Burke's speech on conciliation with America

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BURKE'S SPEECH
ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA

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EDMUND BURKE

BURKE'S SPEECH

CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA

EDITED

WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES
BY

SIDNEY CAELETON KEWSOM

TEACHER OF ENGLISH, MANUAL TRAINING HIGH SCHOOL
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA

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PREFACE

THE introduction to this edition of Burke's speech
on Conciliation with America is intended to supply
the needs of those students who do not have access to
a well-stocked library, or who, for any reason, are
unable to do the collateral reading necessary for a
complete understanding of the text.

The sources from which information has been drawn
in preparing this edition are mentioned under " Bibli
ography." The editor wishes to acknowledge indebt
edness to many of the excellent older editions of the
speech, and also to Mr. A. P. Winston, of the Manual
Training High School, for valuable suggestions.

CONTENTS

PAGE

POLITICAL SITUATION ....... ix

EDMUND BURKE xv

BURKE AS A STATESMAN xxvii

BURKE IN LITERATURE ...... xxxii

TOPICS FOR SPECIAL REPORTS . ... xxxviii

BIBLIOGRAPHY ........ xxxviii

SPEECH ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA 1

NOTES ... b ...... Ill

INDEX 123

INTRODUCTION

POLITICAL SITUATION

IN 1651 originated the policy which caused the
American Revolution. That policy was one of taxa
tion, indirect, it is true, but none the less taxation.
The first Navigation Act required that colonial ex-
ports_shouM bQ__ghippod tfjlffnglanri jprASerican or
English vessels. This was followed by a long "series
of acts, regulating and restricting the American trade.
Colonists were not allowed to exchange certain articles
without paying duties thereon, and custom houses were
established and officers appointed. Opposition to these
proceedings was ineffectual; and in 1696, in order to
expedite the business of taxation, and to establish a
better method of ruling the colonies, a board was ap
pointed, called the Lords Commissioners for Trade
and Plantations. The royal governors found in this
board ready sympathizers, and were not slow to report
their grievances, and to insist upon more stringent
.regulations for enforcing obedience. Some of the

ix

X INTRODUCTION

retaliative measures employed were the suspension of
the writ of habeas corpus, the abridgment of the
freedom of the press and the prohibition of elections.
But the colonists generally succeeded in having their
own way in the end, and were not wholly without en
couragement and sympathy in the English Parlia
ment. It may be that the war with France, which
ended with the fall of Quebec, had much to do with
this rather generous treatment. The Americans, too,
were favored by the Whigs, who had been in power
for more than seventy years. The policy of this great
party was not opposed to the sentiments and ideas of
political freedom that had grown up in the colonies ;
and, although more than half of the Navigation Acts
were passed by Whig governments, the leaders had
known how to wink rt the violation of nearly all of
them.

Immediately after the close of the French war, and
after George III. had ascended the throne of England,
it was decided to enforce the Navigation Acts rigidly.
There was to be no more smuggling, and, to prevent
—this, Writs of Assistance were issued. Armed with
such authority, a servant of the king might enter the
home of any citizen, and make a thorough search for
smuggled goods. It is needless to say the measure
was resisted vigorously, and its reception by the colo
nists, and its effect upon them, has been called the

POLITICAL SITUATION XI

opening scene of the American Revolution. As a
matter of fact, this sudden_ change in the^ attitude of
England toward the colonies, marks the beginning
of the policy of George III. which, had it been suc
cessful, would have made him the ruler of an absolute
instead of a limited monarchy. He hated the Tories
only less than the' Whigs," and when he bestowed a
favor upon either, it was for the purpose of weaken
ing the other. The first task he set himself was that
of crushing the Whigs. Since the Eevolution of 1688,
they had dictated the policy of the English gov
ernment, and through wise leaders had become
supreme in authority. They were particularly ob
noxious to him because of their republican spirit,
and he regarded their ascendency as a constant men
ace to his kingly power. Fortune seemed to favor
him in the dissensions which arose. There grew up
two factions in the Whig party. There were old
Whigs and new Whigs. George played one against
the other, advanced his favorites when opportunity
offered, and in the end succeeded in forming a min
istry composed of his friends and obedient to his
will.

With the ministry safely in hand, he turned his
attention to the House of Commons. The old Whigs
had set an example, which George was shrewd enough
to follow. Walpole and Newcastle had succeeded in

Xii INTRODUCTION

giving England one of the most peaceful and prosper
ous governments within in the previous history of the
nation, but their methods were corrupt. With much
of the judgment, penetration and wise forbearance
which marks a statesman, Walpole's distinctive quali
ties of mind eminently fitted him for political intrigue ;
Newcastle was still worse, and has the distinction of
being the premier under whose administration the re
volt against official corruption first received the sup
port of the public.

For near a hundred years, the territorial distribu
tion of seats in the House had remained the same,
while the centres of population had shifted along with
those of trade and new industries. Great towns were
without representation, while boroughs, such as Old
Sarum, without a single voter, still claimed, and had,
a seat in Parliament. Such districts, or " rotten bor«
oughs," were owned and controlled by many of the
great landowners. Both Walpole and Newcastle re
sorted to the outright purchase of these seats, arid
when the time came George did not shrink from
doing the same thing. He went even further. All
preferments of whatsoever sort were bestowed upon
those who would do his bidding, and the business of
bribery assumed such proportions that an office was
opened at the Treasury for this purpose, from which
twenty-five thousand founds are said to have passed

POLITICAL SITUATION xiii

m a single day. Parliament had been for a long time
only partially representative of the people; it now
ceased to be so almost completely.

With the support which such methods secured, along
with encouragement from his ministers, tue king was
prepared to put in operation his policy for regulating
the affairs of America. Writs of Assistance (1761)
were followed by the passage of the Stamp Act (1765).
The ostensible object of both these measures was to
help pay the debt incurred by the French war, but
the real purpose lay deeper, and was nothing more
or less than the ultimate extension of parliamentary
rule, in great things as well as small, to America. At
this crisis, so momentous for the colonists, the Kock-
ingham ministry was formed, and Burke, together
with Pitt, supported a motion for the unconditional
repeal of the Stamp Act. After much wrangling, the
motion was carried, and the first blunder of the
mother country seemed to have been smoothed over.
Only a few months elapsed, however, when the
question of taxing the colonies was revived. Pitt lay
ill, and could take no part in the proposed measure.
Through the influence of other members of his party,
— notably Townshend, — a series of acts were passed,
imposing duties on several exports to America. This
was followed by a suspension of the New York As
sembly, because it had disregarded instructions in the

XIV INTRODUCTION

matter of supplies for the troops. The colonists were
furious. Matters went from bad to worse. To with
draw as far as possible without yielding the principle
at stake, the duties on all the exports mentioned in the
bill were removed, except that on tea. But it was
precisely the principle for which the colonists were
contending. They were not in the humor for com
promise, when they believed their freedom was endan
gered, and the strength and determination of their
resistance found a climax in the Boston Tea Party.

In the meantime, Lord North, who was absolutely
obedient to the king, had become prime minister.
Five bills were prepared, the tenor of which, it was
thought, would overawe the colonists. Of these, the
Boston Port Bill and the Regulating Act are perhaps
the most famous, though the ultimate tendency of all
was blindly coercive.

While the king and his friends were busy with these,
the opposition proposed an unconditional repeal of the
Tea Act. The bill was introduced only to be over
whelmingly defeated by the same Parliament that
passed the five measures of Lord North.

In America, the effect of these proceedings was such
as might have been expected by thinking men. The
colonies were as a unit in their support of Massachu
setts. The Eegulating Act was set at defiance, public
officers in the king's service were forced to resign,

EDMUND BURKE XV

town meetings were held, and preparations for war
were begun in dead earnest. To avert this, some of
England's greatest statesmen — Pitt among the num
ber — asked for a reconsideration. On February the
first, 1775, a bill was introduced, which would have
gone far toward bringing peace. One month later,
Burke delivered his speech on Conciliation with the
Colonies.

EDMUND BURKE

There is nothing unusual in Burke's early life. He
was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1729. His father was
a successful lawyer and a Protestant, his mother, a
Catholic. At the age of twelve, he became a pupil of
Abraham Shackleton, a Quaker, who had been teach
ing some fifteen years at Ballitore, a small town thirty
miles from Dublin. In after years Burke was always
pleased to speak of his old friend in the kindest way :
" If I am anything," he declares, " it is the education
I had there that has made me so." And again at
Shackleton's death, when Burke was near the zenith
of his fame and popularity, he writes : " I had a true
honor and affection for that excellent man. I feel
something like a satisfaction in the midst of my con
cern, that I was fortunate enough to have him under
my roof before his departure." It can hardly be

XVi INTRODUCTION

doubted that the old Quaker schoolmaster succeeded
with his pupil who was already so favorably inclined,
and it is more than probable that the daily example of
one who lived out Ms precepts was strong in its in
fluence upon a young and generous mind.

Burke attended school at Ballitore two years ; then,
at the age of fourteen, he became a student at Trinity
College, Dublin, and remained there five years. At
college he was unsystematic and careless of routine.
He seems to have done pretty much as he pleased,
and, however methodical he became in after life, his
study during these five years was rambling and spas
modic. The only definite knowledge we have of this
period is given by Burke himself in letters to his former
friend Richard Shackleton, son of his old schoolmaster.
What he did was done with a zest that at times be
came a feverish impatience : " First I was greatly
taken with natural philosophy, which, while I should
have given my mind to logic, employed me inces
santly. This I call my/wror mathematicus." Follow
ing in succession come his furor logicus, furor historicus,
and furor poeticus, each of which absorbed him for the
time being. It would be wrong, however, to think of
Burke as a trifler even in his youth. He read in the
library three hours every day and we may be sure he
read as intelligently as eagerly. It is more than prob
able that like a few other great minds he did not need

EDMUND BURKE XV11

a rigid system to guide him. If he chose his subjects
of study at pleasure, there is every reason to believe
he mastered them.

Of intimate friends at the University we hear
nothing. Goldsmith came one year later, but there
is no evidence that they knew each other. It is
probable that Burke, always reserved, had little in
common with his young associates. His own musings,
with occasional attempts at writing poetry, long walks
through the country, and frequent letters to and from
Richard Shackleton, employed him when not at his
books.

Two years after taking his degree, Burke went to
London and established himself at the Middle Temple
for the usual routine course in law. Another long
period passes of which there is next to nothing
known. His father, an irascible, hot-tempered man,
had wished him to begin the practice of law, but Burke
seems to have continued in a rather irregular way
pretty much as when an undergraduate at Dublin.
His inclinations were not toward the law, but litera
ture. His father, angered at such a turn of affairs,
promptly reduced his allowance and left him to follow
his natural bent in perfect freedom. In 1756, six
years after his arrival in London, and almost im
mediately following the rupture with his father, he
married a Miss Nugent. At about the same time he

xviii INTRODUCTION

published his first two books,1 and began in earnest
the life of an author.

He attracted the attention of literary men. Dr.
•Johnson had just completed his famous dictionary,
and was the centre of a group of writers who accepted
him at his own valuation. Burke did not want for
company, and wrote copiously.2 He became associated
with Dodsley, a bookseller, who began publishing the
Annual Register in 1759, and was paid a hundred
pounds a year for writing upon current events. He
spent two years (1761-63) in Ireland in the employ
ment of William Hamilton, but at the end of that
time returned, chagrined and disgusted with his
would-be patron, who utterly failed to recognize
Burke's worth, and persisted in the most unreason
able demands upon his time and energy.

For once Burke's independence served him well.
In 1765 Lord Eockingham became prime minister,
and Burke, widely known as the chief writer for the
Annual Register, was free to accept the position of
private secretary, which Lord B-ockingham was glad
to offer him. His services here were invaluable. The
new relations thus established did not end with the

1 A Vindication of Natural Society and Philosophical Inquiry
into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful.

2 Hints for an Essay on the Drama. Abridgement of the History
of England.

EDMUND BURKE xix.

performance of the immediate duties of his office, but
a warm friendship grew up between the two, which
lasted till the death of Lord Buckingham. While yet
private secretary, Burke was elected to Parliament
from the borough of Wendover. It was through the
influence of his friend, or perhaps relative, William
Burke, that his election was Secured.

Only a few days after taking his seat in the House
of Commons, Burke made his first speech, January 27,
1766. He followed this in a very short time with
another upon the same subject — the Taxation of the
American Colonies. Notwithstanding the great honor
and distinction which these first speeches brought
Burke, his party was dismissed at the close of the
session and the Chatham ministry formed. He re
mained with his friends, and employed himself in
refuting 1 the charges of the former minister, George
Grenville, who wrote a pamphlet accusing his suc
cessors of gross neglect of public duties.

At this point in his life comes the much-discussed
matter of Beaconsfield. How Burke became rich
enough to purchase such expensive property is a ques
tion that has never been answered by his friends or
enemies. There are mysterious hints of successful
speculation in East India stock, of money borrowed,
and Burke himself, in a letter to Shackleton, speaks
' Observations on the Present State of the Nation,

iX INTRODUCTION

of aid from his friends and " all [the money] he could
collect of his own." However much we may regret
the air of mystery surrounding the matter, and the
opportunity given those ever ready to smirch a great
man's character, it is not probable that any one ever
really doubted Burke's integrity in this or any other
transaction. Perhaps the true explanation of his
seemingly reckless extravagance (if any explanation
is needed) is that the conventional standards of his
time forced it upon him ; and it may be that Burke
himself sympathized to some extent with these stand
ards, and felt a certain satisfaction in maintaining a
proper attitude before the public.

The celebrated case of Wilkes offered an oppor
tunity for discussing the narrow and corrupt policy
pursued by George III. and his followers. Wilkes,
outlawed for libel and protected in the meantime
through legal technicalities, was returned to Parlia
ment by Middlesex. The House expelled him. He
was repeatedly elected and as many times expelled,
and finally the returns were altered, the House voting
its approval by a large majority. In 1770 Burke pub
lished his pamphlet 1 in which he discussed the situa
tion. For the first time he showed the full sweep
and breadth of his understanding. His tract was in
the interest of his party, but it was written in a spirit
1 Present Discontents.

EDMUND BURKE XXI

far removed from narrow partisanship. He pointed
out with absolute clearness the cause of dissatisfac
tion and unrest among the people and charged George
III. and his councillors with gross indifference to the
welfare of the nation and corresponding devotion to
selfish interests. He contended that Parliament was
•usurping privileges when it presumed to expel any
one, that the people had a right to send whomsoever
they pleased to Parliament, and finally that " in all
disputes between them and their rulers, the presump
tion was at least upon a par in favor of the people."
From this time until the American Revolution, Burke
used every opportunity to denounce the policy which
the king was pursuing at home and abroad. He
doubtless knew beforehand that what he might say
would pass unnoticed, but he never faltered in a stead
fast adherence to his ideas of government, founded, as
he believed, upon the soundest principles. Bristol
elected him as its representative in Parliament. It
was a great honor and Burke felt its significance,
yet he did not flinch when the time came for him to
take a stand. He voted for the removal of some of
the restrictions upon Irish trade. His constituents,
representing one of the most prosperous mercantile
districts, angered and disappointed at what they held
to be a betrayal of trust, refused to reelect him.

Lord North's ministry came to an end in 1782, im-

XXii INTRODUCTION

mediately after the battle of Yorktown, and Lord
Eockingham was chosen prime minister. Burke's
past services warranted him in expecting an important
place in the cabinet, but he was ignored. Various
things have been suggested as reasons for this: he
was poor ; some of his relations and intimate associates
were objectionable ; there were dark hints of specula
tions; he was an Irishman. It is possible that any
one of these facts, or all of them, furnished a good
excuse for not giving him an important position in
the new government. But it seems more probable
that Burke's abilities were not appreciated so justly
as they have been since. The men with whom he
associated saw some of his greatness but not all of it.
He was assigned the office of Paymaster of Forces, a
place of secondary importance.

Lord Kockingham died in three months and the
party went to pieces. Burke refused to work under
Shelburne, and, with Fox, joined Lord North in form
ing the coalition which overthrew the Whig party.
Burke has been severely censured for the part he took
in this. Perhaps there is little excuse for his deser
tion, and it is certainly true that his course raises the
question of his sincere devotion to principles. His
personal dislike of Shelburne was so intense that he
may have yielded to his feelings. He felt hurt, too,
we may be sure, at the disposition made of him by his

EDMUND BURKE xxiii

friends. In replying to a letter asking him for a
place in the new government, he writes that his corre
spondent has been misinformed. " I make no part of
bhe ministerial arrangement," he writes, and adds,
" Something in the official line may be thought fit for
my measure."

As a supporter of the coalition, Burke was one of
the framers of the India Bill. This was directed
against the wholesale robbery and corruption which
the East India Company had been guilty of in its
government of the country. Both Fox and Burke
Defended the measure with all the force and power
which a thorough mastery of facts, a keen sense of the
injustice done an unhappy people, and a splendid rhet
oric can give. But it was doomed from the first. The
people at large were indifferent, many had profitable
business relations with the company, and the king
used his personal influence against it. The bill failed
to pass, the coalition was dismissed, and the party,
which had in Burke its greatest representative, was
utterly ruined.

The failure of the India Bill marked a victory for
the king, and it also prepared the way for one of the
most famous transactions of Burke's life. Macaulay
has told how impressive and magnificent was the scene
at the trial of Warren Hastings. There were political
-reasons for the impeachment, but the chief motive that

XXiv INTRODUCTION

stirred Burke was far removed from this. He saw
understood the real state of affairs in India. The
mismanagement, the brutal methods, and the crimes
committed there in the name of the English govern
ment, moved him profoundly, and when he rose before
the magnificent audience at Westminster, for opening
the cause, he forced his hearers, by his own mighty
passion, to see with his own eyes, and to feel his own
righteous anger. "When he came to his two narra
tives," says Miss Burney, " when he related the par
ticulars of those dreadful murders, he interested, he
engaged, he at last overpowered me ; I felt my cause
lost. I could hardly keep my seat. My eyes dreaded
a single glance toward a man so accused as Mr. Hast
ings ; I wanted to sink on the floor, that they might
be saved so painful a sight. I had no hope he could
clear himself ; not, another wish in his favor remained."
The trial lasted for six years and ended with the
acquittal of Hastings. The result was not a surprise,
and least of all to Burke. The fate of the India BilJ
had taught him how completely indifferent the populai
mind was to issues touching deep moral questions.
Though a seeming failure, he regarded the impeach
ment as the greatest work of his life. It did much to
arouse and stimulate the national sense of justice. It
made clear the cruel methods sometimes pursued under
the guise of civilization and progress. The moral vie*

EDMUND BURKE XXV

cory is claimed for Burke, and without a doubt the
claim is valid.

The second of the great social and political problems,
which employed English statesmen in the last half of the
eighteenth century, was settled in the impeachment of
Warren Hastings. The affairs of America and India
were now overshadowed by the French Revolution, and
Burke, with the far-sighted vision of a veteran states
man, watched the progress of events and their influence
upon the established order. In 1773 he had visited
France, and had returned displeased. It is remarkable
with what accuracy he pointed out the ultimate tendency
of much that he saw. A close observer of current phases
of society, and on the alert to explain them in the light of
broad and fundamental principles of human progress,
he had every opportunity for studying social life at the
French capital. Unlike the younger men of his times,
he was doubtful, and held his judgment in suspense.
The enthusiasm of even Fox seemed premature, and he
held himself aloof from the popular demonstrations of
admiration and approval that were everywhere going
on. The fact is, Burke was growing old, and with his
years he was becoming more conservative. He dreaded
change, and was suspicious of the wisdom of those who
set about such widespread innovations, and made such
brilliant promises for the future. But the time rapidly
approached for him to declare himself, and in 1790 his

XXVI INTRODUCTION

Reflections on the Revolution in France was issued. His
friends had long waited its appearance, and were not
wholly surprised at the position taken. What did
surprise them was the eagerness with which the
people seized upon the book, and its effect upon them
The Tories, with the king, applauded long and loud ;
the Whigs were disappointed, for Burke condemned the
Revolution unreservedly, and with a bitterness out .of
all proportion to the cause of his anxiety and fear.
As the Revolution progressed, he grew fiercer in his
denunciation. He broke with his lifelong associates,
and declared that no one who sympathized with the
work of the Assembly could be his friend. His other
writings on the Eevolution l were in a still more violent
strain, and it is hard to think of them as coming from
the author of the Speech on Conciliation.

Three years before his death, at the conclusion of
the trial of Warren Hastings, Burke's last term in
Parliament expired. He did not wish office again,
and withdrew to his estate. Through the influence of
friends, and because of his eminent services, it was pro
posed to make him peer, with the title of Lord Beacons-
field. But the death of his son prevented, and a pension
of twenty-five hundred pounds a year was given instead.
It was a signal for his enemies, and during his last

1 Letter to a Member of the National Assembly and Letters on &
Regicide Peace.

BURKE AS A STATESMAN XXVli

days he was busy with his reply. The " Letter to a
Noble Lord," though written little more than a year
before his death, is considered one of the most per
fect of his papers. Saddened by the loss of his son,
and broken in spirits, there is yet left him enough old-
time energy and lire to answer his detractors. But
his wonderful career was near its close. His last
months were spent in writing about the French Revo
lution, and the third letter on a Regicide Peace — a
fragment — was doubtless composed just before his
death. On the 9th of July, 1797, he passed away.
His friends claimed for him a place in Westminster,
but his last wish was respected, and he was buried at
Beaconsfield.

BURKE AS A STATESMAN

There is hardly a political tract or pamphlet of
Burke's in which he does not state, in terms more or
less clear, the fundamental principle in his theory
of government. " Circumstances," he says in one
place, "give, in reality, to every political principle, its
distinguishing color and discriminating effect. The
circumstances are what renders every civil and politi
cal scheme beneficial or obnoxious to mankind." At
another time he exclaims : " This is the true touch
stone of all theories which regard man and the affairs

XXVlii INTRODUCTION

of men ; does it suit his nature in general, does ii
suit his nature as modified by his habits ? " And
again he extends his system to affairs outside the
realm of politics. " All government," he declares, " in
deed, every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue
and every prudent act, is founded on compromise and
barter."

'^(rlt is clear that Burke thought the State existed for
the people, and not the people for the State. The
doctrine is old to us, but it was not so in Burke's time,
and it required courage to expound it. The great par
ties had forgotten the reason for their existence, and
one of them had become hardened and blinded by that
corruption which seems to follow long tenure of office.
The affairs of India, Ireland, and America gave excel
lent opportunity for an exhibition of English states
manship, but in each case the policy pursued was
dictated, not by a clear perception of what was needed
in these countries, but by narrow selfishness, not un
mixed with dogmatism of the most challenging sort.
The situation in India, as regards climate, character,
and institutions, counted for little in the minds of
those who were growing rich as agents of the East
India Company. Much the same may be said of
America and Ireland. The sense of Parliament, in
fluenced by the king, was to use these parts of the
British Empire in raising a revenue, and in strength-

BURKE AS A STATESMAN xxix

?ning party organization at home. In opposing this
policy, Burke lost his seat as representative for Bristol,
then the second city of England ; spent fourteen of
the best years of his life in conducting the impeach
ment of Warren Hastings, Governor-General of India ;
and, greatest of all, delivered his famous speeches on
Taxation and Conciliation, in behalf of the American
colonists.

Notwithstanding the distinctly modern tone of
Burke's ideas, it would be wrong to think of him as
a thoroughgoing reformer. He has been called the
Great Conservative, and the title is appropriate. He
would have shrunk from a purely republican form of
government, such as our own, and it is, perhaps, a
fact that he was suspicious of a government by the
people. The trouble, as he saw it, lay with the repre
sentatives of the people. Upon them, as guardians of
a trust, rested the responsibility of protecting those
whom they were chosen to serve. While he bitterly
opposed any measures involving radical change in the
Constitution, he was no less ardent in denouncing
political corruptions of all kinds whatsoever. In his
Economical Reform he sought to curtail the enormous
extravagance of the royal household, and to withdraw
the means of wholesale bribery, which offices at the
disposal of the king created. He did not believe that
a more effective means than this lay in the proposed

XXX INTRODUCTION

plan for a redistribution of seats in the House of
Commons. In one place, he declared it might be well
to lessen the number of voters, in order to add to their
weight and independence ; at another, he asks that the
people be stimulated to a more careful scrutiny of the
conduct of their representatives; and on every occa
sion he demands that the legislators give their sup
port to those measures only which have for their
object the good of the whole people.

It is obvious, however, that Burke's policy had
grievous faults. His reverence for the past, and his
respect for existing institutions as the heritage of the
past, made him timid and overcautious in dealing
with abuses. Although he stood with Pitt in defend
ing the American colonies, he had no confidence in
the thoroughgoing reforms which the great Commoner
proposed. When the Stamp Act was repealed, Pitt
would have gone even further. He would have ac
knowledged the absolute injustice of taxation without
representation. Burke held tenaciously to the oppos
ing theory, and warmly supported the Declaratory
Act, which "asserted the supreme authority of Parlia
ment over the colonies, in all cases whatsoever." His
support of the bill for the repeal of the Stamp Act, as
well as his plea for reconciliation, ten years later, were
aot prompted by a firm belief in the injustice of Eng
land's course. He expressly states, in both cases,

BURKE AS A STATESMAN

that to enforce measures so repugnant to the Ameri
cans, would be detrimental to the home government.
It would result in confusion and disorder, and would
bring, perhaps, in the end, open rebellion. All of his
speeches on American affairs show his willingness to
" barter and compromise " in order to avoid this, but
nowhere is there a hint of fundamental error in the
Constitution. This was sacred to him, and he resented
to the last any proposition looking to an organic
change in its structure. " The lines of morality," he
declared, "are not like ideal lines of mathematics.
They are broad and deep, as well as long. They admit
of exceptions ; they demand modifications. These ex
ceptions and modifications are made, not by the pro
cess of logic, but the rules of prudence. Prudence is
not only first in rank of all the virtues, political and
moral, but she is the director, the regulator, the standard
of them all."

The chief characteristics, then, of Burke's political
philosophy are opposed to much that is fundamental
in modern systems. His doctrine is better than that
of George III., because it is more generous, and affords
opportunity for superficial readjustment and adapta
tion. It is this last, or rather the proof it gives of
his insight, that has secured Burke so high a place
among English statesmen.

XXxii INTRODUCTION

A GROUP OF WRITERS COMING IMMEDIATELY
BEFORE BURKE

Addison ...... 1672-1719

Steele 1672-1729

Defoe 1661-1731

Swift . 1667-1745

Pope 1688-1744

Richardson 1689-1761

A GROUP OF WRITERS CONTEMPORARY WITH
BURKE

Johnson 1709-1784

Goldsmith 1728-1774

Fielding 1707-1754

Sterne ...... 1713-1768

Smollett 1721-1771

Gray 1716-1771

Boswell 1740-1796

BURKE IN LITERATURE

It has become almost trite to speak of the breadth
of Burke's sympathies. We should examine the state
ment, however, and understand its significance and
see its justice. While he must always be regarded
first as a statesman of one of the highest types, he had
other interests than those directly suggested by his

BURKE IN LITERATURE XXXlii

office, and in one of these, at least, he affords an
interesting and profitable study.

To the student of literature Burke's name must
always suggest that of Johnson and Goldsmith. It
was eight years after Burke's first appearance as an
author, that the famous Literary Club was formed.
At first it was the intention to limit the club to a
membership of nine, and for a time this was adhered
to. The original members were Johnson, Burke, Gold
smith, Eeynolds, and Hawkins. Garrick, Fox, and
Boswell came in later. Macaulay declares that the
influence of the club was so great that its verdict
made and unmade reputations ; but the thing most
interesting to us does not lie in the consideration
of such literary dictatorship. To Boswell we owe
a biography of Johnson which has immortalized its
subject, and shed lustre upon all associated with him.
The literary history of the last third of the eigh
teenth century, with Johnson as a central figure, is
told nowhere else with such accuracy, or with better
effect.

Although a Tory, Johnson was a great one, and his
lasting friendship for Burke is an enduring evidence
of his generosity and great-mindedness. For twenty
years, and longer, they were eminent men in opposing
parties, yet their mutual respect and admiration con
tinued to the last. To Burke, Johnson was a writer

XXXIV INTRODUCTION

of "eminent literary merit " and entitled to a pension
"solely on that account." To Johnson, Burke was
:he greatest man of his age, wrong politically, to be
sure, yet the only one "whose common conversation
3orresponded to the general fame which he had in the
world " — the only one " who was ready, whatever sub-
'ect was chosen, to meet you on your own ground."
Here and there in the Life are allusions to Burke,
and admirable estimates of his many-sided character.

Coming directly to an estimate of Burke from the
purely literary point of view, it must be borne in
mind that the greater part of his writings was pre
pared for an audience. Like Macaulay, his prevailing
style suggests the speaker, and his methods through
out are suited to declamation and oratory. He lacks
the ease and delicacy that we are accustomed to look
for in the best prose writers, and occasionally one feels
the justice of Johnson's stricture, that "he sometimes
talked partly from ostentation " ; or of Hazlitt's criti
cism that he seemed to be "perpetually calling the
speaker out to dance a minuet with him before he
begins."

There may be passages here and there that warrant
such censure. Burke is certainly ornate, and at times
he is extremely self-conscious, but the dominant qual
ity of his style, and the one which forever contradicts
the idea of mere showiness, is passion. In his method

BURKE IN LITERATURE XXXV

of approaching a subject, lie may be, and perhaps is,
rather tedious,' but when once he has come to the mat
ter really in hand, he is no longer the rhetorician,
dealing in fine phrases, but the great seer, clothing
his thoughts in words suitable and becoming. The
most magnificent passages in his writings — the Con
ciliation is rich in them — owe their charm and ef
fectiveness to this emotional capacity. They were
evidently written in moments of absolute abandon
ment to feeling — in moments when he was absorbed
in the contemplation of some great truth, made lumi
nous by his own unrivalled powers.

Closely allied to this intensity of passion, is a
splendid imaginative quality. Few writers of Eng
lish prose have such command of figurative expres
sion. It must be said, however, that Burke was not
entirely free from the faults which generally accom
pany an excessive use of figures. Like other great
masters of a decorative style, he frequently becomes
pompous and grandiloquent. His thought, too, is
obscured, where we would expect great clearness of
statement, accompanied by a dignified simplicity;
and occasionally we feel that he forgets his subject
in an anxious effort to make an impression. Though
there are passages in his writings that justify such
observations, they are few in number, when compared
with those which are really masterpieces of their kind

XXXVI INTRODUCTION

Some great crisis, or threatening state of affairs, seems
to furnish the necessary condition for the exercise of
a great mind, and Burke is never so effective as when
thoroughly aroused. His imagination needed the chas
tening which only a great moment or critical situation
could give. Two of his greatest speeches — Concilia
tion, and Impeachment of Warren Hastings — were
delivered under the restraining effect of such circum
stances, and in each the figurative expression is sub
dued and not less beautiful in itself than appropriate
for the occasion.

Finally, it must be observed that no other writer of
English prose has a better command of words. His
ideas, as multifarious as they are, always find fitting
expression. He does not grope for a term ; it stands
ready for his thought, and one feels that he had
opportunity for choice. It is the exuberance of his
fancy, already mentioned, coupled with this richness
of vocabulary, that helped to make Burke a tiresome
speaker. His mind was too comprehensive to allow
any phase of his subject to pass without illumination.
He followed where his subject led him, without any
great attention to the patience of his audience. But
he receives full credit when his speeches are read. It
is then that his mastery of the subject and the splen
did qualities of his style are apparent, and appreciated
at their worth.

A GROUP OF WRITERS xxxvi'l

In conclusion, it is worth while observing that in
the study of a great character, joined with an attempt
to estimate it by conventional standards, something
must always be left unsaid. Much may be learned
of Burke by knowing his record as a partisan, more
by a minute inspection of his style as a writer, but
beyond all this is the moral tone or attitude of the
man himself. To a student of Burke this is the
greatest thing about him. It colored every line he
wrote, and to it, more than anything else, is due the
immense force of the man as a speaker and writer.
It was this, more than Burke's great abilities, that
justifies Dr. Johnson's famous eulogy: "He is not
only the first man in the House of Commons, he is the
first man everywhere."

A GROUP OF WRITERS COMING IMMEDIATELY
AFTER BURKE

Wordsworth 1770-1850

Coleridge ,.-,.. 1772-1834

Byron 1788-1824

Shelley 1792-1822

Keats 1795-1821

•Scott 1771-1832

XXXviii INTRODUCTION

TOPICS FOR SPECIAL REPORTS

1. "Like Goldsmith, though in a different sphere, Burke
belongs both to the old order and the new." Discuss that
statement.

2. Burke and the Literary Club. (Boswell's Life of
Johnson.)

3. Lives of Burke and Goldsmith. Contrast.

4. An interpretation of ten apothegms selected from the
Speech on Conciliation.

5. A study of figures in the Speech on Conciliation.

6. A definition of the terms : " colloquialism " and " idiom."
Instances of their use in the Speech on Conciliation.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Burke's Life. John Morley. English Men of Letters
Series.

2. Burke. John Morley. An Historical Study.

3. Burke. John Morley. Encyclopaedia Britannica.

4. History of the English People. Green. Vol. IV., pp.
193-271.

5. History of Civilization in England. Buckle. Vol. I.,
pp. 326-338.

6. The American Revolution. Fiske. Vol. I., Chaps. I., II

7. Life of Johnson. Boswell. {Use the Index.}

EDMUND BURKE

ON MOVING HIS RESOLUTIONS FOR CONCILIATION
WITH THE COLONIES. HOUSE OF COMMONS,
MARCH 22, 1775

I HOPE, Sir, that notwithstanding the austerity of
the Chair, your good nature will incline you to some
degree of indulgence towards human frailty. You
will not think it unnatural that those who have an
object depending, which strongly engages their hopes 5
and fears, should be somewhat inclined to supersti
tion. As I came into the House full of anxiety about
the event of my motion, I found, to my infinite sur
prise, that the grand penal bill,0 by which we had
passed sentence on the trade and sustenance of ja
America, is to be returned to us from the other
House. I do confess I could not help looking on
this event as a fortunate omen. I look upon it as v
sort of providential favor, by which we are put once
more in possession of our deliberative capacity upon ij
a business so very questionable in its nature, so very

B 1

2 BURKE

uncertain in its issue. By the return of this bill, which
seemed to have taken its flight forever, we are at this
very instant nearly as free to choose a plan for our
American Government as we were on the first day of
5 the session. If, Sir, we incline to the side of concilia
tion, we are not at all embarrassed (unless we please
to make ourselves so) by any incongruous mixture of
coercion and restraint. We are therefore called upon,
as it were by a superior warning voice, again to attend
10 to America ; to attend to the whole of it together ; and
to review the subject with an unusual degree of care
and calmness.

Surely it is an awful subject, or there is none so on
this side of the grave. When I first had the honor0
15 of a seat in this House, the affairs of that continent
pressed themselves upon us as the most important
and most delicate object of Parliamentary attention.
My little share in this great deliberation oppressed
me. I found myself a partaker in a very high trust ;
20 and, having no sort of reason to rely on the strength
of my natural abilities for the proper execution of that
trust, I was obliged to take more than common pains
to instruct myself in everything which relates to our
Colonies. I was not less under the necessity of form-
as ing some fixed ideas concerning the general policy of

CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES 3

the British Empire. Something of this sort seemed
to be indispensable, in order, amidst so vast a fluctua
tion of passions and opinions, to concentre my thoughts,
to ballast my conduct, to preserve me from being blown
about by every wind of fashionable doctrine. I really $
did not think it safe or manly to have fresh principles
to seek upon every fresh mail which should arrive from
America.

At that period I had the fortune to find myself in
perfect concurrence with a large majority in this House. 10
Bowing under that high authority, and penetrated with
the sharpness and strength of that early impression, I
have continued ever since, without the least deviation,
in my original sentiments.0 Whether this be owing to
an obstinate perseverance in error, or to a religious ad- 15
herence to what appears to me truth and reason, it is
in your equity to judge.

Sir, Parliament having an enlarged view of objects,
made, during this interval, more frequent changes in
their sentiments and their conduct than could be justi- 20
fied in a particular person upon the contracted scale of
private information. But though I do not hazard any
thing approaching to a censure on the motives of former
Parliaments to all those alterations, one fact is un
doubted — that under them the state of America has a$

4 BURKE

been kept in continual agitation.0 Everything admin
istered as remedy to the public complaint, if it did
not produce, was at least followed by, an heightening
of the distemper ; until, by a variety of experiments,

5 that important country has been brought into her
present situation — a situation which I will not mis
call, which I dare not name, which I scarcely know
how to comprehend in the terms of any description.
In this posture, Sir, things stood at the beginning

10 of the session. About that time, a worthy member0 of
great Parliamentary experience, who, in the year 1766,
filled the chair of the American committee with much
ability, took me aside; and, lamenting the present
aspect of our politics, told me things were come to

15 such a pass that our former0 methods of proceeding
in the House would be no longer tolerated : that the
public tribunal (never too indulgent to a long and un
successful opposition) would now scrutinize our con
duct with unusual severity : that the very vicissitudes

20 and shiftings of Ministerial measures, instead of con
victing their authors of inconstancy and want of sys
tem, would be taken as an occasion of charging us
with a predetermined discontent, which nothing could
satisfy; whilst we accused every measure of vigor as

25 cruel, and every proposal of lenity as weak and irreso»

CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES 5

lute. The public, he said, would not have patience to
see us play the game out with our adversaries; we
must produce our hand. It would be expected that
those who for many years had been active in such
affairs should show that they had formed some clear 5
and decided idea of the principles of Colony govern
ment; and were capable of drawing out something
like a platform of the ground which might be laid for
future and permanent tranquillity.

I felt the truth of what my honorable friend repre- 14
sented; but I felt my situation too. His application
might have been made with far greater propriety to
many other gentlemen. No man was indeed ever
better disposed, or worse qualified, for such an under
taking than myself. Though I gave so far in to his 15
opinion that I immediately threw my thoughts into
a sort of Parliamentary form, I was by no means
equally ready to produce them. It generally argues
some degree of natural impotence 'of mind, or some
want of knowledge of the world, to hazard plans of 24
government except from a seat of authority. Propo
sitions are made, not only ineffectually, but somewhat
disreputably, when the minds of men are not properly
disposed for their reception ; and, for my part, I am
not ambitious of ridicule — not absolutely a candidate *
for disgrace.

0 BURKE

Besides, Sir, to speak the plain truth, I have in
general no very exalted opinion of the virtue of paper
government ; ° nor of any politics in which the plan is
to be wholly separated from the execution. But when

5 I saw that anger and violence prevailed every day more
and more, and that things were hastening towards an
incurable alienation of our Colonies, I confess my cau
tion gave way. I felt this as one of those few moments
in which decorum yields to a higher duty. Public ca-

10 lamity is a mighty leveller ; and there are occasions

when any, even the slightest, chance of doing good must

be laid hold on, even by the most inconsiderable person.

To restore order and repose to an empire so great

and so distracted as ours, is, merely in the attempt,

15 an undertaking that would ennoble the nights of the
highest genius, and obtain pardon for the efforts of
the meanest understanding. Struggling a good while
with these thoughts, by degrees I felt myself more
firm. I derived, at length, some confidence from what

20 in other circumstances usually produces timidity. I
grew less anxious, even from the idea of my own in
significance. For, judging of what you are by what
you ought to be, I persuaded myself that you would
not reject a reasonable proposition because it had noth-

25 ing but its reason to recommend it. On the other hand.

CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES 7

oeing totally destitute of all shadow of influence, nat
ural or adventitious, I was very sure that, if my propo
sition were futile or dangerous — if it were weakly
conceived, or improperly timed — there was nothing
exterior to it of power to awe, dazzle, or delude you. \
You will see it just as it is ; and you will treat it just
as it deserves.

The proposition is peace. Not peace through the
medium of war ; not peace to be hunted through the
labyrinth of intricate and endless negotiations ; not 10
peace to arise out of universal discord fomented, from
principle, in all parts of the Empire; not peace to
depend on the juridical determination of perplexing
questions, or the precise marking the shadowy boun
daries of a complex government. It is simple peace ; 15
sought in its natural course, and in its ordinary haunts.
It is peace sought in the spirit of peace, and laid in
principles purely pacific. I propose, by removing the
ground of the difference, and by restoring the former
unsuspecting confidence of the Colonies in the Mother 20
Country, to give permanent satisfaction to your peo
ple ; and (far from a scheme of ruling by discord) to
reconcile them to each other in the same act and by
the bond of the very sam6 interest which reconciles
them to British government. af

8 BURKE

My idea is nothing more. Refined policy0 ever ha*
been the parent of confusion; and ever will be so, aa
long as the world endures. Plain good intention,
which is as easily discovered at the first view as fraud

5 is surely detected at last, is, let me say, of no mean
force in the government of mankind. Genuine sim
plicity of heart is an healing and cementing principle.
My plan, therefore, being formed upon the most sim
ple grounds imaginable, may disappoint some people

10 when they hear it. It has nothing to recommend it
to the pruriency of curious ears. There is nothing at
all new and captivating in it. It has nothing of the
splendor of the project0 which has been lately laid
upon your table by the noble lord in the blue ribbon.0

15 It does not propose to fill your lobby with squabbling
Colony agents,0 who will require the interposition of
your mace, at every instant, to keep the peace amongst
them. It does not institute a magnificent auction of
finance, where captivated provinces come to general

20 ransom by bidding against each other, until you knock
down the hammer, and determine a proportion of pay
ments beyond all the powers of algebra to equalize
and settle.

The plan which I shall presume to suggest derives,

25 however, one great advantage from the proposition

CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES 9

and registry of that noble lord's project. The idea of
conciliation is admissible. First, the House, in ac
cepting the resolution moved by the noble lord, has
admitted, notwithstanding the menacing front of our
address,0 notwithstanding our heavy bills of pains and I
penalties — that we do not think ourselves precluded
from all ideas of free grace and bounty.

The House has gone farther; it has declared con
ciliation admissible, previous to any submission on the
part of America. It has even shot a good deal be- i«
yond that mark, and has admitted that the complaints
of our former mode of exerting the right of taxation
were not wholly unfounded. That right thus exerted
is allowed to have something reprehensible in it, some
thing unwise, or something grievous; since, in the 15
midst of our heat and resentment, we, of ourselves,
have proposed a capital alteration; and in order to
get rid of what seemed so very exceptionable, have in
stituted a mode that is altogether new; one that is,
indeed, wholly alien from all the ancient methods and »
forms of Parliament.

The principle of this proceeding is large enough for
my purpose. The means proposed by the noble lord
for carrying his ideas into execution, I think, indeed,
are very indifferently suited to the end; and this I *\

10 BURSE

shall endeavor to show you before I sit down. But,
for the present, I take my ground on the admitted
principle. I mean to give peace. Peace implies rec
onciliation ; and where there has been a material dis-

3 pute, reconciliation does in a manner always imply
concession on the one part or on the other. In this
state of things, I make no difficulty in affirming that
the proposal ought to originate from us. Great and
acknowledged force is not impaired, either in effect or

10 in opinion, by an unwillingness to exert itself. The
superior power may offer peace with honor and with
safety. Such an offer from such a power will be at
tributed to magnanimity. But the concessions of the
weak are the concessions of fear. When such a one

»5 is disarmed, he is wholly at the mercy of his superior;
and he loses forever that time and those chances,0
which, as they happen to all men. are the strength and
resources of all inferior power.

The capital leading questions on which you must

20 this day decide are these two: First, whether you
ought to concede ; and secondly, what your concession
ought to be. On the first of these questions we have
gained, as I have just taken the liberty of observing
to you, some ground. But I am sensible that a good

25 deal more is still to be done. Indeed, Sir, to enable

CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES 11

I

as to determine both on the one and the other of

these great questions with a firm and precise judg
ment, I think it may be necessary to consider dis
tinctly the true nature and the peculiar circumstances
of the object which we have before us ; because after \
all our struggle, whether we will or not, we must gov
ern America according to that nature and to those
circumstances,0 and not according to our own imagina
tions, nor according to abstract ideas of right — by no
means according to mere general theories of govern- M
ment, the resort to which appears to me, in our pres
ent situation, no better than arrant trifling. I shall
therefore endeavor, with your leave, to lay before you
some of the most material of these circumstances in
as full and as clear a manner as I am able to state 15
them.

The first thing that we have to consider with regard
to the nature of the object is — the number of people
in the Colonies. I have taken for some years a good
deal of pains on that point. I can by no calculation 29
justify myself in placing the number below two mill
ions of inhabitants of our own European blood and
color, besides at least five hundred thousand others,
who form no inconsiderable part of the strength and
opulence of the whole. This, Sir, is, I believe, about 25

12 BURKE

(
the true number. There is no occasion to exaggerate

where plain truth is of so much weight and impor
tance. But whether I put the present numbers too
high or too low is a matter of little moment. Such is

5 the strength with which population shoots in that part
of the world, that, state the numbers as high as we
will, whilst the dispute continues, the exaggeration
ends. Whilst we are discussing any given magnitude,
they are grown to it. Whilst we spend our time in

10 deliberating on the mode of governing two millions,
we shall find we have millions more to manage. Your
children do not grow faster from infancy to manhood
than they spread from families to communities, and
from villages to nations.

15 I put this consideration of the present and the gro™.
ing numbers in the front of our deliberation, because,
Sir, this consideration will make it evident to a blunter
discernment than yours, that no partial, narrow, con
tracted, pinched, occasional system will be at all suit-

20 able to such an object. It will show you that it is not
to be considered as one of those minima which are out
of the eye and consideration of the law ; not a paltry
excrescence of the state ; not a mean dependent, who
may be neglected with little damage and provoked with

25 little danger. It will prove that some degree of care

CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES 13

and caution is required in the handling such an object ;
it will show that you ought not, in reason, to trifle with
so large a mass of the interests and feelings of the
human race. You could at no time do so without
guilt; and be assured you will not be able to do it 5
long with impunity.

But the population of this country, the great and
growing population, though a very important con
sideration, will lose much of its weight if not com
bined with other circumstances. The commerce of ™
your Colonies is out of all proportion beyond the
numbers of the people. This ground of their com
merce indeed has been trod some days ago, and with
great ability, by a distinguished person at your bar.
This gentleman, after thirty-five years — it is so long 15
since he first appeared at the same place to plead for
the commerce of Great Britain — has come again be
fore you to plead the same cause, without any other
effect of time, than that to the fire of imagination and
extent of erudition which even then marked him as 20
one of the first literary characters of his age, he has
added a consummate knowledge in the commercial
interest of his country, formed by a long course of en
lightened and discriminating experience.
, Sir, I should be inexcusable in coming after such a 25

14 BURKE

person with any detail, if a great part of the members
who now fill the House had not the misfortune to be
absent when he appeared at your bar. Besides, Sir, 1
propose to take the matter at periods of time some-

5 what different from his. There is, if I mistake not, a
point of view from whence, if you will look at the
subject, it is impossible that it should not make an
impression upon you.

I have in my hand two accounts ; one a comparative

10 state of the export trade of England to its Colonies, as
it stood in the year 1704, and as it stood in the year
1772; the other a state of the export trade of this
country to its Colonies alone, as it stood in 1772, com
pared with the whole trade of England to all parts of

15 the world (the Colonies included) in the year 1704.
They are from good vouchers ; the latter period from
the accounts on your table, the earlier from an original
manuscript of Davenant, who first established the
Inspector-General's office, which has been ever since

20 his time so abundant a source of Parliamentary in
formation.

The export trade to the Colonies consists of three
great branches: the African — which, terminating
almost wholly in the Colonies, must be put to the

*5 account of their commerce, — the West Indian, and

CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES 15

the North American. All these are so interwoven
that the attempt to separate them would tear to pieces
the contexture of the whole ; and, if not entirely de
stroy, would very much depreciate the value of all the
parts. I therefore consider these three denominations
to be, what in effect they are, one trade.

The trade to the Colonies, taken on the export side,
at the beginning of this century, that is, in the year
1704, stood thus : -

Exports to North America and the West Indies . £483,265
To Africa 86,665

£569,930

In the year 1772, which I take as a middle year be
tween the highest and lowest of those lately laid on
your table, the account was as follows : — 15

To North America and the West Indies . . £4,791,734

To Africa , 866,398

To which, if you add the export trade from

Scotland, which had in 1704 no existence . 364,000

£6,022,132 20

From five hundred and odd thousand, it has grown
to six millions. It has increased no less than twelve
fold. This is the state of the Colony trade as com
pared with itself at these two periods within this

16 BURKE

century ; — and this is matter for meditation. But
this is not all. Examine my second account. See
how the export trade to the Colonies alone in 1772
stood in the other point of view ; that is, as compared
5 to the whole trade of England in 1704 : —

The whole export trade of England, including

that to the Colonies, in 1704 £6,509,000

Export to the Colonies alone, in 1772 . . . 6,024,000

Difference, £485,000

10 The trade with America alone is now within less
than £500,000 of being equal to what this great com
mercial nation, England, carried on at the beginning
of this century with the whole world ! If I had taken
the largest year of those on your table, it would rather

15 have exceeded. But, it will be said, is not this Ameri
can trade an unnatural protuberance, that has drawn
the juices from the rest of the body ? The reverse.
It is the very food that has nourished every other
part into its present magnitude. Our general trade

20 has been greatly augmented, and augmented more or
less in almost every part to which it ever extended ;
but with this material difference, that of the six
millions which in the beginning of the century con
stituted the whole mass of our export commerce, the

CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES 17

Colony trade was but one-twelfth part; it is now (as
a part of sixteen millions) considerably more than a
third of the whole. This is the relative proportion of
the importance of the Colonies at these two periods ;
and all reasoning concerning our mode of treating 5
them must have this proportion as its basis ; or it is
a reasoning weak, rotten, and sophistical.

Mr. Speaker, I cannot prevail on myself to hurry
over iMs great consideration.0 It is good for us to be
here.0 We stand where we have an immense view of J0
what is, and what is past. Clouds, indeed, and dark
ness, rest upon the future. Let us, however, before
we descend from this noble eminence, reflect that this
growth of our national prosperity has happened within
the short period of the life of man. It has happened 15
within sixty-eight years. There are those alive whose
memory might touch the two extremities. For in
stance, my Lord Bathurst might remember all the
stages of the progress. He was in 1704 of an age at
least to be made to comprehend such things. He was 20
then old enough acta parentum jam legere, et quce sit
potuit cognoscere virtus.0 Suppose, Sir, that the angel
of this auspicious youth, foreseeing the many virtues
which made him one of the most amiable, as he is one
of the most fortunate, men of his age, had opened to 25
c

18 BURKE

him in vision that when in the fourth generation the
third Prince of the House of Brunswick had sat twelve
years on the throne of that nation which, by the happy
issue of moderate and healing counsels, was to be made
Great Britain, he should see his son, Lord Chancellor
of England, turn back the current of hereditary dig
nity to its fountain, and raise him to a higher rank of
peerage, whilst he enriched the family with a new one
— if, amidst these bright and happy scenes of domestic
honor and prosperity, that angel should have drawn
up the curtain, and unfolded the rising glories of his
country, and, whilst he was gazing with admiration
on the then commercial grandeur of England, the
genius should point out to him a little speck, scarcely
visible in the mass of the national interest, a small
seminal principle, rather than a formed body, and
should tell him : " Young man, there is America —
which at this day serves for little more than to
amuse you with stories of savage men, and uncouth
manners ; yet shall, before you taste of death,0 show
itself equal to the whole of that commerce which now
attracts the envy of the world. Whatever England
has been growing to by a progressive increase of
improvement, brought in by varieties of people, by
succession of civilizing conquests and civilizing settle-

CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES 19

ments in a series of seventeen hundred years, you
shall see as much added to her by America in the
course of a single life ! " If this state of his country
had been foretold to him, would it not require all the
sanguine credulity of youth, and all the fervid glow of 5
enthusiasm, to make him believe it ? Fortunate man,
he has lived to see it ! Fortunate, indeed, if he lives
to see nothing that shall vary the prospect, and cloud
the setting of his day !

Excuse me, Sir, if turning from such thoughts I 10
resume this comparative view once more. You have
seen it on a large scale ; look at it on a small one. I
will point out to your attention a particular instance
of it in the single province of Pennsylvania. In the
year 1704 that province called for £11,459 in value of 15
your commodities, native and foreign. This was the
whole. What did it demand in 1772 ? Why, nearly
fifty times as much; for in that year the export to
Pennsylvania was £507,909, nearly equal to the ex
port to all the Colonies together in the first period. 20

I choose, Sir, to enter into these minute and par
ticular details, because generalities, which in all other
cases are apt to heighten and raise the subject, have
here a tendency to sink it. When we s^eak of the
commerce with our Colonies, fiction lags after truth, 25

20 BURKE

invention is unfruitful, and imagination cold and
barren.

So far, Sir, as to the importance of the object, in
view of its commerce, as concerned in the exports from

5 England. If I were to detail the imports, I could
show how many enjoyments they procure which de
ceive the burthen of life ; how many materials which
invigorate the springs of national industry, and ex
tend and animate every part of our foreign and do-

10 mestic commerce. This would be a curious subject
indeed; but I must prescribe bounds to myself in a
matter so vast and various.

I pass, therefore, to the Colonies in another point
of view, their agriculture. This they have prosecuted

15 with such a spirit, that, besides feeding plentifully
their own growing multitude, their annual export of
grain, comprehending rice, has some years ago ex
ceeded a million in value. Of their last harvest I
am persuaded they will export much more. At the

20 beginning of the century some of these Colonies im
ported corn from the Mother Country. For some time
past the Old World has been fed from the New. The
scarcity which you have felt would have been a deso-
""ating famine, if this child of your old age, with a true

25 filial piety, with a Eoman charity,0 had not put the

CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES 21

full breast of its youthful exuberance to the mouth
of its exhausted parent.

As to the wealth which the Colonies have drawn
from the sea by their fisheries, you had all that matter
fully opened at your bar. You surely thought those J
acquisitions of value, for they seemed even to excite
your envy; and yet the spirit by which that enter
prising employment has been exercised ought rather,
in my opinion, to have raised your esteem and admira
tion. And pray, Sir, what in the world is equal to 10
it ? Pass by the other parts, and look at the manner
in which the people of New England have of late car
ried on the whale fishery. Whilst we follow them
among the tumbling mountains of ice, and behold
them penetrating into the deepest frozen recesses of 15
Hudson's Bay and Davis's Straits, whilst we are look
ing for them beneath the arctic circle, we hear that
they have pierced into the opposite region of polar
cold, that they are at the antipodes, and engaged
under the frozen Serpent of the south. Falkland 29
Island, which seemed too remote and romantic an ob
ject for the grasp of national ambition, is but a stage
and resting-place in the progress of their victorious
industry. Nor is the equinoctial heat more discour
aging to them than the accumulated winter of both q

22 BURKE

the poles. We know that whilst some of them
the line and strike the harpoon on the coast of Africa,
others run the longitude and pursue their gigantic
game along the coast of Brazil. No sea but what is

5 vexed by their fisheries ; no climate that is not wit
ness to their toils. Neither the perseverance of Hol
land, nor the activity of France, nor the dexterous
and firm sagacity of English enterprise ever carried
this most perilous mode of hardy industry to the ex-

10 tent to which it has been pushed by this recent peo
ple; a people who are still, as it were, but in the
gristle, and not yet hardened into the bone of man
hood. When I contemplate these things; when I
know that the Colonies in general owe little or noth-

15 ing to any care of ours, and that they are not squeezed
into this happy form by the constraints of watchful
and suspicious government, but that, through a wise
and salutary neglect, a generous nature has been suf
fered to take her own way to perfection ; when I re-

20 fleet upon these effects, when I see how profitable
they have been to us, I feel all the pride of power
sink, and all presumption in the wisdom of human
contrivances melt and die away within me. My rigor
relents. I pardon something to the spirit of liberty.

25 I am sensible, Sir, that all which I have asserted in

CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES 23

my detail is admitted in the gross ; but that quite a
different conclusion is drawn from it. America, gen
tlemen say, is a noble object. It is an object well
worth fighting for. Certainly it is, if fighting a peo
ple be the best way of gaining them. Gentlemen in 5
this respect will be led to their choice of means by
their complexions0 and their habits. Those who
understand the military art will of course have some
predilection for it. Those who wield the thunder of
the state ° may have more confidence in the efficacy of 10
arms. But I confess, possibly for want of this knowl
edge, my opinion is much more in favor of prudent
management than of force ; considering force not as
an odious, but a feeble instrument for preserving a
people so numerous, so active, so growing, so spirited 15
as this, in a profitable and subordinate connection
with us.

First, Sir, permit me to observe that the use of force
alone is but temporary. It may subdue for a moment,
but it does not remove the necessity of subduing again ; 20
and a nation is not governed ° which is perpetually to
be conquered.

My next objection is its uncertainty. Terror is not
always the effect of force, and an armament is not a
victoryi If you do not succeed, you are without re- 25

24 BURKE

source 5 for, conciliation failing, force remains; but,
force failing, no further hope of reconciliation is left.
Power and authority are sometimes bought by kind
ness ; but they can never be begged as alms by an

5 impoverished and defeated violence.

A further objection to force is, that you impair the
object by your very endeavors to preserve it. The
thing you fought for is not the thing which you re
cover ; but depreciated, sunk, wasted, and consumed

10 in the contest. Nothing less will content me than
whole America. I do not choose to consume its
strength along with our own, because in all parts it
is the British strength that I consume. I do not
choose to be caught by a foreign enemy at the end

15 of this exhausting conflict ; and still less in the midst
of it.. I may escape ; but I can make no insurance
against such an event. Let me add, that I do not
choose wholly to break the American spirit ; because
it is the spirit that has made the country.

2a Lastly, we have no sort of experience in favor of
force as an instrument in the rule of our Colonies.
Their growth and their utility has been owing to
methods altogether different. Our ancient indulgence0
has been said to be pursued to a fault. It may be so.

«5 But we know if feeling is evidence, that our fault waa

CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES 25

more tolerable than our attempt to mend it ; and our
sin far more salutary than our penitence.

These, Sir, are my reasons for not entertaining that
ligh opinion of untried force by which many gentle
men, for whose sentiments in other particulars I have
;reat respect, seem to be so greatly captivated. But
;here is still behind a third consideration concerning
;his object which serves to determine my opinion on
sort of policy which ought to be pursued in the man
agement of America, even more than its population and :a
its commerce — I mean its temper and character.

In this character of the Americans, a lo\ e of free
dom is the predominating feature which marks and
distinguishes the whole; and as an ardent is always
a jealous affection, your Colonies become suspicious, 15
restive, and untractable whenever they see the least
attempt to wrest from them by force, or shuffle from
them by chicane, what they think the only advantage
worth living for. This fierce spirit of liberty is
stronger in the English Colonies probably than in ^
any other people of the earth, and this from a great
variety of powerful causes ; which, to understand the
true temper of their minds and the direction which
this spirit takes, it will not be amiss to lay open some
what more largely. 2:

26 BURKE

First, the people of the Colonies are descendants ot
Englishmen. England, Sir, is a nation which still, I
hope, respects, and formerly adored, her freedom.
The Colonists emigrated from you when this part of(
your character was most predominant ; and the3r took;
this bias and direction the moment they parted from
your hands. They are therefore not only devoted to
liberty, but to liberty according to English ideas, and]
on English principles. Abstract liberty, like other:

10 mere abstractions, is not to be found. Liberty inheres
in some sensible object ; and every nation has formed!
to itself some favorite point, which by way of emi
nence becomes the criterion of their happiness. It!
happened, you know, Sir, that the great contests0 for

15 freedom in this country were from the earliest times
chiefly upon the question of taxing. Most of the con
tests in the ancient commonwealths turned primarily
on the right of election of magistrates; or on the
balance among the several orders of the state. The

20 question of money was not with them so immediate.
But in England it was otherwise. On this point of
taxes the ablest pens, and most eloquent tongues,
have been exercised ; the greatest spirits have acted
and suffered. In order to give the fullest satisfaction

^ concerning the importance of this point, it was not

CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES 27

only necessary for those who in argument defended
the excellence of the English Constitution to insist on
this privilege of granting money as a dry point of fact,
and to prove that the right had been acknowledged in
ancient parchments and blind usages to reside in a. 5
certain body called a House of Commons. They went
much farther ; they attempted to prove, and they suc
ceeded, that in theory it ought to be so, from the par
ticular nature of a House of Commons as an immediate
representative of the people, whether the old records ic
had delivered this oracle or not. They took infinite
pains to inculcate, as a fundamental principle, that in
all monarchies the people must in effect themselves,
mediately or immediately, possess the power of grant
ing their own money, or no shadow of liberty can 15
subsist. The Colonies draw from you, as with their
life-blood, these ideas and principles. Their love of
liberty, as with you, fixed and attached on this specific
point of taxing. Liberty might be safe, or might be
endangered, in twenty other particulars, without their 20
being mush pleased or alarmed. Here they felt its
pulse ; and as they found that beat, they thought
themselves sick or sound. I do not say whether they
were right or wrong in applying your general argu
ments to their own case. It is not easy, indeed, to 25

28 BURKE

make a monopoly of theorems and corollaries. The
fact is, that they did thus apply those general argu<
merits; and your mode of governing them, whether
through lenity or indolence, through wisdom or mis-

5 take, confirmed them in the imagination that they, as
well as you, had an interest in these common prin
ciples.

They were further confirmed in this pleasing error
by the form of their provincial legislative assemblies.

10 Their governments are popular in an high degree ; some
are merely popular ; in all, the popular representative
is the most weighty ; and this share of the people in
their ordinary government never fails to inspire them
with lofty sentiments, and with a strong aversion from

15 whatever tends to deprive them of their chief im
portance.

If anything were wanting to this necessary operation
of the form of government, religion would have given
it a complete effect. Religion, always a principle of

20 energy, in this new people is no way worn out or im-
paired; and their mode of professing it is also one
main cause of this free spirit. The people are Protes
tants ; and of that kind which is the most adverse to
all implicit submission of mind and opinion. This is

25 a persuasion not only favorable to liberty, but built

CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES 29

upon it. I do riot think, Sir, that the reason of this
averseness in the dissenting churches from all that
looks like absolute government is so much to be sought
in their religious tenets, as in their history. Every
one knows that the Roman Catholic religion is at least 5
co-eval with most of the governments where it pre
vails ; that it has generally gone hand in hand with
them, and received great favor and every kind of sup
port from authority. The Church of England too was
formed from her cradle under the nursing care of 10
regular government. But the dissenting interests
have sprung up in direct opposition to all the ordinary
powers of the world, and could justify that opposition
only on a strong claim to natural liberty. Their very
existence depended on the powerful and un remitted 15
assertion of that claim. All Protestantism, even the
most cold and passive, is a sort of dissent. But the
religion most prevalent in our Northern Colonies is a
refinement on the principle of resistance; it is the
dissidence of dissent, and the protestantism of the 20
Protestant religion. This religion, under a variety of
denominations agreeing in nothing but in the com
munion of the spirit of liberty, is predominant in most
of the Northern Provinces, where the Church of Eng
land, notwithstanding its legal rights, is in reality no 2;

30 BURKE

more than a sort of private sect, not composing most
probably the tenth of the people. The Colonists left
England when this spirit was high, and in the emi
grants was the highest of all ; and even that stream

5 of foreigners which has been constantly flowing into
these Colonies has, for the greatest part, been com
posed of dissenters from the establishments of their
several countries, who have brought with them a
temper and character far from alien to that of the

to people with whom they mixed.

Sir, I can perceive by their manner that some
gentlemen object to the latitude of this description,
because in the Southern Colonies the Church of Eng
land forms a large body, and has a regular establish-

»5 ment. It is certainly true. There is, however, a
circumstance attending these Colonies which, in my
opinion, fully counterbalances this difference, and
makes the spirit of liberty still more high and
haughty than in those to the northward. It is thati

20 in Virginia and the Carol mas they have a vast multi
tude of slaves. Where this is the case in any part of
the world, those who are free are by far the most
proud and jealous of their freedom. Freedom is to
them0 not only an enjoyment, but a kind of rank and

25 privilege. Not seeing there, that freedom, as in

CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES 31

countries where it is a common blessing and as broad
and general as the air, may be united with much
abject toil, with great misery, with all the exterior
of servitude ; liberty looks, amongst them, like some
thing that is more noble and liberal. I do not mean, \
Sir, to commend the superior morality of this senti
ment, which has at least as much pride as virtue in
it; but I cannot alter the nature of man. The fact
is so ; and these people of the Southern Colonies are
much more strongly, and with an higher and more 10
stubborn spirit, attached to liberty than those to the
northward. Such were all the ancient commonwealths ;
such were our Gothic ancestors; such in our days were
the Poles ; and such will be all masters of slaves,
who are not slaves themselves. In such a people the 15
haughtiness of domination combines with the spirit of
freedom, fortifies it, and renders it invincible.

Permit me, Sir, to add another circumstance in our
Colonies which contributes no mean part towards the
growth and effect of this untractable spirit. I mean 20
their education. In no country perhaps in the world
is the law so general a study. The profession itself
is numerous and powerful ; and in most provinces it
takes the lead. The greater number of the deputies
sent to the Congress were lawyers. But all who read, 2?

32 BURKE

and most do read, endeavor to obtain some smattering
in that science. I have been told by an eminent
bookseller, that in no branch of his business, after
tracts of popular devotion, were so many books as
those on the law exported to the Plantations. The
Colonists have now fallen into the way of printing
them for their own use. I hear that they have sold
nearly as many of Blackstone's Commentaries in
America as in England. General Gage marks out
o this disposition very particularly in a letter on your
table. He states that all the people in his govern
ment are lawyers, or smatterers in law ; and that in
Boston they have been enabled, by successful chicane,
wholly to evade many parts of one of your capital
'5 penal constitutions. The smartness of debate will say
that this knowledge ought to teach them more clearly
the rights of legislature, their obligations to obedience,
and the penalties of rebellion. All this is mighty
well. But my honorable and learned friend on the
20 floor, who condescends to mark what I say for animad
version, will disdain that ground. He has heard, as
well as I, that when great honors and great emolu
ments do not win over this knowledge to the service
of the state, it is a formidable adversary to govern-
as ment If the spirit be not tamed and broken by these

CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES 33

happy methods, it is stubborn and litigious. Abeunt
studia in mores? This study renders men acute, in
quisitive, dexterous, prompt in attack, ready in defence,
full of resources. In other countries, the people, more
simple, and of a less mercurial cast, judge of an ill
principle in government only by an actual grievance ;
here they anticipate the evil, and judge of the pressure
of the grievance by the badness of the principle. They
augur misgovernment at a distance, and snuff the ap
proach of tyranny in every tainted breeze.

The last cause of this disobedient spirit in the
Colonies is hardly less powerful than the rest, as it is
not merely moral, but laid deep in the natural consti
tution of things. Three thousand miles of ocean lie
between you and them. No contrivance can prevent
the effect of this distance in weakening government.
Seas roll, and months pass, between the order and the
execution ^ and the want of a speedy explanation of a
single point is enough to defeat a whole system. You
have, indeed, winged ministers of vengeance,0 who
carry your bolts in their pounces to the remotest
verge of the sea. But there a power steps in that
limits the arrogance of raging passions and furious
elements, and says, So far shall thou go, and no farther.
Who are you, that you should fret and rage, and bite

D

34 BURKE

the chain? of nature ? Nothing worse happens to
than does to all nations who have extensive empire
and it happens in all the forms into which empire can
be thrown. In large bodies the circulation0 of power

5 must be less vigorous at the extremities. Nature has
said it. The Turk cannot govern Egypt and Arabia
and Kurdistan as he governs Thrace ; nor has he the
same dominion in Crimea and Algiers which he has at
Brusa and Smyrna. Despotism itself is obliged to

10 truck and huckster. The Sultan gets such obedience
as he can. He governs with a loose rein, that he may
govern at all ; and the whole of the force and vigor of
his authority in his centre is derived from a prudent
relaxation in all his borders. Spain, in her provinces,

15 is, perhaps, not so well obeyed as you are in yours.
She complies, too ; she submits ; she watches times.
This is the immutable condition, the eternal law of
extensive and detached empire.

Then, Sir, from these six capital sources — of de-

-50 scent, of form of government, of religion in the North
ern Provinces, of manners in the Southern, of education.,
of the remoteness of situation from the first mover of
government — from all these causes a fierce spirit of
liberty has grown up. It has grown with the growth

?5 of the people in your Colonies, and increased with the

CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES 35

increase of their wealth ; a spirit that unhappily meet
ing with an exercise of power in England which, how
ever lawful, is not reconcilable to any ideas of liberty,
much less with theirs, has kindled this flame that is
ready to consume us. S

I do not mean to commend either the spirit in this
excess, or the moral causes which produce it. Perhaps
a more smooth and accommodating spirit of freedom
in them would be more acceptable to us. Perhaps
ideas of liberty might be desired more reconcilable 10
with an arbitrary and boundless authority. Perhaps
we might wish the Colonists to be persuaded that
their liberty is more secure when held in trust for
them by us, as their guardians during a perpetual
minority, than with any part of it in their own hands. 15
The question is, not whether their spirit deserves
praise or blame, but — what, in the name of God, shall
we do with it ? You have before you the object, such
as it is, with all its glories, with all its imperfections0
on its head. You see the magnitude, the importance, 2<t
the temper, the habits, the disorders. By all these
considerations we are strongly urged to determine
something concerning it. We are called upon to fix
some rule and line for our future conduct which may
give a little stability to our politics, and prevent the 25

36 BURKE

return of such unhappy deliberations as the present
Every such return will bring the matter before us in
a still more untractable form. Tor, what astonishing
and incredible things have we not seen already ! What

5 monsters have not been generated from this unnatural
contention ! Whilst every principle of authority and.
resistance has been pushed, upon both sides, as far as
it would go, there is nothing so solid and certain,
either in reasoning or in practice, that has not been

10 shaken. Until very lately all authority in America
seemed to be nothing but an emanation from yours.
Even the popular part of the Colony Constitution
derived all its activity and its first vital movement
from the pleasure of the Crown. We thought, Sir

is that the utmost which the discontented Colonies could
do was to disturb authority ; we never dreamt they
could of themselves supply it — knowing in general
what an operose business it is to establish a govern
ment absolutely new. But having, for our purposes

20 in this contention, resolved that none but an obedient
Assembly should sit, the humors of the people there,
finding all passage through the legal channel stopped,
with great violence broke out another way. Some
provinces have tried their experiment, as we have tried

25 ours; and theirs has succeeded. They have formed a

CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES 37

government sufficient for its purposes, without the
bustle of a revolution or the formality of an election.
Evident necessity and tacit consent have done the
business in an instant. So well they have done it,
that Lord Dunmore — the account is among the frag- $
ments on your table — tells you that the new insti
tution is infinitely better obeyed than the ancient
government ever was in its most fortunate periods.
Obedience is what makes government, and not the
names by which it is called ; not the name of Gov- 10
ernor, as formerly, or Committee, as at present. This
new government has originated directly from the peo
ple, and was not transmitted through any of the ordi
nary artificial media of a positive constitution. It
was not a manufacture ready formed, and transmitted 15
to them in that condition from England. The evil
arising from hence is this ; that the Colonists having
once found the possibility of enjoying the advantages
of order in the midst of a struggle for liberty, such
struggles will not henceforward seem so terrible to 2c
the settled and sober part of mankind as they had
appeared before the trial.

Pursuing the same plan0 of punishing by the denial
of the exercise of government to still greater lengths,
•we wholly abrogated the ancient government of Mas- 2?

38

sachusetts. We were confident that the first feeling
if not the very prospect, of anarchy would instantly
enforce a complete submission. The experiment was
tried. A new, strange, unexpected face of things ap-

3 peared. Anarchy is found tolerable. A vast province
has now subsisted, and subsisted in a considerable
degree of health and vigor for near a twelvemonth,
without Governor, without public Council, without
judges, without executive magistrates. How long it

i« will continue in this state, or what may arise out of
this unheard-of situation, how can the wisest of us
conjecture? Our late experience has taught us that
many of those fundamental principles, formerly be
lieved infallible, are either not of the importance they

-5 were imagined to be, or that we have not at all ad
verted to some other far more important and far more
powerful principles, which entirely overrule those we
had considered as omnipotent. I am much against
any further experiments which tend to put to the

20 proof any more of these allowed opinions which con
tribute so much to the public tranquillity. In effect
we suffer as much at home by this loosening of all
ties, and this concussion of all established opinions,
as we do abroad ; for in order to prove that the Ameri-

25 cans have no right to their liberties,0 we are every

CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES 39

day endeavoring to subvert the maxims which pre
serve the whole spirit of our own. To prove that the
Americans ought not to be free, we are obliged to
depreciate the value of freedom itself j and we never
seem to gain a paltry advantage over them in debate 3
without attacking some of those principles, or derid
ing some of those feelings, for which our ancestors
have shed their blood.

But, Sir, in wishing to put an end to pernicious ex
periments, I do not mean to preclude the fullest in- T*
quiry. Far from it. Far from deciding on a sudden
or partial view,0 I would patiently go round and round
the subject, and survey it minutely in every possible
aspect. Sir, if I were capable of engaging you to an
equal attention, I would state that, as far as I am ?>
capable of discerning, there are but three ways0 of
proceeding relative to this stubborn spirit which pre
vails in your Colonies, and disturbs your government.
These are — to change that spirit, as inconvenient, by
removing the causes ; to prosecute it as criminal ; or 2.
to comply with it as necessary. I would not be guilty
of an imperfect enumeration ; I can think of but these
three. Another has indeed been started, — that of
giving up the Colonies ; but it met so slight a recep
tion that I do not think myself obliged to dwell a 2j

40 BURKE

great while upon it. It is nothing but a little sally
of anger, like the frowardness of peevish children
who, when they cannot get all they would have, are
resolved to take nothing.

The first of these plans — to change the spirit, as
inconvenient, by removing the causes — I think is the
most like a systematic proceeding. It is radical in its
principle ; but it is attended with great difficulties,
some of them little short, as I conceive, of impossi-

.o bilities. This will appear by examining into the
plans which have been proposed.

As the growing population in the Colonies is ovi
dently one cause of their resistance, it was last session
mentioned in both Houses, by men of weight, and

15 received not without applause, that in order to check
this evil it would be proper for the Crown to make no
further grants of land. But to this scheme there are
two objections. The first, that there is already so
much unsettled land in private hands as to afford

20 room for an immense future population, although the
Crown not only withheld its grants, but annihilated
its soil. If this be the case, then the only effect of
this avarice of desolation, this hoarding of a royal
wilderness, would be to raise the value of the posses-

25 sions in the hands of the great private monopolists

CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES 41

without any adequate check to the growing and alarm
ing mischief of population.

But if you stopped your grants, what would be
the consequence ? The people would occupy without
grants. They have already so occupied in manj
places. You cannot station garrisons in ^very part
of these deserts. If you drive the people from one
place, they will carry on their annual tillage, and
remove with their flocks and herds to another. Many
of the people in the back settlements are already little K
attached to particular situations. Already they have
topped the Appalachian Mountains. From thence they
behold before them an immense plain, one vast, rich,
level meadow ; a square of five hundred miles. Over
this they would wander without a possibility of re
straint; they would change their manners with the
habits of their life ; would soon forget a government
by which they were disowned ; would become hordes
of English Tartars ; and, pouring down upon your
unfortified frontiers a fierce and irresistible cavalry, 26
become masters of your governors and your counsel
lors, your collectors and comptrollers, and of all the
slaves that adhered to them. Such would, and in no
ong time must be, the effect of attempting to forbid
as a crime and to suppress as an evil the command 2j

42 BURKE

and blessing of providence, Increase and multiply
Such would be the happy result of the endeavor to
keep as a lair of wild beasts that earth which God,
by an express charter, has given to the children of

5 men. Ear different, and surely much wiser, has been
our policy hitherto. Hitherto we have invited our
people, by every kind of bounty, to fixed establish
ments. We have invited the husbandman to look
to authority for his title. We have taught him

10 piously to believe in the mysterious virtue of wax
and parchment. We have thrown each tract of land,
as it was peopled, into districts, that the ruling power
should never be wholly out of sight. We have set
tled all we could ; and we have carefully attended

15 every settlement with government.

Adhering, Sir, as I do, to this policy, as well as for
the reasons I have just given, I think this new project
of hedging-in population to be neither prudent nor
practicable.

20 To impoverish the Colonies in general, and in par
ticular to arrest the noble course of their marine enter
prises, would be a more easy task. I freely confess
it. We have shown a disposition to a system of this
kind, a disposition even to continue the restraint after

25 the offence, looking on ourselves as rivals to our Colo*

CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES 43

nies, and persuaded that of course we must gain all
that they shall lose. Much mischief we may certainly
do. The power inadequate to all other things is often
more than sufficient for this. I do not look on the
direct and immediate power of the Colonies to resist S
our violence as very formidable. In this, however,
I may be mistaken. But when I consider that we
have Colonies for no purpose but to be serviceable to
us, it seems to my poor understanding a little pre
posterous to make them unserviceable in order to ia
keep them obedient. It is, in truth, nothing more
than the old and, as I thought, exploded problem of
tyranny, which proposes to beggar its subjects into
submission. But remember, when you have com
pleted your system of impoverishment, that nature 15
still proceeds in her ordinary course ; that discontent
will increase with misery ; and that there are critical
moments in the fortune of all states when they who
are too weak to contribute to your prosperity may be
strong enough to complete your ruin. Spoliatis arma 20
super sunt°

The temper and character which prevail in our Col
onies are, I am afraid, unalterable by any human art.
We cannot, I fear, falsify the pedigree of this fierce
people, and persuade them that they are not sprung 2$

44 BURKE

from a nation in whose veins the blood of freedom
circulates. The language in which they would heai
you tell them this tale would detect the imposition;
your speech would betray you.0 An Englishman is
the unfittest person on earth to argue another Eng
lishman into slavery.

I think it is nearly as little in our power to change
their republican religion as their free descent ; or to
substitute the Roman Catholic as a penalty, or the
Church of England as an improvement. The mode
of inquisition and dragooning is going out of fashion
in the Old World, and I should not confide much to
their efficacy in the New. The education of the
Americans is also on the same unalterable bottom
with their religion. You cannot persuade them to
burn their books of curious science ; to banish their
lawyers from their courts of laws ; or to quench the
lights of their assemblies by refusing to choose those
persons who are best read in their privileges. It
would be no less impracticable to think of wholly
annihilating the popular assemblies in which these
lawyers sit. The army, by which we must govern in
their place, would be far more chargeable to us, not
quite so effectual, and perhaps in the end full as cliffi-
cult to be kept in obedience.

CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES 45

With regard to the high, aristocratic spirit of Vir
ginia and the Southern Colonies, it has been proposed,
I know, to reduce it by declaring a general enfran
chisement of their slaves. This object has had its ad
vocates and panegyrists ; yet I never could argue myself 5
into any opinion of it. Slaves are often much attached
to their masters. A general wild offer of liberty would
not always be accepted. History furnishes few in
stances of it. It is sometimes as hard to persuade
slaves0 to be free, as it is to compel freemen to be 10
slaves ; and in this auspicious scheme we should have
both these pleasing tasks on our hands at once. But
when we talk of enfranchisement, do we not perceive
that the American master may enfranchise too, and
arm servile hands in defence of freedom ? — a measure 15
to which other people have had recourse more than
once, and not without success, in a desperate situation
of their affairs.

Slaves as these unfortunate black people are, and
dull as all men are from slavery, must they not a little ao
suspect the offer of freedom from that very nation
which has sold them to their present masters ? — from
that nation, one of whose causes of quarrel0 with those
masters is their refusal to deal any more in that in
human traffic ? An offer of freedom from England 25

46 BURKE

would come rather oddly, shipped to them in an Afri
can vessel which is refused an entry into the ports oi
Virginia or Carolina with a cargo of three hundred
Angola negroes. It would be curious to see the Guinea

5 captain attempting at the same instant to publish his
proclamation of liberty, and to advertise his sale of
slaves.

But let us suppose all these moral difficulties got
over. The ocean remains. You cannot pump this

10 dry ; and as long as it continues in its present bed,
so long all the causes which weaken authority by
distance will continue.

" Ye gods, annihilate but space and time,
And make two lovers happy ! "

15 was a pious and passionate prayer ; but just as reason
able as many of the serious wishes of grave and so1
emn politicians.

If then, Sir, it seems almost desperate to think of
any alterative course for changing the moral causes,

20 and not quite easy to remove the natural, which pro
duce prejudices irreconcilable to the late exercise of
our authority — but that the spirit infallibly will con
tinue, and, continuing, will produce such effects as

CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES 4?

now embarrass us — the second mode under considera
tion is to prosecute that spirit in its overt acts as
criminal.

At this proposition I must pause a moment. The
thing seems a great deal too big for my ideas of juris- J
prudence. It should seem to my way of conceiving
such matters that there is a very wide difference, in
reason and policy, between the mode of proceeding on
the irregular conduct of scattered individuals, or even
of bands of men who disturb order within the state, 10
and the civil dissensions which may, from time to
time, on great questions, agitate the several communi
ties which compose a great empire. It looks to me to
be narrow and pedantic to apply the ordinary ideas of
criminal justice to this great public contest. I do not 13
know the method of drawing up an indictment against
a whole people. I cannot insult and ridicule the feel
ings of millions of my fellow-creatures as Sir Edward
Coke insulted one excellent individual (Sir Walter
Raleigh) at the bar. I hope I am not ripe to pass 20
sentence on the gravest public bodies, intrusted with
magistracies of great authority and dignity, and
charged with the safety of their fellow-citizens, upon
the very same title that I am. I really think that,
for wise men, this is not judicious; for sober men, 25

48 BURKE

not decent; for minds tinctured with humanity, not
mild and merciful.

Perhaps, Sir, I am mistaken in my idea of an em
pire, as distinguished from a single state or kingdom.

5 But my idea of it is this ; that an empire is the aggre
gate of many states under one common head, whether
this head be a monarch or a presiding republic. It
does, in such constitutions, frequently happen — and
nothing but the dismal, cold, dead uniformity of servi-

ro tude can prevent its happening — that the subordinate
parts have many local privileges and immunities. Be
tween these privileges and the supreme common au
thority the line may be extremely nice. Of course
disputes, often, too, very bitter disputes, and much ill

15 blood, will arise. But though every privilege is an
exemption, in the case, from the ordinary exercise of
the supreme authority, it is no denial of it. The claim
of a privilege seems rather, ex vi termini,0 to imply a
superior power ; for to talk of the privileges of a state

20 or of a person who has no superior is hardly any better
than speaking nonsense. Now, in such unfortunate
quarrels among the component parts of a great politi
cal union of communities, I can scarcely conceive any
thing more completely imprudent than for the head of

*5 the empire to insist that, if any privilege is pleaded

CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES 49

against his will or his acts, his whole authority is
denied; instantly to proclaim rebellion, to beat to
arms, and to put the offending provinces under the
ban. Will not this, Sir, very soon teach the provinces
to make no distinctions on their part ? Will it not
teach them that the government, against which a claim
of liberty is tantamount to high treason, is a govern
ment to which submission is equivalent to slavery ?
It may not always be quite convenient to impress de
pendent communities with such an idea. 10

We are, indeed, in all disputes with the Colonies, by
the necessity of things, the judge. It is true, Sir.
But I confess that the character of judge in my own
cause is a thing that frightens me. Instead of filling
rne with pride, I am exceedingly humbled by it. I 15
cannot proceed with a stern, assured, judicial confi
dence, until I find myself in something more like a
judicial character. I must have these hesitations as
long as I am compelled to recollect that, in my little
reading upon such contests as these, the sense of man- 20
kind has at lea^t as often decided against the superior
as the subordinate power. Sir, let me add, too, that
the opinion of my having some abstract right0 in my
favor would not put me much at my ease in passing
sentence, unless I could be sure that there were no 25

50 BURKE

rights which, in their exercise under certain circum
stances, were not the most odious of all wrongs and
the most vexatious of all injustice. Sir, these consid
erations have great weight with me when I find things

5 so circumstanced, that I see the same party at once a.
civil litigant against me in point of right and a culprit
before me, while I sit as a criminal judge on acts of
his whose moral quality is to be decided upon the
merits of that very litigation. Men are every now and

10 then put, by the complexity of human affairs, into
strange situations; but justice is the same, let the
judge be in what situation he will.

There is, Sir, also a circumstance which convinces
me that this mode of criminal proceeding is not, at

15 least in the present stage of our contest, altogether
expedient ; which is nothing less than the conduct of
those very persons who have seemed to adopt that mode
by lately declaring a rebellion in Massachusetts Bay,
as they had formerly addressed to have traitors brought

*o hither, under an Act of Henry the Eighth,0 for trial.
For though rebellion is declared, it is not proceeded
against as such, nor have any steps been taken towards
the apprehension or conviction of any individual of
fender, either on our late or our former Address ; but

25 modes of public coercion have been adopted, and such

CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES 51

&s have much, more resemblance to a sort of qualified
hostility towards an independent power than the pun
ishment of rebellious subjects. All this seems rather
inconsistent ; but it shows how difficult it is to apply
these juridical ideas to our present case. 5

In this situation, let us seriously and coolly ponder.
What is it we have got by all our menaces, which have
been many and ferocious? What advantage have we
derived from the penal laws we have passed, and which,
for the time, have been severe and numerous ? What id
advances have we made towards our object by the send
ing of a force which, by land arid sea, is no contempti
ble strength? Has the disorder abated? Nothing
less. When I see things in this situation after such
confident hopes, bold promises, and active exertions, 15
I cannot, for my life, avoid a suspicion that the plan
itself is not correctly right.0

If, then, the removal of the causes of this spirit of
American liberty be for the greater part, or rather en
tirely, impracticable ; if the ideas of criminal process 20
be inapplicable — or, if applicable, are in the highest
degree inexpedient ; what way yet remains ? No way
is open but the third and last, — to comply with the
American spirit as necessary ; or, if you please, to
submit to it as a necessary evil. 25

52 BURKE

If we adopt this mode, — if we mean to conciliate
and concede, — let us see of what nature the conces
sion ought to be. To ascertain the nature of oar eoi*
cession, we must look at their complaint. The Colonies.

5 complain that they have not the characteristic mark
and seal of British freedom. They complain that they
are taxed in a Parliament in which they are not repre
sented. If you mean to satisfy them at all, you must
satisfy them with regard to this complaint. If you

10 mean to please any people you must give them the
boon which they ask ; not what you may think better
for them, but of a kind totally different. Such an
act may be a wise regulation, but it is no concession ;
whereas our present theme is the mode of giving

15 satisfaction.

Sir, I think you must perceive that I am resolved
this day to have nothing at all to do with the ques
tion of the right of taxation. Some gentlemen start
— but it is true; I put it totally out of the question.

20 It is less than nothing in my consideration. I do not
indeed wonder, nor will you, Sir, that gentlemen of
profound learning are fond of displaying it on this
profound subject. But my consideration is narrow,
confined, and wholly limited to the policy of the ques-

2 5 tion. I do not examine whether the giving away a

CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES 53

man's money be a power excepted and reserved out
of the general trust of government, and how far all
mankind, in all forms of polity, are entitled to an
exercise of that right by the charter of nature; or
whether, 011 the contrary, a right of taxation is neces- 5
sarily involved in the general principle of legislation,
and inseparable from the ordinary supreme power.
These are deep questions, where great names militate
against each other, where reason is perplexed, and an
appeal to authorities only thickens the confusion ; for TO
high and reverend authorities lift up their heads on
both sides, and there is no sure footing in the middle.
This point is the great

"Serbonianbog,

Betwixt Damiata and Mount Casius old, 15

Where armies whole have sunk."0

I do not intend to be overwhelmed in that bog, though
in such respectable company. The question0 with me
is, not whether you have a right to render your people
miserable, but whether it is not your interest to make 2C
them happy. It is not what a lawyer tells me I may
do, but what humanity, reason, and justice tell me I
ought .to do. Is a politic act the worse for being a
generous one ? Is no concession proper but that whict

54 BURKE

is made from your want of right to keep what
<*rant? Or does it lessen the grace or dignity of re
laxing in the exercise of an odious claim because you
have your evidence-room full of titles, and your maga-

5 zines stuffed with arms to enforce them ? What sig
nify all those titles, and all those arms? Of what
avail are they, when the reason of the thing tells me
that the assertion of my title is the loss of my suit,
and that I could do nothing but wound myself by the

10 use of my own weapons ?

Such is steadfastly my opinion of the absolute neces
sity of keeping up the concord of this Empire by an
unity of spirit, though in a diversity of operations,
that, if I were sure the Colonists had, at their leav-

15 ing this country, sealed a regular compact of servi
tude ; that they had solemnly abjured all the rights
of citizens ; that they had made a vow to renounce
all ideas of liberty for them and their posterity to
all generations ; yet I should hold myself obliged to

20 conform to the temper I found universally prevalent
in my own day, and to govern two million of men,
impatient of servitude, on the principles of freedom.
I am not determining a point of law, I am restoring
tranquillity ; and the general character and situation

25 of a people must determine what sort of government

CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES 55

is fitted for them. That point nothing else can or
ought to determine.

My idea, therefore, without considering whether we
yield as matter of right, or grant as matter of favor,
is to admit the people of our Colonies into an interest 5
in the Constitution ; and, by recording that admission
in the journals of Parliament, to give them as strong an
assurance as the nature of the thing will admit, that we
mean forever to adhere to that solemn declaration of
systematic indulgence. IQ

Some years ago the repeal of a revenue Act, upon
its understood principle, might have served to show
that we intended an unconditional abatement of the
exercise of a taxing power. Such a measure was then
sufficient to remove all suspicion, and to give perfect 15
content. But unfortunate events since that time may
make something further necessary ; and not more neces
sary for the satisfaction of the Colonies than for the
dignity and consistency of our own future proceedings.

I have taken a very incorrect measure of the dispo- 20
sition of the House if this proposal in itself would
be received with dislike. I think, Sir, we have few
American financiers. But our misfortune is, we are
too acute, we are too exquisite0 in our conjectures of
the future, for men oppressed with such great and «/

56 BURKE

present evils. The more moderate among the opposers
of Parliamentary concession freely confess that they
hope no good from taxation, but they apprehend the
Colonists have further views; and if this point were

5 conceded, they would instantly attack the trade laws.0
These gentlemen are convinced that this was the in
tention from the beginning, and the quarrel of the
Americans with taxation was no more than a cloak
and cover to this design. Such has been the language

10 even of a gentleman of real moderation, and of a nat
ural temper well adjusted to fair and equal govern
ment. I am, however, Sir, not a little surprised at
this kind of discourse, whenever I hear it ; and I am
the more surprised on account of the arguments which

15 I constantly find in company with it, and which are

often urged from the same mouths and on the same day.

For instance, when we allege that it is against reason

to tax a people under so many restraints in trade as the

Americans, the noble lord in the blue ribbon shall teL

20 you that the restraints on trade are futile and useless
— of no advantage to us, and of no burthen to those
on whom they are imposed; that the trade to America
is not secured by the Acts of Navigation, but by the
natural and irresistible advantage of a commercial

25 preference.

CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES 57

Such is the merit of the trade laws in this posture
of the debate. But when strong internal circum
stances are urged against the taxes ; when the scheme
is dissected; when experience and the nature of things
are brought to prove, and do prove, the utter impos- 5
sibility of obtaining an effective revenue from the
Colonies; when these things are pressed, or rather
press themselves, so as to drive the advocates of
Colony taxes to a clear admission of the futility of
the scheme; then, Sir, the sleeping trade laws revive 10
from their trance, and this useless taxation is to be
kept sacred, not for its own sake, but as a counter-
guard and security of the laws of trade.

Then, Sir, you keep up revenue laws which are
mischievous, in order to preserve trade laws that are 15
useless. Such is the wisdom of our plan in both its
members. They are separately given up as of no
value, and yet one is always to be defended for the
sake of the other ; but I cannot agree with the noble
lord, nor with the pamphlet from whence he seems to 20
have borrowed these ideas concerning the inutility of
the trade laws. For, without idolizing them, I am
sure they are still, in many ways, of great use to us;
and in former times they have been of the greatest.
They do confine, and they do greatly narrow, the 25

58 BURKE

market for the Americans ; but my perfect conviction
of this does not help me in the least to discern how
the revenue laws form any security whatsoever to the
commercial regulations, or that these commercial regu-

5 lations are the true ground of the quarrel, or that the
giving way, in any one instance of authority, is to lose
all that may remain unconceded.

One fact is clear and indisputable. The public and
avowed origin of this quarrel was on taxation. This

co quarrel has indeed brought on new disputes on new
questions ; but certainly the least bitter, and the fewest
of all, on the trade laws. To judge which of the two
be the real radical cause of quarrel, we have to see
whether the commercial dispute did, in order of time,

t5 precede the dispute on taxation? There is not a
shadow of evidence for it. Next, to enable us to
judge whether at this moment a dislike to the trade
laws be the real cause of quarrel, it is absolutely
necessary to put the taxes out of the question by a

jo repeal. See how the Americans act in this position,
and then you will be able to discern correctly what is
the true object of the controversy, or whether any con
troversy at all will remain. Unless you consent to
remove this cause of difference, it is impossible, with

»5 decency, to assert that the dispute is not upon what

CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES 59

it is avowed to be. And I would, Sir, recommend to
your serious consideration whether it be prudent to
form a rule for punishing people, not on their own
acts, but on your conjectures? Surely it is prepos
terous at the very best. It is not justifying your 5
anger by their misconduct, but it is converting your
ill-will into their delinquency.

But the Colonies will go further. Alas ! alas ! when
will this speculation against fact and reason end?
What will quiet these panic fears which we entertain 10
of the hostile effect of a conciliatory conduct? Is it
true that no case can exist in which it is proper for
the sovereign to accede to the desires of his discon
tented subjects? Is there anything peculiar in this
case to make a rule for itself? Is all authority of 15
course lost when it is not pushed to the extreme? Is
it a certain maxim* that the fewer causes of dissatisfac
tion are left by government, the more the subject will
be inclined to resist and rebel?

All these objections being in fact no more than sus- 20
picions, conjectures, divinations, formed in defiance
of fact and experience, they did not, Sir, discourage
me from entertaining the idea of a conciliatory con
cession founded on the principles which I have just
stated. *S

60 BURKE

In forming a plan for this purpose, I endeavored to
put myself in that frame of mind which was the most
natural and the most reasonable, and which was cer
tainly the most probable means of securing me from

5 all error. I set out with a perfect distrust of my own
abilities, a total renunciation of every speculation of
my own, and with a profound reverence for the wisdom
of our ancestors who have left us the inheritance of
so happy a constitution and so flourishing an empire,

10 and, what is a thousand times more valuable, the
treasury of the maxims and principles which formed
the one and obtained the other.

During the reigns of the kings of Spain of the
Austrian family, whenever they were at a loss in the

15 Spanish councils, it was common for their statesmen
to say that they ought to consult the genius of Philip
the Second. The genius of Philip the Second might
mislead them, and the issue of their affairs showed
that they had not chosen the most perfect standard;

20 but, Sir, I am sure that I shall not be misled when,
in a case of constitutional difficulty, I consult the gen
ius of the English Constitution. Consulting at that
oracle — it was with all due humility and piety — I
found four capital examples in a similar case before

25 me; those of Ireland, Wales, Chester, and Durham.

CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES 61

Ireland, before the English conquest,0 though never
governed by a despotic power, had no Parliament.
How far the English Parliament itself was at that
time modelled according to the present form is dis
puted among antiquaries; but we have all the reason 5
in the world to be assured that a form of Parliament
such as England then enjoyed she instantly communi
cated to Ireland, and we are equally sure that almost
every successive improvement in constitutional lib
erty, as fast as it was made here, was transmitted 10
thither. The feudal baronage and the feudal knight
hood, the roots of our primitive Constitution, were
early transplanted into that soil, and grew and flour
ished there. Magna Charta, if it did not give us
originally the House of Commons, gave us at least a 15
House of Commons of weight and consequence. But
your ancestors did not churlishly sit down alone to
the feast of Magna Charta. Ireland was made im
mediately a partaker. This benefit of English laws
and liberties, I confess, was not at first extended to 20
all Ireland. Mark the consequence. English au
thority and English liberties had exactly the same
boundaries. Your standard could never be advanced
an inch before your privileges. Sir John Davis shows
beyond a doubt that the refusal of a general commuui- *s

62 BURKS

cation of these rights was the true cause why Ireland
was five hundred years in subduing; and after the
vain projects of a military government, attempted in
the reign of Queen Elizabeth, it was soon discovered

5 that nothing could make that country English, in
civility and allegiance, but your laws and your forms
of legislature. It was not English arms, but the
English Constitution, that conquered Ireland. From
that time Ireland has ever had a general Parliament,

io as she had before a partial Parliament. You changed
the people ; you altered the religion ; but you never
touched the form or the vital substance of free govern
ment in that kingdom. You deposed kings;0 you
restored them ; you altered the succession to theirs, as

15 well as to your own Crown; but you never altered
their Constitution, the principle of which was re
spected by usurpation, restored with the restoration
of monarchy, and established, I trust, forever, by the
glorious Ee volution. This has made Ireland the great

20 and nourishing kingdom that it is, and, from a dis
grace and a burthen intolerable to this nation, has
rendered her a principal part of our strength and
ornament. This country cannot be said to have ever
formally taxed her. The irregular things done in the

25 confusion of mighty troubles and on the hinge of

CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES 63

great revolutions, even if all were done that is said
to have been done, form no example. If they have
any effect in argument, they make an exception to
prove the rule. None of your own liberties could
stand a moment, if the casual deviations from them 5
at such times were suffered to be used as proofs of
their nullity. By the lucrative amount of such casual
breaches in the Constitution, judge what the stated
and fixed rule of supply has been in that kingdom.
Your Irish pensioners would starve, if they had no "
other fund to live on than taxes granted by English
authority. Turn your eyes to those popular grants
from whence all your great supplies are come, and
learn to respect that only source of public wealth in
the British Empire. 15

My next example is Wales. This country was said
to be reduced by Henry the Third. It was said more
truly to be so by Edward the First. But though then
conquered, it was not looked upon as any part of the
realm of England. Its old Constitution, whatever 20
that might have been, was destroyed, and no good one
was substituted in its place. The care of that tract
was put into the hands of Lords Marchers0 — a form
of government of a very singular kind; a strange
heterogeneous monster, something between hostility 25

64 BURKE

and government ; perhaps it has a sort of resemblance,
according to the modes of those terms, to that of
Commander-in-chief at present, to whom all civil
power is granted as secondary. The manners of the
5 Welsh nation followed the genius of the government.
The people were ferocious, restive, savage, and uncul
tivated; sometimes composed, never pacified. Wales,
within itself, was in perpetual disorder, and it kept
the frontier of England in perpetual alarm. Benefits
10 from it to the state there were none. Wales was only
known to England by incursion and invasion.

Sir, during that state of things, Parliament was not
idle. They attempted to subdue the fierce spirit of
the Welsh by all sorts of rigorous laws. They pro-
is hibited by statute the sending all sorts of arms into
Wales, as you prohibit by proclamation (with some
thing more of doubt on the legality) the sending arms
to America. They disarmed the Welsh by statute, as
you attempted (but still with more question on the
20 legality) to disarm New England by an instruction.
They made an Act to drag offenders from Wales into
England for trial, as you have done (but with more
hardship) with regard to America. By another Act,
where one of the parties was an Englishman, they
25 ordained that his trial should be always by English,

CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES 65

They made Acts to restrain trade, as you do; and
they prevented the Welsh from the use of fairs and
markets, as you do the Americans from fisheries
and foreign ports. In short, when the Statute Book
was not quite so much swelled as it is now, you find 5
no less than fifteen acts of penal regulation on the
subject of Wales.

Here we rub our hands. — A fine body of precedents
for the authority of Parliament and the use of it ! —
I admit it fully ; and pray add likewise to these prece- 10
dents that all the while Wales rid this Kingdom like
an incubus, that it was an unprofitable and oppressive
burthen, and that an Englishman travelling in that
country could not go six yards from the high road
without being murdered. 15

The march of the human mind is slow. Sir, it was
not until after two hundred years discovered that, by
an eternal law, providence had decreed vexation to
violence, and poverty to rapine. Your ancestors did
however at length open their eyes to the ill-husbandry 20
of injustice. They found that the tyranny of a free
people could of all tyrannies the least be endured, and
that laws made against a whole nation were not the
most effectual methods of securing its obedience.
Accordingly, in the twenty-seventh year of Henry the 25

66 BURKE

Eighth the course was entirely altered. With a pre
amble stating the entire and perfect rights of the
Crown of England, it gave to the Welsh all the rights
and privileges of English subjects. A political order

5 was established ; the military power gave way to the
civil; the Marches were turned into Counties. But
that a nation should have a right to English liberties,
and yet no share at all in the fundamental security of
these liberties — the grant of their own property —

10 seemed a thing so incongruous that, eight years after,
that is, in the thirty-fifth of that reign, a complete
and not ill-proportioned representation by counties
and boroughs was bestowed upon Wales by Act of
Parliament. From that moment, as by a charm, the

15 tumults subsided; obedience was retored; peace, order,
and civilization followed in the train of liberty.
When the day-star of the English Constitution had
arisen in their hearts, all was harmony within and
without —

20 " — simul alba nautis

Stella refulsit,

Defluit saxis agitatus humor ;
Concidunt venti, fugiuntque nubes,
Et minax (quod sic voluere) ponto

«5 Unda recumbit." °

CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES 67

The very same year the County Palatine of Chester
received the same relief from its oppressions and
the same remedy to its disorders. Before this time
Chester was little less distempered than Wales. The
inhabitants, without rights themselves, were the fit- $
test to destroy the rights of others ; and from thence
Richard the Second drew the standing army of archers
with which for a time he oppressed England. The
people of Chester applied to Parliament in a petition
penned as I shall read to you : 10

" To the King, our Sovereign Lord, in most humble wise
shewen unto your excellent Majesty the inhabitants of
your Grace's County Palatine of Chester : (1) That where
the said County Palatine of Chester is and hath been al
ways hitherto exempt, excluded, and separated out and 15
from your High Court of Parliament, to have any Knights
and Burgesses within the said Court ; by reason whereof
the said inhabitants have hitherto sustained manifold
disherisons, losses, and damages, ag well in their lands,
goods, and bodies, as in the good, civil, and politic govern- ao
ance and maintenance of the commonwealth of their said
county ; (2) And forasmuch as the said inhabitants have
always hitherto been bound by the Acts and Statutes
made and ordained by your said Highness and your most
noble progenitors, by authority of the said Court, as far 2j
forth as other counties, cities, and boroughs have been,
that have had their Knights and Burgesses within your

68 BURKE

said Court of Parliament, and yet have had neither Knight
ne Burgess there for the said County Palatine ; the said
inhabitants, for lack thereof, have been oftentime, touched
and grieved with Acts and Statutes made within the said
§ Court, as well derogatory unto the most ancient jurisdic

tions, liberties, and privileges of your said County Pala
tine, as prejudicial unto the commonwealth, quietness,
rest, and peace of your Grace's most bounden subjects
inhabiting within the same."

10 What did Parliament with this audacious address?

— Reject it as a libel? Treat it as an affront to
Government? Spurn it as a derogation from the
rights of legislature? Did they toss it over the table?
Did they burn it by the hands of the common hang-

15 man? — They took the petition of grievance, all rugged
as it was, without softening or temperament, unpurged
of the original bitterness and indignation of complaint

— they made it the very preamble to their Act of re
dress, and consecrated its principle to all ages in the

20 sanctuary of legislation.

Here is my third example. It was attended with
the success of the two former. Chester, civilized as
well as Wales, has demonstrated that freedom, and
not servitude, is the cure of anarchy ; as religion, and

25 not atheism, is the true remedy for superstition. Sir,
this pattern of Chester was followed in the reign of

CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES 69

Charles the Second with regard to the County Palatine
of Durham, which is my fourth example. This county
had long lain out of the pale of free legislation. So
scrupulously was the example of Chester followed
that the style of the preamble is nearly the same 5
with that of the Chester Act; and, without affecting
the abstract extent of the authority of Parliament, it
recognizes the equity of not suffering any consider
able district in which the British subjects may act as
a body, to be taxed without their own voice in the 10
grant.

Now if the doctrines of policy contained in these
preambles, and the force of these examples in the
Acts of Parliaments, avail anything, what can be said
against applying them with regard to America? Are 15
not the people of America as much Englishmen as the
Welsh? The preamble of the Act of Henry the Eighth
says the Welsh speak a language no way resembling
that of his Majesty's English subjects. Are the
Americans not as numerous? If we may trust the 23
learned and accurate Judge Barrington's account of
North Wales, and take that as a standard to measure
the rest, there is no comparison. The people cannot
amount to above 200,000; not a tenth part of the
j>Mmber in the Colonies. Is America in rebellion? a?

70 BURKE

Wales was hardly ever free from it. Have you at
tempted to govern America by penal statutes? You
made fifteen for Wales. But your legislative author
ity is perfect with regard to America. Was it less

5 perfect in Wales, Chester, and Durham? But America
is virtually represented. What! does the electric
force of virtual representation more easily pass over
the Atlantic than pervade Wales, which lies in your
neighborhood — or than Chester and Durham, sur-

10 rounded by abundance of representation that is actual
and palpable? But, Sir, your ancestors thought this
sort of virtual representation, however ample, to be
totally insufficient for the freedom of the inhabitants
of territories that are so near, and comparatively so

15 inconsiderable. How then can I think it sufficient
for those which are infinitely greater, and infinitely
more remote?

You will now,- Sir, perhaps imagine that I am on
the point of proposing to you a scheme for a repre-

20 sentation of the Colonies in Parliament. Perhaps I
might be inclined to entertain some such thought ; but
a great flood stops me in my course. Opposuit natura.0
— I cannot remove the eternal barriers of the creation.
The thing, in that mode, I do not know to be possible.

25 As I meddle with no theory,0 I do not absolutely

CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES 71

assert the impracticability of such a representation;
but I do not see my way to it, and those who have
been more confident have not been more successful.
However, the arm of public benevolence is not short
ened, and there are often several means to the same
end. What nature has disjoined in one way, wisdom
may unite in another. When we cannot give the
benefit as we would wish, let us not refuse it alto
gether. If we cannot give the principal, let us find a
substitute. But how? Where? What substitute?

Fortunately I am not obliged, for the ways and
means of this substitute, to tax my own unproductive
invention. I am not even obliged to go to the rich
treasury of the fertile framers of imaginary common
wealths — not to the Kepublic of Plato,0 not to the
Utopia of More,0 not to the Oceana of Harrington.
It is before me — it is at my feet,

" And the rude swain
Treads daily on it with his clouted shoon."0

I only wish you to recognize, for the theory, the
ancient constitutional policy of this kingdom with
regard tu representation, as that policy has been de
clared in Acts of Parliament; and as to the practice,
to return to that mode which a uniform experience

72 BURKE

has marked out to you as best, and in which you
walked with security, advantage, and honor, until
the year 1763.°

My Eesolutions therefore mean to establish the

5 equity and justice of a taxation of America by grant,
and not by imposition; to mark the legal competency*
of the Colony Assemblies for the support of their
government in peace, and for public aids in time of
war; to acknowledge that this legal competency has

10 had a dutiful and beneficial exercise; and that experi
ence has shown the benefit of their grants and the
futility of Parliamentary taxation as a method of
supply.

These solid truths compose six fundamental propo-

15 sitions. There are three more Eesolutions corollary
to these. If you admit the first set, you can hardly
reject the others. But if you admit the first, I shall
be far from solicitous whether you accept or refuse
the last. I think these six massive pillars will be of

20 strength sufficient to support the temple of British
concord. I have no more doubt than I entertain of
my existence that, if you admitted these, you would
command an immediate peace, and, with but tolerable
future management, a lasting obedience in America.

25 I am not arrogant in this confident assurance. The

CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES 73

propositions are all mere matters of fact, and if they
are such facts as draw irresistible conclusions even in
the stating, this is the power of truth, and not any
management of mine.

Sir, I shall open the whole plan to you, together 5
with such observations on the motions as may tend
to illustrate them where they may want explanation.
The first is a Eesolution —

" That the Colonies and Plantations of Great Britain in North
America, consisting of fourteen separate Governments, 10
and containing two millions and upwards of free inhab
itants, have not had the liberty and privilege of electing
and sending any Knights and Burgesses, or others, to
represent them in the High Court of Parliament."

This is a plain matter of fact, necessary to be laid 15
down, and, excepting the description, it is laid down
in the language of the Constitution ; it is taken nearly
verbatim from Acts of Parliament.

The second is like unto the first —

"That the said Colonies and Plantations have been liable to, Tf
and bounden by, several subsidies, payments, rates, and
taxes given and granted by Parliament, though the said
Colonies and Plantations have not their Knights and Bur
gesses in the said High Court of Parliament, of their own

74 BURKE

election, to represent the condition of their country ; by
lack whereof they have been oftentimes touched and
grieved by subsidies given, granted, and assented to, in
the said Court, in a manner prejudicial to the common-
$ wealth, quietness, rest, and peace of the subjects inhabit

ing within the same."

Is this description too hot, or too cold ; too strong,
or too weak? Does it arrogate too much to the
supreme legislature? Does it lean too much to the
10 claims of the people? If it runs into any of these
errors, the fault is not mine. It is the language of
your own ancient Acts of Parliament.

*' Non meus hie serino, sed quse prsecepit Ofellus,
Kusticus, abnormis sapiens." °

15 It is the genuine produce of the ancient, rustic,
manly, homebred sense of this country. — I did not
dare to rub off a particle of the venerable rust that
rather adorns and preserves, than destroys, the metal.
It would be a profanation to touch with a tool the

20 stones which construct the sacred altar of peace. I
would not violate with modern polish the ingenuous
and noble roughness of these truly Constitutional
materials. Above all things, I was resolved not to
be guilty of tampering, the odious vice of restless and

CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES 75

unstable minds. I put my foot in the tracks of our
forefathers, where I can neither wander nor stumble.
Determining to fix articles of peace, I was resolved
not to be wise beyond what was written; I was re
solved to use nothing else than the form of sound 5
words, to let others abound in their own sense, and
carefully to abstain from all expressions of my own.
What the law has said, I say. In all things else I
am silent. I have no organ but for her words. This,
if it be not ingenious, I am sure is safe.0 10

There are indeed words expressive of grievance in
this second Resolution, which those who are resolved
always to be in the right will deny to contain matter
of fact, as applied to the present case, although Parlia
ment thought them true with regard to the counties *5
of Chester and Durham. They will deny that the
Americans were ever " touched and grieved " with the
taxes. If they consider nothing in taxes but their
weight as pecuniary impositions, there might be some
pretence for this denial; but men may be sorely 20
touched and deeply grieved in their privileges, as
well as in their purses. Men may lose little in prop
erty by the act which takes away all their freedom.
When a man is robbed of a trifle on the highway, it
is not the twopence lost that constitutes the capital af

76 BURKE

outrage. This is not confined to privileges. Even
ancient indulgences, withdrawn without offence on
the part of those who enjoyed such favors, operate as
grievances. But were the Americans then not touched

} and grieved by the taxes, in some measure, merely as
taxes? If so, why were they almost all either wholly
repealed, or exceedingly reduced? Were they not
touched and grieved even by the regulating duties of
the sixth of George the Second? Else, why were the

10 duties first reduced to one third in 1764, and after
wards to a third of that third in the year 1766? Were
they not touched and grieved by the Stamp Act? I
shall say they were, until that tax is revived. Were
they not touched and grieved by the duties of 1767,

15 which were likewise repealed, and which Lord Hills-
borough tells you, for the Ministry, were laid contrary
to the true principle of commerce? Is not the assur
ance given by that noble person to the Colonies of a
resolution to lay no more taxes on them an admission

20 that taxes would touch and grieve them? Is not the
Resolution of the noble lord in the blue ribbon, now
standing on your Journals, the strongest of all proofs
that Parliamentary subsidies really touched and
grieved them? Else why all these changes, modifr

25 cations, repeals, assurances, and resolutions?

CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES 77

The next proposition is —

" That, from the distance of the said Colonies, and from other
circumstances, no method hath hitherto been devised for
procuring a representation in Parliament for the said
Colonies." 5

This is an assertion of a fact. I go no further on
the paper, though, in my private judgment, a useful
representation is impossible — I am sure it is not
desired by them, nor ought it perhaps by us — but I
abstain from opinions. 10

The fourth Resolution is —

"That each of the said Colonies hath within itself a body,
chosen in part, or in the whole, by the freemen, free
holders, or other free inhabitants thereof, commonly called
the General Assembly, or General Court; with powers I$
legally to raise, levy, and assess, according to the several
usage of such Colonies, duties and taxes towards defray-
ing all sorts of public services."

This competence in the Colony Assemblies is cer
tain. It is proved by tho whole tenor of their Acts 20
of Supply in all the Assemblies, in which the constant
style of granting is, "an aid to his Majesty"; and
Acts granting to the Crown have regularly for near
a century passed the public offices without dispute.
Those who have been pleased paradoxically to deny 25

78 BURKE

this right, holding that none but the British Parlia
ment can grant to the Crown, are wished to look to
what is done, not only in the Colonies, but in Ireland,
in one uniform unbroken tenor every session. Sir, I
5 am surprised that this doctrine should come from some
of the law servants of the Crown. I say that if the
Crown could be responsible, his Majesty — but cer
tainly the Ministers, — and even these law officers
themselves through whose hands the Acts passed,
jo biennially in Ireland, or annually in the Colonies —
are in an habitual course of committing impeachable
offences. What habitual offenders have been all
Presidents of the Council, all Secretaries of State, all
First Lords of Trade, all Attorneys and all Solicitors-
is General! However, they are safe, as no one im
peaches them; and there is no ground of charge
against them except in their own unfounded theories.
The fifth Resolution is also a resolution of fact —

"That the said General Assemblies, General Courts, or other
20 bodies legally qualified as aforesaid, have at sundry times

freely granted several large subsidies and public aids for
his Majesty's service, according to their abilities, when
required thereto by letter from one of his Majesty's princi
pal Secretaries of State ; and that their right to grant the
25 same, and their cheerfulness and sufficienc7 in the said

CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES 79

grants, have been at sundry times acknowledged by Par
liament."

To say nothing of their great expenses in the Indian
wars, and not to take their exertion in foreign ones so
high as the supplies in the year 1695 — not to go back 5
to their public contributions in the year 1710 — I shall
begin to travel only where the journals give me light,
resolving to deal in nothing but fact, authenticated by
Parliamentary record, and to build myself wholly on
that solid basis. 10

On the 4th of April, 1748, a Committee of this
House came to the following resolution:

" Resolved : That it is the opinion of this Committee that it is
just and reasonable that the several Provinces and Colonies
of Massachusetts Bay, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and 15
Rhode Island, be reimbursed the expenses they have been
at in taking and securing to the Crown of Great Britain
the Island of Cape Breton and its dependencies."

The expenses were immense for such Colonies.
They were above £200,000 sterling; money first raised ^
and advanced on their public credit.

On the 28th of January, 1756, a message from the
King came to us, to this effect :

" His Majesty, being sensible of the zeal and vigor with which
his faithful subjects of certain Colonies in North America 25

80 BURKE

have exerted themselves in defence of his Majesty's just
rights and possessions, recommends it to this House to
take the same into their consideration, and to enable his
Majesty to give them such assistance as may be a proper
5 re ward and encouragement."

On the 3d of February, 1756, the House came to a
suitable Resolution, expressed in words nearly the
same as those of the message, but with the further
addition, that the money then voted was as an en-
10 couragement to the Colonies to exert themselves with
vigor. It will not be necessary to go through all the
testimonies which your own records have given to the
truth of my Eesolutions. I will only refer you to
the places in the Journals :

15 Vol. xxvii. — 16th and 19th May, 1757.

Vol. xxviii. — June 1st, 1758; April 26th and 30th, 1759;
March 26th and 31st, and April 28th, 1760 ;
Jan. 9th and 20th, 1761.

Vol. xxix. — Jan. 22d and 26th, 1762 ; March 14th and 17th,
20 1763.

Sir, here is the repeated acknowledgment of Parlia
ment that the Colonies not only gave, but gave to
satiety. This nation has formally acknowledged two
things : first, that the Colonies had gone beyond their
25 abilities, Parliament having thought it necessary to

CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES 81

reimburse them ; secondly, that they had acted legally
and laudably in their grants of money, and their main
tenance of troops, since the compensation is expressly
given as reward and encouragement. Reward is not
bestowed for acts that are unlawful; and encourage- 5
ment is not held out to things that deserve reprehen
sion. My Resolution therefore does nothing more
than collect into one proposition what is scattered
through your Journals. I give you nothing but your
own; and you cannot refuse in the gross what you 10
have so often acknowledged in detail. The admission
of this, which will be so honorable to them and to
you, will, indeed, be mortal to all the miserable stories
by which the passions of the misguided people0 have
been engaged in an unhappy system. The people 15
heard, indeed, from the beginning of these disputes,
one thing continually dinned in their ears, that reason
and justice demanded that the Americans, who paid
no taxes, should be compelled to contribute. How
did that fact of their paying nothing stand when the 20
taxing system began? When Mr. Grenville began to
form his system of American revenue, he stated in
this House that the Colonies were then in debt two
millions six hundred thousand pounds sterling money,
and was of opinion they would discharge that debt in 25

82 BURKE

four years. On this state, those untaxed people were
actually subject to the payment of taxes to the amount
of six hundred and fifty thousand a year. In fact,
however, Mr. Grenville was mistaken. The funds

5 given for sinking the debt did not prove quite so ample
as both the Colonies and he expected. The calcula
tion was too sanguine ; the reduction was not completed
till some years after, and at different times in different
Colonies. However, the taxes after the war continued

10 too great to bear any addition, with prudence or pro
priety ; and when the burthens imposed in consequence
of former requisitions were discharged, our tone be
came too high to resort again to requisition. No
Colony, since that time, ever has had any requisition

15 whatsoever made to it.

We see the sense of the Crown, and the sense of
Parliament, on the productive nature of a revenue by
grant. Now search the same Journals for the produce
of the revenue by imposition. Where is it? Let us

20 know the volume and the page. What is the gross,
what is the net produce? To what service is it ap
plied? How have you appropriated its surplus?
What! Can none of the many skilful index-makers
that we are now employing find any trace of it? —

25 Well, let them and that rest together. But are thp

CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES 83

Journals, which say nothing of the revenue, as silent
on the discontent? Oh no! a child may find it. It is
the melancholy burthen and blot of every page.

I think, then, I am, from those Journals, justified
in the sixth and last Resolution, which is — 5

"That it hath been found by experience that the manner of
granting the said supplies and aids, by the said General
Assemblies, hath been more agreeable to the said Colonies,
and more beneficial and conducive to the public service,
than the mode of giving and granting aids in Parliament, 10
to be raised and paid in the said Colonies."

This makes the whole of the fundamental part of
the plan. The conclusion is irresistible. You cannot
say that you were driven by any necessity to an exer
cise of the utmost rights of legislature. You cannot 15
assert that you took on yourselves the task of impos
ing Colony taxes from the want of another legal body
that is competent to the purpose of supplying the
exigencies of the state without wounding the preju
dices of the people. Neither is it true that the body 20
so qualified, and having that competence, had neglected
the duty.

The question now, on all this accumulated matter,
is : whether you will choose to abide by a profitable
experience, or a mischievous theory; whether you aj

84 BURKE

choose to build on imagination, or fact; whether you
prefer enjoyment, or hope ; satisfaction in your sub
jects, or discontent?

If these propositions are accepted, everything which
5 has been made to enforce a contrary system must, I
take it for granted, fall along with it. On that
ground, I have drawn the following Resolution,
which, when it comes to be moved, will naturally be
divided in a proper manner :

10 « That it may be proper to repeal an Act0 made in the seventh
year of the reign of his present Majesty, entitled, An Act
for granting certain duties in the British Colonies and
Plantations in America ; for allowing a drawback of the
duties of customs upon the exportation from this Kingdom

15 of coffee and cocoa-nuts of the produce of the said Colonies

or Plantations ; for discontinuing the drawbacks payable
on china earthenware exported 1 3 America ; and for more
effectually preventing the clandestine running of goods in
the said Colonies and Plantations. And that it may be

20 proper to repeal an Act0 made in the fourteenth year of the

reign of his present Majesty, entitled, An Act to discon
tinue, in such manner and for such time as are therein
mentioned, the landing and discharging, lading or ship
ping of goods, wares, and merchandise at the town and

2. within the harbor of Boston, in the Province of Massa

chusetts Bay, in North America. And that it may be
proper to repeal an Act made in the fourteenth year of

CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES 85

the reign of his present Majesty, entitled, An Act for the
impartial administration of justice0 in the cases of persons
questioned for any acts done by them in the execution of
the law, or for the suppression of riots and tumults, in
the Province of Massachusetts Bay, in New England. 5
And that it may be proper to repeal an Act made in the
fourteenth year of the reign of his present Majesty, en
titled, An Act for the better regulating0 of the Govern
ment of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay, in New
England. And also that it may be proper to explain and 10
amend an Act made in the thirty-fifth year of the reign of
King Henry the Eighth, entitled, An Act for the Trial of
Treasons0 committed out of the King's Dominions."

I wish, Sir, to repeal the Boston Port Bill, because
— independently of the dangerous precedent of sus- 15
pending the rights of the subject during the King's
pleasure — it was passed, as I apprehend, with less
regularity and on more partial principles than it
ought. The corporation of Boston was not heard be
fore it was condemned. Other towns, full as guilty 2o
as she was, have not had their ports blocked up.
Even the Restraining Bill of the present session does
not go to the length of the Boston Port Act. The
same ideas of prudence which induced you not to ex
tend equal punishment to equal guilt, even when you 25
were punishing, induced me, who mean not to chas-

86 BURKE

tise, but to reconcile, to be satisfied with the punish
ment already partially inflicted.

Ideas of prudence and accommodation to circum
stances prevent you from taking away the charters of

5 Connecticut and Ehode Island, as you have taken away
that of Massachusetts Bay, though the Crown has far
less power in the two former provinces than it enjoyed
in the latter, and though the abuses have been full as
great, and as flagrant, in the exempted as in the pun-

10 ished. The same reasons of prudence and accommo
dation have weight with me in restoring the charter
of Massachusetts Bay. Besides, Sir, the Act which
changes the charter of Massachusetts is in many par
ticulars so exceptionable that if I did not wish abso-

15 lutely to repeal, I would by all means desire to alter
it, as several of its provisions tend to the subversion
of all public and private justice. Such, among others,
is the power in the Governor to change the sheriff at
his pleasure, and to make a new returning officer for

20 every special cause. It is shameful to behold such a
regulation standing among English laws.

The Act for bringing persons accused of committing
murder, under the orders of Government to England
for trial, is but temporary. That Act has calculated

25 the probable duration of our quarrel with the Colonies,

CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES 87

and is accommodated to that supposed duration. I
would hasten the happy moment of reconciliation, and
therefore must, on my principle, get rid of that most
justly obnoxious Act.

The Act of Henry the Eighth, for the Trial of S
Treasons, I do not mean to take away, but to confine
it to its proper bounds and original intention ; to make
it expressly for trial of treasons — and the greatest
treasons may be committed — in places where the
jurisdiction of the Crown does not extend. ic

Having guarded the privileges of local legislature,
I would next secure to the Colonies a fair and un
biassed judicature, for which purpose, Sir, I propose
the following Resolution :

"That, from the time when the General Assembly or General 15
Court of any Colony or Plantation in North America shall
have appointed by Act of Assembly, duly confirmed, a
settled salary to the offices of the Chief Justice and other
Judges of the Superior Court, it may be proper that the
said Chief Justice and other Judges of the Superior 20
Courts of such Colony shall hold his and their office and
offices during their good behavior, and shall not be re
moved therefrom but when the said removal shall be
adjudged by his Majesty in Council, upon a hearing on
complaint from the General Assembly, or on a complaint 25
from the Governor, or Council, or the House of Repre-

88 BURKE

sentatives severally, or of the Colony in which the said
Chief Justice and other Judges have exercised the said
offices."

The next Eesolution relates to the Courts of Ad-
5 niiralty. It is this :

"That it may be proper to regulate the Courts of Admiralty
or Vice- Admiralty authorized by the fifteenth Chapter of
the Fourth of George the Third, in such a manner as to
make the same more commodious to those who sue, or are
10 sued, in the said Courts, and to provide for the more de

cent maintenance of the Judges in the same."

These courts I do not wish to take away; they are
in themselves proper establishments. This court is
one of the capital securities of the Act of Navigation.

15 The extent of its jurisdiction, indeed, has been in
creased, but this is altogether as proper, and is indeed
on many accounts more eligible, where new powers
were wanted, than a court absolutely new. But courts
incommodiously situated, in effect, deny justice ; and

20 a court partaking in the fruits of its own condemna
tion is a robber. The Congress complain, and com
plain justly, of this grievance.

These are the three consequential propositions. I
have thought of two or three more, but they come

25 rather too near detail, and to the province of execu-

CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES 89

tive government, which I wish Parliament always to
superintend, never to assume. If the first six are
granted, congruity will carry the latter three. If not,
the things that remain unrepealed will be, I hope,
rather unseemly incumbrances on the building, than 5
very .materially detrimental to its strength and sta
bility.

Here, Sir, I should close; but I plainly perceive
some objections remain which I ought, if possible, to
remove. The lirst will be that, in resorting to the 10
doctrine of our ancestors, as contained in the preamble
to the Chester Act, I prove too much; that the griev
ance from a want of representation, stated in that
preamble, goes to the whole of legislation as well as
to taxation; and that the Colonies, grounding them- 15
selves upon that doctrine, will apply it to all parts of
legislative authority.

To this objection, with all possible deference and
humility, and wishing as little as any man living to
impair the smallest particle of our supreme authority, 20
I answer, that the words are the words of Parliament,
and not mine, and that all false and inconclusive in
ferences drawn from them are not mine, for I heartily
disclaim any sucli inference. I have chosen the words
of an Act of Parliament which Mr. Grenville, surely 25

90 BURKE

a tolerably zealous and very judicious advocate foi
the sovereignty of Parliament, formerly moved to have
read at your table in confirmation of his tenets. It is
true that Lord Chatham considered these preambles

5 as declaring strongly in favor of his opinions. He
was a no less powerful advocate for the privileges of
the Americans. Ought I not from hence to presume
that these preambles are as favorable as possible to
both, when properly understood ; favorable both to

10 the rights of Parliament, and to the privilege of the
dependencies of this Crown? But, Sir, the object of
grievance in my Resolution I have not taken from the
Chester, but from the Durham Act, which, confines
the hardship of want of representation to the case of

*5 subsidies, and which therefore falls in exactly with
the case of the Colonies. But whether the unrepre
sented counties were de jure or de facto0 bound, the
preambles do not accurately distinguish, nor indeed
was it necessary; for, whether de jure or de facto, the

20 Legislature thought the exercise of the power of tax
ing as of right, or as of fact without right, equally a
grievance, and equally oppressive.

I do not know that the Colonies have, in any general
way, or in any cool hour, gone much beyond tlu^ de-

25 mand of humanity in relation to taxes. It is not fair

CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES 91

to judge of the temper or dispositions of any man,
or any set of men, when they are composed and at
rest, from their conduct or their expressions in a state
of disturbance and irritation. It is besides a very
great mistake to imagine that mankind follow up 5
practically any speculative principle, either of gov
ernment or of freedom, as far as it will go in argument
and logical illation. We Englishmen stop very short
of the principles upon which we support any given
part of our Constitution, or even the whole of it to- 10
gether. I could easily, if I had not already tired you,
give you very striking and convincing instances of it.
This is nothing but what is natural and proper. All
government, indeed every human benefit and enjoy
ment, every virtue, and every prudent act, is founded 15
on compromise and barter. We balance inconven
iences ; we give and take ; we remit some rights, that
we may enjoy others; and we choose rather to be
happy citizens than subtle disputants. As we must
give away some natural liberty to enjoy civil advan- 20
tages, so we must sacrifice some civil liberties for the
advantages to be derived from the communion and
fellowship of a great empire. But, in all fair deal
ings, the thing bought must bear some proportion to
the purchase paid. None will barter away the im- 25

92 BURKS

mediate jewel of his soul.0 Though a great house ia
apt to make slaves haughty, yet it is purchasing a
part of the artificial importance of a great empire too
dear to pay for it all essential rights and all the in-

5 trinsic dignity of human nature. None of us who
would not risk his life rather than fall under a govern
ment purely arbitrary. But although there are some
amongst us who think our Constitution wants many
improvements to make it a complete system of liberty,

10 perhaps none who are of that opinion would think it
right to aim at such improvement by disturbing his
country, and risking everything that is dear to him.
In every arduous enterprise we consider what we are
to lose, as well as what we are to gain ; and the more

15 and better stake of liberty every people possess, the
less they will hazard in a vain attempt to make it
more. These are the cords of man. Man acts from
adequate motives relative to his interest, and not on
metaphysical speculations. Aristotle, the great mas-

20 ter of reasoning, cautions us, and with great weight
and propriety, against this species of delusive geo
metrical accuracy in moral arguments as the most
fallacious of all sophistry.

The Americans will have no interest contrary to

25 the grandeur and glory of England, when they are not

CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES 93

oppressed by the weight of it; and they will rather
be inclined to respect the acts of a superintending
legislature when they see them the acts of that power
which is itself the security, not the rival, of their
secondary importance. In this assurance my mind 5
most perfectly acquiesces, and I confess I feel not the
least alarm from the discontents which are to arise
from putting people at their ease, nor do I apprehend
the destruction of this Empire from giving, by an act
of free grace and indulgence, to two millions of my 10
fellow-citizens some share of those rights upon which
I have always been taught to value myself.

It is said, indeed, that this power of granting,
vested in American Assemblies, would dissolve the
unity of the Empire, which was preserved entire, 15
although Wales, and Chester, and Durham were added
to it. Truly, Mr. Speaker, I do not know what this
unity means, nor has it ever been heard of, that I
know, in the constitutional policy of this country.
The very idea of subordination of parts excludes this 20
notion of simple and undivided unity. England is
the head; but she is not the head and the members
too. Ireland has ever had from the beginning a
s-eparate, but not an independent, legislature, which,
far from distracting, promoted the union of the whole. 25

94 BURKE

Everything was sweetly and harmoniously disposed
through both islands for the conservation of English
dominion, and the communication of English liberties.
I do not see that the same principles might not be car-

5 ried into twenty islands and with the same good effect.
This is my model with regard to America, as far as
the internal circumstances of the two countries are
the same. I know no other unity of this Empire than
I can draw from its example during these periods,

10 when it seemed to my poor understanding more united
than it is now, or than it is likely to be by the present
methods.

But since I speak of these methods, I recollect,
Mr. Speaker, almost too late, that I promised, before

15 I finished, to say something of the proposition of the
noble lord on the floor, which has been so lately re
ceived and stands on your Journals. I must be deeply
concerned whenever it is my misfortune to continue a
difference with the majority of this House; but as the

90 reasons for that difference are my apology for thus
troubling you, suffer me to state them in a very few
words. I shall compress them into as small a body
as I possibly can, having already debated that matter
at large when the question was before the Committee.

25 First, then, I cannot admit that proposition of a

CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES 95

ransom0 by auction; because it is a mere project. It
is a thing new, unheard of; supported by no experi
ence; justified by no analogy; without example of
our ancestors, or root in the Constitution. It is
neither regular Parliamentary taxation, nor Colony 5
grant. Experimentum in corpore vili ° is a good rule,
which will ever make me adverse to any trial of ex
periments 011 what is certainly the most valuable of
all subjects, the peace of this Empire.

Secondly, it is an experiment which must be fatal 10
in the end to our Constitution. For what is it but a
scheme for taxing the Colonies in the ante-chamber
of the noble lord and his successors? To settle the
quotas and proportions in this House is clearly impos
sible. You, Sir, may flatter yourself you shall sit a 15
state auctioneer, with your hammer in your hand, and
knock down to each Colony as it bids. But to settle,
on the plan laid down by the noble lord, the true pro
portional payment for four or five and twenty govern
ments according to the absolute and the relative wealth 20
of each, and according to the British proportion of
wealth and burthen, is a wild and chimerical notion.
This new taxation must therefore come in by the back
door of the Constitution. Each quota must be brought
to this House ready formed; you can neither add nor 25

96 BURKE

alter. You must register it. You can do nothing
further; for on what grounds can you deliberate either
before or after the proposition? You cannot hear the
counsel for all these provinces, quarrelling each on its

5 own quantity of payment, and its proportion to others.
If you should attempt it, the Committee of Provincial
Ways and Means, or by whatever other name it will
delight to be called, must swallow up all the time of
Parliament.

10 Thirdly, it does not give satisfaction to the com
plaint of the Colonies. They complain that they are
taxed without their consent; you answer, that you will
fix the sum at which they shall be taxed. That is,
you give them the very grievance for the remedy.

15 You tell them, indeed, that you will leave the mode
to themselves. I really beg pardon — it gives me pain
to mention it — but you must be sensible that you will
not perform this part of the compact. For, suppose
the Colonies were to lay the duties, which furnished

20 their contingent, upon the importation of your manu
factures, you know you would never suffer such a tax
to be laid. You know, too, that you would not suffer
many other modes of taxation; so that, when you
come to explain yourself, it will be found that you

25 will neither leave to themselves the quantum nor the

CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES 97

mode, nor indeed anything. The whole is delusion
from one end to the other.

Fourthly, this method of ransom by auction, unless
it be universally accepted, will plunge you into great
and inextricable difficulties. In what year of our Lord 5
are the proportions of payments to be settled? To
say nothing of the impossibility that Colony agents
should have general powers of taxing the Colonies at
their discretion, consider, I implore you, that the
communication by special messages arid orders between 10
these agents and their constituents, on each variation
of the case, when the parties come to contend together
and to dispute on their relative proportions, will be a
matter of delay, perplexity, and confusion that never
can have an end. 15

If all the Colonies do not appear at the outcry, what
is the condition of those assemblies who offer, by them
selves or their agents, to tax themselves up to your
ideas of their proportion? The refractory Colonies
who refuse all composition will remain taxed only to 20
your old impositions, which, however grievous in prin
ciple, are trifling as to production. The obedient
Colonies in this scheme are heavily taxed; the refrac
tory remain unburdened. What will you do? Will
you lay new and heavier taxes by Parliament on the 25

98 BURKE

disobedient? Pray consider in what way you can d&
it. You are perfectly convinced that, in the way of
taxing, you can do nothing but at the ports. Now
suppose it is Virginia that refuses to appear at your

5 auction, while Maryland and North Carolina bid hand
somely for their ransom, and are taxed to your quota,
how will you put these Colonies on a par? Will
you tax the tobacco of Virginia-? If you do, you give
its death-wound to your English revenue at home, and

10 to one of the very greatest articles of your own for
eign trade. If you tax the import of that rebellious
Colony, what do you tax but your own manufactures,
or the goods of some other obedient and already well-
taxed Colony? Who has said one word on this laby-

15 rinth of detail, which bewilders you more and more
as you enter into it? Who has presented, who can
present you with a clue to lead you out of it? I think,
Sir, it is impossible that you should not recollect that
the Colony bounds are so implicated in one another, —

20 you know it by your other experiments in the bill for
prohibiting the New England fishery, — that you can
lay no possible restraints on almost any of them which
may not be presently eluded, if you do not confound
the innocent with the guilty, and burthen those whom,

25 upon every principle, you ought to exonerate. He

CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES 99

must be grossly ignorant of America who thinks that,
without falling into this confusion of all rules of
equity and policy, you can restrain any single Colony,
especially Virginia and Maryland, the central and
most important of them all. 5

Let it also be considered that, either in the present
confusion you settle a permanent contingent, which
will and must be trifling, and then you have no effectual
revenue; or you change the quota at every exigency,
and then on every new repartition you will have a 10
new quarrel.

Reflect, besides, that when you have fixed a quota
for every Colony, you have not provided for prompt
and punctual payment. Suppose one, two, five, ten
years' arrears. You cannot issue a Treasury Extent 15
against the failing Colony. You must make new
Boston Port Bills, new restraining laws, new acts for
dragging men to England for trial. You must send
out new fleets, new armies. All is to begin again.
From this day forward the Empire is never to know 20
an hour's tranquillity. An intestine fire will be kept
alive in the bowels of the Colonies, which one time or
other .must consume this whole Empire. I allow in
deed that the empire of Germany raises her revenue
and her troops by quotas and contingents; but the 25

100 BURKE

revenue of the empire, and the army of the empire, is
the worst revenue and the worst army in the world.

Instead of a standing revenue, you will therefore
have a perpetual quarrel. Indeed, the noble lord who

5 proposed this project of a ransom by auction seems
himself to be of that opinion. His project was rather
designed for breaking the union of the Colonies than
for establishing a revenue. He confessed he appre
hended that his proposal would not be to their taste.

TO I say this scheme of disunion seems to be at the bottom
of the project; for I will not suspect that the noble
lord meant nothing but merely to delude the nation
by an airy phantom which he never intended to realize.
But whatever his views may be, as I propose the peace

15 and union of the Colonies as the very foundation of
my plan, it cannot accord with one whose foundation
is perpetual discord.

Compare the two. This I offer to give you is plain
and simple. The other full of perplexed and intricate

«o mazes. This is mild; that harsh. This is found by
experience effectual for its purposes ; the other is a
new project. This is universal ; the other calculated
for certain Colonies only. This is immediate in its
conciliatory operation; the other remote, contingent,

25 full of hazard. Mine is what becomes the dignity of

CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES 101

a ruling people — gratuitous, unconditional, and not
held out as a matter of bargain and sale. I have
done my duty in proposing it to you. I have indeed
tired you by a long discourse ; but this is the misfor
tune of those to whose influence nothing will be con- 5
ceded, and who must win every inch of their ground
by argument. You have heard me with goodness.
May you decide with wisdom ! For my part, I feel
my mind greatly disburthened by what I have done
to-day. I have been the less fearful of trying your 10
patience, because on this subject I mean to spare it
altogether in future. I have this comfort, that in
every stage of the American affairs I have steadily
opposed the measures that have produced the confu
sion, and may bring on the destruction, of this Em- 15
pire. I now go so far as to risk a proposal of my
own. If I cannot give peace to my country, I give it
to my conscience.

But what,' says the financier, is peace to us without
money ? Your plan gives us no revenue. No ! But 20
it does; for it secures' to the subject the power of
refusal, the first of all revenues. Experience is a
cheat, and fact a liar, if this power in the subject of
proportioning his grant, or of not granting- at all, has
not been fonnd the richest mine of revenue ever dis- 23

102 BURKE

covered by the skill or by the fortune of man. It
does not indeed vote you £152^750 11s. 2fd, nor any
other paltry limited sum ; but it gives the strong box
itself, the fund, the bank — from whence only reve-

s iiues can arise amongst a people sensible of freedom.
Posita luditur area.0 Cannot you, in England — can
not you, at this time of day — cannot you, a House of
Commons, trust to the principle which has raised so
mighty a revenue, and accumulated a debt of near

10 140,000,000 in this country ? Is this principle to be
true in England, and false everywhere else ? Is it
not true in Ireland ? Has it not hitherto been true
in the Colonies ? Why should you presume that, in
any country, a body duly constituted for any function

15 will neglect to perform its duty and abdicate its
trust ? Such a presumption0 would go against all
governments in all modes. But, in truth, this dread
of penury of supply from a free assembly has no foun
dation in nature; for first, observe that, besides the

20 desire which all men have naturally of supporting
the honor of their own government, that sense of dig
nity and that security to property which ever attends
freedom has a tendency to increase the stock of the
free community. Most may be taken where most is

25 accumulated. And what is the soil or climate where

CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES 103

experience has not uniformly proved that the volun
tary flow of heaped-up plenty, bursting from the
weight of its own rich luxuriance, has ever run with
a more copious stream of revenue than could be
squeezed from the dry husks of oppressed indigence 5
by the straining of all the politic machinery in the
world?0

Next, we know that parties must ever exist in a
free country. We know, too, that the emulations of
such parties — their contradictions, their reciprocal 10
necessities, their hopes, and their fears — must send
them all in their turns to him that holds the balance
of the State. The parties are the gamesters ;, but
Government keeps the table, and is sure to be the
winner in the end. When this game is played, I 15
really think it is more to be feared that the people
will be exhausted, than that Government will not be
supplied ; whereas, whatever is got by acts of abso
lute power ill obeyed, because odious, or by contracts
ill kept, because constrained, will be narrow, feeble, ae
uncertain, and precarious.

"Ease would retract
Vows made in pain, as violent and void."

I, for one, protest against compounding our demands.
I declare against compounding, for a poor limited 25

104 BURKE

sum, the immense, ever-growing, eternal debt which is
due to generous government from protected freedom.
And so may I speed in the great object I propose to
you, as I think it would not only be an act of injustice,

5 but would be the worst economy in the world, to com
pel the Colonies to a sum certain, either in the way of
ransom or in the way of compulsory compact.

But to clear up my ideas on this subject : a revenue
from America transmitted hither — do not delude youi-

10 selves — you never can receive it ; no, not a shilling.
We have experience that from remote countries it is
not to be expected. If, when you attempted to extract
revenue from Bengal, you were obliged to return in
loan what you had taken in imposition, what can you

15 expect from North America? For certainly, if ever
there was a country qualified to produce wealth, it is
India ; or an institution fit for the transmission, it is
the East India Company. America, has none of these
aptitudes. If America gives you taxable objects on

20 which you lay your duties here, and gives you, at the
same time, a surplus by a foreign sale of her commodi
ties to pay the duties on these objects which yon tax
at home, she has performed her part to the British
revenue. But with regard to her own internal estab-

25 lishments, she may, I doubt not she will, contribute

CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES 105

in moderation. I say in moderation, for she ought not
to be permitted to exhaust herself. She ought to be
reserved to a war, the weight of which, with the
enemies0 that we are most likely to have, must be
considerable in her quarter of the globe. There she 5
may serve you, and serve you essentially.

For that service — for all service, whether of reve
nue, trade, or 3inpire — my trust is in her interest in
the British Constitution, My hold of the Colonies
is in the close affection wiiich grows from common 10
names, from kindred blood, fron similar privileges,
and equal protection. These are ties which, though
light as air,0 are as. strong as links of iron. Let the
Colonists always keep the idea of their civil rights
associated with your government, — they will cling 15
and grapple to you,0 and no force under heaven will
le of power to tear them from their allegiance. But
i?t it be once understood that your government may
be one thing, and their privileges another, that these
two things may exist without any mutual relation, ao
the cement is gone0 — the cohesion is loosened — and
everything hastens to decay and dissolution. As long
as you have the wisdom to keep the sovereign author*
ity ot this country as the sanctuary of liberty, the
tax red •'•sro.olt consecrated to our common faith, wher- 25

106 BURKE

ever the chosen race and sons of England worship
freedom, they will turn their faces towards you. The
more they multiply, the more friends you will have ;
the more ardently they love liberty, the more perfect

5 will be their obedience. Slavery they can have any
where — it is a weed that grows in every soil. They
may have it from Spain; they may have it from
Prussia. But, until you become lost to all feeling of
your true interest and your natural dignity, freedom

10 they can have from none but you. This is the com
modity of price of which you have the monopoly. This
is the true Act of Navigation which binds to you the
commerce of the Colonies, and through them secures
to you the wealth of the world. Deny them this

15 participation of freedom, and you break that sole
bond which originally made, and must still preserve,
the unity of the Empire. Do not entertain so w ak
an imagination as that your registers and your bonds,
your affidavits and your sufferances, your cockets and

20 your clearances, are what form the great securities
of your commerce. Do not dream that your letters of
office, and your instructions, and your suspending
clauses, are the things that hold together the great
contexture of the mysterious whole. These things do

25 not make your government. Dead instruments, passive

CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES 10?

tools as they are, it is the spirit of the English com
munion that gives all their life and efficacy to them.
It is the spirit of the English Constitution which,
infused through the mighty mass, pervades, feeds,
unites, invigorates, vivifies every part of the Empire, 5
even down to the minutest member.

Is it not the same virtue which does everything for
us here in England ? Do you imagine, then, that it
is the Land Tax Act which raises your revenue ? that
it is the annual vote in the Committee of Supply 10
which gives you your army ? or that it is the Mutiny
Bill which inspires it with bravery and discipline ?
No ! surely no ! It is the love of the people ; it is
their attachment to their government, from the sense
of the deep stake they have in such a glorious institu- .5
tion, which gives you your army and your navy, and
infuses into both that liberal obedience without which
your army would be a base rabble, and your navy
nothing but rotten timber.

All this, I know well enough, will sound wild and *o
chimerical to the profane herd0 of those vulgar and
mechanical politicians who have no place among us;
a sort of people who think thac nothing exists but
what is gross and material, and who, therefore, far
from being qualified to be directors of the great move- 25

108 BURKE

ment of empire, are not fit to turn a wheel In the
machine. But to men truly initiated and rightly
taught, these ruling and master principles which, in
the opinion of such men as I have mentioned, have

•> no substantial existence, are in truth everything, and
all in all. Magnanimity* in politics is not seldom the
truest wisdom; and a great empire and little minds
go ill together. If we are conscious of our station,
and glow with zeal to fill our places as becomes our

jo situation and ourselves, we ought to auspicate0 all our
public proceedings on America with the old warning
of the church, Sursum cor da ! * We ought to elevate
our minds to the greatness of that trust to which the
order of providence has called us. By adverting to

15 the dignity of this high calling our ancestors have
turned a savage wilderness into a glorious empire,
and have made the most extensive and the only hon
orable conquests — not by destroying, but by promot
ing the wealth, the number, the happiness, of the

20 human race. Let us get an American revenue as we
have got an American empire. English privileges
have made it all that it is ; English privileges alone
will make it all it can be.

In full confidence of this unalterable truth, I now,

25 quod felix faustumque sit,0 lay the first stone of the
Temple of Peace ; and I move you —

CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES 109

" That the Colonies and Plantations of Great Britain in North
America, consisting of fourteen separate governments, and
containing two millions and upwards of free inhabitants,
have not had the liberty and privilege of electing and
sending any Knights and Burgesses, or others, to repre
sent them in the High Court of Parliament.'*

NOTES

1, 9. grand penal bill. This bill originated with Lord
North. It restricted the trade of the New England colonies to
England and her dependencies. It also placed serious limita
tions upon the Newfoundland fisheries. The House of Lords
was dissatisfied with the measure because it did not include all
the colonies.

2, 14. When I first had the honor. Burke was first elected
to Parliament Dec. 26, 1765. He was at the time secretary to
Lord Rockingham, Prime Minister. Previous to this he had
made himself thoroughly familiar with England's policy in
dealing with her dependencies — notably Ireland.

3, 14. my original sentiments. After many demonstrations
both in America and England the Stamp Act became a law in
1765. One of the first tasks the Rockingham ministry set itself
was to bring about a repeal of this act. Burke made his first
speech in support of his party. He argued that the abstract
and theoretical rights claimed by England in matters of govern
ment should be set aside when they were unfavorable to the
happiness and prosperity of her colonies and herself. His
speech was complimented by Pitt, and Dr. Johnson wrote that
no new member had ever before attracted such attention.

Ill

112 NOTES

4, 1. America has been kept in agitation. For a period
of nearly one hundred years the affairs of the colonies had been
intrusted to a standing committee appointed by Parliament.
This committee was called "The Lords of Trade." From its
members came many if not the majority of the propositions for
the regulation of the American trade. To them the colonial
governors, who were appointed by the king, gave full accounts
of the proceedings of the colonial legislatures. These reports,
often colored by personal prejudice, did not always represent
the colonists in the best light. It was mainly through the influ
ence of one of the former Lords of Trade, Charles Townshend,
who afterwards became the leading voice in the Pitt ministry,
that the Stamp Act was passed.

4, 10. a worthy member. Mr. Rose Fuller.

4, 15. former methods. Condense the thought in this para
graph. Are such " methods " practised nowadays ?

6, 3. paper government. Burke possibly had in mind the
constitution prepared for the Carolinas by John Locke and Earl
of Shaftesbury. The scheme was utterly impracticable and
gave cause for endless dissatisfaction.

8, 1. Refined policy. After a careful reading of the para
graph determine what Burke means by " refined policy."

8, 13. the project. The bill referred to had been passed by
the House on Feb. 27. It provided that those colonies wliich
voluntarily voted contributions for the common defence and
support of the English government, and in addition made pro
vision for the administration of their own civil affairs, should be
exempt from taxation, except such as was necessary for the

NOTES 113

regulation of trade. It has been declared by some that the
measure was meant in good faith and that its recognition and
acceptance by the colonies would have brought good results.
Burke, along with others of the opposition, argued that the
intention of the bill was to cause dissension and division among
the colonies. Compare 7, 11-12. State your opinion and give
reasons.

8, 14. the noble lord in the blue ribbon. Lord North
(1732-1792). He entered Parliament at the age of twenty-two,
served as Lord of the Treasury, 1759 ; was removed by Rock-
mgham, 1765 ; was again appointed by Pitt to the office of Joint
Paymaster of the Forces ; became Prime Minister, 1770, and
resigned, 1781. Lord North is described both by his contempo
raries and later historians as an easy-going, indolent man, short
sighted and rather stupid, though obstinate and courageous.
He was the willing servant of George III., and believed in the
principle of authority as opposed to that of conciliation. The
blue ribbon was the badge of the Order of the Garter instituted
by Edward III. Lord North was made a Knight of the Garter,
1772. Burke often mentions the " blue ribbon " in speaking of
the Prime Minister. Why ?

8, 16. Colony agents. It was customary for colonies to
select some one to represent them in important matters of legis
lation. Burke himself served as the agent of New York. Do
you think this fact accounts in any way for his attitude in this
speech ?

9, 5. our address. Parliament had prepared an address to
the king some months previous, in which Massachusetts was

114 NOTES

declared to be in a state of rebellion. The immediate cause ot
this address was the Boston Tea Party. The lives and fortunes
of his Majesty's subjects were represented as being in danger,
and he was asked to deal vigorously not only with Massachusetts
but with her sympathizers.

10, 16. those chances. Suggested perhaps by lines in Juliut,
Cwsar, IV., iii., 216-219 : —

" There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries."

11, 8. according to that nature and to those circumstances.

Compare with 8, 1. Point out the connection between the
thought here expressed and Burke's idea of "expediency."

17, 9. great consideration. This paragraph has besn censured
for its too florid style. It may be rather gorgeous and rhetorical
when considered as part of an argument, yet it is very charac
teristic of Burke as a writer. In no other passage of the speech
is there such vivid clear-cut imagery. Note the picturesque
quality of the lines and detect if you can any confusion in figures.

17, 10. It is good for us to be here. Burke's favorite books
were Shakespeare, Milton, and the Lible. Trace the abo^e
sentence to one of these.

17, 21.

" Facta parentum
Jam legere et quse sit poteris cognoscere virtus."

— VIRGIL'S Eclogues, IV., 26, 27

NOTES 115

Notice the alteration. Already old enough to study the deeds
of his father and to know what virtue is.

18, 20. before you taste of death. Compare 17, 1C.

20, 25. Roman charity. This suggests the more famous
"Ancient Roman honor" (Merchant of Venice, III., ii., 291).
The incident referred to by Burke is told by several writers. A
father condemned to death by starvation is visited in prison by
his daughter, who secretly nourishes him with milk from her
breasts.

23, 7. complexions. " Mislike me not for my complexion.'1'1
— M . V. Is the word used in the same sense by Burke ?

23, 10. the thunder of the state. What is the classical
allusion ?

23, 21. a nation is not governed.

" Who overcomes
By force hath overcome but half his foe."

— Paradise Lost, I., 648, 649.

24, 23. Our ancient indulgence. "The wise and salutary
neglect," which Burke has just mentioned, was the result of
(a) the struggle of Charles I. with Parliament. (6) the confusion
and readjustment at the Restoration, (c) the Revolution of 1688,

(d) the attitude of France in favoring the cause of the Stuarts,

(e) the ascendency of the Whigs. England had her hands full
in attending to affairs at home. As a result of this the colonies
were practically their own masters in matters of government.
Also the political party known as the Whigs had its origin
shortly before William and Mary ascended the throne. This

116 NOTES

party favored the colonies and respected their ideas of liberty
and government.

26, 14. great contests. One instance of this is Magna
Charta. Suggest others.

30, 24. Freedom is to them. Such keen analysis and subtle
reasoning is characteristic of Burke. It is this tendency that
justifies some of his admirers in calling him " Philosopher States
man." Consider his thought attentively and determine whether
or not his argument is entirely sound. Is he correct in speaking
of our Gothic ancestors ?

33, 2. Abeunt studia in mores. Studies become a part of
character.

33, 20. winged ministers of vengeance. A figure suggested
perhaps by Horace, Odes, Bk. IV., 4: " Ministrum fulminis
alitem " — the thunder's winged messenger.

34, 4. the circulation. The Conciliation, as all of Burke's
writings, is rich in such figurative expressions. In every instance
the student should discover the source of the figure and determine
definitely whether or not his author is accurate and suggestive.

35, 19. its imperfections.

" But sent to my account
With all my imperfections upon my head."

— Hamlet, I., v., 78, 79.

37, 23. same plan. The act referred to, known as the Regu
lating Act, became a law May 10, 1774. It provided (a) that
the council, or the higher branch of the legislature, should be
appointed by the Crown (tbe popular assemblies had previously

NOTES 11?

selected the members of the council) ; (6) that officers of the
common courts should be chosen by the royal governors, and
(c) that public meetings (except for elections) should not be
held without the sanction of the king. These measures were
practically ignored. By means of circular letters the colonies
were fully instructed through their representatives. As a direct
result of the Regulating Act, along with other high-handed pro
ceedings of the same sort, delegates were secretly appointed for
the Continental Congress on Sept. 1 at Philadelphia. The dele
gates from Massachusetts were Samuel Adams, John Adarns,
Robert Paine, and Thomas Gushing.

38, 25. their liberties. Compare 26, 14.

39, 12. sudden or partial view. Goodrich, in his Select
British Eloquence, speaking of Burke's comprehensiveness in
discussing his subject, compares him to one standing upon an
eminence, taking a large and rounded view of it on every side.
The justice of this observation is seen in such instances as the
above. It is this breadth and clearness of vision more than
anything else that distinguishes Burke so sharply from his
contemporaries.

39, 16. three ways. How does the first differ from the
third ?

43, 21. Spoliatis anna supersunt. Though plundered their

arms still remain.

44, 4. your speech would betray you. "Thy speech be-
wrayeth thee." — Matt. xxvi. 73. There is much justice in the
observation that Burke is often verbose, yet such paragraphs as
this prove how well he knew to condense and prune his expres-

118 NOTES

sion. It is an excellent plan to select from day to day passages
of this sort and commit them to memory for recitation when the
speech has been finished.

45, 10. to persuade slaves. Does this suggest one of
Byron's poems ?

45, 23. causes of quarrel. The Assembly of Virginia in 1770
attempted to restrict the slave trade. Other colonies made the
same effort, but Parliament vetoed these measures, accompany
ing its action with the blunt statement that the slave trade was
profitable to England. Observe how effectively Burke uses hif
wide knowledge of history.

48, 18. ex vi termini. From the force of the word.

49, 23. abstract right. Compare with 11, 8 ; also 8, 1
Point out connection in thought.

50, 20. Act of Henry the Eighth. Burke alludes to this i ,
his letter to the sheriffs of Bristol in the following terms •. ' • lo-
try a man under this Act is to condemn him unheard. A per
son is brought hither in the dungeon of a ship hold ; thence he
is vomited into a dungeon on land, loaded with irons, unfurnished
with money, unsupported by friends, three thousand miles from
all means of calling upon or confronting evidence, where no one
local circumstance that tends to detect perjury can possibly be
judged of ; — such a person may be executed according to form,
but he can never be tried according to justice."

51, 17. correctly right. Explain.
53, 16. Paradise Lost, II., 392-394.

53, 18-24 ; 54, 1-10. This passage should be carefully studied.
Burke'? theory of government is given in the Conciliation, bj

NOTES 119

just such lines as these. Refer to other instances of principles
which he considers fundamental in matters of government.

55, 24. exquisite. Exact meaning ?

56, 5. trade laws. What would have been the nature of a
change beneficial to the colonies ?

61, 1. English conquest. At Henry II.'s accession, 1154,
Ireland had fallen from the civilization which had once
flourished upon her soil and which had been introduced by her
missionaries into England during the seventh century. Henry
II. obtained the sanction of the Pope, invaded the island, and
partially subdued the inhabitants. For an interesting account
of England's relations to Ireland the student should consult
Green's Short History of the English People.

62, 13. You deposed kings. What English kings have been
deposed ?

63, 23. Lords Marchers. March, boundary. These lords
were given permission by the English kings to take from the
Welsh as much land as they could. They built their castles on
the boundary line between the two countries, and when they
were not quarrelling among themselves .waged a guerilla warfare
against the Welsh. The Lords Marchers, because of special
privileges and the peculiar circumstances of their life, were
virtually kings — petty kings, of course.

66, 25. " When the clear star has shone upon the sailors, the
troubled water flows down from the rocks, the winds fall, the
clouds fade away, and, since they (Castor and Pollux) have so
willed it, the threatening waves settle on the deep." — HORACE,
Odes, I., 12. 27-32.

120 NOTES

70, 22. Opposuit natura. Nature opposed.

70, 25. no theory. Compare 33, 11-25 ; 34, 1-18. Select
other instances of Burke's impatience with fine-spun theories in
statescraft.

71, 15. Republic of Plato. Utopia of More. Ideal states.
Consult the Century Dictionary.

71 19

" And the dull swain

Treads daily on it with his clouted shoon."

— MILTON'S Comus, 6, 34, 3.5.

72, 3. the year 1763. The date marks the beginning of the
active struggle between England and the American colonies.
The Stamp Act was the first definite step taken by the English
Parliament in the attempt to tax the colonies without their
consent.

72, 6. legal competency. This had been practically recog
nized by Parliament prior to the passage of the Stamp Act. In
Massachusetts the Colonial Assembly had made grants from
year to year to the governor, both for his salary and the inci
dental expenses of his office. Notwithstanding the fact that he
was appointed (in most cases) by the Crown, and invariably
had the ear of the Lords of Trade, the colonies generally had
things their own way and enjoyed a political freedom greater,
perhaps, than did the people of England.

74, 14. This is not my doctrine, but that of Ofellus ; a rustic,
yet unusually wise.

75, 10. Compare in point of style with 43, 22-25 ; 44, 1-6.
In what way do such passages differ from Burke's prevailing
style? What is the central thought in each paragraph?

NOTES 121

81, 14. misguided people. There is little doubt that the
colonists in many instances were misrepresented by the Lords
of Trade and by the royal governors. See an interesting account
of this in Fiske's American Revolution.

84, 10. an Act. Passed in 1767. It provided for a duty on
imports, including tea, glass, and paper.

84, 20. An Act. Boston Post Bill.

85, 2. impartial administration of justice. This provided
chat if any person in Massachusetts were charged with murder,
or any other capital offence, he should be tried either in some
other colony or in Great Britain.

85, 8. An Act for the better regulating See 37, 23.
85, 13. Trial of Treasons. See 50, 20.

90, 17. de jure. According to law. de facto. According tc
fact.

92, 1. jewel of his soul.

" Good name in man and woman, dear my lord,
Is the immediate jewel of their souls,"

— Othello, III., iii., 155, 156.
95, 1. proposition of a ransom. See 8, 13.
95, 6. An experiment upon something of no value.
102, 6. They stake their fortune and play.

102,1(5. Such a presumption. Is Burke right in this ? Select
instances which seem to warrant just such a presumption. Dis
cuss the political parties of Burke's own day from this point of
view.

122 NOTES

103, 1-7. What can you say about the style of this passage ?
Note the figure, sentence structure, and diction. Does it seem
artificial and overwrought? Compare it with 43, 22-25; 44.
1-6 ; also with 90, 23-25 , 91, 1-25 , 92, 1-23.

105, 4. enemies. France and Spain.

105, 13. light as air.

" Trifles light as air
Are to the jealous confirmations strong
As proofs of holy writ." — Othello, III., iii., 322-324.

106, 16. grapple to you.

" The friends thou hast and their adoption tried
Grapple them to thy soul with hooks of steel."

— Hamlet, I., iii., 62, 63.

105, 21 the cement is gone. Figure ?

107, 21. profane herd.

" Odi profanum volgus et arceo."

I hate the vulgar herd and keep it from me.

— HORACE, Odes, III., 1, 1.

108, 6. Magnanimity. Etymology ?

108, 10. auspicate. Etymology and derivation ?

108, 12. Sursum corda. Lift up your hearts.

108, 25. quod felix faustumque sit. May it be happy ana
fortunate.

INDEX TO NOTES

Abstract rights, 111, 118.
Adams, John and Samuel, 117.
Address to the king, 113.
Administration of justice, 121.

See Regulating Act, 116.
American Revolution, Fiske, 121.

Bihle, the, 114.
Boston Port Bill, 121.
Boston Tea Party, 114.
Byron, 118.

Carolinas, 112.

Castor, 119.

Century Dictionary, 120.

Charles I., 115.

Charles Townshend, 112.

Colonial governors, 112.

Colony agents, 113.

Competency, legal, 120.

Complexions, 115.

Continental Congress, 117.

Cosmos, 120.

Duty on imports, 121.

English conquest, 119.
English kings deposed, 119.
Exempt from taxation, 112.

Fiske, American Revolution, 121,
France, 115, 122.
Fuller, Rose, 112.

George III., policy of, 113.

Goodrich, Select British Elo
quence, 117.

Grand penal bill, 111.

Great contests, 116.

Green, History of the English
People, 119.

Hamlet, 116, 122.

Henry II., invasion of Ireland.

119.

Henry VIII act of , 118.
Horace, Gaes, 116, 119, 122,

Imports, duty on, 121.

Ireland, 111; England's relation

to, 119.
123

124

INDEX TO NOTES

John Locke, 112.
Johnson, Dr., 111.
Julius Caesar, 114.

Lord North, 113.
Lord Rockingham, 111.
Lords Marchers, 119.
Lords of Trade, 112, 120, 121.

Magna Charta, 116.

March, 119.

Massachusetts, state of rebellion,

114 ; Colonial Assembly, 120.
Milton, 114.
More, Sir Thomas, Utopia, 120.

Newfoundland fisheries, 111.
North, Lord, character of, 113.

Order of the Garter, 113.
Othello, 121, 122.

Paine, Robert, 117.
Paradise Lost, 115, 118.
Pitt, 111.

Plato, Republic, 120.
Pollux, 119.

Ransom, proposition of, 121 . See
112.

Refined policy, 112.
Regulating Act, 116.
Revolution, 115.
Roman charity, 115.

Shaftesbury, Earl of, 112.

Shakespeare, 114.

Sheriffs of Bristol, Burke's lettei

to, 118.

Slave trade, 118.
Spain, 122.

Stamp Act, 111, 112, 120.
Stuarts, House of, 115.

Taxation, 112.

Theory, Burke's impatience with

120.

Townshend, Charles, 112.
Trade laws, 119.
Trial of Treasons, 118, 121.

Virgil, Eclogues, 114.
Virginia, Assembly of, 118.

Welsh, the, 119.

Whigs, 115.

William and Mary, 115.

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Burke, Edmund

Burke fs speech on
conciliation with America