A LETTER
TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL
EDMUND BURKE
EDITED
WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES
BY
JAMES HUGH MOFFATT
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH LITERATURE
CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL
PHILADELPHIA
HINDS, NOBLE & ELDREDGE
PHILADELPHIA NEW YORK
COPYRIGHT, 1904,
HINDS, NOBLE & ELDREDGE.
PREFACE.
A regulation of the State Board of Law Examiners of
Pennsylvania, which went into effect in January, 1903,
requires that all applicants for examination and registra
tion as students at law " must be able to pass a satisfac
tory examination upon the subject-matter, the style and
the structure, and to answer simple questions on the
lives of the authors" of twelve English classics, among
which are Burke s Speech on Conciliation with America,
and his Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol. The lack of any
well annotated edition of Burke s Letter led to the prepa
ration of this volume, which aims to present in convenient
form the facts of Burke s life, the text of the Letter, and
the notes necessary to a full understanding of the text.
In the Notes facts of special interest to students at law
have been pointed out.
The interest and value of this Letter is not limited to
students at law. It will be found of great value in all
schools as a model of style and reasoning. Its subject-
matter is also of great interest, for it reveals the attitude
and arguments of many English statesmen in the critical
struggle which led to the founding of our nation.
The text of the Letter is that of the first edition, cor
rected by comparison with the fourth edition, and the
first edition of Burke s collected works. In the prepara-
iii
221851
i v PREFACE.
tion of the Notes, the editor acknowledges his indebted
ness to earlier editors, especially to Prof. F. G. Selby.
He desires to express his appreciation of the sympathetic
help of his colleagues, Professors Albert H. Smyth and
John Louis Haney, and of his classmate, Irvin Shupp, Jr.
He is especially grateful to Prof. Franklin Spencer
Edmonds for his concise account of the origin and applica
tion of THE WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS, which forms the third
section of the Introduction; and to David Wallerstein,
Esq., whose enthusiastic admiration of Burke and ac
quaintance with his writings led to many valuable sugges
tions in the Introduction and the Notes. The editor
hopes that those who read this Letter may show in their
practice of law and their criticism of the principles of
law the same spirit of humanity which characterises all
of Burke s writings.
J. H. M.
Central High School,
May 21, 1904.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION : PAGE
The Life of Edmund Burke vii
Burke and the American Kevolution . . xxii
The Writ of Habeas Corpus xxxiii
Bibliography xxxvii
LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL .... 1
NOTES 61
INTRODUCTION.
THE LIFE OF EDMUND BURKE.
WHEN Edmund Burke died in 1797, George Canning
wrote to one of Lord Malmesbury s embassy : " There is
but one event, but that is an event for the world, Burke
is dead. . . . He is the man that will mark this age,
marked as it is in itself by events, to all time." 1 During
the twenty-nine years from 1765 to 1794, in which Burke
was a member of the House of Commons, he was actively
interested in every measure of constitutional and colonial
importance. As a political pamphleteer and legislator,
he helped to remove the unjust restrictions from Ireland s
commerce ; to grant the privileges of citizenship to Roman
Catholics; to preserve the independence of the represen
tatives of the people in Parliament from the unconsti
tutional influence of the King; and to protect the King
and the Church from the destructive influence of the
French Revolutionists. His greatest work was in dis
cussing and determining the relation of the imperial
government to the colonies, both in the case of the
Americans, who claimed their rights as Englishmen, and
of the people of India whose sufferings from English
injustice were scarcely known in England.
1 Malmesbury g Diaries, London, 1844, III. 398.
vii
viii INTRODUCTION.
Burke s writings have been prized for one hundred and
twenty years by statesmen and scholars., not so much for
their historical value as for their political principles
and literary style. "Burke is the one Englishman who
has succeeded in attaining first rate eminence both in
politics and in literature by one and the same set of
writings." x Yet he was always handicapped by the cir
cumstances of his life. His family had none of that social
influence which is so essential to success in English public
life; he was seldom in good health and always more or
less in debt. The secret of his success can be found
in his unselfish sympathy and far-reaching ability and
zeal for work. As his cousin said, Burke was "full of
real business, intent upon doing solid good to his country
as much as if he was to receive twenty per cent from the
commerce of the whole empire which he labours to
improve and extend." 2 Burke himself, in the Letter to a
Noble Lord, said, " Nitor in adversum is the motto for
a man like me. ... At every step of my progress in
life, (for in every step was I traversed and opposed),
and at every turnpike I met, I was obliged to show
my passport, and again and again to prove my sole title
to the honour of being useful to my country, by a proof
that I was not wholly unacquainted with its laws and
the whole system of its interests both abroad and at
home." 3
Burke s father was a well-to-do lawyer of Dublin
and gave his son a good education at the boarding school
of Abraham Shackleton, a Quaker, and afterwards at
1 Sir J. F. Stephen, Horce Sabbaticce, 3rd Series, 1894, p. 93.
2 Prior s Life of Burke, 5th Edition, London, 1854, p. 89.
8 Burke s Works, Boston, 1899, V. 193.
INTRODUCTION. ix
Trinity College^ Dublin, where Edmund formed an excel
lent habit of general reading, spending three hours every
day in the library. Later in life, Burke wrote to his own
son: "Reading, and much reading, is good; but the
power of diversifying the matter infinitely in your own
mind, and of applying it to every occasion that arises, is
far better." 1 For two years after graduation, Burke
studied law in his father s office and then in 1750 went to
London to complete his legal education, for a regulation
required that candidates for the Irish Bar should study
in the legal societies of the Inner and Middle Temple,
London.
Burke always had a high veneration for the legal pro
fession; in his speech on American Taxation, he said of
Mr. Grenville : " He was bred to the law, which is, in
my opinion, one of the first and noblest of human sciences ;
a science which does more to quicken and invigorate the
understanding, than all the other kinds of learning put
together ; but it is not apt, except in persons very happily
born, to open and to liberalize the mind exactly in the
same proportion." 2 Burke, however, neglected his stud
ies; he was more interested in literature and in the pro
ceedings of Parliament. Many evenings he spent, an
eager listener, in the gallery of the House of Commons,
which later, in his parliamentary career, was often cleared
of v visitors lest his eloquence should have too great an
influence on the public. Burke was soon forced to make
his own living, chiefly by writing for publishers, because
his disappointed father refused to continue his annual
1 Burke s Correspondence, London, 1844, I. 456.
2 Burke s Works, II. 37.
x INTRODUCTION.
allowance of 100. His first important publications were
A Vindication of Natural Society, an indirect reply to
Lord Bolingbroke s defence of natural religion, and A
Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the
8ublime and Beautiful, which, though now obsolete, had
the important effect of causing the German scholar, Les-
sing, to write LaoJcoon, one of the earliest essays on mod
ern art criticism. A year later Burke began An Abridg
ment of English History, which he never completed. His
more important historical work was the editing of the
Annual Register, which is still published, giving a brief
summary of the important events of each year.
These four works are his only non-political writings.
Everything else that Burke wrote was in direct support
of some public measure. In 1761 he entered upon the
feverish life of a politician, becoming private secretary
of William Gerard Hamilton, who was Chief Secretary
of the Earl of Halifax, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.
Hamilton was nicknamed " Single Speech," because his
first speech in the House of Commons was so excellent
that he never ventured to make another. Hamilton rec
ognised Burke s ability and attempted to monopolise his
efforts by securing for him an annual pension of 300.
Burke refused to become his political slave and wisely
gave up the pension.
On his return to England, Burke joined with his
friends, Dr. Samuel Johnson, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Oliver
Goldsmith, and others, to form the famous Literary Club.
Burke was one of the few men whom Dr. Johnson re
spected as equals. He said : " Burke is the only man
whose common conversation corresponds with the general
INTRODUCTION. xi
fame which he has in the world. Take up whatever topic
you please, he is ready to meet you. ... He does not
talk from a desire of distinction, but because his mind is
full. . . . He is never what we call hum-drum; never
unwilling to begin to talk, nor in haste to leave off."
When Burke with other friends came to bid farewell to
Johnson on his death bed, he expressed a fear that so many
callers might oppress the sick man. Johnson replied : " I
must be in a wretched state, indeed, when your company
would not be a delight to me." 1
In 1765 Biurke became private secretary of the Prime
Minister, the Marquis of Rockingham. Burke proved to
be the life of the Rockingham party, the conservative
Whigs. He worked so hard to keep this party together
and active, that many of his contemporaries looked upon
him as a mere partisan. His friend Oliver Goldsmith
expressed this opinion in his humorous poem, Retaliation:
"Here lies our good Edmund, whose genius was such,
We scarcely can praise it or blame it too much;
Who, born for the universe, narrowed his mind,
And to party gave up what was meant for mankind."
Yet in 1783 this very party was driven from the control
of the government by the defeat of Fox s East India Bill,
which Burke probably had prepared and had supported in
the House of Commons. Ten years later when many of
the Whigs sympathised with the revolutionists in France,
Burke did not hesitate to desert the party. The Whigs
did not regain the control of the government for half
a century.
1 Boswell s Life of Johnson, edited by Birkbeck Hill, Oxford, 1887,
IV. 19, 167, 407, V. 33.
xii INTRODUCTION.
Though not a partisan, Burke was a strong supporter
of the party system of government. Most statesmen
had connived at it as a necessary evil of which the
less said the better. In 1770, in his pamphlet, Thoughts
on the Cause of the Present Discontents, Burke publicly
defended party. "Party is a body of men united for
promoting by their joint endeavours the national interest
upon some particular principle in which they are all
agreed. For my part, I find it impossible to conceive,
that anyone believes in his own politics, or thinks them
to be of any weight, who refuses to adopt the means of
having them reduced into practice. . . . When bad
men combine, the good must associate." *
Burke had ample opportunity to become acquainted
with the strength of party government, for he was in the
Opposition, or minority, for twenty-seven of his twenty-
nine years in Parliament. The chief work of his party
during the short period of its power was Burke s Econom
ical Keform Bill, which wisely reduced the expenses of
government about 72,000 a year, by limiting the pension
list and by abolishing many useless, lucrative positions
at court. This effectually weakened the King s party
which had granted these positions as bribes to members of
the House of Commons. The income of the Paymaster
General was also regulated; and Burke himself was the
first Paymaster to receive the reduced salary.
Burke was never appointed to a higher office than this
of Paymaster General, which he held in 1782 and again
in 1783. It seems strange that when his party was in
power, Burke was not given a position in the cabinet,
iBurke s Works. I. 530, 526.
INTRODUCTION. xiii
which his abilities and services certainly merited. Many
explanations, more or less satisfactory, have been sug
gested. 1 His ungoverned excesses of party zeal and po
litical passion made him an uncomfortable colleague.
Lord Lansdowne declared that Burke ^ was so violent,
so overbearing, so arrogant, so intractable, that to have
got on with him in a cabinet would have been utterly and
absolutely impossible." Burke was always harassed by
unjust prejudices and libels. Many men thought he
was the author of the scurrilous Junius Letters, now
known to be by Philip Francis. His relatives were looked
upon with suspicion as Irish adventurers. Sir Gilbert
Elliot said: "Burke has now got such a train after
himj as would sink anybody but himself his son, who
is quite nauseated by all mankind; his brother, who is
liked better than his son, but is rather offensive with
animal spirits and with brogue; and his cousin, Will
Burke, who is just returned unexpectedly from India, as
much ruined as when he went many years ago, and who is
a fresh charge on any prospects of power that Burke may
ever have." Another hindrance was his notoriously strait
ened circumstances. Like his fellow-countryman, Oliver
Goldsmith, Burke was always in debt and always too
generous. He sent the young painter, James Barry, to
the Continent to perfect his art. In 1768 he purchased
an estate of six hundred acres near Beaconsfield, about
twenty-four miles from London. He probably borrowed
the 20,000 to pay for it, partly from the Marquis of
Rockingham, although the mortgages on the property
1 Morley s Burke (English Men of Letters Series), pp. 139-140.
xiv INTRODUCTION.
were not paid off until his widow sold it fifteen years
after his death.
The last ten years of Burke s public life were occupied
with work for India and against France. In 1783 he
was appointed a member of a committee of the House
of Commons to investigate the administration of the
East India Company, which had governed India since
1757 when Clive drove out the French. Chiefly through
Burke s indefatigable efforts, Parliament learned of the
cruelty and injustice of the Englishmen who went out
to India as clerks and returned to England in a few
years with enormous fortunes which they had extorted
from the natives. India was so far distant from Eng
land, nine months in time, that the English in India
did not feel responsible for justice in office.
After much deliberation Burke was forced to the con
clusion that the responsibility for the unjust government
rested upon the shoulders of Warren Hastings, who as
Governor General had supreme control in India from
1773 to 1785. When Hastings resigned and returned to
England in 1786, Burke urged the House of Commons to
impeach him. After two years of debate, the House
finally appointed a committee of managers, with Burke as
chairman, to impeach Hastings before the House of
Lords in Westminster Hall. The trial began in 1788 and
was not finished until 1795, although the court was in ses
sion only one hundred and forty-eight days, because the
judges were so often absent on circuit. At first Hastings
had been regarded as a great criminal, but the increased
familiarity with his actions and the length of his trial
changed public opinion until he was looked upon as a
INTRODUCTION. xv
hero, and the managers were denounced as persecutors.
Most of the managers, such as Fox and Sheridan, after
their first great orations, lost interest in the trial, but
Burke manfully kept up the vigorous prosecution, despite
its unpopularity.
Hastings was finally acquitted. But Burke s labour had
not been in vain. Though he failed to punish the cul
prit, he destroyed the system of unjust government.
Thereafter the Governor Generals of India were not ap
pointed from the officials of the Company, but from
the nobles of England, experienced in diplomacy and
statecraft, and responsible both for their personal and
national honour. Burke also proved that English justice
should be the same all over the world; what was con
sidered injustice in London should be considered injustice
in Calcutta. No longer did oppression and corruption
continue to be the guiding maxims of English policy.
Burke taught " the great lesson that Asiatics have rights,
and that Europeans have obligations; that a superior race
is bound to observe the highest current morality of the
time in all its dealings with the subject race. Burke is
entitled to our lasting reverence as the first apostle and
great upholder of integrity, mercy, and honour in the rela
tion between his countrymen and their humble depend
ents." * Burke himself wrote one year before his death :
"If I were to call for a reward, (which I have never
done,) it should be for those [services] in which for four
teen years without intermission I showed the most in
dustry and had the least success : I mean in the affairs of
India. They are those on which I value myself the most :
1 Morley s Burke, p. 133.
xvi INTRODUCTION.
most for the importance, most for the labour, most for the
judgment, most for constancy and perseverance in the
pursuit. Others may value them most for the intention.
In that, surely, they are not mistaken." 1
During the French Revolution Burke endeavoured to
protect England from the revolutionary influence, al
though many of his friends applauded the efforts of the
French to assert their rights as men. Charles James Fox,
for instance, when he heard of the fall of the Bastile,
exclaimed : " How much the greatest event it is that ever
happened in the world ! and how much the best !" 2
But Burke s conservative heart was filled with dread at
the violence of the revolutionists in overturning the long-
established institutions of government. They had dis
carded the foundation of all of Burke s political reason
ing experience. In their paroxysm of freedom, they
declared that whatever had been was evil; good could
only come from something new, not from an expedient
modification of the old order.
Burke found that his efforts in the House of Commons
to suppress sympathy for the French were inadequate.
He determined to address the final court of appeal, the
larger audience of the English public. In the fall of
1790, he published his Reflections on the Revolution in
France. Thirty thousand copies were immediately sold.
With the possible exception of Swift s Conduct of the
Allies, no pamphlet ever had such an immediate and
permanent political effect. The majority of Englishmen
had not known what to think of the French Kevolution.
1 Burke s Works, V. 192.
2 Russell s Memoirs of Fox, Phila., 1853, II. 297.
INTRODUCTION. xvii
When Burke made strong appeals to their emotions and
gave them good reasons for opposing the Revolution, they
immediately adopted his arguments as their own.
As the Revolution proceeded and Burke s sane predic
tions of the depreciation of paper currency, of the
instability of the French King, of the abolition of Chris
tianity, were fulfilled, men began to look upon him with
wonder as a political prophet. Most remarkable was his
prediction of the rise of such a military despot as Na
poleon proved to be. " In the weakness of one kind of
authority, and in the fluctuation of all, the officers of an
army will remain for some time mutinous and full of
faction, until some popular general, who understands
the art of conciliating the soldiery, and who possesses the
true spirit of command, shall draw the eyes of all men
upon himself. Armies will obey him on his personal ac
count. There is no other way, of securing military obe
dience in this state of things. But the moment in which
that event shall happen, the person who really commands
the army is your master, the master (that is little) of
your king, the master of your assembly, the master of
your whole republic." 1
The Reflections should not be read to learn the history
of the Revolution; it is rather an advocate s plea against
it. Burke did not do justice to the needs for a revolution ;
he exaggerated the violence of the mob. Despite his
prejudice and over-anxiety which mar many passages,
there are many paragraphs of surpassing beauty of ex
pression and soundness of political wisdom. The most
famous example of his rhetoric is his description of
1 Burke s Works, III. 524.
xviii INTRODUCTION.
Marie Antoinette : " It is now sixteen or seventeen years
since I saw the Queen of France, then the Dauphiness, at
Versailles; and surely never lighted on this orb, which
she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision.
I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering
the elevated sphere she just began to move in, glitter
ing like the morning-star, full of life and splendour and
joy. Oh! what a revolution! and what an heart must
I have, to contemplate without emotion that elevation
and that fall. Little did I dream, when she added titles
of veneration to those of enthusiastic, distant, respectful
love, that she should ever be obliged to carry the sharp
antidote against disgrace concealed in that bosom! little
did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters
fallen upon her in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of
men of honour, and of cavaliers ! I thought ten thousand
swords must have leaped from their scabbards to avenge
even a look that threatened her with insult. But the age
of chivalry is gone. That of sophisters, economists, and
calculators has succeeded; and the glory of Europe is
extinguished forever." *
Burke s political wisdom is well shown in his definition
of government and of society : " Government is a con
trivance of human wisdom to provide for human wants"-
" Society is, indeed, a contract. . . . It is a partner
ship in all science, a partnership in all art, a partner
ship in every virtue and in all perfection. As the ends
of such a partnership cannot be obtained in many genera
tions, it becomes a partnership not only between those who
1 Burke s Works, III. 331.
: Burke s Works, III. 310.
INTRODUCTION. xix
are living, but between those who are living, those who
are dead, and those who are to be born." *
The influence of Burke s Reflections has not been con
fined to his contemporaries. Mr. Lecky says : " It is not
too much to say that it contains pages of an eloquence
which has never in any language been surpassed, and
that no other English book affords so many lessons of
enduring value to those who are engaged in the study
either of the British Constitution or of the general prin
ciples of government. Together with the Appeal from
the New to the Old Whigs, which is its supplement and
its defence, it should be read, re-read, and thoroughly mas
tered by everyone who desires to acquire wide and deep
views on political questions, and to understand the best
English political philosophy of the eighteenth century." 2
The rest of Burke s life was spent in urging England
to increase her defences against the possibility of a
French invasion, and in denouncing the offers of peace
made to France by the English ministers. These writings
are of less importance. His anxiety overpowered his
self-control. Korley says: "In splendour of rhetoric, in
fine images, in sustention, in irony, they surpass any
thing that Burke wrote; but of the qualities and prin
ciples that, far more than his rhetoric, have made Burke
so admirable and so great of justice, of firm grasp of
fact, of a reasonable sense of the probabilities of things
there are only traces enough to light up the gulfs of empty
words, reckless phrases, and senseless vituperations, that
surge and boil around them." 3
1 Burke s Works, III. 359.
2 Lecky s England in l8th Century, New York, 1892, VI. 390.
Morley s Burke, p. 199.
xx INTRODUCTION.
In 1794 Burke retired from Parliament and was about
to be rewarded for his long public services by being
raised to the peerage with the title of Lord Beaconsfield.
But his only son Richard died. Burke, in his sorrow,
declined the peerage and accepted a pension of 3,700.
This caused the Duke of Bedford and other sympathisers
with France to criticise him in Parliament, and in 1796
Burke published a reply, or an apology for his life, in A
Letter to a Noble Lord. In a noble passage on the death
of his son, he wrote : " Had it pleased God to continue
to me the hopes of succession, I should have been, ac
cording to my mediocrity and the mediocrity of the age
I live in, a sort of founder of a family: I should have
left a son, who, in all the points in which personal merit
can be viewed, in science, in erudition, in genius, in
taste, in honour, in generosity, in humanity, in every lib
eral sentiment and every liberal accomplishment, would
not have shown himself inferior to the Duke of Bedford,
or to any of those whom he traces in his line. . . . But
a Disposer whose power we are little able to resist, and
whose wisdom it behooves us not at all to dispute, has
ordained it in another manner, and (whatever my queru
lous weakness might suggest) a far better. The storm
has gone over me; and I lie like one of those old oaks
which the late hurricane has scattered about me. I am
stripped of all my honours, I am torn up by the roots, and
lie prostrate on the earth. There, and prostrate there, I
most unfeignedly recognise the divine justice, and in
some degree submit to it. But whilst I humble myself
before God, I do not know that it is forbidden to repel
the attacks of unjust and inconsiderate men. ... I
INTRODUCTION. xxi
am alone. I have none to meet my enemies in the gate.
. . . I live in an inverted order. They who ought to
have succeeded me are gone before me. They who should
have been to me as posterity are in the place of ances
tors." i
Two years later Burke died on the ninth of July, 1797,
and was buried in the little church of Beaconsfield.
A concise and sensible estimate of Burke s work and
political position is given by Mr. Lecky : " There is no
political figure of the eighteenth century which retains so
enduring an interest, or which repays so amply a careful
study, as Edmund Burke. All other statesmen seem to
belong wholly to the past; for though many of their
achievements remain, the profound changes that have
taken place in the conditions of English political life have
destroyed the significance of their policy and their ex
ample. A few fine flashes of rhetoric, a few happy epi
grams, a few laboured speeches which now seem cold,
lifeless, and commonplace, are all that remain of the
eloquence of the Pitts, of Eox, of Sheridan, or of Plunket.
But of Burke it may be truly said, that there is scarcely
any serious political thinker in England who has not
learnt much from his writings, and whom he has not pro
foundly influenced either in the way of attraction or in
the way of repulsion. As an orator, he has been sur
passed by some, as a practical politician he has been sur
passed by many, and his judgments of men and things
were often deflected by violent passions, by strong an~
tipathies, by party spirit, by exaggerated sensibility, by a
strength of imagination and of affection, which contin-
1 Burke s Works, V. 207, 208.
xxii INTRODUCTION.
ually invested particular objects with a halo of super
stitious reverence. But no other politician or writer has
thrown the light of so penetrating a genius on the nature
and workings of the British Constitution, has impressed
his principles so deeply on both of the great parties in
the State, and has left behind him a richer treasure of
political wisdom applicable to all countries and to all
times. He had a peculiar gift of introducing into tran
sient party conflicts observations drawn from the most
profound knowledge of human nature, of the first prin
ciples of government and legislation, and of the more
subtle and remote consequences of political institutions,
and there is perhaps no English prose writer since Bacon
whose works are so thickly starred with thought. The
time may come when they will be no longer read. The
time will never come in which men would not grow the
wiser by reading them." 1
n
BURKE AND THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.
It is difficult to determine the relative merit of Burke s
writings. William Hazlitt says: "There is no single
speech of Mr. Burke which can convey a satisfactory idea
of his powers of mind: to do him justice, it would be
necessary to quote all his works; the only specimen of
Burke is all that he wrote" 2 Burke s Reflections on the
Revolution in France is probably his best known work,
as Mr. Lecky has said. Matthew Arnold, however, gives
1 Lecky s England in J8th Century, III. 381-382.
2 Wm. Hazlitt: Sketches and Essays, London, 1872, p. 408.
INTRODUCTION. xxiii
precedence to Burke s writings for Ireland: "Burke is
the greatest of our political thinkers and writers. But his
political thinking and writing has more value on some
subjects than on others; the value is at its highest when
the subject is Ireland." x
Here in America it is natural that Burke s American
speeches should be most popular, and in this opinion many
Englishmen agree. John Morley says : " Of all Burke s
writings none are so fit to secure unqualified and unan
imous admiration as the three pieces on this momentous
struggle: the Speech on American Taxation (April 19,
1774) ; the Speech on Conciliation with America (March
22, 177^.) ; and the Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol (1777).
. . s\ It is no exaggeration to say that they compose
the most perfect manual in our literature, or in any liter
ature, for one who approaches the study of public affairs,
whether for knowledge or for practice. They are an ex
ample without fault of all the qualities which the critic,
whether a theorist, or an actor, of great political situa
tions should strive by night and by day to possess.
. If their subject were as remote as the quarrel
between the Corinthians and Corcyra, or the war between
Home and the Allies, instead of a conflict to which the
world owes the opportunity of the most important of polit
ical experiments, we should still have everything to learn
from the author s treatment ; the vigorous grasp of masses
of compressed detail, the wide illumination from great
principles of human experience, the strong and masculine
feeling for the two great political ends of Justice and
1 Edmund Burke on Ireland, edited by M. Arnold, London, 1881, p. vi.
xxiv INTRODUCTION.
Freedom, the large and generous interpretation of ex
pediency, the morality, the vision, the noble temper." 1
~~ Burke was not vainly boasting when he wrote : " I
think I know America. If I do not, my ignorance is in
curable, for I have spared no pains to understand it." 2
" The first session I sat in Parliament, I found it neces
sary to analyse the whole commercial, financial, constitu
tional, and foreign interests of Great Britain and its
empire." 3 One of his earliest publications was An Ac-
count of the European Settlements in America, which is
still an authority for the early colonies and trade; a book
which George Washington put into his own library. The
early volumes of the Annual Register are full of refer
ences to the colonies.
Burke was personally interested in America. In 1755
he had a serious intention of emigrating to America where
a place of credit in one of the provinces had been offered
to him, but his father persuaded him to remain in Eng
land. Two years later in apologising to his old school
mate, Richard Shackleton, for not answering letters,
Burke wrote : " What appearance there may have been of
neglect, arose from my manner of life: chequered with
various designs; sometimes in London, sometimes in re
mote parts of the country; sometimes in France, and
shortly, please God, to be in America." 4 He did not go
to America ; but from 1771 to the outbreak of the Revolu
tion he acted as agent for the colony of New York, re
ceiving a salary of 500 a year.
1 Morley s Burke, p. 78.
2 See page 22.
3 Burke s Works, V. 191.
4 Burke s Correspondence, I. 32.
INTRODUCTION. xxv
When Burke first entered Parliament, he was plunged
into the thick of the struggle with the colonies. At the
close of the French and Indian War in 1763, the Prime
Minister, George Grenville, determined that a revenue
should be raised in the colonies toward paying for the
war and for the standing army which it was thought wise
to maintain in America. He attempted to impose a
small stamp tax on all legal papers used in the colonies.
The colonists, well educated in law as Burke pointed out,
indignantly opposed the principle of this tax as contrary
to their rights as Englishmen, affirming that they could
not lawfully be taxed by a House of Commons in which
they were not represented. So violent was their resistance,
that the first work of the Buckingham ministry was to
repeal the Stamp Act. Unfortunately this ministry was
not strong and was forced to resign in the summer of
1766. The succeeding ministry, led by Charles Town-
shend in 1767 passed a bill which imposed small duties
on all tea, paper, glass, red lead, white lead, and painters
colours exported to the colonies. The colonists at once
agreed among themselves not to import any goods from
England as long as these duties were in force. These
non-importation agreements lessened the trade of the
English merchants so much that they joined with the
Whigs and in 1770 repealed all the duties except that on
tea.
This small tea duty was enough to keep up the irrita
tion of the colonists. But no serious act of opposition
occurred until late in 1773, when the citizens of Boston
threw into the harbour a ship-load of tea which the Eng
lish had attempted to land. Angered by the news of this
xxvi INTRODUCTION.
Boston Tea Party, Parliament closed the harbour of Bos
ton and annulled the charter of Massachusetts. Some of
the more moderate members of the House of Commons
tried to prevent further violence by proposing the repeal
of the duty on tea. Burke supported the motion in his
speech on American Taxation, in which he reviewed the
history of the attempts to tax the colonies, which he sat
irised as mere makeshifts. The motion was badly defeated.
In less than a year Burke made another effort to urge
measures of conciliation. But the enraged legislators
were in no mood to be convinced by the arguments of his
speech on Conciliation with America and his resolutions
of conciliation were defeated by a vote of 270 to 78. Al
though on the same subject, these two speeches were very
different. Prof. Goodrich says : " His l standpoint in the
first was England. His topics were the inconsistency and
folly of the ministry in their ( miserable circle of occa
sional arguments and temporary expedients for raising
a revenue in America. His object was to recall the House
to the original principles of the English colonial system
that of regulating the trade of the colonies, and making it
subservient to the interests of the mother country, while
in other respects she left them ( every characteristic mark
of a free people in all their internal concerns. His
standpoint in the second speech was America. His
topics were her growing population, agriculture, com
merce, and fisheries ; the causes of her fierce spirit of lib
erty; the impossibility of repressing it by force; and the
consequent necessity of some concession on the part of
England. His object was (waiving all abstract questions
about the right of taxation) to show that Parliament
INTRODUCTION. xxvii
ought to admit the people of the colonies into an interest
in the Constitution/ by giving them (like Ireland, Wales,
Chester, and Durham) a share in the representation; and
to do this, by leaving internal taxation to the colonial As
semblies, since no one could think of an actual representa
tion of America in Parliament at the distance of three
thousand miles. The two speeches were equally diverse in
their spirit. The first was in a strain of incessant attack,
full of the keenest sarcasm, and shaped from beginning
to end for the purpose of putting down the ministry.
The second, like the plan it proposed, was conciliatory;
temperate and respectful toward Lord North [the Prime
Minister] ; designed to inform those who were ignorant of
the real strength and feelings of America; instinct with
the finest philosophy of man and of social institutions;
and intended, if possible, to lead the House, through
Lord North s scheme, into a final adjustment of the dis
pute on the true principles of English liberty." 1
Burke was at this time representative in the House of
Commons for the important commercial city of Bristol.
In 1774 the Whigs of Bristol had become dissatisfied with
their representatives, who seemed to be little interested in
their affairs and opinions. Several of the leading mer
chants trading with the colonies asked Burke to become
a candidate. After an exciting contest he was elected
one of Bristol s two representatives.
Burke, however, never was popular at Bristol. He
knew only a few of the citizens, and he seemed to neglect
the means of gaining popularity. After his election had
been confirmed by the House of Commons, he refused to
1 C. A. Goodrich: Select British Eloquence, New York, 1852, p. 215.
xxviii INTRODUCTION.
return to Bristol with his colleague to be "chaired," to
take part in the triumphal celebration of his supporters.
During the six years in which he represented Bristol, he
visited it only three times.
The men of Bristol did not like his speeches in favour
of admitting the Roman Catholics to the privileges of
citizenship; they revived the old story that he was a
Jesuit. His support of the Roman Catholics and of the
Dissenters was the result of his natural tolerance in reli
gion which had been strengthened by the circumstances
of his life. His schoolmaster had been a Quaker; his
mother and his wife had been educated in the Roman
Catholic faith. Burke himself was a staunch Protestant.
Burke proved to be even more independent than his
predecessors of the instructions of his constituents. On
the very day of his election, he had frankly told them
that he would act in Parliament as he thought best, per
haps not as they wished. " Certainly, gentlemen, it ought
to be the happiness and glory of a representative to live
in the strictest union, the closest correspondence, and the
most unreserved communication with his constituents.
Their wishes ought to have great weight with him; their
opinions high respect; their business unremitted atten
tion. It is his duty to sacrifice his repose, his pleasure,
his satisfactions, to theirs, and above all, ever, and in all
cases, to prefer their interest to his own. But his un
biassed opinion, his mature judgment, his enlightened
conscience, he ought not to sacrifice to you, to any man,
or to any set of men living. These he does not derive from
your pleasure, no, nor from the law and the Constitu
tion. They are a trust from Providence, for the abuse of
INTRODUCTION. xxix
which, he is deeply answerable. Your representative owes
you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he be
trays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your
opinion." *
The test of these principles soon came. The outbreak
of the American war greatly crippled the trade of Bris
tol; and the majority of the merchants became anxious
that England should speedily put down the Revolution.
Contrary to their wishes, Burke continued to oppose the
efforts of the ministry. In 1778 the House of Commons
proposed to relax some of the unjust restrictions upon
Irish commerce. The merchants of Bristol, fearing an
other decrease in their trade, protested against the bill,
and even ordered Burke to defeat it. Burke disregarded
these instructions and supported the bill, writing to his
constituents that he could not uphold the selfish interests
of Bristol at the sacrifice of those of all Great Britain.
Another cause of Burke s unpopularity resulted from
the attempt made early in 1777 to burn the vessels, quays,
and warehouses of Bristol. When captured, the incen
diary, " Jack the Painter," declared that he was an Amer
ican. Immediately it was asserted, without a vestige of
truth or reason, that Burke s support of the colonies was
responsible for the crime.
Burke s voluntary absence from the House of Commons
was also the cause of much criticism in Bristol. He
felt that the ineffective opposition in the Commons was
of no avail and served only to drive the ministry to
harsher measures. When the Commons was considering
a suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act during the Amer-
1 Burke s Works, II. 95.
XXX
INTRODUCTION.
ican war, Burke and many friends stayed away from the
sessions. His action was misunderstood even by his
friends in Bristol, who wrote to him for an explanation.
In a personal letter to Richard Champion, 21 Feb. 1777,
Burke said : " We shall publish no declaration. I am
sorry for it, though many are of opinion that the time
does not servew I believe I shall write to you at Bristol.
Many ask why I did not attend the habeas- corpus; be
cause I did not like the bill, nor any of the proposed or
accepted amendments; and I should have the former to
oppose against the majority, and the latter against a great
part of the minority. I stay away from this, as I do from
all public business, because I know I can do no sort of
good by attending; but think, and am sure, I should do
the work of that faction which is ruining us, by keeping
up debate, and helping to make those things plausible for
a time which are destructive in their nature. The House
never made so poor a figure as in the debate on that bill.
. . . Never was a business so disgraceful to any gov*
eminent." 1
Champion immediately urged Burke to make the public
declaration and the result was the Letter to the Sheriffs
of Bristol. Burke went down to his quiet home at Bea-
consfield, and after ten days wrote to Champion, 3 April,
1777: "I sent to town, this morning, my letter to the
sheriff of Bristol, fairly copied out, and with such cor
rections as the time would admit. Indeed, the continual
interruptions under which it was written, required a much
more accurate revisal. But if it is likely to be at all
useful, it is far better that it should be early in its ap-
1 Burke s Correspondence, II. 148.
INTRODUCTION. xxxi
pearance than late, with, such perfection as I am capable
of giving it; which is undoubtedly such as never could
compensate for any delay.
" I have shown the letter to Lord Rockingham, Mr.
Fox, Sir George Saville, and to Mr. Ellis. They are all
of opinion it may be of considerable use. .
"You will be so good as to communicate the paper to
the sheriffs; but so as to lose as little time as possible
in the publication. I think neither of them will differ
from me in opinion very materially; but if they should,
they are not responsible for the sentiments of any person
who chooses to address a letter to them. In the general
line of politics we must be of nearly the same way of
thinking. I know that some of our friends are fearful of
giving offence to the Tories. If we did so by any indecent
personality, we should be greatly to blame. But we ought
not to omit any means of strengthening, encouraging, or
informing our friends, for fear of displeasing those whom
no management can ever reconcile to our way of thinking.
When we speak only of things, not persons, we have a
right to express ourselves with all possible energy; and
if any one is offended, he only shows how improper that
conduct has been, which he cannot bear to be represented
in its true colours. Besides, this little piece, though ad
dressed to my constituents, is written to the public.
Would to God that there were none of the factious ad
dresses to be found anywhere else than in Bristol ! Many
things want to be explained to the nation, which they
either never have adverted to, or forget in the rapid suc
cession of the late unhappy events." 1
1 Burke s Correspondence, II. 149.
xxxii INTRODUCTION.
Although the Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol was fre
quently reprinted, it did not reconcile Burke s constitu
ents to his public conduct. When the next election was
held in 1780, a strong opposition had formed against him,
supported by a contribution of 1,000 from George III.
Burke saw the futility of the chances of his election and
resigned the nomination. He later was elected representa
tive for the small town of Malton.
In his farewell speech to his constituents in Bristol,
Burke well said : " Gentlemen, on this serious day, when
I come, as it were, to make up my account with you, let
me take to myself some degree of honest pride on the
nature of the charges that are against me. I do not here
stand before you accused of venality, or of neglect of
duty. It is not said, that, in the long period of my serv
ice, I have, in a single instance, sacrificed the slightest
of your interests to my ambition or to my fortune. It
is not alleged, that, to gratify any anger or revenge of my
own, or of my party, I have had a share in wronging or
oppressing any description of men, or any one man in
any description. No! the charges against me are all of
one kind: that I have pushed the principles of general
justice and benevolence too far, further than a cautious
policy would warrant, and further than the opinions of
many would go along with me. In every accident which
may happen through life, in pain, in sorrow, in depres
sion, and distress, I will call to mind this accusation, and
be comforted." 1
1 Burke s Works, II. 422.
INTRODUCTION. xxxiii
ni
Habeas Corpus is the term applied to a writ directed to
the person detaining another and commanding him to
produce the body of the prisoner at a certain time and
place, to submit to whatever decision the court awarding
the writ may determine. It is the most famous writ in
the law; and having been used for many centuries to re
move illegal restraint on personal liberty, it is often
called the Great Writ of Liberty. It takes its name from
the characteristic words it contained when the processes
of the English Law were written in Latin:
" Prsecipimus tibi quod corpus A. B. in custodia vestra deten-
tum, ut dicitur, una cum causa captionis et detentionis suse,
quocunque nomine idem A. B. censeatur in eadem, habeas coram
nobis apud Westm. etc., ad subjiciendum et recipiendum ea quae
curia nostra de eo ad tune et ibidem ordinari contigerit in hac
parte, etc.
The date of the origin of the writ cannot now be ascer
tained. In the early days of the Common Law, there
were various writs employed in which the phrase, "habeas
corpus," was used, and the principle upon which it is
issued was understood and applied by the judges during
the War of the Eoses. The earliest precedents where it
1 This account of THE WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS was written by
Franklin Spencer Edmonds, Professor of Political Science, Central
High School, and a member of the Philadelphia Bar.
xxxiv INTRODUCTION.
was used against the crown are in the reign of Henry
VII. Afterwards its use became more frequent, and, in
the time of Charles I., it was an admitted constitutional
remedy. The celebrated Act of Habeas Corpus of 1679
provided additional safeguards to insure a due observance
of the principle of the writ, and also carefully specified
the procedure in certain cases. It was universally re
garded as a great advance in the development of English
liberty, and one author declared that its passage " extin
guished all the resources of oppression."
The English colonies in America regarded the privi
lege of the writ as one of the "dearest birthrights of
Britons," and it was frequently resorted to. The Ameri
can colonists frequently claimed that they possessed all
the rights, liberties and immunities of free and natural-
born subjects within the realm of England. This asser
tion was endorsed in Parliament, where it was stated at
one time that the Americans "were the sons, not the
"bastards of England." Eminent authorities have held
that the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus did not
extend to the colonists until the reign of Queen Anne,
when a statute was passed which expressly extended this
privilege to the colonists. It is certain, however, that it
was not unknown in the colonies prior to this time, and
a few illustrations may be drawn from early American
history.
In 1688-9, there occurred a famous case in New Eng
land, which arose out of the unsettled political conditions
of the time. Among other towns which were obliged to
raise money for the government was Ipswich, of which
Rev. Mr. Wise was minister. A town meeting was called
INTRODUCTION. xxxv
to act on a requisition, and as the citizens doubted the
authority of the governor and council to raise money in
that way, they declined making the grant. Whereupon
Mr. Wise and five others of the principal inhabitants of
the town were arrested, charged with contempt and high
misdemeanours. They demanded a "habeas corpus,"
which was denied. " After a tedious and harassing delay
the prisoners were put upon their trial. They claimed the
privileges secured to them as Englishmen by the Magna
Charta and the laws of England. The chief justice, how
ever, informed them that they must not expect that the
laws of England would follow them to the ends of the
earth, and concluded by telling them that they had no
more privileges left them than not to be sold as slaves." J
A verdict was rendered against them, but this doctrine
that the English laws did not follow the New Englanders,
aroused strong protest in Massachusetts.
In New Jersey, in 1710, the Assembly denounced one
of the judges, William Pinhome, for having corruptly
refused the writ of habeas corpus to Thomas Gordon,
which they said was " the undoubted right and the great
privilege of the subject." In Pennsylvania, while the
Council exercised the power of discharging from illegal
imprisonment upon petition, they sometimes referred
such applications to the county courts as the proper tribu
nals to afford relief.
In New York, in January 1707, Makemie and Hamp
ton, two Presbyterian ministers, were arrested on the
warrant of the governor, for preaching without a license.
They refused to give bond or security that they would
1 Washburn s Judicial History of Massachusetts.
xxxvi INTRODUCTION.
preach, no more in that jurisdiction, so they were com
mitted to prison under the governor s warrant, which
simply directed the prisoners to be safely kept until
further notice and did not even attempt to designate any
offence. On March 8 Chief Justice Mompesson allowed
the prisoners writs of habeas corpus, but before they could
be served the sheriff was given another warrant contain
ing a statement of the offence. On this the prisoners were
admitted to bail.
These cases are sufficient to illustrate the tendency in
the American mind to appeal to this writ, as a protection
to personal liberty.
The refusal of the Parliament in 1774 to extend the
law of habeas corpus to Canada was denounced by the
First Continental Congress in September of that year as
oppressive, and was subsequently recounted in the
Declaration of Independence as one of the manifesta
tions on the part of the British Government of tyranny
over the colonies. 1
The Constitution of the United States provides that:
" The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not
be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion
the public safety may require it." Similar provisions
are found in the constitutions of most of the states. The
privilege of the writ is suspended by martial law, for
that suspends all civil processes. During the Civil War
President Lincoln suspended the privilege of the writ on
1 Extract from the Declaration of Independence: "For abolishing
the free system of English laws in a neighbouring province, establish
ing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries so
as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing
the same absolute rule into these colonies."
INTRODUCTION. xxxvii
his own authority without the sanction of an Act of
Congress. This gave rise to a prolonged legal controversy
and there was a strong opinion that the President had
overstepped the limits of his rightful authority.
Such is the origin and record of what Blackstone
terms "the most celebrated writ in English law." (See
Wm. S. Church on " The Writ of Habeas Corpus.")
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
The most accessible edition of Burke s Works is that pub
lished in twelve volumes by Little, Brown & Company, Boston,
1894. Many of his important speeches and letters have been
edited for school use. The best account of his life is that of
John Morley, in the English Men of Letters Series; Morley
has also contributed an interesting article on Burke to the
Encyclopedia Britannica. A more critical study of Burke s
work may be found in Morley s Edmund Burke: a Historical
Study, London, 1869. More detailed accounts of his life are
those of James Prior, two volumes, London, 1854, and of
Thomas Macknight, three volumes, London, 1858. The mere
facts of his life are given in the Dictionary of National Biog
raphy. Brief, interesting criticisms of Burke may be found
in Augustine Birrell s OUter Dicta, 2nd Series, New York,
1887; Sir James FitzJames Stephen s Horce Sallaticce, 3rd
Series, Macmillan, 1892 ; and in Woodrow Wilson s Mere Litera
ture, 1896. For some idea of Burke s friends and surroundings,
a student should read Thackeray s English Humourists, and
Boswell s Life of Johnson. The history of the period may be
found in Bancroft s History of the United States, Lecky s His
tory of England in the 18th Century, and in Fiske s American
Revolution. Contemporary accounts are given in Hansard s
Parliamentary Debates and in the Annual Register.
LETTER
FROM
EDMUND B U R K E, Efq;
One of the Reprefentatives in Parliament
fot the City of BRISTOL,
T o
JOHN FAKR and JOHN HARRIS, Efqrs,
Sheriffs of that City,
ON THE
AFFAIRS OF AMERICA.
LONDON:
Priated fox J. D O D S L E V, in PALL-MAI^
MDCCUKVU.
A
LETTER, &c.
GENTLEMEN,
I HAVE the honour of sending you the two last acts
which have been passed with regard to the troubles
in America. These acts are similar to all the rest which
have been made on the same subject. They operate by
the same principle; and they are derived from the very 5
same policy. I think they complete the number of this
sort of statutes to nine. It affords no matter for very
pleasing reflection to observe, that our subjects diminish,
as our laws increase.
If I have the misfortune of differing with some of my 10
fellow-citizens on this great and arduous subject, it is no
small consolation to me that I do not differ from you.
With you I am perfectly united. We are heartily agreed
in our detestation of a civil war. We have ever expressed
the most unqualified disapprobation of all the steps which 15
have led to it, and of all those which tend to prolong it.
And I have no doubt that we feel exactly the same emo
tions of grief and shame on all its miserable consequences ;
whether they appear, on the one side or the other, in the
1
2 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL
shape of victories or defeats, of captures made from the
English on the continent, or from the English in these
islands; of legislative regulations which subvert the lib
erties of our brethren, or which undermine our own.
5 Of the first of these statutes (that for the letter of
marque) I shall say little. Exceptionable as it may be,
and as I think it is in some particulars, it seems the nat
ural, perhaps necessary result of the measures we have
taken, and the situation we are in. The other (for a par-
10 tial suspension of the Habeas Corpus) appears to me
of a much deeper malignity. During its progress
through the House of Commons, it has been amended,
so as to express, more distinctly than at first it did, the
avowed sentiments of those who framed it : and the main
15 ground of my exception to it is, because it does express,
and does carry into execution, purposes which appear
to me so contradictory to all the principles, not only of
the constitutional policy of Great Britain, but even of
that species of hostile justice, which no asperity of war
20 wholly extinguishes in the minds of a civilized people.
It seems to have in view two capital objects; the first,
to enable administration to confine, as long as it shall
think proper, those whom that act is pleased to qualify
by the name of pirates. Those so qualified I understand
25 to be the commanders and mariners of such privateers
and ships of war belonging to the colonies, as in the
course of this unhappy contest may fall into the hands
of the crown. They are therefore to be detained in
prison, under the criminal description of piracy, to a
30 future trial and ignominious punishment, whenever cir
cumstances shall make it convenient to execute vengeance
ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 3
on them, under the colour of that odious and infamous
offence.
To this first purpose of the law I have no small dislike ;
because the act does not (as all laws and all equitable
transactions ought to do) fairly describe its object. The 5
persons who make a naval war upon us, in consequence
of the present troubles, may be rebels; but to call and
treat them as pirates, is confounding, not only the nat
ural distinction of things, but the order of crimes ; which,
whether by putting them from a higher part of the scale 10
to the lower, or from the lower to the higher, is never
done without dangerously disordering the whole frame
of jurisprudence. Though piracy may be, in the eye of
the law, a less offence than treason; yet as both are, in
effect, punished with the same death, the same forfeiture, 15
and the same corruption of blood, I never would take
from any fellow-creature whatever any sort of advantage
which he may derive to his safety from the pity of man
kind, or to his reputation from their general feelings,
by degrading his offence, when I cannot soften his pun- 20
ishment. The general sense of mankind tells me, that
those offences, which may possibly arise from mistaken
virtue, are not in the class of infamous actions. Lord
Coke, the oracle of the English law, conforms to that
general sense where he says, that "those things which 25
are of the highest criminality may be of the least dis
grace." The act prepares a sort of masked proceeding,
not honourable to the justice of the kingdom, and by no
means necessary for its safety. I cannot enter into it.
If Lord Balmerino, in the last rebellion, had driven off 30
the cattle of twenty clans, I should have thought it would
4 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL
have been a scandalous and low juggle, utterly unworthy
of the manliness of an English judicature, to have tried
him for felony as a stealer of cows.
Besides, I must honestly tell you, that I could not
5 vote for, or countenance in any way, a statute, which
stigmatises, with the crime of piracy, these men, whom an
act of parliament had previously put out of the protec
tion of the law. When the legislature of this kingdom
had ordered all their ships and goods, for the mere new-
10 created offence of exercising trade, to be divided as a
spoil among the seamen of the navy, to consider the
necessary reprisal of an unhappy, proscribed, interdicted
people, as the crime of piracy, would have appeared, in
any other legislature than ours, a strain of the most in-
15 suiting and most unnatural cruelty and injustice. I
assure you I never remember to have heard of anything
like it in any time or country.
The second professed purpose of the act is. to detain
in England for trial those who shall commit high treason
20 in America.
That you may be enabled to enter into the true spirit
of the present law, it is necessary, gentlemen, to apprise
you, that there is an act, made so long ago as in the
reign of Henry the Eighth, before the existence or thought
25 of any English colonies in America, for the trial in this
kingdom of treasons committed out of the realm. In
the year 1769, parliament thought proper to acquaint the
crown with their construction of that act in a formal
address, wherein they entreated his Majesty to cause per-
30 sons, charged with high treason in America, to be brought
into this kingdom for trial. By this act of Henry the
ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 5
Eighth, so construed and so applied, almost all that is sub
stantial and beneficial in a trial by jury is taken away
from the subject in the colonies. This is however saying
too little; for to try a man under that act is, in effect, to
condemn him unheard. A person is brought hither in 5
the dungeon of a ship s 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, 10
can possibly be judged of; such a person may be exe
cuted according to form, but he can never be tried accord*
ing to justice.
I therefore could never reconcile myself to the bill I
send you; which is expressly provided to remove all in- 15
conveniences from the establishment of a mode of trial,
which has ever appeared to me most unjust and most
unconstitutional. Far from removing the difficulties
which impede the execution of so mischievous a project,
I would heap new difficulties upon it, if it were in my 20
power. All the ancient, honest, juridical principles and
institutions of England are so many clogs to check and
retard the headlong course of violence and oppression.
They were invented for this one good purpose, that
what was not just should not be convenient. Convinced 25
of this, I would leave things as I found them. The old,
cool-headed, general law, is as good as any deviation dic
tated by present heat.
I could see no fair, justifiable expedience pleaded to
favour this new suspension of the liberty of the subject. 30
If the English in the colonies can support the independ-
6 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL
ency, to which they have been unfortunately driven, I
suppose nobody has such a fanatical zeal for the criminal
justice of Henry the Eighth, that he will contend for
executions which must be retaliated tenfold on his own
5 friends; or who has conceived so strange an idea of
English dignity, as to think the defeats in America com
pensated by the triumphs at Tyburn. If, on the con
trary, the colonies are reduced to the obedience of the
crown, there must be, under that authority, tribunals in
10 the country itself, fully competent to administer justice
on all offenders. But if there are not, and that we must
suppose a thing so humiliating to our government, as
that all this vast continent should unanimously concur
in thinking, that no ill fortune can convert resistance to
15 the royal authority into a criminal act, we may call the
effect of our victory peace, or obedience, or what we will ;
but the war is not ended; the hostile mind continues in
full vigour, and it continues under a worse form. If your
peace be nothing more than a sullen pause from arms;
20 if their quiet be nothing but the meditation of revenge,
where smitten pride smarting from its wounds, festers
into new rancour, neither the act of Henry the Eighth,
nor its handmaid of this reign, will answer any wise end
of policy or justice. For if the bloody fields, which they
25 saw and felt, are not sufficient to subdue the reason of
America (to use the expressive phrase of a great lord in
office) it is not the judicial slaughter, which is made in
another hemisphere against their universal sense of jus
tice, that will ever reconcile them to the British govern-
30 ment.
I take it for granted, gentlemen, that we sympathise
ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 7
in a proper horror of all punishment further than as it
serves for an example. To whom then does the example
of an execution in England for this American rebellion
apply? Remember, you are told every day, that the
present is a contest between the two countries; and that 5
we in England are at war for our own dignity against
our rebellious children. Is this true? If it be, it is
surely among such rebellious children that examples for
disobedience should be made, to be in any degree instruc
tive : for who ever thought of teaching parents their duty 10
by an example from the punishment of an undutif ul son ?
As well might the execution of a fugitive negro in the
plantations be considered as a lesson to teach masters
humanity to their slaves. Such executions may indeed
satiate our revenge; they may harden our hearts, and 15
puff us up with pride and arrogance. Alas! this is not
instruction !
If anything can be drawn from such examples by a
parity of the case, it is to show how deep their crime and
how heavy their punishment will be, who shall at any 20
time dare to resist a distant power actually disposing
of their property, without their voice or consent to the
disposition; and overturning their franchises without
charge or hearing. God forbid that England should ever
read this lesson written in the blood of any of her off- 25
spring !
War is at present carried on between the king s natural
and foreign troops on one side, and the English in
America on the other, upon the usual footing of other
wars; and accordingly an exchange of prisoners has been 30
regularly made from the beginning. If notwithstanding
8 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL
this hitherto equal procedure, upon some prospect of end
ing the war with success (which however may be delu
sive) administration prepares to act against those as
traitors who remain in their hands at the end of the
5 troubles, in my opinion we shall exhibit to the world as
indecent a piece of injustice as ever civil fury has pro
duced. If the prisoners, who have been exchanged, have
not by that exchange been virtually pardoned, the cartel
(whether avowed or understood) is a cruel fraud; for you
10 have received the life of a man, and you ought to return
a life for it, or there is no parity or fairness in the trans
action.
If, on the other hand, we admit, that they who are
actually exchanged are pardoned, but contend that you
15 may justly reserve for vengeance those who remain unex-
changed; then this unpleasant and unhandsome conse
quence will follow; that you judge of the delinquency of
men merely by the time of their guilt, and not by the
heinousness of it; and you make fortune and accidents,
20 and not the moral qualities of human action, the rule of
your justice.
These strange incongruities must ever perplex those,
who confound the unhappiness of civil dissensions with
the crime of treason. Whenever a rebellion really and
25 truly exists, which is as easily known in fact, as it is
difficult to define in words, government has not entered
into such military conventions; but has ever declined all
intermediate treaty, which should put rebels in possession
of the law of nations with regard to war. Commanders
30 would receive no benefits at their hands, because they
could make no return for them. Who has ever heard
ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 9
of capitulation, and parole of honour, and exchange
of prisoners, in the late rebellions in this kingdom ? The
answer to all demands of that sort was, "We can en
gage for nothing; you are at the king s pleasure." We
ought to remember, that if our present enemies be, in 5
reality and truth, rebels, the king s generals have no right
to release them upon any conditions whatsoever; and they
are themselves answerable to the law, and as much in want
of a pardon for doing so, as the rebels whom they release.
Lawyers, I know, cannot make the- distinction for which 10
I contend; because they have their strict rule to go by.
But legislators ought to do what lawyers cannot; for they
have no other rules to bind them, but the great principles
of reason and equity, and the general sense of mankind.
These they are bound to obey and follow; and rather to 15
enlarge and enlighten law by the liberality of legislative
reason, than to fetter and bind their higher capacity by
the narrow constructions of subordinate, artificial jus
tice. If we had adverted to this, we never could consider
the convulsions of a great empire, not disturbed by a 20
little disseminated faction, but divided by whole com
munities and provinces, and entire legal representatives
of a people, as fit matter of discussion under a commis
sion of Oyer and Terminer. It is as opposite to reason
and prudence, as it is to humanity and justice. 25
This act, proceeding on these principles, that is, pre
paring to end the present troubles by a trial of one sort
of hostility, under the name of piracy, and of another by
the name of treason, and executing the act of Henry the
Eighth according to a new and unconstitutional inter- 30
pretation, I have thought evil and dangerous, even though
10 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL
the instruments of effecting such purposes had been mere
ly of a neutral quality.
B*ut it really appears to me, that the means which this
act employs are, at least, as exceptionable as the end.
5 Permit me to open myself a little upon this subject, be
cause it is of importance to me, when I am obliged to
submit to the power without acquiescing in the reason
of an act of legislature, that I should justify my dissent
by such arguments as may be supposed to have weight
10 with a sober man.
The main operative regulation of the act is to suspend
the common law, and the statute Habeas Corpus, (the
sole securities either for liberty or justice) with regard
to all those who have been out of the realm, or on the high
15 seas, within a given time. The rest of the people, as I
understand, are to continue as they stood before.
I confess, gentlemen, that this appears to me as bad
in the principle, and far worse in its consequence, than
an universal suspension of the Habeas Corpus act; and
20 the limiting qualification, instead of taking out the sting,
does in my humble opinion sharpen and envenom it to
a greater degree. Liberty, if I understand it at all, is a
general principle, and the clear right of all the subjects
within the realm, or of none. Partial freedom seems to
25 me a most invidious mode of slavery. But, unfortunate
ly, it is the kind of slavery the most easily admitted in
times of civil discord; for parties are but too apt to for
get their own future safety in their desire of sacrificing
their enemies. People without much difficulty admit the
30 entrance of that injustice of which they are not to be
the immediate victims. In times of high proceeding it
ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 11
is never the faction of the predominant power that is in
danger: for no tyranny chastises its own instruments.
It is the obnoxious and the suspected who want the pro
tection of law; and there is nothing to bridle the partial
violence of state factions, but this ; " that whenever an 5
act is made for a cessation of law and justice, the whole
people should be universally subjected to the same sus
pension of their franchises." The alarm of such a pro
ceeding would then be universal. It would operate as a
sort of Call of the nation. It would become every man s 10
immediate and instant concern to be made very sensible
of the absolute necessity of this total eclipse of liberty.
They would more carefully advert to every renewal, and
more powerfully resist it. These great determined meas
ures are not commonly so dangerous to freedom. They 15
are marked with too strong lines to slide into use. No
plea, nor pretence, of inconvenience or evil example
(which must in their nature be daily and ordinary inci
dents) can be admitted as a reason for such mighty oper
ations. But the true danger is, when liberty is nibbled 20
away, for expedients, and by parts. The Habeas Corpus
act supposes, contrary to the genius of most other laws,
that the lawful magistrate may see particular men with
a malignant eye, and it provides for that identical case.
But when men, in particular descriptions, marked out by 25
the magistrate himself, are delivered over by parliament
to this possible malignity, it is not the Habeas Corpus
that is occasionally suspended, but its spirit that is mis
taken, and its principle that is subverted. Indeed nothing
is security to any individual but the common interest of 3
all.
12 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL
This act, therefore, has this distinguished evil in it,
that it is the first partial suspension of the Habeas Corpus
that has been made. The precedent, which is always
of very great importance, is now established. For the
5 first time a distinction is made among the people within
this realm. Before this act, every man putting his foot
on English ground, every stranger owing only a local
and temporary allegiance, even negro slaves who had been
sold in the colonies and under an act of parliament, be-
10 came as free as every other man who breathed the same
air with them. Now a line is drawn, which may be ad
vanced further and further at pleasure, on the same
argument of mere expedience, on which it was first de
scribed. There is no equality among us; we are not
15 fellow-citizens, if the mariner, who lands on the quay,
does not rest on as firm legal ground as the merchant
who sits in his counting-house. Other laws may injure
the community, this dissolves it. As things now stand,
every man in the West Indies, every one inhabitant of
20 three unoffending provinces on the continent, every per
son coming from the East Indies, every gentleman who
has travelled for his health or education, every mariner
who has navigated the seas, is, for no other offence, under
a temporary proscription. Let any of these facts (now
25 become presumptions of guilt) be proved against him,
and the bare suspicion of the crown puts him out of the
law. It is even by no means clear to me, whether the
negative proof does not lie upon the person apprehended
on suspicion, to the subversion of all justice.
30 I have not debated against this bill in its progress
through the House; because it would have been vain to
ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 13
oppose, and impossible to correct it. It is some time since
I have been clearly convinced, that in the present state
of things all opposition to any measures proposed by min
isters, where the name of America appears, is vain and
frivolous. You may be sure that I do not speak of my 5
opposition, which in all circumstances must be so; but
that of men of the greatest wisdom and authority in the
nation. Every thing proposed against America is sup
posed of course to be in favour of Great Britain. Good
and ill success are equally admitted as reasons for per- 10
severing in the present methods. Several very prudent,
and very well-intentioned persons were of opinion, that
during the prevalence of such dispositions, all struggle
rather inflamed than lessened the distemper of the public
councils. Finding such resistance to be considered as 15
factious by most within doors, and by very many with
out, I cannot conscientiously support what is against my
opinion, nor prudently contend with what I know is irre
sistible. Preserving my principles unshaken, I reserve
my activity for rational endeavours; and I hope that my 20
past conduct has given sufficient evidence that if I am a
single day from my place, it is not owing to indolence or
love of dissipation. The slightest hope of doing good is
sufficient to recall me to what I quitted with regret. In
declining for some time my usual strict attendance, I do 25
not in the least condemn the spirit of those gentlemen,
who, with a just confidence in their abilities, (in which
I claim a sort of share from my love and admiration of
them) were of opinion that their exertions in this desper
ate case might be of some service. They thought, that 30
by contracting the sphere of its application, they might
14 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL
lessen the malignity of an evil principle. Perhaps they
were in the right. But when my opinion was so very
clearly to the contrary, for the reasons I have just stated,
I am sure my attendance would have been ridiculous.
5 I must add in further explanation of my conduct, that,
far from softening the features of such a principle, and
thereby removing any part of the popular odium or nat
ural terrors attending it, I should be sorry, that anything
framed in contradiction to the spirit of our constitution
10 did not instantly produce, in fact, the grossest of the
evils, with which it was pregnant in its nature. It is by
lying dormant a long time, or being at first very rarely
vi exercised, that arbitrary power steals upon a people. OiD
the next unconstitutional act, all the fashionable world
15 will be ready to say Your prophecies are ridiculous,
your fears are vain, you see how little of the mischiefs
which you formerly foreboded are come to pass. Thus,
by degrees, that artful softening of all arbitrary power,
the alleged infrequency or narrow extent of its opera-
20 tion, will be received as a sort of aphorism and Mr.
Hume will not be singular in telling us, that the felicity
of mankind is no more disturbed by it, than by earth
quakes or thunder, or the other more unusual accidental
of nature.
25, The act of which I speak is among the fruits of the
American war; a war in my humble opinion productive
of many mischiefs, of a kind which distinguish it from
all others. Not only our policy is deranged, and our em
pire distracted, but our laws and our legislative spirit ap-
30 pear to have been totally perverted by it. We have made
war on our colonies, not by arms only, but by laws. As
ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 15
hostility and law are not very concordant ideas, every step
we have taken in this business has been made by trampling
on some maxim of justice, or some capital principle of
wise government. What precedents were established,
and what principles overturned, (I will not say of English 5
privilege, but of general justice) in the Boston Port, the
Massachuset s Charter, the Military Bill, and all that
long array of hostile acts of parliament, by which the war
with America has been begun and supported! Had the
principles of any of these acts been first exerted on English 10
ground, they would probably have expired as soon as
they touched it. But by being removed from our persons,
they have rooted in our laws, and the latest posterity
will taste the fruits of them.
Nor is it the worst effect of this unnatural contention, 15
that our laws are corrupted. Whilst manners remain
entire, they will correct the vices of law, and soften it
at length to their own temper. But we have to lament,
that in most of the late proceedings we see very few
traces of that generosity, humanity, and dignity of mind, 20
which formerly characterised this nation. War suspends
the rules of moral obligation, and what is long suspended
is in danger of being totally abrogated. Civil wars strike
deepest of all into the manners of the people. They vitiate
their politics; they corrupt their morals; they pervert 25
even the natural taste and relish of equity and justice.
By teaching us to consider our fellow-citizens in a hos
tile light, the whole body of our nation becomes gradually
less dear to us. The very names of affection and kin
dred, which were the bond of charity whilst we agreed, 30
become new incentives to hatred and rage, when the com-
16 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL
munion of our country is dissolved. We may flatter our
selves that we shall not fall into this misfortune. But
we have no charter of exemption, that I know of, from
the ordinary frailties of our nature.
5 What but that blindness of heart which arises from the
phrensy of civil contention, could have made any persons
conceive the present situation of the British affairs as an
object of triumph to themselves, or of congratulation to
their sovereign ? Nothing surely could be more lamentable
10 to those who remember the flourishing days of this king
dom, than to see the insane joy of several unhappy people,
amidst the sad spectacle which our affairs and conduct
exhibit to the scorn of Europe. We behold (and it seems
some people rejoice in beholding) our native land, which
15 used to sit the envied arbiter of all her neighbours, re
duced to a servile dependence on their mercy; acquies
cing in assurances of friendship which she does not trust ;
complaining of hostilities which she dares not resent;
deficient to her allies; lofty to her subjects, and submis-
20 sive to her enemies; whilst the liberal government of this
free nation is supported by the hireling sword of German
boors and vassals; and three millions of the subjects of
Great Britain are seeking for protection to English privi
leges in the arms of France !
25 These circumstances appear to me more like shocking
prodigies, than natural changes in human affairs. Men
of firmer minds may see them without staggering or
astonishment. Some may think them matters of con
gratulation and complimentary addresses; but I trust
30 your candour will be so indulgent to my weakness, as not
to have the worse opinion of me for my declining to par-
ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 17
tieipate in this joy; and my rejecting all share whatso
ever in such a triumph. I am too old, too stiff in my
inveterate partialities, to be ready at all the fashionable
evolutions of opinion. I scarcely know how to adapt my
mind to the feelings with which the court gazettes mean 5
to impress the people. It is not instantly that I can be
brought to rejoice, when I hear of the slaughter and cap
tivity of long lists of those names which have been
familiar to my ears from my infancy, and to rejoice that
they have fallen under the sword of strangers, whose bar- 10
barous appellations I scarcely know how to pronounce.
The glory acquired at the White Plains by Colonel Kaille
has no charms for me; and I fairly acknowledge, that I
have not yet learned to delight in finding Fort Knip-
hausen in the heart of the British dominions. 15
It might be some consolation for the loss of our old
regards, if our reason were enlightened in proportion as
our honest prejudices are removed. Wanting feelings for
the honour of our country, we might then in cold blood
be brought to think a little of our interests as individual 20
citizens, and our private conscience as moral agents.
Indeed our affairs are in a bad condition. I do assure
those gentlemen who have prayed for war, and have ob
tained the blessing they have sought, that they are at this
instant in very great straits. The abused wealth of this 25
country continues a little longer to feel its distemper. As
yet they, and their German allies of twenty hireling
states, have contended only with the unprepared strength
of our own infant colonies. But America is not sub
dued. Not one unattacked village which was originally 30
adverse throughout that vast continent, has yet submitted
18 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL
from, love or terror. You have the ground you encamp
on; and you have no more. The cantonments of your
troops and your dominions are exactly of the same extent.
You spread devastation, but you do not enlarge the sphere
5 of authority.
The events of this war are of so much greater magni
tude than those who either wished or feared it, ever looked
for, that this alone ought to fill every considerate mind
with anxiety and diffidence. Wise men often tremble at
10 the very things which fill the thoughtless with security.
For many reasons I do not choose to expose to public
view all the particulars of the state in which you stood
with regard to foreign powers, during the whole course
of the last year. Whether you are yet wholly out of danger
15 from them, is more than I know, or than your rulers can
divine. But even if I were certain of my safety, I could
not easily forgive those who had brought me into the most
dreadful perils, because by accidents, unforeseen by them
or me, I have escaped.
20 Believe me, gentlemen, the way still before you is intri
cate, dark, and full of perplexed and treacherous mazes.
Those who think they have the clue may lead us out of
this labyrinth. We may trust them as amply as we think
proper; but as they have most certainly a call for all the
25 reason which their stock can furnish, why should we
think it proper to disturb its operation by inflaming their
passions? I may be unable to lend an helping hand to
those who direct the state; but I should be ashamed to
make myself one of a noisy multitude to halloo and
30 hearten them into- doubtful and dangerous courses. A
conscientious man would be cautious how he dealt in
ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 19
blood. He would feel some apprehension at being called
to a tremendous account for engaging in so deep a play,
without any sort of knowledge of the game. It is no ex
cuse for presumptuous ignorance, that it is directed by
insolent passion. The poorest being that crawls on earth, 5
contending to save itself from injustice and oppression,
is an object respectable in the eyes of God and man. But
I cannot conceive any existence under heaven, (which,
in the depths of its wisdom, tolerates all sorts of things)
that is more truly odious and disgusting, than an impo- 10
tent helpless creature, without civil wisdom or military
skill, without a consciousness of any other qualifica
tion for power but his servility to it, bloated with pride
and arrogance, calling for battles which he is not to fight,
contending for a violent dominion which he can never 15
exercise, and satisfied to be himself mean and miserable,
in order to render others contemptible and wretched.
If you and I find our talents not of the great and rul
ing kind, our conduct, at least, is conformable to our
faculties. No man s life pays the forfeit of our rashness. 20
No desolate widow weeps tears of blood over our igno
rance. Scrupulous and sober in our well-grounded distrust
of ourselves, we would keep in the port of peace and
security; and perhaps in recommending to others some
thing of the same diffidence, we should show ourselves 25
more charitable in their welfare, than injurious to their
abilities.
There are many circumstances in the zeal shown for
civil war, which seem to discover but little of real mag
nanimity. The addressers offer their own persons, and 30
they are satisfied with hiring Germans. They promise
20 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL
their private fortunes, and they mortgage their country.
They have all the merit of volunteers, without risk of
person or charge of contribution; and when the unfeeling
arm of a foreign soldiery pours out their kindred blood
5 like water, they exult and triumph as if they themselves
had performed some notable exploit. I am really ashamed
of the fashionable language which has been held for some
time past; which, to say the best of it, is full of levity.
You know that I allude to the general cry against the
10 cowardice of the Americans, as if we despised them for
not making the king s soldiery purchase the advantage
they have obtained, at a dearer rate. It is not, gentlemen,
it is not to respect the dispensations of Providence, nor to
provide any decent retreat in the mutability of human
15 affairs. It leaves no medium between insolent victory
and infamous defeat. It tends to alienate our minds
further and further from our natural regards, and to make
an eternal rent and schism in the British nation. Those
who do not wish for such a separation, would not dissolve
20 that cement of reciprocal esteem and regard, which can
alone bind together the parts of this great fabric. It
ought to be our wish, as it is our duty, not only to for
bear this style of outrage ourselves, but to make every
one as sensible as we can of the impropriety and unworth-
25 iness of the tempers which give rise to it, and which de
signing men are labouring with such malignant industry
to diffuse amongst us. It is our business to counteract
them, if possible; if possible, to awake our natural re
gards; and to revive the old partiality to the English
30 name. Without something of this kind I do not see how
it is ever practicable really to reconcile with those, whose
ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 21
affection, after all, must be the surest hold of our gov
ernment; and which is a thousand times more worth
to us, than the mercenary zeal of all the circles of
Germany.
I can well conceive a country completely overrun, and 5
miserably wasted, without approaching in the least to set
tlement. In my apprehension, as long as English govern
ment is attempted to be supported over Englishmen by the
sword alone, things will thus continue. I anticipate in
my mind the moment of the final triumph of foreign mili- 10
tary force. When that hour arrives, (for it may arrive)
then it is, that all this mass of weakness and violence
will appear in its full light. If we should be expelled from
America, the delusion of the partisans of military gov
ernment might still continue. They might still feed their 15
imaginations with the possible good consequences which
might have attended success. Nobody could prove the
contrary by facts. But in case the sword should do all
that the sword can do, the success of their arms and the
defeat of their policy will be one and the same thing. 20
You will never see any revenue from America. Some in
crease of the means of corruption, without ease of the
public burthens, is the very best that can happen. Is it
for this that we are at war; and in such a war?
As to the difficulties of laying once more the founda- 25
tions of that government, which, for the sake of conquer
ing what was our own, has been voluntarily and wanton
ly pulled down by a court faction here, I tremble to look
at them. Has any of these gentlemen, who are so eager
to govern all mankind, showed himself possessed of the 30
first qualification towards government, some knowledge
22 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL
of the object, and of the difficulties which occur in the
task they have undertaken ?
I assure you, that, on the most prosperous issue of your ;
arms, you will not be where you stood, when you called
5 in war to supply the defects of your political establish
ment. Nor would any disorder or disobedience to gov
ernment which could arise from the most abject conces
sion on our part, ever equal those which will be felt,
after the most triumphant violence. You have got all the
10 intermediate evils of war into the bargain.
I think I know America. If I do not, my ignorance is
incurable, for I have spared no pains to understand it:
and I do most solemnly assure those of my constituents
who put any sort of confidence in my industry and integ-
15 rity, that every thing that has been done there has arisen
from a total misconception of the object : that our means
of originally holding America, that our means of recon
ciling with it after quarrel, of recovering it after separa
tion, of keeping it after victory, did depend, and must
20 depend in their several stages and periods, upon a total
renunciation of that unconditional submission, which has
taken such possession of the minds of violent men. The
whole of those maxims, upon which we have made and
continued this war, must be abandoned. Nothing indeed,
25 (for I would not deceive you) can place us in our former
situation. That hope must be laid aside. But there is a
difference between bad and the worst of all. Terms rela
tive to the cause of the war ought to be offered by the
authority of parliament. An arrangement at home prom-
30 ising some security for them ought to be made. By doing
this, without the least impairing of our strength, we add
ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 23
to the credit of our moderation, which, in itself, is always
strength more or less.
I know many have been taught to think, that modera
tion, in a case like this, is a sort of treason; and that all
arguments for it are sufficiently answered by railing at 5
rebels and rebellion, and by charging all the present or
future miseries, which we may suffer, on the resistance
of our brethren. But I would wish them, in this grave
matter, and if peace is not wholly removed from their
hearts, to consider seriously, first, that to criminate and 10
recriminate never yet was the road to reconciliation, in
any difference amongst men. In the next place, it would
be right to reflect, that the American English (whom they
may abuse, if they think it honourable to revile the ab
sent) can, as things now stand, neither be provoked at our 15
railing, nor bettered by our instruction. All communica
tion is cut off between us, but this we know with cer
tainty, that, though we cannot reclaim them, we may
reform ourselves. If measures of peace are necessary,
they must begin somewhere; and a conciliatory temper 2<?
must precede and prepare every plan of reconciliation.
Nor do I conceive that we suffer anything by thus regulat
ing our own minds. We are not disarmed by being disen
cumbered of our passions. Declaiming 011 rebellion never
added a bayonet, or a charge of powder, to your military 25
force ; but I am afraid that it has been the means of tak
ing up many muskets against you.
This outrageous language, which has been encouraged
and kept alive by every art, has already done incredible
mischief. For a long time, even amidst the desolations of 30
war, and the insults of hostile laws daily accumulated on
24 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL
one another, the American leaders seem to have had the
greatest difficulty in bringing up their people to a declara
tion of total independence. But the court gazette accom
plished what the abettors of independence had attempted
5 in vain. When that disingenuous compilation, and
strange medley of railing and flattery, was adduced, as a
proof of the united sentiments of the people of Great
Britain, there was a great change throughout all America.
The tide of popular affection, which had still set towards
10 the parent country, began immediately to turn, and to
flow with great rapidity in a contrary course. Far from
concealing these wild declarations of enmity, the author
of the celebrated pamphlet, which prepared the minds of
the people for independence, insists largely on the multi-
15 tude and the spirit of these addresses; and he draws an
argument from them, which (if the fact were as he sup
poses) must be irresistible. For I never knew a writer on
the theory of government so partial to authority as not to
allow, that the hostile mind of the rulers to their people
20 did fully justify a change of government; nor can any
reason whatever be given, why one people should volun
tarily yield any degree of pre-eminence to another, but
on a supposition of great affection and benevolence to
wards them. Unfortunately your rulers, trusting to other
25 things, took no notice of this great principle of connexion.
From the beginning of this affair, they have done all they
could to alienate your minds from your own kindred;
and if they could excite hatred enough in one of the
parties towards the other, they seemed to be of opinion
30 that they had gone half the way towards reconciling the
quarrel.
ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 25
I know it is said, that your kindness is only alienated on
account of their resistance; and therefore if the colonies
surrender at discretion, all sort of regard, and even much
indulgence, is meant towards them in future. But can
those who are partisans for continuing a war to enforce 5
such a surrender be responsible (after all that has passed)
for such a future use of a power, that is bound by no com
pacts, and restrained by no terror ? Will they tell us what
they call indulgences? Do they not at this instant call
the present war and all its horrors, a lenient and merciful 10
proceeding ?
No conqueror, that I ever heard of, has professed to
make a cruel, harsh, and insolent use of his conquest.
No! The man of the most declared pride, scarcely dares
to trust his own heart with this dreadful secret of am- 15
bition. But it will appear in its time; and no man, who
professes to reduce another to the insolent mercy of a
foreign arm, ever had any sort of good-will towards him.
The profession of kindness, with that sword in his hand,
and that demand of surrender, is one of the most provok- 20
ing acts of his hostility. I shall be told, that all this is
lenient as against rebellious adversaries. But are the
leaders of their faction more lenient to those who sub
mit? Lord Howe and General Howe have powers, under
an act of parliament, to restore to the king s peace and 25
to free trade any men, or district, which shall submit.
Is this done? We have been over and over informed by
the authorised gazette, that the city of New York, and
the countries of Staten and Long Island have submitted
voluntarily and cheerfully, and that many are very full 30
of zeal to the cause of administration. Were they instant-
26 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL
ly restored to trade ? Are they yet restored to it ? Is not
the benignity of two commissioners, naturally most hu
mane and generous men, some way fettered by instructions,
equally against their dispositions and the spirit of par-
5 liamentary faith; when Mr. Tryon, vaunting of the fidel
ity of the city in which he is governor, is obliged to apply
to ministry for leave to protect the king s loyal subjects,
and to grant to them (not the disputed rights and privi
leges of freedom) but the common rights of men, by the
10 name of graces? Why do not the commissioners restore
them on the spot? Were they not named as commissioners
for that express purpose? But we see well enough to
what the whole leads. The trade of America is to be
dealt out in private indulgences and graces; that is, in
15 jobs to recompense the incendiaries of war. They will be
informed of the proper time in which to send out their
merchandise. From a national, the American trade is
to be turned into a personal monopoly: and one set of
merchants are to be rewarded for the pretended zeal, of
20 which another set are the dupes; and thus, between craft
and credulity, the voice of reason is stifled; and all the
misconduct, all the calamities of the war are covered
and continued.
If I had not lived long enough to be little surprised at
25 anything, I should have been in some degree astonished
at the continued rage of several gentlemen, who, not sat
isfied with carrying fire and sword into America, are ani
mated nearly with the same fury against those neigh
bours of theirs, whose only crime it is, that they have
30 charitably and humanely wished them to entertain more
reasonable sentiments, and not always to sacrifice their in-
ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 27
tcrest to their passion. All this rage against unresisting
dissent convinces me, that, at bottom, they are far from
satisfied they are in the right. For what is it they would
have? A war? They certainly have at this moment the
blessing of something that is very like one; and if the 5
war they enjoy at present be not sufficiently hot and ex
tensive, they may shortly have it as warm and as spread
ing as their hearts can desire. Is it the force of the king
dom they call for? They have it already; and if they
choose to fight their battles in their own person, nobody 10
prevents their setting sail to America in the next trans
ports. Do they think, that the service is stinted for want
of liberal supplies ? Indeed they complain without reason.
The table of the House of Commons will glut them, let
their appetite for expense be never so keen. And I assure 15
them further, that those who think with them in the House
of Commons are full as easy in the control, as they are lib
eral in the vote, of these expenses. If this be not supply
or confidence sufficient, let them open their own private
purse strings, and give, from what is left to them, as 20
largely and with as little care as they think proper.
Tolerated in their passions, let them learn not to perse
cute the moderation of their fellow-citizens. If all the
world joined them in a full cry against rebellion, and were
as hotly inflamed against the whole theory and enjoyment 25
of freedom, as those who are the most factious for servi
tude, it could not in my opinion answer any one end what
soever in this contest. The leaders of this war could not
hire (to gratify their friends) one German more than they
do; or inspire him with less feeling for the persons, or 30
less yalue for the privileges, of their revolted brethren.
28 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL
If we all adopted their sentiments to a man, their allies,
the savage Indians, could not be more ferocious than they
are: they could not murder one more helpless woman or
child, or with more exquisite refinements of cruelty tor-
5 ment to death one more of their English flesh and blood,
than they do already. The public money is given to pur
chase this alliance; and they have their bargain.
They are continually boasting of unanimity; or calling
for it. But before this unanimity can be matter either
10 of wish or congratulation, we ought to be pretty sure, that
we are engaged in a rational pursuit. Phrensy does not
become a slighter distemper on account of the number
of those who may be infected with it. Delusion and weak
ness produce not one mischief the less, because they are
15 universal. I declare, that I cannot discern the least advan
tage which could accrue to us, if we were able to persuade
our colonies that they had not a single friend in Great
Britain. On the contrary, if the affections and opinions
of mankind be not exploded as principles of connexion,
20 I conceive it would be happy for us, if they were taught
to believe, that there was even a formed American party
in England, to whom they could always look for support !
Happy would it be for us, if, in all tempers, they might
turn their eyes to the parent state ; so that their very tur-
25 bulence and sedition should find vent in no other place
than this. I believe there is not a man (except those who
prefer the interest of some paltry faction to the very being
of their country) who would not wish that the Americans
should from time to time carry many points, and even
30 some of them not quite reasonable, by the aid of any de
nomination of men here, rather than they should be driven
ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 29
to seek for protection against the fury of foreign mercen
aries, and the waste of savages, in the arms of France.
When any community is subordinately connected with
another, the great danger of the connexion is the extreme
pride and self-complacency of the superior, which in all 5
matters of controversy will probably decide in its own
favour. It is a powerful corrective to such a very rational
cause of fear, if the inferior body can be made to believe,
that the party inclination, or political views, of several
in the principal state, will induce them in some degree 10
to counteract this blind and tyrannical partiality. There
is no danger that any one acquiring consideration or power
in the presiding state should carry this leaning to the
inferior too far. The fault of human nature is not of that
sort. Power in whatever hands is rarely guilty of too 15
strict limitations on itself. But one great advantage to
the support of authority attends such an amicable and
protecting connexion, that those who have conferred fa
vours obtain influence; and from the foresight of future
events can persuade men, who have received obligations, 20
sometimes to return them. Thus by the mediation of those
healing principles, (call them good or evil) troublesome
discussions are brought to some sort of adjustment; and
every hot controversy is not a civil war.
But, if the colonies (to bring the general matter home 25
to us) could see, that, in Great Britain, the mass of the
people is melted into its government, and that every dis
pute with the ministry must of necessity be always a
quarrel with the nation; they can stand no longer in the
equal and friendly relation of fellow-citizens to the sub- 30
jects of this kingdom. Humble as this relation may ap-
30 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL
pear to some, when it is once broken, a strong tie is dis
solved. Other sort of connexions will be sought. For,
there are very few in the world, who will not prefer an
useful ally to an insolent master.
5 Such discord has been the effect of the unanimity into
which so many have of late been seduced or bullied, or
into the appearance of which they have sunk through
mere despair. They have been told that their dissent
from violent measures is an encouragement to rebellion.
10 Men of great presumption and little knowledge will hold
a language which is contradicted by the whole course of
history. General rebellions and revolts of a whole people
never were encouraged, now or at any time. They are
always provoked. But if this unheard-of doctrine of the
15 encouragement of rebellion were true, if it were true
that an assurance of the friendship of numbers in this
country towards the colonies could become an encourage
ment to them to break off all connexion with it, what is
the inference? Does anybody seriously maintain, that,
20 charged with my share of the public councils, I am obliged
not to resist projects which I think mischievous, lest men
who suffer should be encouraged to resist ? The very tend
ency of such projects to produce rebellion is one of the
chief reasons against them. Shall that reason not be
25 given ? Is it then a rule, that no man in this nation shall
open his mouth in favour of the colonies, shall defend
their rights, or complain of their sufferings? Or when
war finally breaks out, no man shall express his desires of
peace? Has this been the law of our past, or is it to be
30 the terms of our future connexion? Even looking no
further than ourselves, can it be true loyalty to any gov-
OAT THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 31
ernment, or true patriotism towards any country, to de
grade their solemn councils into servile drawing-rooms,
to flatter their pride and passions, rather than to enlighten
their reason, and to prevent them from being cautioned
against violence lest others should be encouraged to re- 5
sistance? By such acquiescence great kings and mighty
nations have been undone ; and if any are at this day in a
perilous situation from rejecting truth, and listening to
flattery, it would rather become them to reform the errors
under which they suffer, than to reproach those who fore- 10
warned them of their danger.
But the rebels looked for assistance from this country.
They did so, in the beginning of this controversy, most
certainly; and they sought it by earnest supplications to
government, which dignity rejected, and by a suspension 15
of commerce, which the wealth of this nation enabled you
to despise. When they found that neither prayers nor
menaces had any sort of weight, but that a firm resolution
was taken to reduce them to unconditional obedience by a
military force, they came to the last extremity. Despair- 20
ing of us, they trusted in themselves. Not strong enough
themselves, they sought succour in France. In proportion
as all encouragement here lessened, their distance from
this country increased. The encouragement is over; the
alienation is complete. 25
In order to produce this favourite unanimity in delu
sion, and to prevent all possibility of a return to our an
cient happy concord, arguments for our continuance in
this course are drawn from the wretched situation itself
into which we have been betrayed. It is said, that being 30
at war with the colonies, whatever our sentiments might
32 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL
have been before, all ties between us are now dissolved;
and all the policy we have left is to strengthen the hands
of government to reduce them. On the principle of this
argument, the more mischiefs we suffer from any admin-
y istration, the more our trust in it is to be confirmed.
Let them but once get us into a war, and then their power
is safe, and an act of oblivion is passed for all their mis
conduct.
But is it really true, that government is always to be
IP/ strengthened with the instruments of war, but never fur-
Ynished with the means of peace? In former times, minis
ters, I allow, have been sometimes driven by the popular
voice to assert by arms the national honour against for
eign powers. But the wisdom of the nation has been far
15 more clear, when those ministers have been compelled to
consult its interests by treaty. We all know that the sense
of the nation obliged the court of King Charles the Sec
ond to abandon the Dutch war; a war next to the present
the most impolitic which we ever carried on. The good
20 people of England considered Holland as a sort of depend
ency on this kingdom; they dreaded to drive it to the
protection, or subject it to the power of France, by their
own inconsiderate hostility. They paid but little respect
to the court jargon of that day; nor were they inflamed
25 by the pretended rivalship of the Dutch in trade ; by their
massacre at Amboyna, acted on the stage to provoke the
public vengeance ; nor by declamations against the ingrati
tude of the United Provinces for the benefits England had
conferred upon them in their infant state. They were not
30 moved from their evident interest by all these arts; nor
was it enough to tell them, they were at war; that they
ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 33
must go through with it; and that the cause of the dis
pute was lost in the consequences. The people of England
were then, as they are now, called upon to make govern
ment strong. They thought it a great deal better to make
it wise and honest. 5
When I was amongst my constituents at the last sum
mer assizes, I remember that men of all descriptions did
then express a very strong desire for peace, and no slight
hopes of attaining it from the commission sent out by my
Lord Howe. And it is not a little remarkable, that, in pro- 10
portion as every person showed a zeal for the court meas
ures, he was then earnest in circulating an opinion of the
extent of the supposed powers of that commission. When
I told them that Lord Howe had no powers to treat, or to
promise satisfaction on any point whatsoever of the con- 15
troversy, I was hardly credited ; so strong and general was
the desire of terminating this war by the method of ac
commodation. As far as I could discover, this was the
temper then prevalent through the kingdom. The king s
forces, it must be observed, had at that time been obliged 20
to evacuate Boston. The superiority of the former cam
paign rested wholly with the colonists. If such powers
of treaty were to be wished, whilst success was very doubt
ful, how came they to be less so, since his Majesty s arms
have been crowned with many considerable advantages? 25
Have these successes induced us to alter our mind; as
thinking the season of victory not the time for treating
with honour or advantage? Whatever changes have hap
pened in the national character, it can scarcely be our
wish, that terms of accommodation never should be pro- 30
posed to our enemy, except when they must be attributed
34 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL
solely to our fears. It has happened, let me say unfor
tunately, that we read of his Majesty s commission for
making peace, and his troops evacuating his last town
in the thirteen colonies, at the same hour and in the same
5 gazette. It was still more unfortunate, that no commis
sion went to America to settle the troubles there, until
several months after an act had been passed to put the
colonies out of the protection of this government, and to
divide their trading property, without a possibility of
10 restitution, as spoil among the seamen of the navy. The
most abject submission on the part of the colonies could
not redeem them. There was no man on that whole con
tinent, or within three thousand miles of it, qualified by
law to follow allegiance with protection, or submission
15 with pardon. A proceeding of this kind has no example
in history. Independency, and independency with an en
mity (which putting ourselves out of the question would
be called natural and much provoked) was the inevitable
consequence. How this came to pass, the nation may be
20 one day in an humour to inquire.
All the attempts made this session to give fuller powers
of peace to the commanders in America, were stifled by
the fatal confidence of victory, and the wild hopes of un
conditional submission. There was a moment favourable
25 to the king s arms, when if any powers of concession had
existed, on the other side of the Atlantic, even after all
our errors, peace in all probability might have been re
stored. But calamity is unhappily the usual season of
reflection; and the pride of men will not often suffer
30 reason to have any scope until it can be no longer of
service.
ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA.
I have always wished, that as the dispute had its ap
parent origin from things done in parliament, and as the
acts passed there had provoked the war, that the founda
tions of peace should be laid in parliament also. I have
been astonished to find, that those, whose zeal for the 5
dignity of our body was so hot as to light up the flames
of civil war, should even publicly declare, that these
delicate points ought to be wholly left to the crown. I
Poorly as I may be thought affected to the authority of /
parliament, I shall never admit that our constitutional \o/
rights can ever become a matter of ministerial negotia- /
tion.
I am charged with being an American. If warm affec
tion towards those over whom I claim any share of
authority be a crime, I am guilty of this charge. But I 15
do assure you (and they who know me publicly and
privately will bear witness to me) that if ever one
man lived more zealous than another for the supremacy
of parliament, and the rights of this imperial crown, it
was myself. Many others indeed might be more knowing 20
in the extent of the foundation of these rights. I do not
pretend to be an antiquary, a lawyer, or qualified for the
chair of professor in metaphysics. I never ventured to
put your solid interests upon speculative grounds. My
having constantly declined to do so has been attributed 25
to my incapacity for such disquisitions; and I am in
clined to believe it is partly the cause. I never shall be
ashamed to confess, that where I am ignorant I am diffi
dent. I am indeed not very solicitous to clear myself of
this imputed incapacity; because men, even less con- 30
versant than I am, in this kind of subtleties, and placed
36 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL
in stations, to which I ought not to aspire, have, by the
mere force of civil discretion, often conducted the affairs
of great nations with distinguished felicity and glory.
When I first came into a public trust; I found your
5 parliament in possession of an unlimited legislative power
over the colonies. I could not open the statute book
without seeing the actual exercise of it, more or less, in
all cases whatsoever. This possession passed with me for
a title. It does so in all human affairs. No man examines
10 into the defects of his title to his paternal estate, or to
his established government. Indeed common sense taught
me, that a legislative authority, not actually limited
by the express terms of its foundation, or by its own
subsequent acts, cannot have its powers parcelled out
15 by argumentative distinctions, so as to enable us to say,
that here they can, and there they cannot bind. Nobody
was so obliging as to produce to me any record of such
A/ distinctions, by compact or otherwise, either at the suc-
cessive formation of the several colonies, or during the
existence of any of them. If any gentlemen were able
^ to see how one power could be given up, (merely on
1 Y abstract reasoning) without giving up the rest, I can
J 1 only say, that they saw further than I could; nor did I
ever presume to condemn any one for being clear-sighted,
25 when I was blind. I praise their penetration and learning ;
and hope that their practice has been correspondent to
their theory.
N* I had indeed very earnest wishes to keep the whole body
> of this authority perfect and entire as I found it : and to
>$o keep it so, not for our advantage solely; but principally
V for the sake of those, on whose account all just authority
ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 37
exists; I mean the people to be governed. For I thought
I saw, that many cases might well happen, in which the
exercise of every power comprehended in the broadest
idea of legislature, might become, in its time and circum
stances, not a little expedient for the peace and union 5
of the colonies amongst themselves, as well as for their
perfect harmony with Great Britain. Thinking so, (per
haps erroneously) but being honestly of that opinion,
I was at the same time very sure, that the authority, of
which I was so jealous, could not under the actual cir- 10
cumstances of our plantations be at all preserved in any
of its members, but by the greatest reserve in its applica
tion; particularly in those delicate points, in which the
feelings of mankind are the most irritable. They who
thought otherwise, have found a few more difficulties in 15
their work than (I hope) they were thoroughly aware of,
when they undertook the present business. I must
leave to observe, that it is not only the invidious
of taxation that will be resisted, but that no other given
part of legislative rights can be exercised, without regard ray
to the general opinion of those who are to be governed.^
That general opinion is the vehicle, and organ of legisla*
tive omnipotence. Without this, it may be a theory to^
entertain the mind, but it is nothing in the direction of-/
affairs. The completeness of the legislative authority of 25
parliament over this kingdom is not questioned; and yet
many things indubitably included in the abstract idea of
that power, and which carry no absolute injustice in
themselves, yet being contrary to the opinions and feel
ings of the people, can as little be exercised, as if parlia- 30
ment in that case had been possessed of no right at all.
38 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL
^
I see no abstract reason, which can be given, why the
same power, which made and repealed the High Commis
sion Court and the Star Chamber, might not revive them
again; and these courts, warned by their former fate,
5 might possibly exercise their powers with some degree
\of justice. But the madness would be as unquestionable,
as the competence of that parliament, which should at
tempt such things. If anything can be supposed out of
the power of human legislature, it is religion; I admit,
10 however, that the established religion of this country
has been three or four times altered by act of parliament ;
and therefore that a statute binds even in that case. But
we may very safely affirm, that, notwithstanding this ap
parent omnipotence, it would be now found as impossible
15 for king and parliament to alter the established religion
of this country, as it was to King James alone, when he
attempted to make such an alteration without a parlia-
ment. In effect, to follow, not to force the public inclina-
; to give a direction, a form, a technical dress, and
specific sanction, to the general sense of the community,
the true end of legislature.
It is so with regard to the exercise of all the powers,
which our constitution knows in any of its parts, and
indeed to the substantial existence of any of the parts
25 themselves. The king s negative to bills is one of the
most indisputed of the royal prerogatives; and it extends
to all cases whatsoever. I am far from certain, that if
several laws, which I know, had fallen under the stroke
of that sceptre, that the public would have had a very
30 heavy loss. But it is not the propriety of the exercise
which is in question. The exercise itself is wisely for-
ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 39
borne. Its repose may be the preservation of its exist
ence; and its existence may be the means of saving
the constitution itself, on an occasion worthy of bringing
it forth. As the disputants, whose accurate and logical
reasonings have brought us into our present condition, 5
think it absurd, that powers or members of any constitu
tion should exist, rarely or never to be exercised, I hope
I shall be excused in mentioning another instance, that is
material. We know, that the Convocation of the Clergy
had formerly been called, and sat with nearly as much 10
regularity to business as parliament itself. It is now
called for form only. It sits for the purpose of making
some polite ecclesiastical compliments to the king; and,
when that grace is said, retires and is heard of no more.
It is however a part of the constitution, and may be 15
called out into act and energy, whenever there is occasion ;
and whenever those, who conjure up that spirit, will
choose to abide the consequences. It is wise to permit
its legal existence ; it is much wiser to continue it a legal
existence only. So truly has prudence (constituted as the 20
god of this lower world) the entire dominion over every
exercise of power committed into its hands; and yet I
have lived to see prudence and conformity to circum
stances wholly set at nought in our late controversies,
and treated as if they were the most contemptible and 25
irrational of all things. I have heard it a hundred times
very gravely alleged, that in order to keep power in wind,
it was necessary, by preference, to exert it in those very
points in which it was most likely to be resisted, and the
least likely to be productive of any advantage. 30
These were the considerations, gentlemen, which led me
40 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL
early to think, that, in the comprehensive dominion which
the divine Providence had put into our hands, instead of
troubling our understandings with speculations concern
ing the unity of empire, and the identity or distinction
5 of legislative powers, and inflaming our passions with the
heat and pride of controversy, it was our duty, in all
soberness, to conform our government to the character and
circumstances of the several people who composed this
mighty and strangely diversified mass. I never was wild
10 enough to conceive, that one method would serve for the
whole; that the natives of Hindostan and those of Vir
ginia could be ordered in the same manner; or that the
Cutchery court and the grand jury of Salem could be
regulated on a similar plan. I was persuaded that gov-
15 ernment was a practical thing, made for the happiness of
mankind, and not to furnish out a spectacle of uni
formity, to gratify the schemes of visionary politicians.
Our business was to rule, not to wrangle; and it would
have been a poor compensation that we had triumphed
20 in a dispute, whilst we lost an empire.
If there be one fact in the world perfectly clear, it is
this : " That the disposition of the people of America is
wholly averse to any other than a free government;" and
this is indication enough to any honest statesman, how
25 he ought to adapt whatever power he finds in his hands to
their case. If any ask me what a free government is, I
answer, that, for any practical purpose, it is what the
people think so ; and that they, and not I, are the natural,
lawful, and competent judges of this matter. If they
30 practically allow me a greater degree of authority over
them than is consistent with any correct ideas of perfect
ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 41
freedom, I ought to thank them for so great a trust, and
not to endeavour to prove from thence, that they have
reasoned amiss, and that having gone so far, by analogy,
they must hereafter have no enjoyment but by my
pleasure. 5
If we had seen this done by any others, we should have
concluded them far gone in madness. It is melancholy
as well as ridiculous, to observe the kind of reasoning
with which the public has been amused, in order to divert
our minds from the common sense of our American 10
policy. There are people, who have split and anatomised
the doctrine of free government, as if were an abstract
question concerning metaphysical liberty and necessity;
and not a matter of moral prudence and natural feeling.
They have disputed, whether liberty be a positive or a 15
negative idea; whether it does not consist in being gov
erned by laws; without considering what are the laws,
or who are the makers; whether man has any rights by
nature; and whether all the property he enjoys be not
the alms of his government, and his life itself their favour 20
and indulgence. Others corrupting religion, as these
have perverted philosophy, contend, that Christians are
redeemed into captivity; and the blood of the Saviour of
mankind has been shed to make them the slaves of a few
proud and insolent sinners. These shocking extremes pro- 25
voking to extremes of another kind, speculations are let
loose as destructive to all authority, as the former are to
all freedom; and every government is called tyranny and
usurpation which is not formed on their fancies. In this
manner the stirrers-up of this contention, not satisfied 30
with distracting our dependencies and filling them with
42 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL
blood and slaughter, are corrupting our understandings:
they are endeavouring to tear up, along with practical
liberty, all the foundations of human society, all equity
and justice, religion and order.
5 Civil freedom, gentlemen, is not, as many have endeav
oured to persuade you, a thing that lies hid in the depth
of abstruse science. It is a blessing and a benefit, not an
abstract speculation; and all the just reasoning that can
be upon it is of so coarse a texture, as perfectly to suit the
10 ordinary capacities of those who are to enjoy, and of those
who are to defend it. Far from any resemblance to those
propositions in geometry and metaphysics, which admit
no medium, but must be true or false in all their latitude ;
social and civil freedom, like all other things in common
15 life, are variously mixed and modified, enjoyed in very
different degrees, and shaped into an infinite diversity of
forms, according to the temper and circumstances of every
community. The extreme of liberty (which is its abstract
perfection, but its real fault) obtains nowhere, nor ought
20 to obtain anywhere. Because extremes, as we all know,
in every point which relates either to our duties or satis
factions in life, are destructive both to virtue and enjoy
ment. Liberty too must be limited in order to be pos
sessed. The degree of restraint it is impossible in any
25 case to settle precisely. But it ought to be the constant
aim of every wise public council, to find out by cautious
experiments, and rational, cool endeavours, with how
little, not how much of this restraint, the community can
subsist. For liberty is a good to be improved, and not an
30 evil to be lessened. It is not only a private blessing of
the first order, but the vital spring and energy of the state
ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 43
itself, which has just so much life and vigour as there is
liberty in it. But whether liberty be advantageous or
not, (for I know it is a fashion to decry the very prin
ciple) none will dispute that peace is a blessing; and
peace must in the course of human affairs be frequently 5
bought by some indulgence and toleration at least to
liberty. For as the Sabbath (though of divine institu
tion) was made for man, not man for the Sabbath, gov
ernment, which can claim no higher origin or authority,
in its exercise at least, ought to conform to the exigencies 10
of the time, and the temper and character of the people,
with whom it is concerned; and not always to attempt
violently to bend the people to their theories of subjec
tion. The bulk of mankind on their part are not exces
sively curious concerning any theories, whilst they are 15
really happy; and one sure symptom of an ill-conducted
state is the propensity of the people to resort to them.
But when subjects, by a long course of such ill conduct,
are once thoroughly inflamed, and the state itself vio
lently distempered, the people must have some satisfaction 20
to their feelings more solid than a sophistical speculation
on law and government. Such was our situation; and
such a satisfaction was necessary to prevent recourse to
arms; it was necessary towards laying them down; it
will be necessary to prevent the taking them up again 2 5
and again. Of what nature this satisfaction ought to
be, I wish it had been the disposition of parliament
seriously to consider. It was certainly a deliberation
that called for the exertion of all their wisdom.
I am, and ever have been, deeply sensible of the diffi- 3
culty of reconciling the strong presiding power, that is so
44 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL
useful towards the conservation of a vast, disconnected,
infinitely diversified empire, with that liberty and safety
of the provinces, which they must enjoy, (in opinion and
practice at least) or they will not be provinces at all. I
5 know, and have long felt, the difficulty of reconciling the
unwieldy haughtiness of a great ruling nation, habitu
ated to command, pampered by enormous wealth, and
confident from a long course of prosperity and victory, to
the high spirit of free dependencies, animated with the
10 first glow and activity of juvenile heat, and assuming to
themselves, as their birthright, some part of that very
pride which oppresses them. They who perceive no diffi
culty in reconciling these tempers, (which however to
make peace must some way or other be reconciled) are
15 much above my capacity, or much below the magnitude
of the business. Of one thing I am perfectly clear, that
it is not by deciding the suit, but by compromising the
difference, that peace can be restored or kept. They who
would put an end to such quarrels, by declaring roundly
20 in favour of the whole demands of either party, have
mistaken, in my humble opinion, the office of a mediator.
The war is now of full two years standing; the contro
versy of many more. In different periods of the dispute,
different methods of reconciliation were to be pursued.
25 I mean to trouble you with a short state of things at the
most important of these periods, in order to give you a
more distinct idea of our policy with regard to this most
delicate of all objects. The colonies were from the begin
ning subject to the legislature of Great Britain, on prin-
30 ciples which they never examined; and we permitted to
them many local privileges, without asking how they
OAT THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 45
agreed with that legislative authority. Modes of admin
istration were formed in an insensible and very unsys
tematic manner. But they gradually adapted themselves
to the varying condition of things. What was first a
single kingdom, stretched into an empire ; and an imperial 5
superintendency, of some kind or other, became necessary.
Parliament from a mere representative of the people,
and a guardian of popular privileges for its own imme
diate constituents, grew into a mighty sovereign. Instead
of being a control on the crown on its own behalf, it com- 10
municated a sort of strength to the royal authority;
which was wanted for the conservation of a new object,
but which could not be safely trusted to the crown alone.
On the other hand, the colonies, advancing by equal
steps, and governed by the same necessity, had formed 15
within themselves, either by royal instruction or royal
charter, assemblies so exceedingly resembling a parlia
ment, in all their forms, functions, and powers, that it
was impossible they should not imbibe some opinion of a
similar authority. 20
At the first designation of these assemblies, they were
probably not intended for anything more, (nor perhaps
did they think themselves much higher) than the munic
ipal corporations within this island, to which some at
present love to compare them. But nothing in progres- 25
sion can rest on its original plan. We may as well think
of rocking a grown man in the cradle of an infant.
Therefore as the colonies prospered and increased to a
numerous and mighty people, spreading over a very great
tract of the globe; it was natural that they should at- 30
tribute to assemblies, so respectable in their formal
46 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL
constitution, some part of the dignity of the great nations
which they represented. No longer tied to by-laws, these
assemblies made acts of all sorts and in all cases whatso
ever. They levied money, not for parochial purposes,
5 but upon regular grants to the crown, following all the
rules and principles of a parliament to which they ap
proached every day more and more nearly. Those who
think themselves wiser than Providence, and stronger
than the course of nature, may complain of all this varia-
10 tion, on the one side or the other, as their several humours
and prejudices may lead them. But things could not be
otherwise; and English colonies must be had on these
terms, or not had at all. In the mean time neither party
felt any inconvenience from this double legislature, to
15 which they had been formed by imperceptible habits,
and old custom, the great support of all the governments
in the world. Though these two legislatures were some
times found perhaps performing the very same functions,
they did not very grossly or systematically clash. In all
20 likelihood this arose from mere neglect; possibly from
the natural operation of things, which, left to themselves,
generally fall into their proper order. But whatever was
the cause, it is certain that a regular revenue, by the
authority of parliament, for the support of civil and
25 military establishments, seems not to have been thought
of until the colonies were too proud to submit, too strong
to be forced, too enlightened not to see all the conse
quences which must arise from such a system.
If ever this scheme of taxation was to be pushed against
30 the inclinations of the people, it was evident that discus
sions must arise, which would let loose all the elements
ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 47
that composed this double constitution; would show how
much each of their members had departed from its orig
inal principles; and would discover contradictions in each
legislature, as well to its own first principles, as to its
relation to the other, very difficult if not absolutely im- 5
possible to be reconciled.
Therefore at the first fatal opening of this contest, the
wisest course seemed to be to put an end as soon as pos
sible to the immediate causes of the dispute; and to quiet
a discussion, not easily settled upon clear principles, 10
and arising from claims, which pride would permit
neither party to abandon, by resorting as nearly as pos
sible to the old, successful course. A mere repeal of the
obnoxious tax, with a declaration of the legislative
authority of this kingdom, was then fully sufficient to 15
procure peace to both sides. Man is a creature of habit,
and the first breach being of very short continuance, the
colonies fell back exactly into their ancient state. The
congress has used an expression with regard to this paci
fication, which appears to me truly significant. After 20
the repeal of the Stamp Act, " the colonies fell," says this
assembly, "into their ancient state of unsuspecting con
fidence in the mother country." This unsuspecting
confidence is the true center of gravity amongst mankind,
about which all the parts are at rest. It is this unsus- 25
pecting confidence that removes all difficulties, and recon
ciles all the contradictions which occur in the complexity
of all ancient, puzzled, political establishments. Happy
are the rulers which have the secret of preserving it!
The whole empire has reason to remember, with 30
eternal gratitude, the wisdom and temper of that man
48 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL
and his excellent associates, who, to recover this confi
dence, formed a plan of pacification in 1766. That plan,
being built upon the nature of man, and the circum
stances and habits of the two countries, and not on any
5 visionary speculations, perfectly answered its end, as
long as it was thought proper to adhere to it. Without
giving a rude shock to the dignity (well or ill under
stood) of this parliament, they gave perfect content to
our dependencies. Had it not been for the mediatorial
10 spirit and talents of that great man, between such clash
ing pretensions and passions, we should then have rushed
headlong (I know what I say) into the calamities of that
civil war, in which, by departing from his system, we
are at length involved; and we should have been precipi-
15 tated into that war, at a time when circumstances both
at home and abroad were far, very far, more unfavour
able unto us than they were at the breaking out of the
present troubles.
I had the happiness of giving my first votes in parlia-
20 ment for that pacification. I was one of those almost
unanimous members, who, in the necessary concessions
of parliament, would as much as possible have preserved
its authority, and respected its honour. I could not at
once tear from my heart prejudices which were dear to
25 me, and which bore a resemblance to virtue. I had then,
and I have still my partialities. What parliament gave
up, I wished to be given as of grace, and favour, and
affection, and not as a restitution of stolen goods. High
dignity relented as it was soothed; and a benignity from
30 old acknowledged greatness had its full effect on our
dependencies. Our unlimited declaration of legislative
ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 49
authority produced not a single murmur. If this unde
fined power has become odious since that time, and full
of horror to the colonies, it is because the unsuspicious
confidence is lost, and the parental affection, in the bosom
of whose boundless authority they reposed their privi- 5
leges, is become estranged and hostile.
It will be asked, if such was then my opinion of the
mode of pacification, how I came to be the very person
who moved, not only for a repeal of all the late coercive
statutes, but for mutilating, by a positive law, the entire- 10
ness of the legislative power of parliament, and cutting
off from it the whole right of taxation? I answer, be
cause a different state of things requires a different con
duct. When the dispute had gone to these last extremities
(which no man laboured more to prevent than I did,) 15
the concessions which had satisfied in the beginning, could
satisfy no longer; because the violation of tacit faith
required explicit security. The same cause which has
introduced all formal compacts and covenants among
men made it necessary. I mean habits of soreness, jeal- 20
ousy, and distrust. I parted with it, as with a limb; but
as a limb to save the body; and I would have parted with
more, if more had been necessary ; anything rather than a
fruitless, hopeless, unnatural civil war. This mode of
yielding would, it is said, give way to independency, with- 25
out a war. I am persuaded from the nature of things, and
from every information, that it would have had a directly
contrary effect. But if it had this effect, I confess that
I should prefer_independency without war, to independ
ency with it ; and I have so much trust in the inclinations 30
and prejudices of mankind, and so little in anything else,
50 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL
\ that I should expect ten times more benefit to this king-
\ dom from the affection of America, though under a sep
arate establishment, than from her perfect submission to
the crown and parliament, accompanied with her terror,
5 disgust, and abhorrence. Bodies tied together by so un
natural a bond of union, as mutual hatred, are only
connected to their ruin.
One hundred and ten respectable members of parlia
ment voted for that concession. Many not present, when
10 the motion was made, were of the sentiments of those
who voted. I knew it would then have made peace. I
am not without hopes that it would do so at present if
it were adopted. ^No benefit, no revenue could be lost
by it; something*mig]*t possibly be gained by its conse-
15 quences. For be fully assured, -that, of all the phantoms
that ever deluded the fond hopes of a credulous world,
a parliamentary revenue in the coloiyes^ is-.the most per
fectly chimerical. Your breaking them to any subjection,
far from relieving your burthens, (the pretext for this
20 war,) will never pay that military force which will be
kept up to the destruction of their liberties and yours.
I risk nothing in this prophecy.
Gentlemen, you have my opinions on the present state
of public affairs. Mean as they may be in themselves,
25 your partiality has made them of some importance.
Without troubling myself to inquire whether I am under
a formal obligation to it, I have a pleasure in accounting
for my conduct to my constituents. I feel warmly on
this subject, and I express myself as I feel. If I presume
30 to blame any public proceeding, I cannot be supposed to
ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 51
be personal. Would to God I could be suspected of it.
My fault might be greater, but the public calamity would
be less extensive. If my conduct has not been able to
make any impression on the warm part of that ancient
and powerful party, with whose support I was not hon- 5
cured at my election; on my side, my respect, regard,
and duty to them is not at all lessened. I owe the
gentlemen who compose it my most humble service in
everything. I hope that whenever any of them were
pleased to command me, that they found me perfectly 10
equal in my obedience. But flattery and friendship are
very different things ; and to mislead is not to serve them.
I cannot purchase the favour of any man by concealing
from him what I think his ruin. By the favour of my
fellow-citizens, I am the representative of an honest, 15
well-ordered, virtuous city; of a people, who preserve
more of the original English simplicity, and purity of
manners, than perhaps any other. You possess among
you several men and magistrates of large and cultivated
understandings ; fit for any employment in any sphere. , I 20
do, to the best of my power, act so as to make myself
worthy of so honourable a choice. If I were ready, on
any call of my own vanity or interest, or to answer any
election purpose, to forsake principles, (whatever they
are) which I had formed at a mature age, on full reflec- 25
tion, and which had been confirmed by long experience,
I should forfeit the only thing which makes you pardon
so many errors and imperfections in me. Not that I
think it fit for any one to rely too much on his own un
derstanding; or to be filled with a presumption, not 30
52 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL
becoming a Christian man, in his own personal stability
and rectitude.
I hope I am far from that vain confidence, which al
most always fails in trial. I know my weakness in all
5 respects, as much at least as any enemy I have; and I
attempt to take security against it. The only method
which has ever been found effectual to preserve any man
against the corruption of nature and example, is an
habit of life and communication of counsels with the
10 most virtuous and public-spirited men of the age you live
in. Such a society cannot be kept without advantage, or
deserted without shame. For this rule of conduct I may
be called in reproach a party man; but I am little affected
with such aspersions. In the way which they call party,
15 I worship the constitution of your fathers; and I shall
never blush for my political company. All reverence to
honour, all idea of what it is, will be lost out of the
world, before it can be imputed as a fault to any man,
that he has been closely connected with those incompar-
20 able persons, living and dead, with whom for eleven years
I have constantly thought and acted. If I have wandered
out of the paths of rectitude into those of interested fac
tion, it was in company with the Saviles, the Dowdes-
wells, the Wentworths, the Bentincks; with the Lenoxes,
25 the Manchesters, the Keppels, the Saunderses; with the
temperate, permanent, hereditary virtue of the whole
house of Cavendish; names, among which, some have
extended your fame and empire in arms, and all have
fought the battle of your liberties in fields not less
30 glorious. These, and many more like these, grafting
ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 53
public principles on private honour, have redeemed the
present age, and would have adorned the most splendid
period in your history. Where could any man, conscious
of his own inability to act alone, and willing to act as
he ought to do, have arranged himself better? If any 5
one thinks this kind of society to be taken up as the
best method of gratifying low, personal pride, or ambi
tious interest, he is mistaken; and he knows nothing of
the world.
Preferring this connexion, I do not mean to detract in 10
the slightest degree from others. There are some of
those, whom I admire at something of a greater distance,
with whom I have had the happiness also perfectly to
agree, in almost all the particulars, in which I have
differed with some successive administrations; and they 15
are such, as it never can be reputable to any government
to reckon among its enemies. I hope there are none of
you corrupted with the doctrine taught by wicked men
for the worst purposes, and received by the malignant
credulity of envy and ignorance, which is, that the men 20
who act upon the public stage are all alike; all equally
corrupt; all influenced by no other views than the sordid
lure of salary and pension. The thing I know by expe
rience to be false. Never expecting to find perfection in
men, and not looking for divine attributes in created 25
beings, in my commerce with my contemporaries, I have
found much human virtue. I have seen not a little public
spirit; a real subordination of interest to duty; and a
decent and regulated sensibility to honest fame and repu
tation. The age unquestionably produces (whether in a 30
54 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL
greater or less number than former times, I know not)
daring profligates, and insidious hypocrites. What then?
Am I not to avail myself of whatever good is to be found
in the world, because of the mixture of evil that will
5 always be in it? The smallness of the quantity in cur
rency only heightens the value. They, who raise suspi
cions on the good on account of the behaviour of ill men,
are of the party of the latter. The common cant is no
justification for taking this party. I have been deceived,
10 say they, by Titius and Mcevius; I have been the dupe of
this pretender or of that mountebank; and I can trust
appearances no longer. But my credulity and want of
discernment cannot, as I conceive, amount to a fair pre
sumption against any man s integrity. A conscientious
15 person would rather doubt his own judgment, than con
demn his species. He would say, I have observed without
attention, or judged upon erroneous maxims ; I trusted to
profession, when I ought to have attended to conduct.
Such a man will grow wise, not malignant, by his ac-
20 quaintance with the world. But he that accuses all man
kind of corruption, ought to remember that he is sure
to convict only one. In truth I should much rather
admit those, whom at any time I have disrelished the
most, to be patterns of perfection, than seek a consola-
25 tion to my own unworthiness, in a general communion of
depravity with all about me.
That this ill-natured doctrine should be preached by
the missionaries of a court I do not wonder. It answers
their purpose. But that it should be heard among those
30 who pretend to be strong assertors of liberty, is not only
ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 55
surprising, but hardly natural. This moral levelling is
a servile principle. It leads to practical passive obedience
far better than all the doctrines which the pliant accom
modation of theology to power has ever produced. It
cuts up by the roots, not only all idea of forcible re- 5
sistance, but even of civil opposition. It disposes men
to an abject submission, not by opinion, which may be
shaken by argument or altered by passion, but by the
strong ties of public and private interest. For if all men
who act in a public situation are equally selfish, corrupt, 10
and venal, what reason can be given for desiring any
sort of change, which, besides the evils which must at
tend all changes, can be productive of no possible
advantage ? The active men in the state are true samples
of the mass. If they are universally depraved, the com- 15
monwealth itself is not sound. We may amuse ourselves
with talking as much as we please of the virtue of middle
or humble life; that is, we may place our confidence in
the virtue of those who have never been tried. But if
the persons who are continually emerging out of that 20
sphere, be no better than those whom birth has placed
above it, what hopes are there in the remainder of the
body, which is to furnish the perpetual succession of the
state? All who have ever written on government are
unanimous, that among a people generally corrupt, lib- 25
erty cannot long exist. And indeed how is it possible?
when those who are to make the laws, to guard, to en
force, or to obey them, are, by a tacit confederacy of
manners, indisposed to the spirit of all generous and
noble institutions. 30
56 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL
I am aware that the age is not what we all wish. But
I am sure, that the only means of checking its precipitate
degeneracy, is heartily to concur with whatever is the
best in our time; and to have some more correct standard
5 of judging what that best is, than the transient and
uncertain favour of a court. If once we are able to find,
and can prevail on ourselves to strengthen an union of
such men, whatever accidentally becomes indisposed to
ill-exercised power, even by the ordinary operation of
10 human passions, must join with that society, and cannot
long be joined, without in some degree assimilating to it.
Virtue will catch as well as vice by contact; and the
public stock of honest, manly principle will daily accu
mulate. We are not too nicely to scrutinise motives as
15 long as action is irreproachable. It is enough, (and for
a worthy man perhaps too much) to deal out its infamy
to convicted guilt and declared apostasy.
This, gentlemen, has been from the beginning the rule
of my conduct ; and I mean to continue it, as long as such
20 a body as I have described can by any possibility be
kept together; for I should think it the most dreadful
of all offences, not only towards the present generation
but to all the future, if I were to do anything which
could make the minutest breach in this great conserva-
25 tory of free principles. Those who perhaps have the same
intentions, but are separated by some little political ani
mosities, will I hope discern at last, how little conducive
it is to any rational purpose, to lower its reputation.
For my part, gentlemen, from much experience, from no
30 little thinking, and from comparing a great variety of
ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 57
things, I am thoroughly persuaded, that the last hopes
of preserving the spirit of the English constitution, or
of reuniting the dissipated members of the English race
upon a common plan of tranquillity and liberty, does
entirely depend on their firm and lasting union; and 5
above all on their keeping themselves from that despair,
which is so very apt to fall on those, whom a violence
of character and a mixture of ambitious views do not
support through a long, painful, and unsuccessful
struggle. 10
There never, gentlemen, was a period in which the sted-
fastness of some men has been put to so sore a trial. It
is not very difficult for well-formed minds to abandon
their interest; but the separation of fame and virtue is
a harsh divorce. Liberty is in danger of being made x i5
unpopular to Englishmen. Contending for an imaginary
power, we begin to acquire the spirit of domination, and
to lose the relish of honest equality. The principles of
our forefathers become suspected to us, because we
see them animating the present opposition of our children v 2o
The faults which grow out of the luxuriance of freedom
appear much more shocking to us than the base vices
which are generated from the rankness of servitude. Ac
cordingly the least resistance to power appears more
inexcusable in our eyes than the greatest abuses of 25
authority. All dread of a standing military force is
looked upon as a superstitious panic. All shame of call
ing in foreigners and savages in a civil contest is worn
off. We grow indifferent to the consequences inevitable
to ourselves from the plan of ruling half the empire by 30
68 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL
a mercenary sword. We are taught to believe, that a
desire of domineering over our countrymen is love to our
country; that those who hate civil war abet rebellion,
and that the amiable and conciliatory virtues of lenity,
5 moderation, and tenderness to the privileges of those who
depend on this kingdom, are a sort of treason to the
state.
It is impossible that we should remain long in a situa
tion, which breeds such notions and dispositions, without
10 some great alteration in the national character. Those
ingenuous and feeling minds who are so fortified against
all other things, and so unarmed to whatever approaches
in the shape of disgrace, finding these principles, which
they considered as sure means of honour, to be grown
15 into disrepute, will retire disheartened and disgusted.
Those of a more robust make, the bold, able, ambitious
men, who pay some of their court to power through the
people, and substitute the voice of transient opinion in
the place of true glory, will give into the general mode;
20 and those superior understandings which ought to correct
vulgar prejudice, will confirm and aggravate its errors.
Many things have been long operating towards a gradual
change in our principles. But this American war has
done more in a very few years, than all the other causes
25 could have effected in a century. It is therefore not on
its own separate account, but because of its attendant
circumstances, that I consider its continuance, or its end
ing in any way but that of an honourable and liberal
accommodation, as the greatest evils which can befall
30 us. For that reason I have troubled you with this long
ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 59
letter. For that reason I entreat you again and again,
neither to be persuaded, shamed, or frighted out of the
principles that have hitherto led so many of you t.n ah^nr
the war, its cause, and its consequences. Let us not be
amongst the first who renounce the maxims of our fore- 5
fathers.
I have the honour to le,
GENTLEMEN,
Your most obedient,
And faithful humble servant,
BEACONSFIELD, EDMUND BURKE.
April 3, 1777.
P. 8. You may communicate this letter in any man
ner you think proper to my constituents.
NOTES.
1. Gentlemen. The Letter was addressed to the sheriffs
of Bristol, because as representatives of the King, by whom
they were appointed each year, the sheriffs had charge of all
the elections in the county. John Farr, a " rope maker,"
and John Harris, a " hosier," were sheriffs in 1776-7. Harris
was again appointed sheriff in 1788, and two years later was
elected mayor. Farr was elected mayor in 1784.
1 7. to nine. These statutes were: (1) the closing of
Boston harbour (14 Geo. III. 19, i. e., the nineteenth act
of Parliament in the fourteenth year of the reign of George
III. See Statutes at Large) ; (2) the act for bringing to
England for trial persons accused of committing murder in
the execution of the law, or in suppressing riots and tumults
in the colonies (14 Geo. III. 39) ; (3) the suspension of the
charter of Massachusetts (14 Geo. III. 45) ; (4) the Military
Bill for quartering the soldiers in America (14 Geo. III. 54) ;
(5) the Quebec Act which extended the boundaries of that
province to the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers (14 Geo. III.
83) ; (6) the act restraining the colonies from trading with
Great Britain and the West Indies, and from the Newfound
land fisheries (15 Geo. III. 10) ; (7) the Prohibitory Act, to
prohibit all trade and intercourse with the colonies during
rebellion (16 Geo. III. 5) ; and the two acts spoken of below.
1 14. our detestation. The sheriffs may have agreed
with Burke, but the majority of the citizens of Bristol did
not, for in less than a year they pledged 21,000 to aid the
government in prosecuting the war, while the friends of the
colonists could raise only 363.
61
62 NOTES.
2 2. the English on the continent. The Americans.
See also 5 31, 7 28, 20 4, 20 18, 21 8, 23 13, 27 31.
2 4. which, undermine our own. In An Appeal from
the New to the Old Whigs, Burke said : " He certainly never
could and never did wish the colonists to be subdued by arms.
He was fully persuaded, that, if such should be the event,
they must be held in that subdued state by a great body of
standing forces, and perhaps of foreign forces. He was
strongly of opinion that such armies, first victorious over
Englishmen, in a conflict for English constitutional rights and
privileges, and afterwards habituated (though in America)
to keep an English people in a state of abject subjection, would
prove fatal in the end to the liberties of England itself."
Burke s Works, IV. 102.
2 5. the letter of marque. "A bill (17 Geo. III. 7)
for enabling the admiralty to grant commissions, or letters
of marque and reprisal, as they are usually called, to the
owners or captains of private merchant ships, authorising
them to take and make prize of all vessels with their effects,
belonging to any of the inhabitants of the thirteen specified
revolted American colonies, was passed without debate or
opposition in the House of Commons, soon after the recess.
It did not cost much more trouble to the Lords." Annual
Register, 1777, p. 53. To make war without such permission
is piracy ; with it, privateering. A declaration of the Con
gress of Paris in 1856 abolished privateering. (Selby.)
2 io. a partial suspension of the Habeas Corpus.
This act (17 Geo. III. 9) was passed on 17 Feb. 1777
by a vote of 112 to 33, although the sheriffs of London had
presented a petition against it on the ground that it was
taking away the fundamental rights of the people. The full
text of the act is as follows:
An act to impower his Majesty to secure and detain Persons
charged with, or suspected of, the Crime of High Treason, com
mitted in any of his Majesty s Colonies or Plantations in America,
or on the High Seas, or the Crime of Piracy.
Whereas a Rebellion and War have been openly and traiterously
levied and carried on in certain of his Majesty s Colonies and Plan
tations in America, and Acts of Treason and Piracy have been
committed on the High Seas, and upon the Ships and Goods of
his Majesty s Subjects, and many Persons have been seized and
NOTES.
taken, who are expressly charged or strongly suspected of such
Treasons and Felonies, and many more such Persons may be here
after so seized and taken: And whereas such Persons have been,
and may be brought into this Kingdom, and into other Parts of his
Majesty s Dominions, and it may be inconvenient in many such
Cases to proceed forthwith to the Trial of such Criminals, and at
the same Time of evil Example to suffer them to go at large; be
it therefore enacted by the King s most Excellent Majesty, by and
with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal,
and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the
Authority of the same, That all and every Person or Persons who
have been or shall hereafter be seized or taken in the Act of High
Treason committed in any of his Majesty s Colonies or Plantations
in America, or on the High Seas, or in the Act of Piracy, or who
are or shall be charged with or suspected of the Crime of High
Treason, committed in any of the said Colonies, or on the High
Seas, or of Piracy, and who have been, or shall be committed, in
any Part of his Majesty s Dominions, for such Crimes, or any of
them, or for Suspicion of such Crimes, or any of them, by any
Magistrate having competent Authority in that Behalf, to the
Common Gaol, or other Place of Confinement as is hereinafter pro
vided for that Purpose, shall and may be thereupon secured and
detained in safe Custody, without Bail or Mainprize, until the first
Day of January, one thousand seven hundred and seventy-eight;
and that no Judge or Justice of Peace shall bail or try any such
Person or Persons without Order from his Majesty s most honour
able Privy Council, signed by six of the said Privy Council, until
the said first day of January, one thousand seven hundred and sev
enty-eight; any Law, Statute, or Usage, to the contrary in anywise
notwithstanding.
II. And whereas it may be necessary to provide for such Pris
oners within this Realm some other Places of Confinement besides
the Common Gaols; be it enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That
it shall and may be lawful for his Majesty, by Warrant under his
Sign Manual, to appoint one or more Place or Places of Confine
ment within the Realm, for the Custody of such Prisoners; and all
and every Magistrate and Magistrates, having competent Authority
in that Behalf, are hereby authorised to commit such Persons as
aforesaid to such Place or Places of Confinement, so to be appointed,
instead of the Common Gaol.
III. Provided always, and be it enacted, that no Offences shall
be construed to be Piracy within the Meaning of this Act, except
Acts of Felony committed on the Ships and Goods of his Majesty s
Subjects by Persons on the High Seas.
IV. Provided also, and it is hereby declared, That nothing herein
contained, is intended, or shall be construed to extend to the Case
of any other Prisoner or Prisoners than such as shall have been
out of the Realm at the Time or Times of the Offence or Offences
wherewith he or they shall be charged, or of which he or they
shall be suspected.
V. And be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That
this Act shall continue and be in Force until the said first Day of
January, one thousand sven hundred and seventy-eight and no
longer.
By successive enactments, it was continued to January,
1783. The amendment referred to in 2 12 is section IV.
3 9. the order of crimes. A rebel, who attempts to
64 NOTES.
overthrow by force the government to which he owes alle
giance, may deserve our respect, but a pirate or sea-robber,
who sails the sea for the robbery and plunder of merchant-
vessels is an enemy of the whole human race, an object of
universal detestation.
3 1 6. corruption of blood. A man sentenced to death
or outlawed for treason or felony was said to have become
" tainted " or " corrupted," so that he and his descendants lost
all rights of rank and title ; he could no longer retain possession
of land which he had held, nor leave it to heirs, nor could his
descendants inherit from him.
3 24. Lord Coke. Sir Edward Coke, (1552-1634), was
Speaker of the House of Commons in 1592, the successful
rival of Sir Francis Bacon for Attorney-General in 1593,
Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in 1606, and of the
King s Bench in 1613. Coke prosecuted the Earl of Essex
for treason while Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, and the Earl
of Southampton, Shakespeare s patron, for aiding Essex. He
also prosecuted Sir Walter Raleigh for conspiracy in 1603,
and the Gunpowder Plotters in 1605. His chief works are
his Reports, and his edition of Littleton s Institutes. " The
key to his whole life is his veneration for the law, for its
technicalities as well as for its substance, and the belief that on
its rigourous maintenance and the following of precedents de
pended the liberties of England. Possessed with this one idea
he exercised a great and beneficial restraint on two of the most
dangerous and unwise of English Kings."
3 30. Lord Balmerino, (1688-1746), a Scotch Jacobite,
had fought in the Rebellion of 1715 for the " Old Pretender,"
but was pardoned. He was especially active in the Rebellion
of 1745 for the " Young Pretender " and for this was tried
and beheaded. See Gentleman s Magazine, XVI. 391.
4 10. new-created offence. By the Prohibitory Bill,
all ships and goods of the colonists, taken by the British ships
of war, were forfeited to the captors, " for the encouragement
of the officers and seamen of his Majesty s ships of war."
4 28, their construction of that act. Early in Jan
uary, 1769, Parliament, by a vote of 169 to 65, sent an
address to the King, urging him to put down the disturbances
NOTES. 65
in Massachusetts caused by the Townshend Act, and to bring
the offenders to England for trial by authority of the act
of Henry VIII. (35 Hen. VIII. 2). which had been passed
in 1543 when England had no colonies.
6 7. Tyburn. The place of public execution of criminals
convicted in London. Here, in 1724, Jack Sheppard, the
highwayman, was executed in the presence of 200,000 people.
After November, 1783, the executions were transferred to
Newgate.
7 28. foreign troops. Unable to obtain a sufficient num
ber of recruits from her own territory, Great Britain hired
about 18,000 Germans, chiefly from the Landgrave of Hesse.
In addition to the salaries, England paid $35 for each man
killed, $12 for each man wounded, and a large bounty to the
German rulers.
7 30. an exchange of prisoners. As the result of an
interview on 22 July 1776 between General Washington and
Paterson, the British adjutant-general under General Howe,
Congress agreed to exchange prisoners of war : officer for officer
of equal rank, soldier for soldier, sailor for sailor, and citizen
for citizen.
8 3. administration. The ministry or the " govern
ment."
9 2. tie late rebellions. The Jacobite Rebellions for
the " Old Pretender " in 1715 and for the " Young Pretender " in
1745. See S. R. Gardiner s Student History of England,
pp. 705, 739.
9 24. Oyer and Terminer. A commission formerly
directed to the King s judges, sergeants, and other persons of
note, empowering them to hear and determine indictments on
specified offences, such as treasons, felonies, etc., special com
missions being granted on occasions of extraordinary dis
turbances such as insurrections.
10 12. the common law. The common law, or unwrit
ten law of England is that law which has come down by
general custom from time immemorial, as distinguished from
that law which is the result of statutes or acts passed by a
legislative body. For instance, at common law, a widow has
dower, i. e. the right to one-third of her husband s personal
property and a life-interest in one-third of his real estate.
66 NOTES.
11 10. Call of the nation. This phrase is probably
formed by analogy from the " Call of the House," which is an
imperative summons sent to every member of Parliament to
attend when the sense of the whole House is required. At the
muster, the names of the members are called over, and defaulters
reported.
12 2. the first partial suspension. The first suspen
sion of the Habeas Corpus Act was in 1689, when many
persons were arrested for conspiring against King William;
but they were detained only for a few weeks until the court
could meet to try them. Other conspiracies against the sov
ereign led to its suspension in 1696, 1715, 1722, and 1727.
In 1744 it was suspended for two months because of fear of
a French invasion, and in 1745 it was suspended during the
Rebellion of the " Young Pretender." Jeremy Bentham, in 1809,
said : "As for the Habeas Corpus Act, better the statute
book were rid of it. Standing or lying as it does, up one day,
down another, it serves but to swell the list of sham-securi
ties, with which to keep up the delusion, the pages of our law
books are defiled. When no man has need of it, then it is
that it stands: comes a time when it might be of use, and then
it is suspended." Works, III. 435. Dr. Johnson said : " The
Habeas Corpus is the single advantage which our government
has over that of other countries." BoswelVs Johnson, II. 73.
12 8. even negro slaves. In 1772, Lord Mansfield
issued a writ of Habeas Corpus to release James Sommersett,
a negro slave, who had accompanied his master from Virginia
to London, where he had attempted to flee from his master and
had been captured, and confined on a vessel bound for Jamaica.
After an important trial, he was declared free. See Howells 1
State Trials, vol. 20, p. 1, No. 548.
12 20. three unoffending provinces. New York, New
Jersey and Pennsylvania were less desirous than the other
colonies of engaging in war with England.
13 5. I do not speak of my opposition. Burke was
always modest. See 35 27, 36 24, 37 8, 44 21, 51 3, 52 3,
53 3, 54 12, 58 30.
13 25. my usual strict attendance. See INTRODUC
TION, p. XXIX. There is no record of Burke s- attending the ses-
NOTES. 67
sions of the House from 6 Nov. 1776 until 16 April 1777.
Burke wrote to the Marquis of Rockingham:
By the conversation of some friends, it seemed as if they were
willing to fall in with this design, because it promised to emanci
pate them from the servitude of irksome business, and to afford
them an opportunity of retiring to ease and tranquillity. If that be
their object in the secession and in the addresses proposed, there
surely never were means worse chosen to gain their end; and if this
be any part of their project, it were a thousand times better it were
never undertaken. ... If your lordship s friends do not go to
this business with their whole hearts, if they do not feel them
selves uneasy without it, if they do not undertake it with a certain
degree of zeal, and even with warmth and indignation, it had bet
ter be removed wholly out of our thoughts. A measure of less
strength, and more in the beaten circle of affairs, if supported
with spirit and industry, would be on all accounts infinitely more
eligible. Works, VI. 155.
This secession was harshly criticised even by Burke s own
party because it was not general and because no public ad
dresses or remonstrances had been made. Burke however had
prepared An Address to the King and An Address to the
British Colonists in North America, which were not published
during his life. Works, VI. 161-196. The author of one of
the replies to the Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol says:
The conduct of Mr. Burke was unworthy an orator, unworthy a
patriot, unworthy a man: Not immediately, because he did not op
pose the bill; but because, never having resisted the bill with the
faintest finger of opposition, he descended so very low as to write
against it, after all opposition was vain and frivolous; after it had
passed into an established, perfect act of Parliament. What shall
we call the behaviour of that man who basely deserts his post in
the constitution, who refuses to do his duty in the time of (what he
calls) danger, who leaves every thing to the mercy of (those whom
he calls) enemies; and, when (what he calls) the tyranny is per
haps irreparably established, sits down to describe to a parcel of
Bristol electors (what he calls) their distressful situation."
13 26. those gentlemen. Fox, Dunning, and others.
14 21. Mr. Hume. David Hume, (1711-1776), a philoso
pher and historian, was the author of the Treatise of Human
Nature, the Enquiry Concerning Principles of Morals, and the
History of England. He endeavoured to introduce the experi
mental method of reasoning into moral subjects.
15 30. the bond of charity. " Put on charity, which is
the bond of perfectness." Colossians, III. 14.
16 21. the hireling sword of German boors. " The
68 NOTES.
conduct of England in hiring German mercenaries to subdue
the essentially English population beyond the Atlantic, made
reconciliation hopeless and the Declaration of Independence
inevitable. It was idle for the Americans to have any further
scruples about calling in foreigners to assist them when Eng
land had herself set the example. It was necessary that they
should do so if they were successfully to resist the powerful
reinforcement which was thus brought against them." Lecky s
History of England in 18th Century, IV. 244. See also
note on 29 2. Notice how frequently Burke refers to the
Germans in terms of disrespect: 17 27, 20 4, 21 3, 27 29.
16 29. complimentary addresses. In the summer of
1775 many loyal addresses from such communities as Man
chester and Dublin, were presented, calling- upon the Crown
to suppress the rebels and reflecting with severity upon their
aiders and abettors in the British Parliament. In the Address
to the British Colonists in North America, Burke said : " We
admit, indeed, that violent addresses have been procured with
uncommon pains by wicked and designing men, purporting to
be the genuine voice of the whole people of England, that
they have been published by authority here, and made known
to you by proclamations, in order, by despair and resentment,
incurably to poison your minds against the origin of your
race, and to render all cordial reconciliation between us utterly
impracticable. . . . We are persuaded that even many of
those who unadvisedly have put their hands to such intemperate
and inflammatory addresses have not at all apprehended to
what such proceedings naturally lead, and would sooner die
than afford them the least countenance, if they were sensible of
their fatal effects on the union and liberty of the empire."
Works, VI. 184, 185. Burke was especially indignant at
the address from the University of Oxford. He declared that
" the heads of an University ought by no means to instil polit
ical principles into the minds of those [the students] who were
not sufficiently matured, who knew too little of the world to
be able to judge of their propriety, and to distinguish between
sound policy and destructive expedients. Every man must feel
the violent error of such conduct; he had himself a son at the
University, and he could not approve of that son s being told
NOTES. 69
by grave men that his father was an abettor of rebels."
Parliamentary Debates, xviii. 854. ,
17 s. the court gazettes. The official publication of the
government, issued twice a week, containing lists of government
appointments and promotions, names of bankrupts, and other
public notices. See also 24 3, 25 28.
17 12. the White Plains. Colonel Raille, or Rahl, or
Rail, commanded a regiment of Hessians at the Battle of White
Plains, 28 Oct. 1776. As a reward for this, he received a
brigade with headquarters at Trenton. Owing to his careless
ness and conceit, Raille lost his life and his regiment sur
rendered at the Battle of Trenton, 26 Dec. 1776.
17 14. Fort Kniphausen. Baron Wilhelm von Knyp-
hausen was Lieutenant-General and Commander-in-Chief of the
Hessians, and on 16 Nov. 1776 he received the surrender of
Fort Washington, which was then renamed after him. 2,600
Americans surrendered, and 149 had been killed; the English
loss was 500 and the German 350. " This capture of the garri
son of Fort Washington was one of the most crushing blows
that befell the American arms during the whole course of the
war. Washington s campaign seemed now likely to be converted
into a mere flight, and a terrible gloom overspread the whole
country." Fiske s American Revolution, I. 221. It necessitated
Washington s retreat through New Jersey to Pennsylvania.
18 13. with regard to foreign powers. The Annual
Register, 1776, p. * 182, says : " France and Spain have opened
their ports, with the greatest apparent friendship to the Amer
icans, and treat them in every respect as an independent peo
ple. The remonstrances of the British ministers have availed
but little. . . . The American privateers have been openly
received, protected, and cherished, and the rich prizes they
have taken from the British merchants, rather publicly sold in
the French ports, both in Europe and the colonies. Artillery
and military stores of all kinds have been likewise sent.
. . . In a word, all the nations who possess colonies in Am
erica, were eager to partake of the new and unexpected com
merce which was now opened ; and all, excepting the Portu
guese, who, much against their inclination, have been restrained
through our influence at that court, still continue most sedu
lously to profit of the opportunity."
70 NOTES.
18 25. their stock. In Reflections on the Revolution m
France, Burke says : " We are afraid to put men to live and
trade each on his own stock of reason ; because we suspect that
the stock in each man is small, and that the individuals would
do better to avail themselves of the general bank and capital of
nations and of ages." Works, III. 346.
19 30. the addressers. Those who present complimen
tary addresses to the King in praise and support of his policy.
See note on 16 29.
20 10. the cowardice of the Americans. On 16 May,
1775 (one month after the battle of Concord, one month before
the battle of Bunker Hill), in a debate in the House of Com
mons, Lord Sandwich said : " Suppose the colonies do abound
in men, what does that signify? they are raw, undisciplined,
cowardly men. I wish instead of 40 or 50,000 of these brave
fellows, they would produce in the field at least 200,000, the
more the better, the easier would be the conquest ; if they did
not run away, they would starve themselves into compliance
with our measures. . . . The very sound of a cannon
would carry them off ... as fast as their feet could
carry them." Later he refers to them as " egregious cowards."
Parliamentary Delates, XVIII. 446.
21 21. any revenue from America. The Townshend
duties of 1767 yielded a net revenue of 295 for the first year,
while the extraordinary military expenses in the colonies for
the same period were 170,000. See Hildreth s History of
United States, II. 553.
24 3. the court gazette. The gazette of 23 August 1775
contained a proclamation for suppressing rebellion and sedition :
That, whereas many subjects in divers parts of the American
colonies have at length proceeded to open and avowed rebellion;
and whereas there is reason to apprehend that such rebellion hath
been much promoted by the traitorous correspondence, counsels, and
comfort, of divers wicked and desperate persons within this realm;
to the end, therefore, that none may through ignorance neglect
or violate their duty, it is declared, that not only all officers, civil
and military, are obliged to exert their utmost endeavours to sup
press such rebellion, and bring the traitors to justice, but that every
subject within this realm, and the dominions thereunto belonging,
are bound by law to be aiding and assisting in the suppression of
the same, and in disclosing all traitorous conspiracies and attempts
against the King, his Crown, and dignity. And all such subjects
are charged to transmit to one of his Majesty s principal Secretaries
NOTES. 71
of State, or other proper officer, due and full information of all per
sons who shall in any manner be found aiding and abetting the
persons now in open arms and rebellion against Government, etc.
Gentleman s Magazine, XLV. 405.
24 13. the celebrated pamphlet. " In January, 1776,
Thomas Paine published his pamphlet, Common Sense, on the
suggestion of Benjamin Rush, and with the approval of Frank
lin and of Samuel Adams." It contained " a sensible and strik
ing statement of the practical state of the case between Great
Britain and the colonies. The reasons were shrewdly and
vividly set forth for looking upon reconciliation as hopeless,
and for seizing the present moment to declare to the world
what the logic of events was already fast making an accom
plished fact." Fiske s American Revolution, I. 174. In one
place Paine said : " Neither can ye reconcile Britain and
America. The last cord now is broken; the people of England
are presenting addresses against us. There are injuries which
Nature cannot forgive she would cease to be Nature if she
did." More than 120,000 copies of Common Sense were sold
in three months. Later, during the war, Paine wrote many
pamphlets, called The Crises, to keep up the spirits of the
colonists. The boast was made that Paine s pen had been as
efficient as Washington s sword. Paine, (1737-1809), was an
Englishman by birth and had come to America on the advice
of Franklin in 1774. After serving in the Continental army
and in minor positions in the government, he went to France
in 1790, where he took up the cause of the French Revolution
ists with as much zeal as he had shown for the American
colonists. He wrote the Rights of Man, a reply to Burke s
Reflections on the Revolution in France, and the Age of Reason.
25 24. Lord Howe and General Howe. Richard Earl
Howe, (1726-1799), and his brother, Sir William Howe, (1729-
1814), were on 6 May 1776 appointed commissioners of peace
to the colonies, according to a clause of the Prohibitory Bill.
Lord Howe first attempted to communicate with Washington,
but Washington refused to receive the letter because it was
addressed to him as a private citizen, without his official titles.
" Lord Howe next inclosed his declaration in a circular letter
addressed to the royal governors of the middle and southern
72 NOTES.
provinces ; but as most of these dignitaries were either in jail
or on board the British fleet, not much was to be expected
from such a mode of publication. The precious document was
captured and sent to Congress, which derisively published it
for the amusement and instruction of the people. It was every
where greeted with jeers. . . . The only serious effect
produced was the weakening of the loyalist party. Many who
had thus far been held back by the hope that Lord Howe s
intercession might settle all the difficulties now came forward
as warm supporters of independence as soon as it became ap
parent that the king had really nothing to offer." Fiske s
American Revolution, I. 204. They did not have the power
to make any agreement with the colonists upon the subjects
in dispute. Practically their only power was to grant pardons
to colonists who asked for them, as many did in the disastrous
fall and winter of 1776.
26 s. Mr. Tryon. William Tryon, (1725-1788), as gover
nor of North Carolina in 1771 defeated the " Regulators," who
had rebelled against the excessive taxes. For this he was pro
moted to be governor of New York. Here he made a great deal
of money in buying land for foreign noblemen; in one summer
his commissions amounted to 22,000. From October, 1775, to
September, 1776, to avoid being captured by the colonists, he
lived on board British vessels in New York harbour. In June,
1779, he led a plundering expedition into Connecticut and de
stroyed the library of Yale College.
26 13. The trade of America. " A clause in the late
prohibitory act, which enabled the admiralty to grant licences
to vessels for conveying stores and provisions to the forces upon
the American service, had been made use of to countenance a
trade in individuals who were favoured, by which, it was said,
that a monopoly was formed, and the American trade was trans
ferred from the ancient merchants, and known traders, to a few
obscure persons of no account or condition; and an illicit com
merce established under the sanction of that bill, which was
utterly subversive of one of its principal apparent objects."
Annual Register, 1776, p. 142*, (quoted by Selby).
27 17. as easy in the control. " Those who supported
the American policy of the government not only supplied them
NOTES. 73
with large sums of money, but left them free to expend it as
they pleased. The House of Commons ought to see that money
voted for a certain purpose is properly expended. Frequent
complaints were made by the Opposition of the neglect of the
government to present proper accounts to the House." (Selby.)
28 2. the savage Indians. Both the colonists and the
English had employed Indians as allies, but the great majority
of the Indians joined the English army because the English
government had protected them against the rapacity and vio
lence of the colonists. In May, 1776, the Congress resolved
that " it is highly expedient to engage the Indians in the
service of the United Colonies ;" and in July Washington had
written to the General Court of Massachusetts, begging them
to enlist 500 or 600 Indians for his own army. One year
later General Burgoyne employed a number of Indians, but
warned them not to be cruel. On 6 Feb. 1778 Burke spoke in
the House of Commons of their cruelty and Burgoyne s inef
fectual warning, saying : " Let us state this Christian exhorta
tion and Christian injunction by a more family picture. Sup
pose there was a riot on Tower Hill, what would the Keeper of
his Majesty s Lions do? Would he not fling open the dens of the
wild beasts, and then address them thus? * My gentle lions, my
humane bears, my sentimental wolves, my tender-hearted
hyenas, go forth; but I exhort you, as ye are Christians and
members of a civilised society, to take care not to hurt man,
woman, or child. " Horace Walpole wrote to his friend Mason :
" I wish I could give you an idea of that superlative oration.
He was pressed to print it, but says he has not time during the
session. . . . Governor Johnstone said he rejoiced there
were no strangers in the gallery, as Burke s speech would have
excited them to tear the ministers to pieces as they went out
of the House; the ministers are much more afraid of losing
their places." Letters of Horace Walpole, VII. 29-30.
28 8. boasting of unanimity. At the opening of Par
liament, 31 Oct. 1776, the King said, after announcing the
open rebellion of the American colonies : " One great advantage,
however, will be derived from the object of the rebels being
openly avowed, and clearly understood ; we shall have unanimity
at home, founded on the general conviction of the justice and
74 NOTES.
necessity of our measures." The English people were far
from unanimous in support of the war. " The House of Com
mons, at the last, with the warm and very general approbation
of the country, put a stop to hostilities, and recognised the in
dependence of America. The British nation had been tried
in the fire before then, and has been tried since; and it has
never been the national custom to back out of a just quarrel
for no other reason than because Britain, at a given moment,
was getting the worst of it. In 1782 our people solemnly and
deliberately abandoned the attempt to reconquer America on
the ground that it was both wrong and foolish; and that fact,
to the mind of everyone who holds the British character in
esteem, affords an irresistible proof that a very large section
of the people must all along have been fully persuaded that the
coercion of our colonists by arms was neither wise nor
righteous." Trevelyan s American Revolution, Part II. Vol. II.
164-179. See also 31 26.
28 21. a formed American party. In the Address to
the British Colonists, Burke said : " Do not think that the
whole, or even the uninfluenced majority, of Englishmen in
this island are enemies to their own blood on the American
continent. Much delusion has been practised, much corrupt
influence treacherously employed. But still a large, and we
trust the largest and soundest, part of this kingdom perseveres
in the most perfect unity of sentiments, principles, and affec
tions with you." Works, VI. 184.
29 2. in the arms of France. When the English called
in the aid of German mercenaries, the colonies determined to
seek foreign aid also. This was found in France, England s
old enemy, who desired to avenge herself for the loss of Canada.
In the fall of 1776, Congress sent Benjamin Franklin and two
other commissioners to France, who induced her to contribute
about $500,000 and many military supplies to the colonies.
Later many Frenchmen, such as the young Marquis of Lafay
ette, came to America as volunteers. In the spring of 1778, the
French made a treaty with Congress, " to acknowledge and sup
port her independence, and to seek no advantage for themselves
except a participation in American commerce and the great
political end of severing the colonies from the British empire.
NOTES. 75
The sole condition exacted was that the Americans should make
no peace with England which did not involve a recognition of
their independence." Lecky, IV. 434.
3O 12. General rebellions. In Thoughts on the Cause
of the Present Discontents, Burke says : " I am not one of
those who think that the people are never in the wrong. They
have been so, frequently and outrageously, both in other coun
tries and in this. But I do say, that in all disputes between
them and their rulers, the presumption is at least upon a par
in favour of the people. . . . When popular discontents
have been very prevalent, it may well be affirmed and supported,
that there has been generally something found amiss in the
constitution, or in the conduct of government. The people have
no interest in disorder. When they do wrong, it is their error,
and not their crime. But with the governing part of the state,
it is far otherwise. They certainly may act ill by design, as
well as by mistake." Burke s Works, I. 440. Burke seemed
to forget this truth a few years later, w T hen he came to deal
with the French Revolution. (Perry.)
30 15. the encouragement of rebellion. See note on
24 3 and 16 29.
31 14. earnest supplications, etc. In 1765 the Stamp
Act Congress presented a petition to Parliament. In October,
1774, the Continental Congress presented a petition to the
King, and one year later a second petition, full of earnest
supplications:
We beseech your Majesty to direct some mode by which th
united applications of your faithful colonists to the throne, in pur
suance of their common councils, may be improved into a happy
and permanent reconciliation; and that, in the meantime, measures
may be taken for preventing the further destruction of the lives
of your Majesty s subjects, and that such statutes as more imme
diately distress any of your Majesty s colonies may be repealed.
Commerce was suspended by the non-importation agreements
of 1768, which in one year reduced the imports from 2,378,000
to 1,634,000, and by the resolution of Congress not to import
anything from Great Britain after 1. Dec. 1774.
32 12. driven by the popular voice. In 1739 Walpole
was forced to yield to the popular demand for war with Spain.
32 1 8. the Dutch war. In 1664 England had gone to
76 NOTES.
war with Holland for violation of commercial agreements. At
first the Dutch were successful, aided by the Plague of 1665
and the Great Fire of 1666. The growing power of France led
to the ending of the war, and the formation of the Triple Al
liance of England, Holland, and Sweden. But in 1672 England
and France both attacked Holland, which was saved only by the
leadership of William, Prince of Orange, afterwards William
III. of England. Charles II. made peace in 1674, chiefly be
cause the people had begun to suspect that he was a Roman
Catholic, and because Holland was looked upon as the strong
hold of Protestantism. See J. R. Green s Short History of
England, chap. ix.
32 26. massacre at Amboyna. In 1673, with the avowed
intention of exasperating the nation against the Dutch, Dryden
wrote a play on the massacre at Amboyna, a small island
of the East Indies, where in 1622 ten English traders had
been tortured to death by the Dutch garrison.
33 6. the last summer assizes. Assizes are the sessions
of court held in each county of England, twice a year for the
trial of civil cases and four times for criminal cases. Burke
visited his friend Richard Champion in Bristol on August 22
and 23, 1776.
33 21. to evacuate Boston. On the night of 4 March
1776, under cover of cannonading, Washington captured Dor
chester Heights, overlooking Boston. This forced General
Howe to remove his 8,000 troops from Boston on 17 March
and to sail for Halifax. " In taking possession of the town,
Washington captured more than two hundred serviceable can
non, ten times more powder and ball than his army had ever
seen before, and an immense quantity of muskets, gun-carriages,
and military stores of every sort. Thus was New England set
free by a single brilliant stroke, with very slight injury to
private property, and with a total loss of not more than twenty
lives." Fiske s American Revolution, I. 172.
34 4. in the same gazette. In the fall of 1776, Burke
prepared an amendment to the address of the House of Com
mons to the King, but it was never presented. In it he said :
The commissioners sent into America for the pretended purpose
of making peace, were furnished with no other legal powers but
NOTES. 7T
that of giving or withholding pardons at their pleasure, and for re
laxing the severities of a single penal act of Parliament, leaving
the whole foundation of this unhappy controversy as it stood in the
beginning. ... In addition to this neglect, solely owing to the
representation of his ministers, in direct violation of public faith
held out from the throne itself, when, in the beginning of last session,
his Majesty in his gracious speech to both Houses of Parliament,
declared his resolution of sending out commissioners for the pur
pose therein expressed, as speedily as possible, no such commission
ers were sent until near seven months afterwards, and until the
nation was alarmed by the evacuation of the only town (Boston)
then held for his Majesty in the thirteen united colonies. By thia
intentional delay, acts of the most critical nature, the effect of
which must as much depend on the power of immediately relaxing
them on submission, as in enforcing them in obedience, had only
an operation to inflame and exasperate. But if any colony, town,
or place, had been induced to submit, by the operation of the ter
rors of these acts, there were none on the place of power to restore
the people so submitting to the common rights of subjection. The
inhabitants of the colonies, therefore, apprised that they were put
out of the protection of government, and seeing no means provided
for their entering into it, were furnished with reasons but too
colourable, for breaking off their dependency on the crown of this
Kingdom. Burke s Correspondence, II. 123.
34 7. several months after an act. The Prohibitory
Bill was approved by the King on 22 Dec. 1775, but Lord
Howe and General Howe were not appointed commissioners
until 6 May, 1776.
34 24. There was a moment. After the capture of New
York by General Howe on 15 Sept. 1776. Little was done for
two months until Fort Washington was taken on 16 November.
35 24. npon speculative grounds. In his speech on
American Taxation, Burke said : " I am not here going into the
distinctions of rights, not attempting to mark their boundaries.
I do not enter into these metaphysical distinctions ; I hate the
very sound of them. Leave the Americans as they anciently
stood, and these distinctions, born of our unhappy contest, will
die along with it." Works, II. 73.
36 29. this authority perfect. Although Burke had
voted to repeal the Stamp Act, he had voted in favour of the
Declaratory Act (6 Geo. III. 12) which declared:
The colonies and plantations in America have been, are, and
of right ought to be, subordinate unto, and dependent upon, the
imperial Crown and Parliament of Great Britian; and the
King s Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords
spiritual and temporal, and Commons of Great Britain, in Parlia
ment assembled, had, hath, and of right ought to have, full power
and authority to make laws and statutes of sufficient force and
78 NOTES.
validity to bind the colonies and people of America, subjects of
the Crown of Great Britain, in all cases whatsoever.
38 2. the High Commission Court, and the Star
Chamber. In 1583, Queen Elizabeth, by the authority of the
Act of Supremacy, appointed the High Commission Court to
punish all violations of laws concerning religion, especially
among the Puritans. It gradually usurped almost despotic
powers of imposing fines and imprisonments. The Court of
Star Chamber (so-called because it met in the Star Chamber
of Westminster) was formally constituted by Henry VII. in
1487. Its jurisdiction extended legally over riots, perjury, mis
behaviour of sheriffs, and other notorious misdemeanours, con
trary to the law of the land. This was afterwards stretched
" to the asserting of all proclamations, and orders of state ; to
the yindicating of illegal commissions, and grants of monopolies;
holding for honourable that which pleased, and for just that
which profited, and becoming both a court of law to determine
civil rights, and a court of revenue to enrich the treasury; the
council table by proclamations enjoining to the people that
which was not enjoined by the laws, and prohibiting that which
was not prohibited; and the Star-Chamber, which consisted of
the same persons in different rooms, censuring the breach and
disobedience to those proclamations by very great fines, impris
onments, and corporal severities ; so that any disrespect to any
acts of state, or to the persons of statesmen, was in no time more
penal, and the foundations of right never more in danger to be
destroyed." See Blackstone s Commentaries, IV. 266. Both
courts were abolished by the Long Parliament in 1641 (16 Car.
I. 10) " to the general joy of the whole nation."
38 10. the established religion. In 1535, the Act of
Supremacy declared the King, and not the Pope, the supreme
head of the Church of England. The mode of worship was
altered by the Six Articles in 1539 and by the Act of Uniformity
in 1549. Roman Catholicism was restored by Mary in 1553.
But in 1559 Elizabeth declared the Church of England inde
pendent, and four years later the Thirty-Nine Articles were
adopted as the fundamental doctrines of the English Church.
In 1687, James II. made an unsuccessful attempt to restore
Roman Catholicism by a Declaration of Indulgence, which sus-
NOTES. 79
pended all laws against Roman Catholics and Dissenters a-like
and gave permission to both to worship publicly.
38 1 8. to follow, not to force. " In all bodies, those
who will lead must also, in a considerable degree, follow.
They must conform their propositions to the taste, talent, and
disposition of those whom they wish to conduct." Reflections
on the Revolution m France, Burke s Works, III. 284.
38 25. the king s negative to bills. Three centuries
ago English sovereigns frequently exercised their right of veto
ing acts which both Houses of Parliament had passed ; Queen
Elizabeth vetoed 48 of the 91 acts presented to her during one
session. But the right has not been exercised since 1708 when
Queen Anne vetoed the act for settling the militia of Scotland.
See Atlantic Monthly, Dec. 1903. In fact, Walter Bagehot,
in his essay on the English Constitution, says : " Queen Victoria
must sign her own death-warrant, if both Houses present it for
her signature." In England the sovereign s veto abolishes the
act, but in the United States, an act may be made a law, despite
the President s veto, by a two-thirds vote of Congress.
39 9. the Convocation of the Clergy. Formerly the
affairs of the Church were controlled by the Convocations of
Canterbury and of York. The more important, that of Canter
bury, was modelled on the Houses of Parliament, with an up
per house of 22 bishops, and a lower house of 143 clergymen.
In 1531 it granted 100,000 to Henry VIII., who, in turn,
gave free pardon to all clergymen for spiritual offences. It
approved the Act of Supremacy and confirmed the Articles of
Faith. Until 1665, clergymen were exempt from all taxation,
except that imposed by the Convocation. From 1717 to 1852
the Convocations were not permitted to meet even for discussion ;
but since then they have met in annual sessions, which how
ever are of purely domestic interest, for their conclusions have
no authority save in foro conscientiw.
39 20. prudence. In An Appeal from the New to the Old
Whigs, Burke said : " Nothing universally can be rationally
affirmed on any moral or any political subject. Pure meta
physical abstraction does not belong to these matters. The
lines of morality are not like the ideal lines of mathematics.
They are broad and deep as well as long. They admit of ex-
80 NOTES.
ceptions; they demand modifications. These exceptions and
modifications are not made by the process of logic, but by the
rules of prudence. Prudence is not only the first in rank of
the virtues political and moral, but she is the director, the
regulator, the standard of them all. Metaphysics cannot live
without definition ; but Prudence is cautious how she defines."
Works, IV. 81.
4O 2. the divine Providence. In his speech on Mr.
Fox s East India Bill (1783), Burke says: "All these circum
stances (ignorance of the language, customs, etc.) are not, I
confess, very favourable to the idea of our attempting to govern
India at all. But there we are ; there we are placed by the
Sovereign Disposer; and we must do the best we can in our
situation. The situation of man is the preceptor of his duty."
Works, II. 465.
4O 4. concerning the unity of empire, etc. In his
speech on Conciliation with the Colonies (1775), Burke said:
" It is said, indeed, that this power of granting (taxes), vested
in American assemblies, would dissolve the unity of the empire,
which was preserved entire, although Wales, and Chester,
and Durham were added to it ... The very idea of
subordination of parts excludes this notion of simple and un
divided unity. England is the head ; but she is not the head and
the members too." Works, II. 170. Lord Chatham argued that
the right to legislate does not include the right to tax.
4O 12. the Cutchery court. In British India, a court
of justice or a collector s or any public office.
4O 15. government was a practical thing. In Re
flections on the Revolution in France, Burke said : " Govern
ment is a contrivance of human wisdom to provide for human
wants." Works, III. 310.
40 26. a free government is ... what the
people think so. Dr. Johnson said : " I will let the King of
Prance govern me on those conditions, for it is to be governed
just as I please." When a friend talked of a girl being sent
to a parish workhouse, and asked how much she could be
obliged to work, Dr. Johnson replied : " Why, as much as is
reasonable. And what is that? as much as she thinks is
NOTES. 81
reasonable." Boswdl s Johnson, edited by Birkbeck Hill, III.
187.
41 12. as if it were an abstract question. " Politics
ought to be adjusted, not to human reasonings, but to human
nature; of which reason is but a part, and by no means the
greatest part." Observations on the Present State of the Na
tion, Burke s Works, I. 398.
42 23. Liberty too must be limited. In Reflections on
the Revolution in France, Burke mentions the following limita
tion : " Society requires not only that the passions of individ
uals should be subjected, but that even in the mass and body,
as well as in the individuals, the inclinations of men should
frequently be thwarted, their will controlled, and their passions
brought into subjection. This can only be done by a power
out of themselves, and not, in the exercise of its function, sub
ject to that will and to those passions which it is its office to
bridle and subdue. In this sense the restraints on men, as well
as their liberties, are to be reckoned among their rights."
Works, III. 310.
43 7. the Sabbath . . . was made for man.
" And he (Jesus) said unto them, the Sabbath was made for
man, and not man for the Sabbath." Mark, II. 27 and Genesis,
II. 2-3.
44 22. of full two years standing. The Battle of
Lexington and Concord, 19 April, 1775, is considered the out
break of the war.
45 1 6. by royal instruction or royal charter. The
governments of Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island
were instituted by royal charter ; the other colonies were gov
erned first by their proprietors and later by the King.
46 17. these two legislatures. The English Parliament
and the Colonial Assemblies.
47 21. the colonies fell, etc. In A Memorial to the In
habitants of the Colonies, 21 Oct. 1774, the Continental Con
gress said: "After the repeal of the Stamp Act, having again
resigned ourselves to our ancient unsuspicious affections for the
parent state, and anxious to avoid any controversy with her,
in hopes of a favourable alteration in sentiments and measures
towards us, we did not press our objections against the above
mentioned statutes made subsequent to that repeal."
&* NOTES.
48 2. a plan of pacification. The repeal of the Stamp
Act, and the Declaratory Act, passed while Rockingham was
Prime Minister.
48 20. those almost unanimous members. A rather
extravagant expression, for the Journal of the House of Com
mons says that on 4 March 1766 the Stamp Act was repealed
by a vote of 250 to 122. Burke described it as " an event that
caused more universal joy throughout the British dominions
than perhaps any other that can be remembered." Lecky s
History of England, IV. 94.
49 i. not a single murmur. " In America the effect of
the news [of the repeal of the Stamp Act] was electric. There
were bonfires in every town, while addresses of thanks to the
king were voted in all the legislatures. Little heed was paid
to the Declaratory Act, which was regarded merely as an
artifice for saving the pride of the British government. There
was a unanimous outburst of loyalty all over the country, and
never did the people seem less in a mood for rebellion than
now." Fiske s American Revolution, I. 27.
49 9. a repeal of all the late coercive statutes.
By his resolutions of 16 Nov. 1766, to give up the right of
taxation, which were defeated by a vote of 210 to 105,
according to the Journal of the House of Commons, or 210
to 110 as Burke says, 5O 8. See Annual Register, 1776,
pp. 104-109.
50 27. a formal obligation. See INTRODUCTION, p.
xxviii.
51 4. that ancient and powerful party. The Tories.
51 16. virtuous city. "The place that Bristol holds in
our national history is one of peculiar importance, for it was
for centuries the greatest purely trading town in a century
that owes its greatness to its trade. For centuries it was
second only to London." Hunt s Bristol, p. 1.
52 13. a party man. See INTRODUCTION, p. xi.
52 23. the Saviles, etc. Sir George Savile, (1726-1784),
was member of the House of Commons for Yorkshire from
1759-1783. He worked with Burke for the American colonies,
for religious toleration, and for economical reform. He was
" a staunch Whig of unimpeachable character and large for-
NOTES. 83
tune. He devoted the whole of his time to public affairs, and
was greatly respected by his contemporaries for his unbending
integrity, and his unostentatious benevolence."
William Dowdeswell, (1721-1775), was Chancellor of Ex
chequer under Rockingham. In the epitaph which Burke wrote
for Dowdeswell s tomb, he spoke of him as " a senator for twenty
years, a minister for one, a virtuous citizen for his whole life.
. . . He understood beyond any man of his time the revenues
of his country, which he preferred to everything except its liber
ties. He was a perfect master of the law of Parliament, and
attached to its privileges until they were set up against the rights
of the people. All the proceedings which have weakened Govern
ment, endangered freedom, and distracted the British empire,
were by him strenuously opposed. And his last efforts under
which his health sunk were to preserve his country from a
civil war; which being unable to prevent, he had not the mis
fortune to see."
Charles W&tson-Wentworth, second Marquis of Rocking
ham, (1730-1782), was Prime Minister in 1765-176G and
secured the repeal of the Stamp Act and the passing of the
Declaratory Bill. He became Prime Minister again in 1782,
after the fall of Lord North. Rockingham "carried out a
steadily liberal policy with great good sense, a perfectly single
mind, and uniform courtesy to opponents. He had the ad
vantage of following one of the most unpopular ministries, and
the genius of Burke, who was his private secretary, and who
was brought into Parliament by his influence, has cast a flood
of light upon his administration and imparted a somewhat
deceptive splendour to his memory. Few English statesmen of
the highest rank have been more destitute of all superiority of
intellect or knowledge. Few English ministries have been more
feeble than that which he directed, yet it carried several meas
ures of capital importance." Lecky s England in the 18th
Century, III. 271. See also 47 31.
William Henry Cavendish Bentinck, third Duke of Portland,
(1738-1809), became Lord Chamberlain of the Household and
member of the Privy Council under Rockingham s first ministry
in 1765, In 1782 he was sent to Ireland as Lord Lieutenant.
After Rockingham s death, Portland became the leader of the
84 NOTES.
Rockingham Whigs, and Prime Minister in the famous Coalition
Ministry of 1783, in which Fox and Burke united with their old
enemy, Lord North. Portland " was not a great speaker, but he
had exactly the character which had enabled Rockingham to hold
his party together ; he could always be trusted and his rank and
wealth were sufficiently preeminent to prevent others from being
jealous of his position. He did not make a good leader of an op
position ; he left all party tactics to Fox and Burke, and devoted
himself more and more to his country life at his favourite seat,
Bulstrode, and to the study of music, of which he was passion
ately fond." In 1792 he became allied with Pitt, acting as
Secretary of State from 1794-1801. He acted as Lord President
of the Council until 1806, and was Prime Minister from 1807-
1809.
Charles Lenox, third Duke of Richmond, (1735-1806), was
appointed ambassador at Paris by Rockingham in 1765, and
became Secretary of State the next year. He was Master Gen
eral of Ordnance in 1782 under Rockingham s second ministry.
He was the great grandson of Charles II., and the uncle of
Charles James Fox.
George Montagu, fourth Duke of Manchester, (1737-1788),
was appointed Lord Chamberlain by Rockingham in 1782, and
later became ambassador to France.
Augustus Keppel, Viscount Keppel, (1725-1786), was sent out
as commodore to the Mediterranean to form a treaty with the
Dey of Algiers, who angrily expressed surprise that " the King
of Great Britain should have sent a beardless boy to treat with
him " ; Keppel replied : " Had my master supposed that wisdom
was measured by the length of the beard, he would have sent
your deyship a he-goat." In 1779, after an action against the
French off Brest, Keppel was court-martialled on the charges of
not marshalling his fleet, going into the fight in unofficerlike man
ner, scandalous haste in quitting it, running away, and not
pursuing the flying enemy each charge a capital offence.
The charges which had been presented by an inferior officer,
were proved " malicious and ill-founded." In 1782 he be
came First Lord of the Admiralty under Rockingham s ministry.
For Burke s opinion of Keppel, see the closing paragraphs of
his Letter to a Nolle Lord.
NOTES. 85
Sir Charles Saunders, (1713-1775), was the Commander-in-
chief of the English fleet which co-operated with General Wolfe
to capture Quebec.
Lord John Cavendish, (1732-1796), was Lord of the Treasury
under Rockingham in 1765, and Chancellor of the Exchequer
in 1782 and again under the Coalition Ministry of 1783.
Burke described him as " an accomplished scholar, and an
excellent critic, in every part of polite literature, thoroughly
acquainted with history, ancient and modern ; with a sound
judgment; a memory singularly retentive and exact, perfectly
conversant in business, and particularly in that of finance ; of
great integrity, great tenderness and sensibility of heart, with
friendships few, but unalterable ; of perfect disinterestedness ;
the ancient English reserve and simplicity of manner." Burke s
Correspondence, IV. 526.
53 21. all equally corrupt. Many believed in the re
mark, which Sir Robert Walpole was supposed to have uttered :
" Every man has his price."
54 10. Titius and Maevius, " this man and that." These
names are used in Roman law for the hypothetical persons of
imaginary law-suits, like John Doe and Richard Roe in English
law. See the Institutes of Gains.
56 25. conservatory. " A place where any thing is kept
in a manner proper to its peculiar nature ; as, fish in a pond,
corn in a granary." Johnson s Dictionary.
57 12. so sore a trial. Cf. " these are the times that try
men s souls." Fame s Common Sense.
57 1 8. the principles of our forefathers. " The feel
ings of the colonies were formerly the feelings of Great Britain."
Burke s American Taxation, Works, II. 17.
58 22. Many things, etc. " What these things were
Burke states at length in his pamphlet on The Present Discon
tents, published in 1770. In his opinion the chief circum
stances were, the immense and growing influence of the Court,
the servility of Parliament, and, in particular, the abdication
by the House of Commons of its proper function of a control
on the executive government, and the supineness of the people."
(Selby.)
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by means of a clever bird s-eye device, together provide an
absolutely complete and perfect equipment. The tiuo books
for ova. DOLLAR if ordered at one time.
How to Organize and Conduct a Meeting. 75 cents.
Character: A Moral Text Book. By Henry Varnum.
$1.50. For the use of teachers and parents in train
ing youth in the principles of conduct. An aid to
self culture. Not an essay, not an elaborated treatise
by the author, but a systematic grouping of the accu
mulated teachings of all times, assembled from many
sources in many lands, and formulating those precepts
which experience has rightly designated as the wisdom
of the ages a mirror wherein one may compare his
own character with what the wisdom of the world de
clares is a perfect man. A book for both the young
and the old. Over 400 pages, -with complete index to
page and paragraph of every character-trait, precept,
epigram, topic, and text. Says Dr. Marden, editor
of "SUCCESS" : " You have certainly covered about
the whole field of ethics and morals"
14 DAY USE
RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROW
LOAN DEPT.
This book is due on the last date stamped below,
or on the date to which renewed. Renewals only:
Tel. No. 642-3405
Renewals may be made 4 days prior to date due.
Renewed books are subject to immediate recall.
125
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MAY 18 i
BEO. CIR. flPR 3 !) 1S79
NOV8 1979
I D
JUL 18
MAR 15 1988 \
,AR 2 1 1988
LD21A-30m-10, 73
(R3728slO)476 A-30
U.C. BERKELEY LIBRARIES
