              renounce all their fantastic and deploraI can not conceive it to be necessary that I not yet renounce all their fantastic and deploraI can not conceive it to be necessary that I ble chimeras.  They endeavor to make a comble chimeras. They endeavor to make a comcommentson should minutely examine this poem  promise between the experience on which they
particalr    to confirm  my construction.  There  can not shut their eyes, and the wretched sysare one or two passages on which I tems to which they still cling.  Fanaticism  ir
shall make a few observations.  The first is the  the most incurable of all mental diseases; be
contrast between the state of England and that cause in all its forms, religious, philosophical, or
of France, of which an ingenious friend has fa- political, it is distinguished by a sort of mad convored me with a translation, which I shall take  tempt for experience, which alone can correct
the liberty of reading to yoU.15                 the errors of practical judgment.  And these
Her glorious fabric England rears            democratical fanatics still speak of the odious
On law's fixed base alone;               principle of "hereditary government."  They
Law's guardian pow'r while each reveres,     still complain that we have not "equality.'
England! thy people's freedom fears         They know not that this odious principle of inNo danger from the Throne.
No danger from the Throne.        heritance is our bulwark against tyranny; that
For there, before the almighty Law,          if we had their pretended equality, we should
High birth, high place, with pious awe,      soon cease to be the objects of their envy.
In reverend homage bend:
In re maverend homage bend: conThese are the sentiments which you would natThere man's free spirit, unconstrain'd
Exalts, in man's best rights maintain'd.     urally expect from  half-cured lunatics.   But
Rights, which by ancient valor gain'd,       once more I ask you, whether they can be the
From age to age descend.                 sentiments of Mr. Peltier?  Would he complain
Britons, by no base fear dismay'd,           that we have too much monarchy, or too much
May power's worst acts arraign:          of what they call aristocracy?  If he has any
Does tyrant force their rights invade?      prejudices against the English government, must
They call on Law's impartial aid,            they not be of an entirely opposite kind?
Nor call that aid in vain.                  I have only one observation more to make on
Hence, of her sacred charter proud,          this poem.  It relates to the passage Comments on
With every earthly good endow'd,             which is supposed to be an incite- posedtorecO'er subject seas unfurl'd,              ment to assassination.7  In my way oedaten
Britannia waves her standard wide,           of considering the subject, Mr. Pel- of Bonaparte.
Hence, sees her freighted navies ride        tier is not answerable for that passage, whatevUp wealthy Thaes' majestic tide,             er its demerits may be.  It is put into the mouth
The wonder of the world.                 of a Jacobin; and it will not, I think, be afHere, at first sight, you may perhaps think  firmed that if it were an incitement to assassinthat the consistency of the Jacobin character is ate, it would be very unsuitable to his characnot supported, that the Republican disguise is ter.  Experience, and very recent experience,
thrown off, that the Royalist stands unmasked  has abundantly proved how widely the French
before you; but, on more consideration, you will Revolution has blackened men's imaginations,
find that such an inference would be too hasty. what a daring and desperate cast it has given to
The leaders of the Revolution are now reduced  their characters, how  much it has made them
to envy that British Constitution which, in the  regard the most extravagant projects of guilt
infatuation of their presumptuous ignorance, they      A literal translation affods the best means of
1 w. 1      ai             i         16 A literal translation affords the best means of
once rejected withl scorn.  They are now slaves,  judging in this case, and such a translation will,
as they themselves confess, because twelve years  therefore be given-" London, still suffering under
ago they did not believe Englishmen to be free. the evils of hereditary rank, wealth, &c.; London,
They can not but see that England is the only  burdened with titles [of nobility, &c.], has no equalpopular government in Europe, and they are  ity!"
compelled to pay a reluctant homage to the jus-    7 The words were these, alluding to the death
tice of English principles.  The praise of En- of Cesar by the hand of Brutus:
gland is too striking a satire on their own gov-       "Rome, dans ce revers funeste,
ernment to escape them; and I may accordingly           Pou te venger au moins il reste
Un poignard aux derniers Romains."
15 We learn from Mr. Mackintosh's son that Mr.   Rome, in this sad reverse, there remains, at least,.
Canning was the author of this beautiful translation. a dagger to avenge thee among the last Romans.




840                                  MR. MACKINTOSH                                          [1803.
as easy and ordinary expedients; and to what a    Having said so much on the first of these suphorrible extent it has familiarized their minds to  posed libels, I shall be very short on Commnt on
crimes which before were only known among  the two that remain-the verses as- the lines acribed to a
civilized nations by the history of barbarous  cribed to a Dutch patriot, and the  Dutch patimes, or as the subject of poetical fiction. But, parody of the speech of Lepidus.  In tri't.
thank God, gentlemen, we in England have not the first of these, the piercing eye of Mr. Attornlearnedto charge any man with inciting assas- ey General has again discovered an incitement
sination, not even a member of that atrocious  to assassinate-the most learned incitement to
sect who have revived political assassination in  assassinate that ever was addressed to such igChristendom, except when we are compelled to  norant ruffians as are most likely to be employed
do so by irresistible evidence.  Where is that for such nefarious purposes!l9  An obscure alevidence here?  In general, it is immoral, be- lusion to an obscure and perhaps fabulous part
cause indecent to speak with levity, still more to  of Roman history, to the supposed murder of
anticipate with pleasure, the destruction of any  Romulus, about which none of us know  any
human being.  But between this immorality and  thing, and of which the Jacobins of Paris and
the horrible crime of inciting to assassination, Amsterdam probably never heard.  But the apothere is a wide interval indeed.  The real or theosis!  Here my learned friend has a little forsupposed author of this ode gives you to under- gotten himself.  He seems to argue as if apostand that he would hear with no great sorrow of theosis always presupposed death.  But he must
the destruction of the First Consul.  But surely  know that Augustus, and even Tiberius and Nero,
the publication of that sentiment is very differ- were deified during their lives, and he can not
ent fiom an exhortation to assassinate.           have forgotten the terms in which one of the
But, says my learned friend, why is the ex- court poets of Augustus speaks of his master's
ample of Brutuls celebrated?  Why are the  divinity:
French reproached with their baseness in not                 - Proesens divus habebitur
copying that example.?  Gentlemen, I have no                 Augustus adjectis Britaunis
judgment to give on the act of Marcus Brutus.                Imperio.20
I rejoice that I have not.  I should not dare to    If any modern rival of Augustus should choose
condemn the acts of brave and virtuous men in  that path to Olympus,2 I think he will find it
extraordinary  and terrible circumstances, and  more steep and rugged than that by which Polwhich have been, as it were, consecrated by the  lux and Hercules climbed to the ethereal towers.
veneration of so many ages.  Still less should I  and that he must be content with purpling his
dare to weaken the authority of the most sacred  lips with Burgundy on earth, as he has very litrules of duty by praises which would be immoral, tle chance of purpling them with nectar among
even if the acts themselves were in some meas- the gods.
ure justified by the awful circumstances under    The utmost that can seriously be made of this
which they were done.  I am not, in the words  passage is, that it is a wish for a man's They express
of Mr. Burke, the panegyrist of "those instances  death.  I repeat that I do not contend  "13o,'Jais'
of doubtful public spirit at which morality is per- for the decency of publicly declaring parte's death,
plexed, reason is staggered, and from which af- such wishes, or even for the propriety sassination.
frighted nature recoils."                         of entertaining them; but the distance between
But whatever we may think of the act of               p,,       adamantine spheres
Of plasets, suns, and adalantine  spferes
Brutus, surely my learned friend will not contend    Wheeling unshaken through the void immense;
that every allusion to it, every panegyric on it   And speak, O man! does this capacious scene
which has appeared for eighteen centuries, in   With half that kindling majesty dilate
prose and verse, is an incitement to assassination.   Thy strong conception, as when Brutus rose
From  the Conspicuce Divina Phillipica Fame,   Refulgelntfrom the stroke of Cesar's fate,
down to the last school-boy declamation, he will Amid the crowud of patriots; and his arm.
find scarce a work of literature without such al-   Aloft extendisg. like eternal Jove
u.sand not very many witWhen, guia.lt brings down the thunder, call'd aloud
lusions, and not very many without such pane-   On TULLYS  nnze, nd shook his imso   steel
On TULLY's name, and shook his crimson steel,
gyrics.  I must say that he has construed this   And bde the Psther of his Country hail 
ode more like an Attorney General than a critic   For lo! the tyrant prostrate on the dust,
in poetry.  According to his construction, al-   And Rome a ainl is free!
most every fine writer in our language is a                   Pleasures of the Imag'ination, Book i.
preacher of murder.l                                "9 The passage referred to is at the close of a
1 The quotation above is from the tenth satire of  short poem, entitled "Veu d'un bon Patriot," Wish
Juvenal, line 125.                                 of a good patriot:
Divine Phillipic of illustrious fame.      " Enfin (et Romulus nous rappelle la chose)'The poet refers to the second Oration of Cicero   Je fais vcmu-des demain qu'il ait l'apothdose!"
against Anthony, containing the well-known pas-   Finally (and Romulus recalls the thing to mind),
sage, " Cmsare interfecto statim cruentum alte ex- I wish that on the morrow he may have his apothetollens Marcus Brutus pugionemn, Ciceronem noem- osis.
inatim exclimavit, atque ei recuperatam libertatem    20 A present GOD, Augustus shall be worshiped,,est gratulatus."                                      With Britons added to his wide domains.
Akenside has given a free translation of the                     Horace, Odes, Book iii., Ode 5.
words in his celebrated lines on moral sublimity.   21 Alluding to any attempt that Bonaparte might'Look then abroad through nature, to the range    make to invade England.




1803.]                    ON THE TRIAL OF JEAN  PELTIER.                                   841
such a wish and a persuasive to murder is im- all the horrible crimes and horrible retaliations
mense.  Such a wish for a man's death is very  of the last calamity that can befall society-a
often little more than a strong, though, I admit, servile revolt.  They sought the worst of ends
not a very decent way of expressing detestation  by the most abominable of means.  They labored
for his character.                              for the subjugation of the world at the expense
But without pursuing this argument any fur- of crimes and miseries which men of humanity
ther, I think myself entitled to apply to these  and conscience would have thought too great a
verses the same reasoning which I have already  price for the deliverance of mankind.
applied to the first supposed libel on Bonaparte.    The last of these supposed libels is the parody
If they be the real composition of a pretended  on the speech of Lepidus, in the frag- Par.ly on
Dutch patriot, Mr. Peltier may republish them. ments of Sallust.  It is certainly a very the speech
innocently.  If they be a satire on such pretend- ingenious and happy parody of an orig- of Lepiu
ed Dutch patriots, they are not a libel on Bona- inal, attended with some historical obscurity and
parte.  Granting, for the sake of argument, that difficulty, which it is no part of our present busithey did entertain a serious exhortation to assas- ness to examine."   This parody is said to have
sinate, is there any thing in such an exhortation  been clandestinely placed among the papers of
inconsistent with the character of these pretend- one of the most amiable and respectable men in
ed patriots?                                   France, M. Camille Jordan, in order to furnish a
They who were disaffected to the mild and  pretext for involving that excellent person in a
aracter  tolerant government of their flourish- charge of conspiracy.  This is said to have been
the Dutch  ing country. because it did not exactly  done by a spy of Forche.  Now, gentlemen, I
Jacobins.
square with all their theoretical whim- take this to be a satire on Fouche, on Appllied to
sies; they who revolted from that administra- his manufacture of plots-on his con-'"ole
tion as tyrannical, which made Holland one of the  trivances for the destruction of innocent and virwonders of the world for protected industry, for tuous men-and I should admit it to be a libel
liberty of action and opinion, and for a prosperity  on Fouche, if it were possible to libel him.  I
which I may venture to call the greatest victory  own that I should like to see Fouche appear as
of man over hostile elements; they who called  a plaintiff, seeking reparation for his injured
in the aid of the fiercest tyrants that Europe  character, before any tribunal safefirom his fangs,
ever saw, who served in the armies of Robes- where he had not the power of sending the judges
pierre, under the impudent pretext of giving lib- to Guiana or Madagascar.  It happens that we
erty to their country, and who have finally bur- know  something of the history of M. Fouch6
ied in the same grave its liberty, its independ- firom a very credible witness against him-fiom
ence, and perhaps its national existence, they are  himself.  You will perhaps excuse me for readnot men entitled to much tenderness from a po- ing to you some passages of his letters in the
litical satirist, and he will scarcely violate dra- year 1793, from which you will judge whether
matic propriety if he impute to them  any lan- any satire can be so severe as the portrait he
guage, however criminal and detestable.  They  draws of himself.
who could not brook the authority of their old,    " Convinced that there are no innocent men
lazy, good-natured government, are not likely to  in this infamous city,23 but those who Quotations from
endure with patience the yoke of that stern dom- are opposed and loaded w\ith irons by his letters.
ination which they have brought upon them- the assassins of the people,54 we are on our guard
selves, and which, as far as relates to them, is against the tears of repentance! nothing can disonly the just punishment of their crimes.  They  arm our severity.  They have not yet dared to
who call in tyrants to establish liberty, who sac- solicit the repeal of our first decree for the anrifice the independence of their country under nihilation of the city of Lyons! but scarcely any
pretense of reforming its internal constitution, thing has yet been done to carry it into execution."
are capable of every thing.                     (Pathetic!)  "The demolitions are too slow.
I know nothing more odious than their char- More rapid means are necessary to republican
More odious acter, unless it be that of those who  impatience.  The explosion of the mine and the
etlanos, oxf invoked the aid of the oppressors of  devouring activity of the flames can alone aderept thsose of                    p
Ireland.    Switzerland to be the deliverers of  quately represent the omnipotence of the peoIreland!  Their guilt has, indeed, peculiar ag- pie."  (Unhappy populace, always the pretext,
gravations.  In the name of liberty; they were  the  instrument, and  the  victim  of political
willing to surrender their country into the hands  crimes!)  " Their will can not be checked like
of tyrants, the most lawless, faithless, and mer- that of tyrants.  It ought to have the effects of
ciless that ever scourged Europe; who, at the  thunder!"  The next specimen of this worthy
very moment of their negotiation, were covered  gentleman which I shall give, is in a speech to
with the blood of the unhappy Swiss, the martyrs  the Jacobin Club of Paris, on the 21st of Deof real independence and of real liberty.  Their  ___
success would have been the destruction of the                                             wit.yr cmi. o*  22 This parody seems not to have originated with
only free community remaining in Europe-ofp
only free community remaining in   rope-of  Peltier, but to have been made in Paris during the
England, the only bulwark of the remains of Eu- Revolution.
ropean independence.  Their means were the    23 The unhappy city of Lyons.
passions of an ignorant and barbarous peasantry,   21 He means the murderers who were condemned
and a civil war, which could not fail to produce  to death for their crimes.




842                                   MR. MACKINTOSH                                       [1803.
cember, 1793, by his worthy colleague in the  massacre, by way of sparing themselves the pain
mission to Lyons, Collot d'Herbois:              of punishing individual criminals.]
" We are accused" (you, gentlemen, will soon     "We have only one way of celebrating victosee how unjustly) "of being cannibals, men of ries.  We send this evening two hundred and
blood; but it is in counter-revolutionary peti- thirteen rebels to be shot!"
tions, hawked about for signature by aristocrats,    Such, gentlemen, is M. Fouche, who is said to
that this charge is made against us.  They ex- have procured this parody to be mixed with the
amine with the most scrupulous attention how  papers of my excellent friend, Camille Jordan,
the counter-revolutionists are put to death, and  to serve as a pretext for his destruction.  Fabthey affect to say that they are not killed at one  ricated plots are among the most usual means of
stroke."  (He speaks for himself and his col- such tyrants for such purposes; and if Mr. Pelleague Fouche, and one would suppose that he  tier intended to libel (shall I say?) Fouche by
was going to deny the fact-but nothing like it.) this composition, I can easily understand both
" Ah! Jacobins, did Chalier25 die at the first the parody and the history of its origin.  But if
stroke, &c.?  A drop of blood poured from gen- it be directed against Bonaparte to serve Royerous veins goes to my heart" (humane creat- alist purposes, I must confess myself wholly unure!), "but I have no pity for conspirators."  able to conceive why Mr. Peltier should have
(He, however, proceeds to state a most undenia- stigmatized his work and deprived it of all auble proof of his compassion.)  " We caused two  thority and power of persuasion, by prefixing to
hundred to be shot at once, and it is charged  it the infamous name of Fouche.
upon us as a crime!"  (Astonishing! that such    On the same principle, I think one of the ob
an act of humanity should be called a crime!) servations of my learned friend, on the Com        on;They do not know that it is a proof of our sens- title of this publication, may be re- the title of Mr.
ibility!  When twenty criminals are guillotined, torted on him.  He has called your Peltier's paper.
the last of them dies twenty deaths; but these  attention to the title, " L'Ambigu, ou Varietes
two hundred conspirators perished at once. They  atroces et amusantes."   Now, gentlemen, 1
speak of sensibility, we also are full of sensibility! must ask whether, had these been Mr. Peltier's
The Jacobins have all thevirtues! They are cor- own invectives against Bonaparte, he would himpassionate, humane, generous!"   (This is some- self have branded them as "atrocious."  But if
what hard to be understood, but it is perfectly  they be specimens of the opinions and invectives
explained by what follows.)  " But they reserve  of a French faction, the title is very natural, and
these sentiments for the patriots who are their the epithets are perfectly intelligible.  Indeed, I
brethren, which the aristocrats never will be."   scarce know  a more appropriate title for the
The only remaining document with which I whole tragic comedy of the Revolution than that
shall trouble you is a letter from Fouche to his of " atrocious and amusing varieties."'
amiable colleague Collot d'Herbois, which, as    My learned friend has made some observations
might be expected in a confidential communica- on other parts of this publication, to I other parts
tion, breathes all the native tenderness of his show the spirit which animates the of his paper he
soul.  "Let us be terrible, that we may run no  author, but they do not seem  to be flppant or rerisk of being feeble or cruel.  Let us annihilate  very material to the question between not beenlibelin our wrath, at a single blow, all rebels, all con- us.  It is no part of my case that Mr. o'u
spirators, all traitors" (comprehensive words in  Peltier has spoken with some unpoliteness, with
his vocabulary), "to spare ourselves the pain, the  some flippancy, with more severity than my
long agony of punishing like kings!"  (Nothing  learned friend may approve, of factions and of
but philanthropy in this worthy man's heart.) administrations in France.  Mr. Peltier can not
" Let us exercise justice after the example of  love the Revolution, or any government that has
nature.  Let us avenge ourselves like a people. grown out of it and maintains it.  The RevoluLet us strike like the thunder-bolt; and let even  tionists have destroyed his family, they have
the ashes of our enemies disappear from the soil seized his inheritance, they have beggared, exof liberty!  Let the perfidious and ferocious  iled, and proscribed himself.  If he did not deEnglish be attacked from every side.  Let the  test them he would be unworthy of living, and
whole republic form a volcano to pour devour- he would be a base hypocrite if he were to coning lava upon them.  May the infamous island  ceal his sentiments.  But I must again remind
which produced these monsters, who no longer you that this is not an information for not suffibelong to humanity, be forever buried under the  ciently honoring the French Revolution, for not
waves of the ocean!  Farewell, my friend! showing sufficient reverence for the consular
Tears of joy stream  from  my eyes" (we shall government.  These are no crimes among us.
soon see for what), " they deluge my soul."      England is not yet reduced to such an ignomin[Then follows a little postscript, which ex- ious dependence. Our hearts and consciences are
plains the cause of this excessive joy, so hyper- not yet in the bonds of so wretched a slavery.
bolical in its language, and which fully justifies  This is an information for a libel on Bonaparte,
the indignation of the humane writer against the  and if you believe the principal intention of Mr.
"ferocious English," who are so stupid and so  Peltier to have been to republish the writings
cruel as never to have thought of a benevolent or to satirize the character of other individuals,
you must acquit him of a libel on the First Con25 This Chalier was the Marat of Lyons.    sul.




1803.]                     ON THE TRIAL OF JEAN  PELTIER.                                    843
Here, gentlemen, I think I might stop, if I  excited and Spanish arms had supported in
had only to consider the defense of Mr. Pel- France, and after a long reign of various fortune,
tier.  I trust that you are already convinced of  in which she preserved her unconquered spirit
his innocence.  I fear I have exhausted your pa- through great calamities and still greater dantience, as I am sure I have very nearly exhaust- gers, she at length broke the strength of the ened my own strength.  But so much seems to me  emy, and reduced his power within such limits
to depend on your verdict, that I can not forbear as to be compatible with the safety of England
from laying before you some considerations of a  and of all Europe.  Her only effectual ally was
more general nature.                             the spirit of her people, and her policy flowed
Believing, as I do, that we are on the eve of a  from that magnanimous nature which in the hour
part Fourth: great struggle; that this is only the  of peril teaches better lessons than those of cold
eAxPaPlesof  first battle between reason and pow- reason.  Her great heart inspired her with a
former times
as slhowin tee er; that you have now in your hands, higher and a nobler wisdom-which disdained to
sentiments be- committed to your trust, the only re- appeal to the low and sordid passions of her peocoming the
present crisis. mains of free discussion in Europe, ple even for the protection of their low and sornow confined to this kingdom-addressing you, did interests, because she knew, or, rather, she
therefore, as the guardians of the most important felt, that these are effeminate, creeping, cowardinterests of mankind; convinced that the unfet- ly, short-sighted passions, which shrink from contered exercise of reason depends more on your flict even in defense of their own mean objects.
present verdict than on any other that was ever In a righteous cause, she roused those generous
delivered by a jury, I can not conclude without affections of her people which alone teach boldbringing before you the sentiments and examples  ness, constancy, and foresight, and which are
of our ancestors in some of those awful and per- therefore the only safe guardians of the lowest
ilous situations by which Divine Providence has  as well as the highest interests of a nation.  In
in former ages tried the virtue of the English na- her memorable address to her army, when the
tion.  We are fallen upon times in which it be- invasion of the kingdom  was threatened by
hooves us to strengthen our spirits by the con- Spain, this woman of heroic spirit disdained to
templation of great examples of constancy. Let speak to them of their ease and their commerce,
us seek for them in the annals of our forefathers.  and their wealth and their safety.  No! She
The reign of Queen Elizabeth may be consid- touched another chord-she spoke of their na(.) The ageor ered as the opening of the modern  tional honor, of their dignity as Englishmen, of
Elizabeth.   history of England, especially in its  " the foul scorn that Parma or Spain should dare
connection with the modern system  of Europe, to invade the borders of her realms."   She
which began about that time to assume the form  breathed into them  those grand and powerful
that it preserved till the French Revolution.  It sentiments which exalt vulgar men into heroes,
was a very memorable period, of which the max- which led them into the battle of their country,
ims ought to be engraven on the head and heart armed with holy and irresistible enthusiasm;
of every Englishman.  Philip II., at the head of  which even cover with their shield all the ignothe greatest empire then in the world, was open- ble interests that base calculation and cowardly
ly aiming at universal domination, and his proj- selfishness tremble to hazard, but shrink from deect was so far from being thought chimerical by  fending.2   A sort of prophetic instinct, if I may
the wisest of his cotemporaries that, in the opin- so speak, seems to have revealed to her the imion of the great Duke of Sully, he must have  portance of that great instrument for rousing and
been successful, " if, by a most singular combina- guiding the minds of men, of the effects of which
tion of circumstances, he had not at the same  she had no experience, which, since her time, has
time been resisted by two such strong heads as changed the condition of the world, but which
those of Henry IV. and Queen Elizabeth."  To  few modern statesmen have thoroughly underthe most extensive and opulent dominions, the  stood or wisely employed; which is, no doubt,
most numerous and disciplined armies, the most connected with many ridiculous and degrading
renowned captains, the greatest revenue, he add- details, which has produced, and which may
ed also the most formidable power over opinion. again produce terrible mischiefs, but of which
He was the chief of a religious faction, animated  the influence must, after all, be considered as
by the most atrocious fanaticism, prepared to  the most certain effect and the most efficacious
second his ambition by rebellion, anarchy, and  cause of civilization, and which, whether it be a
regicide in every Protestant state.  Elizabeth  blessing or a curse, is the most powerful engine
was among the first objects of his hostility.  That that a politician can move-I mean the press.
wise and magnanimous Princess placed herself  It is a curious fact that in the year of the Arin the front of the battle for the liberties of Eu- mada, Queen Elizabeth caused to be she was the first
to avail herself
rope.  Though she had to contend at home with  printed the first gazettes that ever of the press to
his fanatical faction, which almost occupied Ire- appeared in England; and I own, itofth  pi
land, which divided Scotland, and was not of con- when I consider that this mode of try
temptible strength in England, she aided the op- rousing a national spirit was then absolutely unpressed inhabitants of the Netherlands in their exampled, that she could have no assurance of
just and glorious resistance to his tyranny; she    26 We have but few strains of eloquence in our
aided Henry the Great in suppressing the aborn- language more noble or more inspiring for a people
inable rebellion which anarchical principles had  like the English than this passage.




844                                 MR. MACKINTOSH                                      [1803.
its efficacy from the precedents of former times, ants on our shores.  They were received as I
I am disposed to regard her having recourse to  trust the victims of tyranny ever will be in this
it as one of the most sagacious experiments, one  land, which seems chosen by Providence to be
of the greatest discoveries of political genius, one the home of the exile, the refuge of the oppressed.
of the most striking anticipations of future expe- They were welcomed by a people high-spirited
rience that we find in history.  I mention it to  as well as humane, who did not insult them by
you to justify the opinion that I have ventured to  clandestine charity; who did not give alms in
state of the close connection of our national spir- secret lest their charity should be detected'by the
it with our press, even our periodical press.  I neighboring tyrants!  No! They were publiccan not quit the reign of Elizabeth without lay- ly and nationally welcomed and relieved.  They
ing before you the maxims of her policy, in the  were bid to raise their voice against their oplanguage of the greatest and wisest of men. pressor, and to proclaim  their wrongs to all
Lord Bacon, in one part of his discourse on her mankind.  They did so.  They were joined in
reign, speaks thus of her support of Holland: the cry of just indignation by every Englishman
"But let me rest upon the honorable and con- worthy of the name.  It was a fruitful indignatinual aid and relief she hath given to the dis- tion, which soon produced the successful resisttressed and desolate people of the Low Coun- ance of Europe to the common enemy.  Even
tries-a people recommended unto her by an- then, when Jeffreys disgraced the bench which
cient confederacy and daily intercourse, by their his Lordship [Lord Ellenborough] now  adorns,
cause so innocent and their fortune so lament- no refugee was deterred by prosecution for libel
able!"  In another passage of the same dis- from giving vent to his feelings, from arraigning
course, he thus speaks of the general system of  the oppressor in the face of all Europe.
her foreign policy as the protector of Europe, in    During this ignominious period of our history,
words too remarkable to require any comment- a war arose on the Continent, which (..) Aid given to
ary.  " Then it is her government, and her gov- can not but present itself to the mind inHlae^ by ti e
ernment alone, that hath been the sconce and fort on such an occasion as this; the only same monarch.
of all Europe, which hath let this proud nation  war that was ever made on the avowed ground
from overrunning all.  If any state be yet free  of attacking a free press.  I speak of the invafrom his factions erected in the bowels thereof; sion of Holland by Louis XIV.  The liberties
if there be any state wherein this faction is erect- which the Dutch gazettes had taken in discussed that is not yet fired with civil troubles; if  ing his conduct were the sole cause of this very
there be any state under his protection that en- extraordinary and memorable war, which was
joyeth moderate liberty, upon whom  he tyran- of short duration, unprecedented in its avowed
nizeth not, it is the mercy of this renowned Queen  principle, and most glorious in its event for the
that standeth between them  and their misfor- liberties of mankind.  That republic, at all times
tunes!"                                        so interesting to Englishmen-in the worst times
The next great conspirator against the rights  of both countries our brave enemies; in their
(2.) Succor of of men and of nations; against the se- best times our most faithful and valuable friends
in til day nS   curity and independence of all Eu- -was then charged with the defense of a free
ouis XI.  ropean states, against every kind and  press against the oppressor of Europe, as a
degree of civil and religious liberty, was Louis  sacred trust for the benefit of all generations.
XIV.  In his time the character of the English  They felt the sacredness of the deposit, they felt
nation was the more remarkably displayed, be- the dignity of the station in which they were
cause it was counteracted by an apostate and  placed, and though deserted by the un-English
perfidious government.  During great part of  government of England, they asserted their own
his reign, you know that the throne of England  ancient character, and drove out the great arwas filled by princes who deserted the cause of  mies and great captains of the oppressor with
their country and of Europe, who were the ac- defeat and disgrace.  Such was the result of the
complices and the tools of the oppressor of the  only war hitherto avowedly undertaken to opworld,27 who were even so unmanly, so unprince- press a fiee country because she allowed the free
ly, so base, as to have sold themselves to his am- and public exercise of reason.  And may the
bition; who were content that he should enslave  God of justice and liberty grant that such may
the Continent, if he enabled them  to enslave  ever be the result of wars made by tyrants
Great Britain.  These princes, traitors to their against the rights of mankind, especially against
own royal dignity and to the feelings of the gen- that right which is the guardian of every other.
erous people whom they ruled, preferred the con-    This war, gentlemen, had the effect of raising
dition of the first slave of Louis XIV. to the dig- up from obscurity the great Prince of (4.) Supportof
nity of the first freemen of England; yet even un- Orange, afterward King William III., infiginF th
der these princes, the feelings of the people of  the deliverer of Holland, the deliverer battle ofEuthis kingdom were displayed, on a most memor- of England, the deliverer of Europe; Louis XIV.
able occasion, toward foreign sufferers and for- the only hero who was distinguished by such a
eign oppressors.  The Revocation of the Edict happy union of fortune and virtue that the obof Nantes threw fifty thousand French Protest-  jects of his ambition were always the same with
the interests of humanity; perhaps the only man
27 Charles II. and James II. They both received  who devoted the whole of his life exclusively to
regular pensions from the French Monarch.      the service of mankind.  This most illustrious




1803.]                    ON THE TRIAL OF JEAN  PELTIER.                                   845
benefactor of Europe, this " hero without vanity  no period were the system and projects of Louis
or passion," as he has been justly and beauti- XIV. animadverted on with more freedom and
fully called by a venerable prelate [Dr. Shipley, boldness than during that interval.  Our ancesBishop of St. Asaph], who never made a step to- tors and the heroic Prince who governed them,
ward greatness without securing or advancing  did not deem it wise policy to disarm the national
liberty, who had been made Stadtholder of Hol- mind for the sake of prolonging a truce.  They
land for the salvation of his own country, was were both too proud and too wise to pay so great
soon after made King of England for the deliv- a price for so small a benefit.
erance of ours.  When the people of Great Brit-   In the course of the eighteenth century, a great
ain had once more a government worthy of them, change took place in the state of po- increasedl
they returned to the feelings and principles of  litical discussion in this country.  I influence of
newspapers
their ancestors, and resumed their former station  speak of the multiplication of news- on political
and their former duties as protectors of the in- papers.  I know that newspapers are Sujects
dependence of nations.  The people of England, not very popular in this place, which is, indeed.
delivered fiom  a government which disgraced, not very surprising, because they are known here
oppressed, and betrayed them, fought under only by their faults.  Their publishers come
William  as their forefathers had fought under here only to receive the chastisement due to their
Elizabeth, and after an almost uninterrupted  offenses.  With all their faults, I own I can not
struggle of more than twenty years, in which  help feeling some respect for whatever is a proof
they were often abandoned by fortune, but never of the increased curiosity and increased knowlby their own constancy and magnanimity, they  edge of mankind; and I can not help thinking
at length once more defeated those projects of  that if somewhat more indulgence and considerguilty ambition: boundless aggrandizement, and  ation were shown for the difficulties of their situniversal domination, which had a second time  nation, it might prove one of the best correctthreatened to overwhelm  the whole civilized  ives of their faults, by teaching them  that selfworld.  They rescued Europe from being swal- respect which is the best security for liberal conlowed up in the gulf of extensive empire, which  duct toward others.  But however that may be,
the experience of all times points out as the it is very certain that the multiplication of these
grave of civilization; where men are driven by  channels of popular information has produced a
violent conquest and military oppression into  great change in the state of our domestic and
lethargy and slavishness of heart; where, after foreign politics.  At home, it has, in truth, protheir arts have perished with the mental vigor duced a gradual revolution in our government.
from which they spring, they are plunged by the  By increasing the number of those who exercise
combined power of effeminacy and ferocity into  some sort of judgment on public affairs, it has
irreclaimable and hopeless barbarism.  Our an- created a substantial democracy, infinitely more
cestors established the safety of their own coun- important than those democratical forms which
try by providing for that of others, and rebuilt have been the subject of so much contest.  So
the European system upon such firm foundations that I may venture to say, England has not only
that nothing less than the tempest of the French  in its forms the most democratical government
Revolution could have shaken it.                that ever existed in a great country, but in subThis arduous struggle was suspended for a  stance has the most democratical government
(5.) Bold aninnad- short time by the peace of Ryswick. that ever existed in any country; if the most
Englisol pietlon The interval between that treaty and  substantial democracy be that state in which the
Lou  IV. ifen  the war of the succession enables us greatest number of men feel an interest and extime of peace
with France.  to judge how our ancestors acted in  press an opinion upon political questions, and in
a very peculiar situation, which requires maxims which the greatest number of judgments and
of policy very different from those which usually  wills concur in influencing public measures.
govern states.  The treaty which they had con-    The same circumstances gave great additional
eluded was in truth and substance only a truce. importance to our discussion of con- Increased bold
The ambition and the power of the enemy were  tinental politics.  That discussion nesst tl'ei^
such as to render real peace impossible.  And  was no longer, as in the preceding eig govelinit was perfectly obvious that the disputed sue- century, confined to a few pamphlets, m"""n
cession of the Spanish Monarch would soon ren- written and read only by men of education and
der it no longer practicable to preserve even the  rank, which reached the multitude very slowly
appearance of amity.  It was desirable, howev- and rarely.  In newspapers an almost daily aper, not to provoke the enemy by unseasonable peal was made, directly or indirectly, to the judghostility; but it was still more desirable, it was ment and passions of almost every individual in
absolutely necessary, to keep up the national the kingdom, upon the measures and principles
jealousy and indignation against him who was not only of his own country, but of every state in
soon to be their open enemy.  It might natural- Europe.  Under such circumstances, the tone
ly have been apprehended that the press might of these publications, in speaking of foreign govhave driven into premature war a Prince who, ernments, became a matter of importance.  You
not long before, had been violently exasperated  will excuse me, therefore, if, before I conclude, I
by the press of another free country.  I have remind you of the general nature of their lanlooked over the political publications of that time  guage on one or two very remarkable occasions,
with some care, and I can venture to say that at and of the boldness with which they arraigned




846                                  MR. MACKINTOSH                                       [1803.
the crimes of powerful sovereigns, without any  language then employed.  No complaints even
check from  the laws and magistrates of their appear to have been made from  abroad, much
own country.  This toleration, or rather this less any insolent menaces against the free Conprotection, was too long and uniform to be acci- stitution which protected the English press. The
dental.  I am, indeed, very much mistaken if it people of England were too long known throughbe not founded upon a policy which this country  out Europe for the proudest potentate to expect
can not abandon without sacrificing her liberty  to silence our press by such means.
and endangering her national existence.            I pass over the second partition of Poland in
The first remarkable instance which I shall 1792. You all remember what passed Contributions
(6.) Denuncia- choose to state of the unpunished  on that occasion, the universal abhor- to the oles
tion by the En- and protected boldness of the English  rence expressed by every man and ev- ond partition
glish press of
tlose wlo were press, of the freedom with which they  cry writer of every party, the succors that were
first partition  animadverted on the policy of power- publicly preparing by large bodies of individuals
of Poland.   ful sovereigns, is the partition of Po- of all parties for the oppressed Poles.
land in 1772; an act not, perhaps, so horrible in    I hasten to the final dismemberment of that
its means, nor so deplorable in its immediate ef- unhappy kingdom, which seems to me severe tone of
fects, as some other atrocious invasions of na- the most striking example in our his- res t   d
tional independence which have followed it; but tory of the habitual, principled, and the fil dis-f
the most abominable in its general tendency and  deeply rooted forbearance of those membermient,
though allies of
ultimate consequences of any political crime re- who administer the law toward po- England.
corded in history, because it was the first prac- litical writers.  We were engaged in the most
tical breach in the system of Europe, the first ex- extensive, bloody, and dangerous war that this
ample of atrocious robbery perpetrated on unof- country ever knew; and the parties to the disfending countries which have been since so lib- memberment of Poland were our allies, and our
erally followed, and which has broken down all only powerful and effective allies.  We had evthe barriers of habit and principle which guard- ery motive of policy to court their friendship.
ed defenseless states.  The perpetrators of this  Every reason of state seemed to require that we
atrocious crime were the most powerful sover- should not permit them to be abused and vilified
eigns of the Continent, whose hostility it certain- by English writers.  What was the fact?  Did
ly was not the interest of Great Britain wanton- any Englishman consider himself at liberty, on
ly to incur.  They were the most illustrious  account of temporary interests, however urgent,
princes of their age, and some of them were, to silence those feelings of humanity and justice
doubtless, entitled to the highest praise for their which guard the certain and permanent interests
domestic administration, as well as for the brill- of all countries?  You all remember that every
iant qualities which distinguished their charac- voice, and every pen, and every press in Enters.  But none of these circumstances, no dread  gland were unceasingly employed to brand that
of their resentment, no admiration of their tal- abominable robbery.  You remember that this
ents, no consideration for their rank, silenced the  was not confined to private writers, Tie samelsn.
animadversion of the English press.  Some of but that the same abhorrence was guageahelidin
you remember, all of you know, that a loud and  expressed by every member of both Parliament.
unanimous cry of reprobation and execration  Houses of Parliament who was not under the
broke out against them from every part of this restraints of ministerial reserve.  No minister
kingdom.  It was perfectly uninfluenced by any  dared even to blame the language of honest inconsiderations of our own mere national interest, dignation which might be very inconvenient to
which might perhaps be supposed to be rather his most important political projects; and I hope
favorably affected by that partition.  It was not, I may venture to say that no English assembly
as in some other countries, the indignation of ri- would have endured such a sacrifice of eternal
val robbers, who were excluded from their share  justice to any miserable interest of an hour. Did
of the prey.  It was the moral anger of disin- the law-officers of the Crown venture to come
terested spectators against atrocious crimes, the  into a court of justice to complain of the boldest
gravest and the most dignified moral principle  of the publications of that time?  They did not.
which the God of justice has implanted in the hu- I do not say that they felt any disposition to do
man heart; that of which the dread is the only  so.  I believe that they could not.  But I do say
restraint on the actions of powerful criminals, and  that if they had  if they had spoken of the neof which the promulgation is the only punishment cessity of confining our political writers to cold
that can be inflicted on them.  It is a restraint narrative and unfeeling argument; if they had
which ought not to be weakened.  It is a pun- informed the jury that they did not prosecute hisishment which no good man can desire to miti- tory, but invective; that if private writers be at
gate.                                           all to blame great princes, it must be with modThat great crime was spoken of as it deserved  cration and decorum, the sound heads and honin England.  Robbery was not described by any  est hearts of an English jury would have concourtly circumlocutions.  Rapine was not called  founded such sophistry, and declared by their
policy; nor was the oppression of an innocent verdict that moderation of language is a relative
people termed a mediation in their domestic dif- term, which varies with the subject to which it
ferences. No prosecutions, no criminal informa- is applied; that atrocious crimes are not to be
tions followed the liberty and the boldness of the  related as calmly and coolly as indifferent or tri



1803.]                     ON THE TRIAL OF JEAN  PELTIER.                                    847
fling events; that if there be a decorum due to  the resentment of Reubell or Rapinat! that he
exalted rank and authority, there is also a much  must smother the sorrow  and the anger with
more sacred decorum due to virtue and to human  which his heart was loaded; that he must breathe
nature, which would be outraged and trampled  his murmurs low, lest they might be overheard
under foot by speaking of guilt in a lukewarm  by the oppressor!"  Would this have been the
language, falsely called moderate.               language of my learned friend?  I know that it
Soon after, gentlemen, there followed an act, would not.  I know that by such a supposition I
(7.)Indignant in comparison with which all the  have done wrong to his honorable feelings, to his
languge of the deeds of rapine and blood perpetrated  honest English heart. I am sure that he knows as
press when the
liberties of   in the world are innocence itself-   well as I do, that a nation which should thus reSwitzerland
weredestroyed the invasion and destruction of Switz- ceive the oppressed of other countries would be
by France.   erland, that unparalleled scene of preparing its own neck for the yoke.  He knows
guilt and enormity; that unprovoked aggression  the slavery which such a nation would deserve,
against an innocent country, which had been the  and must speedily incur.  He knows that symsanctuary of peace and liberty for three centu- pathy with the unmerited sufferings of others,
ries; respected as a sort of sacred territory by  and disinterested anger against their oppressors,
the fiercest ambition; raised, like its own mount- are, if I may so speak, the masters which are
ains, beyond the region of the storms which  appointed by Providence to teach us fortitude in
raged around on every side; the only warlike  the defense of our own rights; that selfishness is
people that never sent forth armies to disturb  a dastardly principle, which betrays its charge
their neighbors; the only government that ever and flies from its post; and that those only can
accumulated treasures without imposing taxes, defend themselves with valor who are animated
an innocent treasure, unstained by the tears of by the moral approbation with which they can
the poor, the inviolate patrimony of the common- survey their sentiments toward others, who are
wealth, which attested the virtue of a long se- ennobled in their own eyes by a consciousness
ries of magistrates, but which at length caught that they are fighting for justice as well as interthe eye of the spoiler. and became the fatal oc- est; a consciousness which none can feel but
casion of their ruin!  Gentlemen, the destruc- those who have felt for the wrongs of their brethtion of such a country, "its cause so innocent, ren.  These are the sentiments which my learnand its fortune so lamentable!" made a deep im- ed friend would have felt.  He would have told
pression on the people of England.  I will ask  the hero: " Your confidence is not deceived; this
my learned friend, if we had then been at peace  is still that England, of which the history may,
with the French Republic, whether we must have  perhaps, have contributed to fill your heart with
been silent spectators of the foulest crimes that the heroism of liberty.  Every other country of
ever blotted the name of humanity! whether we  Europe is crouching under the bloody tyrants
must, like cowards and slaves, have repressed the  who destroyed your country.  We are unchangcompassion and indignation with which that hor- ed; we are still the same people which received
rible scene of tyranny had filled our hearts?2  with open arms the victims of the tyranny of
Let me suppose, gentlemen, that ALOYs REDING, Philip II. and Louis XIV.  We shall not exerwho has displayed in our times the simplicity, cise a cowardly and clandestine humanity! Here
magnanimity, and piety of ancient heroes, had, we are not so dastardly as to rob you of your
after his glorious struggle, honored this kingdom  greatest consolation.  Here, protected by a free,
by choosing it as his refuge; that after performing  brave, and high-minded people, you may give
prodigies of valor at the head of his handful of vent to your indignation; you may proclaim the
heroic peasants on the field of Morgarten, where  crimes of your tyrants, you may devote them to
his ancestor, the Landmann Reding, had, five  the execration of mankind; there is still one spot
hundred years before, defeated the first oppress- upon earth in which they are abhorred, without
ors of Switzerland, he had selected this country  being dreaded!
to be his residence, as the chosen abode of liber-    I am aware, gentlemen, that I have already
ty, as the ancient and inviolable asylum  of the  abused your indulgence, but I must If duringthe
oppressed; would my learned friend have had the  entreat you to bear with me for a French levoboldness to have said to this hero, " that he must short time longer, to allow me to sup- had been at
by    tnight            peace with
hide his tears" (the tears shed by a hero over the  pose a case which might have oc- pFrane, what
ruins of his country!) "lest they might provoke  curred, in which you will see the hor- bought to have
been the course
28 In the spring of 1798, Aloys Reding, here spok- rible consequences of enforcing rig- of the?Eglish
en of, met the French army on the field of Morgar- orously principles of law, which I can press?
ten, as chief magistrate of the Canton of Schweitz, not counteract, against political writers.  We
and with a handful of men broke their ranks and put might have been at peace with France during
them to flight. But he was at last overpowered by  the whole of that terrible period which elapsed
numbers, his country subjugated, and himself thrown  between August, 1792 and 1794, which has
at first into prison and afterward driven into exile. been usuall                    Robesierre
He was born in 1755 and died in 1818, retaining to 
the last his hatred of French revolutionary princi-The only series of crimes, perhaps, in history,
ples, and especially of Bonaparte. Zschokke, in his which, in spite of the common disposition to exhistory of the fall of the democratic Cantons of  aggerate extraordinary facts, has been beyond
Switzerland, has thrown a romantic interest around  measure underrated in public opinion. I say this,
the name of Reding.                              gentlemen, after an investigation, which, I think,




848                                   MR. MACKINTOSH                                         [1803.
entitles me to affirm it with confidence.  Men's  judge the conduct of so illustrious an assembly
minds were oppressed by atrocity and the mul- as the National Convention, or the suggestions
titude of crimes; their humanity and their indo- of so enlightened a statesman as M. Marat?
lence took refuge in skepticism  from  such an       When that Convention resounded with ap.
overwhelming mass of guilt; and the conse- plause at the news of several hundred aged
quence was, that all these unparalleled enormi-  priests being thrown into the Loire, and particuties, though proved not only with the fullest his-  larly at the exclamation of Carrier, who comtorical, but with the strictest judicial evidence,  municated the intelligence, "What a revolutionwere at the time only half believed, and are now  ary torrent is the Loire"-when these suggesscarcely half remembered.  When these atroci-  tions and narrations of murder, which have hithties were daily perpetrating, of which the great-  erto been only hinted and whispered in the most
est part are as little known to the public in gen-  secret cabals, in the darkest caverns of banditti,
eral as the campaigns of Genghis Khan, but are  were triumphantly uttered, patiently endured, and
still protected from the scrutiny of men by the  even loudly applauded by an assembly of seven
immensity of those voluminous records of guilt hundred men, acting in the sight of all Europe,
in which they are related, and under the mass  would my learned friend have wished that there
of which they will be buried till some historian  had been found in England a single writer so
be found with patience and courage enough to  base as to deliberate upon the most safe, decodrag them forth into light, for the shame, indeed, rous, and polite manner of relating all these
but for the instruction of mankind-when these  things to his countrymen?
crimes were perpetrating, which had the pecul-    When Carrier ordered five hundred children
iar malignity, from the pretexts with which they  under fourteen years of age to be shot, the greatwere covered, of making the noblest objects of  er part of whom escaped the fire from their size,
human pursuit seem odious and detestable; which  when the poor victims ran for protection to the
has almost made the names of liberty, reforma-  soldiers, and were bayoneted clinging round their
tion, and humanity synonymous with anarchy,  knees! would my friend-but I can not pursue
robbery, and murder; which thus threatened not the strain of interrogation.  It is too much.  It
to extinguish every principle of improvement, to  would be a violence which I can not practice on
arrest the progress of civilized society, and to  my own feelings.  It would be an outrage to
disinherit future generations of that rich succes- my friend.  It would be an insult to humanity.
sion, which they were entitled to expect from the  No!  Better, ten thousand times better, would
knowledge and wisdom of the present, but to de- it be that every press in the world were burned;
stroy the civilization of Europe, which never gave  that the very use of letters were abolished; that
such a proof of its vigor and robustness as in be- we were returned to the honest ignorance of the
ing able to resist their destructive power-when  rudest times, than that the results of civilization
all these horrors were acting in the greatest empire  should be made subservient to the purposes of
of the Continent, I will ask my learned friend, if  barbarism, than that literature should be emwe had then been at peace with France, how En- ployed to teach a toleration for cruelty, to weakglish writers were to relate them so as.to escape  en moral hatred for guilt, to deprave and brutalthe charge of libeling a friendly government?29   ize the human mind.  I know that I speak my
When Robespierre, in the debates in the Na-  friend's feelings as well as my own when I say
tional Convention on the mode of murdering their  God forbid that the dread of any punishment
blameless Sovereign, objected to the formal and  should ever make any Englishman an accomplice
tedious mode of murder called a trial, and pro-  in so corrupting his countrymen, a public teachposed to put him immediately to death, " on the  er of depravity and barbarity!
principles of insurrection," because, to doubt the   Mortifying and horrible as the idea is, I must
guilt of the King would be to doubt of the inno- remind you, gentlemen, that even at that time,
cence of the Convention; and if the King were  even under the reign of Robespierre, my learned
not a traitor, the Convention must be rebels; friend, if he had then been Attorney General,
would my learned friend have had an English  might have been compelled by some most deplorwriter state all this with " decorum and modera-  able necessity to have come into this court to
tion?"   Would he have had an English writer  ask your verdict against the libelers of Barrere
state that though this reasoning was not perfect- and Collot d'Herbois.   Mr. Peltier then  emly agreeable to our national laws, or perhaps to  ployed his talents against the enemies of the huour national prejudices, yet it was not for him to  man race. as he has uniformly and bravely done.
make any observations on the judicial proceed-  I do not believe that any peace, any political conings of foreign states?                          siderations, any fear of punishment would have
When Marat, in the same Convention, called  silenced him.  He has shown too much honor,
for two hundred and seventy thousand heads,  and constancy, and intrepidity, to be shaken by
must our English writers have said that the rem-  such circumstances as these.
edy did, indeed, seem  to their weak judgment    My learned friend might then have been comrather severe; but that it was not for them to  pelled to have filed a criminal information against
29 We see in this passage atendencvwhich Mack-  Mr. Peltier, for' wickedly and maliciously inintosh had, in common with Burke, to overload a sen- tending to vilify and degrade Maximilian Robestence with too many paticarticlars. He condemned it pierre, President of the Committee of Public
himself in after life, when remarking on this speech.  Safety of the French Republic!"  He might




1803.]                     ON  THE TRIAL OF JEAN  PELTIER.                                     849
have been reduced to the sad necessity of ap-    What could be such a tyrant's means of overpearing before you to belie his own better feel- awing a jury?  As long as their coun- Theirty
ings, to prosecute Mr. Peltier for publishing those  try exists, they are girt round with im- at the pres.
sentiments which my friend himself had a thou-  penetrable armor.  Till the destruction ent criss
sand times felt, and a thousand times expressed. of their country, no danger can fall upon them
He might have been obliged even to call for for the performance of their duty, and I do trust
punishment upon Mr. Peltier for language which  that there is no Englishman so unworthy of life
he and all mankind would forever despise Mr. as to desire to outlive England.  But if any of
Peltier if he were not to employ.  Then, indeed, us are condemned to the cruel punishment of surgentlemen, we should have seen the last humili- viving our country-if, in the inscrutable counation fall on England; the tribunals, the spotless  sels of Providence, this favored seat of justice and
and venerable tribunals of this free country re- liberty, this noblest work of human wisdom and
duced to be the ministers of the vengeance of  virtue, be destined to destruction, which I shall
Robespierre! What could have rescued us from  not be charged with national prejudice for saythis last disgrace?  The honesty and courage of  ing would be the most dangerous wound ever ina jury.  They would have delivered the judges  flicted on civilization; at least let us carry with
of this country from the dire necessity of inflict- us into our sad exile the consolation that we ouring punishment on a brave and virtuous man, be- selves have not violated the rights of hospitality
cause he spoke truth of a monster.  They would  to exiles-that we have not torn from the altar
have despised the threats of a foreign tyrant, as the suppliant who claimed protection as the voltheir ancestors braved the power of oppression  untary victim of loyalty and conscience!
at home.                                             Gentlemen, I now leave this unfortunate genIn the court where we are now met, Crom- tleman in your hands.  His character and his
Peroration   well twice sent a satirist on his tyr- situation might interest your humanity; but, on
coduct of an anny to be convicted and punished as his behalf, I only ask justice from you.  I only
in tletiesh  a libeler, and in this court, almost in  ask a favorable construction of what can not be
of Cromwell sight of the scaffold streaming with  said to be more than ambiguous language, and
the blood of his Sovereign, within hearing of the  this you will soon bp told, from the highest au-lash of his bayonets which drove out Parliament thority, is a part of justice.
with contumely, two successive juries rescued
the intrepid satirist [Lilburne] from his fangs, and    Lord Ellenborough charged the jury that any
sent out with defeat and disgrace the usurper's  publication which tends to degrade, revile, and
Attorney General from what he had the insolence  defame persons in considerable situations of powto call his court!  Even then, gentlemen, when  er and dignity in foreign countries, may be taken
all law and liberty were trampled under the feet to be and treated as a libel, and particularly
of a military banditti; when those great crimes  where it has a tendency to interrupt the pacific
were perpetrated on a high place and with a  relations between the two countries.  If the pubhigh hand against those who were the objects of  lication contains a plain and manifest incitement
public veneration, which, more than any thing  and persuasion addressed to others to assassinelse, break their spirits and confound their moral ate and destroy the persons of such magistrates,
sentiments, obliterate the distinctions between  as the tendency of such a publication is to interright and wrong in their understanding, and teach  rupt the harmony subsisting between two counthe multitude to feel no longer any reverence for tries, the libel assumes a still more criminal comthat justice which they thus see triumphantly  plexion.
dragged at the chariot-wheels of a tyrant; even    His Lordship also showed it to be his decided
then, when this unhappy country, triumphant, in- opinion that the words could not be taken irondeed, abroad, but enslaved at home, had no pros- ically, as suggested by Mr. Mackintosh.  The
pect but that of a long succession of tyrants wad-  jury, therefore, found the defendant GUILTY,
ing through slaughter to a throne-even then, I  without leaving their seats; but as war broke
say, when all seemed lost, the unconquerable spirit out almost immediately, Mr. Peltier was not
of English liberty survived in the hearts of En- brought up for sentence, but was at once disglish jurors.  That spirit is, I trust in God, not charged.
extinct; and if any modern tyrant were, in the
extinct; and if any modern tyrant were, in the    The whole of this peroration of Cicero is worthy
drunkenness of his insolence, to hope to overawe  of the reader's attentive perusal.
an English jury, I trust and I believe that they    The pointed reference to Bonaparte in this and
would tell him, " Our ancestors braved the bay- a preceding sentence was called forth, no doubt, by
onets of Cromwell; we bid defiance to yours. the conduct of the French officers already menContempsi Catiline gladios —non pertimescam  tioned. Being functionaries of the Consular govtuos!"30                                         ernment, their appearing at this time in court, their
seating themselves alongside of the jury, and in a
30 This was the exclamation of Cicero to Anthony  place directly suited to an inspection of the cotnat the close of his second oration against him. "De- sel. as if they meant to hold the Attorney General
fendi rempublicam adolescens; non deseram senex: to his duty, and to face down the advocate of the
contempsi Catilina3 gladios; non pertimescam tuos."  prisoner-these things had all the appearance of a
I defended the republic in my youth, I will not de- design to overrule the decision; and it is rather sursert her in my age; I have despised the daggers of  prising that such conduct did not stir the spirit of an
Catiline, and I shall not fear yours.             English jury.
HHH




850                           SKETCH OF CHARLES J. FOX.
CHARACTER OF CHARLES J. FOX.
Ma. Fox united in a most remarkable degree  quiet dignity of a mind roused only by great ob
the seemingly repugnant characters of the mild- jects, the absence of petty bustle, the contempt of
est of men and the most vehement of orators. show, the abhorrence of intrigue, the plainness
In private life he was gentle, modest, placable, and downrightness, and the thorough good nakind; of simple manners, and so averse from pa- ture which distinguished Mr. Fox, seem to renrade and dogmatism, as to be not only unosten- der him no very unfit representative of that old
tatious, but even somewhat inactive in conversa- English national character, which if it ever
tion.  His superiority was never felt but in the  changed, we should be sanguine, indeed, to exinstruction which he imparted, or in the attention  pect to see succeeded by a better.  The simwhich his generous preference usually directed to  plicity of his character inspired confidence, the
the more obscure members of the company. The  ardor of his eloquence roused enthusiasm, and the
simplicity of his manners was far from excluding  gentleness of his manners invited friendship. " I
that perfect urbanity and amenity which flowed  admired," says Mr. Gibbon, "the powers of a
still more from the mildness of his nature than  superior man, as they are blended in his attractfrom familiar intercourse with the most polished  ive character, with all the softness and simplicisociety of Europe.  His conversation, when it ty of a child; no human being was ever more
was not repressed by modesty or indolence, was free from any taint of malignity, vanity, or falsedelightful.  The pleasantry, perhaps, of no man  hood."  From these qualities of his public and
of wit had so unlabored an appearance. It seem- private character, it probably arose that no Ened rather to escape from his mind than to be pro- glish statesman ever preserved during so long a
duced by it.  He had lived on the most intimate  period of adverse fortunes, so many affectionate
terms with all his cotemporaries, distinguished  friends and so many zealous adherents.  The
by wit, politeness, philosophy, learning, or the  union of ardor in public sentiment, with mildness
talents of public life.  In the course of thirty  in social manner, was in Mr. Fox an hereditary
years, he had known almost every man in Eu- quality.  The same fascinating power over the
rope whose intercourse could strengthen, or en- attachment of all who came within his sphere is
rich, or polish the mind.  His own literature  said to have belonged to his father; and those
was various and elegant.  In classical erudition, who know the survivors of another generation
which, by the custom of England, is more pecu- will feel that this delightful quality is not yet exliarly called learning, he was inferior to few pro- tinct in the race.
fessed scholars.  Like all men of genius, he de-    Perhaps nothing can more strongly prove the
lighted to take refuge in poetry from the vulgar- deep impression made by this part of Mr. Fox's
ity and irritation of business. The character of  character than the words of Mr. Burke, who in
his mind was displayed in his extraordinary par- January, 1797, six years after all intercourse
tiality for the poetry of the two most poetical na- between them had ceased, speaking to a person
tions or, at least, languages of the west-those  honored with some degree of Mr. Fox's friendof the Greeks and of the Italians.  He disliked  ship, said, " To be sure, he is a man made to be
political conversation, and never willingly took  loved!" and these emphatical words were uttered.any part in it.                                  with a fervor of manner which left no doubt of
To speak of him justly as an orator would re- their heartfelt sincerity..quire a long essay.  Every where natural, he    These few  hasty and honest sentences are
carried into public something of that simple and  sketched in a temper too sober and serious for.negligent exterior which belonged to him in pri- intentional exaggeration, and with too pious an
vate.  When he began to speak, a common ob- affection for the memory of Mr. Fox, to profane
-server might have thought him awkward; and  it by intermixture with the factious brawls and
even a onsummate judge could only have been  wraiigles of the day.  His political conduct be-:struck with the exquisite justness of his ideas, longs to history.  The measures which he supand the transparent simplicity of his manners. ported or opposed may divide the opinion of pos-.But no sooner had he spoken for some time, than  terity, as they have divided those of the present
he was changed into another being.  He forgot age.  But he will most certainly command the
himself and everything around him. He thought unanimous reverence of future generations, by
only of his subject.  His genius warmed, and  his pure sentiments toward the commonwealth,
kindled as.he went on.  He darted fire into his by his zeal for the civil and religious rights of
audience. Torrents of impetuous and irresistible  all men, by his liberal principles favorable to
eloquence swept along their feelings and convic- mild government, to the unfettered exercise of
tion.  He certainly possessed above all moderns the human faculties, and the progressive civilizathat union of reason, simplicity, and vehemence  tion of mankind, by his ardent love for a counwhich formed the prince of orators.  He was the  try, of which the well-being and greatness were,
most Demosthenean speaker since Demosthenes. indeed, inseparable from his own glory, and by
" I knew him," says Mr. Burke, in a pamphlet his profound reverence for that free Constitution,
written after their unhappy difference, " when he  which he was universally admitted to understand
was nineteen; since which time he has risen, by  better than any other man of his age, both in an
slow degrees, to be the most brilliant and accom- exactly legal and a comprehensively philosophplished debater that the world ever saw."  The  ical sense.




MR. CANNING.
GEORGE CANNING was born in London on the 11th of April, 1770.  His father,
who belonged to an Irish family of distinction, had been disinherited for marrying
beneath his rank, and was trying his fortune as a barrister in the English metropolis with very scanty means of subsistence.  He died one year after the birth of his
son, leaving a widow, with three young children, wholly destitute of property, and
dependent for support on her own exertions.
Under these circumstances, Mrs. Canning, who was a woman of extraordinary
force of character, first set up a small school, and soon after attempted the stage.
She was successful in her provincial engagements, especially at Bath and Exeter;
and in the latter place she married a linen-draper of the name of Hunn, who was
passionately attached to theatrical performances, and united with her in the employment of an actor.  A few years after, she was again left a widow by the death of
Mr. Hunn; but her profession gave her a competent independence, until she saw her
son raised to the highest honors of the state, and was permitted to share in the fruits
of his success.'
George was educated under the care of his uncle, Mr. Stratford Canning, a London
merchant, out of the proceeds of a small estate in Ireland, which was left him by his
grandmother.  He was first sent to school at Hyde Abbey, near Winchester, where
he made uncommon proficiency in the rudiments of Latin and Greek, and was particularly distinguished for his love of elegant English literature. On one occasion,
when a mere child, being accidentally called upon to repeat some verses, he commenced with one of the poems of Mr. Gray, and never stopped or faltered until he
had gone through the entire volume. His mother's employment naturally led him
to take a lively interest in speaking, and especially in acting dialogues; and in one
instance, when the boys performed parts out of the Orestes of Euripides, previous to
a vacation, he portrayed the madness of the conscience-stricken matricide with a
force and tenderness which called forth the liveliest applause of the audience.
Before he was fifteen, George went to Eton, and carried with him a high reputation for writing Latin and Greek verses, which always confers distinction in the great
schools of England.  He was at once recognized as a boy of surprising genius and
attainments; and he used the influence thus gained in promoting his favorite pursuit, that of elegant English literature.  When a little more than sixteen, he induced
the boys to establish a weekly paper called the Microcosm, to which he contributed
largely, and acted as principal editor.  Its pages bore such striking marks of brilliancy and wit, as to attract the attention of the leading reviews; and the work became the means of training up some of the most distinguished men of the age to
those habits of early composition, which Sir James Mackintosh speaks of as indispensable to the character of a truly great writer.
It is a high testimony to Mr. Canning's manliness and warmth of heart, that he never attempted
to throw any covering over his mother's early history, but treated her openly throughout life with
the utmost reverence and affection. He visited her at her residence in Bath as often as his public
employments would permit, and never allowed any business, however urgent, to prevent hin from
writing to her every Sunday of his life. He obtained pensions for his mother and sisters; and
when attacked on the subject, defended himself to the satisfaction of all by saying that, in retiring
from his office of Under Secretary in 1801, he was entitled to a pension of ~500 a year, and had
only procured the settlement of a fair equivalent on his dependent relatives.




852                              MR. CANNING.
His attention, while at Eton, was also strongly turned to extemporaneous speaking. He joined a society for debate, in which the Marquess of Wellesley, Earl Grey
and other distinguished statesmen had gone before him in their preparation as orators, and had introduced all the forms of the House of Commons.  The Speaker was
in the chair; the minister, with his partisans, filled the Treasury benches, and were
faced by the most strenuous Opposition that Eton could muster.  The enthusiasm
with which Canningoand his companions entered into these mimic contests was but
lttle inferior to what they felt in the real ones that followed, and for which they
were thus preparing the way.  Canning, especially, showed throughout life the influence of his early habits of writing in conjunction with extemporaneous debate.
His speeches bear proofs on every page of the effects of the pen in forming his spoken
style. On every important debate, he wrote much beforehand, and composed more
in his mind, which flowed forth spontaneously, and mingled with the current of his
thoughts, in all the fervor of the most prolonged and excited discussion. Hence,
while he had great ease and variety, he never fell into that negligence and looseness
of style which we always find in a purely extemporaneous speaker.
After standing foremost among his companions at Eton in all the lower forms,
George became " captain" of the school, and was removed to Christ Church, Oxford,
in October, 1788.  The accuracy and ripeness of his scholarship turned upon him
the eyes of the whole University, and justified his entering, even when afreshman,
into competition for the Chancellor's first prize, which he gained by a Latin poem
entitled " Iter ad Meccam Religionis Causa Susceptum."  The distinction which he
thus early acquired, he maintained, throughout his whole college course, by a union
of exemplary diligence with a maturity of judgment, refinement of taste, and brilliancy of genius far beyond his years.  In Mr. Canning we have one of the happiest
exhibitions of the results produced by the classical course pursued at Eton and Oxford, which, " whatever may be its defects, must be owned," says Sir James Mackintosh, " when taken with its constant appendages, to be eminently favorable to the
cultivation of sense and taste, as well as to the development of wit and spirit." The
natural effect, however, of this incessant competition, in connection with the early
tendencies of his mind and his remarkable success, was to cherish that extreme sensitiveness to the opinion of others, that delight in superiority, that quick sense of his
own dignity, that sensibility to supposed neglect or disregard, which, with all his attractive qualities, made him in early life not always a pleasant companion, and sometimes involved him in the most serious difficulties.  But, though he never lost his
passion for distinction, it was certainly true of him, as said by another, " As he advanced in years, his fine countenance, once so full of archness or petulance, was ennobled by the expression of thought and feeling; he now pursued that lasting praise
which is not to be earned without praiseworthiness; and if he continued to be a lover
of fame, he also passionately loved the glory of his country."
Mr..Canning left the University in the twenty-second year of his age, and after
giving a few months to the study of the law, was invited by Mr. Pitt, who had heard
of his extraordinary talents, to take a seat in Parliament as a regular supporter of
the government.  His first predilections were in favor of Whig principles. He had
been intimate with Mr. Sheridan from early life, but differed from him wholly in respect to the French Revolution, and was thus prepared to look favorably on the proposals of Mr. Pitt. After mutual explanations, he accepted the offer, and was returned to Parliament from one of the ministerial boroughs at the close of 1793, in
the twenty-fourth year of his age.
Mr. Canning's maiden speech was in favor of a subsidy to the King of Sardinia,
and was delivered on the 31st of January, 1794.  It was brilliant, but wanting in
solidity and judgment; and in general it may be remarked, that he rose slowly into




MR. CANNING.                                  853
those higher qualities as a speaker, for which he was so justly distinguished during
the later years of his life. He was from the first easy and fluent; he knew how to
play with an argument when' he could not answer it; he had a great deal of real
wit, and too much of that ungenerous raillery and sarcasm, by which an antagonist
may be made ridiculous, and the audience turned against him, without once meeting
the question on its true merits. There was added to this an air of disregard for the
feelings of others, and even of willingness to offend, which doubled the sense of inj ury every blow he struck; so that during the first ten years of his parliamentary career, he never made a speech, it was said, on which he particularly plumed himself,
without making likewise an enemy for life. lie was continually acting, as one said
who put the case strongly, like " the head of the sixth form at Eton: squibbing the' doctor,' as Mr. Addington was called-fighting my Lord Castlereagh-cutting heartless jokes on poor Mr. Ogden-flatly contradicting Mr. Brougham-swaggering over
the'Holy Alliance-quarreling with the Duke of Wellington-perpetually involved
in some personal scrape." These habits, however, gradually wore off as he advanced
in life, and his early political opponents were warmest in their commendations of his
conduct at the close of his political career.
In 1797, Mr. Canning projected the Anti-Jacobin Review, in conjunction with Mr.
Jenkinson and Mr. Ellis (afterward Lords Liverpool and Seaford), Mr. Frere, and
other writers of the same stamp. Mr. Gifford was editor, and its object was to bear
down the Radical party in politics and literature, and to turn upon them the contempt of the whole nation by the united force of argument and ridicule. It took the
widest range, from lofty and vehement reasoning to the keenest satire and the most
bitter personal abuse. It applied the lash with merciless severity to all the extravagances of the day in taste and sentiment-the mawkish sensibility of the Della
Cruscan school, the incongruous mixtures of virtue and vice in the new German
drama, and the various improvements in literature introduced by Holcroft, Thelwall,
and others among the Radical reformers. Such an employment was perfectly suited
to the taste of Mr. Canning. It was an exercise of ingenuity in which he always delighted; and a large part of the keenest wit, the most dextrous travesty, and the
happiest exhibitions of the laughable and burlesque, were the productions of his pen.
The most striking poetical effusions were his.  Among these, the "Knife-grinder,"
and the " Loves of Mary Pottinger," are admirable in their way, and will hold their
place among the amusing extravaganzas of our literature, when the ablest political
diatribes of the Anti-Jacobin are forgotten.2
2 The reader may be pleased, as a specimen, to see Mr. Canning's sapphics on the Knife-grinder,
intended as a burlesque on a fashionable poet's extreme sensibility to the sufferings of the poor,
and his reference of all their distresses to political causes. It was also designed to ridicule his
hobbling verse and abrupt transitions.
THE FRIEND OF HUMANITY AND THE KNIFE-GRINDER.
Friend of Humanity.
Needy knife-grinder! whither are you going?
Rough is the road; your wheel is out of order;
Bleak blows the blast; your hat has got a hole in't,
So have your breeches!
Weary knife-grinder! little think the proud ones,
Who in their coaches roll along the turnpikeRoad, what hard work'tis crying all day, " Knives and
Scissors to grind O!"
Tell me, knife-grinder, how came you to grind knives?
Did some rich man tyrannically use you?
Was it the squire? or parson of the parish?
Or the attorney?




854                                MR. CANNING.
In July, 1800, Mr. Canning married Miss Joan Scott, daughter of General Scott,
and sister to Lady Tichfield, afterward Duchess of Portland.  She had a fortune of
~100,000, which placed him at once in circumstances of entire independence, while
he gained an increase of influence by his family alliances.
In a sketch like this, only the leading incidents can be given in the political career of Mr. Canning.  He was actively engaged in public life for nearly thirty-four
years, eleven of which were spent in connection with Mr. Pitt. His first office was
that of Under Secretary of State. He went out with his patron during Mr. Addington's brief ministry, and came in with him again, as Treasurer of the Navy, in 1804.
On Mr. Pitt's death, early in 1806, he was not included (as he had reason to expect)
in Lord Grenville's arrangements, and went into opposition. During his whole life,
he was the ardent champion of the " Great Minister's" principles, and the defender
of his fame.  In the London Quarterly for August, 1810, he gave an estimate of
Mr. Pitt's character and a defense of his political life, which for ingenuity of thought,
richness of fancy, and splendor of diction, has never been surpassed in the periodical
literature of our language. It came warm from his heart. He truly said to his constituents at Liverpool, "In the grave of Mr. Pitt my political allegiance lies buried."
On the accession of the Duke of Portland to power (March, 1807), Mr. Canning
became Secretary of Foreign Affairs, and for the first time a member of the cabinet.
But, at the end of two years, he had a personal. altercation with Lord Castlereagh
(then Secretary of War), resulting in a duel, which not only threw both of them out
of office, but dissolved the Portland ministry.
Mr. Canning now remained out of power for some years, though regular in his
attendance on Parliament.  He took independent ground during Mr. Percival's ministry of a year and a half, and delivered at this time his celebrated speech on the
Bullion Question, exposing the current fallacy, " It is not paper that has fallen, but
gold which has risen," and calling, in the strongest terms, for the resumption of cash
Was it the squire, for killing of his game? or
Covetous parson, for his tithes distiaining?
Or roguish lawyer, made you lose your little
All in a lawsuit?
(Have you not read the Rights of Man, by Tom Paine?)
Drops of compassion tremble on my eyelids,
Ready to fall, as soon as you have told your
Pitiful story.
Knife-grinder.
Story! why bless you! I have none to tell, sir;
Only last night a drinking at the Checkers,
This poor old hat and breeches, as you see, were
Torn in a scuffle.
Constables came up for to take me into
Custody; they took me before the justice;
Justice Oldmixon put me in.the parishstocks for a vagrant.
I should be glad to drink your honor's health in
A pot of beer, if you will give me sixpence;
But, for my part, I never love to meddle
With politics, sir.
Friend of Hnumanity.
I give thee sixpence! I will see thee hang'd first!
Wretch! whom no sense of wrongs can rouse to vengeance.
Sordid, unfeeling, reprobate, degraded,
Spiritless outcast!
[Kicks the knife-grinder, overturns his wheel, and exit in a transport of
republican enthusiasm and universal philanthropy.]




MR. CANNING.                               855
payments. This speech, though interesting no longer to the general reader, has been
truly characterized as " one of the most powerful and masterly specimens on record
of chaste and reasoning eloquence."  The question lay out of Mr. Canning's ordinary
range of thought, and the ability with which he took it up proved (what his friends
had always said) that no man could more promptly, or with greater effect, turn the
whole force of his mind on any new subject, however foreign to his ordinary pursuits.
Under his friend Lord Liverpool [Mr. Jenkinson], who followed Mr. Percival in June,
1812, he gave his cordial support to the ministry, though excluded from office by his
views in favor of Catholic emancipation.  To him especially, at this period, was
Lord Wellington indebted for an enthusiastic support during his long and terrible
conflict in Spain.  It was under the policy and guidance of Canning, as Secretary
of Foreign Affairs in 1808, that this conflict commenced; and he never ceased to
animate the country to fresh sacrifices and efforts in battling with Bonaparte for the
rescue of the Peninsula.  It was the first favorable opportunity ever presented for
carrying out the continental policy of Mr. Pitt, and it was always the theme of Mr.
Canning's proudest exultations. " If there is any part of my political conduct," said
he, " in which I glory, it is that in the face of every difficulty, discouragement, and
prophecy of failure, mine was the hand which committed England to an alliance
with Spain."
In 1812, Mr. Canning was invited to stand as a candidate for Liverpool, and,
though powerfully opposed by Mr. Brougham, he carried his election, and was again
returned, on three subsequent occasions, with continually increasing majorities. Two
speeches to his constituents at Liverpool will be found below; they are some of the
best specimens of his eloquence.
In 1814, he was sent as embassador extraordinary to the court of Lisbon, and being
attacked on this subject, after his return to the House, in 1816, he made his defense
in a speech of remarkable ability and manliness, which has, however, but little interest for the reader at the present day, because filled up chiefly with matters of personal detail.  The same year [1816] he was made President of the Board of Indian
Control, and thus brought again into the ministry.  From this time England was
agitated for six or eight years by the rash movements of the Radical reformers, which
led ministers to adopt measures of great, perhaps undue stringency, to preserve the
public peace. Mr. Canning took strong ground on this subject, and was severely attacked in a pamphlet understood to be from the pen of Sir Philip Francis.  His extreme sensitiveness to such attacks showed itself in an extraordinary way. He addressed a private letter to the author of the pamphlet, through Ridgeway, the publisher, telling him, " You. are a liar and a slanderer, and want courage only to be an assassin."  Even on dueling principles, no man was bound to come forward under such
a call; and the challenge which Mr. Canning endeavored to provoke was not given.
In 1822, he was appointed Governor General of India, but, at the moment when
he was ready to embark for Calcutta, the office of Secretary of Foreign Affairs became vacant by the sudden death of the Marquess of Londonderry [Lord Castlereagh],
and Mr. Canning was called to this important station on the 16th of September, 1822.
It was a crisis of extreme difficulty.  France was at that moment collecting troops
to overthrow the constitutional government of Spain, and was urging the other allied powers, then assembled in congress at Verona, to unite in the intervention. Mr.
Canning instantly dispatched the Duke of Wellington to Verona with the strongest
remonstrances of the British government against the proposed invasion of Spain; and,
at the opening of the next Parliament, explained and defended the views of the ministry in a manner which called forth the warmest applause of Mr. Brougham and
most of his other political opponents.' Early in 1825, Mr. Canning took the import3 On this subject, see Mr. Brougham's speech, page 904.




856                              MR. CANNING.
ant step of recognizing the independence of the Spanish provinces in South America,
a measure which made him  deservedly popular in every part of the kingdom.  In
December, 1826, actuated by the same liberal sentiments, he made his celebrated
speech on giving aid to Portugal, when threatened with invasion from Spain. It will
be found below, and has been generally regarded as the master-piece of his eloquence,
not only for the felicity of its arrangement and the admirable grace and spirit with
which his points are pressed, but for the large and statesmanlike views he takes of
European politics, and his prophetic foresight of the great contest of principles which
was even then coming on.4
As to all questions of foreign policy-the most important by far of any at that pe
riod-Mr. Canning was virtually minister from September, 1822, when he was ap
pointed Secretary of Foreign Affairs. He had so entirely the confidence of Lord Liverpool, that his intellect was the presiding one in the cabinet; and as Lord Liverpool's health began to decline, the burden of the government rested upon him more
and more.  In 1827, his Lordship died of a paralytic shock; and on April 12th of
that year, Mr. Canning was made Prime Minister in form.  The Duke of Wellington, Mr. Peel, and nearly all his Tory colleagues, threw up their places at once, out
of hostility to Catholic emancipation, which they saw must prevail if he remained in
power-the very men who, two years after, under the strong compulsion of public
sentiment, carried that same emancipation through both houses of Parliament! But
they sacrificed Mr. Canning before they could be made to do it.  A keen and unrelenting opposition now sprung up; and some who, only a few months before, had
made him " the god of their idolatry," were foremost in denouncing him as " the most
profligate minister that was ever in power."  Unfortunately, at this crisis, his health
failed him.  He had been brought to the brink of the grave, at the commencement
of the year, by an illness contracted at the funeral of the Duke of York; and with
his peculiar sensitiveness, heightened by disease, he could not endure the bitter personal altercations to which he was continually exposed. He was singularly situated.
Standing between the two great parties of the country, he agreed with the Whigs
on the subjects of Catholic emancipation, foreign policy, and commercial regulation,
while he differed from them as to parliamentary reform, and the repeal of the Test
Act. Still, they gave him a generous support; and he could rely on the wit of Tierney
and the scathing eloquence of Brougham to defend him against the attacks of those
who were so lately his servile dependents or his admiring friends.  He had reached
the summit of his ambition-but it was only to die! His ardent mind bore him up
for a brief season, but was continually exhausting the springs of life within. His
last act was one of his worthiest-that of signing the treaty of London for the deliverance of Greece. He transacted public business until a few days before his death,
and died on the 8th of August, 1827, in the fifty-eighth year of his age.5
As a fitting close of this memoir, the reader will be interested in the following beautiful sketch of Mr. Canning's character by Sir James Mackintosh, slightly abridged
and modified in the arrangement of its parts.
" Mr. Canning seems to have been the best model among our orators of the adorned style.  The splendid and sublime descriptions of Mr. Burke-his comprehensive
and profound views of general principles-though they must ever delight and instruct
the reader, must be owned to have been digressions which diverted the mind of the
Ihearer from the object on which the speaker ought to have kept it steadily fixed.
4 See the remarkable passage on this subject, page 882.
"Canning," says a late writer, "would have attained to old age, but for his sleepless nights.
i'Down to the year 1826, he had no organic disease whatever. His constitution was untouched; but
his brain, at night, was active for hours after he retired to bed. He has himself, in a letter to Sir'W. Knighton, given a graphic picture of a night of torture."




MR. CANNING.                                857
Sheridan, a man of admirable sense and matchless wit, labored to follow Burke into
the foreign regions of feeling and grandeur. The specimens preserved of his most
celebrated speeches show too much of the exaggeration and excess to which those
are peculiarly liable who seek by art and effort what nature has denied. By the
constant part which Mr. Canning took in debate, he was called upon to show-a
knowledge which Sheridan did not possess, and a readiness which that accomplished
man had no such means of strengthening and displaying. In some qualities of style
Mr. Canning surpassed Mr. Pitt.  His diction was more various-sometimes more
simple-more idiomatical, even in its more elevated parts.  It sparkled with imagery, and was brightened by illustration; in both of which Mr. Pitt, for so great an
orator, was defective.
" Had he been a dry and meager speaker, Mr. Canning would have been universally
allowed to have been one of the greatest masters of argument; but his hearers were
so dazzled by the splendor of his diction that they did not perceive the acuteness and
the occasional excessive refinement of his reasoning; a consequence which, as it
shows the injurious influence of a seductive fault, can with the less justness be overlooked in the estimate of his understanding. Ornament, it must be owned, when it
only pleases or amuses, without disposing the audience to adopt the sentiments of the
speaker, is an offense against the first law of public speaking; it obstructs instead of
promoting its only reasonable purpose. But eloquence is a widely-extended art, comprehending many sorts of excellence, in some of which ornamented diction is more
liberally employed than in others, and in none of which the highest rank can be attained without an extraordinary combination of mental powers.
" No English speaker used the keen and brilliant weapon of wit so long, so often,
or so effectively, as Mr. Canning. He gained more triumphs, and incurred more enmity by it than by any other. Those whose importance depends much on birth and
fortune are impatient of seeing their own artificial dignity, or that of their order,
broken down by derision; and perhaps few men heartily forgive a successful jest
against themselves, but those who are conscious of being unhurt by it.  Mr. Canning often used this talent imprudently.  In sudden flashes of wit, and in the playful description of men or things, he was often distinguished by that natural felicity
which is the charm of pleasantry, to which the air of art and labor is more fatal than
to any other talent. The exuberance of fancy and wit lessened the gravity of his
general manner, and perhaps also indisposed the audience to feel his earnestness where
it clearly showed itself.  In that important quality he was inferior to Mr. Pitt,
"'Deep on whose front engraven,
Deliberation sat, and public care;'6
and no less inferior to Mr. Fox, whose fervid eloquence flowed from the love of his
country, the scorn of baseness, and the hatred of cruelty, which were the ruling passions of his nature.
" On the whole, it may be observed that the range of Mr. Canning's powers as an
orator was wider than that in which he usually exerted them.  When mere statement only was allowable, no man of his age was more simple. When infirm health
compelled him to be brief, no speaker could compress his matter with so little sacrifice of clearness, ease, and elegance. As his oratorical faults were those of youthful
genius, the progress of age seemed to purify his eloquence, and every year appeared
to remove some speck which hid, or at least dimmed, a beauty.  He daily rose to
larger views, and made, perhaps, as near approaches to philosophical principles as
the great difference between the objects of the philosopher and those of the orator
will commonly allow.
" Mr. Canning possessed, in a high degree, the outward advantages of an orator.
6 Paradise Lost, book ii.




858                              MR. CANNING.
His expressive countenance varied with the changes of his eloquence; his voice, flexible and articulate, had as much compass as his mode of speaking required. In the
calm part of his speeches, his attitude and gesture might have been selected by a
painter to represent grace rising toward dignity.'" In social intercourse Mr. Canning was delightful. Happily for the true charm of
his conversation, he was too busy not to treat society as more fitted for relaxation
than for display. It is but little to say that he was neither disputatious, declamatory,
nor sententious-neither a dictator nor a jester. His manner was simple and unobtrusive; his language always quite familiar. If a higher thought stole from his
mind, it came in its conversational undress. From this plain ground his pleasantry
sprang with the happiest effect; and it was nearly exempt from that alloy of taunt
and banter which he sometimes mixed with more precious materials in public contest.  He may be added to the list of those eminent persons who pleased most in
their friend]y circle.  He had the agreeable quality of being more easily pleased in
society than might have been expected from the keenness of his discernment and the
sensibility of his temper: still, he was liable to be discomposed, or even silenced, by
the presence of any one whom he did not like.  His manner in company betrayed
the political vexations or anxieties which preyed on his mind: nor could he conceal
that sensitiveness to public attacks which their frequent recurrence wears out in most
English politicians. These last foibles may be thought interesting as the remains of
natural character, not destroyed by refined society and political affairs.
" In some of the amusements or tasks of his boyhood there are passages which, without much help from fancy, might appear to contain allusions to his greatest measures
of policy, as well as to the tenor of his life, and to the melancholy splendor which
surrounded his death.  In the concluding line of the first English verses written by
him at Eton, he expressed a wish, which has been singularly realized, that he might
"' Live in a blaze, and in a blaze expire.'
It is a striking coincidence, that the statesman, whose dying measure was to mature
an alliance for the deliverance of Greece, should, when a boy, have written English
verses on the slavery of that country; and that in his prize poem at Oxford, on the
Pilgrimage to Mecca-a composition as much applauded as a modern Latin poem can
aspire to be-he should have so bitterly deplored the lot of other renowned countries now groaning under the same barbarous yoke,
"' Nunc satrapae imperio et sevo subdita Turcm.'7
"To conclude: He was a man of fine and brilliant genius, of warm affections of a
high and generous spirit-a statesman who, at home, converted most of his oppo.
nents into warm  supporters; who, abroad, was the sole hope and trust of all who
sought an orderly and legal liberty, and who was cut off in the midst of vigorous and
splendid measures, which, if executed by himself or with his own spirit, promised to
place his name in the first class of rulers, among the founders of lasting peace and
the guardians of human improvement."
7 Now to the satrap and proud Turk subjected.




SPEECHOF MR. CANNING ON THE FALL OF BONAPARTE, DELIVERED AT LIVERPOOL, JANUARY 10, 1814.
INTRODUCTION.
MR. CANNING was elected member for Liverpool, in opposition to Mr. Brougham, in the autumn of 1812,
and at the end of fourteen months he visited his constituents to congratulate them on the success of the
Allies on the Continent, which had filled all England with exultation and triumph.
After the retreat of Bonaparte from Moscow, in the winter of 1812-13. nearly all Europe combined for
his overthrow; and though he still maintained the contest, his fall was rendered certain by the advance
of an overpqwering force from every quarter to invade the French territory.
The speech of Mr. Canning on this occasion, for selectness of thought, for beauty of language, for ardor
and enthusiasm, was perhaps superior to any of his productions.
SPEECH, &c.
GENTLEMEN, as your guest, I thank you from  is just to speak well; and I do no more than
Acknowl-  my heart for the honorable and affec- justice to the gentleman [Mr. John Backhouse]
edgmellt of tionate reception which you have given whom you have appointed to conduct the office
ies.  me.  As the representative of Liver- in question (with whom I had no previous acpool, I am most happy in meeting my constitu- quaintance), in bearing public testimony to his
ents again, after a year's experience of each oth- merit, and in assuring you that it would be diffier, and a year's separation; a year, the most cult to find any one who would surpass him in
eventful in the annals of the world, and com- zeal, intelligence, and industry.
prising within itself such a series of stupendous    Having dispatched what it was necessary for
changes as might have filled the history of an me to say on these points, I know, gen- Vie ofpub
age.                                            tlemen, that it is your wish, and I feel lic affairs.
Gentlemen. you have been so good as to couple it to be my duty, that I should now proceed to
Regard for the with my name the expression of your communicate to you my sentiments on the state
interests of the acknowledgments for the attention  of public affairs, with the same frankness which
stituents.    which I have paid to the interests of has hitherto distinguished all our intercourse with
your town.  You, gentlemen, I have no doubt, each other.  That duty is one which it does not
recollect the terms upon which I entered into now require any effort of courage to perform.
your service; and you are aware, therefore, that To exhort to sacrifices, to stimulate to exertion,
I claim no particular acknowledgment at your to shame despondency, to divert from untimely
hands for attention to the interests of Liverpool, concession, is a duty of a sterner sort, which you
implicated as they are with the general inter- found me not backward to discharge, at a period
ests of the country.  I trust, at the same time, when, from the shortness of our acquaintance, I
that I have not been wanting to all or to any of was uncertain whether my freedom  might not
you in matters of local or individual concern. offend you.  My task of to-day is one at which
But I should not do fairly by you, if I were not no man can take offense.  It is to mingle my
to take this opportunity of saying that a service congratulations with your rejoicings on the events
(which certainly I will not pretend to describe which have passed and are passing in the world.
as without some burden in itself) has been made    If, in contemplating events so widely (I had allight to me, beyond all example, by that institu- most said so tremendously) important, soures f joy
tion which your munificence and provident care it be pardonable to turn one's view for and exultation
have established: I mean the office in London, a moment to local and partial consider- for Englishme
through which your correspondence with your ations, I may be permitted to observe, that, while
members is now carried on.  I had no preten- to Great Britain, while to all Europe, while to
sion, gentlemen, to this singular mark of your the world and to posterity, the events which have
consideration; but neither will it, I hope, be recently taken place are matter of unbounded and
thought presumptuous in me to confess, that I universal joy, there is no collection of individuals
might not have been able to discharge the serv- who are better entitled than the company now
ice which I owe you, in a way which would assembled in this room (in great part, I presume,
have satisfied my own feelings as well as yours identically the same, and altogether representing
-that I might, in spite of all my endeavors, have the same interests and feelings as that of which
been guilty of occasional omissions, if I had not I took leave, in this room, about fourteen months
been provided with some such medium of com- ago) to exult in the present state of things, and
munication with my constituents. Of an absent to derive from it, in addition to their share of the
and meritorious individual, it is as pleasing as it general joy, a distinct and special satisfaction.




860                                    MR. CANNING                                     [1814.
We can not forget, gentlemen, the sinister day in a state of public affairs as doubtful as that
Alarn.prl- omens and awful predictions under in which we took leave of each oth- rPeseverance
dicti onsvllich which we met and parted in October, er; if confederated nations had been in these princihave fliled.                                                                       ples the source
1812.  The penalty denounced upon  still arrayed against this country, and of the present
you for your election of me was embarrassment the balance of Europe still trembling triumphs.
to the rich and famine to the poor. I was warned  in the scale, I should not have hesitated now, as
that, when I should return to renew my acquaint- I did not hesitate then, to declare my decided and
ance with my constituents, I should find the grass unalterable opinion, that perseverance, under
growing in your streets. In spite of that denun- whatever difficulties, under whatever privaticrls,
ciation, you did me the honor to elect me; in spite  afforded the only chance of prosperity to you, be.
of that warning, I venture to meet you here again. cause the only chance of safety to your country;
It must be fairly confessed that this is not the sea- and the only chance of safety to the country, beson of the year to estimate correctly the amount cause the only chance of deliverance to Europe.
of superfluous and unprofitable vegetation with  Gentlemen, I should be ashamed to address you
which your streets may be teeming; but, with- now in the tone of triumph, if I had not addressout presuming to limit the power of productive  ed you then in that of exhortation.  I should be
nature, it is at least satisfactory to know that the  ashamed to appear before you shouting in the
fields have not been starved to clothe your quays train of success, if I had not looked you in the
with verdure; that it is not by economizing in  face and encouraged you to patience under diffithe scantiness of the harvest that nature has re- culties.  It is because my acquaintance with you
served her vigor for the pastures of your Ex- commenced in times of peril and embarrassment,
change.                                        and because I then neither flattered nor deceived
But, gentlemen, I am sure you feel, with me, you, that I now not only offer to you my congratThfa that these are topics which I treat ulations, but put in my claim  to yours, on the
ing not to the with levity only because they are not, extinction of that peril, on the termination of that
choice of men, nor were, at the time when they were  embarrassment, and on the glorious issue to which
seriously urged, susceptible of a serious argu- exertion and endurance have brought that great
ment; they did not furnish grounds on which  struggle in which our honor and our happiness
any man would rest his appeal to your favor, or were involved.
on which your choice of any man could be justi-    Gentlemen, during the course of a political
fled.  If I have condescended to revert to them  life, nearly coeval with the commencement of
at all, it is because I would leave none of those  the war, I have never given one vote, I have
recollections untouched which the comparison of never uttered one sentiment, which had not for
our last meeting with the present, I know, sug- its object the consummation now happily within
gests to your minds as well as to my own; and  our view.
because I would, so far as in me lies, endeavor    I am not ashamed, and it is not unpleasing or
to banish from all future use, by exposing their unprofitable, to look back upon the Elevated posiabsurdity, topics which are calculated only to  dangers which we have passed, and tion of England.
mislead and to inflame. That the seasons would  to compare them with the scene which now lies
have run their appointed course, that the sun  before us.  We behold a country inferior in
would have shone with as genial a warmth, and  population to most of her continental neighbors,
the showers would have fallen with as fertilizing  but multiplying her faculties and resources bya moisture, if you had not chosen me for your her own activity and enterprise, by the vigor of
representative, is an admission which I make  her Constitution, and by the good sense of her
without much apprehension of the consequence. people; we behold her, after standing up against
Nor do I wish you to believe that your choice  a formidable foe throughout a contest, in the
of any other than me would have delayed the re- course of which every one of her allies, and at
turn of your prosperity, or prevented the revival times all of them  together, have fainted and
of your commerce.                              failed-nay, have been driven to combine with
I make these admissions without fear, so far the enemy against her-we behold her, at this
but adheren  as concerns the choice between indi- moment, rallying the nations of Europe to one
togreatprinci- viduals.  But I do not admit that it point, and leading them to decisive victory.
ples.     was equally indifferent upon what    If such a picture were merely the bright visprinciples that choice should be determined.  I ion of speculative philosophy, if it were presentdo not admit, that if the principles which it was ed to us in the page of the history of ancient
then recommended to you to countenance had un- times, it would stir and warm the heart.  But,
fortunately prevailed in Parliament, and, through  gentlemen, this country is our own; and what
the authority of Parliament, had been introduced  must be the feelings which arise, on such a reinto the counsels of the country, they would not view, in the bosom of every son of that country?
have interfered with fatal operation, not indeed  What must be the feelings of a community such
to arrest the bounty of Providence, to turn back  as I am  now addressing, which constitutes no
the course of the seasons, and to blast the fertility  insignificant part of the strength of the nation
of the earth, but to stop that current of political so described; which has suffered largely in her
events which, "taken at the flood," has placed  privations, and may hope to participate proporEngland at the head of the world.              tionably in her reward?  What (I may be perGentlemen, if I had met you here again on this mitted'o add) must be the feelings of one who




1814.]                       ON THE FALL OF BONAPARTE.                                       86]
is chosen to represent that community, and who  this has been effected by change of principles,
finds himself in that honorable station at the mo- to specify the change.  What change of princiment of triumph, only because he discountenan- ples or of government has taken place among the
ced despair in the moment of despondency?       nations of Europe?  We are the best judges
From  the contemplation of a spectacle so  of ourselves-what change has taken place here?
The consequence mighty and magnificent as this, I Is the Constitution other than it was when we
lofnstablshern d  should disdain to turn aside to the  were told (as we often were told in the bad
principles.  controversies of party.  Of princi- times) that it was a doubt whether it were worth
ples, however, it is impossible not to say some- defending? Is the Constitution other than it was
thing; because our triumph would be incom- when we were warned that peace on any terms
plete, and its blessings might be transient, if we  must be made, as the only hope of saving it from
could be led astray by any sophistry; if we  popular indignation and popular reform?
could consent, in a sort of compromise of corn-    There is yet another question to be asked.
mon joy, to forget or to misstate the causes from  By what power, in what part of the The powers
which that triumph has sprung.  All of one  world, has that final blow been struck alichldve
mind, I trust and believe we are, in exulting at which has smitten the tyrant to the thevictory.
the success of our country; all of one mind, I ground?  I suppose, by some enlightened retrust, we now are throughout this land, in determ- public; by some recently-regenerated governining to persevere, if need be, in strenuous exer- ment of pure philanthropy and uncorrupted virtion to prosecute, and I hope, to perfect the great tue; I suppose, by some nation which, in the
work so happily in progress.  But we know that excess of popular freedom, considers even a repthere are some of those who share most heartily  resentative system as defective, unless each inin the public exultation, who yet ascribe effects, dividual interferes directly in the national conwhich happily can not be disputed, to causes  cerns; some nation of enlightened patriots, evwhich may justly be denied.  No tenderness for ery man of whom  is a politician in the coffeedisappointed prophecies, gentlemen, ought to in- house, as well as in the Senate: I suppose it is
duce us thus to disconnect effect and cause.  It from  some such government as this that the
would lead to errors which might be dangerous, conqueror of autocrats, the sworn destroyer of
if unwarily adopted and generally received.      monarchical England, has met his doom. I look
We have heard, for instance, that the war has through the European world, gentlemen, in vain:
These not now been successful, because the princi- I find there no such august community.  But in
changed,as ples on which the war was undertaken  another hemisphere I do find such a one, which,
pretended,
during the have been renounced; that we are at no doubt, must be the political David by whom
contest.
c'  length blessed with victory, because we  the Goliath of Europe has been brought down.
have thrown away the banner under which we  What is the name of that glorious republic, tc
entered into the contest; that the contest was  which the gratitude of Europe is eternally due
commenced with one set of principles, but that -which, from its innate hatred to tyranny, has
the issue has been happily brought about by the  so perseveringly exerted itself to liberate the
adoption of another.  Gentlemen, I know of no  world, and at last has successfully closed the
such change.  If we have succeeded, it has not contest?  Alas, gentlemen, such a republic I dc
been by the renunciation, but by the prosecution  indeed find; and I find it enlisted, and (God be
of our principles; if we have succeeded, it has thanked!) enlisted alone, under the banner of
not been by adopting new maxims of policy, but the despot.   But where was the blow struck?
by upholding, under all varieties of difficulty and  Where? Alas for theory! In the wilds of desdiscouragement, old, established, inviolable prin- potic Russia.  It was followed up on the plains
ciples of conduct.                               of Leipsic-by Russian, Prussian, and Austrian
We are told that this war has of late become arms.
But the peo- a war of the people, and that by the    But let me not be mistaken.  Do I, therefore
ple brght operation of that change alone the mean to contend-do I, therefore, give Patriotism
tlleirrulers. power of imperial France has been  to our antagonists in the argument the  stinctive
baffled and overcome.  Nations, it is said, have  advantage of ascribing to us the base feling.
at length made common cause with their sov- tenet that an absolute monarchy is better than
ereigns, in a contest which heretofore had been  a free government? God forbid! Whdt I mean
a contest of sovereigns only.  Gentlemen, the  is this, that, in appreciating the comparative exfact of the change might be admitted, without, cellence of political institutions, in estimating
therefore, admitting the argument.  It does not the force of national spirit, and the impulses of
follow  that the people were not at all times national feeling, it is idle-it is mere pedantry,
equally interested in the war (as those who think  to overlook the affections of nature.  The order
as I do have always contended that they were), of nature could not subsist among mankind, if
because it may be, and must be admitted that there were not an instinctive patriotism; I do
the people, in many countries, were for a time  not say unconnected with, but prior and paradeluded.  They who argue against us say that    1 This slant at America was, of course, to be exjarring interests have been reconciled. We say  pected in time of war, and had quite as little bitterthat gross delusions have been removed. Both ad- ness in it as we should naturally look for in a man
mit the fact that sovereigns and their people are of Mr. Canning's temperament, at a moment of so
identified.  But it is for them, who contend that much exultation.




862                                      MR. CANNING                                         [1814.
mount to, the desire of political amelioration. It    Clings close and closer to the mother's breast,
may be very wrong that it should be so.  I can    So the loud torrent and the whirlwind's roar
not help it.  Our business is with fact.  And    But bind him to his native mountains more.2
surely it is not to be regretted that tyrants and    What Goldsmith thus beautifully applied to
conquerors should have learned, from the lessons the physical varieties of soil and climate has
of experience, that the first consideration sug- been found no less true with respect to political
gested to the inhabitant of any country by a  institutions.  A sober desire of improvement, a
foreign invasion, is, not whether the political con- rational endeavor to redress error, and to correct
stitution of the state be faultlessly perfect or not, imperfection in the political frame of human sobut whether the altar at which he has worship-  ciety, are not only natural, but laudable in man.
ed-whether the home in which he has dwelt But it is well that it should have been shown,
from his infancy-whether his wife and his chil- by irrefragable proof, that these sentiments, even
dren-whether the tombs of his forefathers-   where most strongly and most justly felt, superwhether the place of the Sovereign under whom   sede not that devotion to native soil which is the
he was born, and to whom  he, therefore, owes  foundation of national independence.  And it is
(or, if it must be so stated, fancies that he, there-  right that it should be understood and rememfore, owes) allegiance, shall be abandoned to vio- bered, that the spirit of national independence
lence and profanation.                             alone, aroused where it had slumbered, enlightThat, in the infancy of the French Revolution,  ened where it had been deluded, and kindled
Delusion on many nations in Europe were, unfor- into enthusiasm  by the insults and outrages of
this subject tunately, led to believe and to act upon  an all-grasping invader, has been found suffithe French a different persuasion, is undoubtedly  cient, without internal changes and compromises
aesolutiut. true; that whole countries were over-  of sovereigns or governments with their people
run by reforming conquerors, and flattered them- -without relaxations of allegiance and abjuraselves with being proselytes till they found them-  tions of authority, to animate, as with one perselves victims.  Even in this country, as I have  vading soul, the different nations of the contialready said, there have been times when we  nent; to combine, as into one congenial mass,
have been called upon to consider whether there  their various feelings, passions, prejudices; to
was not something at home which must be mend- direct these concentrated energies with one imed before we could hope to repel a foreign in- pulse against the common tyrant; and to shake
vader with success.                               (and, may we not hope? to overthrow) the BaIt is fortunate for the world that this question  bel of his iniquitous power.
should have been tried, if I may so say, to a dis-    Gentlemen, there is another argument, more
advantage; that it should have been tried in  peculiarly relating to our own coun- But nocountry
countries where no man in his senses will say  try, which has at times been inter- can stand insuthat the frame of political society is such as, ac- posed to discourage the prosecution
cording to the most moderate principles of reg- of the war.  That this country is sufficient to its
ulated freedom, it ought to be; where, I will own defense, sufficient to its own happiness, sufventure to say, without hazarding the imputation  ficient to its own independence; and that the
of being myself a visionary reformer, political complicated combinations of continental policy
society is not such as, after the successes of this  are always hazardous to our interests, as well
war, and from the happy contagion of the exam-  as burdensome to our means, has been, at several
ple of Great Britain, it is sure gradually to be- periods of the war, a favorite doctrine, not only
come.  It is fortunate for the world that this  with those who, for other reasons, wished to emquestion should have been tried on its own mer- barrass the measures of the government, but with
its; that, after twenty years of controversy, we  men of the most enlightened minds, of the most
should be authorized, by undoubted results, to  benevolent views, and the most ardent zeal for
revert to nature and to truth, and to disentangle  the interests as well as the honor of their counthe genuine feelings of the heart from  the ob- try.  May we not flatter ourselves, that upon
structions which a cold, presumptuous, general- this point, also, experience has decided in favor
izing philosophy had wound around them.            of the course of policy which has been actually
One of the most delightful poets of this coun- pursued?
Alove ofone' try, in describing the various propor-    Can any man now  look back upon the trial
ndaticin ote tions of natural blessings and advant- which we have gone through, and Theinterestsor
patriotism.   ages dispensed by Providence to the  maintain that, at any period during eolubl convarious nations of Europe, turns from the luxu- the last twenty years, the plan of in- ecotedv ith
riant plains and cloudless skies of Italy to the  sulated policy could have been adopt- nations.
rugged mountains of Switzerland, and inquires  ed, without having in the event, at this day,
whether there, also, in those barren and stormy  prostrated England at the foot of a conqueror?
regions, the "patriot passion" is found equally  Great, indeed, has been the call upon our exerimt rinted on the heart?  He decides the ques- tions; great, indeed, has been the drain upon our
tioa truly in the affirmative; and he says, of the  resources; long and wearisome has the struggle
inhabitant of those bleak wilds,                  been; and late is the moment at which peace is
Dear is that shed to which his soul conforms,   brought within our reach.  But even though the
And dear that hill which lifts him to the storms; 
And, as a child, when scaring sounds molest,                  2 Goldsmith's Traveler.




1814.]                       ON THE FALL OF BONAPARTE.                                       863
difficulties of the contest may have been en-  as all schemes of violence naturally terminate,
hanced, and its duration protracted by it, yet is  not by a mild and gradual decay, such as waits
there any man who seriously doubts whether the  upon a regular and well-spent life, but by sudhaving associated our destinies with the destinies  den dissolution; at an end, like the breaking up
of other nations be or be not that which, under of a winter's frost.  But yesterday the whole
the blessing of Providence, has eventually secured  continent, like a mighty plain covered with one
the safety of all?                              mass of ice, presented to the view a drear exIt is at the moment when such a trial has come  panse of barren uniformity; to-day, the breath of
Peaeecoaldnot to its issue, that it is fair to ask of heaven unbinds the earth, the streams begin to
ly madee at aa  those who have suffered under the  flow again, and the intercourse of human kind
earlier period. pressure of protracted exertion (and  revives.
of whom rather than of those who are assembled    Can we regret that we did not, like the faint
around me-for by whom have such privations  ing traveler, lie down to rest-but, indeed, to
been felt more sensibly?)-it is now, I say, the  perish-under the severity of that inclement seatime to ask whether, at any former period of the  son?  Did we not more wisely to bear up, and
contest, such a peace could have been made as to wait the change?
would at once have guarded the national inter-    Gentlemen, I have said that I should be ashamests and corresponded with the national charac- ed, and in truth I should be so, to ad- Riht fr En
ter?  I address myself now to such persons only  dress you' in the language of exulta- gland to exlt
as think the character of a nation an essential tion, if it were merely for the indul- her longprivapart of its strength, and consequently of its safe- gence, however legitimate, of an ex- ti
ty.  But if, among persons of that description, uberant and ungovernable joy.  But they who
there be one who with all his zeal for the glory  have suffered great privations have a claim not
of his country, has yet at times been willing to  merely to consolation, but to something more.
abandon the contest in mere weariness and de- They are justly to be compensated for what they
spair, of such a man I would ask, whether he can  have undergone, or lost, or hazarded, by the conindicate the period at which he now wishes that templation of what they have gained.
such an abandonment had been consented to by    We have gained, then, a rank and authority in
the government and the Parliament of Great Europe, such as, for the life of the Her pre-emiBritain?                                        longest liver of those who now hear.n.ians onth
Is it when the continent was at peace-when, me, must place this country upon an rope.
twen Bo looking upon the map of Europe, you  eminence which no probable reverses can shake.
parte first    saw one mighty and connected sys- We have gained, or rather we have recovered, a
surped power tem, one great luminary, with his at-. splendor of military glory, which places us by
tendant satellites circulating around him; at that the side of the greatest military nations in the
period could this country have made peace, and  world.  At the beginning of this war, while there
have remained at peace for a twelvemonth?  was not a British bosom that did not beat with
What is the answer?  Why, that the experi- rapture at the exploits of our navy, there were
ment was tried.  The result was the renewal of few who would not have been contented to comthe war.                                         promise for that reputation alone; to claim the
Was it at a later period, when the continental sea as exclusively our province, and to leave to
Notduringthe system had been established?  When  France and the other continental powers the
prevalence or tWO thirds of the ports of Europe were  struggle for superiority by land.  That fabled
the continental
system.    shut against you?  When but a sin- deity, whom I see portrayed upon the wall,3 was
gle link was wanting to bind the continent in a  considered as the exclusive patron of British
circling chain of iron, which should exclude you  prowess in battle; but in seeming accordance
from intercourse with other nations?  At that with the beautiful fiction of ancient mythology,
moment peace was most earnestly recommended  our Neptune, in the heat of contest, smote the
to you. At that moment, gentlemen, I first came  earth with his trident, and up sprang the fiery
among you.  At that moment I ventured to rec- war-horse, the emblem of military power.
ommend to you perseverance, patient persever-    Let Portugal, now led to the pursuit of her
ance; and to express a hope that, by the mere  flying conquerors-let liberated Spain The benefits
strain of an unnatural effort, the massive bonds -let France, invaded in her turn by to Europe by
imposed upon the nations of the continent might, those whom she had overrun or men- gained it.
at no distant period, burst asunder.  I was heard  aced with invasion, attest the triumphs of the
by you with indulgence-I know not whether army of Great Britain, and the equality of her
with conviction.  But is it now to be regretted  military with her naval fame. And let those who,
that we did not at that moment yield to the  even after the triumphs of the Peninsula had bepressure of our wants or of our fears?  What gun, while they admitted that we had, indeed,
has been the issue?  The continental system was  wounded the giant in the heel, still deemed the
completed, with the sole exception of Russia, in  rest of his huge frame invulnerable-let them
the year 1812.  In that year the pressure upon  now behold him reeling under the blows of united
this country was undoubtedly painful.  Had we  nations, and acknowledge at once the might of
yielded, the system would have been immortal. British arms and the force of British example.
We persevered, and, before the conclusion of another year, the system was at an end: at an end,              3 A figure of Neptune.




864                                     MR. CANNING                                       [1814.
I do not say that these are considerations with  pointed out as the compatriot of Wellington; as
a view to which the war, if otherwise terminable, one of that nation whose firmness and perseverought to have been purposely protracted; but I  ance have humbled France and rescued Europe.
say that, upon the retrospect, we have good reason    Is there any man that has a heart in his bosom
to rejoice that the war was not closed ingloriously  who does not find, in the contemplation of this
and insecurely, when the latter events of it have  contrast alone, a recompense for the struggles and
been such as have established our security by our the sufferings of years?
glory.                                             But, gentlemen, the doing right is not only the
I say we have reason to rejoice, that, during the  most honorable course of action-it is The esulIt not
period when the continent was prostrate before  also the most profitable in its result. oly glorious,
France-that, especially during the period when  At any former period of the war, the fcial.
the continental system was in force, we did not independence of almost all the other countries,
shrink from the struggle; that we did not make  our allies would have been to be purchased with
peace for present and momentary ease, unmind- sacrifices profusely poured out from  the lap of
ful of the permanent safety and greatness of this  British victory.  Not a throne to be re-estabcountry; that we did not leave unsolved the mo- lished, not a province to be evacuated, not a garmentous questions, whether this country could  rison to be withdrawn, but this country would
maintain itself against France, unaided and alone; have had to make compensation, out of her conor with the continent divided; or with the con- quests, for the concessions obtained from the entinent combined against it; whether, when the  emy.  Now, happily, this work is already done,
wrath of the tyrant of the European world was  either by our efforts or to our hands. The penkindled against us with seven-fold fury, we  insula free-the lawful commonwealth of Eurocould or could not walk unharmed and unfet- pean states already, in a great measure, restored,
tered through the flames?                       Great Britain may now appear in the congress
I say we have reason to rejoice that, through- of the world, rich in conquests, nobly and rightout this more than Punic war, in which it has so  fully won, with little claim upon her faith or her
often been the pride of our enemy to represent her- justice, whatever may be the spontaneous imself as the Rome, and England as the Carthage, pulse of her generosity or her moderation.
of modern times (with at least this color for the    Such, gentlemen, is the situation and prospect
comparison, that the utter destruction of the mod- of affairs at the moment at which I have the honern Carthage has uniformly been proclaimed to be  or to address you.  That you, gentlemen, may
indispensable to the greatness of her rival)-we  have your full share in the prosperity of your
have, I say, reason to rejoice that, unlike our as- country, is my sincere and earnest wish.  The
signed prototype, we have not been diverted by  courage with which you bore up in adverse cirinternal dissensions from the vigorous support of cumstances eminently entitles you to this reward.
a vital struggle; that we have not suffered dis-    For myself, gentlemen, while I rejoice in your
tress nor clamor to distract our counsels, or to  returning prosperity, I rejoice also that our concheck the exertions of our arms.                 nection began under auspices so much less favorGentlemen, for twenty years that I have sat in  able; that we had an opportunity of knowing
The war has  Parliament, I have been an advocate  each other's minds in times when the minds of
been uniformly
advocated as  of the war.  You knew this when you  men are brought to the proof-times of trial and
the eans of did me the honor to choose me as your difficulty.  I had the satisfaction of avowing to
an honorable
peace.    representative.  I then told you that you, and you the candor and magnanimity to apI was the advocate of the war, because I was a  prove, the principles and opinions by which my
lover of peace; but of a peace that should be the  public conduct has uniformly been guided, at a
fruit of honorable exertion, a peace that should  period when the soundness of those opinions and
have a character of dignity, a peace that should  the application of those principles was matter
be worth preserving, and should be likely to  of doubt and controversy.  I thought, and I said,
endure.  I confess I was not sanguine enough, at the time of our first meeting, that the cause
at that time, to hope that I should so soon have  of England and of civilized Europe must be ultian opportunity of justifying my professions. But mately triumphant, if we but preserved our spirit
I know not why, six weeks hence, such a peace  untainted and our constancy unshaken.  Such an
should not be made as England may not only  assertion was, at that time, the object of ridicule
be glad, but proud to ratify.  Not such a peace, with many persons: a single year has elapsed,
gentlemen, as that of Amiens-a short and fe- and it is now the voice of the whole world.
verish interval of unrefreshing repose.  Dur-    Gentlemen, we may, therefore, confidently ining that peace, which of you went or sent a son  dulge the hope that our opinions will continue
to Paris, who did not feel or learn that an En- in unison; that our concurrence will be as corgiishman appeared in France shorn of the digni- dial as it has hitherto been, if unhappily any new
ty of his country; with the mien of a suppliant, occasion of difficulty or embarrassment should
and the conscious prostration of a man who had  hereafter arise.
consented to purchase his gain or his ease by sub-    At the present moment, I am  sure, we are
mission?  But let a peace be made to-morrow, equally desirous to bury the recollection of all
such as the allies have now the power to dictate, our differences with others in that general feeling
and the meanest of the subjects of this kingdom  of exultation in which all opinions happily corn
shall not walk the streets of Paris without being  bine.




1820.),                       ON  PARLIAMENTARY  REFORM.                                       865
SPEECIH
OF MR. CANNING ON RADICAL REFORM, DELIVERED TO HIS CONSTITUENTS AT LIVERPOOL,
MARCH 18, 1820.
INTRODUCTION.
ENGLAND was in a very agitated state during the year 1819. Pecnniary distress was nearly universal,
and the agricultural, manufacturing, and commercial interests were reduced to the lowest point of depression.
Sir Francis Burdett, Mr. Hunt, Lord Cochrane, and others, ascribed nearly all the sufferings of the country to one cause, viz., the want of parliamentary reform, and made the most strenuous efforts in fasvor of
annual Parliaments and universal suffrage. Nothing could be more injurious than these efforts to the
cause of genuine reform, as advocated by Earl Grey, especially considering the means adopted by the
radical reformers to accomplish their object. Itinerant lecturers traversed the country, gathering immense
crowds of the lower classes, and inflaming their minds by a sense of injury and oppression. Bodies of men,
amounting sometimes to fifty thousand, marched to the place of meeting in regular array, with banners
bearing the inscription "Liberty or Death!" and others of a similar import. The magistrates became
alarmed, and the measures used to prevent mischief were sometimes unduly severe, and in one instance
(that of the meeting at Manchester, August 16th) were attended with the most deplorable consequences.
It was the general sentiment of the country, that some measures should be adopted to prevent these
evils, and at the meeting of Parliament in November, 1819, the ministry introduced bills for the following
purposes, which, from their number, were called the "Six Acts."  1. To take away the right of traversing in cases of misdemeanor; 2. To punish any person found guilty on a second conviction of libel, by fine,
imprisonment, and banishment for life; 3. To prevent seditious meetings, requiring the names of seven
householders to the requisition, which in future convened any meeting for the discussion of subjects connected with Church or State; 4. To prohibit military training, except under the authority of a magistrate
or Lord Lieutenant; 5. To subject cheap periodical pamphlets, on political subjects, to a duty similar to
that of newspapers; 6. A bill giving magistrates the power of entering houses by night or by day, for
the purpose of seizing arms believed to be collected for unlawful purposes. These bills were all carried
by large majorities; the entering houses by night, and the severity of the restrictions on the press, were
chiefly objected to; but there appeared a general concurrence in the necessity of strong measures.
Soon after these acts were passed, a new election took place; and Mr. Canning came forward to vir.
dicate the above measures, and also to resist every attempt at parliamentary reform by identifying the
whole plan with these radical views. The speech is certainly a very able one, and will interest the read.er
as giving the Tory side of the argument, though it by no means meets the question as presented by slch
reformers as Earl Grey and Mr. Brougham.
SPE E CH, &c.
GENTLEMEN,-Short as the interval is since I an unreserved interchange of sentiment should!
Recentpo. last met you in this place on a similar take place between the representative and:hi
liticalevils. occasion, the events which have filled  constituents; and if it accidentally happens that!
up that interval have not been unimportant. The  he who addresses yoit as your representative,;
great moral disease which we then talked of as stands also in the situation of a responsible adgaining ground on the community has, since that viser of the Crown, I recognize in that more rare
period, arrived at its most extravagant height; occurrence a not less striking or less valuable
and since that period, also, remedies have been  peculiarity of that Constitution under which we
applied to it, if not of permanent cure, at least of have the happiness to live-by which a minister
temporary mitigation.                             of the Crown is brought into contact with the
Gentlemen, with respect to those remedies-   great body of the community, and the service of're reine- I mean with respect to the transactions the King is shown to be a part of the service of
(ies applied. of the last short session of Parliament, the people.
previous to the dissolution-I feel that it is my    Gentlemen, it has been one advantage of the
duty, as your representative, to render to you  transactions of the last session of Parliament, that
some account of the part which I took in that while they were addressed to meet the evils which
assembly to which you sent me; I feel it my duty  had grown out of charges heaped upon the House
also, as a member of the government by which  of Commons, they had also, in a great measure,
those measures were advised.  Upon occasions falsified the charges themselves.
of such trying exigency as those which we have    I would appeal to the recollection of every
lately experienced, I hold it to be of the very es- man who now hears me-of any the most caresonce of our free and popular Constitution, that less estimator of public sentiment, or the most in.
I1 J




866                                     MR. CANNING                                        [1820.
different spectator of public events, whether any  been the guide and guardian of his people through
Signal change  country, in any two epochs, however many a weary and many a stormy pilgrimage
ithe condition distant, of its history, ever present-  scarce less a guide, and quite as much a guardf   count. ed such a contrast with itself as this ian, in the cloud of his evening darkness, as in
country in November, 1819, and this country in  the brightness of his meridian day.l
February, 1820?  Do I exaggerate when I say,    That such a loss, and the recollections and rethat there was not a man of property who did not flections naturally arising from it, must have had
tremble for his possessions?-that there was not a tendency to revive and refresh the attachment
a man of retired and peaceable habits who did  to monarchy, and to root that attachment deeper
not tremble for the tranquillity and security of  in the hearts of the people, might easily be shown
his home?-that there was not a man of orderly  by reasoning; but a feeling, truer than all reaand religious principles who did not fear that soning, anticipates the result, and renders the
those principles were about to be cut from under process of argument unnecessary.  So far, therethe feet of succeeding generations?  Was there  fore, has this great calamity brought with it its
any man who did not apprehend the Crown to  own compensation, and conspired to the restorabe in danger?  Was there any man attached to  tion of peace throughout the country with the
the other branches of the Constitution who did  measures adopted by Parliament.
not contemplate with anxiety and dismay the    And, gentlemen, what was the character ot
rapid and apparently irresistible diffusion of doc- those measures? The best eulogy of
trines hostile to the very existence of Parliament them I take to be this: it may be said of large pubt
as at present constituted, and calculated to ex- of them, as has been said of some of lie meetilgs.
cite not hatred and contempt merely, but open  the most consummate productions of literary art,
and audacious force, especially against the House  that, though no man beforehand had exactly anof Commons?  What is, in these respects, the  ticipated the scope and the details of them, there
situation of the country now?  Is there a man  was no man, when they were laid before him,
of property who does not feel the tenure by which  who did not feel that they were precisely such
he holds his possessions to have been strength- as he would himself have suggested.  So faithened?  Is there a man of peace who does not fully adapted to the case which they were firamed
feel his domestic tranquillity to have been se- to meet, so correctly adjusted to the degree and
cured?  Is there a man of moral and religious  nature of the mischief they were intended to conprinciples who does not look forward with better  trol, that, while we all feel that they have done
hope to see his children educated in those prin- their work, I think none will say there has been.iples?-who does not hail, with renewed con- any thing in them of excess or supeereogation.,fidence, the revival and re-establishment of that    We were loudly assured by the reformers, that,moral and religious sense which had been at- the test throughout the country by which those
~tempted to be obliterated from the hearts of man-  who were ambitious of seats in the new Parkind.?                                           liament would be tried, was to be -  whether
Well, gentlemen, and what has intervened be- they had supported those measures.  I have inThins change tween the two periods?  A calling of quired, with as much diligence as was compatiproduced by                              en    b
tprd etion of that degraded Parliament; a meeting  ble with my duties here, after the proceedings of
thle so miul  of that scoffed at and derided House  other elections, and I protest I know no place yet,
complained of
Parliament.  of Commons; a concurrence of those  besides the hustings of Westminster and Souththree branches of an imperfect Constitution, not wark, at which that menaced test has been put
one of which, if we are to believe the radical re- to any candidates.  To me, indeed, it was not.formers, lived in the hearts, or swayed the feel- put as a test, but objected as a charge.  You
ings, or commanded the respect of the nation; know how that charge was answered; and the
but which, despised as they were while in a state  result is to me a majority of 1300 out of 2000
of separation and inaction, did, by a co-operation  voters upon the poll.
of four short weeks, restore order, confidence, a    But, gentlemen, though this question has not,
reverence for the laws, and ajust sense of their as was threatened, been the watch- The interdictof
own legitimate authority.                        word of popular elections, every other i.,L'
Another event, indeed, has intervened, in it- effort has, nevertheless, been indus- restraint on the,self ofa most painful nature, but powerful in aid- triously  employed to persuade the pople.t
ing and confirming the impressions which the as- people that their liberties have been essentially
sembiling and the proceedings of Parliament were  abridged by the regulation of popular ineetings.
calculated to produce.  I mean the loss which  Against that one of the measures passed by Parthe nation has sustained by the death of a Sov- liament, it is that the attacks of the radical reereign, with whose person all that is venerable  formers have been particularly directed.  Genin monarchy has been identified in the eyes of  tlemen, the first answer to this averment is, that
successive generations of his subjects; a Sover- the act leaves untouched all the constitutional
eign whose goodness, whose years, whose sor- modes of assembly which have been known to
rows and sufferinas must have softened the  the nation since it became free.  We are fond
hearts of the most ferocious enemies of kingly  of dating our freedom  from the Revolution.  I
power;'whose active virtues, and the memory  should be glad to know in what period since the
of whose virtues, when it pleased Divine Provi-                        -
("l,. I. that they should be active no more, have    t This refers to the King's derangement from 1811.




1820.]                         ON PARLIAMENTARY REFORM.                                          867
Revolution (up to a very late period indeed, which  ther they nor I can gain our livelihood.  I call
I will specify)-in what period of those reigns  upon the laws to afford me that protection; and
growing out of the Revolution-I mean, of the  if the laws in this country can not afford it, defirst reigns of the house of Brunswick-did it en-  pend upon it, I and my manufacturers must emter into the head of man, that such meetings could  igrate to some country where they can."  Here
be holden, or that the Legislature would tolerate  is a conflict of rights, between which what is the
the holding of such meetings, as disgraced this  decision?  Which of the two claims is to give
kingdom for some months previous to the last ses- way?  Can any reasonable being doubt?  Can
sion of Parliament?  When, therefore, it is as- any honest man hesitate?  Let private justice or
serted that such meetings were never before sup- public expediency decide, and can the decision by
pressed, the simple answer is, they were never  possibility be other than that the peaceable and
before systematically attempted to be holden.    industrious shall be protected-the turbulent and
I verily believe the first meeting of the kind  mischievous put down?
that was ever attempted and toler-    But what similarity is there between tumults
Schll meetings
unkno.wntotlie ated (I know of none anterior to it)  such as these and an orderly meeting, These imnene'onsitution.  was that called by Lord George Gor- recognized by the law for all legiti- mass meetings
not estential to
don, in St. George's Fields, in the year 1780, mate purposes of discussion or peti- tie right of pewhich led to the demolition of chapels and dwell- tion?  God forbid that there should tition.
ing-houses, the breaking of prisons, and the con- not be modes of assembly by which every class
flagration of London.  Was England never free  of this great nation may be brought together to
till 1780?  Did British liberty spring to light deliberate on any matters connected with lheir
from the ashes of the metropolis?  What! was  interest and their freedom.  It is, however, an inthere no freedom in the reign of George the Sec- version of the natural order of things, it is a disond?  None in that of George the First?  None  turbance of the settled course of society, to reprein the reign of Queen Anne or of King William?  sent discussion as every thing, and the ordinary
Beyond the Revolution I will not go.  But I have  occupations of life as nothing.  To protect the
always heard that British liberty was established  peaceable in their ordinary occupations is as much
long before the commencement of the late reign;  the province of the laws, as to provide opportuninay, that in the late reign (according to popular  ties of discussion for every purpose to which it is'
politicians) it rather sunk and retrograded; and  necessary and properly applicable. The laws do
yet never till that reign was such an abuse of  both; but it is no part of the contrivance of the
popular meetings dreamed of, much less erected  laws that immense multitudes should wantonly
into a right not to be questioned by magistrates,  be brought together, month after month, and day
and not to be controlled by Parliament.            after day, in places where the very bringing toDo I deny, then, the general right of the peo- gether of a multitude is of itself the source of
Allsocialrights pie to meet, to petition, or to delib- terror and of danger.
tioble to ronlet  elate upon their grievances?  God    It is no part of the provision of the laws, nort
tioc othe gen.
eral good.    forbid!  But social right is not a sim-  is it in the spirit of them, that such Tlhey are directple, abstract, positive, unqualified term. Rights  multitudes should be brought togeth- lyr oposed to
are, in the samte individual, to be compared with  er at the will o' unauthorized and ir- English laws.
his duties; and rights in one person are to be  responsible individuals, changing the scene of
balanced with the rights of others.  Let us take  meeting as may suit their caprice or convenience,
this right of meeting in its most extended con- and fixing  it where they have neither property:
struction and most absolute sense.  The persons  nor domicil, nor connection.  The spirit of the
who called the meeting at Manchester tell you  law goes directly the other way.  It is, if I may
that they had a right to collect together count- so express myself, eminently a spirit of corporaless multitudes to discuss the question of parlia- tion.  Counties, parishes, townships, guilds, promentary reform; to collect them when they would  fessions, trades, and callings, form so many local
and where they would, without consent of inag- and political subdivisions, into which the people
istrates, or concurrence of inhabitants, or refer- of England are distributed by the law; and the
ence to the comfort or convenience of the neigh-  pervading principle of the whole is that of vicinborhood.  May not the peaceable, the industri-  age or neighborhood; by which each man is held
ous inhabitant of Manchester say, on the other  to act under the view of his neighbors; to lend
hand: " I have a right to quiet in my house; I  his aid to them, to borrow theirs; to share their
have a right to carry on my manufactory, on  councils, their duties, and their burdens; and to
which not my existence only and that of my  bear with them his share of responsibility for the
children, but that of my workmen and their nu- acts of any of the members of the community of
merons families depends.  I have a right to be  which he forms a part.
protected in the exercise of this my lawful call-    Observe, I am not speaking here of the reviled
ing; I have a right to be protected, not against and discredited statute law only, but of that venviolence and plunder only, against fire and sword, erable common law to which our reformers are
but against the terror of these calamities, and  so fond of appealing on all occasions, against the
against the risk of these inflictions; against the  statute law by which it is modified, explained, or
intimidation or seduction of my workmen; or  enforced.  Guided by the spirit of the one, no
against the distraction of that attention and the  less than by the letter of the other, what man is
interruption of that industry, without which nei- there in this country who can not point to the




868                                       MR. CANNING                                          [1820
portion of society to which he belongs?  If in-  bor's disapprobation; and if ever a multitudinous
jury is sustained, upon whom is the injured per- assembly can be wrought up to purposes of misson expressly entitled to come for redress? Upon  chief, it will be an assembly so composed.
the hundred, or the division in which he has sus-    How monstrous is it to confound such meettained the injury.  On what principle?  On the  ings with the genuine and recognized OUt e
principle, that as the individual is amenable to  modes of collecting the sense of the be confoui, Vied
wit the legal.
the division of the community to which he spe- English people!  Was it by meet- izte lnetings:cially belongs, so neighbors are answerable for ings such as these that the Revolu- of tllepeopleeach other.  Just laws, to be sure, and admira- tion was brought about, that grand event to which
ble equity, if a stranger is to collect a mob which  our antagonists are so fond of referring?  Was
is to set half Manchester on fire; and the burned  it by meetings in St. George's Fields? in Spa
half is to come upon the other half for indemni-  Fields? in Smithfield?  Was it by untold multy, while the stranger goes off unquestioned, to  titudes collected in a village in the north?  No!
excite the like tumult and produce the like dan- It was by the meeting of corporations, in their
ger elsewhere!                                     corporate capacity; by the assembly of recogThat such was the nature, such the tendency,  nized bodies of the state  by the interchange of
ees nay that such, in all huan probabili- opinions among portions of the community known
might easily ty, might have been the result, of meet- to each other, and capable of estimating each
be lbreseen.
ber ings like that of the 16th of August;  other's views and characters.  Do we want a
who can deny?  Who that weighs all the par-  more striking mode  of remedying grievances
ticulars of that day, comparing them with the  than this?  Do we require a more animating exrumors and the threats that preceded it, will dis- ample?  And did it remain for the reformers of
pute that such might have been the result of that the present day to strike out the course by which
very meeting, if that meeting, so very legally  alone Great Britain could make and keep herassembled, had not, by the happy decision of the  self free?
magistrates, been so very illegally dispersed?       Gentlemen, all power is, or ought to be, acIt is, therefore, not in consonance, but in con- companied by responsibility.  Tyr- Some one oghllt
Tiey were cll tradiction to the spirit of the law, that anny is irresponsible power.  This toberespoasible
ed in.a way to suchmeetings have been holden. The  definition is equally true, whether of public meet.
atioo of tle   law prescribes a corporate character. the power be lodged in one or ma- "
law.       The callers of these meetings have  ny; whether in a despot, exempted by the form of
always studiously avoided it.  No summons of  government from the control of the law; or in a
freeholders-none of freemen-none of the in- mob, whose numbers put them beyond the reach
habitants of particular places or parishes-no ac- of law.  Idle, therefore, and absurd, to talk of
knowledgment of local or political classification.  freedom where a mob domineers!  Idle, thereJust so at the beginning of the French Revolu- fore, and absurd, to talk of liberty, when you hold
tion; the first work of the reformers was to loos-  four property, perhaps your life, not indeed at
en every established political relation, every le- the nod of a despot, but at the will of an inflamed.
gal holding of man to man; to destroy every cor- an infuriated populace!  If, therefore, during the
poration, to dissolve every subsisting class of so- reign of terror at Manchester, or at Spa Fields,
ciety, and to reduce the nation into individuals, in  there were persons in this country who had a
order afterward to congregate them into mobs.  right to complain of tyranny, it was they who
Let no person, therefore, run away with the  loved the Constitution, who loved the monarchy,
Saucwmtllhe  notion that these things were done  but who dared not utter their opinions or their
obvious design. without design.  To bring together  wishes until their houses were barricaded, and
the inhabitants of a particular division, or men  their children sent to a place of safety..That
sharing a common franchise, is to bring together  was tyranny! and so far as the mobs were under
an assembly of which the component parts act the control of a leader, that was despotism!  It
with some respect and awe of each other.  An-  was against that tyranny, it was against that descient habits, which the reformers would call prej- potism, that ParliamLent at length raised its arm.
udices; preconceived attachments, which they          All power, I say, is vicious that is not acwould call corruption; that mutual respect which  companied by proportionate responsi-,eraonalre.
makes the eye of a neighbor a security for each  bility. Personal responsibility prevents h    their
man's good conduct, but which the reformers  the abuse ofindividual power; respons- abuse.
would stigmatize as a confederacy among the  ibility of character is the security against the
few for dominion over their fellows; all these  abuse of collective power, when exercised by
things make men difficult to be moved, on the  bodies of men whose existence is permanent and
sudden, to any extravagant and violent enter- defined.  But strip such bodies of these qualities,
prise.  But bring together a multitude of indi- you degrade them into multitudes, and then what
viduals, having no permanent relation to each  security have you against any thing that they
other  no common tie but what arises from their  may do or resolve, knowing that, from the moconcurrence as members of that meeting, a tie  ment at which the meeting is at an end, there is no
dissolved as soon as the meeting is at an end; in  human being responsible for their proceedings?
such an aggregation of individuals there is no  The meeting at Manchester, the meeting at Birsuch mutual respect, no such check upon the pro-  mingham, the meeting at Spa Fields or Smithceedings of each man from the awe of his neigh- field, what pledge could they give to the nation




1820.]                       ON  PARLIAMENTARY  REFORM.                                        869
of the soundness or sincerity of their designs?  the situation of the other members, and the acThe local character of Manchester, the local tion of the Constitution itself.
character of Birmingham, was not pledged to any      I have, on former occasions, stated here, and
of the proceedings to which their names were  I have stated elsewhere, questions on this subappended.   A  certain number of ambulatory  ject, to which, as yet, I have never received an
tribunes of the people, self-elected to that high  answer. "You who propose to-reform the House
function, assumed the name and authority of  of Commons, do you mean to restore that branch
whatever place they thought proper to select for of the Legislature to the same state in which it
a place of meeting; the rostrum  was pitched, stood at some former period? or do you mean to
sometimes here, sometimes there, according to  reconstruct it on new principles?"
the fancy of the mob or the patience of the mag-    Perhaps a moderate Reformer or Whig will anistrates; but the proposition and the proposer  swer, that he means only to restore the House of
were in all places nearly alike; and when, by a  Commons to what it was at some former period.
sort of political ventriloquism, the same voice had  I then beg to ask him-and to that question, also,
been made to issue from  half a dozen different I have never yet received an answer —     At what
corners of the country, it was impudently as- period of our history was the House of Commons
sumed to be a concord of sweet sounds, compos- in the state to which you wish to restore it?"
ing the united voice of the people of England!       The House of Commons must, for the purpose
Now, gentlemen, let us estimate the mighty  of clear argument, be considered in The c.ommons
Te cause f mischief that has been done to liberty  two views. First, with respect to its.neverore,
liberty Ias not by putting down meetings such as I  agency as a third part in the Consti- at present.
remedies   have described.  Let us ask what tution; secondly, with respect to its composition,
adpoted    lawful authority has been curtailed; in relation to its constituents.  As to its agency
let us ask what respectable community has been  as a part of the Constitution, I venture to say,
defrauded of its franchise; let us ask what mu- without hazard, as I believe, of contradiction, that
nicipal institutions have been violated by a law  there is no period in the history of this country
which fixes the migratory complaint to the spot in which the House of Commons will be found to
whence it professes to originate, and desires to  have occupied so large a share of the functions
hear of the grievance from  those by whom that of government as at present. Whatever else may
grievance is felt-which leaves to Manchester, be said of the House of Commons, this one point,
as Manchester, to Birmingham, as Birmingham,  at least, is indisputable, that from the earliest into London, as London, all the free scope of ut- fancy of the Constitution. the power of the House
terance which they have at any time enjoyed for of Commons has been growing, till it has almost,
making known their wants, their feelings, their like the rod of Aaron, absorbed its fellows.  I
wishes, their remonstrances; which leaves to  am not saying whether this is or is not as it ought
each of these divisions its separate authority-to  to be.  I am merely saying why I think that it
the union of all, or of many of them, the aggre- can not be intended to complain of the want of
gate authority of such a consent and co-opera-  power, and of a due share in the government, as
tion; but which denies to any itinerant hawker  the defect of the modern House of Commons.
of grievances the power of stamping their names      I admit, however, very willingly, that the
upon his wares; of pretending, because he may  greater share of power the House of Commons
raise an outcry at Manchester or at Birmingham,  exercises, the more jealous we ought to be of its
that he therefore speaks the sense of the town  composition; and I presume, therefore, that it is
which he disquiets and endangers; or, still more  in this respect, and in relation to its constituents,
preposterously, that because he has disquieted  that the state of that House is contended to want
and endangered half a dozen neighborhoods in  revision.  Well, then, at what period of our histheir turn, he is, therefore, the organ of them all, tory was the composition of the history of the
and through them, of the whole British people.  House of Commons materially different from
Such are the stupid fallacies which the law of  what it is at present?  Is there any period of
the last session has extinguished! and such are  our history in which the rights of election were
the object and effect of the measures which Brit-  not as various, in which the influence of properish liberty is not to survive!                   ty was not as direct, in which recommendations
To remedy the dreadful wound thus inflicted  of candidates were not as efficient, and some borParliamentary upon British liberty-to restore to the  oughs as close as they are now?  I ask for in"Reform.   people what the people have not lost formation; but that information, plain and simple
-to give a new impulse to that spirit of freedom  as it is, and necessary, one should think, to a clear
which nothing has been done to embarrass or re- understanding, much more to a grave decision of
strain, we are invited to alter the constitution of  the point at issue, I never, though soliciting it
that assembly through which the people share in  with all humility, have ever yet been able to obthe Legislature; in short, to make a radical re- tain from any reformer, Radical or Whig.
form in the House of Commons.                        The Radical reformer, indeed, to do him jusIt has always struck me as extraordinary that tice, is not bound to furnish me with an The object of
what is  there should be persons prepared to en- answer to this question, because with thel adical re.
meantbyit? tertain the question of a change in so  his view  of the matter, precedents sistentwith
important a member of the Constitution, without  (except one, which I shall mention mn
considering in what way that change must affect presently) have nothing to do.  The Radical re




870                                      MR. CANNING                                          [1820.
former would, probably, give to my first question  pretension could the House of Lords be mainan answer very different from that which I have  tained in equal authority and jurisdiction with
supposed his moderate brother to give.  He will the House of Commons, when once that House
tell me fairly, that he means not simply to bring  of Commons should become a direct deputation,
the House of Commons back, either to the share  speaking the people's will, and that will the rule
of power which' it formerly enjoyed, or to the  of the government?  In one way or other the
modes of election by which it was formerly cho- House of Lords must act, if it be to remain a,
sen; but to make it what, according to him, it concurrent branch of the Legislature.  Either it
ought to be —a direct, effectual representative  must uniformly affirm the measures which come
of the people; representing them  not as a dele-  from  the House of Commons, or it must occagate commissioned to take care of their interests.  sionally take the liberty to reject them.  If it
but as a deputy appointed to speak their will. uniformly affirm, it-is without the shadow of auNow to this view of the matter I have no other  thority.  But to presume to reject an act of the
objection than this: that the British Constitution  deputies of the whole nation!-by what assumpis a limited monarchy; that a limited monarchy  tion of right could three or four hundred great
is, in the nature of things, a mixed government;  proprietors set themselves against the national
but that such a House of Commons as the Radi-  will?  Grant the reformers, then, what they ask,
cal reformer requires would, in effect, constitute  on the principles on which they ask it, and it is
a pure democracy-a power, as it appears to me, utterly impossible that, after such a reform, the
inconsistent with any monarchy, and unsuscepti-  Constitution should long consist of more than one
ble of any limitation.                             body, and that one body a popular assembly.
I may have great respect for the person who        Why, gentlemen, is this theory? or is it a theThe question  theoretically prefers a republic to a  ory of mine?  If there be, among those Proof (ronl:to"tle'tbe monarchy.  But even supposing me  who hear me, any man w\ho has been p'stl"ist""y
fore us.   to agree with him in his preference,  (as in the generous enthusiasm of youth any man
I should have a preliminary question to discuss, may blamelessly have been) bitten by the docby which he, perhaps, may not feel himself em-  trines of reform, I implore him, before he goes
barrassed; which is this, whether I, born as I am  forward in his progress to embrace those doc(and as I think it is my good fortune to be) under  trines in their radical extent, to turn to the hisa monarchy, am quite at liberty to consider my- tory of the transactions in this country in the year
self as having a clear stage for political experi-  1648, and to examine the bearings of those transments; whether I should be authorized, if I were  actions on this very question of radical reform.c
convinced of the expediency of such a change, to  He will find, gentlemen, that the House of Comwithdraw monarchy altogether from the British  mons of that day passed the following resoluConstitution, and to substitute  an unqualified  tion:
democracy in its stead; or whether, whatever    "Resolved, That the people are, under God, the
changes I may be desirous of introducing, I am   original of all just power."
not bound to consider the Constitution which I    Well! can any sentiment be more just and
find as at least circumscribing the range, and in  reasonable?  Is it not the foundation of all the
some measure prescribing the nature of the im- liberties of mankind?  Be it so.  Let us proprovement.                                         ceed.  The House of Commons followed up this
For my own part, I am undoubtedly prepared  resolution by a second, which runs in something
But the direct to uphold the ancient monarchy of the  like these terms:
re"denygtfte country, by arguments drawn from         Resolved, That the Commons of England,
presentscheme              -
is to destroy  what I think the blessings which we  assembled in Parliament being chosen by and
the sonrhy. ih                                                                            o by ahave enjoyed under it; and by argu-  representing the people, have the supreme auments of another sort, if arguments of another  thority of this nation."
sort shall ever be brought against it.  But all    In this resolution the leap is taken.  Do the
that I am now contending for is, that whatever  Radical reformers deny the premises or the inferreformation is proposed, should be considered  ence? or do they adopt the whole of the temptwith some reference to the established Constitu-  ing precedent before them?
tion of the country.  That point being conceded      But the inference did not stop there.  The
to me, I have no difficulty in saying, that I can  House of Commons proceeded to deduce from
not conceive a Constitution of which one third  these propositions an inference, the apparently
part shall be an assembly delegated by the peo-  logical dependence of which upon these proposipie-not to consult for the good of the nation, tions I wish I could see logically disproved.
but to speak, day by day, the people's will-         "Resolved (without one dissenting voice), That
which must not, in a few  days' sitting, sweep  whatsoever is enacted and declared law by the
away every other branch of the Constitution that  Commons of England, assembled in Parliament,
might attempt to oppose or control it. I can not hath the force of law, and all the people of this
conceive how, in fair reasoning, any other branch  nation are included thereby, although the consent
of the Constitution should pretend to stand against and concurrence of the Iising and House of Peers
it.  If government be a matter of will, all that be izot had thereunto."
we have to do is to collect the will of the nation,   2 It is hardly necessary to remind the reader, that
and, having collected it by an adequate organ,  Mr. Canning here goes back to the days of Cromwell
that will is paramount and supreme.  By what and the deposition of Charles I.




1820.]                        ON  PARLIAMENTARY REFORM.                                         871
Such was the theory: the practical inferences  chisement of Grampound is to be the beginning
were not tardy in their arrival after the theory. of a system of reform: while they know, But not on
In a few weeks the House of Peers was voted  and I hope mean as well as I do, not he principle
of reforming
useless.  We all know  what became of the  to reform  (in the sense of change) but therepr.eCrown.                                             to preserve the Constitution.  I would se"tat'
Such, I say, were the radical doctrines of  not delude the reformers, if I could; and it is
Sucb the result  1648, and such the consequences to  quite useless to attempt a delusion upon perof radical reform. which they naturally led.  If we  sons quite as sagacious in their generation as
are induced to admit the same premises now, any moderate reformers or anti-reformers of us
who is it, I should be glad to know, that is to  all.  They know full well that the Whigs have
guarantee us against similar conclusions?         no more notion than I have of parting with the
These, then, are the reasons why I look with  close boroughs.  Not they, indeed!  A  large,
Aud tlis the jealousy at schemes of parliamentary  and perhaps the larger, part of them are in their
only consist- reforlm.  I look at them with still more  hands.  Why, in the assembly to which you send
e jealousy, because, in one of the two  me, gentlemen, some of those who sit on the
classes of men who co-operate in support of that same side with me represent, to be sure, less
question, I never yet found any two individuals  popular places than Liverpool-but on the bench
who held the same doctrines: I never yet heard  immediately over against me, I descry, among
any intelligible theory of reform, except that of  the most eminent of our rivals for power, scarce
the Radical reformers. Theirs, indeed, it is easy  any other sort of representatives than members
enough to understand.  But as for theirs, I cer- for close, or, if you will, for rotten boroughs. To
tainly am not yet fully prepared.  I, for my part, suppose, therefore, that our political opponents
will not consent to take one step, without know- have any thoughts of getting rid of the close
ing on what principle I am  invited to take it, boroughs, would be a gross delusion: and, I have
and (which is, perhaps, of more consequence) no doubt, they will be quite as fair and open
without declaring on what principle, I will not with the reformers on this point as I am.
consent that any step, however harmless, shall    And why, gentlemen, is it that I am satisfied
be taken.                                         with a system which, it is said, no man  t endagers
What more harmless than to disfranchise a  can support who is not in love with the.monalrchy
Nhuoage to be corrupt borough in CornIalmr  than
loo ^llanpe  to b ^ col upt boiough  in Conlhcorruption?  Is it that I, more than  of'sl[-.
attempted with- has exercised  its franchise amiss,  any other man, am afraid to face a popular elecout settling the
f.is;ciptlen    and brought shame on itself, and on  tion?  To the last question you can give the
wYhichitisumade. the system  of which it is a part?  answer.  To the former I will answer for myNothing.  I have no sort of objection to doing, self.  I do verily believe, as I have already said,
as Parliament has often done in such cases (sup- that a complete and perfect democratical repreposing always the case to be proved), to disfran- sentation, such as the reformers aim at, can not
chising the borough, and rendering it incapable  exist as part of a mixed government.  It may
of abusing its franchise in future.  But though  exist, and, for aught I know or care, may exist
I have no objection to doing this, I will not do it beneficially as a whole.  But I am not sent to
on the principle of speculative improvement.  I  Parliament to inquire into the question whether
do it on the principle of specific punishment for  a democracy or a monarchy be the best.  My
sn offense.  And I will take. good care that no  lot is cast under the British monarchy.  Under
inference shall be drawn from my consent in this  that I have lived-under that I have seen my
specific case, as to any sweeping concurrence in  country flourishi-under that I have seen it enjoy
a scheme of general alteration.                   as great a share of prosperity, of happiness, and
Nay, I should think it highly disingenuous to  of glory, as I believe any modification of human
Boroughis   sufferthe Radical reformers to imagine  society to be capable of bestowing; and I am
fr.~n.pie',,ro- that they had gained a single step to- not prepared to sacrifice or to hazard the fruit
their crimes. ward the admission of their theory, by  of centuries of experience, of centuries of strugany such instance of particular animadversion on  gles, and of more than one century of liberty, as
proved misconduct.  I consent to such disfran- perfect as ever blessed any country upon the
chisement; but I do so, not with a view of fur-  earth, for visionary schemes of ideal perfectibilithering the Radical system-rather of thwarting  ty, or for doubtful experiments even of possible
it.  I am willing to wipe out any blot on the  improvement.
present system, because I mean the present sys-    I am, therefore, for the House of Commons as
tern to stand.  I will take away a franchise, be- a part, and not as the whole, of the The governcause it has been practically abused; not because  government. And as a part of the gov- mnet to be
I am at all disposed to inquire into the origin or ernment, I hold it to be frantic to sup- tes
to discuss the utility of all such franchises, any  pose, that from the election of members of Parmore than I mean to inquire, gentlemen, into  liament you can altogether exclude, by any conyour titles to your estates. Disfranchising Gram- trivance, even if it were desirable to do so, thepound (if that is to be so), I mean to save Old  influence of property, rank, talents, family conSatrum.                                           nection, and whatever else, in the radical lan-.
Now, sir, I think I deal fairly with the Radical guage of the day, is considered as intimidation
reformers; more fairly than those who would  or corruption.  I believe that if a reform, to thesuffer it to be supposed by them that the disfian-  extent of that demanded by the Radical reform.




872                                   MR. CANNING                                        [1820.
ers, were granted, you would, before an annual It is true, that if they found their way therle, the)y
election came round, find that there were new  might endeavor to bring us to a sense of our
connections grown up which you must again de- misdeeds, and to urge us to redeem our characstroy, new influence acquired which you must ter by some self-condemning ordinance; but,
dispossess of its authority; and that in these  would not the authority of their names, as our
fruitless attempts at unattainable purity, you  associates, have more than counterbalanced the
were working against the natural current of hu- force of their eloquence as our reformers?
man nature.                                        But, gentlemen, I am for the whole ConstituI believe, therefore, that, contrive how  you  tion.  The liberty of the subject as much defll, some such human motives of action will pends on the maintenance of the constitutional
fina irom to operate in the election of members  prerogatives of the Crown-oh the acknowledgof Parlia;ient.  I think that this must and ought ment of the legitimate power of the other House
to be so, unjess you mean to exclude from the  of Parliament, as it does in upholding that suconcerns of the nation all inert wealth, all inact- preme power (for such is the power of the purse
ive talent, the retired, the aged, and the infirm;  in one sense of the word, though not in the sense
all who can not face popular assemblies or en- of the resolution of 1648) which resides in the
gage in busy life; in short, unless you have  democratical branch of the Constitution. Whatfound some expedient for disarming property of ever beyond its just proportion was gained by
influence, without (what I hope we are not yet one part,  would be gained at the expense of the
ripe for) the abolition of property itself.     whole; and the balance is now, perhaps, as nearI would have by choice-if the choice were  ly poised as humnan wisdom can adjust it. I fear
varied madeR yet to be made-I would have in the  to touch that balance, the disturbance of which
of election hest House of Commons great variety of  must bring confusion on the nation.
for the House.
interests, and I would have them find    Gentlemen, I trust there are few, very lew,
their way there by a great variety of rights of  reasonable and enlightened men ready such a subject
election; satisfied that uniformity of election  to lend themselves to projects of con- be"it not to
would produce any thing but a just representa- fusion.  But I confess I very much  dit.~
tion of various interests.  As to the close bor- wish that all who are not ready to do so would
oughs, I know that through them  have found  consider the ill effect of any countenance given
their way into the House of Commons men whose  publicly or by apparent implication, to those
talents have been an honor to their kind, and  whom  in their hearts and judgments they dewhose names are interwoven with the brightest spise.  I remember that most excellent and able
periods in the history of their country.  I can  man, Mr. Wilberforce, once saying in the House
not think that system altogether vicious which  of Commons that he' never believed an opposihas produced such fruits.  Nor can I think that tion really to wish mischief to the country; that
there should be but one road into that assembly, they only wished just so much mischief as might
or that no man should be presumed fit for the  drive their opponents out, and place themselves
deliberations of a Senate, who has not had the  in their room."  Now, gentlemen, I can not help
nerves previously to face the storms of the hbust- thinking that there are some persons tamnpering
ings.                                           with the question of reform  something in the
I need not say, gentlemen, that I am one of  same spirit.  They do not go so far as the rethe last men to disparage the utility and dignity  formers; they even state irreconcilable difierenof popular elections. I have good cause to speak  ces of opinion; but to a certain extent they agree,
of them in far different language.  But, among  and even co-operate with them.  They co-opernumberless other considerations which endear ate with them in inflaming the public feeling not
to me the favors which I have received at your only against the government, but against the sup-;hands, I confess it is one that, as your represent- port given by Parliament to that government, in
ative, I am enabled to speak my genuine senti- the hope, no doubt, of attracting to themselves,ments on this (as I think it) vital question of  the popularity which is lost to their opponents,
Iparliamentary reform, without the imputation of  and thus being enabled to correct and retrieve
~shrinking from popular canvass, or of seeking  the errors of a displaced administration.  Vain
shelter for myself in that species of representa- and hopeless task to raise such a spirit and then.tion which, as an element in the composition of  to govern it!  They may stimulate the steeds
Parliament. I never shall cease to defend.      into fury, till the chariot is hurried to the brink
In truth, gentlemen, though the question of  of a precipice; but do they flatter themselves thae
The most vio- reform is made the pretext of those  they can then leap in, and, hurling the incompeteat willing to  persons who have vexed the country  tent driver from his seat, check the reins just in
sitforboroughs. for some months, I verily believe  time to turn from the precipice and avoid the filly?
that there are very few even of them who either I fear they would attempt it in vain.  The inlCgive credit to their own exarggerations, or care  pulse once given maybe too impetuous to be conmuch about the improvements which they rec- trolled; and intending only to change the guidomcmend.  Why, do we not see that the most vio- ance of the machine, they may hurry it and themlent of the reformers of the day are aiming at seats  selves to irretrievable destruction.
in that assembly, which, according to their own    May every man who has a stake in the countheories, they should have left to wallow in its  try, whether from situation, from character, from,own pollution, discountenanced and unredeemed?  wealth, from his family, and from the hopes of




1823.]                             ON  VISITING  PLYMOUTH.                                       873
his children-may every man who has a sense  is but that line of demarkation.  On which side
of the blessings for which he is indebted to the  of that line we, gentlemen, shall range ourselves,
form  of government under which he lives, see  our che;ce has long ago been made.  In acting
that the time is come at which his decision must upon that our common choice, with my best efbe taken, and, when once taken, steadfastly acted  forts and exertions, I shall at once faithfully repupon-for or against the institutions of the Brit-  resent your sentiments, and satisfy my own judgish monarchy!  The time is come at which there  ment and conscience.
SPEECH
OF MR. CANNING, DELIVERED AT PLYMOUTHI, IN THE YEAR 1823.
INTRODUCTION.
MR. CANNING having visited Plymouth and inspected the Dock-yards in 1823, the freedom of the town
was presented him through the Mayor and other public officers. He returned thanks in the following
speech, which was much admired at the time not only for the political views which it expressed, but especially for his beautiful allusion to the ships in ordinary as an emblem of England while reposing in the
quietude of peace.
SPEECH, &o.
MR. MAYOR AND GENTLEMEN,-I accept with             Gentlemen, the end which I confess I have al
thankfulness, and with greater satisfaction than I  ways had in view, and which ap- The views ofa
can express, this flattering testimony of your  pears to me the legitimate object of Bhruld'' bltcin"
t  should tbe ingood opinion and good will.  I must add that the  pursuit to a British statesman, I can  fledto the inter
value of the gift itself has been greatly enhanced  describe  in one word.  The lan- Britain.
by the manner in which your worthy and honor-  guage of modern philosophy is wisely and difable Recorder has developed the motives which  fusely benevolent; it professes the perfection of
suggested it, and the sentiments which it is in-  our species, and the amelioration of the lot of all
tended to convey.                                  mankind. Gentlemen, I hope that my heart beats
Gentlemen, your recorder has said very truly,  as high for the general interest of humanity-I'rhe life ofev- that whoever in this free and enlight-  hope that I have as friendly a disposition toward
ery ptblic ta     aeine a
subl"ectto   ened state, aims at political eminence,  other nations of the earth, as any one who vaunts
scrutiny.    and discharges political duties, must  his philanthropy most highly; but I am contentexpect to have his conduct scrutinized, and ev-  ed to confess that, in the conduct of political afcry action of his public life sifted with no ordi-  fairs, the grand object of my contemplation is the
nary jealousy, and with no sparing criticism; and  interest of England.
such may have been my lot as much as that of          Not, gentlemen, that the interest of England
other public men.  But, gentlemen, unmerited  is an interest which stands isolated and        n
obloquy seldom  fails of an adequate, though  alone.  The situation which she holds  o principle of
perhaps tardy, compensation.  I must think my-  forbids an exclusive selfishness; her    t
self, as my honorable friend has said, eminently  prosperity must contribute to the prosperity of
fortunate, if such compensation as he describes  other nations, and her stability to the safety of the
has fallen to me at an earlier period than to many  world. But intimately connected as we are with
others; if I dare flatter myself (as his partiality  the system of Europe, it does not follow that we
has flattered me), that the sentiments that you are  are, therefore, called upon to mix ourselves on
kind enough to entertain for me, are in unison  every occasion, with a restless and meddling actwith those of the country; if, in addition to the  ivity, in the concerns of the nations which surjustice done me by my friends, I may, as he has  round us.  It is upon ajust balance of conflicting
assured me, rely upon a candid construction, even  duties, and of rival, but sometimes incompatible
from political opponents.                          advantages, that a government must judge when
But, gentlemen, the secret of such a result  to put forth its strength, and when to husband it
does not lie deep.  It consists only in  for occasions yet to come.
Success depends
on very simple  an honest and undeviating pursuit    Our ultimate object must be the peace of the
plinciples.  of what one conscientiously believes  world.  That object may sometimes Thr,  pace of
to be one's public duty-a pursuit which, stead-  be best attained by ptrompt exertiolns tle vll the
ily continued, will, however detached and sepa-  -sometimes by abstinence from  in- object.
rate parts of a man's conduct may be viewed  terposition in contests which we can not prevent.
under the influence of partialities or prejudices,  It is upon these principles that, as has been most
obtain for it, when considered as a whole, the  truly observed by my worthy friend, it did not
approbation of all honest and honorable minds.  appear to the government of this country to be
Any man may occasionally be mistaken as to the  necessary that Great Britain should mingle in the
means most conducive to the end which he has in  recent contest between France and Spain.
view; but if the end be just and praiseworthy,    Your worthy recorder has accurately classed
it is by that he will be ultimately judged, either  the persons who would have driven us into that
by his contemporaries or by posterity.             contest.  There were undoubtedly among them




874                                      MR. CANNING                                        [1823.
those who desired to plunge this country into the  now reposing on their shadows in perfect stillness
difficulties of war, partly from the hope that those  -how soon, upon any call of patriotisml, or of
difficulties would overwhelm the administration; necessity, it would assume the likeness of an anibut it would be most unjust not to admit that mated thing, instinct with life and motion —how
there were others who were actuated by nobler soon it would rulfle, as it eere, its swelling plusmprinciples and more generous feelings, who would  age-how quickly it would put forth all its beauty
have rushed forward at once from the sense of and its bravery, collect its scattered elements oJ'
indignation at aggression, and who deemed that strength, and awaken its dormant thunder.  Such
no act of injustice could be perpetrated from one  as is one of these magnificent mnachines when
end of the universe to the other, but that the  springisng froms inaction into a display of its
sword of Great Britain should leap from its scab- miight-such is England herself, while, appaarentbard to avenge it.  But as it is the province of ly passive and motionless, she silently concentrates
law to control the excess even of laudable pas- the power to be putforth on an adequate occasion."
sions and propensities in individuals, so it is the  But God forbid that that occasion should arise.
duty of government to restrain within due bounds  After a war sustained for near a quarter of a centhe ebullition of national sentiment, and to regu- tury-sometimes single-handed, and with all Eulate the course and direction of impulses which.it rope arranged at times against her, or at her side.
can not blame. Is there any one among the latter England needs a period of tranquillity, and inay
class of persons described by my honorable friend  enjoy it without fear of misconstruction.  Long
(for to the former I have nothing to say) who con- may we be enabled, gentlemen, to improve the
tinues to doubt whether the government did wise- blessings of our present situation, to cultivate the
ly in declining to obey the precipitate enthusiasm  arts of peace, to give to commerce, now revivwhich prevailed at the commencement of the  ing, greater extension, and new spheres of emcontest in Spain?l  Is there any body who does ployment, and to confirm  the prosperity now
not now think that it was the office of govern- generally diffused throughout this island.  Of
ment to examine more closely all the various the blessing of peace, gentlemen, I trust that
bearings of so complicated a question, to consider this borough, with which I have now the honor
whether they were called upon to assist a united  and happiness of being associated, will receive
nation, or to plunge themselves into the internal an ample share.  I trust the time is not far disfeuds by which that nation was divided-to aid  tant, when that noble structure of which, as I
in repelling a foreign invader, or to take part in  learn from  your Recorder, the box with which
a civil war? Is there any man that does not now  you have honored me, through his hands, formed
see what would have been the extent of burdens a part, that gigantic barrier against the fury of
that would have been cast'upon this country?  the waves that roll into your harbor, will protect
Is there any one who does not acknowledge that, a commercial marine not less considerable in its
under such circumstances the enterprise would  kind than the warlike marine of which your port
have been one to be characterized only by a term   has been long so distinguished an asylum, when
borrowed from that part of the Spanish literature  the town of Plymouth will participate in the corn
with which we are most familiar-Quixotic; an  mercial prosperity as largely as it has hitherto
enterprise romantic in its origin, and thankless done in the naval glories of England.
in the end?
But while we thus control even our feelings    2 It will interest the reader to compare this pasBut peace by our duty, let it not be said that we  sage with one conceived in the same spirit by tho
hollt be  cultivate peace either because we fear, poet Campbell, on the launching of a ship of the line.
being ready or because we ae ure pared fwa           Those who have ever witnessed the spectacle
for war.e                  unpr      d  or        of the launching of a ship of the line will perhaps
on the contrary, if eight months ago the
gem tinhsat a   a    forgive me for adding this to the examples of the
government did not hesitate to proclaim that the  sublime objects of artificial life. Of that spectacle
country was prepared for war, if war should be  I can never forget the impression, and of having witunfortunately necessary, every month of peace  nessed it reflected from the faces of ten thousand
that has since passed has but made us so much  spectators. Theyseemyetbeforeme —Isympathize
the more capable of exertion.  The resources with their deep and silent expectation, and with
created by peace are means of war.  In cher-            fial burst of ethusiasm. It was not a vulgar
ishing  those resources, we but accumulate those  joy, but an affecting national solemnity. When the
mens   O7e. prsn  rpeinmearo vast bulwark sprang from her cradle, the calm water
means.  Our present repose is no more a proof  o wic se                majestically round, gave the im.
of usability toactthanthestateofinertnessan   00 whicha  she swung majestically round, gave the imof inability to act, than the state of inertness and  agination a contrast of the stormy element on which
inactivity in which Ihave seen those mighty nmasses she was soon to ride. All the days of battle, and
that float in the waters above your town, is a proof  the nights of danger which she had to encounterthat they are devoid of strength, and incapable of  all the ends of the earth which she had to visit-and
beingfitted out for action.  You well know. gen- all that she had to do and to suffer for her country,
tlenen, how soon one of those stupendous masses, rose in awful presentiment before the mind; and
__________________________        when the heart gave her a benediction, it was like
1 See this subject explained in the introduction to  one pronounced on a living being."-Esssy on En.
Mr. Brougham's speech respecting it, page 904.    glish Poetry.




1826.]                     ON AFFORDING AID TO PORTUGAL                                        875
SPEECH
OF MR. CANNING ON AFFORDING AID TO PORTUGAL WHEN INVADED FROM SPAIN, DELIVERED
IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, DECEMBER 12,1826.
INTRODUCTION.
ENGLAND had been for nearly two centuries the ally and protector of Portugal, and was bound to defend
her when attacked.
In 1826, a body of absolutists, headed by the Queeni Dowager and the Marquess of Chaves, attempted
to destroy the existing Portuguese government, which had been founded on the basis of constitutional
liberty. This government had been acknowledged by England, France, Austria, and Russia. It was,
however, obnoxious to Ferdinand, king of Spain; and Portugal was invaded from the Spanish territory
by large bodies of Portuguese absolutists, who had been there organized with the connivance, if not the
direct aid, of the Spanish government.
The Portuguese government now demanded the assistance of England. Five thousand, troops were,
therefore, instantly ordered to Lisbon, and Mr. Canning came forward in this speech to explain the reasons
of his prompt intervention. " This," says his biographer, "is the master-piece of his eloquence. In propriety and force of diction-in excellence of appropriate and well-methodized arrangement-in elevation
of style and sentiment; and in all the vigorous qualities of genuine manly eloquence-boldness-judgment
-firmness, it fully sustains its title to the high eulogy given it by Mr. Brougham at the close of the debate."
SPEECH, &c.
BMR. SPEAKER — In proposing to the House of  ed.  These causes are, adherence to the national
Desigofthle Comnmons to acknowledge, by an hum- faith, and regard for the national honor.
speaker.    ble and dutiful address, his Majesty's    Sir, if I did not consider both these causes as
most gracious message, and to reply to it in terms  involved in the proposition which I
which will be, in effect, an echo of the sentiments  have this day to make to yoti, I should flii, allnd honlor
and a fulfillment of the anticipations of that mes- not address the House, as I now do, peoo'.ed.eassage, I feel that, however confident I may be in  in the full and entire confidence that ure"
the justice, and however clear as to the policy  the gracious communication of his Majesty will
of the measures therein announced, it becomes  be met by the House with the concurrence of
me, as a British minister, recommending to Par-  which his Majesty has declared his expectation.
iiament any step which may approximate this    In order to bring the matter which I have to
country even to the hazard of a war, while I ex- submit to you, under the cognizance of  a,,l Fitsr.
plain the grounds of that proposal, to accompany  the House, in the shortest and clearest Treaty obligations to
my explanation with expressions of regret.        manner, I beg leave to state it, in the Portugal.
I can assure the House, that there is not with- first instance, divested of any collateral considerHigil sense en- in its walls any set of men more deep- ations.  It is a case of law and of fact: of natelt   of'rtc f  y convinced than his Majesty's min- tional law on the one hand, and of notorious fact
peace.     isters-nor any individual more inti- on the other; such as it must be, in my opinion,
mately persuaded than he who has now the hon- as impossible for Parliament, as it was for the
or of addressing you-of the vital importance of  government, to regard in any but one light; or
the continuance of peace to this country and to  to come to any but one conclusion upon it.
the world.  So strongly am I impressed with this    Among the alliances by which, at different
opinion-and for reasons of which I will put the  periods of our history, this country has Early origi
House more fully in possession before I sit down  been connected with the other nations othose bli.
-that I declare there is no question of doubtful of Europe, none is so ancient in origin, gati'"
or controverted policy-no opportunity of present and so precise in obligation —none has continued
national advantage-no precaution against re- so long, and been observed so faithfully-of none
mote difficulty-which I would not gladly com- is the memory so intimately interwoven with the
promise, pass over, or adjourn, rather than call most brilliant records of our triumphs, as that by
on Parliament to sanction, at this moment, any  which Great Britain is connected with Portugal.
measure which had a tendency to involve the  It dates back to distant centuries; it has survived
country in war.  But, at the same time, sir, I  an endless variety of fortunes.  Anterior in exfeel that which has been felt, in the best times  istence to the accession of the house of Braganza
of English history, by the best statesmen of this  to the throne of Portugal-it derived, however,
country, and by the Parliaments by whom those  fresh vigor from that event; and never, from that
statesmen were supported-I feel that there are  epoch to the present hour, has the independent
two causes, and but two causes, which can not monarchy of Portugal ceased to be nurtured by
be either compromised, passed over, or adjourn- the friendship of Great Britain.  This alliance




876                                     MR. CANNING                                        [1826.
has never been seriously interrupted; but it has  Portugal.  That convention, I say, was contermbeen renewed by repeated sanctions.  It has  poraneous with the migration to the Brazils; a
been maintained under difficulties by which the  step of great importance at the time, as removfidelity of other alliances were shaken, and has ing from the grasp of Bonaparte the sovereign
been vindicated in fields of blood and of glory.   family of Braganza.  Afterward, in the year
That the alliance with Portugal has been al- 1810, when the seat of the King of Portugal's
Noonel asever ways unqualifiedly advantageous to  government was established at Rio de Janeiro,
toughttltbey  this country-that it has not been  and when it seemed probable, in the then apparbroken o:.   sometimes inconvenient and some- ently hopeless condition of the affairs of Europe,
times burdensome —I am not bound nor prepared  that it was likely long to continue there, the seto maintain.  But no British statesman, so far as cret convention of 1807, of which the main obI know, has ever suggested the expediency of  ject was accomplished by the fact of the emigrashaking it off; and it is assuredly not at a mo- tion to Brazil, was abrogated, and a new and pubment of need that honor and, what I may be al- lie treaty was concluded, into which was translowed to call national sympathy, would permit ferred the stipulation of 1807, binding Great
us to weigh, with an over-scrupulous exactness, Britain, so long as his faithful Majesty should
the amount of difficulties and dangers attendant be compelled to reside in Brazil, not to acknowlupon its faithful and steadfast observance. What edge any other sovereign of Portugal than a
feelings of national honor would forbid, is for- member of the house of Braganza.  That stipbidden alike by the plain dictates of national ulation which had hitherto been secret, thus befaith.                                           came patent, and part of the known law of naIt is not at distant periods of history, and in  tions.
solemnly re- by-gone ages only, that the traces of    In the year 1814, in consequence of the hapnewvedii815. the union between Great Britain and  py conclusion of the war, the option was affordPortugal are to be found.  In the last compact ed to the King of Portugal of returning to his
of modern Europe, the compact which forms the  European dominions.  It was then felt that, as
basis of its present international law-I mean the  the necessity of his most faithful Majesty's abtreaty of Vienna of 1815-this country, with its sence from Portugal had ceased, the ground for
eyes open to the possible inconveniences of the  the obligation originally contracted in the secret
connection, but with a memory awake to its past convention of 1807, and afterward transferred to
benefits, solemnly renewed the previously exist- the patent treaty of 1810, was removed.  The
ing obligations of alliance and amity with Portu- treaty of 1810 was, therefore, annulled at the
iial.  I will take leave to read to the House the  Congress of Vienna; and in lieu of the stipulathird article of the treaty concluded at Vienna, tion not to acknowledge any other sovereign of
in 1815, between Great Britain on the one hand, Portugal than a member of the house of Braand Portugal on the other.  It is couched in the  ganza, was substituted that which I have just
following terms: "The treaty of Alliance, con- read to the House.
eluded at Rio de Janeiro, on the 19th of Febru-    Annulling the treaty of 1810, the treaty of
ary, 1810, being founded on circumstances of a  Vienna renews and confirms (as the House will
temporary nature, which have happily ceased to  have seen) all former treaties between Great
exist, the said treaty is hereby declared to be  Britain and Portugal, describing them  as "anvoid in all its parts, and of no effect; without cient treaties of alliance, friendship, and guaran.
prejudice, however, to the ancient treaties of alli. tee;" as having " long and happily subsisted beance, friendship, and guarantee, which have so  tween the two Crowns " and as being allowed,
long and so happily subsisted between the two  by the two high contracting parties, to remain
Crowns, and which are hereby renewed by the  "in full force and effect."
high contracting parties, and acklnowledged to be    What, then, is the force-what is the effect of
of fEu7lforce and effect."                       those ancient treaties?  I am  pre- England boud(,
In order to appreciate the force of this stipu- pared to show to the House what it noteby etis, but
lation-recent in point of time, re- is.  But before I do so, I must say, teties to proCircumstances                                                                          tect Portugal.
connected with cent, also, in the sanction of Parlia- that if all the treaties to which this
tlatl enewal.  ment-the House will, perhaps, al- article of the treaty of Vienna refers, had perished
low me to explain shortly the circumstances in'by some convulsion of nature, or had by some exreference to which it was contracted.  In the  traordinary accident been consigned to total obyear 1807, when, upon the declaration of Bona- livion, still it would be impossible not to admit, as
parte, that the house of Braganza had ceased to  an incontestible inference fiom this article of the
reign, the King of Portugal, by the advice of treaty of Vienna alone, that in a moral point of
Great Britain, was induced to set sail for the  view, there is incumbent on Great Britain, a deBrazils; almost at the very moment of his most cided obligation to act as the effectual defender
faithful Majesty's embarkation, a secret conven- of Portugal. If I could not show the letter of a
tion was signed between his Majesty and the  single antecedent stipulation, I should still conKing of Portugal, stipulating that, in the event tend that a solemn admission, only ten years old,
of his most faithful Majesty's establishing the  of the existence at that time of "treaties of alseat of his government in Brazil, Great Britain  liance, friendship, and guarantee," held Great
would never acknowledge any other dynasty than  Britain to the discharge of the obligations which
that of the house of Braganza on the throne of that very description implies.  But fortunately




1826.]                     ON AFFORDING  AID  TO  PORTUGAL.                                      877
there is no such difficulty in specifying the na- of the treaties which I have quoted, it is possible
ture of those obligations.  All of the preceding  to raise a question-whether varia- Further discs.
treaties exist-all of them are of easy reference  tion of circumstances or change of sion of these
-all of them  are known to this country, to  times may not have somewhat relax-                a
Spain, to every nation of the civilized world. ed its obligations.  The treaty of 1661, it might
They are so numerous, and their general result be said, was so loose and prodigal in the wordis so uniform, that it may be sufficient to select ing-it is so unreasonable, so wholly out of naonly two of them to show the nature of all.        ture, that any one country should be expected to
The first to which I shall advert is the treaty  defend another, "even as itself;'  such stipulaBytreaty of 1661, which was concluded at the  tions areof soexaggerated a character, as to reot'1661.  time of the marriage of Charles the Sec- semble effusions of feeling, rather than enunciaond with the Infanta of Portugal.  After reciting  tions of deliberate compact.  Again, with rethe marriage, and making over to Great Britain, spect to the treaty of 1703, if the case rested on
in consequence of that marriage, first, a consid- that treaty alone, a question might be raised,
erable sum of money, and, secondly, several im- whether or not, when one of the contracting parportant places, some of which, as Tangier, we no  ties-Holland-had since so changed her relalonger possess   but others of which, as Bombay, tions with Portugal, as to consider her obligations
still belong to this country, the treaty runs thus: under the treaty of 1703 as obsolete-whether
" In consideration of all which grants, so much to  or not, I say, under such circumstances, the ohthe benefit of the King of Great Britain and his  ligation on the remaining party be not likewise
subjects in general, and of the delivery of those  void.  I should not hesitate to answer both these
important places to his said Majesty and his heirs objections in the negative.  But without enterforever, &c., the King of Great Britain does pro- ing into such a controversy, it is sufficient for me
fess and declare, with the consent and advice of to say that the time and place for taking such obhis council, that he will take the interest of Port-  jections was at the Congress at Vienna.  Then
ugal and all its dominions to heart, defending the  and there it was that if you, indeed, considered
same with his utmost power by sea and land, these treaties as obsolete, you ought frankly and
even as England itself;" and it then proceeds to  fearlessly to have declared them to be so.  But
specify the succors to be sent, and the manner of  then and there, with your eyes open, and in the
sending them.                                      face of all modern Europe, you proclaimed anew
I come next to the treaty of 1703, a treaty of  the ancient treaties of alliance, friendship, and
Bytreaty alliance cotemporaneous with the Me- guarantee, "so long  subsisting between  the
of 1703.  thuen treaty, -which has re(gulated, for up- Crowns of Great Britain and Portugal," as still
ward of a century, the commercial relations of  " acknowledged by Great Britain," and still'of
the two countries.  The treaty of 1703 was a  full force and effect.'  It is not, however, on spetripartite engagement between the States Gen- cific articles alone-it is not so much, cener-ali neral of Holland, England, and Portugal.  The  perhaps, oneither ofthese ancient treat- fereneiasto
second article of that treaty sets forth, that " If ies, taken separately, as it is on the spir- gations.
ever it shall happen that the Kings of Spain and  it and understanding of the whole body of treatFrance, either the present or the future. that both  ies, of which the essence is concentrated and preof them together, or either of them separately, served in the treaty of Vienna, that we acknowlshall make war, or give occasion to suspect that edge in Portugal a right to look to Great Britain
they intend to make war upon the kingdom of as her ally and defender.
Portugal, either on the continent of Europe, or on    This, sir, being the state, morally and politits dominions beyond the seas; her Majesty the  ically, of our obligations toward Port- p,,tt Secosnl.
Queen of Great Britain, and the Lords the States ugal, it is obvious that when Portugal, ttnowe-t
General, shall use their friendly offices with the  in apprehension of the coming storm, m-nued.
said Kings, or either of them, in order to persuade  called on Great Britain for assistance, the only
them to observe the terms of peace toward Port- hesitation on our part could be-not whether that
ugal, and not to make war upon it."   The third  assistance was due, supposing the occasion for
article declares, " That in the event of these good  demanding it to arise, but simply whether that
offices not proving successful, but altogether in- occasion-in other words, whether the caseusfaeffectual, so that war should be made by the  deris had arisen.
aforesaid Kings, or by either of them upon Port-    I understand, indeed, that in some quarters it
ugal, the above-mentioned powers of Great Brit- has been imputed to his Majesty's Answer to the
ain and Holland shall make war with all their ministers that an extraordinary delay ~osetlhtthe
force upon the aforesaid Kings or King who shall intervened between the taking of the'met'.O
carry hostile arms into Portugal;  and toward  determination to give assistance to s1ow]y.
that war which shall be carried on in Europe,  Portugal and the carrying of that determination
they shall supply twelve thousand men, whom  into effect.  But how stands the fact?  On Sunthey shall arm and pay; as well when in quarters day, the third of this month, we received from the
as in action; and the said high allies shall be  Portuguese embassador a direct and formal deobliged to keep that number of men complete, mand of assistance against a hostile aggression
by recruiting it from  time to time at their own  from  Spain.   Our answer was, that although
expense."                                          rumors had reached us through France, his MajI am aware, indeed, that with respect to either esty's government had not that accurate inform



878                                       MR. CANNING                                         [1826.
ation-that official and precise intelligence of  Chambers an extension of power for the mxecufacts-on which they could properly found an ap- tive government, and the permission to apply for
plication to Parliament.  It was only on last Fri- foreign succors, in virtue of ancient treaties, in
day night that this precise information arrived. the event of their being deemed necessary. The
On Saturday his Majesty's confidential servants  deputies gave the requisite authority by acclacame to a decision.  On Sunday that decision  mation; and an equally good spirit was manireceived the sanction of his Majesty.  On Mon- fested by the peers, who granted every power
day it was communicated to both Houses of Par- that the ministers could possibly require.  They
liament; and this day, sir, at the hour in which  even went further, and, rising in a body from their
I have the honor of addressing you, the troops  seats, declared their devotion to their country.
are on their march for embarkation.                and their readiness to give their personal servI trust, then, sir, that no unseemly delay is im- ices, if necessary, to repel any hostile invasion.
They weebund putable to government.  But un- The Duke de Cadaval, president of the Chamber,
to have evidence doubtedly, on the other hand, when  was the first to make this declaration; and the
acton the claim of Portugal for assistance  minister who described this proceeding to me,
-a claim  clear, indeed, in justice, but at the  said it was a movement worthy of the good days
same time fearfully spreading in its possible con- of Portugal i"
sequences, came before us, it was the duty of his    I have thus incidentally disposed of the supMajesty's government to do nothing on hearsay. posed imputation of delay in comply- Proof that the
The eventual force of the claim was admitted; ing with the requisition of the Portu- itenlposditionuf
but a thorough knowledge of facts was necessa- guese government.  The main ques- neded.
ry before the compliance with that claim could  tion, however, is this: Was it obligatory upon us
be granted.  The government here labored un- to comply with that requisition? In other words,
der some disadvantage.  The rumors which  had the caszs federis arisen?  In our opinion it
reached us through Madrid were obviously dis- had. Bands of Portuguese rebels, armed, equiptorted, to answer partial political purposes; and  ped, and trained in Spain, had crossed the Spanthe intelligence through the press of France, ish frontier, carrying terror and devastation into
though substantially correct, was, in particulars, their own country, and proclaiming sometimes
vague and contradictory.  A measure of grave  the brother of the reigning Sovereign of Portuand serious monient could never be founded on  gal, sometimes a Spanish Princess, and somesuch authority; nor could the ministers come  times even Ferdinand of Spain, as the rightful
down to Parliament until they had a confident occupant of the Portuguese throne.  These rebassurance that the case which they had to lay  els crossed the frontier, not at one point only,
before the Legislature was true in all its parts.   but at several points; for it is remarkable that
But there was another reason which induced  the aggression, on which the original application
That evidence a necessary caution.  In former in- to Great Britain for succor was founded, is not
delayed by the stances, when Portugal applied to  the aggression with reference to which that apnature of the                     _
Pleritugee   this country for assistance, the whole  plication has been complied with.
government.  power of the state in Portugal was    The attack announced by the French newspavested in the person of the monarch.  The ex- pers was on the north of Portugal, in Portli.
pression of his wish, the manifestation of his de- the province of Tras-os-Montes; an vaded frorn
sire, the putting forth of his claim, was sufficient official account of which has been re- frentquarground for immediate and decisive action on the  ceived by his Majesty's government ter
part of Great Britain, supposing the casus fcde- only this day.  But on Friday an account was,
-is to be made out.  But, on this occasion, in- received of an invasion in the south of Portugal,
quiry was in the first place to be made whether, and of the capture of Villa Viciosa, a town lying
according to the new Constitution of Portugal,  on the road from the southern fiontier to Lisbon.
the call upon Great Britain was made with the  This new fact established even more satisfactoconsent of all the powers and authorities compe- rily than a mere confirmation of the attack first
tent to make it, so as to carry with it an assur- complained of would have done, the systematic
ance of that reception in Portugal for our army, nature of the aggression of Spain against Portuwhich the army of a friend and ally had a right to  gal. One hostile irruption might have been made
expect.  Before a British soldier should put his  by some single corps escaping from  their quarfoot on Portuguese ground, nay, before he should  ters-by some body of stragglers, who might
leave the shores of England, it Nwas our duty to  have evaded the vigilance of Spanish authorities;
ascertain that the step taken by the Regency of  and one such accidental and unconnected act of
Portugal was taken with the cordial concurrence  violence might not have been conclusive evidence
of the Legislature of that country.  It was but of cognizance and design on the part of those authis morning that we received intelligence of the  thorities; but when a series of attacks are made
proceedings of the Chambers at Lisbon, which  along the whole line of a frontier, it is difficult
establishes the fact of such concurrence.  This  to deny that such multiplied instances of hostiliintelligence is contained in a dispatch from Sir  ty are evidence of concerted aggression.
W. A'Court, dated 29th of November, of which         If a single company of Spantish soldiers had
I will read an extract to the House.  "The day  crossed the frontier in hostile array, The invaion 
after the news arrived of the entry of the rebels  there could not, it is presumed, be a Spanish cne ir
into Portugal, the ministers demanded from  the  doubt as to the character of that in-ac




1826.]                    ON AFFORDING AID  TO  PORTUGAL.                                     879
vasion. Shall bodies of men, armed, clothed, and    When I state this, it will be obvious to the
regimented by Spain, carry fire and sword into  House, that the vote for which I am  In protecting
the bosom of her unoffending neighbor, and shall about to call upon them, is a vote for'.ortl, Engt
it be pretended that no attack, no invasion has the defense of Portugal, not a vote for var od Spain,
taken place, because, forsooth, these outrages are  war against Spain.  I beg the House to keep
committed against Portugal by men to whom  these two points entirely distinct in their conPortugal had given birth and nurture?  What sideration.  For the fornier I think I have said
petty quibbling would it be to say, that an in- enough.  If, in what I have now further to say,
vasion of Portugal from Spain was not a Spanish  I should bear hard upon the Spanish government,
invasion, because Spain did not employ her own  I beg that it may be observed that, unjustifiable
troops, but hired mercenaries to effect her pur- as I shall show their conduct to have been-conpose?  And what difference's it, except as an  trary to the law of nations, contrary to the law
aggravation, that the mercenaries in this in- of good neighborhood, contrary, I might say, to
stance were natives of Portugal.                 the laws of God and man-with respect to PortI have already stated, and I now repeat, that ugal-  still I do not mean to preclude a locus
ga  wl it never has been the wish or the pre- penitentice, a possibility of redress and reparanot interiere tension of the British government to in- tion.  It is our duty to fly to the defense of Portoetr tgeet   terfere in the internal concerns of the  ugal, be the assailant who he may.  And, be it
at 10oe.   Portuguese nation.  Questions of that remembered, that, in thus fulfilling the stipulakind the Portuguese nation must settle among  tion of ancient treaties, of the existence and obthemselves. But if we were to admit that hordes  ligation of which all the world are aware, we,
of traitorous refugees from Portugal, with Span- according to the universally admitted construcish arms, or arms furnished or restored to them  tion of the law of nations, neither make war upon
by Spanish authorities, in their hands, might put that assailant, nor give to that assailant, much
off their country for one purpose, and put it on  less to any other power, just cause of war against
again for another-put it off for the purpose of  ourselves.
attack, and put it on again for the purpose of im-    Sir, the present situation of Portugal is so
punity-if, I say, we were to admit this juggle, anomalous, and the recent years of P,.t Trird.
and either pretend to be deceived by it ourselves, her history are crowded with events View oftile po.
litical state of
or attempt to deceive Portugal, into a belief that so unusual, that the House will, per- Portugal with
there was nothing of external attac nothinothing of  haps, not think that I am unprofitably the duties of
foreign hostility, in such a system of aggression  wasting its time, if I take the liberty g"lan".
-such pretense and attempt would, perhaps, be  of calling its attention, shortly and succinctly, to
only ridiculous and contemptible; if they did not those events, and to their influence on the politrequire a much more serious character from be- ical relations of Europe.  It is known that the
ing employed as an excuse for infidelity to an- consequence of the residence of the  Seprti 
cient friendship, and as a pretext for getting rid  King of Portugal in Brazil was to nBazil from
of the positive stipulations of treaties.        raise the latter country from a colo- Portl.
This, then, is the case which I lay before the  nial to a metropolitan condition; and that, from
Butthisisa House of Commons.  Here is, on the  the time when the King began to contemplate
grase iofm one hand, an undoubted pledge of na- his return to Portugal, there grew up in Brazil
Gabroadfr   tional faith-not taken in a corner-   a desire of independence that threatened dissennot kept secret between the parties, but publicly  sion, if not something like civil contest, between
recorded among the annals of history, in the face  the European and American dominions of the
of the world.  Here are, on the other hand, un- house of Braganza. It is known, also, that Great
deniable acts of foreign aggression, perpetrated, Britain undertook a mediation between Portugal
indeed, principally through the instrumentality  and Brazil, and induced the King to consent to a
of domestic traitors, but supported with foreign  separation of the two Crowns-confirming that
means, instigated by foreign councils, and direct- of Brazil on the head of his eldest son.  The
ed to foreign ends.  Putting these facts and this  ink with which this agreement was written was
pledge together, it is impossible that his Majesty  scarcely dry, when the unexpected death of the
should refuse the call that has been made upon  King of Portugal produced a new state of things.
him; nor can Parliament, I ant convinced, refuse  which reunited on the same head the two Crowns
to enable his Majesty to fulfill his undoubted ob- which it had been the policy of England, as well
ligations.  I am willing to rest the whole ques- as of Portugal and of Brazil, to separate.  On
tion of to-night, and to call for the vote of the  that occasion, Great Britain, and another EuroHouse of Commons upon this simple case, divest- pean court closely connected with Brazil, tened altogether of collateral circumstances; from  dered advice to the Emperor of Brazil, now bewhich I especially wish to separate it, in the  come King of Portugal, which advice it can not
minds of those who hear me, and also in the  be accurately said that his Imperial Majesty folminds of others, to whoml   what I now say will lowed, because he had decided for himself before
find its way.  If I were to sit down this mo- it reached Rio de Janeiro; but in conformity with
ment, without adding another word, I have no  which advice, though not in consequence of it,
doubt but that I should have the concurrence of  his Imperial Majesty determined to abdicate the
the House in the address which I mean to pro-  Crown of Portugal in favor of his eldest daughpose.                                            ter.  But the Emperor of Brazil had done more




ao0                                     4MR. CANNING                                          [1826.
What had not been foreseen-what would have  ready acceptance which it has met with from all
A ot.stitution- been beyond the province of any for- orders of the Portuguese people.  To that Conastalisel int eign power to advise-his Imperial stitution, therefore, thus unquestioned in its orithe latter.    Majesty had accompanied his abdica-  gin, even by those who are most jealous of new
tion of the Crown of Portugal with the grant of institutions-to that Constitution, thus sanctioned
a free constitutional charter for that kingdom.   in its outset by the glad and grateful acclamaIt has been surmised that this measure, as well tions of those who are destined to live under itThis not done as the abdication which it accompa- to that Constitution, founded on principles, in a
tlouh it   nied, was the offspring of our advice. great degree, similar to those of our own, though.l.e.      No such thinga Great Britain did not differently modified-it is impossible that Ensuggest this measure.  It is not her duty nor  glishmen should not wish well.  But it would
tier practice to offer suggestions for the internal not be for us to force that Constitution on the
regulation of foreign states.  She neither ap- people of Portugal, if they were unwilling to reproved nor disapproved of the grant of a consti- ceive it, or if any schism should exist among the
tutional charter to Portugal: her opinion upon  Portuguese themselves, as to its fitness and conthat grant was never required.  True it is, that geniality to the wants and wishes of the nation.
the instrument of the constitutional charter was  It is no business of ours to fight its battles.  We
brought to Europe by a gentleman of high trust go to Portugal in the discharge of a sacred obliin the service of the British government.  Sir C. gation, contracted under ancient and modern
Stuart had gone to Brazil to negotiate the sepa- treaties.  When there, nothing shall be done by
ration between that country and Portugal.  In  us to enforce the establishment of the Constituaddition to his character of Plenipotentiary of  tion; but we must take care that nothing shall
Great Britain, as the mediating power; he had  be done by others to prevent it from being fairly
also been invested by the King of Portugal with  carried into effect. Internally, let the Portuguese
the character of his most faithful Majesty's Plen- settle their own affairs; but with respect to exipotentiary for the negotiation with Brazil. That ternal force, while Great Britain has an arm to
negotiation had been brought to a happy conclu- raise, it must be raised against the efforts of any
sion  and therewith the British part of Sir C. power that should attempt forcibly to control the
Stuart's commission had terminated.  But Sir C. choice, and fetter the independence of Portugal.
Stuart was still resident at Rio de Janeiro, as the    Has such been the intention of Spain? WhethPlenipotentiary of the King of Portugal, for nego- er the proceedings which have lately Thi g
tiating commercial arrangements between Port- been practiced or permitted in Spain, nentinassaied
ugal and Brazil.  In this latter character it was were acts of a government exercising
that Sir C. Stuart, on his return to Europe, was  the usual power of prudence and foresight (withrequested by the Emperor of Brazil to be the  out which a government is, for the good of the
bearer to Portugal of the new constitutional char- people which live under it, no government at all),
ter.  His Majesty's government found no fault or whether they were the acts of some secret ilwith Sir C. Stuart for executing this commission - legitimate power-of some furious fanatical faebut it was immediately felt that if Sir C. Stuart  tion, over-riding the counsels of the ostensible
were allowed to remain at Lisbon, it might ap- government, defying it in the capital, and disopear, in the eyes of Europe, that England was beying it on the frontiers-I will not stop to inthe contriver and imposer of the Portuguese Con- quire.  It is indifferent to Portugal, smarting unstitution.  Sir C. Stuart was, therefore, directed  der her wrongs-it is indifferent to England, who
to return home forthwith, in order that the Con- is called upon to avenge them-whether the presstitution, if carried into effect there, might plain- ent state of things be the result of the intrigues
ly appear to be adopted by the Portuguese na- of a faction, over which, if the Spanish governtion itself, not forced upon them by English in- ment has no control, it ought to assume one as
terferenee.                                        soon as possible-or of local authorities, over
As to the merits, sir, of the new Constitution  whom it has control, and for whose acts it must,
Tihe merits of of Portugal, I have neither the inten- therefore, be held responsible.  It matters not,
legon-tnn"    tion nor the right to offer any opinion. I say, from which of these sources the evil has
tle question.  Personally, I may have formed one; arisen.  In either case, Portugal must be probut as an English minister, all I have to say is, tected; and from England that protection is due.'May God prosper this attempt at the establish-    It would be unjust, however, to the Spanish
ment of constitutional liberty in Portugal! and  government, to say that it is only Free institutitl.o
may that nation be found as fit to enjoy and to  among the members of that govern- a'eotbo..iot,'o'"
cherish its new-born privileges, as it has often  ment that an unconquerable hatred Snlis p111opt!.
proved itself capable of discharging its duties  of liberal institutions exists in Spain.  However
among the nations of the world!"                   incredible the phenomenon may appear in this
I, sir, am neither the champion nor the critic  country, I am persuaded that a vast majority of
It. isn knowli of the Portuguese Constitution.  But the Spanish nation entertain a decided attachedged to bea  it is admitted on all hands to have pro- ment to arbitrary power, and a predilection for
aitd approved ceeded from  a legitimate source-a  absolute government. The more liberal instituby the people.             ns
te ep   consideration which has mainly recon- tions of countries in the neighborhood have not
ciled continental Europe to its establishment; and  yet extended their influence into Spain, nor awakto us, as Englishmen, it is recommended by the  ened any sympathy in the mass of the Spanish




1826.]                      ON AFFORDING  AID TO  PORTUGAL.                                  881
people. Whether the public authorities of Spain  of our advice, the Portuguese government waved
did or did not partake of the national sentiment, ifs right under those treaties; very wisely rethere would almost necessarily grow up between  fleeting that it would be highly inconvenient to
Portugal and Spain, under present circumstances, be placed by the return of their deserters in the
an opposition of feelings which it would not re- difficult alternative of either granting a dangerquire the authority or the suggestions of the  ous amnesty, or ordering numerous executions.
government to excite and stimulate into action. The Portuguese government, therefore, signified
Without blame, therefore, to the government of  to Spain that it would be entirely satisfied if, inSpain-.out of the natural antipathy between the  stead of surrendering the deserters, Spain would
two neighboring nations-the one prizing its re- restore their arms, horses, and equipments; and,
cent freedom, the other hugging its traditionary  separating the men from their officers, would reservitude-there might arise mutual provoca- move both from the frontiers into the interior of
tions and reciprocal injuries which, perhaps, even  Spain.  Solemn engagements were entered into
the most active and vigilant ministry could not by the Spanish government to this effect-first
altogether restrain.  I am  inclined to believe  with Portugal, next with France, and afterward
that such has been, in part at least, the origin  with England.  Those engagements, concluded
of the differences between Spain and Portugal. one day, were violated the next. The deserters,
That in their progress they have been adopted, instead of being disarmed and dispersed, were
matured, methodized, combined, and brought into  allowed to remain congregated together near the
more perfect action, by some authority more  frontiers of Portugal, where they were enrolled,.
united and more efficient than the mere feeling  trained, and disciplined for the expedition which
disseminated through the mass of the communi- they have since undertaken.  It is plain that in
ty, is certain; but I do believe their origin to  these proceedings there was perfidy Apparentperf
have been as much in the real sentiment of the  somewhere.  It rests with the Span- dy on the part
Spanish population, as in the opinion or contriv- ish government to show that it was ofrpan'.
ance of the government itself.                   not with them.  It rests with the Spanish govWhether this be or be not the case, is pre- ernment to prove that, if its engagements have
ifthe govern- cisely the question between us and  not been fulfilled-if its intentions have been
mert of'Spain
has notacted in Spain.  If, though partaking in the  eluded and unexecuted-the fault has not been
this case,- general feelings of the Spanish na- with the government, and that it is ready to make
gland does not                      Sg,
war on her   tion, the Spanish government has, every reparation in its power.
nevertheless, done nothing to embody those feel-    I have said that these promises were made to
ings, and to direct them hostilely against Portu- France and to Great Britain as well Franceand Engal; if all that has occurred on the frontiers as to Portugal.  I should do a great gnd equallyr
has occurred only because the vigilance of the  injustice to France if I were not to conduct.
Spanish government has been surprised, its con- add, that the representations of that government
fidence betrayed, and its orders neglected-if its upon this point to the cabinet of Madrid, have
engagements have been repeatedly and shame- been as urgent, and, alas! as fruitless, as those
fully violated, not by its own good-will, but of Great Britain.  Upon the first irruption into
against its recommendation and desire-let us the Portuguese territory, the French government
see some symptoms of disapprobation, some signs testified its displeasure by instantly recalling its
of repentance, some measures indicative of sor- embassador; and it further directed its charge
row for the past, and of sincerity for the future. d'affaires to signify to his Catholic Majesty,
In that case, his Majesty's message, to which I that Spain was not to look-for any support from
propose this night to return an answer of con- France against the consequences of this aggrescurrence, will retain the character which I have  sion upon Portugal.  I am bound, I repeat, in
ascribed to it-that of a measure of defense for justice to the French government, to state, that
Portugal, not a measure of resentment against it has exerted itself to the utmost in urging Spain
Spain.                                          to retrace the steps which she has so unfortuWith these explanations and qualifications, let nately taken.  It is not for me to say whether
Facts s to  US now proceed to the review of facts. any more efficient course might have been adoptexistingdif-  Great desertions took place from the  ed to give effect to their exhortations; but as
rerences between  Port-Portuguese army into Spain, and some  to the sincerity and good faith of the exertions
alandSpain. desertions took place from the Spanish  made by the government of France, to press
army into Portugal.  In the first instance, the  Spain to the execution of her engagements, I
Portuguese authorities were taken by surprise; have not the shadow of a doubt, and I confidentbut in every subsequent instance, where they  ly reckon upon their continuance.
had an opportunity of exercising a discretion, it   It will be for Spain, upon knowledge of the
is but just to say that they uniformly discour- step now taken by his Majesty, to consider in
aged the desertions of the Spanish soldiery. what way she will meet it.  The earnest hope
There exist between Spain and Portugal spe- and wish of his Majesty's government is, that
cific treaties, stipulating the mutual surrender she may meet it in such a manner as to avert
of deserters.  Portugal had, therefore, a right to  any ill consequences to herself from the measclaim of Spain that every Portuguese deserter ure into which we have been driven by the urshould be forthwith sent back.  I hardly know  just attack upon Portugal.
whether from its own impulse, or in consequence    Sir, I set out with saying that there were reaK K K




882             MR. CANNING  ON AFFORDING  AID TO PORTUGAL.                              [1826.
sons which entirely satisfied my judgment that which agitates more or less sensibly different
Peroration: The nothing short of a point of national countries of the world, may be compared to that
next great " a in faith or national honor would justify, of the  of     Winds, as described by the
Europe will be                   wyof the Ruler of the Winds, as described by the
one ofopinionls. at the present moment, any volunta- poet:
ry approximation to the possibility of war. Let         "Celsa sedet iEolus arce,
me be understood, however, distinctly as not Sceptra tenens; mollitque animos et temperat iras;
meaning to say that I dread war in a good cause  Ni faciat, maria ac terras ccelumque profundum
(and in no other may it be the lot of this country  Quippe feraut rapidi secul, verrantque per aurs."''
ever to engage!) from a distrust of the strength  The consequence of letting loose the passions at
of the country to commence it, or of her resour- present chained and confined, would be to proces to maintain it. I dread it, indeed-but upon  duce a scene of desolation which no man can
far other grounds: I dread it from an appre- contemplate without horror; and I should not
hension of the tremendous consequences which  sleep easy on my couch, if I were conscious that
might arise from  any hostilities in which we  I had contributed to precipitate it by a single
might now be engaged.  Some years ago, in  moment.
the discussion of the negotiations respecting the    This, then, is the reason-a reason very difFrench war against Spain, I took the liberty of  ferent from fear-the reverse of a consciousness
adverting to this topic.  I then stated that the  of disability —why I dread the recurrence of
position of this country in the present state of  hostilities in any part of Europe; why I would
the world was one of neutrality, not only be- bear much, and would forbear long; why I would
tween contending nations, but between conflict-  (as I have said) put up with almost any thing that
ing principles; and that it was by neutrality  did not touch national faith and national honor,
alone that we could maintain that balance, the  rather than let slip the furies of war, the leash
preservation of which I believed to be essential of which we hold in our hands-not knowing
to the welfare of mankind.  I then said, that I whom they may reach, or how far their ravages
feared that the next war which should be kin- may be carried. Such is the love of peace which
died in Europe would be a war not so much of  the British government acknowledges; and such
armies as of opinions.  Not four years have  the necessity for peace which the circumstances
elapsed, and behold my apprehension realized! of the world inculcate.  I will push these topics
It is, to be sure, within narrow limits that this no further.
war of opinion is at present confined; but it is    I return, in conclusion, to the object of the
a war of opinion that Spain (whether as govern- Address.  Let us fly to the aid of Portugal, by
ment or as nation) is now waging against Port- whomsoever attacked, because it is our duty to
ugal; it is a war which has commenced in ha- do so; and let us cease our interference where
tred of the new institutions of Portugal.  How  that duty ends.  We go to Portugal not to rule,
along is it reasonable to. expect that Portugal will not to dictate, not to prescribe constitutions, but.abstain from retaliation?  If into that war this to defend and to preserve the independence of an
ecountry shall be compelled to enter, we shall ally.  We go to plant the standard of England,enter into it with a sincere and anxious desire  on the well-known heights of Lisbon.  Where:to mitigate rather than exasperate-and to min- that standard is planted, foreign dominion shall
gle only in the conflict of arms, not in the more  not come.
fatal conflict of opinions.  But I much fear that 
this country (however earnestly she may en-    The House gave an almost unanimous supdeavor to avoid it) could not, in such case, avoid  port to an Address approving of the measures
seeing ranked under her banners all the restless  adopted; and the insurrection was at once sup-.and dissatisfied of any nation with which she  pressed in every part of Portugal..might come in conflict. It is the contemplation    Mr. Canning gained very great and merited,of this new power in any future war which ex- applause by this intervention in behalf of a concites my most anxious apprehension.  It is one  stitutional government.  His prediction that the
thing to have a giant's strength, but it would be next great war in Europe would be one of opinanother to use it like a giant.  The conscious- ions, is yet to be accomplished; and events since
ness of such strength is, undoubtedly, a source  the usurpation of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, at
of confidence and security; but in the situation  the close of 1851, seem clearly to indicate that
in which this country stands, our business is not such a contest may not be far remote.
to seek opportunities of displaying it, but to con-  lus sits upn his lfty twer
tent ourselves with letting the professors of vio-   And holds the scepter, calming all their rage:
lent and exaggerated doctrines on both sides    Else would they bear sea, earth, and heaven profeel, that it is not their iinterest to convert an    found
umpire into an adversary. The situation of En-   In rapid flight, and sweep them through the air.
gland, amid the struggle of political opinions               Virgil's.Eneid, book i., lines 56-9.




1823.]                                   EXTRACTS.                                           883
EXTRACTS.
FOREIGN ENLISTMENT BILL.  APRIL 16, 1823   of a war, then 1 say that the position we have
taken in the present instance is of more probable
WHAT, sir! is it to become a maxim with this  efficacy than that in which we should have stood
country that she is ever to be a belligerent?  Is  had we suffered ourselves to be drawn into a parshe never, under any possible state of circum-  ticipation in the contest.  Participation, did I
stances, to remain neutral?  If this proposition  say?  Sir! is there any man who hears me-is
be good for any thing, it must run to this extent there any man acquainted with the history of the
-that our position, insulated as it is from all the  country for the last twenty years, who does not
rest of the world, moves us so far from the scene  know the way in which Great Britain has been
of continental warfare, that we ought always to  accustomed to participate in a war?  Do not
be belligerent-that we are bound to counteract gentlemen know that if we now enter into a war,
the designs of Providence, to reject the advanta- we must take the whole burden of it upon ourges of nature, and to render futile and erroneous  selves, and conduct the whole force and exertions
the description of the poet, who has said, to our  of the peninsula?  But supposing such to be our
honor, that we were less prone to war and tumult, course, how different must be our situation, as
on account of our happy situation, than the neigh-  compared with former periods.  When we last
boring nations that lie conterminous with one an- became the defenders of Spain, we fought for and
other.  But wherefore this dread of a neutrali-  with a united people.  What would be the case
ty?  If gentlemen look to the page of history,  at present?  Any interference on our parts in
they will find that for centuries past, whenever favor of Spain must commence with an attempt
there has been a war in Europe, we have almost to unite contending factions, and to stimulate men
always been belligerent.  The fact is undoubt-  of opposite interests and opposite feelings to one
edly so; but I am not prepared to lay it down as  grand and simultaneous effort.  Now I do not
a principle, that if, at the beginning of a war, we  hesitate to say that the man who would undershould happen to maintain a species of neutrali-  take to do this under present circumstances, must
ty, it was an unnatural thing that we should do  either be possessed of supernatural means of inso.  Gentlemen say that we must be drawn into a  formation, or of a hardihood which I may envy,
war, sooner or later.  Why, then, I answer, let it but shall not attempt to imitate.  I say that those
be later.  I say, if we are to be drawn into a war,  men will not consult the true dignity of the counlet us be drawn into it on grounds clearly Brit- try, who, finding fault with the part we have
ish.  I do not say-God forbid I should-that it adopted, wish to indemnify themselves by endeavis no part of the duty of Great Britain to protect oring to make us perform that part amiss.  Out
what is termed the balance of power, and to aid  course is neutrality-strict neutrality; and in the
the weak against the insults of the strong.  I  name of God, let us adhere to it.  If you dislike
say, on the contrary, that to do so is her bounden  that course-if you think it injurious to the honduty; but I affirm, also, that we must take care  or or interests of the country-drive from their
to do our duty to ourselves.  The first condition  places those neutral ministers who have adopted
of engaging in any war-the sine qua non of ev- it; but until you are prepared to declare war,
cry such undertaking-is, that the war must be  you are bound to adhere to and to act upon the
jus; the second, that being just in itself, we can  system which ministers have laid down.
als-: with justice engage in it; and the third, that    I stated, a few evenings ago, that we could have
being just in its nature, and it being possible for  no difficulty in the course which we had to pursue
us justly to embark in it, we can so interfere  in observance of a strict neutrality.  We have
without detriment or prejudice to ourselves.  I  spent much time in teaching other powers the
contend that he is a visionary politician who  nature ofa strict neutrality; and, generally speakleaves this last condition out of the question; and  ing, we found them most reluctant scholars. All
I say further, that though the glorious abandon-  I now call upon the House to do, is to adopt the
ment of it may sound well in the generous speech  same course which it has recommended to neuof an irresponsible orator-with the safety of a  tral powers upon former occasions.  If I wished
nation upon his lips, and none of the responsibil-  for a guide in a system  of neutrality, I should
ity upon his shoulders-it is matter deeply to be  take that laid down by America in the days of
considered; and that the minister who should lay  the Presidency of Washington and the Secretait out of his view, in calling on the country to  ryship of Jefferson
undertake a war, would well deserve that universal censure and reprobation with which the
noble Lord opposite has this night menaced me.        THE KING'S SPE.  FEBRUAR, 825.
If it be wise for a government, though it can not
prevent an actual explosion, to endeavor to cir-    I Now turn to that other part of the honorable
cumscribe the limits, and to lessen the duration  andlearned gentleman's [Mr. Brougham] speech,




98"4                                 MR. CANNING.                                      [1825.
en which he acknowledges his acquiescence in the  ests, we took care to give no just cause of ofpassages of the address echoing the satisfaction  fense to other powers.
felt at the success of the liberal commercial principles adopted by this country, and at the steps  ON UNLAFUL SOCIETE  IN IELAND.  FE
rm       * n   *..,          r A    * ^ON UNLAWFUL SOCIETIES IN IRELAND.  FEnBRtaken for recognizing the new states of Ameri-                          1
ca.  It does happen, however, that the honorable 
and learned gentleman being not unfrequently a    IN the next place, are we prepared to say that
speaker in this House, nor very concise in his these and other acts of the Catholic Association
speeches, and touching occasionally, as he pro- have no tendency to excite and inflame animosceeds, on almost every subject within the range  ities?  I affirm, without hesitation, that they
of his imagination, as well as making some ob- have directly that tendency; and in support of
servations on the matter in hand-and having at this affirmation I must beg leave to recur, howdifferent periods proposed and supported every in- ever solemnly warned against the recurrence, to
novation of which the law or Constitution of the  an expression which I was the first to bring to
country is susceptible-it is impossible to inno- the notice of the House, but which has been since
vate, without appearing to borrow from him. Ei- the subject of repeated animadversion; I mean
ther, therefore, we must remain forever absolutely  the adjuration " by the hate you bear to Orangelocked up as in a northern winter, or we must men," which was used by the association in their
break our way out by some mode already sug- address to the Catholics of Ireland.
gested by the honorable and learned gentleman,    Various and not unamusing have been the atand then he cries out, " Ah, I was there before  tempts of gentlemen who take the part of the asyou! That is what I told you to do; but as you  sociation, to get rid of this most unlucky phrase,
would not do it then, you have no right to do it or at least to dilute and attenuate its obvious and
now."  In Queen Anne's reign there lived a  undeniable meaning.  It is said to be unfair to
very sage and able critic, named Dennis, who, in  select one insulated expression as indicating the
his old age, was the prey of a strange fancy, that general spirit of the proceedings of any public
he had himself written all the good things in all body.  Granted; if the expression had escaped
the good plays that were acted.  Every good  in the heat of debate, if it had been struck out
passage he met with in any author he insisted  by the collision of argument, if it had been thrown
was his own.  " It is none of his," Dennis would  forth in haste, and had been, upon reflection; realways say; "no, it's mine!"   He went one  called. But if the words are found in a document
day to see a new tragedy.  Nothing particularly  which was prepared with care and considered
good to his taste occurred, till a scene in which  with deliberation-if it is notorious that they
a great storm was represented.  As soon as he  were pointed out as objectionable when they were
heard the thunder rolling over head, he exclaim- first proposed by the framers of the address, but
ed, "That's my thunder!"  So it is with the  were, nevertheless, upon argument retainedhonorable and learned gentleman; it's all his surely we are not only justified in receiving them
thunder.  It will henceforth be impossible to  as an indication, at least, of the animus of those
confer any boon, or make any innovation, but he  who used them; but we should be rejecting the
will claim it as his thunder.  But it is due to  best evidence of that animuts, if we passed over
him to acknowledge that he does not claim ev- so well-weighed a manifestation of it.
ery thing; he will be content with the exclusive    Were not this felt by honorable gentlemen on
merit of the liberal measures relating to trade  the other side to be true, we should not have seen
and commerce.  Not desirous of violating his them so anxious to put forced and fanciful conown principles, by claiming a monopoly of fore- structions on a phrase which is as plain in its
sight and wisdom, he kindly throws overboard to  meaning as any which the hand of man ever
my honorable and learned friend [Sir J. Mackin- wrote or the eye of man ever saw.  The first
tosh] near him, the praise of South America. I defense of this phrase was by an honorable memshould like to know whether, in some degree, ber from Ireland, who told us that the words do
this also is not his thunder.  He thinks it right not convey the same meaning in the Irish lanitself; but lest we should be too proud if he ap- guage which we in England naturally attach to
proved our conduct in totoe he thinks it wrong in  them.  I do not pretend to be conversant with
point of time.  I differ from him essentially; for the Irish language; and must, therefore, leave
if I pique myself on any thing in this affair, it is that apology to stand for what it may be worth,
the time.  That, at some time or other, states on the learned gentleman's erudition and authorwhich had separated themselves from the mother ity.  I will not follow every other gentleman
country should or should not be admitted to the  who has strained his faculties to explain away
rank of independent nations, is a proposition to  this unfortunate expression; but will come at
which no possible dissent could be given.  The  once to my honorable and learned friend [Sir
whole question was one of time and mode. There  James Mackintosh], the member for Knaresborwere two modes: one a reckless and headlong  ough, to whom the palm in this contest of ingecourse, by which we might have reached our ob- nuity must be conceded by all his competitors.
ject at once, but at the expense of drawing upon  My honorable friend has expended abundant ieus consequences not highly to be estimated; the  search and subtilty upon this inquiry, and having
other was more strictly guarded in point of prin- resolved the phrase into its elements in the cruciple; so that, while we pursued our own inter- cible of his philosophical mind, has produced it




1825.]                                 EXTRACTS.                                        $85
to us purified and refined to a degree that must and learned friend; it might be the poor man's
command the admiration of all who take delight only fault, and therefore clearly incorrigible. But
in metaphysical alchemy.  My honorable and  if I had the good fortune to find out that he was
learned friend began by telling us that, after all, also addicted to stealing, might I not, with a safe
hatred is no bad thing in itself.  "I hate a conscience, send him to my learned friend with a
Tory," says my honorable friend-' and another very strong recommendation, saying, I send you
man hates a cat; but it does not follow that he a man whom I know to be a drunkard; but I am
would hunt down the cat, or I the Tory."  Nay, happy to assure you he is also a thief: you can
so far from it-hatred, if it be properly managed, not do better than employ him; you will make
is, according to my honorable friend's theory, no  his drunkenness counteract his thievery, and no
bad preface to a rational esteem and affection, doubt you will bring him out of the conflict a
It prepares its votaries for a reconciliation of dif- very moral personage. My honorable and learnferences-for lying down with their most invet- ed friend, however, not content with laying down
3rate enemies, like the leopard and the kid, in  these new rules for reformation, thought it right
the vision of the prophet.                    to exemplify them  in his own person, and, like
This dogma is a little startling, but it is not Pope's Longinus, to be " himself the great subaltogether without precedent.  It is borrowed  lime he drew."  My learned friend tells us that
from a character in a play which is, I dare say, Dr. Johnson was what he [Dr. Johnson himself]
as great a favorite with my learned friend as it called a good hater; and that among the qualis with me —I mean the comedy of The Rivals; ities which he hated most were two which my
in which Mrs. frlalaprop, giving a lecture on the honorable friend unites in his own person-that
subject of marriage to her niece (who is unrea- of Whig and that of Scotchman. " So that," says
sonable enough to talk of liking as a necessary  my honorable friend, " if Dr. Johnson were alive,
preliminary to such a union), says, " What have  and were to meet me at the club, of which he
you to do with your likings and your preferences, was a founder, and of which I am now an unchild? depend upon it, it is safest to begin with  worthy member, he would probably break up the
a little aversion.  I am sure I hated your poor meeting rather than sit it out in such society."
dear uncle like a blackamoor before we were  No, sir, not so. My honorable and learned friend
married; and yet you know, my dear, what a forgets his own theory.  If he had been only a
good wife I made him."  Such is my learned  Whig, or only a Scotchman, Dr. Johnson might
friend's argument to a hair.                   have treated him as he apprehends; but being
But finding that this doctrine did not appear both, the great moralist would have said to my
to go down with the House so glibly as he had  honorable friend, " Sir, you are too much of a
expected, my honorable and learned friend pres- Whig to be a good Scotchman; and, sir, you are
ently changed his tack, and put forward a the- too much of a Scotchman to be a good Whig."
ory, which, whether for novelty or for beauty, I It is no doubt from the collision of these two vices
pronounce to be incomparable; and, in short, as in my learned friend's person, that he has become
wanting nothing to recommend it but a slight what I, and all who have the happiness of meetfoundation in truth.' True philosophy," says ing him at the club, find him-an entirely faultmy honorable friend, "will always contrive to  less character.
lead men to virtue by the instrumentality of their    For my own part, however, I must say, that I
conflicting vices. The virtues, where more than  can not see any-hope of obtaining the great morone exist, may live harmoniously together; but al victory which my learned friend has anticithe vices bear mortal antipathy to one another, pated-of winning men to the practice of virtue
and therefore furnish to the moral engineer the by adjurations addressed to their peculiar vices.
power by which he can make each keep the oth- I believe, after all these ratiocinations and refineer under control."  Admirable!-but, upon this ments, we must come back to the plain truth,
doctrine, the poor man who has but one single  which is felt even while it is denied-that the
vice must be in a very bad way.  Nofulcrum, phrase' by the hate you bear to Orangemen,"
no moral power for effecting his cure.  Where- is an indefensible phrase; that it is at leastas his more fortunate neighbor, who has two or what alone I am  contending that it is-inconmore vices in his composition, is in a fair way of testable evidence of the allegation that the Cathbecoming a very virtuous member of society.  I olic Association does excite animosities in Irewonder how my learned friend would like to have  land.  It is an expression calculated to offend,
this doctrine introduced into his domestic estab- provoke, and exasperate the Orangemen, howlishment. For instance, suppose that I discharge  ever palatable to those whose hatred of Orangea servant because he is addicted to liquor, I could  men it predicates, and, to say the least, does not
not venture to recommend him to my honorable  disapprove.




LORD BROUGHAM.
HENRY BROUGHAM is the last among the orators embraced in this collection; and
as he is still living, only a brief notice will be given of his life and character.
The family was one of the most ancient in Westmoreland, England.  Brougham
Castle is older than the days of King John; and the manor connected with it, after
passing out of the family for a time, was regained by purchase and entailed on the
oldest descendant in the male line. Toward the close of the last century, it fell to
a young man who was studying in the University of Edinburgh, and who married,
while there, a niece of the celebrated historian, Dr. Robertson. The first-fruit of this
union was a son named HENRY, who was born at Edinburgh in 1779.
The family appear to have resided chiefly or wholly in the Scottish capital; the
boy received the rudiments of his education at the High School of Edinburgh, under
the celebrated Dr. Adam, and was even then distinguished for his almost intuitive
perception of whatever he undertook to learn.  "He was wild, fond of pleasure,
taking to study by starts, and always reading with more effect than others (when
he did read), because it was for some specific object, the knowledge of which was
to be acquired in the shortest possible time." We have here a perfect picture of
Lord Brougham's mode of reading for life.  Eager, restless, grasping after information of every kind, he has brought into his speeches a wider range of collateral thought
than any of our orators, except Burke; and -he has done it in just the way that might
be expected from such a man, with inimitable freshness and power, but with those
hasty judgments, that want of a profound knowledge of principles, and that frequent
inaccuracy in details, which we always see in one who reads " for some specific object,"
instead of taking in the whole range of a science, and who is so much in a hurry,
that he is constantly aiming to accomplish his task in " the shortest possible time."
He entered the University of Edinburgh in the sixteenth year of his age, and soon.
gained the highest distinction by his extraordinary mathematical attainments. He
gave in solutions of some very difficult theorems, which awakened the admiration of
his instructors; and before he was seventeen, produced an essay on. the "Flection
and Reflection of Light," which was estimated so highly as to be inserted in the Edinburgh Philosophical Transactions. His supposed discoveries, so far as they were
correct, proved, indeed, to have been anticipated by earlier writers; but they were
undoubtedly the result of his own investigation; and they showed so remarkable a
talent for mathematical research, that he was rewarded, at a somewhat later period
(1803), with an election as member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. It is a curious fact that Lord Brougham has again taken up his favorite pursuits in optics at
the age of seventy, and made recent communications to the French Institute, from his
chateau at Cannes, in the south of France, on the same branch of science which
called forth his early efforts in the University of Edinburgh.
Having completed his college course, Mr. Brougham entered with indefatigable
zeal upon the study of the law, in conjunction with Jeffery, Horner, and several other
young men, who, only a few years after, stood foremost among the leading advocates
of the country.. He had commenced the practice of extemporaneous speaking some
years before in the Speculative Society, that great theater of debate for the University of Edinburgh.  He now carried it to a still greater height in the immediate
prospect of his professional duties, and " exercised the same superiority over his




LORD BROUGHAM.                                 887
youthful competitors (though some of them were then and afterward remarkable for
their ability) which he held at a later period as Chancellor over the House of Lords."
He was called in due course to the Scottish bar, and commenced business in Edinburgh with the most encouraging prospects of success. In 1803, he published his
first work, in two octavo volumes, entitled " The Colonial Policy of the European
Powers," containing an immense amount of information, and distinguished by the
daring spirit of philosophical inquiry which he carried into this vast and complicated
subject.  He now removed to London, and, in addition to his practice at the bar,
entered warmly into politics; producing a volume on the " State of the Nation," which
awakened the liveliest interest by its eloquent assertion of Whig principles, and ultimately procured him a seat in Parliament by means of the Russell family.
Before his removal to London, he united with the companions mentioned above in
establishing the Edinburgh Review.  He was for nearly twenty years one of its most
regular contributors; and to him more than any other man was the work indebted
for its searching analysis, its contemptuous and defiant spirit, its broad views of political subjects, and its eloquent exposition of Whig principles. Its motto,1 whether
selected by him or not, was designed to justify that condemnatory spirit which is so
striking a trait in his character.  A great part of his life has been spent in beating
down; in detecting false pretensions whether in literature or politics; in searching
out the abuses of long established institutions; in laying open the perversions of public charities; in exposing the cruelties of the criminal code; or in rousing public attention to a world of evils resulting from the irregularities in the administration of
municipal law.  The reader will be amused to trace this tendency of his mind, in
turning over the four octavo volumes of his speeches as edited by himself, and observing their titles.  We have "Military Flogging," with an exposure of its atrocities" Queen Caroline," defended at the expense of her husband-" The Durham Clergy,"
lashed unmercifully for their insulting treatment of the Queen-" The Orders in
Council," with the folly of abusing the Americans because they had suffered from
the abuse of France-" Agricultural Distress" and " Manufacturing Distress," as resulting from the rashness and incompetency of ministers-" Army Estimates," under
which millions were lavished for mere military show in time of peace-" The Holy
Alliance," with its atrocious attack on the constitutional government of Spain through
the instrumentality of France-" The Slave Trade"-" The Missionary Smith," murdered in Demerara under a false charge of having excited insurrection-" Negro Apprenticeship," its inadequacy and folly —" The Eastern Slave Trade," or the cruelty
and guilt of transporting coolies from Hindostan to be made laborers in the West
India Islands-" Law Reform"-" Parliamentary Reform"-" Education," and the
abuse of Educational Charities-" Scotch Parliamentary and Burgh Reform"-" Scotch
Marriage and Divorce Bill," showing that the existing laws are " the worst possible"
-" The Poor Laws," with "the deplorably corrupting effects of this abominable system"-" Neutral Rights," exposing their invasion by Great Britain-" Administration of Law in Ireland," showing that " she had received penal statutes from England almost as plentifully as she had received blessings from the hands of Providence"-" Change of Ministry in 1834," with the gross, glaring, and almost incredible inconsistencies of Lord Wellington-" Business of Parliament," or " the abuses
which prevail in the mode of conducting its business"-" Maltreatment of the North
Armerican Colonies" —"The Civil List," or men's voting an allowance to the Queen
"under the influence of excited feelings, and without giving themselves time to refleet."  No orator certainly, since the days of Pym and Charles I., could furnish such
another list.
1 " Judex damnatur dum nocens absolvitur," the judge is condemned when the guilty is suffered'
to escape.




888                            LORD BROUGHAM.
The character of his eloquence corresponds to the subjects he has chosen.  "For
fierce, vengeful, and irresistible assault," says John Foster, " Brougham  stands the
foremost man in all this world."  His attack is usually carried on under the forms
of logic.  For the materials of his argument he sometimes goes off to topics the most
remote and apparently alien from his subject, but he never fails to come down upon
it at last with overwhelming force. He has wit in abundance, but it is usually
dashed with scorn or contempt.  His irony and sarcasm are terrible.  None of oui
orators have ever equaled him in bitterness.
His style has a hearty freshness about it, which springs from the robust constitution of his mind and the energy of his feelings.  He sometimes disgusts by his use
of Latinized English, and seems never to have studied our language in the true
sources of its strength-Shakspeare, Milton, and the English Bible.  His greatest
fault lies in the structure of his sentences.  He rarely puts forward a simple, distinct
proposition.  New ideas cluster around the original frame-work of his thoughts; and
instead of throwing them into separate sentences, he blends them all in one; enlarging, modifying, interlacing them together, accumulating image upon image, and argument upon argument, till the whole becomes perplexed and cumbersome, in the
attempt to crowd an entire system  of thought into a single statement.  Notwithstanding these faults, however, we dwell upon his speeches with breathless interest.
They are a continual strain of impassioned argument, intermingled with fearful sarcasm, withering invective, lofty declamation, and the earnest majesty of a mind which
has lost every other thought in the magnitude of its theme.
Lord Brougham has been in opposition during the greater part of his political life.
He came in as Lord Chancellor with Earl Grey at the close of 1830, and retained
his office about four years.  Of late he has withdrawn, to a great extent, from public affairs, and spent a considerable part of his time on an estate which he owns in
the south of France.
The following comparison between the subject of this sketch and his great parliamentary rival will interest the reader, as presenting the characteristic qualities of
each in bolder relief from their juxtaposition. It is from the pen of one who had
watched them both with the keenest scrutiny during their conflicts in the House of
Commons.  The scene described in the conclusion arose out of a memorable attack
of Mr. Canning on Lord Folkestone for intimating, that he had " truckled to France."
"The Lacedeemonians," said Mr. C., " were in the habit of deterring their children
from the vice of intoxication by occasionally exhibiting their slaves in a state of disgusting inebriety. But, sir, there is a moral as well as a physical intoxication. Never
before did I behold so perfect a personification of the character which I have somewhere seen described, as'exhibiting the contortions of the Sibyl without her inspiration.' Such was the nature of the noble Lord's speech."  Mr. Brougham took occasion, a few evenings after, to retort on Mr. Canning and repeat the charge, in the
manner here described: but first we have a sketch of their characteristics as orators.
"Canning was airy, open, and prepossessing; Brougham seemed stern, hard, lowering, and almost repulsive.  Canning's features were handsome, and his eye, though,deeply ensconced under his eyebrows, was full of sparkle and gayety; the features'of Brougham were harsh in the extreme: while his forehead shot up to a great elevation, his chin was long and square; his mouth, nose, and eyes seemed huddled together in the center of his face, the eyes absolutely lost amid folds and corrugations;
and while he sat listening, they seemed to retire inward or to be vailed by a filmy
curtain, which not only concealed the appalling glare which shot from them when
he was aroused, but rendered his mind and his purpose a sealed book to the keenest
scrutiny of man. Canning's passions appeared upon the open champaign of his face,
drawn up in ready array, and moved to and fro at every turn of his own oration and




LORD BROUGHAM.                               889
every retort in that of his antagonist.  Those of Brougham remained within, as in a
citadel which no artillery could batter and no mine blow up; and even when he
was putting forth all the power of his eloquence, when every ear was tingling at
what he said, and while the immediate object of his invective was writhing in helpless and indescribable agony, his visage retained its cold and brassy hue; and he triumphed over the passions of other men by seeming to be without passion himself.
When Canning rose to speak, he elevated his countenance, and seemed to look round
for applause as a thing dear to his feelings; while Brougham stood coiled and concentrated, reckless of all but the power that was within himself.
"From Canning there was expected the glitter of wit and the glow of spirit-something showy and elegant; Brougham stood up as a being whose powers and intentions were all a mystery-whose aim and effect no living man could divine. You
bent forward to catch the first sentence of the one, and felt human nature elevated
in the specimen before you; you crouched and shrunk back from the other, and
dreams of ruin and annihilation darted across your mind.  The one seemed to dwell
among men, to join in their joys, and to live upon their praise; the other appeared
a son of the desert, who had deigned to visit the human race merely to make it tremble at his strength.
"The style of their eloquence and the structure of their orations were just as different.  Canning arranged his words like one who could play skillfully upon that
sweetest of all instruments, the human voice; Brougham proceeded like a master of
every power of reasoning and the understanding. The modes and allusions of the one
~were always quadrable by the classical formulae; those of the other could be squared
only by the higher analysis of the mind; and they soared, and ran, and pealed, and
swelled on and on, till a single sentence was often a complete oration within itself;
but still, so clear was the logic, and so close the connection, that every member carried the weight of all that went before, and opened the way for all that was to follow after. The style of Canning was like the convex mirror, which scatters every
ray of light that falls upon it, and shines and sparkles in whatever position it is
viewed; that of Brougham was like the concave speculum, scattering no indiscriminate radiance, but having its light concentrated into one intense and tremendous
focus.  Canning marched forward in a straight and clear track; every paragraph
was perfect in itself, and every coruscation of wit and of genius was brilliant and
delightful; it was all felt, and it was felt all at once: Brougham twined round and
round in a spiral, sweeping the contents of a vast circumference before him, and uniting and pouring them onward to the main point of attack.
" Such were the rival orators, who sat glancing hostility and defiance at each other
during the session of eighteen hundred and twenty-three-Brougham, as if wishing
to overthrow the Secretary by a sweeping accusation of having abandoned all principle for the sake of office; and the Secretary ready to parry the charge and attack
in his turn. An opportunity at length offered. Upon that occasion the oration of
Brougham was disjointed and ragged, and apparently without aim or application.
He careered over the whole annals of the world, and collected every instance in
which genius had prostituted itself at the footstool of power, or principle had been
sacrificed for the vanity or the lucre of place; but still there was no allusion to Canning, and no connection, that ordinary men could discover, with the business before
the House.  When, however, he had collected every material which suited his purpose-when the mass had become big and black, he bound it about and about with
the cords of illustration and argument; when its union was secure, he swung it
round and round with the strength of a giant and the rapidity of a whirlwind, in
order that its impetus and its effects might be the more tremendous; and while doing this, he ever and anon glared his eye, and pointed his finger. to make the aim




890                           LORD BROUGHAM.
and the direction sure. Canning himself was the first that seemed to be aware
where and how terrible was to be the collision; and he kept writhing his body in
agony and rolling his eye in fear, as if anxious to find some shelter from the impending bolt. The House soon caught the impression, and every man in it was glancing
fearfully, first toward the orator, and then toward the Secretary. There was, save
the voice of Brougham, which growled in that under tone of muttered thunder which
is so fearfully audible, and of which no speaker of the day was fully master but himself, a silence as if the angel of retribution had been flaring in the faces of all parties
the scroll of their personal and political sins. The stiffness of Brougham's figure had
vanished; his features seemed concentrated almost to a point; he glanced toward
every part of the House in succession; and, sounding the death-knell of the Secretary's forbearance and prudence with both his clinched hands upon the table, he
hurled at him an accusation more dreadful in its gall, and more torturing in its effects, than had ever been hurled at mortal man within the same walls.  The result
was instantaneous-was electric.  It was as when the thunder-cloud descends upon
the Giant Peak; one flash-one peal-the sublimity vanished, and all that remained
was a small and cold pattering of rain. Canning started to his feet, and was able
only to utter the unguarded words,'It is false!' to which followed a dull chapter of
apologies.  From that moment the House became more a scene of real business
than of airy display and angry vituperation."




SPEECH
OF MR. BROUGHAM ON THE ARMY ESTIMATES, DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS,
MARCH 11, 1816.
INTRODUCTION.
LORD CASTLEREAGH and his ministry, elated by their triumph over Bonaparte at the battle of VWaterloo, had the ambition of still continuing an immense military establishment after the return of peace had
rendered it wholly unnecessary.
For the year 1816, they proposed a standing force of one hundred and seventy-six thousand men, when
the country was suffering under extreme embarrassments in every branch of its industry. A part of these
forces consisted of the Household Troops, as they were called, to the number of ten thousand men, supported for mere parade in London or its vicinity, and confessedly of no use except in the case of mobs,
which were then wholly out of the question.
When the debate took place on the army estimates, March 11, 1816, Mr. Calcraft moved to reduce the
appropriation for the Household Troops to one half the sum proposed, intending, if this motion prevailed,
to carry out the principle of retrenchment into the other branches of the army. In support of this motion,
Mr. Brougham delivered the following speech, which is marked by that mixture of bold assertion, rapid
argument, and fervid declamation which so generally characterized his speaking.
SPEECH, &e.
SI, —Although I on a former occasion deliv- that, with all the professed anxiety of the noble
The p r ered my opinion generally upon these  Lord and his friends to go through the estimates,
called forth  estimates, yet I am  anxious now  to  item by item; with all their pretended readiness
by challenges
from the nin- state my sentiments in more detail upon  and even desire to court full investigation;  with
istry.    a subject of such great importance, all the bluster of their defiance to us, and the
and the rather because of the defiances flung out bravado more than once used, that we durst hot
from the other side to all of us to go into the ex- grapple with the question in detail, they have
amination of it.  I stand forward to take up the  themselves wholly shrunk from the inquiry, fled
gauntlet which has thus been thrown down; and  from all particulars, and abandoned all attempts
I affirm that the more minutely you scrutinize  at showing, in any one instance, from  any one
the several items of this bill, brought in against conclusion, with a view to any single circumthe country, the more objectionable you will find  stance in the present situation of the country,
them.                                             that there is the shadow of a ground for this inI object, in the first place, altogether to the  crease of force.  We had the subject debated
objection to large force of guards which it is in- generally, indeed, but at great length, a few days
"neHtitle o   tended to keep up; and I even protest, ago, on bringing up the report; and it had been
Troops."   though that is a trifle in comparison, repeatedly before the House on former occasions.
but I do protest against the new-fangled French  We have now renewed the discussion on the moname of Household Troops, under which they  tion for going into this committee.  We have
are designated-a name borrowed from countries been in the committee for some hours.  At this
where this portion of the national force is exclu- very advanced stage of the debate have we arsively allotted to protect the Prince against a rived, and though all the members of the governpeople in whom he can not trust-is the appoint- ment have addressed themselves to the question,
ed means given him  to maintain his arbitrary  many of them once and again, yet I defy any one
power-is the very weapon put into his hands to point out a single fact that has been stated, a
to arm him  against the liberties of his country. single argument urged, a single topic used, to
However appropriate the appellation may be prove the necessity which alone can justify the
there, it can not be endured in this nation, where  scale these estimates are framed upon.  It has,
the Sovereign ought never to have any reason  indeed, been said that 2400 of the guards are
for distrusting his subjects, and never can be in- destined for France, where I suppose the army
trusted with any force except that which the de- of occupation is required in order to demonstrate
fense of his people requires.  But the name is how tranquil our famous negotiators have left the
of far less importance than the thing.  Has the  whole Continent-how  perfectly successfulnoble Lord [Lord Castlereagh] made out any  how absolutely final-the grand settlement of all
thing like a case for raising the amount of this Europe is, upon which we so greatly plume ourforce to more than double of what it was in 1791? selves, and upon which, above all, the political
bjection to If any such proof had been given, I reputation of the noble Lord is built.t  But suptheir number. should not have been found among the
opposers of the proposition.  But the truth is,  I After the deposition of Bonaparte, the allied Sov



892                                  MR. BROUGHAM                                      [1816.
pose I pass over this, and do not stop to ask what ty was unquestioned, though their wisdom might
reason there can be for these 2400 men being  be doubted, led them a good deal further than
guards, and not simply troops of the line-those  this. Meetings were encouraged to address the
troops required to maintain our final and conclu- Crown, and testify the resolution to support its
sive settlement, and enforce the profound tran- prerogatives.  Bonds were entered into for dequillity in which Europe is every where enwrapt; fending the Constitution, believed to be threatsuppose I admit, for argument' sake, and in my  ened.  Pledges of life and fortune were given to
haste to get at the main question, that these 2400  stand by the established order of things, and reguards may be necessary-what is to be said of sist to the death all violence that might be diall the rest?  There remain no less than 7600  rected against it.  Parliament was not alone in
to account for.  What reason has been assigned, countenancing these measures, proceeding from
what attempt ever made by the noble Lord to  alarm. Both Houses addressed the Throne; both
assign a reason why 3600 more guards should  joined in asserting the existence of great peril to
be wanted more than in Mr. Pitt's celebrated  the Constitution; both declared that the public
establishment of 1792?  I desire, however, to  peace was in danger from the designs of the evilhave this explained-I demand the ground for disposed.  To read the language of those times,
this enormous augmentation of what you call both in public meetings and their addresses, and
your " household force"-I have a right to know  in parliamentary debates, and resolutions of the
why this increase is called for-I call for the rea- two Houses, any one would have thought that a
son of it, and the reason I will have.  Deduct all wide-spreading disaffection had shot through the
you require, or say you require, for France; what land; that the materials of a vast rebellion were
has happened since Mr. Pitt's time to justify you  every where collected; and that the moment was
in nearly doubling the number of the guards? tremblingly expected when some spark lighting
That is the question, and it must be answered to  on the mass should kindle the whole into a flame,
Parliament and to the country- answered, not and wrap the country in destruction. Yet in that
by vague generalities —by affected anxiety for state of things, and with these testimonies to its
discussion - by shallow  pretenses of desire to  menacing aspect, Mr. Pitt, at the very time when
have the fullest investigation-by blustering de- he was patronizing the doctrines of the alarmists,
fiances to us- and swaggering taunts that we  encouraging their movements, and doing all he
dare not investigate. We do investigate-we do  could to increase rather than allay their fears
advance to the conflict-we do go into the de- when he was grounding on the panic that pretails —we do enter upon the items one by one; vailed, those measures out of which his junction
and the first that meets us on the very thresh- with a part of the Whigs arose, whereby he sucold, and as soon as we have planted a foot upon  ceeded in splitting that formidable party-yet
it, is this doubling of the guards.  Then how do  never dreamed of such a force as we are now
you defend that?  Where is the ground for it? told is necessary for preserving the public peace.
What is there to excuse it or to explain?  Mr. He proposed no more than 4000 guards; and
No disorders Pitt found 4000 enough in 1792-then  held that amount to be sufficient.
throughout
the country  what is there to make 7600 wanting    We are challenged to go into particulars; we
to require  now? Look at home. Is the country  are defied to grapple with the ques- Te increase not
these troops,                                                                            for tie
as il 1792.  less peaceable now than it was then? tion in detail. Then I come to par- srequrityd f the
Quite the contrary. It was then disturbed; it is ticulars and details with the noble metropolis.
now profoundly quiet. Then, although there was Lord.  The main duty of the guards is the Lonno insurrection, nor any thing that could be called  don service-that is the district to which their
by such a name, unless by those who sought a  force is peculiarly applicable. To keep the peace
pretext for violating the Constitution, and, by sus- of this great metropolis is their especial province;
pending its powers, securing their own, yet still and I grant the high importance of such functions.
no man could call the state of the country tran- Then I ask when London was ever more quiet
quil.  Universal discontent prevailed, here and  than at this moment?  When were its numerthere amounting to disaffection, and even break- ous inhabitants ever more contented, more obeing out into local disorders; rumors of plots float- dient to the laws, more disinclined to any thing
ed every where about; while meetings were held  like resistance?  At what period of our history
-unmeasured language was used-wild schemes was the vast mass of the people, by whom we
were broached-dangerous associations were  are surrounded, ever more peaceably disposed,
formed. Though no man had a right to say that more unlikely to engage in any thing approachthe government was entitled to pursue unconsti- ing to tumult than now?  Why, they have even
tutional courses for meeting those evils, every  given over going to public meetings; the very
man felt obliged to admit that there was reason  trade of the libeler languishes, if it be not at
for much anxiety-that the aspect of things was end, in the general tranquillity and stagnation
lowering; the alarm was a natural feeling-that of these quiet times.  All is silence, and indifthe duty of the executive was to be vigilant and  ference, and dullness, and inertness, and assuredto be prepared.  The fears of men, whose loyal- ly inaction. To the unnatural and costly excitement of war has succeeded a state of collapse,
ereigns kept for a time a large body of troops in  perhaps from exhaustion, but possibly fiom conFrance, to secure the execution of the treaty made  trast alone.  The mighty events of the latter
by the Bourbon government.                     days, when the materials for the history of a




1816.]                        ON THE ARMY ESTIMATES.                                       893
country were crowded into the space of a few  not the shadow of justification for this increase
months, have left the public mind listless and  of force, what shall we say of the tuc les does
vacant. The stimulus is withdrawn, and change  state of foreign affairs?  Above all, the state o
for  eign   arair's
has had its accustomed sedative influence. They  what shall we say of the comparison demand tlese
who had been gazing till their eyes ached, and  between the face of those affairs now frc
they doubted if they were awake, upon the most and its aspect in 1792?  That was really a
prodigious sights ever presented in the political period of external danger.  Never was there
and the moral world-upon empires broken up  greater room for anxiety; never had the statesand formed anew-dynasties extinguished or men, not of England only, but of all Europe,
springing up-the chains cast off by not merely  more cause for apprehension and alarm-more
a people, but a hemisphere; and half the globe  occasion for wakefulness to passing eventssuddenly covered with free and independent  more ground for being prepared at every point.
states-wars waged, battles fought, compared to  A prodigious revolution had unchained twentywhich the heroes of old had only been engaged  six millions of men in the heart of Europe, galin skirmishes and sallies-treaties made which  lant, inventive, enterprising, passionately fond of
disposed of whole continents, and span the fate  military glory, blindly following the phantom of
of millions of men —could hardly fail to find the  national renown.  Unchained from  the fetters
contemplation of peace flat, stale, and unprofit- that had for ages bound them to their monarchs,
able.  The eye that had been in vain attempt- they were speedily found to be alike disentaning to follow the swift march of such gigantic gled from the obligations of peaceful conduct
events, could not dwell with much interest upon  toward their neighbors.  But they stopped not
the natural course of affairs, so slow in its mo- here.  Confounding the abuses in their political
tion as to appear at rest.  And hence, if ever institutions with the benefits, they had swept
there was a time of utter inaction, of absolute  away every vestige of their former polity; and,
rest to the public mind, it is the hour now chosen  disgusted with the rank growth of corruption to
for supposing that there exists some danger which religion had afforded a shelter, they tore
which requires defensive preparation, and the  up the sacred tree itself; under whose shade
increase of the garrison with which the listless France had so long adored and slept.  To the
and motionless mass of the London population  fierceness of their warfare against all authority,
may be overawed.  Why, my honorable and  civil and religious at home, was added the fiery
learned friend [the Attorney General] has had  zeal of proselytism abroad, and they had rushed
nobody to prosecute for some years past.  It is into a crusade against all existing governments.
above two years since he has filed an ex-officio  and on behalf of all nations throughout Europe,
information, unless in the exchequer against proclaiming themselves the redressers of every
smugglers.  Jacobinism, the bugbear of 1792, grievance, and the allies of each people that
has for the past six years and more never been  chose to rebel against their rulers. The uniform
even named.  I doubt if allusion to it has been  triumph of these principles at home, in each sucmade in this House, even in a debate upon a  cessive struggle for supremacy, had been folKing's speech, since Mr. Pitt's death.  And to  lowed by success almost as signal against the
produce a Jacobin, or a specimen of any other first attempts to overpower them from without,
kindred tribe, would, I verily believe, at this and all the thrones of the Continent shook before
time of day, baffle the skill and the perseverance  the blast which had breathed life and spirit into
of the most industrious and most zealous col- all the discontented subjects of each of their
lector of political curiosities to be found in the  trembling- possessors.2  This was the state of
whole kingdom.  What, then, is the danger-  things in 1792, when Mr. Pitt administered the
what the speculation upon some possible and  affairs of a nation, certainly far less exposed
expected, but non-existing risk-which makes  either to the force or to the blandishments of the
it necessary at this time to augment the force  revolutionary people, but still very far from beapplied to preserve the peace of the metropolis?  ing removed above the danger of either their
But I fear there are far other designs in this  arts or their arms; and the existence of peril in
measure, than merely to preserve a peace which  both kinds, the fear of France menacing the inno man living can have the boldness to contend  dependence of her neighbors, the risk to our dois in any danger of being broken, and no man  mestic tranquillity from a party at home strongliving can have the weakness really to be ap- ly sympathizing with her sentiments, were the
prehensive about.  Empty show, vain parade, topics upon which both he and his adherents
will account for the array being acceptable in  were most prone to dwell in all their discourses
some high quarters; in others, the force may be  of state affairs.  Yet in these circumstances.
recommended by its tending to increase the  the country thus beset with danger, and the
powers of the executive government, and ex- peace thus menaced, both from within and from
tend the influence, of the prerogative. In either without, Mr. Pitt was content with half the eslight, it is most disgustful, most hateful to the  tablishment we are now required to vote! But
eye of every friend of his country, and every one  see only how vast the difference between the
who loves the Constitution-all who have any    2 This is a favorable specimen of Mr. Brougham's
regard for public liberty, and all who reflect on  free, bold, animated painting and declamation, al.
the burdens imposed upon the people.            ways made directly subservient to his argument,
But if the internal state of the country offers and filling his speeches with life and interest.




894                                   MR. BROUGHAM                                       [1816.
present aspect of affairs and that which I have  I am now speaking the language of the noble
been feebly attempting to sketch from the rec- Lord's argument, and not of my own.  He holds
ords of recent history, no page of which any of  it to be unfair toward the guards that they should
us can have forgotten!  The ground and cause  be reduced, after eminently meritorious service
of all peril is exhausted-the object of all the -he connects merit with the military statealarms that beset us in 1792 is no more-France  disgrace, or at least slight, with the loss of this
no longer menaces the independence of the  station.  He holds the soldier to be preferred,
world, or troubles its repose.  By a memorable  rewarded, and distinguished, who is retained in
reverse, not of fortune, but of Divine judgments the army-him to be neglected or ill used, if not
meting out punishment to aggression, France, stigmatized, who is discharged.  His view of the
overrun, reduced, humbled, has become a subject Constitution is, that the capacity of the soldier is
of care and protection, instead of alarm and dis- more honorable and more excellent than that of
may.  Jacobinism itself, arrested by the Direct- the citizen.  According to his view, therefore,
ory, punished by the Consuls, reclaimed by the  the whole army has the same right to complain
Emperor, has become attached to the cause of  with the guards.  But his view is not my view;
good'order, and made to serve it with the zeal, it is not the view of the Constitution; it is not
the resources, and the address of a malefactor the view which I can ever consent to assume as
engaged by the police after the term of his sen-  just, and to inculcate into the army by acting as
tence had expired. All is now, universally over if it were just.  I never will suff.r it to be held
the face of the world, wrapped in profound repose. out as the principle of our free and popular govExhausted with such gigantic exertions as man  ernment that a man is exalted by being made a
never made before, either on the same scale or soldier, and degraded by being restored to the
with the like energy, nations and their rulers  rank of a citizen.  I never will allow it to be
have all sunk to rest.  The general slumber of  said that in a country blessed by having a civil,
the times is every where unbroken; and if ever and not a military government; by enjoying the
a striking contrast was offered to the eye of the  exalted station of a constitutional monarchy, and
observer by the aspect of the world at two dif- not being degraded to that of a military despotferent ages, it is that which the present posture  ism, there is any pre-eminence whatever in the
of Europe presents to its attitude in Mr. Pitt's class of citizens which bears arms, over the class
time, when, in the midst of wars and rumors of  which cultivates the arts of peace.  When it
wars, foreign enemies and domestic treason vieing  suits the purpose of some argument in behalf of
together for the mastery, and all pointed against a soldiery who have exceeded the bounds of the
the public peace, he considered a military estab- law in attacking some assembled force of the peolishment of half the amount now demanded to  ple, how often are we told from that bench of ofbe sufficient for keeping the country quiet, and  fice, from the Crown side of the bar, nay, from
repelling foreign aggression, as well as subduing  the bench of justice itself, that by becoming soldomestic revolt.                                diers, men cease not to be citizens, and that this
Driven from the argument of necessity, as the  is a glorious peculiarity of our free Constitution?
Respect for the noble Lord seemed to feel assured he  Then what right can the noble Lord have to controops uo rea. should be the moment any one exam- sider that the retaining men under arms, and in
son for tir m  ined the case, he skillfully prepared  the pay of the state, is an exaltation and a diskeeping them
on foot.    for his retreat to another position, tinction which they cease to enjoy if restored to
somewhat less exposed, perhaps, but far enough  the status of ordinary citizens?  I read the Confrom being impregnable.  You can not, he said, stitution in the very opposite sense to the noble
disband troops who have so distinguished them- Lord's gloss.  I have not sojourned in congressselves in the late glorious campaigns.  This topic  es with the military representatives of military
he urged for keeping up the guards.  But I ask, powers3-I have not frequented the courts, any
which of our troops did not equally distinguish  more than I have followed the camps of these
themselves?  What regiment engaged in the  potentates-I have not lived in the company of
wars failed to cover itself with their glories?  crowned soldiers, all whose ideas are fashioned
This argument, if it has any force at all, may be  upon the rules of the drill and the articles of the
used against disbanding a single regiment, or dis- fifteen maneuvers-all whose estimates of a councharging a single soldier.  Nay, even those who  try's value are framed on the number of troops it
by the chances of war had no opportunity of dis- will raise, and who can no more sever the idea
playing their courage, their discipline, and their of a subject from that of a soldier, than if men
zeal, would be extremely ill treated if they were  were born into this world in complete armor, as
now to be dismissed the service merely because  Minerva started from Jupiter's head.  My ideas
it was their misfortune not to have enjoyed the  are more humble and more civic, and the only
same opportunity with others in happier circumstances of sharing in the renown of our victories.  The unusual course taken by Lord Castlereagh,
It is enough to have been deprived of the laurels  as minister, of going himself to the varios con
which no one doubts they would equally have  gresses on the Continent in 1815, instead of sending
hich no one dobt they  old eally h  an embassador, had before this drawn forth the sewon had they been called into the field. Surely, verest strictures fiom the Opposition, who considered
surely, they might justly complain if to the disap- him as inflated by vanity, and in danger of being sepointment were added the being turned out of the  duced into measures unbecoming the representative
service which no act of theirs had dishonored. of a free people.




1816.]                        ON THE ARMY  ESTIMATES.                                       895
language I know, or can speak, or can under- treat the common sailors who compose our instand in this House, is the mother tongue of the  vincible navy?  All are at once dismissed. The
old English Constitution.  I will speak none oth- Victory, which carried Nelson's flag to his invaer-I will suffer none other to be spoken in my  riable and undying triumphs, is actually laid up
presence.  Addressing the soldier in that lan- in ordinary, and her crew disbanded to seek a
guage-which alone above all other men in the  precarious subsistence where some hard fortune
country he ought to know-to which alone it pe- may drive them.  Who will have the front to
culiarly behooves us that he, the armed man, contend that the followers of Nelson are less the
should be accustomed-I tell him, " You have  glory and the saviors of their country than the
distinguished yourself-all that the noble Lord  soldiers of the guards?  Yet who is there cansays of you is true-nay, under the truth-you  did enough to say one word in their behalf when
have crowned yourself with the glories of war. we hear so much of the injustice of disbanding
But chiefly you, the guards, you have outshone  our army' after its victories?  Who has ever
all others, and won for yourselves a deathless  complained of that being done to the seamen
fame.  Now, then, advance and receive your re- which is said to be impossible in the soldier's
ward.  Partake of the benefits you have secured  case?  But where is the difference?  Simply
for your grateful country.  None are better than  this: That the maintenance of the navy in time
you entitled to share in the blessings, the inesti- of peace never can be dangerous to the liberties
mable blessings of peace-than you whose valor of the country, like the keeping up a standing
has conquered it for us.  Go back, then, to the  army; and that a naval force gives no gratificarank of citizens, which, for a season, you quitted  tion to the miserable, paltry love of show which
at the call of your country.  Exalt her glory in  rages in some quarters, and is to be consulted in
peace, whom you served in war; and enjoy the  all the arrangements of our affairs, to the exclurich recompense of all your toils in the tranquil sion of every higher and worthier consideration.
retreat from  dangers, which her gratitude be-    After the great constitutional question  to
stows upon you."  I know this to be the lan- which I have been directing your at- Thesetroops
guage of the Constitution, and time was when  tention, you will hardly bear with me far more expensive than
none other could be spoken, or would have been  while I examine these estimates in those of the
understood in this House.  I still hope that no  any detail.  This, however, I must li"e
one will dare use any other in the country; and, say, that nothing can be more scandalous than
least of all, can any other be endured as address- the extravagance of maintaining the established to the soldiery in arms, treating them  as if ment of the guards at the expense of troops of
they were the hired partisans of the Prince, a  the line, which cost the country so much less.
caste set apart for his service, and distinguished  Compare the charge of two thousand guards with
from all the rest of their countrymen, not a class an equal number of the line, and you will find
of the people devoting themselves for a season to  the difference of the two amounts to be above
carry arms in defense of the nation, and when   1l0,000 a year.  It is true that this sum is not
their services are wanted no more, retiring nat- very large, and compared with our whole exurally to mix with and be lost in the mass of penditure it amounts to nothing.  But in a state
their fellow-citizens.                           burdened as ours is, there can be no such thing
But it has been said that there is injustice and  as a small saving; the people had far rather see
Nordoes ingratitude in the country turning adrift millions spent upon necessary objects, than thoutice require her defenders as soon as the war is end- sands squandered unnecessarily, and upon mated, and we are tauntingly asked, "Is  ters of mere superfluity; nor can any thing be
this the return you make to the men who have  more insulting to their feelings, and less bearfought your battles?  When the peace comes  able by them, than to see us here underrating
which they have conquered, do you wish to starve  the importance even of the most inconsiderable
them or send them off to sweep the streets?"  I sum that can be added to or taken from the inwish no such thing; I do not desire that they  tolerable burdens under which they labor.
should go unrequited for their services.  But I    As for the pretext set up to-night that the
can not allow that the only, or the best, or even  question is concluded by the vote of last Friday,
a lawful mode of recompensing them, is to keep  nothing can be more ridiculous.  This House
on foot during peace the army which they com- never can be so bound.  If it could, then may it
pose, still less that it is any hardship whatever any hour be made the victim of surprise, and the
for a soldier to return into the rank of citizens utmost encouragement is held out to tricks and
when the necessity is at an end, which alone  maneuvers.  If you voted too many men before,
justified his leaving those ranks.  Nor can I be- you can now make that vote harmless and inoplieve that it is a rational way of showing our erative by withholding the supplies necessary for
gratitude toward the army, whose only valuable  keeping those men on foot.  As well may it be
service has been to gain us an honorable peace, contended that the House is precluded from
to maintain an establishment for their behoof, throwing out a bill on the third reading, because
which must deprive the peace of all its value, it affirmed the principle by its vote on the secand neutralize the benefits which they have con- ond, and sanctioned the details by receiving the
ferred upon us.                                  committee's report.
See, too, the gross inconsistency of this argu-    The estimate before you is  3385,000, for the
ment with your whole conduct.  How do you  support of eight thousand one hundred guards.




896                                    MR. BROUGHAM  1822.
Adopt my honorable friend's amendment [Mr. twice as great as was formerly deemed sufficient
Calcraft], and you reduce them  to about four when all Europe was involved in domestic troubthousand, which is still somewhat above their les, and war raged in some parts, and was about
number in the last peace.                        to spread over the whole.  It is not my fault
Sir, I have done.  I have discharged my duty  that peace will have returned without its accusPeroration: to the country; I have accepted the  tomed blessings; that our burdens are to remain
The speaker
free from all challenge of the ministers to discuss undiminished; that our liberties are to be menresponsibility ifthe i.  the question; I have met them fairly, aced by a standing army, without the pretense
jrious sys- and grappled with the body of the ar- of necessity in any quarter to justify its continusued.    gument.  I may very possibly have  ance.  The blame is not mine that a brilliant
failed to convince the House that this establish- and costly army of household troops, of unprement is enormous and unjustifiable, whether we cedented numbers, is allowed to the Crown withregard the burdened condition of the country, or out the shadow of use, unless it be to pamper a
the tranquil state of its affairs at home, or the vicious appetite for military show, to gratify a
universal repose in which the world is lulled, or passion for parade, childish and contemptible;
the experience of former times, or the mischiev- unless, indeed, that nothing can be an object of
ous tendency of large standing armies in a con- contempt which is at once dangerous to the Constitutional point of view, or the dangerous nature  stitution of the country, and burdensome to the
of the arguments urged in their support upon  resources of the people.  I shall further record
the present occasion.  All this I feel very deep- my resistance to this system by my vote; and
ly; and I am also very sensible how likely it is never did I give my voice to any proposition with
that, on taking another view, you should come more hearty satisfaction than I now do to the
to an opposite determination.  Be it so; I have amendment of my honorable friend.
done my duty; I have entered my protest.  It
can not be laid to my charge that a force is to    The amendment was voted down by a majorbe maintained in profound and general peace  ity of eighty.
SPEECH
OF MR. BROUGHAM IN BEHALF OF WILLIAMS WHEN PROSECUTED FOR A LIBEL ON THE CLERGY
OF DURHAM, DELIVERED AT DURHAM BEFORE THE COURT OF KING'S BENCH, AUGUST 9, 1822.
INTRODUCTION.
MR. WILLIAMS was editor of the Chronicle, a paper published at Durham, in the north of England,
and distinguished for its assertion of free principles in Church and State.
When Queen Caroline died, August 7, 1821, the established clergy of Durham would not allow the
bells of their churches to be tolled in the ordinary manner as a token of respect to her memory. This
fact called out the following remarks from Mr. Williams, in his paper of August 10, 1821:
"So far as we have been able to judge from the accounts in the public papers, a mark of respect to
her late Majesty has been almost universally paid throughout the kingdom, when the painful tidings of
her decease were received, by tolling the bells of the cathedrals and churches. But there is one exception to this very creditable fact which demands especial notice. In this episcopal city, containing six
churches independently of the cathedral, not a single bell announced the departure of the magnanimous
spirit of the most injured of queens-the most persecuted of women. Thus the brutal enmity of those who
embittered her mortal existence pursues her in her shroud.
"We know not whether any actual orders were issued to prevent this customary sign of mourning;
but the omission plainly indicates the kind of spirit which predominates among our clergy. Yet these
men profess to be followers of Jesus Christ, to walk in his footsteps, to teach his precepts, to inculcate
his spirit, to promote harmony, charity, and Christian love! Out upon such hypocrisy! It is such conduct which renders the very name of our established clergy odious, till it stinks in the nostrils; that makes
our churches look like deserted sepulchers, rather than temples of the living God; that raises up conventicles in every corner, and increases the brood of wild fanatics and enthusiasts; that causes our beneficed dignitaries to be regarded as usurpers of their possessions; that deprives them of all pastoral influence and respect; that, in short, has left them no support or prop in the attachment or veneration of
the people. Sensible of the decline of their spiritual and moral influence, they cling to temporal power,
and lose in their officiousness in political matters, even the semblance of the character of ministers of religion. It is impossible that such a system can last. It is at war with the spirit of the age, as well as
with justice and reason, and the beetles who crawl about amid its holes and crevices act as if they were
striving to provoke and accelerate the blow, which, sooner or later, will inevitably crush the whole fabric and level it with the dust."
Mr. Williams was prosecuted for these remarks as a libel on the clergy of Durham, and was defended by Mr. Brougham in the following speech, which for bitter irony and withering invective has hardly
its equal in our language.




1822.]                      AGAINST THE DURHAM  CLERGY.                                      897
SPEECH, &c.
GENTLEMEN  OF  THE  JURY,-My  learned  invariably a condition following close behind,
friend [Mr. Scarlett], the Attorney General for which entirely retracted the concession —  prothe Bishop of Durham, having at considerable  vided always the discussion be carried on harmlength offered to you various conjectures as to  lessly, temperately, calmly"-that is to say, in
the line of defense which he supposed I should  such a manner as to leave the subject untouched,
pursue upon this occasion; having nearly ex- and the reader unmoved; to satisfy the public
hausted every topic which I was not very likely  prosecutor, and to please the persons attacked.
to urge, and elaborately traced, with much fan-    My learned friend has asked if the defendant
cy, all the ground on which I could hardly be  knows that the Church is established The Church,
expected to tread-perhaps it may be as well by law?  He knows it, and so do I.,ktik the other
that I should now, in my turn, take the liberty  The Church is established by law, as ishe country
of stating to you what really is the defendant's the civil government-as all the insti- by law.
case, and that yon should know  from  myself  tutions of the country are established by lawwhat I do intend to lay before you.  As my  as all the offices under the Crown are establearned friend has indulged in so many remarks lished by law, and all who fill them are by the
Remarks on  upon what I shall not say, I may take  law protected.  It is not more established, nor
thte speech of
the Attorney leave to offer a single observation on  more protected, than those institutions, officers,
sGown^go  hwhat he has said; and I think I may  and office-bearers, each of which is recognized
tmucl le felt appeal to any one of you who ever and favored by the law as much as the Church;
the difficulties                                             b
of his case.  served upon a jury or witnessed a tri- but I never yet have heard, and I trust I never
al, and ask if you ever before this day saw a pub- shall; least of all do I expect, in the lesson which
lie prosecutor who stated his case with so much  your verdict this day will read, to hear that those
art and ingenuity-wrought up his argument officers and office-bearers, and all those instituwith such pains-wandered into so large a field  tions, sacred and secular, and the conduct of all,
of declamation-or altogether performed his task  whether laymen or priests, who administer them,
in so elaborate and eloquent a fashion as the At- are not the fair subjects of open, untrammeled,
torney General has done upon the present occa- manly, zealous, and even vehement discussion,
sion.  I do not blame this course.  I venture not as long as this country pretends to liberty, and
even to criticise the discretion he has exercised  prides herself on the possession of a free press.
in the management of his cause; and I am far,   In the publication before you the defendant
indeed, from complaining of it.  But I call upon  has not attempted to dispute the high It i liable,
you to declare that inference which I think you  character of the Church; on that Es- te severestt
must. already have drawn in your own minds, tablishment, or its members generally, scrutiny
and come to that conclusion at which I certainly  he has not endeavored to fix any stigma.  Those
have arrived-that he felt what a laboring case  topics, then, are foreign to the present inquiry,
he had-that he was aware how very different and I have no interest in discussing them; yet,
his situation to-day is from any he ever before  after what has fallen from my learned friend, it
knew in a prosecution for libel-and that the ex- is fitting that I should claim for this defendant,
traordinary pressure of the difficulties he had to  and for all others, the right to question-freely
struggle with drove him to so unusual a course. to question-not only the conduct of the ministers
He has called the defendant "that unhappy  of the Established Church, but'even the foundaman."  Unhappy he will be, indeed, but not the  tions of the Church itself.  It is, indeed, unneconly unhappy man in this country, if the doc- essary for my present purpose, because I shall
trines laid down by my learned friend are sane- demonstrate that the paper before you does not
tioned by your verdict; for those doctrines, I touch upon those points; but unnecessary though
fearlessly tell you, must, if established, inevita- it be, as my learned friend has defied me, I will
bly destroy the whole liberties of us all.  Not follow him to the field and say that if there is.
that he has ventured to deny the right of discus- any one of the institutions of the country which,
sion generally upon all subjects, even upon the  more emphatically than all the rest, justifies us
present, or to screen from free inquiry the foun- in arguing strongly, feeling powerfully, and exdations of the Established Church, and the con- pressing our sentiments as well as urging ourduct of its ministers as a body (which I shall sat- reasons with vehemence, it is that branch of theisfy you are not even commented on in the pub- state which, because it is sacred, because it bears,
lication before you).  Far from my learned friend  connection with higher principles than any in.is it to impugn those rights in the abstract; nor, volved in the mere management of worldly con*.
indeed, have I ever yet heard a prosecutor for cerns-for that very reason, entwines itself with
libel-an Attorney General (and I have seen a  deeper feelings, and must needs be discussed, if
good many in my time), whether of our Lord the  discussed at all, with more warmth and zeal than.
King or our Lord of Durham, who, while in the  any other part of our system is fitted to rouse.
act of crushing every thing like unfettered dis- But if any hierarchy in all the world The Ct.urclt of
cussion, did not preface his address to the jury  is bound on every principle of con- England ought
with "God forbid that the fullest inquiry should  sistency-if any Church should be cour.  to
not be allowed."  But then the admission had  forward, not only to suffer, but pro- scruti"y.
LLL




898                                    MR. BROUGHAM                                        [1822.
voke discussion; to stand upon that title and  in the world.  Let us hope (many indeed there
challenge the most unreserved inquiry-it is the  are, not afar off, who will, with unfeigned devoProtestant Church of England; first, because she  tion, pray) that his Majesty may return safe from
has nothing to dread from it; secondly, because  the dangers of his excursion into such a counshe is the very creature of free inquiry, the off- try-an excursion most perilous to a certain porspring of repeated revolutions, and the most re- tion of the Church, should his royal mind be informed of the reformed churches of Europe. fected with a taste for cheap establishments, a
But surely if there is ally one corner of Protest- working clergy, and a pious congregation!
ant Europe where men ought not to be rigorous-    But compassion for our brethren in the North
y judged in ecclesiastical controversy-where a  has drawn me aside from  my pur- Durham, espelarge allowance should be made for the conflict pose, which was merely to remind bea pei, t toh
of irreconcilable opinions-where the harshness  you how preposterous it is in a coun- freest remarks.
of jarring tenets should be patiently borne, and  try of which1 the ecclesiastical polity is framed
strong, or even violent language be not too nar- upon plans so discordant, and the religious tenrowly watched-it is this very realm, in which  ets themselves are so various, to require any very
we live under three different ecclesiastical or- measured expressions of men's opinions upon
ders, and owe allegiance to a Sovereign who in  questions of church government.  And if there
one of his kingdoms is the head of the Church, is any part of England in which an ample license
acknowledged as such by all men; while, in an- ought more especially to be admitted in handling
other neither he nor any earthly being is al- such matters, I say, without hesitation, it is this
lowed to assume that name-a realm composed  very Bishopric, where, in the nineteenth century,
For the country of three great divisions, in one of  you live under a Palatine Prince, the Lord of
is diided into  which Prelacy is favored by law  Durham; where the endowment of the hiedifferent and opposing church  and  approved  in practice by an  rarchy-I may not call it enormous, but I trust
organizations.  Episcopalian people; while in an- I shall be permitted, without offense, to term
other it is protected, indeed, by law, but abjured  splendid; where the Establishment-I dare not
in practice by a nation of sectaries, Catholic and  whisper-proves grinding to the people, but I
Presbyterian; and in a third, it is abhorred alike  will rather say is an incalculable, an inscrutable
by law and in practice, repudiated by the whole  blessing-only it is prodigiously large-showinstitutions of the country, scorned and detested  ered down in a profusion somewhat overpowerby the whole of its inhabitants.  His Majesty, ing; and laying the inhabitants under a load of
almost at the time in which I am  speaking, is obligation overwhelming by its weight.  It is in
about to make a progress through the northern  Durham, where the Church is endowed with a
provinces of this island, accompanied by certain  splendor and a power unknown in monkish times
of his chosen coun3elors-a portion of men who  and Popish countries, and the clergy swarm in
enjoy, unenvied, and in an equal degree, the ad- every corner an' it were the patrimony of St.
miration of other countries and the wonder of  Peter; it is here, where all manner of conflicts
their own-and there the Prince will see much  are at each moment inevitable between the peoloyalty, great learning, some splendor, the re- pie and the priests, that I feel myself warranted,
mains of an ancient monarchy, and of the insti- on their behalf and for their protection-for the
tutions which made it flourish.'  But one thing  sake of the Establishment, and as the discreet
he will not see.  Strange as it may seem, and  advocate of that Church and that clergy; for the
to many who hear me incredible, from one end  defense of their very existence-to demand the
of the country to the other he will see no such  most unrestrained discussion for their title, and
thing as a Bishop; not such a thing is to be  their actings under it.  For them  in this age
found from  the Tweed to John O'Groats; not to screen their conduct from investigation, is to
a mitre; no, nor so much as a minor canon, or stand self-convicted; to shrink from the discuseven a rural dean; and in all the land not one  sion of their title is to confess a flaw; he must
single curate, so entirely rude and barbarous are  be the most shallow, the most blind of mortals
they in Scotland; in such outer darkness do they  who does not at once perceive that if that title
sit, that they support no cathedrals, maintain no  is protected only by the strong arm of the law,
pluralists, suffer non-residence; nay, the poor be- it becomes not worth the parchment on which it
nighted creatures are ignorant even of tithes! is engrossed, or the wax that dangles to it for a'Not a sheaf, or a lamb, or a pig, or the value of  seal.  I have hitherto all along assumed that'a plow-penny do the hapless mortals render from  there is nothing impure in the practice under the
year's end to year's end!  Piteous as their lot system; I am  admitting that every person enis, what makes it infinitely more touching is to  gaged in its administration does every one act
witness the return of good for evil in the de- which he ought, and which the law expects him
mneanor of this wretched race.  Under all this  to do; I am supposing that up to this hour not
truel neglect of their spiritual concerns, they are  one unworthy member has entered within its
actually the most loyal, contented, moral, and re- pale; I am even presuming that up to this moligious people any where, perhaps, to be found  ment not one of those individuals has stepped beThe King visited Scotland ol this occasion for yond the strict line of his sacred functions, or
the first time, leaving London on the tenth of Au. given the slightest offense or annoyance to any
gust,:1822, and spending nearly three weeks on his human being.  I am taking it for granted that
tour.                                           they all act the part of good shepherds, making




1822.]                     AGAINST THE DURHAM  CLERGY.                                     899
the welfare of their flock their first care, and  supply; and yet they eat and yet they live at
only occasionally bethinking them  of shearing, the rate of earls, and yet hoard up; they who
in order to prevent the too luxuriant growth of  chase away all the faithful shepherds of the flock,
the fleece proving an encumbrance, or to erad- and bring in a dearth of spiritual food, robbing
icate disease.  If, however, those operations be  thereby the Church of her dearest treasure, and
so constant that the flock actually live under the  sending herds of souls starving to hell, while they
knife; if the shepherds are so numerous, and  feast and riot upon the labors of hireling curates,
employ so large a troop of the watchful and  consuming and purloining even that which by
eager animals that attend them (some of them, their foundation is allowed and left to the poor,
too, with a cross of the fox, or even the wolf, in  and the reparation of the Church. These are they
their breed) can it be wondered at, if the poor who have bound the land with the sin of sacrilege,
creatures thus fleeced, and hunted, and barked  from which mortal engagement we shall never
at, and snapped at, and from time to time wor- be free till we have totally removed with one
ried, should now and then bleat, dream of prefer- labor, as one individual thing, prelaty and sacring the rot to the shears, and draw invidious, rilege."  "Thus have ye heard, readers" (he
possibly disadvantageous comparisons between  continues, after some advice to the Sovereign to
the wolf without and the shepherd within the  check the usurpations of the hierarchy), "how
fold-it can not be helped; it is in the nature  many shifts and wiles the prelates have invented
of things that suffering should beget complaint;  to save their ill got booty.  And if it be true, as
but for those who have caused the pain to com- in Scripture it is foretold, that pride and covetplain of the outcry and seek to punish it-for ousness are the sure marks of those false prophthose who have goaded to scourge and to gag, ets which are to come, then boldly conclude these
is the meanest of all injustice.  It is, moreover, to be as great seducers as any of the latter times.
the most pitiful folly for the clergy to think of  For between this and the judgment-day do not
retaining their power, privileges, and enormous look for any arch-deceivers, who, in spite of refwealth, without allowing free vent for complaints ormation, will use more craft or less shame to deagainst abuses in the Establishment and delin- fend their love of the world and their ambition,
quency in its members; and in this prosecution  than these prelates have done."2
they have displayed that folly in its supreme de-    If Mr. Williams had dared to publish the tithe
gree.  I will even put it that there has been an  part of what I have just read; if any thing Examp
attack on the hierarchy itself; I do so for argu- in sentiment or in language approaching of Bishop
ment's sake only; denying all the while that to it were to be found in his paper, I r t
any thing like such an attack is to be found with- should not stand before you with the confidence
in the four corners of this publication,        which I now feel; but what he has published
But suppose it had been otherwise; I will show  forms a direct contrast to the doctrines contained
E.ample of you the sort of language in which the  in this passage   Nor is such language confined
Milton in  wisest and the best of our countrymen  to the times in which Milton lived, or to a period
thllirespect. have spoken of that Establishment.  I of convulsion when prelacy was in danger.  I
am  about to read a passage in the immortal will show you that in tranquil, episcopal times,
writings of one of the greatest men, I may say, when the Church existed peacefully and securely
the greatest genius which this country or Eu- as by law established, some of its most distinrope has in modern times produced.  You shall guished members, who have added to its stabilihear what the learned and pious Milton has said  ty as well as its fame, by the authority of their
of prelacy.  He is arguing against an Episcopa- learning and the purity of their lives, the fathers
lian antagonist, whom, from his worldly and un- and brightest ornaments of that Church, have
scril:toal doctrines, he calls a "Carnal Text- used expressions nearly as free as those which I
man "' and it signifies not that we may differ have cited frorn  Milton, and ten-fold stronger
widely n opinioa' with this illustrious man; I than any thing attributed to the defendant.  I
only give his words as a sample of the license with  will read you a passage fiom Bishop Burnet, one
which he was permitted to press his argument, and  of those Whig founders of the Constitution, whom
which in those times went unpunished: "That the Attorney General has so lavishly praised. He
which he imputes as sacrilege to his country, is says, " I have lamented during my whole life
the only way left them to purge that abominable  that I saw so little true zeal among our clergy;
sacrilege out of the land, which none but the  I saw much of it in the clergy of the Church of
prelates are guilty of; who for the discharge of  Rome, though it is both ill directed and ill conone single duty receive and keep that which  ducted; I saw much zeal, likewise, throughout
might be enough to satisfy the labors of many  the foreign churches."
painful ministers better deserving than themselves    Now  comparisons are hateful to a proverb;
-who possess huge benefices for lazy perform- and it is for making a comparison that the deances, great promotions only for the exercise  fendant is to-day prosecuted; for his words can
of a cruel disgospelling jurisdiction-who en- have no application to the Church generally, exgross many pluralities under a non-resident and  eept in the way of comparison.  And with whom
slumbering dispatch of souls-who let hundreds does the venerable Bishop here compare the clerof parishes famish in one diocese, while they the  gy?  Why, with anti-Christ-with the Church
prelates are mute, and yet enjoy that wealth that 
would furnish all those dark places with able    2Apology for Smectymnus-published in 1642.




900                                   MR. BROUGHAM                                       [1822.
-of Rome-casting the balance in her favor-  ists, but of men neither possessing the higher
giving the advantage to our ghostly adversary. preferments of the Church, nor placed in that sitNext comes he to give the Dissenters the prefer- nation of expectancy so dangerous to virtue; the
ence over our own clergy; a still more invidious hard-working, and I fear too often hard-living,
topic; for it is one of the laws which govern  resident clergy of this kingdom, who are an ortheological controversy almost as regularly as nament to their station, and who richly deserve
gravitation governs the universe, that the mutu- that which in too many instances is almost all
al rancor of conflicting sects is inversely as their the reward they receive, the gratitude and vendistance fiom each other; and with such hatred  eration of the people committed to their care.
do they regard those who are separated by the  But I read this passage from Dr. Hartley, not as
slightest shade of opinion, that your true intoler- a precedent followed by the defendant; for he
ant priest abhors a pious sectary far more de- has said nothing approaching to it-not as provoutly than a blasphemer or an atheist; yet to  pounding doctrine authorized by the fact; or
the sectary also does the good Bishop give a de- which in reasoning he approves-but only for
cided preference: " The Dissenters have a great the purpose of showing to what lengths such disdeal (that is of zeal) among them, but I must cussion of ecclesiastical abuses (which, it seems,
own that the main body of our clergy has always we are now, for the first time, to hold our peace
appeared dead and lifeless to me; and instead of about) was carried near a century ago, when the
animating one another, they seem rather to lay one  freedom  of speech, now  to be stifled as licenanother asleep."  " I say it with great regret"  tiousness, went not only unpunished, but unques(adds the Bishop), "I have observed the clergy  tioned and unblamed.
in all the places through which I have traveled,    To take a much later period, I hold in my
Papists, Lutherans, Calvinists, and Dissenters; hand an attack upon the hierarchy'by  fa clergyman
but of them all, our clergy is much the most re- one of their own body-a respectable in Chester.
miss in their labors in private, and the least se- and beneficed clergyman in the sister county Palvere in their lives.  And let me say this freely  atine of Chester, who undertook to defend the
to you, now I am out of the reach of envy and  Christian religion, itself the basis, I presume I
censure" (he bequeathed his work to be given to  may venture, to call it, of the Church, against
the world after his death), " unless a better spir- Thomas Paine. In the course of so pious a work,
it possess the clergy, arguments and, which is which he conducted most elaborately, as you may
more, laws and authority will not prove strong  perceive by the size of this volume, he inveighs
enough to preserve the Church."3                in almost every page against the abuses of the
I will now  show  you the opinion of a very  Establishment, but in language which I am very
atey. learned and virtuous writer, who was  far from  adopting.  In one passage is the folmuch followed in his day, and whose  lowing energetic, and I may add, somewhat viobook, at that time, formed one of the manuals by  lent invective, which I will read, that you may
-which our youth were taught the philosophy of see how a man, unwearied in the care of souls,
morals to prepare them for their theological stud- and so zealous a Christian that he is in the act
ies, I mean Dr. Hartley: "I choose to speak of of confuting infidels and putting scoffers to siwhat falls under the observation of all serious, lence, may yet, in the very course of defending the
attentive persons in the kingdom.  The superior Church and its faith: use language, any one word
clergy are in general ambitious, and eager in the  of which, if uttered by the defendant, would
pursuit of riches-flatterers of the great, and  make my learned friend shudder at the license
subservient to party interest-negligent of their of the modern press upon sacred subjects.  " We
own particular charges, and also of the inferior readily grant, therefore, you see, my countryclergy.  The inferior clergy imitate their supe- men, that the corruptions of Christianity shall be
riors, and in general take little more care of their purged and done away; and we are persuaded
parishes than barely what is necessary to avoid  the wickedness of Christians so called, the lukethe censure of the law; and the clergy of all ranks warmness of professors, and the reiterated atare in general either ignorant, or, if they do apply, tacks of infidels upon the Gospel, shall all, under
it is rather to profane learning, to philosophical the guidance of.infinite Wisdom, contribute to
or political matters, than in the study of the  accomplish this end."
Scriptures, of the Oriental languages, and the    I have read this sentence to show you the
Fathers.  I say this is, in general, the case; that spirit of piety in which the work is composed;
is,: far the greater part of the clergy of all ranks now see what follows:
ir the kingdom are of this kind."                  "The lofty looks of lordly prelates shall be
I here must state that the passage I have just brought low; the supercilious airs of downy docread is very far from meeting my approval, any  tors and perjured pluralists shall be humbled;
more than it speaks the defendant's sentiments, the horrible sacrilege of non-residents, who shear
and especially in its strictures upon the inferior the fleece, and leave the flock thus despoiled to
clergy; for certainly it is impossible to praise too  the charge of uninterested hirelings that care not
highly those pious and useful men, the resident, for them, shall be avenged on their impious
working parish priests of this country.  I speak  heads.  Intemperate priests, avaricious clerks;
not of the dignitaries, the pluralists and sinecur- and buckish parsons, those curses of Christen-._-~ ~-  ~.  dom, shall be confounded.  All secular hierarchHistory of His own Times, ii.. 641.    ies in the Church shall be tumbled into ruin; luke



1822.]                     AGAINST THE DURHAM  CLERGY.                                       901
warm formalists of every denomination shall call that princely head was at last laid low by death,
to the rocks and mountains to hide them from the  which, living, all oppression had only the more'
wrath of the Lamb."                              illustriously exalted-the venerable the Clergy:
This is the language-these are the lively de- of Durham, I am  now told for the first time,
If the clergy of scriptions-these the warm, and I though less forward in giving vent to their feelclurc are   will not hesitate to say, exaggerated  ings than the rest of their fellow-citizens-though;
thus evy ee   pictures which those reverend au- not so vehement in their indignation at the matchcertainly be  thors present of themselves; these  less and unmanly persecution of the Queenfree in their remarks.     are the testimonies which they bear though not so unbridled in their joy at her imto the merits of one another; these are opinions mortal triumph, nor so loud in their lamentations
coming, not from the enemy without, but from  over her mournful and untimely end-did, nevthe true, zealous, and even intemperate friend  ertheless, in reality, all the while deeply sympawithin.  And can it be matter of wonder that thize with her sufferings in the bottom  of their
laymen should sometimes raise their voices tuned  reverend hearts!  When all the resources of the
to the discords of the sacred choir?  And are  most ingenious cruelty hurried her to a fate,
they to be punished for what secures to clergy- without parallel-if not so clamorous as others,.
men followers, veneration, and-preferment?  they did not feel the least of all the members of
But I deny that Mr. Williams is of the number the community -their grief was in truth too
of followers; I deny that he has taken a leaf or deep for utterance-sorrow clung round their
a line out of such books; I deny that there is any  bosoms, weighed upon their tongues, stifled evsentiment of this cast, or any expression ap. cry sound-and, when all the rest of mankind,
preaching to those of Dr. Simpson, in the publi- of all sects and of all nations, freely gave vent to
cation before you.  But I do contend that if the  feelings of our common nature, THEIR silence,
real friends of the Church, if its own members the contrast which THEY displayed to the rest of
can safely indulge in such language, it is ten  their species, proceeded from the greater depth of
thousand times more lawful for a layman, like  their affliction; they said the less, because they felt
the defendant, to make the harmless observations  the more!  Oh! talk of hypocrisy after this!
which he has published, and in which I defy any  Most consummate of all the hypocrites!  After
man to show me one expression hostile to our instructing your chosen, official advocate to stand
ecclesiastical Establishment.                    forward with such a defense-such an exposition
[Mr. Brougham then read the following pas- of your motives-to dare utter the word "'hypocsage from the libel:]                            risy," and complain of those who charged you
"We know  not whether any actual orders with it!  This is indeed to insult common sense
were issued to prevent this customary sign of  and outrage the feelings of the whole human
mourning; but the omission plainly indicates the  race!  If you were hypocrites before, you were
kind of spirit which predominates among our downright, frank,'honest hypocrites to what you
clergy.  Yet these men profess to be follow- have now made yourselves -and surely, for all
ers of Jesus Christ, to walk in his footsteps, to  you have ever done, or ever been charged with,
teach his precepts, to inculcate his spirit, to pro- your worst enemies must be satiated with the humote harmony, charity, and Christian love! Out miliation of this day, its just atonement, and amupon such hypocrisy!"                           pie retribution!
That you may understand the meaning of this    If Mr. Williams had known the hundredth part
Comments on passage, it is necessary for me to set of this at the time of her Majesty's ar. williamn left
ationsP det- before you the picture my learned  demise-if he had descried the least in ignoranceof
by theetarn- friend was pleased to draw  of the  twinkling of the light which has now attributedtothe
touching the  clergy of the Diocese of Durham, and  broke upon us as to the real motives  rgy
gy.       I shall recall it to your minds almost of their actions-I am sure this cause would nevin his own words.  According to him, they stand  er have been tried; because to have made any
in a peculiarly unfortunate situation; they are, one of his strictures upon their conduct, would
in truth, the most injured of men.  They all, it have been not only an act of the blackest injusseems, entertained the same generous sentiment tice —it would have been perfectly senseless.
with the rest of their countrymen, though they  But can he be blamed for his ignorance, when
did not express them  in the old, free, English  such pains were taken to keep him in the dark?
manner, by openly condemning the proceedings  Can it be wondered at that he was led astray
against the late Queen; and after the course of when he had only so false a guide to their mounexampled injustice against which she victori- tives as their conduct, unexplained, afforded?
ously struggled had been followed by the need- When they were so anxious to mislead by facts
less infliction of inhuman torture, to undermine  and deeds, is his mistake to be so severely critia frame whose spirit no open hostility could  cised?  Had he known the real truth, he must
daunt, and extinguish a life so long embittered  have fraternized with them; embraced them
by the same foul arts-after that great Princess  cordially; looked up with admiration to their
had ceased to harass her enemies (if I may be  superior sensibility; admitted that he who feels
allowed thus to speak, applying, as they did, by  most, by an eternal law of our nature, is least
the perversion of all language, those names to  disposed to express his feelings; and lamented
the victim which belong to the tormentor), after that his own zeal was less glowing than theirs;
her glorious but unhappy life had closed, and  but, ignorant and misguided as he was, it is no




902                                   MR. BROUGHAM                                      [1822.
great marvel that he did not rightly know the  their whole conduct has falsified those expectareal history of their conduct, until about three  tions.  They sided openly, strenuous- But their conquarters of an hour ago, when the truth burst in  ly, forwardly, officiously, with power, r tly theupon us that all the while they were generously  in the oppression of a woman whose'erse.
attached to the cause of weakness and misfor- wrongs this day they, for the first time, pretend
tune!                                          to bewail in their attempt to cozen you out of a
Gentlemen, if the country, as well as Mr. verdict, behind which they may skulk from the
Yet they ought, Williams, has been all along so de- inquiring eyes of the people.  Silent and subdued
tion, to hve  ceived, it must be admitted that it is in their tone as they were on the demise of the
felt thus.    not from the probabilities of the case. unhappy Queen, they could make every bell in
Judging beforehand, no doubt, any one must have  all their chimes peal when gain was to be exexpected the Durham clergy, of all men, to feel pected by flattering present greatness.  Then
exactly as they are now, for the first time, ascer- they could send up addresses, flock to public
tained to have felt.  They are Christians; out- meetings, and load the press with their libels,
wardly, at least, they profess the gospel of char- and make the pulpit ring with their sycophancy,
ity and peace; they beheld oppression in its foul- filling up to the brim the measure of their adulaest shape; malignity and all uncharitableness  tion to the reigning Monarch, Headof the Church,
putting on their most hideous forms; measures and Dispenser of its Patronage.
pursued to gratify prejudices in a particular quar-    In this contrast originated the defendant's feelter, in defiance of the wishes of the people and  ings, and hence the strictures which Hence the
the declared opinions of the soundest judges of form the subject of these proceedings.,erefMr
each party; and all with the certain tendency to  I say the publication refers exclu- wiliams.
plunge the nation in civil discord.  If for a mo- sively to the clergy of this city and its suburbs,
ment they had been led away by a dislike of and especially to such parts of that clergy as
cruelty and of civil war, to express displeasure  were concerned in the act of disrespect toward
at such perilous doings, no man could have  her late Majesty, which forms the subject of the
charged them  with political meddling; and  alleged libel; but I deny that it has any referwhen they beheld truth and innocence triumph  ence whatever to the rest of the clergy, or
over power, they might, as Christian ministers, evinces any designs hostile either to the stability
calling to mind the original of their own Church, of the Church or the general character and conhave indulged without offense in some little ap- duct of its ministers. My learned friend has said
pearance of gladness; a calm, placid satisfaction  that Mr. Williams had probably been bred a
on so happy an event would not have been un- sectary, and retained sectarian prejudices.  No
becoming their sacred station. When they found  argument is necessary to refute this supposition.
that her sufferings were to have no end; that The passage which has been read to you carries
new pains were inflicted in revenge for her es- with it the conviction that he is no sectary, and
cape from destruction, and new tortures devised  entertains no schismatical views against the
to exhaust the vital powers of her whom open, Church; for there is a more severe attack upon
lawless violence had failed to subdue-w-e might the sectaries themselves than upon the clergy
have expected some slight manifestation of dis- of Durham.  No man can have the least hesitaapproval from holy men who, professing to incul- tion in saying that the sentiments breathed in it
cate loving-kindness, tender-mercy, and good-will are any thing but those of a sectary.  For myto all, offer up their daily prayers for those who  self, I am far from approving the contemptuous
are desolate and oppressed.  When at last the  terms in which he has expressed himself of those
scene closed, and there was an end of that per- who dissent from the Establishment; and 1 think
secution which death alone could stay; but when  he has not spoken of them in the tone of decent
not even her unhappy fate could glut the revenge  respect that should be observed to so many worof her enemies; and they who had harassed her thy persons, who, though they differ from the
to death now exhausted their malice in reviling  Church, differ from it on the most conscientious
the memory of their victim; if among them had  grounds.  This is the only part of the publicabeen found, during her life, some miscreant un- tion of which I can not entirely approve, but it
der the garb of a priest, who, to pay his court to  is not for this that he is prosecuted.  Then, what
power, had joined in trampling upon the defense- is the meaning of the obnoxious remarks? Are
less; even such an one, bear he the form of a man, they directed against the Establishment?  Are
with a man's heart throbbing in his bosom, might they meant to shake or degrade it?  I say that
have felt even his fawning, sordid, calculating  no man who reads them can entertain a moment's
malignity assuaged by the hand of death; even  doubt in his mind that they were ex- These stricthe might have left the tomb to close upon the  cited by the conduct of certain individ- urea vere desufferings of the victim.  All probability certain-  uals, and the use which he makes of injure, but to
benefit the
ly favored the supposition that the clergy of Dur- that particular conduct, the inference Estlblished
ham would not take part against the injured be- which he draws from it. is not invec- Church.
cause the oppressor was powerful; and that the  tive against the Establishment, but a regret
prospect of emolument would not make them wit- that it should by such conduct be lowered.  He
ness with dry eyes and hardened hearts the close  says no more than this: " These are the men
of a life which they had contributed to embitter who do the mischief; ignorant and wild fanatics
and destroy.  But I am compelled to say that are crowding the tabernacles, while the Church




1822.]                     AGAINST THE DURHAM  CLERGY.                                     903
is deserted," and he traces, not with exultation, structure.  These are times when men will inbut with sorrow, the cause of the desertion of quire, and the day most fatal to the Established
the Church, and the increase of conventicles. Church, the blackest that ever dawned upon its' Here," says he, "I have a fact which accounts ministers, will be that which consigns this defor the clergy sinking in the estimation of the  fendant, for these remarks, to the horrors of a
community, and I hold up this mirror, not to ex- jail; which its false friends, the chosen objects
cite hostility toward the Established Church, nor of such lavish favor, have far more richly deto bring its ministers into contempt among their served.  I agree with my learned friend, that
flocks, but to teach and to reclaim those partic- the Church of England has nothing to dread from
ular persons who are the disgrace and danger of external violence.  Built upon a rock, and liftthe Establishment, instead of being, as they ought, ing its head toward another world, it aspires to
its support and its ornament."  He holds up to  an imperishable existence, and defies any force
them that mirror in which they may see their that may rage from without.  But let it beware
own individual misconduct, and calculate its in- of the corruption engendered within and beneath
evitable effects upon the security and honor of the its massive walls; and let all its well-wishersEstablishment which they disgrace.  This is no all who, whether for religious or political interlawyer-like gloss upon the passage-no special ests, desire its lasting stability-beware how they
pleading construction, or far-fetched refinement give encouragement, by giving shelter to the
of explanation-I give the plain and obvious vermin bred in that corruption, who " stink and
sense which every man of ordinary understand- sting" against the hand that would brush the roting must affix to it.  If you say that such an one tenness away.  My learned friend has sympadisgraces his profession, or that he is a scandal thized with the priesthood, and innocently enough
to the cloth he wears (a common form of speech, lamented that they possess not the power of deand one never more in men's mouths than within  fending themselves through the public press.
the last fortnight, when things have happened to  Let him be consoled; they are not so very deextort an universal expression of pain, sorrow, fenseless-they are not so entirely destitute of
and shame), do you mean by such lamentations  the aid of the press as through him  they have
to undermine the Establishment? In saying that represented themselves to be. They have largethe purity of the cloth is defiled by individual ly used that press (I wish I could say " as not
misconduct, it is clear that you cast no imputa- abusing it"), and against some persons very near
tion on the cloth generally; for an impure per- me-I mean especially against the defendant,
son could not contaminate a defiled cloth. Just whom they have scurrilously and foully libeled
so has the defendant expressed himself, and in  through that great vehicle of public instruction,
this light I will put his case to you.  If he had  over which, for the first time, among the other
thought that the whole Establishment was bad; novelties of the day, I now hear they have conthat all its ministers were time-servers, who, like  trol.  Not that they wound deeply or injure
the spaniel, would crouch and lick the hand that much; but that is no fault of theirs-without
fed it, but snarl and bite at one which had noth- hurting, they give trouble and discomfort. The
ing to bestow-fawning upon rich and liberal insect brought into life by corruption, and nestled
patrons, and slandering all that were too proud  in filth, though its flight be lowly and its sting
or too poor to bribe them; if he painted the  puny, can swarm and buzz, and irritate the skin
Church as founded upon imposture, reared in  and offend the nostril, and altogether give nearly
time-serving, cemented by sordid interest, and  as much annoyance as the wasp, whose nobler
crowned with spite, and insolence, and pride-   nature it aspires to emulate.  These reverend
to have said that the Durham clergy disgraced  slanderers-these pious backbiters-devoid of
such a hierarchy, would have been not only gross force to wield the sword, snatch the dagger, and
inconsistency, but stark nonsense.  He must destitute of wit to point or to barb it, and make
rather have said that they were worthy members it rankle in the wound, steep it in venom to make
of a base and groveling Establishment-that the  it fester in the scratch.  The much-venerated
Church was as bad as its ministers-and that it personages whose harmless and unprotected state
was hard to say whether they more fouled it or is now deplored, have been the wholesale dealers
were defiled by it.  But he has said nothing that in calumny, as well as largest consumers of the
can bring into jeopardy or discredit an institution  base article —the especial promoters of that vile
which every one wishes to keep pure, and which  traffic, of late the disgrace of the country-both
has nothing to dread so much as the follies and  furnishing a constant demand for the slanders by
crimes of its supporters.                       which the press is polluted, and prostituting
Gentlemen, you have to-day a great task com- themselves to pander for the appetites of others;
Peroration:   mitted to your hands.  This is not and now they come to demand protection from;
The Egisits  the age-the spirit of the times is not retaliation, and shelter from just exposure; and,
own worst en- such-as to make it safe, either for to screen themselves, would have you prohibit
emy in seoking
to crunlh f^ee  the country or for the government, all scrutiny of the abuses by which they exist,
domoremark or for the Church itself, to vail its and the malpractices by which they disgrace
mysteries in secrecy; to plant in the porch of their calling.  After abusing and well-nigh disthe temple a prosecutor brandishing his flaming  mantling, for their own despicable purposes, the
sword, the process of the law, to prevent the  great engine of instruction, they would have you
prying eyes of mankind from wandering over the  annihilate all that they have left of it, to secure




904                                   MR. BROUGHAM                                         [1823.
their escape.  They have the incredible assur- things, the stability of our institutions, by well
ance to expect that an English jury will conspire guarding their corner stone. Defend the Church
with them in this wicked design.  They expect from her worst enemies, who, to hide their own
in vain!  If all existing institutions and all pub- misdeeds, would vail her solid foundations in
lie functionaries must henceforth be sacred from  darkness; and proclaim to them, by your verdict
question among the people; if at length the free of acquittal, that henceforward, as heretofore, all
press of this country, and with it the freedom it- the recesses of the sanctuary must be visited by
self, is to be destroyed-at least let not the heavy the continual light of day, and by that light its
blow fall from  your hands.  Leave it to some abuses be explored!
profligate tyrant; leave it to a mercenary and
effeminate Parliament-a hireling army, degrad-    After the judge had summed up to the jury,
ed by the lash, and the readier instrument for they retired, and remained inclosed for above five
enslaving its country; leave it to a pampered  hours. They then returned the following special
House of Lords-a venal House of Commons-  verdict, viz.: " Guilty of so much of the matter
some vulgar minion, servant-of-all-work to an in the first count as charges a libel upon the
insolent court-some unprincipled soldier, un- clergy residing in and near the city of Durham,
known, thank God! in our times, combining the and the suburbs thereof; and as to the rest of the
talents of a usurper with the fame of a captain; first count, and the other counts of the informaleave to such desperate hands, and such fit tools, tion, Not Guilty."
so horrid a work!  But you, an English jury,    Mr. Brougham  now moved for a new trial,
parent of the press, yet supported by it, and and obtained one; but the prosecutors did not
doomed to perish the instant its health and  again appear, and no judgment was therefore
strength are gone-lift not you against it an un- pronounced in the case.  Thus Mr. Williams
natural hand.  Prove to us that our rights are was let go free, as if he had been acquitted alsafe in your keeping; but maintain, above all together by the jury.
SPEECH
OF MR. BROUGHAM ON THE INVASION OF SPAIN BY FRANCE, DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, FEBRUARY 4,1823.
INTRODUCTION.
A CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT was established in Spain by the Cortes, or states of the kingdom, in
the year 1812, and was recognized as legitimate by England, Russia, Prussia, and other leading powers.
After being set aside by Ferdinand VII. in 1814, it was proclaimed anew in January, 1820, by the Spanish military, headed by Riego and other gallant officers, who rebelled against the tyranny of Ferdinand,
and were sustained by a large part of the kingdom. The flame spread into Naples and Piedmont, where
constitutional governments were also speedily established. This alarmed the Allied Powers, embracing
Russia, Austria, Prussia, and France, who at once decreed the overthrow of the whole system. Naples
and Piedmont were successively overrun by Austria, and the new governments destroyed. The fate of
Spain was deferred two years longer, and was committed to France.
Ferdinand, in the mean time, had yielded to the wishes of his people, and in March, 1820, had sworn
to maintain the Constitution, and to administer the laws according to its provisions. But his friends, with
his connivance, attempted, in 1822, to restore him to absolute power by an insurrection; and failing in
this, they established a regency in Catalonia, near the French borders, in the name of the "imprisoned
King."  France had before this begun to collect troops on the same borders, first under the name of a
sanitary cordon to prevent the introduction of disease, and afterward of an army of observation. In December, 1822, Louis XVIII. demanded of the Spanish government to restore Ferdinand to absolute power, under penalty of an immediate invasion of the country by the French troops. Austria, Prussia, and
Russia united in this demand, and urged it in the strongest terms.' The government of Spain replied, on
the 9th of January, 1823, in a note addressed to the different powers of Europe, repelling with indignation this interference of the Allied Sovereigns in the internal affairs of Spain.
Parliament met about three weeks after, February 4, 1823, and Mr. Canning, the Secretary of Foreign
Affairs, had the same abhorrence which was felt by the nation at large for this crusade against the constitutional government of Spain. Within forty-eight hours after he came in as minister (September 18,
1822), he had sent the Duke of Wellington to the Congress at Verona with a remonstrance against tile
proposed intervention; and he now brought forward the subject in the King's speech, " His Majesty has
declined being party to any proceedings at Verona which could be deemed an interference with the internal concerns of Spain; and his Majesty has since used, and continues to use, his most anxious endeavors to allay the irritation subsisting between the French and Spanish governments, and to avert, if
possible, the calamity of war between France and Spain."  The ground taken by the government was
highly gratifying to the Whigs, and Mr. Brougham expressed their sentiments in the following speech.
It is one of the most striking specimens we have of his leading characteristics-strong argument intermingled with bold declamation, scathing invective, irony, sarcasm, and contempt.




1823.]                ON THE INVASION  OF SPAIN  BY FRANCE.                                  905
S PE E C H, &.
I rise in consequence of the appeal made to  from their effects, still I think no man can deny
every member of the House by the gallant officer that the country is at present approaching to a
[Sir J. Yorke] who has just sat down, to declare  crisis such as has not occurred, perhaps, for above
Answerto my sentiments.  I answer that appeal, a century, certainly not since the French Revo.
tfeaPt    which does credit to the honor, to the  lution.  Whether we view the internal condition
speaker.  English feeling of that gallant officer; of the kingdom, and the severe distress which
and I join with him, and with every man who de- press upon that most important and most useful
serves the name of Briton, in unqualified abhor- branch of the community, the farmers; or cast
rence and detestation of the audacious interfer- our eyes upon our foreign relations, our circumence to which he has alluded; or, if that execra- stances must appear, to the mind of every thinktion is at all qualified, it can only be by contempt ing man, critical and alarming.  They may, it is
and disgust at the canting hypocrisy of the lan- true, soon wear a better aspect, and we may esguage in which the loathsome principles of the  cape the calamities of war; but he must be a
tyrants are promulgated to the world.  I have  bold, and possibly a rash man, certainly not a
risen to make this declaration, called upon as I very thoughtful one, who can take upon him to
am, in common with every member, but I should  foretell that so happy a fortune shall be ours.
ill discharge my duty if I did not mark my sense    It is the deep consideration of these things
of the candor of the two honorable gentlemen  which induces me to come forward and Necessity of
[Mr. Childs and Mr. Wildman] who have moved  make a declaration of my principles; being ready
and seconded the address, and express my satis- and to state that, with a strict adher- for w"r.
faction at what, in the House, however divided  ence to the most rigid economy in every departupon other points, will be almost, and certainly  ment, the reduction of establishments, which I
in the country will be quite unanimously felt to  am at all times, if not the first, at least among
be the sound and liberal view which they have  the foremost to support, and which is so necestaken of this great affair.  Indeed, I know not, sary in the ordinary circumstances of the counwise and lion. circumstancedas they were, that they  try, must now be recommended, with a certain
rtakbe course  could go further; or even that his modification, in order to adapt our policy to the
ministry.    Majesty's ministers, in the present present emergency.  I am  guilty of no inconstate of this very delicate question, ought to have  sistency whatever in thus qualifying the doctrine
gone beyond the communication of to-day. That of unsparing retrenchment; indeed, the greater
communication, coupled with the commentary of the chance of some extraordinary demand upon
the honorable mover, will be the tidings of joy, our resources from the aspect of affairs abroad,
and the signal for exultation to England-it will the more imperious is the necessity of sparing
spread gladness and exultation over Spain-will every particle of expense not absolutely requibe a source of comfort to all other free states-  site.  Economy to its utmost extent I still recand will bring confusion and dismay to the Allies, ommend as politic, and urge as due to the peowho, with a pretended respect, but a real mock- ple of right; and every expense is now to be reery of religion and morality, make war upon lib- garded as more inexcusable than ever, both beerty in the abstract; endeavor to crush national cause the country is suffering more severely, and
independence wherever it is to be found; and  because it may become necessary soontoincrease
are now preparing, with their armed hordes, to  some parts of our establishment.  I say I am
carry into execution their frightful projects.  certainly not prepared to propose, or to suffer,
That Spain will take comfort from the principles  as far as my voice goes, any the least reduction
avowed in the House this evening, I am certain;  of our naval force, to the extent even of a single
and I am not less clear that the handful of men  ship or seaman; on the contrary, I fear the time
at present surrounding the throne of our nearest may not be distant when its increase will be reand most interesting neighbor [Louis XVIII.]  quired.  Any such augmentation of the army I
(who, by-the-way, has, somehow or othei, been  can not conceive to be justifiable in almost any
induced to swerve from  the prudent counsels  circumstances; for, happen what may, a war on
which had, till of late, guided his course) will feel our part, carried on with the wasteful and scanastonished and dismayed with the proceedings  dalous profusion of the last, and upon the same
of this day, in proportion as others are encour- vast scale, or any thing like it, is wholly out of
aged.'  Cheering, however, as is the prevalence  the question.
of such sentiments; highly as they raise the char-    [Mr. Brougham entered at some length into
acter of the nation, and much as may be augured  the internal state of the country-the indications
of distress at the various meetings —the inconLouis XVIII., as here intimated, was, in the  sistency of the violent attacks made upon the
early part of his reign, a friend of constitutional Nofok  etition  y those  who had passed the
principles, and pursued a policy which gained him    ol Ci   il o           whic  enactedthe parts
the support of men of liberal sentiments throughout                n                         
his kingdom. But at the assassination of the Duke  of the Norfolk plan most liable to objection-the
of Berri in 1820, his feelings became alienated, and  inadequacy of any relief to be obtained from rethe ultra-Royalists gradually gained the ascendant peal of taxes that only affected small districts
in his councils.                                 -the absolute necessity of repealing a large




906                                   MR. BROUGHAM                                        [1823.
amount of the taxes pressing generally on all elements, and all power, ana assuming only the
classes-and for this purpose, he urged the ne- single principle of a permanent and (1.)TThe govcessity of a saving wherever it could be effected  legal opposition against the govern- codeme by
with safety; and, at any rate, of giving up the  ment, necessarily destroys that cen-..e.s.as
sinking fund.  He then proceeded:]              tral and tutelary authority which con- formerly reg.gI think, then, that if war were once corn- stitutes the essence of the monarch- mate.
Her interven- menced, we should soon be compelled  ical system."  Thus far the King of Prussia, in
tion may be
demandede.  to take some part in it, one way or terms which, to say the least, afforded some
pecalt    i tl other, and that, for such an emergen- proof of the writer's knowledge of the monarchgal.      cy, every shilling which can be saved  ical system, and of the contrast which, in his
by the most rigid economy should be reserved. opinion, it exhibited to the present government
I think our intervention in some shape will be- of Spain.  The Emperor of Russia, in terms not
come unavoidable.  We are bound, for instance, less strong, calls the constitutional government
to assist one party, our old ally Portugal, if she  of the Cortes, " that which the public reason of
should be attacked; and it is not likely that she  Europe, enlightened by the experience of all ages,
can remain neuter, if the present hateful con- stamps with its disapprobation," and complains
spiracy against Spain shall end in open hostility.  of its wanting the:' conservative principle of soIt is in this view of the question that I differ cial order."   Where, in the conservative charfrom the gallant officer [Sir J. Yorke] who last acter of keeper of the peace of Europe, does his
spoke, and I am  glad that I could not collect Imperial Majesty discover that the Constitution
from the honorable mover or seconder the omin- of Spain had been stamped with the disapprobaous words "strict neutrality," as applied to this  tion of the public reason of Europe?  Let the
country in the threatened contest.  A state of  House observe that the " public reason of Eudeclared neutrality on our part would be nothing  rope, enlightened by the experience of all ages,"
less than a practical admission of those princi- happens to be that of his Imperial Majesty himples which we all loudly condemn, and a license  self for the last ten years exactly, and no more;
to the commission of all the atrocities which  for, notwithstanding that he had the " experience
we are unanimous in deprecating.  I will say, of all ages" before his eyes, he did, in the year
therefore, that it is the duty of his Majesty's  1812, enter into a treaty with Spain. with the
ministers (with whom I should rejoice in co-op- same Cortes, under the same Constitution, not
erating on the occasion; and so, I am  certain, one iota of which had been changed up to that
would every one who now hears me, waving for very hour.  In that treaty, his Imperial Majesty,
a season all differences of opinion on lesser mat- the Emperor of all the Russias, speaking of the
ters) to adopt and to announce the resolution, that then government, did use the very word by which
when certain things shall take place on the Con- he and his allies would themselves be designated
tinent, they will be ready to assist the Spaniards -the word, by the abuse of which they are
-a measure necessary to avert evils, which  known-he did call the Spanish government of
even those the least prone to war (of which I the Cortes; a legitimate government," that very
avow myself one) must admit to be inevitable, government-that very Constitution-of which
should a wavering or pusillanimous course be  the Spaniards have not changed one wordi and
pursued.  Our assistance will be necessary to  God forbid they should change even a letter of
resist the wicked enforcement of principles con- it, while they have the bayonet of the foreign soltrary to the law of nations, and repugnant to the  dier at their breast!  I hope, if it has faultsidea of national independence.                   and some faults it may have-that when the
To judge of the principles now shamelessly  hour of undisturbed tranquillity arrives, the SpanConduct   promulgated, let any man read patient- iards themselves will correct them.  If they will
of the Allie ly, if he can, the declarations in the  listen to the ardent wish of their best friendsPowers.   notes of Russia, Prussia, and Austria; of those who have marked their progress, and
and, with all due respect to those high authori- gloried in the strides they have made toward
ties, I will venture to say that to produce any  freedom and happiness-of those who would go
thing more preposterous, more absurd, more ex- to the world's end to serve them in their illustravagant, better calculated to excite a mingled  trious struggle-of those, above all, who would
feeling of disgust and derision, would baffle any  not have them  yield an hair's breadth to force
chancery or state-paper office in Europe.  I -my counsel would be to disarm the reasonashall not drag the House through the whole  ble objections of their friends, but not to give up
nauseous details; I will only select a few pas-  any thing to the menaces of their enemies.  I
sages, by way of sample, from those notable pro- shall not go more into detail at the present moductions of legitimate genius.                   ment; for ample opportunities will occur of disIn the communication from the minister of his  cussing this subject; but I will ask, in the name
Prussian Majesty, the [Spanish] Constitution of  of common sense, can any thing be more absurd,
1812, restored in 1820, and now established, is more inconsistent, than that Spain should now be
described as a system which, "confounding all repudiated  as illegitimate by those, some of
2 The reader is already aware, from the speech whom have, in treaties with her, described her
of Mr. Canning on a preceding page, that in 1826, government in its present shape by the very
this intervention became necessary in behalf of term  "legitimate government?"  In the treaty
Portugal.                                        of friendship and alliance, concluded in 1812,




1823.]                ON  THE INVASION OF SPAIN  BY FRANCE.                                  907
between the Emperor of all the Russias and the  the enemies, that is, the natives of Poland.  That
Spanish Cortes, Ferdinand being then a close  mild and gentle Sovereign. in the midst of these
prisoner in France, his Imperial Majesty [of  most horrible outrages upon every feeling of
Russia], by the third article, acknowledges in  human nature, issued a proclamation, in which
express terms the Cortes, "and the CONSTITU- she assured the Poles (I mean to give her very
TION sanctioned and decreed by it."  This arti- words) that she felt toward them " the solicitude
cle I cite from the collection of Treaties by Mar- of a tender mother, whose heart is only filled
tens, a well known Germanic, and therefore a  with sentiments of kindness for all her children."
laborious and accurate compiler.                 Who can, or who dares doubt that she was all
But not only is the conduct of the Allies to- she described herself; and who can, after the
(a.) Iterven- ward  Spain  inconsistent with  the  experience of the last year, dispute the legitition forbidden treaties of some among them with  mate descent of the allied powers, and the puriby the treaty of
Aix-ia-Cha-   Spain-I will show that their prin- ty of their intentions toward Spain?  But along
pelle.     ciple of interference, in any man- with this declaration of the object of future conner of way, is wholly at variance with treaties  gresses, came the article which I should like to
recently made among themselves.  I will prove  see some German statist-some man versed in
that one of the fundamental principles of a late  the manufacture of state papers-compare with,
treaty is decidedly opposed to any discussion  and reconcile (if it only may be done within a
whatever among them  respecting the internal moderate compass) to the notes fashioned at
situation of that country.  By the 4th article  Verona, not unlikely by the very hands which
of the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, November, produced the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle.  The
1818, it is laid cown that a special congress article is this: " Special congresses concerning
may be held, from  time to time, on the affairs the affairs of states not parties to this alliance,
of Europe.  Using the words, and borrowing the  shall not take place, except" (and here I should
hypocritical cant of their predecessors, the same  like to know how Spain, which was no party to
three powers who basely partitioned Poland-   the alliance, has brought herself within the exwho, while they despoiled a helpless nation of  ception) —' except in consequence of a formal inits independence, kept preaching about the quiet vitation f'rom such states;" " and their embasof Europe: the integrity of its states, and the  sadors shall assist at such congresses."  How
morality and happiness of their people-talking  will any German commentator reconcile these
daily about the desire of calm  repose (the at- contiadictions?  Here the interference in the
mosphere, I well know, in which despotism loves  internal affairs of Spain is not only not " by speto breathe, but which an ancient writer elo- cial invitation" from, but is in downright oppoquently painted, when he said that tyrants mis- sition to, the will of Spain. Thus stands the contake for peace the stillness of desolations)-fol- duct of those Holy Allies diametrically opposed to
lowing the vile cant of their ancestors-the Al- their own professions and engagements, and by
lies declared, at Aix-la-Chapelle, that their ob- such means is the attempt now made to crush
ject was to secure the tranquillity, the peace  the independence of a brave people.
(which I, giving them credit for sincerity, read    But it is not in the case of Spain alone that the
the desolation of Europe), and that their funda- consideration of these papers is import- (3.) The reomental principle should be, never to depart from  ant-they furnish grounds of rational sons which
a strict adherence to the law of nations.  "Faith- fear to all independent governments; giv n forthis
ful to these principles" (continued this half-ser- for I should be glad to learn what case ntervention.
mon, half-romance, and half-state-paper), " they  it is (upon the doctrines now advanced) to which
will only study the happiness of their people, the  this principle of interference may not be extendprogress of the peaceful arts, and attend care- ed? or what Constitution or what act of state it
fully to the interests of morality and religion, is on which the authority to comment, criticise,
of late years unhappily too much neglected"-   and dictate may not be assumed?  The House
here, again, following the example of the Au- is not aware of the latitude to which the intertocratrix Catharine-the spoiler of Poland-  ference of those armed legislators may be, nay,
who, having wasted and pillaged it, province  actually is extended.  The revolt of the colonies
after province, poured in hordes of her barba- is distinctly stated as one ground of interposirians, which hewed their way to the capital tion!  The allies kindly offer their "interventhrough myriads of Poles, and there, for one  tion" to restore this great branch of "the strength
whole day, from the rising of the sun to the going  of Spain."  There is no end of the occasions
down thereof, butchered its unoffending inhab- for interfering which they take.  One is rather
itants, unarmed men, and women, and infants; alarming-the accident of a sovereign having
and not content with this work of undistinguish-  weak or bad ministers.  Russia, forsooth, was
ing slaughter, after the pause of the night had  anxious to see Ferdinand surrounded with "the
given time for cooling, rose on the morrow and  most enlightened-most faithful of his subjects"
renewed the carnage, and continued it through- -men " of tried integrity and superior talents"
out that endless day; and after this, a Te Deum  -men, in a word, who should be every way
was sung, to return thanks for her success over  worthy of himself.  So that, accord- (a) The extent
3   Solitudinem faciunt pacem appellant.       ing to these wise men of Verona (and of their appiSpeech of Galgacus respecting the Romans, in  this is a consideration which should cation
Tacitus' Life of Agricola, cap. 30.              be looked to in some other countries as well as




908                                   MR. BROUGHAM                                        [1823.
Spain), the existence of an inefficient or unprin- explained by any one of the three sovereigns.
cipled administration, would be of itself a just The Austrian note discourses largely of "the
ground of interference.  The principle does not solid and venerable claims" which the Spanish
stop  here.   " Ruinous loans"  form  another nation has upon the rest of Europe; prays it to
ground, and " contributions unceasingly renew- adopt a better form of government than it has at
ed;"  "taxes which, for year after year, ex- present; and calls upon it to reject a system
hausted the public treasures and the fortunes of  which is at once "powerful and paralyzed."  It
individuals"-these are instances in which the  would be disgusting to enter at any length into
principle of interference may apply to other papers at once so despicable in their execution,
powers besides Spain; and I have no doubt that and in their plan so abominably iniquitous.
when the same doctrines are extended to certain  There is but one sentiment held regarding them
countries, the preparatory manifesto will make  out of the House; and my excuse for taking nomention of agricultural distress, financial em- tice of them  now, is my desire to call forth a
barrassment, and the sinking fund. But, to com- similar expression of feeling from the House itplete all the charges against Spain, the Russian  self.  Monstrous, and insolent, and utterly unEmperor finishes his invective with the awful bearable, as all of them  are, I consider that of
assertion that, on the 7th of July, "blood was Russia to be more monstrous, more insolent, and
seen to flow in the palace of the King, and a more prodigiously beyond all endurance than the
civil war raged throughout the Peninsula."  It rest.  It is difficult to determine which most to
is true that a revolt had been excited in some  admire, the marvelous incongruity of her lanof the provinces.  But bywhom?  Anally.  It guage and conduct now, with her former most
was produced by those cordons of troops which  solemn treaties, or the incredible presumption
were posted [by France] on the Spanish frontier, of her standing forward to lead the aggression
armed with gold and with steel, and affording  upon the independence of all free and polished
shelter and assistance by force, to those in whose  states.  Gracious God!  Russia! Russia! a
minds disaffection had been excited by bribery. power that is only half civilized-which, with
It is also true that blood has been shed.  But all her colossal mass of physical strength, is still
would it not be supposed, by any person unac- quite as much Asiatic as European-whose prinquainted with the fact, and who only read the  ciples of policy, foreign and domestic, are comstatement in the manifesto, that this was blood  pletely despotic, and whose practices are almost
shed in an attempt to dethrone Ferdinand, and  altogether Oriental and barbarous!  In all these
introduce some new and unheard of form of gov- precious documents there is, with a mighty numernment?  At any rate, does not this statement ber of general remarks, mixed up a wondrous
plainly intend it to be supposed that the Constitu- affectation of honest principles-a great many
tional party had made the onset, and shed royal- words covering ideas that are not altogether clear
ist, if not royal blood?  But what is the fact? and intelligible; or, if they happen to be so, only
A few persons were killed who had first attacked  placing their own deformity in a more hideous
the Constitutionalists, in other words, mutinied  and detestable light; but, for argument, or any
against the established government-the gov- thing like it, there is none to be found from the
ernment which the Emperor Alexander himself  beginning to the end of them.  They reason not.
recognized as legitimate in 1812; and this he but speak one plain language to Spain and to
has now the audacity to call the shedding of  Europe, and this is its sum and substance: "We
blood by Spaniards in the palace of the King! have hundreds of thousands of hired mercenaries,
As well might he accuse the People, the Parlia- and we will not stoop to reason with those whom
ment, and the Crown of England of causing  we would insult and enslave."
"blood to flow in the palace of the King," for    I admire the equal frankness with which this
ordering their sentinels to fire on some person  haughty language had been met by  ) Te reply
whom they found attempting to assassinate the  the Spanish government: the papers of Spain an ad
Sovereign, as accuse the Spaniards of such a which it had sent forth are plain and mirable ne.
crime, for the events which happened in July, laconic; and borrowing for liberty, the ancient
1822.                                           privilege of tyrants-to let their will stand in the
I shall pass over many other heavy charges place of argument-they bluntly speak this lan(b) Some of leveled at the Spaniards, in phrases of guage: "We are millions of freemen, and will
them iniqui- terrible import-as harboring a " dis- not stoop to reason with those who threaten to
suiting,   organized philosophy," "indulging in  enslave us."  They hurl back the menace upon
dreams of fallacious liberty," and the want of the head from which it issued, little caring wheth" venerable and sacred rights," with which the  er it came from Goth, or Hun, or Calmuc; with
Prussian note is loaded to repletion; and shall a frankness that outwitted the craft of the Boheproceed to the Russian, which objects to the mian, and a spirit that defied the ferocity of the
Spaniards their want of the " true conservative  Tartar, and a firmness that mocks the obstinacy
principle of social order"-or, in other words, of the Vandal. If they find leagued against them
of despotic power, in the hands of one man, the tyrants by whom the world is infested, they
for his own benefit, at the expense of all man- may console themselves with this reflection, that
kind besides; and to their not falling within the wherever there is an Englishman, either of the
scope of those " grand truths," which, though  Old World or of the New-wherever there is a
they were ever in their mouths, were nowhere  Frenchman, with the miserable exception of that




1823.]             ON THE  INVASION  OF SPAIN  BY FRANCE.                                    909
little band which now, for.a moment, sways the  had always acted with equal justice toward othdestinies of France in opposition to the wishes  ers when he was himself concerned?  Could any
and interests of its gallant and liberal people-   thing have been more natural than suggesting to
a people which, after enduring the miseries of  him that, before he was generous to King Ferdithe Revolution, and wading through its long and  nand, he might as well be just to King George;
bloody wars, are entitled, Heaven knows, if ever that he had better not rob the one to pay the othany people were, to a long enjoyment of peace  er-nay, that he ought to return him the whole,
and liberty, so dearly and so honorably pur- or, at any rate, some part of the millions, princhased-wherever there breathes an English- cipal and interest, which he owed him? a debt
man or a true-born Frenchman-wherever there  which, remaining unpaid, wastes the resources
beats a free heart or exists a virtuous mind, there  of a faithful ally of Spain, and tends mightily to
Spain has a natural ally, and an inalienable friend.  cripple his exertions in her behalf.  I wish likeFor my own part, I can not but admire the  wise to know what could have been more natu(d) Retort   mixture of firmness and forbearance  ral-nay, if the doctrine of interference in the
ight have   which the government of Spain has internal concerns of neighboring nations be at all
given the Alexhibited.  When the Allied Mon- admitted-what could have been more rightful,
own conduct. archs were pleased to adopt a system  in a free people, than to have asked him how it
of interference with the internal policy of Spain  happened that his dungeons were filled with all
-when they thought fit to deal in minute and  that was noble, and accomplished, and virtuous,
paltry criticisms upon the whole course of its do- and patriotic in the Milanese? to have called on
mestic administration-when each sentence in  him to account for the innocent blood which he
their manifestoes was a direct personal insult to  had shed in the north of Italy? to have required
the government, nay to every individual Span- at his hands satisfaction for the tortures inflicted
iard-and when the most glaring attempts were  in the vaults and caverns where the flower of his
made in all their state papers to excite rebellion  Italian subjects were now languishing? to have
in the country, and to stir up one class of the  demanded of him some explanation of that iron
community against the other-it would not have  policy which has consigned fathers of families
surprised me if, in the replies of the Spanish gov- the most virtuous and exalted in Europe, not to
ernment, some allusion had been made to the do- the relief of exile or death, but to a merciless
mestic policy of the Allied Sovereigns; or ifsome  imprisonment for ten, fifteen, and twenty years,
of the allegations which had been so lavishly cast nay, even for life, without a knowledge of the
upon it, had been scornfully retorted upon those  charge against them, or the crime for which they
who had so falsely and so insolently called them  are punished?  Even the Emperor Alexander
forth.  What could have been more pardonable, himself, tender and sensitive as he is at
Prussia. nay, what more natural, than for the Span- the sight of blood flowing within the preish government to have besought his Prus- cincts of a royal palace-a sight so monstrous
sian Majesty, who was so extremely anxious for that, if his language could be credited, it had
the welfare and good government of Spain-who  never before been seen in the history of the world
had shown himself so minute a critic on its laws -might have been reminded of passages in that
and institutions, and who seemed so well versed  history calculated to lessen his astonishment at
in its recent history-to remember the promises  least, if not to soothe his feelings; for the Emwhich he had made some years ago to his own  peror Alexander, if the annals of Russian story
people, by whose gallant exertions, on the faith  may be trusted, however pure in himself, and
of those promises, he had regained his lost crown?  however happy in always having agents equally
What would have been more natural than to have  innocent, is nevertheless descended from an ilsuggested that it would be better, ay, and safer lustrious line of ancestors, who have, with extoo in the end, to keep those promises, than to  emplary uniformity, dethroned, imprisoned, and
maintain, at his people's cost, and almost to their slaughtered husbands, brothers, and children.
ruin, a prodigious army, only safely employed  Not that I can dream of imputing those enormiwhen in the act of ravaging the territories or ties to the parents, or sisters, or consorts; but it
putting down the liberties of his neighbors? The  does happen that those exalted and near relations
government of Spain would have had a right to  had never failed to reap the whole benefit of the
make such representations, for his Prussian Maj- atrocities, and had ever failed to bring the peresty owed much, very much, to its exertions; petrators to justice.4  In these circumstances, if
indeed, the gallant resistance which it made to  I had had the honor of being in the confidence
the invasion of Bonaparte had alone enabled  of his Majesty of all the Russias, I should have
Prussia to shake offthe yoke; while, on the other  been the last person in the world to counsel my
hand, the Spaniards owed a debt of gratitude to
the brave and honest people of Prussia for begin-   4 Paul I., father of the Emperor Alexander, was
ning the resistance to Bonaparte in the north. murdered by conspirators in his own palace, on the
Could any thing, I will also ask, have been more 11th of March, 1801. No one supposes that AlexS pal  n.igs,'v  le m      rander was personally concerned in the plot, though
Austria. natural for the Spanish government, than   e succeeded to the government. But in no part of
to have asked the Emperor of Austria  Europe have assassinations been so common in the
whether he who now pretended to be so scrupu- royal line as in Russia, and there is singular force
lously fond of strict justice in Ferdinand's case, in the manner in which Mr. Brougham dwells on
wheli it cost him nothing, or must prove a gain, this topic.




910                                 MR. BROUGHAM                                         [1823.
Imperial Master to touch upon so tender a topic  was already acquired, be it ever so great-he
--  should humbly have besought him to think  condescended to receive from the hand of Bonatwice or thrice, nay, even a third and a fourth  parte a few square leagues of territory, with an
time, before he ventured to allude to so delicate  additional population of some two or three thoua subject-I should, with all imaginable defer- sand serfs.  The object was trifling indeed, but
ence, have requested him to meddle with any  it served to keep alive the principle.  The tenother topic —  should have directed him by pref- der heart of the father, overflowing, as his imerence to every other point of the compass-I  perial grandmother had phrased it, with the milk
should have implored him rather to try what he  of human kindness for all his children, could not
could say about Turkey, or Greece, or even Mi- be satisfied without receiving a further addition
norca, on which he has of late been casting many  to their numbers; and therefore it is not surprisan amorous glance-in short, any thing and  ing that, on the next occasion, he should be ready
every thing, before he approached the subject of to seize, in more effectual exemplification of the
" blood flowing within the precincts of a royal principle, a share of the booty large in proporpalace," and placed his allusion to it, like an art- tion as his former one had been small. The
ful rhetorician, upon the uppermost step of his Emperor of Austria, too, who had entered beclimax.                                         fore the others into the race for plunder, and
I find, likewise, in these self-same documents, never weary in ill doing, had continued in it till
(e) Retorts   a topic for which the Spanish gov- the very end-he who, if not an accomplice with
which might  ernmen h d i b e s
ihavlbeenifven ernment, had it been so inclined, the Jacobins of France in the spoliation of Vengas to their ln- might hae a dministered to the Holy  ice, was at least a receiver of the stolen properBonlparte.   Alliance another severe lecture.  I ty-a felony, of which it was well said at the
allude to the glib manner in which the three  time in the House, that the receiver was as bad
Potentates now talk of an individual who, let his as the thief-that magnanimous Prince, who,
failings or even his crimes be what they may, after twenty years alternation of truckling and
must always be regarded as a great and a re- vaporing-now the feeble enemy of Bonaparte,
splendent character-who, because he was now  now his willing accomplice-constantly punished
no longer either upon a throne or at liberty, or for his resistance by the discipline invariably apeven in life, is described by them, not merely as  plied to those mighty Princes in the tenderest
an ambitious ruler, not merely as an arbitrary  places, their capitals, from which they were suetyrant, but as an upstart and an usurper.  This  cessively driven-as constantly, after punishis not the language which those Potentates for- ment, joining the persecutor, like the rest of
merly employed, nor is it the language which  them, in attacking and plundering his alliesthey were now entitled to use regarding this  ended by craving the honor of giving Bonaparte
astonishing individual.  Whatever epithets En- his favorite daughter in marriage.  Nay, after
gland, for instance, or Spain, may have a right the genius of Bonaparte had fallen under the still
to apply to his conduct, the mouths of the Allies, more powerful restlessness of his ambitionat least, are stopped: they can have no right to  when the star of his destiny had waned, and the
call him usurper-they who, in his usurpations, fortune of the Allies was triumphant, through
had been either most greedy accomplices or most the roused energies of their gallant people. the
willing tools. What entitles the King of Prussia  severity of the elements, his own turbulent pasto hold such language now? he who followed  sions and that without which the storms of pophis fortunes with the most shameless subservien- ular ferment, and Russian winter, and his own
cy, after the thorough beating he received from  ambition would have raged in vain, the aid of
him, when trampled upon and trodden down in  English arms, and skill, and gallantry-strange
the year 1806?  Before he had risen again and  to tell, these very men were the first to imitate
recovered the upright attitude of a man, he fell that policy against which they had inveighed
upon his knees, and still crouching before him  and struggled, and to carry it further than the
who had made him crawl in the dust, kissed the  enemy himself in all its most detestable points.
blood-stained hand of Napoleon for leave to keep  I maintain that it is so; for not even by his bithis Britannic Majesty's foreign dominions, the  terest slanderers was Bonaparte ever accused of
Electorate of Hanover, which the Prussian had  actions so atrocious as was the spoliation of Norsnatched hold of while at peace with England. way, the partition of Saxony, the transfer of GeSo the Emperor Alexander, after he had also  noa, and the cession of Ragusa, perpetrated by
undergone the like previous ceremony, did not those in whose mouths no sound had been heard
disdain to lick up the crumbs which fell from the  for years but that of lamentation over the French
table of his more successful rival in usurpation. attacks upon national independence.5  It is too
Little, it is true, was left by the edge of Gallic  much, after such deeds as these-it is too much.
appetite; but rather than have nothing-rather after the Allies had submitted to a long course
than desert the true Russian principle of getting  of crouching before Bonaparte, accompanied by
something on every occasion, either in Europe
or in Asia (and of late years they have even    5 The annexation of Norway to Sweden, of Genoa
laid claim to an almost indefinite naval dominion  to Sardinia, and other arrangements of territory
in America)-rather than forego the Calmuc  made by the Allied Powers after the dethronement
policy for the last century and a half, of always of Bonaparte, excited general indignation throughadding something, be it ever so little, to what out the free countries of Europe.




1823.]                ON THE INVASION  OF SPAIN BY FRANCE.                                 911
every aggravation of disgrace-it is too much for on the good-will of his patriotic countrymen-and
them now to come forth and calumniate his mem- only put forth the powers of his own genius, and
ory for transactions in the benefits of which they  only used the wholesome vigor of the law. He
participated at the time, as his accomplices, and  never thought of calling to his assistance the
the infamy of which they have since surpassed  Allobroges, or the Teutones, or the Scythians of
with the usual exaggeration of imitators.  I re- his day; and I now  say that if Louis XVIII.
joice that the Spaniards have only such men as shall call upon the modern Teutones or Scythithese to contend with.  I know that there are  ans to assist him  in this unholy war, the day
fearful odds when battalions are arrayed against their hordes move toward the Rhine, judgment
principles.  I may feel solicitous about the issue  will go forth against him, and his family, and
of such a contest.  But it is some consolation to  his counselors; and the dynasty of Gaul has
reflect that those embodied hosts are not aided  ceased to reign.
by the merits of their chiefs, and that all the    What, I ask, are the grounds on which the
weight of character is happily on one side.     necessity of this war is defended? (4.) The real
It gives me, however, some pain to find that It is said to be undertaken because srution of
(f) Reasons  a monarch so enlightened as the King  an insurrection has broken out with fleeIotitagh.
fr surprisetin  through
and regret that of France has shown himself on va- success at Madrid. I deny this to be out Europe,
ouois xv.ue rious occasions, should have yielded  the fact.  What is called an insurrection, was
should espouse n a
this cause.   obedience, even for an instant, to the  an attempt to restore the lawful Constitution of
arbitrary mandates of this tyrannic junto.  I the country-a Constitution which was its estrust that it will only prove a temporary ab- tablished government, till Ferdinand overthrew
erration from the sounder principles on which  it by means of a mutiny in the army; and, therehe has hitherto acted; I hope that the men  fore, when a military movement enabled the
who appear to have gained his confidence only  friends of liberty to recover what they had lost,
to abuse it, will soon be dismissed from his coun- it is a gross perversion of language to call this
oils; or if not, that the voice of the country, recovery, this restoration, by the name of insurwhose interests they are sacrificing to their rection-an insidious confusion of terms, which
wretched personal views, and whose rising lib- can only be intended to blind the reason, or play
erties they seem  anxious to destroy, in gratifi-  upon the prejudices of the honest part of mancation of their hatred and bigotry, will compel kind.  Let the pretext, however, for the war be
them to pursue a more manly and more liberal what it may, the real cause of it is not hard to
policy.  Indeed, the King of France has been  conjecture.  It is not from hatred to Spain or to
persuaded, by the parasites who at present sur- Portugal that the Allied Sovereigns are for
round him, to go even beyond the principles of marching their swarms of barbarians into the
the Holy Alliance.  He has been induced to tell Peninsula-it is not against freedom on the Ebro,
the world that it is from the hands of a tyrant or freedom on the Mincio, they make war. No,
alone that a free people can hold a Constitution. it is against freedomn!-against freedom whereThat accomplished Prince-and all Europe ac- ever it is to be found-freedom by whomsoever
knowledges him  to be, among other things, a  enjoyed-freedom by whatever means achieved,
finished scholar-can not but be aware that the by whatever institutions secured.  Freedom is
wise and good men of former times held far oth- the object of their implacable hate.  For its deer opinions upon this subject; and if I venture  struction they are ready to exhaust every reto remind him of a passage in a recently recov- source of force and fraud.  All the blessings
ered work of the greatest philosopher of the an- which it bestows-all the establishments in
cient world, it is in the sincere hope that his which it is embodied, the monuments that are
Majesty will consider it with all the attention  raised to it, and the miracles that are wrought
that is due to such high authority.  That great by it-they hate with the malignity of demons,
man said, "Non in ulla civitate, nisi in qua sum- who tremble while they are compelled to adore;
ma potestas populi est, ullum domicilium liber- for they quiver by instinct at the sound of its
tas habet."6  I recommend to his most Christian  name.  And let us not deceive ourselves; these
Majesty the reflection that this lesson came not despots can have but little liking toward this naonly from the wisdom of so great a philosopher, tion and its institutions, more especially our Parbut also from the experience of so great a states- liament and our press.  As long as England reman.  I would have him  remember that, like  mains unenslaved; as long as the Parliament conhimself, he lived in times of great difficulty and  tinues a free and open tribunal, to which the opof great danger-that he had to contend with  pressed of all nations under heaven can appeal
the most formidable conspiracy to which the life, against their oppressors, however mighty and
property, and liberty of the citizen had ever been  exalted-and with all its abuses (and no man
exposed-that, to defeat it, he had recourse only  can lament them  more than I do, because no
to the powers of the Constitution-threw himself man is more sensible of its intrinsic value, which
~~6~~~~ Never has liberty had ahose abuses diminish), with all its imperfections
6 Never has liberty had a home, except in a coon- (and no man can be more anxious to remove
try where the power was in the hands of the peo- t                         more   a          
pie. The words are from the treatise of Cicero, De  them, because none wishes more heartily, by reRepublica, a considerable part of which was for the  storing its original purity, to make it entirely
first time brought to light by Maio, and given to the  worthy of the country's love)-it is still far too
world in the year 1822.                         pure and too free to please the taste of the con



912                                  MR. BROUGHAM                                    [1823.
tinental despots-so long would England be the  plain.  It behooves us, however, to take care
object of their hatred, and of machinations, that we rush not blindly into a war. eroration,
sometimes carried on covertly, sometimes open- An appeal to arms is the last al- Duty of En
ly, but always pursued with the same unremit- ternative we should try, but still it pared for war.
ting activity, and pointed to the same end.    ought never to be so foreign to our thoughts as
But it is not free states alone that have to  to be deemed very distant, much less impossible;
and the a-  dread this system of interference; this or so foreign from our councils as to leave us
grandizement plan of marching armies to improve unprepared.  Already, if there is any force in
the expense the political condition of foreign na- language, or any validity in public engagements,
of Turkey. tions. It is idle to supposehat that those we are committed by the defensive treaties into
armed critics will confine their objections to the which we have entered.  We are bound by vainternal policy of popular governments.  Can  rious ties to prevent Portugal from being overrun
any one imagine that, if there be a portion of by an enemy.  If (which Heaven avert!) Spain
territory in the neighborhood of the Emperor were overrun by foreign invaders, what would
Alexander peculiarly suited to his views, he will be the situation of Portugal?  Her frontier on
not soon be able to discover some fault, to spy  the side of Spain can scarcely be said to have
out some flaw in its political institutions requir- an existence; there is no defending it any where;
ing his intervention, however little these may  and it is in many places a mere imaginary line,
savor of democracy, supposing it even to be a that can only be traced on the page of the gepart of the Ottoman government itself?  If his ographer; her real frontier is in the Pyrenees;
Imperial Majesty be present in council with his her real defense is in their fastnesses and in the
consistory of jurists and diplomatists, I believe defense of Spain; whenever those passes are
that it will be in vain for the Ulemah to send a crossed, the danger which has reached Spain
deputation of learned Muftis, for the purpose of will hang over Portugal.  If we acknowledge
vindicating the Turkish institutions.  These  the force of treaties, and really mean that to be
sages of the law may contend that the Ottoman  performed for which we engaged, though we
government is of the most " venerable descrip- may not be bound to send an army of observation"-that it has " antiquity in its favor"-that tion to watch the motions of the French by land,
it is in full possession of "the conservative prin- because that would be far from the surest way
ciple of social order" in its purest form-that it of providing for the integrity of our ally, at least
is replete with " grand truths;'.' a system' pow- we are bound to send a naval armament; to aid
erful and paralyzed"-that it has never lent an  with arms and stores; to have at all times the
ear to the doctrines of a " disorganized philoso- earliest information; and to be ready at any
phy"-never indulged in "vain theories," nor moment to give effectual assistance to our anbeen visited by such things as " dreams of falla- cient ally.  Above all things, we ought to do
cious liberty."  All this the learned and rever- that which of itself will be a powerful British
end deputies of the Ulemah may urge, and may  armament by sea and by land-repeal without
maintain to be true as holy Koran; still " The  delay the Foreign Enlistment Bill-a measure
Three Gentlemen of Verona," I fear, will turn  which, in my opinion, we ought never to have
a deaf ear to the argument, and set about pry- enacted, for it does little credit to us either in
ing for some imperfection in the "pure and ven- policy or justice.  I will not, however, look
erable system"-some avenue by which to enter backward to measures on the nature of which
the territory; and, if they can not find a way, all may not agree; I will much rather look forwill probably not be very scrupulous about mak- ward, to avbid every matter of vituperation, reing one.  The windings of the path may be hard  serving all blame for the foreign tyrants whose
to trace, but the result of the operation will be profligate conduct makes this nation hate them
plain enough.  In about three months from the  with one heart and soul, and my co-operation for
time of deliberation, the Emperor Alexander any faithful servant of the Crown, who shall, in
will be found one morning at Constantinople-   performing his duty to his country, to freedom,
or, if it suit him, at Minorca-for he has long  and to the world, speak a language that is truly
shown a desire to have some footing in what he British-pursue a policy that is truly free-and
pleasantly termed the " western provinces" of look to free states as our best and most natural
Europe, which, in the Muscovite tongue, signi- allies against all enemies whatsoever; allies upon
fies the petty territories of France and Spain, principle, but whose friendship was also closely 
while Austria and Prussia will be invited to look  connected with our highest interests; quarreling
for an indemnity elsewhere; the latter, as for- with none, whatever may be the form of their
merly, taking whatever the King of England  government, for that would be copying the faults
may have on the Continent.  The principles on  we condemn; keeping pace wherever we could,
which this band of confederated despots have but not leaving ourselves a moment unprepared
shown their readiness to act are dangerous in for war; not courting hostilities from any quarthe extreme, not only to free states (and to those ter, but not fearing the issue, and calmly resolved
to which no liberty can be imputed), but also to to brave it at all hazards, should it involve us in
the states over which the very members of this the affiay with them  all; determined to mainunholy league preside.                        tain, amid every sacrifice, the honor and dignity
Resistance to them is a matter of duty to all of the Crown, the independence of the country
nations, and the duty of this country is especially  the ancient law of nations, the supremacy of all




1823.]               ON THE INVASION  OF SPAIN BY FRANCE.                                  913
separate states; all those principles which are I and subsidies were the principal reliances even
cherished as most precious and most sacred by  in the best cause.  But, happily for mankind,
the whole civilized world.                      there has arrived a great change in this respect.
Moral causes come into consideration, in proporThe views of England were wholly disregard- tion as the progress of knowledge is advanced;
ed by the Allied Sovereigns, and on the 9th of  and the public opinion of the civilized world is
April, 1823, the French army of nearly one rapidly gaining an ascendency over mere brutal
hundred thousand men, under the Duke of An- force.  It is already able to oppose the most
gouleme, entered the Spanish territory.  They  formidable obstruction to the progress of injuswere received with open arms by the priests  tice and oppression; and, as it grows more inand the lower classes of the people, and after telligent and more intense, it will be more and
some severe conflicts forced their way to Cadiz more formidable.  It may be silenced by miliwithin six months, October 4th, 1823.. The En- tary power, but it can not be conquered.  It
glish having no treaty with Spain which laid the  is elastic, irrepressible, and invulnerable to the
foundation of their interposing to assist her, re- weapons of ordinary warfare.  It is that impasmnained neutral, prepared instantly to strike if  sable, unextinguishable enemy of mere violence
Portugal should be attacked.  Ferdinand was and arbitrary rule which, like Milton's angels,
invested with absolute power; and in direct vio-                "Vital in every part,
lation of the terms of capitulation, a persecuting      Can not, but by annihilating, die."
and vindictive policy was adopted toward the' Until this be propitiated or satisfied, it is
partisans of the constitutional government. Ri- vain for power to talk either of triumphs or of
ego was executed at Madrid, November 7th, and  repose.  No matter what fields are desolated,
great cruelty exercised toward his leading as- what fortresses surrendered, what armies subsociates.  Portuguese absolutists now put forth  dued, or what provinces overrun.  In the hisevery effort in their power, conjointly with Fer- tory of the year that has passed by us, and in
dinand, to break down the constitutional govern- the instance of unhappy Spain, we have seen the
ment of Portugal, and in 1826 that country was vanity of all triumphs, in a cause which violates
invaded fiom  Spain.  The result has been al- the general sense of justice of the civilized
ready stated in connection with Mri. Canning's world.  It is nothing that the troops of France
speech on this subject.  The insurrection was have passed from the Pyrenees to Cadiz; it is
put down within two months, and Ferdinand, nothing that an unhappy and prostrate nation has
fearing an invasion from  England, was driven  fallen before them; it is nothing that arrests,
from his favorite design.                       and confiscation, and execution sweep away the
The student in oratory will be interested, in  little remnant of national resistance.  There is
connection with this speech, to read that of Mr. an enemy that still exists to check the glory of
Webster on the Greek revolution, delivered in  these triumphs.  It follows the conqueror back
the House of Representatives of the United  to the very scene of his ovations; it calls upon
States, on the 19th of January, 1824.  In the for- him to take notice that Europe, though silent, is.
mer part of this speech, the reader will find the  yet indignant; it shows him that the scepter of
subject of " Intervention" discussed not merely  his victory is a barren scepter; that it shall conin the spirit of just invective against those con- fer neither joy nor honor, but shall molder to dry
cerned, but of searching analysis into its grounds  ashes in his grasp.  In the midst of his exultaand its consequences.  He will find himself in  tion it pierces his ear with the cry of injured
communion with a mind of a much higher order  justice; it denounces against him the indignathan that of Lord Brougham-richer in its corn- tion of an enlightened and civilized age; it turns.
binations, wider in its reach, more elevated in sen- to bitterness the cup of his rejoicing, and wounds
timent, more self-possessed in its loftiest flights him  with the sting which belongs to the conof eloquence.  Mr. Webster concludes this part sciousness of having outraged the opinion of
of his subject in a passage which, though often  mankind."
quoted, may be given with peculiar propriety in    It was, indeed, to the Duke of Angouleme,
this'place, not only for the views which it pre- and his family,
sents of the remedy for these interventions, but              A barren scepter in their gripe,
for its prophetic intimations of the fate of the   Thence to be wrenched by an unlineal hand,.
Duke of Augouleme and of the Bourbon race.         No son of theirs succeeding.
" It may, in the next place, be asked, perhaps,    His uncle, Louis XVIII., died the next year 
supposing all this to be true, what can we do? his father, Charles X., succeeded, and in less than'
Are we to go to war?  Are we to interfere in  six years was driven, with his branch of thle
the Greek cause, or any other European cause? family, from  the throne (July, 1830); Louis
Are we to endanger our pacific relations?  No, Philippe, of the Orleans branch, succeeded, and'
certainly not.  What, then, the question recurs, met with the same fate in less than eighteenremains for us?  If we will not endanger our years (June, 1848); and the prediction of Lordi
own peace; if we will neither furnish armies  Brougham  as to Louis XVIII. and his dynasty
nor navies to the cause which we think the just was verified, even without his calling in " theone, what is there within our power?           modern Teutones and Scythians to assist him;"
Sir, this reasoning mistakes the age.  The  " judgment" did: go forth against him, and his
time has been, indeed, when fleets, and armies, family, and his counselors; and the dynasty of0
M M M                       the Gaul has ceased to reirn l"




914                                   LORD  BROUGHAM                                         C1831.
SPEECH
OF LORD BROUGHAM ON PARLIAMENTARY REFORM, DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS, OC
TOBER 7, 1831.
INTRODUCTION.
EARL GREY came into power November 22d, 1830, being the first Whig minister since the days of Lord
Grenville in 1806-7. His life had been devoted to parliamentary reform, and he made this the leading
object of his administration.
Ages had passed away since the apportionment of members for the House of Commons. The population of England had five-folded. Many of the largest towns in the kingdom, such as Liverpool, Manchester, &c., had sprung into existence, and were without representatives; while a large number of places,
sending two members each to Parliament, had sunk into mere villages or hamlets, and some, like Old
Sarum, Gatton, &c., were actually left without an inhabitant. These places passed into the hands, or
under the control, of the nobility and men of wealth, so that seats in the House of Commons, by scores
upon scores, were bought and sold in the market. When Lord Grey first took up the subject in 1793,
he offered to prove that seventy-one peers, by direct nomination or influence, returned one hundred and
sixty-three members, and ninety-one commoners one hundred and thirty-nine members. Thus, in England and Wales (exclusive of the forty-five for Scotland), three hundred and two members, being a decided majority of the Commons, were returned by one hundred and sixty-two individuals! These statements made a deep impression on the public mind; but such was the dread inspired by the French Revolution and its misguided friends in England, and such the reluctance of the higher classes to part with
power, that every attempt at reform was instantly voted down, until 1830, when Earl Grey came into
power.
On the first of March, 1831, the new ministry brought forward their Reform Bill in the House of Comnons. It was designed to meet three evils: first, the appointment of members by individuals; secondly,
the small number of voters in most boroughs and in the counties; and, thirdly, the expenses of elections.
To meet the first evil, it proposed that sixty boroughs, enumerated in a schedule marked A, having each
t population under two thousand, should be totally disfranchised; and that forty-seven others, in a schedule marked B, with a like population under four thousand, should each be allowed only one member.
Weymouth, which sent four members, was to have but two. In this way, one hundred and sixty-eight
vacancies would be created, which might be supplied by giving representatives to the large towns, and
1]1  increasing the number of county members. In respect to the second evil, it proposed to give the,right of voting in boroughs to all householders paying a ~10 rent, and in the counties to copyholders of..~10 a year, and to leaseholders of ~50 a year. In regard to the third evil, that of election expenses, it.disfranchised all non-resident electors, thus saving vast sums paid for their transportation to the polls;
end.ihhortened the duration of elections by increasing the facilities for receiving votes.
This bill was debated in the Commons with great ability on both sides for seven weeks, and was
rinally rejected by a majority of eight. The ministry immediately tendered their resignations, but the
i(in"g.(William IV.), who was in favor of reform, refused to accept them; he preferred to dissolve Parliamnent, and refer the question to the decision of the people in a new House of Commons. The elections,
Ain all places where the popular voice could prevail, went strongly for the bill, eighty of the county mem-.bers being chosen under pledges to vote for reform.
The bill, with some slight modifications, was brought again into the House on the 24th of June, 1831.
lHere it was debated under various forms for nearly three months, and was finally passed on the 19th of
September, by a majority of one hundred and nins. It was now carried to the House of Lords, a large
majority of whom were known to be bitterly opposed to the measure. The great body of the nation
were equally resolved it should pass; petitions came in by thousands from every part of the kingdom;
and the feeling seemed to be almost universal, " through Parliament or over Parliament, this measure
must be carried."
In this state of the public mind, the House of Lords took up the subject on the 3d of October, 1831, and
discussed it in a debate of five nights, which, "for skill, force, and variety of argument; for historical.
constitutional, and classical information," says an able writer, "was never surpassed."  Lord Brougham
reserved himself until the fifth night; and after Lord Eldon had spoken with all the weight of his age
and authority against the bill, the Lord Chancellor came down from the wool-sack to reply. His speech
was intended as an answer to all the important arguments which had been urged against reform during
this protracted discussion. He began in a mild and conciliatory manner, unwilling to injure his cause by
the harshness in which he too commonly indulged, and answered a part of the arguments in a strain of
good-humored wit and pleasantry which has rarely been surpassed. But after repeated interruptions




1831.]                       ON PARLIAMENTARY  REFORM.                                      915
some of them obviously designed to put him down, he changed his tone, and spoke for nearly three hours
more with a keenness of rebuke, a force of argument, and a boldness of declamation which secured him
a respectful hearing, and extorted the confession from his. adversary Lord Lyndhurst, that a more powerful speech of the kind lead never been delivered in the House of Lords.
SPEECH, &o.
MY LORDS,-I feel that I owe some apology I to the task before me; but cheered, on the other
to your Lordships for standing in the way of any  hand, with the intimate and absolute persuasion
noble Lords' who wish to address you; but aft- that I have no personal interest to serve-no
er much deliberation, and after consulting with  sinister views to resist-that there is nothing in
several of my noble friends on both sides of the  my nature or in my situation which can cast
FIouse, it did appear to us, as I am sure it will even the shadow of a shade across the broad
to your Lordships, desirable, on many grounds, path, I will not say of legislative, but of judicial
that the debate should be brought to a close this  duty, in which I am  now  to accompany your
night; and I thought I could not better contrib-  Lordships.
ute to that end than by taking the present op-    I have listened, my Lords, with the most proportunity of addressing you.  Indeed, I had  found attenti.qn, to the debate on this Anwerto
Anxiety of the scarcely any choice.  I am urged on i question which has lasted during the hose who
speak in p-s poken
p     eaein et  by the anxiety I feel on this mighty  five past days; and having heard a against the
-m~, 2hjct.                                                                            bill.
-u'j2ct.    subject, which is so great that I vast variety  of objections  brought
should hardly have been able to delay the ex- against this measure, and having also attended
pression of my opinion much longer; if I had, I to the arguments which have been urged to refeel assured that I must have lost the power to pel those objections, I, careless whether I give
address you.  This solicitude is not, I can as-  offense in any quarter or no, must, in common
sure your Lordships, diminished by my recollec- fairness, say, on the one hand, that I am so far
tion of the great talents and brilliant exertions  moved by some of the things which I have heard
of those by whom I have been preceded in the urged, as to be inclined toward the reconsiderdiscussion, and the consciousness of the difficul- ation of several matters on which I had conceivties with which I have to contend in follow- ed my mind to be fully made up; and, on the
ing such men.  It is a deep sense of these dif- other, that in the great majority of the objections
ficulties that induces me to call for your patient which have been ingeniously raised against this
indulgence.  For, although not unused to meet  bill I can by no means concur; but viewing
public bodies, nay, constantly in the habit, dur- them as calmly and dispassionately as ever man
ing many years, of presenting myself before listened to the arguments advanced for and
great assemblies of various kinds, yet I do sol- against any measure, I am bound by a sense of
emnly assure you that I never, until this mo- duty to say, that those objections have left my
ment, felt what deep responsibility may rest on mind entirely unchanged as to the bulk of the
t member of the Legislature in addressing ei- principles upon which the bill is framed.  If I
ther of its Houses.  And if I, now standing with presumed to go through those objections, or
your Lordships on the brink of the most moment-  even through the tmajority of them, in detail, I
ous decision that ever human assembly came to  should be entering upon a tedious and also a suat any period of the world, and seeking to arrest perfluous work; so many of them have been reyou while it is yet time, in that position could, moved by the admirable speeches which you
by any divination of the future, have foreseen in  have already heard, that I should only be wastmy earliest years that I should live to appear ing your time were I once more to refute them 
here, and to act as your adviser, on a question I should only be doing worse whammy precurof such awful importance, not only to yourselves, sors have already done far better., will begin,
but to your remotest posterity, I should have de- however, with what fell from a noble Earl [Earl
The prepar.- voted every day and every hour of Dudley] with whose display I xs  far (.) Lord
wish to ha   that life to preparing myself for the less struck than others, because _I was Duleiuade.    task which I now almost sink under —  more accustomed to it-who, viewing this bill
gathering from the monuments of ancient ex- from a remote eminence. and not coming close,
perience the lessons of wisdom  which might or even approaching near, made a reconnoisguide our course at the present hour-looking  saence of it too far off to see even its outworks
abroad on our own times, and these not unevent- -who, indulging in a vein of playful and eleful, to check by practice the application of those gant pleasantry, to which no man listens in prilessons-chastening myself, and sinking within  vate with more delight than myself, knowing
me every infirmity of temper, every wayward- how well it becomes the leisure hours and familness of disposition which might by possibility iar moments of my noble friend, delivered with
impede the discharge of this most solemn duty; the utmost purity of diction, and the most felicbut above all, eradicating from my mind every  itous aptness of allusion-I was going to say a
thing that, by any accident, could interrupt the discourse-but it was an exercise or essay-of'
most perfect candor and impartiality of judg-  the highest merit, which had only this fault, that
nent. I advance thus anxious and thus humbled  it was an essay or exercitation on some other
The Marquess of Cleveland and several others thesis, and not on this bill.  It was as if some
had risen and given way.                        one had set to my noble friend, whose accorm



916                                   LORD  BROUGHAM                                         [1831.
plishments I know-whose varied talents I ad- of reading you the very first line.' Change and
mire, but in whom I certainly desiderate sound- revolution; all is change; among the first.
ness of judgment and closeness of argument-a  law."   I took that note, because I was sometheme de rebuspublicis, or de rnotui civiun, or de  what surprised at the observation, knowing, as.ovarusm  rerum  cupiditate —on change, on de- I did, that this law reform had met with the apmnocracies, on republicanism, on anarchy; and  probation of my noble friend himself; and, what
on these interesting but somewhat trite and even  was yet more satisfactory to my mind, it had rethreadbare subjects, my noble friend made one  ceived the sanction of your Lordships. and had
of the most lucid, most terse, most classical, and, been passed through all its stages without evenc
as far as such efforts will admit of eloquence, a division.  My noble friend then told us, still
most eloquent exercitations that ever proceeded  reconnoitering our position at a distance, or. at
Hisargument from  mortal pen.  My noble friend  most, partaking in an occasional skirmish, but
eSy point at proceeded altogether on a false as- holding himself aloof from the main battle —le
risue.    sumption; it was on a fiction of his  told us that this bill came recommended neither
own brain, on a device of his own imagination,  by the weight of ancient authority nor.s regard
that he spoke throughout.  He first assumed  by the spirit of modern refinement; that 1e.s of anthat the bill meant change and revolution, and  this attack on our present system  was tlnrity,
on change and revolution he predicted volumin- not supported by the experience of the past, nor
ously and successfully.  So much for the critic- sanctioned by any appearance of the great mind
al merits of his performance; but. practically  of the master genius of our precursors in later
viewed, regarded as an argument on the ques- times.  As to the weight of ancient authority,
tion before us, it is to be wholly left out of view; skilled as my noble friend is in every branch of
it was quite beside the matter.  If this bill be  literary history, I am obliged to tell him he is inchange and be revolution, there is no resisting  accurate; and, because it may afford him some
the conclusions of my noble friend.  But on that consolation in this his day of discomfiture and
point I am at issue with him; and he begins by  anguish, I. will supply the defect which exists in
taking the thing in dispute for granted.  I deny  his historical recollections; for an author, the
that this bill is change, in the bad sense of the  first of satirists in any age-Dean Swift, with
word; nor does it lead to, nor has it any con- whom  my noble friend must have some symnection with revolution, except so far as it has  pathy, since he closely imitates him in this rea direct tendency to prevent revolution.          spect, that as the Dean satirized, under the name
My noble friend, in the course of his essay, of man, a being who had no existence save in
Hi3s rharges talked to you of this administration as  his own imagination, so my noble friend attacks,
unistry as one prone to change; he told you that under the name of the bill, a fancy of his own, a
beieg   its eae hole  system  of                            o his tie of
fre l va- its whole system  was a system  of  creature of his fertile brain, and which has no
tion,    changes; and he selected as the first earthly connection with the real ink and parchchange on which he would ring a loud peal, that ment bill before you-Dean Swift, who was never
which he said we had made in our system  of  yet represented as a man prone to change, who
finance.  If he is so averse to our making alter-  was not a Radical, who was not a Jacobin (for.
ations in our scheme of finance the very first year indeed, those terms were in his day unknown)we have been in office, what does he think, I  Dean Swift, who was not even a Whig, but. in
ask, of Mr. Pitt's budgets, of which never one  the language of the times, a regular, stanch,
passed without undergoing changes in almost ev- thick-and-thin Tory, while enumerating the abery one tax, besides those altogether abandoned?  surdities in our system, which required an adeIf our budget had been carried as it was origin- quate and efficient remedy, says: " It is absurd
ally brought in, with a remission of the timber that the boroughs, which are decayed, and desduty, and the candle duty, and the coal duty, it titute both of trade and population, are not exwould have been distinguished beyond all others  tinguished" (or, as we should say, in the lanonly as having given substantial relief to the peo- guage of the bill, which was as unknown to Dean
ple on those very trivial and unnecessary arti- Swift as it is now to my noble friend, put into
dles, I suppose, of human life-fire, and light, schedule A.), "because," adds the Dean, " they
and lodging.  Then, our law reform is another return members who represent nobody at all;"
change which my noble friend charged the gov- so here he adopts the first branch of the measure;
ernment with being madly bent on effecting. and next he approves of the other great limb,
Scarcely had the Lord President of the Council for the second grand absurdity which he remarks
risen to answer the objection raised against us is, " that several large towns are not representon this score, than up started my noble friend to  ed, though they are filled with those who inassert that he had not pressed any such objection  crease mightily the trade of the realm."   Then
into his service.  My Lords, I am  not in the  as to shortening the duration of Parliaments, on
habit of taking a note of what falls from  any  which we have not introduced a single provision
noble Lord in debate-it is not my practice-  into the bill-if we had. what a cry should we
but by some fatality it did so happen that, while  have heard about the statesmen in Queen Anne's
my noble friend was speaking, I took a note of  day, the great men who lived in the days of
his observations, of which I will take the liberty  Blenheim, and during the period sung of by my
2 Concerning public affairs, or civil commotions, noble friend, from Blenheim  to Waterloo; ho-w
oa the love of political change                   we should have been taunted with the Somerses




1831.]                       ON  PARLIAMENTARY  REFORM.                                       937
and Godolphins. and their cotemporaries, the  an answer would be very unreasonable; for, he
Swifts and the Addisons!  What would they  asks, ingeniously enough, how  can the guests
have said of such a change?  Yet what did the  dress a dinner, especially when they have not
same Dean Swift, the cotemporary of Somers  possession of the kitchen?  But did it never
and Godolphin, the friend of Addison, who sang  strike him  that the present is not the case of
the glories of Blenheim, the origin of my noble  guests called upon to eat a dinner; it is one of
friend's period-what did the Dean, inspired by  rival cooks who want to get into our kitchen.
all the wisdom of ancient times, say to shorten- We are here all on every side cooks-a synod
ing the duration of Parliaments?  "I have a  of cooks (to use Dr. Johnson's phrase), and nothstrong love for the good old fashion of Gothic  ing but cooks; for it is the very condition of our
Parliaments, which were only of one year's du- being-the bond of our employment under a comration."  Such is the ground, such the vouch- mon master-that none of us shall ever taste the
ers, upon the authority of which my noble fiiend, dishes we are dressing.  The Commons House
in good set phrase, sets the weight of ancient may taste it; but can the Lords?  Wehave nothwisdom against the errors of the Reformers, and  ing to do but prepare the viands.  It is, theretriumphs in the round denial that we have any  fore, of primary importance, when the authority
thing in our favor like the sanction of authority;  of the two classes of rival artists is the main quesand it turns out, after all, that the wise men of  tion, to inquire what are our feats severally in our
the olden time promulgated their opinions on the  common calling.  I ought, perhaps, to ask your
subject in such clear, and decisive, and vigorous  Lordships' pardon for pursuing my noble friend's
terms, that if they were living in our days, and  allegory; but I saw that it produced an impresgiving utterance to the same sentiments, they  sion by the cheers it excited, and I was desirous
would be set down rather for determined Rad- to show that it was in a most extraordinary deicals than for enemies of reform.                 gree inapplicable to the question, to illustrate
Then my noble friend, advancing from  for- which it was fetched from afar off.  I, therefore,
and as dest-  met times to our own, asked who and  must think myself entitled to ask who and what
tute f talent. what they are that form  the cabinet be they that oppose us, and what dish they are
of the day?  To such questions it would be un- likely to cook for us, when once again they get
becoming in me to hazard a reply.  I do not find  possession of the kitchen?  I appeal to any canfault with my noble friend for asking them; I  did man who now  hears me, and I ask him
admit that it is fair to ask who are they that pro- whether, it being fair to consider who are the
pound any measure, especially when it comes in  authors of the bill, it is not equally fair to conthe shape of a great change.  The noble Earl sider from whom the objections come?  I, therethen complained of our poverty of genius-ab- fore, trust that any impartial man, unconnected
sence of commanding talents-want of master  with either class of statesmen, when called upon
minds-and even our destitution of eloquence, a  to consider our claims to confidence before he
topic probably suggested by my noble friend's  adopts our measures, should, before he repudi[Lord Grey] display, who opened the debate, and  ates us in favor of our adversaries, inquire, Are
whose efforts in that kind are certainly very dif- they likely to cure the evils and remedy the deferent from those which the noble Earl seems to  fects, of which they admit the existence in our
admire.  But if it be a wise rule to ask by whom  system? and are their motives such as ought to
a measure is propounded before you give it im- win the confidence of judicious and calmly replicit confidence, it certainly can not be an un- fleeting men?
wise rule to ask, on the other hand, who and    One noble Lord [Lord Winchelsea] there is
what be they by whom that measure is resisted, whose judgment we are called upon im- (2 ) Lord
before you finally reject it on their bare author- plicitly to trust, and who expressed him- Winclielsea.
ity.  Nor can I agree with a noble friend of  self with much indignation, and yet with entire
mine [Lord Caernarvon], who spoke last night, honesty of purpose, against this measure.  No
Il.emrksin  and who laid down one doctrine on  man is, in my opinion, more single-hearted; no
passing on an this subject at which I marveled great- man more incorruptible.  But in his present enLord Caernar- ly.  It was one of his many allego-  mity to this bill, which he describes as pregnant
ries-for they were not metaphors,  with much mischief to the Constitution, he gives
nor yet similes-some of them, indeed, were  me reason to doubt the soundness of the resoluendless, especially when my noble friend took to  tion which would take him as a guide, from the
the water, and embarked us on board of his ship  fact of his having been not more than five or six
-for want of steam, I thought we should never  months ago most friendly to its provisions, and
have got to the end of our voyage.  When we  expressed the most unbounded confidence in the
reply to their arguments against our measure, by  government which proposed it.  Ought not this
asking what reform they have got of their own  to make us pause before we place our consciento offer, he compares us to some host, who, hav- ces in his keeping-before we surrender up our
ing placed before his friends an uneatable din-  judgment to his prudence-before we believe in
ner, which they naturally found fault with, should  his cry that the bill is revolution, and Hisself-contra
say,' Gentlemen, you are very hard to please;  the destruction of the empire-when dicotin.
I have set a number of dishes before you which  we find the same man delivered diametrically
you can not eat; now, what dishes can you dress  opposite opinions only six months ago?
yourselves?"   My noble friend says that such    Lord Winchelsea here shouted out "No.'"




918                                  LORD BROUGHAM                                       [1831.
The Lord Chancellor. Then I have been prac- ing around him on all sides-surveying what had
P     ticed upon, if it is not so; and the noble  occurred in the last forty or fifty years-glaneEarl's assertion should be of itself sufficient ing above him and below him, around him and
to convince me that I have been practiced on. behind him-watching every circumstance of the
But I can assure the noble Earl that this has been  past-anticipating every circumstance of the fuhanded to me as an extract from a speech which  ture-scanning every sign of the times-taking
he made to a meeting of the county of Kent, held  into his account all the considerations upon which
at Maidstone, on the 24th of last March: " They  a lawgiver ought to reckon-regarding also the
have not got reform yet; but when the measure  wishes, the vehement desires, not to say absolute
does come, as I am persuaded it will come, into  demands, of the whole country for some immethe law of the land-" (a loud cry of "No,"  diate reform-concentrates all his wisdom in this
from the opposition Lords). Then, if noble Lords proposition-the result, the practical result of all
will not let me proceed quietly, I must begin  his deliberations, and all his lookings about, and
again, and this time I will go further back. The  all his scannings of circumstances-the whole
speech represents the noble Earl to have said, produce of his thoughts, by the value of which
"His Majesty's government is entitled to the  you are to try the safety of his counsels-namethanks of the country.  Earl Grey, with his dis- ly, that you should suspend all your operations
tinguished talents, unites a political honesty not on this bill for two years, and, I suppose, two
to be surpassed, and leaves behind him, at an  days, to give the people-what? breathing time.
immeasurable distance, those who have aban- The noble Lord takes a leaf out of the book of
doned their principles and deceived their friends. the noble Duke near him-a leaf, which I beThe noble Lord is entitled to the eternal grati- lieve the noble Duke himself would now wish
tude of his country for the manner in which he  canceled.  The noble Duke, shortly before lhe
has brought forward this question.  I maintain  proposed the great measure of Catholic emanclithat he deserves the support of the country at pation, had said, "Before I can support that
large."  And, my Lords, the way in which I was measure, I should wish that the whole question
practiced on to believe that all this praise was might sink into oblivion."  But the proposition
not referable to the timber duties, but to reform, of the noble Earl, though based on the same idea.
I shall now explain.  It is in the next passage  goes still further.   "Bury," says he.' this
of the same speech: " They have not got reform  measure of reform in oblivion for two years and
yet; but when the measure does come, as I am  two days, and then see, good people, what I will
persuaded it will come, into the law of the land, do for you."'  And then what will the noble
it will consolidate, establish, and strengthen our Lord do for the good people?  Why, nothingglorious Constitution; and not only operate for neither more nor less than nothing.  We, innothe general welfare and happiness of the country, cents that we were, fancied that the noble Lord
but will also render an act of justice to the great must, after all his promises, really mean to do
and influential body of the people.  The meas- something; and thought that he had said somem'e has not yet been introduced to that House of what of bribery-of doing a little about bribery
which I am a member."  (Lord Winchelsea and  -which was his expression; but when we menhis friends here cheered loudly.)  Ay, but it had  tioned our supposition that he really meant to go
been debated in the House of Commons for near as far as to support a bill for the more effectual
a month-it had been published in all books, prevention of bribery at elections, the noble Lord
pamphlets, and newspapers-it had been dis- told us he would do no such thing.
cussed in all companies and societies-and I will    The Earl of MIansfield. I gave no opinion on
undertake to assert that there was not one single  the point.
man in the county of Kent who did not know         The Lord Chancellor. Exactly so. The noble
that Lord John Russell's bill was a bill for par- Lord reserves his opinion as to whether he would
liamentary reform.  The speech thus concludes: put down bribery, for two years and two days;
"When the bill is brought forward in that House  and when they are expired, he, peradventure,
of which I am a member, I shall be at my post, may inform us whether he will give us leave to
ready to give it my most hearty and cordial"-  bring in a bill to prevent bribery; not all kinds
opposition? no-" support."  But why do I al- of bribery-that would be radical work —but as
lude to this speech at all?  Merely to show that far as the giving away of ribbons goes, leaving
if those who oppose the bill say to us, " Who are  beer untouched, and agreeably to the venerable
you that propound it?" and make our previous  practice of the olden time.
conduct a ground for rejecting it, through dis-    Another noble Lord, a friend of mine, whose
trust of its authors, we have a right to reply to  honesty and frankness stamp all he (4. Lord
them with another question, and to ask, " Who  says with still greater value than it de- Whlarnciffe,
are you that resist it, and what were your pre- rives from mere talent [Lord Wharncliffe], would
vious opinions regarding it?"                  have you believe that all the peti- Denies that the
Another noble Lord [Lord Mansfield] has ar- tions under which your table now  pseted'areinfa
gued this question with great ability and show  groans are indeed for reform, but not vorof the bill.
of learning; and if we are to take him as our for this bill, which he actually says the people
(3.) Lord Mans guide, we must also look at the pan- dislike.  Now is not this a droll way for the peoofitheqesti el  acea which he provides for us in case  pie to act, if we are to take my noble friend's
fortwoyearB.  of rejection   That nobleLord, look- statement as true?  First of all, it is an odd




1831.]                        ON  PARLIAMENTARY  REFORM.                                        919
time they have taken to petition for reform, if  meet him  not on "the accustomed hill," for
they do not like this bill.  I should say that if  Hay-hill, though short, has some houses on its
they petition for reform  while this particular  slope, but on the south side of Berkeley Square,
measure is passing through the House, it is a  wandering  "remote, unfriended, melancholy,
proof that the bill contains the reform they want. slow"-for there-he finds a street without a sinSurely, when I see the good men of this country  gle inhabitant, and therefore without a single
-the intelligent and industrious classes of the  friend of the bill.  If, in despair, he shall flee
community-now coming forward, not by thou-  from the town to seek the solitude of the counsands, but by hundreds of thousands, I can infer try, still will he be pursued by cries of " Petinothing from their conduct but that this is the  tion, petition!  The bill. the bill!"  His flight
bill, and the only bill, for which they petition?   will be through villages placarded with' The
But if they really want some other than the bill Bill"-his repose at inns holden by landlords
proposes, is it not still more unaccountable that who vwi!l present him  with the bill-he will be
they should one and all petition, not for that other served by reformers in the guise of waitersreform, but for this very measure?  The propo- pay tribute at gates where petitions lie for signsition of my noble friend is, that they love reform  ing-and plunge into his own domains to be
in general, but hate this particular plan; and the  overwhelmed with the Sheffield petition, signed
proof of it is this, that their petitions all pray  by 10,400 friends of the bill.
earnestly for this particular plan, and say not a   "Me miserable! which way shall I fly
word of general reform.  Highly as I prize the        Infinite wrath and infinite despair?
integrity of my noble friend-much as I admire         Which way I fly, Reform-myself Reform!"
his good sense on other occasions-I must say  for this is the most serious part of the whole —
that, on this occasion, I descry not his better my noble friend is himself, after all, a reformer.
judgment, and if I estimate how far he is a safe  I mention this to show that he is not more a safe
guide, either as a witness to facts or as a judge  guide on matters of opinion than on matters of
of measures, by his success in the present in- fact.  He is a reformer-he is not even a bit-bystance; in either capacity, I can not hesitate in  bit reformer-not even a gradual reformer-but
recommending your Lordships not to follow him. that which, at any other time than the present,
As a witness to facts, never was failure more  would be called a wholesale and even a radical
complete.   The bill, said he, has no friends  reformer.  He deems that no shadowy unsub.
Thle J ill, anly where; and hle mentioned Bond  stantial reform-that nothing but an effectual
whiclhleismet Street as one of his walks, where he  remedy of acknowledged abuses will satisfy the
tie eople. CO(ld not enter a shop without find- people of England and Scotland; and this is a
ing its enemies abound.  No sooner had Bond  fact to which I entreat the earnest and unremitStreet escaped his lips, than up comes a petition  ting attention of every man who wishes to know
to your Lordships from nearly all its shop-keep- what guides are safe to follow on this subject.
ers, affirming that their sentiments have been  Many now follow men who say that reform  is
misrepresented, for they are all champions of the  necessary, and yet object to this bill as being too
bill.  My noble friend then says, " Oh, I did not large; that is, too efficient.  This may be very
mean the shop-keepers of Bond Street in partic- incorrect; but it is worse; it is mixed up with
ular; I might have. said any other street, as St. a gross delusion which can never deceive the
James's equally."  No sooner does that unfortu-  country; for I will now  say, once for all, that
nate declaration get abroad, than the shopkeep- every one argument which has been urged by
ers of St. James's Street are up in arms, and forth  those leaders is as good against moderate reform
comes a petition similar to that from Bond Street. as it is against this bill.  Not a single reason
My noble friend is descried moving through Re- they give, not a topic they handle, not an illustragent Street, and away scamper all the inhabit- tion they resort to, not a figure of speech they
ants, fancying that he is in quest of anti-reform-  use, not even a flower they fling about, that does
ers —sign a requisition to the church-wardens-   not prove or illustrate the position of "sno reand the householders, one and all, declare them-  for2m."   All their speeches, from beginning to
selves fiiendly to the bill.  Whither shall he go  end, are railing against the smallest as against
-what street shall he enter, in what alley shall the greatest change, and yet all the while they
he take refuge-since the inhabitants of every  call themselves reformers!  Are they, then, safe
street, and lane, and alley, feel it necessary, in  guides for any man who is prepared to allow
self-defense, to become signers and petitioners,  any reform, however moderate, of any abuse,
as soon as he makes his appearance among them?  however glaring?
If harassed by reformers on land, my noble friend    Of another noble Earl [Lord Harrowby],
goes down to the water, the thousand reformers  whose arguments, well selected  and (5.)Lord
greet him, whose petition [Lambeth's] I this day  ably put, were yet received with such Harroby
presented to your Lordships.  If he were to get exaggerated admiration by his friends as plainly
into a hackney-coach, the very coachmen and  showed how pressing were their demands for a
their attendants would feel it their duty to assem- tolerable defender, we have heard it said, again
ble and petition.  Wherever there is a street, an  and again, that no answer whatever has been
alley, a passage, nay, a river, a wherry, or a  given to his speech.  I am sure I mean no dishackney-coach, these, because inhabited, become  respect to that noble Earl when I venture to reforbidden and tabooed to my noble friend. I may  mark the infinite superiority in all things, but es



920                                  LORD BROUGHAM                                        [1831.
pecially in argument, of such speeches as those of speeches of my noble friend by his House of
the noble Marquess [Marquess Lansdowne] and  Commons' name, again and again calling him
the noble Viscount [Viscount Melbourne].  The  Charles Grey, without even the prefix of Mr.;
former, in his most masterly answer, left but lit- nay, could himself repeatedly comment upon
tle of the speech for any other antagonist to de- those very speeches of the other House-what
stroy.  The latter, while he charmed us with  will your Lordships say of the fatal effects of
the fine eloquence that pervaded his discourse, present fear in warping and distorting a natuand fixed our thoughts by the wisdom and depth  rally just mind, when you find this same noble
of reflection that informed it, won all hearers by  Earl interrupt the Chancellor of Ireland [Lord
his candor and sincerity.  Little, indeed, have  Plunkett], because he most regularly, most orthey left for me to demolish i yet if any thing re- derly, referred to the public conduct of a right
main, it may be as well we should take it to  honorable Baronet [Sir Robert Peel], exhibited
pieces.  But I am  first considering the noble  in a former Parliament, and now become a matEarl in the light of one professing to be a safe  ter of history?  Surely, surely, nothing more is
guide for your Lordships.  What, then, are his wanted to show that all the rashness, all the
claims to the praise of calmness and impartial- heedlessness, all the unreflecting precipitancy is
ity?  For the constant cry against the govern- not to be found upon the right hand of the woolCharges  ment is, "You are hasty, rash, intem- sack [ministerial side of the House]; and that
thy with  perate men.  You know not what you  they who have hurried across the sea, in breathrjandre-  do; your adversaries are the true state  less impatience, to throw out the bill, might probcipitan.y. physicians; look at their considerate  ably, had they been at home, and allowed themdeportment; imitate their solemn  caution."  selves time for sober reflection, have been found
This is the sort of thing we hear in private as  among the friends of a measure which they now
well as public.  " See such an one-he is a man  so acrimoniously oppose!  So much for the qualof prudence, and a discreet (the olden times  ifications of the noble Lords to act safely as our
called such a sad) man; he is not averse to all guides, according to the general view of the quesinnovation, but dislikes precipitancy; he is calm;  tion as one of mere authority, taken by my nojust to all sides alike; never gives a hasty opin- ble friend [Lord Dudley].  But I am quite willion; a safe one to follow; look how he votes."  ing to rest the subject upon a higher ground.
I have done this on the present occasion; and, and to take it upon reason, and not upon authorunderstanding the noble Earl might be the sort ity.  I will therefore follow the noble Earl [Lord
of personage intended, I have watched him. Harrowby] somewhat more closely through his
Common consistency was, of course, to be, at all argument, the boast of our antagonists.
events, expected in this safe model-some con-    He began with historical matter, and gave a
nection between the premises and conclusion, the  very fair and manly explanation of L.o  Harrowby
speech and the vote.  I listened to the speech, his family's connection with the bor- may control Tivand also, with many others, expected that an  ough of Tiverton.  This, he said, influence as well
avowal of all, or nearly all the principles of the  would set him rectus in curia, as he as b property.
bill would have ended in a vote for the second  phrased it.  If by this he meant that he should
reading, which might suffer the committee to  thence appear to have no interest in opposing
discuss its details, the only subject of controversy  the bill, I can not agree with him; but certainwith the noble Earl.  But no such thing; he is ly his narrative, coupled with a few additions by
a reformer, approves the principle, objecting to  way of reference, which may be made to it
the details, and therefore he votes against it in  throws considerable light upon the system of rotthe lump, details, principle, and all.  But soon  ten boroughs.  The influence by which his famafter his own speech closed, he interrupted an- ily have so long returned the two members is, it
other, that of my noble and learned friend [Lord  seems, personal, and in no way connected with
Plunkett] to give us a marvelous sample of calm  property.  This may be very true; for certainly
and impartial judgment.  What do you think of the noble Lord has no property within a hundred
Alld then ss the col head, the unruffled temper, miles of the place; yet, if it is true, what bethe same things the unbiased mind of that man-   comes of the cry, raised by his Lordship, about
himself.
most candid and most acute as he  property?  But let that pass-the influence,
is, when not under the domination of alarm-   then, is personal-ay, but it may be personal,
who could listen, without even a gesture of dis- and yet be official also.  The family of the noble
approbation, to the speech of one noble Lord  Earl has for a long series of years been in high
[Lord Mansfield], professedly not extemporane- office,.ever since the time when its founder also
ous; for he, with becoming, though unnecessary  laid the foundations of the borough connection.
modesty, disclaims the faculty of speakin  ofoff- as Solicitor General. By some accident or other,
hand, but elaborately prepared, in answer to a  they have always been connected with the govmember of the other House, and in further an- ernment, as well as the borough.  I venture to
swer to a quarto volume, published by him-si- suspect that the matter of patronage may have
lent and unmoved, could hear another speech, had some share in cementing the attachment of
made up of extracts from the House of Com- the men of Tiverton to the house of Ryder.  I
mons' debates-could listen and make no sign  take leave to suggest the bare possibility of ma ny
when a noble Marquess [Marquess London- such men having always held local and other
derry] referred to the House  of Commons' places-of the voters and their families having




1831..]                      ON  PARLIAMENTARY  REFORM.                                        921
always got on in the world through that patron-  heir of the house of Ryder-the patron was the
age.  If it should turn out that I am right, there  noble Earl, and the place to which the ejected
may be no very peculiar blame imputable to the  member resorted for the means of completing his
noble Earl and his Tiverton supporters; but it political education in one house, that he might
adds one to the numberless proofs that the bor- one day be the ornament of the other, was no
ough system  affords endless temptations to bar- small, rotten, nomination borough, but the great
ter political patronage for parliamentary power town of Liverpool.4
— to use official influence for the purpose of ob-    Lord Harrowby begged to set the noble and
taining seats in the Commons, and, by means of  learned Lord right.  He was himself abroad at
those seats, to retain that influence,            the time, fifteen hundred miles off; and his famThe noble Earl complained that the Reform  ily had nothing to do with the transaction.  His
Proofthatthe Bill shut the doors of Parliament son was not returned, because he did not offer
htil does not  against the eldest sons of Peers, and  himself.  [Cries of Hear!]
necessarily excludethe sons thus deprived our successors of the    The Lord Chancellor continued. I hope the
of Peers from
tlheHouse of  best kind of political education.  My  noble Lords will themselves follow  Retort upon
Commons.   Lords, I freely admit the justice of  the course their cries seem to recom- the Opposition
his panegyric upon this constitutional training, mend, and endeavor to' hear.  Ex- temptuous
by far the most useful which a statesman can  cess of noise may possibly deter some C.
receive; but I deny that the measure proposed  speakers from  performing their duty: but my
will affect it-will obstruct the passage to the  political education (of which we are now speakHouse of Commons; it will rather clear and wid- ing) has been in the House of Commons; my
en it to all who, like your Lordships' sons, ought habits were formed there; and no noise will stop
there to come.  My noble friend [Lord Gode- me.  I say so in tenderness to the noble persons
rich], who so admirably answered the noble Earl  who are so clamorous; and that, thus warned,
in a speech distinguished by the most attractive  they may spare their own lungs those exertions
eloquence, and which went home to every heart which can have no effect except on my ears, and
from the honest warmth of feeling, so character-  perhaps to make me more tedious.  As to the
istic of his nature, that breathed through it-has  noble Earl's statement, by way of setting me
already destroyed this topic by referring to the  right, it is wholly unnecessary, for I knew he was
most notorious facts, by simply enumerating the  abroad-I had represented him as being abroad,
open counties represented by peers' eldest sons. and I had never charged him with turning out
But I had rather take one instance for illustra- his son.  The family, however, must have done
tion, because an individual case always strikes  it.  (Lord Harrowby said No.)  Then so much
Into the imagination, and rivets itself deep in the  the better for my argument against the system,
memory.  I have the happiness of knowing a  for then the borough itself had flung him out,
young nobleman-whom  to know  is highly to  and prevented him  from  having access to the
esteem-a more virtuous, a more accomplished  political school.  I believe the statement that the
I do not know-nor have any of your Lordships, family had nothing to do with it, because the
rich as you are in such blessings, any arrow in  noble Earl makes it; but it would take a great
all your quivers of which you have more reason  deal of statement to make me believe that neito be proud.  He sat for a nomination borough;  ther the patron nor the electors had any thing to
formed his own opinion; decided for the bill; dif- do with the exclusion, and that the member had
fered with his family-they excluded him from   voluntarily given up his seat, and indeed his
Parliament, closing against him  at least that office with his seat, besides abandoning his politavenue to a statesman's best education, and an  ical studies, when he could have continued them
heir-apparent's most valued preparation for dis- as representative of his father's borough.
charging the duties of the peerage.  How  did    But the next argument of the noble Earl I am,
this worthy scion of a noble stock seek to reopen  above all, anxious to grapple with, because it
the door thus closed, and resume his political brings me at once to a direct issue with him
schooling, thus interrupted by the borough pa- upon the great principle of the measure.  The
trons?  Did he resort to another close borough,  grand charge iterated by him, and re- His Lor(tleip's
to find an avenue like that which he had lost echoed by his friends, is, that popula- tsthe hit...
under the present system, and long before the  tion, not property, is assumed by the swere..
wicked bill had prevented young lords firom dulyore fel                            s ta  ts 
I. Nothing could be more felicitous than this narfinishing their parliamentary studies?  No such  ratiot of Mr. Brouaham, commencing so far off as to
thing.  He threw himself upon a large commu-  preclude all thought of any personal application, and
nity-ecanvassed a populous city-and started as  gradually advancing until the fact comes out that a
a candidate for the suffrages of thousands, on the  son of Lord Harrowhy himself was thus brought into
only ground which was open to such solicitation  Parliament.  Such a passage may serve as a study
-he avowed himself a friend of the bill.  MLa-  for  e SounS orator.  Let him remark low differtato nornine de te.3  The borough that reject fieol that of a bald anuouncen ent ot.ato. onrine de te.  The borough that rejected  the fact, in contradiction of Lord Harrowby. Let
him was Tiverton —the young nobleman was the  te ct, i contadiction of Lord Harrowby.  Let
hi__m. was Tiverton-t   young- nl na  hehim notice the delicate compliment contained in the
3       Mutato nomine de te               passage, both to his Lordship and his son, and the
Fabula narratur.                          force they give to the argument. In these and othChange but tbe name, the tale is of yourself:    er respects the passage shows great dexterity and
Horace, Satires, Book i., Sat. i., line 69, 70. rhetorical skill.




922                                    LORD BROUGHAM                                         [1831
bill as the basis of representation.  Now  this  ers, still the suffrage would not have been uni.
is a mere fallacy, and a gross fallacy.  I will versal; it would have depended on property, not
not call it a willful misstatement; but I will de- on numbers; and it would have been a gross
monstrate that two perfectly different things are, misrepresentation to call population the basis of
in different parts of this short proposition, care- the bill.  But its framers restricted that generfully confounded, and described under the same  ality, and determined that property, to a certain
equivocal name.  If, by basis of representation  considerable amount, should alone entitle to elect.
is meant the ground upon which it was deemed  It is true, they did not take freehold tenure of
right, by the framers of the bill, that some places  land, as that qualification is inconsistent  with
should send members to Parliament, and others  town rights-nor did they take a certain amount
not, then I admit that there is some foundation for  of capital as the test-for that, besides its manthe assertion; but then it only applies to the new  ifest inconvenience, would be a far more starttowns, and also it has no bearing whatever upon  ling novelty than any the measure can be charged
the question.  For the objection-and I think  with.  But the renting a ~10 house is plainly
the sound objection-to taking mere population  a criterion both of property and respectability.
as a criterion in giving the elective franchise, is, It is said, indeed, that we have pitched this qualthat such a criterion gives you electors without ification too low-but are we not now debating
a qualification, and is, in fact, universal suffrage.  on the principle of the bill?  And is not the
And herein, my Lords, consists the grievous un- committee the place for discussing whether that
fairness of the statement I am sifting; it purpose- principle should be carried into effect by a qually mixes together different matters, and clothes  ification of X10, or a higher?  I have no obthem with an ambiguous covering, in order, by  jection, however, to consider this mere matter
means of the confusion and the disguise, to in- of detail here; and if I can satisfy the noble Earl
sinuate that universal suffrage is at the root of  that all over England, except in London and a
the bill.  Let us strip off this false garb.  Is  few  other great towns,'10 is not too low, I'rlebiillfouls  there in the bill any thing resem-  may expect his vote after all.  Now, in small
representation bling universal suffrag e?  Is it not towns-I speak in the hearing of noble Lords
0on property as:                                            s     
well as popula- framed upon the very opposite prin- who are well acquainted with the inhabitants of
tio  ciples?  In the counties, the exist-  them-persons living in  - 10 houses are in easy
mng qualification by freehold is retained in its  circumstances.  This is undeniably the general
fullest extent; but the franchise is extended to  case.  In fact, the adoption of that sum was not
the other kinds of property, copyhold and lease-  a matter of choice.  We had originally preferred
hold.  It is true that tenants at will are also to  -~20, but. when we came to inquire, it appeared
enjoy it, and their estate is so feeble, in contem- that very large places had a most inconsiderable
plation of law, that one can scarce call it prop- number of such houses.  One town, for instance,
erty.  But whose fault is that?  Not the au- with  17,000  or 18,000 inhabitants, had  not
thors of the bill, for they deemed that terms of  twenty who rented houses rated at 6C20 a year.
years alone should give a vote; but they were  Were we to destroy one set of close boroughs,
opposed and defeated in this by the son of my  the Old Sarums and Gattons, which had at least
noble friend [the Duke of Buckingham] near me, possession to plead for their title, in order to
and his fellow-laborers against the measure.  Let create another new set of boroughs just as close,
us now look to the borough qualification.  (Some  though better peopled?  In the large town I
noisefrom conversation here took place.)  Noble  have alluded to, there were not three hundred
Lords must be aware that the chancellor, in ad-  persons rated at C10.  Occupiers of such houses,
dressing your Lordships, stands in a peculiar sit- in some country towns, fill the station of inlerior
nation.  He alone speaks among his adversaries. shop-keepers-in some, of the better kind of
Other peers are at least secure against being in- tradesmen-here they are foremen of work-shops
terrupted by the conversation of those in their im- -there, artisans earning good wages-  somemediate neighborhood.  And for myself, I had  times, but seldom, laborers in full work; generalfar rather confront any distant cheers, however  ly speaking, they are a class above want, having
hostile, than be harassed by the talk of those close  comfortable houses over their heads, and fanmiby.  No practice in the House of Commons can  lies and homes to which they are attached.  An
ever accustom a person to this mode of annoy- opinion has been broached, that the qualification
ance, and I expect it, in fairness, to cease."     might be varied in different places; raised in the
To resume the subject where I was forced to  larger towns, and lowered in the smaller.  To
Profuoftllis break off.  I utterly deny that popula- this I myself, at one time, leaned very strongly;
fast.    tion is the test, and property disregard- I deemed it a great improvement of the measure.
ed, in arranging  the borough representation. If I have since yielded to the objections which
The franchise is conferred upon householders were urged, and the authorities brought to bear
only.  Is not this a restriction?   Even if the  against me. this I can very confidently affirm,
right of voting had been given to all household- that if any one shall propound it in the committee he will find in me I will not say a sup5 The repeated insults to which Lord Brougham      te, iay a s
was thus subjected soon induced him to change his  port   bt crtaiy an a e s rit  tat t
tone, and we find him, on the next page and on- doctrine, which I deem important, shall undergo
ward, assuming that bold defiant manner which was a full, and candid, and scrutinizing discussion.  1
so natural to him in debate.  speak for myself only-I will not even for my



1831.]                        ON  PARLIAMENTARY  REFORM.                                      923
self say, that were the committee so to modify  Behold the Sovereign of the Carnatic, who rethe bill, I would accept it thus changed.  Can- gards nor land, nor rank, nor connection, nor
dor prevents me from  holding out any such  open country, nor populous city; but his eye
prospect; but I do not feel called upon to give  fastens on the time-honored relics of departed
any decisive opinion now upon this branch of  greatness and extinct population-the walls of
the details, not deeply affecting the principle; Sarum and Gatton; he arms his right hand with
only, I repeat emphatically, that I shall favor its their venerable parchments, and, pointing with
abundant consideration in the proper place-the  his left to a heap of star pagodas too massive to
committee.                                        be carried along, lays siege to the citadel of the
My Lords, I have admitted that there is some  Constitution, the Commons House of Parliament,
Population is truth in the assertion of population be- and its gates fly open to receive his well-discicataio o'   ing made the criterion of title in towns plined band.  Am I right in the assertion that a
property.  to send representatives, though it has foreign Prince obtaining votes in Parliament,
no application to the present controversy. Some  under the present system, is no extreme case?
criterion we were forced to take; for nobody  Am  I wrong in treating with scorn the noble
holds that each place should choose members  Earl's violent supposition of a town with four
severally.  A line must be drawn somewhere, thousand souls, and all receiving parish relief?
and how could we find a better guide than the    But who are they that object to the bill its
population?  That is the general test of wealth, disregard of property?  Is a care for  ut the boroug
system ha no
extent, importance; and therefore substantially, property that which peculiarly dis- r  ter'toprothough not in name, it is really the test of prop- tinguishes the system they uphold? et;yexebpttl ato
erty.  Thus, after all, by taking population as  Surely the conduct of those who con- cy.
the criterion of what towns shall send members, tend that property alone ought to be considered
we get at property by almost the only possible  in fixing the rights of election, and yet will not
road, and property becomes substantially the  give up one freeman of a corporation to be disbasis of the title to send representatives; as it fianchised, presents to our view a miracle of inconfessedly is, in name as well as in substance, consistency.  The right of voting, in freemen, is
the only title to concur in the election of them. wholly unconnected with any property of any
The whole foundation of the measure, therefore, kind whatever; the being freemen is no test of
and on which all its parts rest, is property alone, being worth one shilling.  Freemen may be, and
and not at all population.                        very often are, common day-laborers, spending
But then, says the noble Earl, the populationr every week their whole weekly gains-menial
wnhes a.ex- of a town containing four thousand  servants, having the right by birth-men living
treme case is souls may, for any provision to the  in alms-houses-parish paupers.  All who have
th1is argument, contrary in the bill, be all paupers! been at contested elections for corporate towns
it may be met
witl s ilater  Good God!  Did ever man tax his know that the question constantly raised is upon
treme case. ingenuity so hard to find an absurdly  the right to vote of freemen receiving parish reextreme case?  What! a town of four thousand  lief.  The voters in boroughs, under the present
paupers!  Four thousand inhabitants, and all system, are such freemen, non-resident as well
quartered on the rates!  Then, who is to pay  as resident (a great abuse, because the source
the rates?  But if extreme cases are to be put of a most grievous expense to candidates), inon the one side, why may not I put one on the  habitants paying scot and lot, which is only an
other? What say you to close boroughs coming, imperfect form  of the qualification intended by
by barter or sale, into the hands of Jew jobbers, the bill to be made universal, under wholesome
gambling loan-contractors, and scheming attorn- restrictions, and burgage tenants.  I have diseys, for the materials of extreme cases?  What posed of the two first classes; there remains the
security do these afford against the machinations last.  Burgages, then, are said to be property
of aliens —ay, and of alien enemies?  What and no doubt they resemble it a good deal
against a nabob of Arcot's parliamentary and  more than the rights of freemen do.  In one
financial speculations?  What against that tru-  sense, property they certainly are.  But whose?
ly British potentate naming eighteen or twenty  The Lord's who happens to have them  on his
of his tools members of the British House of  estate.  Are they the property of the voter,
Commons?  But is this an extreme case, one  who, to qualify him for the purposes of election,
that stands on the outermost verge of possibility, receives his title by a mock conveyance at two
and beyond all reach of probable calculation?  o'clock in the afternoon, that he may vote at three
Why, it once happened; the Nabob Wallajah  for the nominee of the real owner, and at four
Cawn Bahauder had actually his eighteen or returns it to the solicitor of that owner, to b)e
twenty members bought with a price, and sent ready for the like use at the next election?'luis
to look after his pecuniary interests, as honest is your present right of voting by burgage, antd
and independent members of Parliament.  Talk  this you call a qualification by virtue of proper
now  of the principle of property-the natural ty.  It is a gross abuse of terms.  But it is
influence of great families-the sacred rights of worse; it is a gross abuse of the Constitutionthe aristocracy-the endearing ties of neighbor- a scandal and an outrage no longer to be enhood-the paramount claims of the landed inter- dured.  That a peer, or a speculating attorney,
est!  Talk of British duties to discharge-Brit- or a jobbing Jew, or a gambler from the Stock
ish trusts to hold-British rights to exercise! Exchange, by vesting in his ow'-n person the old




924                                  LORlD BROUGHAM                                      [1831.
walls of Sarum, a few pig-sties at Bletchingly, among your Lordships-which he would then
or a summer-house at Gatton, and making ficti- have owed to a gambling debt.  Certain it is.
tious, and collusive, and momentary transfers of  that the honors of the peerage have been bethem to an agent or two, for the purpose of en- stowed before now  upon right voters in right
abling them to vote as if they had the property, places.
of which they all the while know they have not    While I am on this subject, I can not but ad
the very shadow, is in itself a monstrous abuse, vert to the remarks of my noble and Incidental
in the form of a gross and barefaced cheat; and  learned friend [Lord Wynford] who recr nt.r
becomes the most disgusting hypocrisy, when it was elevated from the bench to this tio of Peers.
is seriously treated as a franchise by virtue of  House, and who greatly censured the ministeis
property.                                       for creating some peers who happened to agree
I will tell those peers, attorneys, jobbers, loan- with them in politics.  The coronation was, as
Te esisig   contractors, and the Nabob's agents, all men know, forced upon us; nothing could be
buses in ths if such there still be among us, that more against our will; but the Opposition absorespect will iot
be eidured   the time is come when these things  lutely insisted on having one, to show their loy-'c" longer.  can no longer be borne, and an end  alty; a creation of peers was the necessary conwust at length be put to the abuse which suffers sequence, and the self-same number were made
the most precious rights of government to be  as at the last coronation ten years ago.  But we
made the subject of common barter-the high  did not make our adversaries peers-we did not
office of making laws to be conveyed by traffic, bring in a dozen men to oppose us-that is my
pass by assignment under a commission of bank- noble friend's complaint; and we did not choose
rupt, or the powers of an insolvent act, or be  our peers for such merits as alone, according to
made over for a gaming debt.  If any one can  his view, have always caused men to be enbe found to say that the abuses which enable a  nobled.  Merit, no doubt, has opened to many
man to put his livery servants in the House of  the doors of this House.  To have bled for their
Commons as lawgivers, are essential parts of the  country-to have administered the highest offices
British Constitution, he must have read its his- of the state-to have dispensed justice on the
tory with better eyes than mine; and if such per- bench-to have improved mankind by arts inson be right, I certainly am wrong-but if I am, vented, or enlightened them by science extendthen also are all those other persons far more in  ed-to have adorned the world by letters, or won
the wrong who have so lavishly, in all times and  the more imperishable renown of virtue-these,
countries, sung the praises of the Constitution. no doubt, are the highest and the purest claims
I well remember, when I argued at that bar the  to public honors; and from some of these sources
great case of my noble friend [Lord Segrave]  are derived the titles of some among us-to othclaiming a barony by tenure, it was again and  ers, the purest of all, none can trace their nobilagain pressed upon me by the noble and learned  ity-and upon not any of them can one single
Earl [Earl of Eldon], as a consequence of the  peer in a score rest the foundation of his seat in
argument absurd enough to refute it entirely, this place.  Service without a scar in the politthat a seat in this House might become vested, ical campaign-constant presence in the field of
as he said, in a tailor, as the assignee of an in- battle at St. Stephen's chapel —absence fiom all
solvent's estate and effects.  I could only meet other fights, from " Blenheim  down to Waterthis by humbly suggesting that the anomaly, the  loo" -  but above all, steady discipline -  right
grossness of which I was forced to admit, already  votes in right places-these are the precious,
existed in every day's practice; and I reminded  but, happily, not rare qualities, which have genyour Lordships of the manner in which seats in  erally raised men to the peerage.  For these
the other House of the Legislature are bought qualities the gratitude of Mr. Pitt showered down
and sold.  A tailor may by purchase, or by as- his baronies by the score, and I do not suppose
Instances of signment under a bankruptcy, obtain  he ever once so much as dreamed of ennobling
abuses ofthis the right of sending members to Par- a man who had ever been known to give one vote
kild.    liament, and he may nominate himself against him.
-and the case has actually happened. A wait-    My Lords, I have been speaking of the maner at a gambling-house did sit for years in that ner in which owners of boroughs traffic, Returnto
House, holding his borough property, for aught and exercise the right of sending mem- lfc traffi
I can tell, in security of a gambling debt.  By  bers to Parliament.  I have dwelt on boroughas.
means of that property, and right of voting, he  no extreme cases; I have adverted to what passadvanced himself to the honors of the baronetcy. es every day before my eyes.  See now the fruits
Fine writing has been defined to be right words of the system, also, by every day's experience.
in right places; so may fine acting be said to  The Crown is stripped of its just weight in the
consist of right votes in right places, that is, on  government of the country by the masters of rotpinching questions; and in the discharge of my  ten boroughs; they may combine; they do comprofessional duty on the occasion of which I am  bine, and their union enables them  to dictate
speaking, I humbly ventured to approach a more  their own terms.  The people are stripped of
awful subject, and to suggest the possibility of  their most precious rights by the masters of rotthe worthy baronet rising still higher in the state;  ten boroughs, for they have usurped the elective
and, by persisting in his course of fine acting  franchise, and thus gained an influence in Parliaand judicious voting, obtaining at length a seat ment which enables them to prevent its restora



1831.]                      ON PARLIAMENTARY  REFORM.                                       925
tion.  The best interests of the country are sac- do."  Such, then, is the old and venerable disrificed by the masters of rotten boroughs, for tribution of representation time out of mind, had
their nominees must vote according to the inter- and enjoyed in Cornwall and in England at large.
est not of the nation at large, whom they affect Falmouth and Bossiney, Lostwithiel and Gramto represent, but of a few individuals, whom alone  pound, may, it seems, be enfranchised, and welthey represent in reality.  But so perverted have  come, by the mere power of the Crown.  But
men's minds become, by the gross abuse to which  let it be proposed to give Birmingham and Manthey have been long habituated, that the grand  chester, Leeds and Sheffield, members by an act
topic of the noble Earl [Lord Harrowby], and  of the Legislature, and the air resounds with
other debaters-the master-key which instantly  cries of revolution!
unlocked all the sluices of indignation in this    But I am challenged to prove that the presquarter of the House against the measure —  ent system, as regards the elective Nottle original
which never failed, how often soever used, to let fianchise, is not the ancient parlia- Constitution of
the kingdom.
loose the wildest cheers, has been, that our re- mentary Constitution of the country
form will open the right of voting to vast num- -upon pain, says my noble and learned friend,
bers, and interfere with the monopoly of the few; of judgment going against me if I remain silent.
while we invade, as it is pleasantly called, the  My Lords, I will not keep silence, neither will I
property of the peers and other borough-holders. answer in my own person, but I will refer you
Why, say they, it absolutely amounts to repre- to a higher authority, the highest known in the
sentation!  And wherefore should it not, I say? law, and in its best days, when the greatest lawand what else ought it to be?  Are we not upon  yers were the greatest patriots.  Here is the
the question of representation, and none other? memorable report of the committee of the ComAre we not dealing with the subject of a repre- mons in 1623-4, of which committee Mr. Sersentative body for the people?  The question is geant Glanville was the chairman, of which rehow we may best make the people's House of port he was the author.  Among its members
Parliament represent the people; and, in answer were the most celebrated names in the lawto the plan proposed, we hear nothing but the  Coke, and Selden, and Finch, and Noy. afterexclamations, "Why, this scheme of yours is a  ward Attorney General, and of known monarchrank representation!  It is downright election! ical principles.  The first resolution is this:
It is nothing more nor less than giving the peo-    There being no certain custom, nor prescripple a voice in the choice of their own represent- tion, who should be electors and who not, we
atives!  It is absolutely most strange-unheard  must have recourse to common right, which, to
of'-unimagined-and most abominable-intol- this purpose, was held to be, that more than the
erable-incredibly inconsistent and utterly per- freeholders only ought to have voices in the
nicious novelty, that the members chosen should  election; namiely, all men inhabitants, householdhave electors, and that the constituents should  ers, resiants [residents] within the borough."
have somethin.g to do with returning the mem-    What, then, becomes of the doctrine that our
bets!"                                         bill is a mere innovation; that, by the The bill not an
But we are asked at what time of our history  old law of England, inhabitants house- an"'tooi
istoricali.      any such system  as we propose to  holders had no right to vote; that princilles.'rhel rel.entbor- establish was ever known in En- owners of burgage tenements, and freemen of
Suaed,id.n. o gland, and this appeal, always con- corporations, have in all times exclusively had
c"tangea'le.   fidently  made, was  never more  the franchise?  Burgage tenants, it is true, of
pointedly addressed  than  by my noble and  old had the right, but in the way I have allearned friend [Lord Wynford] to me.  Now  ready described-not as now, the nominal and
I need not remind your Lordships that the pres- fictitious holders for an hour, merely for election
ent distribution of the right to send members is purposes, but the owners of each, the real and
any thing rather than very ancient; still less, actual proprietors of the tenement.  Freemen
has it been unchanged.  Henry VIII. created  never had it at all, till they usurped upon the intwenty boroughs; Edward VI. made twelve; habitants and thrust them out. But everyhousegood Queen Elizabeth created one hundred and  holder voted in the towns without regard to valtwenty, revived forty-eight; and in all, there  ue, as before the eighth of Henry VI. every freewere created and revived two hundred down to  holder voted without regard to value in the counthe Restoration.  I need only read the words of ties-not merely A10 householders, as we proMr. Prynne upon the remote antiquity of our bor- pose to restrict the right, but the holder of a
ough system.  He enumerates sixty-four bor- house worth a shilling, as much as he whose
oughs-fourteen in Cornwall alone-as all new; house was worth a thousand pounds.  But I
and he adds, "for the most part, the Universi- have been appealed to; and I will take upon
ties excepted, very mean, poor, inconsiderable  me to affirm, that if the Crown were to issue a
boroughs, set up by the late returns, practices  writ to the sheriff, commanding him to send his
of sheriffs, or ambitious gentlemen desiring to  precept to Birmingham or Manchester, requiring
serve them, courting, bribing, feasting them  for those towns to send burgesses to Parliament, the
their voices, not by prescription or charter (some  votes of all inhabitant householders must needs
few excepted), since the reign of Edward IV., be- be taken, according to the exigency of the writ
fore whose reign they never elected or returned  and precept, the right of voting at common law,
members to any English Parliament as now they  and independent of any usurpation upon it, be



926                                 LORD BROUGHAM                                        [1831.
longing to every resident householder.  Are, book lore-in purity of diction-in correct prosothen, the King's ministers innovators, revolution- dy-even in elegance of personal demeanor, I and
ists, wild projectors, idle dreamers of dreams and  they, in his presence, hide, as well we may, our
feigners of fancies. when they restore the ancient diminished heads.  But to say that I will take
common law right, but not in its ancient corn- my noble friend's judgment on any grave pracmon law extent, for they limit, fix, and contract tical subject, on any thing touching the great init?  They add a qualification of X 10 to restrain  terests of our commercial country, or any of those
it; as our forefathers, in the fifteenth century, re- manly questions which engage the statesman, the
strained the county franchise by the freehold  philosopher in practice; to say that I could ever
qualification.                                  dream of putting the noble Earl's opinions, ay,
But then we hear much against the qualifica- or his knowledge, in any comparison with the
Answertoob  tion adopted  that is, the particular bold, rational, judicious, reflecting, natural, and
jections against sum fixed upon: and the noble Earl because natural, the trustworthy opinions of those
[Lord Harrowby] thinks it will only  honest men, who always give their strong natugive us a set of constituents busied in gaining  ral sense fair play, having no affections to warp
their daily bread, and having no time to study  their judgment-to dream of any such compariand instruct themselves on state affairs.  My  son as this, would be, on my part, a flattery far
noble friend, too [Lord Dudley]. who lives near too gross for any courtesy, or a blindness which
Birmingham, and may therefore be supposed to  no habits of friendship could excuse!
know  his own neighbors better than we can,    When I hear so much said of the manufacsneers at the statesmen of Birmingham  and at turers and artisans being an inferior Evidence ot
the philosophers of Manchester.  He will live-   race in the political world, I, who well t'se..".'
I tell him he will live to learn a lesson of practic- know the reverse to be the fact, had "bilit''
al wisdom from the statesmen of Birmingham, rather not reason with their contemners, nor give
and a lesson of forbearance from the philosophers  my own partial testimony in their favor; but I
of Manchester.  My noble friend was ill advised  will read a letter which I happen to have rewhen he thought of displaying his talent for sar- ceived within the three last days, and since the
casm upon one hundred and twenty thousand  Derby meeting.  "Some very good speeches
people in the one place, and one hundred and  were delivered," says the writer, "and you will
eighty thousand in the other.  He did little, by  perhaps be surprised when I tell you that much
such exhibitions, toward gaining a stock of credit the best was delivered by a common mechanic.
for the order he belongs to-little toward con- He exposed, with great force of reasoning, the
ciliating for the aristocracy which he adorns, by  benefits which the lower classes would derive
pointing his little epigrams against such mighty  from the Reform Bill, and the interest they had
masses of the people.  Instead of meeting their in being well governed.  Not a single observaexemplary moderation, their respectful demean- tion escaped him, during a long speech, in the
or, their affectionate attachment, their humble  slightest degree disrespectful to the House of
confidence, evinced in every one of the peti- Lords, and he showed as much good taste and
tions, wherewithal they have in myriads ap- good feeling as he could have done had he been
preached the House, with a return of kindness, a member of St. Stephen's.  He is, of course, a
of courtesy, even of common civility, he has man of talent; but there are many others also
thought it becoming and discreet to draw him- to be found not far behind him.  The feeling in
self up in the pride of hexameter and pentame- general is, that their capacity to judge of political
ter verse-skill in classic authors-the knack of  measures is only despised by those who do not
turning fine sentences, and to look down with  know them."  These men were far from  imderision upon the knowledge of his unrepresent- puting to any of your Lordships, at that time, a
ed fellow-countrymen in the weightier matters  contempt for their capacities.  They had not
of practical legislation.  For myself, I, too, know  heard the speech of the noble Earl, and they did
Retort on Lord where they are defective; I have no  not suspect any man in this House of an inclinacontempt of   desire ever to hear them read a Lat- tion to despise them.  They did, however, asBMancih"ra  in line, or hit off in the mother tongue  cribe some such contemptuous feelings-horresco
politicns.   any epigram, whether in prose or in  referens-to a far more amiable portion of the
numerous verse.  In these qualities they and I aristocracy.  " They think," pursues the writer,
freely yield the palm to others.  I, as their rep- "they are only treated with contempt by a few
resentative, yield it.  I once stood as such else- women (I suppress the epithets employed), who,
where, because they had none of their own; and  because they set the tone of fashion in London.
though a noble Earl [Lord Harrowby] thinks think they can do so here too."
they suffer nothing by the want, I can tell him   The noble Earl behind [Lord Harrowby] adthey did severely suffer in the greatest mercan- dressed one observation to your Lord- sonme talent
tile question of the day, the Orders in Council, ships, which I must in fairness con- may b lost to
the House by
when they were fain to have a professional ad- fess I do not think is so easily answer- means of th.
vocate for their representative, and were only  ed as those I have been dealing with. incidental to 
thus allowed to make known their complaints to  To the Crown, he says, belongs the un- gent sgood.
Parliament.  Again representing them here, for doubted right, by the Constitution, of appointing
them I bow to my noble friend's immeasurable  its ministers and the other public servants; and
superiority in all things classical or critical.  In  it ought to have a free choice, among the whole




1831.]                       ON PARLIAMENTARY REFORM.                                      927
community, of the men fittest to perform  the  man who has yielded less to their demands than
varied offices of the executive-government. But, he who now addresses you?  Have I not ophe adds, it may so happen that, the choice having  posed their wishes again and again?  Have I
tallen on the most worthy, his constituents, when  not disengaged myself from them on their most
he vacates his seat, may not re-elect him, or he  favorite subject, and pronounced a demonstration,
may not be in Parliament at the time of his pro- as I deemed it, of the absurdity and delusion of
motion; in either case he is excluded till a gen- the ballot?  Even in the most troublous times
oral election; and even at a general election, a  of party, who has gone less out of his course to
discharge of unpopular, but necessary duties, may  pay them court, or less submitted his judgment
exclude him from a seat through an unjust and  to theirs?  But if there is the mob, there is the
passing, and, possibly, a local disfavor with the  people also.  I speak now of the middle classes
electors.  I have frankly acknowledged that I -of those hundreds of thousands of respectable
feel the difficulty of meeting this inconvenience  persons   the most numerous, and by far the
with an apt and safe remedy, without a great in- most wealthy order in the community; for if all
novation upon the elective principle.  In the  your Lordship's castles, manors, rights of warren
committee, others may be able to discover some  and rights of chase, with all your broad acres,
safe means of supplying the defect.  The matter were brought to the hammer, and sold at fifty
deserves fuller consideration, and I shall be most years' purchase, the price would fly up and kick
ready to receive any suggestion upon it.  But the beam when counterpoised by the vast and
one thing I have no difficulty in stating, even  solid riches of those middle classes, who are also
should the evil be found remediless, and that I the genuine depositaries of sober, rational, inhave only the choice between taking the reform  telligent, and honest English feeling.  Unable
with this inconvenience, or perpetuating that though they be to round a period or point an
most corrupt portion of our system, condemned  epigram, they are solid, right-judging men, and,
from the time of Swift down to this day, and  above all, not given to change.  If they have a
which even the most moderate and bit-by-bit re- fault, it is that error on the right side, a suspicion
formers have now  abandoned to its fate-my  of state quacks-a dogged love of existing inmind is made up, and I cheerfully prefer the re- stitutions-a perfect contempt of all political
form.                                           nostrums.  They will neither be led character and
The noble Earl [Lord Harrowby] has told my  astray by false reasoning nor deluded tPhiddleClas
Defense of the noble friend at the head of the gov- by impudent flattery; but so neither e.inioistry for
eekig  sup-  ernment [Lord Grey] that he might will they be scared by classical quotations or
got frotlthe have occupied a most enviable posi- browbeaten by fine sentences; and as for an
oy of the
people.    tion, had he only abstained from med- epigram, they care as little for it as they do for
dling with parliamentary reform.  He might a cannon-ball.  Grave-intelligent-rationalhave secured the support and met the wishes fond of thinking for themselves-they consider a
of all parties.  " He stood," says the noble Earl, subject long before they make up their minds on
"between the living and the dead."6  All the  it; and the opinions they are thus slow to form
benefit of this influence, and this following, it they are not swift to abandon.  It is an egreseems, my noble friend has forfeited by the meas- gious folly to fancy that the popular clamor for
ure of reform.  My Lords, I implicitly believe  reform, or whatever name you please to give
the noble Lord's assertion, as far as regards him- it, could have been silenced by a mere change
self.  I know him to be sincere in these expres- of ministers.  The body of the people, such as
sions, not only because he tells me so, which is I have distinguished and described them, had
enough, but because facts are within my knowl- weighed the matter well, and they looked to the
edge thoroughly confirming the statement.  His government and to the Parliament for an effectual
support, and that of one or two respectable per- reform.  Doubtless they are not the only classes
sons around him, we should certainly have had. who so felt; at their backs were the humbler
Believe me, my Lords, we fully appreciated the  and numerous orders of the state; and may God
value of the sacrifice we made; it was not with- of his infinite mercy avert any occasion for rousout a bitter pang that we made up our minds to  ing the might which in peaceful times slumbers
forego this advantage.  But I can not so far in their arms!  To the people, then, it was necflatter those noble persons as to say that their essary, and it was most fit that the government
support would have made the government suf-  should look steadily for support-not to save this
ficiently strong in the last Parliament.  Honest,  or that administration; but because, in my conand useful, and creditable as it would have been. science, I do believe that no man out of the preit never could have enabled us to go on for a  cincts of Bethlem  Hospital-nay, no thinking
night without the support of the people.  I do  man, not certainly the noble Duke, a most saganot mean the populace-the mob; I never have  cious and reflecting man-can, in these times,
bowed to them, though I never have testified any i dream of carrying on any government in despite
unbecoming contempt of them.  Where is the  of those middle orders of the state.  Their sup6 This is a misapplication, apparently, of the noble port must be sought, if the government would
allusion of one of our greatest orators (Mr. Wilber- endure —the support of the people, as distinforce), who said of Mr. Pitt and Revolution —"c   guished from the populace, but connected with
stood between the living and the dead, and the plague  that populace, who look up to them as their kind
uas stayed."                                   { and natural protectors.  The middle class, in



928                                 LORD BROUGHAM                                        [1831.
deed, forms the link which connects the upper single person, as well as of a city or a town;
and the lower orders, and binds even your Lord-  he may be just as much a delegate when he has
ships with the populace, whom some of you are  one constituent as when he has 5000-with this
wont to despise.  This necessary support of the  material difference, that, under a single constitcountry it was our duty to seek (and I trust we  uent, who can turn him off in a moment, he is
have not sought it in vain), by salutary reforms, sure to follow the orders he receives implicitly,
not merely in the representation, but in all the  and that the service he performs will be for the
branches of our financial, our commercial, and  benefit of one man, and not of many.  The givour legal polity.  But when the noble Earl talks ing a name to the thing, and crying out Delegate!
of the government being able to sustain itself by  Delegate! proves nothing, for it only raises the
the support of himself and his friends, does he  question, who should be the delegator of this
recollect the strong excitement which prevailed  public trust-the people or the borough-holders?
last winter?  Could we have steered the vessel Another noble Lord [Lord Caernarvon], professof the state safely through that excitement, either ing to wish well to the great unrepresented
within doors or without, backed by no other sup- towns, complained of the bill on their ind prevent
port?  I believe he was then on the Bay of Na- behalf, because, he said, the first thing merclatile ien.
ples, and he possibly thought all England was it does is to close up the access which seats in Paliaslumbering like that peaceful lake-when its they at present possess to Parliament,   t
state was more like the slumbers of the mount- by the purchase of seats for mercantile men, who
ain upon its margin.  "Stand between the living  may represent the different trading interests in
and the dead," indeed!  Possibly we might; for general.  Did ever mortal man contrive a subwe found our supporters among the latter class, tlety so absurd, so nonsensical as this?  What!
and our bitter assailants among the former. Is it better for Birmingham  to subscribe, and
True it is, the noble Earl would have given us raise 665000, for a seat at Old Sarum, than to
his honest support; his acts would have tallied  have the right of openly and honestly choosing
with his professions.  But can this be said of  its own representative, and sending him direct to
others?  Did they, who used nearly the same  Parliament?  Such horror have some men of
language, and avowed the same feelings, give  the straight, open highway of the Constitution,
any thing to the government but the most fac- that they would, rather than travel upon it, sneak
tious opposition?  Has the noble Earl never into their seats by the dirty, winding by-ways of
heard of their conduct upon the timber duties, rotten boroughs.
when, to thwart the administration, they actually    But the noble Earl behind [Lord Harrowby]
voted against measures devised by themselves —  professed much kindness for the great Froly ofwaiting
ay, and threw them out by their division?  Ex- towns-he had no objection to give  i'r','cgil
ceptions there were, no doubt, and never to be  Birmingham, Manchester, and Shef- for crimes.
mentioned without honor to their names, some  field representatives as vacancies might occur,
of the most noble that this House, or indeed any  by the occasional disfranchisement of boroughs
country of Europe can boast [Mr. T. P. Cour- for crimes.  Was there ever any thing so fant (ay].  They would not, for spiteful purposes, tastical as this plan of reform?  In the first
suffer themselves to be dragged through the mire  place, these great towvns either ought to have
of such vile proceedings, and conscientiously re- members or they ought not.  If they ought, why
fused tojoin in defeating the measures themselves hang up the possession of their just rights upon
had planned.  These were solitary exceptions; the event of some other place committing an of
the rest, little scrupulous, gave up all to wreak  fense?  Am I not to have my right till another
their vengeance on the men who had committed  does a wrong? Suppose a man wrongfully keeps'
the grave offense, by politicians not to be for- possession of my close; I apply to him, and say,
riven, of succeeding them in their offices.  I (o  "Mr. Johnson, give me up my property, and
not then think that, in making our election to pre- save me and yourself an action of ejectment."
ter the favors of the country to those of the noble  Should not I have some cause to be surprised,
Earl, we acted unwisely, independent of all con- if he answered, " Oh no, I can't let you have it
siderations of duty and of consistency; and I fear till Mr. Thomson embezzles X10,000, and then
1 can claim for our conduct no praise of disinter- I may get a share of it, and that will enable me
estedness.                                      to buy more land, and then I'll give you up your
My Lords, I have followed the noble Earl as field."  " But I want the field, and have a right
nowcerto ete closely as I could through his argu-  to get it; not because Thomson has committed
objection that ments, and I will not answer those  a crime, but because it is my field, and not yours
the bill will'  
make members who supported him  with equal mi- -and I should be as great a fool as you are a
thei aconstitu- nuteness, because, in answering him, knave, were I to wait till Thomson became as
enta,     I have really answered all the argu- bad as yourself."  I am really ashamed to detain
ments against the bill.  One noble Lord [Lord  your Lordships with exposing such wretched triFalmouth] seems to think he has destroyed it, fling.
when he pronounces, again and again, that the    A  speech, my Lords, was delivered by my
members chosen under it will be delegates. noble friend under the opposite gallery [Lord
What if they were delegates?  What should a  Radnor], which has disposed of much that rerepresentative be but the delegate of his constit- mains of my task.  I had purposed to show the
nents?  But a man may be the delegate of a  mighty change which has been wrought in later




1831.]                       ON PARLIAMENTARY  REFORM.                                      929
times upon the opinions, the habits, and the intel- in referring to them, my noble friend [Lord Radligence of the people, by the universal diffusion  nor] has only followed in the footsteps of the
of knowledge.  But this has been done by my  most illustrious of philosophers.  " Stick to your
noble friend with an accuracy of statement, and  ancient parliamentary system," it is said; " make
a. power of language which I should in vain at- no alteration; keep it exactly such as it was in
tempt to follow; and there glowed through his the time of Harry the Third, when the two Houadmirable oration a natural warmth of feeling to  ses first sat in separate chambers, and such as it
which every heart instinctively responded.  I has to this day continued!"  This is the igno-.
have, however, lived to hear that great speech  rant cry; this the very shibboleth of the partalked of in the language of contempt.  A noble  ty.  But I have joined an issue with our antagLord [Lord Falmouth], in the fullness of his ig- onists upon the fact; and I have given the evinorance of its vast subject, in the maturity of his dence of Selden, of Glanville, of Coke, of Noy,
incapacity to comprehend its merits, described it and of Prynne, proving to demonstration that the
as an amusing-a droll speech; and in this pro- original right of voting has been subjected to
found criticism a noble Earl [Earl Caernarvon] great and hurtful changes-that the exclusive
seemed to concur, whom I should have thought franchise of freemen is a usurpation upon housecapable of making a more correct appreciation. holders-and that our measure is a restoration
Comparisons are proverbially invidious; yet I of the rights thus usurped upon.  I have shown
can not help contrasting that speech with another that the ministers are only occupied in the duty
which I heard not very long ago, and of which  of repairing what is decayed, not in the work of
my noble friend [Earl Caernarvon] knows some- destruction, or of violent change.  Your Lordthing; one not certainly much resembling the  ships were recently assembled at the great soluminous speech in question, but a kind of chaos lemnity of the coronation.  Do you call to mind
of dark, disjointed figures, in which soft profes- the language of the primate, and in which the
sions of regard for friends fought with hard cen- monarch swore, when the sword of kingly estate
sures on their conduct, frigid conceptions with  was delivered into his hands?  "Restore the
fiery execution, and the lightness of the materials  things that are gone into decay; maintain that
with the heaviness of the workmanship-           which is restored; purify and reform  what is
"Frigida pugnabant calidis, humentia siccis,     amiss; confirm that which is in good order!"
Mollia cum duris, sine pondere habentia pondus.''  His sacred Majesty well remembers his solemn
A droll and amusing speech, indeed!  It was vow, to restore the Constitution, and to reform
worthy of the same speaker of whom both Mr. the abuses time has introduced; and I, too,
Windham  and Mr. Canning upon one occasion  feel the duty imposed on me, of keeping fresh
said, that he had made the finest they ever heard. in the recollection of the prince, whom it is my
It was a lesson deeply impregnated with the best pride and my boast to serve, the parts of our syswisdom of the nineteenth century, but full also  ten which fall within the scope of his vow. But
of the profoundest maxims of the seventeenth. if he has sworn to restore the decayed, so has he
There was not a word of that speech-not one  also sworn to maintain that which is restored,
proposition in its luminous context-one sentence  and to confirm that which wants no repairing;
of solemn admonition or of touching regret-fell and what sacrifice soever may be required to
from my noble friend [Lord Radnor]-not a se- maintain and confirm, that sacrifice I am ready
vere reproof of the selfishness, nor an indignant to make, opposing myself, with my sovereign, to
exclamation upon the folly of setting yourselves  the surge that may dash over me, and saying to
against the necessary course of events, and re- it, " Hitherto shalt thou come; here shall thy
fusing the rights of civilization to those whom  waves be stayed." For while that sovereign tells
you have suffered to become civilized-not a  the enemies of all change, " I have sworn to resentiment, not a topic, which the immortal elo- store!" so will he tell them who look for changequence and imperishable wisdom of Lord Bacon  only, " I have also sworn to maintain!"
did not justify, sanction, and prefix.             " Stand by the whole of the old Constitution!"
They who are constantly taunting us with  is the cry of our enemies.  I have Manifest ab
The sole object subverting the system of the repre- disposed of the issue of fact, and surdity ofthemfei       sentation, and substituting a parlia- shown that what we attack is any present system
form things to  mentary Constitution unknown in ear-  thing but the old Constitution.  But suppose, for
the progress of
the times.   lier times, must be told that we are  argument's sake, the question had been deeidei
making no change-that we are not pulling  against us-that Selden, Coke, Noy, Glanville,
down, but building up-or, at the utmost, adapt- Prynne, were all wrong-that their doctrine and
ing the representation to the altered state of the  mine was a mere illusion, and rotten boroughscommunity.  The system which was hardly fit- the ancient order of things-that it was a funted for the fourteenth century can not surely be  damental principle of the old Constitution to have
adapted. to the nineteenth.  The innovations of  members without constituents, boroughs withtime, of which our detractors take no account, out members, and a representative Parliament
are reckoned upon by all sound statesmen; and  without electors.  Suppose this to be the nature
of the old, and much admired, and more be7 The cold and hot contended-dry and wet-        praised, government of England.  All this I will
Things hard and soft-those with weight and with- assume for the sake of the argument; and I soout it.-Ovid's Metamp. (Chaos), Book i., 1. 19.  licit the attention of the noble Lords who main.
N N N




930                                   LORD  BROUGHAM                                        [1831.
tain that argument, while I show them its utter urged by the adversaries of reform, who lead
absurdity.  Since the early times of which they  men astray by constantly harping upon the string
speak, has there been no change in the very na- of change. innovation, and revolution.
ture of a seat in Parliament?  Is there no differ-    But it is said, and this is a still more favorite
ence between our days and those when the elect- argument, the system works well.  How  Answer to
ors eschewed the right of voting, and a seat in  does it work well?  Has it any preten- the arguParliament, as well as the elective franchise, was sions to the character of working well? it.torks
esteemed a burden?  Will the same principles  What say you to a town of five or six
apply to that age and to ours, when all the people of thousand inhabitants, not one of whom  has any
the three kingdoms are more eager for the power more to do with the choice of its representatives
of voting than for any other earthly possession; than any of your Lordships sitting round that
and the chance of sitting in the House of Corn- table-indeed, a great deal less-for I see my
mons is become the object of all men's wishes? noble friend [the Duke of Devonshire] is there?
Even as late as the union of the Crowns, we It works well, does it?  How works well?  It
have instances of informations filed in the courts would work well for the noble Duke, if he chose
of law to compel Parliament men to attend their to carry his votes to market!  Higher rank, induty, or punish them for the neglect-so ill was deed, he could not purchase than he has; but he
privilege then understood.  But somewhat earli- has many connections, and he might gain a title
er we find boroughs petitioning to be relieved  for every one that bears his name.  But he has
from the expense of sending members, and mem- always acted in a manner far more worthy of his
bers supported by their constituents as long as own high character, and of the illustrious race of
they continued their attendance.  Is it not clear patriots from  whom  he descends, the founders
that the parliamentary law  applicable to that of our liberties and of the throne which our Sovstate of things can not be applied to the present ereign's exalted house fills; and his family have
circumstances, without in some respects making  deemed that name a more precious inheritance
a violent revolution?  But so it is in the prog- than any title for which it could be exchanged.
ress of all those changes which time is perpetu-  But let us see how  the system  works for the
ally working in the condition of human affairs. borough itself, and its thousands of hon- Not for the
They are really the authors of change, who re- est, industrious inhabitants. My  Lords, onfthbiats
sist the alterations which are required to adjust I once had the fortune to represent it ougls.
the system, and adapt it to new circumstances; for a few weeks; at the time when I received
who forcibly arrest the progress of one portion  the highest honor of my life, the pride and examid the general advancement.  Take, as an il- ultation of which can never be eradicated from
lustration, the state of our jurisprudence.  The  my mind but by death, nor in the least degree
old law ordained that a debtor's property should  allayed by any lapse of time-the most splendid
be taken in execution.  But in early times there  distinction which any subjects can confer upon
were no public funds, no paper securities, no ac- a fellow-citizen-to be freely elected for Yorkcounts at bankers; land and goods formed the  shire, upon public grounds, and being unconnectproperty of all; and those were allowed to be  ed with the county.  From having been at the
itaken in satisfaction of debts.  The law, there- borough the day of the election, I can give your
-fore, which only said, let land and goods be tak- Lordships some idea how well the system works:.en, excluded the recourse against stock and  there.  You may be returned for the place, but
*credits, although it plainly meant that all the  it is at your peril that you show yourself among
property should be liable, and would clearly have  the inhabitants.  There is a sort of polling; that
attached stock and credits, had they then been  is, five or six of my noble friend's tenants ride
known.  But when nine tenths of the property  over from another part of the country-receive.of oure richest men consist of stock and credits, their burgage qualifications-vote, as the eneto exempt these under pretense of standing by  mies of the bill call it, "in right of property,"
the did law, is manifestly altering the substance  that is, of the Duke's property-render up their
for the sake of adhering to the letter; and sub- title-deeds-dine, and return home before night.
stituting for the old law, that all the debtor's  Being detained in court at York longer than I
property should be liable, a new and totally dif- had expected on the day of this elective proceed.
-ferent law, that a small part only of his property  ing, I arrived too late for the chairing, and thereshould be liable.  Yet in no part of our system  fore did not assist at that awful solemnity.  See-.has there been a greater change than in the es- ing a gentleman with a black patch, somewhere
timated value attached to the franchise, and to  about the size of a sergeant's coif, I expressed
a seat in Parliament, from  the times when one my regret at his apparent ailment; he said, " It
class of the community anxiously shunned the  is for a blow I had the honor to receive in reprecost of electing, and another as cautiously avoid- senting you at the ceremony."  Certainly no coned being returned, to those when both classes stituent ever owed more to his representative
are alike anxious to obtain these privileges. than I to mine; but the blow was severe, and
Then, can any reasonable man argue that the  might well have proved fatal.  I understand this
same law should be applied to two states of is the common lot of the members, as my noble
things so diametrically opposite? ~ Thus much I friend [Lord Tankerville], who once sat for the
thought fit to say, in order to guard your Lord- place, I believe, knows; though there is some
-ships against..a favorite topic, one sedulously  variety, as he is aware, in the mode of proceed




1831.]                       ON PARLIAMENTARY REFORM.                                        931
ing, the convenient neighborhood of a river with  displeasure.  When conflicting bodies are pretty
a rocky channel sometimes suggesting operations  nearly matched, the evolutions of such a corps
of another kind.  I am very far, of course, from  decide the fate of the day.  The noble Duke
approving such marks of public indignation; but [Wellington] remembers how doubtful even the
I am equally far from wondering that it should  event of Waterloo might have been had Grouchy
seek a vent; for I confess, that if the thousands  come up in time.  Accordingly, the fortunate
of persons whom the well working of the pres- leader of that parliamentary force raised him
ent system insults with the farce of the Knares- self to an Earldom  and two Lord Lieutenancies,
borough election (and whom the bill restores to  and obtained titles and blue ribbons for others
their rights) were to bear so cruel a mockery with  of his family, who now fill most respectable stapatience, I should deem them degraded indeed.  tions in this House.
It works well, does it?  For whom?  For    The system, we are told, works well, because,
the Constitution?  No such thing.  For bor- notwithstanding the manner of its elec-    isalnys
ough proprietors it works well, who can sell tion, the House of Commons some- behindpublic
seats or traffic in influence, and pocket the gains  times concus immediately in opinionentiment
Upon the Constitution it is the foulest stain, and  with the people; and, in the long run, is seldom
eats into its very core.                         found to counteract it.  Yet sometimes, and on
It works well?  For the people of England? several of the most momentous questions, the
forthe  For the people, of whom the many ex- run has, indeed, been a very long one.  The
people of  eluded electors are parcel, and for whom  slave trade continued to be the signal disgrace
E  nd   alone the few actual electors ought to  of the country, the unutterable opprobrium of the
exercise their franchise as a trust!  No such  English name, for many years after it had been
thing.  As long as a member of Parliament denounced in Parliament, and condemned by the
really represents any body of his countrymen, people all in one voice.  Think you this foulstain
be they freeholders, or copyholders, or leasehold- could have so long survived, in a reformed Parers-as long as he represents the householders  liament, the prodigious eloquence of my venerain any considerable town, and is in either way  ble friend, Mr. Wilberforce, and the unanimous
deputed to watch over the interests of a portion  reprobation of the country?   The American
of the community, and is always answerable to  war might have been commenced, and even for
those who delegate him-so long has he a par- a year or two persevered in, for, though most
ticipation in the interests of the whole state, unnatural, it was, at first, not unpopular.  But
whereof his constituents form a portion-so long  could it have lasted beyond 1778, had the voice
may he justly act as representing the whole com- of the people been heard in their own House?
munity, having, with his particular electors, only  The French war, which in those days I used to
a general coincidence' of views upon national think a far more natural contest, having in my
questions, and a rigorous coincidence where their youth leaned to the alarmist party, might possispecial interests are concerned.  But if he is bly have continued some years.  But if the repdelegated by a single man, and not by a county  resentation of the country had been reformed,
or a town, he does not represent the people of there can be no reason to doubt that the sound
England; he is a jobber, sent to Parliament to  views of the noble Earl [Lord Grey], and the
do his own or his patron's work.  But then we  immortal eloquence of my right honorable friend
are told, and with singular exultation, how many  [Mr. Fox], whose great spirit, now  freed from
great men have found their way into the House  the coil of this world, may be permitted to look
of Commons by this channel.  My Lords, are  down complacent upon the near accomplishment
we, because the only road to a place is unclean, of his patriotic desires, would have been very
not to travel it?  If I can not get into Parlia- differently listened to in a Parliament unbiassed
ment, where I may render the state good serv- by selfish interests; and of one thing I am as cerice, by any other means, I will go that way, de- tain as that I stand here, that ruinous warfare
filing myself as little as I can, either by the filth  never could have lasted a day beyond the arrival
of the passage or the indifferent company I may  of Bonaparte's letter in 1800.
travel with.  I won't bribe; I won't job, to get    But still it is said public opinion finds its way
in; but if it be the only path open, I will use it more speedily into Parliament upon Whenthat.en
for the public good.  But those who indulge in  great and interesting  emergencies, timent reacles
this argument about great men securing seats, How does it so?  By a mode contra- is by undeirado not, I remark, take any account of the far ry to the whole principles of repre- bl "e;".
greater numbers of very little men who thus find  sentative government-by sudden, direct, and
their way into Parliament to do all manner of dangerous impulses.  The fundamental principublic mischief.  A few are, no doubt, independ- ple of our Constitution, the great political disent; but many are as docile, as disciplined in  covery of modern times-that, indeed, which enthe evolutions of debate, as any troops the noble  ables a-state to combine extent with liberty-the
Duke had at Waterloo.  One borough proprie- system of representation, consists altogether in
tor is well remembered, who would display his the perfect delegation by the people, of their
forces, command them in person, carry them over rights and the care of their interests, to those
from one flank to the other, or draw them off al- who are to deliberate and to act for them.  It is
together, and send them to take the field against not a delegation which shall make the representthe larks at Dunstable, that he might testify his  ative a mere organ of the passing will, or mo



932                                  LORD  BROUGHAM                                         [1831.
mentary opinion, of his constituents. I am aware, sands of those nearest the chairman could know
my Lords, that in pursuing this important topic, for what it was they held up their hands.  At
I may lay myself open to uncandid inference  the same time, there is too much reason to think
touching the present state of the country; but I that the rest would have acted as they did had
feel sure no such unfair advantage will be tak- they heard all that passed.  My hope and trust
en, for my whole argument upon the national en- is, that these men and their leaders will maturethusiasm for reform  rests upon the known fact ly reconsider the subject.  There are no bounds
that it is the growth of half a century, and not to the application of such a power; the difficulty
of a few months; and. according to the soundest of counteracting it is extreme; and as
views of representative legislation, there ought it may be exerted on whatever question tiiesecotlto be a general coincidence between the conduct has the leading interest, and every ques- b'"ntis.
of the delegate and the sentiments of the elect- tion in succession is felt as of exclusive importors.  Now, when the public voice, for want of a  ance, the use of the power I am  alluding to
regular and legitimate organ, makes itself, from  really threatens to resolve all government, and
time to time, heard within the walls of Parlia- even society itself, into its elements.  I know the
ment, it is by a direct interposition of the people, risk I run of giving offense by what I am saying.
not in the way of a delegated trust, to make the  To me, accused of worshiping the democracy,
laws; and every such occasion presents, in truth, here is, indeed, a tempting occasion, if in that
an instance where the defects of our elective sys- charge there were the shadow of truth.  Before
tem  introduce a recurrence to the old and bar- the great idol, the Juggernaut, with his hundbarous schemes of government, known in the  red and fifty thousand priests, I might prostrate
tribes and centuries of Rome, or the assemblies myself advantageously.  But I am bound to do
of Attica.  It is a poor compensation for the  my duty, and speak the truth; of such an assemfaults of a system which suffers a cruel grievance  bly I can not approve; even its numbers obstruct
to exist, or a ruinous war to last twenty or thir- discussion, and tend to put the peace in dangerty years after the public opinion has condemned  coupled with such a combination against payment
it, that some occasions arise when the excess of  of taxes, it is illegal; it is intolerable under any
the abuse brings about a violent remedy, or-some  form of government; and as a sincere well-wishrevolutionary shock, threatening the destruction  er to the people themselves, and devoted to the
of the whole.                                     cause which brought them  together, I feel soBut it works well!  Then why does the table  licitous, on every account, to bring such proceedThe petitions  groan with the petitions against it, of ings to an end.
against the   all that people, for whose interests    But, my Lords, it is for us to ponder these things
present system
show it does  there is any use in it working at all?  well; they are material facts in our This danger
not wrk ell. Why did the country at the last elec- present inquiry.  Under a system  of arisets to
tion, without exception, wherever they had the  real representation, in a country where peopletthei~
franchise, return members commissioned to com- the people possessed the only safe and rights.
plain of it, and amend it?  Why were its own  legitimate  channel for making  known  their
produce, the men chosen under it, found voting  wishes and their complaints, a Parliament of
against it by unexampled.majorities?  Of eighty- their own choosing, such combinations would be
two English county members, seventy-six have  useless.  Indeed, they must always be mere
pronounced sentence upon it, and they are joined  brutumfulmen, unless where they are very genby all the representatives of cities and of great eral; and where they are general, they both intowns.                                           dicate the universality of the grievance and the
It works well!  Whence, then, the phenom- determination to have redress.  Where no safeTeomn ena of Political Unions-of the peo- ty-valve is provided for popular discontent, to
tionsnottopay ple every where forming themselves  prevent an explosion that may shiver the maho odiostiihe into associations to put down a sys- chine in pieces-where the people, and by the
system is.   tem which you say well serves their people, I repeat, I mean the middle classes, the
interests?   Whence the congregating of one  wealth and intelligence of the country, the glory
hundred and fifty thousand men in one place, the  of the British name-where this most important
whole adult male population of two or three  order of the community are without a regular
counties, to speak the language of discontent, and systematic communication with the Legisand refuse the payment of taxes?  I am one  lature-where they are denied the Constitution
who never have either used the language of in- which is their birth-right, and refused a voice in
timidation, or will ever suffer it to be used to- naming those who are to make the laws they
ward me; but I also am one who regard those  must obey, impose the taxes they must pay, and
indications with unspeakable anxiety.  With all control, without appeal, their persons as well
respect for those assemblages, and for the hon- as properties-where they feel the load of such
esty of the opinions they entertain, I feel myself  grievances, and feel, too, the power they possess,
bound to declare, as an honest man, as a minis- moral, intellectual, and, let me add, without the
ter of the Crown, as a magistrate, nay, as stand- imputation of a threat. physical-then, and only
ing, by virtue of my office, at the head of the  then, are their combinations formidable; when
magistracy, that a resolution not to pay the  they are armed by their wrongs, far more forKing's taxes is unlawful.  When I contemplate  midable than any physical force-then, and only
the fact, I am assured that not above a few thou-  then, they become invincible.




1831.]                      ON PARLIAMENTARY REFORM.                                       933
Do you ask what, in these circumstances, we  cratic spirit in their composition."  What should
The people must ought to do?  I answer, simply our you think if the measure were on such grounds
be conciliated,  dut    If there were n
not treatedth duty.  f there were no such com- got rid of, without the usual courtesy of a precontempt.    binations in existence-no symptom  tended postponement, by a vote that this Lord's
of popular excitement-if not a man had lifted up  bill be rejected?  And should you feel much
his voice against the existing system, we should  soothed by hearing that some opposition Chesterbe bound to seek and to seize any means of fur- field had taken alarm at the want of politeness
thering the best interests of the people, with  among his brethren, and, at two o'clock in the
kindness, with consideration, with the firmness, morning, altered the words, retaining their ofenscertainly, but with the prudence, also, of states- ive sense-I ask, would such proceedings in the
men.  How much more are we bound to con- Commons be deemed by your Lordships a fair,
ciliate a great nation anxiously panting for their  just, candid opposition to a measure affecting
rights-to hear respectfully their prayers-to  your own seats and dignities only?  Would you
entertain the measure of their choice with an hon- tolerate their saying, " We don't mind the proest inclination to do it justice; and if, while we  visions of this Lord's bill; we don't stop to disapprove its principle, we yet dislike some of its cuss them; we won't parley with such a thing;
details, and deem them susceptible of modifica- we plainly see it hurts our interest, and checks
tion, surely we ought, at any rate, not to reject our own patronage; for it is an aristocratic bill,
their prayers for it with insult.  God forbid we  and an oligarchical bill, and withal a revolutionshould so treat the people's desire; but I do fear ary bill?"  Such treatment would, I doubt not,
that a determination is taken not to entertain it ruffle the placid tempers of your Lordships; you
with calmness and impartiality.  (Cries of No!  would say somewhat of your order, its rights,
No! from the Opposition.)  I am glad to have  and its privileges, and buckle on the armor of a
been in error  I am rejoiced to hear this disclaim- well-founded and natural indignation.  But your
er, for I infer from it that the people's prayers wonder would doubtless increase if you learned.
are to be granted. You will listen, I trust, to the  that your bill had been thus contemptuously readvice of my noble and learned friend [Lord  jected in its first stage by a House in which only
Plunkett], who, with his wonted sagacity, rec- two members could be found who disapproved of
omrmended you to do as you would be done by. its fundamental principles.  Yes, all avow themThis wise and Christian maxim  will not, I do  selves friendly to the principle; it is a matter of
hope, be forgotten.  Apply it, my Lords, to the  much complaint if you charge one with not being
case before you.  Suppose, for a moment, that a reformer; but they can not join in a vote which
your Lordships, in your wisdom, should think it only asserts that principle, and recognizes the exexpedient to entertain some bill regulating mat- pediency of some reform.  Yes, the Commons all
ters in which this House alone has any concern, allow your peerage law to be an abomination;
as the hereditary privileges of the peerage, or your privileges a nuisance: all cry out for some
the right of voting by proxy, or matters relative  change as necessary, as imperative; but they,
to the election of peers representing the aristoc- nevertheless, will not even listen to the proposiracy of Ireland and Scotland, or providing against tion for effecting a change, which you, the most
the recurrence of such an extraordinary and, in- interested party, have devised and sent down to
deed, unaccountable event as that which decided  them.  Where, I demand, is the difference beon the Huntingdon peerage without a commit- tween this uncourteous and absurd treatment of
tee; suppose, after great exertions of those most your suppos-ed-bi}l-by the Com imons, and that
interested, as the Scotch and Irish peers, or this  which you talk of giving to theirs?  You apHouse at large, your Lordships had passed it prove of the principle of the measure sent up by
through all its stages by immense majorities, by  the other House, for the sole purpose of amendfifty or a hundred to one, as the Commons did  ing its own Constitution; but you won't sancthe Reform.  (Cries of No.)  I say an over- tion that principle by your vote, nor afford its
whelming majority of all who represented any  fiiends an opportunity of shaping its features, so
body, all the members for counties and towns; as, if possible, to meet your wishes.  Is this fair?
but, to avoid caviling, suppose it passed by a  Is it candid?  Is it consistent?  Is it wise?  Is
large majority of those concerned, and sent down  it, I ask you, is it at this time very prudent?  Did
to the Commons, whom it only remotely affect- the Commons act so by you in Sir Robert Waled.  Well-it has reached that House; and sup- pole's time, when the bill for restraining the crepose the members were to refuse giving your ation of peers went down from hence to that
measure any examination at all in detail, and to  House?  No such thing; though it afterward
reject it at once.  What should you say?  How  turned out that there was a majority of one hundshould you feel, think you, when the Commons  red and twelve against it, they did not even diarrogantly turned round from your request, and  vide upon the second reading.  Will you not exsaid, "Let us fling out this silly bill without tend an equal courtesy to the bill of the Commore ado; true, it regulates matters belonging  mons and of the people?
exclusively to the Lords, and in which we can    I am asked what great practical benefits are
not at all interfere without violating the law of to be expected from  this measure? rracticalbenthe land; but still, out with it for an aristocratic, And is it no benefit to have the gov- efits t be e
oligarchical, revolutionary bill-a bill to be aborn- ernment strike its roots into the hearts reforo.
inated by all who have a spark of the true demo- of the people?  Is it no benefit to have a calm




934                                  LORD  BROUGHAM                                      [1831.
and deliberative, but a real organ of the public I they spring, and how come they to haunt our
opinion, by which its course may be known, and  shores?  What power engendered All e evils
its influence exerted upon state affairs regularly  those uncouth shapes, what multi- experienCtedl i
Ireland ruay be
and temperately, instead of acting convulsively, plied the monstrous births till they expected in
and, as it were, by starts and shocks?  I will people the land?  Trust me, the these rights are
only appeal to one advantage, which is as certain  same power which called into fright- witeld
to result from this salutary improvement of our ful existence, and armed with resistless force the
system as it is certain that I am addressing your Irish Volunteers of 1782-the same power which
Lordships.  A noble Earl [Lord Winchelsea] rent in twain your empire, and raised up thirinveighed strongly against the licentiousness of teen republics-the same power which created
the press; complained of its insolence; and as- the Catholic Association, and gave it Ireland for
serted that there was no tyranny more intolera- a portion.  What power is that?  Justice deble than that which its conductors now exer- nied-rights withheld-wrongs perpetratedcised.  It is most true that the press has great the force which common injuries lend to millions
influence, but equally true that it- derives this  -the wickedness of using the sacred trust of
influence from expressing, more or less correct- government as a means of indulging private
ly, the opinion of the country.  Let it run coun- caprice-the idiotcy of treating Englishmen like
ter to the prevailing course, and its power is at the children of the South Sea Islands-the frenzy
an end.  But I will also admit that, going in the  of believing, or making believe, that the adults
same general direction with public opinion, the  of the nineteenth century can be led like chilpress is oftentimes armed with too much power dren, or driven like barbarians!  This it is that
in particular instances; and such power is always has conjured up the strange sights at which we
liable to be abused.  But I will tell the noble  now stand aghast!  And shall we persist in the
Earl upon what foundation this overgrown power fatal error of combating the giant progeny, inis built.  The press is now the only organ of stead of extirpating the execrableparent? Good
public opinion.  This title it assumes; but it is God! Will men never learn wisdom, even from
not by usurpation; it is rendered legitimate by  their own experience?  Will they never believe,
the defects of your parliamentary Constitution; till it be too late, that the surest way to prevent. 
it is erected upon the ruins of real representa- immoderate desires being formed, ay, and unjust
tion.  The periodical press is the rival of the  demands enforced, is to grant in due season the
House of Commons; and it is, and it will be, moderate requests of justice?  You stand, my
the successful rival, as long as that House does Lords, on the brink of a great event; you are in
not represent the people-but not one day lon- the crisis of a whole nation's hopes and fears.
ger. If ever I felt confident in any prediction, it An awful importance hangs over your decision.
is in this, that the restoration of Parliament to its  Pause, ere you plunge!  There may not be any
legitimate office of representing truly the public retreat! It behooves you to shape your conduct
opinion will overthrow the tyranny of which no- by the mighty occasion. They tell you not to be
ble Lords are so ready to complain, who, by  afraid of personal consequences in discharging
keeping out the lawful sovereign, in truth sup- your duty.  I too would ask you to banish all
port the usurper.  It is you who have placed  fears; but, above all, that most mischievous,
this unlawful authority on a rock: pass the bill, most despicable fear-the fear of being thought
it is built on a quicksand.  Let but the country  afraid.  If you won't take counsel from me, take
have a full and free representation, and to that example from the statesman-like conduct of the
will men look for the expression of public opin- noble Duke [Wellington], while you also look
ion, and the press will no more be able to die- back, as you may, with satisfaction upon your
tate, as now, when none else can speak the sense  own.  He was told, and you were told, that the
of the people.  Will its influence wholly cease? impatience of Ireland for equality of civil rights
God forbid!  Its just influence will continue, was partial, the clamor transient, likely to pass
but confined within safe and proper bounds.  It away with its temporary occasion, and that yieldwill continue, long may it continue, to watch the  ing to it would be conceding to intimidation. I
conduct of public men-to watch the proceed- recollect hearing this topic urged within this
ings even of a reformed Legislature-to watch  hall in July, 1828; less regularly I heard it than
the people themselves-a safe, an innoxious, a  I have now done, for I belonged not to your
useful instrument, to enlighten and improve man- number-but I heard it.urged in the self-same
kind!  But its overgrown power-its assump- terms.  The burden of the cry was-it is no
tion to speak in the name of the nation-its pre- time for concession; the people are turbulent,
tension to dictate and to command, will cease  and the Association dangerous.  That summer
with the abuse upon which alone it is founded, passed, and the ferment subsided not; autumn
and will be swept away, together with the other came, but brought not the precious fruit of peace
creatures of the same abuse, which now " fright -on the contrary, all Ireland was convulsed
our isle from its propriety."                   with the unprecedented conflict which returned
Those portentous appearances, the growth of the great chief of the Catholics to sit in a Protlater times, those figures that stalk abroad, of estant Parliament; winter bound the earth in
unknown stature and strange form-unions of  chains, but it controlled not the popular fury,
leagues, and musterings of men in myriads, and  whose surge, more deafening than the tempest,
conspiracies against the exchequer; whence do  lashed the frail bulwarks of law founded upon




1831.]                        ON PARLIAMENTARY REFORM.                                          935
injustice.  Spring came; but no ethereal mild- the ministers, too, are for it; but the aristocness was its harbinger, or followed in its train; racy, say they, is strenuously opposed to it.  I
the Catholics became stronger by every month's  broadly deny this silly, thoughtless assertion.
delay, displayed a deadlier resolution, and pro-  What, my Lords! the aristocracy set themselves
claimed their wrongs in a tone of louder defiance  in a mass against the people-they who sprang
than before.  And what course did you, at this  from the people-are inseparably connected with
moment of greatest excitement, and peril, and  the people-are supported by the people-are
menace, deem it most fitting to pursue?  Eight the natural chiefs of the people!  They set themmonths before, you had been told how unworthy  selves against the people, for whom peers are
it would be to yield when men clamored and  ennobled-bishops consecrated-Kings anointed
threatened.  No change had happened in the in- -the people to serve whom  Parliament itself
terval, save that the clamors were become far  has an existence, and the monarchy and all its
more deafening, and the threats, beyond com- institutions are constituted, and without whom
parison, more overbearing.  What, nevertheless, none of them could exist for an hour!  The asdid your Lordships do?  Your duty; for you  sertion of unreflecting men is too monstrous to
despised the cuckoo-note of the season, " be not be endured-as a member of this House, I deny
intimidated."   You granted all that the Irish  it with indignation.  I repel it with scorn, as a
demanded, and you saved your country.  Was  calumny upon us all.  And yet there are those
there in April a single argument advanced which  who even within these walls speak of the bill
had not held good in July?  None, absolutely  augmenting so much the strength of the democnone, except the new height to which the dan- racy as to endanger the other orders of the state;
gers of longer delay had risen, and the increased  and so they charge its authors with promoting
vehemence with which justice was demanded;  anarchy and rapine.  Why, my Lords, have its
and yet the appeal to your pride, which had pre- authors nothing to fear from democratic spoliavailed in July,, was in vain made in April, and  tion?  The fact is, that there are members of
you wisely and patriotically granted what was  the present cabinet, who possess, one or two of
asked, and ran the risk of being supposed to yield  them alone, far more property than any two adthrough fear.                                      ministrations within my recollection; and all of
But the history of the Catholic claims conveys  them have ample wealth.  I need hardly say, I
Delay will   another important lesson.  Though  include not myself, who have little or none.  But
only aggravate in right, and policy, and justice, the  even of myself I will say, that whatever I have
the evil.
measure of relief could not be too  depends on the stability of existing institutions;
ample, half as much as was received with little  and it is as dear to me as the princely possesgratitude when so late wrung from you, would  sions of any among you.  Permit me to say, that,
have been hailed twenty years before with de- in becoming a member of your House, I staked
light; and, even the July preceding, the measure  my all on the aristocratic institutions of the state.
would have been received as a boon freely given, I abandoned certain wealth, a large income, and
which, I fear, was taken with but sullen satisfac-  much real power in the state, for an office of
tion in April, as a right long withheld.  Yet,  great trouble, heavy responsibility, and very unblessed be God, the debt of justice, though tar- certain duration.  I say, I gave up substantial
dily, was at length paid, and the noble Duke won  power for the shadow of it, and for distinction
by it civic honors which rival his warlike achieve- depending upon accident.  I quitted the elevaments in lasting brightness-than which there  ted station of representative for Yorkshire, and a
can be no higher praise.  What, if he had still leading member of the Commons.  I descended
listened to the topics of intimidation and incon-  from a position quite lofty enough to gratify any
sistency which had scared his predecessors?  man's ambition, and my lot became bound up
He might have proved his obstinacy, and Ireland  in the stability of this House.  Then, have I not
would have been the sacrifice.                     a right to throw myself on your justice, and to
Apply now  this lesson of recent history-I  desire that you will not put in jeopardy all I
TIhe aristoc may say of our own experience to the  have now left?
racy can not
affard to    measure before us. We stand in a truly  But the populace only, the rabble, the ignoble
aliat     critical position.  If we reject the bill, vulgar, are for the bill!  Then what It i notthe
minds of the cruiac lose tilone we
people.    through fear of being thought to be  is the Duke of Norfolk, Earl Marshal rharle in fa
intimidated, we may lead the life of retirement of England?  Whatthe Duke of Dev- vorofthebill.
and quiet, but the hearts of the millions of our  onshire?  What the Duke of Bedford?  (Cries
fellow-citizens are gone forever; their affections  of order from the Opposition.)  I am aware it is
are estranged; we and our order and its privi- irregular in any noble Lord that is a friend to
leges are the objects of the people's hatred, as  the measure; its adversaries are patiently sufthe only obstacles which stand between them   fered to call peers even by their Christian and.
and the gratification of their most passionate de-  surnames.  Then I shall be as regular as they
sire.  The whole body of the aristocracy must were, and ask, Does my friend John Russell, my.
expect to share this fate, and be exposed to feel- friend William Cavendish, my friend Harry Vane,,
ings such as these.  For I hear it constantly  belong to the mob, or to the aristocracy? Have'
said that the bill is rejected by all the aristoc-  they no possessions?  Are they modern names?racy.  Favor, and a good number of supporters,  Are they wanting in Norman blood, or whatevour adversaries allow it has among the people;  er else you pride yourselves on?  The idea is,




936              LORD BROUGHAM ON PARLIAMENTARY REFORM.                                   [1831.
too ludicrous to be seriously refuted; that the  err is human, justice deferred enhances the price
bill is only a favorite with the democracy, is a  at which you must purchase safety and peace;
delusion so wild as to point a man's destiny to- nor can you expect to gather in another crop
ward St. Luke's.  Yet many, both here and  than they did who went before you, if you perelsewhere, by dint of constantly repeating the  severe in their utterly abominable husbandry, of
same cry, or hearing it repeated, have almost sowing injustice and reaping rebellion.
made themselves believe that none of the nobili-    But among the awful considerations that now
ty are for the measure.  A noble friend of mine  bow down my mind, there is one which stands
has had the curiosity to examine the list of peers, pre-eminent above the rest.  You are the highopposing and supporting it, with respect to the  est judicature in the realm; you sit here asjudgdates of their creation, and the result is some- es, and decide all causes, civil and criminal, withwhat remarkable. A large majority of the peers, out appeal.  It is a judge's first duty never to
created before Mr. Pitt's time, are for the bill; the  pronounce sentence in the most trifling case
bulk of those against it are of recent creation; without hearing.  Will you make this the exand if you divide the whole into two classes, ception?  Are you really prepared to determine,
those ennobled before the reign of George III. but not to hear, the mighty cause upon which a
and those since, of the former, fifty-six are friends, nation's hopes and fears hang?  You are.  Then
and only twenty-one enemies of the reform. So  beware of your decision!  Rouse not, I beseech
much for the vain and saucy boast that the real you, a peace-loving, but a resolute people; aliennobility of the country are against reform.  I ate not from your body the affections of a whole
have dwelt upon this matter more than its intrin- empire.  As your friend, as the friend of my
sic importance deserves, only through my desire  order, as the friend of my country, as the faithto set right the fact, and to vindicate the ancient ful servant of my Sovereign, I counsel you to asaristocracy from a most groundless imputation.  sist with your uttermost efforts in preserving the
My Lords, I do not disguise the intense solic- peace, and upholding and perpetuating the ConPerratin:itude which I feel for the event of this  stitution.  Therefore, I pray and exhort you not
Danger or  debate, because I know full well that to reject this measure.  By all you hold most dear
delay.    the peace of the country is involved in  -by all the ties that bind every one of us to our
the issue.  I can not look without dismay at the  common order and our common country, I solrejection of the measure.  But grievous as may  emnly adjure you-I warn you-I implore you
be the consequences of a temporary defeat-   -yea, on my beaded knees, I supplicate you-retemporary it can only be; for its ultimate, and ject not this bill!
even speedy success, is certain. Nothing can now
stop it.  Do not suffer yourselves to be persuaded    So completely had Lord Brougham wrought
that even if the present ministers were driven from  up his own feelings and those of his hearers at
the helm, any one could steer you through the  the close of this speech, that it was nothing
troubles which surround you without reform. strained or unnatural-it was, in fact, almost a
But our successors would take up the task in cir- matter of course-for him to sink down upon one
cumstances far less auspicious.  Under them, of his knees at the table where he stood, when
you would be fain to grant a bill, compared with  he uttered the last words, " I supplicate youwhich the one we now proffer you is moderate  reject not this bill!"  But the sacrifice was too
indeed.  Hear the parable of the Sibyl; for it great a one for that proud nobility to make at
conveys a wise and wholesome moral. She now  once, and the bill was rejected by a majority of
appears at your gate, and offers you mildly the  forty-one, of whoml twenty-one belonged to the
volumes-the precious volumes-of wisdom and  board of bishops of the Established Church.
peace.  The price she asks is reasonable; to re-    The question, " What will the Lords do?'
store the franchise, which, without any bargain, which had agitated and divided the public mind
you ought voluntarily to give; you refuse her for some months, was now  answered, and a
terms-her moderate terms-she darkens the  burst of wounded and indignant feeling followed
porch no longer.  But soon, for you can not do  throughout the whole country.  The London
without her wares, you call her back; again she. papers were many of them  arrayed in mourncomes, but with diminished treasures; the leaves  ing; some of the Lords who had opposed the
of the book are in part torn away by lawless bill were assaulted by the populace in the streets;
hands-in part defaced with characters of blood. others were burned in effigy in the neighborBut the prophetic maid had risen in her demands  hoods where they lived; riots took place in many
— it is Parliaments by the year-it is vote by the  of the large towns, at which the property of the
ballot-it is sufliage by the million!  From this  anti-Reformers was destroyed; and in the vicinyou turn away indignant, and for the second time  ity of Nottingham the ancient palace of the Duke
she departs.  Beware of her third coming; for of Newcastle was consumed by fire.  The great
the treasure you must have; and what price she  body of the nation, while they disapproved of
may next demand, who shall tell?  It may even  these excesses, were wrought up to the highest
be the mace which rests upon that wool-sack. pitch of determination that, come what mfight, the
What may follow your course of obstinacy, if bill should be carried.  Public meetings, embracpersisted in, I can not take upon me to predict,  ing a large part of the entire population, were
nor do I wish to conjecture.  But this I know  held in all parts of the kingdom, and men of the
full well, that, as sure as man is nMortal, and to  highest standing and ability came forward to




1825.]           INAUGURAL DISCOURSE OF MR. BROUGHAM, ETC.                                  937
form them into one compact body, with the King  The Atlantic was roused, Mrs. Partington's spirit
in their midst, to press with the united force of was up, but I need not tell you that the contest
millions on the House of Lords.  Before such  was unequal.  The Atlantic Ocean beat Mrs.
an array the aristocracy of England, for the first Partington.  She was excellent at a slop or a
time, with all its wealth, and talent, and hered- puddle, but she should not have meddled with a
itary claims on the respect of the people, were tempest.  Gentlemen, be at your ease-be quiet
seen to be utterly powerless.  They were even  and steady.  You will beat Mrs. Partington."8
treated with contempt.  "The efforts of the    On the 12th of December, 1831, the bill was
Lords to stop the progress of reform," said the introduced into the House of Commons for the
Rev. Sydney Smith at the Taunton meeting, " re- third time, and was passed by a majority of one
minds me very forcibly of the great storm  at hundred and sixty-two; but was rejected in the
Sidmouth, and of the conduct of the excellent House of Lords on the 7th of May, 1832, by a
Mrs. Partington on that occasion.  In the win- majority of thirty-nine.  The ministry instantly
ter of 1824, there set in a great flood upon that resigned, and the King, after an ineffectual eftown; the tide rose to an incredible height, the fort to form another, invited them back, on the
waves rushed in upon the houses, and every  condition that he would create enough new Lords
thing was threatened with destruction.  In the to carry through the bill.  This ended the conmidst of this sublime and terrible storm, Dame test.  To escape such an indignity, a large numPartington, who lived upon the beach, was seen ber of the anti-Reformers signified their intenat the door of her house with mop and pattens, tion of being absent when the bill came up anew,
trundling her mop, squeezing out the sea-water, and it finally passed the Upper House on the
and vigorously pushing away the Atlantic Ocean. 4th of June, 1832, by a vote of 106 to 22.
INAUGURAL DISCOUIRSE
OF MR. BROUGHAM WHEN ELECTED LORD RECTOR OF TIE UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW, DELIVERED APRIL 6,1825.
INTRODUCTION.
AT Glasgow a Lord Rector is annually chosen by a major vote of the members of the University. The
station is simply one of honor, like that of Chancellor in the English Universities, involving no share in the
government or instruction, and is usually awarded to some public man who has a distinguished name in
literature or politics.
When inducted into office, the Lord Rector returns thanks in an address which is usually short, as a
mere matter of form-and compliment, expressing his sense of the honor conferred, and his best wishes for
the prosperity of the institution. Lord Brougham, however, when called to this office, took a different
course. He prepared an elaborate address on " the study of the Rhetorical Art, and the purposes to which
a proficiency in this art should be made subservient."  He urges the study of rhetoric, however, not in
mere treatises on the subject, but (as in the case of the sculptor and painter) in the direct study of the
great productions of the art itself, and especially of the Greek orators; of whom he affirms, "the works
of the English chisel fall not more short of the wonders of the Acropolis, than the best productions of
modern pens fall short of the chaste, finished, nervous, and overwhelming compositions of them "that
ftlmined over Greece."  The discourse is full of striking remarks, many of them of great value as the
result of the author's own experience, and it therefore forms a very appropriate close to this volume.
One fact respecting it is certainly remarkable, that, containing so many and such extended quotations, it
was written not at home among his books, but "during the business of the Northern Circuit."
DISCOURSE, &o.
It now becomes me to return my very sincere    I feel very sensibly that if I shall now urge
and respectful thanks for the kindness which has you by general exhortations to be Transition:
placed me in a chair filled at former times by  instant in the pursuit of the learning Motive for diigence in a co]so many great men, whose names might well which, in all its branches, flourishes legelife.
make any comparison formidable to a far more  under the kindly shelter of these roofs, I may
worthy successor.                                weary you with the unprofitable repetition of a
While I desire you to accept this unexagger- thrice-told tale; and if I presume to offer my
Reasons fora ated expression of gratitude, I am  advice touching the conduct of your studies, I
addre ted anxious to address you rather in the  may seem to trespass upon the province of those
usual,     form which I now adopt, than in the  venerable persons under whose care you have
more usual one of an unpremeditated discourse. the singular happiness to be placed.  But I
i shall thus at least prove that the remarks would  nevertheless expose myself to  either
which I deem it my duty to make are the fruit charge, for the sake of joining my voice with
of mature reflection, and that I am unwilling to    8 It scarcely need be said that this mention of the
discharge an important office in a perfunctory  good lady gave rise to the frequent occurrence of
manner.                                          her name in the newspapers of the present day.




938              INAUGURAL DISCOURSE OF MR. BROUGHAM, ETC.                                [1825.
theirs in anxiously entreating you to believe how  -the study of the rhetorical art, by which useincomparably the present season is verily and  ful truths are promulgated with effect, and the
indeed the most precious of your whole lives. purposes to which a proficiency in this art should
It is not the less true, because it has been often- be made subservient.
times said, that the period of youth is by far the    It is an extremely common error among young
best fitted for the improvement of the mind, and  persons, impatient of academical dis- Part Fit.
the retirement of a college almost exclusively  cipline, to turn from the painful study The study of
adapted to much study.  At your enviable age  of ancient, and particularly of Attic This should be
every thing has the lively interest of novelty and  composition, and solace themselves.nonhetl    f
freshness; attention is perpetually sharpened by  with works rendered easy by the fa- oreek orators.
curiosity; and the memory is tenacious of the  miliarity of their own tongue.  They plausibly
deep impressions it thus receives, to a degree  contend, that as powerful or captivating diction
unknown in after life; while the distracting cares  in a pure English style is, after all, the attainof the world, or its beguiling pleasures, cross ment they are in search of, the study of the best
not the threshold of these calm retreats; its dis- English models affords the shortest road to this
tant noise and bustle are faintly heard, making  point; and even admitting the ancient examples
the shelter you enjoy more grateful; and the  to have been the great fountains from which all
struggles of anxious mortals embarked upon that eloquence is drawn, they would rather profit, as
troublous sea are viewed from an eminence, the  it were, by the classical labors of their English
security of which is rendered more sweet by the  predecessors, than toil over the same path themprospect of the scene below.  Yet a little while, selves.  In a word, they would treat the perishand you too will be plunged into those waters  able results of those labors as the standard, and
of bitterness; and will cast an eye of regret, as give themselves no care about the immortal
now I do, upon the peaceful regions you have  originals.  This argument, the thin covering
quitted forever.  Such is your lot as members which indolence weaves for herself, would speedof society; but it will be your own fault if you  ily sink all the fine arts into barrenness and inlook back on this place with repentance or with  significance.  Why, according to such reasonshame; and be well assured that, whatever time  ers, should a sculptor or painter encounter the
-ay: every hour-you squander here on un- toil of a journey to Athens or to Rome?  Far
profitable idling, will then rise up against you, better work at home, and profit by the labor of
and be paid for by years of bitter but unavailing  those who have resorted to the Vatican and
regrets.  Study, then, I beseech you, so to store  the Parthenon, and founded an English school
your minds with the exquisite learning of former adapted to the taste of our own country.  Be
ages. that you may always possess within your- you assured that the works of the En-feriority of
selves sources of rational and refined enjoyment, glish chisel fall not more short of the all English
which will enable you to set at naught the  wonders of the Acropolis, than the model.
grosser pleasures of sense, whereof other men  best productions of modern pens fall short of
are slaves; and so imbue yourselves with the  the chaste, finished, nervous, and overwhelming
sound philosophy of later days, forming your- compositions of them that " resistless fulmined
selves to the virtuous habits which are its le- over Greece."   Be equally sure that, with
gitimate offspring, that you may walk unhurt hardly any exception, the great things of poetry
through the trials which await you, and may  and of eloquence have been done by men who
look down upon the ignorance and error that cultivated the mighty exemplars of Athenian
surround you, not with lofty and supercilious  genius with daily and with nightly devotion.
contempt, as the sages of old times, but with  Among poets there is hardly an exception to
the vehement desire of enlightening those who  this rule, unless may be so deemed Shakspeare
wander in darkness, and who are by so much  an exception to all rules, and Dante, familiar as
the more endeared to us by how much they want a cotemporary with the works of Roman art,
our assistance.                                  composed in his mother tongue, having taken.
Assuming the improvement of his own mind  not so much for his guide as for his "master,'
Suject: The and of the lot of his fellow-creatures  Virgil, himself almost a translator from  the
study of R et- to be the great end of every man's  Greeks.  But among orators I know of none
oric and its
proper applica- existence, who is removed above the  among the Romans, and scarce any in our own
ionos.     care of providing for his sustenance, times.  Cicero honored the Greek masters with
and to be the indispensable duty of every man, such singular observance, that he not Testinmony of'
as far as his own immediate wants leave him  only repaired to Athens for the sake cicero to he
any portion of time unemployed, our attention is of finishing his rhetorical education, of Greek o.:,naturally directed to the means by which so  but afterward continued to practice tory
great and urgent a work may best be performed; the art of declaiming in Greek; and although
and as in the limited time allotted to this dis- he afterward fell into a less pure manner throughc
course, I can not hope to occupy more than a  the corrupt blandishments of the Asian taste, yet
small portion of so wide a field, I shall confine  do we find him  ever prone to extol the noble
myself to two subjects, or rather to a few obser- perfections of his first masters, as something
vations upon two subjects, both of them  appro- placed beyond the reach of all imitation.  Nay,
priate to this place, but either of them affording  at a mature period of his life, he occupied him.
ample materials for an entire course of lectures  self in translating the greater orations of the




1825.]            INAUGURAL DISCOURSE  OF MR. BROUGHAM, ETC.                                    939
Greeks, which composed almost exclusively his  satisfied with studying the Roman, we should
treatise " De optimo genere Oratoris;" as if to  only be imitating the imperfect copy, instead of
write a discourse on oratorial perfection were  the pure original-like him who should endeavor
merely to present the reader with the two im- to catch a glimpse of some beauty by her reflecmortal speeches upon the Crown.  Sometimes  tion in a glass, that weakened her tints, if it did
we find him  imitating, even to a literal version,  not distort her features.  In the other case, we
the beauties of those divine originals-as the  should not be imitating the same, but some less
beautiful passage of AEschines, in the Timar-  perfect original, and looking at the wrong beauchus, upon the torments of the guilty, which the  ty; not her whose chaste and simple attractions
Roman orator has twice made use of, almost commanded the adoration of all Greece, but some
word for word; once in the oration for Sextus  garish damsel from Rhodes or Chios, just brillRoscius, the earliest he delivered, and again in  iant and languishing enough to captivate the less
a more mature effort of his genius, the oration  pure taste of half-civilized Rome.
against L. Piso.'                                     But there are other reasons too weighty to be
I have dwelt the rather upon the authority of  passed over, which justify the same The stylen
Inferiority of M. Tullius, because it enables us at decided preference.  Not to mention manner of Cic
R.omon e                                                                                  ero not suited
qo"rnele n    once to answer the question, Whether  the incomparable beauty and power to the present
quenc as aa.    a study of the Roman orators be not of the Greek language, the study of da
sufficient for refining the taste?  If the Greeks  which alone affords the means of enriching our
were the models of an excellence which the first own, the compositions of Cicero, exquisite as they
of Roman orators never attained, although ever  are for beauty of diction, often remarkable for inaspiring after it nay, if so far from being satis- genious argument and brilliant wit, not seldom
fled with his own success, he even in those his  excelling in deep pathos, are nevertheless so exmasters found something which his ears desid- tremely rhetorical, fashioned by an art so little
erated (ita sunt avida  et capaces; et semper  concealed, and sacrificing the subject to a disaliquid immensum  infinitumque desiderant [so  play of the speaker's powers, admirable as those
eager are they and capacious, so continually de-  are, that nothing can be less adapted to the
sirous of something boundless and infinite])?-he  genius of modern elocution, which requires a
either fell short while copying them, or he failed  constant and almost exclusive attention to the
by diverting his worship to the false gods of the  business in hand.  In all his orations which were
Asian school.  In the one case, were we to rest spoken (for, singular as it may seem, the remark
applies less to those which were only written, as' M^ yap LO08PE, 7Th  T7V a'l r0     vp,   OdpyTTO airo  all the Verrine, except the first, all the PhilipE5v, raL2' ovy Vn' avOp6D7wv n   aEv2yEcGaf yv'ECOai'   pies, except the first and ninth, and the Pro Mii    7rf TOVi  ie/37t6rac, caOarTEp EV ragT rpayo~diatC,
Ov    Lva v     VeA LV KaO  /  Ico-v a(v, 1ttvl(L' lone) hardly two pages can be found which a
ai Tpof rEZC TOV paTOQ 7ovael, eical rTO /Ev   modern assembly would bear.  Some admirable
ULavov iyeraOacs, rTava rrlpo riL  aOTrjptL-TaraOir' atruments on evidence, and the credit of witEfg TO)  eTTraKTpoc,?lTa ElltTra.CtLe't-T a  ortv  nesses, might be urged to a jury;" several pasCidTcr  ITlotvi, K. r. A.-'AIZXIN. sca-ru Tctjtp-  sages, given by him on the merits of the case.
Xov. Let no one think that crimes arise from the  and in defense against the charge, might be spoinstigation of the gods, and not from the rash intemr- ken in mitigation of punishment after a convicperance of men; or that the profane are driven and  tion or confession of guilt; but, whether we rechastised, as we see them on the stage, by furies        the poltical o foensi otions the style,
with blazing torches. The eager lusts of the flesh,
and the insatiable desire for more-these swell the  both  n  espect of the  easonin  and the ornaranks of the robber, and crowd the deck of the pi- ments is wholly unfit for the mole severe and
rate-these are to every one his own fury!         less trifling nature of modern affairs in the Senate
Nolite enim  putare, quemadmodnm  in fabulis  or at he bar.  Now it is altogether otherwise
ssepenumero videtis, eos, qui aliquid impie scelera- with the Greek masters.  Changing Thatoftlhe
teque commiserint, agitari et perterreri Furiarum   a few phrases, which the difference lG eeakpefectteedis ardentibus. Sua quemque fraus, et suus tenor  of religion and of manners might ren- m;odern times.
maximae vexat; sum quemque scelus agitat, amen-  der objectionable-moderating, in some degree,
tiaque afficit; sum malaa cogitationes conscientiaeque
tiaque afficit; so male cogitationes conscie e    the virulence of invective, especially against prianimi terrent. H.e sunt impils assiduce domesti-  
caeque tFurire  quH5 dies octesique parentdm pesias  vate character, to suit the chivalrous courtesy of
cioque Furile; qun dies noctesque parentum penas
a consceleratissimis filiis repetant.-Pro Sexto Ros- modern hostility-there is hardly one of the pocio Amerino.                                       litical or forensic orations of the Greeks that
Nolite enim puta-e, ut in scena videtis, homines
consceleratos impulsu deorum  terreri Furiarum    3 There is a singular example of this in the retsedis ardentibus. Sua quemque fraus, suum faci- marks on the evidence and cross-examination in the
nus —suum  scelus-sua audacia, de sanitate ac  oration for L. Flaccus, pointed out to me by m  friend
mente deturbat. Ham sunt impiorum  Furim-he    Mr. Scarlett (now Lord Abinger), the mention of
flammmae-ha faces.-In Luc. Calp. Pisonemn.         whose name affords an illustration of my argument,
The great improvement in Cicero's taste between  for, as a more consummate master of the forensic art
the first and the second of these compositions is  in all its branches never lived, so no man is more
manifest, and his closer adherence to the original. conversant with the works of his predecessors inl
He introduces the same idea, and in very similar  ancient times. Lord Erskine, too, perhaps the first
language, in the Treatise De Legg., Lib. 1.-  of judicial orators, ancient or modern, had well studBrou.gham.                   2 Orator., c. 29.    ied the noble remains of the classic age.-BroughaCm,.




940              INAUGURAL DISCOURSE OF MR. BROUGHAM, ETC.                                  [1825.
might not be delivered in similar circumstances  your passions; and now you shall see how I can
before our Senate or tribunals; while their fu-  amuse your fancy," the more vigorous ancient
neral and other panegyrical discourses are much  argued in declaiming, and made his very boldest
less inflated and unsubstantial than those of the  figures subservient to, or rather an integral part
most approved masters of the epideictic style, the  of his reasoning.  The most figurative and highFrench preachers and academicians.  Whence  ly wrought passage in all antiquity is the famous
this difference between the master-pieces of Greek  oath in Demosthenes; yet, in the most pathetic
and Roman eloquence?  Whence but from the  part of it, and when he seems to have left the
rigid steadiness with which the Greek orator furthest behind him the immediate subject of his
keeps the object of all eloquence perpetually in  speech, led away by the prodigious interest of
view, never speaking for mere speaking's sake;  the recollections he has excited; when he is
while the Latin rhetorician, " ingenii sui nimium  naming the very tombs where the heroes of Maranato'r" [too fond of his own ingenuity], and, as  athon lie buried, he instantly, not abruptly, but
though he deemed his occupation a trial of skill by a most felicitous and easy transition, returns
or display of accomplishments, seems ever and  into the midst of the main argument of his whole
anon to lose sight of the subject-matter in the  defense-that the merits of public servants, not
attempt to illustrate and adorn it; and pours  the success of their councils, should be the measforth passages sweet indeed, but unprofitable-   ure of the public gratitude toward them-a pofitted to tickle the ear, without reaching the  sition that runs through the whole speech, and
heart.  Where, in all the orations of Cicero, or to which he makes the funeral honors bestowed
of him who almost equals him, Livy, "mir ofa-  alike on all the heroes, serve as a striking and
cundice homo" [admirable for his command of  appropriate support.  With the same ease does
language],4 shall we find any thing like those  Virgil manage his celebrated transition in the
thick successions of short questions in which De-  Georgics; where, in the midst of the Thracian
mosthenes oftentimes forges, as it were, with a  war, and while at an immeasurable distance from
few rapidly following strokes, the whole massive  agricultural topics, the magician  strikes the
chain of his argument; as in the Chersonese, ground on the field of battle, where helmets are
Ei 6' &iorai 6&a 6aap raera w  Kcal dta2vOaerat, ri buried, and suddenly raises before us the lonely
7rolOaoyev, av e'rs Xse)i56v7ov lr; KptvoVeLev ALO- husbandman, in a remote age, peacefully tilling
7refiv; vi) Aia.  Ka  ri ra -Trpaiyara earao  e Pe- its soil, and driving his plow  among the rusty
Tica; (26A' evO6edt e fotQNoyJao ev avrog e    iv 6' vor6  armor and moldering remains of the warrior.s
Tr)V iTvevJdaTrv /.i2 dvvcuSlEOa; aua 2 a At' ovx  But if a further reason is required for giving
Ajec- Ka ri kTf yyvrT7nr  Ear7  T OV7OV;  [Let this  the preference to the Greek orators, Theadmirable
force be once destroyed or scattered, and what are  we may find it in the greater diversi- variety of its
we to do if Philip marches on the Chersonese?  ty and importance of the subjects upon topics.
Put Diopeithes on his trial?  But how will that which their speeches were delivered.  Besides
better our condition?  And how shall we send  the number of admirable orations and of written
them succor if prevented by the winds? But, by  arguments upon causes merely forensic, we have
Jupiter, he will not march! And who is our sure- every subject of public policy, all the great afty for that?] or, comprising all of a long narrative  fairs of state, successively forming the topics of
that suits his argument in a single sentence, pre- discussion.  Compare them  with Cicero in this
senting a lengthened series of events at a single  particular, and the contrast is striking.   His
glance; as in the Ilaparpeafeia: TIvre yap ye- finest oration for matter and diction together is
yovanov  tepaL 16oval, ev ace-oi)Toc a&roryyeee ra  in defense of an individual charged with murder,
pev ~-v-#Elf iTLoreOaTare-eo~ oi DeKeS   TvrOovro-  and there is nothing in the case to give it a pubevdKacav eavTrovc-atdnrSovro.  [There were only  lie interest, except that the parties were of opfive days in which this man (Esehines, who had  posite factions in the state, and the deceased a
been sent as an embassador) brought back those  personal as well as political adversary of the
lies-you believed-the Phocians listened-gave  speaker.   His most exquisite performance in
themselves up —perished!]                         point of diction, perhaps the most perfect prose
But though the more business-like manner  composition in the language, was addressed to
Qotesi  f modern debate approaches much  one man, in palliation of another's having borne
which it sur-  nearer the style of the Greek than the  arms against him in a war with a personal rival.
passes the btest
specimens of  Latin compositions, it must be admit- Even the Catilinarians, his most splendid declamoderndebate. ted that it falls short of the great
originals in the closeness, and, as it were, densi-  Georgicon, i., 493:
ty of the argument; in the habitual sacrifice of     Scilicet et tempus veniet, cum finibus illis
all ornament to use, or rather in the constant       Agricola, incurvo terran molitus aratro,
union of the two; so that, while a modern ora-iet sr r                            e 
~ ) ~~' 7~~~~~.'Aut gravibus rastris galeas pulsabit inanes.
tor too frequently has his speech parceled out            randiaqae erssis   abits saspulsait  s.
into compartments, one devoted to argument,                                               splrs
into compartments, one devoted to argumen The time shall come when in these borders round,
another to declamation, a third to mere orna-The swain who turns the soil with crooked plow
ment, as if, he should say, "Now  your reason   Shall javelins find, and spears eaten with rust;
shall be convinced; now  I am  going to rouse   Or with his harrows strike on empty helmets,
And see with wonder the gigantic bones
4 Quintilian.                   Of opened graves.




1825.]            INAUGURAL DISCOURSE OF MR. BROUGHAM, ETC.                                      941
mations, are principally denunciations of a single  hand, we have not only many arguments upon
conspirator; the Philippics, his most brilliant in- cases strictly private, and relating to pecuniary
vectives, abuse of a profligate leader; and the  matters (those generally called the'IJd1.rcoi),
Verrine orations, charges against an individual and many upon interesting subjects, more neargovernor.  Many, indeed almost all the subjects  ly approaching public questions; as the speech
of his speeches, rise to the rank of what the  against Midias, which relates to an assault on
French term  Causes celebres; but they seldom   the speaker, but excels in spirit and vehemence,
rise higher.6   Of Demosthenes, on the other  perhaps, all his other efforts; and some which,
thougoh personal, involve high considerations of
6 The cause of this difference between the Greek  though personal, involve 
and Roman orators has been so strikingly described  public policy, as that   ost beautifl and enby a learned friend of mine, in the following note rgeti  speech  against Aristocrates;  but we
upon the above passage, that the celebrity of his  have all his immortal orations upon the state afname, were I at liberty to mention it, is not required  fairs of Greece-the liepi  areTpvov, embracing
to attract the reader's notice.  "In Athens," says the history of a twenty years' administration durhe, "an incessant struggle for independence, for ing the most critical period of Grecian story;
power, or for liberty, could not fail to rouse the gen- and the Philippics, discussing every question of
ins of every citizen-to force the highest talent to  foign policy and of the stand to be made by
the highest station-to animate her councils with a   e iilizd        d agaist the encroachments of
holy zeal-and to afford to her orators all that, ac- the barbri.  T e sehs were delivere
cording to the profoundest writers of antiquity, is      barbaans.  Those speeches were delve
necessary to the sublimest strains of eloquence. upon subjects the most important and affect-'Magna eloquentia sicut flamma materia alitur, a  ing that could be conceived to the whole commotibus excitatur, urendo clarescit.' Hers were not munity; the topics handled in them were of unithe holiday contests of men who sought to dazzle by  versal application and of perpetual interest. To
the splendor of their diction, the grace of their de- introduce a general observation, the Latin orator
livery, the propriety and richness of their imagery. mus quit the immediate course of his argument;
Her debates were on the most serious business he must for a moment lose sight of the object in
which can agitate men-the preservation of nation-. 
al liberty, honor, independence, and glory. The gifts  ve.    t te Athenan can hadly hold too
of genius and the perfection of art shed, indeed, a  lo   a tone, or carry his view  too extensivel
luster upon the most vigorous exertions of her ora- over the map of human affairs, for the vast range
tors-but the object of their thunders was to stir the  of his subject-the fates of the whole commonenergies of the men of Athens, and to make tyrants  wealth of Greece, and the stand to be made by
tremble, or rivals despair.  Rome, on the other free and polished nations against barbaric tyhand, mistress of the world, at the time when she  rants.
was most distinguished by genius and eloquence,         f   forming and chastening the taste by a
owned no superior, hated no rival, dreaded no equal. diligent stud  of tho   erfect  od
Nations sought her protection, Kings bowed before   y.                                       r  s,  Practice
her majesty; the bosom of her sole dominion was it is necessary to acquire correct hab- in cmposidisturbed by no struggle for national power, no alarm  its of copositon in our own language,
of foreign danger. While she maintained the au- first by studying the best writers, and next by
thority of her laws over the civilized earth, and em- translating  copiously into it from  the Greek.
braced under the flattering name of allies those who  This is by far the best exercise that I am accould no longer resist her arms, the revolt of a bar- quainted with for at once attaining a pure Enbarian King, or the contests of bordering nations with   lsh diction, and avoiding the tameness and regeach other, prolonged only till she had decided be- ulaity ofmodern composition.  ButtheEnlish
tween them, served to amuse her citizens or her.              
Senate, without affecting their tranquillity.  Her    tes  who  eally unloc   the ric  (.)ita
government, though essentially free, was not so pop- sources of the language are those who odiigent study
ular as the Athenian. The severity of her discipline, flourished from the end of Elizabeth's eglish writand the gravity of her manners, disposed her citi- to the end of Queen Anne's reign 
zens less to those sudden and powerful emotions  who used a good Saxon dialect with ease, but
which both excited and followed the efforts of the  correctness and perspicuity-learned in the anGreek orators. It seems, therefore, reasonable to  cient classics, but only enriching their mother
conclude that the character of Roman eloquence  tongue where the Attic could supply its defects
would be distinguished more by art than by passion,        overlaying it  ith   profuse pedantic coin
by science than by nature. The divisions and ani-tic c 
mosities of party, no doubt, would operate, and did       f fi gn words   well practiced in the
operate with their accustomed force. But thse are  old rules of composition, or rather collocation
not like the generous flame which animates a whole  (OeVOGCS), which unite nca.ie,.ase and variety
nation to defend its liberty or its honor. The discussion of a law upon which the national safety  summate art of Cicero were bestowed. We are not,
could not depend, the question whether this or that therefore, surprised to find that those of his orations
general should take the command of an army, wheth- in which he bears the best comparison with his rival
er this or that province should be allotted to a par- Demosthenes were delivered in the forum in private
ticular minister, whether the petition of a city to be  causes. In some of these may be found examples
admitted to the privileges of Roman citizens should  of perhaps the very highest perfection to which the
be granted, or whether some concession should be  art can be carried, of clear, acute, convincing argumade to a suppliant King; these, with the excep- ment, of strong natural feeling, and of sudden bursts
tion of the debates on the Catiline conspiracy, and  of passion; always, however, restrained by the preone or two of the Philippics, form the subjects of a  dominating influence of a highly cultivated art-an
public nature, on which the mighty genius and con-'art little concealed."-Bro.,ugham.




942               INAUGURAL DISCOURSE OF MR. BROUGHAM, ETC.                                 [1825
with absolute harmony, and give the author's  who fit out twenty little expeditions at a time
ideas to develop themselves with the more truth  to be a laughing-stock if they fail, and Great er
and simplicity when clothed in the ample folds useless if they succeed; or if they do of modern
of inversion, or run from  the exuberant to the  attack  in  the right place, so divide speakers.
elliptical without ever being either redundant or their forces, from the dread of leaving any one
obscure.  Those great wits had no foreknowl- point unassailed, that they can make no sensible
edge of such times as succeeded their brilliant impression where alone it avails them to be felt
age, when styles should arise, and for a season  It seems the principle of such authors never to
prevail over both purity, and nature, and antique  leave any thing unsaid that can be said on any
recollections -now meretriciously ornamented, one topic; to run down every idea they start; to
more than half French in the phrase, and to mere  let nothing pass; and leave nothing to the reader,
figures fantastically sacrificing the sense-now  but harass him with anticipating every thing that
heavily and regularly fashioned as if by the plumb  could possibly strike his mind.  Compare with
and rule, and by the eye rather than the ear, this effeminate laxity of speech the Manner of
ermostthenes
with a needless profusion of ancient words and  manly severity of ancient eloquence; presented as
flexions, to displace those of our own Saxon, in- or of him who approached it, by the a cntrast.
stead oftemperately supplying its defects. Least happy union  of natural genius with learned
of all could those lights of English eloquence  meditation; or of him  who so marvelously aphave imagined that men should appear among  preached still nearer with only the familiar knowlus professing to teach composition, and ignorant edge of its least perfect ensamples.  Mark, I do
of the whole of its rules, and incapable of relish- beseech you, the severe simplicity, the subdued
ing the beauties, or indeed apprehending the  tone of the diction, in the most touching parts
very genius of the language, should treat its pe- of the " old man Eloquent's"7 loftiest passages.
culiar terms of expression and flexion as so many  In the oath, when he comes to the burial-place
inaccuracies, and practice their pupils in cor- where they repose by whom he is swearing, if
recting the faulty English of Addison, and train- ever a grand epithet were allowable, it is here
ing down to the mechanical rhythm of Johnson  -yet the only one he applies is cyaovei-~l.
the lively and inimitable measures of Boling-  roVq EV MapaOSvL 7rpolcvrnvvrv uaa vrTaC rCv 7rpoyobroke.                                            vsv-Ktai TOV70   v II2aratlaf 7rapara:aiuEvovf —~cai
But in exhorting you deeply to meditate on  roVr  Ev;aalptvs vavqaxoacavTra —lcai  roTeV  En'
(2.) with a   the beauties of our old English au-'AprejLtaL:, tca Tro2tOVic krEpoVe  TOVf'v TOri dr7ne;adther  tho es, the poets, the moralists, and   ouioLc! vsraaat cKEtjvovt'ATAOOT  u(ivdSpag.
gya orteek'- perhaps more than  all these, the  When he would compare the effects of the Thecomposition.  preachers of the Augustan age of  ban treaty in dispelling the dangers that comnEnglish letters, do not imagine that I would pass  passed the state round about, to the swift passover their great defects when compared with the  ing away of a stormy cloud, he satisfies himself
renowned standards of severe taste in ancient with two words, iuarep veoog —the theme of just
times.  Addison may have been pure and ele- admiration to succeeding ages;  and when he
gant; Dryden airy and nervous; Taylor witty
and fanciful; Hooker weighty and various; but    7 Milton applied this phrase to Plato, as well he
none of them united force with beauty-the per-   ight; but ofte oato it is yet more descriptive.
fection of matter with the most refined and chast-      e have no  od i our lage  which is at
once simple and strong enough to give the true force
ened style; and to one charge all, even the most os passage. Be   s per s the
of dyeiaeob in this passage. Brave is perhaps the
faultless, are exposed-the offense unknown in  narest. Gallant, which Lord Brougham elsewhere
ancient times, but the besetting sin of later days    es, is wanting in that very attribute of simplicity
-they always overdid-never knowing or feel-  which he here speaks of. The whole passage is, in
ing when they had done enough.  In nothing, fact, untranslatable.  It is impossible to give the
not even in beauty of collocation and harmony  mere English reader any true conception of its majof rhythm, is the vast superiority of the chaste,  esty and force. We have no words corresponding
vigorous, manly style of the Greek orators and  to those fine participles which bring before the eye
at the same moment an act and apictuse, irpotctvdvvwriters more conspicuous than in the abstinent  a           thesame momentanv   vaavd   a e7p. Add
use of their prodigious faculties of expression. A      this the emagficent roll of thesound, and the
single phrase-sometimes a word-and the work  kindling associations in the mind of every Greek at
is done-the desired impression is made, as it the bare mention of Marathon, Platea, Salamis, and
were, with one stroke, there being nothing su- Artemisium. It has all that there is in poetry to
perfluous interposed to weaken the blow  or rouse the imagination, and all there is in truth to
break its fall.  The commanding idea is singled  move the feelings and the heart.
out; it is made to stand forward; all auxiliaries    Thefollowingis Lord Brougham's version of the
are rejected; as the Emperor Napoleon selected  passage, in his translation of the entire oration, made
one point in the heart of his adversary's strength, sme yeals after:
" No! By your forefathers, who for that cause
and brought all his power to bear upon that,rused upon destruction at Marathon, and  y those
careless of the other points, which he was sure  who stood in battle array at Plata, and those who
to carry if he won the center, as sure to have  fought the sea-fight at Salamis, and by the warriors
carried in vain if he left the center unsubdued. of Artemisium, and by all the others who now reFar otherwise do modern writers make their on- pose in the sepulchers of the nation   GALLANT
set  they resemble rather those campaigners, men!"




182L..]           INAUGURAL DISCOURSE OF MR. BROUGHAM, ETC.                                     943
would paint the sudden approach of overwhelm- and by French, whose wisdom  and philosophy
ing peril to beset the state, he does it by a stroke  between them have placed Leghorn in the hands
the picturesque effect of which has not, perhaps, of the enemy of the Austrian family, and driven
been enough noted-likening it to a whirlwind  the only profitable commerce of Tuscany from
or a winter torrent, wcTrep (alo^rrT g 7 Xeiyappovf. its only port."'0   Turn now for refreshment to
It is worthy of remark, that in by far the first of  the Athenian artist-Kao2lv y' oi 7ro020oi vvV
all Mr. Burke's orations, the passage which is,  Ti1reL2?2acatv'QPELTrUV Xdptv, OTL TOTS 4LtiTrTrov
I believe, universally allowed to be the most  ilXotc berETpe/bav avTroi', rTv 6' Eq)6paov Ei0ovv'
striking, owes its effect to a figure twice intro-  Kciv y' Od d/o o  rSov'Eperpieov, OtL rovgf Vieduced in close resemblance to these two great ripovg pEiv rTpic6eot   n'rsuaaoe, KXIeLTaPX) 6' kviexpressions, although certainly not in imitation  dwulcE  avro v' dov2evovo  ye LaaarlyovJevoL Kat
of either; for the original is to be found in Livy's  arpe6Zovi'evol [Much, forsooth, did the Oreitce
description of Fabius's appearance to Hannibal.  gain when they yielded to the friends of Philip,
Hyder's vengeance is likened to " a black cloud,  and thrust out Euphrmeus; and much the people
that hung for a while on the declivities of the  of Eretria, when they drove off your embassamountains," and the people who suffered under  dor, and gave themselves up to Kleitarchus!
its devastations are described as " enveloped in  They are now slaves-lashed and racked].-Phil.
a whirlwind of cavalry."   Whoever reads the  3.  Upon some very rare occasions, indeed, the
whole passage will, I think, admit that the effect orator, not content with a single blow, pours himis almost entirely produced by those two strokes; self forth in a full torrent of invective, and then
that the amplifications which accompany them, we recognize the man who was said of old to eat
as the " blackening of the horizon"-the " men- shields and steel —arnida icai tcaraTreTraf E'aoiv.
acing meteor"-the " storm  of unusual fire,"9  But still the effect is produced without repetition
rather disarm  than augment the terrors of the  or diffuseness.  I am not aware of any such exoriginal black cloud; and that the " goading  panded passage as the invective in the llepi  rTEspears of the drivers," and " the trampling of  faivov against those who had betrayed the varipursuing horses," somewhat abate the fury of the  ous states of Greece to Philip.  It is, indeed, a
whirlwind of cavalry.  AovXeVovai ye zaa(rTyov-  noble passage; one of the most brilliant, perhaps
itEVOeL Kat c7rpe6R6ouZevot [They are slaves-lashed  the most highly colored of any in Demosthenes;
and racked], says the Grecian master, to describe  but it is as condensed and rapid as it is rich and
the wretched lot of those who had yielded to the  varied: "AvOpUTot tCtapoi Kai Kac62oaef Kcat dxaawiles of the conqueror, in the vain hope of secur-  ropeg, c Kpuor7pLaugvo L rag eavrTv EKaCro  irarpiing their liberties in safety.  Compare this with  dag, rv EX2evOepiav rrporerrwoc6rTeg nrporepov  sPE
the choicest of Mr. Burke's invectives of derision,IitUrr s, vvv 6sl'A2Leedvdp-p-r7 yaarpi erTpoVvand pity upon the same subject-the sufferings  rec hai rtoi  ait'aiTcrotG  Trip evaotaioviav-rv d'
of those who made peace with regicide France  erevOepiav Kai TO ydeva ~Xetv dseaOr6Td    v aovT-v (a
-and acknowledge the mighty effect of relying  rocg 7rpOTi'potg "EXLOxatv 6po rOLv ayaOC)v joav tai
upon a single stroke to produce a great effect-  scavoeg), aovarerpo6dreg (Ilrpi 1re.). [Base and
if you have the master-hand to give it.  " The  fawning creatures, wretches who have mutilated
His wantof King of Prussia has hypothecated in  the glory each of his own native land-toasting
condensation trust to the Regicides his rich and fer- away their liberties to the health first of Philip,
tile territories on the Rhine, as a pledge of his  then of Alexander; mneasuring their happiness
zeal and affection to the cause of liberty and  by their gluttony and debauchery, but utterly
equality.  He has been robbed with unbounded  overthrowing those rights of freemen, and that
liberty, and with the most leveling equality. independence of any master, which the Greeks
The woods are wasted; the country is ravaged; of former days regarded as the test and the sumproperty is confiscated; and the people are put mit of all felicity.]l   This requires no contrast
to bear a double yoke, in the exactions of a ty- to make its merit shine forth; but compare it
rannical government, and in the contributions of  with any of Cicero's invectives-that, for ina hostile conscription."   " The Grand Duke of  stance, in the third Catilinarian, against the conTuscany, for his early sincerity, for his love of  spirators, where he attacks them regularly under
peace, and for his entire confidence in the amity  six different heads, and in above twenty times as
of the assassins of his family, has been compli- many words; and ends with the known and very
mented with the name of the' wisest Sovereign    io Lord Brougham does injustice to Mr. Burke in
in Europe.'  This pacific Solomon, or his philo- this quotation. The passage, instead of being one
sophic cudgeled ministry, cudgeled by English  of the "choicest," is one of the most careless, in
point of style, to be found in the Regicide Peace.
9 Quoting from memory, Lord'Brougham here puts    1 The object of chief abhorrence to the old Greeks
into the mouth of Mr. Burke one of the tamest of all is remarkably expressed in this passage: deaor6rTOT
possible expressions, "a storm of unusual fire," in- is the correlative of dob2ogf; and the meaning of
stead of the one actually used, " a storm of universal deSoTrr6r7v Xet.v aVr7Sv is, "having an owner or profire blasted every field, consumed every house, de- prietor of themselves," that is, " being the property,
stroyed every temple."  As fire was the chief in- the chattels of any one;" and this they justly deemstrument of destruction used by Hyder Ali, the men- ed the last of human miseries. The addition of the
tion of it (whether it served or not to disarms the  cart-whip, and a tropical climate, would not probaterrors of the original black cloud) was essential to  bly have been esteemed by them an alleviation of
the truth of his description.                      the lot of slavery.-Broutgham.




944               INAUGURAL DISCOURSE OF MR. BROUGHAM, ETC.                                  [1825.
moderate jest of their commander keeping  Scor- no passage of the Divina Commedia more extorum cohortem  Prietoriam."  cursive than the description of evening in the
The great poet of modern Italy, Dante, ap- Purgatorio; yet the poet is content with someDante as an il- proached nearest to the ancients in  what enlarging on a single thought-the tender.sensation aong the quality of which I have been  recollections which that hour of meditation gives
modern poets.  speaking.  In his finest passages  the traveler, at the fall of the first night he is to
you rarely find an epithet; hardly ever more than  pass away from home, when he hears the distant
one; and never two efforts to embody one idea. knell of the expiring day.  Gray addpts the idea
" Ai guisa di Leon quando si posa" [Like the lion  of the knell in nearly the words of
when he lays himself down], is the single trait the original, and adds eight other ple ofexpanby which he compares the dignified air of a stern  circumstances to it, presenting a kind
personage to the expression of the lion slowly  of ground-plan, or at least a catalogue, an acculaying him down.  It is remarkable that Tasso  rate enumeration (like a natural historian's) of
copies the verse entire, but he destroys its whole  every one particular belonging to nightfall, so as
effect by filling up the majestic idea, adding this  wholly to exhaust the subject, and leave nothing
line,: Girando gli occhi e non movendo il passo"  to the imagination of the reader.  Dante's six
[Casting around his eyes, but not hastening his  verses, too, have but one epithet, dolci, applied
pace].  A better illustration could not easily be  to amici.  Gray has thirteen or fourteen; some
found of the difference between the ancient and  of them mere repetitions of the same idea which
the modern style.'2  Another is furnished by a  the verb or the substantive conveys-as drowsy
later imitator of the same great master.  I know  tinkling lulls-the snoping owl complains-the
-~ ~,. ~ ~,~~ ~ ~       plowman plods his weary way.  Surely, when
12 Lord Brougham here cites anuniber of passages.               Sure   wh
from Dante, as specimens of the brief energy of his we contrast the simple and commanding majesty
descriptions. In some of these cases, however, an  of the ancient writers with the superabundance
explanation of the circumstances, or a longer quota- and diffusion of the exhaustive method, we may
tion, is necessary to exhibit the true force and beauty  be tempted to feel that there lurks some alloy of
of tte original. These will therefore be given.    bitterness in the excess of sweets.'3  This was
(1.) "The flight of doves."  This passage, from  thatof Judas Iscariot. Theimageis that ofa knight
the fifth Canto of the Inferno, relates to the ghosts  entering the lists of a tournament
of two lovers, Paulo and Francesca, whom the poet        g                        
Senza arme n'esce, e solo con la lancia
calls to him from a distance, that they may tell their   Con la qual giostr'  Giuda
mournful story. They come,
ouuali color be, dal disio chiammate,'      Unarmed he came, save only with the lance
QOuali colombe, dal disio chiamate,
Con 1' all aperte e ferme al dolce nido         That Judasfosught with!
Volan per 1' aer dal voler portate.            (5.) The pains of dependence (Paradiso xvii.).
As doves, by instinct led,          Tu proverai si come sa di sale
With. outstretched wings and steady, through the        IL pane altrui; e con' e duro calle
air,                                              Lo scendere e 1' salir per 1' altrui scale.
Seek their sweet nest, borne on by strong desire.                         Thou shalt learn
(2.) " The gnawing of a skull by a mortal enemy."    How bitter is the taste of others' bread;
The passage here referred to is from the most ter-     H     hard th ath to climb and to descend
rific description contained in the Inferno (Canto      Anothes stairs
xxxiii.), where Count Ugolino has seized on the        In this criticism, Lord Brougham falls into the
head of his enemy, the Archbishop of Pisa, from be- not uncommon error of maling one kind of excelhind, as he endeavored to escape, and was gnawing  lence the standard in every case. He forgets that
into his skull like a dog. Ugolino turns at the call we may admire the rapid sketches of Dante without
of the poet, wipes his bloody jaws on the hair of hiscondemning the minuter pictures of Gray.
victim, and tells the well-known story of his being    There is also a distinction to be made as to the
shut up in a tower through the arts of his enemy, proper place for dwelling on particulars and using
and left with his two sons and two grandsons to die  epithets. When the mind is on the ascendant scale
the lingering death of starvation. Then follows the  of feeling, and pressing forward to some great result,
passage,                                           conciseness is demanded-detail and epithet are out
Quand' ebbe detto cio, con gli occhi torti    of place. But when the pursuit is over, and we look
Riprese'1 teschio misero co' desnti,         back with tender or melancholy feelings on the past,
Che fero  all' osso, come d' Sul callforti.  it is natural to dwell in fond detail on the objects
Che furo all' osso, come d' uno canforti.
we have left behind, and to accumulate those epiHe spoke, and turning with his eyes askance,'... 
He spoke, and turning with his eyes askance,       thets which mark their distinctive qualities. Thus
Again he seized upon that wretched skull
AgaWith teethhe seized uptrong grinding  to the boned skull do when Othello, who was at first so rapid, so concise,
With teeth strong grinding to the bone, like dog's!
so eager to go forward, feels himself at last to be a
(3.) " The venality and simoniacalpractices of the  ruined man, and cries out, " Othello's occupation's
Romish Church." In the Paradiso (Canto xvii.) the gone," it is striking to observe how he dwells in
poet meets one of his ancestors, who predicts his  minute detail, and with accumulated epithets, on
banishment from Florence as procured for money  those warlike scenes in which he once delighted.
of Boniface VIII., then Pope at Rome, and adds,        well the trauil mind, farewell content,
Farewell the tranquil mind, farewell content,
La dove Cristo tutto di si merca.         Farewell the plumed troops, and the big war
There CHRIST himself is daily bought and sold!  That makes ambition virtue! oh, farewell!
(4.) " The perfidy of a Bourbon," viz., Charles of  Farewell the neighing steed, and the shrill trump,
Valois, who, coming from France in the guise of  The spirit-stirring drum, the ear-piercing fife,
peace, gained the mastery of Florence by a treach- The royal banner, and all quality,
ery which the poet could compare to nothing but Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war!




1825.]           INAUGURAL DISCOURSE OF MR. BROUGHAM, ETC.                                 945
so fully recognized by the wise ancients, that it the execution, to the feelings upon which it is
became a proverb among them,oas we learn from  to operate.  These are great virtues: it is anan epigram still preserved.                     other to avoid the besetting vice of modern oraEi T#rv  rETpo677ra.              tory-the overdoing every thing-the exhaustiwei,    Ia  wat b1,   ive method-which an off-hand speaker has no
nIar rO ~repITrrv udatpov, IrcE ~6yog lar~ raibatbg,
raUv TOV ineptrov acTO Lpov,  yor  V 7oaat    time to fall into, and he accordingly will take only
the grand and effective view; nevertheless, in or
[TO MODERATION.                  atorical merit, such effusions must needs be very
All excess is inappropriate; hence the proverb,   inferior; much of the pleasure they produce deToo much even of honey turns to gall.]         pends upon the hearer's surprise, that in such
In forming the taste by much contemplation  circumstances any thing can be delivered at all,
In addition to of those antique models, and acquir- rather than upon his deliberate judgment, that
stCi ore rheto- ing the habits of easy and chaste com- he has heard any thing very excellent in itself.
ric each effrt position, it must not be imagined that We may rest assured that the highest reaches of
one.       all the labor of the orator is ended, or the art, and without any necessary sacrifice of
that he may then dauntless and fluent enter upon  natural effect, can only be attained by him who
his office in the public assembly.  Much prep- well considers, and maturely prepares, and oftenaration is still required before each exertion, if times sedulously corrects and refines his oration.
rhetorical excellence is aimed at.  I should lay  Such preparation is quite consistent with the init down as a rule, admitting of no exception, that troduction of passages prompted by the occasion,
Writing tobe a man will speak well in proportion  nor will the transition from the one to the other
exinle'raite as he has written much; and that with  be perceptible in the execution of a practiced
ous address. equal talents, he will be the finest ex- master.  I have known attentive and skillful
tempore speaker, when no time for preparing is hearers completely deceived in this matter, and
allowed, who has prepared himself the most sed- taking for extemporaneous passages which preulously when he had an opportunity of deliver- viously existed in manuscript, and were proing a premeditated speech.  All the exceptions nounced without the variation of a particle or a
which I have ever heard cited to this principle are  pause.  Thus, too, we are told by Cicero, in one
apparent ones only; proving nothing more than  of his epistles, that having to make, in Pompey's
that some few men of rare genius have become  presence, a speech, after Crassus had very unexgreat speakers without preparation; in nowise  pectedly taken a particular line of argument, he
showing that with preparation they would not exerted himself, and it appears successfully, in a
have reached a much higher pitch of excellence, marvelous manner, mightily assisted in what he
The admitted superiority of the ancients in all said extempore by his habit of rhetorical preporatorial accomplishments is the best proof of  aration, and introducing skillfully, as the inspiramy position; for their careful preparation is un- tion of the moment, all his favorite commondeniable; nay, in Demosthenes (of whom Quin- places, with some of which, as we gather from a
tilian says that his style indicates more premed- good-humored joke at his own expense, Crassus
itation-plus cure —than Cicero's) we can trace, had interfered: "Ego  autem  ipse, Di Boni!
by the recurrence of the same passage, with  quomodo Evnrepeppevaaanv novo auditori Pomprogressive improvements in different speeches, peio!  Si unquam  mihi 7repiodot, si Kuayai, si
how nicely he polished the more exquisite parts IvOvvueara, si Kcaracceva, suppeditaverunt, illo
of his compositions.  I could point out favorite  tempore. Quid multa? clamores. Etenim hec
passages, occurring as often as three several erat Vro665eatc, de gravitate ordinis, de equestri
times with variations, and manifest amendment. concordia, de consensione Italim, de immortuis
I am now requiring not merely great prep- reliquiis conjurationis, de vilitate, de otio-nosti
Tis labor to be aration while the speaker is learning  jam in hc materia sonitus nostros; tanti fuecatrried through- his art, but after he has accomplish- runt, ut ego eo brevior sim, quod eos usque
whtole coaroe  ed his education. The most splendid  isthinc exauditos puteml." —Ep. ad Att., i., 14.1or life.   effort of the most mature orator will   II. If, from  contemplating the means of acbe always finer for being previously elaborated
with much care.  There is, no doubt, a charm      " This passage is a curious specimen of Cicero's
in extemporaneous elocution, deived from the  habit of sportive boasting in familiar intercourse
in extemporaneous  elocution, derived from the   ith his frends.
n^~~~ ~>~ ~ ~~~ ^i. -. with his friends.
appearance of artless, unpremeditated effusion, But for myself good Gods, how I launched out becalled forth by the occasion, and so adapting  fore my new auditor Pompey! Then, if ever, I had
itself to its exigencies, which may compensate  an abundant supply of rounded sentences, graceful
the manifold defects incident to this kind of com- transitions, striking rhetorical proofs, and amplificaposition: that which is inspired by the unfore- tionstoillustrate andconfirm my sentiments. Why
seen circumstances of the moment, will be of  should I say more? Shouts of applause followed.
necessity suited to those circumstances in the  My subject was, the dignity of the Senate, the conchoice of the topics, and pitched in the tone of  cord of the Knights, the union of all Italy, the expiring remains of the conspiracy-corruption deOn the same principle, Gray's minuteness of de- stroyed, peace established. You know how I can
tall, when meditating in a country church-yard, is raise my voice on these topics; and I now say the
perfectly appropriate. Every one's heart tells him  less, because it swelledso loud that I should think
that it is the nice and delicate shading of the picture  you might have heard it even at the distance you
l-hat forms its chief excellence.               are off!




946               INAUGURAL DISCOURSE OF MR. BROUGHAM, ETC.                                  [1825
quiring eloquence, we turn to the noble purposes  whose genius, not their ancestry, ennobled them;
to which it may be made subservient, we at whose incredible merits have opened to all ranks
once perceive its prodigious importance to the  the temple of science; whose illustrious examPat secol. best interests of mankind.  The great- ple has made the humblest emulous to climb
Tie uses of est masters of the art have concurred, steeps no longer inaccessible, and enter the un-'eloquene,  and upon the greatest occasion of its  folded gates, burning in the sun.  I speak in that
display, in pronouncing that its estimation de- city where Black having once taught, ant Watt
pends on the virtuous and rational use made of  learned, the grand experiment was afterward
it.  Let their sentiments be engraved on your made in our day, and with entire success; to
memory in their own pure and appropriate dic- demonstrate that the highest intellectual cultivation.  KaYov (says JEschines) rT   v  lcv d&dvotav  tion is perfectly compatible with the daily cares
Tpoaipe BOat Tr P27TlOTa, T'V 6e TTra6Eiav rv TV TO   and toils of working-men; to show by thousands
pTropof ait TOv R6oyov rTiOrEtv ro  oo va ov g-oa el of living examples that a keen relish for the most
6d p, rujv evyvevoa6vu v led i  rpOTraKTov TrotV 2 yov  sublime truths of science belongs alike to every
[It is well that the intellect should choose the  class of mankind.
best objects, and that the education and eloquence   To promote this, of all objects the most imof the orator should obtain the assent of his hear- portant, men of talents and of influ- Men o the
ers; but if not, that sound judgment should be  ence I rejoice to behold pressing for- highest tapreferred to mere speech.]  "EraT  (says his il- ward in every part of the empire; but t tinrmeits
Stm  Ieed to
lustrious antagonist) 6' ovi  o 6 L6yof roV 1Topof  I wait with impatient anxiety to see tile fielld ()its
triUto, ovd' o r6voc rlsjg ovFi), (/Xa rT To ravrT2 rpo- the same course pursued by men of Ilbors.
atpe 6Oaat  Trof 7roXLo c [It is not the language  high station in society, and by men of rank in
of the orator or the modulation of his voice that the world of letters.  It should seem as if these
deserves your praise, but his seeking the same  felt some little lurking jealousy, and those were
interests and objects with the body of the people]. somewhat scared by feelings of alarm-the one
It is but reciting the ordinary praises of the art and the other surely alike groundless.  No man
MZultiplied  of persuasion, to remind you how sacred  of science needs fear to see the day when scienessftoei- truths may be most ardently promulga- tific excellence shall be too vulgar a commodity
etS.     ted at the altar-the cause of oppressed  to bear a high price.  The more widely knowlinnocence be most powerfully defended-  the  edge is spread, the more will they be prized
march of wicked rulers be most triumphantly re- whose happy lot it is to extend its bounds by
sisted-defiance the most terrible be hurled at discovering new truths, or multiply its uses by
the oppressor's head.  In great convulsions of  inventing new modes of applying it in practice.
public affairs, or in bringing about salutary chan- Their numbers will indeed be increased, and
ges, every one confesses how important an ally  among them  more Watts and more Franklins
eloquence must be. But in peaceful times, when  will be enrolled among the lights of the world,
the progress of events is slow and even as the  in proportion as more thousands of the working
silent and unheeded pace of time, and the jars  classes, to which Franklin and Watt belonged,
of a mighty tumult in foreign and domestic con-  have their thoughts turned toward philosophy;
cerns can no longer be heard, then too she flour- but the order of discoverers and inventors will
ishes - protectress of liberty-patroness of im- still be a select few, and the only material variprovement-guardian of all the blessings that ation in their proportion to the bulk of mankind
can be showered upon the mass of human kind;  will be, that the mass of the ignorant multitude
nor is her form ever seen but on ground conse- being progressively diminished, the body of those
crated to free institutions.  "Pacis comes, oti- will be incalculably increased who are worthy
ique socia, et jam bene constitutm reipublic0  al- to admire genius, and able to bestow upon its
umna eloquentia" [Eloquence is the compan- possessors an immortal fame.
ion of peace and the associate of leisure; it is    To those, too, who feel alarmed as statesmen,
trained up under the auspices of a well-estab-  and friends of existing establishments, True knowllished republic].  To me, calmly revolving these  I would'address a few words of com- edge and elothings, such pursuits seem  far more noble ob- fort.  Real knowledge nev er promot-.tie  e-ightened and
jects of ambition than any upon which the vul-  ed either turbulence or unbelief; but stlble ovgar herd of busy men lavish prodigal their rest- its progress is the forerunner of liber- rn"en"t
less exertions.  To diffuse useful information-   ality and enlightened toleration.  Whoso dreads
to firther intellectual refinement, sure forerun-  these, let him tremble; for he may be well asner of moral improvement-to hasten the com- sured that their day is at length come, and must
ing of the bright day when the dawn of general put to sudden flight the evil spirits of tyranny
knowledge shall chase away the lazy, lingering  and persecution which haunted the long night
mists, even from  the base of the great social now gone down the sky.  As men will no Ionpyramid-this indeed is a high calling, in which  ger suffer themselves to be led blindfolded in igthe most splendid talents and consummate virtue  norance, so will they no more yield to the vile
may well press onward eager to bear a part.  I  principle of judging and treating their fellowknow that I speak in a place consecrated by the  creatures, not according to the intrinsic merit
pious wisdom of ancient times to the instruction  of their actions, but according to the accidental
of but a select portion of the community.  Yet and involuntary coincidence of their opinions.
from this classic ground have gone forth those  The great truth has finally gone forth to all the




1825.]           INAUGURAL DISCOURSE OF MR. BROUGHAM, ETC.                                     947
ends of the earth, TIHAT MAN SHALL NO MORE  only dangers that threaten the public tranquilRENDER ACCOUNT TO MAN FOR HIS BELIEF, OVER  lity, and the addition of all that is wanting to
WHICH HE HAS HIMSELF NO CONTROL.  Hence-  confirm her internal strength.
forward, nothing shall prevail upon us to praise    Let me, therefore, indulge in the hope that,
or to blame any one for that which he can no  among the illustrious youths whom  Peroration:
more change than he can the hue of his skin or this ancient kingdom, famed alike for The, igh object
the height of his stature.l   Henceforward, treat-  its nobility and its learning, has pro- cuitivated iing with entire respect those who conscientious-  duced, to continue her fame through telet.
ly differ from ourselves, the only practical effect after ages, possibly among those I now address,
of the difference will be, to make us enlighten  there may be found some one-I ask no morethe ignorance on one side or the other from   willing to give a bright example to other nations
which it springs, by instructing them, if it be  in a path yet untrodden, by taking the lead of
theirs; ourselves, if it be our own, to the end  his fellow-citizens, not in frivolous amusements,
that the only kind of unanimity may be pro- nor in the degrading pursuits of the ambitious
duced which is desirable among rational beings  vulgar, but in the truly noble task of enlighten-the agreement proceeding from full conviction  ing the mass of his countrymen, and of leaving
after the freest discussion.  Far then, very far, his own name no longer encircled, as heretofore,
from  the universal spread of knowledge being  with barbaric splendor, or attached to courtly
the object of just apprehension to those who  gewgaws, but illustrated by the honors most
watch over the peace of the country, or have a  worthy of our rational nature-coupled with the
deep interest in the permanence of her institu-  diffusion  of knowledge-and  gratefully  protions, its sure effect will be the removal of the  nounced through all ages by millions whom  his
wise beneficence has rescued from  ignorance
15 This is one of those hasty statements so char- and vice.  To him  I will say, "Homines ad
acteristic of Lord Brougham. In his eagerness to  Deos nulla re propius accedunt quam  salutem
do away religious intolerance, he puts belief, or the  hominibus dando: nihil habet nec fortuna tua
assent we give to probable evidence, on the same                u,           n     t  
footing with our assent to a mathematical demon-   a     u          sr                        
stration; declaring it to be involuntary, and the re-qualm   t velis servare quamplurimos  [In nothsuit of a necessity of our nature. Such a sentiment g d  approach more nearly to the Didoes not need to be discussed. It is refuted by the  vinity than in ministering to the safety of their
universal experience ofmankind. Every one knows  fellow-men; so that fortune can not give you
-it has, indeed, passed into a proverb-that a manl any thing greater than the ability, or nature any
can make himself believe almost any thing he  thing better than the desire to extend relief to
pleases. Under the influence of feeling and preju- the greatest possible numbe].  This is the true
dice, men look only at the proof on one side; they  mark for the aim of all who either prize the enturn away from evidence which makes against their j,                
es-ishe.    joytnment of pure happiness, or set a riaht value
wishes. Or, if they do contemplate it, every one
upon a hiah and unsullied renown.  And if the
knows it requires far more evidence to gain a man's    o  a         hih and unsuied   nown.   Ad if the
assent against his wishes than in favor of them, so  benefactors of nanlind, wheln  hey rest from
that Butler says in his Hudibras,                 their pious labors, shall be permitted to enjoy
He who's convinced against his will,        hereafter, as an  appropriate reward of their
Is of the same opinion still.               virtue, the privileg eof' looking down upon the
But, according to Lord Brougham, there is no room  blessinos with which their toils and sufferings
for the man's " will" in the case; it is wholly involun- have clothed the scene of their former existence,
tary, a thing "overwhich he himself has no control!"  do not vainly imagine that, in a state of exalted
All this he contradicts, under other aspects, on every  purity and wisdom- the founders of mighty dypage of his speeches. He condemns men for being  nasties, the conquerors of new empires, or the
uncandid, when such a thing as candor or the want ole vuloar crowd of evil-doers, who have sacof it could not exist on his scheme: nobody talks   fied to thei oi agrandizement the good of
about caCndor in studying the mathematics. If there 
aboutc iristudyin theatheatic h their fellow-creatures, will be gratified by conwas ever a man who held others responsible foow-creates,  be                          fie    y co
their opinions, it is Lord Brougham; he is perpet- tevplatng the monuments ol their inglorious
ually finding fault with men for their political views. fame  theirs will be the delight-theirs the triIt is unnecessary to add, that the whole tenor of the  umph —who can trace the remote effects of their
Scriptures is against this principle.  They make  enlightened benevolence in the improved condibelief the condition of salvation, and represent it as tion of their species, and exult in the reflection
springing from a right state of heart; "Witthe  that the prodigious change they now  survey
heart man believeth unto righteo.lsness."  They  with eyes that age and sorrow can make dim
treat unbelief as sinful; "Ye believe not because ofof knowledge becoe power irt
the hardness of your hearts."  On Lord Broughan's'.....          t
principle, Paul was free fiom blame before his con- sharng in the dominion-superstition trampled
version, for he "Verily thought that he ought to do0  nd  foot-tyranny driven from the world-are
many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Naza- the fruits, precious, though costly, and though
reth;" but the Apostle decided differently, and de- late reaped, yet long-enduring, of all the hardclared his guilt to have been great, though he acted  ships and all the hazards they encountered here
" ignorantly and in unbelief."                    below!
THE  END.








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WEBSTER'S OCTAVO DICTIONARY, REVISED,
EMBRACING ALL THE WORDS IN THE QUARTO EDITION, AND ALSO AN ARRANGEMENT OF SYNONYMS UNDER THE LEADING WORDS.
Messrs. Harper and Brothers, New  York,
HAVE  RECENTLY  PUBLISHED,
In one handsome Volume, of nearly 1400 pages, Sheep extra, Price $3 50,
WEBSTER'S AMERICAN DICTIONARY
OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE,
EXHIBITING  THE  ORIGIN, ORTHOGRAPHY, PRONUNCIATION, AND DEFINITION  OF WORDS, ETC.
THOROUGHLY REVISED AND CONSIDERABLY ENLARGED
3Ba 3rot CPatunlces S. GootiWc),
OF YALE COLLEGE,
ASSISTED  BY A NUMBER  OF GENTLEMEN  DISTINGUISHED  FOR THEIR  HIGH ATTAINMENTS IN THE
VARIOUS DEPARTMENTS OF LEARNING, WHOSE NAMES WILL BE FOUND IN THE PREFACE.
Several thousand additional words have been  incorporated in this edition, embracing all
the terms given in the recent edition in the quarto form.
The Synopsis and Walker's Key to the classical pronunciation of Greek, Latin, and Scripture proper names have been revised with much care and greatly improved; also, a complete Vocabulary, giving the pronunciation of modern Geographical names, has been added.
Great attention has been given in the revision to the pronunciation.   A  large number of
words having been respelled, it will now be found to be a complete Pronouncing Dictionary.
This edition has been made a Synonymous Dictionary: a new and very important feature,
not to be found incorporated in the same form  into any similar work.
The utmost care has been given in every department of the work to render it the most
perfect and satisfactory ever offered to the public.   Considering its comprehensiveness, its
numerous essential improvements, and its general utility, combined with its portability, it
will be Mlund one of the most indispensable and cheapest books of the times.
EXTRACTS FROM CRITICAL NOTICES.
This is the most thorough and complete manual of our    We have no hesitation in saying, that to those who aclanguags yet offered to the public. It has been subjected  cept Dr. Webster's system, and they are thousands, nay,
to the constant, protracted, and earnest labors of a num-  hundreds of thousands, this volume will be invaluable.
her of scientific and literary gentlemen, who have care-  The care bestowed on its revision has been great, and
fully revised every part of it, corrected all errors, added  its editor's name is a pledge for the ability of its supermany thousands of words, enlarged and made more co- vision.-Protestant Churchman.
pious as well as more accurate the definitions, introduced    It must be regarded as by far the most perfect and rethroughout synonyms to the words, and in every possible  liable dictionary which has ever appeared.-Neoz Bedford
way increased its value and utility.  The result of their  Mercury.
labors has been the production of an English lexicon,    The highest standard of authority with the learned
which can not fail to come into universal use.- Literary  of Great Britain and the United States. A feature which
World..                             can not but prove of the greatest utility, is the introducThe most compact, comprehensive, and useful lexicon  tion of a complete Dictionary of Synonyms.  Every one
now before the public.  An indispensable work.-New-  who is at all engaged in literary composition feels the
ark Advertiser.                                            necessity of such a work, and none of those hitherto pubA good English dictionary is an indispensable book for  lished have been precisely adapted to the wants of the
every profession. This edition of Webster is all that  public in this respect. Here the synonyms have been
could be desired. Etymologically, it is superior to any  introduced into the main body of the book, so that the
that has preceded it, rnd is, in this department of lexi-  synonym  of any word is found in connection with its
cographic labor, a nl.ument of learning and research. definition, &c. This can not fail to be universally acIt will always hold t' e highest rank in this country, and  ceptable, and is an entirely novel feature of the work.
eventually, we susp-;ct, every where. —Commercial Adv. — Ncw York Journal of Commerce.
The whole work tas been thoroughly revised by Prof.    It must le the standard English dictionary throughout
Goodrich, of Yale College, and several important and  the country.  It conforms more nearly than any ether
most valuable imnlrovements introduced, which will give  to the usage of the best authors, and is in every respect
to this edition a pre-eminent advantage over any that has  the best work of its kind, for general use, now before the
been previously published.-Observer.                       puhlic.-New York Courier and Enquirer.
It appears under new editorial auspices, and shows    The reader who has occasion to resort to a dictionary,
some marked changes that will add greatly to its value, will find in this single volume all he has a right to exand place it foremost among all works of the kind among  pect in a dictionary of the English language, and a little
us. We can safely say that, for a dictionary for corn-  more; for he will find many later words and terms exmon use, it has no superior-in our judgment no equal, plained on account of their frequent occurrence in the
— Evangelist.                                              best writers.  Many of these are found in this edition, in
~This is beyond all doubt the most complete and perfect  one volume, which we look for in vain in the former edliedition of Welbster's well-known dictionary that has ever  tion in two volumes. How it could be published for
lbeen published.-Sun.                                      $3 50, considering the expense incurred in the revision
It has come back to us from the other side of the Atlan-  and preparation, is a secret known only to the trade.tic, endorsed by the warm approval of the ripest scholars  Christian Advocate and Journal.
of Europe, as " the best lexicon extant!"-Pittsburghr    The work, in its present form, is undoubtedly the best
Journal.                                                   English dictionary ever published.-~Mirror.
It is by far the best English dictionary extant.  We    The labors of Prof. Goodrich have materially added to
rejoice that the public award is strongly ratifying our  the value of this dictionary.  He has been engaged in.log-cherished conviction that Noah Webster was decid-  them for three years past, and the application of his acute
edly the best lexicographer who has treated of the En- philological faculties to the task has not been without
glish language. —New York Tribune.                         anple fruit.-lNew York Evening Post.




Founded on the larger Latin-German Lexicon of Dr. Wm. FREUND. With Additions and
Corrections from the Lexicons of Gesner, Facciolati, Schiller, Georges, &c.
ROYAL 8VO, SHEEP EXTRA, $5 00.
romn Rev. Alonzo Church,D.D., President of the              Front the London Literary Gazette.                  From the Methodist Quarterly Review.
University, Georgia.                    We have examined this book with considerable    The most complete Latin Dictionary that Ia.
I am convinced that it is a very valuable acqui- attention, and have no hesitation in saying it is the  ever appeared.
eition to the means which we already possess for  best Dictionary of the Latin Language that has ap-                 From the National Intelligencer.
acquiring a correctknowledge of the Latin language.  peared.e best dictionary of te L
~  ^   ~ r   From the Lonzdonz Arhetlce  It is decidedly the best dictionary of the La:,tFrontm. Sturgus, Professor of L      ages    in                         anguage we have yet seen.
Hanover College, Indiana.                  In conclusion, we are glad to have an opportunity
Of tbis work it is needless to speak. The opinion   f introducing so excellent a work to the notice of             From the Albany State Register.
of scholars, both in this country and in Great Brit  our classical and philological readers. It has all   Superior to any in the langu age for fullness, pre
ainl, is unanimous in its favor, as the best lexicon  that true German Grundlichkeit about it which is  cision, and systematic exactness.
yet published in any language.  The work, internal-  so highly appreciated by English scholars. Rarely,               F rom the Vew York Mirror.
y atrd externally is every tlirngaa.cliolarcansadmire. if ever, has so vast an amount of philological information been comprised in a single volume of this    We presume that this work will at once take.a,
From Prof.. A.S. Packard,  Boidoin College, Mile.   size.  The knowledge which it conveys of the early   place ofall other Latin Lexicons in the higler seio:
1 value it highly, and regard it as a great advance  and later Latin is not to be gathered from ordinary  inaries in thle United States, as well as be adopfted
on the helps which our students have been obliged  Latin Dictionaries.  With regard to thie manner in  for occasic oal consultation. Thle vast amoun t of
to depend heretofore. By this enterprise, as by the  which it is got up, we can speak most favorably. philological information which it contains, the simformer, in which you placed within reach Liddell Never have we seen a better specimen of American  plicity and clearness of its arrangement, the pro.
and Scott's Greek Lexicon, you have conferred a  tvpographly. Every page bears the impress of in-  found and accurate researches on which it is found-l
great benefit on the cause of classical education.    dustry and care. Tile type is clear, neat, and ju- ed, and the strenuous industry, vigilant judgment,
F rorm D. Prentice, LL.D., Rector of Utica Graem-  diciously varied. A pretty close inspection has not  and discriminating taste which are every wliere',rn nous, Sch~^ ^ " V    ^ool."   enabled us to discover any error worth mentioning. visible in its composition, justly entitle it to tlhiir
mnar School.                                                                           pre-eminence.
The great Latin Lexicon of Dr. Freund, which,              prom the    tchman  and Reflector.            pre-emnce.
in a profound comprehension of the Latin language,    It is difficult to speak of this magnificent work in                   the Losvile Courier.
oas probably no equal, has been, by the learned  terms that will not savor ofextravagance to those    The Harpers have laid all the students of Latine
and careful labors of Prof. Andrews, brought into a  who have not examined it. The imperfections of in the Union under obligations ofgratitude by the;
form sizeable and convenient for use; and by hav- the lexicons in common use, such as Ainswortih's  excellence of this Lexicon. All others that we i-ave
ing its copious and accurate reference, through the  and Leverett's, have long been felt, while the large  seen fade into insignificance when compared with*
entire range of the Latin classics, subjected to a  works of Facciolati and others have been at once  this.
most judicious arrangement, it constitutes the most  beyond the means and unsuitable to the purpose                    From the Savannah News.
valuable pliilological and historical index of the lan- ofordinary students.  Thie work before us combines    Unquestionably the most complete work of tlsiguage, in its successive periods, tliat has been giv. the cheapness and conpactness of the one class  kind yet issued.
en to tihe world. Its excellence, in every essential with the completeness and accuracy of the other.
quality of a Latin lexicon, can not be too highly es- It is essentially a reproduction into English, with      F'"o m the Neso IYo   Courier and Enqurer. e
timated.  The beauty of the typography will not  corrections by the American editor, of the great    This Lexicon excels every other, of thie same
fail of meeting unqualified approbation, and furnish- German Lexicon of Freund, a work which, being  compass, in the completeness of its vocabularlie,c
es another splendid proof of the taste and literary  the result of many years' patient toil by one of tlie  thle extent of its definitions, the nutmber of authrii-'
enterprise of the publishers. I am sure it will give  first Latin scholars of the age, stands confessedly  ties quoted or referred to, and especially in the exyou pleasure to learn that I have introduced the  at the head of this departmint   of scholarship. * *  actness of the references made to thie original aiiwork into our gramumar school, where it will here-  With these advantages, this lexicon must speedily  thors, which are always designated by book, section,
after be used exclusively and solely with entire sat- supersede all those in common use, as thle cheapest  and line. The American editor, assisted by many
ist'action.                                           and best acceptable aid to the acquisition of the no- learned friends, has devoted the labor of many yeatsFrom Prof. J. T. Champi,   TVaterville College.  ble language of Virgil and Cicero.                       to the translation and improvement of the original,.7'P. Cia,  p, Watervile Cot..             R., i,~ j,work, and the result is a proud monument (if AmecTire book will fully meet tihe high expectations              From the Christiun Advocate.                sch, and te res1i. The ti po ra pid momcal executr i if 
ican scholarship.  Tlie typographicrl   execuitic,,il
which have been formed ofits character. In mat-   A little experience in the use of this extensive and  tile work is superior, and tihe printing of the wotr.l
ter, arrangement, and form, it is all that could be  accurate cyclopedia oftlhe Latin language, will in-  defined in large type, we regard as a de( ided U
desired.  i shall take great pleasure in recommend- duce students to abandon the old lexicons at once.  provement
ing it to the classes nnder my charge.                                                                               the Ne           Commescial Ar   tre.
^Frnr PtJ.  A. ilc.  ayson, Pici         of         Liddell and Scott's most admirable Greek Lexi-    Tins we believe to be the best Latin- English Le <
Ia hseeaiehewkufitnl ta satisfy~i ~               con, Dr. Robinson's Lexicon of the New  Teata-  icon yet extant. Its superiority consists first int
Iy mind ofits superior excellence  accordingly I  ment, Prof. Antlion's Classical Dictionary, and  its copiousness, the whole.range ofeminent Gernmi-.
ruse recommended it to my pupils, and it has al- now this  work of Prof. Andrews, together formn  a  philologists having been made tributary to it; sreadvy made its appearance in the schooldroom.        series whose usefulness, scholarship, and excel- end, in the multitude and accuracy of its references
fence it would be impossible to exceed in the En-  or examples, in which not only are tile authlior
Frosm Gessner llarrison, President University of  glish language.                                           quoted wlho employ the word in the sense cited, but
Virginnia.                                Fraom  tne Methodist Protestant.           the works in which the examples occur; in this ieIt is beyond question, I should say, greatly supe-                                                        spect we have seen no lexicon equal to this. T i.r
rior to any other Latin-English Dictionary in use in    A great work-a work of great labor-a work oofsc               e of immense philological research. A tnird
our country, and would be advantageously adopted  great practical importance to tie classical student.  excellence is its clear and perspicuous arrangement.
by all who wish to have in a convenient form a sat-                  From Zion's Herald.                    It las also many other improvements. Much anr
isfactory account of the form and signification ofthe    Tie best work of te kind unquetionably in tile  tie editor and publishers have done for thie promt.
words oftlhe Latin language.                          Englis language.                                     tion of classical education, this edition of Dr.Ua~inu~ern~s~~ii.  oat the                     P~Freund's Lexicon surpasses all their formner edrFrom Rev. Prof. Linrdsay, Wesleyan University.                Fron the Protestant Churchman.               cational publicatinns.
I have used it almost daily, and am prepared to    A valuable work. Itforms an excellent compan-                   F,-nt the Baltimore American.
say that it is superior to any lexicon we have.      ion for the Greek Lexicon, edited by Prof Drisler,
Front Edward Hitchcock, D.D., LL.D., Presidetnt  asnd tihe English-Latin, by Prof. Antlion. We per-    No work extant is so well adapted to general use~
of Amherst College.                   ceive that au English-Greek  Lexicon, edited by  or exhibits so well tie most important results
I can not doubt hiut that it sill came Ii speedy  Prof. dnriler, is also in preparatinn-wvien  cam-  sade   labors in Latin lexicography. It is india-:
I can not                                          plete     e student that it  will have a very complete ap-  pensale to the general scholar, as well as to ill
use in our colleges.                                 paratus for thle reading of the classical authors of coliegea and schools ofa high order.
Froem Prof. T. B. Huedson, Oberlin College, Ohio. Greece and Rome, and composing in those Ian-                          From the Commonwealth.
I deem  the publication of this work almost an  guages with correctness and facility.                      A treasure for the Latin student.
era in the study of tie Latin language on this side        F,-romt the Southern Christian Advocate.
of the Atlantianti   The unequaled fullness in the vo   A    perb volume.  The American stident has'Fromt the lndependent.
cabulary, the philosophical arrangement of th e def- here all the substantial advantages of the most su-    It has been understood for years, among c.assical
itions,         t     hese abu ndant references  to te Roesigan an-  perior of the German-Latin Lexicons, in a formn  stadents, that Prof. Andrews, than whom no Amino
th       e wrs wh ich supp   ort the erise, vitin the deapted to daily use. This will become the stand- ican scholar is more competent bor such a work,
tion of th   e    ach word as cl assical or otherw ise, witce  ard lexicon of its kind, and find its way into all the  was devoting the maturity of his scholarship and
period to which each word belongsols a                       nd colleges of the country.                  his life to tihe preparation of a Latin Lexicon, which
attention to the quantity of syllables which runs  r'c"""^ls arid colleges ofte countrye should supply the manifold deficiencies ofAinswort h
through the whole, altogether constitute a group of            From the New York Observer.                 and Leverett, and should introduce the learner to I.
excellences which place this lexicon far above any    We congratulate the students and teachers of the  more thoroughly critical and philosophical knowl
other of the kind that I have seen.                  Latin language on the appearance of this elaborate  edge of the Latin language. This great work is at
From Prof. Pease, University of Vermont.          work. It furnishes then with an apparatus far su-  length completed; and, notwithstanding time labor
Although tihe work isin no need of commendation  perior to that enjoyed by their predecessors.  It  and cost of preparation, it is presented to thel sttfrom nte, I may, perhaps, be permitted to exprest  customs tie results of the most thoroughl scholar-  dent at a reasonable price and in a miost invitirn
the opinion that it is the first dictionary whiri has  ship, foreign and domestic, and isnabundantly adapt-  dress. * a * This Lexicon must super.sede all oti:
appeared in English which in calculatei  to bring lie  ed to the wants of the student. The present work  ers now in use. Whoever is about tu begin the
atudy of Latin up to the level occupied by that of is distinguished from every manual Latin-English  study of Latin will of course procure it, and inar-v
Greek.                                               Lexicon heretofore published, not only by the num-  who have long been dissatisfied witli their lexicor
ber of authorities cited, but by its full reference in  graphical helps will gladly dispense with those fbr
From the American Biblical Repository.          every case both to the name of the classical author,  such a substitute. We hlave unscrunulously lai.-l
a * In short, the lexicon is a great advance on all  and to thie particular treatise, book, section, or line  up on tle shelf Lie well-thumbed Ainsworth, than.
which have been hitherto used in our country, and  of his writings in which the passage referred to is  companied with us through oar preparatory and
will make an era in the study of Latin.              to be found. We hope the book will find its way  collegiate course, and by the help of which we J iF ota the Nete Yaork Reorder.              into all thie literary institutions of our land.      vined the wit of Horace and of Plautus, and elab
momted tihe  terse  narrative of Tacitus, and  ais.
We venture to say that teachers of Latin, wher-            Front the New Iork Evening Post.              orated the mniterse m     e and spof  Tacitus, and al
ever the English language is spoken, will acknowl-    We may congratulate the schools of this country, ous Latin!
edge their izndebtedness to the editor, translators, and the readers of Latin, on the publication of this
and publishers for this work, as one altogether su-  work, which is unquestionably far superior to anyrom  the Htrcftsrd Cahendar.
terior to any Latin-English Lexicon in existence.  Latin-English dictionary we have.                         It must supersede all other Latin Lexicons.




3tinhrnr  (r                                      ri  3,exicnnr~  &c+
Litrti                     r uk Mfg^ Engtio -grrk  3irxrn
Based on the German Work of PASSOW.  With Corrections and Additions, and the
Insertion in Alphabetical Order of the Proper Names occurring in the
principal Greek Authors.
j3D fnsq  iHritler,  M.%.
ROYAL 8vo, SHEEP, $5 00.
The publication of this excellent work will be the numerous inflections of the original word pre- fully revised the work, but has added largely to ita
hailed with great satisfaction by all professors and  sented in the column, and especially the arrange- value, especially by the insertion of all the proper
teachers of the Greek language. A significant test- ment of the proper names in the same columns with  names in their alphabetical order. It is impossible
imonial to its value is to be found in the fact that the common, furnish such facilities to the student for us, within the compass of a newspaper article,
from its first appearance this lexicon was adopted  as are not to be found in any other Greek and En- to notice all the merits of the English or American
in the English schools to the exclusion of all others, glish Lexicon wit wwhich we are acquainted.-New  editors of the lexicon; suffice it to say, that tli
received the stamp of public approbation, and was  York Observer.                                         fruit of their labors is before us in a specimen of
awarded the palm of decided superiority over the    * X On the broad and solid basis, formed by the la- Greek lexicography so far superior to any that hras
only other lexicons of equal pretensions that were bors of the continental scholars, they have erected yet appeared in thie language that comparison would
Uien in use, Donnegan's and Dunbar's. Its supe- a superstructure far superior to any thing of the be ridiculous.-N. I. Commercial Advertisefr.
nor excellence is chiefly manifested in point of ar- kind that has yet been seen in the English language,   This Greek dictionary must inevitably take the
rangement, development of significations, and ac- and to this work the finishing hand has now been place of all others in the classical schools of this
curacy of quotation. Adopting Passow's admira- put by Prof. Drisler, the American editor. —New  country.-Knickerbocker Magazinre.
bnle lexicon as the basis of theirs, and carrying out York Express.                                          The work of Liddell and Scott is esteemed by
the principles which he laid down for his own guid-.      * Prof. Drisler has gone still further, and, by  scholars as incomparably the best Greek lexicon
ance, the English editors, by their own reading, by  the laborious and judicious use of still more recent ever published. It is not merely a translation of
the aid of the Paris edition of Stephens's Thessau- writers, he has given increased value to tile book. Passow's work, which hias no equal in Germany,
rns, and ofothergeneral as well as special lexicons, It will now be regarded, universally we think, as and is a standard work there, but a carrying out of
fave produced a work which, for real utility and much tile best Greek Lexicon accessible to classic- Passow's principles of lexicography through a large
general accuracy, now stands, and will likely long  al scholars. It is sold at a price which places it part of the entire circle of Greek literature.  It is
be without a rival in the English language.-Pror- within the reach of all. Five dollars forsucli a vol- constructed on the true principles of lexicography,
rtrant Churchman.                                    ume is certainly a moderate price; and we have no  and presents, besides the clear and consintent sig.
We may safely congratulate the scholars of our doubt the work will speedily supersede the inferior nification of each word, its history, the changes it
country on the appearance of this large, handsome, compilations of Donnegan, Grove, &c., now in use. has undergone, and especially its usage in each of
complete, and valuable volume: Messrs. Liddell -New York Recorder-.                                        thie great eras of the language. On the score of
and Scott's enlarged translation of Passow's Greek-   IMIessrs. Liddell and Scott took up Passow's great completeness, accuracy, comprehensiveness, and
German Lexicon, combinin- all tile excellencies of work where he left it, and completed it in the very  scholarship, the work is not te be named in com
thie previous dictionaries ofthe Greek language in  spirit of his system by independent reading of their parison with Donnegan, or any other lexicon with
use in our schools, it adds features at once new, own; so great, indeed, are their additions, that the  which we are familiar. Its publication is really a
striking, and important, while the copiousness of work is rather an entirely new one than a modifi- public favor, and will do much to advance Grreek
the vocabulary, the completeness of the definitions, cation of Passow.  Prof. Drisler has not only care- learning among us. —N. Y. Evangelist.
I erk  nh nfisg    xirn  nf  tI 31m  (6otamnmt.
A New Edition, Revised, and in great part Rewritten.
ROYAL 8VO, MUSLIN, $4 50; SHEEP, $4 75; HALF CALF, $5 00.
How  completely this volume supplied a great cumulated during his whole professional life, and in  tury, and the scholar and the oivine may wenr return
Want in the theological literature of the day our eluding his personal explorations in the land of the  their humble tribute for this great resultof his travreaders will readily judge, from the fact that three  Bible; 2. It is marked by tile presiding influence  els through tile Holy Land, and his patient, earnest,
rival editions of it were speedily reprinted in Lon- of good judgment in the combination and use of and deep research through all the fields of language
jon and Edinburgli, besides two subsequent abridg- these materials; 3. It combines tile qualities both  and literature. Dr. Robinson has given to the stuments. The first edition having been exhausted, of a Concordance and Commntentary.-New  York  dent what he ihas so much needed, but now first obDr. Robinson, during the last three years, has con-  Observer.                                             tained, the most complete and admirable lexicon of
centrated his labors upon the preparation of the    This lexicon is inestimable to tile grammarian.-  the lfew Testament extant, combining more than
present edition of his lexicon, a comparison of which  London Christian Times.                             all the excellencies of all other lexicons. —American
with the first impression enables us to attest the    We regard this new edition of his lexicon as Dr. Spectator.
truthful accuracy of the author's statement that it Robinson's master-piece, both in utility and erudi-   It would be difficult for us to express, to a deservis indeed "a new edition revised and partly rewrit- tion. The book has already been adopted in this ed extent, the value of this great work to the divine
4en,'" and we must add, with most valuable addi- country and in England, where it has wholly super- as well as to other classical scholars, and to all col.
tioAs and improvements.-Church of England Rev. seded Parkhurst, and where it is considered an in- leges and academies of a high grade. To all who
The excellence of this edition of the " Greek and  dispensable chrestomathy for the biblical student, engage in the critical study of the New Testament
English Lexicon" is found in many particulars: 1. and for promoting the course of sacred learning and it is indeed indispensable, as it is not equaled in abil
iXtembodies the results of the labors of the best lex- Christian piety.-National Intelligencer.            ity of execution by any similar work. —Bal. dAmer.
icographers and grammarians, down to tile present    This is one of the most valuable contributions that   It is unquestionably the best book upon the same
time, together with the authior's own materials, ac- has been given to the world during the present cen- subject ever given to the public.- Courier 4 Enq.
luttmannn'  (clm                                                    (Irnmmar
For the Use of High Schools and Universities.  Revised and Enlarged by his Son,
ALEXANDER BUTTMANN.  Translated from the 18th German Edition,
MD (Ebriarb Vabinson, M1.M.,  MfM.
8vo, SHEEP, $2  00.
Buttmann is unquestionably one of the most ac-    In clearness and neatness of arrangement, and  It will be also of essential aid to the classical and
curate and reliable of grammarians. I consider his consequent convenience for consulting, and in per- biblical critic, through the numerous exegetical hints
-..iddle grammar as surpassed by none of the re- spicuity of style, I much prefer it to every other. which occur on almost every page.-Christ. Exam.
cant works in the requisites ofa good school-book  As a reference book for the student I consider it   It is one of the most full and comprehensive
— accuracy, brevity, and adaptation to the wants of unsurpassed.-Prof. MS. Sturges, Hanover College. Greek.grammars ever published in this country,
a student.-Prof. H. Drisler, Columbia College.         I sthall take great pleasure in recommending it to  and at the same time so well digested and systen ain  rejoiced to see this useful book, in its im- my friends and tile public as one of the best Greek  matically arranged, as to render the progress of the
proved  form, rendered  accessible to American  grammars ever published.-Prof. John J. Owen.   scholar natural and easy.-Chrisrian Freeman.
scholars. It would be difficult to name a classical   There is nothing in the English language that can    The history of Buttmann's Greek Grammar I.
school-book which has exercised a more extended  be at all compared witti it.-Evangelical Review.   to a great extent, a history of the better methods
or longer continued  influence. -  Charles Beck,   We can conceive of nothing that a Greek gram- and triumphs of modern philology.-~niv. Quartert.,.D).. Harvard  aniversitv.                       mar ought to contain which is not found in this. ly Review.?I~inrp-er 81 ^rnf~,rntlm, riuh-Ui04m,  VIm'V  rk.